My Inner Organizing Geek

It’s time for me (read: US!!!) to get organized.  We have lived such a chaotic life for so long that I fear I’m getting too comfortable with it.  The piles of boxes and heaps of who-knows-what hardly even cause me to bat an eye anymore.  AAHGHGHGH!!!  That scares me just a tiny bit!

My inner organizing geek (which is huge, but timid) drools over the plethora of organization pictures and posts on Pinterest.  Seriously, who can resist a pantry that looks like this…

 

…or a closet like this…

…or this mudroom?

I think I just died a little!  The neatness.  The containment.  The order.  Sigh.

Frankly, I’d be happy if my kids would always put their shoes in the same place, hang up their coats, and put things back where they belong!!!

In the past I have made fun scrapbook-type calendars – which we have loved – to help keep track of our goings on.  (OK, really what they did was give me a really cute way to feel a sense of control.)  The only problem was that they didn’t give me much room for writing and I couldn’t really take them anywhere.  I need space to write lists and plan menus and make notes.  So, in my feeble attempt at finding the pathway of organization, I created a calendar/planner thingy that is the perfect size to carry in my purse.

 

It has a monthly calendar…

…and a weekly planner.

This, my friends, is accountability!  If there is nothing written in the dinner box, there’s a big chance that there will be nothing to eat when it’s starvation time around here.  (I just printed this today.  My inner Monk couldn’t NOT print the weeks that have already passed, nor could it NOT write in the dates from those weeks.  It IS, however, OK with not filling in what we ate for dinner those days!)

The only thing this baby needs is a pocket for stuff and a way to quickly find the month-at-a-glance calendars.  Some day I might find a solution.  But until then, I know what’s for dinner tonight, and that I have two commitments this coming Friday!  Baby steps, friends.  Baby steps.

(I believe in giving credit where credit is due.  I adapted these calendars and these planner pages for my book.  Thanks to Katies Wish for the digital paper that I altered for my cover.)

Making a List, Checking it Twice

We’ve been making lots of lists lately…mostly mental.  It has been one crazy holiday season so far!!  It really doesn’t feel much like Christmas, as we don’t have a tree up, or a single decoration for that matter.  We’ve only had a couple of parties.  And we’ve been working like mad on our new house.  You know that song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”…well, that just doesn’t apply to us this year!

I started – and almost finished – our Christmas shopping on Friday.  Honestly, I was surprised how un-crazy it was.  Until 5 p.m., that is.  I was able to get most everything, and we’ll make a few stops tomorrow to hopefully wrap it all up.

We’re going to set up a Christmas tree tomorrow.  Check that: the KIDS will be setting up the tree at our new house while Jared and I get the last few things done before the inspector drops by for the second time.  THIS TIME better be good enough for that dang occupancy permit!  We’re hoping to be able to do our annual drive to look at Christmas lights – with a stop for treats - in the evening.  Maybe we can redeem this Christmas yet!

As crazy as things have been this year because of our house, it has been kind of nice to be able to put some things on the back burner.  I have to say, in all honesty, it was such a relief to not have to think of something to get for the neighbors!!  Sorry friends and neighbors!  We love you all, and we’ll get you next year.  Promise!

And thankfully – knocking on wood and wondering if maybe I shouldn’t be saying this – we’ve been healthy, aside from feeling like worn out 80-year-olds from all the physically demanding work on our house and ridiculous hours we’ve been keeping.  So so so thankful for that!!

This is looking like a pretty exciting week for us.  Wish us luck!

The Story of Our Summer (or the Summer I Worked as a Housecleaner & Taxi Driver)

This summer is definitely going to go down in the books as one of THE MOST crazy (and annoying) ever!  Here’s a picture of our week (in words…sorry, no actual pictures):

Monday: House showing at 4 p.m., Josh’s baseball practice/game at 4:15 p.m.  I spent the morning cleaning and getting the house ready.  The kids probably watched a movie all morning.  In order to keep the house clean, we hit the splash pad after lunch, and were happy to see Darcy and her kids with the same idea!  Daniel hated the water, the rest of my kids loved it.  We left with enough time to run home, get the kids changed (I made them change in the garage!), do a quick vacuuming job, and run to Josh’s baseball game.  Because of the timing of the showing, we had to eat out…again.  It’s getting old.

Tuesday: Jared and I got up early to go to the temple while the kids were still asleep.  Thought we’d hit the 6:30 a.m. session.  Turns out the sessions don’t start until 7 a.m.!!  So we got some extra time to just sit.  It was also Lagoon Day for Jared’s work.  Yea!!!  A day off from the ordinary!  Since we hadn’t been home much the prior day, the house was still pretty clean, so we spiffed it up a bit, hoping we’d have a showing while we were gone.  Lagoon was a lot of fun, and we lasted much longer than I had anticipated.  Daniel was a trooper and did really well.  We hung out with Josh’s baseball coach and his family, which helped with keeping everyone happy.  Another night of eating out…bleh!  Emily missed her softball game because of how long we stayed (but she was totally fine with missing it to be at Lagoon).  No house showings, but when we got home, there was a message to schedule one for Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday: Daniel had an audiologist appointment first thing in the morning (which went really well), and we had a showing scheduled for right after lunch.  I got the house ready (pretty quick and easy since we hadn’t been home much since Monday morning), and we hit a park during the showing.  When we got home, it was very obvious that NO ONE HAD BEEN HERE!!!!  Let me just say that I was one ticked off lady!  Josh had a baseball game, Emily had softball practice, and Jared needed to go to ward temple night (he was the only bishopric member who was available to attend).  I dropped Josh off at his game, came home and made dinner to feed to everyone else, ran to pick up Josh (we were three minutes late and he was pretty annoyed), dropped off Emily at her practice, took the rest of the crew home, fed Josh, bathed the three littles, had Josh shower, and ran back to pick up Emily from her practice.  Whew!!  No wonder I was feeling a little grumpy!  When Jared got home from the temple, we were talking and he told me he got a message from our realtor who said that the scheduled showing refused to even come in the house because she didn’t like the street our house is on.  SERIOUSLY??!?!?  That made me so stinking mad!  I don’t think that person can comprehend what a pain in the neck it is to get a house ready with 5 kids, keep it clean, and get out of the house so she can come see what we have to offer.  Thank you (NOT!!!) for wasting my time!

Thursday: A day off from showings!  But kids who were grumpy because their routine has been messed with all week long.  I tried to do a little sewing for our youth’s pioneer trek, and broke 2 needles before giving up.  Emily had a softball game (are you seeing the pattern?) at 4:30, so I soloed with the 5 kids.  It was a great game, and she even got a really great hit!  We came home, had pancakes for dinner, and vegged with a movie while Jared was home teaching.

Friday: Another day off from showings!  I took Daniel to gymnastics in the morning, which ended with me crying most of the way home.  He has suddenly stopped wanting to walk while we hold his hands.  He doesn’t want to crawl much either. He’s just content to roll around on the floor or sit up with his thumb in his mouth for a few seconds before laying back down. Most of the time was spent with me carrying him through all the activities.  Way more work for me than for him!  On the bright side, though, he has started pulling up to pretty much everything.  I guess he only wants to work on one skill at a time!  We were supposed to have a therapy appointment in the afternoon.  I was overjoyed when the therapist cancelled because of illness.  After dinner we hit the movie theater for a 3-D showing of Brave, the new Pixar movie.  It was a really fun movie, and even Daniel handled it pretty well.

Saturday: We had a showing scheduled for 11 a.m. We rushed around and left with 15 minutes to spare.  We rewarded our hard work with Slurpees and Subways for lunch.  After a little shopping, we returned home to find great big piles of crumbs around the feet of the oven!  The people who were looking obviously pulled out the oven!  I was MORTIFIED!!!  I never thought anyone would look there, at least not on a first showing!  And why were they looking there anyway?!?!?

And that brings us up to speed.  Way too much for one week, eh?!?  We get to start it all over again on Monday with another showing bright and early at 10:30 a.m.!!  Baseball ends this coming week, softball ends in the middle of July, swimming lessons start after the 4th, Girls’ Camp is the first week in August…and I suspect we’re ALL going to be happy to have school start again!  There goes the summer!

Jared's Handiwork

If Jared ever loses his job as a CPA, he could go into business as a craftsman! Here are some pictures of the nightstand he made for Emily (and he didn't start this until Friday afternoon, had it finished by Monday night - so basically 2 full days of work). I am so impressed - it is perfect!!

Oh, and the scalloped part on the bottom he cut by hand with a coping saw (not sure what that is)!

Peaches

We came,

{On Saturday morning}

We canned,

{56 quarts of peaches to be exact}

We CONQUERED!!

{2 1/2 bushels of peaches!! Add that to the 3 flats of raspberries that made 43 pints of jam, 110 ears of corn that made 22 quart bags to freeze, 6 quarts of fresh tomatillo salsa (which we've happily eaten), and lots and lots of tomatoes that are getting peeled, smooshed, and frozen as they come!}

IT IS ENOUGH!!!

{but those pears at Macey's are calling me!}

Flowers and Jam

What do flowers and jam have in common, you may be asking?

Nothing at all, really!

Here is a picture of the beautiful flowers Jared brought me for my birthday last week. Aren't they pretty?!! He is a smart man! He remembered that lillies are some of my favorite flowers. And the coloring on the two roses is sort of like tulips, some of my other favorite flowers.

Maybe you remember the movie "Alice in Wonderland" - not the cartoon version. I remember watching it as a kid, thinking what an odd story it was! And maybe you remember a song about jam. I think it went something like, "Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never ever jam today." Well folks, we've got jam today!!

{Thankfully we don't live in Wonderland, although sometimes it feels like we do!}

We bought 3 flats of raspberries yesterday, which gave us 43 pints of delicious raspberry freezer jam, with 4 pints of berries left for eating!

Here's a picture of the whole process - 4 batches going at a time!

As a sidenote, I love jam, especially freezer jam. But after realizing just how much sugar goes into it, I'm kind of grossed out!

Do you realize that for every tablespoon of jam you eat, about 2 teaspoons of it is sugar?!?!?!

We used 23-24 POUNDS of sugar for all that jam!

Now that's a lot of sugar!

Tis the Season...

...for plants!!!

I will admit it - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of year!!

Everything in the yard looks so healthy - especially the weeds!

It's not too hot, not too cold, and we usually get enough rain to water the lawns.

But what I love the most is to wander through the garden centers and greenhouses and enjoy all the wonderful, beautiful, enticing new plants. I LOVE THEM ALL! Big, small, pink, blue, red, yellow - bring 'em on!!

Today we planted our garden: tomatoes (LOTS of them), tomatillos, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers (goes great with the fresh tomatoes and tomatillos for home-made salsa), swiss chard, green beans, zucchini, crookneck squash, watermelon, and pumpkins. The rest I'll leave to the professionals!

I also planted $$LOTS$$ of perennials in the flower beds in our rock wall planters in the backyard. Couldn't tell you what any of them are, except some ornamental grass, but we should see yellows, pinks, purples, blues, and reds.

I can't wait!! I feel like a kid at Christmas!

Valentine's Day

Here is our {Valentine's Day} recap for the year 2009.

The kids get to have Valentine's Tea at school. They're supposed to dress up in their nicest clothes (which is pretty ridiculous for the middle of winter!) and they get to learn all about manners and etiquette. They absolutely love it. Emily had her outfit all planned out for at least a week!

Here is how I did Emily's hair for school on the 13th. I got the idea from a blog I ran into (hair4myprincess.blogspot.com). Pretty cute, eh?!! Emily was thrilled with it and said all the kids at school thought it was so neat. I call that a success!



Here is Josh before he left for school. There is a very excited boy underneath that "I'm way to cool for this boring stuff" exterior of his.


I gave the kids a "heart attack" on their doors on the morning of Valentine's Day. Each heart says something we (Jared and I) love about them. There was one heart that had a longer note that they were soooo excited to read. I just never know what it's going to be that thrills them! That's Rachel down there in the bottom of the picture. She thought the hearts did not belong on doors and spent most of the morning pulling them off!

Last, but not least, this is my V-day project. I LOVE how it turned out! I did a digital scrapbook layout (6"x6"), printed it at Inkley's, trimmed around the edge a bit, mod podged it to a 6"x6" ceramic tile, then added the ribbon with the little heart charm. Total cost was probably $2.50 - most of the expense being in the ribbon and charm. I'm already thinking up St. Patrick's Day and Easter ideas!

Time for GINGERBREAD!

Jared has begged me, shamelessly I might add, for the past several years to make real gingerbread so we can make gingerbread houses. Honestly, I have never had the desire to put the extra effort into making it, cutting out the house shapes, etc…..UGHGHGH!! What’s wrong with graham crackers??!?

Well this year, he won. And I’m soooo glad he did! Real gingerbread is so yummy, way better than graham crackers! Thankfully, I’ve been done with the Christmas shopping for a while (got most of it done before Thanksgiving), so I’ve had some time to do things I have always intended to do in years past, but have just never had the time.

I did make one modification, though – all in the name of compromise! Instead of houses, we made Christmas trees. It was WAY easier than dealing with walls that fall over and roofs that cave in! We used star-shaped cookies to make the trees, glued them on top of each other with a little frosting, put some more frosting on the tips of the branches, and added candy for ornaments and lights. Ta da!!

We had a girls’ tree and a boys’ tree, and if you ask me, the girls’ tree ROCKS! It was so funny to watch. The boys – being boys – just slapped it all together, as fast as they could, and then started eating. The girls – being girls – were delicate, took their time, created a beautiful masterpiece, and then enjoyed looking at it the rest of the evening.

Rachel enjoyed watching from her highchair. She was pretty tired, but still enjoyed the goodies that were passed her way to keep her happy.

Caleb was lucky enough to get in on the action. What baby can resist a binky-topped Christmas tree??!!?

Now this is a tradition we’re definitely going to repeat. So much fun!

Christmas Project

This is what we are giving friends/neighbors for Christmas this year. I spent the past several days making 19 of them! I think they turned out pretty cute. I got the raw wood frames at Michaels, painted them, used Mod Podge to glue scrapbook paper to the front, printed the saying from Pres. Monson on the back of the leftover paper (one by one, I might add), and tied the ribbon around it to finish it off.

I like to give gifts that aren't necessarily Christmas related and that are non-food items. Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas, and I love food. But that's the problem - it seems like by the time you get the fun Christmas stuff, it's time to put it all away! And don't we all get soooo sweeted out by the time January rolls around?! So here's to something different!

More Scrapbook Pages

I warned you about my addiction to digital scrapbooking! Here are a few more of my recent pages. It's better than being forced to sit and watch someone's forever-long slideshow isn't it?!?!

Friday Fun

I have recently discovered the fun and depth of digital scrapbooking. Let me just say - It's awesome! I don't need an entire area to keep my stuff, don't have to spend as much time getting things out and putting things away as I do working, and so far I haven't spent a dime, with the exception of my software, Photoshop Elements. There are so many talented and generous designers who post their papers, embellishments, etc... ALL FOR FREE!! I am soooo HOOKED!

I've been hard at work lately, and thought I'd share a few of my favorites. They're just too much fun to keep to myself!

Here's Emily all summed up!

caption: "This picture tells it all - you just love

to read. You read on the couch, in the car, on

the stairs, in bed and even in a laundry basket!

Where will we find you next??"

This is the best part of Josh, so sweet!

Rachel has discovered her devious side!

caption: "You are intensely fascinated with the plants

I keep on the table. I have such a hard time keeping

you out of them! You always make such a mess, and

sometimes you even have a taste! I managed to catch

you in the act one day and couldn't resist taking a few

pictures. What a face! You are really good at getting

that look of mischief!"

And Caleb is just adorable!

I wish I had more time to spend on this project, because I am YEARS behind. I vow to get caught up before Rachel starts kindergarten. Yes, it's that bad!!

Send me a message if you would like page credits!

Hooray!

I am so excited - we FINALLY got someone to commit to hanging and finishing the sheetrock in our basement!! After what seems like weeks of delay, our project may soon find the end of the road! We gave ourselves a Halloween deadline for a couple of reasons. First, Emily will be baptized on Nov. 1st, and we're anticipating having more people in our house than the upstairs can comfortably hold. Now, some may say that's a silly reason to finish the basement. Maybe by itself that would be silly. But couple that with the fact that Caleb is rapidly outgrowing the bassinet, and we need more room!!! When all is said and done, Josh will be in the basement bedroom, and Rachel and Caleb will share the room that Josh and Rachel currently share. I can't wait for more liveable space!

The Fruits of Our Labors

After what seems like an eternity of working in the dirt, rocks, and heat, we finally got our grass in last week. Green is such a better color than brown and gray! We are very pleased with the way it all turned out. This is a good shot of our front yard.

And this is a good shot of our back yard. Everything just looks so much nicer when the dirt and rocks are covered up. This is my favorite part of our yard. The rock walls that our builder put in really come to life with the grass in place.

Now we can start cleaning out all the dirt that has collected on the patio and in the basement. I think we could plant flowers in the basement if it had just a little more sunlight!

What a Mess!

We had a guy come trench our yard on Saturday so we can put in a sprinkling system. The kids were totally fascinated as they watched him maneuver around in his little tractor. We did have to change the trench layout that we had worked so hard on that morning - measuring, spray painting lines, etc. In the end, everything worked out, and we got a whole bunch of deep roads, dirt piles, and more rocks to clear away. Home ownership is so rewarding!!