Update on Organization

So I've been doing a lot of reading and I've got lots of ideas and things I'll be doing. I was disappointed though that no one offered ideas in my comments :) Anyway, here are some pretty simple things I did that didn't require a lot of time or any money. The first thing I learned is that I had to give up "pretty" for "functional." I hate clutter. I hate knickknacks. I hate walls COVERED in photos or other things. After living in our current house for awhile, John finally had to request that I put something up on the walls so it looked like people lived here. But the truth of the matter is that we have 6 people and all of their belongings crowded into this space. So that means, if I want things to run smoothly, I can't have the almost-blank slate look that is my ideal. So I've made some pretty basic changes to start with.

First of all, the kids now have hooks they can reach to hang their towels on in their room. And their hampers have now been moved out of their closets into plain site. Ugly? Yes. But it means that when they get their towels from their room, they can immediately put their clothes in their hamper which is in such a convenient location. Yeah, basic like I said.

The next step came in the entry. We live in a split level. I HATE living in a spilt level mainly because of the inevitable chaos that comes when we all try to walk in the door and put our coats and shoes away. It is CROWDED. Good thing I've gotten over my claustrophobia. So the first step in the entry was to do the obvious again: put hooks where the kids can reach them themselves. Another one of those things you know you should do, something you think about every single day when you have to hang up their coats for the umpteenth time, and yet something that has never been high enough on the priority list. I also implemented something with the shoes that stuck with me from one of the books I read: make it easier to put something away than it was to take it out. Before, the kids had cubbies and drawers for their shoes. Why? Because it hid everything more which is right up the blank-slate alley. But it made it harder for them to put their shoes away. So now, each kid (except Kate whose shoes are in the drawer) has a bin to put their shoes in. Harder to take them out (have to search for the ones they want) than it is to put them away (throw them in the bin). John and I will use the cubbies. So now I hate the way our entry looks, but I know it will be easier for everyone to put their stuff away.

Now this next one is going to sound like I've gone crazy. And if you saw the video John sneakily filmed without my knowledge, there would be no doubt that I've gone crazy :) Let me introduce you to THE SWEEPER! Even just writing about it is making me laugh. As I've been contemplating everything, I realized I really wanted my kids to know what they should do every day on their own without me instigating all of their responsibilities. I wanted them to be responsible for themselves and their belongings. So what is THE SWEEPER? Carston, Avery, and Macy each have a basket on top of the fridge. Once a day, or more if needed, I announce that THE SWEEPER will be coming in ten minutes (or longer if need be). I set the timer, and then I sing about how Sweeper is coming, how he's going to get our stuff, etc. The kids usually go crazy running around picking up all of their things. The first time we did it, they were done in ten minutes. Macy is especially funny. She is so into it, talks about sweeper all the time now. Anyway, the timer goes off, and I pull out a mask (this is the especially crazy part). SWEEPER has arrived! It goes throughout the house, anything it finds goes in the kids baskets. If they want their things back, they have to earn them back by doing a simple extra service. It is amazing the difference it has made. Our house is picked up in ten minutes, and I didn't have to prod, direct, encourage, threaten, etc. It is amazing. Also, if Sweeper didn't get anything of yours, the reward is that YOU get to be Sweeper next time. My kids love that. We even tried it out at Grandma's the other day and it worked like a charm. Sometimes, my kids have even done extra jobs to earn back their siblings thing for them which was so sweet. So there is the crazy Sweeper idea. But it works like a charm. It makes things funny. Just ask my sister. She was skeptical but tried it and loves it. I knew things were good when Macy got out of the shower and asked me where she should put her towel because she didn't want Sweeper to get it. If you want to try it, I recommend doing it when things are relatively clean the first time, and don't be dismayed if there are howls coming from your children the first time as well. They catch on pretty quick :) I love Sweeper :)

I've got more ideas that I'll be implementing, but I'm trying to do things a little at a time so my kids have time to adapt and master things before we move on. I'm excited though. I love how things are going already and know they're only going to get better. If you guys have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Getting off the fence...on the right side

Here is what my life entails: I spend lots of time cleaning (vacuum, dust, pick up toys and other miscellaneous items, scrub the bathrooms, wash blinds, mop the floor, scrub the carpet,etc), and then recleaning, helping Carston with his math homework and Avery with her reading, try to stay current on scrapbooks, journals, home videos, and family histories, struggle to fit in a meager 10 minute workout, make lunches and dinners, get breakfast on the table, drag myself out of bed each morning so we can fit in scriptures before school, take kids to and from school (3 trips a day), help Carston with his piano, make sure the dog is fed and watered throughout the day, attempt to keep the car clean, continually struggle to keep the ever evolving paperwork in our house organized, read my scriptures, do fun activities with the kids, go to the library, get down and play with the kids, spend time with John, work on projects around the house (like the killer bathroom that's so close to being done), chat with my sisters, try to finish my song, plan and organize activities and lessons for young womens, attend relief society meetings, attend young women meetings, go visiting teaching, play baseball with Carston, visit with my mom, dad, and brothers, pay the bills, grocery shop, clothing shop, read the ensign and other good books, research ways to best help my kids learn, babysit, do the laundry, try to do small acts of kindness for those around me, change diapers, attempt potty training with Macy, snuggles, snuggles, and more snuggles do FHE, givebaths, put kids to bed, warm up bottles, get up in the night to calm bad dreams and crying babies, plan family events, etc, etc, etc.

They are almost all simple, little things, but usually by the end of the day, I'm exhausted.

I'm a mom of four sweet little children. I love that. I love each one of them. I love that they are so close, that I get to enjoy their sweet spirits, that they make me smile and laugh every day. But it is hard work. Definitely hard work. It can be exhausting physically. It can be exhausting emotionally. And it can be exhausting spiritually. Lately I've found myself way too often with a negative attitude by the time John gets home. I hate that. Yes, it is hard work, but I want my attitude, my words, my actions to reflect the fact that I love my life. I wouldn't ever change our family, the ages and stages of our kids. I feel like I'm sitting on a fence. On one side is the attitude of "poor me, I'm tired, I need a break, this is hard, why does one thing after another go wrong, I can't keep up with everything, etc." And on the other side is an attitude of gratitude (corny phrase I know, but it is sticking with me), "I'm so blessed, I am so lucky, I am so grateful, etc." I feel like I've been leaning way too far on the negative side, and I want to be fully on the side of gratitude. It is like President Monson's talk where he talked about the two gardens. Throughout my whole life, there will be pleasant and unpleasant things. But I have the choice as to which garden I cultivate. And I definitely don't want it to be the negative one. That will only lead to misery, it will only lead to me robbing myself of the blessings in my life. And that is just stupid. So that is my focus right now, to change my attitude, no matter how long life gets on Sundays with mine and John's crazy schedules, no matter if I come home and find the dog has chewed up my shoe (my freaking awesome one too), no matter if all the kids are whiney at the same time, no matter if I'm tired and don't want to get out of bed, even if the thought of making another dinner makes me want to go insane, even when I have six loads of laundry to fold, even when the kids spill cheerios all over in the car when I just vacuumed, even when Macy spills her juice the day I mopped, even when there are so many meetings for young women that I feel like I hardly ever get to see my family, even when I feel like I can barely make it through the day, let alone go the extra mile. I'm excited. I'm excited to change myself, and in return my life, and my family's lives. I know I won't be perfect, but I'll at least be better. Anyway, I feel like I will have greater success with this is I tweak things in how we run the house. I feel like I've done okay with schedules, chores, routines, etc, but I think I could fine tune things and make it awesome instead of okay (here is where John would get on my case about reaching too hard for perfection :). I'm doing a lot of researching, but I'd love to know what works for you in your house, in any and every category: cleaning, chores, laundry, cooking, practicing, sundays, personal time, exercise, schedules, etc. I am on a mission to organize our life to perfection! Well okay, maybe I'll shoot a little lower on the scale. Like maybe...decent.

We Can't Wait for Spring!

Avery and Macy have apparently decided they are not waiting any longer for warm weather. They're just going to act like it's warm. First, they get on all their swimming gear, get the toys out, etc. And then they head outside in the cold temperatures to play "swimming." Although after a few minutes they came back in for some coats. Oh, and the bandaids on the foreheads are from "doctor" (that came before "swimming"). I love these cute little girls. I love Avery's imagination that never stops. She can take the simplest activity and turn it into an elaborate adventure. And I am just as anxious for warm weather to come and play with us.

I love that I'm 28 years old, have four kids and a dog, and people still call me "sweetie" when they are talking to me on the phone. I also love the salesman who came to my door and asked me if my mom or dad was home. I said no. Good to know some people still think I'm looking and sounding young even if I don't feel like it.

I loved her First

Fathers love their daughters. They might not say it nearly as much as moms. They might not give as many hugs as moms. They might not stay up for as many late night chats as moms. But the love is there and it is deep. Maybe they think the mom's got that department covered, or maybe those things aren't as inherent in their nature. I don't know. But it never ceases to move me when a father knows his girl needs help and he jumps in. I think we'd be blown away as daughters if we could really sense the love that our fathers have for us. Today, I got to witness a father jumping in, trying to do what he could to help his little girl, and it left me in tears. I knew he'd rather not do what he did, but he said he was doing it because he loved her and he just wanted her to be happy. But the sad thing to me is that she'll probably never know about it. I just hope she knows how much her father loves her, how much he is willing to sacrifice for her happiness. There is a song I love that left me in tears when I first heard it: I Loved Her First by Heartland.

My New Love

I just found this website:

http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/

I'm in love.

Now I just have to wait for it to be warm enough to set up the table saw in the garage....hmm....looks like it's my turn for the patience lessons.

John's patience...and why I have no pictures

I've been teasing John for the last couple of weeks, telling him I hope he learns his lesson in patience so the testing will cease. First, we were just about to lay the last tile in our bathroom we are remodeling when I dropped the hammer and cracked one that had already been placed. So John had to cut another one so we could fix that. A few hours later, Avery dropped the laptop and the screen turned into a colorful rainbow. It was pretty, but it rendered the laptop useless. A few days later, John was trying to multitask-take care of the kids and work on the bathroom. That ended badly. Macy went in and knocked the new sink off the new vanity resulting in a sink that was in pieces, and another cracked tile whose grout would now have to be redone. This brings me to my conclusions.
1. My husband is a very patient man. In all of those things, he responded so calmly and nicely. He didn't even get mad. For real. When the laptop broke, the first thing out of my mouth was, "Oh crap Avery! Daddy's going to be mad!" To which her eyes got all wide and she started asking why he would be mad. I tried to backtrack and say frustrated and sad, but she was very nervous to tell him about it. I was surprised when there wasn't a huge lecture or anything. He just told her she needed to be more careful and told her it was okay. Cute little girl, she told him again yesterday how sorry she was that she broke his computer :)
2. I kind of like not having a laptop. Yes, it feels inconvenient at times, but we spend less time on the computer since our desktop is downstairs. I don't know how long it will last though because John disagrees :) I thought he'd jump on the deal I offered: no electronics for the same amount of time as no sweets. He's always unhappy with the amount of sugar in the house, and I'm always unhappy with the electronic time (about 30 minutes a day for kids, but we're so exhausted by the time we can sit down late at night we turn into couch potatoes). But much to my surprise and dismay, he didn't want to do it. And here I thought I'd come up with a clever way to get what I wanted.

What it means to be a girl...

Today I was watching Macy and was overcome with emotion. It was just an ordinary day, Avery and Carston were at school that morning, Kate was sleeping, and Macy was just going about her business. She had a little dance in her step as she went along, she wanted to go play out in the backyard with Sadie, she was just so cute. And it struck me how much things might change as she gets older and feels more of the world's pressures on her. Will there be a day when she omits the dance in her step? Will there be a day when she looks in the mirror, not to confirm how beautiful she looks, but to wonder if she's beautiful at all? Will there come a day when she starts moderating her behavior because she is worried about people's opinions? The thought of those things happening just breaks my heart. I love how confident Macy is about who she is. She doesn't have any desire to be different than her strong, beautiful, little 2 year old self. And yet I wonder if it is possible for her to keep that. I look at myself, how I went through all those things, the doubting, the longing to be someone different, the desire to have the approval of other people rather than the approval of ourselves. Just the other day I found myself looking in the mirror and realized my subconscious was using the time deciding all over again if I was pretty or not. What is up with that? Of course I'm pretty. We are all beautiful. Why does it seem impossible to find a girl who has escaped this path. Why do our girls especially lose their confidence and assurance in who they are, and their determination to be who they are and find joy in it? It breaks my heart. I don't ever want to see my sweet little Macy crying because she doesn't think she is pretty like so and so. I don't want her to lose the dance in her step and have it replaced with a self-conscious huddled-shouldered walk. I don't want to ever see her thinking she isn't talented or gifted. I don't ever want her to wish that she was someone else. But I wonder if that is even possible. I see all the pressures and influences that are out there right now, and I know they will only get more intense. I feel like I've got to be actively fighting back, preparing my sweet little girls who are so young, so that hopefully when the time comes that they are assaulted on all sides, they will be strong and prepared.

Kate=Mischief

A few months ago my sister would call me and tell me all the "naughty" things her little one year old was doing. It made me laugh hearing all her stories. Well, I'm not laughing anymore because Kate is so following in her footsteps (it is going to be trouble when all these girls get together, they will be getting into some serious trouble). Anyway, so the other day, I look over to see that Kate has managed to crawl out of her highchair and is sitting on top with a big smile. Not good. Two seconds later, she has crawled onto the couch (the con of having such a tall baby). Our couch sits against the railing to our stairs. I thought she'd be okay because the bottom cushions were off. Oh no. As soon as she gets on, she grabs onto the rail with both hands and starts pulling her little body up. Not good again. Now my couch has to sit away from the railing in what seems like the middle of the room. Ten minutes after the couch episode Avery yells out, "Kate's in the toilet and it has pee pees in it!" No! I run in the bathroom, relieved at first to see that she isn't actually sitting in it. But that feeling quickly passes as I realize she is EATING THE TOILET PAPER OUT OF THE TOILET, which in actuality did have pee pees in it! SICK! Sick, Sick, Sick, Sick, SICK! So needless to say, Kate is finding herself with the nickname of mischief. Good thing she is so stinking cute to neutralize the situation :)

January Moments

Carston
*While we were opening presents at Kate's birthday party, I was so happy to hear Carston announce that "he kept farting." He then proceeded to tell his friend Tanner, "Seriously! Smell the air!" Thanks Carston :)
*When we were driving home from piano one night Carston let me know his thoughts about a teaching career. "That's why I want to be something other than a teacher or a principal because I don't want to yell at kids. Like, I don't want to raise my voice. Well, you yell in the army, but not at kids. I don't want to hurt my voice."
*It was around the age of 2 that Carston started refusing to let me do anything to his hair. If I tried to spike it up or anything, he'd get mad and smoosh it back down. I bribed him for his school picture. After 4 long years I finally heard the words I'd been longing for: "Mom, can you spike my hair?" Apparently he realized how good it looked after watching his younger self on a home video!
*Carston's prayer: "Grateful we can have family home evening and learn about the gospel and learn about the things they didn't teach us at church."
*I caught Carston helping Macy and Avery work out a situation: "Avery, you can't just take it away from her because that makes her sad. Just say 'Macy, can you please give it back.' " You wonder sometimes as a parent if things are sinking in, so it always feels good to see the evidence :)
Avery
*Macy was upset and yelling because she didn't want to take a nap. Avery tried to make her feel better by saying in her sweetest voice, "Macy...You'll dream of SANTA! I just KNOW you will!"
*"I know we like some snow because some snow sparkles. Like the flat snow. It sparkles. So at our house, I try to be careful with the flat snow. I like sparkly snow."
*"When I grow up, I STILL want to be a sister!"
*"I'm going to tell you a secret! When I grow up I want to be a mommy! And I'll do the DISHES! I'll be a really good mommy because I practice everyday!"
*I don't want to go live back in heaven. It's too fun here!"
*"When I have a baby, I'm not going to let it play with my toys because it might break them."
*What does 'carried away' mean?"
*Avery is reading really well and is in the third set of books for preschool.
*Avery lined up all her ponies and cut all their hair. She likes to get out all her barbies and do their hair using insane amounts of hair product.
Macy
*When we were driving, we passed a car accident. "Oh no! They need to put a bandaid on the car! A Scooby Doo Where Are You bandaid! (Brielle gave her one the day before)"
*Macy holds the world record for shortest prayers. If we are ever running late in the morning, John knows to call on her! It was quite the surprise when she had a marathon prayer one night before bed. She wanted to recite EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of her day. She'd run out of things to say, turn to me, and ask "what else Mommy?" When I couldn't come up with anything she'd say, "NOOOOO! What else Mommy?"
*Avery was talking about Littlest Pet Shop toys and I responded with "That's cool!" To which Macy promptly said, "NOOOO! That's not cool! It's CUTE!"
*"Hi I'm a princess!" "Oh hi Princess" "NOOO! You don't say Hi! You wave like this!"
*Macy knows all her sounds for the letters.
Kate
*Kate is officially walking, and likes to see just how fast she can go!
*Kate thinks Sadie's water is her own personal swimming pool. I caught her first putting one foot in, then the other, then splashing in it with her hands, and finally sitting down right in the bowl laughing and giggling and waving her limbs around.
*Kate says "Hi Sadie" She loves her doggie. It is funny to watch her find Sadie laying somewhere because she'll back into her and sit so she can lay back on her belly. And she seriously pets her :)
*Kate has mastered the stairs to the point that I no longer have to use the gate.