Apple Dumplings

I didn't make these, my friend Joel did. But I'll give a recipe anyway.

• 4 big apples
• 4 pie crusts (I think 2 come in a box)
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Soften Butter

Peal, core, then slice the apples in half. Cover the apples in sugar and cinnamon. Then put butter in the core. Wrap with the pie crust, then put more butter on the outside, and more cinnamon too. Bake in a smoker for an hour. Or maybe an oven. He did smoker, and it was fabulous.

Served with Snickers ice cream and caramel syrup.

Week 5: Kitchen, Day 3

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Just a general pull everything out and start over job. I put the cans in order, placing extra ones down in the pull out pantry drawer. On some of the cans, I couldn't see the labels, even though I have that stand. So, I wrote what they were with maker on the top. I also recovered 2 of the over-sized Gladeware from the "to be recycled" zone, and used them to store all my cake decorating sprinkles. Right middle shelf.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I organized the cans by expiration date, and wrote what they were on the top with a Sharpie. No more digging to find some Dark Red Kidney beans. Side note, I have 5 cans of pumpkin. Gotta do something about that.

Now no judging what we eat! No one in my family is overweight, so we must be doing SOMETHING right.

As days go by, I keep straying away from that scary corner cabinet. The one that goes back 6 feet into darkness. I need back up to tackle that one.

Week 5: Kitchen, Day 2

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I made a decision that Connor is too big for plastic cutlery, so I threw them all away. I also got rid of 4 plastic stir sticks that were broken or icky. Also tossed an old bottle opener. I then had this idea, the tray that holds the cutlery always slides to the back of the drawer, so I put the spare spices in the back to hold it in place. These spices are ones that I use to refill my spices in the pretty rack I have.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Nothing too crazy here, just got rid of duplicate or expired cleaning supplies. Moved the Windex to the bathroom, where it gets used more.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
This drawer has always been a headache for me. I got rid of this huge paint brush thing that was for basting meats (never been used) along with a device for testing the temp of meat. Connor broke the "toaster tongs" while I was cleaning, took care of that problem. Moved the plastic forks to be with their friends in the cupboard containing disposable dishware.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Folded the towels and wash rags (crazy idea, right?) Put towels on the left, wash clothes on the right and oven mitts in the center. My chem goggles behind the oven mitts. I use them for when I am cutting peppers. Seriously, it was an issue.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Just a general cleaning job. Got rid of 2 little cookbooks, some decorate ice trays, vase, lids to ice cream buckets. Made space fro the new coffee grinder.

Whew.

SO, I purged out:

• 5 empty spice bottles
• All plastic kid cutlery
• 4 stir sticks
• Toaster Tongs
• Meat paint brush
• Meat thermometer
• Half dozen gross wash rags
• Expired cleaners
• Vase
• Cookbooks
• Random lids
• Over sized and unused Gladeware
  
• Several rouge half burnt birthday candles
  

Week 5: Kitchen

Day one of Kitchen duty.

BEFORE:
We have A LOT of plastic containers and A LOT of glassware. I have a problem with stealing glasses from bars. I know, it's bad, and I need to stop doing it. I can't control it. I wake up the next morning and there they are. It's awful, I know.

AFTER:

I took all the plastics out of the far left, and got rid of any that didn't have lids to match. Got rid of the sippy cups. Got rid of the scratched up gross plastics.

Top shelf of the middle, I got rid of 2 broken water bottles, combined disposable cutlery.

Far right, was pretty much done, since I just got my Fiestaware dishes. I also store my candy there. SHHHHH.....
These are all the broken plastics, or ones I don't use. Some oversize ones, and ones that I just have way too many to ever use. I am the PTA treasurer for Connor's school, and I like to hand out samples of the homemade laundry soap I make. So I will use those for that. The Glade ware gets a new life!

Week 5: Kitchen

This is the week I am dreading. The Kitchen. On the surface, things look all nice and orderly. It really is just the surface though. Every day, when Connor goes down for a "nap", I set a timer for 10 minutes, and clean the kitchen/living room area. Pretty much just unload dishwasher, pick up lunch stuff, wipe down the counters, and I'm done. So, since I do maintenance cleaning every day, on the outside it looks "good enough".

Every cupboard is full to the max, and dangerously has things piled inside. It is always an adventure when opening up some doors, you never know what will hit you!

Anyway, here is what my kitchen looks like on any average day. The counters aren't too cluttered, so you would never guess what lurks beneath. This project will take several days and posts to do, so hold on to your hats.

Smeeps

So cute.
Graham cracker, chocolate bar, Peep. Put it under the broiler for a few minutes, top with another graham cracker.
Divine.

Fiestware

It's all here! Johnny built me a lovely rack to hang the teacups from.
In rainbow order:

• Scarlett
• Tangerine
• Sunflower
• Lemongrass
• Shamrock
• Peacock
• Colbalt
• Plum

My parents will be bring me a Tangerine platter and pitcher. Super exciting.

iCar

Connor really wants the Apple race car from the Pixar movie Cars. Since it is not available, and all you can buy are custom ones on ebay for $60, I made one for him. I'll let you guess which ones is the ebay version and which one I made.

Pyrex Tips

Pyrex sent this to me today! If only I would have followed these tips before mine EXPLODED on me.

Week 4: Sun Room

On to organizing the Sun Room. This room just needed more cleaning than anything. And we are planning a massive Easter day party, so what better time than now!

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I took down the mirror down into the downstairs bathroom. I picked up the books. Connor has thousands of books, so I put 7 of them into the sell-room. The little table next to the chair is ready to go outside. It's my outdoor coffee table.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Cleared off the pool table. There were random toys, tools, pictures, paint supplies, a coffee maker - you get the idea. Everything went to the basement. That must be why basement is one of the last zones to clean, as everything is making it's way down there!

There was a bunch of 12 packs of soda next to the fridge, and I put the INTO the fridge. Genius.

The liquor box got a SERIOUS upgrade. The cardboard box on top of the black fridge was what we used to haul our liquor to Winona when we moved here 5 years ago. It has just been a handy place to keep the bottles. But really, an eye sore. So, I replaced it with a green bin that was housing puzzles. (a problem for another day.)

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Just another shot of the cleaned up zone. You can see near the door, a shoe tray I recently bought to put our outdoor shoes on. I bought it at Menards for around $6, but now the Target Dollar Spot has super cute pink and green ones for $2.50.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Put the extra kitchen chair BACK in the kitchen, and the back massage portion in the basement. Put the magazine rack back into Connor's room. So his books now have a storage area, instead of all over the floor of his bedroom.

So, in the end, I only got rid of 7 books, 3 pictures, the old liquor box, and boxes that held the sodas. Not much, but cleaning up the zone, and putting thing back were they belong helped this room out a ton. I did do a mini-make over not that long ago on the microwave cart in the room, HERE.

Fiestaware

I did it.  I bought the Fiestaware.  First meal?  Leftover pizza.

It's been in the back of my mind for awhile now, and we had broke 4 plates, 1 mug, and 1 bowl.  So our old set was on the way out.

We picked out the following sets:
Scarlett
Tangerine
Sunflower
Lemongrass
Turquise
Shamrock
Cobalt
Plum
Sets include a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, teacup and saucer.  The teacup is too small to be a coffee cup, so something will have to be done there.

I also got a platter and pitcher in Tangerine (of course).

What to do with the old plates now?  They are nice, heavy duty (and I think they were expensive) dishes.  Do you sell them? Donate? Keep?  They are in a shelf on the basement until I make a decision.

Goodview Days Mugs

How great and wonderful are these? A set of a dozen mugs from Goodview Days, dating from 1979 to 1994. They were 50 cents a piece at Salvation Army. I am going to go back and try to find the missing years, as these will become a very important part of our annual Goodview Days party. Everyone knows, Goodview Days is my FAVORITE holiday.

I just can not believe that someone would get rid of these.

Mailbox Drama

At one time, our mailbox looked somewhat nice.  I mean, it was never a stunner, but it wasn't the worst one on the block either.  The flowers and the baby kind of spruce it up!

Then the City of Goodview decided to run it over, 4 times, with a snow plow. The last time actually snapped the post right off the base pole.

It was able to be speared into the snowbank for awhile, probably a month.  But as the snow melted, we were losing our "base".

I used a stool to help prop it up, it was like this for 2 days.  I waited for the mailman to come both days, and apologized like crazy.  This fix up job even made it to ThereIFixedIt.

I bought a new mailbox from Menard's.  A Rubbermaid Gentry.  This is quite the set up.  It is sitting in a 5 gallon pail with various weights in it to keep it up.  It wasn't staying up well, so John chained it up to the old mailbox to keep it from tipping over.

Connor got sick of it in a bucket, so he went out and dug a hole for me.

And now it is finally cemented into the ground. My mailman is so happy. And so I am.

Maybe it is time to put some decorative bricks and plants along the bottom.  Wouldn't that be stunning?

Week 3: Living Room

I started to work on the Living Room zone! This won't be too hard, as I try to keep it and clean and toy-free as possible.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I removed a dead plant from the window, an extra pillow, several extra blankets, and the toys that made their way upstairs.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
There were two cubbies forming of DVD/PS3, so I condensed them into one, taking the extras into the closet shelf with the rest of the movies. In the top right cubby, I set our current Netflix movie along with a Mason jar full of shells. I took the hammer off the top. I then started in on the top left cubby. That basket is actually a trash can re-purposed into a bin for PS3 accessories and the like. The basket needed some help.
All the crap in the basket:
I didn't get rid of anything (except the paper 3D glasses and name tags). Mostly because once again, I don't know what the heck most of it is. I know John doesn't use that crazy headset, so I just took it down stairs to his desk.

This is the plastic bin full of stuff that belongs to the basement. I also took down a blanket and pillow that didn't fit in.
Not to much stuff, but really, I feel I was in good shape before tackling this room. It only took about an hour, plus I dusted while I went. And watched Sister Wives.