Wow!

I can actually walk into my walk-in closet! Yay!

Klepto couch

I blogged before about how we are getting rid of our old green couches and slip covering an old couch and love seat. Well, today is the day we finally get the green sectional out of the house. Mike called for a bulk pick up and it will be gone tomorrow morning. Yay! We bought that sectional in January of 2001 so in my estimation, that would make it at least 16 years old. No, I'm not that bad a math, but I figure that we have more than twice the amount of people a 'normal' family has, so our stuff wears out at least two times as quickly. Add to that, the fact that 8 of our cats are not declawed and my kids are very hard on things, and that is how I determined that they are 16 years old.

Anyway, back to my point. A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned underneath the green couches and between the cushions, as best I could. The cushions are attached, so it isn't that easy to clean under them and there is a thick liner on the bottom of the couch, so when something gets in between the cushions, it is very hard to get out. I decided that when the time actually came for the couches to go in the trash, I would cut the cushions off to make sure we got anything important that might have fallen in there, like my missing key ring. Wow, did we ever find some treasures!

First of all, yes, we found the key ring. It has been missing for about a year. I feel a bit guilty now, as I accused Steven of stealing those keys. He was in a habit, at that time, of taking our keys when we weren't paying attention and driving our cars without permission, so he was a likely suspect. Plus, the keys disappeared from the couch when I had fallen asleep on the chair and he was the only other one in the room with me. I guess he must have sat on the cushion the keys were on and they fell between the cushions and then got wedged underneath. We did not, however, find the set of keys that I lost about a year and a half before I lost the other one. I'm convinced that set went out with the trash at some point. I almost cried when Hannah was asking me what each key was for and some were for my hockey storage containers at the rink. Hannah noticed I was sad and said, "Now you know how I felt when my friend, Lauren, moved yesterday." Hehe, well at least she recognized that someone else has feelings besides her! Now on to the other things that were found in the couch. Yes, I made a list, weirdest things first!

Drum stick-no one has played the drums in this house for about 5 years, now we know why!
Container of caulk
18" dowel rod
pliers
screwdriver
hand towel
several wash rags
bottle of skin lotion
laser for an air soft gun
monopoly houses
safety pins
pens/pencils
mechanical pencils
pretzels
french fries (can't tell you the last time we even had those!)
legos
candy and other misc. wrappers
notepads
school papers
marbles
allen wrench
crayons
markers
index cards with extra chores for the kids written on them, that had mysteriously disappeared!
mouse cat toy (at least it wasn't a real mouse, which actually wouldn't have shocked me at this point!)
a skate bearing
a lot of unopened bills
candy
coins
lipstick
hair clips
pony tail holders
at least 20 socks (now we know who steals them from the laundry, the damn green couch!)
toys
hologram kitty sticker
soccer award ribbon (my kids don't even play soccer)
jewelry
$1 off Tidy Cat Litter coupon that was not expired
at least 1/8 of a cup of dirt and crumbs

Now keep in mind, this was AFTER I had already cleaned this out a couple of weeks ago. Ugh, is the only thing I can say about this. Well, I lied, I can say yuck, as well!

Here are the photos, in addition to cutting off cushions, we had to tear the backs open, well more to the point, CUP had to tear the backs open.

The back of the corner section

The torn open back of the couch section

My long lost keys and the burn mark where Alex put the hot iron down a few years ago

Jack, saying his last good-byes to an old friend

This is half of the stuff that came out of the couches, half. And remember, this was inside the couch, not under it. Since I am such a spotless housekeeper, the underneath area was clean! Note the caulk container, drum stick and dowel rod at the bottom of the photo! If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I never would have believed those could come out of a couch. Has anyone ever seen the Family Guy, where Peter pulls all kinds of stuff out of his belly button, including Stewie???? It was kind of like that.

My attempts at organization

I've really been working on getting the house more organized so it will be easier for me to find things. That way, I won't buy stuff I already have and it will make menu making and meal planning much easier and quicker. I am finding that I am spending a huge amount of time on those things and I have to find an easier way.

So far, I have started organizing binders for my most-used recipes, grocery receipts, grocery lists, and price lists. I am making price lists of all the things that we buy on a regular basis, so I will know when a sale is a good one and when a coupon on the name brand will save us money over the generic. Today, it took me much less time to get my weekly grocery list together than it normally does. I also had prices for almost everything, so it was easy to see how much money we needed. This is still a work in progress, but I'm going to keep chipping away. My next goal is to make a coupon organizing system that works for me. So far, I haven't had much luck with using envelopes or a coupon organizer. I'm going to see if I can come up with something using a binder and page protectors, since Mike had a bunch left over from classes at work.

I have also decided to take all the cans out of the can cabinet and relocate them to the pantry. The problem with the can cabinet is that it is a lower cabinet. I have a hard time getting down there to see what is in it (especially with my hamstring problems) and cans are always falling to the back and sitting there for years. Alex, Hannah and Shauna got all the cans out for me and I checked all the expiration dates. While most were still current, I found some from as far back as 2004! I also found out that we have plenty of tuna to fall back on, for busy days. I might even try a tuna casserole, which we have never had before.

The pantry is also still a work in progress, but it is looking much better. My old system was just put everything in there, where ever it fit. As you can imagine, that didn't work well. Stuff kept getting behind other stuff and I would buy it over and over. Plus everything would fall off the shelves and end up getting stepped on and crushed. I still have a long way to go, but I am happy with the progress made so far.

WEIRD stuff happening this weekend!

In addition to Hannah offering and actually following through with cleaning the powder room, she then pitched in to clean up the kitchen and family room.

I was actually able to scrub out the kitchen sink today, make my own lunch, and sit long enough to sort out the mail and flyers from the last month.

The weirdest thing of all is that there is a car in our garage! We moved into this house exactly 8 years ago this week and there has never been room for a car in our garage. Mike worked his butt off this weekend and did a great job. Steven and Luke helped a little, but Mike did the vast majority of work, I'm sure. There is still a ton of stuff out there that needs to be gone through, but this is a huge step forward. We freecycled more than a dozen bikes and toddler toys and threw out quite a bit of items that were junk.

Mike also fixed several bikes so that each kid has a working one now. Steven still needs to get some back brakes for his since he has been riding it without brakes for some time now. I've told him how dangerous that is, but as usual, anything I say to him falls on deaf ears.

Are you kidding me????????

A volunteer to clean a bathroom, in this house, one of my kids???????

Hannah just walked into my room with rubber gloves on, telling me that she is going to clean the powder room! I have never heard those words out of the mouth of any of my children before. I'm in total shock. The fact that she has an ulterior motive (she wants to invite her friend over, who has an immaculate house) doesn't even matter.

My garage is getting cleaned! YAY!

Our garage isn't really a garage, not now anyway. It is a 21 x 25 foot storage area for a ton of junk. Steven has decided that since his car is not drivable and he doesn't have the money to fix it, he wants to put it in the garage so he can take the car insurance off and turn in the license plate. Our homeowner's association doesn't allow unlicensed cars on the street or driveway, so this makes sense.

Steven actually started the chore yesterday (and called in sick to work, against my wishes, even though he was fine). Today Mike and Luke joined him. I ventured out of my room for a few minutes and took a quick peak at what they had accomplished. It is coming along, but it will take quite an effort to even fit one car in. I have a feeling that I will be putting a lot of things on freecycle tonight.

Mystery Solved

Well, I'm back from the urgent care center. Aside from my blood pressure being 170/100, I have a pulled hamstring. I have no clue how I did it, but at least I have medication now! He put me on a muscle relaxer, ibuprofen and tylenol with codeine, so I will probably sleep the next few days away. From now on, I will feel really sorry for all those athletes that pull hamstrings. I had no clue it was this painful.

I'm sneakily looking at this as a way to get more help with housework!!! I'm going to tell the kids the truth, that the doctor said I need to rest my leg as much as possible. I'm also going to tell them that he said I have to be very careful not to slip or trip on anything and so they have to keep the floors clear at all times. Okay, he didn't say that, but I'm sure it would hurt me to slip or trip on something! I wonder if I can work it in that the doctor said I need to be in a house that has been thoroughly vacuumed and dusted??? I think I'm starting to remember the doctor saying something about spotlessly clean bathrooms, as well. Hey, maybe this pulled hamstring is a good thing, at least I will be able to invite someone in to use the bathroom without freaking out!

This does mess up my plans for the week, though. Mike is home this week, his only time off all summer, and we were planning to work on the kid's bedrooms and take the kids on a couple of local outings. I'm hoping the meds will work well enough that we can take them to the beach one day, at least.

Dirty Bathroom Embarrassment

Alex is going to a concert with a good friend. I am also friendly with the girl's mom. They just came to pick him up and the mom had to go to the bathroom. Ugh, my bathroom is filthy! I am so embarrassed. She isn't a neat nick or anything and she truly didn't care, but it is still humiliating.

I almost cleaned that bathroom yesterday, too, but was too lazy. Now I am so mad at myself. If only I had been born with the "housekeeping gene". I am convinced there is a gene that governs things like the ability to organize, stay clutter free and keep a clean house. I just am not good at it, no matter how hard I try. Add the fact that all 7 of my kids have been diagnosed with ADHD (among a bunch of other things!) and leave "Hansel and Gretel trails" all over the house and I just can't keep up.

I have to wonder if any other large families have this problem. I live in a community where every one's house is picture perfect, looks like a model home inside and out. Why am I the only messy????

Oh my God, I just realized there might not have been any toilet paper in there!