How I clean my Dyson

I have a Dyson.  I love my Dyson with all of the house cleaning part of my heart.  

 When I first got my Dyson Ball I would start humming that line "There's something in the way she moooves" while I was pushing her around furniture and toys.  So I like to keep her clean. This is how I clean my vacuum canister and the cones.  Because the cones get a build up of gunk in there.  Its like an ultra fine powdery dust.... and its icky.  

 First I do the basic filter A cleaning.  

 Sick

 Rinse.  Then set it to dry just like the illustrations show.  NEXT is the part I have made up.  As far as I know Dyson does not have ANY instructions.  This process hasn't harmed my vacuum in anyway.  But try it at your own risk.  There are lots of You-tube videos on the topic..(and I think those people do a crappy job)  

 Separate the cones from the canister.

 Rinse the canister clean.... I use my mrs meyers dish soap for this part.

 Now the cones are tricky... and you can see the dirt in there!

 You will have to remove your 5 screws.  My simple 'woman' tool kit has a screwdriver thinger thing that fits this weird type of screw.( ask your hubby he probably has one)

 Now take this black foamy thing off carefully.  Gently rinse it. set it aside to dry.  

 Now I rinse this top part.

I use a soft rag to clean in those holes.

 Then its time for the cones... there is some serious junk in there

 And in the other end too.  

 Just start rinsing warm water through.  Gently shake while you rinse and you will see big clumps of dirt come out. 

 This is the trickier part to rinse.  I think it takes a good five minutes of rinsing and shaking to get all the dirt out...

 really shake!

 The biggest struggle is rinsing behind the plastic part that doesn't have holes.

 See in the cone the darker shading???  That's more dirt.  KEEP rinsing.

 Finally CLEAN

 CLEAN

 Wipe the silky dust off the screws with a dry towel!  I think that is the riskiest part of this process.  You would never want the screws to get wet and start rusting!  So watch out for that! K? Great!

 Now let everything dry.  I actually dry as much as I can with a clean towel... then let it air dry for a while also. 

 AND DON'T LOOSE THIS PART- You'd be up poo creek!

 To reassemble.... Get your canister.

 Set that foam disk thing back on there.

 Set the cones on there.

 The you have to get that little red part back in there before you screw it together.

 Put your screws back in.  tighten

 Now you are ready to put the cones back on the canister.

 Line up the red thingers.

DONE! 

I have done this four or five times in the two years I've owned my Dyson and I've never had a problem.  Try it at your own risk ;)

The Last of April Snow Photos

During one of the days we were cooped up at home we went outside to play.  I heard a lot of kids complaining it was too cold.  But the wind had stopped, the snow had almost stopped, and the sun came out.  So we went out too!  

 The love that Bonnie has for the snow is not normal in my opinion. She gathers snow clumps on her body, and yet she does not care.  She wants to play.  She wants to stay outside.  She wants to run and romp and spring in the snow F-o-r-e-v-e-r!  

If her man is willing to throw snowballs its EVEN BETTER!  

Even though the ball will disappear when it hits the snowy ground....

She still tries to catch them....

 And when a human goes down all canines want to pounce and lick and keep them down.  Even Anna got in on that action... her main strength in this scenario is she will just start humping your leg... and you will have the darn-est time getting up.  

Our two feet of snow is slowly melting... that is so welcomed for our drought stricken ground.  This is just what the weatherman ordered for our prairies and black hills.  We hear forecasts of rain and snow in the coming week, and we will take it!

I'm just so happy our family makes memories like this!
Also.... I whitewashed Dave ;)  

and the Kitchen Sink

 I was cruising Martha's cleaning section on her website.  I found directions to clean your drains.  So I thought I could try it.   It was just a 1/2 cup each baking soda and white vinegar. 

 You plug up the drain and let it work its magic for five minutes.

 After the five minutes you pour boiling water down to rinse.  

 After cleaning the drains I cleaned the sinks.  I do this often.  At least weekly with my beloved Bon Ami.  

 Then I spring cleaned UNDER the sink.

 I took out the shelf liner that was down there....

 I laid new liner and cleaned up.

 I've been using this simple neutral plaid liner.  

 I replaced the liner in the cabinets and drawers of the island also.  Straightened up... reorganized a few things.  I feel accomplished! I would have kept on relining the kitchen... but I ran out of liner and wasn't going to Walmart before a big snowstorm. 

How is your spring cleaning going?  

I was reading on Martha's site you should wipe the outside of your kitchen cabinets weekly to avoid nasty build up.... I would like to adopt this habit.  How often to you wipe down your cabinets?   

Bonnie in the Snow

Our Spring Snowstorm

Dave joked when he saw the forecast... 

...he said,"Nah, we'll probably just get an inch"

 We did get our snowstorm. 

 Rapid's total was 21 inches.... the airport reported 25 inches.  We live between Rapid and the airport.  We wouldn't be able to measure anything in our yard of course because it was blowing so much.

 Bonnie really loves 20 inches of snow

 Its her fav.

 She runs really fast into the snow....

 And springs into the drifts.

 And falls in the drifts.

 Then she repeats the process.

 Don't her ears make you laugh?  

 But this was Bonnie running through the snow when we only had 16 inches.... 

It snowed all night Monday, all day Tuesday, all night Tuesday, and its still snowing out my window right now.... 

Dave's work was called off and Nate's preschool class was cancelled.  But the USPS still delivered.  Bless those people!  There was a foot of snow on the top of his mail truck.   But we haven't trudged out to get the mail yet. 

(See our wonderful neighbor Gary with his snow blower?  Bless that man he did our driveway this morning!) 

 The great thing about an April snowstorm is that its still light out at 7 pm.... so we went out to shovel after dinner last night... and I was able to snap a few photos.

 A fort

 Drifts on the roof. 

I took a video of Bon in the yard this morning with the fresh snow.  Ill load it up.

Our first BIG spring storm.   

I bet your tulips are coming up eh?  Yeah so were mine ;)  

Back At It

Can it be right?  We are IN April now?  Easter has passed?  

 This year, since I booked a visit to the Qs then realized Easter was in March this year, I wasn't home for Easter. I emailed the EB and he said it would be no biggie to come Friday night instead of Saturdaynight.  He hid the eggs and stuffed the baskets.  

 One of the eggs had a whole bunch of little NASCARs.   

We had banana pancakes and then the boys took me to the airport to fly to Georgia.  

The boys still went to church on Sunday to celebrate Jesus of course.  I went with the Qs family to their church where they make fun of Yankees..... rude.  

 The week was nice.  It was fun getting to know Meredith!  She is a fun girl. 

 Frank took a day off and we went to downtown Atlanta.  

 We went to the world of coke.  The tasting room was fun especially with the variety of Fanta which we fell in love with when we lived in Japan.  Although there was a whole crap ton of 2nd graders running a muck in the tasting room and I literally saw kids doubled over groaning.  My fav... vomit.  

We ate at the varsity and then went to CNN.  I'm such a news geek that the CNN tour was pretty exciting.  Although Frank thinks Fox News probably has a better tour.... and since I bought a mug and the "CNN" decal  rubbed right off the first time I touched it after being washed... I myself have to guess  that Fox news mugs aren't crap either.  SO if you ever come over and see a blue mug with a 'CNN' written in black sharpie don't ask because you'll just get a 'damn liberals' response. 

So I came home.  Gave Nate the new undies I had bought him and we had a nice three day weekend together.  We went to Lowe's on Friday and purchased a new stove.  Its such a momentous occasion in our house.    

 It was delivered yesterday.  

It isn't fancy.  It isn't the all popular 'stainless', but dang this baby preheats the oven in lightening speed. Other dorky things I love-  It has a window,  a light, a timer, it doesnt have three pilot lights, and when you open the oven door the light comes on(like a fridge!).

So since its Monday and we may be snowed in this week (possibly 20 inches???!??) I'm going to jump back into my spring cleaning!  First I want to clean out the bathroom cabinets,  and do a major cleaning to the shower.(with Bon Ami of course)  I'm going to skip the master bathroom though because we just have so much work to do in there- tile walls, flooring, and painting.

If we really do get twenty inches then I'll move on to wiping down kitchen cabinet shelves and drawers.   I want to remove the shelf paper that is in there and put down fresh.

How about you? 

Are you spring cleaning yet??