House and Chore Solutions

I've blogged before (and before, and before) about some of the solutions that help us function in our little house with four kids and just generally a busy life. Here are three more small changes I've made in the past couple of weeks...

There was an awkward space at the head of the girls' bunk bed - there wasn't enough room between the bed and the wall to really play in that space. Often it just became a parking space for random toys and looked junky.

So I added a second bookshelf and made a little reading nook


I got a bathmat from Target that is made from some sort of super cushiony memory foam stuff and put that down first to make the wood floor softer, then added some blankets and pillows. The girls LOVE this space now! And with two emergent readers in the house, having a space that inspires them to read is great. The books are generally organized by fiction/nonfiction and reading level.


The next idea is from Martha Steward. Did you know they make magnetic paper that can go through a printer?? They do! It went through my HP color laser printer with no trouble at all - I was in awe (and yeah, I held my breath waiting for the whole thing to jam up and break forever while it was going through).

Here is our new chore chart


This is the chart "fully loaded" and ready for Saturday morning. Most days they only have the dark green chores - those are their daily chores. I put them on their chart at night and the next day as they do their chores, they remove them. The goal is to have no chores left on their chart. The blue chores are their Saturday jobs, so since tonight is Friday night, this is what it looks like tonight. Again, as they do their chores and jobs tomorrow, they will take them off.

We don't do allowances (yet - they are too young for money, we think) and I don't really believe it paying or rewarding kids for doing chores. To me their chores are just like me cooking dinner and Davis taking out the trash - these are the things we all do to help out and keep our family taken care of. We are also building good habits.

BUT I do have a little envelope on the bulletin board that has "perfect chore score" written on it - if they do all of their chores and Saturday jobs for a whole week, they can pick out a reward from the envelope. They are things like having me make their bed for a week, staying up to read an extra book or play a game one night, etc. It's working well. At this age, often having kids doing chores creates MORE work for parents - teaching them to do the work and nagging them constantly to get it done. But I think it's a huge mistake to give up or wait, and I can see in Sophia that having a child who is used to doing chores since age 2 does pay off!

And finally, Sophia is starting piano lessons. She is so excited! I needed a way to help her keep track of time, because I'm making her practice for 15 minutes every day. I found this clock at West Elm - I love it! It's actually been great to have a great big clock in the living room, no more craning our necks to look at the kitchen clock all the way in the room next door ha ha!


Our house is still on the market, and we are still making plans to remodel if it doesn't sell. But in the meantime I have decided to continue to make it work for us as best we can. We do love our little bungalow!!

Solutions

I just thought I'd do another organizing post. I was just talking with a friend about how living in a small house has forced us to be careful about not accumulating too much stuff and also to be creative with our storage. Our little bungalow was built in 1936, and other than one very small closet per bedroom (3), we have no closets. We do a big clothing purge at every season change, and we give away at least one giant box of toys before every Christmas. I'd want to do that even if we had unlimited closet space!

But with soon to be four kids, we really needed a solution for coats, hats, gloves, rain boots, etc. We had some room at the end of a hallway - there's a door there, but we never use it, because on the other side is a door in Henry's room that we have blocked off. So a few weeks ago, my sister in law and I headed to my favorite antique store, in search of a wardrobe.

I ended up getting this rustic cabinet - it was super cheap, and exactly the dimensions of the hallway (it took a little taking apart and putting back together to get it in the spot).

Behind the mirror is a tall cabinet. Davis hung a rod, and that's where everyone's jackets and coats are. On the floor of the cabinet are everyone's rain boots. The top cabinet on the right had a very rickety mirror that kept falling out, so I replaced it with some fabric - that cabinet is the perfect spot for bags (kids' little overnight bags/backpacks, extra diaper bags, library bag, etc. - it's surprisingly deep). And the drawers are just perfect - one for umbrellas, one for gloves, one for hats, one for scarves, and one that's still EMPTY!

One of the things that's hard about having the kids in school and me working, is that Davis picks them up from school at 3 o'clock, and I don't get home until a couple of hours later. Last year, we kept having issues with important school papers getting lost during those two hours! It seemed like I was always searching for permission slips under the car seats. When Sophia was taking dance, Davis and I were always having frantic phone conversations 30 minutes before her lesson about where her tights or ballet shoes or leotard were.

So, now the rule is that when the girls get in the car at school, they throw their backpacks (or in Amelia's case, the little canvas bag the school provides for pre-K kids) in the front passenger seat (so they're not tempted to open them in the back seat on the way home!) And when they get home, they hang them on hooks underneath their initials on the big bulletin board

When I get home, I know everything will still be there for me. Usually Sophia sits down with me at 5 and does homework at the dining room table while I start dinner and look through their folders.

Underneath their school bags, on their hooks, they each have a sports bag. Sophia's soccer bag has her ball, cleats, shin guards, uniform, sunscreen, and water bottle in it.

Amelia's dance bag has her tap and ballet shoes, tights, and leotards in it.

Sunday nights, I wash their uniforms and stick them back in the bags, where they stay until practice/class/games. No more searching!

Henry's hook has his diaper bag on it. I have always kept my diaper bag stocked, so that it's ready to go - when we get back from an outing, I clean it out/re-stock it as needed, which works so much better than trying to throw stuff together when you need to run out the door. Of course the contents change based on the age of my kids... right now it contains 3 cloth diapers, a wetbag, a travel package of disposable wipes, an extra shirt for Henry, an empty sippy cup, a little bag with raisins and Cheerios, a few matchbox cars, a bag of crayons and a little notepad, hand sanitizer, and sunscreen.

One the side of the pantry cabinet, to the left of the bulletin board, I hung a wire basket. That is where library books live. The girls are free to get them out and read them anytime, but as soon as they are done, the books go back in the basket rather than on their bookshelf (or anywhere else). This makes it easy to find them when they are due, and is also a good reminder to me to return them!

Speaking of books - see Sophia's reading caterpillar on the top of the bulletin board? He gets a circle for every book she reads on her own. When he gets to the end, we're having a party!

One more easy solution... I got this from my friend Holly, and I think it's just brilliant! When the weather is nice, we go to the zoo all the time - it is close to our house, and we have a membership so we can go however many times we want and often go for just an hour or two. But I never seem to have tokens (or dollar bills for buying tokens) for riding the train, and Davis can never find his zoo card... So I got this cute little wallet, and in it I put our zoo card, a bunch of zoo tokens, a few dollar bills (for lemonade!), and coupons I have for free stuff at the zoo that we get when we renew our membership. Now when Davis or I head to the zoo - we just grab the zoo wallet off the bulletin board and have everything we need!

There are days that I spend hours on Pinterest, looking at amazing mud rooms and beautiful big houses with lots of storage space, thinking about how nice it would be to have more space than stuff... but really, I am content with our little space for now, and it works.

The End of the Week

The first weekend in December, our family decorates for Christmas. We have appetizers for dinner, watch Charlie Brown Christmas, and we trim the tree and hang the stockings and set up Christmas villages all over the house. Usually we do it on Sunday evening, but I needed a nudge to get out of bed and wanted to enjoy the decorated house all weekend, so we did it tonight instead.

After the tree and the villages were complete, we sprinkled a little Christmas throughout the rest of the house - Christmas hand towels in the bathroom, jingle bells on my vanity mirror...

And you know what? Sitting here in the cozy warm dark of my living room, with the tree lit up in front of me, sipping hot chocolate, I think - everything is okay.

My girls are tucked into their beds, and I am smiling thinking of the surprise on their faces when they wake up and discover this on their dresser.

Henry couldn't stay awake and missed out on all the tree decorating. He is snoozing in his crib. And I am smiling, thinking about when he wakes up at 5:30 tomorrow morning - I will get him up and bring him into the living room when it's still dark outside and everyone else is still asleep. I will get to see the look on his face when he sees his first Christmas tree.

I did all of my Christmas shopping online this year - two evenings in my pajamas on the couch, and everything will be delivered to my door by next Thursday. Living in 2010 is awesome. No rushing around, trying to find parking and standing in lines. This year, more than ever before, I am thankful for that. I felt too fragile to venture into the world - much less the retail world - this week.

Every night this week, meals have been delivered to our table in the loving arms of our friends. Our fridge and freezer are full of more food to get us through a few more days. I haven't had to leave the house all week, and because of that, my body has healed. Physically, I am doing great.

I miss my baby. I sometimes forget that I am not pregnant anymore, and remembering is hard. I feel disoriented - just when we had finally figured out the logistics of adding another member to our family, we have to rearrange our thoughts again. Every now and then I get lost pondering things that are too deep for me to understand, why's that may never get answered. And there are times - late at night, in the shower, when I am tired - that the tears come out of nowhere and won't stop until they are done. But I am buoyed by prayers, by cards and gifts and phone calls and texts and emails and blog comments and hugs, sitting up with a friend late at night talking on the porch swing for hours or on the phone until my ear is hot, or just sitting with Davis without needing to say anything at all. And most of all, I am held up by the Holy Spirit. I am not drowning, nor will I wither. I am sad, and I am afloat, and I will bloom again.

For tonight, I am just content to sit under the tree. A miracle is on the way.

House Projects

Davis and I built a giant family bulletin board. My life is now complete.

Not only, and if you know me you know this, am I totally in love with anything that helps me organize my life so I don't have to keep a million things floating around in my brain, but I love bulletin boards. For years, I thought I want to be a teacher, just because I loved the idea of decorating bulletin boards. Thankfully, before I ever pursued that career, I realized that there's a lot more to being a teacher than decorating bulletin boards (you know, like teaching children), and I decided - not for me. I have no patience for, you know, teaching children. I'll admit it, when Sophia sits there sounding out individual sounds while trying to read something, I want to scream and run away. And that's my own child! But the bulletin boards, that would have been fun!

So, now we're all organized - lunch menus, birthday invitations, Weekly Readers, fundraisers, doctor's appointments, it's all there. Each child gets their own section, and on the right is the family section, with Babysitter Notes and our family calendar. I love it.

And, our fireplace mantel looks ready for Halloween. I never decorate for Halloween (unless you call throwing some pumpkins and mums on the front porch "decorating") but I was inspired by Sarah this year.

I was also inspired by this very ugly painted glass owl - I gave him a black spray paint makeover and now I love him. $2 at the flea market.

My brain is happy now. My house is in order. The smell of pumpkin spice fills the air. (Plus, everyone else is asleep and it's only 7:20!)

Henry's Nursery - the details

I love Henry's room, because it follows my number one decorating rule: buy/use things you love. Everything else will fall into place. Beyond that, I didn't have much of a plan. I was inspired by this room.

Above his door, I strung a rope and hung up the sweet cards that were sent to Henry when he was born.

Henry's crib is the third crib we've had to buy. We have three children. I don't understand. I have friends who are using the same crib after four or five kids. I have friends who are using cribs from when THEY were children. But no, my kids have BROKEN each of their cribs. And so far, the more expensive crib broke faster. So we went cheap again this time.

I sewed the crib bedding - out of an old Target sheet. The hippo blanket came from this Etsy seller.

I have two pieces of art above the crib - both of which I need to re-frame into bigger/better frames, but I wanted to get them up, so I used what I had. This precious robot

was drawn by Sophia for her brand new baby brother the day after he was born. I love "his button" on top of his head.

This little cutie

came from this Etsy seller. There are SO many cute things in her shop!

You might remember that caterpillar - he brings a HUGE smile to my face every time I see him!

Amelia made him at school, based on her favorite book - The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Below the picture, I used a picture ledge as a little book shelf. I originally wanted to frame some book covers like Meg did in her guest room that I love... but I just never got around to it (bed rest put a crimp in some of my plans!) and I thought this way we could just switch out the books and actually take them down to read them when we wanted to! The Happy Lion was one of my favorite books (in German) when I was a little girl, and now my kids love it.

You can't really see it, but that brown cushion on the loveseat under the shelf, is actually a Boppy. I got the cover from this Etsy seller and I LOVE it! Much, much nicer than the ones you buy at stores. It's that minky fabric - so soft and thick.

We are using a very old, hand-me-down cheap Target dresser as a changing table. I hung this bathroom shelf above it to hold wipes and things, since the dresser isn't very big. The cute little apples burp cloth also came from this Etsy seller. One of my favorite things is the little red crochet bowl on the top shelf. It holds pacifiers right now, although Henry has moved onto his thumb, so I'll probably be getting rid of those soon. I got the bowl from this Etsy seller (I like Etsy, can you tell?) And oh my goodness, Henry's sweet elephant, he was a very, very special gift - my friend Jodi sewed him!

The light switch cover came from this Esty seller.

The memo board came from this Etsy seller. Despite my friend Susan saying that babies don't get many memos, we'll put it to good use ha ha! Right now it holds his birth announcement, though the girls have already started sticking notes up there for Henry.

I love Henry's baby book. I do tend to spend more money on their baby books, but I've always gotten ones I really loved, and not regretted it. They will be so special to them and their children some day (or, in Henry's case, his wife and children!) I got his book and extra pages to go in it, from this Etsy seller. The robot was in his Easter basket, and I got it at Crackerbarrel - I love their little shop for Easter basket and Christmas stocking stuffers!

You'll probably notice that his room will evolve much over the next year. Right now all of his toys are in a wicker chest (which I got off a curb in high school!) at the foot of his crib. We'll be putting more of them out when he gets old enough to play with them.

Henry's Nursery

Cherries Jubilee

That's the name of this Sherwin-Williams color, which makes me very happy

Sophia has been begging for months for a pink room (previously this room was a lovely shade of white called A Glass of Milk)

So yesterday, between glasses of homemade lemonade,

I decided to go ahead and paint it.

The girls love it.

And I do too.

Home Sweet Home

This past month has been a bit of a challenge for our sweet little house - first the washing machine started leaking (possibly messing up the floor) and then our old wiring went out (about 3/4 of our house has been re-wired, this is the 1/4 that wasn't). I was feeling helpless tonight about the BIG things that were wrong with our house (including the fact that it needs an exterior paint job and the small bathroom shower needs to be re-tiled) - things that are not fun and cost more money than we have right now.

There are also some fun projects I've been wanting to do - like painting a chalkboard onto our pantry door, painting the girls' room, and finishing our office re-do. But those projects will have to take a back seat to the necessary projects mentioned above :(

I've been feeling like I'm overflowing with decorating and remodeling ideas I can't carry out, which is frustrating. I know what I would do with our house if I had an extra $1,000, an extra $10,000, or an extra $100,000. But I don't have an extra anything that starts with "$" right now, so I looked around and...

I found some of our trim paint in the laundry room cabinet and decided to paint a couple of areas that I've wanted to paint since we moved here (six years ago) and just hadn't gotten around to it. We have wood paneling in our dining area, but not our kitchen. Our kitchen cabinets are white, but this one cabinet behind the bar on the dining side was wood - it just didn't look right. So I painted it white like the kitchen cabinets, and it looks MUCH better. Same with the bathroom door off the study, which is also paneled. The inside of the bathroom door was wood, which had gotten icky looking from the moisture. It looks much better white too.

It felt good to do something that was so rewarding - it only took two hours, the paint will be dry to the touch before the kids get up, and I can second-coat it tomorrow night. Two hours worth of effort for something that's been nagging me for six years!


Plus I just always love making this house more and more "ours." We've done a lot of work on our house, and I love that - I love seeing how far it's come, and feeling like this eighty year old house is being morphed into OUR house, just like all of its previous owners have molded it. It's the character of these older houses that I love - years of being turned into a home makes them feel more like home to me.


Many of my friends live in great houses but only see them as stepping stones to the next house - wanting more and not making the most of what they have. I've blogged about this before, several times... I love our home. It may not be our dream house, but I'm going to love it like it is.


(Obviously I'm not that great of a blogger yet - although I've started taking pictures of my dinner, it didn't occur to me to take before and after pictures of my painting!)

A Mobile Meal and Reading Room

I have LOTS I want to post about, but that'll have to wait until later when I have some time... for now I want to share this recipe, which I am making for the THIRD time in two weeks (this is not like me - I usually won't make the same thing twice in a month). It's nothing exotic or fancy or overly healthy - but we love it! This is my friend Ashley's recipe, and I love it because it is the perfect recipe to bring to someone - it travels well, tastes good even if it's cooled off a little, and freezes very well. In fact, Ashley brought this to me right after I had Amelia.

And this makes two portions, so for the third time now I'm making one portion for us and one to take to a friend. Actually I madethis 1.5 times today - one for my family (my kids inhale this), one for my friend and her family tonight, and one for their freezer. Tonight I took it to my friend Sarah, who is on bed rest and 36 weeks pregnant with TWINS!!! I am suuuuuper duper way totally over excited about those babies!!! (can you tell?)

Okay here it is:

Chicken Spaghetti

1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 small jar pimentos, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 jar sliced mushrooms
1 small can sliced black olives
4 chicken breasts
12 oz. spaghetti
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Boil chicken in water with salt and pepper until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Meanwhile, saute onion and celery in butter until translucent, then add pimento, mushrooms, soup and chicken. Heat through. Add cooked spaghetti. Place in casserole dish and top with cheese. Bake at 400 degrees until brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

If you're freezing it, just freeze it instead of putting it in the oven. Wrap very well in cling wrap, then two layers of aluminum foil, then cling wrap again.

Here's the finished product

This makes enough for two 9x9 dishes.

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And here's a mini preview of our room re-do... this room will be our office/reading room/nursery (for foster babies maybe)/guest room. When you have a small house, you learn to make the most of the space you have :) It's still a work in progress...

Here's the "reading room" corner of the room, being put to good use

Now I'm off to watch the Passion of the Christ for the first time ever (I haven't had the guts to watch it until now - I'm the girl who can't get through half the hymns at church without crying) and finish the girls' Easter dresses (me sick = major procrastination!!)

Added...another mini preview - of the crib

TGIF For Sure

It's been quite an exhausting week, mostly because I was super busy at work, but also because I'm suffering from insomnia and got maybe eight hours of sleep - all week.

Oh well, today made up for it! I had to be at work at 6:30 this morning for a presentation (which I don't even remember giving now, because I only got four hours of sleep last night) but then I also got to come home at 3:00pm and one of my very best friends (and maid of honor) was in town and came to visit with her new baby boy - he was a big ball of chub and oh so cuddly ♥ After they left, hubby and kids and I went to the park to enjoy the gorgeous weather. And for the past hour, since the kids went to bed, I've been partying at The Ultimate Blog Party and having the best time getting to know so many cool ladies out there in Blogland! It was enough to make me forget the whole week!

Anyway, I wanted to share a few random things...

First, check out the PERFECT piece of art I got for our bathroom:

how lucky am I to have an artist in the family? I had been scouring Etsy and everywhere else for a picture to go on that wall - when Sophia presented me with this work of art, I knew it would be just PERFECT!

Second, here's one of my all time favorite recipes. You know the kind that you just keep in the rotation? This is just a great weeknight meal, and my whole family loves it.

Vietnamese Fried Rice

2 bunches scallions

3large carrots

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

2 large eggs

2 T. Asian fish sauce

1 1/2 T. rice vinegar (if you're lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's, they have the BEST)

2 T. sugar

5 cups chilled cooked white rice

2 1/2 T. safflower oil

2 T. minced garlic

1 tsp. hot red pepper flakes

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts

Finely chop scallions and coarsly shred carrots.

Rinse bean sprouts and trim stringy roots.

In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs.

In a small bowl, stir together the fish sauce, rice vinegar and sugar.

Spread rice in a shallow dish and separate grains with a fork.

In a deep heavy skillet or wok, heat oil over medium high heat until hot and stir fry eggs until scrambled (about 30 seconds).

Add scallions, garlic and pepper flakes, and stir fry until fragrant (about 15 seconds).

Add carrots and bean sprouts and stir fry until carrots begin to soften (about 1 minute).

Add rice and cook, stirring frequently, until heated through (about 2-3 minutes).

Stir seasoning liquid and add to fried rice, tossing to coat.

Serve sprinkled with cilantro and peanuts.

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Third, I wanted to tell you about ANOTHER baby at our house... Porter the Wonder Dog! We got him for Christmas, and I've been meaning to post about him, because he's just an awesome pup. We lost both of our sweet dogs last year, and were really missing having a furry rambunctious creature in the house - yeah, we're dog people!

So, here's Porter at Christmas, right after we got him:

And here's what he's been up to since then:

He's gotten even bigger since those pictures, and after his bath tonight I'll have to take some new pictures. I've been working with him since we got him, but we started formal obedience classes this week, and he did great! He's such a smarty - he already knows sit, down, stay, watch me, leave it, and occassionally come.

Was that total Porter picture overload or what?? He's just so cute, I can't help it! Oh and we have NO clue what breeds he is - he's just an all-American animal shelter rescue cutie pie puppy dog :)