Updates

More of the "60 days."

Made some serious headway in my kitchen yesterday. Purged and organized:

junk drawer

bread/water bottle cabinet

coffee/bottles/travel coffee mug cabinet

utensil drawer

big utensil drawer

cup/dish cabinet

2 pots and pans drawers

I had one smaller bag of trash and one very large box of stuff to donate.

I am finding that the key to organizing and then staying that way is to truly have a place for everything and put everything back in it's place. Now, I think I'll be able to handle this given how much time I've taken to organize it, but the hubs is going to need some serious training! (especially when he empties the dishwasher)

I also tackled another rather large project yesterday that's carried over to today...MY BAGS!

I pulled all of them out of the closet and put laid them out on the bed and floor. I will never tell how many I pulled out! NEVER! If I did, I'm afraid I'd come home one day with my family and a therapist in the room ready to stage an intervention.

So far, I've purged 20% of them, either for the sale or donation. I plan to go through them again once before they go back into the closet.

I found I need to organize them better so I can get to them easier in hopes of using them...and so I don't forget what I have. And, now I'll shop at home first...AND I'm going to stick to the "one in, one out" rule.

I have all the my totes in one large clear bin like files. I have backpacks grouped together and easily seen as well as diaper bags gathered in one designated spot. I need to go to Walmart later and find just the right size clear bin for my purses.

Once I get them back in the closet I'll snap a pic of it :)

*I have discovered that I do layers of purging. I go through something once and get rid of things I don't have to think about, then I can start going to the stuff that's a little harder to part with. Another thing I found I need to do is gather it all together in one spot for me to see it. I'm a very visual person. This is how I find duplicates to thin out.

"Thankfuls" from yesteday:

Mommy-that Daddy will be home for good from Chicago soon

Emma-clocks...(?!)

Soph-ice cream

Things we were thankful for Sunday:

Mommy-that the basement wasn't ruined

Daddy-that he was home for the weekend

Emma-the whole world

Soph-for the sky

Nana-her church, St. Lukes UMC

Uncle Adam-that it's been a little warmer outside

The basement

Lily and I went down to the basement Wednesday to get something out of the freezer and I thought, "man that carpet looks dark." And then "squish" as I stepped on it. AHHHH! 3 inches of water on the sump pump side and had backed up through 3/4 of the basement.

Thankfully, Mom came over to watch the girls and Dad came up that evening to help me. We moved things around, steam cleaned the carpet to pull the water out and got fans and the furnace going to move air around. I've had the fans going non stop since then and I think the carpet may get dry enough to be ok. One part of the carpet never got soaked so everything is piled up there until the rest dries enough to move it back.

Our friend Chad was nice enough to come over and replace our sump pump for us. (Something had caused the float or the switch to stick and not kick on) All in all, it could have been SO much worse! I'm thankful I had most of the stuff on the wetter side in plastic totes and neither of the couches down there got wet except for the legs. Plus, I was home. It would have been awful for this to have happened while we were out of town! A huge thanks to mom, dad & Chad for helping me out!

This was Soph singing at Grandparents Day.
Lily helping me organize the straws...again.

Sunday

What a week! It was a pretty busy one. Tim was in Chicago, our basement flooded (only a few inches). I was glad to get to the weekend.

Here is what the girls have been up to today. I think the movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 spurred their creativity to do this:
I can't believe I got them to hold still for me to get this one! I was holding treats in my other hand.
Emma with her show dog, Princess Tiana.
Tank was Princess Giselle from Enchanted. He kept the crown on pretty well, too.
Tank could care less what he is dressed up as long as the treats keep coming.
He's such a good boy.

(very) Belated Birthday Thanks!

Blah...Well, I'm not going to get thank you notes out for the girls birthdays. They have been sitting here on my "desk" (aka the kitchen bar) for a while now. I figure that by the time I would get them written, addressed and sent, it would be time to send Christmas cards. I figure most of you who were gift givers are the same folks who check the blog so I'm sending you a big thank you blog post! I apologize for the informality of it as well as the HUGE delay on it. Emily Post would not be happy with me.

Plus, I figured if I posted the gifts in the blog, it will be fun to look at way down the road when I have it printed in the blog book. :)

A big thank you to...

• Cindy and Mark et al for the Lalaloopsy Land and the tshirt and shorts for Emma & Soph and the IU dress and baby for Lily.
• Auntie Brandi et al for the didj game for Emma and the Pet Shop stuff for Soph
• Gabe & Shantel for the boat from Tangled and the princess Dress Shop
• Nana for the Rapunzel tower (to share) and "Mouse" books for Lily.
• Uncle Gary for the Melissa and Doug birthday cake set for the girls.
• Uncle Adam and Renee for the Princess game for Emma and the princess Walkie Talkies for Soph and the gift money for Lily (Mommy bought her some new shoes and some snuggly bird pjs and a boho carters outfit with it)
• Grandma and Papa for the pearl necklaces with each year of age for the girls as well as the Lalaloopsy dolls and ballet outfits for Em & Soph's American Girl dolls. And the fun dinosaur ball popper and leopard jacket and pants for Lily. She plays with that ball popper everyday!
• Grandma Lois for the gift cards to the Disney Store for Emma & Soph. Those were spent at lightning speed! Soph bought a bedazzled princess outfit with all the princesses on it, which became her one of her favorite outfits. Emma bought a Marie cat and Perry the Platypus (and something else I can't remember). And thank you for Lily's sugar plum outfit. It's adorable. (Thanks for my Olive Garden gift card, too for my birthday. I'm still trying to get a date with this cute guy that I keep running in to. He's tall, dark and handsome. I hear he's an attorney!)
• Uncle Andrew and Auntie Kate for the mermaid Dora for Soph, the barbie for Emma and the Violet pal for Lily. She loves that pal, especially because it says her name. Thanks for setting it up beforehand for her!
• Luke and Kristin for the gift cards for Target. They got...something princess I know, but the specific items escape me at the moment. Those two LOVE gift cards.
• The Bennetts for the color wonder sets. We are getting close to burning all of the metallic paper up creating masterpieces. Those are pretty cool. And thank you for the fleece dress and button bracelet for Lily. Adorable!
• Souk for the wall decals. They were immediately all placed on their walls either the night of the party or the day after and they look fabulous. Princesses everywhere!...and the puzzle, too.
• Aunt Jan and Uncle Dan for Lily's dress. She wore it on her party day. Emma & Soph picked it out for her. She did look pretty darn cute in it!
• Poppy for gift money. Emma & Soph took an hour at Toys R Us deciding on something. Emma bought her big Ariel doll and Soph bought a Belle doll. I'm still thinking about something Lily might use her gift on. I'm sure something will come up later.
• Joni et al for the dresses and bunny from England. We love it all. We so appreciate you taking the time and effort to get gifts all the way here to us! Miss you!

I'm sure there are some things I've missed and for that I'm sorry. I'm going from a quick list that was jotted from Em and Soph's party and the rest is from memory. Thank you to those who came to the parties to share these milestones with us. They were pretty fun.

We love you all!

Thankful for...

Mommy-This morning I was so thankful for a nice hot cup of coffee and warm cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The best part was all of us eating breakfast together...after we ALL slept in! WooHoo!

Emma-Her Barbies to play with. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with new dresses they got at a craft show yesterday.

Soph-She is thankful that we have a table to eat on :)

On another note...

On a much less serious note, I got this crazy idea to go ahead and pull down the girls clothes stored in the attic and organize them...and get rid of as much as I can. I have it listed on my 60 day list as maybe 2-3 areas... BUT I had a rude awakening when I finally pulled all the totes down and stacked them up in the playroom. I had...no, no, I'm too ashamed to say it...let's just say there was a ridiculous amount of totes up there! I'm too embarrassed to even post a photo of it! It's been 6+ years of boxing things up with no thought of organizing it or purging and then just tossing them up in the corner of the attic.

Maybe when I'm done going through the totes I'll feel good enough to admit how many were up there :) Maybe...

Veterans Day

I know I've mentioned this blog I love, Clover Lane. If you have time today, click on her blog and read what she posted about thoughts about today from a mother's perspective. I had tears in my coffee this morning reading it.

Happy Thursday

I got ahead of myself yesterday and cleaned out Lily's dresser and closet. The dresser was driving me nuts because the drawers were stuffed full. She's into the next size now and I needed to box up the outgrown clothes as well as the summer stuff.

Since she is more than likely our last baby, it's time to start getting rid of clothes once she is done with them unlike before when they were just boxed up and thrown in the attic. So going through her clothes took me a little longer as I looked at something and really had to decided if I was ready to part with it or not.

I feel like I did a pretty good job with it. The clear box on the bottom right are clothes I kept. My plan is to someday make a quilt out of the girls baby clothes, so I've now dedicated that box to add things I think I may use to make that one day. It's sleepers and play clothes that maybe all three of them wore that will make for good memories for me later.

There is also one box of warm weather clothes (it's not even half full) if we need them.

The large gray box if full of clothes that I could part with and plan to donate to Outreach.

The clothes on the top and on hangers are items I plan to sell at the Whale of Sale in the spring...they're all hung up and ready to go.
As you can see, if it were up to Lily she would prefer to not have clothes anyway. This is right after a bath. She likes a little clothing-free time afterwards. She crawls around all excited kind of the same way the dogs run around the backyard right after their baths. :)
As I was getting a container out of the pantry, I spied this little stowaway. Not sure who she is hiding from.
Lily loves lasagna.
Tank loves that Lily loves lasagna. This is his hang out spot during meals. He's nice enough to keep the floors cleaned up for me.

Thankful for:

Mommy-whoever invented the Magic Bullet...and Costco for carrying it so I would finally buy one! I use it most mornings to make a breakfast smoothie (carnation packet, fz strawberries, milk and ice) I love these cups bc they came with a travel lid so I can take it with me on our busy mornings.

Emma-mommy's cozy bed. (Geesh!)

Sophie-our oven because it's makes our food warm

Lily (per Sophie)-our playset. She does love the swing.