Wearing Dresses & Skirts - Day Seven - Organizing a Cabinet & Making Dinner
Day Seven...Has a week gone by all ready? It has gone by very fast and I have certainly enjoyed having ya'll stay with us this week. Your comments and emails have been so wonderful and encouraging. Thank you all for being such blessings...you have certainly made me smile this past week and given me so much to think about! But we have one more day to go over. Are you ready? Let's begin...
On with that apron...I know I have shared how I feel about my aprons...but they really do help motivate and inspire me to do just a bit extra. Try it...you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Before doing my detailing of the day I decided to organize our spice cabinet. Here is a before picture...
It doesn't look too bad but wait until you see the difference. By rearranging items around a bit...this cabinet looks organized and looks like I have more room.
I purchased these glass jars at Wal-mart (see picture below) for $1.93 (?) and thought they would be perfect to hold my sea salt, baking powder and baking soda. I try to buy those three items in bulk when I can. The mouth jar opening is the perfect size to get my measuring spoons in and out without spilling. Being that salt, soda and the baking powder look very similar...I decided to make some labels out to place on the jars to be able to tell them apart...
Now I didn't need a special gizmo or gadget to make a label...I just wrote it out on an address label and well...there you go! How simple is that?!
Much nicer!
Now on to the cabinet! I start by taking everything out, wiping down the inside of the cabinet and relining with either shelf paper or in my case...paper towels did just fine and as I'm taking items out group like items together...
I have a two tier lazy susan type organizer that I was not able to use stacked up so I used them by themselves. One side I have my sweeter spices and the other is for main dishes. I try to alphabetize them so that finding what I need is quick and easy...
The rest of the items I try to fit where I can and according to usage. This task took me maybe 10 minutes! You can do this type of task as an in between time. What is that? While you are waiting for the coffee pot to finish brewing...you can organize your shelf, drawer or an area that likes to collect papers & stuff all in between waiting for your coffee!
Much better I think anyway!
On to my spritzing...
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Spritzing
Wednesday February 8, 2006
7:00 am - 7:00 am
This event repeats every week.
Event Location: Kitchen and Bathrooms
Notes:
Take 15 minutes to spritz your kitchen and bathrooms with your favorite cleaner. Check to see that you have enough supplies for each area and fresh towels. Don't forget to empty the trash cans! Follow with a quick run of the vacuum. | | |
That's it...just 15 minutes to spruce things up a bit. The only thing I take with me is a roll of paper towels, my favorite blue window/mirror cleaner and the small vacuum. I zip around the sink, counter tops and mirrors and wipe down the toilet area and use the toilet brush to swish the blue window cleaner around and finish up with a quick vacuum. Spacing these spritz type cleanings (Wednesdays and Fridays) is to me not over doing something and yet these areas can still look clean and fresh as they did when we cleaned on Monday.
Here I'm wiping down the light fixtures. If you have only light bulbs on your overhead light...do not spray them with your window cleaner or wipe them down with your towel (with window cleaner on them) while they are on or still warm. This will cause the light bulb to explode and we don't want that. Clean them while they are off and don't turn them on for a few minutes to allow the cleaner to dry. Sometimes in our yahoo group I will send out an assignment to do a 5 Minute Spot Check. One of our 5 minute spot checks was cleaning the light bulbs/fixtures in our bathrooms. These areas are easily forgotten when we are cleaning and are often covered with dust.
I am ready for a nice cup of tea...
What is that you ask? Well...that is my natural source of iron. Blackstrap Molasses (unsulphured) mixed with hot water in a pretty tea cup. Women tend to become anemic especially during certain times of the month...and whenever I'm feeling a bit low on energy...this always puts that pep back into my step.
While sitting down and resting for a few minutes...I like to send out correspondence to loved ones and friends. I think it is always so nice to to receive letters and notes from others. I received a lovely letter from one of my aunts today thanking me for sending her notes with updates on my family. Cards can be purchased for less than 50 cents at Wal-mart and dollar stores will have packages of 20 for $1 and are nice to have on hand.
Yesterday I shared with ya'll how my children have their own personal detailing days. Today was David's (9 years old) day to do his laundry.
Momma going out the door to run a quick errand. I'll be right back!
On to my detailing tasks of the day. Today I have it posted to do my Dining Room and Music/Parlor Room...
Amazing what a Lady can do in a skirt! <smiling>
I really love my schedule and breaking down certain areas to take my time to focus on. I'm not in a rush or hurry because I have other rooms to do. To me this time spent is a wonderful way to just think about things and before I know it the task is done. Some days I will play music (classical) to inspire me along or just simply hum or sing.
Making Dinner
Tonight for dinner we are having Meat Loaf, Mac-n-cheese (leftover from Sunday...I hope ya'll don't mind), green beans, salad, wheat bread slices (homemade from a local Amish bakery), applesauce and for dessert...vanilla yogurt.
I try to start dinner a bit earlier on Wednesday because our family attends church services in the evening. Today I started making our meal at around 4:00 p.m. Meat loaf usually takes about an hour to cook so taking that into consideration...I started at 4.
Unwrapping the meat from the foil and wrap.
I add a few seasonings...eggs, worchestshire sauce, ketchup, bread crumbs and mix all together. I can't give you exact measurements because I have made this dish so often and was one of the very first things I learned to make. I just mix it all in until it looks good.
I make my meat loaf with cheese. After you have mixed your ingredients together, split mixture in half and place one half into the loaf pan...
Add a layer of your favorite cheese...(yes I know...it is not real cheese...but Blaine loves this type of cheese so that is what I use.)
and top that with the rest of your meat mixture...
Place in a preheated 350* F oven for 50 minutes...
While waiting I start to clean up. I try to clean up as I go along so that when it comes time to do the dinner dishes...the only thing I have to do are the actual things we used during our meal.
Also while waiting I set the table. I love setting a nice table for dinner. It makes such a difference. Why is it that we save the tablecloth and cloth napkins and silver for special company and not our families? Are our families not just as special? It may seem like more of an effort but it is well worth the effort when everyone feels special.
Before I know it the buzzer has gone off and we are ready to top the meat loaf with cheese and cook for the last 10 minutes...
Mmmmm!
I have really enjoyed having ya'll in my home and I hope that you will return very soon! Several Ladies have asked if I was going to continue with the pictorials. Yes I will be doing these from time to time but I'm not so sure I will do one every single day...<smiling>
If you have taken Candy's challenge to wear dresses and or skirts for a week and take pictures...please ler her or I know. We would love to share what you are doing with other Ladies to encourage them. So many Ladies are starting to work on that feminine side again and it is so refreshing to see.
May God Bless you all in your efforts in your home this week!
Sincerely Yours,
Catherine
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I wondered if there is a reminder only group.
