When Berries Attack

We have a beautiful Yaupon Holly tree in our front yard. I've photographed it before and shared it on here. I love the tree. I love clipping it in December and using it to decorate for Christmas. I love that it hides the part of the house that needs to be stripped and re-painted. But what I don't like? When the berries turn black. And attack.

It happens every year, but as the tree matures, the attack gets bigger and bigger every year. It doesn't usually bother us because we don't spend a lot of time on the edge of the driveway. But since I drive through it to get in and out of the garage from time to time smashed berries do appear in the house and in my car.

But the night we had our family party my Aunt Janis parked in the worst possible spot. And then got out of the car in her tennis shoes. With the first step that she took the berries infiltrated each and every crevice in the bottom of her shoes. She didn't notice, who would? When she walked into the house I didn't notice right away but soon enough I was drawn to the black footprints across my beige carpet. So between all the other stuff I was doing, I cleaned the carpet and warned other people. Poor Janis, she spent about 20 minutes with a wire brush and an ice pick cleaning out all those crevices.

There's something about the berry once it's smashed. It becomes like super glue. Trust me, I've had a few stuck to the bottom of my bare foot lately. It's like removing a wart from a witches nose.

During her cleaning time Shawn went outside and swept the berries over so she wouldn't step in them again. A few days later he took a straight edged shovel out because the smashed ones were hermetically sealed to the concrete. But I called him in for dinner before the massive pile was cleaned up. And a week later neither one of us had taken the time to dispose of them. So a week of driving over them? Yeah, it got ugly.So a few days ago I attacked. With a push broom with a scraper on one side and a shovel, I fought the berries...and won.

And then we trimmed the tree and shook tons of berries back down.

Sigh.

We are under attack once again.

Help.

It Was Time

When the Funk's came for the 4th of July I of course stocked up on food. They are so gracious to treat us to meals out as well as home cooked meals when we visit there, but we don't have the same cash flow they do:c)

I should have cleaned out the pantry before the massive shopping trip, but I was too busy not dusting or something.

I lost control of my pantry, if I'm being honest, about a month before that.

My pantry is one of my favorite things about the house. It has no storage whatsoever any where else, but I have a pantry. I can make places for towels and tablecloths, but food? I have to have a home for. Our last house had a coat closet in the kitchen instead of a pantry. It took about 2 weeks after we moved in for me to talk Shawn into taking out the hanging bar and putting in shelves. I fell more in love with him at that time.

Our current pantry is under the stairs so it's not the most convenient place to get to, but I've adapted. I have to scrunch down, insert myself, and lean to the left. When you add food for 6 more people for almost a week, it gets ugly.

The week before Thanksgiving I decided I needed to clean it out. After all, I was planning dinner for 14, there was going to be another massive shopping trip.

Here are the befores.

Try not to judge me.Yes that's a camping lantern. We've tried many different lighting options over the last 12 years. This is our current choice.

When inserting myself to the left I have to watch out for it.

I'm not a quick learner.Something has always spilled so the vacuum is always necessary. This was before I started loading everything back in that sat on the floor.

Horrifying I know. After I put it all back in it was beautiful. Spacious. Organized. Perfect.

Sadly I didn't take an after picture.

Even more sadly, it doesn't look good anymore.

Who is at all surprised?

This Is A Joke...Right??

My amazing in-laws are in town to celebrate Shawn's birthday and stay with the girls while I went to join him at camp and take yearbook pictures.

Wow, that was a long sentence. Should it have been broken up? Check back in a few days after I've had some sleep and see if it's been changed.

Anyway. I don't want my amazing in-laws to find themselves in a compromising situation and have to try to look under my bathroom sink to find another roll of toilet paper. It's not easy to get your body in the right position to look. So when I noticed the roll was almost out I put the new one on the lid. I'm all about quality service.

After the girls and Shawn came home from a football game someone used that bathroom. When I went in later I found this.
Seriously?? They moved the new roll out of their way, used the rest of the old roll, and replaced the new one right where it had been. My word!! If I find out who it is....they're in trouble!

I'm currently interviewing each one of them separately about their whereabouts around 10:10-10:17 Friday evening.

Stay tuned for the results.

As for a punishment...I'm thinking they'll give me a foot massage and pedicure.

Who says the punishment has to fit the crime?

Okay, So We Have A Mouse

I live in an old house. Not a hundred years or anything, but 66 years. I love it. It's been a part of my life for 34 years now. I haven't always lived in it, but it's been with me. When we moved back to my home town and started searching for somewhere to live, this house was for rent. Shawn called and left a message for the owners. When the idiot (some day when I get over it, I might explain why that's his name) called he started to tell me about the house. I stopped him and said, "Let me tell you about the house." I gave him a brief history of my life with it and he wasn't impressed. Then he asked me to tell him something about the house that no one else would know. I had this. I told him that since the closet in the downstairs bedrooms has a door in each room there was a chain lock on the inside of the east closet door. He had to go look! When he found the lock he'd never known was there he told me we had the house. We bought the house from another idiot a little over a year later.

I've never lived in a new house and honestly hope I never do. I love history. I love owning something that had a life long before I came along. I love the stories, the memories, and the history. Most of our furniture is old. Almost everything is from someone else in my family or from good friends. I pick new pieces that look old. It's who I am.

But part of owning an old house is pests. I know that my cousin Robin lives in a newer home and has ants, (wonder how she'll feel about me sharing that...) so I don't feel bad about our ant problem. I hate to spray something because of Jackie 'O' so I went searching for a better option. I've tried a line of chalk and fresh mint leaves, but they haven't worked. I finally started using something my neighbor gave me to use around the pool. An orange liquid that kills them slowly enough so that they get back to their colony and infect everyone. The only problem, apparently living right outside my kitchen door, is about a bajillion colonies. I think since March I've spent half the time battling. I thought I had them beat just recently. After all, we'd had a cold snap of a full day at around 75 degrees. But I woke up to this.

Please don't judge me.

So now that you know that about me...I can tell you about the gnats. I'm so stinking tired of gnats. They're not the gnats I grew up with. These are in your face all up in your biz'ness gnats. Attack gnats. I have tried two different homemade traps and neither one is an overwhelming success. I'm about to stop buying fresh food. Anyone have an amazing tip to pass along??

Oh, and now to the title of this post. Sadly, yes, we have a mouse. Okay okay. Apparently we have a mom mouse and some baby mice. We don't live in squalor. I promise! We do live next door to someone who has large outdoor dogs with large outdoor dog dog food. He's told us before that he has mice because of that. Oh joy.

I don't do snappy traps. No way do I want to wake up to that. So we buy the glue traps. This is the third time in 12 years that we've had to do this. I've had to remove a used trap once. It took me 20 minutes to decide what to use. I finally decided on the longest pair of kitchen tongs I own. I hoped to never have to do that again.

So are you ready for this?? We've caught 5. 5 tiny little vermin. When Kennedy had a friend spend the night I couldn't decide what to do with my nightly glue trap. I didn't want her running home and telling her mom that we have mice. (So instead I'm blogging about it for the world to read.) I decided to wait until they were in bed and put it out. Then I'd simply hide it in the morning when I left for my long run. As I was trying to get everything together and get out of the door I almost forgot about it. Luckily it caught my eye as I went into the kitchen because it had been moved. Who in the stink would have moved it? I'd found the sweet spot to put it. I am the professional here. I assumed it was Shawn. I put my foot on it to pull it out from under it's hiding spot, the stove. Since my hands were full my foot was the only option. Heaven forbid I put everything down. It seemed like the trap was stuck on a rubber band. I could faintly see it as I'd pull the trap out and it would slide right back in. Finally as my Gatorade was slipping, it broke free of the rubber band and I was able to stow it away out of sight. All with my foot. I know I know, I am so talented. I didn't give another thought to it since I had 6 miles waiting for me.

When I got home I headed to the pantry to grab the first thing I could find to eat. I kind of feel a bit hungry after Saturday's long runs. My eye landed on the glue trap I'd hidden. It had something on it. Something...gray...and furry...yep, leftover mouse. It hadn't been a rubber band...it had been a mouse and that was his tail! I did a little heeby jeeby dance and went to wake up Shawn and tell him the story. Really, things like this should be shared. I've waited to tell you all so that you wouldn't judge me...but I think we know by now I can't keep my big yap shut.

So please tell me that someone out there has had a mouse. I need to feel like I'm not the only one. And while you're at it, if you could tell me that you also have ants and gnats, I'd love you forever.

Anyone??

Laundry Weirdness

Since I've started following a lot of home decorating blogs, I've been seeing a lot of laundry rooms. Mine is now one of the ugliest places in the entire world. But it works so I'm not really complaining. Today I read this post and it got the wheels in my head spinning.

I know from tv shows and listening to friends that I do my laundry differently from the whole entire world. But I do it correctly, so I don't know why everyone else does it wrong.

Let me 'splain.

When I was in middle school and high school I worked at a church camp during the summers. When I lived with my grandparents my grandma did my laundry. But when I moved in with the college staff I suddenly had to do my own. I had no idea what I was doing the first time I headed to the laundry room. So I did what made sense; I read the tag. If it said warm, I washed in warm. All these years later it still makes sense. The manufacturer of the clothing tells you how to wash it. They should know, shouldn't they?

What I've learned from listening to my friends, and from being given hand-me-downs is, our clothes last longer. Mainly because they stay the right size. We are given so many clothes that have shrunk. Luckily we have three sizes of girls so we can find an owner for it:c)

I do wash whites separately, but only socks. I just hate the smell of feet and want those to be bleached. Also, since we own a trampoline, I find socks all around our property in all stages of stains.

After reading Chris's post, and all the comments, I wish I knew the magic way to keep up with laundry. I try to do one load a day but there are days when I start it and don't have time to finish it. Luckily my new homemade detergent and vinegar rinse keep the clothes from souring. My big thing is getting it folded. I can leave a load of clothes in the dryer for days. I of course will set it to fluff for 10 minutes planning to fold and then move on to something else and forget it. I don't mind folding but I will not put it away unless it's mine. My girls bring their laundry down, sort it, and put it away. They know how to do the washing but I don't want them to do it. They are so busy with school, voice, piano, playing, and being kids. I am a stay-at-home mom and that is part of my job. I do have them help me out from time to time, but it is my job. They will know how to do it, and do it correctly, before they leave my house.

So, anyone else out there do laundry the right way?? Or am I the only smart one? :c)

My front porch...

...is being taken over!

I love this time of year because of it. I can't wait until my favorite plant store puts the Ornamental Sweet Potato out for sale. I am such a cheap person way down deep inside and only five plants gets me a ton for my money.

And five little plants that look like my flower bed swallowed them turn into this.When I took these pictures, which was a month ago, it was spilling over the front side of the planter,making its way down onto the driveway,and getting up close and personal with the bench.Of course, the pumpkins and the candles also take up some room. McKinley is less than thrilled because this is her favorite homework spot.

Soon enough the first freeze will hit and it will be a disgusting brown stringy mess.

Luckily these pictures will be ready and waiting for me right here on my little blog:c)