Painful Root Canals, Couponing, and Lazy Mailmen

Ashley waiting with daddy at the dentists

I mentioned a little bit back that one time, in the middle of the night, I was trying to pull my blankets up but when it was stuck I tried pulling with all my might. Well, my hand slipped and my wedding ring hit Charles right on his mouth. I broke his front tooth in half. Since then we have been scrambling to get our dental insurance going. It was finally approved last week so I called to get Charles an appointment. He got an infection in the gums and was in a lot of pain.  We had to take him NOW.  They didn't have any appointments available for 2 months. There is no way he could go that long but we found out that he could do a walk-in in case someone cancelled their appointment. Charles had to take the day off and I took him and the two younger kids with us to wait. 

 On Fridays my older four go to a school so I was happy I only had to be in the dentist waiting room with two kids. We sat for a couple of hours but then since the staff went on lunch break, we left and took one too and then came back to wait some more. Thankfully we only waited a total of 3 hours and he got in. I found out he needed a root canal on that tooth. However, since the infection was so bad they could only give him a partial one and temporary filling. He's on antibiotics and medicine right now. Thank goodness he is sleeping. He's in so much pain. I can't believe I not only hit him with a fist, but I hit him with my wedding ring. It was an accident but we're paying a big price for it now. Especially him. With insurance it's a $700 mistake to have to pay.

 By the time I picked up the kids and went back to get Charles from the dentist, the sun was already going down. I'm extremely exhausted but just happy he's being taken care of. I haven't been able to sleep sometimes worrying about the infection spreading. This will help with some of the worries. I've been worried about that and the fact that his work car broke down and now we found out our family van needs a new transmission. His car isn't working at all and our van barely made it home today. Goodness gracious. Positive note is Charles is resting with meds, my kids are healthy, and house is clean and organized. :) 

 Oh, how I've been ITCHING to get back to my couponing! I still have a pantry full of food from couponing. I had to take a couple months break so I could focus on homeschool and recently decluttering. So I'm excited about getting the paper again. I'm gonna have to call my post office nearby and let them know the mailman won't deliver our coupons in the mail. I asked him why I haven't been getting them in so long. His response? "I'm just too lazy to pass them out." Okaaay. That's gonna have to change. :P Mamma needs her coupons.

Stinky Diaper and a Smiling Baby Can Only Mean One Thing....

I finally sent my camera out for repairs.  I loooove taking pictures and I'm tempted to get a new camera so I can have the 14 mega pixels rather than 10.  We shall see.  I'm just tired of my battery case always breaking when I never drop it or treat it roughly.  It just wears out and breaks every month.  That's a really weak battery case door.  Android phones take okay pictures but nothing like a nice camera so I really miss it.  Pleeeeease send my camera back soon.

This morning Caleb woke up with a really, REALLY stinky diaper.  I changed him but when I got up to go get a plastic bag to put it in, the diaper had disappeared.  The only one awake was Caleb and he was just sitting there smiling at me.  I asked him where he put it but he just gave me some baby talk.  Argh.  That is ONE STINKY diaper I didn't want hiding in some corner somewhere.  I looked everywhere but couldn't find it.  When the kids woke up I had everyone go in a search for it.  An hour later Ryan found it in the office.  I asked him if it stank.  He took a big whiff (big mistake) and he yelled because the smell was so bad.  Yep, that was the right one.  I about fell out of my chair laughing.  Thankfully, we were able to bag it up and take it out.

<---This was Virginia before the decluttering process.

FINALLY I can homeschool with the kids and have more time in the day for it without rushing!  I've had so much more time on my hands and that's the best way to spend the extra time.  Not breathing over their necks but just sitting beside them and being able to take our time at it.  We've also wanted more time to go over scripture study and the character quality of the week.  It was funny because yesterday Chaz was upset about having to stop playing and start his homeschool.  It's never easy to get him going on it and so he was crying about it.  I made him sit down and get to work and after about an hour he came to me excited because of all the history he was learning.  He said, "Wow, learning can be so fun!"

<---This is Virginia after she decluttered her home.  Has time for coffee...outside the home.

Lacking the Character Quality of Hospitality

I had a get together at my house and made dinner for everyone.  I purposefully had it yesterday because I wanted a goal of finishing my project.  Technically I'm not done because I still have the office, but just knowing that every other room was done in the house was good enough for now.  I needed a boost to make me want to finish decluttering the bathrooms (under the sinks) and to do some detail work.  Sometimes when you've been working on a project every single day for 9 days, you can feel worn out mentally.  Not so much physically for  me because my energy level is oddly always so high.  Just a hyper person in general.  The past few days I've woken up with a smile on my face knowing that my work load has been 80% lightened because of a decluttered house.  I haven't been waking up with a sigh of heaviness having to think about the huge workload ahead.  I even had a party last night at my house so there was 5 adults and 8 kids.  Normally the cleanup is huge but this time it took me about a half hour to get everything back together again.  Whooooa, maybe I can have more of a social life again.  :)

Some things I've been doing lately have also helped.  My kids were constantly going through cups throughout the day.  I got an idea from the Duggars to just use paper stuff to throw away.  I've been buying paper plates and plastic cups. At the beginning of each day I get out 8 cups, put their name on it, and that's their cup for the entire day.  They stay in the kitchen in one spot and they get thrown away when everyone goes to bed.  Even if we had a different cup for each meal of the day per person, that would be 24 cups a day I would have to wash.  I just get them in bulk from Costco or Sam's Club so it'll last awhile.  Of course in the picture there are 9 cups because Ivy's friend was over.  :)

Another reason I wanted to declutter was I knew I was lacking in a certain character quality.

Hospitality

vs.

Loneliness

Cheerfully sharing food, shelter, and spiritual refreshment with those God brings into my life.

Hebrews 13:2

How could I do that if my house was never in order?  I mean, I had really busy days.  Waking up with the kids, feeding them breakfast, getting the little ones dressed, having everyone do their chores, clean, homeschool, make lunch, clean, throw clothes in the wash, homeschool, lay baby down for nap, homeschool, clean till Charles comes home, make dinner, clean up mess, get kids in bad, throw another load in the wash, deal with phone calls, lay kids down.  I mean, the process can be pretty heavy the larger your family is.  If someone called and said, "Hey, I'm in the area, do you mind if I stop by?"  That would normally throw me in a panic.  I'd either have to make up some excuse and turn them down, or stop everything my family is doing and clean really fast.  90% of the time I couldn't have them come because it wasn't enough cleaning time.  Is that hospitality?  No way.  In the middle of my Declutter One Room a Day project, my sister called.  She and her daughter wanted to stop by since they were in the area.  I paused and looked around me.  I had torn the whole house apart and literally, it looked like we were moving.  You couldn't even see the floor.  We were taking each room at a time and dragging it all out to the living room to go through.  I desperately wanted to tell them yes but I was too embarrassed and said no.  After I hung up I cried while I worked and then I was angry.  That was the last time I was gonna have to say no because my house was messy.  Even though I was so angry at myself for it, it motivated me even more to continue my daily project till I was finished.  These days people can be so exclusive and my grandma amazes me because she always has an open door.  I want to be that person too.  I don't mean allll the time, but in reality, how often does that really happen?  But when someone does call me, I can finally say, "Sure, I'll see you soon."

Why Game Systems Don't Last Long In Our House

Our Craigslist picture

Yesterday I was super busy getting our Xbox 360 Kinect ready to sell.  We had gotten rid of video games in the past but as time went on we had thought we'd give the a try again.  I regretted it almost immediately when we bought this system.  Before we got it, we were out doing a lot of adventures, homeschooling was much easier, getting them to do their chores wasn't so hard, and they got along better.  I hated all the negative changes and started to pray about how to fix it.  My family was just way too game crazy to easily get rid of it.  I started praying that God would just move on Charles' heart about it rather than me nag him.  Nagging never works and only drives guys crazy.  Not only that but I hated the one eyed TV sitting right in our living room.  It didn't stream TV but it just felt like it was the focus of the whole room.  Last week, 7 months from the time we bought it, Charles talked to me about getting rid of the system.  Whoa, really?  I couldn't believe it.  He loved it just as much as everyone else.  I wasn't gonna play around with that decision so I immediately posted it up on Craigslist and got a buyer for $400.  We sold the system with 30 games and lots of accessories.  It's gone and I feel free.  What surprised me more was the kids reaction to us selling it.  No one had a bad attitude about it at all and we immediately saw a positive chance in their behavior.  They were playing together again, being creative, riding bikes outside.

Almost as soon as the buyers came over our house I had to lay down from another massive headache.  I was so frustrated because I hate having to lay around in the middle of the day and do nothing.  I was excited about finishing up my Declutter One Room a Day project.  After my husband gave me some Tylenol, an hour later I was back on my feet and got right to work on the kitchen.  I took lots of stuff out of the cupboards and put in a donation bin.  Got rid of the all the miscellaneous donation bags that I had on the floor from working in other rooms.  It just got so late by the time I was finished I couldn't really do the extra work I wanted to do.  I still would like to wash down the cupboards and clean out the fridge but that's not so much my worry right now since it's about decluttering.  I did that so I went to bed happy knowing my cupboards weren't so full of unnecessary clutter.

Boys being boys and outside

I still have the bathrooms to declutter (under the sinks and reorganizing), the office, and then going to all the kids clothes to get rid of the excess.  I'm so close to finishing.  Waking up in the morning to a clean house has meant so much to me.  It's so easy to keep clean I'm crying as I type this.  I hated that my life was so centered around cleaning. Why did we need so much stuff?  Why wasn't I taking out the old as the new was brought it over the years?  It was like one day I woke up (two Saturdays ago) and saw how much stuff there really was.  The house wasn't dirty, just over cluttered and I was the one paying the price for it.  I was the one cleaning and cleaning every day to keep things put away.  Now, I can straighten up the whole house in a half hour.  OH MY GOSH.  That...is....wonderful.

Making Our Living Space More Livable: Organization

I'm getting so excited seeing my house transform.  It's amazing!  Yesterday I was debating on whether to declutter the kitchen or the living room.  I decided to go with the living room because that's where everyone was mostly hanging out and I didn't want anything to get drug around the house that I wanted to get rid of.

While I was doing all the work in the other rooms, the living room was where we brought everything to sort.  So, I had lots of miscellaneous stuff in there.  Then my son Ryan decided to move the couch from where it was before because he wanted everyone to have more play room.  It originally faced the window.  At first I wasn't for it but I figured since we had to move the couch to clean under it, it was fine.  Well, it ended up staying because everyone was big fans of the new space.  So we uncluttered the piano and took the big plant off of it.  Then took the 2 big trees out to the front to wash down and spray.  Cleaned under the couch.  Oh my gosh, stuff majorly got pushed under there over time.  Oh, does any of my bloggy friends recognize something different in my living room?  No game system or monitor!  Right in front of the window used to be our Xbox 360 kinect.  Boom, it's gone.  Not just in another room.  Alllll the game systems are GONE.  Even the Wii out of the boys room.   -->  :)  <--

I cleaned out the black armoir.  There was an old computer that was no good so we tossed it and the old printer.  Took the nice printer off the top of the armoir and put inside. The only stuff I have in there is my review things for my blog.  I threw away tons of paperwork that was just shoved in there over time.  Do you see that wall with the curtain in the second picture?  That's our patio and all it needs is one wall put up and it's our fifth bedroom.  We'll be doing that soon and making that the homeschool room so baby Juliet can have her own room.  They designed the patio that way so it was an optional bedroom.  It's just awesome.  Actually, homeschooling the kids will be easier since the kitchen would be directly across it.

Anyway, today is the one room I've been dreading.  The kitchen.  I have to drag out everything under the cupboards and sort through it. Plus clean behind things that have to be pulled out to do a better job.  I can't wait till this is all over with since it's been my 8th straight day working on this all hours of the day.  Sigh.  Have to keep going.  I forgot to tell you that I am 20 weeks pregnant!  I'm half way there!!!  Whoo hoo!  To be honest though, I'm not in a huge rush.  I've learned to enjoy every stage (except maybe the heaving first trimester).  I want to enjoy every bit of my kids without rushing the years by.  I don't understand it when people say, "Oh, you just wait, it'll get easier when they get older."  I'm in no rush at all for them to grow up and I don't really think the teen years are easy.  :D  I remember my teens.  Whoooey.  Lord, have mercy on me even though I gave my parents none.

Clearing the Clutter Clears the Mind

Today is day 7 of decluttering our house.  I'm super excited about the progress of everything.  However, the rooms that aren't done are in disarray because I'm hyper focusing on only one room at a time.  If I spent my time worrying about the rooms the kids are bringing their toys into, I wouldn't get anything done.  So far I have decluttered the boys room, the girls room, my room, my closet, and the garage.  Today will be the kitchen.  My camera is being sent out for repair so please forgive all the low quality pictures.

After my 20 week ultrasound yesterday, when I got back home I got straight to work finishing my room project.  I finished around 11pm last night and collapsed into bed happily.  Literally, when I removed everything from the entire room I only put back what I wanted.  Whoaaaa, the results were amazing.  My vacuum decided to break so my mom lent me one so I can finish my projects.  My room now looks like it did when we first moved in.  

I was so frustrated because no matter how much I cleaned, it just felt sooo cluttered in my room. I never had anywhere to put my laundry.  Well, duh, it was because I had too much.  My closets were so crammed with shoes and clothing that there just was nowhere to put anything.  Between Charles and I we donated about 4 xlarge black bags of clothing.  That black long table you see in the picture is where I would have dumped all the excess clothing.  It's nice to see it cleared.

My closet was completely cleared out and between Charles and I we got rid of about 15 pairs of shoes.  I had already gone through my shoes before and gotten rid of another 20 pairs.  This time I really had to think about it to get rid of more. In reality, I only wear so many and have my favorite. Why am I holding on to the shoes that I might wear someday? 

My side of the closet was so crammed that I would have to shove just one more shirt and find a tiny miracle place to fit it.  Now, with my dresses on the left and shirts on the right, I have tons of space.  That doesn't mean I can go shopping.  :D  If I buy anything I want to take one item out. That way it doesn't slowly fill up.

My daily project that I didn't get to blog about the other day was the garage.  We cleared out all the clutter in the garage in one day. Thankfully, my husband helped me with this one.  The wall you see we had boxes and old computers lining all across it.  On the other side I had bags of kid clothes.  While my husband hauled all the heavy stuff to the garbage, I was going through the clothes and donating lots of it. Now, there are no boxes in the garage and the only thing we have is two shelves to hold auto stuff.  It's so cleared out that the kids have been riding their tricycles and scooters in there since it has so much space.  I would really like to get some carpet that I can roll out during the day and roll back up at night so we can pull our vehicles in.

So, that's been my busy life the past 6 days!  I just have to keep working till I'm completely done.  I still have the kitchen, living room, bathrooms (under counters), and backyard and then we'll be done.  That's when I'll jump for joy.  The experience has been so freeing.  Emptying out the entire room and only putting back what I want in it is hard work but actually makes it so simple to know what to let go of.

By the way, I still have a contest going on over HERE if you have a little girl.  :D

Finding Out the Sex of Our 7th Baby...

Today we took all my little family with us to my 20 week ultrasound.  Actually, I was planning on going but my husband was sad when he came home from work and said he really wanted to go with me.  So, I had 30 minutes notice to get me and our 6 kids ready as fast as possible.  They boys looked great and the girls too with their bows.  :D

I can't believe I could pull it off to get everyone out the door and looking decent.  Its a really far drive but we got there just in time.  There are never one to keep anyone waiting so we went straight back to the comfortable ultrasound room.  All the kids fit on the couch and Charles stood. They were super quiet and only talked in whispers.  I was really proud of all of them sitting still and being quiet so the technician could do her job.

As soon as she put the "Magical Wand" on my belly she knew it was a girl!  Yay!  All the kids loudly whispered "YESSS!" Charles was so happy too.  Baby is totally healthy and we are even more excited that we can get things ready for her.  The Dr said her legs are measuring long.  I was surprised when it was all done that they gave me a DVD of the ultrasound. I could go home and watch it again!  When I went home I cried as I watched it again.  They are such miracles.  

The doctor again talked to me about birth control and what we are planning.  I told her I HATE the thought of doing anything permanent and asked if any new things have come out that won't abort any babies.  She said no and knew exactly what I was talking about.  She tried to talk to me about The Ring but I asked the question "I know it stops ovulation some of the time, but does it just abort the baby if ovulation occurs and I get pregnant?"  Yes.  So now she can see my dilemma.  I don't want to get pregnant right away but I hate permanency.  She told that in the ultrasound room she could see that my husband and I DO NOT look ready to make anything permanent.  She said only do that if you are 100% sure because there is no going back.  So, of course I go back and forth about what to do.

I really don't feel that God forces children on anyone. Yes, they are a blessing.  However, nowhere that I can see in the bible does God say you must allow them to come as they may.  I'm sure in the olden days they had their methods.  Then I hear some people quote the scripture about God killing the man that did not impregnate the woman. However, I believe he was killed because he directly disobeyed God and what He commanded.  I love having children because I truly enjoy them, not because I fear God and what He might do if I track my ovulation.  Just my personal thoughts on the matter.  :) Would love to hear your view.  

By the way, guess who has some really adorable Christian cards that gave me a chuckle?  Seeds of Faith has some really great ones if you'd like to check them out.  25% of the profits from their cards go to helping people, domestically and internationally, through various ministries.  How cool is that?

How I Cleared Out Clutter to Make Room for Fun

Today is day 5 of completely decluttering my house.  It has been so tiring because I'm working about 12 hours a day on it. Usually from 10am to 10pm.  I won't let myself stop at all except to take care of kids needs and get right back to work.  The results have been amazing!  Each day I declutter one room completely.  The boys room took two days.  

You would think that it shouldn't take anyone that long to declutter but I just didn't know how much stuff I had.  Usually it's tucked away somewhere.  The problem is it gets dragged out all over after we've already cleaned and it's like we were working in an exhausting circle.  Why not just get rid of the excess?

So yesterday was Ivy and Ashley's room to declutter.  Once again the girls and I removed every item out of their room as if we were gonna move.  I moved the furniture over to sweep, mop, and wipe down the walls.  Once the floor was clean I put the basics in their room like the dollhouse, kitchen, and bed.  Then we worked from there to decide what goes back in.  We didn't need sooo many extra blankets and pillows so we only kept 2 blankets and 2 pillows.  I let them each pick ONE stuffed animal.  They kept about four dolls total and one stroller and one kid shopping cart.  Then I put all the play dishes in the dishwasher to clean them really good. Basically, we got rid of about 2 extra large black bag fulls of excess stuff in there.  They still have a small box of toys left but its the only stuff they were really playing with so they are really happy.  Mommy's happy too.

I know it seems like stuff like that shouldn't take all day but it really is a lot of work emptying out an entire room and then going through each tiny little thing.  I had a Keep Bin, Donate Bin, and Put Away Bin all next to me while I worked.  Plus, sanitizing each room takes time.  I'm staying extremely focused and I'm not stopping all this week till each room is done.  I want my life to be about God and my family.  Not about "Mommy is cleaning all day again".  If you saw our patio right now of all the stuff we got rid of, it's shocking.  We had to make a small pathway for our dog to go through so he can go out the yard.  Yet, I'm so proud every time I look out the window and see everything that used to be in my house is going bye-bye.

Today is my room and I'm a major clothes hoarder.  I love clothes.  That has to change so I'm going in with my goggles and snorkel.  If I'm not back by tomorrow to blog, call for help.

How to Declutter a Room FAST

I've felt like I've disappeared off of computer land these last few days because of being so incredibly busy.  Last Saturday I decided it was time to stop playing around with the idea and do some real decluttering.  I'm tired of doing it little bit by little bit.  So I made a pact to do one room a day until it's done.  Yeah, I know that's a huge one to make but I just don't want to mess around with it anymore.

On Saturday I took my sister's advice and emptied out the boys room completely, as if we were moving.  I had the kids help me and we just unloaded everything into the living room.  HOLY COW they had a lot of stuff. I never, ever would have guessed they had that much stuff till it literally filled our entire living and dining room.  I also took apart the boys bunk bed since it was never that sturdy.  I threw out the full mattress and put a queen in their temporarily till we can get 2 sets of single mattress bunk beds.

We threw out all old toys and kept the best of costumes they had.  My sister said you empty out the room completely and then only put back what you want.  That advice absolutely worked for me because you start to see how you have to make some really careful decisions to keep it looking nice.  We cleared out that black shelf they had and saved the bottom half for all of Caleb's toys.  Actually, what you see in the picture is what he has now.  We put the books on the top this time so Caleb can't just pull them all out.  We also threw out all old blankets and just kept the new ones they got for Christmas.  Their room is soooooo easy to keep clean now.

This project took me about 8 hours on Saturday and then 4 hours in between church service the next day to finish up.  We were so proud and the boys were really, really happy.  After church on Sunday night I went to the hospital to visit a friend.  After being there for about an hour I decided to just spend the night there and hang out with her through the next morning.  I finally left around 10:30am on Monday morning because I knew that I needed to start another project that day.  It was garage day and we were gonna spend all day cleaning it out and getting rid of a lot.  I have had a lot of favors asked of me in the last 2 weeks but I've had to just be really choosy about them in order to keep certain commitments I've made to get my house back in order.  For the most part I've just ignored my phone because it's rang off the hook.  Sometimes you just gotta do whatever it takes to get the job done and not be distracted.  However, seeing my friend in the hospital was a necessity and I don't regret that of course.  :)

It has truly been an exhausting past two weeks but I am really excited about some changes we've made in our family for the year 2012!  That's another post for a different day.  Happy New Year!!!!

When Our Day Doesn't Go According to Plan

Remember my big plans yesterday to declutter?  Two words.  Didn't happen.  As soon as I hit "Publish" I got a phone call.  Someone I know has been through some really hard hard physical problems these last few months.  Recently she almost died, about 2 months ago, and was hospitalized.  Had surgeries, came home, almost died again.  I was out running errands one Friday when the ambulance had to come get her.  She is not married, has no children, no family.  Well, now that she is healing she can't drive and is in so much pain all the time.  She called and asked if I would be able to take her some important places.  I knew I needed to but was still a little disappointed about my list I had planned.  All my plans for the day started to melt and fall away in my head.  However, I know what it feels like to live alone, be sick, and have nobody there for you.  I told her to give me 20 minutes and I'd head out.  It took the entire day and when we got back I had just enough time to get everyone ready for church and leave.


I know some people that would use people at every chance they get and frequently expect people to be able to drop their plans for them whenever they call.  I've often had favors asked of me because I'm a homemaker and they just figure I have all this extra time on my hands.  That maybe I'm just sitting around reading a book all day and don't know what to do with my time.  That's not Belinda (fake name).  She's a very, very independent woman who's always taken care of herself.  She put herself through college, got her bachelors, and was debt free by the time she picked up her diploma.  She had a really good career for years till she was injured.  It's not easy for people that have always depended on themselves to survive and take care of basic needs and then one day have to lay in bed with medical people all around having to help them.  When someone like THAT calls and says, "I need you", I know they really, really, really do.

I grabbed my book, my cell phone, and resigned to the fact that our days don't always go according to our own plans.  Taking her to all these places she really needed to go was long but it was hard to watch her just wincing to try and get in and out of the car.  After the last errand done, she cried.  She cried at her situation.  Cried she couldn't drive herself.  Cried that she had to have a team of nurses just to take care of her.  At the end of the day, you bet a thing like decluttering just wasn't nearly so important.  Yesterday was meant for Belinda.

Literally, my days have been so busy that I'm having to write everything into a calendar to keep up.  My doctor probably thinks I'm the worst pregnant patient ever because I forget things, forget my prenatals, forget to return their calls.  I'm not sure if juggling a large family is something I'm very good at.  There are probably a million women that can do it a thousand times better than me.  I do love being busy, hate laziness, and love being surrounded by all these little ones.  I can't imagine living life completely and totally alone with not one family member to stop by and say hi.  Sometimes it does us good to realize that like Job in the bible, it can all be taken away in a flash.  Our home, loved ones, a steady job.  Did you hear about the lady her lost her parents, 3 kids, and her house on Christmas morning in a fire?  They were all she had and she lost it in a fire.  

Fire at Conn. home kills ad exec's 3 kids, parents

Yeah, reading that kind puts it all into perspective.  It is better to love people and use things rather than love things and use people.  My plans can wait another day.

Decluttering the Old and Bringing in the New: Organization

Ivy playing with her makeup

I need to stop playing with all the Christmas toys and get to work around my house.  Not just regular housework but decluttering.  Now that lots of stuff has been brought in, I need to go into each room and take out the some of the old.  I feel like I'm in a continual state of decluttering and sometimes just wish I was done with it.  Or that I had better organization genes.  I don't and just need to get over it and keeping giving it my best shot.  

Yesterday I removed the girls large playhouse from their bedroom and put it on the back patio.  I needed to move their dollhouse in and didn't have the room for it.  It's really big.  I took everything off the floor, swept and mopped, and moved the house in.  It looks sooo cute but I still have to go through all their toys and see what they don't play with anymore.  

I've been filling up boxes and stacking them.  Before Christmas I had gotten rid of at least 10 boxes but I still need to do so much more.  So, if you always hear me talking about decluttering, it's because it's always a process for me.  However, I need to do a ton so I need to really focus.  It's really hard for me since halfway through writing this post I went over to rearrange the furniture in the girls' awesome dollhouse and check out the working lights in it.  Today the key words are FOCUS and DECLUTTER.

Today I will be going through the boys' room and the girls room.  I'm crossing my fingers that if gets done.  I'm finally starting to realize that being an attentive mom is much harder than I originally thought.  In the past, because I had to run from my natural messy self, I would clean all day and just kinda blow off my kids to get stuff done.  Finally, my husband talked to me about it and asked about my relationship with the kids.  He was right.  I was more focus on being that housewife that everyone said I should be and not really KNOWING my kids.  Now, I have a fantastic relationship with each and every one of my kids.  Not only that but I really enjoy my days with them.  I thank God Charles corrected me on that issue.  However, I've struggled more in balancing housework and laundry since then.  In the future I doubt I'll regret that I had a fantastic relationship with my kids and was less worried about how perfect everything looked.  Someday my house will stay perfect.  That's not even something I want to think about.  Kinda sad.

Speaking of little ones, I have a giveaway going on over HERE.  Come check it out!  :D

Thinking about Kids Safety and Stranger Danger

Looks like it's time to make laundry soap again. We are all out!  It's been 8 months that I've had to make any.  It's hard to believe we only spend $5 a year on laundry soap because of it.  What a blessing!  So, after I finish my seemingly endless chores, I'll get that made so I can start on our Mount Everest pile of clothes

We've been having so much fun playing with our toys.  My fun stuff is kitchen gadgets and my mother in law bought me a really awesome one. It's a food processor and blender.  Also, Ivy and I have been making ice cream with her ice cream machine.  I didn't have all the stuff I needed from their recipe so I just made my own. They loved it!  You don't even need ice.  Soooo, if we are ever out of ice cream, I'm just gonna have to have Ivy  make us some.  Heh heh.  

I know some people might think we are a little overprotective but we've never let our kids play out in the front without our supervision.  I mean, I literally have to been sitting in a chair out with them.  Well, we just decided that the boys are old enough to finally go outside with their bikes without us.  They are 11, 10, and 8.  Also, one can never be alone and has to always have at least one other boy with them.  Ivy is pretty bummed about it but I told her not till she is 8 years old. I might even wait a little longer for the girls.  They are never, ever to go into anyone's house and they have set boundaries of how far they can ride.  I'm still nervous about it but they know if they break any of the rules, their new privilege will be taken away.  I also just found out that our ice cream truck guy is a weirdo so they are not allowed to approach that truck without me.  Or any ice cream truck for that matter.  It's not a matter of where I live. I would have these rules in any neighborhood I lived in.  These days, you can never be too careful.

Shiny, Magical, Exciting, and Fun Christmas Morning

Christmas day with my kids in the morning was so fun.  I actually woke up before them because I was worried one of them would wander out without the rest of us. I waited and wait.  Seriously?  Kids sleeping till 9am on Christmas morning?  Okay, they must've been exhausted.  As I sat next to the bikes with Caleb, I thought maybe it was about time to wake up Charles and the kids.  After I woke Charles, he went in to get the kids.  

They came out sooooo tired looking but started to wake up fast when they saw their scooters and bikes.  We only got each kid 3 presents. One big one and two normal size ones.  The reason is that they get gifts from both sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles.  We go to the zoo often and so we really wanted them to all have bikes.  Since the girls already have bikes, we got them scooters.  The boys are so excited to go to the zoo this week.  Ivy's scooter is cute because it has a Barbie that attaches to the front with her own scooter.  I didn't put it on right away because I knew Ashley would see that and wonder why hers doesn't have one. Ashley's is a My First Scooter so she gets used to using one and not crashing.  lol.  She's so little.

Maureen (their grandma) got this amazing doll house for the girls and you can't really understand how big it is by the picture but it actually takes up my entire dining room table  It's absolutely gorgeous and even has lights inside to light up the house.  

Her grandma got her a bunch of fun Barbie bedroom sets to fill the room. I really, really need to sort through their room now and get rid of some older stuff.  Her room is pretty crowded and just too hard for her to clean.  If a room is overly cluttered, it just  mean to expect them to keep up on it when it's chore time.  If it overwhelms me then surely it overwhelms them.

The funny story is that Martin and Maureen came over at 2am Christmas morning to put together the bikes we bought.  We were already exhausted from the family get together that night and couldn't wait to go to bed.  We had to store the bikes at their house because there was no way we could hide them from the kids.  They were gonna put them together earlier but hadn't had the chance so they came over in the middle of the night. I was so surprised they were willing to do that.  We we utterly exhausted and by 5am Charles came to bed.  I crashed around 2am just before they got here.  

Right away the kids wanted to ride outside.  We sat out in our pajamas in chairs with our coffee in hand and eating peanut brittle.  They boys were just sooooo happy to ride freely.  We also appointed new rules for the boys.  Now they are allowed to ride in the front without us but we had to show them their boundaries and the rules about cars.  We even talked to them about strangers.  Within 10 minutes Kyle comes running in telling me they talked to a nice person and he didn't look or talk like a murderer at all!  We had to explain to him that they don't wear a sign saying they are dangerous.  Sheesh.  

Caleb held tightly to his prized possessions.  His cars.  He couldn't hold them all but he cuddled the ones he could.  Kids are so fun and make Christmases so magical.