Labor Day Weekend General Cleaning

We didn't really have a great start to our Labor day weekend as Swe-cha has been out of sorts since Thursday afternoon. We already brought him to the doctor yesterday and doc thinks it may be viral though she did give us a prescription for antibiotics which we will be filling if Swe-cha's fever persists till Sunday.

He's feeling a lot better now than he did yesterday and was doing cartwheels (literally) all afternoon and if it weren't for his temperature and poor appetite, you wouldn't think that anything is wrong with him today. I hope that he feels much better tomorrow and we won't have to resort to the antibiotics anymore.

On a good note, hubby did great today.

He cut the grass, took care of the fallen leaves, applied fertilizer to the lawn and afterwards, he WOWed me and cleaned our bedroom.

He really got into cleaning when he decided to bring the leaf blower in and used that to clean. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first and thought it was overkill (hubby's normal mode) but I didn't say a word - hey, who would be stupid enough to complain when the husband cleans ?

But I should really share this next photo and let the results speak for themselves - a picture says a thousand words, I tell ya.

This cringe-worthy pile of dust bunnies, grit, dust and dirt is the last batch of what came out of the baseboard fins after using the leaf blower on them.

Yes, I said "last" batch, we had already swept out / vacuumed the earlier ones and take note, all these came out AFTER vacuuming.

And again, allow me to *cringe*, this picture really sends shivers running down my spine.

After all this was cleaned up and our room was left spic & span, hubby broaches the subject of getting more power tools. He had been wanting to buy an air compressor for the longest time and I didn't really think it was practical so I wouldn't say yes.  This time ? He used the magic words - "you know, if I had an air compressor, I could use that to clean our baseboards..."**

Oo na. You can start shopping around for an air compressor - basta ba kasama ang regular cleaning.

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** the leaf blower is also a leaf vacuum, it's still brand-spanking new and haven't been used to vacuum leaves yet so hubby felt that it was clean enough and it was okay to use in our bedroom. He doesn't want to use this inside after it's been used to vacuum outside.

Photo hosting

Finally got scared of just keeping our digital photos stored all over the place - personal laptops, external drives, media cards, CDs and DVDs).

The grand plan was to keep multiple copies of the digital images and then print out photobooks so we have a hard copy of the nice ones. It was a good plan which we stuck to for the first few years after we got married... but the backlog started after the little one was born and it just became bigger and bigger from there on.

The other day, hubby (not really sure what sparked the interest) was looking into Amazon's cloud services as a possible backup location for us. After discussing what we really wanted and needed. We were in agreement that all we wanted to be backed up was photos and videos but NOT documents, hence, we decided to go with a paid photo-hosting service instead, one that is backed up Amazon's cloud services (so you know your photos are safe) and there's password protection and all.

We hemmed and hawed for a few days before I finally decided to just bite the bullet and created an account. I would not have forgiven myself if something happened to our photos now.

Master Bath

We picked up a Smycke wall clock from Ikea when we went there to pick up the shelf and baskets. Hubby, a Lego fan, was intrigued by the idea of building his own design. As for me, I just wanted to replace a misaligned clock that we have hanging in the bathroom. I didn't really care what the clock looked like.

And, yes, we do hang a wall clock in the master bath - I want us to be mindful of the time when we're there.

The Smycke clock box has been sitting out in the living room all this time so this evening, I opened it up and announced to my husband that it was time to put it together. He asked if I had a specific design in mind but I left it all up to him. Like I said earlier, I didn't really care what it looked like so long as it was there.

So hubby starts laying out the pieces, moving things around. There was a bit of drama during the assembly process when Swe-cha saw what he was doing and decided to re-arrange the pieces. But he did finish it and here is the finished product. (Note, the wall is blue and I do want to change it the color some day but I do like how it is showing up this shade of gray in the picture)

Do you know what it is ? This is what it's supposed to be.

What do you think ?

Patio Updates

I'm not really an outdoors person but I do love staying out in the yard because of the covered patio.

Since summer came, however, every time we go out and spend time in the yard, it seems like we're also providing a buffet for the mosquitos. Yes, we get eaten alive, I kid you not.

We've tried different repellents - spray-on types, citronella bracelets and stickers,off clip on - and nothing really seems to work. Last night, Swe-cha's ninong advised spraying the yard with insect repellent, they come in bottles that you could attach to the garden hose and they get sprayed on the plants and lawn as you water them . Hubby sprayed this on this afternoon.

We also decided to get some mosquito coils (check out the clay coil holder!) and citronella candles (oo, late na). After Swe-cha's last foray in the backyard this week, he got no less than 30 bites all over. They're still swollen now, 3 days later, so we're not taking any more chances



Not really sure which one worked or if our neighborhood mosquitoes were out for the day but I can say that we didn't get bitten tonight and that is such a huge relief. Next year, we will start spraying the insect killer early (you do it every 8 weeks) in the summer, before the mosquitoes start hatching.

While we were outside trying to tempt the mosquitoes with our delectable blood, hubby decided that he wanted to open up the ceiling light and clean the dome.

I convinced him to switch the incandescent bulbs with energy-saving CFL ones. I have been trying to get him to do this for the longest time and finally succeeded now, 9 months later - not too bad ;)

I am also happy to show that I did set up the el-cheapo Ikea Rusch clock that we purchased last week. I've been wanting to put a clock outside for the longest time as it is so easy to lose track of time when you're lounging outside.

Little things make me so happy, I tell 'ya. $1.99 to be exact. I don't feel the need to put up a nicer one because it'll be exposed to extreme temperatures and well... er... because I'm cheap that way.

This is it, I guess, patio-wise. We don't feel the need to put in any more updates at this time.

Family

It used to be that when you say "FAMILY" out loud, Swe-cha would rush over to us and hug us. Family meant Mommy, Daddy and Swe-cha mixed in with a lot of hugs and kisses.

These days, Mommy and Daddy have been demoted and replaced with two other family members.

Family raw,... and then he kisses them.

Granted, they're super stars.

But hey, aren't Mommy and Daddy supposed to be super stars in your eyes too, Swe-cha ?

Sickies

I'm WFH* today, Swe-cha has been sick since last Thursday when his daycare called us early in the afternoon to come and pick him up. We've been tending his fever since then and we have instructions to bring him back to the doctor should his fever not go away by Tuesday (ang tagal!!!).

We have been alternating between seeing Swe-cha in a great mood and having to deal with severe crankiness all weekend long - he's good when he's comfortable but gets cranky when not (i.e. when medicine wears off).

He's been sick a lot during his first year in daycare but it hasn't been this bad in a long time and the previous times he's been sick, his recovery is already very obvious within 24 hours of administering meds. Now, we're on our 3rd day of antibiotics and I still had to give him Tylenol this morning.

Poor baby.

In the meantime, I'm taking the opportunity to air out our house. All our upper floor windows are wide open and there's a nice warm breeze going through - warm enough to not feel cool but not too much to be uncomfortable.

Please help us pray for Swe-cha's recovery. Thanks!

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*WHF - working from home

Home organization

Our home has been a work-in-progress since the time that we moved in - roughly, 9 months ago - and given our very slow pace, each update is really an achievement in itself :)

So here's our latest acquisition - the Kallax shelf unit and Knipsa baskets from Ikea. It's really doing a good job of keeping the clutter down (not completely gone, but it's way better now).

It's really similar to the one that we got for my home office (Ikea just renamed the series) and admittedly, this wasn't what I had initially envisioned for our living space. Since we have an open concept house where the living room, dining area and kitchen flows right into each other, I was thinking of getting a nice buffet for this wall here. As it turns out, this is one of those times when I'm sort of grateful that we didn't rush furnishing the house as this is really more appropriate to how we use the space.

In the ideal world I envisioned, all the toys are confined to the playroom, however, that isn't really practical in the sense that how am I supposed to confine Swe-cha within his playroom while I am in a completely different section of the house ?

Anyway, we can always move this shelf into one of the bedrooms eventually when we're done using it this way  =)

This is a wider view of the space.

We have two more things on my list to get before I would say that this space is complete, I'd like to get a big clock that would also serve as wall art and a TV & media table so we can get our TV off the floor.

Wish us luck!