We were running a tight schedule today, and needed to be out of the house for 4 hours while all the ants that have been torturing me died a slow and painful death with the bug bombs. Since I’m a morning runner, this meant a 6 am run - something I haven’t done in forever. I honestly came close to baling, if not for the early rise of my 4 year old.

I ate a small bowl of cereal and drank water - no water trolley with me today. The temps and the sun were still low. Truly a beautiful morning.

So around I went on my usual route - tearing up many, many spider webs on my way. I ran faster than when I push the stroller, but not extraordinarily fast.

It felt good.

Dusting.

Once upon a time, when I had a 1 bedroom apartment and just me making it dirty, I dusted and cleaned every Saturday. It took me about 90 minutes.

Today I hit the living room for some cleaning - as well as trying to decorate the newly rearranged space. Dusting is not just the entertainment center and a few end tables anymore. I’ve got the mantle, the windows, two book shelves a china cupboard - way too much furniture. No wonder I never dust. Plus the baseboards were pretty bad in some spots and the windows (dog).

Tomorrow we are going to try to find a chair for the living room and hopefully put to bed most of the work to make that space much more cozy and fun. The old entertainment center works so well on the porch and really makes it look better out there - plus all the extra storage neatens up the place some, too.

I am ready for the weekend!

I made the best porkchops ever tonight. They are now the first recipe that I’ve done that’s officially in the “rotation” for dinner. I’d previously made a variation of this, but tonight, it was perfect.

CRISPY PORK CHOPS
Ingredients

• 4-6 boneless pork chops
• 5 oz box of Melba toasts (can be found in the cracker section)
• 6-8 Tablespoons of Mayo
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Break melba toasts into pieces and add to a ziplock plastic bag.
• Add spices to the plastic bag. Seal and pound down until you have a course (not powdered) mixture.
• Add 2 Tablespoons of mayo and mix in. Pour mixture into pie plate.
• Rub 1 Tablespoon of mayo on each chop and coat with mixture, pressing it into the chop.
• Place chops on rack of a roasting pan.
• Bake for 18-22 minutes, remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes to continue cooking. (I didn’t know that most meats will continue to cook for a period after they are removed from heat - did you?)

These are so moist and delicious I could have eaten the whole plate myself.

I served with jasmine rice (made in the rice cooker) and sauteed squash. MMMMMM.

This recipe is actually from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - which is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Things have been coming to a head here with me pushing a few things and feeling like I don’t have enough hours during the day to spend with the boys. Today we juggled a few things and it came down to exercise or cleaning….I chose exercise. Wouldn’t you?

I did sort through some more drawers and closets today, but not for at least 30 minutes. I’ll try again tomorrow - hopefully I’ll get that wall painted and the porch furniture wiped down!

Growing up, I loved summertime. Besides school being out, the weather was near perfect. We might have a few days where the highs went into the upper 80s, but mostly the temps were mild. Days were sunny and I never minded a rainy day here and there. We lived a normal summertime life, outside all day - to the lake, the park, the woods, our backyard, the library, Grandma’s house, bike rides. The memories are lumped together like mush, but they all taste good in my mind.

But here in Virginia, it’s not the same. We’ve had a wicked hot summer populated with severe thunderstorms. We’re on hurricane watch with every storm that perks up. My kids and I do get outside, but mostly in the morning hours before the sun has warmed the air to peak temps. By late afternoon, the bugs have infested our back yard and for some strange reason, the kids get bit to pieces even with bug spray on. Little Z is the worst, with large marks on his neck and back for sometimes days.

So, in a way, this is our “winter”. We spend our days mostly indoors, discovering new games and having fun together. Gil has returned a slide to Bump’s room which makes great fun for my two little boys. We also play basketball, chase and various sports. Books and board games, blocks and widgets, tea parties and picture time. In the evening we take Casey for a walk or sometimes ride down to the park (bugs aren’t as bad.)

It’s strange to be inside in summer, but soon the fall will break to winter and we’ll be outside for most of it, while my family in Wisconsin is shoveling out their driveways and bundling up for the latest cold snap. It’s a trade off of sorts. All though, I’m not convinced that I like the climate here more, the lack of snow does make it a little more appealing….just a little.

I spent some time going through my closet and weeding out clothes that I don’t wear, and won’t wear. Some sentimental favorites went into the donation pile. I also pulled some blankets out of our linen closet. You see, once you become a sewer, and one with children, blankets multiply in your house.

I also set my sites on the screen porch. My intention was to vacuum and then wipe down the furniture. I finished the vacuuming (that’s some yucky stuff), but needed to clean the beater bar because I also wanted to do the downstairs. I had a little problem with getting the thing back together. Like 30 minutes later, I finally had it. I was soaking wet with sweat, but it worked. And Little E was waking up from his nap (early), so that ended today’s cleaning challenge.

I feel pretty good about how things are going so far, but I must admit that I feel a lot of pressure to do these tasks, simply because I feel like I spend all day doing things, and not playing with the boys as much. But, I also look at it as maybe the only time this year that I truly focus on cleaning things and at the end of the 4 weeks, I’ll have made progress to being able to maintain a cleaner house.

If nothing else, my blogging is up

Day 7 - Sunday

And then there was rest. But does a mother ever really rest? Not that I did anything specific that I can remember, but I’m sure there was laundry and dinner and dishes.

Day 8 - Monday
I really didn’t feel like doing anything today. Nothing. Nada. But I managed to take down and wash some curtains that really needed washing and then put them back up. I also took advantage of the absence of my computer and cleaned the keyboard. I took every key off (not all at once), blew air underneath and then wiped out with a windex-laced q-tip. It was a little furry under there. And, it took me well over 30 minutes to do it.

Day 9 - Tuesday
Another blah day. I wanted to do a few things on the computer. Instead, I wiped down most of the dining area of our kitchen - walls, molding, doors, doorframes. And then the most repulsive of jobs - cleaning the 3 windows in that room. One and two weren’t too bad. But window three was really yucky. I swear there were at least 6 spiders with webs in it. Plus it’s in a bad spot for run off and the sill gets chock full of dirt. I have a date with the three screens from these windows that need a full hose down from the outside.

And can you believe that a spider (or two) has built a web in the window I so carefully cleaned last week?

Ant Update
We didn’t get to bomb the house this weekend due to a scheduling conflict - the realization that we needed to be out of the house for 4 hours and had no where to go. We’ve made a plan for this weekend to finally get it done.

I have seen quite a few bodies in the little terro trap I put in the pantry. But there are none in the ones behind the microwave and under the sink. Today I had a few sitings under the counter where I store my food processors, crock pot and rice cooker. Again, I’m not sure what they’re after under there. It’s not really an ant paradise.

But, by Saturday it won’t matter. We should be bug free for some 4-6 weeks after that.

We had a little snafu around here this weekend. Our computer went down for the count. It ended up being only a bad cable from hard drive, but also meant 3 days of life without. It drove me crazy. This is my lifeline to the world - weather, email, news, contacts, sports…all here on the old computer.

But it also gave me a new perspective.

I’ll catch you up on the cleaning challenge and where we are - still going. And for those of you who read my fitness blog…I’ll be catching up on my 4 week fitness challenge. Stay tuned. Life just doesn’t stop around here!

While I had no formal plans for a cleaning frenzy this weekend - beyond a few loads of laundry and vacuuming, Gil became inspired to change around our living room and back porch. We have this HUGE TV armoir that has outlived it’s life inside. It has made it impossible to rearrange furniture. We’ve opted for a smaller table sized piece and moved the big boy out to the porch.

While I didn’t think it was a great idea, it does look pretty good out there. It also keeps the TV a little more sheltered than our previous arrangement.

I’ve spent the better part of the day dusting and moving things and trying to figure out what’s going where. It will fit right in to some cleaning for next week.

I must admit the most intensive part, however, was moving all the kids DVDs and VHSs from one storage location to the next. You never realize how much you accumulate in a short period of time. Also, our dusty CD collection was well hidden under the old TV armoir. I’m not sure what to do with that. Everything is on our iPods, now.

I did run out for paint yesterday afternoon, but have not had a chance to finish up my little project yet.

Well, today’s project really was more of a home improvement thing rather than cleaning. But since it’s part of getting my kitchen in ship shape, I thought I’d tackle it head on.

Painting…

There’s a spot on our kitchen wall where our cabinets were before we pulled out the bank over the top of the stove 3 years ago. We’ve not repainted it, although the area and the adjacent cabinet/molding have been primed. I’ve had the three cans of paint sitting in the bathroom for the better part of the last 6 months trying to urge Gil to finish it up along with the flooring. But today, I wanted it done.

I started with the cabinet. I finished that and then did a little touch up here and there. Next was the molding - no big deal. Then came the wall - the yellow Solaria paint….it was a bust. The can had been left open and the paint was mostly hard inside. What was left was too thin to work with - I tried. So I hung my head, cleaned up my space and headed on to fingerpainting with Bump.

That’s my last project for the week. I’ll be posting about the Cleaning Challenge this weekend, but am not taking on any formal projects…