today

So today I actually tackled 3 days worth of areas listed on my "40 Days" challenge! It was one of those things that once I started, I didn't want to stop. I found that if I take the time and look and around the house and see all that I want to accomplish I get overwhelmed. I had to stop myself several times and say one day at at time. I'm eating an elephant here.

As for the girls closet, Clover Lane says she has her kids hang most of their clothes. I had made the mistake of starting out with neat piles of folded shirts, pants, shorts and after a few times of the girls helping me put clothes away, they were a mess! So i have it now where everything is hanging except for pants.

As for purging...I only filled up one shopping bag full of extras to give to my mom to take to a charity called Outreach. She was just telling me about it this weekend. It's a shelter for teens, a lot of young mothers there who would always be in need of clothing. As I was packing up the outgrown stuff, I would pick say 1 tshirt out of 6 to donate. I can post a pick of my bins later. I have 4 going up to the attic:

3t clothes for Lily later

4t summer clothes for Sophie next summer (or a warm winter vaca)

5t clothes for Sophie next year

5t & 6 summer clothes for Emma.

After putting Lily to bed tonight, I quickly went through Emma and Sophie's nightstand and bathroom vanity. Tossed out a hand full of trash, and removed stuff that didn't belong there. I had 20 or so wash cloths. Who needs that many?!

I can say that their room is officially done! Yippee!

37 more areas to go!

40 Bags in 40 Days

1. Steph bathroom vanity
2. Steph bathroom closet
3. Tim closet clothes, socks, undies
4. Steph pants, hanging shirts
5. Steph socks, undies, t shirts
6. Tim vanity
7. Toy shelf in living room
8. Pantry
9. bookshelf, buffet, tea cabinet
10. my dresser, night stands, desk
11. kitchen, stove side,
12. Kitchen, coffee maker, bread, junk, utensil
13. Kitchen, dishes, above fridge, towels
14. Girls nightstand and dresser: DONE!!
15. Emma closet: DONE!!
16. Soph closet: DONE!!
17. Lily dresser, bookshelf and toys
18. Lily closet
19. Playroom books
20. Playroom bin and baskets
21. Dress up clothes
22. basement toy bins
23. basement right shelf
24. basement left shelf
25. garage closet
26. garage shelf
27. christmas stuff
28. basement storage area
29. baby totes in attic
30. stuffed animals
31. barbie stuff
32. American Girl stuff
33. dollhouse stuff
34. playroom, my crafts on table
35. file drawer upstairs
36. my bags and wallets
37. my shoes
38. 3t stuff
39. 5t stuff
40. (I'm sure something will come up :)

day 1

Girls closet is organized! We'll see how long it stays that way.
Soph had a monster of a meltdown for 45 minutes today from picking up shirts at the cleaners, during a (very quick) trip into Walmart for totes and then ALL the way home from there. It was ridiculous. The kind that really makes a mom want to just lose it! So... here she is asleep in her timeout. Geesh! I could have used a nap after that, too! ...and one stiff drink.

Game on!

I did actually start my 40 day challenge today. I have cleaned out Soph and Emma's closet and dresser. Soph had 3t and summer stuff that I took out. In the past I haven't wanted to separate clothes by season because I thought it would be a pain to have to dig through boxes if we took a winter trip to Florida. But, because they share a closet I just have to. I did my best to keep it organized well so should we take a trip it should be pretty easy to find. I'll try to post after pics later.

40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

There is a blog I have fallen in love with...Clover Lane.

This blogger is a mother of 5 and is the queen of keeping it simple and organized. I have spent hours reading her posts and have been so inspired to follow her plan on parenting and keeping house. I have been so frustrated with things lately and I figured that most of it stems from me asking the girls to help pick up or keep things clean and them acting like it's the worst jobs in the world! I feel like I'm just chasing my tail and getting no where when it comes to organizing and keeping up with all the housework. I realized that a good part of it is there is just too much stuff to manage! So...I'm purging. I'm sick of wasting time picking up and constantly being frustrated with the girls. Our stuff is not worth it anymore!

My challenge to myself is to get rid of 40 bags in 40 days. Now these will more than likely not be consecutive days, but at least a total of 40 days worth of purging.

I have made a list of 40 areas in the house which is what this blogger did and thought this is so much easier for me to manage and not get overwhelmed if it's broken down into chunks like this.

I'll keep you posted. I think tomorrow is going to be day 1....I'm thinking stuffed animals.

Halloween

We stopped over to Grandma and Papa's.
With the cousins.
This is the only pic I got of Lily in her costume, which she had on for about 2 minutes. She was a little under the weather so she got to stay home and help pass out candy.
Rapunzel, secret Flynn Rider (notice the goatee), and Belle
Batgirl, Belle, Rapunzel, Wonder Woman

Chicago

Nana, Emma & Soph and I took a trip up to Chicago to get Sophie's American Girl doll. This is an early Christmas present for her. We had gone up last year to get Emma's in December and it was freezing!! So, we decided to go in October and make it an early gift.
We stayed at the Westin on Michigan Ave. and I don't think we could have been closer to the American Girl store! You can see it in the pic (it's across the plaza area with a big red sign on the corner of the building). The girls thought that was pretty cool.
The underground adventure at The Field Museum.
They took their first cab ride to the museum. Soph said, "I don't have to buckle in!" Here they are counting the steps to the front entrance.

Dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe.



Soph's new doll with freshly pierced ears.

Lily's Birthday Pizza

We started a tradition with Emma to go out for pizza on their actual birthdays (because they usually fall within the work week).The girls thought Lil would like Chicago's. She did really enjoy the pizza.
As did Soph.

I wanted to throw in this pic of Lily's birthday cake.
Emma at Apple Day. They're using little bears to balance the apples.