A Picture Post

Face painting at Listos. Finlay was obviously all for it, but Duncan couldn't be convinced.

Saturday on the pier.

A very relaxing memorial day at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Fun with cousins and friends.

First twenty minutes of the new reward system. It did get better and we don't really use the frowny faces anymore. =)

This is my kitchen and dining area. Huge, huh? =) Well considering our whole condo is 900 sq ft, we're pretty satisfied with the kitchen. We've always had small kitchens and in the past I would have never considered using up valuable kitchen space to store "food storage". Well, I bet you'll be surprised to know that between these two spaces I have 32 #10 cans and 37 pantry cans stored (I was curious so I counted), 7 gallons of water, and 2 6 gal. buckets of wheat and flour. And look, no cans in sight! (Someone validate me, please! This is good, right?) I am not a super organizer. I don't have any clever ideas. I've just found that it's a lot easier to make room for food that I actually use instead of just store. So let's begin the tour, shall we?

First, let me say that I love the pantry size can. It's perfect for things like sour cream, butter, shortening, and eggs. I can just refill these from the #10 cans. I already had baking stuff in this cupboard so just consolidated a bit to make room for a few cans. If you don't want to buy the pantry cans you can always use your own smaller containers (just remember Shelf Reliance can't guarantee the shelf life of other containers).

This cupboard with the bread was a mess to begin with. I threw away a lot of moldy ends. Plus, I transferred boxed items to ziplocs to eliminate the bulky boxes. I'm tellin' ya -nothing special. But I did manage to make space for my pancake mix and some other items I use a lot like freeze-dried onions and my fruits.

The narrow little cupboard is awkward to begin with, so I've always stored kind of random stuff in there. I had a huge thing of Ramen that we never eat so I put that in a closet and did a little more transferring from boxes to ziplocs. I still have growing room in this little space.

And this is the butcher block by the table that used to have kid art supplies, along with a big bulky plastic table cloth and some packaging supplies. Those items found new homes in bedroom closets. And I couldn't be happier with the new tenants.

And next we have our everything closet. It's actually the only closet we have besides the bedroom closets. I just added a stackable shelf to use up some of the height in the closet. Because it's less accessible, this is where I store less used cans, or #10's that I use to refill pantry cans. I have a similar shelf on the floor of the closet that has my 6 gal. buckets on top, which gives me a little extra storage underneath where I store my "party" supplies.

And that about does it for the tour. I hope you're not too disappointed but I did warn you before hand that I didn't have any amazing tricks to share. For me, the solution has been to buy food that has a long sealed and open shelf life and tastes good enough to use in my everyday cooking. It's easier to find space for food you WANT in the kitchen. I definitely don't replace everything with my Thrive foods (except for the onions. I don't buy onions anymore), but I do turn to them often when I don't want to run to the store or when I have to throw a last minute dinner together. I know we have a long way to go, but it does is comforting to know we have SOMETHING. So, no matter the space, it is possible to start NOW.

*I posted this on my Shelf Reliance blog, eatingoutofcans.com.

Bathroom Floor

I think I may sleep on the bathroom floor tonight. Is that weird? Well, it is the thing I worked hardest on today, that bathroom. And I nearly killed myself navigating through our dark messy bedroom (light's burnt out). So I really think the bathroom would be safer. And shouldn't I get to enjoy my biggest accomplishment of the day? Ok Ok...so I'm not really going to sleep there because lets face it, I'll take a messy mattress over clean tile any day. But I really do want to stay there in that bathroom and pretend like I'm a tidy person and the rest of my home is as squeaky clean. Reality is dirty.

Killing Ants

We have ants in the shower. I know. I don't get it either? They must be adrenaline junkie ants -the fear of a spontaneous downpour wisking them away to a watery death must be the draw. Anyway, do you ever feel uncomfortably powerful when you kill mass amounts of bugs at one time? There I am with this big spray bottle of lysol wiping out these little life forms with just a few squeezes of my ALL-PURPOSE spray. I mean does anyone else feel funny owning a pray that says, "ALL-PURPOSE" and knowing that one of those purposes is death? Sometimes when I'm killing the ants I imagine what they must be thinking. Like when I see one clinging on just a little longer, I wonder, if he is looking for his brother, calling out to him in Ant language to see if he survived the attack? I already regret typing this last part but please tell me I am not alone in this.

Where We Eat, Sleep and Brush Our Teeth

Our new place! We are downstairs. Behind that fence is our front door and little yard.

My new kitchen. This picture is really embarrassing

We do have furniture now but like any good Mac family we have made the yard first priority. As soon as the house is a bit more decorated I'll post updated pictures.

Oh, how he missed the race car bed!

The before picture

The after picture in progress. Hopefully grass next weekend.

Sitting on our new garden wall. It's a bit uneven but hey, so are we!

Still melting my heart.

Help, I've Fallen in a Rut and I Can't Get Out

A no exercising, eating too much junk and staying up too late rut.

I'll tackle one at a time. That's all I can handle. So...I guess this is my last late night. The other two are just too overwhelming right now.

Night Off

Do you ever have those evenings when you just decide to do nothing? You know, like after you eat dinner you blog stock instead of do dishes. Those nights when, instead of fold the laundry while you watch T.V., you sprawl on the couch with your feet propt up on your honey's legs (who by the way, is much more accustomed to these "nights off" and is completely immuned to the next day guilt). You know those evenings when you don't mind giving in to your two year old's request to lay in his race car bed with him until he falls asleep playing with the moles on your neck...(or as Duncan likes to call them, nipples). It's not like there isn't still shredded cheese and avocado bits on our dinner table or a big luandry basket of clean clothes by the couch. I just decided not to wash them and not to fold them...but instead to do NOTHING. And since I haven't blogged for a while, I figured, why not -it's not like I have anything better to do.

*it's amazing how I manage to stay up ridiculously late even on my night off. Oh no...I better go to bed to curb the early on set of guilt.

Thank Goodness for Barf

Yes, I am grateful Dunks got the stomach flu and threw up all night. I would be a lot more grateful if I didn't have to clean it up but that's not the point. The point is, I was forced to stay inside my house most of the day rather than lounge outside in a camping chair avoiding stuff at home. As a result I got lots of big laundry done...you know...sheets and blankets stuff. I also managed to finally put Finn's clothes away (thank you Duncan for emptying all the contents of Finn's dresser onto the floor) . I even got my maternity clothes gathered...not put away but at least not taking up valuable closet space. Anyway... Duncan, I'm sorry you were so sick last night but thank you for sleeping until 11am, followed by hours of Curious George. You're the best =)

Breakthrough

This morning, instead of passing out on the couch while Duncan watched Curious George, I took a shower.
This may not seem big, but for me...it is quite something (right, Jimmy?).