Video Game Cords-before and after

I hate cords! They get all tangled! And our video games just got crazy! No one could play cause no one wanted to untangle them.
Well one day at Staples I found the Martha Stewart collection and found these cord labels/rubber band! Awesome!!
So before





-After





The little tags look like this





I have not labeled these cause I can't find my Sharpie marker.

I wonder what else I can use the for?

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Getting it Together

It always feels like at the beginning of the year you make all these plans of things you want to do, places you want to see, books you want to read, conversations you would like to have, people to met, rooms to organize.  And the more someone thinks about it, the more one can become very over whelmed! 

Yep just at the verge of over whelmed....but feel I will not be going over the edge.  I have learned to take things one day at a time, and to plan for things.  Having a plan is the key...So my plan for this year are:
-watch less TV and watch what I really want
-goto more movies
-take more walks (now that we have our new puppy this should help)
-make more of our meals
-so we can eat out less
-go on a cruise (ok that on is already planned)
-take a summer road trip (this one is not planned)
-read many books this year (in place of all that TV I am not going to watch)
-take time for my crafts, knitting, sewing and other DIY's
-have a super veggi garden
-grow cutting flowers
-get manicures and pedicures
-have a facial every now and then
-go on many dates with hubby
-get rid of lots of unneeded stuff
-scale down kids clothing-organize the stuff better
-ebay and sell some stuff
-Put Christmas stuff up in Jan (this is happening this Saturday!!)
-Blog and write more
-keep up with the DCE world (I may not be in a called position, but I am always a DCE and want to stay current)
-get an emergency kit and plan together
-write more letters
-send birthday cards
-organize and clean (never ending battle)
-have many more kisses and cuddles (ok from hubby and kids-must sneak them in cause soon they will be too big and cool!)
-Foster a few
-Make my kids laugh every day!
-scream less (every mom says this right!?:))
-Make lists and organize time better
-enjoy homeschooling and let my kids grow
-help church form a plan and goals starting with the board of education
-keep well informed on the election, but not caught up in all the crap
-Enjoy holidays-have fun with them
-focus all this around God, who gives me life and joy and peace and grace.

Nah I don't think this is too much!  Gives me a focus, a spot to hop from!  So come along with me this year as I hop through it!

Meals in Order part 1

Well I knew this year I wanted to trying new things to get us organized. First stop the kitchen! I have been looking at Pinterest for inspiration..and found plenty! First tacked the Tupperware cabinet
Before




After





Next spices-plus the cabinets around them which lead me to think of some thing I saw on Pinterest. So here are the before-













Something I found on the top shelf!





After









And for my meal planning area





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Before and after-kitchen

Ok, so in our house there is always dirty dishes! And even after I did this cleaning job, there where was cup thrown in by Jeremy. But I saw on Fly lady a video of before and after of a kitchen. It happens to us all! Before you know it, junk takes over, dirty dishes everywhere. So today in 2 hours ( dealing with kids mixed in) here is what I was able to do!

The before, morning dishes and a lot of junk sitting around.






One of the kids I deal with!!



20 minutes in



45 minutes in




Done!!








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Update on Fostering...

As some of you know, we have two little foster boys, 9 and 4.  They are brothers, from a sibling group of 5.  We have had Brandle for over two months now.  Michael just moved in last week unexpected then.  So far the transition with Michael has been good.  The kids play well together.  Well we do have spats now and then but what siblings don't!
 Having them has helped my kids grow a little too.  When Brandle moved in Robby and Isaiah were sleeping together.  While I was fine with it, Robby was not sleeping well cause Isaiah was hogging the bed and waking him up early.  We had bunk beds and Robby didn't want anything to do with the top bunk.  But when I told them Brandle was coming, they moved to their other beds with no problems.  Now since Michael has come, Isaiah has gotten a little bit better about staying in his bed.  I had heard Michael had issues with going to bed and staying in bed in the middle of the night.  So I knew I had to go in strong with a bed time rhythm.   On day four and so far we are good.  Michael is going to sleep in his bed and Isaiah is staying in his bed for the most part after we put him there.  AnnieQ has gotten other privileges since she is about 6 months older than the boys and the only girl in the bunch!  She is sharing the room with Michael and loving it.
While having now 6 kids comes with more laundry and making more food it hasn't been over whelming.  It is like a puzzle to see with system will work.
For example...getting 8 people out of the house on a Sunday...key put out clothes the night before.  This helps the flow of everything in the morning.  Now if I was more organized I would have the shoes laid out too, but instead I am messing around on the computer:)  
So we will get through the weekend and see how things go!
Happy 4th of July!

Keeping the House...

...One day at the time.  I love that saying...or maybe one moment at the time!!  That is the name of my new home journal notebook.
I love going to the web page Notebookingpages.  In it there are lots of great ideas for notebooks for the kids, young to old.    Since she follows much of what I believe in homeschooling I really have enjoyed her site.    She has had many freebies on it along with notebook pages you can purchase.
She has recently started a new adventure called the Home Organizations Notebook for us moms who are so totally not organized!!  When she announced this I just happen to pop over to her web site not knowing about this.  I was looking for calendars and a few other organizational forms just in her freebies.  And I found this....with gobs of forms and promises for new forms, I paid a small fee, but so worth it!
So I have created my journal...well I have the skeleton of it done.  (yes I know you all are thinking when did she do all this...I think same thing of you guys to, when do you do it all!!:):))  I have tabs for ...Homemaking-(cleaning and stuff like that), Family-(calendars), Business (For that business that is going to make a lot of money...any suggestions:)), Personal (my stuff, bible studies, prayer journals), Ministry-(I love this...cause I do lots at church),  Meals & Recipes, Financial (I don't to the bills, Dan does but I have some ideas for this area).

I still have much to do to organize this and as I do I will share with you all fun thing.  If you would like to check this out goto Mom's Tool Belt.  There are some free samples there for you to check out.  Let me know what you think.

So here is what's going on....

I realized I haven't blogged in a week or so.  Things are a little crazy here.  So here is what's going on...
1.  Dan and I had a wonderful vacation in Hawaii.  It was truly wonderful, but I am a sucker for the ocean and palm tree...or coconut trees.  And time with just Dan was needed.  With our crazy schedules it is good to find time alone to come together and reconnect.  But now we are back into full force with life here.
2.  Leila, our sweet foster baby girl, is making the transition to being with Grandma full time.  This we knew this was coming hopefully sooner than later and we are happy that grandma has finally made this leap of faith with her.  We will still have her a few days here and there, but it was time for that transition.  But even though you know it is coming, it is still hard and my heart hurts a little.  I miss her smile and laugh and her sweet curls.  And what I have learned from foster care is it is ok to feel that way.  Grieving is part of life and when you invest so much of your life into a little life, it is hard.   Working through it is healthy and makes you grow a little bit more.
3. We are starting home school in a week a half.  Because I have been so busy this summer I didn't get last year put away nor did I get a lot of planning done.  So this week I have been on full force to get my planning done.  I am hoping to blog about our homeschooling days on my other blog.  Hoping is the key!!
I stumbled upon a blog called homeschoolcreations.  It was great because it took many of my ideas I was trying to use and made them work.  I had read about workboxes last year and thought I need to use this system but not like it was laid out, adapted.  I started reading the way this family home-schools and a light bulb went on.  I have been working hard trying to get this all into place.  As I get more into place I will blog about it on my homeschooling blog.  I also have been organizing my homeschooling area. And since I have an extra student at home that brings me to 4.
4.  Due to certain circumstance which I don't want to blog about, as of yesterday we have withdrawn our 10th grader from Sparkman High to do home school.  While this was not in my plan (of course nothing is in my plan) it has thrown some new planning techniques into play.  I spent  a bit of time researching best options, curriculum and items needed.  Now I have to wait for things to get in so I can plan and organize them.  In the mean time, he is antsy. (Robby is antsy too!) So my goal is to find some things for him to keep him self occupied.
5.  Of course Dan is traveling again, which means we move back into the routine of him here and not and here and not.
6.  And as always the house doesn't clean it self and I need to get things rocking and rolling here.  It is time to get back into a schedule of cleaning for everyone, and since everyone is home all the time it is a constant event.  One day I will get that under control....ummm maybe when the kids leave!:)


Well just a little of what's is going on.  So for now I keep moving a long!!  Pray for me as our journey continues!!!!

Books, Books, Books

So I admit it. I love books. All kind of books. I want my kids to grow up surround with books. I have selves and selves of books. Sometimes I know I have too many books. But I love them. Todays task was to organize the kids books which were in boxes due to all the moving around we have been doing. So I took all the kids books and made them in piles on the school table. I had piles for:

• Board books
• Bible Books
• Learning books
• Hardback story books
• Hardback school story books
• Paper backs
• Chapter books
• and Readers

Plus any book that was torn or damaged we threw a way.

When I was done I had the board put in a little selves just the right size for the little kids. I put the Learning books, school story books, chapter books and readers on a self by the school room area. I put the paper backs, story books and Dr. Seuss books and all the bible books on two selves in the living room. Now all our books are organized and I can use the boxes they were stored in for other things.

I keep books for older kids on our built in selves in our living room. We are this much closer to finishing up moving rooms around.

List of other tasks that need done...

• Get Christmas boxes ready for Dan to put away.
• Clean out garage and organzie it. Maybe get car in.
• Finish getting room switched
• Put small clothing put away, or give away
• move dressers around
• too many more things!!

So I will just focus on those things