Power Washing for Fun and Entertainment

Who knew power washing a deck was so much fun?

Now, I know why my husband has never let me touch one before, and why most men I know get all excited about the prospect of owning their own power washer.

A big thanks to my friend Lisa who let me borrow their power washer. Although I have no prior power washing experience, I figured if my dear friend Karen (who did not learn to pump gas until after college) can handle her family's deck maintenance, I definitely had to give it a try.

As I told Hon, "If I do a horrible job, we simply hire someone to do it after all."

Oh, baby, I've found a whole new skill set. I have a feeling that my yearly deck power washing and re-sealing will be a highlight of the spring cleaning season. I can even put it on my stay-at-home-mom resume. It would of course go under specialty skills, not under necessary skills like: wipes noses, does homework, sews costumes, soothes childhood angst, looks for lost items, all while cooking dinner skills.

My Stay-at-Home-Mom Specialty Skills

• Spreads dump trucks full of mulch each spring
• Solves electricity and circuit breaker issues caused by...
• Outdoor Christmas lighting schemes
• blows up and repairs small appliances at inopportune moments
• assembles furniture
• deck power washing for fun and entertainment

One small note of caution to anyone else who tries their hand at power washing. Umm...as you power wash small bits of debris will start to cover your feet and legs. Rinsing your legs and feet off with aforementioned power washer...not your best idea. I only wish I could remember that little tidbit of wisdom.

Anyone willing to take bets on how many times I pulverize my toes today???

A Shiny Ceramic Sink

If you've ever encountered Flylady, you know a shiny sink is high on her list of priorities. I have to admit, there is a certain peace to walking into a kitchen with a clean and shiny sink...and countertops you can see. However, if you happen to have a ceramic sink that is over 10 years old, getting it to actually shine and not be covered with scratches is an impossibility...or so I thought.

I love our ceramic sink. I did not love the metal colored scratches left from every pot that ever touched it. No matter how much I scrubbed I couldn't get rid of those grey squiggly lines.

And then my mother-in-law came to visit at Thanksgiving, and asked, "Do you have any silver polish?"

Two minutes later my sink looked brand new!!!

So that's what Works For Me - try silver polish, I specifically use Wright's Silver Cream, to remove stubborn scratches from ceramic surfaces. Check out other great tips at Rocks In My Dryer.

Here a Glove, There a Glove

My Works for Me Wednesday tip this week is one of my favorite bits of organization ever. EVER!!!



Do you have that basket of gloves and hats in your closet? Does the sight of snow initially make you jump in joy and then wallow on the floor because you know the kids will throw gloves, hats, and scarves everywhere looking for two gloves that match or even fit? I finally solved that problem at my house.



TA-DA

I use a clear shoe organizer to store our gloves, hats, and scarves. The kids can find their gloves all by themselves, usually without all the rest of the gloves thrown on the floor. And that my friend is a little slice of heaven.

My laundry room/mud room is very small as you can see. There's just enough room behind the door from the garage for hooks for backpacks and coats. This is the door to the kitchen (which usually stands wide open). The gloves are out of sight, yet organized and ready to do their job. That's what Works for Me. Head over to Shannon's and check out other Works for Me Wednesday ideas.

Unwrinkled Clothes

If you're a Martha Stewart type or born organized, this hint probably isn't for you. As documented here and here, I sometimes struggle with household appliances. And unfortunately, yesterday's post shows my daughter is headed in the same direction.

There is hope and at least one tip I can give her. I'm simply embarassed that I was only discovered it in the past year.

What do you when you've left clothes in the dryer? Perhaps for days? And days? Clothes that become small wrinkled balls that make an iron cry.

I'm sad to say in the past, I quite possibly just washed them again. Until someone let slip in random mom conversation that they throw a clean, wet dishtowel in with the wrinklies and re-dry the load. Voila! Beautiful, unwrinkled clothes.

Now here's a further reminder for those fellow moms in my time management challenged category. (Please God don't let me be the only clueless one). Don't go to the trouble of throwing the wet dishtowel in with the load of wrinkled clothes and walk out the door to do whatever. You'll miss you're window of opportunity. You actually need to hang around and FOLD the clothes when the dryer buzzer - well buzzes.

Check out other great Works For Me Wednesday tips at Rocks In My Dryer.

Or check out another laundry WFMW tip from me here.

Kids Helping

How does your house look at the end of the evening on a school night?

Are there cups in the family room, pillows on the floor, papers in the oddest places, random toys on the sofa, under the sofa, in the sofa?

I've made my life so much easier by extending bedtime by 5 minutes. My kids are great helpers in short segments. At bedtime we take 5 minutes to pick up the family room and kitchen. Everyone picks up, puts away and cooperates for just 5 minutes. No heavy lifting here. This is NOT the time to pull out the vacuum cleaner or feather duster. You're simply picking up. Restoring order to the chaos.

I cannot tell you how restful it is to sit back down in the family room after my husband and I put the kids to bed. I'm not looking around thinking, "Look at that glass sitting on the table, and who threw the pillows all on the floor. Woe is me." That does not lead to great alone time.

Instead, I can sit beside my sweetie and relax!

Check out other great Works for Me Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer.

Recovering from Jet Lag

I was looking for inspiration this morning, and Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer provided it. It seems we all should proceed with extreme caution after returning from vacation.

My husband and I spent a week touring China this May. The trip was amazing, and I'm sure it will provide me with many blogging ideas. However, the adaptation to normal home life after the trip was a little rocky.

As you might imagine, there's a little jet lag involved with a trip to China. What you don't realize is that even if you think you've had enough sleep, and you're awake and functioning, you should not try normal household activities. Here are a few lessons I learned.

• Don't do laundry the first day home. Now normally, I put off laundry as long as possible. But laundry that has traveled from another country tends to retain the absolute worst smells from said country. It will not smell as fresh as your husband's workout clothes that he left in the car trunk during the last heatwave. It will truly stink to high heaven. Yes, every time you walk by the odorous pile you will be instantly transported back to the worst smelling place of your entire trip. You.Must.Resist.Temptation.To.Do.Laundry. Or you might just wash all the cool foreign currency you brought back for the kids, the tickets and pictures of yourself at the Kung Fo show, and your passport! And everyone knows how hard it is to get one of those lately. Imagine having to replace it.

• Do not use complex electrical appliances like a microwave. You might be tempted to just nuke your poor hungry children something rather than risk cooking or driving. But you might microwave a sausage wrapped in a pancake on a stick for 4 minutes instead of the 40 seconds you intended. This could result in filling the entire house with an odd orange colored smoke requiring 3 days of fans in the front and back doors to air out the house. Not that I would know this for a fact, because what kind of mother pushes 4 minutes instead of 40 seconds on a microwave.

• Do not attempt to clean and save the aforementioned microwave. Anyone sleep deprived enough to confuse 4 minutes and 40 seconds does not need to Google household hints on how to clean a burnt microwave. If you continue such ridiculous attempts to reclaim your status as a functioning mother, just stop and call in reinforcements.

• If you decide to throw all caution to the wind and clean the microwave, first move the microwave outside of your house. Don't ask why, just do it. Alternating boiling lemon juice and vinegar and wiping down the inside of the microwave with the steaming hot liquids works wonders, even if you do end up with burnt fingers. However, the suggestion to just leave coffee grounds in the microwave to absorb the odor means - put the grounds in a bowl and close the microwave. Under no circumstances does it mean to turn the microwave on with the coffee grounds inside.

• Did you get that - UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES!

Note to self: Burnt coffee smell is harder to clean than burnt pancake/sausage smell making stinky laundry smell heavenly.