Purging the Playroom!

Had I thought, I would have taken before and after pictures of this room. However, I didn't have the foresight to see this purging/organizing effort as a blog post, so all I have are the "after" pictures.

Welcome to my children's playroom. Please note, that I only have two incredibly spoiled children, I do not run a daycare (though we definitely have enough toys in our house to do so). Prior to December 2012, this room served as our guest room. After Christmas last year, we removed the "real" furniture, and moved the majority of the kid's toys to this room. It served to clear the toy clutter from the living room, and concentrated most of the toy mess to this one area of our house. At that time, we purchased the cloth bins and sorted the toys by category into the bins.




There are two bins filled with playdoh and playdoh accessories. There are two bins filled with various cars and trucks. A bin full of coloring books and crayons, another bin that holds play dishes and plastic food. A bin filled with little animals, a bin filled with Little People and their accessories, and a bin that holds various bottles, diapers, and other items for my daughter's dolls. Tucked underneath the train/lego table are three plastic bins full of legos. The toy box (which you can't see in the pictures) holds all the random toys that don't fit into one of the binned categories.

Organization of this room has been an ongoing battle for us. It seems that every time we get this room organized, someone has a birthday, and another influx of toys takes over. Last weeks purge resulted in a stack of items to be recycled, a trash bag full of broken toys to be disposed of, and another trash bag of toys that my children have either outgrown, or simply don't play with, to be given away.

The huge difficulty in cutting back on the amount of toys in our house comes from the fact that I can't seem to find time when my children aren't home to go through their toys without them. In their minds EVERY toy in our house is their FAVORITE toy, despite the fact that they haven't played with it in months or even years.

As discretely as possible, I removed the two-plus trash bags full of toys from the room. I could easily remove an equal amount again if my children hadn't been present.

Unfortunately, even though there are a ton of toys in this room, there are still toys in other areas of our house. At present, the kids share a bedroom, and that too is over run with even more toys. There are still toys in our living room, and the outdoor toys are stored in the garage. My goal, is to continue to pare down the amount of toys that they have to a more manageable amount.

As their interests become more defined, I'm trying to remove those items that are no longer used, and focus their toys more around their interests. My daughter's interests are primarily focused on her dolls at this time, as well as craft projects. My son's interests are primarily focused on cars/trucks, and the Fisher Price Little People.

I'm quite resigned to the fact that battling the amount of toys in our house will be a never-ending process until their teen years, but until that time I'll continue to wage war on the toy clutter!

A New Era Begins - My Daughter's First Day of Kindergarten!

Yesterday marked the first day of a new era for our family, my daughter is now officially a kindergartner! The past few weeks have been riddled with excitement and anxiety for me, my husband, and especially my daughter (my two year old has been quite oblivious to the whole matter, though he has declared that he will be attending college before he goes to kindergarten himself). My daughter's fears have revolved around things like riding the school bus, how to buy lunch in the cafeteria, and exactly how much homework she will be given as a kindergartner, oh... and the follow up question, "Mommy, what IS homework anyway?". My own fears have been more centered on adjusting work schedules to accommodate having one child in school and another in daycare, figuring out how the before care works at our school, how much school lunches cost, will she feel challenged enough by the curriculum, and the rest of the minutia that goes with sending your first born off to her first day of "real" school.

Adjusting our work schedules was the part of our first day of school preparation that took the most thought. My workday will be moved back an hour; rather than starting at 8am, I'll now be starting at 7am. This will allow me to get out of work, pick my son up from daycare, and hopefully be home in time to get my daughter off the school bus. Conversely, my husband will now be going to work slightly later, to allow him time to drop my daughter off at the school's before care program, and then take my son to day care (previously I've always been the one to do day care drop off). My son's day at daycare will be shortened, as he'll be dropped off slightly later than he's accustomed to, and picked up an hour earlier than he was before. Once our changes to our work schedules were approved, the rest took little thought on my part, it was just a matter of calming my daughter's tiny nerves.

She did amazing when we dropped her off for school, she was excited to see her friends, and start her new school year. She quickly gave us hugs, and said goodbye as she ran off to her classroom. Aside from a hiccup with the school bus and her drop off after school, she had an amazing day! She was excited to tell me all about her new friends, what she had for lunch, and how much fun she had at recess!

Unfortunately, I'm already "one of those parents", since after the minor mishap with the school bus, I stopped at the school office, and then called the transit company that buses the children to and from school to inquire/complain about the issue. At least she had a great day otherwise, and hopefully the bus situation will be resolved by this afternoon when she comes home!

Milestone Reached - My Daughter's Last Day of Daycare

My daughter reaches yet another milestone today.  Today is her last day of daycare.  While part of me rejoices in the fact that I will only have one child remaining in daycare, the other part of me cries knowing that my little girl is growing up.  It’s a bittersweet time indeed.

For the past year, my daughter has only been in daycare two days a week, and has spent the remaining three work days in the care of my mother-in-law.  This pattern of care was established to accommodate my daughter’s pre-school schedule, and we maintained it this summer until this week. 

Our family is going on vacation next week, since our daycare will be closed for their summer holiday, so we’ll all be going to camp for the week.  During the two weeks following our vacation, my daughter will go to my in-laws during the day, and the next week kindergarten starts.  It’s hard to believe that she’ll be going to kindergarten in less than a month, it seems like just yesterday we were driving home from the hospital with our newborn!

She’s already saddened at the prospect of no longer seeing her daycare friends, and nervous about the upcoming changes that will occur when she starts school.  It’s been incredibly helpful, transitionally, that she attended pre-school in the same school that she’ll be going to kindergarten in.  She already knows most of her kindergarten class, since they all went to pre-school together.  I know that she will thrive once she gets back into the routine of school, but until then we’re all a little nervous about the transition.

For my husband and I, it will mean another shuffling of our work schedules to accommodate the school day, and the juggling of children to two different places.  It also means that we’ll no longer be paying for daycare for my daughter, and THAT is huge for us!!  My son’s schedule will be flexed with a later drop off time at daycare, so that my husband can get my daughter to school, and an earlier pick up time so that I can be home when our daughter gets off the school bus.  It will take time for all of us to adjust to this new schedule, though I’m sure we’ll adapt to the scheduling change much faster than I will adapt to having my baby start kindergarten!

A Weekend of One on One Time!

This past weekend was a "Girls Weekend" for my daughter and I, and a "Boys Weekend" for my husband and son.  My husband and son left Friday night for a weekend of guy time at my in-law's camp, and my daughter and I stayed home. 

My daughter had a birthday party to attend on Saturday afternoon, which was the original reasoning behind our family separation for the weekend.  However, we opted to maximize this time apart and spend some much needed one-on-one time with each of the children.  My daughter was beyond thrilled with the prospect of having Mommy to herself for the entire weekend, and my son (being only two-years-old) was rather oblivious to the matter. 

It amazes me how different my children are when they are apart.  I had grand plans for all the things my daughter and I would do, and while we did do many of them, she was most happy with the fact that she could play alone in her room and be uninterrupted by her little brother.  Likewise, little brother took advantage of his Daddy-time by playing quietly by himself without the interruption of his big sister. 

The boys left around 6pm Friday evening, and while I was ready to kick off our weekend of "girl time", my daughter quickly disappeared to her room to play with her babies.  Since she was content, and enjoying herself, I curled up with a book and waited, hoping that she would return shortly.  After an hour, or so, she did emerge from her room, and requested that we cuddle on the couch and eat popcorn.  Since this was her weekend, I quickly obliged, and she quickly fell asleep mid snacking.  Thus ended our first evening of our girls' weekend.

We awoke Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and she disappeared outside to play in the sand.  I attempted to join her, and was given an evil eye and told that I could go do something else.  She wanted to play by herself.  I was a bit disheartened, but recalled that I myself am always excited about doing things uninterrupted while I'm home alone.  I wrapped the birthday gift for the afternoon party, and enjoyed a cup of coffee as I watched her through the window.  The smile that alighted her face proved to me that she was enjoying her break by herself.  After a short time though, I was forced to call her inside so that she could shower and get cleaned up for the birthday party.

We attended the party, and she had a great time catching up with her pre-school friends that she hadn't seen in a few weeks (some since school ended, and others since the baseball season ended).  After the party we made our way to the city, went out to dinner, and the rest of the night was her choice of activities.  I found it highly amusing that after dinner the one thing that she wanted to do was to go to the dollar store.  In her eyes, the dollar store is the most amazing place on earth!  After walking the aisles of the dollar store, we went to look at the critters at Petco, and then went to Wal-mart.  During our shopping excursion, we picked up the new American Girl movie, "Saige Paints the Sky", and some snacks to enjoy while we were watching it. 

When we got home, we snuggled up in my bed with our snacks, and the movie.  The snacks remained untouched, and my daughter only saw about 10 minutes of the movie before she fell asleep.  Moving the snacks to the nightstand, so as not to have them crushed up in my bedsheets, I tucked her in tight, and shut off the movie.  She looked so tiny snuggled up in my bed, and it made me realize that despite being five-years-old, and defiantly independent, she's still such a little girl.

The next morning, I was awoken by my little angel pouncing on me, and demanding that we finish watching the movie while we eat breakfast in bed.  I turned the movie on, and made my way downstairs to make the requested toast.  We snuggled up and finished the movie, which was a really great movie!  I really like the American Girl movies, for the mere fact that I don't have to worry about there being anything inappropriate in them.  They are nice wholesome movies, and my daughter loves ANYTHING associated with American Girl.

My plan for Sunday was to take my daughter to the movie theater.  Having never been to the movie theater before, she was beyond excited to go!  Both my children loved the original "Despicable Me" movie, so "Despicable Me 2" was an obvious choice for us.  The movie theater experience was so exciting for her!  As we sat in the theater prior to the movie starting she was inundating me with questions about how everything worked.  When the lights went down, she could hardly contain herself!  It turned out that the sequel was just as enjoyable for us as the original movie (if not more so).  We had a wonderful time!

On our way home, my daughter confessed that she really missed Daddy, and little brother.  I assured her that they would be home shortly after we got home, and she sighed with relief.  When they got home, she ran and hugged them both, and told them about her "best weekend ever", then quickly declared that "next time we have a girls' weekend, it should only be for one day, so she doesn't have to miss them so much!"  I agree, it was a great weekend with my little girl, but I did miss my boys!!

Tooth Fairy Pillow

I'm not sure when it happened, or how the word of it spreads, but apparently in order for one to receive a prize from the Tooth Fairy, one must possess a "Toothy Fairy Pillow".  It is no longer adequate, nor acceptable to merely leave one's tooth beneath one's bed pillow on the eve of the Tooth Fairy visiting.  No!  One must leave their fallen tooth in a pillow designated and designed for such a task.  Much as a Christmas Tree is a social requisite of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy would be remiss should a lost tooth not be properly left in the sanctity of a Tooth Fairy Pillow!

Okay, I fully admit, I was naive.  Certainly, I had seen Tooth Fairy Pillows in catalogues before, and while I thought they were cute, they seemed a bit excessive.  Why can't the Tooth Fairy just pick up teeth old-school style, and fish them out from underneath the bed of the sleeping child, where the sacred tooth was sure to fall after the child restlessly tosses and turns waiting for that whimsical fairy to sweep in and steal their beloved tooth.  It wasn't until my daughter lost her first tooth that I finally understood how ingenious these little pillows were!  Being able to avoid sneaking into the room of a sleeping child and riffling around in the dark in search of a microscopic tooth tucked somewhere within the bedding of the fitfully sleeping child, by simply retrieving the tooth from the pocket of a pillow hung on the OUTSIDE of the child's door, PRICELESS!

After listening intently to the pleas of my daughter, as she explained to me the necessity of having a Tooth Fairy Pillow, and thinking about the ease of the Tooth Fairy's exchange should she indeed have one, I set out to find one of these new childhood necessities.  My first stop, of course, was Amazon.com, which did prove fruitful, they had a vast assortment of these little hanging pillows, in all shapes and sizes.  My two favorites are posted in the links below.

Unfortunately, being in a frugal frame of mind, I couldn't justify buying a tiny pillow that would only occasionally be put to use.  Off to my sewing room I trotted, and within minutes I had found everything that I needed to construct a Tooth Fairy Pillow myself.  Armed with a small amount of green fleece, a small scrap of pink felt, a piece of ribbon, a remnant of lace, a needle, and some embroidery thread, I set to work!

I hand stitched lettering (ineptly, but I *think* it's legible) on one side of the felt, and top-stitched it wrong sides together to a piece of fleece the same size.  I then stitched that to the front of one of the larger pieces of fleece, sewing along three sides, and leaving the top open to create the much needed "tooth pocket".  Placing the two main pieces of fleece wrong sides together, and sandwiching the edge of the lace between the edges of the fabric, I then sewed it all together (leaving one corner open for turning).  Using the small mountain of serger trimmings that had been piling up in the waste basket in my sewing room, I stuffed the little pillow with those shreds of scrap fabric.  Finally, I hand-stitched the remaining opening closed, and VOILA!  The result is this lovely little pillow.



Since I had all of the materials on hand, the only cost to me, was the time that it took to construct it.  Personally, any time that I get to myself, and get to hide away in my sewing room is invaluable!  I love crafting and creating something out of scraps that I have laying around.  I was quite proud of myself, but the true test would be what my daughter thought of it when I presented it to her.  When she arrived home, I proudly handed her my creation, and was paid in full with a huge ear-to-ear grin, a giant bear hug, and an "I LOVE YOU, MOMMY!"  Never before have I received a greater payment than the love and adoration of my children!  This little pillow was well worth the time spent crafting it, just to see the joy on her face.

A Tisket, A Tasket, I Bought a New Laundry Basket!

It was a difficult decision, and one I dreaded making, but the time had finally come when my dear friend could no longer keep up with my demands, and we needed to part ways.  It was bitter sweet; I was excited about the prospect of something new in my life, yet at the same time this friend had been with me since my dorm days in college, and had served me well.  My dear laundry basket.

I received my laundry basket as a gift from my parents for Christmas, during my first year of college.  It was my trusted companion on the countless trips home from school, harboring my dirty laundry on my way to my parents' house, and my freshly laundered clothes on the way back to campus.  It moved with me from my dorm room to my first apartment, to my second apartment, to the house that my husband and I rented when we were first married, and finally to our current home.  In the past 5 years, it has served not only as a carrier for laundry, but also as a number of imaginary vehicles for my children, and doll bed for my daughter's stuffed animals and dolls. 

When the first of the four handles broke years ago, I was annoyed, but not terribly upset.  I continued to use the basket faithfully for years.  A few weeks ago the second handle broke off entirely as well, and again I was disappointed, but not enough to give up on my trusted friend.  It wasn't until the third handle broke, and I was forced to try to carry my laundry out to the clothes line with three sides of the laundry basket bending and buckling under the weight of the damp laundry, that I finally decided that it was time for me to part with my old friend. 

But, what to do with my old laundry basket?  It's plastic, but is it recyleable?  For now, it will house stuffed animals in my children's room, but what will it's ultimate fate be when it becomes to decrepit to serve a useful purpose in our home?  With this dilemma in mind, I set forth on my search for a replacement.

I decided, after much thought, that a more eco-friendly laundry basket would be a good choice.  I had in my head, a picture of what I was looking for.  I wanted one of those "old-school" wicker laundry baskets, the kind with the handles woven into the pattern of the basket.  With that in mind, I began scouring the internet for the perfect laundry basket.  I had no idea how daunting that would become.  I found BEAUTIFUL hand woven wicker laundry baskets that were EXACTLY what I had pictured, but I couldn't muster the courage to spend the amounts of money that were being asked.

Amazon.com did prove fruitful in my search though, and I found a laundry basket that was close to what I had envisioned, and the price was much more palatable.  The reviews on Amazon.com for this basket were scattered.  Some people loved it, some people hated it.  I decided to throw caution to the wind, and give it a try despite the fact that some people weren't madly in love with the basket.

My new friend arrived on my doorstep last night, and was given it's debut today with two daunting loads of laundry that I had to lug out to the clothesline.  In my opinion, this basket was well worth the investment.  It's just as large as my old plastic laundry basket.  It serves it's purpose of carrying my clothes from the washing machine to the clothes line, and back again.  It's much more attractive than its plastic counterpart, and it's bio-degradeable should the need arise for it to be disposed of.  Granted, I don't think it would hold up to a game of race car, in which my son sits in the laundry basket, and my daughter drags him around the house, but then again, that could very well be why my plastic basket broke as well.

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase, and more than happy to pass my plastic laundry basket onto my children as a bed for their stuffed critters.

The Tooth Fairy Debacle - What's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy?

 It happened, and it happened without advanced notice, my five year old lost her first tooth!  A monumental event in the life of a child, my daughter was overjoyed to join the ranks of her pre-school classmates that had already lost their first teeth!

As a parent, I was thrilled for my daughter, and saddened for myself as she met yet another milestone that marked the end of her baby years.  Together we cheered, we danced, and we celebrated the loss of the pearly white baby tooth!

Then as we were describing the Tooth Fairy process to her; how she would put this tiny tooth under her pillow at bedtime, and the Tooth Fairy would sneak in after she was asleep and replace it with... with what?!?!? I was ill-prepared, I hadn't expected a visit from the Tooth Fairy for at least a few more months, and yet in a matter of hours we had gone from discovering that her tooth was loose, to it being held proudly above her head in her little fingers like the torch of the Statue of Liberty!  Thank goodness for Facebook and the instant access to countless friends and relatives with small children!  As soon as my daughter deposited her tooth in my hand and went on her merry way to play outside, I set to work and asked the question on Facebook, "What IS the going rate for the Tooth Fairy?!?!?!" 

The responses I received were varied, and ranged from $1 to $20 for the first tooth!  Yikes, it seems that some children have VERY generous Tooth Fairies!  Knowing my own daughter, I know that if she received $20, or even $5, for the first tooth that she would fully expect that the Tooth Fairy would either continue with that amount, or even increase it with subsequent teeth.  The dilemma ensued... How much was this tooth worth? 

Whispered conversations were had, between my husband and I, as our daughter's bedtime approached.  Not wanting to set precedent of too high of a rate of return on baby teeth, we opted to have the Tooth Fairy leave a dollar as a reward for this prize tooth.  After she was soundly asleep, the Tooth Fairy slipped into her room and replaced that tiny little tooth with a dollar bill, and the deal was sealed.

All that night I feared that she would be disappointed with the Tooth Fairy's offerings.  Had the Tooth Fairy left enough?  Those fears were swiftly negated the next morning, when she came bounding out of her bedroom waving her Tooth Fairy dollar above her head and with a HUGE gap-toothed grin on her face!!

I guess the Tooth Fairy did okay after all!

What our vacation taught me...

For the past ten days, my family (my husband and I, our two children, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law) have been vacationing in my in-laws' camp in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Our family is very fortunate to have this camp as a vacation destination, and my husband and I feel quite blessed that his parents are so willing to share it with us.

The camp itself, is a quaint little building made up of an open living/dining/kitchen area, and has three small bedrooms. Due to the fact that the camp is so small, it's sparsely furnished, housing just the bare necessities.

The picture above is taken from one corner of the camp, showing the living/dining area, and the tiny kitchen.

This photo is taken from one corner of the bedroom that my husband and I share with our two year old son.

So, what was it that I learned from this vacation? Despite having vacationed here countless times in the past, the reality of the situation never really hit me until this past week. There we were six people (four adults and two children), living in this tiny little house, without many of the luxuries that we take for granted at home. No washing machine, no dryer, no air conditioning. My children have a small box of toys at camp, compared to the rooms filled with toys that they have at home. Yet, even without all of those luxuries we function, we live, and best of all... we have a great time. It made me realize how unnecessary so many of the things in our lives really are.

While we were there, my five year old daughter lost her first tooth! A momentous occasion in her life, and one that will be even more memorable to her because we were at camp, and entirely focused on each other. It didn't take fancy toys, or electronic gadgets, to bring about the complete joy on her face when that tooth came out! The tooth fairy didn't care that she was sleeping in a tiny bedroom, she still came to whisk away that first tooth!

Our two year old son, made great strides in potty training while we were there. A feat that had seemed so unobtainable the week before we left for our vacation. The pride he took in using the potty like a big boy, and watching my baby grow into a young man in the course of that week was worth more to me than any gizmo or gadget.

I felt instantly enlightened by the realization that it really is the simple things in life that make it worth living. Watching my children grow, celebrating their milestones, and being together as a family for all of it. It made me realize that even though I've been making these steps towards minimizing the unnecessary from our lives, I still have a long way to go. We don't need "stuff", we have a beautiful family that is far more important than anything else in this world. My children are my everything, and I want them to fully feel that.

After spending the past few days pondering all of this, thinking about the simple pleasures, and all of the fun and exciting things that transpired in that tiny house in the middle of nowhere, I'm even more encouraged to purge the unneeded from our home, and from our life. Simplify what we have, and keep only that which is really important.

Online Budgeting with Mint.com

Online budgeting has never been easier!!

Have you heard of Mint.com?  If you haven't, I highly recommend that you try it out, and here's why:

What is Mint.com?
Mint.com is an online budgeting site, but it's more than that... Mint.com gives you a realtime look at your finances via a secure internet connection.  It allows you to set up your budget and your goals, tracks your spending, tracks your goal progress, alerts you when payments are due, and gives you up to the minute accounting of your net worth!  All of this in one little website!!

How does it work?
While the setup is a little bit daunting, it's well worth the effort.  You provide Mint.com with your financial information (please note, this includes usernames and passwords for your various accounts), and it compiles all of that information in one place.  It shows you the balances of all of your cash accounts, and compares that to the balances owed on your loans, credit cards, and other obligations.  You can also input your street address, and it will calculate the value of your home and include that in your net worth. 

What are some of the benefits?
Mint.com auto-categorizes your spending based on transactions.  If you use your debit card and make a purchase of $100 at a local grocery store, Mint.com automatically recognizes the grocery store chain, and deducts that $100 from your grocery budget.  If Mint.com doesn't know how to categorize a transaction it alerts you so that you can update that information, allowing more accurate reporting.

Aside from alerting you when a transaction needs categorizing, Mint.com will also alert you when the balance in a checking or savings account gets low, or if you have an upcoming bill due.  As well, Mint.com will offer you savings tips and ideas based on fees that you pay on your current accounts.  Ultimately, bill paying, and account choices are yours to make, but Mint.com makes it easier for you to see what your options are.

Mint.com Mobile
Not only can you access Mint.com via computer, but it is also available as an app for both Android and iPhone!  You can have access to all of your account balances at your fingertips at all times.

You no longer have an excuse for forgetting when bills are due, or inadvertantly overdrawing your checking account, Mint.com has your back on these things!  The greater advantage of Mint.com; it's completely free!  The longer you use the system, the more intuitive it becomes.  It begins to recognize your spending patterns, and allocates the transactions to the appropriate categories with more accuracy.  It's a powerful site, and a wonderful tool for keeping track of you spending and finances!

Free Curtains

Letting friends and coworkers know about your hobbies can be advantageous.  I had mentioned a recent sewing project to a coworker, and it turned out that she had a bunch of fabric that she was looking to rehome.  She asked me if I was interested, and I wholeheartedly said, "Yes!"  So far she has brought me multiple boxes of fabric!!

In one of the boxes was this large piece of drapery fabric.  I didn't immediately know what I was going to do with it, but after a couple of weeks the need for this fabric became very clear.

We have been working on finishing our mudroom (slowly over the course of the past three years), and it came to completion last week!  Unfortunately, the fabric that I had set aside to be the curtains for this room was not quite long enough. I remembered seeing the fabric pictured above while I was sifting through the boxes that were given to me, and inspiration struck!

Armed with the donated fabric, a pair of scissors, some black thread, and my sewing machine, I set to work.  Straight valances are, by far, one of the easiest sewing projects.  If you can cut and sew in a relatively straight line, you can sew a valance.

The valance above was made from a strip of fabric cut 24 inches in length (I kept the width from selvage to selvage). I made a quarter inch rolled hem on all four sides, then folded the top down three inches, and seamed along the bottom of the folded edge (creating a three inch pocket on the top of the valance. I then measured down one inch from the top of the fold and made another seam all the way across. This created a "ruffle" along the top, and a smaller pocket to feed the curtain rod through. Each valance took less than 20 minutes, including measuring, cutting, and sewing!

Family Scheduling Changes

              

Saturday brought the end of my daughter's baseball schedule.  As a pre-schooler, this was her first experience with an organized sport, as well as our first experience dealing with a child's sports schedule.  To increase the scheduling difficulty, my husband was also the coach of her team. 

It was an great season, and it was amazing to see how well the children (ages 4-6) advanced their skill sets, and teamwork in a matter of weeks!!  The scheduling aspect of it was a struggle, rushing from work to pick up my kids from daycare, and make it to the field in time for practice on Wednesday nights, and they had games every Saturday morning (weather permitting).  Selfishly, I enjoyed the social aspect of her baseball commitments.  It gave me a chance to get to know the parents of many of her classmates on a more personal level, and that's the part that I'm going to miss the most.  However, for the rest of the summer it will be nice to have my Saturday mornings free again!

We have more scheduling changes on the horizon though, and we have been actively working on finding a resolution that will work for our entire family at the end of the summer.  At the end of August our daughter will start kindergarten full time.  I've been in contact with the school to determine what the bus schedule would be for her for next year.  We hadn't initially planned on having her ride the bus, but in order to get our son to daycare, and ourselves to work on time, it will work out better to have her ride the bus to and from school.

I've requested a change in my work hours with my employer, and I'm very fortunate that they were willing to be flexible.  My husband is also having to change his hours in order to accommodate our kindergartner's schedule.  At the end of the summer, my husband will start work later, allowing him to be home in the morning to put our daughter on the school bus.  He'll then take our son to daycare, and go into the office.  In the meantime, I've changed my schedule in the opposite manner.  I'll go into work earlier, pick our son up from daycare earlier, and be home in time to get our daughter off the school bus.  These changes mean that I likely won't see the children in the morning, since they'll still be sleeping when I leave for work, and my husband in turn will get home later than he does now. 

Financially it makes sense, since we won't need to have our daughter in daycare at all anymore.  The downside being that we're sacrificing family time to achieve that.  My husband will have time alone with both children in the morning, and I will have time alone with them in the afternoon, but our hours together as an entire family will be reduced. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to find a happy balance within this schedule, at least until next fall when our son starts pre-school and everything changes again!

Hidden Edibles

We have various food producing plants scattered around our yard, tucked in flower beds, or serving as their own yard art.  The chives pictured above are cozied up in a corner of a flower bed behind our house.  The rhubarb below has its own stone walled garden bed, and lives on the wood line of our back yard.

For Mother's Day this year my daughter gave me a single strawberry plant (as well as a bunch of annuals for one of the flower barrels), being the only strawberry plant that I have, it lives in the corner of yet another flower bed.

Another not-so-hidden edible plant that we have is peppermint.  I didn't take a picture of it, because the peppermint makes me angry.   Don't get me wrong, I love the smell of peppermint, it's a pretty plant, but it spreads like crazy.  A few years ago we had ants that were making their way into our house, so I sought out remedies to keep the little buggers from coming inside.  One of the suggestions that I read was to plant peppermint around the foundation of the house.  So I bought two measly little peppermint plants.  I planted them in the flower beds in front of our house, and didn't think much of it after that.  No one warned this novice gardner that peppermint is a self propogating nightmare!!  I have plucked more peppermint from those two flower beds than I care to admit!  Lesson learned, if you're going to grow peppermint, a potted plant is more ideal.  At least it has seemingly deterred the ants though!!

Treasured Trash

One of our true steps towards self-sufficiency has been our garden.  Slowly over the course of the past few years we have been expanding our garden site, as well as diversifying the variety of vegetables that we grow.  Each year we have been buying organic material to boost the garden soil, since the soils around our house are very sandy.  This year we have decided to take things one step further, and we started a compost pile.

This bowl sits on our kitchen counter and collects our food scraps (except meat and dairy).  Banana peels, onion skins, broccoli stems, egg shells, virtually any and all scraps go into this bowl.  When the bowl gets full, we send our unofficial "compost girl" out into the backyard where she then empties the bowl onto our compost pile.  It's the perfect job for my five year old!!!

Our compost pile isn't anything fancy, just a heap of dirt, leaves, and kitchen waste.  Once every couple of weeks we go out with a shovel and stir things up a bit.  I've been surprised by how quickly our little pile is growing, and how much kitchen waste we had previously been throwing in the trash. 

Once the compost has matured (either this fall, or next spring) we'll then till it into our garden bed to help build up the fertility of the soil, turning our kitchen trash into fertilizing treasure!

A Pretty Little Dress

Keeping my daughter clothed has become a challenge as she’s been going through numerous growth spurts lately.  Currently, she’s in rather desperate need of summer clothes.  I hesitate to buy an entire wardrobe for her because it’s costly, and the way she’s growing lately she’ll have outgrown them in the next week!!  So for now, she has the requisite shorts and t-shirts for summer wear, but not much else. 

For my birthday, in March, my husband’s grandmother was gracious enough to give me a gift card to a local fabric store.  This gift card has been sitting on my nightstand since then, dying for me to use it.  I didn’t have any particular projects in mind, but I had an afternoon to myself so I went shopping.  While I was in the fabric store, I saw this patterned cotton, and it SCREAMED at me to be made into a dress for my daughter.  Since I’m not one to deny the wishes of screaming fabric, I brought it home with me.  The fabric retails for $9.99/yard.  While it wasn’t the most inexpensive yard of fabric, I was shopping with a gift card, and had a 40% off coupon, combined, this made it a much more palatable purchase at $5.99/yard.

 

Armed with a vision, and my sewing machine, I set to work.  After two hours of very interrupted sewing (answering the never ending call of “MOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!”), this was the end result. 

I was quite proud of the final product, and for $5.99 my daughter has a brand new dress, and I have enough fabric left over to make her a matching headband, and a matching dress for her doll. 

This similar dress retails at $40.

Overall, for $5.99 (but free to me because I used my gift card) and a little bit of time spent in my sewing room, I’m calling it a success!

Minimize What?

There are a number of things in my life that I’m actively working on minimizing, in hopes of maximizing other, more important, areas of my life.   My ideal would be to have all aspects of my life singing in perfect harmony to the song of my choice, thereby having control over the things that otherwise seem unmanageable.  What  are these instruments of my life that I want to harmonize?  I’ve broken them down into four primary categories; Balancing work and family, Personal Finance and Debt, Clutter, and Self Sufficiency.

Balancing Work and Family

My husband and I both work fulltime, and we have two small children.  Our daughter is five years old, and our son is 2 years old.  While my schedule is typically a straight 40 hours per week, my husband’s schedule varies between 45 and 50+ hours per week.  Our son attends daycare fulltime while I’m at work, and our daughter’s schedule is more chaotic.  Her time is split between pre-school three mornings a week, followed by time at my in-laws on those days, and daycare on the remaining two days.  With our daughter heading to kindergarten next fall, it’s time to revamp our schedules!

Personal Finance/Debt

Both my husband and I work salaried positions, and while we make pretty decent money, financially things are tighter than we would like.  We’ve been making small steps towards minimizing our debts, and building our personal net-worth.  It’s a weekly struggle, and balancing act, though we do see light at the end of the tunnel.  Our ultimate goal is to be debt free, and establish a healthy savings. 

Clutter

When we first moved into our house in 2007 it seemed HUGE!  We went from living in a tiny two bedroom rental, to our brand new house that had over 2,000 square feet of finished living space, and a full basement.  After unpacking everything that we owned, we had entire rooms that were empty, not to mention the empty closets and unutilized cupboards.  Now, 6 years, and two children later, our house doesn’t seem big enough to accommodate the mass of toys that our children have, let alone our other possessions.  Over the past few months I’ve been diligently working on ridding our house of the items that we never used, no longer use, or simply don’t need.  We’re a long way from being physically clutter-free, and doing our best to avoid adding to the chaos.

Self Sufficiency

In an effort to simplify our life, we’re also striving to be more self-sufficient.  This past winter I spent far too much time reading frugality, minimalism, and homesteading blogs.  I fell in love with the idea of homesteading, and would be thrilled to, one day, be entirely self-sufficient and live off our land.  The likelihood of that ever happening is unrealistic, though it has pushed us to try harder to gain some level of self sufficiency as a family.  We’ve taken the over-arching idea of homesteading and have begun utilizing some of the ideas that can/do fit into our current lifestyle.  We’ve planted a garden, we’ve started a compost pile, we’ve eliminated some things from our lives, and relearned the old methods of doing things that technology has all but eliminated in some respects.

All of these things intertwine, becoming more self-sufficient reduces our need to purchase certain things, which opens up cash flow to be applied towards our debts.  Balancing our work and family schedules allows us to spend more time on our self-sufficient activities.  Clearing clutter from our lives affects our personal finances through the sale of those items, and again allows more time for family as it cuts down on the time spent picking up random junk around our house. 

It’s time to make a deliberate effort in asking myself, “How can I minimize this?” as I tackle each obstacle that stand between where we are now, and our goal of harmonization.