week 13: purge (for a good cause)

-->  

Oh, what a crazy past few weeks it has been.

I haven’t been keeping up too well with the blog lately.

Or really anything in my life.

I don’t know what has changed but lately I just really feel like I simply cannot keep up.

Maybe it’s my on-the-move baby.

Maybe it’s the early spring that has me constantly wanting to avoid the things I need to do and just sit outside.

Maybe it’s just me.

At any rate, I did finally get around to organizing the“office”.

Actually, Christian did most of the cleaning and organizing.

I came home one day after running some errands and it was done.

Love him.

I just made the labels (using scrapbooking paper and letter stickers) for the drawers and for our hanging paper organizer so that we can keep this area nice and neat from now on.

I was inspired by some BetterHomes and Gardens tips.

It's hard to see the labels in the picture but from top to bottom, our hanging paper organizer is now divided into three sections: Now (requires action immediately), Later (requires action soon) and File (already paid or taken care of but needs to be filed in the desk drawers).

I also labeled those file drawers.

The finance drawer has labeled files inside for pay stubs, medical, banking, important receipts and other documents necessary for filing taxes, etc.

The H&A (home and auto) drawer has files for our mortgage info, insurance, car repair receipts, home appliance manuals and warranty information.

I was going to take pictures of the insides of the drawers but they are no where near as pretty as those Better Homes and Gardens pictures.

We just use plain old green hanging file folders with white tabs that I wrote on with a black pen.

Boring, yes, but it was what we had on hand so it was free and effective.

He also organized the drawers on the left side.

The top drawer has office supplies and writing utensils.

The middle drawer has addresses, stationary and stamps.

The miscellaneous drawer is not currently being used for files.

It literally has miscellaneous items in it, like AV cords, photo paper, etc.

It’s not a junk drawer though.

He purged the junk and everything remaining has it's place.

This week’s project, (now that the week is almost over):

final sweep and donate

Now that I have cleaned out my closet, the linen closet, the coat closet and the "office", I have about 8 bags of items that are ready to be donated.

I am going to do one very quick final sweep of our house, see if Christian wants to donate anything, and then take all of those goods somewhere to donate.

I am still wondering what the very best place to donate is…

Goodwill or somewhere else?

Suggestions?

I am going to do my best not to look twice inside those bags.

That’s always where I get myself in trouble.

I wonder, “Am I really ready to get rid of that?  Maybe I will wear/use it some day.”

But that’s counterproductive.

I need to keep pushing forward with this challenge.

Less clutter.

Less distraction.

Less focus on me.

More “throwing off of that which hinders and so easily entangles”.

More clarity.

More generosity.

More purpose.

bathtub update

About a year and a half ago, we refinished a bathtub using a rather inexpensive spray on tub and tile refinisher.

It really was such a wonderful improvement for the price, (I think $40), and we were very happy with it.

{Before}

{After}

 

Wow, right?

Well, I meant to do this 6 months ago, but you know, I had a newborn then and time slipped away from me, so I'm just getting around to it...

I have bad news.

Almost a year to the day later, we noticed the first chip.

That tiny chip allowed water under the finish and from there it has chipped more and more. 

Every time we use the shower or bathtub it gets a little worse.

Jo-Jo hasn't helped matters.

I do believe he has feline ADHD and this tends to be one of his favorite spots to run around in so his claws have left little scratches in the finish as well.

{Today}

Bummer.

It is disappointing but not totally unexpected.

I'm not sure what our next move will be.

We aren't in a huge rush to fix it, (we've got bigger fish to fry), but when we do, I'll be sure to update again.
 

Until then, we will continue to pick chippy paint from the drain every time we shower.

Ahhh...the joys of DIYing.

week 12: organizing the office

First, an update on last week's project:

Before:

After:

It doesn't look like a shocking difference but this project took me hours.

There was a lot to organize.

Last week, I talked about all of the greeting cards and gift wrapping products I have been hoarding in here.

My mom used to work part time for Hallmark so that's where a lot of it came from.

I separated gift wrap stuff in the bags on the floor.

One bag is filled with baby gift bags.

One is filled with all other kinds of gift bags.

And another has tissue paper, flat packaged wrapping paper, gift boxes, ribbons and bows. 

I stood the huge roll of butcher paper left over from our Christmas wrapping project in the corner.

I went through every single card I own and made a huge pile to donate.

Then, I organized the ones that remained.

Craft stuff got moved to the top shelf.

I organized all of my fabric and sewing stuff as well.

Our donation pile includes a few coats, tons of cards, and some craft and party supplies.

This week's project:

the "office"

When our office became a nursery, the desk was moved to this little nook in the back of our living room.

It's right there next to the coat closet, so as I pulled out and organized everything from there, I stared at the desk, the drawers that look nice on the outside but are hiding a dirty secret inside and the unorganized piles of paper, and I thought, "you're next".

We've never had a good organizational system for our mail, our bills and the things that need to be filed.

 We have this thing, which seems smart but there is no real rhyme or reason to how we use it.

Time to get on that.

little leprechaun and a craft

Do not judge me for putting my 7 month old son in a Budweiser bow tie.

I used what we had lying around.

(And why we had a Budweiser bow tie lying around, I really do not know.) 

We are not Irish but Henry's strawberry blonde locks have him really looking the part on his first St. Patrick's Day.

I usually buy his leggings at babylegs.com but have often toyed with the idea of making them myself.

I see them on Etsy and think, how hard could it be?

So, when I was walking through Meijer the other day and saw these for $2.79, I jumped on the opportunity.

I laid them out and cut above the heel.

Now I had two products: baby leggings for Henry and some sweet ankle socks for me.

I thought about leaving them raw but I don't know what would happen if I washed them, so I decided to sew the edges.

I pinned them under.

And got to work...

(If you are an expert sewer, you are probably watching in horror because you know what comes next.)

I excitedly removed the legging from my sewing machine...

Only to learn that I should not have been so confident in my sewing skills and probably should have consulted a tutorial.

Yikes.

First of all, I should have been less lazy and gone to the store to find some matching green thread.

Then, this wouldn't have mattered so much.

But, I seriously thought that I had been sewing so straight.

I called my mother in law and she explained that with a stretchy tube of material, it would have been a lot easier if I would have turned it inside out and stretched the sock over the machine, like this:

Seems so obvious now.

Oh well.

Live and learn, right?

You really can't tell when he is wearing them.
 He's still the cutest little leprechaun ever (in my humble opinion).

 I am excited to keep my eye out for cute knee high socks so that I can try this project again some day soon.

For the suspenders, I used some yellow fabric I had left over from our yellow and gray nursery.

I cut 2 two inch strips, turned under the edges one side at a time and did a straight stitch.

When finished, they looked like this:

Grosgrain ribbon would have worked just as well but I (surprisingly) didn't have any green or yellow ribbon.

I didn't want them to be permanent.
I just wanted them on there long enough to get a picture, so I did a loose straight stitch along the bottom to secure them to the onsie, (which was easily ripped out after the picture).

And since the back wouldn't be visible in the picture, I just pinned it with a safety pin.

  

Love my little leprechaun.

Happy  St.  Patrick's  Day!

7 months

See?

 

I ended last month's post by saying, "I am sure this next month will bring lots more changes including real crawling, real eating, lots more 'talking' and maybe even teeth."

Crawling: check.

Although his crawl still doesn't look conventional.

It's more like he's doing the worm.

But he does move forward, and quick.

He also walk-crawls with his legs extended and his tushy up in the air.

Eating solids: check.

He's tried avocado, banana, rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potato, pears, peas and carrots.

I make his baby food using "recipes" and information from here.

"Talking": check.

Lots of babbling.

More sounds every day.

I swear it sounds like he is saying "hi" at appropriate times every once in a while but "dada" is the only consistent "word".

Teeth: check.

One just popped up one day and the other one not long after.

Not as cute when he tries to gnaw on my fingers these days.

And now this.

This month's photo shoot was going along as normal...

 

(New normal that is.)

Then, this happened.

This is not normal.

I was so glad I had my camera to capture it.

It was the first time I have seen him pull himself up to standing without any help.

 

So proud.

 

(Look carefully at that last picture.

Really, Jo-Jo?)

All this movement is exciting.

But it means more mishaps.

He's still a little clumsy when he transitions from sitting to crawling or vice versa and the hard woods in our house are not forgiving.

He actually got his first bruise today.

Right on his cheek.

Talk about feeling like a terrible mom.

I was right there but I couldn't catch him.

 

It's unrealistic that I would be able to catch his every fall, I know, and this is just the beginning.

If he's anything like his daddy, he will have a lot more bumps, bruises and trips to the hospital in his future.

But let's hope not.

I signed him up for swim lessons this month with some other friends and their babies.

He loved every second.

 We had lots of play dates this month.

I think everyone is ready to come out of hibernation now.

He is about the same size as those 2 one year olds.

Posing for pictures

Playing with Quinn and Emily

Sharing Hank's blankie.

That is still one of my very favorite Henryisms. 

I talked about it last month but I love it when he crawls up to something soft (blankets, towels, clothing, etc.), snuggles in and immediately begins sucking his thumb.

Too sweet.

Family time:

Eating Grammy's birthday gift

Learning about baseball with Daddy

Henry got his first haircut this month.

We took him to the best baby hair stylist we could find.

Me.

I just trimmed the hair around his ears because it was getting a little shaggy.

 

 I love you, Hutchy Bear.

 Every day I think that I can't love you any more and then the next day, I do.