Stuck in The House ?

Getting rid of the bad ju ju, germs, air etc.
Coming soon....  
  Bathroom
  Kitchen
  Laundry
  Bedroom

  What the heck are we going to do if stuck in the house ?If your voluntarily keeping to your self and not going out in crowds or if your in a area that says you can't get out an about. Cabin Fever will set in sooner or later. LOL It always does like in the winter snow storms or rainy muddy road time of spring.
   First..... you probably need to turn off news sources. Maybe listen to them once a day but not all day long. Talk about drive you nuts and plain silly I think that would do it. We thought politics was bad the last couple of years. This virus thing is a much bigger worry.
   There are always things that need to be done in the house.... well at least mine there is. I am not a super neat freak where everything is in it's place. If you have kids you know there is always something to do. This is just a general whole house idea. I will try to give a better detail on actual disinfecting the important rooms like the kitchen and bathroom and laundry.  (Ug.. thrill thrill I know.) 

Tools needed :
   All purpose cleaner
   Vacuum
   Swiffer tools
   Paper towels or rags
   Trash sacks or used shopping bags
   Furniture polish ??
   Step Stool
   Energy

   Just to give yourself and others maybe some peace of mind you can give it that good old cleaning you been meaning to do. At least you have a really good reason to now. Gotta get rid of the BAD GERMS of course! Call it a extra good spring cleaning if you want to.
    Are you a one room at a time cleaner or a whole house cleaner. Dust all the walls all at once, or wash all the windows all over since your doing that or just do those things one room at a time. I like to do one room at a time so I can say that room is done. I usually poop out somewhere along the way so if I did it all over the house at once I wouldn't be able to say I got that one room done.
   They say to start from the top and work your way down. That means all those ceiling fan blades that do such a good job catching so much dirt if they were baseball players they would be in high demand. Then you have all the little lamp shades and even the light bulbs. Don't forget to turn the electric off so you don't get a real thrill. We have a attachment on the end of the vacuum hose that slips over the blades sweeping off the dirt and sucking it up at the same time that is nice. Your on your own trying to get those blasted little screws undone to wash the shades. What a grimy mess!
    I like to get one of those swiffer duster things and actually wipe down the walls. I said I like to that doesn't mean I get to like I should. You would be surprised how much dust stays on the walls. If you put kids to work with a long stick wiping walls you may not have to worry about the lamp shades on the fans. LOL
    Windows. Some folks can make their own window cleaner that works wonderful the rest of us have to buy stuff from the store. If you happen to be out and can't get to the store get your empty spray bottle and fill with water. Put a few drops of dish soap in with vinegar and waaa la ! It cleans and works pretty good. Just don't put so much suds you become a window washer needing a hose to get the bubbles off. Don't use up the valuable paper towels. Just get some old clean rags and use that to get that greasy grime off. If you have a window covering or blinds have fun there. What a pain sometimes but they can get pretty fuzzy to. Don't forget to get all around the window frame and all those bugs and spider webs off the sills. What ? You don't have that??!! Well I told you I'm not a neat freak. LOL
    I was always told to vacuum and sweep before you dust so you don't just dust up everything all over again. Makes since. So do whatever you do to clean the floors next. Get up the loose dirt then damp mop. Hopefully you have something easy to use like the swiffer mops. Pull the trigger shoot some juice out and wipe it up . If a floor could smile you would see happy faces all over it!
   Ok NOW YOU CAN DUST the furniture. Problem is those darn flat surfaces! Kind of hard to wipe off with all the stuff the flat surfaces catch. It's amazing how much old mail and things you meant to put up but got busy and didn't. Ok so maybe go through the house and collect all the trash from everywhere first. Flat surfaces and where ever else you happen to see it. Now maybe you can just wipe things off easier. If your one of those folks that have to have doo dads everywhere good luck! You have a job ahead of you. No thank you . I honestly try to keep the doo dads, pictures, etc. down so I don't have to clean them.
   Some folks like to open up the windows when cleaning and let the house air out. That's really a good thing. If you have allergies or live in a area where lots of smelly stuff comes in forget it.
    I still have to get myself better organized before I get any major cleaning done. (See I try to put cleaning off all the time LOL)
   Hope this has put you in a mood to clean and keep your mind off the crazy stuff going on outside your home.
Love
Ranchmama

It's That Time of Year Again .....

    The Oklahoma temperatures are getting in the neighborhood of 50* during the day sometimes higher or lower but enough to make you crave some of those really nice warm bowls of goodness that just makes you want to snuggle down and decide it really does work if you complain about how cold it is and your just too chilly all the time!

    My Husband has learned all those tricks and knows how to get me going in the kitchen. LOL

    It's a little different since I can't use beef but it's still good. Everyone has their own version of some chili recipes they think are perfect. For me I now have to use turkey meat (of all things !) but I can still breathe good after eating it and actually it's really a little better than beef. The meat is much more tender than my regular recipe with beef. I did something a little different for me and chopped up the onions and lightly toasted in the cast Iron skillet after browning my turkey meat. Probably should have done that first but oh well. It's good.
this recipe was
2 large package of turkey meat from walmart.
2 large cans of tomato sauce  ( hubby doesn't like chunky stuff )
3 cans of Organic black beans ( I don't like the texture and size of pinto beans )
1/2 onion chopped small
2 cloves of elephant garlic smashed
2 Tbls. Chili powder ( I'm a wuss and can't take much heat )
   Enough water to cover well and let it simmer and cook to thicken.
I think it's been so long since he had chili he said it's the best he's had in a long time!
He's all done..... sitting in the recliner trying his best to stay awake.
Something about feeding him a good supper and he conks out not too long after that. Really funny, he really has to struggle to stay awake. LOL I can feed him at 4 pm or 7 pm it doesn't matter he is sleeping not long afterwards.
       I have really been busy the last few days. I have been trying to get everything together to have his bathroom redone. It's just barely bigger than a walk in closet, if that much. I have had to order everything except paint. The shower is the standard standup fiberglass set in shower. Nothing special. I had to order a new door this one was terrible coming apart. The shower wall above it all was nothing but sheet rock and has decided it has had enough of that and it's peeling and nasty. I ordered light colored tile strips that look like oak to go above it. The edging was a colored copper ? metal for the bull nose stuff. I had to order flooring also because why not when your going this far. I looked at Lowes and online carpet and all they have is generic ugly greys, blue grey, tans etc. No style at all. I found a vinyl ? oak color that will work good in a wet atmosphere. Not that smooth all one piece flooring this is stuff they have to glue down and has some texture. I told hubby it isn't real safe for older folks having a wet slick floor so will have to find something for that. I even have new floor trim because it is not even worth trying to clean it an make it look good.
      The cut off to the toilet was froze up and the toilet has been taking forever to fill up. Hubby said we are going to have that fixed before we put a new floor in so I called the plumbers on Thursday and they said they would be here on Friday morning. Shoot! I had been planning on putting some white vinyl no slip liners in the drawers and under the cabinet and since I had to clean out under the cabinet anyway I tackled that job on Thursday before they got here. Took me most of the dang day!  It had 4 drawers with a kind of particle board ( but better) bottom to them. Every corner was filled with the dusty yucky stuff you get from hair brushes and tooth brushes and whatever else you get. Cleaned them all out and fitted each with the white stuff. Sure does look better. The easy part was putting things back in that he actually uses. The hard part was what the heck to do with 2 plastic grocery sacks of all the extra medicine that was still good. Sorting out the old stuff from bo bo's from 10 years ago that was no longer good etc. I still haven't tackled that I have a lot of other things screaming at me at the moment. I put a sturdy white square basket under the sink for extra shampoo and stuff with the cleaning things just fitting barely to the side of it.The TP was not so lucky it just kind of gets thrown on top in the package. I think I am going to go through his towels and make room in that cabinet for the TP. The cabinet is up over the toilet and since he's tall can reach everything. Me?..... I have to call for a tall person to get things out of there. I just have to figure out what to do with the still good towels when I go through them. It looks so much cleaner and not only that when you have the white drawer and shelf liners in it you can see everything so much easier. As you age you need things like the lighter colors to see better. I would have painted all my cabinets white inside especially under the kitchen sink from the git go if I had known that.( I do have the kitchen sink done that way but nothing else in there. ) See..!

        So today is Friday. I had some plumbers come in today and replace that and the drain in the sink since it was way ugly. We could have done that stuff at one time but the darn toilet is in such a cramped up spot you couldn't get to anything easy and it was coming out of the wall so husband was having anxiety fits over the possibility of it breaking off and really causing some real problems so it was much easier to pay the $208.00 to have them come and fix it. We used Linn's plumbing a company out of Chandler and I was impressed. They came on time, their truck was clean, and they put booties on when they came into the house for the cleaner floors. Did a good job. I sent hubby to town to have a second breakfast so he could calm down. I tell you sometimes the Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) takes over and the what ifs start up about all the terrible things that can happen and makes him a nervous wreck! LOL He came in and I told him to check it out. He wasn't happy, turns out the toilet flushes so good now that the insides of the tank water over flows. I had fixed that the day before with turning the doo dad at the bottom a quarter turn until I had it had the rite level. It took a while but I did it. Today I said to heck with that and flipped it around twice and got it rite real quick! Ta Da ! Hubby can do that but that cold water really gets you cold up to the elbows! He is on blood thinners an he would have had chattering teeth and a terrible time warming up if he did it.
    So now I have everything put back except the 2 sacks of what the heck to do with stuff. He walks in to take his shower and he just couldn't believe how much better the whole room felt. You couldn't see the drawers unless you opened them. But you know how when you dust and do the floors of the room sometimes and it just feels better ? It's one of those things. Oh yes, I also scrubbed his sink and counter top. It's one of those fake marble things. The sink has a few rough spots at the bottom from age. I scrubbed with a SOS pad and it helped a tiny bit but I may have to use some really fine grit sandpaper to make it perfect. I told him THAT'S WHAT I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT ! That's why I've been wanting a new house out of all this retirement thing, to have that feel all over! He said well that isn't going to work out it looks like. Guess we are in for some more remodeling then ! Not that we can afford much for a while after this but it will happen.
   Somehow I have to get his bathroom vanity looking better. The drawers and doors just look ratty and cleaning or staining isn't going to do the job. If I have enough loot I will get the drawer facings redone and maybe the doors. I can' sand things because of the dust and my asthma even with a mask so will have to figure something out.
       My next big challenge will be my walk in closet. It's one of those that if you open the door you better dodge the stuff coming out at you. Well ... I said almost. The flooring from the bathroom is going to go across a tiny spot in front of the door going outside into my closet across from the bathroom. It all needs to be done but darn..... it's getting holiday season.... I have so many more fun things to do than clean out a closet!
Love
Ranchmama
(Just think how good the room will feel when I get all the bad ju ju out of the closet with a good cleaning)