Category: Home and Yard

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Where To Start After A Home Is Broken Into

My aunt that lives up in Richmond posted on her Facebook page this afternoon that her home was broken into one of the houses she owns that is on the market to be rented. The burglars broke one of the back windows in the house. There wasn’t really anything to steal and my uncle suspects that they were just looking for a place to squat. My aunt is a complete wreck because she doesn’t know what to do or where to start.

I feel awful for her. I told her I would help her out by doing a search for window replacement richmond va and trying to find a company that will accept her home owners insurance. Hopefully we can get it taken care of quickly and things will go back to normal. I wish I was there to give her a big hug to comfort her through all of this.

 

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The Great Closet Purge of 2013

I’ve decided it’s time I go through and clean out my closet, well closets really if you could my children’s and my husband’s closets, to get rid of anything we don’t wear, is tired and needs to be thrown out, and things I know I would like to give away or donate.

I have a bunch of closes in my closet taking up tons of space that I know could be put to better use  I would like to have one of those fancy looking closets that you see in all of the home and garden magazines. I know it will be possible to have pretty baskets and shelves once I get rid of things to make space.

I’m sure I have sweaters and dresses in there that I haven’t worn in well, honestly I don’t know how long. I think I’ll go with the rule if I haven’t worn it in the past yea it’s gone for sure. I say the past year because of the different seasons. I can’t hold on to things that I think I might use someday just because it’s still in great condition. I think items that are in great condition are the perfect ones to donate.  Who wants to buy a tattered old robe from Good Will? No one! But, you can be certain someone would be willing to buy a plush and cozy robe without any rips or stains. I have a robe, I’m just not using it so it’s going in the donate pile.

I’m pretty sure this project is going to take a while and it won’t all get done in one day. I think I’ll start with one closet at a time and go from there.  I don’t want to overwhelm myself.

 

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Save Space with TV Wall Mounts

We have three big flat screen televisions in our home.  One of them is in our family room with a big entertainment center.  I’ve been thinking of taking the entertainment center out to give us some more floor space and getting one of the crimson mounts to mount it to the wall. The kids have a lots of toys int he family room and I’m thinking it might be nice if there is more room to walk around all of the toys without having to avoid the entertainment center too.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our giant entertainment center, I’m not getting rid of it. I’m just moving it to another room and getting another television. I was thinking of getting one of those really neat mounts that swivel and can come out from the wall to face different directions. My neighbors have one and they love it.  They have it in their living room and use it to turn the television toward the kitchen and dining room when they want to watch television at the table. Some times I’ll allow this, sometimes I won’t. It would be nice to have that option though.

Come to think of it it would be nice to use to watch cooking programs while I’m in the kitchen. Hmm, I might be having my husband pick up more than one of these for our home.

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An Early Morning Start by Accident

I thought I would sleep in a little bit this morning, but my body thought otherwise. I still got up bright and early like it was a week day. And not just any ordinary weekday, one of the weekdays where I have to get up even earlier to work out with my husband. That’s right I got up at 5:30 am this morning.

I thought I could at least sleep until maybe 8:00 but nope. I suppose my internal clock is off by a day. Since I’m up early anyway I thought I would get some blogging done and maybe do a little research for Jill about her wedding.

I also thought I could make the family a nice hearty homemade breakfast. I think I’ll make some kind of starch, I can’t decide if I want to make pancakes, waffles, muffins, or coffee cake. In addition to the sweet starch I will add in some eggs of course. The kids love to eat cheesy scrambled eggs. I don’t want to over load everyone with more fat and calories than they need so I’ll try to round everything out with some fresh fruit, a glass of milk or orange juice, and some coffee for my husband and I.  Now to get to it!

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Mac & Cheese Makeover

Mac Cheese by jspatchwork
Reproduced under Creative Commons 3.0

Mac & Cheese is a favorite comfort food of many.  I love to eat eat plain with just macaroni and cheese, but I also love to give it a little makeover and change things up a bit.  Just a few additions and you’ll have a new dish to sink your teeth into.

Here are a couple of ways to give your mac & cheese a makeover:

  1. Add some chicken.  You can slice it, dice it, grill, or bake it.  I like to mix in chunks of grilled chicken or serve it in slices along the top of the dish.
  2. Add some broccoli.  I usually steam the broccoli until it is just tender and toss it in with the mac & cheese at the last minute.  I’ve even been known to blanch the broccoli in the same water the macaroni is cooking is in.  I just scoop it out after a minute or soo and let the macaroni continue to cook.  It saves time and an extra pan, and adds a little flavor to the pasta water.
  3. Add some tuna.  I think about 5oz. per cup of mac & cheese is a nice ratio.  It gives a nice protein portion and really fills you up nicely.  It kind of reminds me of a tuna melt sandwich and I love it.
  4. You can really go wild and add some lobster.  It’s nice to go fancy sometimes and add a tasty treat like this.  Trust me, you’ll love it.
  5. Add some pureed winter squash.  You won’t even know it’s there and you’ll be getting loads of added nutrition.  My kids and husband don’t know that I regularly sneak in butternut squash to our mac & cheese.  It’s the perfect color and is nice and creamy.  To make it easy on you try adding a few containers of baby food squash, it’s the same thing and all of the work is done for you.

I hope you’ll try out some of these ways to make over your mac & cheese.  What’s your favorite way to eat macaroni?

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When Do You Put Away Your Holiday Decorations?

Christmas is over but I like to leave the decorations up until at least Three Kings Day in January. Some times I’ll leave them up a little bit longer. I remember one time I left them up longer than I really should have because I truly enjoy sitting by the Christmas tree and gazing at the warm lights.

I did  take the decorations from outside down I just left the tree up past Valentine’s Day that year. I loved every bit of it though. Then, I realized that I should put it away in order to keep it special. Because if I left it up all year long, it would loose it’s special value of being a Christmas tree and turn into an every day house hold item in our home and that was not something I wanted.

I have already begun to put away some of the things I got while out shopping yesterday.  That’s one of my rules; if I buy new decorations on sale I can’t set them out until the next year. I did get a bunch of  cute things to set out for next year and I can’t wait for Christmas to be here all over again. I look forward to decorating the house every year, it’s just the putting everything away afterward that I don’t’ really like.

When do you put away all of your holiday decorations?

 

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Household Holiday Clean Up

I have less than a week before everyone arrives for Christmas.  We’re hosting Christmas at our house this year so I need to do my household holiday clean up.  That’s where I go and scrub every surface that a mother-in-law could complain about seeing dust, and make sure everything is put away in it’s place.

I need to steam clean all of the carpets and drapes. The kids seem to bring dirt in no matter how many times I have them wipe their feet or take off their shoes.  I don’t know how it gets in, it’s like they are dirt magnets. I plan to do that this afternoon and then take the kids out afterward so the carpet has a chance to dry.  Hopefully once it’s clean it can stay that way for at least another week or two while everyone is here.

I have most of the normal everyday cleaning done it’s just the things I only do on more of a monthly basis that still need to be done.  I need to change the sheets on the bed in the guest room.  I don’t remember when they were used last but fresh sheets are always nice to have.  I should probably also cull the magazine collection I have in that room as well. I don’t need a two and a half foot stack of magazines int here to collect dust.

What is your routine for your household holiday clean up?  I’d love to hear how you get through it and any tips or tricks you might have.

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What Happened to All of the Trick-or-Treaters?

This year was a bit disappointing with the trick-or-treaters for Halloween. Our family went all out decorating our house for the big day. We had lots of inviting decor both on the inside of our house and out.  We had friendly decorations, nothing spooky.  I didn’t want to scare any of the little kinds, not to mention our own kids.

In preparation for the big night I bought countless bags of candy.  Last year because I had an injury I stayed home to pass out the candy and had lots of fun and was really looking forward to doing it again this year.  Over a 5 hour period we might have had 20-30 kids visit out home.  I was utterly devastated.  I was really excited to see all of the kids in their costumes and have them tell me what they were if I wasn’t quite sure.  I did get to see a few creative costumes.  One little girl came as a Lipton Tea bag, and her sister was a bubble gum machine.  They really had truly original costumes.

I have way too much candy left over.  I don’t want to keep in my home because I know the kids will want to devour it all, or maybe I might.  We already limit the candy intake the kids have and it will just be an added temptation for them.  I’m going to do some searching to find something to do with all of this left over sugar I have laying around.  Oh I just remembered, the program about sending the candy to our troops.  That will be a great way to get rid of it and do something nice.

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Halloween Decor Inside and Out

Halloween is almost here.  I’m soo excited to see all of the kids this year in their costumes.  I’ve been stocking up on extra candy to hand out.  Every sale I’ve noticed I’ve bought at least 3 big bags of the good candy.  I don’t ever want to be known as the house with the crappy candy.  For almost the past month I’ve been diligently adding to the decor both inside and out of our home.

We have twinkling orange and white lights on the patio.  I have cute little bats with smiling faces hung up along he rails of the porch.  They are covered in pretty black and purple sparkle glitter.  There are friendly giant spiders sitting in plastic spider webs.  I can’t stand the kind that look too real and get in your face and hair.  It always creeps me out and makes me think I’ve actually walked into a real spider web.  We also have bales of hay set out with friendly scarecrows welcoming visitors.

Inside we have fall colored flowers set on our table surrounded by a wreath of sticks and twine.  I got a bunch of decorations on sale last year after the holiday marked down by at least 75%.  The picture frames are one of my favorite finds.  I found two black picture frames with, “BOO!” in a fun font on them.  I’ve placed pictures of the kids in their costumes from the past years in them.  They look absolutely adorable.  I thought it was a great way to reflect on the years past.

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Crafty Storage Idea

Storage for magazines and remote controls can be made easily with a few pieces of fabric.  Get yourself a table runner and then sew an extra piece of fabric at the end to create a pocket.  If you want to be really lazy you can skip the sewing altogether and just use fabric tape that you iron or even fabric glue.  Then you can add any embellishments you like.

This simple and crafty solution diminishes the clutter you have on your bedside table and add extra storage to a table that might not have had any to begin with. It would be a great way to store the book or kindle you read before going to bed.  I’m going to make a few of these and give them away as gifts.  I know everyone will love them