Amstershiresauce

Some things really shouldn't go on the blog

But that's never stopped me before, right? By way of explanation of where I have been, here is my disgusting chest freezer awaiting your judgment and disapproval.
Go ahead... I'm sickened by it myself. If it's not the fish sticks for which I have gotten much crap from Ted for giving to our daughter (yeah, that was almost gramatically discernible) then it's the chemical laden ice pops. Or maybe the mysterious goo on the bottom. Yeah, we eat stuff out of here. Yum!
Anyway, back to my point. This is what I've been doing - cleaning out gross crap like this and getting rid of stuff. Earlier today there was much more stuff in here. I'm getting ready to defrost the whole thing, clean it and get ready to start "putting food by" for autumn.
Also, the wee one is nearly six months old. Don't even get me started on how that happened so fast, but it's time to start thinking homemade baby food. So I'll need to have room for her food to be stored. She's still exclusively breastfed, but the time is coming. I can feel her eyeing my yummy big people food.
Which leads me to a question: is there not a better way to organize these things? Clearly, our current method of just dumping things in and forgetting them is not working. Is there something that can be purchased to better segment a chest freezer? Come on, give me an excuse to shop at the Container Store! I'm thinking I definitely need to keep an inventory of what's in there. I've been pretty good about dating things which helps a lot, but I need to keep track of what is in there so I can plan meals better. Since I've started my meal log for 2008 it's really helped me plan my meals and shopping better. Every day I'm just a little more organized. Yay me!

Café au Lait or Epidermis?

Where have I been and what have I been doing? Well, in addition to swimming lessons and end of summer playdates I've been doing another massive divestiture of stuff. I realized I still have way too much and am tired of trying to find places to put things away. So more must go. Also we're getting ready for a big reno of the main floor which includes tearing up all the carpet and instead of that and linoleum we will have hardwood flooring. Yay! I'm so excited. Eventually this also means that the kitchen will be gutted and redone which has been a long time in coming.
So. We had decided that the entire main floor should be one color for unity and a cohesive feel. The downstairs family room area is yellow and I wanted a warm color that was different. It's green right now and feels somewhat cold in the winter. I determined that a light terra cotta would be nice and neutral. So I bought a can in a color I thought would work. It didn't work. Back to Lowe's. Another can. Too dark. A third can. No. This isn't working at all. And in fact, you know what? These all look like the freaking skin colored crayon in the crayon box. Ted's comment: I feel like I'm living in a skin house.
Back to the drawing board. It's going to have to be tan. After much inner debate, as he had washed his hands of the process at this point, I chose five (yes five) colors to try in the newly discovered $4 sample sized cans. More debate and waffling. I finally settled on a color and was pretty satisfied with myself. It then sort of dawned on me that the color's name sounded very familiar, so I referred to my text file with all the house paint colors in it. Um, yeah. It's the exact same color we have in the master bedroom. I guess I must like it! It's the one in the center on the bottom photo.

Summer Lovin'

We're having a blast!
Hope you are too. Am going to try to post more this week. I have lots to talk with you about! In the meantime, we're just trying to enjoy the last bits of summer 'cation before school starts next week.