Growing up we had a housekeeper. There would be a few months a year where my parents would be all “You kids need chores & responsibilities we’re firing the housekeeper!” this was always met with groans & the proper amount of eye rolling but the 8 of us always knew it wouldn’t last very long at all. When my parents got sick of yelling at us to do something they would re-instate Ms. Gertie & there she would be every morning shuffling around in her little slippers, calling me Alice & forgetting to put cheese in the lasagna. 

By the time I left home to go to Bible school cleaning was not my strong suit. Listen. I’m not dirty, funky or in need of a hoarders intervention. Far from it. But I’m a procrastinator so if a bathroom should be cleaned once a week I might do it once every 3rd month. 

When I arrived at Bible school I was assigned kitchen duty. Shudder. It was everything I hated. They had a room where you washed dishes in that was always hot & smelled of ranch dressing. I swear that if you popped any of my pimples oozing out of them would be Hidden Valley’s best. I wasn’t very good at mopping & always traded someone that duty & the pot washing required you to dip your hands in a hot vat of bleach & I despise bleach. 

Along with kitchen duty came weekly room inspections. On the first inspection of the year I was required to clean our bathroom, which to me looked damn good. But my dorm monitor thought otherwise “Uh, Sister M. don’t get the wrong impression of me, but I’ve had a housekeeper most of my life. I don’t really do bathrooms.” that excuse didn’t really fly. But by the time I left Bible school. I did bathrooms.

If you fast forward to SAHW years and peek into our dingy apartment you’ll see me scrubbing down walls & toilets & even mopping what little moppable floor we had. A housekeeper wasn’t a luxury.

Since moving to California I’ve meant to hire a housekeeper, even interviewed one, but our place was & is so small I really felt like as much as I didn’t want to do it, I should because how hard is it to clean 2 bathrooms? I had every intention of hiring someone for realz this time though because duh I’m pregnant & I don’t know about anyone else but for me this means I give myself an automatic lazy pass. However, upon arriving at the new place on Thursday I found that because the community is for corporate folks they have a slew of amenities {like pregnant people massages} like…dun, dun, dun a cleaning & LAUNDRY service. Wha?! You mean someone else will actually wash & fold my clothes?

Obviously you know what I’m considering right?

But sometimes I have to fight the urge to feel guilty when I have a housekeeper & am considering a laundry service. But when Phoenix arrived & we brought on some help I adopted a principal that should help you if you choose to be just as lazy as me.

Three duties a wife/mother should focus on that don’t include sex because duh, that’s a given.

1. Housekeeping

2. Child rearing

3. Cooking

And as long as you do at least one of those really, really well everything else can just sit untouched for days. I’ve already told you how I suck at cleaning & my parenting skillz make Snooki look like a good legal guardian for Phoenix so that leaves cooking…and I am a damn good cook. No Hamburger Helper or Hot Dogs & Beans. Tuna casserole? Smash that roll people. I throws down & I have to because I ain’t cleaning.

To see some awesome stuff I cook check out my Facebook page. And also stop by every once in a while. I need people to talk to. 

Of the three wifedom duties what do you excel at?

Reading one of my craft blogs today Little Green Notebook and she introduced me to this really cool website. Daily Drop Cap.

 

 

I’m going to print out all the letters and frame them and hang them in Phoenix’s playroom.

And maybe print out the ones for his name and hanging them in his room.


And maybe blowing up the A and the S and hanging them above my bed.


Too much huh? Am I going to turn my house into a schoolroom?!


Well now that I’m thinking about it, I kind of don’t care. I actually really love the ideas.

I went to pick up my awesome $20 couch yesterday and brought two more ceramic elephants.

A huge wooden mirror for $4! Have you seen how much these are in stores? All it needs is to be painted.

And this footstool which I’ll recover.

I kept fighting the urge (hopefully I don’t offend any of you with my next comment. I swear it’s not my intention) to feel like really poor. But it wasn’t why I was buying the stuff.

I could go out and buy a brand new couch with a triple digit price tag, but it wouldn’t really be something I loved.

I love print. I love it print. I love print. I love print.


Have I mentioned how much I love print?


But all the printed couches I’ve seen in my price range look like Grandma.


This might be slight Grandma. But it’s Coco Chanel Grandma.

I honestly see so much potential in things I’ve seen at thrift stores and Craigslist.

It amazes me what some people find garbage.

Now I was pursuing CL yesterday and stumbled upon a libertor for sale.

If you don’t know what one is, that’s ok because I didn’t either.

But why in heaven’s name would someone sell this and who in their right mind would buy it?!

I‘m still on the hunt for the perfect end and coffee tables. 

And I also have this idea of getting a big farm house style kitchen table and painting it like this.

Maybe you don’t quite see it yet, but I do and I think it could be fantastic! 

Yesterday our little Soup Family decided to go to lunch (after our “Save the Marriage” session with our Pastor”).

Next door was a Salvation Army and I decided to pop in and see if they had anything good.

And they did. My brand new couch for $20!

 

Am I crazy or is this pattern lovely? I just stared at it for a good 20 minutes before a few phone calls to my mom and Shawn’s persistence told me to get it.

The couch was also extremely comfy. 

The only things wrong with “her” was it needed a good clean. But a carpet cleaner will fix that.

The flowers on the front, back side were a bit faded, but some big pillows will hide that.

I also didn’t like how low it sat to the ground but Shawn said he could build some legs for it.

I also picked up this little elephant because I saw this post a few weeks ago and had been looking for something like this.

And I also picked up this other piece.

The wood needs to be repainted and the thing in the middle isn’t my style but my plan is to pop it out and recover it with some fabric.

I never, ever, ever thought I would be someone who enjoyed shopping at thrift stores but I think it’s paying off.

I also stalk Craigslist now as well because I picked up this little gem for $60.

I found someone on Etsy to make me a slipcover I now just have to find a good fabric for it.

I originally planned on doing a real conversational fabric because the other sofa I had my eye of was kind of blah, but the sofa is so “BAM” I don’t want it to be a bunch of competing between the lover seat and the sofa.

It could get really messy in here!

But I really, really, really love patterns so the following are a few that I have my eye on for the love seat.


Thoughts? Should I just stick to a simple plain color?

 

 

I am declaring WAR today on the friggin ants that seem determined to ruin my life!

There are two types of bugs that make me lose my natural mind. Flies and ants. Their presence sends me spinning!

When we came to look at the house I saw dead ones in the master bathroom and that was {almost} enough to make me look else where.

But I was won over and I stipulated that I wanted an exterminator to come out…

Well it seems like we got played for dummy’s because I am still fighting these demons.

When we had the dog I noticed them a lot but then when we bid her adieu (and yes we changed her name. You can find that post here.) they seemed to go with her.

But not so fast Alex. They just snuck upstairs to the master bathroom ?!?! What would ants want in my bathroom? Drinking water is the answer I seem to be finding online.

But a few weeks ago it seemed that finally I would get a few months of peace because Shawn said it was getting colder and that they would disappear, and they did!

Not so fast Alex! Monday morning I come down to the ant parade in my kitchen!

And again this morning an ant parade in my kitchen! On my counters, in my cupcakes, up the side of the island, EVERYWHERE!

I was screaming, Phoenix was screaming, the phone was ringing, Imagination Movers were singing and the ants were dancing!

Why God?! Why have you forsaken me!

So I did my research online and it gave me some home remedies to try. Because just in case you’re wondering, the ant trappers… DO NOT WORK!

I don’t love to clean, in fact I don’t even like it. But I like living in cleanliness more, so I begrudgingly clean. 

It’s not perfect, but it’ll suffice and {most} days I wouldn’t be to embarrassed when you show up at my house. I don’t leave dishes in the sink for more then a few hours in between breakfast and nap time. I don’t leave open containers of food.

But the one thing that always gets neglected is the floors. Hardwood floors are &?!#@ to clean. Add in a toddler who walks around with food. A husband who spills cereal when he’s trying to sneak it before dinner. And an intermediately  skilled chef who chops and dices without any regards to the flying onions.


And there you have a feast built for the Queen Ant. 


So I dragged myself to the store and bought caulk to close up where they are coming from and a Swiffer Wet Jet (because who doesn’t hate the mop and bucket ordeal, right?). Hopefully if I become real anal about the floors and counters the ants might go bother the neighbors (which my sneaky suspension is they are coming from them!)


And top it all off, these sneaky SOB’s showed up yesterday too.


Sorry I’m cussing, but I really HATE ants!!!!!

So I need some help. Samster Mommy posted last week that she’d been bitten by the “seasonal decorating” bug since having a baby.

And I have to totally agree with her. After Christmas last year I started dreaming of different ways to decorate for this Christmas. And now since Fall is so in the air I can’t wait to put some pumpkins on the front porch, and make a fall wreath (I like the monogrammed one from Nesting Place), burn some fall scented candles bake apple pies and make fall centerpieces.

And today in my Google Reader Centsational Girl has a great fall canvas tutorial. I think I like it and want to do but I’m not 100% positive because I don’t really know where I would put it. So I asked Shawn for his advice and he didn’t help at all!

So head over to Centsational Girl and let me know what you think of the canvas print!