• Ants Header
    Home Management

    Saturday Special: Kill the Colored Ants!

    We have ants. Again. We live in a fairly old house, and it’s just not sealed as well as it should/could be. About every 2 or 3 months, we get a good rain (like night before last) and a colony of ants decides they need to seek shelter by moving into our house. I don’t know about you, but I HATE ants. My husband says we need to name them and call them our “kitchen friends.” He is not in charge of dealing with the ants, obviously. HeĀ IS in charge of the videoing around here (see below). You’ll see that we are pretty easily amused. I’ve tried all sorts of…

  • Organizing Paperwork
    Home Management

    Organizing Paperwork

    Some time last year, I got SO tired of my counters always looking like this: The amount of paperwork that comes into this house is just insane! I try to follow all the paperwork management rules: touch it once if possible, immediately toss whatever we don’t need, etc. but there is just a certain amount of paperwork that we need to hang onto, either for a short while or for the long-haul. After thinking it over for a little while, I decided to create a system of file folders and to use one of the doors closest to the counter that is usually the “Hot Spot” for all this paperwork…

  • Laundry Organization
    Home Management

    Laundry Organization and Child Labor

    There are days when I think it would be SO much easier if I just did all the picking up and cleaning, table setting and clearing, and general chore duties around here myself. If I went that route, there would be the following advantages: It would be done. It would be done like I want it to be done. It would be done when I want it to be done. I can’t bark orders/nag incessantly at myself. On the other hand, the following things occur to me that outweigh my desire to just get things done now, quickly, and well: My children are capable . . . often of MUCH…