December Photo Project: Day 18

 

Christmas lights make folding laundry just a bit more pleasant.

Pantry Love

"Oh, I just love to clean pantries," Donna said.  The two girls held hands and ran across the lawn toward the Hollister house.  

The pantry was a large walk-in closet entered by a door in the kitchen.  It was bright and cheerful, having a window high on the outside wall. 

Shelf after shelf was covered with red and white paper, and on them were stacked neat rows of canned goods, spices, bottles of ketchup, maple sugar, and other good things to eat.  On the bottom one stood yellow canisters of flour and sugar.

"This will be fun to clean," Donna said as the three girls surveyed their chore.

The Happy Hollisters and the Sea Turtle Mystery by Jerry West

 

Via



Via

Via

Oh, how I love an organized pantry!  Aside from the beauty of clean and neat, I think it conjures warm memories of my childhood.  One grandmother had a walk-in room off her kitchen which housed neat rows of cans and jars (and an ample supply of Little Debbie treats!).  My other grandmother had a basement kitchen for her canning, and there was a storage room brimming with jars of apples, beans, tomatoes, and my grandfather's attempts at wine.  At home, I loved to sort and rearrange our own small walk-in pantry (I think my mom appreciated it?!).

But my favorite kitchen of all was an old house belonging to one of my teachers.  As a child, the ceilings seemed to soar.  A bank of windows brought a flood of light into the room.  Cabinets opened to reveal of myriad of shelves for storage.  But it all paled in comparison to the jewel: a butler's pantry!  This darling room was accessed through swinging doors and had lovely rows of cabinets for china, silver and much, much more!

Sadly, I don't have a pantry. I do have a coat-closet-turned-food-storage, but it doesn't function well in the capacity of pantry mostly due to the fact that it is too deep (pantries should be 12-18" MAX). 

But this girl can continue to dream of those organized shelves filled with food stuffs to feed a small army of hungry children.

Digging Out

 

School has officially wrapped up, and now it's time to deal with the neglected aspects of life

(namely purging, organizing, planning, cleaning, and planting).

December Photo Project: Day 5

I've often felt the best way to deal with house frustration is to purge.

 

Our house shrinks with the closing of windows and doors and the accumulation of boots and jackets makes it feel tight.  Add to that the excitement five children eagerly awaiting Christmas, and you've got one crazy mom.  So over the last couple of weeks I've been systematically moving through the house, filling bags and tossing like nobody's business. 

Fortunately, we were able open the windows and doors (the weather is unseasonably warm and not quite in keeping with the Christmas atmosphere).  And I finally decided to tackle the growing mountain of papers accumulated through the year.  I will admit that I'm not on the cutting edge of technology.  And I might just have a touch of hoarding running through my veins which would explain why I feel it is necessary to keep every. single. receipt for purchases throughout the year.  But after nearly 3 hours of sorting, filing, and hole-punching, all of the receipts/bills/statements were neatly arranged.  (I even managed to throw away some gas and restaurant receipts...whoopee!)

I think my New Year's resolution should be to go paperless.

White Washin' the Fence

It's been on the to-do list for quite a while: cleaning the fence.

 

 

I don't really have the time.

 

Or the energy.

 

But the kids do.

 

And they're always eager to earn a little money.

 

So they went to work.

 

And guess who stuck with it the longest?

Andrew!

Joe Jr.

I needed to sort through all of our hand-me-down shoes, and I knew it would be thrilling for Josie.

 

Little did I know that the boys would find it equally exciting.

I kept hearing Jonathan saying, "I'm going to try on these damn shoes!" which was a little unsettling for a number of reasons (we don't say that).

Then I realized he was really saying "jam" which he got from my explanation of jelly shoes.  Whew!

 

I think these will be valuable shots one day, don't you?

DPP: Stuff and Bother

Even as a child, I would think to myself after Christmas, "What am I going to do with all this stuff?"

 

 

So in preparation, we made some donations to our local thrift store.

Giving Thanks: Clean Things

Never underestimate the power of clean.

 

And while my standards are far below perfect (case in point is the state of my kitchen as I type - there is literally nowhere, not one single spot on the counters to set anything!), I tend towards tidiness.  On a whim I picked up this cleaner, mostly because it was just plain cute.  Turns out it is great for scrubbing those stubborn stains in my kitchen sink among other things, and the container just makes me smile.  Win-win!