May UFO's

It's time to report what got crossed off the to-do list in May. (Go here for the full story.)

First of all, the laundry counter did get cleared off again - AND it's stayed that way for close to two weeks now. Yay for me! (In case you haven't figured it out yet, keeping surfaces cleared is one of my constant challenges.)
Part of emptying that counter meant I had to figure out how to get the sleeping bag clean. I decided to go the inexpensive but time-consuming route. It seemed to work. 1) Clean your tub. Fill it with water and a touch of Woolite. Soak the sleeping bag. Drain and refill with clear water to rinse. Repeat rinsing step several times. Don't wring the bag! 2) Carefully roll the bag in some towels and let sit to dry. 3) It takes a few days. Rotate it occasionally. 4) When it's fully dry, stuff it back in the bag and put it in the attic. (Here are the instructions if you ever need to wash a down sleeping bag yourself.)

And this is what happens when you don't get around to making jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.The plan was to cook them and freeze the pumpkin pulp. When it came time to decorate for Christmas and they were still sitting on the kitchen counter, I moved the pumpkins outside. I was still intending to cook them, just after Christmas. I distinctly remember seeing them out the window sometime in February and thinking I ought to get around to that job. But it never got written down and so I forgot. In April the Teacher's Quorum came over to go swimming and saw the rotted pumpkins. That was embarassing. Yet it still took me another month to remember to add it to the to-do list, and even longer to clean up the mess. However, now it's done!!

We moved bedroom furniture around when Jeff went off to BYU last fall. His room became the game/sewing room. And it's where I piled things whenever I wasn't sure what to do with them. However, it also needed to be the guest room. Having a tangible deadline is a good thing! So, we went from this: to this (Jeff had a brilliant suggestion for rearranging the furniture):
just in time for my dad's visit. (Don't look inside the closets - that's another project!) Hopefully it will stay this way for a while.

Finally, with help from Michelle (and a rainy Saturday), we cleaned the outside of the kitchen cupboards. It would be nice to devote one day and get all the insides done at once, but that's not going to happen any time soon. I have been making progress by doing a few each month. And this month it was the "under the kitchen sink" cabinet's turn. That's the one I procrastinate on the longest, and now I don't have to for a while!