Weekend Bits

This weekend I took things fairly easy. Who am I kidding, I take most weekends easy. Sleeping in is always featured heavily, as is plenty of couch time. But I did manage to get 30 minutes of driving practice in on Saturday, and without crying- bonus. I also reorganized the kitchen pantry, and as a result the spice cupboard got a little tidying up as well. Falling under the "Use What I Have" resolution category I made good use of spare containers I had in the kitchen for my pantry reorganization. I had two large plastic containers that I had bought ages ago for freezing leftovers, but had decided I didn't like very much and since then had only occasionally used. I transferred my powdered and granulated sugar into each of them which makes for much better storage than the bags I had them in, and is much easier to stack and keep track of on the shelf. I also got rid of some old cake flour that I never seemed to finish using, and I'll use that jar to hold my corn meal now. I dumped out some old flavoring extracts, slowly peeled the labels from them and had Josh wash the little bottles up. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at making my own vanilla, or maybe a small amount of flavored oil. Whatever I make, I'm sure I can find a cute use for them. And of course, now that everything is much more organized I can actually SEE what I have, making it much easier to USE it.

That was the most productive part of my weekend. Sunday I caught a $5 matinee of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with my pal Holly. It was an excellent mystery; they gave nothing away until the very end. I'm hoping I can go see it again with Josh, or maybe my mom. After an afternoon of grocery shopping my cousin Angie came over and I made a quick version of Shepherd's Pie and some Pumpkin Bread Pudding for our little Downton Abbey premiere viewing party. We had such a good time she's going to come back next Sunday to watch the next episode again. I can't wait!

Under the Weather

I went to bed last night with a sore spot in my throat and it was still there when I woke up. I went ahead and stayed home. Not 100% sure if I'm sick, it's allergies, or something I ate might have scratched me even. But when you're boss is undergoing chemotherapy it's important to not compromise his immune system and best to play it safe. Unfortunately I was planning on taking Friday off so I could clean house before the party. Which means today's sick day has also become today's cleaning house day. And hopefully I'll be feeling fine for work tomorrow and can do a half day on Friday so I'll still have time for some party prep. I have to say it is hard to motivate yourself to clean when you aren't feeling tip-top (hence the blog post, procrastinating), but then I remember I'd prefer if kitty tumbleweeds weren't meandering past our friends Friday night.

Things To Do Tonight While Josh Makes Music

-Take the compost out
-Spray the deck for ants
-Sprinkle cornmeal around the yard for ants
-Use tape to come up with a spare bedroom floorplan
-Put the luggage and air mattress up
-Organize my office a little bit more
-Fix the mistakes I made putting posters in frames last night
-Read more of my photography book before my classes tomorrow
-Clean house (hmm, this should probably be at the top of the list)

Wishing the picture my list painted looked a bit more like this:






















Pic from Real Simple

Weekend To-Do List

Lots to try and get done this weekend!

-Build dining room cabinet
-Get hair cut, bangs how I've missed you!
-Smooch Josh, 11 years!
-Unpack at least 4 boxes
-Put doors and shelves back on built-in
-Clear rocks and sticks from yards
-Weed and cut backyard
-Cut front yard
-Clean house, especially vacuuming
-Grocery shopping
-Make enchiladas and cilantro-lime rice for Josh's boss for recovery dinner
-Try and get at least one room ready for some photographs
-Finish laundry
-Drop film off for development

Spring Cleaning

With Josh rehearsing with one band Saturday morning, and another one Saturday evening I find myself with some time on my hands. Unfortunately, I already have the perfect time-filler, that old Spring cleaning list. Able to remove a couple of things from my old list, but needed to add a couple on. And there needs to be a big-time purge of all the closets. Time to say goodbye to all those useless items I hoard. Trying to reform your pack-rat ways can be a challenge!

Bedroom:
-Wash sheets and blanket
-Vacuum mattress
-Put up clean laundry
-Tidy closet and bedside area
-Dust bedroom
-Vacuum floor and walls

Living room:
-Wash sofa blanket
-Vacuum sofa and chair
-Tidy and clean off coffee table
-Lint-roll curtains
-Dust TV stand, bookcases, and desk
-Vacuum floor and walls

Dining room:
-Clean off table and wipe down
-Vacuum floor and walls

Kitchen:
-Dishes
-Wipe down cabinet fronts and counter tops
-Clean out fridge and freezer
-Clean sink and drains
-Clean microwave
-Microwave sponge
-Empty and clean trash can
-Sweep and mop floor

Bathroom:
-Scrub bathtub, tile and shower doors
-Clean toilet
-Scrub sink
-Clean counter top and mirror
-Sweep and mop
-Wash floor mat

Other:
-Clean cat box
-Clean windows
-Make next week's menu plan & grocery list
-Grocery shopping

Mission: Organization Impossible

Things accomplished Friday:
-Take cat to vet, for apparently no reason
-Hit Forever 21 for belt, jeans, and cute swing jacket
-Target for 500 G external hard drive, mom's day gifts, and some tic-tacs
-Visit The Container Store for our new desk components, get the elfa install spiel
-Grab some Chipotle and devour at home on living room floor while watching dvr'd shows
-Fall asleep on couch while watching Most Haunted

Saturday's activities:
-Visit salon for our hair cuts. I have bangs now!
-Different Target for underthings, graduation card, and hair accessories
-Eat delicious turkey sandwich at Subway
-Go to Ikea to get rest of organization tools, bookshelf, and grill pan
-Get ready and head out to friend's graduation party
-Drink and have a good time visiting with everyone
-Go to after-party party for additional hanging out and drinking

And Sunday's accomplishments:
-Sleep in, since didn't get home till 4 in the morning
-Decide which projects to tackle
-Eat Sonic, mmmmm Vanilla Coke
-Go by In-Laws' to drop off mother's day gifts and borrow drill and level for day's projects
-Install elfa desk & shelves
-Call mom to wish her happy mother's day and tell her I will bring her gift to work today
-Eat Jason's Deli, yummy muffaletta and baked potato
-Build bookcase from Ikea, put LP's on shelf
-Shower and dry hair
-Collapse into bed and fall asleep watching The Shadow

Now, all of that is great, but what it doesn't mention is how I got absolutely no laundry done, no grocery shopping done, and no normal house cleaning done. I have to work 5 days this week, instead of 4, so there is going to be little time to get to these tasks. Gonna go grocery shopping after work today, and hopefully fit in some laundry each night this week.