weekend with friends and family - post 1

I did not think it was possible to pack so much fun and love into 36 hours. We spent Friday and Saturday in NC - first visiting good friends and then having a great time at a family reunion at my cousin's house.

The boys collected nuts and practiced their aim with the slingshot.



Meanwhile, the girls thought the trampoline looked like fun. Amanda's hair went everywhere!

First it was just the two little girls. I thought that was fine.

Then, Bethany joined in on the fun. She was so careful and protective of the little ones.

It didn't take long for the boys to want to join in. So, while the girls bounced and flipped, the boys had a sword fight. It was wild and made my heart flutter. Nobody wanted to get off.



But I eventually convinced the girls to play something a little closer to the ground.






Isn't Bethany beautiful? And so smart. Once the rope that she was pulling broke, she figured out how to tie it to her tricycle and pull the wagon that way.


The newest member of the family is little Caroline Rose. She was a little baby doll.


The boys loved Joseph's toys. Here Andrew is learning how to play Battleship and Scott has found some Lego's.



Best buddies...


All seven - it sure does make a big crowd on the steps.

Family Day Activities

After a week of being apart and out of town, we are having a family fun day. We began the day by sleeping late and eating pancakes. The boys decided to work on their science kit and we had bubbles galore! Even Amanda and Daddy got in on the action. Now Amanda is asleep and the boys are helping Derrick build cannons for the pirate ship. Later we'll watch a movie and have popcorn for dinner. I love days like today. (Oh, and we are also unpacking, running laundry, unloading the dishwasher, etc.)

the office

Wednesday was cleaning club at my house, so I spend Tuesday night cleaning the house! How's that for irony? Actually, cleaning club is a great excuse for making my home clean. I love the way it feels to have a kind of clean home and a REALLY clean room. I do the "kind of clean" stuff before everyone gets here and we really clean one room together.

I thought we may tackle the office, but Amanda obviously had different thoughts about cleaning club. She spent time Wednesday afternoon unloading kitchen cabinets. They were on my list, but much further down it.





It was just as well, because it gave me an excuse to organize the plastic storage containers and match lids with bottoms. Thanks Amanda!



I'm almost embarrassed to show these pictures. The office is the room where all junk is collected. These before pictures aren't quite as bad as they look, but the office was too cluttered to get anything done. I was overwhelmed, but Alisa got right to work. With our babies on our backs (in the Ergos), we started organizing.



I was really sad that Andrea's kids were sick and they could not come. But probably not as sad as my little Andrew, who had been looking forward to Joshua's visit for quite some time.

(here is another before picture).

After only an hour or so of work, this was the finished product! What I love the most is the clean table top - my *new* craft area!! Alisa suggested I plunk my sewing machine right in the middle of it, to prevent me from filling it with all kinds of junk.

I also love what you can't see in this picture - the drawers are organized with all kinds of crafts supplies and treasures for long car rides. Before everything was just thrown in the drawers. Now I can see exactly what I have.



In the corner, we have our scarves, hats and gloves neatly stored and the soccer basket ready to go!


Thank you for your help, Alisa!

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering how much *cleaning* can occur with five kids playing, here is the "after" picture of the living room. It looks messy, but really was only three containers worth of toys. Five minutes later, everything was put away.

I love when Bradford and McCance come to visit. They always revive our toys that haven't been played with in so long. Now, the train tracks and cars are a favorite again in our house.

Pantry and Plates--March 31st

On my list for today was my pantry. It was basically organized, but things had gotten jumbled and shelves needed wiped and labels needed to be made. We jumped right in and, therefore, forgot before pictures. But here's after!


And here's Beautiful, Busy Girl, Amanda.


And Cora ready to eat. We missed Andrea, Joshua, and Jeremiah this day. They had a few prior commitments.
The last thing we did were the plates. License plates, that is. Scott has a collection, and had talked about selling a lot of them. Neither of us had gotten around to taking pictures, so Leslie sorted them by date and I took pictures and posted on Craigslist. Only one dead end response thus far, so I'll likely have to resort to eBay.

Andrea's House

My son, Andrew, has been waiting for weeks to go to Andrea's house to play (really, he calls it Joshua's house.) Evidently, their Sunday School conversation is full of superhero discussions and Andrew couldn't wait to see Joshua's superhero toys.

He was in the car early, strapped in and ready to go. And, he was not disappointed. The boys had a great time dressing up. Andrew even came home with a costume that was too small for Joshua.



For the record, he wore it to dinner and is now sleeping in it!

Yes, we did clean while the boys played. Alisa has the photos on her camera. All in all, it was a very successful day.

And here are the photos!! Andrea wanted to tackle her attic space. Once she arrives, she can tell you all about it. For now. . .

view 1--before

view 2--before

Jeremiah's room was our place to go through stuff. We had a keep pile, give away pile, and a newly organized-ready-to-go-back-in-the-attic pile! Amanda tried so hard to help.

Sweet Herschel did what he does best: plop down on the floor in the middle of it all
and look cute and let the babies climb over him.

Meanwhile the boys saved the world in Joshua's room.

We only organized the attic. Here's view 1-after.

View 2-after

View 3-after

Organizing Cabinets and Mopping the Floor

Our first day of the Cleaning Crew went well! It was like a well-organized playdate not only for the kiddos but for the grown-ups too. We may not have looked our sounded organized the entire time, but we kept our focus on the final goal and made sure our children didn't draw blood from one another and/or the babies diapers stayed clean and dry all at the same time!


My friend, Tracy, asked if having all the kids there canceled out the cleaning and organizing accomplishments since having a bunch of kids means chaos and messiness. Well, I laid down the kid rules from the start. They could play in the den. That's all. So the mess they made was contained. It was mainly toys all over the room. There were 4 boys--so they were throwing soft balls, playing super hero and so forth. Also a 16 month old, so random toys of Cora's all around, but all easy to pick up and put in the proper basket. They boys picked up their things before they snacked and then watched a video. I did a 5 minute pick up after everyone left and vacuumed. But I vacuum everyday anyway since we have a furry dog. So the answer is, yes. It was worth it. The company, the fellowship, the friendship, the joy of watching our kids play together. . . oh, and the final product. . . which I will show off here.

I didn't remember to take before pictures. I got a bit off-task since the electricity went off right before everyone arrived. But it was definitely in more of a disarray. I will try to be more disciplined in documenting from now on. I'll even show the play area next post! But here is the final product. (See clean floor above.)

My cookbooks and recipe boxes and the "mini-buffet"
The cabinets below are the one that were organized.

inside the cabinet are now only kitchen-related items--ones that get used only occasionally

The top few shelves of the linen closet--sheets, Christmas linens, pillowcases, rags, hole punch and tape gun, and Scott's car cleaning rag shelf!

And at the bottom--board games and the little hand broom
I'm hoping that the games will be a bit more accessible here,
and, thus, we will play them more often!

Mastering the Clutter

Here we are...just trying to get a grip on the housework and have some fun with friends. We'll see how it goes.