Project Simplify {Week 4}

This is the last week for Simple Mom's Project Simplify challenge.  This week was a "Choose Your Own Adventure" week so I chose this horrendous storage area... 

Yikes!  This is the area that things just get shoved into when I don't know where to put them.  This is also why I HATE crafting.  Ya'll, I have no idea where to put crafting stuff.  It just gets out of hand.  Also, wrapping materials always through me for a loop.  I don't know how to keep it organized either.  So anyway, the above is the result of crafting and wrapping (plus other random objects) gone crazy.

Cleaning out and organizing can be a little intense when you are in the thick of it!

(Note the baby on the changing pad by the door.  In my cleaning out I found the little case and changing pad that I use to keep in the diaper bag.  It's now one of E's all time favorite toys.  She loves pulling it out and changing her baby's daiper!)

And here's the after!  Much better if I say so myself!

Today I decided to organize our little pantry.  I didn't get to the pantry a couple of weeks ago when that was one of the suggested areas.  Better late than never, I suppose.  I forgot to take a before picture, but here's the after.  You'll have to take my word on the fact that it's MUCH better!

Ellington and I have had a week.  A week I tell ya.  That could be a whole other post in itself.  I REALLY needed her to be somewhat pleasantly occupied while I was working on the pantry.  I found a box of noodles that was the result of a trip to the grocery store without a plan.  You know those shopping trips?  You spend a bunch of money and then you have nothing to eat?  (Luckily that doesn't happen much around here anymore)  Anyway...I decided to let Ellington play with it.  I poured it out and she went to town with various bowls, measuring cups, etc.  Just thought I would share the idea!

I am a little sad Project Simplify is coming to an end.  It's been fun!  I have had a ton of visitors from Simple Mom's site and I am glad ya'll have stopped in!  Feel free to leave a comment.  I would love to visit your blog as well!

Kitty Goes Potty

At least someone in this house will sit on the little potty... 

I overheard Ellington playing earlier and as it turns out, she was letting her animals take turns going potty.  When I took Jingle's picture (that's the cat's name), Ellington couldn't be left out!

We bought the potty back at the beginning of the month.  The first time I put it in the bathroom I was running E's water for her bath.  I thought I would just try letting her sit on it and low and behold...she used the potty!  It was VERY exciting!  At that point I thought "Wow, this is going to be really easy".  Well, she has not used it again. :)  Ha.  My plan is to just put her in panties one day and we won't turn back.  Originally, I was going to do it during Spring Break but since we were traveling the second weekend of the break, I thought maybe that wouldn't be the best idea.  So, I'm just going to pick a time and do it...eventually. :)  I am not the type that likes to push Ellington to the next big thing.  She still sleeps in a crib, eats in a highchair, and wears diapers.  I'm ok with all of that and she is too.  But the potty is definitely the next big thing we'll be doing.  I'll keep you posted!

A Case of the Sickies

We had a pretty low key weekend which was nice and much needed. Robert had to work, but I don't suppose that's too newsworthy anymore.  We've got a sick little girl on our hands now though. :(  Last night about 12:15 Ellington threw up in her bed.  I have always feared this happening on a night Robert is working.  Amazingly, anytime that it's happened before (and it's happened a handful of times), Robert has always been here to help.  I say "amazingly" because he is almost never here at night.  In fact, Saturday night we were laying in bed and we realized it was the first time that we had both been in our bed in the same night in THREE weeks.  Crazy.  Anyway, I had to get to the business of cleaning up Ellington, stripping the bed, and giving her a bath.  It was all in her hair.  Sorry.  Too much information.  The hardest part of the whole ordeal was trying to get a clean sheet back on her bed.  I broke out into a sweat at that point.  Robert always does the sheet because I CANNOT do it for some reason.  Anyway, I got her settled back down and a little bit later she got sick again.  Luckily it wasn't as bad this time and it only required a new blanket and new pjs.  

Unfortunately, even though I was up most of the night and I knew I wouldn't be going to work I couldn't sleep in because I had to be up early to try to find a substitute.  I fully expected E to be completely fine when she woke up.  It's not unusual for her to get sick in the night and then have no problems the next day.  In fact, I took a shower with the full intention of spending the morning at the park.

When Ellington finally woke up at 9:00 she was running fever. :(  It was 102-103ish all morning.  So we snuggled on the couch and watched about a million cartoons.  The picture below was taken at a point in the morning when she was feeling sort of ok.

Well, she just woke up from her afternoon nap.  I hope she's feeling much better after some rest!  Even though this wasn't the day I had planned, I have enjoyed snuggling with my girl.  I am so happy that I get to be the one who gets to take care of her!

Project Simplify {Week 3}

This week's Project Simplify at Simple Mom had us focusing on drawers, counter tops, and closets.  I decided to chose one and tackle it specifically.  Our house is old and therefor has very little storage.  I use the closet in our room, Robert uses the closet in Ellington's room, and Ellington has a small armoire.   I have recently bought a ton of summer stuff from a friend and had a few other things I had bought from a couple of stores.  Since E has such limited "closet" space and I wasn't 100% sure that cold weather was gone for good her summer stuff ended up like this....

It was quite a mess to say the least, but as you can see there was NO room in the closet.  The pile above had also been much larger.  She had recently worn some of the clothes so they were in the laundry basket!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to just go ahead and pull out fall and winter stuff to make room for summer clothes.  I left a few cold weather items in, just in case we have a chilly day.  I felt SO much better once I got rid of that pile!

And here is the closet with summer stuff all ready to go!  Lots of gingham and seersucker!  I LOVE it! :)

Several weeks ago I also began major work on my closet.  About 90% of what I have doesn't fit or is old (like from college) and not something I want to wear.  I took a bunch of stuff to a local consignment store and I am currently working on pairing my closet down even more.  I literally have about two pair of shorts (that I bought before our zoo trip that never happened) about about three shirts that fit.  I don't like clothes shopping for myself (it REALLY stresses me out), but I think it's going to be necessary soon!

If you have a drawer, counter top, or closet that needs some attention...tackle it!  You will be glad you did!

A Table, Sno-Cones, and Picture Day

We had been planning on getting Ellington a little table with chairs with some money that she got for Christmas.  I spent a ton of time searching the internet for what I wanted...size, color, price, reviews, etc. etc.  I just kept putting off ordering anything because I was never 100% sure of my decision.  I REALLY wanted to decide and order something before the summer got here.  I want to do a good bit of "school" type activities with E this summer and our current activity/art spot has been on the floor...which isn't always the best.  Anyway, when we went to Memphis last weekend we went to Pottery Barn Outlet (like always) and found the PERFECT table!!!  Some great things about this table as compared to the one I was going to order...it's longer (the other one was square and this is rectangular), it's taller (so that she can grow into it), and it's better quality (while I don't usually care for PB prices...the quality is definitely top notch).  Also, the price on this table??!!... super affordable and about the same as the smaller, poorer quality one I was going to buy.   Then came the situation of chairs.  I really wanted 4 chairs.  Obviously we don't need 4 chairs day to day, but I thought it would come in handy for play dates, birthday parties, and future children!  They had only two of the pink chairs you see below, but plenty of these precious red old school house type chairs.  The school chairs were $99 for two.  And well, we couldn't afford to buy four.  Ultimately we decided to go with the pink ones because we thought if one day we wanted to get two other wood chairs (even if they weren't an exact match) we could always paint all of the chairs the same color.  Then...I remembered that I got two little wooden rounded back chairs from our daycare when they were getting rid of them!  They are in storage in Philadelphia, but we can get them when we need them!  Hooray!  

Robert put the table together one night after E went to bed.  Of course when she saw it in the morning she wanted to eat her breakfast there!

Another good thing is that I can also sit comfortably at the table too!  Her feet don't even almost touch the floor yet so she's got plenty of growing room.  I am so happy about that fact especially if we end up homeschooling.  It will work perfectly for quite awhile!

On Tuesday afternoon we had NO food in this house.  The fridge and cabinets were bare.  We didn't even have bread.  Also the laundry needed to be done and the house needed an overall organizational sweep.  So what did we do???  

We went to get sno-cones and to the park! :)

Sometimes on a beautiful Spring day, it's totally ok to run away from your responsibilities!

Groceries have since been bought, laundry has been done, and the house is pretty tidy.  I am glad we pretended like all of that didn't exist for an afternoon. :)

Wednesday was class picture day at school.  Yes, that is my child with a big bow and collared shirt ready for preschool.  Yes, we live in the South. :)

I love dressing Ellington in a way that most people would consider a little too "frilly".  Actually I LOVE it.  It's funny to me that in some parts of the country (and even to some people here), that it's a little ridiculous.  I almost never put Ellington in jeans because I think it makes her look too old.  She's maybe worn jeans five times this fall/winter.  And if we have a boy one day, I fully intend to dress him like this while he's little too!  They are only little once, after all. 

Spring Break {The End}

The last weekend of Spring Break we went to MiMi and Big Bob's house to celebrate the "March Birthdays".  Julie, Laura, Big Bob, and Jake all have birthdays in March.  This particular weekend, Big Bob got extra special attention since he turned 60 this year!  Saturday was all about celebrating his birthday. 

Saturday morning we started off with a little cooking contest.  Big Bob loves to cook so we thought it would be a fun thing to do!  There were competitions ranging from stacking measuring cups (that was Ellington's job!)...to juicing oranges and peeling potatoes! 

Ellington was SO PROUD when everyone was cheering for her! :)

Big Bob killed us!!!  I think he won them all...maybe there was a tie on one?  Either way...we didn't stand a chance!

These two had a blast together!

Big Bob's party decorations

We all wrote funny stories/happy memories and Julie made a book.  There were 60 memories to read and enjoy!

This was the first time that we had a kid's table.  They LOVED eating at their own table together.  

Reading with MiMi Saturday afternoon

Saturday evening we all went to Jackson, TN to play put-put and eat supper.  I came in last place.  Ha!  Thankfully, that does not include Ellington's score, but it does include Connor's!  I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures from that outing.

Sunday morning we all went to church and despite a few tears when being dropped off, Ellington did great in the nursery!

Saturday at lunch we celebrated Laura, Julie, and Jake's birthdays with cake and presents!

This picture is a little out of order, but here we all are!  I think this picture turned out great!

And there you have it....Spring Break 2012.

Spring Break {The Middle}

On Thursday of Spring Break Robert, Ellington, and I took a mini one night vacation.  Robert had to take off work Thursday night to ensure that he wouldn't have to work Friday night...thereby ensuring that we could go to Brownsville for the weekend.  I know that seems crazy, but anyway.  Since he was already taking off we decided to try to have a little family getaway since our time together can be rare.  We decided we would go to Memphis on Thursday afternoon, do a little shopping that night, and then go to the zoo on Friday morning.  We were REALLY excited about having time together for just the three of us. Thursday afternoon was BEAUTIFUL and we had the best time together.  We knew there was a chance of rain on Friday, but we were hopeful.

Thursday night at the hotel, Robert got up to use the restroom about 2:00 and discovered that Ellington was awake.  We have NO idea how long she had been awake, but it had obviously been awhile because she was VERY awake.  She was soooo excited about the zoo.  She didn't go back to sleep until 4:30 am.  I constantly checked the weather during the whole time and after we woke up for the day.  It was storming terribly, but we thought it would eventually pass.

Here we are in the hotel room...hoping the storm will pass quickly

We realized that there was no immediate chance of being able to go to the zoo so we decided to go to the mall so that Ellington could play.  Our back up plan had been to go to the Children's Museum, but I knew with it being Spring Break and stormy that it would be packed and probably not worth going.  Plus...we still had high hopes of going to the zoo!

When we first got there, there were only a couple of kids playing but literally within about 10 minutes it was swamped...and not so much fun anymore.

Then we took Ellington to ride the merry-go-round.  She was THRILLED!

After playing and lunch at the mall it was very obvious that the zoo was NOT going to be happening.  It was sooooo disappointing.  Time together is so rare that I really hated that our plans didn't work out.  Also, it was suppose to be 80 on Friday so we were all dressed in shorts.  Instead it was 60 and we got soaken wet every time we got in and out of the car.  BRRRR.  We really did have fun together though and we made an awesome purchase Thursday evening that I will post about soon!

After our failed morning we needed E to take a nap before going to Big Bob & MiMi's.  We cruised the interstate for about and hour and a half while she slept.

Stay tuned!

Spring Break - The Beginning

Last week was our Spring Break and even though we only go to school three mornings a week, it was much needed!  I'm going to break up our week into three posts because it's quite a lot to fit into one!  

The first weekend of Spring Break, Ellington and I went to Philadelphia on Saturday.  We had to take Gus to my parents and Reagan was going to be there that weekend so we decided to go too.  Robert of course had to work the weekend so he missed out on the fun.

Ellington loves playing with Reagan!

 

Reagan got E this adorable bunny mask :)

My Mom got Ellington a new baby doll and every time I saw it out of the corner of my eye I thought it was real.  Even when I see this picture I sometimes think it's a real baby!  Ha.  I have no idea why!

Sunday morning before church

(Ellington and I drove back to Starkville Sunday morning so we could meet Robert at our church)

Sunday evening we hosted our small group at our house.  Ellington eagerly waited at the door.

Ellington and Wade played while we waited on everyone else to arrive.  

We spent a couple of mornings in our pjs!

Ellington did a little painting...

and played in the sink!

(By the way, she LOVED this activity!  She stood there playing for about 45 minutes!)

We really enjoyed the break from school.  Thursday morning Ellington and I went to Columbus to a consignment sale...or, that was the plan anyway.  It was in a new location and we got lost trying to find it.  We were leaving to go out of town Thursday so I didn't really have time to get un-lost and keep looking.  It was very frustrating because I was really excited about going to the sale.  Robert was probably happy that I didn't find it. :)

The rest of our week will be coming soon!