5

Trying:
1. Trying to find a house.
2. Trying to keep my computer alive for more than five minutes at a time. Yes, it's going through a slow agonizing death and taking me along for the emotional ride. Hence my lack of blog participation.
3. Trying to sell our house.
4. Trying to keep my nerves unjumbled.
5. Trying to get back on religious track...sadly, i've detrailed these past few busy weeks.

Doing:
1. LD's scrapbook.
2. Picture organization.
3. Eid cards.
4. Everyday fun cards. (making)
5. Geocaches (finally broke 200)
(read as: avoiding work)

Can't wait to be settled in the new house so i can:
1. Work on sewing projects.
2. Smell up my house with desi cooking toxic fumes (not good for showing a house :-)
3. Stock up my fridge with yummyness (trying to clean out fridge by eating what's in there so we don't waste anything with the move...it's getting interesting these days). Sad that i'm going to miss the famers market so much and i can't even really go one last time because of moving. :-(
4. Make these projects for LD: planet mobile, clown puppet, chef set (apron, hat and mitt).
5. Get out those powertools and fix new house (yet to be found but will definately require work from what we've seen so far.) I'm ready for my hands to do some good ole fashioned hard work.

It's hard when you are trying to sell a house because you have to keep it clean at all times (hard to do with a toddler). It gets a little boring (okay, a lot boring). I can't start any projects because i need to keep it neat. I can't read because LD won't let me and I can't focus to read because I'm stressed out. So...we sit and play and stare at each other wanting one another to amuse the other.

Cloth Napkins

Cloth Napkins i made
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

In an effort to make less waste I recently picked up two habits that have seriously decreased the amount of garbage we put out on the street each week (it's down to about 3/4 of a bag and that includes diapers).

Anyway, i sewed these to get some practice on the sewing machine - i didn't sew the green ones. Here is an easy way to reduce your paper usage (and trash)...

Buy the cloth necessary for 12 x 12 napkins (i made 24). It cost me $3 for the fabric. All you need to do is cut the fabric into 12 x 12 inch pieces and pull 5 threads from each side to give them a fringed look. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete the project and saves money as well as helps with consumption waste. I love using them too. It feels nice to use cloth napkins. I don't worry about staining them. I wipe my curry covered hands on them and wipe Little Dude's spaghetti face with them. That's the beauty of such a cheap and easy project.


Make some yourself! Look for a wrinkle free fabric...100% cotton and thin is good. Linen doesn't look as good and crinkles up around the fringe so they would need an ironing (my green ones are a linen cotton blend, the yellow is 100% cotton and are completely low maintenance.

!!!

What am i going to do????

There's not a single Michaels or Hobby Lobby in NJ!?!? Does anyone know of any craft stores there?

LD...

...was supposed to have his first day of "school" today. Guess what? He's at home with me. Just can't do it lol. I'll wait till we are settled in NJ.

This is what I'll miss most about our house...

backyard view
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

It's so peaceful back here and LD loves it too. One of his first words was duck. Now he says "ake (lake)", "duck" and "luck (look)" and the always present "whoa and wow" when the ducks are acting up - it is springtime and all so there's the whole finding a mate thing going on back there.

He loves looking from our bedroom window out onto the lake too. Gonna miss this the most (apart from the friends we're leaving behind). Ironically, one of my husbands work colleagues and friends is transferring here from the UK and they are Pakistani...just met his family this weekend and it's apparent that we'd all be friends. Our kids got along well too...LD always gets along with the older "women" - they were 3 and 4.

Our best memories are in this house but insh'Allah we will find a home we love as much as this one.

view in the other direction...there's a gazebo down there and a stream

azaleas
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

Pollen

pollen2
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

Some of you wanted to see what the pollen looked like here. This is the lake behind our house that usually looks like the pictures above it. This layer of yellow covers everything...buildings, grass, cars...the city has this yellow haze until we get a good rain (which finally came last week). That rain washes it all away which is weird looking too because it's like little yellow toxic looking rivers of water rushing down the streets (Atl is pretty hilly).

pollen1
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

pollen
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

Done!

My husband is coming home from his last business trip this afternoon (his new job doesn't require travel...whoo hoooooo). He's been gone more than he's been home these last few years so it'll be nice for him to stick around.

He's coming home to a new house. I've worked so hard these last few days. The entire to-do list is practically done. I just have to move Little Dude's toys downstairs and move the furniture a bit so the carpet guy can clean them tomorrow. Yeah, my new name is superwoman. The real estate agent can't believe I got it all done with a toddler at home. It wasn't easy. For each thing I'd clean and organize, LD would undo something else. When I had him help me garden, he came in the house thinking soil was something to play with and promptly repotted every plant in this house. It was so hard to break that habit the first time. Now I'm going through it again. It's so annoying because he drags the dirt everywhere. Oh, and I even did two scrapbook pages!

I've also fallen in love with a house. I've only seen it on the net though so I'm trying not to fall too in love but i really really really like it. The real estate agent says it's on a busy street though so we'll see. It's perfect and has a lovely kitchen with one and a half walls of it being solid window. How enjoyable. Right now in my kitchen, I have the lake so it'd be nice to have a good view again.

Okay, off to finish up! I want to have a fun weekend.

No fair!

Why is every time there is work to be done around this house, my husband is gone.

The list of chores our realtor gave us (that will all be done by me):

- make house appear toddler free (moms, you know how impossible this sounds right?)
- move LD's toys to basement and make play area down there for him which means i must clear out the entire basement and organize it because it's been a dumping zone since we moved in. It's a huge area so it's easy to just forget about stuff down there. The only thing we use down there is the treadmill.
- cut ivy off trees so it dies (the ivy, not the tree)
- get pine straw and spread
- plant summer flowers instead of spring ones
- trim tree in front yard
- spray down deck and windows to get the yellow dust from the pollen off
- remove more personal items like pictures and religious books off living room shelving and redecorate to make it look like a model house (basically clear of clutter and personality)
- hang pictures in office
- remove second layer off bookshelves so there's only one layer of books per shelf
- steam clean carpet (!!! with a toddler???)
- remove everything but a few things off counters and magnets off fridge
- remove gates that are difficult to open and make the fireplace open again (i have a big gate blocking it off (how am i gonna keep this house clean for showings and keep LD occupied and always neat???)
- clean closets and cabinets
- i forget the rest...i've been working on this stuff since yesterday at 4:00.

And this isn't even MY to do list which is already very long. I can't get LD out of the house either because it's spring break for the toddler programs.

Funny thing is my friends are always saying how neat my house is - now i feel like were slobs. The good news is she wants to sell our house for more than we planned on. It should be worth it but i'm keeping the extra money made lol. Hobby Lobby here i come!

Poor me and poor LD. We just aren't happy right now. Oh, and this all needs to be done, like yesterday.