Groceries List and Then Some

It's been quite a while, clearly.

Today I bring you glad tidings from the world of "Emily's-face-feels-like-a-snot-filled-balloon-is-trying-to-expand-inside-her-skull."

It is Veteran's Day today, so I have spent the entire day hanging with my own personal vet. I even made, get this, BREAKFAST IN BED for him. Yeah. That's right. I'm awesome. 

Okay, enough patting myself on the back. He's playing Halo 4 for the next eternity, so I have sometime to hang out next to him doing randomly productive things. This means I have things to show you!

I've spent the last few hours compiling and creating a list of all the things I think I need when I go to the grocery store. See, I'm sick and tired of just writing random stuff down and forgetting half of the stuff I actually need when I go shopping. I also can't stand just spending extra money on things we don't need. So I have for you, a list that you can go through, check what you need, and take shopping with you!

Ta Da!
QuietContemplations Downloadables folder in Dropbox

That should be a link to both the .PDF and .docx files so you can print as is, or add and subtract things to fit YOUR lifestyle :D I don't think you need to have a Dropbox account to open it, but I'm not positive. Let me know if it doesn't work I guess?
Anyway, Use it as a template, or use it as a your list, I don't care! I just hope it helps people like me shop smarter and lighter or whatever.

A few things about the list:
-If there is a space after an item it is to denote what kind of item you may want. Ex: Beef:_______, you can insert the specific cut of beef after printing the list. It can also be used for a specific quantity of items
-The "fresh - frozen" and "boxed - canned," etc. are all ways of organizing the specific item(s) you need that day. For example, I might not need fresh AND frozen corn on the same day. This way you know specifics and can give it to someone else to easily pick up items that you picked out.
-I have somethings in different categories, like eggs under dairy, cuz that's really the only place they fit. However, I have ice cream under the snacks category, not under dairy. It's just the way I shop by types of food, rather than where they are located. Sorry if it's weird.

So there you have it folks. A lovely list for a lovely trip.

Cleaning...AGAIN!

I have a problem. I hate cleaning. My other problem is that my house is dirty. What am I to do?!

I may hate cleaning, but I love making lists and subsequently crossing things off said list. 

Combining both my hatred for cleaning and my love of lists I have devised a way to trick myself into cleaning as a means of reward for crossing something exciting of my newest list. 

As it stands right now, I have to clean my house from top to bottom. I've broken it down by room. It looks like this: 

CLEANING TO DO LIST: 

First Floor: 

Entry

            Sweep floor

            Mop floor

            Vacuum rugs

Organize shoes

            Dust baseboards

Basement

            Organize toys

            Re-arrange furniture and music equipment

            Vacuum floor

            Dust all surfaces (including baseboards)

            Wash blankets and pillows

            Clean fridge

Stairs (lower)  

            Collect garbage

            Organize miscellaneous stuff

            Vacuum all surfaces

            Remove all items from stairs

            Dust railings, lights and baseboards

Garage

            Open, organize and remove all boxes

            Sweep entire garage

            Reorganize contents

            Remove all unnecessary items

            Park cars accordingly

Main Floor:

Kitchen

            Dishes

                        Empty dishwasher

                        Load dishwasher

                        Get rid of mismatched/unused items

            Counters

                        Clean off

                        Put away all food

                        Find spots for

                                    -toaster

                                    -Keurig

                                    -coffee maker

                                    -espresso machine

                                    -vegetable steamer

                                    -can opener

            Stove and Oven

                        Clean stove top

                        Put away all pots and pans

                        Clean oven

            Clean out cupboards and dispose of unneeded items

            Clean out fridge and freezer

            Sweep, and mop all floors

            Clean above cupboards (dust/reorganize)

Dining Room

            Clean off table

            Wash tablecloth and placemats

            Clean birdcage

            Dust baseboards

            Clean art table

            Dust all surfaces

            Hem curtains

            Vacuum rug

Living Room

            Fold all laundry

            Clean out couch

            Put away all toys

            Organize DVDs and video games

            Dust all surfaces

            Hem curtains

            Wash pillows and blanket

            Clean off coffee table

            Vacuum floor

            Designate spot for drying rack

            Clean desk

            Give old clothes away

            Finish Laundry

            Organize knitting supplies

Main Floor Bathroom/Laundry Room

            Sweep and mop floor

            Throw anything unnecessary away

            Clean cupboards

            DO LAUNDRY

            Clean Buster’s litter box

            Get dog food

            Fix up Buster’s bed

            Put laundry away

            Clean out drawers

            Clean toilet, sink and mirror

            Dust baseboards

Second Floor:

Stairs (upper)

            Bring everything upstairs and put away

            Vacuum all floors

            Dust lamps, railings and baseboards

Upstairs Hallway and Office

            Throw away garbage

            Put all Legos in respective drawers

            Clean table

            Attach Lego boards to top of table

            Fix lamp

            Vacuum – NOTHING ON THE FLOOR

            Prep floor for carpet cleaning

            Organize Desk

            Dust all surfaces

Kids'/Guest Bathroom

            Clean sink, counter, toilet, mirror and tub

            Sweep and mop floor

            Wash all mats and towels

            Put bath toys away

            Organize linen closet

Kids' Room

            Vacuum floors

            Wash blankets, sheets and pillows

            Make beds

            Put away all toys

            Put away all DVDs

            Organize toy box

            Organize Legos

            Put away/go through clothes

            Dust all surfaces and baseboards

Master Bedroom/Closet

            Put away all clothing

            Make bed

            Wash all sheets, blankets and pillows

            Reorganize dresser

            Clean TV stand and repurpose as night stand

            Clean under the bed

            DO MORE LAUNDRY

            Vacuum floors

            Organize closet and remove unnecessary paraphernalia

            Move side table downstairs

            Hem curtains

            Rearrange the room?!

Master Bathroom

            Wash all mats and towels

            Empty trash

            Clean grout in shower

            Clean toilet, shower, shower door, mirror and sink

            Sweep and mop floor

            Clean our drawers

            Decoupage hair dryer holder


Yeah...I gotta do all of that before I can get on track with my newest cleaning regimen (which I'm hoping will stick)

Some of those things are like, well duh, but others are just on there so I can at least feel like I'm accomplishing some smaller things along the way. That's why laundry is on there so much. We have a lot of laundry.

So, regimen is next, but I think I'll make this post shorter by showing it in a different post.

Chicken Noodle Soup...In July

I made Chicken Noodle soup the other day. It's totally July, middle of summer here. The heat the day I made it was somewhere in the ninety degrees Fahrenheit range. It was a cool 68 in my house :).

But anyway, Chicken Noodle Soup is like, one of my favorite foods ever. Mostly because it's just so frickin' good. But I hate the canned stuff cuz it never tastes right. It's always to watered down and tastes way too much of celery. So here is my delicious chicken noodle soup recipe.


-Four boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized morsels.
-Two packages of gluten free fusili pasta (or one giant egg noodle bag. YUM!)
-One medium size package of baby carrots (I love carrots and noodles more than the rest of the soup)
-One full thing of celery (I get the ones that are trimmed when I buy it. I get two, what are they, hearts? in a bag and just cut the ends off and chop them up into celery pieces
-Two small or one large yellow onion (I love this part too cuz they're DELICIOUS)
-About a tablespoon of minced garlic (I use the jarred stuff cuz I'm lazy)
-Two large cartons of chicken stock, your preference
-Enough chicken bouillon to make at LEAST 8 cups of chicken stock, if not more (i made 14 cups...worth it)
-Homemade chicken stock if you've got it (I had about two cups of it in the freezer from when I boiled some leftover chicken bones a while back)
-salt and pepper to taste
-a WEE bit of oregano, don't want it overpower anything
-Some olive oil for cooking
-I think I used some garlic powder as well...idk


So, dice up your onions and heat your pot (which should be pretty big, btw) on high with about a 1/4 cup of olive oil in the bottom. You're going to add the garlic, wait for it to heat up and then sweat the onions on a lower heat setting while you cut up your celery and chicken, so you want enough oil to coat the onions pretty well. While the onions are sweating, cut up your celery and carrots (if you want to). Then add them to the pot. You might need to add a little more oil to get things evenly coated. Cook these on the low temp while you cut up your chicken. Then add the chicken and cook on a high for about four minutes, until the chicken is mostly cooked through (Not completely). While this is happening, open your chicken stock and get it ready to go. Then go ahead and pour it in. Now add water, a cup at a time, until you think you have enough liquid to compensate for all of the stuff going into the soup (remember, you still have to add noodles). Like I said, I added 14 cups...it depends on the size of your pot. Once you've done that, measure out your bouillon accordingly (mine called for 1 tsp for each cup of water I had). Stir well and let it all come to a boil. Then add your noodles and let it cook. Add spices to taste and VOILA! Chicken Noodle soup. It's actually a pretty easy meal when all is said and done. Plus, you have TONS of leftovers, which is nice if you love chicken noodle soup like I do :D


Hope you enjoy the recipes cuz I have more that I'll post up here from time to time. 

Zucchini Pizza Boats

Zucchini Pizza Boats are based off a recipe I saw online where I only looked at the thumbnail and guessed on everything else while I was buying stuff and looked at the recipe when I got home.

In any event, Ingredients:
-Two medium, or one large zucchini per adult and one small to medium per child, sliced length wise, like a hot dog bun, seeded (use a spoon for this and just scrape out a center)
-Cheese of choice. I used mozzerella and a co-jack on mine. Delicious (again, pre-shredded).
-Sauce of choice. Theoretically you could use whatever sauce you want. I got some Ragu pizza sauce, but wish I would've gone with some kind of red pasta sauce instead. I'm sure an alfredo would taste delicious on it as well. Suit your tastes
-Pizza meat. Pepperoni, sausages, what ever you like. I went vegetarian for mine.
-Other stuff you want on a pizza. Just remember, they're not huge things to build your pizza on. they're a skinny zucchini
-Olive Oil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic powder




Directions:
-Set oven to 350. Gather ingredients
-Wash the zucchini and and cut off both ends
-Cut in half length wise
-Scoop out the seeds a little bit (I don't mind eating them, so I wouldn't worry about it)
-Get drizzle just a little Olive oil on each boat. Use a spoon to cover the entire top surface.
-Salt, Pepper and garlic powder to taste
-Spoon sauce on to boat
-top with cheese, meat, more cheese and whatever (I recommend cheese being the top layer
-Bake for 40 minutes
-Voila. Pizza boats


I tried making them with yellow squash as well (summer squash?) and it wasn't bad, but it definitely had a "squashier" taste to it. I liked the zucchini better, plus it cooks a bit more evenly. 


Again, no pictures cuz I ate it all up before I thought to take any. 

This week I made Chicken Noodle soup and I was supposed to make Mac and Cheese. I can upload my methods for those as well later. They're pretty easy. Aaaand delicious.


Until next time.

Loaded Baked Potatoes

I am not a chef. I only understand basic knife techniques (most of which I learned from watching Good Eats all the time on food network). No, I am merely a lady who loves to eat. And I like to eat good food. Thank God found a guy who actually enjoys cooking and is amazing at it.

Now, that being said, I am not terrible when it comes to making food. But I am lazy. I don't like standing around waiting for my food to cook, because I usually begin cooking when hunger strikes me.  I'm not going to stand around the stove for two hours waiting for food to cook. This probably means I probably will never actually try cooking something that takes three hours in the oven (sans the occasional Thanksgiving turkey...maybe) 

I digress.

My point is, I cook food that tastes good and is hell-a easy to make, that fills you up. 

Which is why I am going to share my staple dinner recipes with you, Beginning with Loaded Baked Potatoes (mostly because we had them this last week and Andrew raved about them). They're simple, take almost no effort on your part, and you can personalize them, so the seven year old can eat chili and the five year old can have bacon and cheese. 

So here's a shopping list (for a family of four):

• 4 LARGE Yukon Gold potatoes or potatoes of your choice (I just LOVE the buttery taste of the golden ones)-If you can't find one about the size of a your fist plus half I'd get two smaller ones to even it out (sometimes our grocery store doesn't have a very good potato selection). Use personal judgement, of course. 
• A family size can of Hormel Chili or what ever your favorite chili is. If your choice doesn't have family size, get four normal size cans (unless it's Chunky soup, and then just get two). Think a serving of soup per person.
• Cheese of choice. We buy pre shredded stuff cuz shredding cheese hurts my hands a lot. I try to get stuff that will melt really well too. Boring cheddar is delicious, but I'm sure lots of others are good too. 
• Butter
• Sour Cream
• Bacon 
• Nacho chips
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Hot sauce
• Anything else you could ever dream to put in a potato

Like I said, it's anything you want it to be. I just really like chili in my potatoes. And cheese. And bacon...

-So, set your oven for 350

-Wash your potatoes up nice and good since they're being baked in the skin

-Poke 'em a bunch with a fork. I like to pretend I'm stabbing spiders (be careful of your hand while doing this)

-Stick 'em in the oven for an hour or until you can poke through them cleanly and with out resistance (I'm not very precise...sorry)

-Around the 40 minute mark, gather your other ingredients and set your table (BAM factored it right into the cooking process!)

-Open chili, follow stove top (or microwave! who cares!) directions (unless you were super fancy and made your own chili in which case, never mind). Whatever you do, just keep it warm until dinnerz time.

-If you need to, you would now prepare your veggies or other potato ingredients (grating cheese for instance)

-When potatoes are done, remove from oven, place one serving on each dish. 

-Cut potatoes length wise with a knife in a zig-zag pattern in the center only

-When cool enough to touch safely, push two ends of potato together to effectively blossom them open, releasing steam

-Add desired toppings in desired order

-Sit down, say a prayer, dig in!

What followed our dinner last week was a great murmur of "Thesepotatoesrreallygood"

Like I said: Easy, delicious, hearty and FAST. Start 'em at five, dinner by six. 

Loaded baked potatoes: The way I made them they had lots of protein, some dairy, a starch and whatever else you might want to put on there. Not necessarily SUPER healthy, but better than a nasty burger from McDonald's. 

I would have had pictures if I had had the foresight to be this awesome, but hopefully next time I make something I will think to do that.

Next post: Zucchini Pizza Boats

Yeah, I'm bad about being consistent...

It has been a very long time since I posted, but I have a reason: we have had le children (that's French for "the children") for the last two weeks and I get to chill with them everyday until Mr. Andrew gets home from work. Then I get to chill with him. It's a good deal.

News in the life of Emily: I went back to working at Starbucks. I couldn't stay away apparently, so now I get to don the green apron two days a week and put all my earnings toward my wedding.

Speaking of the wedding, we changed the date. It's a year later now, which is actually AWESOME because that means we get to have the venue we wanted in the first place for our reception. Bitchin'.

In other news, I ordered my dress (again). That means I will have it in approximately two weeks. I have also ordered my shoes. Kind of weird now that I have over a year before the big day, ha! According to my theknot.com profile, it's 491 days away.

My love and I have been to two weddings since the last time I posted, both of which were lovely, but both of which made me wish we were getting married NOW. I can't wait :)

In the mean time, we bought a new car. It's a Subaru Outback, which is apparently a "dad car" but whatever. Andrew seems to love it and I got the Beemer so I'm pretty okay with it as well.

As for my adventures in cleaning the house, we have successfully checked off the kitchen, dining room, bedroom, my desk area, the kids room, the bathroom and laundry/dog room, but we have regressed a little bit because I don't clean as quickly as the rooms get dirty. Such is life. My food calendar has been working marvelously though! We make dinner with delicious ingredients ALMOST every night, and the rest of the time it's leftovers or a treat, like going out with friends. I feel like I'm getting in the swing of this "homemaker" thing, though I still like to get out of the house and do stuff, so these past few weeks have been good.

Right now, all four of my little buddies are sitting on the couch playing a video game. On a gameboy. ONE gameboy. They're all kind of silly. I take it back, Buster is asleep, not playing a game. I need to convince Andrew to make dinner sooner or later (cuz he cooks more often than I do. I lucked out in that respect!) cuz we need things like, food and what not, but other than that my life is pretty laid back.

More updates later I suppose!

BRILLIANCE...thanks to Spongebob

Actually, it's cuz of Squidward, but either way, I was watching Spongebob Squarepants when Squidward broke out an ingenious object: His Sunday Relaxation Box.


...

WHAT?!

...

Fuckin' brilliant. A box. Full of stuff. That relaxes you. That you can pull out when ever the hell you want. JUST TO RELAX.

Squidward's had a pillow (that he could place "just so" on his couch), a flower in a vase, flower fragrance and something else that I can't quite remember.

Mine would have other things
Tea
A candle
Probably still a pillow
Slippers?
A book that I love
Maybe even a movie that I love
A great CD (probably a mix of calming songs...maybe just instrumental)
Cookies
A drink mix of some kind (like, lemonade or iced tea...not booze...booze if you want it...)
New socks
Bubble bath?!

I mean, think of what a great gift it would make?!
Get a cute box and decorate it, then fill it with 'relaxing' things your recipient will enjoy. Andrew would love a pillow and a new video game. And some new jammie pants. :) My mom would love a new bed buddy (one of those rice bags you microwave and put on your sore muscles)

So, anyway. I just thought I would share the wonderful idea I got...from watching Spongebob. Take that people who say TV is bad...Spongebob is brilliant. (They use the word prestidigitation in one of the first few episodes. Betcha don't know what that means :P)

Just wanted to share that before I forgot it.
Also, I painted my nails today. There were great expectations for it and I got kind of disappointed when it didn't really work. Oh well. That's what I get for not being ambidextrous.

LATER!

My life is apparently boring...

Sorry for the long wait between posts. I haven't been doing anything terribly important lately...

Currently I am sitting at my mom's house in St. Cloud. My dogs aren't really getting along. In fact, the old one just kind of, well, hates Buster. Nicholas is passed out on one of our living room chairs right now. Buster is being a turd trying to do all the things a puppy can to entertain himself.

I'm watching the movie "Lolita" which is the 1962, black and white version of the book by Vladimir Nabokov. I'm a fan. It's actually not too terrible, though I'm curious too see how they intend to do the more, risque scenes in a 1962 movie...

In all honesty, the only really exciting thing that I've done is play with my dogs...That's about it...

I've been knitting a hat, think I mentioned that earlier. It's really pretty simple. I'll put the pattern up later though. I haven't been taking pictures of it or anything, so there's not much to post about it. I have to make two of them so I'll make sure to take step by step pics of that one.

I'm seriously NOT DOING ANYTHING right now. Kind of a boring day.

Guess I'll update again later.

Random Hiatus =Much Productivity

Took a random hiatus over, roughly, the last two days, but for good reason.
I've been playing mom all week with the mini Andrews, so I've actually been like, doing stuff. Mom-ish stuff. I don't think I posted on Tuesday, so I'll just update everyone on my productive life since then.

Tuesdays mean we get the kiddos overnight, so there's that. On Tuesday I woke up to go meet my chums to work on choreographing our final project for my Musical Theater Dance class. It's pretty legit. I can't tell you what the song is yet, but I'll post a video of it later today, after my final. We're supposed to guess each groups' choreographer. Anyway, while I was in the middle of "studying" for this final, I had a random meeting with my advisor to tell her that I am going to take one class this fall. Pretty darn important meeting.
Then we finished dancing.
Then I went to the shop and sat around.
Then I went back home and showered.
Then I went to go get the boys from school.

Upon returning home, I started doing laundry. I've been doing a LOT of laundry lately. I also almost have it all put away...not really, that was a lie. I'm sorry.

Evidence that I've been doing laundry. See, it's folded, AND almost to where it's supposed to be.

In any event, I did laundry most of the evening on Tuesday, Andrew made foods for us, and eventually we went to bed. Kind of boring day, though I did manage to get those piles of stuff that were in the hallway put away.

All gone!

JUST KIDDING! It's folded now though...

On to Wednesday. Now this day was PRODUCTIVE peeps. I woke up at, get this, 6:30, and when I saw woke up I really mean that I got out of bed, took the dog down stairs, fed him and went to wake up the childrens. They were sweepies and stuff, but they managed to make it down stairs where we ended up getting dressed and ready to go. WHILE that was happening, I started making dinner for the evening.

Now, I know your'e thinking that sounds weird, it was only 7 am after all, BUT, I made a hugenormous pot roast in the crock pot, so I had to trim it down and shove everything in there and turn it on. It took longer than I wanted, but it all worked out in the end, so I don't care.

I made Delicious for dinner

I had told Vinny and Dom that we could go to Starbucks in the morning before school the day before, so we loaded up in the car and headed out. Vinny got a DECAF short mocha and a brownie (I know, brownies for breakfast? Well, he wanted a chocolate donut, but we stopped selling them apparently...) Dom got an apple juice and a regular donut. SO cute. Of course, Vin didn't want his mocha by the time we were leaving so he handed it to me and I kind of forgot about it until it spilled in my car later...Dom asked if he could "save" his donut for later after we dropped Vinny off at school and I said, "sure." I didn't do much more than just leave it in my car and forget about it cuz, well, I forgot it was there until I picked them up from school again. However, that is not the point. After everyone was safely at school, I went and RAN ERRANDS.

Holy poo. Errands? Yup. It happend. Went to Lowes. Lowes you say? I needed something to put on our deck so Buster can't be seen when he goes outside...on the deck...on his fake grass...

...

I'M POTTY TRAINING MY DOG DAMMIT!

...

 

It's a tarp made for outdoor dog kennels to give puppies shade. It actually took me quite a while to do this cuz it was just one big piece of material that I had to use my amazing seamstress skills to deconstruct. (I used a scissors...use your imagination)

Sorry. I also bought a new drying rack for clothes. This one is made of metal because the wooden one was destroyed under the weight of wet clothes...go figure.

*shing! Sparkle, sparkle*

Then I went to Michael's for yarn because a friend of mine has commissioned me to make her some more hats. Did you know I knit? Cuz I do. In fact I'm making a hat. If you're my friend on facebook you can look at my "stuff I make" photo album to see how cool I am.

Messy coffee table with cup of coffee and knitting. Yes, sometimes I AM 80 years old. Get over it.

Beginning of the hat. I'm about five or six rows into the brim. 2 by 2 ribbing for about 10 rows. 

And yes, the lego is helping. It's the secret to my amazing knitting skills

So...then I went to Target and got really pissed off that everything is moved around. They're remodeling and it's superfuckingdumb because I can't find everything. I hate it when stores decide to move everything so you have no chance of actually finding what you need. Like a mug tree, not that Target carries those anyway, cuz they don't...GRR. But I did get more laundry soap. I'm weirdly running low. Must be all that laundry I've been doing. And the blanket washing that happens three times a day thanks to my pee freak dog...Seriously. He pees on everything. It's mostly when he gets excited, but it's obnoxious. Hence the attempt to outside potty train him.

After wandering around Target, desperately looking for a mug tree I went home and, once again, began doing house hold things. Like putting up the deck-screen thing. That sucked...it was windy and junk, but I figured it out and now it isn't so bad. Then I ate and showered. And then went to more dance practice. We managed to finish the dance up and I went home to bum around for a bit (I might have done more laundry...don't remember) until I had to go get the kids again.

And so my evening repeated itself a little bit, though I did throw a nap in there.

I know, it all sounds SO exciting, you can't believe what you've read.

If you're feeling unproductive after reading my amazing-ness for the last two days, don't. So far today I've been away for almost three hours and the only productive thing I've done is feed the dog and make myself some coffee. The rest of the morning has been spent on the computer cuddling wif da Busters.

Lazy ass dog...

All I have to do today is go to my dance final. WINNING.

I will also be posting the pattern for my wonderous hat that I am knitting. It's pretty ballin'. Might even post the coffee sleeves that I make if you want. Those are handy dandy as well.

Until later!

Let the fun begin!

I have done it! I have officially begun my cleaning/organizing journey for the summer. I actually did a shit ton of stuff today, despite sleeping until noon (which was glorious by the way...). So, quick rundown, for those NOT religiously following me on facebook...sheesh.
Woke up when Andrew's alarm went off.
Rolled around until I fell back asleep.
Woke up again when Andrew yelled "FUCK" really loud cuz he was late.
Got a surprise kiss cuz he was, ya know...late.
Fell back asleep.
Woke up randomly.
Looked at the dog, decided we would sleep some more
Fell back asleep.
Woke up at like, noon-ish and decided to be less of a pile.
Fed the dog.
Lolled around on the interwebz.
Actually did become less of a pile cuz I showered.
Went to Starbucks at like, two.
Drank coffee and bummed on the interwebz some more.
Went and picked up Vinny and Dom from schoolz.

And thus begins my epic tale of awesome-ness.

I got home with the kiddos and immediately began to do laundry.

WAIT. WHAT?!

Yes. I cleaned something. That something happened to be some blankets that the dog peed on (that's the real reason I started cleaning...our blankets depended on it.) I figured our sheets could probably use the wash anyway so I stripped the bed and brought e'rrything down stairs to be washed. Started the laundries and went back upstairs to...wait for it...MAKE THE BED. WHAT! Yeah. That totally happened. I didn't take pictures of that though.

Well, once the kids were set up doing something entertaining to a five and six year old, I decided I was tired of the messy floor in the laundry/dog/bathroom so I started to clean it. This led to not only washing the floor but also throwing stuff away and organizing the cupboards within the room. Now it looks all pretty and organized (at least more so than before)

Like I said, it's a laundry room...and a bathroom...and the dog's room when we aren't home. BUT THE FLOOR IS CLEAN!

These usually have lots of stuff on top of them, but not today!

This was COVERED in old laundry soap. I don't know how it happened, but soap would drip out of the containers and make a sticky, soapy layer on everything in the cupboard. 

Not anymore though. I cleaned it! *thumbs up*

Also, I didn't by the Oxi Clean, Andrew uses that when he does the laundry. I use the white thing and the blue stuff (all: Free and Clear and Downy: Fresh...something) AND bleach. Bleach is good.

 Cupboard above the dryer. Notice, the dryer sheets and iron. I don't have an ironing board. I use the top of that hamper thing you saw in the first picture if I need it. This also doubles as the dog's cupboard. You can see all the nifty dog stuff (like his tooth brush) on the left side. Brilliant.

I was clearly on a roll so I moved on to the kitchen, after all, the childrens needed to eat at some point. This was scary.

I don't even honestly know what half of that stuff even is...

Our kitchen just isn't big enough...*le sigh*

And so I began the arduous task of being a grown up and cleaning stuff. The first step was dishes. Yes, we have a dishwasher, but not all the dishes fit in it. I got as far as I could before I had to breakdown and, dare I say it, wash dishes by hand. I hate doing dishes. Like, for real, I would rather pick up my dog's poop all day than wash dishes. But I did it. I washed the dishes. 

This is the sink before I started doing the dishes, but after I started the dishwasher. It's a work in progress...again, my kitchen isn't big enough. :/ blargh

EVIDENCE OF ME DOING THE DISHES. IT HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE PEOPLE.

Dishes...eww.

This is where clean dishes go because there's NOOTHERCOUNTERSPACEGODAMMIT. Also I don't have a dish strainer. And by "I don't have a dish strainer" I actually mean "My dish strainer is lost in the bowels of my garage and has been there since January when I moved in..." but more on that at a later date.

...clean dishes...DUH.

So, I obviously cleaned off the counter before doing dishes...I guess I kind of missed that part, but it's all kind of a blur now.

Clean counter YO.

 BY THE WAY, if you ever want some kind of miracle cleaner I recommend this stuff: 

Seriously, it's magic or something. PLUS it smells awesome. Cucumber or something. I don't know. It's cool. Buy it. 

Also, that little dude is Dominic. He's five. He's pretty sweet too. Currently he and Vincent (the six year old) are murdering each other in a video game. Seems legit to me...

Where was I? Oh! The counter has been cleaned, the dishes have been started, the children have been fed and I am still cleaning religiously. Dishes, dishes, dishes and MORE dishes... and then I got to clean more counters...and the dreaded stove. Ick. The stove. There are both pluses and minuses to having a glass cooktop. The pluses are it's flat, so when you clean it there are no crevices to clean. The minuses are it's flat, so everything cooks to it and you have scrape things off it to get it clean.

However, I WON THE WAR AGAINST DIRT! And now my stove is pretty :D

Buster thought he would help a little bit too. Mostly he just got stepped on. But he's really fucking cute, so you know, whatever.

So I cleaned the kitchen and laundry room today, WHILE doing laundry. Multitasking bitches. That's what it's called.

And now I bet you are all DYING to see my clean kitchen in its entirety, aren't you? Well, luckily I documented it with pictures. Winning. Here it is in all it's clean glory y'all.

It's a counter, if you couldn't tell by it's label. The background counter is supposed to look like that, don't worry. Remember how I don't have a big enough kitchen? 

This is that corner...I know, it looks messy, but it's actually clean, just full of stuff...cuz my kitchen is, well...you know.

I'm thawing chicken in the sink, but it's really really clean :D (and shiny...)

'member that time I told you all that I'm addicted to coffee? I wasn't kidding. This is my espresso machine, on it's clean counter!

That drink there? Yeah, it's a vodka cranberry. I feel like I deserved it.

So, that is my evening in a nutshell. And now I'm sitting here with my love and the kidlets. They're, like I said, murdering each other. See:

Yeah, the vodka cranberry followed me to the living room. Clearly I have to clean that next.

It is completely necessary for them to be THAT close to the GIANT TV

Delicious :P

So, what's next? Well, this:

Believe it or not, these are clean, just not folded. That and this:

...are my next cleaning task. And the living room. 

*Sigh* Cleaning cleaning cleaning. That's what I'm gonna be doing. Woot.

While everyone else is doing finals and stuff, I'm gonna be vacuuming and scrubbing and all that jazz. 

On the plus side, I kind of what to make a roast tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. ;)

Until later my friends, here is a video of Dom and Vinny being crazy ninjas playing video games

Oh, I forgot to mention my really sweet sunburn from the dog park yesterday...that's what this is...and, you know, my butt. 'Sup. 

PEACE.