Boot Camp

The other day Kardynn and I were leaving a friend's house, as that friend was preparing to rush out the door for boot camp.  The following conversation went down on our way to the car.

Kardynn, "What's boot camp?"
Me, "It's a group of people exercising."
Kardynn, "Oh, I thought it was a place where people practiced so they wouldn't get scared at Halloween."

Ah, yes, Boo Camp.

Removing Rust from Concrete

A few years after moving into our house, we added a screened porch and stamped concrete patio to the back of our house.  The patio has been great and we've never had any regrets.  But one thing we did regret a little was putting what turned out to be rusty metal furniture on it because our patio was eventually covered in rust stains.  This coming Spring we're planning to have the patio re-sealed so suddenly I wanted to figure out some way to get rid of the rust stains.  I impulsively tried spraying some textured spray paint over the rust.  And while I thought that looked better than the rust stains, it definitely wasn't a great solution.  So then we tried some CLR.  That didn't work. Well, we eventually found a combo that worked GREAT. 

Bar Keeper's Friend and a wire grill brush

If you ever find yourself needing to remove rust from stamped concrete (or probably any concrete) go get yourself some Bar Keeper's Friend and a grill brush.  Check out the first block we tried it on. (I think it's fairly evident which block we cleaned up.)

Here's a before and after on another block.  See that big spot of rust there on that block on the left?

 

 Finally, here's a before and after on the whole patio. It's still a little powder-y from all the Bar Keeper's Friend but hopefully one good rain will take care of that.  It was time-consuming, I'm not going to lie.  But it definitely did the trick.  I'm even considering keeping the wire metal patio furniture (though I did spray all the legs with Rustoleum's Rust Reformer, first).

Refinished Table

On Monday Dwight and I refinished our kitchen table.  This is a table we bought with money that my grandparents gave to us, when we first bought our townhouse.  We bought it from a furniture store where they actually made the furniture.  In fact, we paid a deposit and THEN they made it.  So it's a great, solid, well-constructed table.  But it has certainly taken some abuse over the years.  The first major blow was after a night of playing games with Dwight's family.  We had played late into the night and then just went straight to bed, with plans to clean up in the morning.  Well, during the night our cats decided to play with the cups of water we left sitting on the table.  As it turns out, water on top of a score sheet, left sitting overnight, is not the best for a table.  And then I'm sure our attempt to clean it up afterward wasn't great for the table either.  Then throw four messy children at said table.  Not only are they messy eaters, they're messy painters, messy glue-ers, heck, they're even messy with their stickers.  So yeah, that table has had a rough decade (after a few easy years in the very beginning). But now it's back to it's original glory.  Yay!  It looks beautiful.  I wish we'd done it ages ago.

The 2013/2014 Routine

We're almost two months into the school year and life is settling into some sort of routine. The worst part of my day is when the alarm goes off.  I am not a morning person and 6:30 am always comes too soon for me!  The kids don't seem to be morning people either so waking them up and getting them out the door within an hour is my own personal hell.  And as if that wasn't unpleasant enough, I get to pack three lunches during that time which is another task low on my list of favorite chores.  But eventually we all find our way to the bus stop - or worst case scenario, to the school itself.  Several times a week, I then head out for a morning run.  I know I'm already starting to sound like quite the complainer but I do feel compelled to point out that the morning runs were a lot more fun when the weather was just slightly warmer than it is now. But I still love having that little bit of time to myself.  I listen to the radio and enjoy being outside and getting some exercise in the fresh air. 

I think you'll find that now that the kids are on the school bus and I've got my morning run behind me, I'm suddenly going to seem like a much more pleasant person. I'm loving not having to drive to preschool but I think it has turned me back into a homebody. I've been trying to get the house more organized, which I've discovered is synonymous with purging our possessions.  The more stuff I get rid of, the easier it is to stay organized.  I've been on a real quest to get all of our clothing down to manageable amounts.  It's wonderful to actually be able to fit all of our clothes into our drawers.  What a concept!

Around 10:30 I start thinking about getting Kardynn ready for school.  We make sure her homework is done and I prepare her a little lunch.  Then we enjoy a leisurely stroll down to the bus stop.  Once Kardynn is off, I usually have chores to tackle at home.  Lately I've been working my way through various projects.  If I have errands to run, that is the time when I do it.  Every once in a blue moon, Dwight and I have lunch together.  But usually I putter around doing housework.  I've been very diligently trying to not spend money and it seems the easiest way to do that, is to stay home!!

When the kids get home, I start thinking about supper.  I encourage them to immediately tackle their homework. And yet, inevitably, as soon as I announce that it's time for bed, someone suddenly remembers XYZ homework that they forgot to do.  "Oh well!  Too bad, so sad - time for bed!"

As much as I hate the morning, I love the few hours after the children go to bed! I think that's what gets me into real trouble because I always end up staying up way too late and then the vicious cycle repeats itself.  I'm gradually trying to work myself into an earlier bed time but so far that's not working out great.

In the meantime, as part of my quest to cut back on spending and simplify life, I didn't sign the kids up for ANY activities this Fall.  And that has been fantastic.  There's a direct correlation between my stress levels and the number of extra-curricular activities we're involved in.  I know all those activities are great for the kids but I think not having all those activities has actually been great for our family.  We're having family dinners together way more often.  And I don't think the kids miss them *that* much - my bank account certainly doesn't!

All in all, life is good.