What Can You Get Done in 15 Minutes?

I can't believe it's already been a month since I blogged.  June has flown by.  My son and daughter were visiting their grandparents for 2 weeks.  Well, my son lasted 4 days, but that was pretty good for his first time gone from home.  He is only 3.  My daughter came home on Saturday.  It's so nice having the whole family back home.  It's just too quiet around here without them, even with a 5 month old chocolate lab.  Ha!

I have also aged a year.  :)  I turned 31 back on Thursday.  My wonderful husband is installing the backsplash in the kitchen that I have been wanting since we moved into this house about 18 months ago.  He's almost done.  He has one more section to finish grouting, and then I can move in and clean up the rest of the mess and reassemble my kitchen.  It's halfway back together.

It's been soooo hot that you just don't feel like getting much done.  I love to cook and bake, but we're doing a lot of crock pot meals and grilling outside to keep the heat out of the house.  I'm even behind on laundry since having the dryer going all day will just heat up the house even more.  I would love to hang a line outside, but of course, you can't have a permanent one in our neighborhood, and my portable one is just a bit too rickety for the time being.  Plus, I can just imagine home many times I will have to pick the clothes off the ground after Walter (lab) goes and attacks the clothes flapping in the non-existent breeze.  :)

I was sitting here after lunch, and was reading over my emails.  I was looking over a flylady email and it reminded me to set my timer for 15 minutes and get busy.  What?  I can't just sit here???  That kitchen isn't going to clean up itself?  Surely it's going to take me forever to make it semi-presentable.   Oh, alright, let's set the timer and give it a go.  I do a lot of the flylady stuff, but never mess with a timer.  Take a look, and see if it was worth it yourself.  You might feel the inspiration to set your oven/microwave timer like I did too. 

BEFORE:

(Pay no attention to the spackle and tools on the counter.  Have to leave those for dh)

                                         (I forgot to take an after of the table, but it's clean too)

AFTER 15 MINUTES:

TADA!

(Thanks for the gorgeous backsplash honey!  Love it!)

(Normally the kitchen utensils and salt and pepper caddy should be on the right side)

(Had time to brew a pot of iced tea)

(More grouting materials in the right sink, but the left one is clean)

So, there you have it.  Do you have 15 minutes?  In mine, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the counters, picked up loose things that needed to be removed from the kitchen, cleared the kitchen table, made some iced tea, wiped down the stove and microwave, and took out the trash.  Now can someone come do my laundry???  :P