Front Porch FlyLadied

So FlyLady said to go spend 15 minutes on your front porch. PUH.

Since we enter our home via our back porch and don't really have a front porch to speak of (only steps leading out), ds2 and I decided to tackle the front porch.

We finally started working on it this morning about 10:00am. We set the timer for 15 minutes, and we hadn't even made a dent. But now we were on a roll. Set the timer for another 15 minutes. Uh, little dent. 15 minutes more.

We are finally done at 2:00pm. Here are some before and after pictures.

We are SO PROUD of ourselves!!!









I'm going to put some things on my "to do" list for the porch. It isn't 100% decluttered, and I never did get around to wiping down the door. There are several panels on the porch which need to be replaced. Ds2 says he will do that at some point in time. Then I want to scrub the porch and paint it to protect it.

Do you see those giant clodhopper shoes in the last image? I have tripped over those SO many times. I am so happy they have a home now!!!
Until next time.

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Happy New Year!

Oooooohhhh... ouch. My stomach is burning. I just had a bean and chili burrito with salsa that the neighbor brought over last night. The salsa has red chili peppers in it, the dried little ones that are whole. Green onions and purple onions. Tomatoes, of course. Good stuff.

So I was just about to blog about the "projects" I had planned for today. Continue the gravitation from the sink area. I was going to clean under the sink and maybe try to clean off the pipes which are so ugly and grungy looking. Then I was going to tackle the counter on the right side of the oven. I also promised myself I'd clean a path in my bedroom so I don't have to almost fall and break my neck when I get out of bed in the middle of night.

But then I got a FlyLady email and she says to clean my front porch. Only in our case, the entryway is our back porch. Boy, does it need some attention! I did pick up some clothes that were on the floor by the washing machine that were covered with dirt and sand and washed them last night. But the porch needs a LOT of attention. The email said to spend only 15 minutes. I'm hoping ds2 will help me tackle this, since we'll get 30 minutes worth of work done if we both work for 15 minutes on it. It would sure be nice to sit outside on the couch like we used to be able to (can't now, it's really bad off). I should take before and after pictures...

I also really, really need to get hoof trims done. At very least, for my milkers. Hopefully I can persuade ds2 to help me with that, too. I also need to do the finances and get the mortgage check written.

Until next time.

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More FlyLady Stuff - Enough Already

FlyLady has something she does on Sundays called "The Weekly Home Blessing Hour". You are supposed to set your timer for ten minutes and do each of seven things. Vacuum, Dust, Mop, Polish Mirrors and Doors, Purge magazines, Change Sheets, Empty all trash. Okay so since we are just starting, we have to just follow along instead of trying to catch up. We omitted dusting, purging magazines and changing sheets. Ds2 and I tackled tonight's event together. The living room floor was a mess - the cats have been tearing up a roll of paper towels for the past few days... so you can imagine... We set the timer for 10 minutes and both worked together on the living room. Next we set the timer for 5 minutes and ds2 washed the boys' bathroom mirror and the boys' bathroom door and I tackled ds2's bedroom door. Then we tackled ds1's bedroom door together. Next we set the timer for 10 minutes and tackled separate jobs. Ds2 vacuumed the living room and the area between the boys' bedrooms and the boys' bathroom, while I swept and mopped the kitchen.

Then one of our neighbors called to say they made some food and wanted to bring some over for us. They butcher and roast pig for every holiday that they can, it seems. :-) They brought over some roasted pork, homemade salsa, two tiny limes and some corn tortillas. I drove out to the front gate to get the goodies and was standing there appreciating the coolness in my short sleeved shirt. Since we'd been working steadily for some time in the warm house, I was sweating. It felt so good out there, but when the neighbors showed up they had on knit hats, mittens and jackets. Heehee. They probably wondered if I was a bit nuts. When the wife called, the vacuum was going and I couldn't hear her very well, so she probably wondered what was going on, lol.

When I got back in, ds2 had finished vacuuming and was on his laptop. The last thing we'd agreed to do together was take out the garbage. There were only two cans to empty, so I just did it myself. I also folded most of my laundry, but haven't put it away yet.

Then I washed some more dishes, put the night's milk in the freezer, and washed some more milk jars. I decided that I'd worked enough and forced myself to stop.

I don't want to burn myself out. We put a ham in the oven about 3pm. It has to cook for six hours. We just put potatoes in the oven at 7:30pm so the ham and potatoes should be done at the same time. Now I just need to make one more thing, a vegetable and then we're set.

I am already feeling tired, but am trying to stay awake to see the New Year in.

Until next time.

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Cleaned The Window Over The Kitchen Sink

I'm not fooling myself into thinking this FlyLady thing is working. I know it has to do with my cycle. Typical "burst of energy" which comes every few months (rather than monthly like it used to when I was younger). But I can hope that I can cajole myself into doing one little project. Yesterday was a big project -- changing out the sink faucet. Today I decided I'm going to clean up the kitchen, and one more little project every day (or even every few days). Today my extra little project was to clean the window over the sink. Ds2 cleaned some of this area a few weeks ago, but it had been splashed and dirtied, and was covered with cobwebs again.

The window sill was disgusting. I tried to take a picture and it's probably best that I couldn't manage it. I took off the curtain and it's in the washing machine as I type. I am going to see if I can get a matching curtain to put in front of the sink to cover the pipes below. The one that goes in the window will fit the bottom part just perfectly, but I'll have to hem it up just a couple of inches. I have seen that in people's kitchens before and so I think that will work just fine to not have cabinet doors there. Ds2 thinks the cats will scratch it, but we'll just have to see if it will work out or not.

This is kind of fun posting my success.

Now to work on whipping the kitchen into shape. I wonder how long that will take if I really focus on it. I also need to give some attention to the refrigerators and "dump anything dead" and wipe up any spills. As far as I can see, the refrigerators still look fine, but I'm going to give them a look-see, just in case. That's one of my problems, is seeing a little bit of a problem and thinking it's not worth the 10 seconds to clean it up, I'll wait until it gets worse. Problem is then I wait until it's so much worse that it takes hours to get it cleaned up again.

I did sit for half an hour and watch an episode of Twilight Zone "Dead Man's Shoes". For all the years I've watched TZ, I am just amazed that it was one I'd never seen before.

The picture above was taken later in the day. I scrubbed and scrubbed on the window sill - until I was removing paint even, but I could not remove the dirt and grime embedded in the little cracks and crevices. So I decided to paint the window sill with the green "oops" paint we got from Home Depot a few weeks ago (5 gallons for $15). It could be construed as light turquoise... I just don't know if I like the green color there... it is the only paint I had on hand, so I thought it would look nice. Maybe I can find some material to match for making curtains and the curtain for in front. The curtains there now definitely do not go with the green paint, actually looks pretty gross.

Until next time.

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Rare Energy

I don't know where it comes from, or why. When I was younger, in my 20s and 30s, I would get the "nesting urge" every single month in the days before my "monthly" was due to begin. In the last few years though, it started coming less frequently, to the point where I thought I might not be ovulating every month. I chart my cycle, and know I am still ovulating. But the bursts of energy are far and few between. Like, one day every six months? I used to depend on those bursts of energy for housecleaning and deep cleaning. Nowadays it is a struggle to keep up with things.

But today, for some reason, I seemed to have a huge burst of energy. I started out by cleaning the shed. The shed doubles as our milking parlor and it was just a nightmare in there. Cluttered with things all over and dust, cobwebs, you name it. It is very dusty in the desert, so it's to be expected. It's nothing for computer monitors and televisions to be covered with a thick layer of dust.

So I worked on that for several hours... from at least 9am to about 1:30pm. I found a lot of empty boxes, mainly when combining things from two or three boxes into one box. Our best milker would not get on the milking stand, due to the drastic change in the milking parlor. We finally had to physically put her up there, and she stood with her hooves spread and would not eat her concentrate while I milked her. Oh, that was something else that I did. I FIXED the milking stand. I have wanted the headlock to work for the longest time, but have just not gotten around to fixing it. Actually, that's what started me out on cleaning the shed was fixing the milking stand. See, the newest milker has tiny teats and so I have to milk her with my finger tips and thumbs and it takes much longer than it does with the milker with normal sized teats. So the newest milker is a good girl and stands patiently, but she also likes to tuck her head in between her body and my head and peer into the milking bucket WHILE she is chewing cud and burping in my face, nuzzling my face with her stinky breath. I know her former owner locks the headlock on her stand, so I know this girl is trained to not go nuts when the headlock is in place. It was much easier milking her, but she did still keep trying and trying to pull her head out of the keyhole. Her head is so small that if she was willing to risk shearing off her ears she could pull her head out.

The dust got to my asthma. I've got to use my Albuterol soon.

I put up a shelf in the livingroom for our most popular books, which are usually strewn about, or more recently in a tall stack about 2 feet high. It's kind of hard to get one book when they are stacked like that.

I washed my oldest son's sheets, blankets and pillows. I even went out of my way to load the washer (gallon by gallon) with hot water. For some reason the place we live didn't have hot water hooked up to the washer, so we usually wash in cold. But bedding should be washed in hot water in my opinion.

It feels good to get a lot accomplished like I did today. Just for the fun of it, today is Day 6 of my cycle. Also, something I noticed last month was during the time I am nearing ovulation, and usually feeling rather mellow and fairly happy, I was highly agitated and feeling like I was this close -> <- to just telling everyone off. I seem to feel this way at work, just can't take the stress. The feeling is one of feeling like I have to mentally concentrate on keeping myself reined in, so that I don't just start blasting everyone verbally. My boss and another coworker keep telling me it is most definitely the beginning of menopause. I've thought I was in perimenopause for at least eight years now.

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Kombucha Tea is Done and Mayonnaise

My kombucha tea finally is done. I need to start a new batch, I guess.

I finally got to make mayonnaise today. I am going to boil some red potatoes so I can make potato salad, and use the mayonnaise. I used the recipe from _Eat Fat, Lose Fat_ and used "Mary's Oil" which is a mixture of equal parts sesame oil, coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil.

I actually had a burst of energy last night. First time in I don't know how long. I used to be able to count on a maternal type "nesting urge" which basically meant I actually felt a strong compulsion to clean, every single month (a few days before the start of my menses). But for the past few years, it has been sporatic. I thought at first it might be because I am not ovulating, but I take my basal temp, which shows that I am indeed ovulating, so it's not lack of ovulation.

I have met other women who experience this "nesting urge" phenomenon, and some have come to the conclusion that it is a cleansing, as the body is cleaning out the old egg, and preparing for the new egg, so there is the urge to clean the house, etc.

My lack of energy is sometimes frustrating, as by the time I actually feel like I can do something, there is SO much to do that it is overwhelming, and no way physically possible for me to get all of it done in the few hours that I have energy.

The lack of energy is much of my reasoning for trying to make changes to my diet.

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