Simple Solutions: Doing Dishes

I know, I know, enough of the smart phone pictures already, but at least I'm blogging again. It's so nice! And I promise I'll break out the real camera again soon.

For now I wanted to share this little solution with you!

Do you have a dishwasher? Lucky! Not me. Starting about six years ago, we've only had a dishwasher for a few months at one of our temporary houses. I used to hate doing dishes, so I procrastinated until there was a huge pile... I also had tiny kids, so even the 15 minutes it takes to do the dishes after a meal was overwhelming. I had similar issues with the laundry, waiting until everyone was out of underwear or jeans and there were intimidating piles all over. So maybe I've matured a little in my seven years of being a stay-at-home mom.

Anyway, one simple solution to doing dishes (or laundry) is to tackle things as soon as they start adding up. I now wash dishes as I cook, if time allows, and I wash dishes as soon as each meal is over. Nevermind that I'm completely weird about running water constantly and not filling a sink with sudsy water for all of the gunk and funk and germs to collect in. I seriously have issues sticking my hands in dirty sinks of tepid water!

Solution number two is to make it pretty. Why not display your dishwashing supplies on a pretty plate or a cute basket lined with a towel to catch drips? Right now I'm using my cake plate. I also chose a bright turquoise blue with accents of yellow. Blue soap and dispenser, blue bowl to hold the dish brush, a blue jar for flowers. The lotion is kind of yellow, as is the DIY sugar hand scrub, and of course the flowers my son picked.

Also on the tray is bamboo air freshener sticks and another vase that holds a bottle brush for washing inside glasses, a stopper for the sink, and a sponge.

So there you have it, my way of making a daily, annoying chore somewhat more tolerable, and keeping my kitchen looking cute!

What handy solutions have you found? Any procrastinating on your chores? My dishes are done but the laundry is piling up. Gotta run!

Make Your Own Dry-Erase Board {DIY Art}

 

You know how when you're singing and there's no time to breathe and you justrunoutofbreath before the line is over?

No? Hmm.

How about when you think that flight of stairs is a piece of cake, you'll just run up it... only by the time you're half way up you're slowing and after a couple more steps you're regretting that piece of cake you ate for lunch.

Or when you jump in with both feet and you're excited and fired up about, say, a blog topic, and you realize that it's a lot to write on the same topic for a month and instead of motivating you to finish up the last spaces in your new home, it overwhelms you to the point that by the end of the month you're hardly blogging at all...

Guilty.

I'm the kind of girl who has a hard time letting go. I want things done the way I want them done, so I stink at delegating. My oldest is getting fairly decent at washing dishes and he likes to do it, yet I usually am the one standing at the sink because they need to be done the right way. Gag. My husband is awesome at cleaning bathrooms but I usually do it because he works outside the home and chores around the home are my half of the bargain. Sigh. 

Anyway, I'm not trying to throw a "Biggest Loser" party, just using a little humor to excuse myself from my October promise of 31 Days of DIY Art. It's mid November. I. Will. Finish. 

Ok, so about the Dry-Erase Boards. I have two because they are that easy. My menu board and my calendar are based on the same idea. They've been around for several years now, finding themselves at home in our kitchen in Iowa, our dining room in Ohio and back in the kitchen in Nebraska.

Here's the basic how-to: Find a large framed picture with glass that you no longer like or never did like in the first place. Or look for a large frame with glass at a thrift store. Take it all apart. Paint the frame the color you wish it to be. Toss the picture, or just add burlap or another fabric of your choice under the glass. For the menu board, I added circles with letter stickers to spell out "MENU" and small tags with letters for the day of the week. In the calendar frame, I included a large white piece of paper so my calendar doodles would show up.

*I've successfully used permanent marker (aka: Sharpie) to write on my boards for years, it's just harder to scrub off. Windex helps. Dry-erase markers are easier to erase, sometimes to a fault.

You could use one of these boards for a Christmas count-down, for a grocery list, or an on-going to-do list. They're super fun and easy to do!

Well, I made it, limping, to Day 27. The race may be over, but I'm still running, baby!

Our Dining Room {Tour}

Confession: This post is for me. I mean, I totally want to share it with you too, but mostly it's to have a record of what this room looks like, how my family uses it day to day. It's not fancy, I've done no projects. This is not a "reveal". It's just me showing you around our house, as is.

So, here is our dining room!

It's a nice sized room as far as dining rooms go. It's also a main passage way. The door you see is the main entrance to the house off of the mudroom. That's the kitchen on the right and we're standing in the living room to take this picture.

This is where we eat our three meals a day. You can see a couple of booster chairs--that is our reality! 

My favorite part about this room is the double windows. I used sheers to keep it light and breezy in here.

The curtains were too short! I couldn't believe it. I let out the hem on the bottom and sewed on a 5-inch cotton ruffle. Much better!

The two built-in corner hutches are ... interesting. I like the added storage and the glass doors for display, but the triangle shelf makes it hard to store things. I love red, but this red is poorly painted and reminds me of 1999. What color would you paint them?

In our travels for the last year, we've tried to make a memory jar with rocks, sand, shells, pinecones or whatever we find. I have plans of spraypainting all of the lids a fun color--I actually did spray a set of lids last fall, but I chose a cold, rainy day and they never did dry right. I ended up throwing out all of them and have had to gather new jars. See how a couple still are without lids? I also lost my zeal for spraying, and when I don't like the hutch color, I didn't want to pick a fun color for the lids that would compete. So there they sit!

 Here's the top, and below is what I keep in the bottom of this hutch--our little school supplies! I have more art supplies and things for the boys, but these are the things I didn't mind them having access to. But it being summer, they really haven't gotten things out much. There's all winter for that!

 And now we have hutch number two!

A large drink dispenser, a salad bowl set, and the middle row has two more memory jars and some candle supplies. I put tea lights in the large canister and the other large jars have fillers like marbles, rocks and black beans.

Mr. African Warrior stands guard over the top, while in the bottom are some messy cookbooks and a few things we put on the table most breakfasts. I put them down low so my boys could help set the table.

Since this hutch is right beside the kitchen, let's go next to the other side of the kitchen doorway so we're working around the room clockwise.

There's our kitchen and a glimpse of our chalkboard wall--still love it--and the stairs going up past the gallery wall to the master bedroom and Josiah and Jared's room. I had another shelf here at first, but it found a better home in another corner, so the plant and tiered baskets moved here. I tell you that because I would have hung the art differently had I known something to tall would be there. Oh well!

I framed the ugly light switch and it worked to make it blend in with the other art. The large piece is a dry-erase menu planner. The black square on the floor is the furnace/air conditioner vent. There are huge vents in all of the rooms, some bigger than others, and I can't tell you how many things the boys and I have  accidentally dropped (screws, chalk, small toys). Annoying!

Continuing around the room, you'll see the hall with the pretty display that leads to Jonathan's room. The bathroom is also that way. This spot was perfect for hanging our life-sized ruler, and beyond it is the living room (next up to show you!).

 

I created a sewing nook! I have my grandma's old Elna, and have learned enough that I can add a ruffle to curtains or hem shorts. You can see I have a few more mending projects waiting for me in those baskets!

I use my grandma's Elna machine. I have to read the manual about every time I sew!

 

 I used jars to make sewing notions a little more pleasing to the eye! I thought my boys would want to get into things more, but after the first day or so, they left it alone.

Above the sewing center--oh, I have to move the machine onto the table and plug it in, it of course wouldn't work really well to use it where it is--are two more pieces of art that I created when I first started blogging. One is our family rules sign, an interpretation of the 10 Commandments. I painted the board white, then stuck on stickers. It took forever! I then sprayed the whole thing black and peeled off the stickers. Some didn't stick down well, so there's overspray. That always bugged me, but Gary says he likes it that way. I'll keep him, thanks! And yes, we're stuck in May. I am the worst at updating that dry-erase calendar, even though I stare at it during every meal!

And there we are! I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our dining room!

Divide and Conquer

Remember when I first showed you our guest room in our rental home in Ohio? Remember how we ended up changing it to be our 6-year-old's room? Remember how I said it is also where I store my craft supplies and it can easily accommodate guests? Yeah, it's time to see how all that works.

First up, let's review how this room fills the needs of the little dude who lives here. Jonathan sleeps here at night, plays quietly here at rest time, and changes his clothes in the morning and evening. That means he needs a bed,

 
a few toys and books,

places for his clean and dirty clothes,

and a smattering of things around the room to make it feel like it's HIS.

 Next, let's look at where I store my craft supplies.

Jonathan uses one drawer in the desk and I get the rest. I keep some scrap book supplies here like my cutters and pens. I will sometimes use the desk or the bed for a quick project, like hot-gluing a frame back together, or cutting down a paper to the right size. But if I were to really tackle a project, I would take my supplies to the dining room table.

I keep papers and stickers in the top half of the dresser and Jonathan uses the bottom half. One basket on top of the dresser has ribbons and things in it, while the small basket with the puppy is for our little boy's treasures he's always finding--rocks and feathers and such.

I keep the rest of the scrap book supplies as well as other miscellaneous crafty things in these boxes in the closet which leaves plenty of space for Jonathan's dress clothes to hang and for his dirty laundry bin on the floor.

Oh! I almost forgot, I keep wrapping paper in long, flat bins under the bed! I've done that for years and love it. When I need to wrap a present I usually pull out the needed bin (one for birthdays, one for Christmas) and either wrap the present on the floor or on the bed. Some day I'll have a cute wrapping station, but for now, this totally works. (Sorry no picture!)

Ok, so next is how this room would work as a guest room! We haven't needed it as such since Jonathan moved in, but we would only need to change a few things to make a guest feel comfortable here.

This picture is from before I moved the collage on the wall out to the hall. (You can see that here!) But it shows a well-made bed with different pillows that are only for guests.

There is room for hang-up clothes in the closet and the chair can be placed between the bed and dresser to act as a luggage rack. Of course there would be a stack of fresh towels for our guest and anything else they might need.

As to where a certain little boy would sleep, he is already looking forward to "camping" in his brothers' room!

What about you? Do you have a dedicated guest room that no one else uses? Do your guests share a room with a member of your family, or does someone move out for them? We're looking forward to hosting a guest or two in the near future!

Toy Story

In our family with three kids ages 2-6 means different interests and abilities. It could potentially mean tons and tons of toys too! It certainly seems that way, but we've found a few ways to organize and store toys that works for us.

1. Purge purge purge. I know, I'm the meanest mom ever, but if a toy is broken, if parts are lost, if it is junky or something the boys don't really play with, out it goes.

2. Picky picky picky. Again with the mean mom thing, but we are seriously picky with what we let our boys play with. I think every family has to decide what is "OK" for their kids to play with, but we've set our limits and we stick to 'em. For us that includes no movie or Disney or cartoon characters (my kids don't know who Spiderman is and I love it!), nothing animated (think a talking train or dinosaur or monkey), nothing violent/war-related (guns, tanks, swords, bombs, soldiers, GI Joe), and very little battery-operated (Wii, Leap Pad, robots, remote-control, etc.). Again, we have our reasons why or why not and every family sets their own limits.

4. Simplify simplify simplify. We packed up and moved this year. Things were in storage. Our boys grew a whole year and did just fine with less while things were in storage. So when mommy unpacked, lots of forgotten, little-used or much-abused toys were immediately donated instead of finding their way back into my boys' hearts. I chose to keep the small "regular" sized legos and not the larger ones; I kept plastic dinosaurs but not a zoo-full of fluffy stuffed animals my boys were quickly growing out of.

5. Display display display. One of my favorite ways to store toys is to display them. You saw the shelves in my oldest son's bedroom above. They include his legos, a set of emergency-response vehicles and his dinosaur herd which just migrated to this display shelf (built by Grandpa) that hangs above his bed. Below is the display/storage shelf in the room my middle and youngest son share. I keep tractors and the barn there, a mommy and baby monkey they're particularly fond of, and a red fireman hat that matches their room. Priorities!

6. Store store store. At the end of our hall is a closet. I chose to use the top half to store toys. That limits how many toys are out and helps toys stay "special" for when you need them to really occupy the interest of a couple little kids! 

 
7. Limit limit limit. This goes hand-in-hand with #6. These toys are something that the boys need to ask for because they can't reach them. Usually it's when I'm making breakfast or when I need the boys to be occupied. I give them one kind of toy--matchbox cars or their wooden train set--and that's what they all play with. Usually because the toy is "new", they're content to play together nicely for at least a few minutes. These are also the toys my older two boys can play with at rest time. They each pick a set and take it to the room they rest in and play with only that set of toys for an hour. There are a few other special toys not kept here--a set of marbles, a learning/computer game, and Jonathan's legos that he prefers to play with alone--which are allowed at rest time too.

8. Contain contain contain! These bins are awesome, and so are the shelves in each boy's room. Everything has a place and the boys know where things go. They're awesome at putting things away--which is something they've had to do (with help) since they could hold a toy. There are a couple more places in the living room for toys like blocks or their books.

9. OUT OUT OUT! It's easy to say in the summer, but the boys play outside most of the day. They have bikes and balls and trucks to play with, sprinklers on super-hot days and a plethora of natural resources--sticks, berries, walnuts, ants, rocks, puddles... They love it outside and I love getting chores done a little faster. We love outside play-dates too!

10. Busy busy busy. Our kids are part of our family, obviously. We tell them we're a team and when they help, either by being obedient or by playing nicely or by doing chores, they're helping their family team. We involve them, whether it's making breakfast, doing yard work, starting the laundry, making beds, clearing the table or going out somewhere with the family.  

So there you go, a few thoughts and ideas on toys, toy storage and getting away from toys! What about you, are toys taking over your life? How do you organize them? Any tips for keeping boys occupied in the winter?