Pumpkins, books, & cleaning.

What in the world do pumpkins & books & cleaning have to do with each other?

Absolutely nothing. Aren't you glad I realize that? However, our life right now is about those things so therefore the strange title emerged for this post. But you want to keep reading, right?

Funny story this silly pumpkin. A student gave me a miniature pumpkin last fall that I set outside our porch with the cluster of other festive pumpkins. The other pumpkins were eventually thrown away, but for some reason the little one didn't get picked up. Fast forward through the winter months where the pumpkin apparently rotted under lots of snowfall (for this year anyway). It was all but forgotten until a little sprig with flower appeared earlier this spring.

Confused by the random growth in the flowerbed, it dawned on me that pumpkin must have left its' seeds as it rotted. So in jest, I told Mr. C he better dig it up if he wanted his pumpkins this fall for his garden. He actually agreed at my joke, and he decided to grow pumpkins in the backyard.

I was fine with that, but I told him he needed to dig it up post haste. The last thing we need is a pumpkin vine growing down the driveway in our suburban neighborhood.

Well, here we are in JULY PEOPLE, JULY. And you see where that pumpkin still resides? That's right. Near our front porch in the walkway to our house.

(We don't use this walkway since we enter through the garage. But I was just asked by a friend if I had poison ivy in my walkway. There's a problem here, people.)

Only now the pumpkin vine is getting longer and longer. I've given my procrastinating husband deadline after deadline or "I'd throw it away." The thing is...the elementary teacher almost can't bear to throw it away. And at this point digging it up would kill it, right?

So we're in a quandary. Do we dig up and transplant or risk looking like the biggest southern rednecks in all the world? I do realize we live in the south, but is there really any reason to further the stereotype? I think not.

At any point, I had to take some documentation of the pumpkin by placing Micah in front of it this morning. It's one of his first year milestones he'll wanna remember. Right?

The rest of this morning has been spent playing, attempting to read Micah some books, playing some more, and soaking in this big boy's smile. Oh, how glad I am to see that smile again!

He's starting to feel more like himself since his surgery last week. Unfortunately, since he is still healing I have to keep him out of the nursery. So we won't be at church for a while. This morning, I also decided to play around with Daddy's fancypants camera. You see, he watches me like an eagle when I use it when he's home. So I thought an impromptu photoshoot sans Daddy's watchful eyes would be fun.

Micah loves his books, but unfortunately he just likes to eat them right now. Maybe one day he'll sit still for me to read them to him.

We also have some Summer Cleaning going on around here. The rest of the world Spring Cleans, but a true teacher Summer Cleans. After all, I have the whole summer. Actually I've had my Faux Stay At Home (maternity leave) status for over seven months. And I'm just now deep cleaning. Such is life. I have a month until I go back.

I posted this pic on FB yesterday wondering if anyone else out there has an uncontrollable lid to container ratio problem at their house? Overwhelmingly, you guys agreed...yes! So I went through everything and threw away any lids that had no mate or any containers that had no mate. It was so cathartic.

(Side note: I was thought cathartic meant purging. Looked it up on dictionary dot com and it means laxative! Ugh. Maybe I should rethink my vocabulary.)

The inside of my cabinet now looks like this (and yes, I didn't take a pic of the before. It was just too embarrassing.) I'd say we still have plenty of containers and bowls left, don't you think?

Since I was still on a role, I did the cooking cabinet, too. Although I do have four muffin pans. (Three big pans & one just for six muffins.) Methinks that is a bit too much, and I probably only need to keep two. However, there have been times when baking for a large crowd that I'd want to back 36 muffins in one sitting. I guess I'm keeping them. Micah's first birthday is coming sooner than I'd rather admit.

Of course, what cleaning day is complete without your little helper?

You may remember in my couponing post that I showed my amazing storage space in the garage and pantries I've collected over the years to organize my things. Well, on the Fourth while Micah slept, I got to thinking about the arrangement of the pantries.

They sure take up a lot of room across the length of my garage with a lot of leftover space behind them. In talking to my husband, we came across a few different scenarios which led to this arrangement...

So I have three pantries in the place where two stood side by side. You see that step to the right? That is the entrance to my kitchen. Now all the pantries are reorganized by categories and just a step outside my doorway. Plus, I'm super short, and now I can actually reach the top shelf because I can step up to their level. Before, I was simply so far down the top shelf became unusable.

That's it. More cleaning projects to come...not that you care. But I feel much better!

Have a great Wednesday! Don't you wish I was a Wordless Wednesday kind of person??

And if you are here from the blog hop, welcome! Comment!! I'm going to go see your blog, too! :)