Soup to Dutts

Spring has sprung! You know what that means: spring rain, spring flowers, and...spring cleaning! I don't know about you, but I have my work cut out for me in that last area. Have you ever heard of the KonMari method? It's a different approach to decluttering that's really taken off in the last few years. Rather than going room-by-room, you gather up everything in a certain category (clothes, books, knickknacks, etc.) and as you sort through each category, you get rid of every item that doesn't "spark joy." Unfortunately, it doesn't work on bills. (Heh.) I tried the KonMari method on my wardrobe this past weekend, and it was a surprisingly enlightening experience! Here are some things I learned. 1) My wardrobe had taken over my house.  At the beginning of the weekend, all of my dresser drawers were stuffed full of clothes. I also had a laundry basket overflowing with clothes that wouldn't fit in said drawers. And a flat plastic bin of clot...

Check cleaning schedule. Quietly pat self on back for having a cleaning schedule, even if you rarely stick to it. Find that today is "floors day." Immediately decide that it is only "vacuuming day" because you're going to vacuum all the hard floors instead of sweeping them. Try to convince yourself that you're being efficient, not lazy. Dig vacuum out of storage room. Knock over skeins of yarn that haven't been touched in months because you don't have time or energy for a hobby. Turn vacuum on. When child screams with excitement, pray that she will still be this excited about the vacuum by the time she is big enough to use it. Begin vacuuming. Child will decide that this is the perfect time to inspect the pretty lights and colors on the vacuum by standing directly in front of it. Turn off vacuum. Child will ask "all done?" Say "no" and ask child to move out from in front of vacuum. Proceed as planned. Move to hallway. T...

I turn 29 tomorrow. I really, really love my birthday. I still count down the days like I did when I was a kid. Even this year, while I'm fighting a nasty sinus infection and probably won't do much of anything tomorrow, I'm beside myself with anticipation. I just can't help myself. This year I'm feeling especially reflective. As I embark on the last year of my 20s, I've been thinking a lot about my 20th birthday. I was a junior at Clemson, and I spent the night in the library, working on a paper that was due the next morning. Truth be told, I didn't feel much like celebrating that particular birthday. I was not at all excited about turning 20. It seemed like I was surrounded by people who'd had all these amazing life experiences, and I hadn't done much of anything. At least that's what I told myself. Well, here I am, nine years older, and I still haven't learned how to snowboard. I've never been to Europe, or even to the West Coast....

You guys. It's November . I realize that I'm a little late to the party, since we're already two weeks in, but still! Where has this year gone?! Anyway, November also means that Offtime October is over. I have allowed myself to reenter the world of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The only thing is...I kinda haven't wanted to. I've gotten back on most those sites, liked some of my friends' posts, and even made a few posts of my own, but most of the time I'm just not into it like I was before. You see, October was a very productive month for me, and I attribute much of that to not wasting time on social media. Here are just some of the things I did in October: started and finished reading two books, and made good progress on some others rearranged the furniture in the den (with tremendous help from my husband), a project I'd been wanting to tackle for months spent a lot more quality time with the Little Cute Girl, including watchi...

I've decided to take a break from social media for the entire month of October. Until November 1, I will not check Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter. I may post from time to time when there's an update here on the blog, but other than that, nothing. I've removed the apps from my Nexus so I won't even be receiving notifications. Lately I've just become keenly aware of how much time I waste on social media. That's precious time that I could be spending on other things that are more important and more worthwhile. So, here are some things I hope to do with my newfound spare time this month... Get more steps. At the end of almost every day now, my Fitbit looks up at me with these sad, pitiful eyes. (No, really...I have the Flex model, which shows me my progress throughout the day by lighting up one dot for every 2,000 steps I've taken. Most days, I only have two little dots, and I think they look like sad, pitiful eyes.) I really want to get more acti...

Around 9:30 on Monday morning, I started hearing a weird noise, kind of a high-pitched humming. My new-homeowner brain automatically assumed that it was something electrical, so I tried turning off the ceiling fan, but the noise was still there. The washer and dryer were also running, so I turned those off too...still there. I walked all around the house and determined that the noise was coming from somewhere in the living room. The only other thing I could think to check was the closet that houses our HVAC and water heater. I poked my head into the closet, but I couldn't really hear the noise from in there. The more I listened to it, the more I thought it sounded like it was coming from somewhere above my head. So I texted Tom saying, "There's a weird noise in the living room. I think it's coming from the attic." When Tom got home, he Googled it and tried a few different things, including switching off the circuit breaker for the living room, but nothing wor...

Yes, I am from the South, but that might be the only time you'll ever hear me use the word "y'all." So...it's officially fall! According to the calendar, that is. The weather forecast would say otherwise; I think the high today was somewhere around 85. But whatever, I'm welcoming fall anyway, mostly with food and drink. I've already had a pumpkin spice latte and some pumpkin pie ice cream. I've made a batch of pumpkin spice muffins and some pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies. And there's not just pumpkin; I also made a pot of what I call "cheater chili" for dinner this evening. Chili is most definitely a fall/winter food! Super easy, super good...will post the recipe later this week. But besides eating and drinking to welcome fall, I've also been doing a little bit of fall decorating around the house, starting with... ...my favorite fall wreath! My mom got this wreath for us from a coworker who makes them, and ...