The Playroom Projects

This room has undergone many changes. From a nursery to a home office, to a nursery AGAIN :) and then to a play room/classroom. I have recently started following Jen at iheartorganizing and am COMPLETELY addicted to all of her awesome organizing ideas. I don't know how she does it all. Literally for the first week after finding her blog I was hooked. Up all night just taking it all in and seeing how much she could do. I found inspiration. I realized I have a lot to learn! She is amazing and is so sweet. She and so many others have given me inspiration and SO many ideas on how to manage the clutter and make it pretty.

I cleaned the closets out and installed a snap-together wire shelf like this with 6 cubbies inside to wrangle most of the "odds and end" toys, completed art projects, paints/crayons, puzzles, blocks and much more. Having this shelf stowed away in the closet freed up a lot of space. I decided to buy another kit for our closet. I really got on this craze of just going through my whole house and purging. It was awesome. When I finished going through the cupboards, our master closet, the play room and the boys room I had a car load full of items that I just dropped off in the donation box at a local thrift store. I will tell you this made my day. My husband thought this was hilarious and thought I was nuts. What can I say. I get a little nuts about streamlining areas of our home.

As I was organizing and rearranging our playroom I realized I needed my desk in there. It has 9 drawers, which being in our room at the time, was hardly being used to its full potential. Meanwhile the play room was busting at the seams. There were so many things that needed a "home". A light bulb went off. My husband and I moved the desk into the play room. Voila! I had 5 extra drawers to stow glitter, small legos, small board books, scrap paper, bubbles, beans, not to mention stamps, envelops, electronic components and much more. I was ecstatic that I had discovered so much space!!

Lately I have been saving every soup can, yogurt cup and lid and plan on covering them in this cute paper I found from . It is the cutest paper in the world! I plan on making my own tags for the kids supplies and our familiies and to cover every last soup can in our house!

I found a used bulletin board and still need to finish painting it, but it is a huge help with having a theme every month for our daycare and enables us to imagine wonderful things and post them every month. The changing table serves its purpose as a diaper changing station but I also use the shelves to hold puzzles, books, extra diapers/wipes and clothes for other children. Under my desk I tuck a small curtain into the middle drawer and let the kids crawl inside and read books, play with a flashlight and have some alone time in this "hiding place". Its so cute and fills a purpose for when I'm not using it while sitting at the desk. This would definately qualify as using "every nook and cranny"!

I guess the main thing about organizing my life is that its one step at a time. Sometimes it can be overwhelming but I've started to really get that its always a work in progress and that there is joy and fun in the process. Its always fun to see ideas, plans and rooms or aspects of daily life work smoothly and efficiently!

Catching up with us

I can't believe its been a year since I created this blog. SO much has happened in that time. Little baby Peyton (not a baby anymore!) will be two in May and Gage will be four in June! James and I have been doing well and there were so many times this last year I wanted to sit down and write a boatload about what's been going on.. but what can I say! This year has been SO busy. For a while we had a very hectic schedule, (still do pretty much). It's basically me at home with the kids until 7 or 8 pm. Depending on the weather and work load that James has while commuting to work every day. The last and ONLY time I wrote it was a pretty tough stage in my life. I am convinced I was and still have those days of confinement. Being at home so much with the kids can be tough and monotonous, but around September last year I started using Mother Goose Curriculum with my children and daycare kids. That really helped to break up the day and get our schedule smoothed out. Plus I knew what to expect and had such an easier time planning my day. Peyton was 4 months old in my last entry. I know that at that time Peyton was not sleeping through the night and I was suffering most likely from Post Partum Depression. Since then our boys have grown so much and so have we. I will tell you, we have more reward charts, potty charts and routine charts than I ever imagined to keep our day organized and consistant, but hey it works! During this time, I have spent a lot of time gleaning from other's blogs, getting an idea of what I would like mine to be like, and learning more and more about efficient ways to run my household in a more organized manner now with a growing family and growing business.

The Christmas before last, my husband found his dream job and was exactly what we needed for our family.  Everything he had been working towards led him to this moment. All the long nights of work and cutting a path of our own proved to be worth it. This year and a 1/2 has been one of trememdous growth and stretching!!! I could go on and on right now but I think at the moment I'll share some photos of our family and what we've been up to!

being real

For weeks, I've been thinking about what I would write about in my first blog post, and I have to tell you - there is so much I want to "jot" down and I've been sitting here for a while, wondering, "Where do I start?". There are so many wonderful moments and ideas, and things that we do that I think, "This will definitely be in the blog!" but then I rarely get a chance just to - sit.  And honestly I've been pretty hard on myself. I write in my journal every couple of months when something major happens, but other than that, nada. So this is my attempt to really just sit and write and share my heart.



I am SO sorry that this first post is not all flowery and fun. Its totally not what I expected it would be. Today was a pretty hard day for me. I guess you could call it lack of sleep (one gets up to nurse sometimes once or twice and one wants to climb into bed a few times a night) paired with trying to roll with the punches of life and feeling really beat down. I am completely committed to Jesus and I follow him and love Him with all my heart. But today, my faith was definitely being tested. God is shaping me into the woman he wants me to be, but being shaped doesn't always feel good, ya know?? :) I thought, is this worth it?? Trusting in You? Have You forgotten about us? This is all so hard to say and confess. But this is real and God knows me through and through. And I know it was in a moment.. well more than a "moment", how about two hours of weakness when I really had to sit down and talk to my Dad and vent to Him.  I think it is so important to just be real with God in my relationship, and man, was I more real than I ever wanted to be. More than I ever expected. The old me was "shining" through, but he is my Father and loves me.. even more than I love my own children. Just like I love them no matter what, even when they don't understand and have tantrums. Yes, that was me today. This life is hard. There are so many blessings, and in my "moment" of weakness I let myself forget about the good, and just felt like I couldn't take it anymore. The constant rat race. Going to sleep and waking up exhausted and worn. Wanting to shut out from everything on a day like this where everything comes at you at once. Making one sacrifice after another and feeling like... does anyone see me or notice? 


I have two B-U-TI-FUL boys - Remington is 2 and Peyton is 4 months old and is also tied to me in the bonds of the milk wagon. I would not have it any other way. Ahaha. I LOVE being a mommy and right now they need me more than ever. Being a mom was what I was born to do. Its my calling. I own my own daycare as well and its so fulfilling - getting to be apart of so many special people's lives while being so involved with my children and stay home with them and raising them. But any new mom or mom of young ones knows exactly what I'm talking about. I love my family with ALL that I am, but seriously. I NEED TO GET OUT sometimes. And right now, we don't have a working car so really I'm stuck in the house all week and my few outings are church and the grocery store! One day I was with my mother in "love" (how cute is that?) and we were talking about gettin some coffee. I jumped up and said, "I'll go, I'll go!!" Peyton was fed and napping so it was perfect. I couldn't believe how excited I was to go get in the car, (by myself!) with out worrying about car seats or gathering up the babes. I was gone in a flash and I felt so rebellious! 


I love and appreciate my husband and I know he needs his time away as well. He works so hard to provide for his family and we've faced so many uphill battles. I know he is worn down too. His friends have started playing basket ball twice a week and James really enjoys it when he gets to go. I think its awesome that he's found something that he likes to do and can just GO and do it just for him. But that jealousy comes up in me and I think, "must be nice that he can go and doesn't need to take the kids!" and then I also think, "He needs this." So I am at odds within myself. I never want to be a controlling wife or person but you know, women have this tendency! But sometimes I tell him, you know, today has been really tough and I need your help. Can you please stay home? He always stays when I ask him and I'm so thankful for that. I'm so glad we have also made some amazing friends with a few "couples" who have young children who understand completely what we are going through - the balancing act, responsibilities and the pressures of life and providing for your family.


Well, I should get to bed... Peyton will be up in a few hours to eat! Please understand that I don't mean to whine and complain, but you know... I think people need to be real and honest. I know tomorrow, I will wake up and God will give me strength and joy. It will be a new day, I can't wait to wake up to my hubby and babies' smiling faces. Goodnight :)

Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22