Even if you buy your dream house......

You know that amazing home you only dream of living in?  You know how beautiful it is?  You know how you dream about living there and how it will always be neat and clean and perfect when you do?  Well, I'm here to tell you, you may be able to buy that "dream" home and if it has been a good choice ( ie you did not over extend yourself and you and your realtor were REALLY clear on how you live and how you want to live and what is important to you) it will change your life for the better.

I DO want to burst your bubble now though, if you are anything like me, you won't be able to keep it as perfectly as you want.  Reality = I live with 4 kids and 4 dogs and a cat and a husband.  I should have known.  Other reality= I am often attempting to do too many things and am easily distracted so....I should have known.

Now that falling in love with a home is magical.  You imagine living there and how perfect it will be.  ( kinda like falling in love the first time)  Now hopefully you still have your eyes open ( I did when I first fell in love and also when buying this last house)  and you anticipate some of the issues.  ( I did) and still, thankfully though things do not go the way one might imagine in their fantasies, I have to say I am more in love with both my first love and our newest house more than the when I first fell in love with them both.....

Now when you first fall in love you believe in "magic" in so many ways.  When you stay in love you see different kinds of that magic....

So there is still magic in our house, it is just a different form that my fantasy about living here.

Magically here are some things that seem to happen here-

I find things I have never seen before in the laundry and even more magically I am able to figure out which of the children's friends they belong to and even more unlikely I find a way to make it return to it's proper home.

I find that a little dog born here at this new house though he is a minature breed can jumpt the fence that held the previous owner's big dogs with no problems at all.

When cleaning I find interesting objects, recently a flat pack FED EX box completely covered in Duct tape and with some strange item rolling around inside with a Pringles container also covered in duct tape with a watch connected.  When I inquire about WHAT in the world this is my 16 year old informs me that it is a pretend BOMB.  Why I ask, especially when this energy could have been used to clean house, do your laundry, do school work.  Well appearantly the little kids were using sticks to simulate bow and arrow and he felt that if they were going to play with these they should have a pretend BOMB since it is a more "modern weapon"  I take time I could have spent putting away laundry or decorating the home to look like homes and gardens to explain to him the pretend bows and arrows were for "target practice" in the back yard and no good ever ever came from a bomb, especially from a "bomb" filled with nails from the garage.

I find pictures in strange places like the closet, in the fridge, in my makeup drawer, under the couch.  Thankfully they are usually drawn on paper, magically sometimes they say things like " I Love You Mom" and show up on days I am feeling a little down.

Amazingly even though I have more cupboard space than I thought I knew what to do with, sometimes I cannot fit all of our food items neatly away.  ( We are very blessed that we always have enough)

In this home a little boy who did not talk at all when we arrived is speaking full sentences and people are now often surprised when they find out he was considered developmentally delayed.  ( such a blessing and magical in so many ways)

Magically, even though I now have 2 washers and 2 dryers ( something I would suggest to look for as a home feature or a potential home feature, in other words something you could build in) in any home that more than 2 kids are going to live in.)  I still can manage to fall behind on laundry.  Laundry just appears the moment I "run out" of dirty laundry.

Some how even with a 6 burner stove, on a night I am just throwing something quick together I manage to use all 6 burners at one time.....

Other things that are unexplainable happen here too.....I find action figures, home work, a bottle of cumin and another of cinnamon, a dog leash, poker chips, legos, a half eaten cookie, an unopened box of juice, a toy train, a bottle of syrup, 2 screw drivers, a drill, a garden shovel, 3 50' measuring tapes, a squid jig, a brand new paint brush still in it's wrapping, a mother board, 4 charges to something and I don't know what and 3 my little ponies, and 4 skylanders, and a match box car all in my bedroom when I go to clean it along with an entire laundry basket worth of dirty clothing that belongs to children in the household.  These things have appeared and sadly even one pair of my socks that match and my favorite bra have disappeared.

Also, paint peels, lawns get too high and even with such a tiny flower bed to maintain, weeds show up magically as well.

In the middle of it, I love love love our home.  I appreciate it too since it is easier than I have ever had it to keep it looking the way I would like ( I guess what I really mean is closer to what I would like)  I love that it is located in a beautiful place with neighbors I adore.  I love that I actually have a place to put most everything away neatly.  I love that there are no carpets.  I love the lay out and how pretty it is...yes even when I cannot keep it as well as I'd like.  I love the yard with it's privacy.  I love the feeling of love that permeates the way it was put together and comes from the love inside the house.  I love that my husband took a leap of faith and purchased it for our family and that I picked it since the exact house we lived in meant more to me than to him.  I love that I feel happy about being here each day I wake. 

And some day, when the kids are grown and no one is making a mess, it will actually look again like it did the day I fell in love with it, maybe even better.....in the meantime I will take care of it the best I can.  I will thank GOD for it and the people in it every day.  I will enjoy the crazy magic at work here now and appreciate it because like the magic of falling in love the first time I know the magic here right now does not last forever, and while it may, like the magic of falling in love, grow and turn into something even more beautiful, it is something to be enjoyed and appreciated now.

Removing Crayon and more from painted cabinets

If you are a mom and you live in a residence you own or rent ( pretty much every mom right?) 
Likely you have had to figure out how to remove crayon from a number of surfaces.



I love our house and when we looked at it the first time this type of thing was a huge concern for me......why?

 Well our new house has beautiful custom cabinets painted WHITE in not one, not two, not three, in FOUR rooms of our house and I was so scared they would be written on by little ones.  I could not see banning crayons entirely.  At the same time, I was really worried.....

Thing is even with out crayon in our kitchen we had ended up with black scuffs that no amount of washing was removing and I did find a way to remove them and found it also removed the finish off of the paint.  I was not sure WHAT to do.

Then it happened.  While his older sister was watching him our youngest son decided the cabinets in both the butler pantry and part of the kitchen needed to be embellished with a purple crayon.  I used soap and hot water and it just smeared it.  I had visions of it remaining so embellished.....not good. 

Then I looked on line for answers.  Some of them did not work.  Then I came across a post that recommended Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  So....off to the store with hopes it works....did it ever!

Not only did it remove the crayon with ease, it also removed all the scuff marks with out damaging any of the paint finish what so ever.

 "after"

So, parents if you have a stain or a mark that needs to come off of paint, I would recommend Mr. Clean Magic erasers.  If you are considering buying a house and the white painted cabinets are giving you pause...there is a solution and it does not involve hand cuffing the kids or removing all art supplies, pens and pencils from the house.