Attack of the Stinky Trash Monster

“It creeps upstairs, alone or in pairs, what’s that horrible smell? A thing, a thing, a horrendous thing, everyone knows it’s stinky.” Does the stinky trash monster live at your house? Here is an account of my ongoing battle with this beast, and all of the ways I try to conquer it. In my home, the stinky trash monster sits there innocently in the kitchen, waiting to turn on me and let its presence be known to one and all. Usually, it does its work in the middle of the night or while our family has been out of the … Continue reading

My Life with the Sink Monster

Have you ever woken up from a bad dream only to find that there was a little bit of reality to it after all? Or perhaps you have a certain sense of dread before walking down a certain alley or into a certain room. It is almost as though you can hear the audience watching you as though you are in a horror film, “Don’t go in there!” and “Nooooo!” This happens every once in a while in my house, usually on weekends. I get up on a Saturday morning before everyone else is. The house is still and quiet … Continue reading

Taming the Clutter Creature

I’m a minimalist, not in the things I do, but in the things that I have. At least I try to be. So why is it that it takes me ages to put everything away when I get home? It doesn’t matter if I’m getting home from work or from a day out doing something else. I have a full scale clutter party in my house once I return home, and that seems to be life. Unfortunately, I am also a clutter-o-phobe. While I can live happily with a dirty sink in my bathroom, visual clutter makes me want to … Continue reading

The Food Cravings Have Found Me

The first week of the Atkins diet was very easy for me to do. The second week, however, has been a little bit more of a struggle. In addition to having times when I felt crabby for no good reason, I was starting to experience food cravings. If I was going to stick with this diet, I needed to find ways to fight those cravings. One of my friends, who is also doing the Atkins diet, had a great suggestion. Make some variations to the food you can eat while on this diet, and this will prevent you from getting … Continue reading

Back Home Again

There is a saying that you can never go home again. While some of that may be true (I’ll never fit into my fifth grade dance costume, for example), when it comes to an actual home, I think the statement is a little misleading. Life changes, and our home reflect those changes. In my life, I’ve lived in a smaller starter home filled with mismatched hand me down furniture, a sleek luxury apartment with hip accessories, a home filled with a crib, a high chair and lots of pastel and baby things, and a home where toys seem to have … Continue reading

Not So Extreme Home Makeover

If you have been following my blogs, you might be aware that I’m a big fan of decluttering and organizing while still maintaining a house that never seems to be far from clutter. Now to my defense (watch out, rationalizing here), I have three young children, a work at home career, a hardworking husband in the middle of a huge work project and a healthy sense of procrastination. But I still hate clutter and the feeling that there is no space. So why is it that in the past few weeks we have added three very large items to our … Continue reading

Clever Mom Awards

Moms everywhere do a million, no make that a billion little things for their family that hardly go noticed. Well, I for one think that there should be some acknowledgment somewhere for all of the things that moms do (and yes, I am a mom, so I am biased). This is even more-so for all of the clever solutions that moms dream up in order to just get through the day. Hey, we can’t be everywhere at once, and multitasking can only be taken so far. Even though we have eyes in the back of our heads, we still only … Continue reading

The Strange Things I Found Around the House

Do you ever fell as though you might be in a Dali landscape? Picking up the house can be quite an adventure when you have a husband and three children. And while I have yet to find any melting watches around, I have found plenty of melting crayons. My home always looks the worse for wear after the weekend. This is because the weekend tend to be a time to relax, to play, to work on home projects and to dash out of the door without first cleaning up. This is really a nice way of saying that my family … Continue reading

How to Get Rid of Mice, Romans Family Style

It never fails. Every spring it seems that something finds its way inside our house and then promptly passes away. Since our home is in the middle of the woods, this tends to be inevitable. We are veterans in the war against unwelcome visitors. We’ve learned to ferret out their places of entry and close them up tight. This last hunt and discovery, however, had even us surprised. The notice that a little friend had entered started with some scratching noises. I told my husband to get ready. My eldest son was convinced the noise must have been coming from … Continue reading

The Case of the Missing Earring 3

This is a three-part series. Although it concerns the events of mostly one day, the story is divided into three. You can only get so much of a good thing at one time. Plus, I like threes. I hope you will come back each day to read it all. I moved the bed and examined the floor again in daylight. Nothing. Finally I did the old pantyhose vacuum trick. I sacrificed a stocking in my efforts. The gremlins, having the stocking draw called to attention decided to explore that as well, turning stocking and pantyhose into rope for tug-of-war. Yes, … Continue reading