Spring clean up!

My great siblings all came over last weekend to help us do a little yardwork. We always have a ton of stuff that needs to go out on the curb for our city's annual spring cleanup (it's April 7th, if anyone local is wondering) and now that I am 8 months pregnant, I'm really not much help at all. This year I decided two of the trees in our backyard needed to come down. They were partially (mostly) dead and so messy and since they were both relatively small, I figured we could handle it. I mentioned to my awesome friend/neighbor that we were looking to borrow a chainsaw (ours is electric and we didn't think it would be powerful enough) and her husband offered to come cut them down for us. He cut down trees in college and loves using his chainsaw so it was perfect! With his help, it only took about 10 minutes to get both trees down and cut into reasonable lengths so we could stack it all up. So nice to have great neighbors

All the guys thought it was really fun to pull on the rope and help topple the tree :) Along with the trees, we also raked all the leaves/sticks out of the swingset area in the back yard, dug up the grass by the mailbox so we can put down rocks instead, and mulched all the gardens in front. It was so fun to work together and get our yard in order. Then we went out to lunch and to the park, where we played and enjoyed the sunshine for 2 hours!

Now I need help. This is what our garage looks like all the time now. We have two bikes and two scooters that can't stand upright, so they all just end up in a big pile. What to do, what to do? I don't want to hang them on hooks on the wall because I want the kids to be able to get what they want without my help. Any suggestions?

Household organization: Closet doors + kid money management part 1

We have a small house and soon-to-be two kids in school.

Two kids in school create a lot of paperwork and scheduling.

I needed a place to keep track of it all.

And enter... closet doors.

I can keep track of all our household organizational type stuff on the inside of closet doors. They're accessible when I need to see stuff and easy to close when I don't need to see stuff. 

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The inside of the pantry door is where I have my "household" organization. I made the corkboard, isn't it cute? I pin up schedules, countdown chains, fliers, etc on here, but the main purpose of this corkboard is to keep track of my kids' chores. We do chores a little differently here.

  
I was inspired partly by this blog post and partly made it up myself, so it works for us. My kids don't get a regular allowance; they have to do jobs for their money. This works in two different parts:

First, work for hire. This part of the corkboard has little odd jobs that I want done around the house. I put them up when I need them done and anyone can come grab one, do it, and get paid (the amount each job is worth varies, but is usually 50 cents or so). After they job gets done, I take the job card down and put it away until I need it done again, and then it goes back up on the board.

Second, help wanted. These are "contracted" (for lack of a better word) jobs that my kids can apply for. Yep, apply for. Each job card has a job description, pay rate, and contract length. Every Friday I conduct interviews and anyone who would like to apply for a job may do so. They have to be dressed and presentable to apply and I ask them questions like "Why are you interested in this job?" and "What kind of experience do you have that would help you do this job well?" 

If they are hired, we both sign a contract for the week or month, depending on the job. The contract has the day of the week that they have chosen to do their job so I can quickly see who needs to do what when, and also reminds them that they can be fired at any point for not doing their job well. At the end of the job period, I can renew their contract if they are still interested and did a good job, or I can put it back up under "help wanted" so someone else can apply for it. They can choose to apply for as many or as few jobs as they would like; it's completely up to them how much money they earn. They can also choose not to do any jobs. The jobs pay from $1-$2 per week + bonuses if they do their job without being reminded by me. 
Also, my kids have quite a few jobs that they have to do because they are part of a family and we all work together to keep our home clean: they have to help clean their bathroom once a week, clean the garage once a week, and make their bed/put away dirty clothes every day. The jobs on my corkboard are optional ways for them to earn spending money.
We keep track of the money they earn a little differently, too--post on that coming soon!

Potholder Organizer

My calling at church is the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator (but I still call it Enrichment, because nobody wants to go to extra RS meetings!) It's such a fun calling and I love coming up with activities every month. In January, we had a "Favorite Things" party that was basically just like a grown up show-and-tell for everyone to pass around their favorite things. I brought spraypaint (of course) and there were other things like cleaning products, favorite kinds of candy, cookbooks, you get the picture. My cute friend Tiffany brought a little organizer she had made out of a potholder and ziplock bags and everyone loved it, so we decided to make our own for our activity in April!

I couldn't actually go to this activity because it was the same night as my girls' dance recital, but I snagged some of the supplies and made one on my own to send to my sister-in-law Morgan, who is currently serving in the Chile Vina Del Mar mission! Her birthday is in a few weeks and I thought this handy little organizer would be the perfect gift. 

I got a huge package of really cute buttons for $6 at Joann--they were in the checkout lane, not with the buttons, in case you are looking for a big variety pack! They were all different sizes, styles, shapes, and colors. I picked out this big red one to go with a navy blue potholder.
After I sewed the bags in, I got to do the fun part--filling them up! I went to the dollar section at Target and they had a bunch of cute stuff.

I put in "thought bubble" shaped post-it notes...

A set of cute heart and arrow shaped paper clips and some bright binder clips....

And gray and white chevron tissues and an owl contact case. I also put in hair elastics, bobby pins, band-aids, and a fingernail clipper. I thought the stationary type things might come in handy when they are making contacts with people and might need to leave a note or their phone number on someone's door. Plus, they were too cute to pass up!
So if you are looking for an easy gift for a missionary (or a new mom, or a recent high school grad, or a teenager just starting to babysit), why not fill up one of these little potholder organizers with all kinds of goodies!

Easy garage mud room

Do you have little things in your house that just make you smile every single time you see them?

I have a few. The first is my gray and white striped hallway. I can see it from my bed and I love waking up and seeing it every morning! It's been quite a while since I did it, but it still makes me so happy.

With kids going to and from school in my near future, I have been wanting a mud room in the worst way. In Utah, kids walk to elementary school in all kinds of weather--rain, snow, slush, mud. I don't want all that coming in my house!

We don't have a back entryway in our house--the garage opens right into our nice family room--so I decided to create a little mud room in the garage itself.

I started by turning a tall, narrow shelving unit on it's side to create a bench with cubbies. Half of the cubbies are for storing our outdoor toys. I hung a wire shelving unit on the wall for even more storage. The other three cubbies are for my girls to keep their shoes and hats, mittens, scarves, blah blah blah, in. The yellow fabric bins are from Wal-Mart.

Now, I could have just thrown some hooks up on the wall behind the bench, but you know me. I always go overboard. Plus the wall was dented, scratched, covered in holes, and just in all-around bad shape. I still had a couple feet of fence left from when my neighbor's fence blew over last December, so I decided to use that instead. I propped it up behind the bench and then the girls and I went knob shopping at Hobby Lobby.

We bought six knobs to use as hooks. My personal favorite is the light blue one at the far left, although I really love the one right next to it, too. 
So to recap, when the girls come home from school all winter, they can sit on their bench and put their snow boots and snow clothes in their yellow bins and hang their coats and umbrellas on the hooks. And my house can stay clean.

Now going back to things in your house that make you smile every time you see them. While I was rearranging the garage, I found a can of light blue paint that I used when I painted my kids' little playroom--I thought it would be perfect for the garage door. I know it's something that no one will ever really see but me, but it was worth it. I love it so much!

Dresser into desk!

Back when I did my first bedroom mini-makeover (accent wall, new quilt, etc), I got a little dresser from DI for our clothes. It had a nice shape, but wasn't very functional. Too small, no runners on the drawers so it was hard to open, you get the picture.

Well, I've had this idea in my head for quite a while, and a few weeks ago, I pulled out my handy jigsaw (which I love--used it here and here and for a couple other things) and went to work.

The result?

My non-functional dresser (no idea why I took the picture from only the drawers up) is now the hub of my mom command station!

I took out the bottom two drawers, cut the supports off, and gave the whole thing a new paint job. Voila! New desk. I put it where the kids old art table was, next to our red couch in the family room. I was worried it would look too crowded, but it fits in just perfectly and doesn't feel crowded at all.
I've had the chair in my garage for over a year, just waiting for a makeover, and I really love how it turned out. This picture was taken before I really "moved in" to my new desk, so I added the captions so my lovely readers could get the whole idea. I'm excited to have a space of my own that I can use to keep our family organized--especially with Tempe starting school soon!
What are your best organization tips for all the paperwork that keeps a household running smoothly?

Drop your pants here

This week I've been doing a mini makeover in my laundry "room".

Our washer and dryer are in the second bathroom in our house. This poor bathroom has three functions to fulfill:

1) Tempe and Helena's bathroom

2) Guest bathroom (because the builder of our house, for whatever reason, didn't think a half bathroom on the main level was necessary)

3) Laundry room

It's kind of a challenging room to work in. I want it to be fun and cheerful for the kids, tidy and inviting for guests, and functional for my laundry. I'm happier with the laundry area, but the other functions are still a work in progress.

My dad put some nice white folding doors on the laundry closet so guests don't have to look at my dirty laundry when they go up to use the bathroom. There are 3 long shelves above the washer and dryer, and they were becoming a catchall of extra towels, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, medicine, gift wrap, extra crib bumpers (I own four for some reason) and other junk. The first thing I did was declutter! One shelf is going to be dedicated to storing outgrown/out of season children's clothes, another dedicated to gift wrap and extra towels, and the third dedicated to medicine, cleaning, and laundry. I bought big canvas totes for all the "supplies" and soon I'm going to install a retractable clothesline so I can still hang things in the winter.

It will be good.

But do you want to hear about my dream laundry room??

First of all, it has cabinets for storing all of my cleaning and laundry supplies and my gift wrap supplies. It has a counter top for folding clothes and wrapping presents. It has a clothes bar so I can hang Jason's nice shirts up as soon as I take them out of the dryer. There's a utility sink for rinsing and soaking stained clothes (Helena's). It's large enough that I can keep a full size ironing board set up all the time AND I have my sewing desk in the same room.

It's basically a full size extra room with washer/dryer hookups.

Organization dilemma

The night before the LOST series finale, I finally gave it and told Jason he could go get a flatscreen tv. I gave him very strict instructions to only buy a tv that would fit in our existing entertainment center. Well, he got carried away at Wal-Mart and ended up getting a tv that is about 6 inches too wide, which sent me scrambling to D.I. with crossed fingers to find something to put the new tv on.

I was pretty lucky--I found this coffee table for only $7, and with the help of some Old English, it's in pretty good shape.

I pared down our DVD collection to the things that we watch frequently (all of our Disney movies, 30 Rock, Arrested Development) and put them in baskets and storage bins. The Blu-Ray player and satellite box and Wii all fit just fine on the floor. I would love to have something with storage again someday, but for now, this works out well.

Here is the problem!!!!

Our house has weird wiring. Some rooms, you have to walk about 6 feet into the room before you come to a lightswitch. Some rooms have tons of electrical outlets--some have very few. The very small hall bath has 2 light fixtures controlled by 2 different lightswitches.

There is only one logical place to put a tv in our house (due to mirror walls, walls of windows, windowseats, and fireplaces) and that logical wall has two electrical outlets--one on each end of the wall. Not in the middle, where you put a tv. See the dilemma?
So we have this giant tangle of cords next to our tv stand and an extension cord/powerstrip stretched across the floor to reach the outlet. I am at a complete and utter loss as to what to do with this stuff. Any ideas?

Guest post at Organizing Your Way

Today I have a guest post at Organizing Your Way... check it out!

Play School: 2010 topics and supplies

I said a few days ago that one of my goals in Play School this year is to have fun and encourage learning with Tempe, age 4 (almost) and Helena, age 2. The best way to do that is to plan lessons around the topics the girls are interested in.

This year we will start out learning about Our Earth in September: Inside the Earth, Volcanoes, Outside the Earth, Rocks, and Dirt. In October, we will learn about Inside My Body: My Senses, My Skeleton, and My Guts (Tempe has been asking about her "guts" a lot lately and I thought that works as a Halloween topic, too). November will be the last month we do Play School before the baby is born and I'm not sure when we will start again--January or February--so we will be learning about being Mommy's Helper: Chores Around the House, Being Kind, and Taking Care of Baby.

I have a large plastic bin that I store our Play School supplies in:

• washable paint and assorted paintbrushes (foam brushes, rollers, sponges, stamps, old toothbrushes, etc)
• construction paper and crayons
• gluesticks and white glue
• scissors
• recyclables (paper towel tubes, egg cartons, etc)
• pipe cleaners, cotton balls, pom poms, sequins, and googly eyes
• popsickle sticks
• clear contact paper
• magnetic letters and cookie sheet
• foam letters
• sensory bin and supplies (dry beans and rice, foam shapes, birdseed, plastic bugs, dry pasta, small balls/marbles, etc) and tools (funnels, measuring cups, clothespins, magnifying glass, toy cars, etc)

I've pretty much got September and October mapped out and hope to have November done too. As for 2011, I have some ideas for topics, but I still have a lot to do to be ready before the baby is born.

Tempe and Helena's jobs

{pardon the open toilet in the bathroom--Tempe leaves it open because it is easier when she is rushing}

I've been meaning to make a job list for Tempe and Helena, but it was just one of those things that I kept putting off. I finally got to it last night and this morning the girls helped me decorate it. They (especially Tempe) are thrilled to have jobs! All morning Tempe would ask me what was next on her list, scamper off to do it, and then run back to watch me mark it off.

This truly is a job list and not a reward chart. I want my children to be in the habit of helping around the house and doing their "jobs" regardless of whether or not they are being rewarded for it. So, instead of a sticker chart or marble jar or something similar, I simply printed off their job list, let them decorate it, and stuck it in a normal frame. After they finish something, I use a washable marker to cross it off directly on the glass, and at the end of the day, we can wipe it clean.

When I was thinking of jobs to include on the list, I started by asking myself what all of our jobs are. Jason's job is to work and provide for us and be a daddy; my job is to take care of my kids, my husband, and my house and be a mommy; my kids' jobs are to be kids--to play, explore, and learn about the world around them and how they fit into it. So along with "Take my dishes to the sink", "Set the table", "Put away my pajamas", and "Clean my room before bedtime", I included "Play with my sister", "Say 'I love you'", "Learn something", and "Read a book". I also want to help them develop the skills they need to take care of themselves, so I added "Keep my panties dry all day", "Eat a fruit", "Eat a vegetable", and "Brush my teeth".

I think I came up with a good balance of learning, playing, and helping, which is exactly what I want their childhood to be.

The girls are excited with their new responsibilites and I'm excited to watch them!

And just for fun, here is a picture of them sleeping--both on the top bunk. They started that about a week ago, and I think Tempe wouldn't mind having her bed to herself again, but Helena loves sleeping with her sis!

Tempe and Helena's bedroom

{Warning: long post!}

About a month ago we took the plunge and moved Helena into Tempe's bedroom. We wanted them to have lots of time to adjust to sharing a room before the baby arrives so that the two events wouldn't seem connected. I had lots of concerns about this transition. I was concerned that Tempe would resent having to share her room and losing her "private" place. I was concerned that the room would just be too small for two kids and all their stuff (it's 100 square feet, but with oddly placed closets and doorways that leave little flexibility in furniture arrangement). I was concerned that the bed would dwarf the room and leave little floor space for them to play.

I'm happy to say that none of these concerns were warranted and the transition has gone very smoothly.

One of the things that I did to make everything work was to divide the room into zones: not only does this keep the room organized and easy to clean up, it also encourages creativity and active play because children can easily see what each part of the room is designed for. Basically, I wanted their bedroom to encourage creative play, reading and writing, organization, and problem solving.

Creative Play

Personally, I think creative play is the most important kind of play for preschoolers and toddlers, so I included a lot of creative play elements in their bedroom. The biggest one is their kitchen. Their bedroom has an alcove under the window, and this is where I placed their kitchen, play food, aprons, pots and pans, and dishes. We also moved their child size table and chairs upstairs so that they can cook, set the table, and serve "dinner". Helena especially loves cooking, but Tempe spent an hour the other day making "Honeysuckle sauce".

Their room also has a dollhouse with dolls and furniture, a toy toolbox, hand puppets, and a doctor's kit. Of course, we have oodles of more creative play elements in their dress up clothes, but I left those in the baby's room.

Another creative play element in their bedroom is their actual bed. We went with the Ikea Kura loft bed because it's a great starter bunk bed: it's only about four feet high. The scale is also perfect for small spaces. Tempe adored the blue tent that came with the bed, but I couldn't stand how it clashed with the rest of their bedroom so...

I made a new one!

I let Tempe pick out the fabric. She went with a sheer purple with sparkly rhinestones all over it (of course). Honestly, this was one of the hardest things I have ever made, probably because I work almost exclusively with cottons and this sheer fabric was just harder to work with. I omitted the central pole that kept the original Ikea tent taunt, and also made it about six inches wider on the sides so it would gather. I thought a draped, gathered look was more of a "Princessy" look. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and so are the girls!

Anyway, I consider this bed a creative play element mostly because of the tent. With that tent on top, this bed is a spaceship, a pirate ship, a covered wagon--whatever you can imagine! The girls play on the top bunk for hours.

Reading and Writing

Tempe and Helena have always been big readers and I wanted to be sure to continue to encourage that. Their bookshelf/toyshelf has tons of books, but I wanted their beds to be the reading "zone", so I installed these wire shelves (from our pantry downstairs) on the wall at each bunk. They keep books, water bottles, special stuffed animals, and pacifiers (Helena) on them. Each bunk also has way too many pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals than necessary, but it makes their bed a comfy place to flop down and read!

The other major change I made to the original Ikea bed was to paint the hideous blue side panels with chalkboard paint. Can I say what a hit this has been? The girls think it is so awesome that they can actually draw on their bed! We use basic sidewalk chalk because the bigger sticks are easier for little hands to hold and I used some scrap felt to make an eraser glove, so clean up is easy. This is one activity that they are not yet allowed to do without my supervision--the chalk stays locked on the top shelf of the closet unless I'm in the room!

I haven't implemented any other of my writing ideas, but the more writing activities included, the better! Some other ideas are an old checkbook in a purse so they can write checks just like Mom and a shopping list or recipes in the kitchen. Reading and writing activities don't have to be limited to actually sitting down and trying to write the alphabet.

Organization

In a small bedroom, organization is key. I got so tired of Tempe strewing her many collections of tiny toys across the floor, so when we moved them in together, I took that oppurtunity to cut back. I had three small cloth storage bins, and only things that fit in those bins are allowed to stay in the room. With those bins and other various baskets, we are able to fit all of their toys (minus the kitchen toys) on their three shelf bookshelf. The wire book racks also help keep their bunks organized. Since everything has a place and a container, I can tell Tempe to put away all of the marbles or all of the beanbags and she knows exactly what to do--that makes Mom happy!

Problem solving

Some of the problem solving toys we have in their room are legos, marbles and cardboard tubes to roll them through, beanbags, and puzzles--both peg puzzles, board puzzles, and easy jigsaw puzzles. I try to have a lot of toys that can be used and manipulated (Jason will hate that I used that word) in different ways. This encourages creativity in play and problem solving, and besides, Tempe would rather play with her family of rocks from the backyard than expensive My Little Ponies.

Finally, I want to plug one of the best parenting books I have ever read: Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference by Laura E. Berk. I read this for a child development class and it's one of the few textbooks I am keeping. The chapter on make-believe play is especially good!!

My Freezer: Organization

I have been begging Jason for a freezer ever since we moved into our house, and I finally got one for my birthday in May! Woohoo! I love having a freezer. Now when there is a killer deal on bread or meat, I can stock up without sacrificing the space for something else. I'm also excited to fill it with yummy freezer meals this fall so that I won't have to cook much after the baby is born.

My biggest reservation in picking a freezer was being sure I could keep it organized. A freezer isn't money-saving or convenient if you "lose" food in it and end up throwing it out months later when it's too far gone. That's one of the reasons that I chose an upright freezer--it has three shelves and a large pull out wire basket, plus six shelves in the door. I've dedicated all the shelves to a different category, so I always know where to look if I need some meat for dinner or bread for breakfast.

Finally, one of my best ideas yet: the freezer whiteboard.

I wrote the categories and drew the lines in permanent Sharpie so I won't have to continually rewrite them. The number of months in parenthesis next to each category is how long items in that category can be frozen. I use a regular whiteboard marker to fill in what is in the freezer, along with date, in the appropriate category, and when I take that item out, I erase it. This way I can always see at a glance what things have been in the freezer longest and need to be used soon.

Just a side note about the side dishes category: I really should have written "Miscellaneous" here, because I don't freeze a lot of side dishes, but I do freeze cheese, rice, raw vegetable scraps, ginger, chicken stock, and things like that that don't fit anywhere else. So no, I don't serve "cheese" to my family as a side dish.