I always answer that one by saying Yes!  (in fact some days you could have a 3 course meal……)  My floors take such a beating between the mud and the food. The mud has been hard to curtail, living here, but the food you would think could be addressed. I have made a mighty effort to enforce the "no food outside the kitchen" rule.  It tends to go the way of the "No food between meals" rule – at least once mom tries to take a nap. : /  We are revisiting both rules these days so we can get prepared for any appraisals and whatnot that come with the eminent domain issue.

First step was scrubbing down the kitchen in the early hours this morning. Next was a coat of Quick Shine. I LOVE this stuff! Living in military housing for two decades made me familiar with just about every other hard floor cleaner. (govt housing is famous for its commercial tile flooring) Nothing really made the floors shine though.  I even used paste wax in one house. That made it slippery but not shiny and it needed to be stripped with ammonia in between which was no picnic. I am very pleased with the Quick Shine so far. Its quick AND it shines (go figure) and it seems to wash off again rather than leave a sticky mess.

My next resolution is to do some freezer cooking. Half the food mess is from preparation. In hopes of cutting that waaaaay down I am going to tackle some once a month cooking meals this grocery trip. The theory is I mess up the kitchen once versus daily. Now if I could just get the family to EAT once a month we’d be in really good shape lol!

I am moving everyone’s color blog entries to this post.  If I missed anyone holler at me and I will just reinsert the link here. I feel like I might be missing one but my brain is on fast fwd these days.

Dawn  has me beat for coolest vacuum color

Angel

Genevieve

Ruth

Mrs Darling

Amy

I love visiting your homes ladies! We will have to think of another fun share!

These were posted on another list this weekend. SO cute!

It hit me when I put my new oh so cute shoes this morning <g>.   I was smiling  to myself because I absolutely adored the color of them.

They matched the quilt on my bed…..

And the old saw hanging on the wall above it….

and the sign in the kitchen…

and all of our exterior doors…

my favorite dish…

the fabulous washer and dryer…

the little boys beds (and hats!)…

my  antique store find – the architectural star…

even my vacuum cleaner…

hmmmmm, do I see a pattern forming here?  Rebecca had me consider what colors we wanted to build around in the house after I insisted we didn’t have a color scheme going. I have been thinking lots about that very thing lately. It occurs to me that, while I love to see rooms in blues and greens and yellows, from my very first very brief apt dwelling I have tended to gather to myself all things red. I am not a color snob either. I have other favorites.  Like pink <g> and burgundy LOL!

Ok so here is a challenge for you – can you find and photograph half a dozen things in your house right now of a color you love? Impromptu fair anyone??  How about the Loveliness of Color? <g>

They’re here! The most beautiful washer and dryer I have ever laid eyes on that is. For 3 wks we have washed clothes that required several extra spin cycles and  weren’t reliably coming clean anyway, only to be hung all over the bathroom, dining and laundry room due to a stone dead dryer. This was proceeded by months of jimmy-rigging both machines in order to coax them into some semblence of function. That’s all over now! We are now the proud owners of a wild cherry red, extra large capacity, front loading washer and dryer set.

I have decided if you are going to have an appliance then having one that works well is definitely work the investment. I tend to be ultra cheap and shuffle various Goodwill finds through the house. That has proven to be a great plan for clothing and other household items. Mechanical items – not so much. Given that it had been years since we actually bought a new appliance and seeing that few things get as much use in a family of 11 as the laundry room Allen insisted on a new purchase. What a treat!

The new set is not only eye candy but computerized. Who knew? At the touch of a button the control panel lights up like the cockpit of an airplane. After a few beeps and a tentative spin to assess the load weight it programs itself to begin washing.  Could any of us born in the 60s have really believed that we would be doing laundry with a computer?? I half expect to open the front door and hop into my glass topped hover craft now. ; )

regardless of where technology takes us I am as happy as housewives of old to have help in the washing dept. After this year of battling with the whole process it was like a little miracle to have the whole family’s wash done and dried within a few short hrs. Move over Jane Jetson! You may have Rosie but I have LG!

That is what Shayne did with the redwork links!  She had mentioned months ago that she was intrigued she was by the stitching, having not seen it in the UK. Look where that curiousity led! Her mil was the lucky recipient of this stunning quilt over Christmas. Very inspiring!

Someone explain to Tess that the odds of seeing her own redwork quilt finish increase exponentially with every hr of sleep she allows me between midnight and 5am!

Ok it may not be literally biblical but here is an idea that combines the two. Was one of your new year’s resolutions to de-clutter?  Do you now have more stuff than places to store it?  If you haven’t seen the Clean Heart blog you might want to scoot over there today. They have posted the first of the the Colossal Clutter Clean-up Challenge. Last year they hosted the Clean Heart challenge which combined practical deep cleaning directions with ongoing devotional reading and journaling exercises. The feedback indicated that many people were not in a position to deep clean or to maintain that cleanliness because of their need to organize and declutter. It’s hard to keep things clean when they don’t have a home and begin to invade other areas of the house. As a result the Colossal Clutter Clean-up Challenge was born.

If you visit the site you can download the companion journal with 69 pages of devotions and  challenges. The first exercise is posted today. Let the clutter-busting begin! : )

More fun free stuff!  This time it came from Pleasant View Schoolhouse. Knitting Help is the website of knit designer Amy Finlay who we saw on hgtv’s Knitty Gritty show last week.  The sheer tackiness of her knit garter/cell phone holder project aside, the site is a wealth of helpful instructions and patterns. Following the techniques link brings up videos for both the English and continental style knitting stitches. I had just been saying how nice it would be to have someone actually show me in real time how to do these stitches since the still photos leave questions in my mind.

Take a look if you are a fellow knitting wanna-be!

Kristin also found us some more digital scrapping freebies:

Digital Freebies  Friday Freebies here

Retro Diva

Rak Scraps  (you need to sign in for these)

Kristin has already made several great pages from the freebies!  I hope some of the rest of you have had as much luck!  Some of us are still lingering over Photoshop tutorials whispering expletives under our breaths. : p   Perhaps one should not attempt to learn new skills when getting approximately half their normal amount of sleep. Just give me a scissors and a glue stick for now! <g>

I added a new sidebar store tonight. I have baby on the brain and uploaded some of my favorite things:

A hynobirthing cd set.  I couldn’t find the exact cds I have but really I think any set would be a huge help. I listened to them daily in the last trimester of the last few pgs and during the last birth. I would not say it made for a pain free birth but it made for a manageable natural birth with no anxiety. 

Earth Mama Angel Baby.  Buy anything from them ; )   Elizabeth and MacBeth bought me the pregnancy kit during Brendan’s pg. Everything in it was wonderful.  The third trimester tea has raspberry and squaw vine (partridge berry) that I wrote about in a previous post.

A baby sling.  A gotta have item for attachment parenting. Great for grocery shopping! I am a small-ish person and can’t manage toting those heavy baby seats all over.

A co-sleeper.  If you don’t have a king sized bed this is a great option.

Cloth diapers. I have had kids who were solely cloth diapered and those who were solely disposable and some of both. Personally I only like cloth diapers without elastic. I cannot launder the gathered or all-in-ones effectively. I like the contoured (hour glass) diaper in a regular vinyl pant. Just my two cents.

Burp cloths and bibs.  If you are blessed with a munchkin who has reflux this is not optional. Fortunately these are WAY cute nowadays with everything from toile to mod dots.

Diaper bag.  A necessary evil. I sorta hated the ones with little ducks or bunnies. I consider it an apparel item. Get one that works with your style <g>  My mil got me a nice black bag this time.

Amy Coe.  I LOVE Amy Coe’s baby line at Target. The cable knit blankets, the crocheted booties, the bedding.  Sigh!

Beatrix Potter and Classic Pooh. Can you be a baby without some awesome vintage pieces?  We think not.   Hey, this is the fun part folks! Something to make up for the stretch marks. <g>