I'm Ready! Time to Fix Up the House!

I am so inspired by my clean house that I've decided that it is time for me to prep the house for sale.

I have wanted to move for some time; new homes are coming on the market every day and if I don't hurry, it'll be Fall before I know it! I want to get the house on the market this summer, hopefully in a month or maybe six weeks (yeah, I know I have big dreams!), and then all my prayers will be answered when somebody offers us more than it is worth within two days of putting it on the market! Ha! Always thinking positively, right!?
The first thing I am starting with, tomorrow morning, by the way, is

painting the ceiling in the family room. I have to patch a spot before I paint, but after I patch it, I'll have a chance to prep it and maybe start with the edging. These projects will give me something to do between camping trips!!

I want to paint the ceilings in our living room, kitchen and Noah's bedroom, too. I'll be doing a lot of painting as the kitchen and Abbey's closet need to be painted. Maybe I'll do Abbey's closet before we put the air conditioning units go in the windows (ugh, I hate not having central air!) and we can keep the windows open for awhile.

A cute idea I saw on Pinterest is painting a ceiling fan. My dear, sweet husband taped pennies to the ceiling fan blades in the family room to try to balance it. But the doll (note the sarcasm dripping here) taped them to the bottom of the blades! So when I finally got around to moving them to the top of the blades where they couldn't be seen the strips of tape peeled off the lovely finish on the blades and now they have stripes on the ends of several of the fan blades! Totally weird and definitely hard to explain! I think I will paint the blades the same color as the trim in our room: a dark chocolate brown.

Along with the painting, I have other jobs to accomplish, like finish tiling the bathtub. Don't ask me about it; I hate it and don't want to talk about it. . . at least not just yet! It's a pain in the rear and I hate taking a shower in that tub! I also need to replace some woodwork in the bathroom. There are other jobs that need to be done, but I think they might require a man's touch, ahem, Maaa-aaaatt! I'm hoping that I will inspire him to complete his jobs if I do mine in a timely fashion! I know I have a lot to do, and maybe, just maybe, after I fix up the house I won't want to move anymore! Wish me luck, one way or the other!

Spring Cleaning. . . We'll See About That!

Wow! Nothing like having friends over to inspire me to clean the house!

One thing I love about camping is the dirt, it's there and nobody balks at it. When the dirt is in your house, that's another story. Spider webs out in the woods are cool, but cobwebs in the corner are gross and creepy. Luckily my friends are quality and don't mind my dirt! But the dust bunnies were getting so big we were tripping over them! I guess that'll happen with two kids, two dogs and two cats in one little house! All I have left to do tomorrow before they get here is a little quick clean up in the kitchen after dinner tonight! (Somehow dishes often get left until the next morning! I must eat so much at dinnertime that I become comatose and am unable to wash them!) Plus, Abbey has a band concert tonight and we won't have much time to do those nasty dishes until tomorrow anyway.
I love cleaning that toy room, too, because I am able to purge so many old and mismatched toys.

I donate what I can, of course, but filling a garbage bag or two with junk always warms the cockles of my heart! I think after the friends leave tomorrow, I'll continue with my own pitiful version of spring cleaning! It won't be the scrub everything with bleach or vinegar kind of clean that other women do, but at least we'll be off to a good start for the summer.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Seriously! I've had enough of rainy camp outs! I'm all for an adventure, but 30degree temps and pouring rain are just a bit too much for this pantywaist! We had to cut short our first outing of the season but instead of dwelling on the horrible weather, I will choose to remember the trip by the laughter and good times that we shared.

Playing Risk in the new tent!

Matt and the kids played Risk, a favorite camping game, while I blissfully napped! The dogs were happy to be out of the rain for awhile and slept, too. The new tent is fab-u-lous! A room for Matt and me, a room for the kids and then a third room for the dogs and our gear! Unbelievable. 

Geocaching with the dogs!

We tricked the kids into going for two hikes! Ha! Terrible parents, right? The worst is yet to come. . . We went Geocaching for the first time but I spoiled the fun and found the first cache in a tree. The kids didn't know what a film can was and I was so excited and found it first! You should have seen the disappointment on their faces! Like I said: bad mom, eh!? Our second search was a bust as the river had washed away the bank where the cache had been hidden. But the good part is that the kids are looking forward to Geocaching (ie: hiking) again!

The dough boys were stinky, too. We put too much biscuit dough at the end of the stick and should have stretched it out along the stick instead. Also, you need to roll the cooked biscuit in melted butter before the cinnamon sugar. Oh, well, lesson learned!

Campfire fun!

We had a lot of fun around the campfire that I started all by myself!! We're not great fire experts so decided to bring the grate from our old Weber grill and put it in the bottom of the cleaned out fire pit. It worked wonders bringing in the right amount of air to feed the flames. Such a thrill! Matt helped Abbey study her Spanish notes for her final and had a great time butchering the language. It was hilarious!

 Our breakfast was unbelievable awesome with our campfire waffles! Even though I forgot the sausage, the perfectly cooked waffles made up for it. These are so easy to make, everybody should have a waffle iron! They will definitely show up at every camp out from here on out!

So, despite the rain and cold and mud, we had a great time on our first camp out of the season. We learned some lessons that will carry on, but nobody cried or fought or went home in a bad mood! We have fond memories of West Branch 2014!

Campfire Grub!

Last season when we went camping, we ate hot dogs, and more hot dogs, and I swear, more hot dogs. Ugh. So this year I've done a bit of campfire recipe research. After setting up camp on Friday night, we'll have nachos. I've precooked the meat so we'll just have to reheat it over the fire or the cookstove. We will make dough boys over the fire for dessert: canned biscuits rolled in cinnamon sugar. Thanks to momsminivan.com for the recipe! Saturday morning's breakfast will be waffles made with our new waffle iron, sausage, coffee and oatmeal.

I bought it from Bed, Bath & Beyond. It comes with some wax residue on it and I tried to melt it off in the oven but the kitchen got all smokey and the smoke alarms went off! Ay yi yi!

For lunch on Saturday we are going to Kent, OH, to the local A&W drive thru. The kids love the food so it'll be a treat, and a nice getaway from the campsite, too. Dinner that night is burgers for the kids and foil wrapped sausage, potatoes, and peppers for Matt and me. We'll have baked apples for dessert. Sunday morning breakfast is canned cinnamon rolls baked over the fire on a cookie sheet and covered with foil,and also sausage and oatmeal. Matt'll have coffee but the kids and I will probably drink hot cocoa each morning because it's supposed to be a bit chilly!

We bought a pie iron, too, but won't be taking it on this trip. I have so much garbage, I mean supplies, packed that I don't think I could squeeze it in! So the secret is out, I splurged and bought a ton of camping supplies to satisfy. . . ME! Matt and the kids were happy with the basics, but I wanted camping to be better, more organized, and easier, somehow. I'm hoping with the new tent, the new camping pillows, waffle iron, and everything else I bought we'll be destined to have a fabulous time. Hmmm to that idea. We shall see, won't we?

Packing too much??

When I was little we had this children's book called Simple Pictures are Best.

The story was about a couple that wanted to have their portrait taken but kept adding more and more props to the scene. First it was hats, and then it progressed to pets and gourds and anything and everything they could grab. The picture was gawd awful and finally the photographer hinted to them that simple pictures are best and all they needed was themselves. So that brings me to the question at hand:
How am I supposed to know how much is too much to pack? I guess it might be too much when I think that all that I am packing, including two kids, a husband, and two dogs, won't fit in our Jeep and Rogue. I will pack the Rogue up with things we don't need to set up camp on Friday night like dry goods, games, and clothing. Matt will bring those in my car after he leaves work. I will bring everything else in the Jeep with the kids and dogs after the kids get out of school on Friday. Abbey and I will set up our new tent (!!!).

 It's huge! It's 16'X16' and sleeps twelve!! We decided to go all out because the dogs have a tendency not to want to sleep near each other at all. Chief often wakes us up by growling at Ruby and then we have to end up separating the two so nothing ill fated occurs. No big deal, we just want to give them enough room to settle in and get a good night sleep. Also, we think it'll be fun to have a "living room"! There are three rooms to the tent which means we'll have two bedrooms and the living room. There is also an awning so we'll be able to relax out of the elements. Fun times!
So back to packing too much, because I most certainly am! I swear we will need it all, but I guess I'll have to have the experienced camper husband look over my meticulously made lists tonight. Wish me luck that he doesn't nix anything!!
~Beth

I swear I love my kids more than the dogs!

I talked about our dogs in my first post, but failed to mention the loves of my life: Matt, Abbey and Noah!!! Matt is my husband, my soul mate, my biggest fan and in return, I am his.

I met Matt back in '99 when a friend of ours dumped me and I went crying to him. I think I have never left his side since then, the poor guy! I fell in love super quickly and he, well, it took a little longer, but I wore him down! He is fabulously supportive and I am so lucky to have him as my husband.
Abbey is our daughter. She is 12 years old and in the seventh grade.

Abbey is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do; this is a pic of her testing for the black belt. She's wonderful. . . You know how everybody tells you that the teenage years stink for girls? Well, I know Abbey is only 12, but I have yet to see the awfulness! She's still my wonderful girl! How soon till I eat my words?

Noah is our 8 year old son. He's a great kid with so much imagination and life in him! He loves anything that has to do with Scouts, being outside, playing rough, and of course. . . video games!!

 I love my family, the good, the bad, and everything in between. I'm pretty sure they love me, too, because I just had the best Mother's Day anybody could ever imagine. Matt is as excited about camping as I am, though not so thrilled about all that I want to pack. And, Noah is looking forward to being outdoors, getting dirty, and not having to take a shower. But then, Abbey. Well, she is bringing her makeup along and isn't thrilled about not getting to wear perfume and scented lotion. Also, she hates the bugs. It's been pouring rain here the past few days and I'm afraid the bugs will be up and running! Lots of bug spray, I guess!
We'll hope for the best and everybody will make it what they want to. I, myself, am hoping for lots of good food, togetherness, and relaxation!
~Beth

Happy Day!

Hey! Hey! Camping season starts in three days for the Jaffe family and I can't wait! After years of camping abstinence, my husband finally convinced me that we should go adventuring with the family; and boyohboy am I glad he did! I am hooked and it's all I can think about!

I have been prepping for this trip for a month now and have so many supplies piled up in the basement that I'm not sure if they will fit in our two cars. . . ugh! Of course we have Ruby,

our puppy, to bring along on this excursion, and I can only hope she sleeps as well in a tent as our Australian Cattle Dog, Chief, does.

After camping several times last spring and summer with him, he is an old pro. Ruby is a bit more of a barker and I am worried that she will disturb the surrounding campers. I'll let you know next week how it goes!
Over the next few days I will blog about the final preparations for this outing. I will also refresh my memory as to how to blog as it's been several years since I've done this!
So, happy Camping Season and get inspired to get out there and have an adventure!
~Beth