10. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji. I really enjoyed this book, a very cute love story. I appreciated getting to read a fiction book about a culture that wasn’t America and that is set in the present-day. It opens itself up to a sequel. 4.5 stars.
11. Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center. Also fiction (although some of the stories she tells feel so real), this book is about a young family who moves across the country for a job change. The young mom tells the story of adjustment and staying home with her 3 kids. I laughed at some of her stories and could very much identify with the main character’s struggles at times. 4.5 stars.
12. Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year by Anne Lamott. I wouldn’t recommend this book, although I can’t quite figure out where she stands on religion and how to teach it to her son. It was short and painfully honest. If I kept a journal of my own son’s first year, I would never have it published. 3 stars.
13. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. This book threw me for a loop because it starts just the way it ends. There’s no back story, no “last time in Guernsey..” snippet, no nothin’. It’s told in the form of letters, and once you figure out who everyone is and how they interact, you will love this book. I read most of it on the plane to Portland, and it made a 4 hour trip turn into a few minutes. I loved how easy it was to become immersed in this story. 4.5 stars.
14. Passionate Housewives Desperate For God by Jennie Chancey & Stacey MacDonald. Eh. If you read the reviews on Amazon, I’d agree with them. I don’t think you should make any one person your authority for your life, except for God. It comes across to me that these women think their husband is their #1 authority, and they depend on their husbands to point them to God. Also they don’t talk about leaving the house much which bugs me. 2.5 stars.
June 28th, 2011
by Jenna
These months run together (as far as book-reading go). I know I checked out a bunch of cookbooks these months too… none of those stand out though. Guess these were the nonfiction months.
5. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagaza. I checked this out from our church’s library. Even though I know this Rwandan woman survived, because she wrote the book, I still felt the terror she felt while locked in that bathroom. The details and statistics she gives are mind-blowing and awesome.. but not in a good way. Even though the subject matter was difficult, this was real life for these people. I definitely recommend. 5 stars.
6. Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley. If you haven’t heard of The FlyLady, google her Right Now. This book will change your life. I saw some email listing about her a lonnnnng time ago but I was glad to find a book at the library. She writes about home organization and simplifying your life so you can clean a small part of your house every day. (or maybe all of it!) I liked a lot of her routines and she makes some really great points. I used many of these suggestions before I even read the book, but it was nice to know their importance. And that I’m not the only nut making pack lists for out of town trips. 5 stars.
7. Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. This book has probably the longest and most vague subtitle I’ve ever heard. [Meaning, the title was enough to grab me. Put the anecdotes on the inside of the book.] The first half of this book was incredible. The amount of research she did – at Disney, Pottery Barn Kids, The American Girl Store, etc. etc. etc. – was eye-opening, and she did a great job of relaying facts. She admits she’s a tomboy and as a single mom she didn’t want her daughter to turn out to be a girly-girl. BUT in the second half she backs off and admits it’s probably not that big of a deal – that girls will be girls, after all. I did enjoy this book, but I wish she would have been consistent with her pacing. My favorite thing about this book – she recommends reading the fairy tales to children (gory as they may be – keeping it age appropriate) before they see the movies. 4 stars.
8. Redefining the Strong-Willed Woman: How to Effectively Use Your Strong Will for God by Cynthia Tobias Ulrich. I found this in the church’s library, mostly because it was next to my #9 read. Not any life-changing information in this book, but it was pleasant and easy to read. I am definitely the strong-willed woman, in case any of you were worried I was reading it and thinking about you. 3 stars.
9. You Can’t Make Me! (But I Can Be Persuaded) by Cynthia Tobias Ulrich. This author has written a few books about children’s learning styles, but I got this book to read about Carlee, who is not into a learning style quite yet. (Unless “stubborn” is a learning style, in which case she’s “most likely to succeed”.) Even though this book was an easy read, I was disappointed it didn’t have more info about younger children. I guess I’m going to have to find The Strong-Willed Child soon. (Like Mother, like Daughter.) 3.5 stars.
June 22nd, 2011
by Jenna
Unfortunately I haven’t kept up with the list of books I’ve been reading lately. I have a friend who does hers by month – I’m going to have to start writing them down so I can accurately report them. Last summer I read an incredible amount of books… because of the junk in my liver.trunk and being on steroids, I didn’t sleep much. And then because of my foot surgery, I had to stay horizontal for at least 3 weeks and take it easy for another 3 weeks.. per foot… times 3 surgeries… so I’ve read a lot.
January: (following foot surgery)
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Wow. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this book, especially considering there’s a trilogy of books and the 4th one is being held ransom by the late author’s girlfriend? Kind of shady, if you ask me, which is kind of what this book was. I enjoyed it, but there was also a LOT of gratuitous sex and some even more uncomfortable situations I didn’t really like reading about. I read it to say, “I’ve read this book.” but I wouldn’t recommend it. 3 stars.
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. Because I’m stubborn, I continued on with book 2 of the trilogy. Dragon Tattoo ended well so I expected to pick up where I left off. But like most Book 2’s, this was completely disappointing. And even more gratuitous sex and uncomfortable situations. I read 50 pages and then returned to the library because I couldn’t stand to read any more. 1 star.
3. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Rachel S. recommended this book on her blog, and I really enjoyed it. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. WWII/Holocaust is never easy to read about, and I didn’t think I was going to get through some of the first pages without crying my eyes out. But I read the entire book in an afternoon – couldn’t put it down. 4.5 stars.
4. Faithful Place by Tana French. Also recommended by Rachel. I also enjoyed this book. It puts the “f– you” in “dysfunctional family relationships”. The story was compelling and also a quick read. Set in Ireland, it was fun to “hear” the accents. 4.3 stars.
June 21st, 2011
by Jenna
…but what about Tow Mater?
As I was picking tomatoes (thus saving them from bird destruction), Carlee walked outside with this pink bag. I decided I had more than I could carry in my hands… and shirt… and Kennedy’s hands and shirt too. We ended up filling this entire bag full of small and large tomatoes.
Guess I need a good salsa recipe?
June 20th, 2011
by Jenna
Last week was Vacation Bible School. Our church holds it at night, which always makes for a very long and very tiring week. But I am thankful for all of the volunteers (especially male!) whom we would miss if we held it in the morning.
These are pictures of Kennedy & Carlee’s water play day, which is what the kiddos under kindergarten-age get to do on the last night of VBS. (Since they don’t get to participate in many of the things the big kids get to do.)
Kennedy playing with water and shaving cream (cleaning off the tarps). She’s always so busy. Good thing she knows how to pose.
I told Carlee I wanted to take a picture of her (she was busy climbing up and sliding down the water slide). Carlee ran right up to me, maybe a little too close!
And, a bonus pic. Found this book on display in the church library.
June 19th, 2011
by Jenna
I thought today – I am so glad I was invited to do the 365 project last year instead of this year… I know now why my friend Kristen (who was pregnant for half of 2010) only blogged for half of 2010.
Here’s the pic of the pregnancy test. Sorry if this grosses you out, but it really is the most effective way of knowing you are pregnant! The directions on the test tell you to wait 2 minutes to read the results, but when it shows 2 [positive] lines immediately, it’s not going to change in 2 minutes. I did wait and read the test after 2 minutes, at which point I took this picture. I thought it was worthy to note, seeing as how I broke the news to Kevin this way. And, I did wrap it up in a plastic bag and throw it away. I mean, I did pee on it.
This was our very first look at our little peanut, taken May 25th. I immediately saw his/her heartbeat, and I cried! We have another picture of the heart rate, which measured at 165 bpm. (Any guesses on gender now? Which actually, I Googled and found to be a myth, that you could guess the gender based on heart rate. The heart rate fluctuates based on week gestation. The doctor is just listening and measuring for a good strong heart rate that isn’t lower than 100, which could be a sign of impending miscarriage.) In this picture, the baby measured 1.92 cm. So tiny!
This is the ultrasound picture taken June 9th, at which I was 11 weeks and 1 day. This was also the one that made it to Facebook.
Today I also thought about each of my pregnancies and how far along I was when we broke the news to everyone…
- with Carlee, it was at 10 weeks, because we found out I was pregnant about that time!
- with Kennedy, it was at 8 weeks. I took the test right at 4 weeks, we hadn’t been to the doctor yet, but we told at my birthday party.
- with Colby, it was at 12 weeks. I knew I was pregnant right at 4 weeks, but because it was my first pregnancy, our first appointment was a “general health and wellness education session” with a nutritionist, I guess? She didn’t do or say much in the way of what I should eat, she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t using drugs or alcohol. We weren’t allowed to see a doctor (because of our insurance group’s procedures) until 12 weeks, and even then I had to see the group’s midwife because my doctor had to do an emergency c-section that day. I did tell my principal at the time I found out; I figured if anything happened to me or the baby, I at least wanted her to know. I also wanted pictures so we could tell our parents in a special way.
- with this baby, it was at 5 weeks. (or 7 weeks, or 8 weeks, depending on which due date we were using). Another reason we wanted to tell was because I was feeling so sick right there at the beginning… I didn’t want anyone to think I had relapsed on my liver stuff (which was actually one of my first thoughts. I am so glad I was wrong!)
For only a few days now, I feel the baby moving this time of night (ahem, morning?) – around 11 or midnight. It’s the first time all day I get to sit still, and I feel so at ease when I feel this tiny thing moving in my tummy. I know all “the books” say you’re not ’supposed’ to feel the baby until later on in your pregnancy, but I say that’s all hogwash. I’ve been pregnant with 3 very active children, and this one will fit right in with the bunch.
I’ll get back to blogging about the rest of that bunch sometime soon.
June 18th, 2011
by Jenna
You’ll have to bear with me… My gmail is acting up and not wanting to support my browser right now. (Just wanted to point out that that phrase never would have been used 30 years ago… “’supporting’ & ‘browser’ in the same sentence? Ludicrous! And what’s gah-mail, anyway? I don’t want none of that in my mailbox.”) So since my mail domain doesn’t want to work, I can’t post a picture of our latest and greatest news of the moment.
…which is, Carlee will be a Big Sister. Yep. We’re expecting Baby #4! I’ve been calling it “Cuatro”, to keep with the C/K theme, until we figure out if it’s a boy or girl [on August 4th].
Warning: some of this might be TMI. Proceed with caution.
Colby has been asking for a baby brother for a long time now, and we felt like we were done having kids of our own (especially after the drama/trauma we had to endure with Carlee’s after-birth). And, when I had to endure the Mellow Yellow Liver Quiver , my gastroenterologist said something to the effect of “It’s a good thing you had 3 healthy pregnancies already…”, which I took to mean, “It might be impossible for you to get pregnant again.”
So, Kevin and I were looking into some other options, pretty casually. I’ll leave it at that. We went on our trip to Washington at the beginning of May, and I took all my Monthly Supplies with me; according to my calendar, I was supposed to start then and I didn’t want to have to buy things there (which was actually moot, since the airline lost our luggage and I had to buy toiletries anyway). But as we went through the trip, I kept feeling nauseated and really really tired, but I just thought it was because we were up in the mountains (motion sickness?) and because I was on vacation and wanted to sleep. Plus, my grandmother passed away while we were gone, and I was trying not to think about that.
The kicker though, was that I didn’t want to eat sweet stuff. That’s pretty much a tell-tale sign for me that I’m pregnant. I usually have a HUGE sweet tooth and was looking so forward to ordering dessert at these fine restaurants in Oregon and Washington.. but I just couldn’t. And, Kevin got peanut butter and jelly for us to make sandwiches.. between that and the Gatorade we drank on our hikes, I could barely get through our lunches on the road. I also kept needing to stop and pee, like every half hour.
While on our 4-hour excursion through the mountains from Carson, Washington, to Seattle, we stopped at a gas station for a potty break and I lost my lunch.. tossed my cookies… hugged the toilet. So to speak. Again, I just thought I had motion sickness. But I told Kevin, “I haven’t started yet. Maybe I am pregnant.” And, Kevin said to me, “Well then we’ll just have to name him ‘Carson’.” (being the town we just left) So, we got through the rest of the trip okay [we still need to post pics, ahem, gmail!], and had a very very very VERY bumpy (and nauseating) plane ride from Houston to College Station, which thankfully was only 20 minutes long, but was tortuous for a very newly (and not knowing!) pregnant woman.
The next day after we got back from Washington, I was still feeling sick but still not really knowing why.. Alicia had had a stomach bug, she told me, and I thought maybe I was catching it. Then Kelsey (our adopted Aggie, now engaged to Tim – whoop!) came over and told us good-bye for the summer – she is again at Sky Ranch Camps, this year as a coordinator, in charge of and leading/directing the counselors and staff. She mentioned that Tim’s best friend’s wife is expecting and due at the beginning of December, which she thought was so cool, because Tim & Kelsey’s wedding is at the end of December, and there would be a newborn at their wedding! I immediately thought to myself, “Do I have a pregnancy test handy?” because that story immediately made me think that I’d need to know if I was pregnant – because my kids are flower girls and ring bearer at their wedding… the due date of this baby is completely crucial, you see.
So, right before Kevin got home that day, and right before my grandmother’s viewing that night, I took a pregnancy test. I have a picture of that too, dang gmail. My friend Amanda came over to cook us all dinner, and I pulled Kevin aside and showed him the picture on my phone, which he couldn’t believe any more than I could. But we were also very very thrilled.
The downside to finding out that information on the day of Grandmother’s viewing is that I felt like I needed to tell everyone right away, even though I have had several friends (meaning 5 now…) who have had miscarriages early in their pregnancies, even after hearing the heartbeats. The upside is that ALL of my family got to be in the room together to hear the same info. And, Kevin’s dad came to town for the funeral the next day, so we got to tell him too, followed by Kevin’s mom later that afternoon, and Kevin’s sister & fam that week. I did tell them all to wait until I at least went to the doctor the first time (at the end of May) so that we could make sure everything looked okay – plus, I wanted their prayers and love and support more than anything in the world.
Another cool fact – according to my calculations, my original due date is January 10, 2012, which would have been my Papaw’s 100th birthday. (He was my mom’s dad, who died almost 20 years ago to the date we found out we were pregnant.) So far I’ve been to the doctor twice and had 2 ultrasounds, both of which have given me earlier and earlier due dates. After Carlee’s birth, we decided we’d go with a hospital birth but I made it clear that I don’t want any unnecessary medical interventions (drugs, IVs, etc.). I really like my doctor so far (a new one to me) and have heard good things about him in the delivery room. I think the trick will be convincing the nurses of my birth plan.
My official due date (for now!) is December 28th, 2011, which will make a nice Christmas gift/tax deduction this year. ;) I’m 12 weeks + a few days along right now, and so far I’ve been sick a lot at night. So far I think I’m having a boy, and Colby pegged that Carlee would be a girl, and he says this one is a boy, so I’m sticking with Colby’s odds. :) I want him to have a little brother so bad – Colby’s such a great kid and I would love to have another Colby!
I know I’ll have lots of other stories (and pictures.) as I think of them. I posted this on Facebook about a week ago, if you’re friends with me, so you can see the sonogram picture there. I have a friend who thinks she already knows the sex of the baby, by the 11 week picture. I’m saying this sarcastically because it is SO too early to tell… maybe maybe in 1-2 more weeks we could find out, but I’m good to wait another 6 weeks to find out for sure. Even though the wait is already killing me! :)
I’d appreciate your prayers, especially as I get through these rough patches of sickness and lethargy. And, once I feel a little better, hopefully I’ll be blogging more and not overloading your brains with long stories.
June 17th, 2011
by Jenna
Photo taken March 2011.
Clearly this is not an ice cream stand, at least not to those who are older than 8 years old. This is part of a playground near our house. We went during Spring Break, and our usually very quiet playground was overrun with older school-aged kids. My kids were trying to play with the big slides and things but it was getting harder and harder, with more people around.
So, Kennedy walked up to this window and said, “Who wants ice cream?” And Carlee ran over to her and said, “Me!” And we played a game with lots of questions. .What kind do you want? .How much is the ice cream? .Do you want a cup or a cone? Eventually, the other [older] kids decided these little ones were okay to play with, and they started asking for ice cream too. Colby took the money.
I love imaginations.
June 6th, 2011
by Jenna
I started this post way back in February. My good intentions really are being finished! (now to catch up with 3+ months of pics!)
I have a confession to make. I am not good at taking “before” pictures of my messes. This isn’t because I don’t want to show you what the messes look like! It’s only this – when I see a mess, I have tunnel vision to clean it up before it somehow multiplies. So, I only have pictures of one kitchen drawer but you can see the general progress of what’s been going on in my kitchen.
If you want lots of pictures of what step-by-step organization looks like, I’ll refer you to iheartorganizing & her 3-part kitchen drawer organization series… there’s a girl who knows her stuff!
But, here’s what I am able to show you. This is just one of my kitchen drawers [actually the smallest one], with lots and lots of stuff in it. I sorted through all of my drawers and found things I had forgotten about, things I haven’t used in awhile, things that were taking up space in my drawers. (Proof that you can have a big kitchen and still have too much stuff in it, if you’re not careful.)
I knew there was no way I’d be able to find those items without some sort of organization. I found this clear acrylic [is that redundant?] bathroom organizer at Target, which worked perfectly for this drawer. I bought more for another drawer which needed major organizing help.
And, for eye candy, I removed all items and inserted super pretty drawer liners [which were pretty expensive at Target, but this print seriously makes me happy every time I open my drawers. So, my happiness = more cooking in the kitchen = Kevin's happiness.]
Voila! Finished product.
I spent about 10 minutes on this drawer and 10 minutes on the other big clean-out drawer. Plus, I put liners in 4 other drawers in the kitchen. Budget-wise, I spent $15 on shelf liner paper and $20 on the acrylic organizers. Not the cheapest fix, but I really do like the way it turned out for these drawers I use every day.
June 5th, 2011
by Jenna
Picture taken February 2011.
This might not seem so interesting to someone who’s not me, but this was actually Colby’s 2nd visit to the dentist. On the first visit [last August], Colby was so Not Interested in having someone touch his teeth. He sat in my lap for about 2.4 seconds before going to the other side of the room and not budging. I seriously thought I might have to start Colby’s therapy fund.
But, the dental hygienist [why don't they just call them tooth cleaners?] gave us great advice – to let Colby use a battery-powered toothbrush, so he’d get used to the vibrations. We did, and he did, and 6 months later, of course he did a super job. As if all my pep-talking beforehand was like Charlie Brown’s teacher – ‘wa-waa, wa-waa, wa wah-wah, waa.’
June 4th, 2011
by Jenna
I think that song* would be on the soundtrack of my life right now… ”saying AYO, gotta let go!”
Let me briefly recap the last 3+ months for you.
February – Kevin’s grandpa passed away, followed by the memorial at the DFW National Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in March. Also – my foot doctor cleared me to start running again – Hallelujah! And, my dad returned to work full time, another Hallelujah.
March – I decided to start training for a triathlon! I’m not such a good swimmer, but I do enjoy running and just got into the biking phenomenon. Love LOVE [race] biking, lest you think I ride a Harley.
April – Kennedy turned 4 years old. And yet she started acting 2 again. Now it’s like I have two 2 year-olds in the house.. I’m so ready for her to start preschool.
May – too busy to recap in this post, but here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version -
1. Kevin and I took a trip to Oregon/Washington. Fabulous. Highly recommend it. I’ll be devoting an entire post (or two, or three) to it.
2. My grandmother passed away while we were gone. I wrote her obit in a hotel room. More on this later.
3. Also while we were gone, my parents started renovating their kitchen. Now finished, but wow it was a mess – my mom had to put everything into her dining room, and she felt like she was on that show Hoarders. I’ll try to post pictures of that too.. you’ve seen some of the before pics, you just didn’t know it.
4. Kennedy had her first dance recital. I laughed, I cried, but I wasn’t stressed. She did a superb job and can’t wait for dance next year. Pictures and a post to follow.
5. Colby finished Kindergarten. He also turned 6 earlier this month. I also laughed and cried. His teacher was such a sweetheart, and she’s moved to DFW. Pictures of him to follow too [oh and lots of stories. he is one funny kid.]
June – (and I’m so not kidding about this one) Carlee is going to the potty. Like, for real, she’s wearing panties all the time, even at night, and even when we are out in public. She has a chart for going #2 and when she goes 5 times, we all get to go to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. She’s been twice so far – once yesterday and once today. You should see the big kids trying to encourage her on the potty. ”Don’t you need to poop, Carlee?” Hilarious.
More to come. You won’t believe how big and grown-up my kids are getting… I can’t believe it sometimes either.
*that song = Dynamite, by Taio Cruz.
June 3rd, 2011
by Jenna
Colby broke out in a rash on Monday night. (He’s allergic to penicillin.) This is him on Thursday… looking so much better, if you can even believe it.
When he looked in the mirror, he thought it was pretty funny that he had polka dots (his term). But in the car he told us, “I am not enjoying this itching.”
February 19th, 2011
by Jenna
One of the best things about Colby going to the KOR school is that he is finished at 12:30 every day and we get to eat lunch together every day. (I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I still love it.) So, this is just an ordinary day for us, before we clean up the kitchen and go take a nap.
February 18th, 2011
by Jenna
If you’re expecting me to give encouragement today, I probably won’t. But I will send you to our friends Dee & Greg’s blog. They are serving God in Estonia right now, and with 2 little ones (age 3 & less than 1!), it’s safe to say that Dee is Supermom. She touched my heart the other day with this post – From the Mouths of Children and Infants. I needed to “hear” all those Scriptures she quotes.
It seems like our family is in the midst of weekly medical drama. I haven’t been posting as much because of it. On the other hand, maybe I should write this up and sell it to Hollywood as a script for a tv show. Here goes -
1. My grandmother is in a nursing home now. She is having trouble feeding herself, much less walking. We are not sure how much of her symptoms result from depression (from losing her husband of 58 years last September) or from just getting older. Please pray for my dad and his siblings to know the best care for her, and for my grandmother to know God’s peace and comfort right now.
2. My dad is doing fantastic. Each day he is stronger and happier and can do a little bit more. He’s been working every other day for a few weeks.. now I think he’s working 3.5 days, with his cousin from out of town working for him the other full day. Thank you for his prayers for him and continue to lift him up – recovery is slow and steady, but still not fun.
3. Colby has been sick for the past 3 weeks now. I think he had a mild form of the flu I had, which turned into a double ear infection. He went to the doctor and was prescribed amoxicillin. This week he broke out in a horrible itching rash from head to toe and I worried beyond all worry that he had the measles. We took him to the doctor, and the bad news is, it turns out he has a pretty bad allergy of penicillin. The good news? He does NOT have the measles. So, now he’s on another med to try and get rid of the (ever-loving, ever-living, compound, complex) ear infection, and a steroid to get rid of the itching and rash. One of these days we’ll figure out how to be rid of sickness.
4. Kevin’s grandpa is in the hospital. This is fairly recent, and this comes after Kevin’s mom was in the hospital for a very complicated bladder infection. We are so glad she is doing [MUCH] better; now Kevin’s poor dad is taking up residence in the hospital rooms, looking after one and then the other. Please pray that our family will find some much-needed relief – emotionally, spiritually, physically.
I’m so glad the Groundhog Phil told us winter was over. My kids have really enjoyed playing outside and I have loved being outside as well. I am so thankful for all of you – family and friends who lift us up in prayer. Thank you for remembering us and for your encouraging words to us.
February 17th, 2011
by Jenna
Some of you have given me a pat on the back for how organized I am, but I’d say there’s always room for improvement, especially when younger children are underfoot. For Christmas I asked Kevin to clean out the garage and our master closet, and he immediately cleaned out the garage. The closet will take a little longer to do.
Our closet houses the gift wrapping supplies. Why? I really have no idea, other than the fact that the wrapping was stored in a bedroom closet [Colby's] in our old house, so I just moved it into our closet, which is the size of a college dorm room, no joke.
Here is a picture of the gift wrappings I’ve accumulated in 8.5 years of marriage.
A big mess. There’s an extra-large Ziploc bag full of wrapping paper and bows and boxes, 1 underbed storage box full of baby gift bags, 1 box full of tissue paper, and 2 hanging organizers full of birthday/gift bags. Too many containers. And, I haven’t touched some of the stuff in the Ziploc bag since we moved 18 months ago. I was inspired by my favorite new blog – iheartorganizing – and I realized I didn’t want all those containers to take up valuable real estate in our closet. Yes, we have room in that closet, but the space wasn’t being used efficiently.
So, I combined and threw away some things (just a few, but remember when you want to organize, you must always purge some). I definitely got rid of any tissue paper that was torn or bags/bows that were smushed. Here’s a picture of my [ever faithful, ever "present" - ha!] helper, Kennedy.
And, here’s my finished product. Ta-da!
I condensed 5 containers into 3 small ones and OH LOOK – I found a red bucket in that XL Ziploc bag – I totally forgot I had that bucket and now it holds the kids’ bath soaps.
Here’s an up-close picture of my success.
What I did:
1. I chose a longer box that would hold the wrapping paper rolls and the tissue paper.
2. I put the gift bags in the hanging boxes (not pictured in the close-up). Baby bags in one, birthday in the other.
3. I separated all the tissue paper into gallon-sized Ziploc bags, according to color. ROYGBIV worked for me!
4. I only spent 45 minutes, start to finish, and ZERO dollars to complete this project.
I’m proud of my accomplishment – even though it might not be life-changing, it feels good to be organized. I can’t wait to show pics of some other projects I’m taking on.
February 1st, 2011
by Jenna
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