week in review...

I have felt so compelled to write lately, but since I've taken quite a long break, I almost feel like I don't know where to get started. I think this is the easiest way for me is to dust off this blog of mine.  I'm feeling an urgency to journal my thoughts and my life.  I'm sure this will be lots of rambling, but hopefully this will help get my rusty writing skills back on track.

Life is busy.  My days are filled from morning until evening with stuff.  Things to do.  Places to be.  But, we are in a beautifully content spot in our lives.  I love my kids ages.  I'm loving the time I have with Tim.  I love our life right now.  Every week my iphone is filled with pictures like the ones below.  These probably give the best sneak peak into my life.

I always get a wild hair and start projects like this on a whim.  One day, after the cleaning the playroom, i felt like the Lego's weren't being utilized as well as they should.  Who could find anything in that huge container, with millions of different Lego pieces?  I HATE having things in my home that are not being utilized!  I wondered if they were organized better if the kids would play with them more.  Therefore, this project was born:

We spent the weekend sorting Lego's in our free time, which actually turned out to be perfect since I came down with a nasty cold and didn't have much desire to do anything else.  A few days later, our Lego's were all organized and now look like this.  I need to spruce it up a little more and give them some proper Lego's, but I'm so happy we got this far.  I got this idea here from the blog I heart organizing.  Hoping to make mine as cute as hers soon!  I am happy to report that my boys have been playing with Lego's for a week straight and they are still perfectly organized in the bins.  (Wish me luck).

Tim was trying to participate in "Movember" but couldn't do it any longer.  This is what he showed up to dinner looking like one night.  I'm happy to report that nobody approved of the handlebar mustache and it was removed shortly hereafter!  (Please note the can of coconut milk on the table!  I asked Cooper to go downstairs and bring me up a can of mandarin oranges, this is what we got instead!)

I take pictures of EVERYTHING!  What did I do before I had an iphone?!  When I want to remember a quote or send it to someone, I just take a picture of it.  The result is lots of these pictures on my phone.  I love that I will have documentation of these inspirational things.  I really do love the idea being taught here.

Crew has a friend!  He has more than one friend, but he now has a friend that he is always asking to play with.  "Call Mack", "Mack's House", "Mack come over."  They are adorable together (most of the time).  Sometimes Crew can be a bit overwhelming to Mack, but I love watching these little relationships form. 

Parker has a million friends!  This kid is the life of the party.  Tim and I were at the school for Cooper's parent teacher conferences, which were held during the day and decided to go spy on our other boys.  We found them in the lunchroom.  Here is Parker's crazy group of boys that he was eating lunch with.  I couldn't get any of them to hold still long enough to take a picture!

In a magical moment, Payton was also in the lunchroom!  He had to be a dun-dun-dun LUNCH WORKER.  Ugh, he hates it because you have to miss recess.  And it requires work.  This kid would not even acknowledge that he knew us so I did what ever normal parent would do, pulled out my camera and started taking pictures.  (Maybe I am just a little embarrassing!)

Whizzing by me as fast as can be...

Sometimes a clean playroom needs to be documented...

And a delicious dinner that was thrown together with a bunch of leftovers...

And these crazy kids dressing up and having fun...

One of my favorite moments of the week, was how excited Parker was about his Cub Scout den meeting.  They did a service project where they handed out "free smiles" and suckers to people that were coming into the rec center.  How would this not brighten anyone's day?  He has the best Cub Scout Leaders and always has so much fun!

Other notable events from this past week were the boys Parent Teacher Conferences.  They are all great kids.  I'm happy their teachers seem to know them and love them.  I'm happy my kids are able to do well and don't need too much help from us!

Cooper almost got hit by a car in the Target parking lot.  Happy I didn't see it, but scared us to death for a few days.  Reminded to slow down just a little bit and focus on what's most important!

Time out for Women, Catching Fire, Bergstrom's Thanksgiving Dinner, Sophia's Birthday party, indoor soccer games...it's all in a weeks work, but I love it.  I'm where I always dreamed I would be!

playroom mini makeover

I consider our playroom my organizational nemesis. I am never at peace with this place. It's the one room in our house that I can never seem to keep clean or organized to my liking. Probably, because it's the kids domain. Probably, because it's something that easily overwhelms me.

I've frequently be heard sharing my disgust of ALL the toys we have. For ALL those toys, I'd like to give thanks to extremely generous grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc who have donated to this cause.

Every six months we give away bag{s} of our toys and yet they still seem to duplicate in record time. I swear those toys are reproducing in the closets!

Once again, it was time for me to give our playroom some love and get rid of more crap, I mean, toys. I want the playroom to be a place for the kids to explore, create, play and have fun. However, I believe that when there are too many options the kids get overwhelmed {just like me}.

I wanted our playroom to encourage play and creativity, without being overwhelming. I made a quick trip to IKEA and bought a few items that helped give our playroom a mini makeover. So far {it's been two weeks} the playroom has been a sanctuary instead of a dumping ground. Let's hope it lasts for at least a couple more weeks!

{I bought these artists smocks to preserve my children's clothing when they want to use the chalk, markers or paint. They love them and have wanted to use them all the time.}

{I bought these glass jars to store the scissors, markers, crayons, colored pencils & regular pencils. I had them in drawers before, but they were always out and everywhere. Plus, this has encouraged the kids to use them more often. For me, I love the way they look!}

{I also pulled all the coloring books out of the drawers and put them in this basket. Once again, they are getting much more use because of the exposure.}

{My favorite idea, which I think would be so darling for a little girls playroom, is the garment rack. I bought this at IKEA for $20. I also bought some wood hangers, which were only $2.99 for 5 hangers. I hung the boys costumes that they love to wear.}

{As you can see, I'm trying to remind my boys that they can do other things besides video games. Payton hasn't caught on yet!}

{Luckily, Parker and his friends have totally caught on and they are loving our new playroom!}