Home Sweet Home

Something not everyone knows about me is that I have a degree, a Bachelors of Science, in "Home Economics"! (those of you who have seen my home - please hold your laughter!!)

When I think Home Economics, I think 'Suzy Homemaker' and when I got my degree in the 80's that didn't seem quite like the 'right thing'. It wasn't 'cool' to be a homemaker, or at least that's the impression I got. I actually used my degree for a much more 'fashionable' pursuit - Fashion Merchandising. My degree is in Fashion Merchandising - but at that time it was part of the school of Home Economics. I didn't have many classes that were home-ec-y, food & nutrition was really more science based, & I know I didn't have any classes about actually organizing or cleaning anything. What I did with my degree was manage retail clothing stores for many years and now though I have an office job in sales, I like the idea of being at home and being a "Home Maker" and making my home "Homey". (Not that I want to stay home every day - even if that was an option, I'm the type that has to be out & about doing something.)

On the "Homey" side of things, I want our house to be welcoming, open to friends, family and monkeys. That's our doormat! - We are "Welcome Monkey's" kind of house!

We want people to feel like they can stop by - without having to give a few hours/days notice.

(If you want to stop by, please call.... - we're not quite there yet - there's laundry on the couch!)

I want to be '15 minutes away from clean' - something I read on Flylady's website. www.flylady.net) I love reading books and websites about organizing and cleaning. I know what I want done & exactly how I think it should be done (Sorry Mr. D. for insisting you try it 'my way' and it wasn't any better.) I am working on having a "Household Notebook" to keep myself on track. I dream of completing to-do lists and having a sparkling, clean home with a place for everything and everything in it's place. (I did say it was a dream...)

I have a great list of things I want my staff to complete and I will motivate them to do it! Wait - I forgot - I don't have a staff... (darn!) Okay, I need to motivate myself (not so good at self motivation) and motivate/bribe my husband and child to work with/for me! I like to think it's a team effort! (I think I was a good manager, I could always get people to help out - but maybe that's because I was the boss... but I helped, I was part of a team, that's what makes it more fun!) And on that vein - We, the Davis Family Team are spending our Labor Day weekend Laboring/ Having Fun, around our house!

Can I say I love "magic erasers" or that type of product. Super fine synthetic type sponges that clean all the nooks & crannies. Our siding on our house has been looking dingie, we've talked about cleaning it (for 2 years) and finally this weekend it's getting done. (I always belatedly remember - I should have taken a before picture, so you can see the difference after!) My husband has been cleaning the whole house outside - with carwashing sponge mitt & soap and it's looking sooo much better, but that bit of white trim just wasn't white. It's kind of fine textured vinyl siding & trim and the sponge wasn't getting the trim clean. I ran to my favorite dollar store and picked up the cheapy erasers, then I balanced on the hose box & reached up and scrub, scrub, scrubbed that trim around the garage door. (note: my excellent staff did most of the work & I just did the little bit - want him to get full credit!!) And it's white again!! I love it. It makes me happy to see it white!! I Love that Mr. D cleaned the whole house - spent a few hours on it - even while it was raining! Good Job Hubby!! And he got the gutters cleaned out - before all the new leaves (from our neighbor's trees) start dropping. (We purposefully bought a house without leaf dropping trees to get in our yard - but are surrounded by our neighbors with those kinds of trees and they all blow into our yard & gutters & we end up raking & cleaning gutters anyway!!)

Okay, that's enough writing about house cleaning - I better get back to it! I was supposed to be working inside while he was outside....

One fun summer....

I want to blog - really I do! I love reading other people's blogs, their lives sound so interesting. But mine is maybe a little interesting too - at least to me & my family & my friends, so here goes - again - off into the blog world.

Last time I blogged, (3 years ago!) I was wrapping up summer,
and that's where we are again now. I love Fall & Back to School time, it always seems even better than New Year's as a time to get 'organized' (of some sort), back in a routine (school, activities) and just 'get it together' for as long as we can hold it together!!

This summer we had a family trip to Southern Oregon to my cousin's wedding. On the way we stopped at a pretty waterfall. I love waterfalls!









The wedding ended up being like a family reunion - so that was fun. My parents, aunt & uncle & cousins & us all stayed in the same motel for a couple nights. Had dinner together, hung out at the pool. It was great. The little cousins got to dress up at the wedding & the bubble blower was very popular!






On the way back we stopped at Crater Lake. "Mr D." (hubby) had never been. I hadn't been in years. We drove around one side of the lake, I had to stop at every view point to look and take lots of pictures.







"The Girl's" favorite thing was the chipmunks at the rim. There were some birds & the chipmunks, and people were feeding them, even though the signs said "Do Not Feed". She tried to take a picture of one chipmunk - and I caught the picture of her with another chipmunk sneaking up behind her!!


Further along on our way home we stopped up by Mt. Hood at SkiBowl Adventure Camp. 'The Girl' is a bit of a Dare Devil. She loved the bungie trampoline & was disappointed that they wouldn't let her climb the big rock wall. She had to settle for the kiddy 6ft wall - Boring! And she drove a 'race car'!







After we got home we still had a day before we had to go to work so we made a family trip to the Zoo. It was a nice little family vacation.


Now we're getting ready for Back To School - but that's a blog for another day....