| Olivia loved staying at Gammy and PopPop's house over Christmas break. One of the things she loved the most was the piano in the living room. She would climb up on the bench and just start playing... making sure to hit all the keys, of course. | |
Stolen from Onward and Upward
Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?
I have two - my Pampered Chef apron which is denim, and a white apron with my name painted on in big green letters with daisies decorating the letters. Larissa made if for me as a wedding present. By the way, Larissa, was that washable paint? I've never washed it for fear of ruining it, but it's getting kind of gross...
Baking – Favorite thing to bake
Cookies! Chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, buried cherries, sugar, ginger, snickerdoodles... is there a bad cookie?
Clothesline – Y/N?
We wouldn't have a yard to put it in. We have two drying racks that are constantly in use (we don't use the coin operated dryer to save a $1.25/day).
Donuts – Have you ever made them?
I'm sure any donut I attempted could never measure up to a melt-in-your-mouth-fresh-from-the-conveyor-belt Krispy Kreme, so why bother.
Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day
Sweep the kitchen floor - after every meal! Such is the life of the mother of a toddler.
Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
We barely have room for our appliances as is! But I would love one.
Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Couldn't survive without it!
Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
The only one I have is Crystal's blog - Biblical Womanhood.
Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
Since we line dry everything, I just give wrinkles clothes a really good shake and they usually dry so that we don't need the iron. I'm also not sure where the iron ended up with the last move...
Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
We used to have one in the kitchen, but this apartment doesn't have enough drawers (only three!) So the contents of the junk drawer got put in a small tupperware bin and resides in the storage closet within easy grasp.
Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme
Color? Your typical apartment kitchen - cheap fake wood cabinets and cupboards with white walls and linoleum floor. Is there any other kind?
Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
The feeling of accomplishment when the day is done, the house is clean, and the people I love are well-fed and happy.
Mop – Y/N?
Once a week.
Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
I rarely wear them, but when I do I usually throw them in the washing machine
Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
I always look through the window first, but decide that doesn't give me a good enough view, so I open the door.
Pizza – What do you put on yours?
Meatlovers - I'm so healthy.
Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
I'm an AIM addict. It's my social interaction time. When Olivia's awake, though, I only get one or two words typed before I'm pulled away. Naptime is usually spent entirely in front of the computer.
Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
One of those cheap >$1 plastic index card holders from Wal-Mart. But more often now, I use cookbooks and I have a menu that lists all my favorite meals and the pages where I can find them - sorted into meat categories (i.e. chicken, pork, beef, etc.).
Style of house – What style is your house?
Apartment on the second floor. We get the heat from the downstairs neighbors and the noise from the upstairs neighbors. It's a two bedroom recently equipped with a washer hookup ;-). It's 965 sq. ft. with one bathroom.
Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?
I'd love cloth napkins! But right now we just have placemats.
Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
It's organized - except for the conch shell and random vase it's all cleaners.
Vacuum – How many times per week?
About 2 times, maybe more depending on how messy Olivia is.
Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
I do one per day, sometimes two. Rarely any on Sunday - It's the Sabboth! :-) (More like, the family's all here and I don't feel like doing it).
X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
I should more often - I'd get more done!
Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
No yard to speak of. We do have a balcony. We split the resonsibilities... we both do nothing.
Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
This is our dining room before the washer. It's a little messy because Olivia was awake, so my apologies. I have found it's impossible to keep the floor picked up until she is asleep Oh, and Josh left the milk out. The kitchen is to the left, I was taking the picture from the living room. Oh, there's Olivia's head! Can you find it?
This is the view from under the sink. The 1x4 board had to be attached to the back of the cupboard, and the metal tubing was all his work as well. (The board is there for the tubing to be attached to). He says this was the hardest part, purely because of the lack of elbow room while he had to manuever all this.
Here is the only damage he had to incur. He says it's fixable, but he most likely won't bother with it when we move out. I say, they should pay him for his efforts, and when we leave, they can up the rent, advertising their one and only apartment with a washer hook-up. Those are the hot and cold water pipes, by the way.
The hot and cold water pipes then run the length of the cupboards. He has since attached them more securely with brackets.
And this is our new laundry room/dining room/reptile room. It's a little bit of a tight squeeze for now, but we plan on eventually moving the reptile bit into Olivia's room, but that requires rearranging her furniture. For once, we're thankful we have such a tiny table! Oh, and I forgot to point out that there is a drainage hose going along the back of the counter (you can just barely see the beginning of it - it's black). At first, Josh had cut it so that it went to the first of the double sinks. But then, we found out that sink doesn't drain fast enough. I found this out one morning when Olivia was being particularly clingy and fussy. She would NOT let me leave her room. She would yell at me, pull me back in, and then shut the door. When I finally escaped, I went to the kitchen to check the new washing machine set-up and found a quarter of an inch of water covering everything; it had even gotten into the cupboards. So I cleaned it up, and when the washer drained again, I realized the problem, and had to hold the hose so that it would spray into the other sink, where the garbage disposal is. That sink drained much faster. Josh had to buy a 79 cent adapter to connect that hose to another hose to make it long enough to go to the other sink. He still hasn't trimmed it down, so it's about 2 feet too long and gets in the way a bit when I am rinsing off the dishes. But it drains! Whoo hoo! I have a washing machine again!| Olivia loves puppies. It was such a thrill for her to get to live with one for a whole week! Watch her chase Annabelle through the house, then participate in Annabelle's trick. | |
| On Christmas morning, Olivia loved opening up her presents. Her favorite (and our favorite to watch) was opening up a VeggieTales DVD. She realized at once what it was, and started rocking back and forth, singing the theme song! Of course, only the extremely talented can pick out the tune, but it's there! | |
| Josh took Olivia out on the ice when they went skating. We didn't think she'd like it, but she surpised us all. | |
| Olivia got kicked off the ice for not having skates. So we got some (amazingly, in her size!). She didn't quite know what to do with her feet. | |
| She's figured out how to keep her ankles straight. It takes a lot of concentration, though. | |
Here is the finished bookshelf. (The shelf I cleaned was the top one - I know the others need help as well, but that's another Friday). I know it still looks cluttered, but I promise it's a lot better than it used to be! I'm just simply amazed we're making do with only one when we had three in our last apartment. But that's when we had an office and could put up really cheap black plastic Wal-Mart shelves and just tell company not to look. Now our "office" is in the living room.
Here's the cleaned off computer desk! Sigh, see the beautiful wood? There's so much of it, too! I'm pretty sure before I started there wasn't any wood showing.
And here's the former Pampered Chef desk. Again, you really can't appreciate how nice this looks because you can't compare it with what it was before. But trust me, this is a HUGE improvement! But best of all....
Here is the new and improved non-animal habitat dresser! I was so proud when we got it because it came with a matching bed (matching furniture *gasp*!). And it was all a gift from God through the secretary of the school where I taught. She was moving and was going to throw it out! But again, notice the nice shiny wood. Sigh.
So we haven't seen it yet; we've just driven around the parking lot. But it looks well-kept. We have an appointment for Friday to see a lived-in townhouse. They don't have any available right now and they don't know if they will have any in August. And even if they do, we'd only want one with the laundry room, which reduces our odds. So it's up to God whether He wants to continue to build my patience and physical strength, or whether He chooses to give a poor mom a break. :-)| Olivia has found a new spot. She's definately not claustrophobic. She still needs a little practice though. | |
| She's gotten quite good at getting into and almost out of her shelf. | |
| Olivia wants to share her shelf with Larry the Cucumber. Then she dances to his theme song. Then she runs off. | |
She went with him and I to the store.It's like people are afraid of making the "me" mistake that makes hillbillies so comical to listen to. It's okay to say the word "me"!
She went with I to the store.Nope, it sure doesn't. It's:
She went with him and me to the store.I'll get down off my soap box now.
| This is the second movie we took of Olivia and her little house, but it's the only one I'm blogging about because it's far superior. It's longer, for one, and we all know more is better. | |
| I noticed when watching this video that Olivia has learned the word "hand" quite well! At the time, I didn't realize there was a connection between Josh asking her, "What's in your hand?" and her making her hand disappear. It's a good thing we recorded it so I could realize her true genius! So, without further ado, here's Olivia, doing something cute! | |
