Boys and their toys!

Today was the first day in a long time that I let my guard down with the kids and their toys... and it showed!

We've got a rule that the kids have to pack away their toys before they move onto something else, whether it's to play with another toy, have something to eat, have a nap etc. The kids are usually pretty good at remembering this, with an exception for Mr 2, but most of the time he follows suit with what the others are doing.

Mr 3 in particular, is a clean freak. He helps his sister tidy her room, and then tidies his own. He asked me today to check how tidy his room was and if I was proud of him. He's so cute. Yes his room was tidy and yes I was proud of him. But then the cheeky monkey walked into MY room and said,

"Mummy your room is a pigsty! Look at all this stuff  next to the fan! Clean it up so it looks like mine!"

Lol. He's a funny boy!! Yep, there was stuff by the fan, which was 2 bags of stuff for the Op Shop (Charity Store), a bag of maternity wear/baby stuff for my cousin that I no longer need, and bub's vaporiser. But the rest of the room was tidy.. I guess not to his standards :)

Anywho, the hubby is doing another double shift today, so wasn't home. The boys have a serious case of cabin fever because of all this rain and the weather reflects my moods, if it's raining, all I feel like doing is nothing.. 

So one boy had the Thomas The Tank Engine play set out, and the other had the blocks. This was all good, then they went outside for a bit while the sun was out. I tidied up the toys, as I was happy they were actually burning off some energy outside. This was short lived as it started raining again, so in they came and started playing with the toys again. Slowly other toys started creeping out.

By dinner time, they had almost all their toys spread throughout the house, and weren't really playing with any of it. So I told them to start tidying up before dinner, and Mr 3 (almost 4) started straight away, but Mr 2 decided he wanted to play. I had had enough of the toys, and it was time to start winding down, so I had a race with him to see who could pack away the most toys before dinner was ready and he was more than willing to clean up.

Even though we have a strict rule in place, I'm happy to see that if/when we let our guard down and things get out of hand, that it isn't a matter of one step forward and two steps back, as it took about 5 minutes to have it all tidied up and put away properly :)

Uses for Wipes Containers

Lastnight Mr almost 4 and I were going through old receipts.  Hubby and I kept previous years receipts in old Huggies wipes containers. We had 4 containers, with receipts in there from 2009....

Seriously?? 2009?? I knew there were a lot of receipts but I thought it was 2010 onwards...

Anyways, we had a good sort through and ended up with 2 empty containers. One has 2011/2012 Financial year receipts, and the other has preschool receipts yet to be filed.

I also stored my breast pads in a wipes container, but as I've weaned my son, I no longer need the pads. I'd only just opened a box of breast pads when I started weaning him, so I'm going to give them to my cousin, as she's due to have her second baby in a week :)

So that leaves me with 3 empty wipes containers... I didn't want to throw them away as they are very useful, so I thought about using a box to store my freezer bags in, as they're all over the place in the drawer...unfortunately the drawer isn't deep enough...

Another area which was in need of some organisation is the craft cupboard. I had a lot of bags with mixed up crayons/pencils/textas etc, so I decided to put all the crayons in one container, finger paints in another and the last one housed the small chalk, glitter, glue and other little bits. I also sorted the pencils and textas and put them back where they belong.

Once I file the contents of the other 2 boxes, I can put them to good use. I'm thinking of using one to store plastic bags instead of having them shoved under the sink and the other I'm not to sure yet, but I've got some things in mind.

Here's a few ideas of what they can be used for/store:

• Crafty bits - Pencils/paints/crayons etc
• Grocery shopping bags
• Money box
• Make up
• Lego
• Receipts
• Phone chargers
• Hair accessories
• Ribbons for craft/presents
• Pet food
• Baby keepsake
• First aid kit
• Contain objects in bag/nappy bag
• DIY Wipes for bub or cleaning
• Screws, nails etc
• Batteries
• Breast pads
• Other pads
• Cookie cutters
• Tiny toys
• Doll clothes/bits
• Washing powder
• Spices

There are many more ways in which they can be reused. Mr almost 4 spent most of his time pushing them around as cars and trains :)

Today's chores

I was supposed have a Drs appointment today, but have rescheduled due to my husband working night shift. He has been covering for the night shift superviser on and off for the past month as he has been on leave.

The extra money has been great and we've been putting extra onto the car loan. The downside of the night shift is not having hubby around. I'm used to doing the afternoons on my own and have got a routine in place, but I'm not used to having hubby not here during the day.. Well he is here but he's asleep :) So I've been trying to keep in control.

I've also taken the boys out of preschool due to the constant sickness and also to save a bit of money. I'm really gonna miss my Fridays being just bubs and I, but it's not forever and once the debts are paid off it'll be worth it.

My days are spent chasing my tail when Hubby is on night shift, I drop Missy off at school, come back try and do as much as I can of what needs to be done, then it's time to pick Missy up from school again.

So today I want to set myself some To Do's which hopefully will keep me on track.

• a load of washing  done
• run dishwasher done
• fold yesterdays washing done
• put away yesterdays washing - done
• general tidy morning done
• wipe over bathroom done
• check Missy's bed is made and room is clean done
• general tidy after lunch - done
• Get washing off line - done
• fold washing - done
• put away washing - done
• get dinner ready - done
• sweep kitchen floor done
• sweep loungeroom floor
• fill washing machine ready for tomorrows load done
• make Missys lunch for tomorrow
• lay out clothes for tomorrow - done
• read with Missy - done
• pay phone bill - done
• Catch up on Missy's baby record book, 5 y/o page  done
• have 5 glasses of water had - done
• take time out for self
• exercise - walk to pick up Missy - done
• general tidy night - done
• unload dishwasher
• load dishwasher
• fill out Missy's Take home reading journal - done

Where I'm at...

Well as I'm typing this, I'm looking around my lounge room and it's in a bit of a mess.

Coffee Table
Envelope
Bubs beanie
Leaflet/flyer thing

Lounge
Blanket half hanging off the lounge.
Basket of unfolded washing
Towels 1 folded 3 aren't
A layby
Pile of new bubs clothes

On The Floor
My boots
Kids school bags
Mr 3's robe
Baby wipes
Kids drawings
Un blown up balloon
Lunch box
Cup
Bread bag tag
Hairband
3 toys
Menu plan
and a stool in the wrong spot...

A clothes rack - I think the clothes are dry lol

I've been walking over this stuff pretty much since I came home at about 4.15. It was worse than this earlier and have slowly been putting things away and getting the kids to help aswell.
I could use any excuse under the sun as to why I haven't finished, but to be honest It's sheer lazyness. I am very tired, but the amount that's lying around would probably take all of 15-20 minutes to tidy up... Having said that it's still not enough to convince me to do it lol.

Pretty much my whole house is like this, clutter lying around. It's doing my head in, and as much and as fast as I clean it seems to reappear again. I'll blame the kids, every flat surface, lack of time, how I'm feeling etc, but when it comes down to it, it just proves that we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.

We have a council clean up this week (was actually Monday but haven't done our street yet), So we carted some junk out the front, and was amazed to see how quick the broken walker disappeared lol. Its broken so I hope to god they aren't actually going to use that for a baby.

My husband had some old parts for a VH/VK Commodore. He's been meaning to get rid of them, but as the flyer stated no car parts he didn't put them out. I told him to, cause guaranteed some scrapper will come around and snap them up before the council come around. And that's exactly what happened. Within 10 minutes lol.

There's still sooo much we need to get rid of, but most of it is building rubble (bricks etc), so will contact a brick recycler for a quote.

But as far as insides concerned, I'm still finding it hard to get rid of things, as I keep thinking of the "value" of it. I hate storing things for garage sales unless its something worth putting on, but as far as toys, I just want them gone. I've gotta be ruthless! I really don't think my daughter needs 3 tea sets.

So I had a very quick look in her room today while she was at pre school, and I saw 4 things that went out for the collection. I've got my eye on a few more things that I'll box up and take to her pre school or the op shop.

I want to go through their books and take a heap to the pre school/op shop. I don't even want to begin to think how many touch and feel/shapes/numbers etc books they have. Mum just came back from Cairns so now they have more lol.

I've held onto almost ALL their clothes, except for a box and bag I sold to mum a few months ago, a few rotten ones that were binned and a couple of bags to the op shop. All of which have only happened this year. The boys clothes I will keep as we have 3 boys, but as far as the girls clothes I'll go through and sell/scrap/donate etc. Except the baby clothes (On the phone to hubby today, he called to see how my check up went, he said next bub we're going private. I smiled from ear to ear and said yeh well I don't want to go through this again, and he said yeh well we'll wait a few yrs, save up and we'll go private) Woohooooo!!! lol!!! As much as I'd love to go again, if he didn't I'd have to accept it. But he wants another in about 4-5 yrs :D So I'll hold onto all the baby clothes esp. the pink :)

So that's where we're at with the clutter, we're weeding through it slowly and have seen progress.

Financially, we're doing ok. We scrapped that car and lost out $400 but we're not dwelling on it, we're simply rebuilding our emergency fund. We've got about $250 left on the credit card, which will be paid out next Monday. We are now putting an extra $50 a week on the car loan, and have finally gotten to the point where we can afford Sanity Money for each other. We don't take it out regularly, actually most the time not at all, we've been used to not having it for so long, but it's great to know it's there when we want it. Groceries aren't strict necessities anymore and naughty naughty we're spending a bit on chocolate and other yummy stuff. Again we aren't concerned about extra money being "wasted" on luxuries, we're enjoying the fact that we can buy them without worrying how to pay the mortgage.

The pregnancy has been up and down, but looks like things are improving. I've been admitted a few times for certain issues, the most recent being last week for a reaction to the steroids. I was only in over night, and thankfully all was well. Bubs has caught up in his weight and is now looking like he's gonna be a big boy (not sure if I mentioned, but he was 2 weeks behind in growth), he's now 87th percentile in weight lol. I've got slight placenta previa, but so far they aren't too concerned and hopefully I can still have a vaginal delivery. I had low fluid, but this boy is making me soo thirsty and I'm downing drinks like they're going out of style, and at the last scan the level was normal :). The baby is at brim, and I have a scan next week or so to recheck the above issues, and to check the cervix length. Even though the Dr's concerned about pre term labour, I'm not too concerned now, I've had the steroids to boost his lungs, his weight is great, and he's a fighter, so I know he'll be fine :) But having said that, I'm hoping he stays put til 36 weeks at least. Unfotunately I'm still getting the constant Contractions, but I'm getting through them.

And no I still haven't tidied up lol.

Quick Tidy - Utensils Drawer

I'd often open my utensil drawer and wonder what on earth I was going to do in there... I really wanted one of those drawer organisers but wasn't going to pay the price.

I tidied it a few times and it would always end up a mess again. It was driving me bonkers. I really needed a system in there... Then I remembered my old dish rack and cutlery holder that I had put away for the garage sale. I grabbed them out, checked to see if they'd fit and to my delight they did :)

I washed the dish rack and cutlery holder in hot soapy water and let them dry.

I pulled everything out of the drawer and sorted through it all. I vac'd up all the crumbs with my handheld and gave it a good wipe over.

I placed the organisers in there and arranged the utensils nicely in them.

Here's the pics:

I love it even more because I've reused something I already had instead of buying something new :)

My nice, organised drawer was short lived as Mr 1 decided he'd go in there and pull out all my wooden spoons and play drums... lol... I don't mind, it kept him out of other mischief :)

Quick Tidy - On top of Kitchen cupboards

Above the kitchen cupboards has always been a hot spot for clutter in our family. Anything which needed to be put out of reach of little hands, seemed to go up there.

It was about time it had a good tidy, so I got stuck in and did just that.

Here's the pics. For sum reason I didn't grab a before pic of the pantry side. It's a shame as that was even worse. It had a stool, a rolled up plastic party table cloth, a bubble blower, a lite and easy box and who knows what else stored up there.

This pic shows the sort of stuff that was stored in the baskets. Most of this stuff has been in there since we've bought the place.

Everything was emptied out and found new homes. Some things such as the many bags of shells I've bought over the years, are still in the baskets until I find the time to use them for craft.

It's amazing what you can done in a few minutes if you put your mind to it. I came into the kitchen to get a drink, and ended up with nice clean cupboard tops.

Quick Tidy of the Nappy drawer.

I've been meaning to use Cloth Nappies on the boys a lot more then I actually have, but with the state my nappy drawer was in, it seemed so much easier to grab a disposable out and that's that. I admit I wasn't bothered searching for the liners, the covers etc (my so called waterproof nappies are the complete opposite, so my cousin has sent over a couple for the boys to try out and I love them).

 

Now I'm a SAHM, we're having to cut costs as much as possible and also, I want to do my part to help the environment. So Cloth nappies it is. This is where I decided it was about time I tackled that drawer lol...

 

Those pilchers are only there because I had just found them in my daughter's drawer lol, otherwise they'd be outa sight....

This lovely layout is thanks to my little darling Mr 1....he loves redesigning :)

• So out comes everything.
• I put aside all rubbish and things that did not belong in the drawer
• I rounded up all the nappy sacks that Mr 1 had pulled out, and for now I've put them in another nappy sack (will put in box or something at later date, this was a very quick tidy)
• Everything was put back in and organised.

Here's the rubbish pile...

And the collection of stuff Mr 1 squirreled away into the drawer :)

I love him, he's so funny lol

and the end result....

 I like it much better this way,

let's see if Mr 1 does too.... (I highly doubt it lol)