Stuff

We have Too.  Much.  Stuff.  Waaaayyyyyy too much.  And no matter how much I try to control the vast amounts of stuff that lives in this house.....it multiplies.  Seriously, every night it grows.   Laundry, toys, books, craft supplies, hunting & fishing paraphernalia it can get crazy.  The kitchen island bar is the dumping ground for mail, craft projects, "treasures" as it's right inside the front door.  I am in constant purge mode.  Clothes, books & toys that are out grown get passed down, sold or donated.  I try to keep my closets purged of barely worn or wrong size clothes.  The girls color dozens of color pages a day.  I supposed I am a bad mom that I don't save every "masterpiece", but there are some special ones that do get tucked away. Otherwise when they aren't lookin'....in the trash they go!! I can only imagine the influx once the twins start pre-K in a few weeks.  Bill's hunting & fishing room....well, that doesn't get touched and thank goodness it's locked up and I don't have to see it, or it would drive me bonkers!  The garage.....oh my.......the horrible garage that we seem to clean every 3 months, add more racks & storage and vow to keep maintained.....and tools get dumped back without being put away, Bill's literature and sample totes get discarded when it's time for him to clean out his car, sidewalk chalk, bikes, & bubbles pile up.  This DOES drive me bonkers when I try to pull the truck into the garage and run into half the STUFF that is there.  Then we have to spend hours on a nice weekend afternoon trying to clean it back out again.   Thank goodness the girls have a designated toy room in the basement....so when the end of the day comes and I just don't feel like making sure it's all picked up....the stuff stays where it is until the next day.  At least if it's in the basement, I don't have to look at it.

Here is a picture of the toyroom taken recently.  That thing can go from clean to destroyed in 60 seconds flat.  The toyroom is adjacent to my home office.  There is a bathroom and family room off of this room as well.  So when I need to work at home for a bit, the girls are perfectly content to play away.  I am trying to work at being more diligent at having them help pick stuff up.  And they do good work and know where STUFF goes when it's time to get down to business.  But usually it ends up an unbalanced work load and one of the girls picks up more while the other 2 wander off and get distracted by a book or a game. 

And I sit here in the office blogging while the girls are in the room playing right now.  However I look around this office and Bill's "amazing" filing system of piles of papers and samples thrown all over the floor and it's no wonder they feel it's acceptable to leave stuff lying around.   I used to be a "save-every-scrap-of-paper-that -meant-anything or save-every-gift-ever-given" person.  Not any more.  Purge, discard, donate....whatever it takes to get this place manageable.   I have probably spent hundreds of dollars in the past year buying more shelves, storage bins & units just to house this stuff.  Bill said I'd have saved a lot of money if we just had less stuff.  Yup!

I am encouraging the girls to start making decisions of their own on things it's time to pass down.  They love to give things to their cousin "Baby Kate" or a friend's daughter "Baby Jasmyn."  Every time I get rid of something as long as I tell them it went to one of those two, they are really fine with that!!   So today I have plans to toss out that Hungry Hippos game that is missing like 1/2 of the white marbles and that puzzle that was given to us that is missing a piece right from the center.  Seriously, they've got enough other stuff, what's a few games? 

I recently repinned an item on Pintrest (seriously addicted to Pintrest) about having your kids collect unused/needed toys, books, games & clothes around the holiday and on Christmas Eve they should be placed in a large bag and left under the tree for Santa to collect and pass onto other kids that aren't as fortunate as we are.  What a great idea!  I wonder if I could come up with a holiday every month that required someone to stop by and pick up bags of unused items?  In addition to getting rid of some of this stuff, I hope its a good tool to help the girls learn to think of others and to begin to ascertain the difference of what is really meaningful to them and what is just stuff. 

So the twins birthday is just 2 weeks away.  They also start school the same week.  I can only imagine all of the new stuff that will work its way into our house that week.  If anyone is short on "stuff", I'd be happy to pass it along.  Otherwise I'll just keep plugging away here.....

So my kids DO listen to me

It feels like I talk to a brick wall some days.  Most days.  I repeat questions and instructions... well.... repeatedly between my kids and my husband.  Does anyone around this joint ever listen to me?  Seriously, brick walls....every single one of them!  And I wonder if I'll ever get through to any of them.

And then there's the "ah ha" moment, when you know the DO listen to you. 

Take for example Teagan's new found phrase....."damnit".  Oh boy.  We never worried about the twins spewing foul language, they just never did it.  Here with Teagan lately she is a little sponge... and then a repeat performer.  A few months ago a dinner she dropped her fork (or spoon or cup or whatever) and just blurts out "damnit it".  Oh crap, here we go.  A few minor finger points....as I constant remind Daddy to watch his mouth...but then he insists the kids are around me much more throughout the day so it must have come from me.  Whatever.  We didn't make a big deal, hoping it was just an isolated incident.  Fast forward a few weeks in the midst of our potty training with Teagan.  All was going very well, picked up on it so fast.  Still trying to get the hang of "#2" one day I was sitting at the kitchen island typing and email and I could smell her standing behind me. 

Me:  "Oh no, TT, you are supposed to tell mommy when you have to potty." 
Teagan: "Mommy, I have to potty."
Me:  "Well, that's obvious.  Let's go get you cleaned up."
And while in the bathroom taking care of "business" I say "TT, you need to go potty like a big girl so we don't have accidents in your big girl undies."
Teagan, looking at the mess, "oh, damnit". 

Oh, so THIS is when she listens. 

But there are the times you know the kids listen to what you say in a good way.  I love the way Maya will tell the girls "Oh, that's a great job sweetie", because that is something I say to them a lot.  Or Riley likes to say "That's a great job Mommy, you worked so hard on that."  "Oh be careful Mommy, I hold your hand" is Teagan's copycat phrase to what I say.  This morning the twins woke at 6:37 am (ugh) and crawled in bed with me.  Their imaginations are going crazy these days and they are always in role-play mode.  I was half in-and-out of sleep and I hear them talking about exercise.  "Why do you exercise" Riley asks Maya.  Maya responds "oh, I want to be healthy and strong for my family and set a good example for you girls."  This is a proud moment because I know somewhere along the way I have said this to them and she's remembered.

I realize what we say (and do) affects everything in our children's lives.  I am glad they repeat phrases (most of the time) of the positive things I say to them or around them.  I am glad my response to the exercise question was about the lasting effects of exercise and not "I am excited to finally lose the last of the baby weight from 4 years ago and want to fit into my skinny jeans this fall."  I want their view of exercise to be positive, not to keep up with societies demands that they should be thin or fit into skinny jeans.  I want them to realize when they work hard on a coloring or craft project that their efforts are recognized.  I want them to know its a good thing to praise a job well done.  And that I don't just yell "be careful" because I don't want to clean up blood, but because I am honestly showing concern for their safety. 

My kids do listen and I know this.  I also know they are kids and that often times when I tell them something or ask them something that they are engrossed in something far more important, just like I am at times.  I hope they listen more often to the good things I say, and forget about the times those "doozies" come flying out of my mouth. 

Confessions of a Bad Blogger

Hello, my name is Emily and I am bad blogger busy mom.  With 4 kids, 3 houses, 1 needy husband, a full-time SAHM job and 2 part time jobs....it's no wonder I only seem to have time to blog every 5 weeks or so.  Let's just say I'll probably never make a living at it, no matter how much I enjoy every minute of it.  I am a great list maker, practically can't go a day without checking something off my to-do list.  Maybe I just need to literally add blogging to the list, and then it'll get done. 

I wake early every morning and mentally go through my daily check list, usually while in the shower because it's literally the only free 10 minutes I have to myself every day.  There are days like today when I am totally "on" (in spite of skipping my 5 am work out) and before 8am I had 2 loads of laundry going, 5 of the beds stripped and 2 remade, kids fed (although still in their jammies).  So today I have to go to the post office and pharmacy (2 of the girls favorite places since they get stickers at one and suckers at the other) so at least they are happy to come along.  Then it's more laundry, remake the remaining beds, lunch, naptime which means I can concentrate on online bank transfers and bill payments, emails to the corporate office for Bill, some filing, that 5 am workout that I missed needs to be rescheduled.  The girls want to bake cookies and there is dinner to plan.  Somewhere in there I should spend time with my kids.  I started some craft projects towards our church's annual fall festival and I am really excited about them so I'd like to spend a little time working on those today.  So, blogging can wait.  Bad Blogger!!!!  (And not to mention the fact that I am almost a year and a half behind on scrapbooking.......BAD SCRAPPER!!!!!!!). 

No, just a busy mom. 

I love having blogging to turn to when I need to clear my head, air my thoughts or brag about my kids.  I love having other bloggers to read and see their perspective.  It's funny (coincidental maybe) that often times I blog in my head a really great thought I have while going about my day (and of course never have 10 minutes to sit down and type it out), and on more than on occasion an old high-school friend Jessica who writes an amazing blog will post something that I have totally been thinking.  It's like she can read my thoughts.  She's also a busy SAHM and sounds like our days could easily be traded.  Her recent posts about raising kids and scrapbooking have really hit home with me.

So I vow to be a better blogger.  For myself.  For my sanity.  For my husband who encourages me and for my kids who will someday be busy women themselves and perhaps find a little humor and maybe a little help in knowing what it's like to do it all enough to get by. 

My to-do list might not all get done today.  Probably those "luxury" items like crafting, scrapping or maybe a few chapters in a book I just started.  But, at least blogging is getting crossed of my list today.  Better blogger.