A Year in the Life

Ugh stained sink This weekend our fam of 6 was able to spend some time together.  It's getting harder, but those moments are wonderful.  I talked to Harry earlier in the week and he wanted to know if I had some of that 'oxy stuff' that could get stains out of his shorts.  He wore them to work and got grease on them.  NOOOoooo!   Of course they are his nice shorts; and he probably tried washing and drying them to get the stains out; but set those stains right in.  Great. Oxyclean and very hot water I pulled my Oxyclean off the top of the dryer & went to my porcelain sink to soak them in very hot water, because that's supposedly how you remove grease stains.  A side note about my sink.  I think it's the original to the house.  It has seen its better days.  (I would love a copper sink, but am not willing to spend the money to get one; there is too much money going out.)  One of my children, and I won't name which one (co...

Well, I do believe you could have blown me down with a feather.  Something I have been trying to train the children to do for a week seems to have taken hold. The one thing I really dislike about summer and the children being home is all the cups we go through.  It's not 1 or 2 cups per person it's more like 4.  If my children were toddlers or young children, I might be able to handle it, but the youngest is 12 for the love of Pete.  Rinse, reuse, recycle.  Well, not the recycling part, but you get my meaning.  I was sick and tired of the dishwasher, sink and counter being full of cups.  And not only that, they would leave said cups filled half full with milk, water or maybe Gatorade.  Yuck! Well, on Pinterest, (I know, you're shocked!)  I found a great way to relieve the great cup pileup of 2014.  It's a reusable cup bar.  It's easy, it's fun, it's fashionable, and you just might want one if you have tons of kids who use tons ...

A friend of mine called today & when we were swapping what we were up to, she mentioned she was cleaning out her refrigerator.  It made me think of my fridge & what a mess it is.  I really wish someone would come over & clean mine out.  I just opened my refrigerator a minute ago & yep it looks like I thought, a mess. I'm not a fan of messes.  As a matter of fact, I would go as far to say that it is one of my pet peeves.  Just FYI, I've been peeved for a long time. ;)  No one else around here cares if the house is clean or clothes are folded & put in the proper place or for that matter if the fridge is clean.  Yep.  Just me.  All by myself, over here in 'I have to deal with everyone else's clutter because they can't seem to put anything where it belongsville'.  But I digress. When I looked in my fridge today I realized it feels like my life to some degree.  It's crammed full of a little bit of everything. ...

I'm going to send you over to my sorority alumnae website for a blog posting I did for the new year.  It's called Just Throw It Away . You better be careful if I get my trash can out, because I just might start purging a closet or two or three, or your room. :) It's a short piece, but good to remember that sometimes it's good to clean things out so we can start something new. Y'all have a great weekend of Celebrating Life, ~ashley

To say that I haven't really inspected the children's rooms all summer would hit the proverbial nail on the head. It's summer; I didn't want to be nagging too much, I have been somewhat lax in that area for the last two months, and I didn't want to ruin our time together by becoming the clean room nazi.  I love it when everything is put in its place.  I'm this way because nothing is ever put where it belongs unless I come behind the fam & point what I want them to pick-up & where I want them to put it.  Second verse same as the first.  :/ I should have been tipped off about Henry's room when he couldn't find his favorite orange collared shirt one Sunday for church.  I mean, it's his favorite shirt, so I would assume (you know what they say about assuming things) he would put it in the dirty clothes hamper if it was dirty, or hang it back up if it was clean.  He only wore it to church for a few hours, so there's a 50/50 chance it's...

Why doesn't my cleaning bucket look this cute? Oh yeah, because I actually use it.  :) You know, most of the time, moms and dads clean differently.  I am the kind of person who likes things scrubbed clean and put in their places.  I want whatever I'm cleaning to be shiny and smell wonderfully clean when I'm done.  I don't like to do the bare minimum, and I really don't like a dirty cluttered house. Hopson, on the other hand, is not to terribly concerned with cleanliness.  He will throw his stuff around & let it land where it may.  :/  This is very frustrating and drives me to distraction.  The children have adopted this mantra in life.  (Hence, Not Me has taken up residence.) At the lake this weekend, I stayed behind with the children to get the house cleaned and put back into order.  On the way home I found out an interesting fact:  Hopson only makes the beds and vacuums when he is left to complete the clea...

Dear Not Me aka Not Mine, I feel the need to write you this letter because you have been blamed for making multiple very large messes in our home.  Seeing as I have needed to accept you as a member of our family for years, I would appreciate it if you would:  Pick-up all your dirty clothes off the various places you leave them.  This includes, but it not limited to:  towels, socks, shoes, underwear, shorts, shirts, bathing suits, and anything else you might put on your body. When we are folding clothes please don't forget to put everything that is clean where it belongs once the folding is completed. When you take the pillows off the couch put them back, and all blankets need to be folded and put in their proper place Dirty dishes need to be rinsed and loaded, and if the dishwasher is full, feel free to unload it. Instead of over stuffing the garbage can, you have my permission to take the garbage outside, and put a new bag in the...

My children's rooms are a wreck!  If their rooms where mine fields, I'd be dead.  Ugh, nothing frustrates me more than messy rooms and a messy house.  Especially if I spend the better part of two days cleaning out your room.  Hello Type A personality...I mean my monogram is ANL...need I say more?  We do expect our children to clean their own rooms among other things.  Now, one thing you need to know is that there is a difference in their version of clean, and my version of clean.  Huge difference between the two. My version of clean is:  the beds are completely made (pillows and all); all clothes that are clean are put in their proper drawer or hung up; dirty clothes put in the dirty clothes basket; all toys, books, money, etc put where they belong; all things in bathrooms put away:  toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, razor (if applicable), hairdryer; spit cleaned off the sink & mirror; used...