What We Did While Organizing

We recently went through the kids' clothes deciding what was too small and what could be handed down to younger siblings or packed away for future use.
Lucky found a whole bunch of bibs in his drawer that we don't use anymore and thought to have some fun so he put as many as possible around his neck.  It was pretty impressive.

He is a big helper.

My Day Off

I took a day off yesterday.  January 25 is A Room of One's Own Day.  I look forward to that holiday every year.  I even put on the menu plan "Fend For Yourself, Mom's Day Off."  Jeremy was so wonderful to do dinner for everyone, including me.  I didn't have to fend for myself.  He's so sweet.
It was nice to have some time off.  Lucky did come in a few times and watch a little of the movies I was watching.  And after school, some kids kept having questions for me.  For the most part, though, I was able to have uninterrupted time to go through some papers I needed to organize (still have so much to do) and I made a nice dent in my mending box.  I didn't take any pictures but it was nice.

Here's a picture of a pumpkin pie I made for Pie Day, January 23, though.

Leap Year 2016

Well, it's been four years since I last blogged on Leap Year.  And I'm just as disorganized as I was four years ago.  Sigh.  Actually, right now things are pretty disorganized because we're going through sickness in our home.  Blah, not fun.  And it's all different kinds of sick.  Some people throwing up.  Some people with headaches and earaches.  Congestion, runny noses.  Sick.  Blah.
So that's what Leap Year is like this time around.

Some things are different than four years ago.  We still celebrate a lot of course,

but we've picked up a new hobby- birding.

 And since last Leap Year, we've added a new family member- Lucky.

Both Nichole and Jr. have lost several teeth since last Leap Year where they hadn't lost any at that point. 
In 2015, Jeremy spent all Summer building the Wonders of the World out of balloons (I helped a little).

He also broke a world record for largest modelling balloon sculpture by an individual (I didn't help, but supported him).

Jeremy and I are still happily married and again will continue to be four years from now.
So, this is our family this year.

I know I already put this picture on this blog, but it's the most recent family picture we have.
 
Wish us luck that next Leap Year we don't have sickness going on, but have even more exciting things to talk about.

Jurassic Park Marathon

January 25 is A Room of One's Own Day.  Today, I took a day off.  Well, most of a day off.  Jeremy did have to go do some work stuff and was gone for several hours.  But I was able to spend most of the day in my room... alone.  I put on the first three Jurassic Park movies as background noise as I went over some organizational stuff.  Jeremy brought me food from time to time.  He's so awesome.
I also took time for dinner with the family and Family Home Evening.  Jeremy got the kids to bed and after they were in bed, he and I watched Jurassic World.

It was a dinosaur day for me.

Blast from the Past

I've been busy sorting through and organizing things in our home.  This includes papers- which is one of my least favorite things to go through.  But I have been diligent.  I have been strong.  I have been wearing myself out.  So not as many blog posts when I'm so tired at night I can't even function.
From time to time, though, little treasures do come up while going through papers.  Some of these treasures are little notes we've written on pieces of paper of things our children have said or conversations we've had.  Very KAT's Meow-worthy.  I don't know how old all of these are, but they're fun anyway.  Enjoy.

Jr.:  I like Iron Man.  He shoots irons out.


Jr. (March 6, 2012):  What if I really had a bug-beedle that could pick up boots... from a leprechaun?!


Mom was checking to see who already used the bathroom before going somewhere.
Child:  I have, too, Mom.
Mommy (copying):  I have, too, Mom.
Daddy:  You have two moms?  I wonder who the other one is.
Mommy (pointing to Jeremy):  Your mom.
Jr.:  No, you're Daddy.

KAT's Kreation

Another one of those projects I've been meaning to get to for a while.  I wanted to make a bag for all the balls that are in the kids' room.  Much nicer than having them in a garbage bag or something they don't fit in.  And much much nicer than having them just out all over the place.  So I finally got to it.  Hooray!

And it's got a draw string so the balls won't just come out while it's sitting in the closet.  Yay!
Easy to open.  Easy to close.  Maybe new and exciting enough for the kids to want to use it to clean up at least a little bit of their room.

We Earned It

We've all been working hard lately with cleaning and organizing (and keeping up with what we've done) and with having good attitudes (not too much whining from the kids).  So today we rewarded ourselves.  We sent the kids to their room to do some cleaning (and playing) while Jeremy and I set up a surprise.  When we were ready, we called them and told them to bring their blankets and pillows to set down in the living room.  We told them that because we'd all been doing such a great job lately, we were all going to watch "The Quiet Man."  It's a movie with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  It was funny to see their reactions.  They didn't know how to be enthusiastic about watching that movie (great movie for Jeremy and me but maybe a little boring for the kids). 
We then sent them into the kitchen where they had snacks waiting for them to take back out to the living room.  They each got a bag of popcorn, a box of swedish fish, and a bottle of pink lemonade.  They were quite happy about that.

When we got settled in the living room, we pushed play on the DVD player.  The kids were excited to find out that the movie we were actually watching was "Planes."  They thought at first it was a preview on "The Quiet Man" but we let them know we had fooled them and we were watching the actual movie, not just a preview.  They took it well and enjoyed the movie and snacks.

We earned it.

Another One For You, Honey

This post is so you can look back in a few weeks and remember what wonderful things we did with the kids and not remember the contention that was going on in our home all day.

Remember how we took the kids to the school and went sledding down the hill in the schoolyard.

Remember how we played the game, "Sorry!" with the kids.  We thought toward the beginning of the game that either Nichole or Jr. was sure to win since they both had more pieces in the safe zone, but it turned out that we both finished before they did.

Also, remember that the kids did do some helpful things today.  Jr. helped shovel the sidewalk.  Nichole helped wiped down the table.  They both did some picking up.  It wasn't all fighting and rudeness.

We also worked on organizing things.  We organized the games cupboard... in our own ways.

Oh, and don't forget some of us had hot chocolate after we came in from outside.  And some of the hot chocolate had candy canes in it.  December 26th is National Candy Cane Day.  Isn't it nice that we were able to celebrate another holiday?

There were some really good things to the day.  Remember those.

Organization- A Reason to Celebrate

O.K.  So today, September 22, is the Autumnal Equinox.  We already celebrated by going out to enjoy the Fall colors last week .  Today, September 22, is also Hobbit Day.  The kids and I celebrated just a little.  I showed them a few select parts of The Lord of the Rings movies (nothing too scary).  Just a couple parts in the Shire "concerning hobbits."  Jeremy's got BIG plans to celebrate next week.

So what did I do today?
Something that has been on my To Do list for a long time.

Organized our pantry.

Here are some reasons why this is worth celebrating:
We can now close our pantry doors and I will no longer trip on things or have to step over things to get items out.

There are no longer random pantry items in various places in the apartment.

This project is no longer consuming so much of my thoughts and time and space that I can now focus on getting other things clean and organized enough for Jeremy's BIG project next week.

So we're all set... until the next time we go shopping.

Spring Cleaning

March 20, the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring. And boy have we done Spring cleaning.
I mentioned in my Leap Year post that we have been organizing, organizing, organizing. I mentioned in my St. Patrick's Day post that we couldn't use the living room for the leprechaun trap.

This is what it looked like this weekend:

We emptied our storage closet so we could sort through crates and crates and crates.

And this is what it looked like today:

Yeah, I'm pretty pleased. Our bedroom looks just as good. And Jeremy's office. All at the same time. Definitely a reason to celebrate.
And since March 20 is also National Snowman Burning Day, we used what we had on hand to make a marshmallow snowman for a treat.

Three jumbo marshmallows on a skewer. M&M buttons, chocolate chip mouth and eyes, fruit roll-up scarf, and round cracker hat. I figure if someone was in an area where the weather was good for roasting marshmallows over a campfire (not in Utah right now), they could catch this little guy on fire and... National Snowman Burning Day.

Yeah, I've been kind of focused on the organizing lately. I haven't put a lot of effort into the holidays. But Jr. insisted on making the marshmallow snowman for this holiday. So, there you go.

Leap Year 2012

Four years from now on February 29, it might be nice to look back on what the Telfords were doing in 2012. The kids have literally been leaping about our home because it's "Leap" Year.
Obviously, creativity exists in our home.
We find lots of reasons and ways to celebrate.

And lately, it's been organization, organization, organization around here. A lot of that means moving mess from room to living room then back to the original room in an organized fashion. Some rooms take more effort and the mess goes from room to living room to room to living room, etc. as things are organized or eliminated.

So the living room is getting a workout. Clean, messy, clean, messy, and on and on and on. We're getting there, though. I figure by February 29, 2016, we'll have it figured out.

I better leave with a clean view of the living room.

We'll be able to look back at this point and say, "Wow, was I ever that disorganized?" or, and I'm dreading this, we might look back and say, "Wow, was I ever that organized?" I'm really hoping for the former.

Nichole's first loose tooth hasn't come out yet. It's been loose practically all month but it didn't come out for National Tooth Fairy Day yesterday, February 28, 2012.

Jr. also hasn't lost any teeth, but we weren't expecting him to yet. What he has lost recently is some of his hair. He had a haircut and went from this


to this
Jr. Jr. is currently teething, working on a few more teeth trying to poke through, but still only 6 teeth poking all the way out.

Jeremy and I are still happily married and will be four years from now when we look back at this. This is our third Leap Year since we've been married.

So this is our family, Leap Year 2012.

Technically these pictures are of our family September 2011 (taken by my talented sister, Kimber), but I figure a few months won't matter compared to four years.

How about a game and a movie?

The other day, the kids reminded me of yet another place in our apartment that needs to be organized. We have a bunch of board games and miscellaneous toys in a cupboard under our bookcase. I really need to go through and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. They are often forgotten because they are hiding in that cupboard (out of sight, out of mind). Since the living room was clean (thanks to super helper, Jr.), the kids decided to get into the cupboard and start playing with the things in there. And yes, everything did get put back. Yay, kids.

Anway, this playing led to the kids and I playing a board game that I've had for years (but haven't played for years). It was a Wizard of Oz trivia board game. It was simple enough Jr. and Nichole were able to play it with me. They did pretty well guessing things (and knowing some, too) about the movie and story. Now for those of you who knew me in high school, it wouldn't surprise you to know that I have quite a few Wizard of Oz items around. So it was a good game (we all finished a little after each other).

That evening, I let the kids watch the movie. They had been good that day, so I was happy to let them watch it.

Good bonding time with the kids.

How Does She Clean?

She delegates.


Mommy: Nichole, clean up your stuff in the living room, please.
Nichole: Jr., will you clean up my stuff... with me?
Jr.: I can.

Nichole: Jr., can you clean up my stuff?
Jr. (while playing): I am.
Nichole: It's a big big big big mess.
Jr. (continues playing): I don't see a mess.
Nichole: Yes, see? Look around. It's all over. You didn't clean it up!


It went on like this for a little while. Eventually, Nichole threw everything in the folder. As I picked it up, little pieces and crayons came falling out all over the place. I helped her realize there was a better way of doing it. Clean up the crayons first. Put the papers into piles then put the piles in the page protectors where they go.


A little while later I was going through the exact same thing with Jr. and his activity folder. Didn't he learn anything from this experience with his sister?

A Good Day

Today was a good day. It started out rough as most days have lately during this organizing our apartment business. But, we all went for a drive through the haze (Utah is dealing with really bad air quality- smog- right now), to Ikea. We spent hours there, mostly in the kid section so our kids could have a good break and be able to run around a lot. We picked up some art paper for me and the kids and a new mattress pad for our bed so we could finally throw our old one away. The kids were so good at the store, and Nichole saw a sign on the way out for hot dogs and really wanted one. But we figured we could do better than that. Instead of buying hot dogs for everyone at Ikea, we just stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up a package of hot dogs and a package of hot dog buns, enough for us each to have two, and cheaper in the long run as well.

This evening, the kids and I had a pretend tea party in their room, in their nice clean and organized room, the one room in this place right now that is clean and organized.

Then we got out Nichole's kitchen set she got for Christmas so she could make us pretend chocolate cookies. How thoughtful she is.

Looking at this picture with all the dishes everywhere reminds me of what my kitchen looks like right now.

We did have a rough start to our day, but it turned out pretty nice in the end. And now that the kids are asleep, onto organizing some more.