St.Patricks Day Muffins

Since it's on a Saturday this year, I can do a little more than usual with fun eats. But I don't love all the dye in stuff to make it green. So today I tried an alternate hoping the fam wouldn't even guess it wasn't dye!

And they look better than dye colored ones, and they are full of SPINACH! You can't taste the spinach in these banana nut muffins because the bananas really overpower the spinach taste!

I just used my regular banana bread recipe but blended about 2 1/2-3 cups of spinach in with the liquids before I added them to the dry mix!

Def on the list of things to make Saturday!

I also picked up some cute straws with orange mustaches for the kids for Saturday!

Spring Cleaning Family Room

How is your Spring Cleaning Coming along?

 The sunshine we had for a couple days made it much easier!

Next to the kitchen, the family room gets the most use, there are always a few stray toys under the couch, dvd's out of order and fingerprints on nearly everything!

Here is the list of supplies I use to get ours done

~Apron, with pockets for all those little things I know I will find!

~Swiffer Dusters with the long handle (and a couple short handles for my helpers)

~microfiber cloths 1 for polish, 1 for glass

~Glass cleaner (I prefer Sprayway Brand, but will use vinegar in a pinch)

~Magic Eraser and vinegar in a spray bottle

~Vacuum

~Baby Wipes

The family room doesn't take nearly as long as the kitchen does once the purging is done. 

~Start some laundry! Curtains and throw blankets and pillows all need it

~Move the rug to another room and put some baking soda on it, let the kids jump and dance around on it to get it rubbed in. I move it because I don't want all the dust settling on it.

~Dust the ceiling fan and bulbs

~Wipe down or dust walls

~Dust all the frames, don't forget the tops!

~Dust electronics, especially behind them.

~Dust all the knickknacks and fluff

~Polish furniture

~Wash windows and mirrors

~I give our oldest the job of organizing the DVD's

~I get hubby to turn off the pilot light on the fireplace, but we are going to wait a while on that, we have been using it far too much lately for it to be turned off!

~Clean couch cushions. I use baby wipes for this after they are vacuumed off

~And while the wipes are out I make sure all the light switches and remotes get a quick cleaning too

~Then I go around the room and wipe down the baseboards with the magic eraser and vinegar

~Finally to the vacuuming, I vacuum all over, move the furniture and vacuum under it too

~Steam mop the hardwoods 

~Then move the rug back in once all the baking soda has been vacuumed up, 

hoping it takes all the dirt with it!

~Put the curtains back up and the lighter throw blankets come out, heavier ones get stored.

That's it! I think we will reward all the helpers with a movie!

Should be able to get this done in the next couple days, then I will be starting on the bathrooms!

More kids bathroom

While I SHOULD have been cleaning the kitchen, I was working on a little thing for the kids bathroom.

It's not done but it is coming together! 

Still need a few more things to finish it up!

Spring Cleaning Kitchen

Now that the cleaning out is done I can get started on the real cleaning!

I start with the kitchen, it takes the longest usually and it takes the most abuse!

I can usually get most of this done in 1-2 days depending on what else we have going on that week.

And I like to have a good reward planned for when it's over. I will have to think about what it should be! Usually something for that room, something use full or pretty! 

And I HAVE to have good music! I doubt I would get anything done without it!

I listen to everything! I like a good mix but it has to be ok for the kids too. The Civil Wars are my very fave! I saw them last year when they were here the band that opened for them has grown on me SO much!

Milo Greene! They only had a 3 song CD at the show but youtube has so many live songs, love them all!

This is my fave though!

ok now that I got just slightly off track, here is my list. It's not much different than last year, just a couple things added I noticed needed attention.

~Start the oven on self clean

~Vacuum on top of cabinets and ceiling corners

~Take everything out of cabinets and wipe down (I do 1 at a time)

~Polish the outside of the cabinets

~Clean the microwave and put fan filters in dishwasher

~Clean out the fridge/freezer (if you don't do that more often)

~Clean the top of the fridge

~Pull fridge out and vacuum sides and coils

~wash silverware tray (in dishwasher)

~Clean the inside of the dishwasher 

~Replace felt pads on all the chairs

~Tidy the pantry

~Clean under the sink

~make vinegar ice cubes (for weekly disposal cleaning)

~Clean Toaster and Mixer really good

~Clean oven sides and underneath once it's cooled

~wash windows

~wipe down moldings and doors

And the other stuff I need to do this year is

~Clean party cabinet

~Clean craft cabinet

~Clean the junk drawer (again!)

Check out all the past Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning Prep

I said a couple weeks ago I was going around each room and making a list of things that needed to be done in there besides the usual cleaning. Things like touching up the paint, or working on a spot in the carpet, replacing light switch covers, just the little things that don't come up too often but still need to be handled.

So now that I have the lists done for each room I am starting the purging portion of Spring Cleaning. I actually started a few days ago, I was itchin' to get it done!

First I go through every ones clothes! I don't know how it happens (well ok I do, I LOVE clothes) but we always end up with more than we need, and there are usually a few that have seen better days. I get those out of the way, make room for Spring/Summer clothes in the dressers and closets. 

In the bathrooms I make sure nothing is expired, and if I haven't used it in 6 months I probably don't need it, lots of tossing and making a list of things we are out of. I just go through every room and do this.

So I will spend a few days this week purging and making my lists. Then I will start on the real cleaning, hopefully by the end of the week!

I always start with the kitchen!

Here are my kitchen lists from years past

Here

Here

Here

I still need to make my plan for this year, hopefully by Wednesday!

Have a good Monday!

Kid Storage

I am sure I cannot be the only one who doesn't like to toys all over, or an unattractive storage solution! 

Sometimes it seems impossible to find something to hold all the toys and books that is actually nice to look at. Plastic and particle board just are not cutting it for me, not that we don't use those, we do, but they are in the closet where I don't have to see them unless I look. We have a few of these

They are great for all the little things and books! 

We have a LOT of books. But they just aren't that attractive to me!

We have been looking for something to hold all of the Legos Ramsey has.

We thought about a couple of these, but they are also less than attractive.

So we were just keeping them in 2 of the canvas cubes but they were already overfull and too heavy to really be good for him to play with. Then my fave girls at Real Deals in Salem posted a picture on facebook, and I KNEW we needed it for his room, as long as it would fit.

This is what they posted

Cute right?! So I went and measured to see if it would fit, and it DID!! So it has a home in his bedroom now, holds his baseball light and all of his Legos are organized by color in the bins. My pictures are not great but it still looks perfect in his room and it wasn't too deep so he still has plenty of room to drag his Lego table over and enjoy playing with them!

This little treasure sure put me in the mood to get started on our Spring Cleaning!

So this week I will try and get my planning all done, so we can get started and done and enjoy Spring!

Hubby is already outside working on cleaning stuff up while it's not raining. I am hoping I can add "build chicken coop" to his honey do! We'll see how well that goes over :)