Busy week Ahead!

I should be doing SO many other things right now. I AM working on laundry, thank god, because we are all out of clean clothes, towels, diapers... pretty much everything is dirty. I did two loads of diapers already tonight, and have a load of wetbags to do yet, and I am on load #2 of kid clothes.

Basically, we were without laundry detergent for a week and a half, which seems like an ETERNITY (it was, really!) and so now it's time to play catchup. The laundry room is so full of laundry that I actually can NOT put all the dirty clothes in it. When washing and drying I am literally standing ON dirty clothes down there. Not pretty. So I went ahead and sorted two hampers out in our room instead, and am taking them down by the load. Icky.

What happened you ask, that we would just "not" have laundry detergent? Well, I buy detergent once a year. My detergent is environmentally safe and safe for cloth diapers. About 2.5 years ago, I did the math and determined that by purchasing detergent in a 5 gallon bucket, I could save around $80 a year over purchasing All Free and Clear at Wal-Mart, which is what I had been doing for as long as I could remember. I started out buying Charlie's Soap, and loved it. With the Charlie's I used a product called OxyBoost, which is made by Natural Choices. It worked better than OxyClean, is environmentally safe, and cost me less money because I could buy it in bulk. I started buying it in 5 gallon buckets also, because it is better for the environment when it comes to packaging and it's overall carbon footprint :)

For some reason, Charlie's suddenly became taboo in the Cloth Diaper industry. I am not sure why, because I never had a single rash, buildup, or stink issue and I used it for over a year straight on all types of diapers and on all of our clothing as well. I still believe that if you are using the proper amount of soap, and if you are doing your double rinses, you shouldn't have an issue with the soaps. But after the place that I used to purchase Charlie's dropped it, and recommended OxyPrime (made by the same manufacturer as OxyBoost) I decided why not give it a try. So I started to use both OxyPrime and OxyBoost and haven't looked back since.

So anyway, I order a 5 gallon bucket of each, usually the soap comes due once a year, and sometimes the Oxy Boost is closer to twice a year. Well, this time for some reason they were both empty at EXACTLY the same time. Convenient, except that means $260 of laundry detergent. At one time. So I waited until I had the cash and I ordered it. And was told that it would ship that same day (per usual) and since I am close to the company, it should be here in 1-2 days (per usual... it has ALWAYS arrived in 24 hours!) And I waited. For 5 days. And never saw the soap. Never saw an email confirmation. So I called, and they found out that the entire order was on hold because they were waiting for the OxyBoost. She assured me it would ship that same day. Whew. So I waited 2 more days. And called again. And "whoops!" they are still waiting on OxyBoost. At this time I have to say I was getting a bit cranky. You just do NOT go without laundry soap for a week with 4 people, two of them being miniature disasters, and one of them wearing cloth diapers. it is not advisable. I stressed to her that I NEEEEEEDED that soap LAST WEEK and that I didn't understand why they were holding the whole order for the OxyBoost, because they could have shipped at least the detergent, especially because I have to pay shipping for each bucket separately because they can't package them together for UPS shipments anyway.

I was again assured that the soap was coming and they found out that the OxyBoost 45 pounds were being made that very moment. And the next day, Voila! Soap on my steps. A whole LOT of soap. I drug it inside and had Evan carry it to the basement to the laundry room for me, and today I cut it out of the boxes, tore open the buckets, and scooped it into my stainless steel canisters and started some laundry. All this drama over soap. Seriously.

So, despite the fact that I have all this LAUNDRY to do, I also have all this YARD WORK to do, and so yesterday and today I have been working in the yard as much as I can, and naptime has become "work outside the fence" time where I bust my ass to get as much done as I can without two little people to manage. Yesterday Evan and I worked in the space between the garage and house, and along the west side of the house, pulling out dead leaves, hosta leaves, and the old clematis growth. We had a trellis that got destroyed by a storm last year, and we had to take it down and unwind all the old vines, and put up and secure a the new trellis that we had purchased last fall and never got to. There are SO many things that we never got to last fall. Ugh. So after cleaning all that up, we trimmed suckers off the dwarf flowering crabapples. I adore those little trees but the fact that they are grafted onto other tree's rootstock is rather annoying because they get so many suckers so quickly. Ick. Then we trimmed a bit of the old fashioned lilac bush, and pulled a bunch of creeping Charlie. Our old landscape lights along the sidewalk are almost 1o years old, they don't work, and the plastic is cracked, so we pulled those out. I cleaned out all the weeds starting on the west side of the house and lay down some landscape fabric along that side. I planted two containers and the hanging basket on the front gate, and added a flowering perennial (viola) to the bare space inside the planting around the stop sign in the front yard. I also measured and staked out the 4x8 area where Evan is going to build my raised bed garden, and then cut and lay weed block down in that area to prepare it for the bed. Once it got dark last night I put out 6 new solar landscape lights along the back sidewalk, which makes it much less treacherous.

Today I started by pinning down the weed block fabric with landscape staples, and then I lay 10 stepping stones (wetcast flagstone) over in the area by the raised bed. The stepping stones give me a pathway into the far northwest corner of the fenced in yard, and lead in several directions. Now I can "step" my way to the clothesline, the back side of the raised bed, the water spigot on that side of the house, and to my composter. It makes me happy. I am hoping that VERY soon, the 10 "steppables" that I planted in that area will start to spread and hopefully (Rapidly!) start to cover the ground around all the stones. I did choose steppables that are suited for the highest traffic allowed, and that are the rapid spreaders.... but that old dirt is so dry and crumbly, that I don't see them getting too excited to go ANYWHERE yet. I tell myself they have barely been in the ground for two weeks, and they look perfectly healthy and are flowering too, but I really am so impatient!

This afternoon I also lay 6 BIG bags of cypress mulch in the back where we trimmed bushes and pulled up old leaves and things.... and we really could have used 7 bags but I made it work. Tomorrow I am hoping that it doesn't rain (although I think it's still supposed to) because I have a whole BUNCH of salvia, lilies, and grasses that I want to plant on the east side of the house (in the area that I freshly weed-blocked last summer but never got planted) and a whole other side of the house that needs the weed block stapled down yet, and then planted and composted. And this doesn't even TOUCH the cleaning and filling of the pond. Ugh. I know I have the whole summer ahead of me, but I HATE working when it gets so unbearably hot outside. This is the time of year to get as much done as possible, and this includes weed block in my book because I HATE to pull weeds and I have much better things to do.

We also have the native prairie signs to get into the ditch before some jackass comes along and sprays or mows it. Once Evan gets that raised bed built, I can plan and start the Square Foot Garden. I also need to read my Worm book because I am considering adding worms to my composter this year.

This is going to be a REALLY busy week! We have playdate, park playdate, and then MOPS to start off the week, and I am taking the kids to Wisconsin with friends (other moms and kids) to stay at a lake house for a couple of days. Very excited to have this opportunity and REALLY hoping that Ardyn's 2 year old attitude improves and she starts listening better. I also have a 31 party to attend this week, and a massage, AND a scrapbooking night! I also think that there is a chance my Pampered Chef Show will be coming in sometime towards the beginning of next week! I had a show that was OVER $1200! I am so super excited, I am gettting SO MUCH STUFF and I am really thrilled! Remind me to take pics of it all once it gets here. I counted the other day, and I have 26 pieces of stoneware already, and two more on the way. I got a second pizza stone and the Covered Rectangular baker that makes all those microwave dishes and weekday dinners. I also got the whole knife block and professional knife set, and the double burner griddle!

Next week I MUST cut and sew my tea party dress for the Mom's Tea the following weekend. My Brother-In-Law is letting me borrow Grandpa Warren's Mustang Convertible to take to the tea. No minivan for this mamma! Whooo! I also have to finish attaching all my fabulous feathers and flowers to my tea party hat! So much to do, so little time! I do have to say that I love this time of year! The days and months just seem to be flying by already! Once the hot days of summer hit, I think we will be a little more laid back and get into our "by the pool" mode... although I hate the heat and pretty much have to be IN the pool to tolerate it!

Well, it's time for me to switch laundry again. If I could find the remote I would be watching the Nanny on Nick and Nite.

Everyone have a great Monday (if that's possible!) and Enjoy this nice weather before it gets too hot!