Weekend Organizing

So this past weekend we began some much needed organizing in the big boys room.  I have a ton of great ideas in my head of how I want to their room to look.  Unfortunately my ideas cost lots of money!!  Apparently I have expensive taste!  Anyway I got lots of inspiration from I Heart Organizing, I love that blog!!  She is always posting fantastic ideas on how to organize your home.  Anyway from her blog I got the idea for Lego storage, which has been a thorn in our side for about a year.  So this is what I wanted to get for their room:




This is from Ikea and costs about $200!  A little out of our price range, and since we are about 3 hours from an Ikea store it just was not an option for us right now.  So we went to plan B, which is to buy plastic drawer storage that we saw at Wal-Mart.  Definitely not my first choice because I wanted something that would last and would look like furniture.  In the end this is how our Lego storage ended up:

 All of the drawers are labeled and the Legos are sorted by color.  Since we didn't have the cash for a second drawer system we went ahead and placed two or three colors in one bin.  We separated the mini figures and weapons into one drawer.  We also put the wheels and steering wheels into one bin.  Hopefully this will work and cut down on the mess and the "I can't find this piece" stuff!!

We also went ahead and removed most of the toys from their room, I know sounds mean right?!  But in reality they only play with their Legos, Batman, and Star Wars toys, so those are the ones that stayed.  We labeled bins (which we already had) and put those toys in the bins.  I had also recently brought up some games and puzzles to keep in their room.  Then of course they have books!  So there is plenty for them to do, and now that there is not so much they will actually be able to find what they are looking for!!  Here is the end result of that:

I love snap top bins!!  They are so fabulous!!  Easy for little hands to use and they are stackable too!  So we also did a little closet organizing, since we have yet to get a door for their closet we store some toys in their as well.  Right now we have one of their book cases for puzzle and game storage.  It is working wonderfully!!   I also use canvas bins for dress up clothes  super hero costumes and another for their stuffed animal or light sabers!

Future plans include removing the cedar from the closet, because we had a roof leak and some of the cedar is cracking.  We are sure there is water damage behind it.  We also can tell that there is no insulation because we feel the draft!  So this summer we plan to remove the cedar and insulate it and then drywall it.  I also would love to get doors on the closet at that time.  If money allows I think we will try to replace their windows and paint their room.  Anyway that is just what "I would like" to have done, whether it actually gets done is another story!!

This week in saving money!

In our quest to live a more frugal and sustainable lifestyle, I have undertaken a lot more "home making" tasks than I am used to.  I have begun baking some of our bread, hanging clothes to dry, using cloth napkins, etc.  Over the last few weeks I made some great home made bread (not in the bread machine!), bought some clothes drying racks and made some baby food.  The clothes drying is going to be the hardest for me to get used to.  Our laundry "area" is in our kitchen, its basically a pantry closet.  So to hand the clothes to dry, I am leaving them on the racks in the middle of my kitchen!  Our kitchen is a good size so they are not really in my way but it does seem kind of odd to see them hanging there!

Every time I walk past the drying clothes I just remind myself that every time I don't run the dryer I am saving $$$!!

So I am not new to making baby food, I made my own with Little N.  I am a bit more educated now than I was then, so I am learning new things, like avocado is a great first food for babies, who would've thought!?  So a few weeks ago I made some peas, and then last week green beans, both from frozen veggies I already had in my freezer.  After feeding the peas and green beans, we realized that you are supposed to start with yellow veggies first, oopps!!  Oh well, I think he will survive!  So this week we are starting through the "yellow" veg.  Over the weekend I had bought some frozen yellow squash, frozen sweet potato, and frozen carrots.  I bought all frozen because its not in season and quite pricey to buy fresh right now.  After getting home I thought that maybe the yellow squash was not what he should have, I thought it was butternut squash.  So I checked online and yup, butternut squash is better to start with.  I learned that with yellow squash babies have a hard time digesting the skin until about 8 months, and it also doesn't have as many nutrients as butternut squash.  So back to the store I went today to buy a fresh butternut squash, because I couldn't find frozen.  To my surprise the butternut squash was only $.94 a pound, so the one that I got only cost me $2.10!  I had looked at the jarred baby food to price compare and I saw that for 2 containers of Gerber baby food it was $1.10, so $.55 per serving, that's kinda pricey!  After coming home and cooking my butternut squash, I divided it up into containers (normally I would use ice cube trays but of course I don't' have any!).  I got 15 servings out of that one butternut squash, I wish I had taken pictures of this process but of course I didn't think about it!  Anyway so doing the math, at $2.10 for the squash it ended up being $.15 per serving!!  WOW!!  Look at what a little extra effort bought me, an extra $6.15!  It only took about an hour total to make too!  When I do the frozen veg, I just toss it in the food processor after cooking for about 5 minutes on the stove and then puree!  As Big E would say "easy peasy"!   I also learned that you don't' need a fancy baby food maker, just use a blender or food processor, or you can even just mash it up with a fork!  Making your own baby food is not that hard and saves so much money!!

Here are a few websites that I have found some wonderful easy baby food making recipes!!
www.wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com
www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com

Also over the weekend we did a little organizing project in the boys room!!  Stay tuned for the results of that whole process!!  I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

A Day in the Life of ME!!

So lately I have been so busy!  Busy doing what, I don't know!!  So I saw on another persons blog that they kept a log of their entire day, more to just show people how they did it.  I know my day is not near as exciting as hers was, but oh well!   So for me I was just wanting to know where all of my time was going.  What I found out through this little experiment was that when I am writing down what I am doing, I was a little better at staying on track!  A few weeks ago I had created a daily schedule and posted it up in my home.  I think I do a good job of "roughly" following it, but I still do not know what is getting done and where all of my time is going.  Between juggling an infant, a 4 year old, a 7 year old, a husband who is working overtime, a small at home business, church, family, and housework (not in any particular order!) I am feeling a little stretched!  So here is the rundown of my day yesterday, which is a typical day for me except for the fact that Little N was sick and did not attend preschool.  I wanted to get pretty detailed so I could keep track of where my "wasted" time was going.  So bear with the "up to the minute" updates!  Thanks to my iPod touch I was able to jot notes down while doing other tasks!

Tuesday January 31, 2012
6:15 alarm goes off for the first time, hit snooze

6:17 hear Baby Z begin to fuss, hoping he will go back to sleep, and he does

6:24 alarm goes off for the second time, hit snooze again

6:33 alarm goes off for the third time, seriously need to get up, but the house is cold and my bed is
warm

6:45 FINALLY get  up!  Hubby goes and fixes a bottle for Baby Z and cereal and milk for Big E and Little N, while I go and wake up Baby Z and change  him

6:52 Big E is dressed and eating breakfast

7:00 I begin feeding Baby Z his bottle, I have to remind Big E to stop playing and eat breakfast, Hubby gets in the shower to get ready for work

7:05 Grab a quick time with the Lord while giving Baby Z his bottle, I recently downloaded Our Daily Bread for my iPod, its great!

7:07 Little N wakes up, now to convince him to get dressed and ready for the day (not always an easy task!), he tends to take a while to wake up.

7:10 Tell E to go put his and Little N's clothes away, and of course this brings arguing and complaining, so I remind him its one of his chores.  He finally goes and does what he was asked!

7:17  Both boys come out of their room yelling and crying about, well I am never really sure what its about!  Someone is not doing something right, is usually what I get out of the situation.  So after getting everyone back on task, I continue to feed Baby Z.

7:20 Remind Little N for the third time to get dressed!

7:28 Finish Baby Z's bottle just in time for me to get my quick shower before Hubby leaves for work.

7:47 Hubby leaves for work, about 10 minutes later than planned!

7:59 I am finished getting myself ready for the day (I have never been a person who can go with out a shower, and my hair is short so I can't just let it go!)  I begin to rethink the short hair, but who has time to let it grow out!  Now to get the boys ready to leave the house to take Big E to school, praying at the same time that Little N's nose isn't running so I can take him to school, since he had to miss yesterday.  He only goes two days a week and I look forward to those couple of hours to get some things done.

8:12 Leave to take Big E to school on the way there I call Little N's school to tell them he won't be there today because of his cold!  YUP, nose was still runny!

8:15 Drop Big E off at school and heat to the store because after looking at my menu for the week, I realize its kind of hard to have French Toast, eggs and bacon, without butter, eggs and bacon!  So to the store we go!

8:25 Arrive at store and grab the few groceries after having to get the big awkward car cart that Little N insists on having, and I remember that I need to pick my battles so I go with it!

8:45 Arrive home, Little N asks for a snack, because he didn't eat breakfast.  So after putting Baby Z in his room asleep in the car seat, I put the groceries away and get Little N a snack.  I look at the time and realize that he can watch a little TV while I do a few chores.

8:55 I throw in the first load of laundry, and realize that I am almost out of my homemade laundry soap, so I put that on my agenda (the list in my head which means I will probably forget!).  I begin to hear Baby Z fuss and now Little N is asking for some hot chocolate.

9:00 Go get Baby Z up and changed, and decide that I maybe should get him dressed since he is wearing the same pjs from the night before, which he also wore all day yesterday!  The poor third kid!! I then go get Little N his hot chocolate and realize that Sesame Street is on!  YEAH!!  That usually keep Little N engaged for at least 45 minutes, maybe I will get that laundry soap made after all!!  I also take this time to grab my first Diet Coke for the day!

9:15 I go whip up a batch of laundry soap and realize I only have enough to make a 1/4 of a batch, oh well that will get us through until I can get to the store AGAIN!

9:24  I decide that I can take a few minutes to check Facebook and Etsy.

9:45  Wow was I on the computer that long!!??  Time to change laundry and I also decide to make some French Bread.  While the Baby Z's bottle is in the warmer I whip that up!  I mean stick it in the bread machine!

10:00  Baby Z's bottle time, and Little N gets to play the computer

10:30 Finish Baby Z's bottle, check on the laundry and bread, empty trash can that should have gone out yesterday because today is garbage day!

10:45 I suddenly realize that we have company coming tonight and maybe I should clean the house up a bit!

10:55 Wondering why I am so hungry!?  Oh yeah that's because all I had for breakfast was a granola bar that I shoved in while taking Big E to school!  I decide to fix us an early lunch.

11:00  We eat our hot dogs and cheese sticks while Little N watches some more PBS.  Baby Z begins to fuss so I think its time for another nap, maybe I can get some cleaning done while baby naps and Little N watches some TV, fingers crossed!

11:15  I did get the main bathroom cleaned

11:30  TV show is done for Little N, bread is ready to come out of the machine and sit to rise.  Time to get off the computer again!

11:35 Little N and I sit down to read some books

12:10 After reading about Star Wars character for the past half hour, I am done!!

12:13 Little N asks to play a game, so he goes and gets Candyland set up while I switch laundry.

12:15 We begin the first game of Candyland!  Now time for Diet Coke number 2!

12:21  After the quickest game of Candyland I have ever played, we got for another round!

12:34 Finished the second game pretty quickly as well, so Little N goes and gets another game, this time it Noah's Ark!

12:45  Baby Z wakes up so we finish our game and I go get him.  Little N asks to watch a movie, so I tell him to pick one while I change the baby.

12:47 I put the movie in Little N and go prepare a bottle for Baby Z.

12:50  Load dishwasher and do up a few dishes while bottle is warming.

1:03 Sit down to feed Baby Z.  While feeding the baby I can't believe its 1:00 already!  I still have laundry to fold, vacuuming to do and a kitchen to clean.  I also see that I have lots of sewing to do and I begin to wonder if I will ever get to the many projects that are on my list!  That gets me thinking about the treadmill that we got for Christmas and I wonder when am I ever going to find time to get some exercising in?!  I think it would help if we got the cable TV hooked up downstairs.

2:00 FINALLY finish Baby Z's bottle!  We are trying to get him to take more and so sometimes it takes him a really long time to take a bottle!  Now to change the stinky dipe that happened during the bottle!

2:10  Begin washing bottles, Little N comes in to "help", so I put him to work taking things to the recycling bins in the garage.  After that I let him wipe the counter.

2:30 Sit down to fold the two baskets of laundry while Little N is playing in his room and is Baby Z is playing on his mat.

2:50 Finish straightening up the house.  I also have about 10 more minutes until we have to leave and pick Big E up from the bus, so I get on the computer and check Etsy and Facebook.

3:00  Put Baby Z in his car seat and tell Little N that its time to go.

3:10 Leave to get Big E off the bus that tends to come any where between 3:15 and 3:30, so you just never know!  I drive by the mailbox to get the mail, while waiting to pull out I notice this busted up Trailblazer come down the road.  As it passes me I see the lady driving is holding a mirror trying to put on lipstick or something, no wonder he car is busted up!  That gives me a good laugh!

3:25 Bus finally arrives

3:30 Walk through the door tell Big E to go potty and wash his hands while I go get the trashcans from the curb.

3:33 get them a snack and some apple juice and we talk about Big E's day.

3:40 Begin Big E's LARGE reading assignment, he has to read 3 chapters!  Remember he is only 7!  We read for 20 minutes and he almost finished a chapter.  But its time to feed Baby Z!

4:00  The boys are allowed to watch Wild Kratts on PBS while I feed Baby Z.

4:15  Finally sit down to feed Baby Z

5:00 Baby Z finally finishes his bottle, we had to stop half way through to change another stinky dipe!
5:08 Begin fixing dinner

5:25 The boys and I sit down to dinner

5:35 Baby Z gets fussy so I put him down for a nap, while the boys finish their dinner.

5:40 I begin the dinner clean up, the boys are jumping around and not eating so I tell them they are done, they help clear the table and clean up.

5:50  Big E and I sit down to finish his reading assignment, Hubby get home, earlier tonight because of our company that is coming at 6:30

6:10  Big E finished his reading and Hubby and I get a few minutes to chat before the company get here.

6:35 Company arrives and we chat with him.  The boys are told to play in their room until bed time.
7:10 Baby Z gets another bottle.

7:50  Our company leaves, the big boys were told to clean their room and now its time for bed.

8:15  Time for Baby Z's cereal, I decided to add a a lithe applesauce to see if he would take it any better.

8:22  He is not!!

8:29  Decide to call it quits with the cereal.  I put him on his mat to play until bed time.

8:50 Baby Z gets fussy so I go change him (yet another stinky diaper), and get him in his pajamas.  Now its bed time for him.  This is bit earlier than normal but I think he's tired.

9:00  With Baby Z in bed I sit down to get on the computer and watch the news for a bit before bed.

9:40 Turn off the TV and computer and head to bed.

10:00 I am in bed getting ready to a little reading before turning off the lights.

10:27 Lights out!!

3:47 am- Baby Z starts to fuss, and I wonder if its time to get up.  Then I hear Hubby get up and look at the clock and realize that its still night time!!

5:46 am-  Baby Z fusses again, once again Hubby get up.

6:15am- Alarm goes off!  And another day begins!


Well that was yesterday!!  I got tired just going through it again!!  As I said that is a typical day, although I was a bit better at getting the laundry folded and put away since we had company coming.  Normally I just leave it in the baskets for a day or so!  In going over this day, I realize that there is not much "extra" or "free" time in my day.  Or maybe there is I just still can't find it!

So here is what my schedule looks like on paper:

 Daily Schedule:

7:00am -  wake up feed Z/ get breakfast for E

7:30am – Shower

7:50am – Joe takes E to bus stop

8:15am – Get Breakfast for / and myself

8:45am – Monday and Tuesday- Take N to school

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- prepare to run errands/activities for the day

9:00am – Put Z down for a nap, clean/do laundry/ play with Noah

10:00am- Feed Z/ N TV time

10:30am- computer time/ etsy shop time

11:00am – Lunch time

11:30am – Put Z down for a nap, book time/ playtime with N

12:00pm – Sewing time/ N Movie time

1:00 pm – Feed Z

1:30 pm – Playtime with Z and N

2:00 pm – Put Z down for a nap/ finish up cleaning/ laundry

3:10 pm – Prepare to go get E from bus

3:30 pm – Snack time

4:00 pm – Feed Z/ TV time for E and N

4:30 pm – Computer time

5:00 pm – Prepare dinner

5:30 pm – Put Z down for a nap/ dinner time

6:00 pm – Bath time/ Homework time

7:00 pm – Feed Z/ E and N play time in their room

8:00 pm – E and N bed time

8:30 pm – Z gets cereal

9:00 pm - Z bed time

10:30 pm- Bed time!!!