I’m Just Rambling Because This is My 5th Post in 5 Days

Linking up with Jen’s 7 Quick Takes again.

1. I have found the most adorable dresses for my girls to wear to be baptized. I bought them on Etsy, of course, my favorite place to shop for such things. You can see the dress here. The woman who made them was delightful to work with. She got the dresses made and shipped very quickly, and they are beautifully done.

I had a harder time finding shoes for the girls that wouldn’t cost me a small fortune. $60 seems a bit much to pair for a pair of little girl’s shoes that will most likely only be worn once. I bought three pairs of Stride Rite (love Stride Rite, because they have wide width shoes for my two youngest who have been blessed with my fat feet) shoes from Amazon only to receive them and have the ones I ordered for Miss arrive in the wrong size and with only one shoe in the box. I started to try to exchange them, only to find that all shoes in the girls’ size range were sold out. So, I returned all of those and turned to Zappos.

Normally I love Amazon. I have Amazon Prime so I get free two-day shipping on almost anything. Amazon and Target are the places I buy almost everything. But shoes? Shoes really need to come from Zappos. Free one-day shipping and free returns means I can basically order a mini shoe store (the shoes from Amazon I ordered a bit too big for the older girls and too small for Sis), try the shoes to get the right size, and then send the rest back, without having to enter an actual shoe store with three impatient littles. The only reason I didn’t go to Zappos first is because they tend to be a bit more expensive. But desperate times and all that.

Of course, Zappos provided. I found another brand of shoe that comes in wide width and ordered two different sizes to try on each girl. They were just a little bit more expensive than the Stride Rite shoes. I picked the best-fitting shoes for each girl and sent back the rest today. So easy. Love Zappos.

2. I like to get new gadgets and small appliances to make my life easier. But I have a strong aversion to getting said new gadgets/appliances out of the box and set up for use. I got a fancy new crock pot several months ago, and it sat, in the box, in our front closet until my husband got it out this past weekend to make pork adobo.

I got a new iPad a week ago or so, and it’s only because I knew my hubby would give me a hard time if I left it in the box for very long that I got it out right away and forced myself to go through the setup. Even so it took me several days to get some apps on it.

Last weekend I finally bought an appliance I have been wanting for a long time. I hate mopping. The process of mopping – the bucket, the squeezing, the slopping, the dirty water – makes me want to throw things. But to make it worse, the tile on our kitchen floor has a weird texture that tends to hold residue from mopping, which drives me crazy and makes the floor seem more dirty after being mopped than it did before. So I don’t mop. I clean my floor on hands and knees with vinegar and water and a microfiber cloth. And not as much as I ought to.

I have been dreaming of buying a steam cleaner mop thing for my floor. My Mom and Super Friend both have one and swear they are the best things ever. They also both have the same kind, and highly recommended the Shark brand. So last weekend I was in Target (aka – The Very Favorite Place of All Stay At Home Moms) and saw the beautiful Shark steam cleaner thing. I excitedly bought it and brought it home.

And put it in my laundry room.

And there it sits, looking accusingly at me every time I go in there. Getting it out and setting it up (and maybe even using it) is my goal for later today. Or maybe tomorrow…

3. Neither of my older girls is very interested in playing with baby dolls. Miss sometimes does, but Lass would rather play with her snake, horse, wildebeest or other animal toys. The last time Miss tried to play baby dolls with her, Lass took the doll and called it a “baby wildebeest.”

Sis, on the other hand, loves baby dolls.

She sleeps with one. She usually is carrying around at least one. She tucks them into bed and walks them in the stroller. She wears them in her baby doll sling. She rocks them and says, “Shhh, Shhh, Shhh.” Love.

4. I never used to have a set laundry day. I always just ignored the whole idea of laundry (other than diapers) until things reached critical mass and either our baskets/hampers were overflowing with dirty laundry, our towels were stiff enough to stand up themselves, or my husband was down to his last pair of clean undies. Then I’d do a few  loads, usually leaving some in laundry baskets and/or in the dryer until the wrinkles became ridiculous. Laundry used to be one of my least favorite chores.

Then one day I came across something (probably on Pinterest) that showed a 7-day cleaning schedule where the writer recommended doing ALL your laundry on one day, folding, putting away, everything (I tried to find the source of my inspiration for this and can’t find it, sorry). I don’t know why the idea of a laundry day never occurred to me before this. But I decided to try it. And I love it!

I do laundry on Tuesdays because that is the one day of the week when a show is on in the evening that I enjoy (Chopped) and I like to watch TV while folding. I LOVE doing all my laundry (except diapers) on one day each week. I almost never have to fold sheets anymore because I just pull them off the beds, wash them and put them right back on. The wrinkles have decreased because the clothes (almost always) get folded and put away right away. At least they get folded pretty quickly, though sometimes I get a bit behind in putting them away. Now I don’t hate laundry anymore. My laundry room looks like a disaster only one day per week:

How lovely that you get three pics of my laundry room in one post.

5. I love that my husband can teach my girls the same kinds of things that my Dad taught me. Fishing and shooting and such. Miss even wants to go out deer hunting with him this year (I think he’ll just take her out in a blind for a bit to watch for deer).

6. Super Friend and her family are coming over tomorrow evening for a cook out and movie night. In preparation, I’ve been trying to tackle the mess that is the weeds in our backyard.

I have filled bucket after bucket with weeds and taken them into the woods to dump them out. I have pulled weeds the size of small trees.

It never ceases to amaze me how out of control the weeds get in our backyard. I start out the spring pulling them here and there. Then we go out of town for a week, and it rains a few times while we’re gone, and we come back to a jungle, and I never get caught up again. I’m making progress. Hopefully I can make it presentable by tomorrow (it’s raining out now).

7. I have been practicing my songs for the Labor Day party my husband’s family has every year. I play the songs in the car and the girls are getting into them quite a bit. Yesterday I got a text from my babysitter, “Miss is singing ‘Love Shack’ right now…!”

Miss and Lass have both informed me that this B52’s classic is their new favorite song. They do love to sing.

Have a great weekend!