On being Martha Stewart

A brief list of What I Accomplished Yesterday:

• Loaded the dishwasher and hand-washed a bunch of pots & pans I've been putting off.
• Scrubbed my kitchen cabinets & drawers, all 24 of them, of all that nasty kid crust and dripped coffee (and orange marker and some kind of mud that I couldn't figure out).
• Cleaned the grill on the fridge and the kitchen baseboards and the A/C register next to the pantry.
• Cleaned the banister, every single rail of it.
• Watched Emma & Haley for a few hours so their mom could start her new job.  (Although really it was like I had two babysitters for three hours, which was awesome!)
• Made six hot dogs for four kids.  With strawberries!
• Decorated the house for the 4th of July (with great help from Haley and Emma!)
• Hosted the Geek Squad dude.  Again.  Who (mis)informed us that the DVD player was bad and the fact that it won't play a DVD for more than 30 seconds without losing its signal was because it needed to be replaced.
• Replaced our front door knobs/handle/deadbolt assembly.  No more brass!
• Spray painted a few pieces of the old assembly that I still wanted to use.
• Took the kids to the hardware store for pumice stones, tomato cages and copies of keys for the new lock.
• Came home to find Dave locked out of his own house! (and complaining that he didn't like how I'd installed the lock.  More on that when I take pictures.)
• Set up four tomato cages in my garden and re-planted the watermelon and pumpkin plants with new ones I bought at the hardware store (the ones I planted from seeds hadn't been doing well).
• Left Dave to make dinner while I returned our DVD player to Best Buy.
• Came home and installed the new DVD player only to find I couldn't get it to work properly either, even though it was a different brand.
• Ate dinner (it was that TJ's garlic chicken thing that all you do is heat up and serve) in approximately 90 seconds.
• Went upstairs to purge toys and clean the kids' bedrooms.  Alex's room was DESTROYED.  Literally every toy he owned (yes, past tense because he no longer owns quite so many) was on the floor and it took me over an hour to get it all sorted and put away.  I dusted as I went.
• In Genoa's room, I realized she was out of room for all the toys she got for her birthday (I hadn't seen the floor since before her party!).  I ended up taking all her blankets (around 15 of them!) and folded them on hangers in the closet to make more room on her shelves.
• Went back to Best Buy to return the DVD player and get another one.
• Ran to Kohl's while I was out to find some vinyl tablecloths for the 4th.
• Installed the new DVD player only to find it didn't work either!
• Made an angry phone call to the manager of our local Best Buy.  Remind me again why I paid $200 for a Geek Squad installation and yet my TV doesn't play DVD's yet?
• Made a grocery list and headed to Fred Meyer.  At 10:00 PM.
• Came home, put away groceries and collapsed.

Here's my list for today: MAGIC 2PM PROGRESS UPDATE!

• Call the vet and get an Rx for Harry. (I'll be picking it up on the way to T-ball)
• Call my friend Callie to cancel park play date.
• Help Carol get ready for her company (Lynne's parents will be staying at her house). (Carol decided she'd rather spend her day picking paint colors!  Gah!)
• Finish washing the sheets and make the beds for our company. (In progress!  One bed is made, but when I pulled the clean sheets out of the closet for the other bed, they smelled musty so I'm rewashing them.)
• Vacuum upstairs.
• Clean the guest bathroom & pumice the toilet.
• Vacuum the stairs.
• Vacuum the downstairs.
• Wash our throw rugs.
• Dust the TV and family room.
• Wipe the crust off the leather couches.
• Fold and put away four loads of laundry.
• Clean the downstairs bathroom.
• Go to Costco for flank steak.
• Go to Wal-Mart for a flag and some Soy Vay.
• Take Alex to T-ball practice. (at 5PM)

I also already:

• Reinstalled our flag pole because I couldn't find any poles small enough for the existing bracket.
• Also went to Target because Wal-Mart didn't have the plain comforter I needed.
• Took the kids to Sonic for lunch (to make up for using the TV as a babysitter all day).
• Cut up a bunch of cauliflower to serve with the BBQ on the 4th.
• Accidentally dropped the clothes steamer while steaming pillow cases and burned my poor baby girl on the arm!  She's fine but MAN what a stupid horrible accident!!  I've actually done it to myself before, so I know exactly how she feels.

Comments

[zeghsy]

whew. that made me tired.

[kj]

dang! what kind of energy drink are you on?!?

[Bunny]

Martha, what does it mean to pumice a toilet?

['Tree']

What I wouldn't give for a day like that. Although I was exhausted reading it :-)

['Tree']

Oh, and I see that you're making teriyaki flank steak again. You're holding out out on that recipe :-)

[Mandee]

Thank you, Bunny. I got really worried there for a minute that pumicing the toilet is one of those things that everybody in the world knows about except me. And that everyone has been judging me all these years for not pumicing my toilet. Kind of like discovering recently that most people I know wipe down the washer and dryer on a regular basis. Who knew? Apparently, everyone but me!

[alison]

Are you available to do my house too?

[Cess]

I still dont understand what pumicing a toilet does but I think I might need to...

[Rachael]

Pumice a toilet? I don't know what that is either! I thought pumice was just for my feet. Also, it wasn't everyone but you, because I have never wiped down the washer & dryer, and I'm pretty sure my parents never did either... Oops? You are a getting-stuff-done MACHINE! I envy your energy.

[Jasmina]

1. What are you on?
2. Can I have some?
3. My toilet has never been pumiced. I've never heard of a toilet needing pumicing. Please don't turn me in to the pumice authorities.

[serror]

WOW! You are productive!

Also, not familar with pumice in regards to toilet. And also, you steam your sheets! WOW!

[Susan too]

Ummm, you are making me exhausted reading this. THIS is why I go to work, to avoid household chores. Plus, then I can hire a cleaner!!
have a great 4th!

[Lia]

So impressed but I must say, why the hell are you steaming pillow cases????