Ringing in 2018

We rang in the New Year snuggled in with this guy his parents and grandparents.

He was super scrumptious and needed lots of holding.  Tough job.

This was the first time he opened his eyes for us and DH worked pretty hard to earn it.

There might be a theme of Sam in every picture with Graham.

He did not get very far from him all night.

Graham's funny new socks.

Game night Sequence, Tenzi, and Life.  

Chris made grilled chicken and veggies and we took fruit  - yum!

 Checking on him again

Look at this precious moment.

Seriously, watching my niece maneuver motherhood with her best friend - all the heart eyes.

 We came home around 1030 but stayed up to watched the ball drop, after Joe fell asleep sitting upright on the couch - and then we were in bed at 1215pm, ha.

DH made us a delicious breakfast to start the New Year!

 And I got to plan the day away while running boys to practice

and staying warm inside!

 Those 4 birthdays all in row. Love!

Tinsy Pieces of the Past

My mom was a lover of all things little, details.  

Ah, who am I kidding...so am I.  Seriously I love the I Spy books, I think this is why!

I just smile when I look at this pile (does anyone see the little set of teeth, ha, sorry don't know that story)

But I do know the story on most of the rest,

I remember these items neatly tucked away in their own cubby on the printers tray hung in our hallway.

I have had them all in a baggie in the cabinet for years confused what to do with them.

They are not items that have a story for my boys. But I  think they can still enjoy them. 

And understand why my mom kept them, glad she did.

As I look around our house, I see items of ours that I will add when we outgrow them.

Printers blocks my mom collected that had the first initial of each our names and last name <3 p="">

I am so her daughter, when sorting these into a pile, I knew immediately which ones I would find. 

Tinsy cast iron train, the wheels roll

Avon lady treasures

A band medal of mine and wayward monopoly shoe

\

Tinsy pepsi bottle

They are tucked away in this jar, with room to add my own tinsy treasures.

I smiled when I found these treasures and I smiled as I made this post.

It is amazing what small little treasures can do to evoke warm memories

Beach Memories in a Jar

We find lots of treasures on our beach trips.

We also bring those treasures home,

 because they are important

and remind us of relaxing family times.

But once we are home, its important to pick which treasures

are our very favorite and save those special ones!

Every time we see our special jars we are taken back to these moments!

My favorite part of the new jars is the tags with my boys writing.  

Hold a special place in my heart for years to come!

While the boys were away...

While Joe was away...

Been working on getting this place ready for winter!

Finishing up those last projects before the weather turns too cold

to do the outside stuff! 

I was texting Blake today and she asked what I

was going to do for 2 hours while Joe was at preschool...

I was already 1/2 hour into cleaning out the back garage.

I would share some pics but neither the before or the after

are really much to write home about {at least compared to the pics in blogland}

and I didn't take any...ha!  This garage will be messy again before it is nice

because we are still finishing insulation and plywood, but it is much nicer than before,

and we finally moved all our pool chemicals to this space.

I finished up just in time to pick up Joe from school and later we hauled

a truckload to the dumpster!

While Sam was away...

Joe and I set up this shelf system.

I read the directions and it said 2 people so I figured we made a great team!

All I needed was a rubber mallet (haha, long ol time joke with my brothers).

We turned this...

Into this...

And now I have a space in the basement for all my

out of season decorating stuff, and my thrifted finds that

I want to remake someday.

Since that turned out ok, like it was still standing,

we made the second set of shelves and they are proudly waiting on

some of craft stuff that will make it's way down here!

I'm loving these shelves that I found at Kmart...64 dollars total holds up to 1800lbs?

And I put them both together and organized in less than 2 hours!

I love picking up my babes from school, so I headed to get Sam and tackled the laundry!

Kitchen Bliss!

I mentioned 30 things in 30 days purge.

Success. Check.

I began a series of organizing and purging last Thursday.

The craft cabinet was ooc!  I just opened the door and swept

every thing out on the floor.

It definately got worse before better.

I had a feeling it might.

I determined I needed to move a few items to another

storage area (ie party supplies) and purged some more items!

Loving the results, and very maintainable.

Along the way I found this Uppercase Living Tile I had

a few years back and was disappointed the the saying had rubbed off/together...

It did say

Everything is blooming...most recklessely.

And then with some patience and scraping...I salvaged the tile!

It was on to the tupperware cabinet.

Uugh..  I have organized this cabinet so many times. 

And it finally hit me, it is not possible to maintain b/c it is impossible

to reach!  It is an akward corner bottom lazy susan.

So it made so much more sense to flip the contents

with the top cabinet!

And I was saving these awesome chalkboard labels for a grand use someday.

But decided that even though this was not so grand, it was perfect

because I could enjoy them everyday!

So the cereal (which the boys can now reach) and the baking goods

 that we don't use every day are in the bottom cabinet.

It has been easy to maintain.

Don't ya just love it when you get those light bulb moments!!

Lighten the Load!

30 days to lighten the load...

I heart organizing has offered a challenge for the next 30 days.

Just what I needed to get some spring cleaning/purging kick started.

I worked on our kitchen again Saturday, so I have kick start there.

DH says we don't have much clutter,

 he doesn't think our place is crowded at all.

Guess he hasn't found all my hiding spots...

Our April Calendar is pretty full, with kindergarten round up, tee-ball,

2 family weddings and plenty of yard work, but 1 item a day.

I think  I can do that...I'll keep ya posted...

Behind Closed Doors

Things had gotton kinda cramped

behind closed doors.

And so today

with no real plan in mind,

I sprung into action.

And in 3 hours came up with

3 donation bags

and

3 trash bags.

I started here

{see why?}

Seriously we need a place

for our lunch boxes besides the middle of the cabinet.

And this was one of those projects that lead to other

projects..

And I finally gave into letting things like this go

And even emptied a drawer in the process, sweet!

This project lead to organizing this drawer

and the cabinet above it!

And then the freezer

got an organizing touch

We are so blessed with grain feed fresh beef

from the farm, we are ready for a new shipment anytime~

And this cabinet is a Clutter Collector~

But feels much better now!

Ah!  I feel better

Too bad I don't have a couple more days off

I would have this whole place in tip top shape!!

Now to keep it this way... behind closed doors!