Just One Drawer-

Sometimes cleaning the drawers, cabinets and closets can be overwhelming, I’m not the only one who thinks that right? This week I decided that I’d had enough of the mess one specific drawer in the kitchen. It was the kids silverware/plastic lids drawer. I really should have taken a BEFORE picture but I forgot. Basically everything was just tossed in there and falling out of the small boxes I had in there. I took EVERYTHING out of the drawer and put it all on the counter. The I wiped the drawer down and started with the blank slate.

Nice and Clean!

I sorted everything by type and got the silverware organized back into the boxes. I also got rid of some items that we didn’t really need to have anymore. Once it was all sorted, I put it back in. Nice and organized. It only took me about 10-15 minutes to get the whole project finished.

Let's see how long this will look this way!

I thought I’d post this just to tell you….try and do Just One Drawer. It won’t be as overwhelming as the entire kitchen or all of your dresser. And you will feel accomplished in the end. Who knows…you might get the feeling that you want to keep on going…I didn’t…but you might.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Back in January I started researching homemade laundry soaps. There are many options, powdered and liquid but I decided to try a powdered option. The ‘recipe’ I have been using since then I found at Tipnut. They have a listing of ten different ‘recipes’ available.

Ingredients

2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated –There are other soap options, this is just what I found at my store.)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax

• Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
• Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

We have been using this laundry detergent for almost two months with no issues. Our clothes are certainly getting clean and I have no complaints. I have even tried it on the kids’ clothes and they have not had any issues with sensitivity.

Who Needs A Mailbox?

Evidently, we do.

Destroyed Mailbox

We came home the other night, morning (2am) to find our mailbox strewn across the yard. It appeared to have been hit by a car, as we found tire marks across the neighbors driveway and right in front of their mailbox too. Since there was nothing we could do about it at 2am, we went to bed. The next day our neighbor came over to let us know that he heard the accident, cleaned up our lava rocks that were all across the road and collected a side mirror that was left. He had also talked to a witness who had an address and tag number. The witness claims the driver was swerving all down the hill and hit our mailbox with her car. She hit the neighbor’s mailbox (but didn’t destroy it) and almost hit a car. All of this happened just after 5pm!

After getting all the information from the neighbor, Big Monkey headed down to the address to see if anyone wanted to admit to destroying our mailbox. Unfortunately, there was no answer at the door. Big Monkey decided to call the police. At least that way we would have it documented and the person would likely at least get a ticket. (Of course it appears they are likely getting away with a DUI.) While we waited for the police to show up, the hit and run driver’s father showed up at our house. He had a very different story about what supposedly happened but was trying to help make it better. He got his daughter on the phone (who was supposedly at work) and the three of them worked out a deal that she would pay us $75 to get a new mailbox. The police showed up in the middle of it all but Big Monkey sent them away, saying we appeared to have things handled but if it didn’t work out, we’d call them back.

In the end, the father paid us $75 and took the side mirror home. Big Monkey headed off to Lowe’s to get a new mailbox, some concrete and rebar. If anyone hits our mailbox again they will be in for a surprise with way more damage to their vehicle. While Big Monkey was gone to Lowe’s, the daughter showed up and apologized again. Her story also didn’t match the witnesses story, but whatever. I decided to just let it all go. It wasn’t that big of a deal since she was taking care of the cost of getting a new mailbox. She gave us another $20 and a 6pack of cupcakes from Publix.

Big Monkey then spent a good portion of the afternoon installing our new mailbox. Lucky for us, we also had a coupon to Lowe’s to save $10 on the mailbox and supplies. Hopefully no one will hit our mailbox again!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, Big Monkey was ready to set up the Christmas tree and decorate everything. (Heck he probably would have done it at the beginning of the month if I would have let him!) I wasn’t much in the decorating mood but I did help out some. It just seems like SO much stuff to get out…only to have to put it all away again. Big Monkey got everything down from the attic and went to work. Once the tree was up and he put the lights on it, Little Monkey and I decorated it. We only put ornaments on the top 2/3s of the tree, anticipating that Little Monkette would mess with the ornaments. (For the record, she has only messed with the tree twice. Once with the lights and once with an ornament Big Monkey made many, MANY years ago.) She is doing pretty good with the tree! Little Monkey got to help Big Monkey put the star on top of the tree. The picture below is actually the second attempt. The first attempt ended with the star falling off the tree!

Big Monkey helped Little Monkey put the star on the tree.

While decorating the house and getting things from the garage/attic, we found a little fiber optic tree that GG&GG P had given us last year. I decided to let Little Monkey have a tree of his own in his room! He was SO excited. We picked out ornaments that wouldn’t break and he did all the decorating himself. He kept saying, “My tree is SO cute!” All the ornaments that he has made for the past two years are also featured on his tree. (We have yet to make this year’s ornament but the plan is in the works.) After it was all done, we decided it needed a star. I cut out a star and we taped it together and he fit it onto the tree. It has a switch to turn the fiber optic lights on and off. He loves it. The morning after he set it up, he came out and let me know that he needed “one of those” and pointed to our tree skirt. We have yet to put a tree skirt around his tree, but I told him that we could work on it. Maybe I can make him one.

Little Monkey's personal tree

I Won

Awhile back, (Like in May!) I won a giveaway from Michelle at Someday Crafts. I got a gift certificate to Shannon’s Etsy shop, Staker Sensations.

Go take a look around at her shop, she has lots of fun stuff. (Sorry but her shop is actually closed right now due to some machine problems. So instead you can check out her blog instead.) I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to get but finally picked out something for Little Monkey’s room. I picked out a fun saying that hopefully Little Monkey will learn to like too.

After having it in the house for awhile, we finally got the chance to put it up on Little Monkey’s wall. I had planned to put it up at the top of the wall all the way down one wall but it ended up being a bit longer than that. We ended up cutting each phrase and making it a separate line. It worked out great and I love it.

Vinyl Wall Art

We ended up taking down the pictures and Fire Department flag that were on the wall and moving them to another. I really like how all of it turned out. Both Michelle and Shannon were great and easy to work with.

Shannon also sent me a cute little black bird. I put it up on the door to our pantry. It is very cute. I know if I want more vinyl, I will be checking with Shannon first to see if she can make it for me.

Cute little birdie

We Caught Him!

This time we really did catch the mouse! You may recall this post about the mouse that was in our house. We hadn’t managed to catch him yet so we called the pest guy back out. We were assigned a new pest guy and he came out and put down eight glue traps. He was certain that we would catch something. We pulled the stove back out and noticed the darn mouse had eaten through the patch Big Monkey had put in the wall where we found a hole before! A few days passed and nothing. Finally I thought I heard something making noise back there. I decided to wait for Big Monkey to be home before checking because I didn’t want to have to get rid of him myself.

Here is what we found:

Mouse stuck to glue trap...wall patch peices all around him...

Now in this photo he looks kinda gross,  but Big Monkey pulled him out and he was SO cute. I felt bad for him. I didn’t get another picture because Big Monkey wanted to shoot him in the backyard and ran off with him. Luckily for everyone in our neighborhood, I convinced him to chop his head off instead. He ended up smashing the poor thing. I couldn’t watch. He was still alive on the glue mat…until Big Monkey smashed him. I am happy he is gone and hoping he is the only one. I don’t know how he could be the only one though…he was eating and pooping A LOT! We put down a new glue trap and we’ll see if we end up catching any more of them.

Yard Sale!

We had our first ever yard sale yesterday. I got a little crazy and thought it would be a great idea last Monday to participate in the neighborhood-wide yard sale. I spent some of the week getting the kids clothes and some toys and other baby items together. Friday night I had everything set up in the garage show I’d just have to pull it all out the next morning. Saturday morning I woke up early and started moving for the sale. Unfortunately for me, Big Monkey was still at work and the kids decided they needed to get up to help! I got everyone breakfast, pulled out all the sale items and fed Little Monkette in the driveway.

The neighborhood sale was advertised to run from 7am to 4pm. We ran from about 7:15am to about 11:30am. After that traffic really died down and we had company coming over anyhow. I am glad that we live on a main road because I think it certainly helped with how much traffic we had. We didn’t sell out of everything but we did get rid of a good amount of clothes and some of the other stuff. We ended up making about $100. Not over the top but better than nothing! I’ll take it. Thankfully the day was nice and the weather was great so hanging outside wasn’t too bad. Even the kids did well.

The biggest hit with many people was the “Free” box. It was filled with random stuff that we really did just want gone but didn’t think we could sell. Old wires, old cell phone chargers, mugs, small toys, reusable water bottles, etc. It was almost totally empty at the end of the day!

I don’t know that we’d do it again…I just it just depends on what we have to sell. If we did have another yard sale, I would probably only do it when the neighborhood is also having the neighborhood-wide sale. Guaranteed traffic, no paying for a yard sale permit and no need to advertise.

The Pool Opens-Kinda

We did some work cleaning up from the camping trip and the boys thought they would go swimming after to help cool off. They had planned that from the start of the day, wearing their swimsuits all during the cleaning projects.

Little Monkey first put his feet in but then decided it was warm enough to swim. He mostly hung out in the float but before he got out, Big Monkey made him swim over to one side of the pool and back to the ladder. He seems to have forgotten a bit of what he learned last year at swim lessons so once it warms up we will be working on that! The pool was still a bit cool for the rest of us but we hope it will be warming up soon!

Little Monkey opened the pool for the summer!

We Caught It-

We caught it…no, not the mouse but instead a little bird.

When we got home from small group yesterday, we noticed the glue trap in the garage was no longer in the triangle shape and there was a little bird stuck in it. Big Monkey tried to remove the bird but there was no way to get it out. He looked so helpless stuck there and you could tell he had already struggled to get out. One of his wings was missing most of its feathers. The bird squeaked while Big Monkey tried to release him but nothing worked. Big Monkey decided that the best thing was to put the bird down so that he wouldn’t starve to death or be eaten by another animal. I went inside while Big Monkey took care of that. I felt bad that not only are we trying to kill the mouse, but now we’ve also had to kill a bird. Hopefully no other animals will end up where they shouldn’t be!

Mouse In Our House!

Yes, that’s right, apparently somewhere in our house there is a mouse. Originally I thought we had roaches but we hadn’t seen any live or dead roaches, just poop. The bug man came and baited for the roaches and put a sticky mat with bait in our closet. Then he came back a few days later when there was nothing on the mat. He had originally thought that it might be a mouse but thought we would try this first. When he got back and found no roaches, he was pretty certain it was  a mouse. Big Monkey claimed that he knew it was a mouse too but that he didn’t want to be the person to tell me! We now have three mouse traps set in the pantry waiting for the little mouse.

He has apparently been eating rather well in there. I found some items that he has chewed through and eaten that I had to throw away. Chili and Taco seasoning packets, decorating icing and PKU Chocolate covered raisins. Dang mouse. The traps have been in there for two days and we still have yet to catch a mouse. Hopefully he will show his face soon so we can be rid of him.

I really didn’t want to kill the mouse but apparently that is the only real way to get rid of him. Maybe if he has little mouse friends that have been joining him in his festivities, they will learn not to come back here!