Whooosh-TA!

Today I cracked the whip.

I made everyone a cleaning list and we worked hard for an hour and a half. The sad thing is, the lists mostly consisted of basic pickup. It seems all I can do to just stay on top of the clutter and the put-away. I suspect the days of cleaning baseboards are gone. Max & Sis each had to clean their rooms and one other room really well. Max did the book nook. Sis did the kids' bathroom. Mimi did small jobs in her room and cleaned mirrors and doors. I thoroughly decluttered my room.

Mike also had a long list consisting of the kitchen, office and living room; I ended up with clean gutters, a sprayed driveway, a fixed rain gutter, a yard cleared of tumbleweeds & Christmas lights strung up.

It seems all I have to do to get my outdoor chores done is give my husband indoor chores. Heh, heh. (smirk, cackle, rub hands together.)

Max helped with the tumbleweeds. Here is the huge pile that is almost as tall as he is. He also pushed the baby around in the stroller for close to two hours...up & down the street and all around the park.

As a reward for finishing their long lists with a good attitude, we went to a movie. (I usually don't have the kids do chores on Saturday; they do an after-school job on weekdays and I reserve Saturday for family fun.) Sis' little friend Lauren was working right alongside her, motivating her and keeping her from dawdling, and she came with us to the movie. We saw "Madagascar 2," which was HILARIOUS. How did I miss the first one? I was gut-laughing the entire time.
A little side-note: Look at Mimi's shoes. Atrocious. White high-heeled sandals--totally inappropriate for a 5-yr old--with socks. In winter. My friend Ali handed these down to her and since Mimi worships Ali's 12-yr old daughter...the white shoes go everywhere, are worn with any outfit and are considered the height of fashion. There is no convincing her otherwise.

And in other news, here is my weekly addition to my food storage. At $1/box, how could I pass it up? It's vitamin-fortified, right? Nutritious. (I also added some Shirley J seasoning, a case of tomato sauce, instant yeast & 6 cans of chicken.)
This week's Food Storage Friday occurred on Tuesday, due to Wendi's trip this weekend to New York City. We took a field trip to the Bosch store and priced wheat grinders; we were both a bit surprised at how expensive they are. I plan to tweak Wendi's nose a little and tell her she could have bought a wheat grinder AND a Bosch mixer for the money she spent going to NYC. (yet again...smirk, cackle, rub hands together.)

I think my plan for Food Storage Friday next week is to get serious about listing on a 3 month calendar rotation all the pantry meals my family likes to eat. My goal will be to gather the ingredients for those meals. These meals might include some fresh ingredients, such as lettuce in taco salad, but those ingredients can be left out in an emergency and the meal will still be tasty. Meals like haystacks, taco soup, spaghetti, black bean enchiladas, etc. I will also work on my water storage. Another goal is to print my 72-hour kit checklist and actually put everything together in one place for a grab-&-go kit. I have most everything I need for our 72-hour kits, but it is not compiled into one place. Can you imagine me in an evacuation situation?....running around, willy-nilly grabbing what we need?

* (please note: "evacuation situation" rhymes nicely. Should I compose a rap?)
* (also note: the phrase "willy-nilly" is vastly under-used. I will for sure include it in The Food Storage Rap.)

For anyone who is interested, it is now 3:08am. What the crap am I thinking, being up this late??? Goodnight.