Happy October!

I could not let yet another weekend pass by without getting some Halloween flair up! Last year, I was uncomfortable and pregnant, and just did not do my normal holiday decorating set up. I gave myself a pass, but my boys were kinda bummed. I promised myself that I would make every effort from now on, to continue with our holiday traditions, no matter how much I may not feel like it at the time. I really do love decorating, especially during the holidays. Halloween time is a definite favorite in our home. Everyone meet Bones and his trusty pets, Sticks (the dog) and Stones (the cat)! These three are beloved Partylite characters. I used to be an active consultant for Partylite, but life is too busy these days. Still love Partylite, and will pick it up again in the future.

It's kinda hard to see, but these are bat window clings. I let my boys put them up on our back sliding door window to our patio. In the background, you can see a partial view of the mountain behind our house. I love my backyard view! Happy October everyone!

Conquering the paper clutter... again

Well, I've had it! My life is too crazy and cluttered, and it's starting to bring me down. Two little boys, (friends of my boys) were talking to my sons while they were seated in our minivan, and they couldn't stop talking about how horribly messy our van was. I admit, although they're just kids, it kinda got to me! Fed up as I've been, I decided to do a little something about it.
      I've done this in the past, so I thought I'd do it again. I decided to assign small attainable tasks for each day this week. Monday's task was to put magazine boxes in my office cabinet to organize my boys' school work. This is one thing that piles up fast, and I'd like to keep it all together. I did it!

In my office cabinet with the other papers!

I've had these for over a year now.They are for their homework for the week, important papers such as permission slips, and their library books. This way, we dont' lose track of these things, and its on my console table, in easy reach for my boys. This system has worked out well for us.

I found this at Staples. It's a two pocket organizer for letters and such, by Martha Stewart. I've decided to use it for my coupons. One pocket for food coupons, and one for miscellaneous items. I'm not an extreme couponer, but I do like to use them when I know its an item I normally purchase, however, sometimes, they get lost in my drop box that I leave on the counter, and I end up not using them. This way, they're handy, and posted right under my shopping list white board, so I can check if I have any coupons I can use just before a shopping trip. So hopefully, my paper clutter will be better under control. I do feel less cluttered in the head at least!

Flood Damage Repair

Remember when I posted a couple months ago about how our basement flooded? Well, our friend has offered to do the repairs for us, and things are now underway!

 

Here you can see how he cut the sheet rock on the bottom of the walls, prepping to replace it. They had to drill holes all around the base in order for the big blow dryers to reach in the walls to dry the sheet rock.

 

Here, we have a cluster of closets separating the bedroom and the family room area.Really, they were not very functional for us, and quite annoying. My husband and I have been discussing tearing them down to widen the room, and when he mentioned it to our friend, he insisted that now was a good time to do it since there was all this repair needed to be done anyway.  So, he convinced us that it was more possible than we thought, and offered to do this project also! This is one of those things that we thought would not get done for years down the line. I'm so excited. He's been coming by and getting this done steadily. It's really coming together. I can't wait to post more pictures of the finished project. I still have to go through the pile of stuff in the garage and elsewhere, that was displaced during this ordeal, but for now, I'm so excited that this is getting done, and thankful to our talented friend for helping us do this.

 

Organization for Baby

Several weeks back, we moved the baby out of our room (yay!) and into her new room that she's sharing with her big brother. The problem has been extra storage space. I received this little storage shelf thing for the nursery, at the baby's baby shower, which was about nine months ago! It required assembly, which required time, (a rare comodity), thus never got put together and used... until now! I finally mustered up the time to assemble it. Needing more storage in that room, definitely was a motivating factor.

I assembled it in the living room. Notice the laundry on the couch and the toys on the floor! My life these days.

 

 

And here it is, way in the corner, in it's intended place, in the babys' room, next to the dresser/changing table, with clothes and diapers already taking residence! Oh, it's the simple things that make me so happy.

DIY haircut

I have been in desperate need of a haircut. My ends were so fried that it was getting too difficult to style my hair well. The problem was that I just could not find the time to go and get it cut. That's the type of thing you can't get away with bringing your baby and toddler to. Some time ago I watched a tutorial on how to cut your own hair, and I guess I just filed it away in my brain. Well, I could no longer stand it, and this past weekend, got brave enough to cut my own hair! I have been cutting my boys' hair for a long time now, but to cut my own? I never thought I would do it, but I did! Yay for saving time, and money!

The evidence on the floor

And the "after shot!"

Impulse Organizing

These pictures were actually taken a couple weeks ago, but here I go. A couple weeks ago, I had an impulsive organization project crop up. On impulse, I decided to organize my "office supply" box. Here is the before picture.

  I was gonna throw away this box, when I realized that it would be the right size to help me organize some of my random notebooks and index cards in my "office supply" box. I love to reuse and repurpose whenever I have the opportunity to.

 

 

As soon as I realized it, the urge to organize the entire box came about, and here is the end result:

 



 

 

Ahhhh. It feels so good when I get anything organized! Now whenever I need something from this box, I don't have to fumble through it. I know exactly where everything is! A time saver, and a stress reducer. Success!