In the Blender Yet Again

I know things are crazy around here when my to do list takes a backseat to life. John has the crud Du jour.  So I did my best to keep the guys apart, we will know if I was successful later this week.  So I tried to get an early start on chores.  I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done, there would have been more done but I ran out of clothes line space.  I managed to get 3 more skeins of hand spun yarn washed, but due to the damp cold weather ( 1 inch of rain last night) it is taking forever to dry. The dishwasher was run and, emptied and refilled.

Then it was time to fix the vacuum cleaner. For those of you with 3D printers, may I suggest using the shop vacuum to clean up around your printers.  The regular household upright vacuum was not designed to vacuum up filament. Just ask me how I know.  It jams up the beater bar.  It’s a 30 minute very messy job to do.  Did I mention how messy it is?

I also did not need my lunch to explode in the microwave oven.  Who knew that stuffed cabbage was messier than pinto beans,when heated up in the microwave.  It will get cleaned tomorrow, because I did not feel like standing on the step stool to wash it out.

Then under no good deed goes unpunished. I used rumba to vacuum the kitchen floor before I went to Scooba it.  While roomba did a great job and did not knock over my knitting baskets, loom and spinning wheel used as a road block.  Scooba on the other hand died after 10 minutes and would not go any further.  So I mopped the floor using the diluted cleaning solution from Scooba.  20 minutes later the mopping was done and so was I.  By the way I put Scooba in a timeout until we get a new battery.  This upset Eric to no end.

This is why I still have 7 items on my to do list with more to be added tomorrow.  I am exhausted.  Yes, Eric did get enough mommy time today too. I only had the energy to knit 7 rows on Eric’s next hat.  That is 784 stitches. The mittens have not been started.

If someone could lend me their magic wand for tomorrow that would be wonderful.

Exploding Soda Cans Part 2

Today was devoted to cleaning up the last of the exploding soda cans. Everything came out out of the pantry. Scooba spent 45 minutes locked up in the pantry mopping the floor, yes an entire cleaning cycle. John washed everything that needed to be washed by hand.  This saved me about 30 minutes of cleaning. As usual with any cleaning project of this type around here it lead to cascade cleaning. Two shelf's in the kitchen got redone. More tea moved off the counter. All the paper goods, plastic ware and chop sticks are in a box. This box is now in the garage. I also got rid of all the old salt and pepper packages that come with the silverware. I cleaned out part of a shelf in the garage this afternoon, after 30 minutes I was dripping in dew.  I decided to do more when it was not 104 outside. John also organized a shelf for me so I would not have to get a ladder out. I just love having a taller half.

I went back on my promise to myself not to put anything on the floor of the pantry. While finding a place for the paper goods box I found a lot of boxes of Ziploc bags in 4 different sizes and 6 unopened boxes of trash bags. I moved them into the floor of the pantry so that they would be easier to find. In about 6 months I expect that there will be a lot less and hopefully confined to one box on the pantry floor.

One thing that I always find amazing is how much get recycled and thrown out when I get into these deep cleaning jags. I also find it amazing that the house gets easier to keep clean. John does not seem surprised by this at all. I also love how John is always there at the right time and has figured out what I really don't want to clean. He just does it, with no questions asked.

I have 2 major areas left to clean, the garage and the craft/sewing/guest room. These will be done a little bit at a time. For right now I think I pushed my body a little to far and will need to let it have time to recover.

Only a few minutes of spinning got done today. I used one of my drop spindles.

For my readers in the USA please have a save and happy 4th of July. Please remember to party safely. Leave the fireworks to the professionals and above all don't drink and drive. Please take time to also give a small prayer for the safety of all our Troops over seas. Remember that they make our freedoms possible.

Multi-Tasking

I would like to dedicated this blog post to  Emma S. from Canada. A fan and a regular reader of my blog. Is very much interested to know how I manage the household tasks and the knitting. This is a very good question.

The first thing I would have to say is that I take my knitting absolutely everywhere I go. If I am at the grocery store I have a small project such as a hat or scarf with a very simple pattern. The plus side of this is when the lines get especially long I am usually the first person they take to the new line. I think this is because good customer service mandates that your customers should not be in line long enough to actually be doing a "hobby" and making progress. The only place this has not worked is Walmart.

I also take my knitting to restaurants. We are not the 5 star dining kind of folks. So After I have decided what to order out comes the knitting until the food arrives. The plus side of this that I eat less of the nibbles that are placed on the table. This is a two for. 1 more knitting. 2 less calories are consumed. It also works when everyone is having the desert I so dearly want and choose not to eat most of the time.

When I have to do the carpooling for Eric, I always have my knitting with me. Sometimes they run late in his day program. So I just sit and knit while I wait for Eric. I seem to be one of the only parents that does not get upset with them running long. I also knit while John is driving so I will not be a back seat driver I never knit while I am driving, please don't knit and drive as I feel this is very dangerous.  I have also been know to knit while walking in the mall or at street fairs. My hint for knitting at the movies would be very light colored yarns and a very easy pattern.

I also get a lot of knitting done when Eric is sick. With the children's channels they tend to be on a 6 hour or less repeat cycle. I have to say there are only so many times I can watch the same episode of a show in a 24 hour period. I do keep a fully loaded basket of yarn for scarfs or ponchos in Eric's room by the rocking chair. I also doing a lot of knitting during his breathing treatments ( 45 minutes, 2 times a day), I consider this my down time.

With all this being said, in reality I have 5 hours a day to get all my chores done in between driving Eric. So not much knitting gets done during the day. I am not above running the washing machine, dishwasher and dryer at night while I sleep to free up some time during the day. My biggest chore of the week is still laundry with an average of 20+ loads a week. I also love my I-Robot Roomba and Scooba, this allows me to do other chores while the machines are mopping or vacuuming. Multi tasking is the key. This might sound just awful to most people but one of the advantages to have a child with a lot of health issues is that his aides are responsible for keeping his room and bathroom straight and the rest of the areas of the house he uses neat.

The main part of my knitting gets done when I have time to meet up with friends or while watching TV after dinner.

So yes, I do manage to squeeze in a lot of odd moments of knitting. Each row by it self is not much, but a stolen minute here and there really adds up to a lot of rows.

It is Tuesday All Day

I am having a very surprising good day today. Eric work up with a fever of 99.5 and a stuffy nose. So needless to say, we got off to a very slow start. I got my mojo realigned about 10:30am. After that things went quite well.

Three rooms got a visit from Roomba. The master bath mats got washed and dried in the sun, it only took 2 hours for that crispy dry. The master bathroom was mopped. One load of laundry was washed and hung to dry. Two loads of laundry were folded, no they were not put away yet. I did not have that much ambition today. All the odd socks were matched up and at least 6 pairs were reclaimed from the odd sock basket, yeah me!!!  I caught up on part of the back filing and found that I did not need everything so the shredder got a real work out, half a basket shredded!!!

I am way behind on my spinning for Tour de Fleece. My plan was to get mounds of spinning done. the reality is that some days only a 12 to 24 inches are getting spun. My goal was to have all my WIP off all the spindles, not so much now. So I will be happy with what I have and not stock up on fleece and roving before next years tour. To have a less lofty goal and go for pretty and artsy instead of volume.

I really have to say that today lacked a  lot of pre planning such as not having Scooba charged so that I could get Eric,s floor mopped after vacuuming with Rumba. I also need to fire the lady in charge of snacks, she really feel short of having the right crunchy food in the house today.

My goal for tomorrow is to get Mondays errands done. I will really get that package out to Teri. I have help for 4 hours tomorrow. Well it is time to go make dinner. I might not barbecue the steaks the rain just started.