Hello Summer, you little hottie.

To be sure we don't waste ONE SINGLE MINUTE of our summer, Jamie and I have composed a list for your reading pleasure. We did this as a family when we were little (it included chores and reading lists, and "vacations" to Des Moines back then) but summer goes by so fast, we need to make sure we soak it all in!

A few of the things on this list haven't changed at all since we were little...

1. August Katy Perry Concert

2. Firepits

3. Boating with Boersma's? - This didn't happen because those lame parents of ours SOLD THE BOAT

4. Floating down the river

5. FURMAN

6. Watering flowers

7. Ames Farmer's Market

8. Bike rides

9. Ada Hayden

10. 4th of July parade?

11. Laying out

12. Jumping on the trampoline

13. Water walking

14. Jamie helping Mollie with this list

15. Visiting Twin Lakes

16. Grilling

17. Neighborhood walks

18. Supper on the deck

19. Wedding dances

20. Iowa State Fair

Do people love looking back at their Instagrams as much as I do? Maybe it's because I've been scrapbooking since I was in 4th grade, but it's seriously like an iPhone scrapbook! So many fun memories, perfectly organized by the date they were taken...which is my favorite part.

MmB

My Closet

A few weeks ago, one of Josh's dear childhood friends posted on my Facebook wall asking for a blog post about my clothes. Lauren Cottings, you might the only human who is interested in reading this post, so you better enjoy it. ;)

It's like she KNEW my closet was a war zone and that I'd been putting off switching all our clothes from 'winter gear' to 'summer stuff.' Nothing like a little closet conviction to get me back on the spring cleaning bus (I took a couple weeks off after the Great Kitchen Cupboard Project of 2014).

Although my motivation for cleaning up my act might have been a little misguided ("You're really doing all of this just because Lauren suggested it?" - Josh), behold...my two-part blog series on clothes and closets.

Since I don't consider myself to be the most fashion forward of individuals (in college I spent every day for 3.5 years wearing the same sweatpants, boots, ISU hoodie, and headband...you all know the look I'm describing), I thought I'd start by explaining how we organize our miniature bedroom closet (seriously, the closets in our house are a tragedy).

Josh gets about 1/4 of the closet, and I get about 3/4. Before you judge me and think that's totally unfair, let me explain. Josh has two pairs of dress pants, four dress shirts, four flannel shirts, and five short-sleeve v-necks. Literally. that's. all. he. has. It would almost be silly for me NOT to fill the rest of the closet. ;)

I should also point out that he has reign over 3/5 dresser drawers for his extensive t-shirt collection (even AFTER I made him a t-shirt quilt with 36 of his shirts!).

So I push Josh's clothes to the right side, and my clothes to the left, separated by my scarf rack. ;)

I try to organize/purge all of the closets in our house two times per year. I've found the best time to do this is in the spring and the fall when the temperature drops and it's time for a wardrobe change. It just makes sense to do it while all of that rearranging is taking place anyway. It also makes it MUCH easier for me to acknowledge if there is something sitting at the bottom of the drawer or the back of the closet that neither of us has touched in six months...if I find myself just moving it from place to place and never using/wearing it...it's got to go.

I used to organize my clothes by style, but that got old. So I just finished organizing my shirts according to color and I've found in the past two weeks that it's a LOT easier to find things! If I'm looking for a blue shirt, sometimes sleeves and hangers can get hidden in the mix of everything, but if I know to look in the 'blue section' it's much easier to locate.

My dresses are not organized in any particular order. I don't have that many so they just get pushed to the least accessible section of the closet. Plus, we have storage sitting on the floor of our closet (still working on a better solution) and I want long dresses to be able to hang freely.

Our closet has two pretty awesome shelves and we use those for our joint crippling dependency on The Hoodie. Is there any other wardrobe staple as fundamentally useful and cozy as a sweatshirt? My answer: no. I'm usually not sentimental about anything that isn't scrapbookable but when it comes to my gray Manson Lifeguard hoodie from 10 years ago (HOW AM I THAT OLD) or our Clearwater Beach honeymoon sweatshirt...there's just no sense in getting rid of those before their time. They have many years of bonfires, yard clean-ups, and painting days before they're ready for the trash.

A few months ago I posted a plea on Instagram for helpful hints for storing cardigans and sweaters that shouldn't be hung on hangers. I had a TON of great ideas, and after trying a few out I settled on what I knew I should have done all along. Suck it up and pitch a few things to make room for folding them in a nice, neat pile on our shelves. So here they are:

To combat the small closet issues we have, I've implemented a few other organizing options that can happen in other places besides the floor of the closet. Hence this irritating shoe-storage option.

The bottom of our closet gives me anxiety (see first picture). Because we only have one five-drawer dresser, (I have an IKEA wish list a mile long to remedy all of these issues, but this one especially) I've used these plastic storage drawers since college. Our swimwear lives in the bottom drawers and my socks, bras, and undies reside in the top three drawers.

Josh's dress shoes and my heels go on another shoe rack inside the closet on the floor. And I don't love that either. But I love shoes under the bed or lined up against the wall even less...so this seemed like the best place for them to hide. To me, having shoes and jewelry and sweaters sitting OUT just adds to the clutter and makes already small bedrooms, look even smaller. So I try to stay as far away from those kinds of storage options as possible.

Our dresser holds Josh's socks, undies, white tanks and tees, and other novelty items...like his Christmas jammies. ;) This is where t-shirts, yoga pants, athletic shorts, and sweats all reside.

Would you believe me if I told you this dresser used to be brown with gold hardware? One of my earliest DIY projects that I'm proud of to this day. I'm a firm believer there is NOTHING a little high gloss black paint can't fix.

For the most part, Josh rotates between the following pieces: BLC hoodie, BLC work shirt, neon chemical shirt, Nike socks, compression shorts, jeans/work shorts, Nike hat, North Face, gray sweats, t-shirts.

Erryday.

I'm not kidding. He brings a whole new meaning to the term 'low-maintenance.' If those items are clean, it makes for one happy CEO.

Since we have separate bathrooms, and because Josh's bathroom is on the opposite side of the house from our bedroom, I figured out pretty early on that it was in everyone's best interest to keep these pieces of clothing stored IN Josh's bathroom. It's tiny, but one of these small storage cubes from Target does the trick. Everything gets folded and stacked in there, and he only has to trapse through the house for his socks. His work sweatshirts get hung on a hook and the whole concept isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but it's what works for BLC headquarters.

For now our winter clothes and jackets hang in our spare room closet, and our boots get lined along the top shelf. I keep mittens, gloves, hats, and other winter necessities in a basket that I pull out and put by the back door in the winter. Clothes that are too big (yay!) are being stored in a tote also in this closet for the time being. I've debated hauling all of this stuff downstairs in the off-season but have decided against it due to the lovely Iowa weather we're subjected to (t-shirts in February, winter coats in April...seriously?)

Lauren, I hope you enjoyed my rambling and are now motivated to go clean your closet. And if some of my closet-organization-inspiration rubs off on the rest of you, well great. ;)

MmB

Homemade Laundry Detergent: 4 Months Later

If you remember, at the beginning of February I posted this tutorial on how to make homemade laundry detergent. What I love about Pinterest and blogs is that there is TONS of information about how to make all of this stuff...but there is never a follow-up for what happens AFTER the pretty Instagrams are taken. So here are a few of my observations:

I'm. Still. In. LOVE with this stuff.

When I used liquid Gain my washer would always get a weird 'gunk' on the edges, in the middle which produced an interesting smell. It was just musty, gunky, slimy stuff that gave our laundry room (which happens to double as our guest room) a funk. While I enjoyed that our laundry smelled like 'Apple Mango Tango,' I did not enjoy the leftover slime. This homemade detergent doesn't give us the amazing 'fresh laundry scent' but one of the first things I noticed was the lack of turquoise residue.

The batch I made at the beginning of February might last us for the rest of our life...no seriously. I'm wondering if it's EVER going to run out. Like I said in the first blog...we do an INSANE amount of laundry around here for it just being the two of us so I was a little skeptical about how long it would last. I knew if I had to make it more than twice in one year, our savings would start to plummet...making just buying the Gain a better option. However, after noticing that THIS is how much we have left:

I'd also like to recommend these adorable chalk labels...I snagged 'em at Target (where else?) for $2.97 for a package of 6. I've been using them on everything. I understand the chalkboard thing is probably a phase, but I'm going hard on that trend while it's here. I have chalkboards errywhere.

...I think it's safe to say I won't be making this detergent three times in 2014...and there's an excellent chance I'll get away with only making it ONCE this year! Just like I planned!

There are a couple of things I'll mention. 1. I still keep a squirt bottle of Shout on hand for stain removal. The stains I come across in the BLC laundry pile would shock and appall you. So I don't trust the detergent to do an amazing job with those. Like I said in my tutorial, I figured Josh's laundry would require a couple of extra tablespoons, so depending on the size and filthiness of the load, I'll throw in anywhere between three to five tablespoons of the homemade mix. 2. A few weeks ago we sat around one of the stinkiest, smokiest bonfires I've ever experienced. And we sat around it for a solid 4+ hours. I ran all of our smoke clothes through the laundry the next day and used our regular dryer sheets in the dryer...but I'll tell you, that smoke had some serious LINGERING POWER. I threw on the same hoodie a few days later and peeeee-YOU. I'd recommend running loads like that through the washing machine twice. I think that would have taken care of it.

We have a few weddings coming up this summer and (spoilers) I'm planning to make a batch of my detergent, put it in Mason jars, and start giving it as gifts. Plus just give it as gifts for all kinds of occasions. I'll probably avoid giving the detergent to people with HE washers and dryers because I'm on the fence about it being safe to use in those machines (anyone have superior knowledge about this?!). From what I've read in blogland the opinions about this are all over the place. And I've heard it can ruin the warranty, which I probably wouldn't willing to do if I owned an HE washer.

If you can't tell, Monday's are laundry day around here which is why this soap is on ma mind.

Happy Monday!

MmB

Priorities

Last year we struggled with some wonderful people in our lives not understanding why we weren't around as much, why we were skipping out on certain events, missing stuff, leaving early...etc. I came up with this list last spring, and found myself referencing it quite often. We would LOVE to be everywhere, attend everything, and see everyone...but as we're headed into the second half of our 20's (omg wut) we've realized if we aren't focused on this list of priorities, things fly off the rails.

So if you're curious about why we've skipped out on something...please refer to the following list, which we hold dear (especially during lawn care season):

Disclaimer: In the event that you come to our house and Josh harasses you for leaving early or for not wanting to work for Boersma Lawn Care...he really is just teasing. He understands this list better than anyone I know.

#1 Our relationships with God

#2 Our relationships with each other

#3 Our relationships with our families

#4 BLC/C21

     Part 2: Coaching/rental business

#5 Our relationships with friends

#6 Attending our church regularly

#7 Giving/serving/ministry

#8 Attending Connection Group

#9 Fun/extra/miscellaneous/extended family commitments

#10 Vacationing/travel

Sometimes #3 and #4 get swapped, depending on the circumstances. For example, Josh might skip Father's Day with my dad if he needs to work, in order to spend Father's Day with his dad...which just makes sense. If I need to spend an extra 45 minutes finishing the billing for Boersma Lawn Care and I'm late to a cheer meeting...it's because BLC is a higher priority than my job as an AHS Winter Cheer Coach (this happened yesterday and I'm so thankful for understanding bosses and co-workers!).

#6 gets tossed around due to family time attending holiday services at either of our home churches, or just making fun family weekend plans that might not include being IN Ames on Sunday morning. Since #4 and #2 trump #6, if Josh has been up for 36 hours pushing snow, and I'd rather stay home to feed him some breakfast in bed instead of going to church alone, that's just how we roll.

Last spring I was doing some volunteer work which is priority #7. However, #7 wasn't understanding my balance with #4 as a higher priority (at the time we were headed into Sept/Oct...tonsillectomy, farmhouse reno, BLC fall work, AHS Cheer schedule). I worked with many retired ladies who didn't have these kinds of commitments, and had also made this clear on my application. It became impossible for me to volunteer during my regular time slot and the flexibility just wasn't there for me to 'do it all.'

If I haven't seen Josh in a week due to #4 and it happens to rain on a Tuesday during #8, there's a good chance we're going to stay home, order pizza, and watch Twister or Field of Dreams. And we're completely comfortable choosing to do that.

We've been spending a LOT of time with our #3 lately, and love it! In fact, I think it's safe to say that the siblings on both sides of our family are truly our best friends. We often see one side or the other almost every weekend, meaning occasionally we miss out on some #5 and #8 stuff...and I think that's really okay. Its a bummer when we're torn about being two places at once, but ultimately we would regret missing an event with our families more than we would regret missing a double-date or a dinner with friends. 

Does anyone else feel some guilt or judgement for saying 'no' to certain things? Maybe it's just us, but I'm over it. We've prayed about this list...asked our parents about this list...and we've been feeling GREAT about how we have handled our priorities this past year.

Maybe our parents were just on board because they know they're #3. ;)

Sometimes being a grown up is seriously hard. work.

MmB