Kid's Toys

I promised Brenda over at Unsolicited Advice, that I'd put up some pictures of my toy organizers.  This is one area that I've actually gone and spent the money needed to get things somewhat under control.  I still need to do a few things to get it totally workable (one of which would be to figure out how to get a 3 year old to help me clean up more...) but we're doing pretty well with it.  I did a bit of reorganizing as I was taking these pictures, it was needed and is going pretty well, so I like the set up right now.

We do have a "play room" it's our sunroom/porch, but I have it set up for the kids.  Yes, I was a preschool teacher so the urge to create "centers" runs deep in my blood :).  I didn't actually segment things off, but we do have a general flow to the area that I really like.

Play Room/Porch:

These storage shelves are some of my favorite things.  I LOVE them :), but they do hold a bit too much for my kids at this point.  When all the bins are dumped (which is about 4-5 days a week around here) Abigail gets too over loaded to help clean.  I went through yesterday and cleaned each drawer out about halfway to have fewer toys in general circulation.  Doesn't seem like they've noticed yet ;).  The majority of our toys live out here.

I also have this storage box in the living room:

 It's sort of my catch-all for things that don't fit into a nice category in the bins outside or in the kids' rooms.  We have video game items in a basket on the right, but the left is basically where I dump toys if I don't feel like (or don't have time) to sort them out to their proper areas.  Some of the bigger things do live around the outside.
And, just for perspective, here's how the area flows together.

In the kids' rooms, I don't really keep very many toys (at least, I don't think I do!).  My kids love to be around the action so only rarely do they even want to go play by themselves.  I used to keep more in their rooms, but they would only drag it out to the living room.

Abigail mostly has the toys that are too old for Nathan.  He would either tear them up or choke on them.

And Nathan gets the toys that are really too young for both kids.  :) I just put these in here, though, so he's quite curious and ready to undo my work.

And that's it!  I've tossed a lot of toys, we don't keep ANYTHING broken,  and I sell old stuff and doubles regularly at consignment sales.  We're still working on keeping it all put away (I cleaned for these pics, lol) but we at least have a place for everything even if not everything stays in it's place.  Also, I'm working on tags for the bins so anyone cleaning up will know where things go.  Hopefully that will be the last piece needed for this particular area.  :) It would be nice to have one actually done.

OYOL Progress Report

So, I've gotten behind on my OYOL weeks. I guess part of it is understandable, since one of the reasons I'm trying to get more organized this year is because I get sidetracked and forget/put off important things. I'm a work in progress, what can I say? Brenda and the other ladies have just begun week 8, but here's a quick run down of what I've missed.

~Week 5: Cut, Combine or Delegate (using the list we made from weeks 3 & 4)

~Week 6: Kid's Chores

~Week 7: Get a Routine on Paper

This week- week 8- Report for Duty (DO your routine)

Week 5: I never posted my detailed list, though I do have it written down. Basically I came up with a lot of things that I need to CUT. With my babies being only 3 and soon-to-be one, there's not much I can delegate to them. Hubby is currently working one full time job and volunteering part-time at a ministry, so he doesn't need anything else on his plate, either. So delegate is a no-go. Combine is one that I try to not do too much. For me personally I'm a TERRIBLE multi-tasker so I do much better when I focus on one thing at a time. One thing that I am trying to combine is my "me time" during nap time with some light cleaning. I'm thinking if I can fold laundry while listening to podcasts or music, then I'm (hopefully) refreshing myself while still being productive for my family. So, that leaves cut. Basically, I'm cutting my expectations and my impatience :). God has been teaching me over the past few months that this time of my life, while tiresome and draining, is short. The time I spend where my children rely on my for just about everything is going to be short when viewed from the end of my life, should God grant me a long one. But even if He doesn't, my kids are the job God has given me now and I need to pour everything I have into helping them grow, not rushing them to grow. So, I cutting my desire to have everything perfectly set up for an organized house and instead I'm focusing on my kids and working on organization habits little by little. I'm cutting my desire to be involved in every church ministry/home group/mom's club that comes along, in order to focus on having enough down time to relax with my children at home. I'm cutting my constant struggle to find a way to contribute financially. I know the extra income would be nice, but God has given my husband a job that provides beyond just our needs into a lot of our wants. By trying to find a way to make money from home I'm only distracting myself from my true job and honestly making more work for my overworked husband by leaving the housework undone. And lastly, I'm trying to cut the idea that everything has to happen NOW and instead just enjoying the process.

Week 6: I skipped this one. My three year old helps clean up her toys at night (when I remember to have us do it), so for now that's all I want from her. We are embarking this week upon the potty training journey (again, for like the third time. Think it's finally going to stick!) so until we get that taken care of, I don't want too many other distractions.

Week 7: I have a routine that FlyLady helped me get together and I'm going to really try to stick to it this week (starting tomorrow! Today didn't happen). I'll post it up next.

So that's my OYOL catch-up! Hopefully I can start doing this on time :).

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool

That is my question. It's really not one that I'll be able to answer right now, either, which is driving me crazy. I hate not making decisions about as much as Kent hates making them. There are just so many variables and I have yet to get a real feeling for what we should do one way or another. Honestly, I'm wanting more of Kent's input, but he (rightly) wants to put the decision off until Abigail is older. I know this is really the best option because so much can change in the next two and a half years before she can start kindergarten, but it's so hard to wait! In the mean time I can at least busy myself with doing our homeschooling stuff now (I bought some fun 3-5 year old stuff!) and just try to enjoy without worrying about the future. Would be nice if it were that easy, wouldn't it?

Until that time, I'll just continue to document the uncertainty here. If you get tired of my vacillating, just skip that particular post...I'll try to stick more to information than whining about the future, but no promises, lol!

On that note, I'm going to go work on my plan for the new week so I know what activities we'll be doing, which books we'll be reading, and how I'm going to attempt to keep Nathan busy while we do this :). I might try to lay out the different options/websites I'm looking at later, but sometimes the overwhelming amount of info makes me even more frazzled about what to do. On the other hand, it might help me to get things laid out so I can examine and evaluate more clearly. Oh well, thoughts for another time...