The Days Are Flying By

Wow.  So much for trying to post every day.  I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted.  Between a sick toddler and some pregnancy concerns very little has been done.  I found out today that I do not have gestational diabetes (one part of the pregnancy concern that has been bothering me), but I am still at risk for premature labor.  It is getting harder and harder to get stuff done around here, but it is also becoming more important to get the stuff done before Jude's arrival.  I hope to update you soon on some of the projects I have going on.

Kitchen Shelf

This is the disaster that was my kitchen shelf.  The 2 boxes are used to store rarely used kitchen necessities (like a gravy boat and cake decorating supplies).  On the box on the right are our array of commonly used adult medicines.  On the left box are a box of Ziploc baggies (I have no idea why they are here, they have a home elsewhere) and a stack of washcloths that I use for washing my kids faces after meals.  The pile in the middle of the shelf includes oven mitts, hot pads, and my kitchen scale.  This area made me feel stressed just looking at it.  I worked on clearing these things little by little over the last two weeks.  The medicines that are not for daily use were put in the medicine cabinet (novel idea, right?).  The oven mitts and hot pads that never get used were thrown away or donated to Goodwill.  The boys helped me hang a mesh bath toy bag that we happened to have lying around (literally lying around- it had been lying in the upstairs hallway floor for who knows how long) in one of the under sink cabinets using 3M Command Hooks to hold the clean washcloths.  The baggies were put where they belong in the pantry.  This is what the shelf looks like now:

The boxes are now easy to access, the oven mitts are manageable, the scale is easy to use and return to its place, and the every day medicines are stored neatly in a tray that was not really being used in another cabinet.  Now I don't immediately want to cry every time I stand at the sink. 

Hot Wings, Coke, and Legos

This evening we enjoyed the Super Bowl.  We had some yummy homemade hot wings with Coke.  James also spent the first half of the game sorting Legos by color and size.  I hope that we will have the great Lego organization reveal soon.

Plastic Utensils

At our house we have a ton of plastic utensils for our kids.  They make me crazy.  This is what our silverware drawer looked like:

I decided to try to make utensil holders to hang on the door of the cabinet where I keep the kid dishes.  I started with Jell-O Pudding boxes.

I cut off the flaps, cut the front of the box shorter than the back, and made an angled cut on each side.  

I cut a hole in the back and covered the box in red Duck Brand duct tape (I bought the duct tape at Michael's with a 40% off coupon, so this project cost me less than $1 total).

 I made labels with my handy-dandy label maker and hung them on the cabinet door with 3M Command Hooks.

 Here is the finished product.



Spiderman Strait Jacket

I know, you cannot resist reading a post titled "Spiderman Strait Jacket." 

I have been really trying to get things done this week.  The pressure is on as I have realized that what started as 158 days is now closer to 80 days.  The problem that I am having is that in the last 2 weeks Kyler has transitioned from a sweet (most of the time) baby into a toddler terror.  He is into everything, and I cannot turn my back on him even for a moment (not that he would let me, as that would require his detaching himself from my leg).  He is also whiny, needy, and demanding.  Maybe other people's toddlers don't do this, but when my kids are toddlers they seem to just want to have something to fuss about.  For example, I put his boots on him.  Within minutes he takes off his boots and cries because they are off.  This makes me CRAZY.  My favorite Kyler toddler moment of the week is what I like to call the Spiderman strait jacket.  I was getting Kyler dressed.  He helped choose his clothes and brought them to me (indicating that he was ready to get dressed).  I started taking off his Spiderman pajama shirt, but after getting one arm halfway out he tried to run away.  I tried the other arm, but I was only able to get it halfway out also.  Then Kyler ran around his room screaming with both of his arms stuck partially out of the sleeves.  It took almost 10 minutes to calm him down enough that he would let me help him get the shirt off.  While this was irritating, it was also absolutely hilarious (I have to find joy in the little things). 

These are the struggles I have been facing recently, but here are some successes. 

Kitchen cabinets before:

The cabinet in the top picture is next to the stove and I can reach everything in it except the top shelf stuff.  The bottom picture is the cabinet above the stove.  I can only reach about 4 things that are at the very front.  The problem being that I use the stuff in this cabinet all of the time.  It was very inconvenient.

Here are the after pictures:

Now all of the stuff I use on a regular basis (except the vegetable oil because it is too tall) are in the cabinet that I can reach.  The top shelf holds refills and extras.  The cabinet above the stove holds some taller bottles (mostly stuff I rarely use) and there is a good bit of empty space here now that I am not sure yet how to use.  As far as organization goes the before and after pictures look very similar, but the huge difference is in function.  I have no idea why I did not make these changes 5 years ago. 

A Crying Toddler and Some Accomplishments

I got a lot done today.  I am really amazed at how much I did considering that Kyler cried for the better part of the morning.  I managed to unload the dishwasher, fold and put away three loads of laundry, clean out the refrigerator, work on a craft project that has been taking up space in the dining room (it is almost done and ready to be put away), help Cade get his homework done that he has been putting off, work on sorting Cade's Legos, and sort through a bunch of magazines and articles I have been saving.  I really like a few particular magazines, and I subscribe to them when I can find really good deals.  My absolute favorite is Disney Family Fun.  It has so many good crafts, games, recipes, and so much more for those with little kids.  The problem is that I never want to part with the old issues of Family Fun.  All of the other magazines I get I go through and tear out what I want to keep for future reference and keep them all sorted in two expandable files.  I keep only the latest issue of each magazine and recycle or pass on the old ones.  I had at leat fourteen old issues of Family Fun, and they took up the entire magazine rack.  I was going to make some magazine files from old cardboard boxes, but then I came up with a better plan.  Almost everything from the magazine is on the website, so I just chose my favorite activities and ideas from these issues, found them on the Family Fun website, and pinned them to Pinterest.  Now I can get rid of the magazines, and I am much more likely to actually do the crafts and activities with the kids because I have everything all organized neatly together.  Yay.  I am also going through my expandable files to clear things out and find what I can online.  In addition to all of that, we all went for a walk together this afternoon.  The only way most of these things were able to be accomplished is that James was home from work really early today. 

Last night James started sorting through our mountain of paperwork.  Today he has been working on shredding all of the stuff that we do not need anymore (and there is a lot of it).  I have really appreciated that he is getting on board with my organizing and simplifying efforts (even if he does tell other people that I am on an "organizing rampage"). 

In a few minutes we are going to watch some t.v. and sort some Legos.  I know, you are so jealous, right?

I feel like such a failure

I wish that when I set my goals for this blog that I had included that I would like to have written proof of my inability to meet my expectations.  If that were the case then I would have accomplished at least one of my goals.  I saw on another blog recently where a blogger posted some "Friday confessions."  I am going to steal her idea.  These are my Saturday confessions.

Confession #1- On Monday while I was in my bedroom taking pictures and writing out descriptions for the things I want to list on Ebay I heard, "Mommy doesn't know what we're doing" along with a lot of giggles.  This is what I found:

They emptied almost all of their clothes from the dresser, dumped them in a big pile, and danced around them.  I let them play with the mountain of clothes while I finished what I was doing because they were entertained and I needed to go through their clothes and take out all of the stuff that was too small anyway.  

Confession #2- When Kyler and I got home from our weekly grocery shopping trip I carried in the bags and then I needed to use the bathroom (because I'm pregnant, so that's what I do).  In the 45 seconds that I was in the bathroom Kyler noticed that I had already unlocked the pantry and accomplished this:

He emptied two shelves from the pantry in less than a minute.

Confession #3- This morning when I got out of the shower I found Kyler sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor covered in Cade's blueberry scented shampoo.  I hadn't even realized that he was in the room with me.  I felt like Mother of the Year.  I managed to get Kyler, his stuffed dog, and the bathroom floor cleaned up, but in the middle of that process James called to let me know that he'd be home from work later than we had expected.  At that point we were still hoping he would be home by 10:30.  Later during nap time I went up to check on the boys (who I knew were still awake based on the noises coming from their room) when Cade informed me that "Kyler made some oatmealy-spit uppy stuff in his crib."  I got Kyler's clothes and bedding changed and he finally took a nap.  After all of the messes I have cleaned up this week I am too exhausted to get anything else done.

Confession #4- I skipped organizing on Monday afternoon to take the boys out puddle splashing.

I don't even feel bad about it.  We all had fun (until Kyler was knocked flat in a giant puddle).  The organizing will get done eventually.  I am not willing to sacrifice opportunities like this with my children.