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.