This Is Why My Hubs Is Called "Bad Boy"

Our elf, Zippy, had a bit of fun before taking off to visit Santa.

I can't leave Bad Boy to his own devices for a minute.

Well, What The Cheese?!

What am I supposed to write about when I'm not assassinating all the plants in my wannabe garden?

I guess it's not technically "writing" anymore is it?  It's typing.  Maybe I'm "composing" a blog entry.  But I don't feel I'm "writing".  To me, if I were writing, I would be picking up a pen or pencil or other such instrument and scratching away along a piece of paper and no one would be able to read my illegible handwriting scrawled across the page.

And you wouldn't be reading my random thoughts passing through my brain right now.

I love technology!

I sit here right now enjoying my Spring Mix and spinach salad that I bought from a bag at Albertson's since I apparently only kill plants.  My chicken boob is sitting there on a plate glaring at me for making it wait so darn long for me to consume.  And your reading a bunch of bull at the moment.

Geez!  How much time can you waste, people?

Oh, right.  We're addicted to anything on the Internet and can't pull ourselves away.

So, to my point: I need some help coming up with topics to discuss.  PLEASE HELP!

Or, you can just suffer through more posts such as this one where there is NOTHING remotely interesting being discuss.

With that threat, I leave you with a little parting gift that I usually save for Facebook.  Bad Boy currently has a cast on his left arm that goes from the palm of his hand all the way to nearly the armpit.  I now have to cut his food, too, along with two of my other children's meals.  This conversation took place while he was observing me cutting his chicken boob while leaving the mushrooms intact.

Bad Boy, "What?!  You feel you need to cut it up into kid-size bites?!"
Me, "Yes, because it's the number one cause of death in the elderly."

Maybe now he'll think twice about talking smack to me again.

Doubtful.

It's been 4 days....

...and my kitchen has been transformed!

Okay, so, I didn't get to paint.  But I did discover Con-tact paper.  I almost went nuts with it.

And I decided that I MUST, absolutely MUST, own a laminator someday.  I have to.  I won't be able to live without dry-erasable labels.  I'm convinced.  You cannot change my mind.  I need one.  Period.

Huh?  OH, right.  MY KITCHEN!

Here's a layout for you to have a better idea of what you're looking at.  It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not to scale.

Now, be kind, this is a room "in progress".  I have painting and a back splash and lighting and...You get the idea.

 

This is on the right when you walk into my kitchen.  Yes: this is how my kitchen normally looks.  What a wreck.  And completely covered.  See all that junk on top of the cabinets?  *blech*

Ugh!  Look at those pots and pans and the mugs... And my coffee cabinet above the microwave.  How did I live with this?!

This is embarrassing.  Oi.

And this is AFTER I cleared off the top of the counter a bit.  Wow.

My mats are a wreck. My floor is filthy.  Who would put ANYTHING under that sink?!

The empty space above the dishwasher is where my coffee maker was... with my coffee above the stove several pictures before?!  This doesn't make sense.

The dump corner directly across from the pantry.  Wonderful built in shelves that were poorly painted (with spray paint by the previous owner) that I sadly abused.

*hangs head in shame*

So, since we have no car and are slowly running out of money and kinda' driving each other insane (married couples were not meant to spend every waking moment together trapped in a house with a 3 year old, in my opinion), I had to give myself a project.  Every time I would enter my kitchen, which was frequently, I'd cringe at something (or lots of somethings).

This is the room where I feed my family.  Where we entertain guests.  Where I wash, dry and fold my laundry.  This is where my dog eats.  And where I store my cleaning supplies.  It's also where I get away from the family at night to talk on the phone with Sassy Mama.

I had to fix this room!

But before I fixed it, I had to trash it.

UGH!  I had a mini-panic attack at this point worrying about whether or not I could fit it all back into cabinets.

But, I'm an organizing miracle worker I guess.

I scrubbed down everything from the top to the floor (although, the floor was left until everything was put away... today, four days later from when this project started).

I met Con-Tact paper and lined a few shelves and my drawers.  Even the two Ramen boxes below was wrapped up.

My magnetic, locker pen holder that I have stuck to the side of the fridge got a bit of Con-Tact love.

I nearly became obsessed.  That could have been bad!

So, I put it all back together over the next few days.  Day one lasted over 8 hours alone.

Before:

• Coffee, drink mixes and tea were above the microwave.
• Recipes and misc items in the cabinet between fridge and microwave.
• Baking dishes, sheets, strainers and steamer in the cabinet by the stove.
• Top of fridge cluttered and cabinet above not utilized at all.
• Top of cabinets OVER utilized.

After:

• Recipes above the microwave.
• Measuring, mixing and mixing bowls along with food processor/hand mixer attachments and Pam between fridge and microwave.
• Tupperware cabinet between stove and fridge.
• Top of fridge currently houses this years Halloween stash and extra fruit bowl (empty) and cabinets utilized for things only used occasionally such as special shape ice cube trays, sun tea dispenser, etc.
• Top of cabinets CLEAR!

 Before:

• Top of cabinets cluttered... again.
• Top cabinets left to right: mix mash of drink things; serving/baking/slicing/dicing, etc. in the corner; plates and bowls and cups and mugs... blech.
• Bottom cabinets left to right: tupperware, Lazy Susan full of snacks that would catch every time it was spun (SOOOO ANNOYING), pots (the one you can't see inside of... sorry) where the lids would constantly fall and the pots had to be very specifically stacked.

After:

• Top of cabinets CLEAR!
• Top cabinets left to right: drink cups and mugs; serving/entertaining with a COUPLE odds and ends I couldn't fit anywhere else (I seriously need like 2 more cabinets and 2 more drawers and a bigger pantry); plates, bowls, plates and bowls.  :-D
• Bottom cabinets left to right: Kids cabinet with all their plates, bowls and cups within reach; pots that don't fall off shelves or need to be "insanely" stacked; my primary cooking ware including my mega huge wok and grill pan, my favorite baking dish and cheese graters, strainers and steamer.  Just the handful of things I use constantly.

Oh, look!  You can see a place where the tin foil, saran wrap and what not sit nicely next to extra towels, my cleaning caddy and the extra small pieces container thingamajig under my sink!

Look!  I have a cabinet with baking goods and then all my coffee and tea and what not... ABOVE the coffee maker!  Who would've thought that would be efficient!

See the Ramen boxes?  Ha!  I covered them with matching Con-Tact paper.  And nice neat containers I found on super sale at Target for all our munchies.  SOOOO much prettier.

Wow.  Really?  Do I need to explain?

In the end, my back hurts and my feet are throbbing.  But when I walk into my pretty, clean, and organized kitchen, I feel inspired to cook rather than puke.

Okay.  I don't always want to cook.  But at least I don't want to run out of the room in terror.  It's getting there.

Um, Now What?

It's cold outside.  All my plants have died off for the year.

*And I didn't kill them!  WOOT!*

We're all cooped up now for the most part since we don't have a car.  So what am I going to do?

Reorganize my kitchen as much as humanly possible.  Literally, I want to move everything in every cabinet to a new location.  Pics to come!





I may have lost my mind...

Been Stripped

2011.

So far, I am pretty confidant that it has been the most trying year we've been through as our own little family.

I know it's been a long time since I've posted.  I took some therapy time.  I caved up in a hole with bouts of forcing myself to be social (with mass amounts of alcohol, sometimes all at once) and making sure the kids had their birthdays.  And that's about it.

I live in a small home in the middle of New Mexico.  We have five of us living in a three bedroom home.  One kitchen.  One living room.  No basement.  No attic.  And now, no car and no income.  Those of you that know me, know we have gone from a struggling single income to a drowning, no income without transportation situation and Bad Boy's dominant arm in a cast up to his sleeve.  Those of you that don't, now know.  We've been stripped.

Did we bring it on ourselves?  I'm positive that partly we did.  Some days I feel we MORE than partly brought it on ourselves.  Some days I feel we don't deserve any better and we're "being taught".  It's depressing.

Did we deserve it?  No.  I don't believe that we do.  Even though on the bad days I try to convince myself otherwise.

Is this a pleasant post?  No.  Unfortunately not.  We've been stripped.

So, now that we have been stripped, what do we do?  We focused on each other.  We were reminded at how blessed we are to have the people in our lives that we do.  We stumbled.  I won't lie.  There were times we tried to take each other down.  It's hard to stay positive.

But, then I look at this picture to remind myself of what REALLY matters in life.

This was my Grandma encouraging my Grandpa to come out of it.  They first met when she was nine years old and he was ten.  They were married over 60 years.  He passed a few hours later and peacefully.  The lived their married life here:

A small, three bedroom home in the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois.

Only, they didn't, and still don't, have a bathroom.  The small red building behind the chicken coup is the outhouse.

And to this day, when I picture Grandma, I see her here, at her kitchen sink.  Either boiling water from the cistern to be able to consume safely, or hand-washing dishes, and long ago, even bathing one of my sister's in that sink.

2011.

The year I was taught that love is the purpose of living.  Not money.  Not material things.  Not how skinny or fat we are.  Not if we eat organic or over-processed.

Love.  Love from a your mother.  From your children.  From your grandparents.  From your friends.  From you father.  From your partner.  From YOURSELF.  It's the only thing that matters.

And in a month, if we're still without an income, without a vehicle and giving up all our luxuries (internet, being one) to hopefully not run out of money, an evil necessity in life, it's okay.  I have Bad Boy, the Literary Musician, Diva, and Li'l Sausage.  I have Sassy Mama and her girls, Deebo and Tsunami.  I have family in Daddy-Q and Mamma-J.  I have my parents, my sisters, my friends, my in-laws, my brother-in-laws.

Fortunately, we have love surrounding us.  And because of that, we have have the strength to go out for that necessary money and keep trucking along.

We've been stripped.  But we're not giving up.