Ultimate Blog Party 2011

For the very first time ever, I am joining in on the Ultimate Blog Party excitement! So, here we go!

I am Deanne, a mother to four children, who I affectionately named NattyNu (age 10), JoNo (age 7), PunkyPie (age 4), and Boo (age 3) for the internet. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Hubby, for 10 1/2 years now and am incredibly grateful for everything he does for our family.

I am a busy lady. I work as a housecleaner Monday-Friday and have a very "flexible" (read: unstable) ending time each day. Some days I am home by 2pm, other days, I'm not home until after 6pm. It's hard on me and I cannot imagine how hard it is on the family to never know when to expect me home.

I am also a CNA and wanting to get back to doing that as soon as I possibly can. Not that I don't love my job, but okay...so I really don't love my job. lol I also want to go back to school and finish my degree in Business Administration with an Accounting focus, but first I have to make sure that I am doing my part to make ends meet at home.

I also work out of my home as a crafter (I have an Etsy shop with a few items in stock - more as soon as I get around to taking photographs and listing the items!) and I also sell Tupperware and am looking to possibly start selling Shaklee as well in the near future.

I am a kind of crunchy mama. I believe in being as green as possible, we use cloth diapers at least part-time (Hubby and MIL prefer sposies and that's okay too - we do what works best for all of us - and this is how it has been for the last, oh, six years or so in the diapering department). I also try to use safe, homemade cleaners as often as possible. I want to be able to have any of my children help with the cleaning without worrying about the chemicals that they may end up having on their skin. (That is kind of part of a big reason behind wanting to become a Shaklee distributor.)

I have recently been working to lose weight by making better food choices (not dieting because dieting is temporary and I want this to be a lifestyle change that will be forever) and getting more exercise. So far, I am down 30 pounds over the last two months and I am very excited about that! I still have about another 60 to go, but already I am feeling better and overall, healthier.

My blog here is a cross between a mommy blog and a niche blog for cleaning/organizing and crafting. I tried doing multiple blogs before and you can see them if you click on my picture and go to my profile, but I tend to just be more of a one-blog kind of girl, with the exception of one blog that I am a contributor to.

Hmmm, I am trying to think of what else there is to tell you all, but I can't really think of anything, so if you have questions, feel free to ask! I'm pretty much an open book. Glad to have you visit! And if you'd like, follow me via Google Friend Connect and like my blog on Facebook. I will start hosting giveaways when I hit 25 followers on here. And considering that I am a crafter (a knitter and scrapbooker to be exact) AND sell Tupperware AND plan to sell Shaklee AND will be reviewing products from time to time as well (not too often because I don't want this blog to become all about reviews - they can get kind of old when that's all you see in feed reader), there are a LOT of possibilities for giveaways! So, come on in, sit down with a cup of tea (instant with artificial sweetener is my current choice) and have a nice read. Leave some comment love here and there so that I can check your blog out as well!

Until next time...

Tackle It Tuesday

This week for Tackle It Tuesday I tackled my lower level bathroom. I don't have a before picture, but let me describe it this way - I live with four males and one of them is potty training. And it seems that none of them can actually hit the target. Just sayin'.

So, I started with my shower. I sprayed some straight vinegar on my shower door to help tackle the hard water and soap scum build up and let it sit. Then I moved on to the mirror and used the same straight vinegar there and wiped it dry with a microfiber cloth.

Then, I moved down to the sink and sprayed an all-purpose cleaner into it and scrubbed it down really well. I used an old toothbrush to get between the faucet and the sink itself and really scrubbed it out well. Then I wiped it all out with a second microfiber cloth. After doing that, I used my first microfiber from the mirror and shined up the faucet and the knobs and the drain stopper thingie. Because that is what it is called, right? A drain stopper thingie? The vinegar and the microfiber together really makes it all shiny and nice.

Then I cleared off the toilet and picked everything up off of the floor. I think it was something like 6 bottles of shampoo and conditioner and other things, plus a large container of laundry detergent. Doesn't everyone keep a large bottle of laundry detergent in their bathroom? And then I cleared off the little shelf we have hanging above the toilet and straightened it up and made it look nice and neat.

Then it was time to tackle the toilet. I'm sure you all know how to clean a toilet, but bear with me. I sprayed the entire toilet down with the all-purpose spray, tank lid, tank sides, top of toilet lid, underside of toilet lid, top of toilet seat, underside of toilet seat, toilet rim, inside of the bowl (and then a little bit of powder in the bowl), then sprayed the outside of the toilet base, being sure to get the area by the bolts that hold the toilet to the floor. Then I started wiping it off with a large terry cloth towel. I like to use barmop towels personally because of their large size, but you could use a standard 12x12 terry cloth cleaning towel as well. But anyhow, I used my barmop towel and began wiping in the same order as I did the spraying, down to the toilet rim part, then I used my toilet brush and cleaned the inside really well. Then I finished up with the toilet rim and the outside of the bowl, all the way down to the floor.

The floor area in our bathroom is very small so it is more trouble than it is worth to try to use a mop in there, plus our toilet is not placed squarely in there either, so it's a very tight space between the side of the toilet and the wall anyhow. So, I just used my all-purpose spray and sprayed the floor on that side of the toilet and hand-wiped it while I was hanging over the toilet to get the area by the bolts cleaned on that side. I then worked my way from the wall behind the toilet to the wall in front of the toilet and then worked my way around the toilet. I used a thin line grout brush to get the area around the bottom of the toilet and let me assure you, it was DIS-GUST-ING. Blech! Then I continued hand wiping the remainder of the floor area. Oh - and in case it wasn't clear, I used the same rag for the toilet and the floor. Because honestly, the floor is much worse than the toilet 'round these parts. You could use a separate rag if you wanted to though.

For the finishing touches in the bathroom, I also shined up the handle of the toilet with my mirror microfiber cloth as well as the toilet paper holder and the switch plate. Then put things back into the bathroom neatly. The only thing left to do was to finish the shower.

Normally, I would have done the shower completely in one shot, but because of the hard water and soap scum, I wanted to give the vinegar some time to cut through it and break it all down. One warning though - when I opened the shower door to clean it, the vinegar smell assaulted my nostrils. It was a little bit overwhelming at first. It won't hurt you, but it is powerful.

I used a steel wool scratchy on my shower door - I don't think my shower door is glass, but it might be. But I used that scratchy on my shower door until it looked pretty decent. It always looks clearer when it is wet than it does when it is dry though. I then wiped the door with the mirror cloth. Then I sprayed down the inside of the shower itself and scrubbed it all really well and then dried it off with the same cloth I used for the sink, and then finished by shining the metal in the shower - the shower head, the shower knob, the shower door handle and the piece that holds the shower door on. Not sure what to call that piece though.

The one thing I realized that I missed when I was done was the window and blinds. I should have used a dry microfiber to dust the blinds before starting the toilet and then cleaned the window with the straight vinegar and mirror cloth and then dusted the window ledge with the dry cloth as well. But oh well, it's definitely in much better shape now than it was before I did it.

And that my friends, is how I clean our tiny bathroom.

Using this method, it took me all of maybe 15 minutes to clean the bathroom. Do you have 15 minutes available to kick your bathroom into tip top clean shape? I bet you do!

Also, I will be linking this up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Tossed It Tuesday - April 4

I don't have much to report about things tossed out this week. There's a few items and I will list them, but what I want to talk about is something else that I came across yesterday as well.

Okay, so my list first:

• Punky's old plastic play kitchen
• Three boxes worth of paper recycling
• One box worth of cardboard recycling
• One bag worth of glass recycling

And for the other part - the thing that I wanted to share? I stopped in at a newer consignment shop here in our city yesterday to find out about their consignment program.  Turns out, it has some really awesome things going on and two minor not so good things going on. I'll start with the no so good things. The first part is that it costs $12 to consign for 120 days. Not horrible, but not great either. But probably cheaper than listing things on ebay and still something that I'm willing to do.

Second thing is the consignment ratio payout. The shop gets 60% while the consignor gets 40%. Not the greatest payout, but when I take into consideration the fact that they do all of the work (and their overhead costs and the fact that it gets the stuff out of my house super easily, well, it's worthwhile to me, I think.)

Now for the good parts - all I have to do is wash it (which I would do regardless), toss it into a box (therefore, no need to go back to pick up my container) and drop it off. They do EVERYTHING else. They will sort though the stuff, keep what will work and either have me come pick up the items that won't work or they will donate it to the homeless mission here and they also take care of the tagging and pricing and marketing of the items. If there are certain items that I want to have back, then they will make sure I get them back if they either choose not to sell the item or if the item does not sell within 120 days. It's a very cool deal. Right now, they are taking clothes for spring/summer and in three months, they will be taking fall/winter clothes as well. And if I take clothes in as late as day 119 from the first date of consignment, then I will have 120 days from day 119 to have the items sell as well for no extra charge. I hope that makes sense. LOL!

And the best part, it gets it out my house super quick and easy. And doing this supports a local business, which is something that I feel strongly about. And if the items don't sell, then they will go to a charity that I think is worthwhile as well. So, in my opinion, it's a win-situation all around.

So very soon I will be getting more and more items out of here and it will be well worth it!

Small Things - April 1st and 4th

Even though I was on a blogging hiatus, I did still read blogs while I was gone - well, a few of them anyhow. And Home Sanctuary is one of the ones that I continued to follow. I just wasn't sure when I was going to get back to posting about my participation in her Small Things. But today seems like as good a day as any!

On Friday, which also happened to be April 1st, we were supposed to do something silly. Only one thing. Well, I'm going to count my day at work as being silly because I was a) sleep-deprived and b) hyped up on caffeine and no-calorie sweetener. I don't know what could make me more silly than that to be honest. I had my trainer, myself and trainee cracking up. It was crazy silly fun.

We were to receive 40 points for doing something silly and then an additional 10 points for sharing about it, so 50 points for Friday.

Then today, we were to take a damp cloth and wipe whatever you can with it until you run out of moisture. When you run out of moisture you are done! I did this in the kitchen. I got our counters wiped down, the stove top, the fridge front, the sink and the front of the dishwasher. I even got the small appliances and the primary knickknacks wiped off as well, such as our One Touch canister set (like this one here) and some of the other things we have set out full time on our counters.

So, there was an additional (and EASY!) 40 points! So, now I am up to 90 points for the month!

Menu Plan Monday

I have been absent for a bit and so has my menu planning. But I'm back and so is my menu planning. So here goes!

• Leftover burgers from grilling out this weekend (I had 20 patties made up and we still have about half of them left over)
• Lasagna
• Hamburger and noodles (Kind of like Hamburger Helper, except not out of a box)
• Enchiladas with beans and rice
• Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, eggs, sausage)
• Grilled pork chops
• Salad bar

So there you have it. This is the plan for our meals for this week.

Unintended hiatus

Well, as you may have realized, I have been absent from the blogging world again for the last two (and a couple of days) weeks.  But I have a really good excuse - at least I think I do. :) I started a new job on St. Patrick's Day. I'm cleaning houses for a living now. It's intense. It's fast-paced, thorough and after the first two days, I was fairly sure I was going to die.

Floors are all done by hand on your hands and knees. No brooms and mops here. As a result, my knees have been incredibly sore and my wrists have been acting up quite a bit. Tendonitis and working on hands and knees don't exactly go together real well.

But just the same, I have been plugging away at it. And I'm doing really well at work. At home, ehm, not so much. That's the one major drawback. I work so hard during the daytime and then by the time I get home, I am often so worn out and exhausted that I don't want to do a thing around here. Plus, since I spend all day cleaning homes, I'm kind of used to a certain level of cleanliness now that the house is just not living up to. It will eventually though. I just need to be able (and willing!) to thoroughly clean one room each day after work. If I do that, then it will be much improved. I just have not had the desire to do more work each day.

Also, I am planning on sharing a few tips with you all that I have picked up from work. I can't share all of it though, because well, there are policies and everything...but some stuff I already knew and do at home anyhow (when I'm not dead tired from work!). So look forward to that in a future post.

I am also excited because this next weekend, I am going to finally get a chance to visit a new(-ish) blog friend, Erin and finally get a chance to try out some Shaklee products as well! The company I work for uses green products, but I'm wanting to try out Shaklee because I think that their products are going to be even better than the ones that we use at work.

Also, during my blog absence, I was given my first blog award from faithful reader Patty.

As a recipient of this award, I am supposed to list 7 things about myself that someone may not know from reading this blog. Yikes! Which part of my life do I want to scare you all with share with you all? Well, here goes...

1. I am thinking about possibly opening a home daycare again. I need to look into the requirements and get all those things worked out, but I'm seeing it as a definite possibility.

2. I am really a private person. I bet you all would never realize that, given the frequency of the posts and the amount of stuff I talk about and share, but it's true. I'm actually really timid until someone gets to know me.

3. I am seriously addicted to sweet tea. Instant tea with artificial sweetener to be exact. LOVE the stuff! And I will easily go through a full jar of it each week if I allow myself to. Which I try not to, because I don't really need that much caffeine and artificial sweetener isn't really that good for you either.

4. I am starting to love cleaning again. In spite of my current job as a housecleaner, which I figured would make me hate cleaning even more, I am actually starting to get a little high from cleaning people's houses (and no, it's not the chemical fumes! It's the joy of a freshly cleaned house!)

5. I'm starting to play online games again. I have a bit of an addictive personality, so I try to avoid things that I think will get out of control in relation to my own personal time management and online gaming is one of them. However, recently, Hubby has gotten me onto World of Warcraft, which I do enjoy playing but haven't played much since one weekend shortly after Punky was born when I power-leveled from 1-42 in a weekend. The only thing I did that weekend was play the game, take bathroom breaks and short sleeping breaks. Everything else was done at the keyboard. I nursed Punky while playing, I changed her diapers there, I ate my meals there. It was horrible and something that I have never wished to return to, so therefore my gameplay has been in severe moderation because I know how badly it can take over. Oh - and I'm handling it much better this time around. About an hour's worth of game play two or three times a week is more than good enough for me.

6. Wow, this is harder to do than I thought. Um, I watch way too much TV - particularly on Mondays and Thursdays. We have DVR so I don't have to watch TV on that particular night, but my DVR series list includes the following shows: Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, 90210, Make It Or Break It, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Hoarding: Buried Alive, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Downsized, Parenthood, Modern Family, Hoarders, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. That's like 13 hours of TV each week! Now, granted, I only record/watch new episodes and they have different running seasons, and sometimes there are conflicts on my DVR so I have to choose to not have one of them record, and that is never a hard call. I have definite preferences among the shows on my list. As for my viewing choices, well, I kind of like a hodgepodge of shows. I like teen dramas, I like shows with a medical basis, as long as it also has a storyline that includes interpersonal relationships, I like crime shows as well, as I like to guess whodunit along the way, I like some inspirational shows as well, And nothing makes me ready for a huge purge at home like an episode of Hoarders. :) And then I like special genres, family life, I suppose, like Sister Wives, Downsized, and 19 Kids and Counting.

7. Hmmm, one last thing. I love to rearrange furniture. Or rather, I love to have my husband rearrange our furniture. I think I come by this honestly though. My grandmother, who I spent most of my childhood with, rearranged her furniture every 3-6 months. And my parents moved about every 3-6 months when I was growing up, so I was used to constant changes in furniture arrangements.

Yep, there you go. Seven facts about me that you may not know from reading my blog.

Now, I get to choose 15 blogs to receive this award as well, so here goes:


1. With A Little Help From My Friends
2. Delightful Order
3. Grandma Becky L
4. Kingdom Twindom + 1
5. MckMama
6. Feeding Four
7. Good Enough Mommy
8. Life With Katie
9. Marni's Organized Mess
10. Organized Everyday
11. Ramblings of a Stressed Out Mom
12. Seams Inspired
13. sweet view from the hills
14. White House, Black Shutters
15. The Boys & Me

Okay ladies, there you go! It's now your turn! Grab the image, post it on your blog and then list seven things about yourself that someone reading your blog may not know and then choose 15 of your favorite blogs to receive the award as well!

I came across this site via a link on a blog that I visited through a blog hop. I love how things like that happens sometimes! :) Anyhow, she is hosting a Spring reading 2011 party. And I'm most definitely going! I love to read but often don't make the time to do it. I have books upon books on the Kindle (for pc - I'm too cheap/poor to buy a "real" one LOL!) and I also have a number of physical books on my bookshelf that I haven't gotten around to yet. Brand new books just sitting and waiting patiently for me. So this is perfect!

For starters, I am posting the list of books that I would like to read during this spring:

• Daughter of Joy by Kathleen Morgan (I'm currently on pg 100 of 334)
• Somewhere to Belong by Judith Miller
• Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury
• Summer by Karen Kingsbury
• Someday by Karen Kingsbury
• Sunset by Karen Kingsbury

I also want to read with the kiddos each night, even if it is only for a few minutes. Natty has some great longer chapter books that I would love to read to him, JoNo has a number of short chapter books and Punky and Boo have lots and lots of childrens' books that I intend to read to them. I'd like to start by reading to Natty and then sending him up to bed, then JoNo and send him up to bed and then Punky and Boo and send them up to bed. The idea behind doing it this way is that Natty would have time to read to himself after he went up to bed, JoNo would have a little bit less time to read after going up to bed and Punky and Boo wouldn't have time to read. All the lights upstairs would go out at the same time. I think it is a good plan, in theory. We will have to see how it works out though.

You can click on the button at the top of this post to join in on the book reading party. You know you want to! :) Happy Spring and enjoy your reading time!