31 Days to Clean Challenge: Day 2

I'm excited to be participating in the 31 Days to Clean Challenge over at Joyful Mothering.  You can get a copy of the e-book on Amazon
(just click on the picture on the left!)


Today's task was to figure out how you can bring LIFE to your home TODAY.  I decided to refresh my mantle.  Here is the before:

"Before"

I hadn't changed it from the Easter decor.  I am hosting BUNCO at my house next week (Beach Blanket BUNCO with a 1960's beach theme!) so I planned to pull together my summer/beachy stuff and see what I could come up with.

Just as I took the before picture, Aaron (our 4 month old) wanted to eat.  I sat down and began nursing him.  A few minutes later, Gavin (our nearly 3 year old) rounded the corner with a box of cereal, upside down and open, leaving a trail behind that would make Hansel and Gretel very jealous!

follow the yellow (and green and blue and red and orange) brick road

"I eat it like a puppy mommy!"

yes, that is green cereal entrapped in booger

Turns out he was hungry too!  ARG!  So after snapping these pics and this video:

I pulled out the vacuum cleaner.  It wasn't working very well, so I took it apart to clean it.  Turns out that it was stuffed full of Styrofoam packing peanuts.  This was obviously from Jordan's (our only girl, aged 10) birthday party.  You see, when you go to sleep at 2 AM and leave a few well-behaved girls up with access to  caffeinated beverages, this is what you wake up to:

You can't really appreciate the amount of packing peanuts by this picture.  See that box in the foreground?  It was FULL (from my most recent Gold Canyon Candles order).  The girls decided to make snow.  They cut the peanuts into tiny pieces.  (by the way, does anyone know why packing peanuts have so much static cling? They hang around on EVERYTHING!)

So, after cleaning the vacuum, cleaning up the cereal, cleaning up the toddler, making lunch, feeding the (still hungry) baby, eating lunch and 4 hours of toddler-"I-no-wanna"-nap-wrestling... Here's the after:

"After"

Don't adjust your screens, there is absolutely no difference.  It turns out, I already have enough life in my house!

I've made this reminder of my personal mission statement to put on my computer desktop as my background.  That way when I'm tempted to waste time on the internet instead of clean, I'll have a personal reminder!

I had to take a sanity break and go get a coke. (OK, maybe I didn't HAVE to, I needed to.  Still too strong? I guess I just WANTED to run away have a coke)  While I was out, I got a call from my brother that he was in town and wanted to stop by.  Since I had cleaned up the mess already, at least my living room was ready to offer hospitality without grumbling.  So although I felt like I failed the Mary challenge, and didn't even attempt the Martha challenge, I did succeed in my personal mission statement!