Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #11

Just dropping in quickly to show you our hall closet, being changed into a "game closet"...Dad and Cope are building this together, and I am documenting...

The gals over at 5MinutesFromMom.Com host these Tackle-it-Tuesdays....so what are you tackling?
(Big or small- it doesn't matter- this is time to toot your own horn about anything you tackled)





Dad, measuring from the coat rod, how many inches down will each shelf go? 3 shelves? 4 shelves? Hummm....





















Making it look official...notice his 'tan lines'? Can you tell he works outside everyday in the desert sun?

















Dad helping Cope steady the drill as he drills his first screw into the wall...and yes, he had to have his black Spider Man costume on while doing so.




















All shelves complete! Now please sweep up all the dust bunies and saw dust!















A proud Cope and Dad...we have yet to fill the shelves with games, but we will! The nights just go by so quickly! Ill post "after" pics when it is completed!
*See my little princess trying to snake her way into the pic behind daddy?

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #10

Yes- Inspiration Day is here!

Again, this is actually a day I look forward to so I can try and top what I did last week!
(Silly, yes I know)


This week I tackled the Roll-Top Desk...
She is a beauty, given to me by my brother and sister-in-law...and I just adore her.
The greatest thing about her is she has the ability to hide a HUMONGOUS clutter mess! You simply roll the top down. You can even lock your mess up inside, so looky-loo's wont be tempted to peek!

Let's call her Rachel....

Here Rachel is completely open and showing you my huge messy clutter that I keep secretly hidden. I can safely walk past Rachel and not even flinch, knowing my secret is safe inside.
In fact, even the burglars didn't open up Rachel and I didn't have it locked! Maybe it was all the dust all over her...looked like it hadn't be opened in years! (giggle)
Now what is a laundry basket filled with toys doing under Rachel? Well, when we "tackled" the toy/craft room, we made a basket of toys to donate...and there they patiently sit...how long has it been?...a month of two? Yikes!
Rachel holds our old cassette tapes (that we just cant throw out), wrapping paper, party bags, drink coaster collection, matchbook collection, misc. papers from who knows what...and our stereo, that I got when I turned 21~ Yikes!
That means it is officially 20 years old as of last Wednesday! OUCH!!!





Up close and personal











All our CD's and our dust collection



















Whew! Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning up the mess...
















This is the famous birthday ribbon drawer. My daughter is fascinated by the big spools of colored ribbon.

















Yes, I thought it was time to clean Rachel up...















Ahhh....Looking good!.....















Rachel all clean and organized!

















Bonus: I LOVE LOVE LOVE magazines, and I found these in Rachel's last drawer. When I was all done, I treated myself to an ice tea, and sat down and poured back over these magazines!
(Then I recycled them)

Taaaahhhhh Dahhhhhhh!

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #9

Ahhhhhh...one of my favorite days because it inspires me...You know, I actually think to myself, "Now what can I do to really give the gals watching the WOW factor?" Silly, I know. But hey- if it gets me motivated and going, why not? Right? :)
5Minutesformom.org has this great idea every Tuesday to help inspire you to do greatness, no matter how big or small, whether it is in your home, at work, or in your car... show us what you did and link up to the gals, so everyone can see what a great job you did!

My never-ending tackle this week is laundry...since our break-in last Friday, and they dumped clothes, sheets, socks, underwear...(you get the idea) all over the floors, I'm washing everything.
For some reason, I get a load washed, then it sits in the washing machine for a day until I remember it is there and have to rewash it. I kid you not I re-did one load 4 times yesterday.
I think it is all mental- like I want to forget about what happened so I forget about the laundry...whatever the reason. I have a TON of it to do.
See?
At least four loads, one is in the washer now...and I washed one yesterday. (4 times)


Goal is: I collect and wash, transfer to dryer.
Jeff folds and puts away.
Usually done on Thursday night, so we have fresh clothes for the weekend.







Besides just buying our water and beer supply, the counters are clean! We did it!
Washed, dried, folded, and put away! Whew!

Feels good though!

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #8

Here comes another week of fun from 5MinutesforMom.Org....we inspired each other by blogging about our "tackles' we have accomplished! It really has inspired me to clean out those cobwebs and feel good again in my own house!

Now, with our recent break-in (see Sunday) , we are in the process of still cleaning up and going through all the drawers they emptied everywhere.

I decided not to post more pics, as it is still very fresh in our minds, so I'll just post once I finish an area... you can go back to (Sunday's post) to see the "before" pics.

Living Room after we picked up

Looking into our bedroom after we picked up


Other side of bedroom after we picked up

Looking into our closet after we picked up

There is still quite a bit to do, but thanks to my BFF's, we got 90% of it done that very night!

Looking on the bright side of this, I can say:

*I found an old friend as her phone number was on a scrap thrown on the floor. Never would have found it if the drawer hadn't of been emptied.
*Forced me to look at where our stuff is and how we can protect ourselves better
*Realize how incredibly lucky I am to have my hubby and children
*Found out who my true, true best friends are
*It has brought my marriage to another level
*I am more observant of what is going on around me
*How strong Jeff and I are, and how we cradle each other when we crack
and finally* I have done the BIGGEST TACKLE-IT-TUESDAY EVER! :)

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #7

5 Minutes for Mom hosts these wonderfully inspiring to get-up-and-do-it days.... go to their website for more inspirations!

Yes, I missed a few of these, but I did stay tackling!!!!
So think of this as a sort of progression of attacks that I just haven't shown you pictures yet...

Attack #1: my old and new classroom
Boy- did this take more out of me than I thought! Heavy file cabinets (5 to be exact), 2 tall metal cupboards chock filled with stuff, two teachers desks' of stuff, 3 medium bookcases full, 1 tall bookcase full of Teacher Editions, all the artwork on the walls, knick-knacks, posters, misc. furniture, stuff hanging from the ceiling, computer and printer...
I managed to stuff everything into the new room, but it is all spread out all over the room, and on the computer tables...waiting to be put away in the new room.
The new room came full of "Tech Lab" stuff, so that had to be moved somewhere before I could bring in some of my stuff! I still have many cabinets to go through and move stuff out of the room. Problem is where is it going to go? Hummmm...




Old empty room






Old empty room









Old empty room









New room
cupboards full of tech stuff. Needs to be removed and cleaned








Ditto...








My stuff out on desks waiting to be put into cupboards








Closer view of my stuff to be put away









Attack #2: Our Pool tiles
They have calcium (or whatever it is) buildup on them since 1988. Jeff and I took it upon on ourselves, since it would be a few thousand dollars to have it done professionally. Each time we went swimming with the kids, we'd grab our flat-ended screwdrivers and carefully chip the buildup off. Here are some pics:

Looking over the edge at water line...notice yucky brownish hard deposits

Click this to enlarge...half clean, half deposit-y


After we have scraped off the hardened gunk...
We are about half-way though the pool perimeter...

This will satisfy my Tackle-it-Tuesdays for at least a month!

Catch my Breath & Tackle-It Tuesday #6

*With school starting back up, I am busy toiling away the hours cleaning, rearranging and moving my old classroom into a new classroom.

*I will share pics with you later, but right now I just can't stop, or I will accidentally sit down and not get back up.

*Little...time...left.......must...clean.........kids-come-soon.....must...hurry.......

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #5

Guess what day it is??? That's right! Tackle-It-Tuesdays, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!


Whew! I'm pooped!

I had been procrastinating cleaning off and in the writing desk that resides in our bedroom for too long. I had thrown receipts, paperwork, newsletters, pens, pencils, etc...into the three drawers for it to swallow it up like it always does.
Well, last week I re-discovered a box that belonged to my great aunt that was full of her little display-ables.. and I had yet to put them somewhere! So on top of the writing desk they went...to sit for a week and clutter up our room.
Today-I tackled it, and good!

Clutter on top...













Clutter on top and inside! Whew! What a mess!














Closer look inside drawers...had to pull them out and set on the bed just to get into them!
Trivia: there were over 35 pens/pencils in those drawers!

















Purging and beginning to organize 'piles' or stuff for separating....
Trivia #2- I found an old cell phone in there from 2 years ago!












I finally moved the trash can closer to me so I could easily purge.... See how full trash can is?












Getting better! Still have to do something with all those chotchkies/chochtskies/chochkeys...
however you spell that word!



And finally....








Cleaned inside and out! I packed up all those 'things' and put them safely away.
Whew! I'm pooped!

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #4

5 minutes for Mom is hosting another Tackle-It-Tuesday!
I'm not unlike the rest of you who have endless laundry to do...
I vow to do it once a week ONLY...and since I just finished it on Thursday (my usual day), it will be tricky to last the rest of the week and NOT have to do it again on Thursday, since I've done it today! We used more clothes than normal since we just got back from Las Vegas!
Short and sweet today------>

Separating clothes and washing one load at a time. I squeezed everything into three loads.












Folding the clothes and separating them. (This is not all the clothes)













All folded and put into drawers! TaDuh!!!

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #3

I have some B-I-G projects that I thought I would do over the summer...but so far I have wimped out! (like the garage, hall linen closet, dining room hutch...you know, the big stuff)
Anywho....I tackled my NutriSystem cupboard last Tuesday, so this Tuesday I figured Ill tackle the surrounding ones.


(Right side was done)
Left side BEFORE and Left side AFTER



Before and After

General categorizing...baking goods, cereals, box mixes, etc... felt good to just have it cleaned up and orderly! Happy Tackle-It Tuesdays! Go see "5 Minutes for Mom" to join in the fun!