Under Construction…Always!

Okay, So I am fully aware that this is a less than flattering picture of myself, but it adequately depicts how I feel about the state of our house. Insert high pitched shriek. I’m sure it is mostly a bit of cabin fever ready for a healthy dose of some massive spring cleaning, but for goodness sakes!!!!! So. much. stuff.

Being “organized” seems so short lived in our home.  I feel I’ve been mislead, that once you get organized that is it, everything has a place and all is wonderful in the world. The problem seems to be that it only lasts as long as the stuff that you need to organize does. For instance we have our garage organized with shelves and totes, but what needs to be in some of  those totes continuously changes as do the other items in the garage.  So the trick is having the time to sort and label the items to go in the bins. And until then things just get shoved everywhere. Much with our closets in our home, everything can be folded and put in its place but after a couple months everything seems to be everywhere. Maybe I’m not as organized as I think I am? All I know is everything is everywhere and I need the garage organized before I can move things out there, and it is too cold to do that so everything seems to be “under construction” until the weather improves.

As if getting everything together wasn’t enough, we are also working on painting the interior of our home. We have opted for a slow but steady option, I say this because mostly the Hubs may leave if I asked him to tackle it all at once.  Mostly because I haven’t figured out how to do the painting and watch 3 children by myself.  So we have painted a little of the trim and doors every weekend over the last month or so and then we will paint the walls.  It hasn’t been decided if this really is the best way to carry this out, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. So now we have stuff everywhere and partially painted walls.

 

Zippercow thought it would be best to paint our test spot in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Mostly because he can’t handle a random square on the wall. So we have this green over the pantry door, and a tan color in our dining room and kitchen. I promise pictures when we finish!

Here is our messy living room with partially painted trim down the hall. We are almost done with all the doors and trim in the hall.

So as you can see we have a lot of work ahead of us,  but I really wanted to share our progress with everyone. Why? Because when it is all done it will seem that much more fabulous!!! So over the next couple of days I will be posting pictures of our home in its pre-spring cleaning state and then (of course!) share the after pictures. I will tell you one thing, taking time to organize is always worth it, because it makes re-organizing  that much easier. Welcome to our decrapification!!!

A Proper Goodbye

I like to pretend that I don’t get attached to material things and I like to think that I am pretty good at letting go of the things we no longer need. But then we had our last baby. Now every time our Littlest Moo grows out of something I get a little sad when I think of parting with it. Like the cute little onesies  he wore as a newborn. Or the ones that both he and Little Moo wore. Those are hard. But of course there are a few things that we are ready to get rid of that we won’t be sad about. Like the baby bathtub. Those things are so huge and ridiculous and in a small house there really is no where to store it. man am I glad he no longer needs that thing! Also the baby swing. While a dear friend to us in his early months it takes up tons of floor space which is at a premium in our house so we were not sad to see it go!

I thought that I’d post to pay homage to those baby items in our home that served us well and deserve a proper send off.  These items being the cutest and most importantly served to make parenting just a teensie bit easier.

One of our favorite baby item was this bouncy chair. Zippercow and I still say it is the BEST $25 we ever spent! It was the ONLY place that I could put Little Moo down when he was a baby that he wouldn’t scream like a banshee and sometimes he’d even nap in it allowing precious moments to use the bathroom and brush last weeks morning breath away.

This is the magic baby chair.

It once had a toy bar

with cute little giraffes and a little blue ball.

It has served this household well

Both Little and Littlest Moo loved this chair! I wanted to cry when it was time to throw it out. Sadly it was too loved to pass on to someone else as you can probably see from the pictures above. The toy bar would not stay screwed on and the fabric was tearing. But it made it through my two kids and my niece so it seemed right to retire it. Still, it was hard to say goodbye. It just seemed…wrong. 

So how about you? Do you have a much beloved baby item that you just can’t  part with? Maybe you’ve already gotten rid of it but it made you sad to do so? Share!

I’m High-Jacking Our Blog!

The Zippercow so rarely did anything with our blog previously and we only used it to update friends and family on our little family, but now there is facebook so... As some may be aware I’m not the greatest at keeping our blog going, but this time will be different (I’m serious!). I felt our family blog in its previous form read more like the holiday letter that everyone sends out every year. My hope is to have more of my style (I know, I know, who needs that right?) honest mom moments, how we save money,  inexpensive decorating ideas and anything else my crazy brain comes up with. Zippercow may add his input  from time to time but mostly you just get me, and you know you love it!

A Little Sunshine

Look at this little sunshine! It is so smiley and unassuming. You would never know the evil things it is capable of. You might ask, "How can such a cute little sunshine toy be anything but cute?" Oh let me tell you!

We were fortunate enough to have some nice friends loan us their excersaucer for our Littlest Moo to use. And man does he love to sit in it and play! But I recently discovered the little sunshine is not so sweet and sunny because he doubles as a spit sling shot. Sadly our Littlest Moo spits up quite a bit (much like Little Moo did) so while he's playing he spits up and we wipe it up. Littlest Moo finds this little sunny guy the most appealing and can often be seen chewing away on it, which requires him to bend it towards him. Well sometimes he spits up and before we can get to him to clean it up he will have gotten some of the spit up all over this sunny little face and then it will slip out of his hands. But don't you worry, the sunshine shares!As he snaps himself into his upright position he flings all of that lovely spit up all over my living room. Yes, baby vomit in little specks all over my living room.not cool! I didn't realize how bad it was until the other day I found spots of orange on my couch in a couple places. I don't let the little kids snack in the living room so I had to ponder for a few minutes before realizing it was regurgitated carrots that was all over my couch.FAIL. So unassuming he is, just politely smiling. I'd consider taking it off but again, it is Littlest Moos favorite and how can you deny such a sweet face a little sun? So instead we just take cover from the sun.