Posts Tagged "house"

The Week that Was- Cinderella

Posted by cafebebemama on Sep 18, 2011 in Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 4 comments

This week Ella decided that she wanted to help with the dishwasher…who are we to say no?

Flashback Friday- Life After Kids

Posted by cafebebemama on May 13, 2011 in Blogger Love, BMB Video Bloggers, Flashback Friday, Vlog Posts | 14 comments

Another bebe will be joining our family in about 30-something weeks so I’m finding myself a bit nostalgic about life BEFORE children and how our life has changed AFTER kids. The obvious changes have happened to our home, in particular. What once was a mostly tidy, regularly cleaned, fairly organised house has now become an occasionally tidy, infrequently cleaned, decidedly UN-organised house! But it’s also become a house filled with love, laughter, happiness and family. And I wouldn’t change a single thing. Honest!

In particular, the ground level of our house has has a major facelift. The kitchen has been almost entirely changed (with the exception of the cabinets (darn); the lounge has been IKEA’d to within an inch of its life and has actually become a place which is rather pleasant to sit in. The garden has probably seen the greatest transformation however. What was once a quiet, calm, manicured English Garden is now the garden of a nearly-three-year-old. The garden feature is no longer the teeny pond nor the Eucalyptus tree but rather the trampoline! The lawn doesn’t get mown nearly as much as it used to probably because we don’t notice the grass anymore for all of the other STUFF out there. I give you a bit of an audio-visual tour of our life and abode…

But each room is happy and reflects the people who live and laugh in them. And isn’t that the most important thing? Have a look at a few BEFORE and AFTER shots:

Ooh, I do love my kitchen so! It’s become a place to SIT and enjoy instead of a place to dump things and cook on occasion. We’re so pleased with the transformation!

Which is better? Not sure! I think I know which one Little Miss would vote for though. Hubby kind of misses his garden a bit though! Oh well, you can’t have it all, can you?

So, back to the point! It’s Flashback Friday today. The day where we delve back into the archives to find a happy memory or story or just a picture that you’d like to share. Write up your memories, pop back over and link up to share them with our tiny corner of the Blogosphere. Simple! Sit back and enjoy as you’re transported through time by some rather lovely bloggers.

A Toddler Lives Here

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 29, 2010 in Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 4 comments

We’re in the process of installing a new dishwasher. By “WE” I mean my husband. By “INSTALLING” I mean storing it under the kitchen table for the last two weeks and it’s still not installed. As I was surveying the tip that is my home this morning as I hastily attempted to bring order to the chaos, I suddenly realised that this house no longer belongs to my husband and I. A toddler lives here. She is the interior designer and architecht now. We cater to her. There is very little left of what used to be. Here are some of the indicators, in case you happen to wander into my home, uninvited unannounced.

• When you walk in the front door you will find various and sundry things on the stairs, waiting to be taken upstairs on the next trip. They range from nappies to potties (full of wee, mind you), toilet paper, last night’s pyjamas (Little Miss’, not mine…I’m still wearing mine silly!) and assorted plastic toys, creatures and beings who have been positioned on the first few steps for playing purposes. Please mind the steps on the way back down. It really hurts to step on Lego/Duplo!
• The kitchen table is piled high with everything: mail, magazines, plasters, Sudocrem, wipes, train tickets, jackets, gloves, sunglasses, etc. It stays like this until hubby says something and I sort the madness down to a few essentials in preparation for the next round of piling.
• Highchair attached to the kitchen table. It’s nearly too small for Little Miss but we have no other means of securing her if we choose to eat at the kitchen table which we rarely do as it’s usually piled high with the items from the previous bullet point.
• Refridgerator: gone is the wine/beer. In its place- juice, smoothies, yoghurt, ready made pasta & Milky Bar Buttons. It’s not overly inspiring to look in there when you’re over the age of 3.
• Cookbooks: Jamie, Gordon and Wagamama sit at the bottom of a pile which is topped by Annabel Karmel in various incarnations. Most of these cookbooks are rarely opened.
• Hallway: Tiny jackets, hats and hangers take the place of Northface jackets and other outdoor activities gear. Assorted shopping bags and windown shades now lay higgeldy-piggeldy in the storage bins.
• Lounge: New IKEA wipe/wash and wear couches with covers that can be removed and washed. Pictures of a certain toddler adorn every surface and her artwork adorns the others. Stacked on shelves are Play-Doh sets, aprons, books, toys and CD’s belonging to said toddler. Adult music no longer exists in the CD rota…instead you will find ZingZillas, Cbeebies Song Time, Toybox, etc. Toys and accessories are stacked behind/under/in/on most surfaces. Adult DVD’s (get your mind out of the gutter…I just mean grownup ones) are on the bottom while Charlie & Lola, LeapFrog and Little People have pride of place. Remote controls are carefully placed out of the reach of tiny hands.
• In any room: various sippy cups, wipes, tissues, stray crayons, stones, soft toys, slippers…there is no rhyme or reason. Chaos rules.
• Toy area: (thankfully we have space in our lounge to dedicate exclusively to toys…and my desk) Kitchen set, easel, toy bins and tiny tables fill the toy area. All toys are played with for several minutes and then discarded for the next thing. Said toddler has the attention span of a goldfish. In the DEDICATED toy area is my desk. Does this tell you how important my work is?
• My Desk: Now faces into the room…no longer can my back be turned! It’s also located in the coldest corner of the lounge where the cold air return vent is. My feet are frozen and I’m quite shivery most of the time. On the desk are pictures of Little Miss…as if I could forget what she looks like, a printer, a 7 year old laptop and several piles of paper that sometimes get sifted through. I am not the epitome of organisation but I do know where everything is.
• Doorways: The doorway to the lounge, the top of the stairs and the door to Little Miss’ room now all have gates…we need some sort of barrier once in a while.
• Bathroom: We have 1 toddler toilet seat, a stool for the sink and various bath toys strewn around the edge of the bath. This room isn’t too toddler decorated except for the toilet seat.
• Garden: We used to have a quaint, English garden. We now have a Toddler’s Garden. Starfish sand box, multi-coloured plastic garden cottage/house, trampoline, very little actual garden left.

But you know what? We wouldn’t have it any other way! Thanks for redecorating our lives Little Miss. You’re worth it!

How Clean is My House?

Posted by cafebebemama on Feb 9, 2010 in Motherhood | 11 comments

How Clean is Your House

How clean is my house?  I made a shocking discovery last night.  It turns out my house is not very clean and in fact, is possibly TOXIC!

I am not the World’s Greatest Housekeeper.  Truth be told, I am not even my village’s greatest housekeeper.  I find that my daughter and my work (blog, Twitter, writing) are my main priority and housekeeping definitely takes a 5th or 6th place on my agenda of things to do.  I keep the house tidy enough but I don’t have a cleaning schedule or a rota or any real routine of cleaning.  Thankfully my husband is in charge of the laundry (he actually does it ALL) and neither of us iron so that eliminates one chore.  We’re not filthy, messy people and we now have a Dyson Animal hoover so our carpets have never been cleaner.  However, the discovery I made last night was enough to stop me in my tracks and nearly make me turn in my Mother of the Year tiara.  (Regular viewers of my vlogs know that I have one)

As I was sitting in Little Miss’ room, rocking in the rocking chair, watching Hubby get Little Miss ready for bed, I glanced over to Little Miss’ cot bed.  I had rearranged the bedroom a few months back, moving the cot bed under the window which allowed us to put her changing table at the end of her bed and giving more room for the rocking chair.  We also have begun using a humidifier in Little Miss’ room since Christmas.  Little Miss has had a chesty cough and snuffly nose for the last few months and a humidifier was added as another solution to the night-time coughing.  Every time Little Miss goes to sleep at night or for naps, the humidifier gets turned on.  Little Miss’ room is a box room with 2 exterior walls and is rather tiny.  Sometimes I forget to crack the door open when the humidifier is on thus turning the room into a cold steam room!  Now I see the error of my ways.

I noticed a spot on the wall in the corner, directly behind Little Miss’ cot and leaned forward to investigate.  What I found was not one little spot but many which were of the BLACK MOULD variety.  OH MY GOD!!!!  I’m cultivating BLACK MOULD in my daughter’s bedroom!!!  I’m POISONING my daughter!  I felt like (and still do) the WORST mother in the world…take my tiara now.  Mind you, when I discovered the black mould, it was about 60 minutes past Little Miss’ bedtime anyway as we had had my inlaws over.  So, with bedtime looming and the black mould screaming at me, I grabbed some bathroom cleaning wipes to scrub the bejesus out of the wall and also grabbed my bottle of Tea Tree Oil to treat the wall.  I’ve seen the above “How Clean is Your House” crew of Kim & Aggie using Tea Tree Oil to get rid of horrendous mould in people’s toxic waste dumps.  The room smelled lovely and “tea tree”-like and I felt moderately better but I still felt like the worst mother!  I was letting my daughter sleep in a SPORE INFESTED room and was cultivating the black mould by continually pumping steam around the room.  No wonder the child has a chesty cough!

My goal today is to move everything in her room and root out any more black mould and destroy it with a good scrub and tea tree oil.  My husband has told me that part of the reason for the mould in that corner is that it’s the one corner of the room with no inside wall which would explain the dampness.  I obviously need to keep that corner uncovered and keep air circulating around it to eliminate any future cultures of black mould.  I’m changing the bedding and giving the cot a good wipe down as well, just in case.  I have found a website that teaches you How to Make a Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit which I am going to attempt as well.  I’m normally a BIG FAN of bleach, but I feel the need to keep the toxic chemicals to a minimum where Little Miss is concerned.

Here’s my call out for advice and help.  What are your favourite household cleaning products?  Do you use any chemicals around your children?  What is your household routine for cleaning?  Help me to be able to wear my World’s Greatest Housekeeper tiara once again!