Pig Pen & Mr. Clean

After lounging around for most of yesterday (recovering from a long 4th), I decided the kids and I needed to get out of the house. My MIL had invited us over to use her jacuzzi and have some lunch. She cooled the water temp down so that the kids could play in it like a miniature swimming pool. They are a little afraid of the jets though. I also spent some time showing my MIL how to use the Costco Photo Center and playing around with that a little. She felt a little overwhelmed by all the steps, but I told her just to play around with it sometime and she would eventually get used to it. We spent a few hours there and then headed home.

Just as we were on our way, my daughter announces she needs to go the bathroom. Miles to go before we get home, I called good friend, Rosalee, and asked if we could make a pit stop at their house since it was sort of on the way. We ended up staying an hour or so. My two chlorinated children were now members of the cult led by the prophet as "Pig Pen" (of Charlie Brown fame). My daughter and her little friend decided to pour dirt on each other for some reason. They enjoy this little ritual everytime we go over there. The big kids love to climb while the little ones love to dig I guess. K was literally a walking dustcloud. As soon as we got home I got in the tub and had to wash her hair twice to get her clean.

Since I was in cleaning mode anyway, I decided to finish tackling the miscellaneous drawer that has been on my 'to do' list for a year or more. I wish I'd taken a before picture to illustrate the difference, but suffice it to say it looks much better now. Then that snowballed into rearranging some of my kitchen cupboards. I ended up taking out some things to donate to the Goodwill. It was hard to part with some of the sippy cups that my kids used to drink from, but I realized it was time to let go. My kids aren't babies anymore and some other family could possibly use them. So after working on the kitchen, I got inspired to clear off the bar, which has served as the home of most our miscellaneous clutter since we moved in. I've made various attempts over the years to clean it, but only made halfway through. This time I cleared it off completely! I even got the bar stools free of clutter. I was in a cleaning frenzy and now I love how much nicer everything looks. I ran out of steam at this point and decided that I'd done enough for the evening. Needless to say, the house is slowly taking shape for the better. It really does help to focus on one area at a time, it's less overwhelming and becomes a more organic process as you move through each project. Got lots done though tonight and that always feels good.