30 Day Housecleaning Challenge Day 5- kithchen and living room

Day 5 of the housecleaning challenge  at MoneySavingMom was to surface clean your kitchen and living room.

Befores:

 

 Afters:

30 Day Housecleaning Challenge - Baths

I am joining in with the housecleaning challenge at Money Saving Mom.

Today it is your baths. Mine are embarrassingly horrible. I've been so lazy the last weekend after coming home from vacation and having Easter.

 

My first one is the half bath downstairs. I just had to wipe it and empty the trash and put up a few things. Looks a lot better though.

 

The kids bath is a different story! They are supposed to pick up their clothes every morning, but as you see they got off to school without me noticing and left a pile. We are in the middle of refinishing the cabinets so the doors are off making it look even worse.

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My master bath was really bad, too. These loaded wonky, so aren't in the right order. I had a mess everywhere!

 

Well, at least the baths are clean now and it only took me about 20 minutes to wipe all three. I didn't do my tub or either shower, just wanted to get them presentable because I have the rest of the house to freshen up and a lot of laundry to do.

My freezers are stuffed! I have three- THREE- freezers and they are all so full you cannot get another thing in them. We bought the small chest freezer off Craigslist because my husband is hunting and it is to put in the deer meat he gets. Thank God that he hasn't killed anything yet :)

I cleaned two shelves in my inside side-by-side freezer today and took an inventory to start using this week. I plan to buy bread, milk and fruit this week as needed, but think I have everything else. Here is my menu for the rest of the week.

Breakfasts;
Lego waffles
Frozen biscuits and sausage
eggs- omelets with ham and cheese
frozen oatmeal/banana/yogurt muffins
cereal

Lunch
Roast sandwiches
turkey roll up in lettuce
chicken salad
frozen gluten free lasagna- kids have hot pockets/personal pizzas
red beans and rice

Supper
Hamburgers, sweet potato/french fries, salad, leftover peas
boiled shimp, fried okra, corn on cob
vegetable soup with leftover roast and vegetables
grilled chops, lima beans, rice
????- need to clean more shelves to see what else I have

Happy New Year

I am excited for a new year! It always feels as if New Years Day is a fresh start where everything has been reset and you have a brand new blank slate. I am looking forward to this new year as this past has been very tough. Last year I lost my only brother to a stroke, my dad to cancer, and my husband's step father to a heart attack.

Many of my 2012 goals were not met. It seemed as if every time I started exercising and eating clean I would need to travel for a funeral or got sick or something which derailed me. I just didn't find time for sewing and photography as spending time with those I loved and healing was more important.

So now I put aside all that is behind me and turn my focus ahead to 2013 and a new year and fresh goals to strive to achieve. In the coming year my goals are:

1. Spend daily time in Bible study and prayer.
2. Enjoy crafting and sewing. Meet with my precious friends to craft each week.
3. Run a 5K
4. Lose 70 lbs
5. Water Ski
6. Celebrate my 25th anniversary
7. Read 1 book a month
8. Learn to shoot in manual mode
9. Focus on my family and concentrate on each person one day a week to encourage and bless them.
10. Front flip on the trampoline
11. Have people over once a month
12. Learn to crochet/knit
13. Algebra 1 book
14. Learn Spanish
15. Get back into blogging :)

Wailua River, Hiking to Bottom of Wailua Falls, Opaekaa Falls

 We drove up to the east side of the island to visit Wailua Falls. Most of the waterfalls on Kauai you have to hike to, but Wailua is one you just drive up and walk out to the guard rail and view. This is the waterfall shown in the opening scene of Fantasy Island. Normally it is two streams of falls, but we had rain the day before on the mountain and it was a large flow of water.

 It falls into a pretty pool of water at the bottom.

 OK, confession time. We had the book that is supposed to be the Holy Guidebook of Kauai and it told how to get to the bottom of the falls. There are two ways. One is past the overlook at the end of the parking lot. That trail is supposed to be more steep and apparently people have put up ropes to help you keep your footing as you climb down and back up. But, the officials have had people hurt so have posted Dangerous, No Trespassing signs and cut the ropes. But, down the street about 3/10 of a mile there is a turn in the road. There is a trail there that is less steep although it is a little farther to hike and requires you to cross the river to get to the falls. This sign was there but we decided to be rebels and do it anyway :)

 This was the first part of the trail. Not too bad. Just after the first little piece it starts going almost straight down for the rest of the hike. As it had rained the day before it was muddy and very slippery. The ground is covered with tree roots and as it gets very steep they create almost a natural staircase in some areas. You have to be very careful because you put your foot down and it slides and since you are going down it is scary at times. Luckily most of that area also has small trees you can grab for a holding. I sat in a couple of areas where I was sliding too much and just inched my way down. So, this photo is very deceiving as we saw we needed to put the camera in the bag and be very careful as we climbed down.

 At the bottom we reached the river which was pretty rapid! What we didn't know is that it had rained and so the falls were a heavy flow and the river was high and more swift than usual. Also, we had read that all the creeks and rivers in the interior of Hawaii have a flesh eating bacteria... nice to know. We did our best to find a way to cross.

 This photo doesn't show how fast the water was running. We ended up wrapping the camera in our rain jacket and putting it in the pack so this is all the photos I got, but we went on quite an adventure trying to cross the river! Most areas around the rocks the water was knee to waist high so we tried to use the rocks as a way to cross. The areas which didn't have rocks were all up to our chest and possibly deeper and we were trying to keep the pack dry. So, Darryl went first and would get about 5 feet and I would follow. When we reached the middle there was an area where the water went between two large rocks. Darryl stepped one foot and said, "Whoa, I almost lost it, one more step and it is so strong a current I would have been sucked in." He finally just plunged himself to the other rock on the other side of that place, which was about 5 feet away, and made it across, so he told me to follow. I got to that area and it was amazing the power of the water there! It was like a vacuum and as soon as you put a foot in that stream an overwhelming suction pulled you between the rocks down stream. So, he held his hand out and I jumped into the water as far across as I could and made it. We were only able to get another 6 feet before the rocks ended and it was another swift current, with no rocks to grab this time. We looked and tried different ways and couldn't find a passable place. We finally had to go back. Darryl got across the "place of suction" and got up on the rock on his belly and held his hand out. I jumped as far as I could into the water again, towards the rock, but this time that rock was a little further upstream than the one I was leaving and the current was so bad there was no way I could get my body to the backside of the rock, even with Darryl helping me. I was holding onto his hand with my body flying downriver, the current ripping my shorts down and I looked up at him and said, "I'm not going to make it." The way I said it was like I was going to die and we both started laughing and then I let go of Darryl and was carried about 20 feet before hitting more rocks where I could get a footing and get out. So much fun! We then had to go back up the mountain, almost straight up. The good thing is you can use the roots along the ground to pull up on. I also found a tree branch to use as a hiking stick. It was very slippery and hard going up. Well, I am not in the best shape, carrying about 70 extra pounds, so I could feel every single step. My legs were on fire and it hurt so bad and Darryl would only say, "Pain is weakness leaving your body" I feel a little less wimpy when reading other hikers accounts of going to the bottom and seeing that experienced hikers say you cannot cross the river after a rain and they say the hike is very strenuous and dangerous. I didn't know the falls were heavy until seeing other's photos and it just being two streams. We didn't even know it had rained the day before, as in the southern Po'ipu area it hardly ever rains. So, I am proud that I did the hike (climb!) and pushed myself past my normal.... I probably wouldn't have if I had known.... so I've learned I am capable of more than I thought. Now, I was extremely sore for three days afterwards!

 We could see this falls while almost back at the top. It is not the same one.

 The Wailua River. You can kayak about 2.5 miles in and then hike 2 miles to a waterfall then kayak 2.5 miles out. I didn't think I could do that.

 Roosters across the street from the overlook. Chickens and roosters are EVERYWHERE on Kauai. Years ago a hurricane destroyed the chicken houses and they all got out and have multiplied and now roam wild all over the island.

 Opaekaa Falls. We were able to drive to this overlook also to view these falls.

Na'Pali Catamaran Cruise

 One of the most amazing thing we did in Hawaii was take a sunset catamaran cruise up the Na'Pali coast. The whole east side of Kauai if cliffs/mountains. There are no roads into this area, so to see it you either have to do extreme hiking or see it by helicopter or boat. We really considered whether the money was worth it ($115 each for a 4 hour boat ride!) but we finally decided we may never come back and needed to experience what we could. I may not get my new family room now, but that can wait.

 This was our view for the trip. Absolutely gorgeous! We saw many caves, waterfalls, and beautiful cliffs that demonstrate the beauty and awesomeness of our God. I am so glad we did it!

 See the waterfall hidden in the cliffs?

 The catamaran went into a cave.

 OK, THIS was unbelievable. In the winter Hawaii has a lot of whales. Apparently you can sit on the balcony at the Sheraton and watch them play. By May they have returned to Alaska for the summer months. So, it is very rare to see whales in May. AND WE SAW THEM!!!! The captain said the only time you see them is when a mother has calved and the baby was too young to make the trip to Alaska. We saw a mama and two calves. AMAZING!

 Then we saw some dauphins. The one above and the one below are two different kinds of dauphins we saw on the cruise.

 We also saw sea turtles, and a school of flying fish. Our captain was so good to point out the animals and stop the boat so we could watch them.

 This is the boat company we used. We had the best captain- Captain Glenn and the two shipmates were Jake and Matt. Jake and Matt started taking drink orders as soon as we set sail. They took time to talk to each of the 40 people on the cruise. We had dinner of salad, lasagna, bread, veggies and dip, and unlimited drinks. I asked Jake if he had a wine cooler and he didn't but made me a drink with wine, pineapple juice, and some other items and it was delicious.

 On the day cruises you are taken to a beach and allowed to snorkel. We had snorkeled all week so decided on the sunset cruise. This was our reward at the end of the cruise :)

 And can you believe God gave us a rainbow? It felt like the most perfect evening in the world. Seeing all the animals, seeing the beautiful coast, seeing the sunset, then a rainbow.... wow!

 Looking toward Kauai at sunset. This was past the Na'Pali coast and just east of Barking Sands military base. The mountain is the Waimea Canyon.... the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.

This is what I wore. We brought light rain jackets and you really need them. When you round the coast up the Na'Pali we had some pretty big swells and were sprayed with water. Not too long and I had to put my wet hair up in a ponytail and fight the wind that blew it all around in my face. It also got chilly on the way back after we were wet. Pretty much the whole time you have a lot of wind and sea spray. Your whole body had a layer of sea salt.