MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

So, the point of MHHM is to do something around your house that makes you happy. The happiness you get from whatever you do tends to filter down throughout the family. Isn't that cool?

The best part is this - it doesn't take a whole lot of effort, money or time. You can do as little or as much as you want.

So what are you going to do to Make a Happy Home Monday? I would love to see. Whatever you do, leave a comment so I can come check it out! Add some pictures if you can. Just do one thing.... ONE THING! Anything that makes your place prettier, neater, cleaner, or more organized. BUT, make it HAPPY!!!

Mine is an easy thing today, but I smile when I see them.

I am homeroom mom to my kindergartener. I will be next year, as well. I love to bake muffins and cupcakes. After many attempts at transporting cupcakes to the school without messing them up, I finally gave in. I bought this:

Isn't it wonderful? It was only about $20 from Costco. It holds 3 dozen beautifully. It was well worth it. My only complaint is that I didn't have one several years ago.

Another purchase is this:

This is just fun. In fact, come back tomorrow for my Tempt My Tummy Tuesday entry to see how they were used. I had been eyeballing these for awhile and finally allowed myself to buy them. I got 6, but will probably get 6 more.

This definitely makes me happy!!!

Hope to see you soon!

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

Yes! It is that time of week again. And, being Labor Day, it means we must labor. Right?

Actually, this bit if labor was done a few days ago. I just decided to put it up.

Making a Happy Home Monday is a small blog carnival that I created. It is hopes of inspiring and encouraging others to find one area in their homes to improve upon. Make it pretty. Make it more functional. Make it clean. Whatever you do, make it happy.

I would love for you to join in. If you do, just link up down below (on Mr Linky) and show/tell us what you are doing!

Over the past month, my hubby and I have really done a lot with the boys' rooms. My oldest switched with my 2 youngest (who share a room.) They are now in the bigger room with their bunk beds. My oldest and 2nd now have "big boy" rooms....meaning it is set up to facilitate homework a bit better.

Well, in my mind, it was just a matter of moving a few key pieces of furniture. Hmmmm....it took us over a week. We had to switch beds, move dressers, clean, rearrange, switch closets....this even included my 2nd son, who had some furniture in his room that belonged to my youngest.

So, we FINALLY got that mostly settled. (I'm still working on detail stuff, but for the most part, we are done.) The thing that was just overwhelming had to do with the toys. TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! There is no way that 4 kids need that many toys! Actually, I'm referring to the 2 youngest, mostly. My oldest, who would rather be on the computer, watching TV, playing DS or reading, has a small selection of toys.....mostly transformers and a few games. My 2nd is in the transition of not really playing so much with toys. Though, he does enjoy lego's, k'nex and more "sophisticated" forms of play. He has a small tub full of his stuff.

Nope, the area is in my youngest boys' new room.....they had 3 of the GIANT tubs, 1 large tub and 3 baskets full of so much. It was sad. Now don't get me wrong. I'm glad that we have been blessed with gifts from friends and the ability to get so much of what our boys want. But, they don't play with them all. Some are outgrown. A few were broken. Some are just not liked by the kids.

SO....the other day, I decided to dedicate a bit of time. Little did I know that it would take me about 5 hours. I went TOY BY TOY! I kept the ones I knew for sure they would like. I sorted out the ones I knew they didn't like. THEN, the ones that were on the fence, I put in the floor to see if they were picked up. If not....they went into the discard bin.

By discard, I mean donation. We have a lovely charity place down the road. They run a thrift store. The merchandise is all donated. I would rather donate than go through the "fun" (note the sarcasm) of a garage sale. (For the record, there was only 1 kitchen-sized trash bag full of trash and/or broken toys.)

Here is a picture of what I'm donating.

The large tub? We still have 2 of those full of toys to be loved by my children. The basket? Just overflow. The bags? Kids' clothes. I recently went through the dresser of my youngest 2 and pulled out grown clothes.

What do you think?

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS!

It's that time, y'all. Time for me to put up my "Making a Happy Home Monday" post. Yes....I still do this. Catey joins me and today, my friend, Lisa is joining me. Please pop on over and show them some love.

The point of this carnival is to inspire and encourage you to find an area of your home and make it happy. You can do this by cleaning, organizing or beautifying the area. It doesn't have to be a big job. It can be a quick, 5 minute job....like what I have posted here. Or it can be a lot more involved. It's up to you. Choose a spot. Make it better. Then enjoy the positive impact you have made. Make your home a happy home. Link up down below on Mr Linky. I would love to see what you have done.

Today, I'm finally back to my kitchen project. I think I can finish in three more postings. Remember, the goal is to make a happy home. It doesn't have to be big. And, right now, I have so much to do, that I really can't just focus on the kitchen. You know, the holidays are FAST APPROACHING! Just look over there -------> and you can see for yourself.

All that aside, let me tell you what I did today. I worked on our drinking glass and cup cabinet. It was a mess. I had lids with no matching cups. I had cups that had seen better days. I have a lot of mismatched glasses. That kind of drives me crazy, to be quite honest. But, I didn't want to up and get rid of a bunch of glasses, so I kept those.

This cabinet also keeps some dishes that are passed down from family. These are dishes that won't be used for various reasons like cracks or lead. But, they are sentimental, so I keep them.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I hope you will join me!

*Please excuse the quality of these pics. I think my camera is dying. Sometimes the pictures are red....anyone have any clues what it could be?

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

It's Monday....it always comes back to Monday, doesn't it?

I have quite a bit to blog about. I am finally a bit more released to blog on something I have been wanting to for a LONG time.....now I just have to write it. I'm sure it will make some folk mad, but you know....it's what I do. LOL!

So, as most of you know, Making a Happy Home Monday is a sad little blog carnival that Catey and I post on in hopes of encouraging and inspiring others to make their homes happy. You can pick a little project or a big project. You can make it pretty, more organized, decluttered, or clean. Whatever you do, any improvement is bound to make you happy, thus making your home a happy home.

I have been working on my kitchen for the past few weeks...I'm not done. I have a few more weeks that I can do on my cabinets. For today, though, I wanted to do something a bit more timely....for my household, anyway.

Today, school started. Three of my boys are in school. I did several things to get them ready. The parts that apply to MHHM are as follows.

First off, is school lunches. Hot lunch will not be served in our school until mid-September. Even when they do have hot lunch, my boys will almost always take their own lunch. For today and hopefully the rest of the year (if I don't get too rushed or lazy) I will pack their lunches the night before. It sure does help to have it done. The boys will help me. It is listed on the next portion of MHHM.

CHORE CHARTS!

Personally, I love chore charts. My oldest who (bless his heart) is a LOT like me, loves them, too. He is wanting to take a picture of each brother to attach to the top of the chart so we know who needs to do what. Isn't that cute?

We had some chore charts that I posted on not too long ago. Now that we are back in school, some things must change. Here are the new charts. I think you can click on them to enlarge and see the actual chores. (If you can't, and you are interested in a break-down, let me know.) They went into effect this morning. Each child checks off the appropriate box when chore is completed. They are in page protectors (Monday - Friday on front, weekend on back). They check them off with dry-erase markers so I don't have to reprint every week. Each Friday, they get their allowance, with a slight deduction for chores NOT completed.

Let me know how you are getting your household into school-mode! 

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

Hey, y'all!

As summer winds down, our activities are on the rise. Still lots of swimming, but there have been trips, concerts, school preps....all sorts of things.

My hubby and I just returned from Boston this past weekend. Today, my hubby and 2 oldest boys are on their way to church camp. I have been busy cleaning, laundering, making new chore charts and a few holiday things. (I will share more on that stuff later.)

Today, I want to dive into Making a Happy Home Monday. I would love for you to join me. Funny, I thought that this would take off a little bit better...you know? Moms helping to hold each other accountable...helping to inspire and encourage. I guess I'm somewhat unique in my desire to be a better housekeeper. Either way, thank you to those who read and do share. I will "TRY" to add Mr. Linky again, for the 2 of you who do link up. ;) If it shuts it down, I will remove it.

For today's edition, I have continued my work on my kitchen. I really need to get through the kitchen. With the holidays fast approaching, (see...you "guffawed" a few weeks ago, but now, you have to admit, it is coming quickly) I need to get rid of some kitchen clutter. I have secured several new kitchen assets over the past year that has made the area a bit harder to work in. I'm still able to cook, but when i start my baking and candy making, I NEED SPACE!

I want to create a baking center. I have about 150 cookie cutters in various locations. 100 of them are in a box. The rest are in various drawers. We use the big, metal cutters for sandwiches. It's a LOT more fun to eat a sandwich in the shape of an oak leaf instead of a square. I have over a dozen of the holiday/seasonal cutters like that. (You know the ones....the Wilton, metal, rubber grip) The box has everything.....alphabet, numbers, shapes, holiday shapes....in various sizes. So fun if I decide to make window cookies.

hmmmmm.....quite a rabbit trail, huh?

SO, ANYWAY *embarrassed chuckle*. I give you another kitchen cabinet. On the bottom, I had several serving pieces, and some glass measuring cups. Above that, a garlic roaster, various bowls, a vase with coins, above that, matches, candles, 2 crystal bowls, broken Christmas ornaments that needed mending, a baggie with small crystal-type beads for ornaments.....just a mess.

Now, it looks better.

Tell me what you think? Won't you join me?

BEFORE

AFTER

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

**So what totally blows is that I had this post done before one o'clock. I worked on getting it up. As soon as I tried to put my pictures in, the blasted thing completely froze. I had to leave and didn't have time to reboot...until now. (Yes, Honey, I KNOW that I have a nice new computer, but I couldn't get the pics downloaded onto it, so I'm using the P.O.C. for the post.)**

Hey, y'all. As always, I start with the line of "Sorry I've been so long." It has been a crazy summer. I'll blog about it later.

Before I forget, if I don't get on here for awhile, it's because we are going out of town. We have our Boston trip, church camp, trip to west Texas.....all that going on between Monday and the 31st. I will be busy packing. It is hard enough to get everyone ready, but having to do that with the idea that 2 will be in S. Texas, 2 in W. Texas and 2 in Boston.....hmmmmmm.....interesting. So, if you don't see me for the next 3 weeks or so, don't worry. (Knowing me, though, I will be on to just to say, "hi.")

OK....do you remember all those pictures I posted on the last blog? Well, this entry, and the next few, will be a follow up to this. In fact, if I work like I want, I will get more done, post it, but schedule my blog to publish it over the next 2-3 Mondays. (Did you know you could do that?)

Today, I have taken on one cabinet. It is the junk cabinet. It is still the junk cabinet, but it is "de-trashed" and a lot neater. This cabinet holds hubby's coffee grinder, filters, a nebulizer, meds, coffee cups, OFF, sunscreen....various bulky items that need to be out of the kids' reach.

BEFORE CLEARING OUT:

ALL ON THE COUNTER:

ANOTHER ANGLE (because I'm not above embarrassing myself)

ALL DONE!

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

I know I'm late.....and I'm sorry. Busy weekend, busy day......it never ends.

First an update. We did get the A/C fixed. Some insulation had gotten sucked up into something and was preventing the air from moving. We got it all taken care of and now it works better than ever....able to keep the temp at about 68....even when it's 105 outside. WOOT!

The dinner came off wonderfully....burgers. I'll share the recipe tomorrow....burgers, brats, kraut, chilies, queso, guacamole, devilled eggs, homemade ice cream, peach cobbler....YUM!!!

Yesterday after church, I took the boys to the Y for a swim. My 4 year old is so cute....thank goodness. He was floating around in his life vest snarling and baring his teeth pretending he was a shark. It was really cute until he swam up and bit a lady. I am not joking. Fortunately, he didn't draw blood.

Also, this past weekend, the same cute kid may, or may not, have broken his thumb. We will be getting it checked out.

OK....now time for Making a Happy Home Monday.

So much to post. So much I want to conquer. So much I want to take care of before the holidays start. (See sidebar for countdown to The Great State Fair of Texas....that is how much time I have.)

I am in the middle of a project right now.....bookshelves. I really should take pictures. I forgot to do a before, but I can do a middle and finished. There are a lot of books in DS #1's room that need to be put into #3's and #4's room. Then, I need go through MY classroom library, currently in the garage, and put some of those books in #1's room. During that time, I need to pull the books for #2 and put them in HIS room. Meanwhile, I am emptying the bookshelf in #3's and #4's room pulling the adult books (no...not adult as in XXX, just novels and such) and either donate, pack or put on my reading list. *sigh*

No...the pictures I want to share are of my kitchen cabinets. This, my friends, is hard for me to do. It's embarrassing. But, I think that sharing these will help me to work on this. They are terribly cluttered. I need a day, or three, of JUST ME working on these. My hubby has told me that sometime in the NEAR future, he will take all the kids out of the house for a day so that I may get stuff done. I look forward to it.

The goal is to organize. There are some items that I could get rid of, but for the most part, I don't think I will. There are a lot of things that I only use once or twice a year, but I NEED them once or twice a year....things like a cookie press, candy thermometer, certain cookie cutters....

The organization needs to go as far as the pantries and stockpile shelves.....a lot of what I keep on the counters (because I don't have room elsewhere) needs to be put out of sight. WISH ME LUCK!!!

Bottom 2 shelves of pantry

Top 2 shelves of pantry

cabinet with big stuff: trash bags, toaster, extra lunch boxes, dehydrator,)

Drinking classes, cups (it usually is a lot more cluttered, but a lot of cups were in dishwasher)

Casserole dishes, griddle, electric skillet, chopper

(UGH!) plastic storage containers

*hiding under a rock* box of cookie cuttters, BAKING CENTRAL (pie plates, cake pans, cake domes, cookie press, crock pot, spring form pans, big grill spatula and tongs)

another view of the above

crap....pitchers, thermos, the bottom has serving trays...not used often, but all used during holidays

plates, serving dishes, paper plates.....matches? money? glue? candles? I don't know.

"Pharmacy" ~ bug spray, sunscreen, nebulizer, allergy meds, box of OTC's, coffee mugs, coffee grinder

spices

Pots and pans, Food Saver

(um.....sorry), this is in my laundry area, which is in the entry way to my son's room....this is where I keep some stockpiled items and, quite obviously, more crap

Man....that was painful. As I was going through and labelling these pictures, I really saw the problem that I have. I hope to tackle this soon....I will post my progress as I get stuff done.

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY.....NOT

Not today.

We got in late last night. My home is in absolute chaos....not too happy. I need to catch up on laundry. Put my kids on their laundry-training duties, get my hubby packed and out the door, clutter picked up. Basically, there is a lot I NEED to do, it just hasn't happened yet. I'm sorry.

Also, I missed the Friday thing because we were out of town. We were at our 20 year high school reunion. I will post on that, later.

I hope you guys will bear with me as I get into a summer posting schedule.

Before I forget, here is what I have for the cookbook items:

Catey - Everyday Chocolate
Amy Q - From My Mother's Kitchen
Lisa (BlessedwithGrace) - Meals Like Mom
Theresa - Southern Living Slow Cooker
Jeri - Country Cooking

If you ladies would please send me your mailing address, I will get these out to you as soon as I can. (My DH flies out tomorrow until Saturday, so it might be next week before they go out.) Just leave a comment with these addresses...I will not publish that information.

I hope you enjoy.

Tomorrow, I will post the remaining titles as well as what you need to do to be put into the drawing

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

Hey, y'all! Hope you are having a good beginning to the week. We are. It's just hot hot!

So, before I forget, I will try to activate Mr. Linky.....but he hasn't been cooperating with me lately. SO, you may, or may not, be able to link up. If it's not up, please leave a comment!

A lot of you already know what I do here, but I suppose there may be a few new readers....either to this blog-carnival or to the blog, in general. I started this blog-carnival as a way to hold myself accountable. You know....pride can be a powerful ally OR a horrible enemy. I have chosen to use it to work on my house. I tend to get a little lazy. But, if I put something out there, then I will do it. Otherwise, I might just think about it and never get it done.

The purpose of (hopefully) allowing everyone else to link up is the same. My hope is that this blog will encourage and inspire others to do something in their homes.

So what is a happy home? A happy home doesn't have to be spotless. Heaven help us if it does. LOL! It does need to be clutter free and well-running. I find that if there is an area of my home that doesn't work well...either it is cluttered, ugly or dirty.....then I need to remedy that somehow. When I do that, I'm happier. My hubby is happier. My kids are happier.

Please join me. Find an area of your home that needs to be cleaned, organized or beautiful. Take pictures if you can. Share them with us. This is a long process. One that, sadly, will never be DONE. It is a work in process. I hope you will join in on that process with me.

SO, without further adieu, I will share what I did for Making a Happy Home.

BOOKS!

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I had the teaser about my cookbooks? Well, it is coming together, so be sure to tune in tomorrow for some BIG NEWS!

For today, let me show you the before and after.

I keep my cookbooks above my bar in the cabinets. Above my bar, on the counter, on the hearth, by my bed, in the FTU, on the sidebar, in the floor, on the kitchen table...the point is, my cooking library has exceeded the capacity for that space above the bar. That will probably not change. I can't give up more kitchen space because, well.....I cook and need that space. I don't want to keep it on our bookshelves in another room because that just seems wrong to me, somehow. :)

I have too many books. Specifically, I have too many cookbooks. (We'll talk about regular books later.) There are some cookbooks that, no matter how much I may or, may not, use them, I will never part with. There are some that I have looked through once and that was it. I'm sad that I invested the money into these and didn't use/keep them. I think my hubby understands, I hope so....otherwise, I'll never get another cookbook. :p

Here is a before picture of the area with my cookbooks.

Here is the after. Not too bad, huh? Just wait till you see what you might could get!

**HINT HINT** You REALLY need to leave a comment.

MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

Hey, y'all!

Hope everyone is having a great beginning to the summer. We sure are....it's already been crazy-busy, but we are having fun. I'll post about some of that later.

So for today's (late) installment of Making a Happy Home Monday I will talk about YARD WORK!!

First let me say this....I'm opposed to yard work.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it being done. I am opposed to MY doing it. LOL! I don't like to work in the yard. I don't like to dig in flower beds. I don't really like to garden....though I'm trying to convince myself that I do. I don't feel "girl-power" when I mow. I truly understand why farmers, back in the day, popped out many babies.....for the yard work. :)

SO, with all that in mind, my sweet hubby is in the process of teaching my 9, soon to be 10, year old son to do yard work. Last summer, he learned to ride the tractor mower (nothing too difficult....he is MUCH smaller than the old John Deere, but we keep it to straight patches.) This year.....he is learning how to weed eat!

Share with me what you are doing at your place to make your home happier.

Love to all!

** Due to my studying JBQ, I'm not working on specific scripture memoriztion outside the Bible Fact Pack.

OK....ONE MORE

If this is the first post you are reading, then you have 3 more new ones to read. If you are reading these in order of posting, then this is the 4th! WOW! FOUR POSTS IN ONE DAY!

This is a quick installment of Making a Happy Home Monday.

Chore charts!

We have created chore charts for all our kids and I wanted to share what we did and how we are working with this system.

I created 3 different charts. One chart is shared by the 2 older. They each do the same chores, I just printed an extra copy and put each kid's name on his chart. The younger 2 each have their own chores. The chart with the sun is for my oldest 2. The chart with Veggie Tales is for my 6 year old and the one with Thomas and James is for my soon-to-be 4 year old. (Sorry it's crinkled.) I placed a strip of paper over their names.

I created these from here.

Instead of reprinting the chart each week, we just have the chart in a page protector. The kids then use a dry-erase marker to check off each chore as it is done. My 2nd LOVES it.....he woke up, saw the chart and got everything done before I even got ready for the day. My first will have to be ragged and nagged constantly. Oh well.....

The little ones love to help and will adapt, I think, quickly. (Heh....I say that, my youngest was the one that crinkled his chart.)

Anyway, another way to Make a Happy Home.

*if you click on the picture, you can make it bigger and see the actual chores