HGP 2016 Week 11, Garage/ Storage Week

[HouseElf]

Week 11 at HGP!

This week cleaning and organizing focus is on the garage and storage areas.

We also continue with holiday prep : including menus, what will we wear, gift purchases - including wrapping, and more planning the details.

Ready? Welcome to week 11!

 

[HouseElf]

I will focus on the attic area, it's were I 'store' everything and will need the next two weeks to complete. This time of year is truly perfect for getting up there - we are in the process of cleaning this area out to ready it for insulation and finishing. While we do have a garage, its a temp shelter until our new garage is built in the fall next year - and nothing I can do with husbands tools!

Ordered a set of monogrammed robes for the boys - will arrive in a few weeks. We also have on its way Christmas sweaters and novelty socks! Just need to finish the hats and work out a time to snap a picture of DH and boys/dog for holiday giving. Table setting is planned, Christmas Crackers purchased from last year sales, no items to borrow or rent for the holidays, and menus are pretty firm.

How are you progressing?

 

[AuntJamelle]

I am feeling really behind today! Haven't touched my HGP task lists for over a week now! Also did not get all the freezer cooking done I had planned yesterday. I split the day between making cookie dough and getting outside to do fall related clean up. The time spent outside meant I still have two batches of cookie dough in the fridge waiting for me tonight.

But I did get all the hanging baskets and pots emptied, rinsed and stored. Did some weeding on back flower beds, cleaned up trash and got about half of the landscape fabric pulled up from garden (we used it for pathways).

Got one batch of cookie dough frozen though!

Have to really kick it into high gear this week! Our upstairs is our storage area/craft/office space and it looks like a toy bomb went off. We had friends visit Saturday night and their little girl and my son went to town up there. Add that to all the chaos I already had created by pulling out Thanksgiving, taking up Halloween, new bags and boxes of Halloween clearance and random camping items taking upstairs but not put away yet and you have one big MESS!

If I do cookie dough tonight I'm hoping I can restore order from chaos tomorrow.

Doe anyone remember that Charlton Heston movie The Ten Commandments? There is a scene in the movie where the Israelites are leaving Egypt and the narrator talks about Joshua bringing order from chaos. That comes to my mind in situations like this - I try to channel that type of energy!!! lol

I've ordered some more gifts today and will keep working on plans to shop for more. Black Friday ads are starting to leak so I've been using those to do some planning as well.

To add to it all there is a slight chance we might be hosting Thanksgiving this year. It's up in the air and it's stressing me out. I'm afraid they are going to wait until the last minute to say, yes - we'll come to you - and then I'll be scrambling. So I'm considering just going ahead with prep as if I'm hosting just in case. UGH!

 

[Minta]

I have a coup days off from work today so I am going to try to use of those days working on the garage. I need to move the stuff being donated to the shed to make room in the garage.

Ordered a few gifts over the weekend and picked up a couple more today.

Found out over the weekend we will be having an out of town guest Thanksgiving week. I only need to make sure the kids bathroom is clean as that is also the guest bathroom.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Okay, made some progress! Got the Lemon Snowballs baked and sitting on cookie sheet in freezer - will transfer to freezer bag when hard.

Baked and froze a few dozen Gingersnaps (from cookie dough previously frozen) and will keep working my way through baking those.

Made up another batch of Cocoa Kiss Cookie dough and have it chilling in fridge. Unwrapped all the Hershey's Kisses for that batch and have them in tupperware on the counter.

And I am now 99% done on one of my crafted gifts I've been working on - nice to see that come together! Deep breaths! Tonight will be a marathon of kiefflee (sp?) baking!!! The dough and the filling are in the fridge from yesterday, just need to start rolling out and assembling and baking!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Got a full batch of Kiefflees baked and in the freezer! Feels good to have that done - what a job! Will work on Cocoa Kiss dough in the fridge tonight! Hoping to tackle the upstairs MESS today too!

 

[AuntJamelle]

The MESS is tackled! Looks so much better up there now! Should be all set to start wrapping gifts, work on craft projects and to pull out Christmas decor when it comes time! Feels much better!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Got the Cocoa Kiss Cookie dough done and in the freezer last night! Now I just need to find the time to bake the cookies and then freeze them so I have less work to do when making up tins and platters in December! And I have a bunch of Gingersnap cookie dough in the freezer to bake yet as well. Little by little!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Crickets...that's what I hear...crickets...

I've done nothing, nada, zip!

Sigh!

Wednesday night was thrown into turmoil by the need to completely strip DS's bed which had become filled with teeny, teeny, tiny plastic pellets that spilled from a torn rubber toy he had in bed with him. It was Crush, the cute little turtle from Finding Nemo - the rat! lol In any case, apparently they fill those squishy rubber toys with pellets from Hades. They are IMPOSSIBLE to completely clean up. I'm still feeling them on the bottoms of my feet in his room.

I shop-vac'd, I shook sheets outside, I used broom and dustpan, I used the Dyson...then I went to put fitted sheet back on his bed and discovered I hadn't completely shaken it out - so MORE little beads went everywhere. That was a moment, let me tell you!

So Wednesday was a wash.

Last night was dishes, laundry and sewing a runner for Thanksgiving tablescape. So better than Wednesday, but still not a lot of HGP progress. Hoping to play catch up today and this weekend!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Okay, got 3 batches of cookie dough mixed up and in the fridge! Will bake then freeze the cookies tomorrow!

 

[HouseElf]

AuntJamelle your doing awesome No stress about not completing as much as we 'think' we should. I have a big fat zero done this week on the storage areas of my home - but today I found my desk! Made a schedule for the remainder of the week to get quick and clean powered for the attic!

 

[luludou]

AJ - you are doing so great!!! HE too.

I need to pick up the pace

 

[AuntJamelle]

Thank you guys! With a house full of sick boys it's been stressful! I just don't have time to get sick!!!

 

[Minta]

Cleared out 3 more totes out of the garage. All 3 contained extra blankets and sheets. Washed the throw blankets and the blankets for the beds that we are keeping. Storing the extra throw blankets in the downstairs hall closet. Getting rid of the ones we are not keeping.

Tomorrow putting the halloween stuff away up in the attic over the garage and will bring down the outside christmas decorations. The weather is suppose to be warm for most of tomorrow so I am hoping to clean out the garage in the process.

 

[Minta]

Got the garage cleaned out a bit more. Neatly piled boxes and totes that still need to be gone through on one section of the garage. Emptied out 5 more boxes, cleaned and organized shelves and filled a trash bag. Got the new treadmill (its used but new to us) set up in the garage too.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Got two more batches of cookies in the freezer - baked them then froze!

I also did some major work on small storage room upstairs and it looks so much better now! Craft area upstairs is staged and ready to go for wrapping. Used the Cricut to cut a couple pages worth of Christmas shapes from white cardstock. Will cover some in glue and glitter, some I just add little dots of glitter to accent (I use the little bottles of Stickles) - I love using these little shapes to accent packages I wrap. Should have started work on them before now, but it is what it is at this point!

Most of my other efforts have been to whittle away at my list of to do's that need to happen for hosting Thanksgiving. Lots of activity going on!