Christy B’s Weblog

Well, it is spring time here in the great northwest.  That means beautiful flowers but still cold weather.  It makes it feel like it isn’t spring, but on Sunday, when it was hailing, I got the first real wiff of my grape hyacinth as I walked up to my front door!  Now that says spring!!  They smell so good!  I made Jake stop and smell them and he told me they smelled like “an old blue marker”. Ok – whatever 5 year old.  Appreciate nature!!  Then again, I have a picture of the cherry blossoms on my computer as my screen saver and the first time he saw it he said, “Wow! That is so pretty!”  I guess I’ll cut him some slack on my beautiful spring flowers smelling like old pens.

So, it is spring and my spring cleaning is almost done.  The only thing left is the toy closet which I have tried to pawn off on the girls, but Katelyn thinks it should be a WHOLE FAMILY project.  We all know what that means, they help me pull everything out and then conveniently find something else to do when it comes to sorting and putting everything back.  So, it is still messy.  I also didn’t clean my pot lids on top of my pot rack.  I figure, my mom is coming in May and she loves those jobs that I never seem to get to! Right, Mom??  But seriously, I have almost enjoyed doing laundry in my clean laundry room, I smile when I look up at my spiderweb-free curtains, and I found a bunch of old Creative Memories stuff that I’ve earned $80 on so far on ebay!!  WooHoo!!

I took last week off and did a little scrappin’ and a little nappin’ and talked to a lot of my girlfriends on the phone and read a book.  I like that better than Spring Cleaning 2009!!  But now it is back to reality.  Next week is spring break, so I need to become the cruise director for the kids.  I am heading up and speaking/singing at our women’s spring brunch on May 9th, so I have been praying about all of that.  I am doing my sis-in-laws shower in about a month, so I need to get out the invites and plan that.  I have two baby gifts to make. Mother’s Day. I am making invitations for a wedding and doing the decorating for that all the while I am doing our homelife group, and attempting to do a newsletter for that, fitting in rehearsals for Easter and entering the Scrapbook Design Team contest for CraftWarehouse.  I think it is time to start my monthly craft night at the church too.   It makes me tired just thinking about it all!  I am glad I took last week off.  So……. what am I doing to prepare?  I am blogging and doing laundry.  Which should I stop doing now and get to work????

Sweet Sleeping Boy

Isn’t he so cute?  My precious little boy.  This is an older picture because now his room has a Star Wars theme and the walls are striped blue and gray with a black border and Anakin Skywalker posters everywhere, but I digress.  Last night, Jakey came into my room because he had a bad dream.  He wanted to sleep with me since Brian was still downstairs.  “Of course you can!” I say.  He grabs his water cup from his room and jumps into bed with me.  He snuggles down, facing me and closes his eyes.  Then they pop open and he throws his arms around me and gives me a kiss.  Ok, could he be any sweeter?  As his eyes close again, I just stare at him.  I can see him well because he has to sleep with our door open and the hall light on.  The hall that Brian has just put new BRIGHT lightbulbs in this weekend!  So, I am staring at him and praying that he will be everything that God plans for him to be.  It was one of those mom moments that just warm your heart and make you thankful.  I drifted off to sleep.  Suddenly, I am awakened to a small hand clobbering me in the face.  Whoa!  My heart is beating really fast and my nose is stinging.  He, on the other hand, is sound alseep!  I chuckled to myself and moved his arm back to his side of the bed and fell back to sleep.  BAM!  Yes, another smack in the face!  This time with both hands!  My precious mom moments memories are starting to fade!  I fall back to sleep and am awaked to yet another attack.  At this point, I start to ponder wether he is really asleep, or if he is just taking out his aggression on his lack of a play date that day.  Finally, Brian heads upstairs and grabs our boy to put him back in his Star Wars room.  When he crawls in bed, I say, “Jake was totally smacking me down while he slept!”  To which my wise husband says, “You should know you never face him when you sleep! Roll over!”  Now, that seems like basic advice, but at 1am, I wasn’t thinking very clearly.  Sometimes I wonder if, when we are feeling beat up by life, there is an easy solution, but we are too tired to ask.  I know my prayer life is often disrupted by sleep, and then I fret during the day.  God says to pray without ceasing, so maybe I need to engage my brain a little more often in my awake hours and listen to the answers that God is waiting to give me.  I’m still thankful for my cutie, Jake.  But now I know I can look at his cuteness in my bed, then ROLL OVER!!

What I am about to show you is not suitable for those with delicate constitutions.  My mother may not want to read this, or at least not look at the pictures.  She is not at fault for what you are about to see because my memories of her involve washing the floor with knee pads on and washing the plant leaves with special “leaf wash” wipes.  She is not responsible for what has happened to me in the 13 1/2 years I have been away from her clean house.  I’m just saying – DON’T FEEL BAD MOM – YOU RAISED ME RIGHT!  Anyway – I have been spring cleaning upstairs this whole last week.  I was hoping to be finished with the upstairs and move on to the downstairs this week, but I still have two bathrooms left upstairs.  But let me tell you, the other rooms feel so great.  Clean-Clean-Clean!!!  But last week, you wouldn’t have thought it was too bad, not too dirty, but then I tackled the laundry room.  It is a small room.  Barely fits the essentials.  Not even big enough to go in and shut the door behind you. KEEP THAT IN MIND BEFORE YOU JUDGE!!!  So I decided to document the filth for my many blog faithful who are sick of seeing “Go Red!”.  Hold your breath…….

Gross Washing Machine - BEFORE

Empty Dirty Shelves - BEFORE

How does this much stuff come out of that timy room?

Ok - this one is bad - Behind the Door - BEFORE

So there it is.  The bad and ugly truth.  I never clean my laundry room.  I wish I had taken pictures of the shelves before.  I found such random stuff on them.  I guess it was the place I put everything I never wanted to deal with.  Well, it is dealt with now!!!  So, to make my mother proud, here are the after pictures…….after many hours of hard labor!

It almost makes me want to iron.....almost.

Wow!

Hey - I can actually USE these shelves for good and not for evil!

Last but not least - Behind the Door - AFTER

Just to let you know, I will not be posting pictures of the nooks and crannies of my kitchen when that day comes.  It would be too much for all of you!  My goal is to blog next week at least 3 times.  What else will I have to do since I don’t have to clean and I don’t have a dog.   I’m off to tackle my bathroom!  Wish me luck!