Before and After... part 2

The kitchen...
BEFORE...

From Instant Upload

and AFTER...

From Instant Upload

There are still dishes in the sink, but that was remedied after the dishwasher ran a load. =D

Before and After

From Instant Upload

From Instant Upload

This is my dining room before. I'm sad to say that it's looked more or less like this for a week. Last night, though, I got off my booty and got down to work and now it looks like this:

From Instant Upload

Ahhhhh! A breath of fresh air! The pink plate is from Eliana's breakfast this morning, lest you just think I missed it. =D Yay for starting the week with a clean house!

It's been a while...

Wow. The last time I blogged, we were packing up to move out of our old house into a condo while the new house got finished. Now we've been living in the new house for 6 months! Crazy!

When we designed the new house, we took to heart some of the things from "The House that Cleans Itself" and that has made a HUGE difference in how clean our house stays. HUGE!

That being said, this last week was Eliana's first full week of school and my first week of getting her up, ready, and out the door by 8am. My house started to fall apart. Here's what I saw happen:

• The dining room table became a collection spot for all things. 
• The kitchen became cluttered with dirty dishes that didn't get cleaned, lunch making supplies that took over the counter, and random stuff that I moved from the dining room table to the kitchen. 
• The master bedroom became another catch-all as I tried to get caught up on Eliana's school clothes laundry and brought in new things to leave in our room. 

Not cool. Those are the 3 areas that we live in. The areas my husband likes to have neat and clean. The areas that I apparently stink at keeping clean when life is going on. 

So my goals for today are to tackle those 3 rooms. And if I have time, I'd like to clean up the craft room, too, and maybe even tackle the pantry. 

I'd love to plan meals for this week and make them today and get them in the fridge / freezer, all ready to go, but I doubt that's going to happen. 

I'm pretty much feeling like I need to reorganize my life again, which isn't good. Not sure what that's about, but I'm thinking I probably need to take my pill today and that will help set me straight. =D

So... perhaps I'll take a couple before and after pictures of my progress today. That would be good. Perhaps I'd make some progress, then.

Either way, I'd like to start out the week with a nice, clean home. 

Leif's Office, packed up...

Mission Accomplished: Leif's office is packed up before he gets home from Helena today. Whew!

1 room down, 12 to go in the next 11 days... 

Packing 101

We sold our house back in August, and officially closed on September 10th. God has been very good to us in that we have been able just to rent the house from the new owners until our new house is finished in January. Last night we found out that we are actually going to have to move much sooner than anticipated - in 12 days.

As it turns out, the new owners were denied insurance coverage because they're not actually living in the house yet, and the mortgage company sees not being insured as a breech of the mortgage contract they're under. Oops. So, the insurance company has given them until the 19th to be in the house, which means we have to be OUT of the house by the 18th.

So... I started packing last night, and spent all day today packing. God has also been so good to us in that my mom has been planning to come for a visit and arrives late tomorrow night - and will be here until the 16th. Have I mentioned that my mom is the master packer?? Yes, God is good!

I am happy to say that I got Leif's office all packed up today (with the exception of the computer, desk, and its contents, since he'll still need those in the next 10 days) so that he can work uninterrupted in there while mom and I pack up the rest of the house. It's weird to have bare walls and empty bookcases. We've lived here for 8+ years, so we've gotten pretty settled in. =D I am hoping that the cleaned out office will help Leif focus as he prepares to defend his Master's project in a week. That's the other reason I started with his office.

SO..... Packing 101: Label your boxes clearly.

I label all of our boxes with our name, the room the box goes in, and a general description of the box contents, like so:

WICKLAND
LIBRARY

(Latin and Classical Education Books)

I have done that with every move we've made, and it has served me well. Of course, the more moves you have, the more writing you have on your boxes and the more confusing it is for others who might be helping you move to figure out which writing is for this particular move. SO... with the help of avery.com, I augmented my labeling system with *gasp!* actual labels. =D I maybe wouldn't have thought to do this, except that we will have to distinguish which boxes we will need to open at the temporary housing, and which can remain packed until we move into the NEW house in January or so. Because we have to do that, each box has a label with its final destination on it:

I'm a big fan of both words AND pictures, being a visual person myself, so I was pretty happy to find that Avery's Design and Print online had a ton of label templates with pictures on them. I just think it is easier for our brains to sort information when we get both words and pictures, so it should make the box moving process a little easier on those helping us move. Here are some of the labels I printed and put on the boxes...

It took just seconds (literally!) to make new labels and print them out. Every box, in addition to the hand-written content labeling (which is just for my own reference, anyway) has two labels - one in the center with the final destination, and a second in the upper right corner telling which room in the new house to deliver the box to. It looks something like this:

Not bad, huh? I'm hoping the clearly labeled boxes will make the move(s) easier. I guess we'll find out in 12 days!

Food Rules

I'm reading a book called "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan right now. It's a really short read, but full of some good stuff on how to eat well. The points that are hitting home right now are....

* Avoid food products containing ingredients no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.

* Avoid food products containing high fructose corn syrup.

* Avoid foods that have sugar or a sweetener listed in the top 3 ingredients.

I'm excited to see how the inside of our pantry changes as we implement some of these rules. Specifically, I'm thinking I'm going to try to make more of the foods I typically buy processed. I won't be canning this year, but I'm hoping that by next year I will be able to source some good whole foods and can in preparation for the winter. Home canned food is just better.

Freezer Meals

I've been prepping up a storm with freezer meals this weekend! I've made and bagged Cilantro Lime Chicken (pictured above), blueberry muffins, Curry Sauce, Curry Chicken, Japanese Chicken, Calzones, and I'm still going! Of course, now I'm running out of room in the freezer, so I'm having to get creative. =D

I am excited about having some ready to bake / pan fry / stick in the crock pot meals for this fall! My friend Amber and I swap meals a few times a week, so I really only need to make meals 3 times a week, which is nice. I cook double twice a week to provide dinner for her family, and she cooks double twice a week to provide for mine. Wednesdays are technically date night (we swap kids on those nights so we can each have a date night twice a month!) so we're on our own that night, either to provide for ourselves, or our family plus an extra kiddo.

So... meals underway! Hooray!