My little oil shelf!

Got it made (insert happy dance here!) I wasn't very happy with it as I was building it. It wasn't turning out as beautiful as it was in my mind! In fact, I thought it was hideous and was ready to chuck it into the burn pile! But I figured it would do for the time being, until I could think of something else. I put pretty paper on the back and painted it. Looked a little better, still not great. However, after I put the oils on it, stood back and looked, yeah! This might be ok after all! It actually looks pretty darn good! I may just have to keep it!

Here's the area before the shelf was added:

The area after the shelf:

Close up of the shelf:

Love my oils!

My next project I want to complete is a place to store my essential oils! I love my oils! Use them everyday for everything! My 2 youngest schoolers have a hard time focusing on their worksheets and concentrating. You'll show them the letter A says "ay" and they'll repeat it. But you immediately say, "now what does it say?" "Um, I forget!" Frustrating! So we got out our diffuser and put in a couple drops of lemon and peppermint. WOW! Instead of 3 hours to get their work done, it took less than 2! We have used many different oils for many different things, all with great results!
I have a carrying case for my smaller bottles, but I am quickly getting quite a collection of larger bottles, and the CD box I currently keep them in has reached maximum capacity! I'm still really pleased with the storage unit I built to put everyone's daily supplement containers in, so I am sure I can come up with something awesome for my oils! I have to decide if I want them to be upright, or slightly tilted! After I build it, I'll need a place to put it! Empty wall space is at a premium here. But so is counter space!
 I'll put a picture up soon of my supplement unit and keep you updated on the progress of my oil storage!

Life is so hectic!

Where has the time gone!? In the last month my 2 oldest daughters have bought houses of their own, we started school again, built an outdoor playhouse for the kids, had a wedding shower for DD2, had the babies pass around hand, foot, and mouth disease, plus all the normal everyday stuff! The good thing about the girls getting their own homes, is now they can get all their stuff out of my basement and out it in theirs! One got a smaller, ready-to-move-in home, the other got a larger 2 story fixer upper! I'm glad they both didn't get fixers uppers! The first one moved in and took her half a day! The second, we've been helping them work on it so they can move in before winter! We've started using Young Living Essential Oils! I LOVE IT! Already gone through a lot, with bug bites, scrapes, stuffy nose, fevers, Hand, Foot, and Mouth! That stuff is awesome! I'll tell you more in another, separate post later!

Busy busy busy

Yeah, I know I keep promising to put up after photos of the living room! It's just not quite done! Almost! Just have more pressing issues right now! Oldest daughter was doing a craft show and needed me to embroider some stuff. Had 2 birthdays last week! My 2 youngest boys! One turned 8 on Thursday and the other was 1 on Sunday! I promised the 8 year old almost 2 months ago that I would make a place for him to play Legos as his birthday present. I started and finished that the day before his birthday. Of course I forgot to take a before picture, darn it! He loves it! I spent all afternoon Monday turning 2 bushels of apples into apple cider! Tuesday was errand day. Worked on one shelf in the living room this morning. I'm also tackling another project, the school room! The half of the basement that flooded in the spring. All it's salvageable contents tossed into the playroom, until I made the Lego area, and then it got tossed back into the still trashed out schoolroom! My wonderful hubby built 2 eight foot long, floor to ceiling shelves for me to store school items on. Now to sort through and get rid of all the unnecessary stuff. I did take before pics. I don't know if I want to post them, they are really bad! Now to get to work!

Almost there

Well it's almost 11 and little man wanted his mommy so he could go to sleep! So no more cleaning today. Was going to watch a Netflix but its "unable to connect at this time" even though its working on the iPad, it won't work through the wii tonight. Bummer! So we got most of the living room done. Will have to take pics tomorrow, too dark right now! Still have to go through a lot of junk but at least the furniture is moved, and we updated the outlets. Also cleaned and reorganized the towel closet in the hall? I wish I did a before picture because it looks awesome now! Now it's Sunday! Was too busy yesterday to get anything done! Our group had a used stuff swap and I got rid of a lot of stuff! Most of what is in this picture is now gone! LOL! We kept the children!

Getting back

Wow can't believe I've been away over a year! My little one will have his first birthday next week! Time flies too fast! Since my last post I have added a son and two grandsons to the family! Plus we had a flood in the basement in the spring, so there has been a lot of messes and rearranging going on here! I'm going to really get into deep cleaning, decluttering, purging, and rearranging of rooms! These babies are on the move and we can no longer contain them in a small area! So, here we go! We spend most time in the living room, which I guess is why it is called that! We live there! And boy can you tell it is lived in! It's quite the sardine can! When the babies are all here we toss stuff in laundry basket and stick them in another room! Well, today we are going to purge, clean, and rearrange to give babies a bigger place to play! It's a big room with lots of stuff so it's a hefty goal to get it all in one day, especially with 2 babies underfoot! But today we only have 1 outside activity and its only an hour! Tomorrow is everyone going different directions all day long, and Sunday is The Lords' Day! So why am I typing instead of getting busy? I'm feeding the baby! Ok! Time to begin! Here is how it looks (beware! It's bad!)

Sept. 17, 2012

well I am 10 days away from the end of my "40 bags in 40 days" clean up! I was way ahead, but now I'm falling behind! But, I'm not worried! I have not been counting any of the stuff I have put aside for the annual homeschool swap, because it is not out of my home yet! But I know it will be gone soon (just not before the 40 days are up!) So it is day 30 and I have removed 22 bags of stuff! YAY!! I am able to notice a bit of difference. I have some room to organize some things. It is so nice when I need __, I can say "that is in this spot." It is incentive to continue and do it throughout the house with everything! Definitely has made it easier to part with other things, too. I just say "I'm getting rid of ___ which I have stored for many years, there is no purpose for it, and with it gone I will be able to use that spot for things I do use and want to be able to find." I'm getting there.....slowly!