Crafting

Stella has been talking for a while about making a mobile for Maggie. I have no idea where she got this idea, Maggie never had a mobile over her crib, but Stella has mentioned it to me numerous times. So we finally got out the art box. (The art box is completely pathetic. Longtime readers of the blog may remember that we are not exactly fully stocked when it comes to art supplies.)

Stella informed me that she needed paper, scissors, markers and a glue stick. (Yes! We have glue sticks now!) I gave her the supplies and let her go at it. She created this entirely on her own. I cut out the people and the sun, she did all of the other cutting, arranging and gluing without any help. I just love what she came up with. (Does it sound like I'm bragging? That's because I am. We're talking about artistic genius here.)

Masterful gluing.

Move to a new location for reasons unknown to the uninitiated.

Our family. Can you spot Maggie? :)

Masterpiece. (Hanging in a place of honor above Maggie's bed.)

Stella isn't the only one who has been crafty around here. After weeks without inspiration, Mama finally picked up her knitting needles again and made a red sun hat for Maggie. I had in mind two little summer dresses of hers that have red in them. I got this yarn last year in a bag full of random yarn for 25¢ at a garage sale. The hat is a little too big (why do I always make hats too tall?!), but still pretty adorable. And the hat really is red, the pictures just have terrible lighting/horrible flash. Sorry about that.

Beach Vacation!

Last weekend (our "weekend" runs from Sun-Mon) we took a somewhat last-minute mini vacation. Because Jonathan has been working so many extra hours (including picking up extra shifts to cover for people who reeeeally needed some time off), his boss told him to take Tuesday off too! So we hopped in the car and headed for the beach! We stayed at a place called Seabrook, where we rented a small 2-bedroom cottage that was just wonderful. We relaxed, watched movies (they had a boxed set of Audrey Hepburn movies - woohoo!), read books, drank lots of wine, played at the park, and hiked through the rain forest. It was only 3 days, but it was pretty much perfection.

The first trip down to the beach was....interesting. This California girl had packed her flip flops, and the girls' sandals for the beach. The Washingtonian husband chuckled when he saw them. We spent a short amount of time bundled up on the beach, where we nearly froze. It was really really really windy, Maggie wanted to get down and walk and when we set her down she was literally blown over by the wind! Brrrrrrr. Our second beach experience was much better, the weather was spectacular and we went to a magical place called Ruby Beach. We each got to do things we love: Daddy walked waaaaay down the beach and explored, Mommy leaned up against a log and soaked in the sun and listened to the waves, Maggie sat on the ground and played with rocks/pointed at birds, and Stella built a sandcastle then climbed around on driftwood pretending she was a mermaid. :)

We all decided we MUST come back. Soon.

On the way down to the beach (the cold windy day)

Writing her name in the sand

Small brag: I made all 4 of our hats. :)

By the playground at Seabrook

Maggieness

On the Quinault Loop Trail

Ruby Beach

The perfect end to the day

I want one!

Consider this my Earth Day post (just a few days late!). :)

Steady Mom is having a giveaway for a really cool Moukisac reusable grocery bag set! I use reusable grocery bags (when I remember to bring them...) that I've collected from various grocery stores, and I love using them. It's a super easy way to do something "green", plus a lot of places will give you a small (okay, miniscule) discount when you use your own bags.

This set looks really awesome because it also includes reusable produce bags, which is such a great idea. I often buy my produce at a local farm stand type place (Country Farms, go there!), and this would be so perfect. Check out the giveaway here, and be good to our planet. :)

Inspiration

Here are two blog posts that have been encouraging me this week.

Changing Lives One Laundry Load at a Time at smallnotebook.org (love this blog - would it be totally pathetic to print this post out and stick it on my fridge?)

Successful Decluttering for Busy Mamas at steadymom.com



So this afternoon it was sunny and not-freezing, so we put on our fleece jackets (because we're so outdoorsy like that - hah!) put Maisie in the buggy and went for a walk. First we went to the grocery store where I bought FUN random ingredients: tahini, coconut milk, limes, and trail mix with no chocolate in it (craziness!), and yes I do have a plan for each of those ingredients (the plan for the trail mix being to get in my belly). Then we were all in good spirits and decided to continue on to the park. We have a park in our neighborhood that just opened last August, which we call Pickle Park (actually named Hickman Park) that is just the right distance from our house: far enough you can fool yourself into thinking you have gotten a useful amount of exercise, but not so far that you wimp out whenever you're feeling slightly lazy (like, every day). So we struck out for the park from the grocery store, and you can actually make a loop from the store to the park back home again, which is kind of nice.

At the park we saw dogs, we saw kids biking, we saw a remote control airplane, we talked to other kids, played on the swings with them, went down the slide, climbed the rock spiral, ran around the bike path, and checked out the exercise equipment. We did it all, people. We squeezed every drop of enjoyment we could out of Pickle Park this afternoon. And I even managed to get a few pictures.

Stella and Maggie exercising at the park.




"Mommy, I'm hanging just like a sloth!" (Yes, she learned that from Diego.)




"DOG!!!" (That girl can spot 'em anywhere.)




Picture of the remote control plane. (No, I can't see it either, but doesn't our park look lovely?)

Spring Cleaning Day ONE...sort of.

So last week I posted about Spring Cleaning Week. Well, I'm still on Day One. I knew I would be going slowly but this is ridiculous!! Day one is basically decluttering the surfaces in each room in your house (but not venturing into closests/drawers yet). I knew I had a ton of junk to get rid of, but this has been even harder than I expected. Especially because I'm not really willing to put the rest of my life on hold to get this done.

I decided to start in the girls' room, because it is always such a disaster and I really want them to be able to not only pick up their room but to enjoy their own clean clear space! Perhaps that was a mistake. It was really hard to get rid of their stuff. Some of it I feel guilty about because it was a gift or something, and some of it was just too sentimental. You're supposed to sort everything into 2 boxes, a Give Away box and a Sell box. I got a Get Rid Of box (to either put into a future garage sale or dump at a thrift store, depending on what I'm up for), a Goes In Another Room box (I always need one of those), and a Maybe box for those things I think I should probably get rid of but just can't bear to.

In the girls' room, I got stuck right away when putting away the dolls/stuffed animals. I've saved a couple of old Cabbage Patch dolls and clothes, and put them in their room for Stella to play with. She has only played with them a couple of times in the last couple of years. I should get rid of them. I tried to put them in the Give Away box....but I couldn't do it. Could. Not. I actually started to cry. Yes, picture me sitting in the middle of their room completely surrounded by piles of toys and just general crap, holding these ratty old dolls and crying my eyes out. I am a mess! Thank goodness for that Maybe box, I threw them in there as quick as I could and tried to move on. That was only the beginning. It was really hard. But it wasn't all bad, there were lots of obvious things to get rid of, like dress-up clothes that were too small and/or ripped, and obvious things to keep, like dolls knit for them by their grandmother and pillows made for them by their auntie.

I've been thinking about why it was so hard for me to get rid of a lot of their stuff. Certainly some of it was guilt over getting rid of things that were gifts (even minor ones). Some of it was things they'd once enjoyed but had moved past, but for some reason reminded me of a certain period in their lives. Then there are the things from my childhood that I'd saved for them, I don't know if I am trying to cling to my childhood or what. I just took a deep breath and threw some of it into Give Away and some of it into Maybe. Once I finally finished their room I was shot. That was all I could handle for one day.

But now that it's done (other than the closets and stuff that I'll have to go through), it is so wonderful in there. I put up some of Stella's artwork on the wall that I'd been saving for that purpose. Kept just a few special items out on top of the dresser and bookshelf. Stella was in awe, she was so happy and thanked me profusely, saying, "It's so beautiful, Mommy!" over and over. :) Now it makes me feel simultaneously happy and peaceful when I go in there. It really motivated me to keep going with the rest of the house.

Of course, there have been other days where I just could not face it, days where I am stressed and upset about other things, distracted by tired grumpy children, etc...I could come up with all manner of excuses. And so it is, over a week later and still on Day One. But I am not letting myself get discouraged or give up. I am going to see this through. I know I'm doing this a lot more thoroughly than what is asked for in SimpleMom's plan for day one, but I think it's important for me. At this point I still have the master bedroom left, which I am sort of putting off because I feel zero inspiration on how to make it nice, and the guest room. The guest room is home to lots of boxes in various states of organisation from my previous decluttering attempts, the pack n play so M can nap in there, and the broken guest bed frame (the mattress is leaning up against the wall). It is truly too scary to even think about. I'll worry about that room later!

Here are some pictures. I only got pics of the girls' room and the living/dining rooms. And the living/dining "after" pictures aren't very good, sorry about that! I couldn't get a picture until after dark, and we don't have very good lighting in there!


Girls' Room:

My little helper.

The "after" doesn't look all that much more organised. The books do not seem to stay on the shelf longer than 7.3 seconds...

Stella's artwork.

Cross stitch made by my mom for my sis and I - awwwww!

Diaper changing area (no "before" pic, but trust me, there was no room for diaper changing on there!).

Living Room:

Until recently (*ahem* last week) this shelf was completely cluttered with Christmas decorations! Look how lovely and open it looks now. (Mom, recognize the bead trees?!)

Dining Room:

(I dread cleaning inside this cabinet...)

Bonus kitchen shot...This gives you a taste of the frightening state my kitchen was in, I am too ashamed to post any other pictures of this room!