Minivan Makeover!

For the past day & a half, I have been giving our minivan a makeover. Here is a brief history on our minivan whom we call "Sienna". She (yes its a she) has been the family car for the past 9 years hauling everything from newborn babies, to potting soil. There aren't any rules or restrictions when it come to the van, so she has a few scratches, and was a mess. The last time she was really cleaned, like take the seats out and wash the rugs clean, was probably back in '08, so she was a sight. My original inspiration with cleaning her out was to make her more organized. I saw a great blog post from The Castro Happynings blog about how one woman organized her minivan so that she would have everything she needed. You can read her post here. http://emcx3.blogspot.com/2012/06/junk-in-trunk-per-request.html Now, I didn't go quite to as extreme as that woman did. I also modified what went into our van to fit our needs. But before all that could happen, Sienna needed a good cleaning. I started by taking all the seat out of the back, and washing all the rugs in our  washing machine. Then I cleaned all the chairs with Pledge leather cleaner. The next step was to vacuum the carpet which was filthy.  After that I did all the detail work on the interior from cleaning the inside of the windows (which were covered with hand & footprints), to scrubbing who knows what off of cupholders and walls. Now came the hard part, steam cleaning the interior carpets by hand, not my favorite part, I must admit. After that I had to let them dry overnight before I could put anything back in.  Okay, so here are 2 shots of the work in progress.

So the next morning I was able to put the rugs and seat back in, and then came the fun part, the organization!

I started with somethings we already had in the van, but I put them in more accessible places, then I added things we didn't have.  I bought this car organizer a few years back, but haven't really used it, until now.  So here is a list of things in our van.

Cleaning: Paper towels, wipes, hand sanitizer, 

Toys & Entertainment: Magnetic toys, Walkman & tapes (Yes we still have one of those!), headphones, magazines,  CDs, crayons, & paper.

Beauty Emergency: tissues, deodorant, chapstick, lotion, perfume, nail clipper, nail file, hairbrush , hair things (Wheres my scrunchie for gymnastics?),  & hairspray

Snacks: Granola bars, fruit bites,  peanut butter crackers, pistachios, water bottles, juice boxes, and candied ginger, (ginger helps with motion sickness)

Food related: Forks, spoons, knives, sporks, ketchup (a necessity for Kristen), hot sauce, Polynesian sauce, soy sauce, chopsticks (our family loves Chinese food!), salt & pepper.

Misc: Superglue (you never know when you might need it!), bug spray, Ivarest (for poison ivy), sunscreen, tape, scissors, pencils, pens, safety pins, sewing kit, GPS (although, it doesn't work, so I don't know why it's in there!), maps (because the GPS doesn't work!), umbrellas, jumper cables (which have come in handy countless times!), sunglasses, & a abundance of gum. I just have to say I found about a dozen packets & containers of gum in that car.

Now I think we are prepared for just about anything!

Summer Peach Breakfast Bake

What is the first fruit you think of when you think of summer? Okay, the second, watermelon is probably the first. But for many people peaches are the ultimate summer fruit. These sweet, juicy, beauties can be eaten straight off the tree, or turned into about a million other things. Unfortunately, many peach recipes contain loads of sugar, which takes away from the natural sweetness of this delicious fruit. I found this recipe from a great blog called Chocolate-Covered Katie. She puts a healthy spin on many sugary desserts. This Peach Breakfast Bake recipe is a spinoff on peach crisp, and in my opinion, just as good-if not better than the sugar filled one. The best part of this recipe is that you can eat it for breakfast! One tradition I have started in my house is Sunday morning breakfast. There are many weeks when certain people in our household are too busy getting ready for church, to eat, much less make breakfast. The experts always tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I agree with them. So I have taken it upon myself to make breakfast for my family on Sundays. The problem comes that many breakfast foods are filled with sugar and fat, and are very time consuming. This Breakfast Bake was perfect because I was able to make it when I got up, then shower and get ready while it baked!  After it finished baking I mixed it with some vanilla yogurt for a delicious, and healthy breakfast that everyone loved! You can find the recipe here:  http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/06/26/peach-breakfast-bake/