Beginning of 2015-2016 School Year

We started back to school today.  We kicked off our new year with a trip to the library for program with Miniature Therapy Horses.  These horses are taken into nursing homes and rehabilitation centers where the residents get to connect with an animal which can have a soothing effect on many people. They can also jog good memories and help people open up and have a better day.

*Pictures taken on my phone.  I need to remember to take the camera with me for activities like this.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 20 - Bedrooms 3+

This week has been the week to work on the other bedrooms in the house.  I helped Kaomi and Katy go through their drawers and take out the winter clothes so they have room for their summer clothes.  Now when I walk into their room if I see their drawers left open I know they didn't close it, rather than not being able to close it because they had more clothes than fit.

I decided to work in the nursery.  Clark helped me pick up the toys and I sorted them into go upstairs, put away downstairs, giveaway and of course left what was staying in the room for now.  I have a whole reuasable grocery bag full of items that either belong upstairs to other people or are being re-homed with like objects upstairs.  Then I vacuumed and Kaomi helped to move the furniture around.  I moved Quinn's bed to the other side of the room and grouped the nursery items more together.  This is still Quinn's room.  I had planned on him moving upstairs to adjust to Kent and Clark's room this month, but even though he sleeps fine in his toddler bed he still gets up at least once a night.  I don't want him to fall down the stairs when he is trying to come to visit Jeff and I in the middle of the night.  He hasn't slept through the night very often since he was born.  Maybe he'll learn eventually.

My nephew also came over and helped pull weeds from my gardens.  I'm beginning to think I won't get anything planted, but I don't want them to be full of weeds either.  Kent helped pull the weeds, too.

Week 21 - Hall Closet is the next challenge.  Since I already did our hall closet I'm supposed to clean the bathrooms.



Bonus Picture:  My husband and his helpers who set up the porta-crib a few weeks ago in our bedroom.

A Peek into Our Twin Pregnancy

So far everything has been going well and we hope it continues to go that way.  It's getting harder to move around comfortably, but sitting and laying aren't the most comfortable either.  I move around and change positions a lot.  We are hoping that the babies wait until the end of June to arrive after my Mom and Dad get here.  My mom wants to be here for their birth.

Earlier this week I had a sonogram and the babies are continuing to grow in keeping with their large size.  They are both head down.

They measured in at somewhere around 5# 15 oz and 6# 6oz.  Of course we won't know for sure how much they will weigh until they are actually born.

Here's a peek at one of them from this week.

One twin's ear and hand and face and hand

Here are some belly pictures from Mother's Day and the Sunday before Memorial Day.

Memorial Day Weekend      -33 Weeks w/twins

Mother's Day 2015    -31 Weeks w/twins

Memorial Day Walk

Yesterday Katy needed to get her glasses fixed so we stopped at Walmart.  While I was checking out everyone else was seeing how many of them could fit on a bench.

Then on our way home we stopped and took a walk to see a road that has flooded over.  While we were walking it started to rain.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 19 - Bedrooms 1 & 2

Last week in cleaning I was able to get the guest room mostly ready for company.  Katy helped me a little bit and Jeff and Clark dusted, vacuumed, and stripped the dusty sheets from the bed.  There are still a few things for me to put away or find homes for, but it could have company at a moments notice now.  We just have to keep it that way.  The girls had been wanting to get Legos out to play with and the condition we have for playing Legos is that your room must be all cleaned up.  They worked really hard are were able to play with Legos several times over the last week.  They also rearranged the toddler bed and some of the other things in their room when they were cleaning.  All the kids upstairs changed their sheets, too.  I went in to help Felicity with some clean laundry in her room and cleaned out all her winter stuff, so she can more easily put her clean clothes in their drawer.



The challenge for week 20 is Bedrooms 3+.  I really need to finish my bedroom and the girls need me to finish going through their clothes and make sure they have what they need for the rest of the summer.  I also need to work in Quinn's room and continue getting it ready for the twins.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 18 - Half Time = Field Trip

Two weeks agao was half time for cleaning.  I didn't get much done on catching up on anything, but I did get a few odds and ends puts away here and there.  My main cleaning days have been Fridays, so this came at a perfect time to plan an end of year field trip and not feel bad about missing a challenge.

Jeff was able to work extra hours during the week and not have to take any vacation time to have Friday off to go with us to Legoland Discovery Center in Grapevine.  We ordered our tickets online ahead of time for 1:30 pm, so we didn't have to wait in line when we got there.  There were quite a few kids from another school there when we arrived, but they left shortly after and we had plenty of room to spread out.

Everyone enjoyed it.  I think Clark had the hardest time with just not being tall enough or old enough to do a couple of activities that looked really fun to him.  Quinn was happy as a clam to see all the Legos.  The three biggest kids were able to do everything.  Felicity was a little scared, but she still had fun, especially when figuring out how to drive.  Clark and Quinn really enjoyed the build your own car and racing area.  At the end we took a break at the cafe and each of the kids had a cookie and rootbeer, because having a special fun activity isn't complete without a special snack.

Last weeks challenge was Week 19 - Bedrooms 1 & 2.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 17 - Master Bathroom

This week's challenge was the master bathroom.  I don't have a before picture this week.  Jeff knew that this was in the plans for the week and he was going to clean the bathtub on Tuesday evening.  On Tuesday, after dinner I went for a walk and when I came home it was quiet in the house.  It was almost bedtime, so I thought maybe everyone was getting ready for bed, but they were all in the bathroom cleaning it.  I have a wonderful family!

Jeff and Kids cleaning the bathroom.

Clean bathroom

On Friday, I wiped down the baseboards and straightened the linen closet.  I tossed a few things we haven't used in the giveaway box.  I reorganized our "medicine cabinet" into a hopefully more usable system for us to find what we need and trashed anything that was expired.  I'm going to need the basket that I previously used for medicines as a laundry basket for one of the twins.  I like the stackable baskets we bought several years ago and am glad that we bought several more than we needed at the time for our laundry, because that style is no longer available.  Now when we need one we replace one of the stackable ones with a new basket and use the stackable one for laundry.

linen closet before

Linen closet after

revised "medicine cabinet"

I didn't get to the cabinets under the sink.  I think for the most part they just need a little straightening.

Next week we are taking a half-time for our week 18 cleaning.  Jump over to Michele's blog to see what that means.

April 2015 Birthdays

Last month we celebrated Jeff and Kent's birthdays.  Kent's 11th birthday was the same weekend that he went camping.  He enjoyed the weekend and came home to have out family celebration.  He wanted to shoot BB guns, so Jeff and Kent set up some targets in the backyard and they had some fun.  The girls even got a chance to shoot the BB guns and Jeff went over gun safety rules with everyone.  Clark and Quinn stayed inside with me and watched out the window.  We had Golden Chick for dinner and Kent had a lemon cake with lemon frosting.

Kent's 11th birthday place

Happy 11th birthday, Kent

Present Time

Jeff's birthday was at the end of the month.  He came home early from work to go running.  It was a beautiful day and when he finished running he and all the kids played outside for a little while, before supper.  We had pasta with meatballs.  I didn't make him a cake, so we had ice cream and cookies for dessert.  We ended the evening with more playing outside and then a game of dice after Clark and Quinn went to bed.

Jeff's 2015 place setting

Happy Birthday, Jeff!  -2015

Presents

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 16 - The Master Closet

Last week I was too tired to do much.  I'm still trying to finish my bedroom.  I had one day to work in the closet, so we worked hard to see how much could get done.  My sister-in-law came over  to help for a little while.  Sometimes having a helper provides the energy needed to work on the job better.

I put a movie on for the kids, so we would hopefully be able to work without much interruption for a while.  We worked together and got a lot accomplished.  We tossed some stuff that didn't need to be kept, almost filled another large giveaway box, condensed a few items into a smaller space, put several things away and put all the photographs into the same container/area in the closet, and straightened up some areas.

There is still work to be done in the closet, but it is nice to have gotten as much done as we did in just a couple hours. 

On the left is the before area of my space we worked on.  Most of what was on the floor has been put in it's place and I now have room to actually walk up to my shelf and closet rod.  I also took several items off the hanging rod that I don't think I will ever wear again for the giveaway.  On the right is where we have some storage.  We went through and removed two large boxes and straightened up this area somewhat.  The things I knew what they were we left for me to work on some other time.

This space is my husbands.  I didn't clean anything in this area, but I did add a few things that were his that I didn't know what to do with.

We didn't work on cleaning the shelves, but most of what is up there is labeled.  It is a mixture of storage and items belonging to my husband or I.





This week's cleaning project is the master bathroom.
 

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 15 - The Master Bedroom

Doesn't it look awful?  This was my master bedroom on Monday, April 13th.  My goal is to work on it a little bit everyday this week.

Monday:  I began in the corner by the window, by putting all the misplaced items away.  I moved the infant car seat to the nursery and cleaned off my shelf and washed the baby swing cover and car seat liners.  We have plans to put a portable crib in this corner for the twins for shortly after they are born.

Tuesday:  Jeff and I loaded all the giveaway stuff that has accumulated in our bedroom into his truck for him to drop off tomorrow.  I also worked on organizing the toys from Kent's room.  The kids and I went to Target and bought some plastic lidded containers that can hold the toys and have a label so we know what belongs where.

stuff to giveaway

Thursday:  I continued working my way along the windows, dusting, de-cluttering, trashing, and putting things in a new giveaway box.  I set aside a few boxes to give to a friend who is moving.  I also put the seat cover back on the baby swing.   Jeff was looking for camping stuff in the closet and he pulled out a box of stuff that he doesn't want anymore.  He said some is trash and some is worthy of the giveaway box.  I told him I would look through it tomorrow when I am working in the bedroom.  I let him know not to look too hard, since cleaning the closet is for another week :)

Friday: Friday, I worked a little bit more on sorting through a few things and putting them where they belong.  I found a long lost item of my husbands, which he had been looking for on Thursday night.  We realized it had probably been there for almost three years and we never would have looked there for it.

Saturday:  I had hoped to tackle the rest of the room and get it finished, but I only moved a few things.  The girls and their cousin who was visiting washed some kitchen set toys that I had when I was a girl and I was able to put them into a container that they will be able to play with them sometimes.  Jeff, Kent, and Clark had gone camping over the weekend and I think I lost my motivation.  I also worked more in the playroom, putting the toys in the locked closet, so little people can't get into them and dump them all out at the same time.

Tuesday 4/21:  I worked on it a little more, but my energy levels this week have been on the low side.

Wednesday 4/22:  I had Jeff put the suitcases from our trip in March, back on the shelf in the closet.

I haven't finished yet, and to be honest if I took another picture from the same angle you wouldn't think much progress had been made.  We filled another large box full of stuff to giveaway and several items went in the trash.  I still have a lot of work to do and will continue plugging away at it.  The progress along the windows has been amazing, that has been the catch all for many items over the last few years.  Right now I'm getting about 20-30 minutes at a time before I have to take a rest break or see what our children need.

Enjoying watching Felicity, Clark, and Quinn play with the tool box activity set on one of my breaks.

 This week we are supposed to be working on the Master Closet.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 14 - Arts and Crafts

Before

After

Working on arts and crafts meant working on my sewing room/office/guest room.  My before and after pictures don't do justice to what was actually accomplished, and I'm obviously not done yet. 

Closet before

Closet After

current fabric stash and patterns

I worked on going through the fabric I had and pulled out several pieces that I had purchased for our previous home and never made the item it was intended for and the fabric doesn't have the same vision in this house.  I put them in the giveaway box.  I went through my scrap box and organized my scraps by color and threw away several scraps that were too small to do anything with.  I was able to put the lid on my scrap box again and still have a little space for any new scraps that may come along.  I worked in the closet and was able to condense my fabric stash into a much smaller space than it had been taking up.  I also labeled the boxes so I will hopefully be able to more easily find what I am looking for.  We are still working on turning the gameroom into a playroom, so one of my chests of craft supplies for school was moved into the office.  I don't need little hands getting into paint and other small items.  I tossed several plastic items into the recycle bin and some patterns and other crafty items into the giveaway box.  I hope to spend some more time in this room getting the bed cleared off this week.

Kent's room rearranged

This weekend we also finished working on getting Kent's room all cleaned out.  We rearranged the furniture and left room for the toddler bed for Quinn to be moved up there later.  We also added a dresser since the drawers Kent has been using for clothes wouldn't work for the three boys.  The drawers in the dresser were broken and Jeff took a little while and fixed them so now they slide in and out easily again.  I bought the dresser used and broken about 10 years ago and it's only gotten worse.  We've talked about replacing it, but now it works just fine.  The plan is to have none to very few toys in this room and the toys will be in the playroom.  Kent even acknowledged that he is getting excited about Clark moving into his room.

 Week 15's challenge is the master bedroom.  Mine is in deplorable shape and I've been looking forward to getting a chance to tackle it.  It may take more than one week, but I'm sure planning on it looking much improved from its current state of catch all.

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 12 & 13 - Gameroom and Pictures

Week 12 for the 34 weeks of Clean was to work on the Family Room and DVD's.  Since our main living room is where we spend most of our family time and I went through our DVD's on Week 8 I thought I might get to work a little on our gameroom.  We've been out of town for a couple weeks and when I got back I found that my sister-in-law had come over and worked on the gameroom while we were gone.  She picked up all the toys that didn't belong and set them in groups according to the boys or girls rooms.  She found all the "missing" socks under the futon and put them in the dirty laundry basket and vacuumed.  Since I had plans to work in the gameroom this week and she made a great dent in what was scattered around I can focus better on a smaller, but much needed task as we get ready to do some reorganizing in the next few weeks upstairs.  

Gameroom Before

  I cleaned the corner cabinet and Katy cleaned her desk cabinet.



After the children were in bed for the evening, Jeff and I brainstormed about what we want to do with the gameroom.  We are working to make it into a "playroom".  We moved the TV on top of the corner cabinet and put the xbox and dvd's in the cabinet.  That helps keep them out of sight and raises the TV out of low swinging reach of Clark and Quinn.  The old shelf that we had the TV on became a nightstand in our guest room.  We made plans to move the bookshelves and free up some wall space and we talked about toy storage and how we can help reduce the number of items out in the "playroom" at one time.

Gameroom After

Guestroom, progress made

The gameroom isn't quite finished, but a lot of progress was made toward getting it where we want it to be soon.  Apparently the trains were played with and not cleaned up today before I went to take the picture.  My sister-in-law came over and helped with some of the projects we were working on and her help was wonderful.  We were able to go through Clark and Quinn's clothes and pull out the too small clothes and sort them into the proper storage containers and giveaway bag.  We worked on
moving one of the bookshelves from the gameroom to the office/guest room, and made continued progress on getting the guest room ready for guests again.  We also tackled Kent's room, since we have have plans to move Clark into Kent's room very soon.  We are planning to make the boys room just a room for sleeping and have the play area in the gameroom.  When we started on Kent's room we could barely see any of the floor under all of his Legos and paper trash collection.  We've removed several 13 gallon size trash bags full of mostly paper trash and he will be learning how to better let go of the things he doesn't need to keep long term.

Kent's room in progress

 Week 14's challenge is Craft Supplies, so I'm hoping to finish the office/guest room this week since that is most of what is in there.  I already purged a large bag of fabric that I don't think I will use and my sister-in-law took a few pieces from the stash that she thought she would be able to use.

Week 13's challenge is "Pictures and Scrapbooks."  I only had two days to work on this challenge, so I didn't get much done.  I've learned over the last several years to delete the digital pictures that aren't very good and keep only what I really want.  It cuts down on the clutter in my computer photo program.  So for this week I downloaded the pictures from my camera from our trip and got rid of any that I didn't want to keep.  Hopefully, I'll post some of them on my blog soon.

Week 14's challenge and details can be found by clicking the button below.