Living Room Makeover!

So I've been on a little bit of an organizing kick lately. I've been getting overwhelmed with clutter, and I realized that part of the reason I spend my whole day cleaning up is because we have too much STUFF to clean up! The less stuff you have, the less you have to clean, right? So I've been getting rid of tons of stuff and it feels AMAZING!

I also think that living in a neat, organized place can do a lot for your mental health. For example, I feel much less frazzled in the mornings when I give the kids breakfast in a neat, clean kitchen as opposed to a dirty kitchen with dishes in the sink and Cheerios all over the floor. And when I look around at my house and everything is nice and neat, it puts me in a nice, organized, neat mood and I'm much less likely to snap at one of the hooligans children.

The problem is that I'm busy. And lazy. Really I'm both. I don't want to spend all my "down time" after the kids are in bed cleaning and organizing, but I also don't want a messy house. So I have found a solution to this problem......

Sleep less.

Nope. I'm not kidding. For the past 2 weeks, maybe longer, I've been going to sleep really late. Like...around 2 AM. Baby E still wakes up at least once a night and then gets up for the day between 7 and 8 so I'm not quite sure how I'm functioning but I'm not questioning it! I'm just running with it! So...let me show you what I've been doing all night long. I'm so happy that I'm twitchy.

Here is our sort of cluttered living room. Note the bare walls. They've been bare since we had the walls pained exactly a year ago and I've been having commitment issues about hanging pictures back up.

Note the books on one table, andHubby's exercise stuff on another. No coffee table. (It was in the den where it was being used as a sort of second couch. The kids like to sit on it to play Wii).

We don't have a garage. Or a mud room or anything of the sort. So our bikes, and strollers, and other such stuff lives in our living room. (not pictured...off to the right side of this pic). It makes me crazy, but we don't have a choice, so I need the living room to be void of other unnecessary clutter so I can feel better about the strollers and bikes.

So I decided to go on a mission. I went to Michaels and bought a gazillion bins. Luckily, there were a ton of bins on clearance so it worked out well. I came home and got right to work. I was so excited.

First I put Hubby's exercise stuff in his bin and stashed it under one of the side tables.

Then I moved the coffee table back into the living room and put three bins underneath it. Those are for the books that used to live in full view on the other end table.

And then I did my biggest project.....I finally hung pictures on the wall. At Michaels, I bought 8 identical frames. Then I picked my favorite pictures of the kids and sent them on over to Walgreens, where they're having a nice sale on prints. Then I went right on over, picked up the prints and brought them home to frame and hang up. Walgreens photo center is good for my instant gratification issues.

Hello, my pretties.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Final picture. Please ignore the teeny problem of the pictures not being hung perfectly symmetrically. I can't think about it. It makes me feel anxious.

So, whaddya think? Worth losing some sleep over?

Swimming lessons

During the 2 weeks after school ended before camp started, I took advantage of the unstructured time to schedule some swimming lessons from the boys. The lessons were wonderful and the boys learned a lot and had a great time.

I, on the other hand, didn't have the best time....because I spent the entire lesson trying to keep a certain 3 year old and 10 month old from jumping into the pool.

T was soooooo jealous of her brothers' swim lessons. Unfortunately, she was too young to take lessons there, and she gets lessons in camp, so I wasn't going to sign her up somewhere else. So she had to sit there and watch them. Of course we ate snacks, and colored, and played games....but she really wanted to be in that water.

In any case, after the two weeks of hell lessons, the kids started camp and all was good in the world.

Now, you may remember from last year that I have a happy place in the summer. It's called the pool. I love the pool. The pool is divine. And I take the kids to the pool after camp a few times a week...basically every day that it's sunny and hot. Which isn't always the case in this crazy city, but we usually get at least three afternoons a week at the pool.

The boys like the pool, but T LOVES the pool. She could seriously stay there ALL DAY.

In the beginning of the summer, she didn't really swim. She just played. She's only three, and swimming lessons for three year olds basically cover

1) Getting in the pool without crying

2) Putting your face in the water without crying

3) Letting the swim teacher drag you around in the water without digging your fingernails into her arms in fear

But now that the summer is more than half over (SOB) and she has spent a lot of time in the pool, she has become much more comfortable in the water and jumps in, puts her face in the water, she can front and back float for a few seconds, etc...

But still - she doesn't know any strokes or anything like that.

Except for last week, she said to me, "Mommy, watch me swim!"

And then she did this:

Apparently, she was watching those swimming lessons the boys had, because T seems to have taught herself the front crawl. Her front crawl sort of makes it seem like there's a shark chasing her. It is quite possibly the most frantic and least effective front crawl I've ever seen. She uses all her energy and moves maybe three inches.

But let me tell you, it never gets old watching it. I cry from laughter every time. And then I say, "Awesome swimming, T!" And then I post it to Facebook so everyone else can laugh too.

Oh, T. She's so cute.

Family planning with the experts

At the library one afternoon, with all the kids....

D: Can you carry me?

Me: No, sweetie. Sorry, but I have to carry E. And anyway, you're 7 years old, you're not a baby!

D: I want to be a baby.

Me: You know, you got to the be the baby of our family for the longest of all the kids. You were the baby for 3 1/2 years. K was only the baby for a year and T was the baby for a little less than 3 years.

K: I bet E will be the baby for longest.

Me: Oh yeah?

K: Yeah. I dont think you're going to have any more kids.

D: Yeah, me either.

Me: Why not?

D: You've already got a lot of 'em. I think it's enough.

June, in pictures

A little bit about June

So I survived the month of June, which was basically a whole lot of days of the kids having no school, with a lot of guests for Shabbos/Shavuos thrown in. It was basically a month of

cook.clean.cook.clean.entertain children.cook some more.rinse.repeat.

on top of all the regular cooking/cleaning/stuff around the house that needs to be done on a regular basis.

I'm proud to say that I can now report to you from the other side, AKA CAMP STARTED,!!!! and all of us have emerged from June (relatively) unscathed.

Of course, today is Wednesday, the THIRD day of camp, and this is the first day that all the (non infant) children are attending because of various sicknesses that almost sent me over the edge, but finally, today, the children are in camp, and I am breathing my own air for the first time in weeks.

Like, eating my own food without it being taken, going to the bathroom without anyone banging on the door, and sitting in silence for more than 20 seconds at a time.

Of course, having the kids home wasn't all bad. It was actually kind of fun. Just complaining is more fun than telling you about the fun.

But just to be fair, I'll tell you a little bit about the fun.

We went strawberry picking. We went to an amusement park. We went swimming. A lot. We played at the park. A lot. We ate a lot of junk food. We ate a lot of take out dinners. We jumped on trampolines. We BBQed. We played mini golf. The big boys ran their first real race. We played soccer. We went to swimming lessons. We went to the museum. We went to the farm. We went grocery shopping. We went to the dentist. (Those last five were all in one day. That was a long day).

And by WE, I do mean that the kids did this, while I took care of Baby E and tried to prevent him from eating woodchips/drinking pool water/eating grass/eating dirt etc.....

But it was so fun! Here is one picture...to hold you over until I upload the rest. I'll do a whole post of pictures tomorrow!

Today

Today I....

...woke up after 5 non consecutive hours of sleep to a crying baby

...packed lunches

...fed, clothed, diapered, and cleaned up after various children

....did two loads of laundry

...gave T a manicure and pedicure

...vacuumed the car, during which I found the source of the moldy banana smell...moldy bananas

...made a deposit at the bank

...went to the mall and rode the escalator for fun. For T. Not for me.

...watched T hug a mannequin in Old Navy

...then watched her peek under the mannequin's skirt

...bought 7 bathing suits....none for me

...then giggled while T held my long receipt up to her tush and told the cashier it was her tail

...took the little kids out for pizza

...let T order a Dr. Pepper

...took the little kids to Target

...went to the park with D's class on a field trip

...took the big boys to swimming lessons

...got in trouble with a school security guard for propping open a locked door with a Hershey bar

...saw a lady pushing her dog in a stroller

...took all 4 kids grocery shopping

...cooked two dinners simultaneously in under 15 minutes while holding a baby

...kissed E on his smushy little face about 200 times

...figured out that I put T and E in (and out) of their carseats 17 times today

Today, I fell asleep at 7:30 PM while sitting up in a chair. I wonder why.

Willy

The older kids are playing in the basement, and I went upstairs a few minutes ago to put baby E down for a nap. I came back downstairs and was cleaning up the kitchen when I heard crying. I went to the bottom of the steps to listen but didn't hear anything. It happened again a few minutes later, and still, I didn't hear E crying.

Finally, I went into the basement, where the kids were playing happily, and said, "Was someone crying down here?"

"Oh," said K, looking a little guilty. "Do you mean this noise?" He then proceeded to make a sad, pitiful whining noise.

"Yeah, that one." I said. "What are you doing?"

"I'm pretending to be Willy when he was captured!" was his reply. (If you haven't seen Free Willy, click on the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2uJiW1oo6Y

Sometimes, my children are so strange it makes me giggle.