GeMoOrgNo

For some reason I can't get pictures on my blog tonight so I'll have to try again in the morning!

It Doesn't Get More Organized Than This

Persistence does all her sleeping and most of her reading on the top bunk in her room. You might think getting her a reading lamp would be at the top of my list but no, I've let her suffer without one for months and months. Where was I going to put it anyway? There is a little shelf at the perfect level that runs around the room but it's not wide enough for a reading lamp. Last week Stranger started talking about attaching an ugle work lamp to her bed so I had to take some fast action.

Just in the nick of time I found a Potty Barn lamp at a discount store for a great price but it didn't have a lamp shade. After Stranger installed it for her I stood looking at the blinding bulb and looked around the room (once my vision was recovered) wondering what I could throw over it to use as a shade but that also wouldn't burn the house down. Like I was going to find a lamp shade just sitting around, right?

And then I did. Her cowgirl hat! What could be more organized than that? I used something I already had and now the lamp doubles as a hat rack! It rests on the top of the lamp and doesn't even come close to touching the bulb so I'm not worried about it being a fire hazard. How cute is that?

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Talk About Tuesday

I don't do a lot of decorating for Christmas. I have a Christmas tree that I put up every year and that's about it. Because I'm selfish and I don't like to share, the kids each have their own little trees that they can decorate and re-decorate to their heart's desire. They can drag them around or play house with the little ornaments and I don't care. Aren't I a fun mom?

If you don't already do this with your kids then you must start. Just wait till after December 25th and pick up some little trees, short strings of lights and boxes of tiny ornaments for next to nothing. Craft stores are a great place to look.


I have sets of ornaments I've collected over the years and every year or so I make a new set of ornaments. I've always thought they were adorable until this year. Last week when I pulled them out of the box just looking at how ugly they were made me sick to my stomach so I don't think my tree will have anything but lights on it this year. Hopefully I will go back to liking them again next year when I'm not sick and pregnant or I will have to start over with the deocrations and that doesn't sound fun.


Normally I can't wait to get Christmas cleaned up so I just dump everything in a box but last year I got crazy and organized all of it. I didn't lose as many snowmen noses as I usually do. Doesn't it look pretty? Not the ornaments but the organization of it?

I only have two boxes of Christmas things. I bought the red containers a couple years ago, once again, on sale after Christmas so it's not hard to find them when it's time to decorate.

Oh, and I also collect ornaments for my kids. Persistence gets a different angel each year, Victor gets a star and Lovely, of course, gets a heart ornament. What's it going to be for this next baby? It has to be something that's easy to find but something more generic than Santa or snowmen. Maybe it will have to be snowflakes if it's a girl. What would work for a boy?

Who else has their tree up already? I can't wait to see photos!

Oh, and as if I don't already have enough carivals going on here, this Works For Me!

What do you have to talk about this week?

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

A Wonderful New Recipe

Soda Cakes

You'll need:
A sweet seven year old little girl (almost eight!)
Your favorite pancake recipe
Instead of using 6 teaspoons of baking powder...
Substitute 6 TABLESPOONS of baking SODA

That is the secret ingredient right there. You will have more bubbling fun that your family can handle for one night. Serious bubbling. Because, you know, that's what baking soda does, especially 6 TABLESPOONS of it! The really fun part is that no one will even notice anything is different , not the person cooking the pancakes or anyone eating them, until Mother takes a bite and starts gagging. Not in a "I'm pregnant" kind of way but more like a "My daughter is trying to poison me" kind of way. Everyone else will just snarf them down as usual.

Try them tonight and see if they become a new family tradition. Then we can start calling you Soda Cakes. Hey, it's better than being called Salt Balls like someone else I know. (Hopefully Daddy's Birthday Chocolate Chip-less Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls turn out better this year than they did last year. A little less salt will help.) We might not be a family of gourmet chefs but we sure try hard.

I seriously don't know what happened tonight. Persistence has been making pancakes for two years now without any problems. Maybe she was busy dreaming she was the star of a new cooking show called Gallagher Girl Gourmet but I think Cooking with Soda Cakes sounds even better. Now if we could just get her to come out of hiding from embarrassment. Maybe it would help if we stopped calling, "Here Soda Cakes! Where are you soda Cakes? We love you Soda Cakes! Come out, come out where ever you are Soda Cakes!"

Organizing Cupboard

I am coveting this cupboard I saw last week. I could do some serious organizing with this baby! Not that I would have anywhere to put it. Maybe getting rid of one of my kids would free up some space.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Look, Red!

Look, red! I found the little red chair that looks adorable in this room and I pulled the antique quilt out that has a splash of red. I moved the sleigh in as well. It has red runners and it's too big to fit anywhere else in the house. It is great for holding extra blankets and pillows but I'm sure it will become a baby doll bed. Persistence was furious when she saw it,"Why do you have to put all the ugly things in my room!" She has no patience for my creative process, such as it is.

I want to do something cute with this old ladder. Wait till you see what color it's going to be.


Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

Mark Twain

That sounds exactly like what we're doing with SHS doesn't it? We're coaxing good habits out a little bit at a time. Or is it the bad habits we're coaxing out? Whichever...

I am back into the swing of things around here and my floors are clean. Ok, not mopped but definitely vacuumed. I'll get to the mopping any day now. I've been thinking about why it's so difficult to force myself to mop my floors and here's what I've come up with. Not only do all the toys and clutter need to be picked up and the floors vacuumed but there can't be any children, large or small, running about. We're good with the first two things but by the time we get to the third, the actual mopping part, I'm too tired to wrangle children out of the way so I give up.

I'm going to defy the forces of nature this next week and get my floors mopped. Wish me luck!

Attention all Smart Habit Saturday-er's: I am going to get crazy and take the month of Decmeber off from SHS. It is going to be a busy month so we could probably all use a break. If you want to keep doing SHS on your blog you are welcome to but start planning a big New Year's Smart Habit Saturday post for the first week in January and then we'll link up on January 4th. Doesn't that sound exciting? I know most of us will be all about exercise and eating right after the Holiday season and I can't wait to hear about it!

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

My Thanksgiving Day Project

I did it! I made curtains for the girls' closet. I won't tell you how many mistakes I made and how long it took but they are hung anyway. They definitely make the room look more finished.


I added simple pleats across the top to give them some detail. There is something about white linen curtains that gets to me. In our old house I took down the blinds and made them for almost every window. Some had pleats across the bottom, some across the top, some rows of vertical pleats and in my daughter's room they even had pretty ties at the top. I loved those curtains! Unfortunately they all stayed with the house and I'm sure were taken down and thrown out. Oh well.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Organized Toys

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I am thankful for the changes I've been able to make in my life because I've learned to get organized. I'm also incredibly thankful that my MIL had Thanksgiving dinner at her house and I didn't have to cook a thing. My nine year old made rolls which, if you must know, we let rise all over the inside of the oven. What can I say, I got started on a project, he was washing dishes and we both forgot to check them. We rescued them however and they were still wonderful even if a few of them may have had bits of burned flakes from the bottom of the stove.

More about my current project tomorrow...

Today it's Jane again. This is a toy shelf she keeps in her basement so kids have something to play with while they're waiting for their sibling's piano lessons. Isn't Jane so thoughtful? Don't forget that I didn't ask her ahead of time if I could take photos of her house. It looks picture perfect all the time.

Someone asked if she had children. She has one daughter that is eleven and some grown children. Don't let that fool you though because my house was a disaster even before I had children. What was my excuse? Jane has always been organized, small children or none.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Organizing Games and Puzzles

This is our lost pieces drawer that's in the game cupboard in the living room. Whenever the kids and I find a piece to a game or puzzle and we don't want to take the time to put it away properly in it's bag we throw it in this drawer. That means we throw it in this drawer every time.

Luckily it's a small drawer so it doesn't hold much but when it gets stuffed (I forgot to take a picture of that part) we all get together and put everything away in the proper bag. This time we pooped out before we were finished but we made a big dent in the mess.



You can buy Organizing Bags for games, puzzles, toys, and everything else here: laragallagher.com/bags

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Rules of Gift Giving

Christmas is coming!!!

Are you getting excited yet? I'm not! I think a perfectly wonderful holiday has been ruined by commercialism. Maybe it's the organizer in me or maybe I'm just a pessimist but I can't stand all the clutter, the shopping, the noise and the over spending. Luckily we don't watch TV so we are saved from the worst of it but as of Friday I won't want to step a foot outside the comfort of my own home.

Last year we spent two weeks in California to escape it all and spend time together as a family. Christmas day on the beach was wonderful!!! I'm trying to talk everyone into doing it again this year. I don't think I'm going to have to talk very hard. Yes we spent a bit of money on the vacation instead of on presents but I'd rather pay for memories than a bunch of junk that no one will remember in five years let alone 50. My kids will always remember the trip we took.

After reading this article, Cristina asked me what we give our kids for Christmas. Not a lot. They get a stocking full of useful trinkets like school supplies, puzzles, fun bandaids and shampoos etc. Then they usually get one present from us. Something useful of course. I'm not saying we never give toys because to a small child, toys are useful. But when we give toys we try to pick something that will be played with over and over and will last close to forever. Here are some things that have worked for us for Christmas or Birthday presents. I'll add to it as I think of things.

• Puzzles, games (as long as they are kept in a cupboard and put away after each use they will last a long time)
• Dolls (but not all the little crap that goes with them and will end up cluttering your house)
• A doll stroller or a shopping cart for a boy (they might not last forever but they get played with to death)
• Ride on pony (My girls love theirs but we bought them after Christmas when they were $10 instead of $60)
• Toy kitchen with minimal dishes
• Little tykes gym with slide (This would be great. We have something like this.)
• Trampoline (this may not work for you but our kids live on ours)
• Swingset
• Building blocks or a wooden train set
• Legos never go out of style
• Bikes, scooters, roller blades, helmets etc.
• Cd players (I won't buy my kids MP3 players because I don't want them tuning out the world around them.)
• Snorkel set with fins and mask (We swim a lot.)
• Books of course
• Tool box with REAL tools (you can add tools to it every year)
• Sports equipment
• Sewing machine (My kids won't get one until they are ready to leave home because they can use mine until then.)
• Craft projects and supplies
• Art supplies
• Clothes (I almost never give clothes for Christmas because we have already bought our winter clothes by then. I don't see the point in giving a new coat for Christmas when the kid needed it in October.)
• Gardening supplies (Please don't give this to your child in the middle of winter! Wait for a spring birthday.)
• A musical instrument if it's something they have been wanting. Although it might make a better family gift in case the child doesn't stick with it.
• Quilt or blanket they can drag around the house. My kids got these two years ago and they are great because I don't have to worry about my nice quilts getting ruined in a fort slide.

Of coure you aren't going to buy your child a gift if it doesn't fit with your family standards but also don't buy it for him just because it's something YOU want him to have. If your child isn't into sports, don't buy him/her a new basketball. This sounds obvious but I have done it before so I'm sure some of you (or your spouses) have too.

Another obvious one is to give age appropriate gifts. Don't buy your thee year old a cd player. Don't buy your four year old an adult sized soccer ball. Not that anyone I know has ever done that.

Also don't give a gift to one child that the whole family will want to use. For instance a game will go to the whole family not one child that will pitch a fit when they're mad and tell their sister she can't play it. The rule in our family is, if something belongs to someone then they don't have to share it if they don't want to. Ever. Of course I have my own exceptions to this rule. If someone owns a book and they choose to keep it on the family bookshelf than anyone is free to read it. Things like that.

As far as Grandparents go, there is not much you can do about their generous spending and gift giving. We've tried to encourage family gifts or paying for lessons or classes but that hasn't gone over well. You can make all the suggestions you want but they are are still going to buy what they want to buy.

Chris is doing a Gift Guide on her blog with some fun toys and games you might be interested in.

I think what I should do for the whole month of December is a daily post of Stupid Gifts I Had Better Not Catch You Paying Good Money For. Would that be fun?

If you're playing by my rules of gift giving then once the Holidays are over you will need to keep your kids locked up so they don't hear about all the loot their friends got that they didn't. Either that or you can teach your kids about spending money wisely and appreciating what they have. If you talk they WILL listen. This is just my observation but sometimes the more you give your kids, the more ungrateful they will be. Go figure.

My favorite places to shop are garage sales, thrift stores and Ebay. I know a lot of people are trying to buy only handmade gifts these day so you may want to spend some time over at Etsy as well.

Happy gift giving! Or better yet...find other ways to spread the joy of the season.

Organize Your Cowgirls

Yesterday when we were busy cleaning the girls' room I installed some hooks that I have wanted to hang forever along with the only cowgirl things we could find around the house. (Montse beat me to it by a long shot!) To tell you the truth I wasn't sure which wall I wanted them on but now that I'm expecting another baby I know there will be a crib on one empty wall. That left me with only one option!

My biggest problem with starting projects is deciding what I want but as soon as I decide I am a go-getter. I really want to start decorating this room. The thing that's holding me back is choosing a color scheme. I want to use some red because of the stained glass window that's in there but I don't know what else to put with it. We want a pretty, subtle cowgirl room. I'm not thinking red bandanas here. I just need something to start with, a picture or a pillow or a rug. Something.

They have n@ked duvets that have been waiting for covers because I don't know what to buy but I think I'm going to go with neutral bedding so I can change accessories or paint whenever I want. (Because of course I will want to repaint every other month. You know how I am.) OK, that was a big decision I just made right there. Take a deep breath.

To get more information on my Organizing Hooks or to place an order click here.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Talk About Tuesday

I'm sorry, I can't seem to stop editing this post!

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new you can check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

I told you I've been on a cleaning and organizing frenzy. Every moment I'm feeling good now I want to spend getting the house in order. I really wanted to work in the basement but I was too cold to go down there so I decided I was going to do some clothing repairs but I got distracted by the girl's filthy room and went to work in there instead. See how I could never work with a cleaning schedule?

Things were pretty picked up from a previous cleaning session but the dirt was making me sick so we spent a few hours scrubbing and vacuuming. While I was at it I had to pack up the summer clothes, something I'm sure most of you did long ago. The dress ups used to be in the long dresser but since those are now in the play room then we moved Persistence's clothes into it. Now that they each have their own dressers I hope their clothes stay a little neater. I know that's probably hoping for too much.



This is a window I bought at an auction years ago. It goes from the bedroom into the walk in closet. I just had to use it somewhere in this house and it fit here so I went with it. Would you be embarrassed to admit that the three windows in this room have never been cleaned since we moved in? (I won't tell you how long ago if you don't already know.) I spent a good deal of time scraping paint and stickers off them.



Why do they have to put 17 stickers on each window? Wouldn't one sticker tell us who the manufaturer is? I don't need to see it and scrub it off 17 times. I think these were the last windows left to clean though, except for the 18 windows in our unfinished sunroom. It's on my list to clean those some time this century. (I was going to say decade but that only gives me two more years.)

Some more things on my to-do list for this room.

• Make a curtain for the closet. (I hate closet doors because they are always open and in the way.)
• Paint the dressers.
• Make a cushion for the dresser/window seat.
• Finish building the closet. There are hanging bars on the right side of the window but the left side past the dressers is still unfinished. Have I mentioned how much I love having a window in the closet? We don't have to turn the light on every time we go in there.
• Build shutters for the windows. It would be nice to have some kind of window coverings especially considering the window in the closet and all. You think?
• Decorate and beautify. Not high on my priorities for some reason although I did do one little thing that I'll show you tomorrow.

What do you have to talk about this week?

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Are You Ready for an Update?

I am now 15 weeks along in this pregnancy. 15 Heavenly weeks. Heavenly because they are 15 weeks that are now behind me instead of ahead of me.

If you remember my last update I was feeling pretty horrible. I'm still feeling horrible but not every day. In fact my last bad day was Monday so this has been a great week. Now when Persistence tells everyone who asks, "She lays in bed and bawls all day," it's not exactly true. At least not this week.

As long as I take the nausea pills and the pills for the side effects those give me and the pills for the side effect pill's side effects, then I'm only slightly sick. It's more of a car sick feeling instead of a dying from the flu feeling. In fact I'm doing so much better that I've tucked my kids in bed for two nights in a row now. I even made dinner last night for the first time in over two months. We ate tomato soup out of a can but I made homemade bread to eat with it and it was much tastier than the frozen food we usually eat.

My kids are happy for me in a sad kind of way. Happy that I'm feeling better and can now put the two year old to bed but sad that I can now keep a better eye on their activities. Plus we've been spending many hours a day cleaning the house to make up for the months of minimal cleaning that the kids did. They were fabulous, don't get me wrong, but they just don't see dirt the way I see dirt.

I'm dreaming about all the meals I'm going to cook and all the organizing I'm going to do now that I'm feeling better but I'm actually missing those months of laying on the couch letting the world pass me by and not caring in the least about any of it. I'm not missing the sick part, just the not caring part. It was actually nice to check out of life for a little while.

I suppose I could still continue on like that if I wanted to. I could live like I didn't care that I only had the strength to make the kids and I shower once a week. I could live like I didn't care when Lovely throws cat food all over the floor and I could let it stay there for weeks at a time while everyone stepped in it and tracked it all over the house. I could live like I didn't care that most nights my two year old was brushing her own teeth and putting herself to bed. I could just live my life from the couch and read my books and let my seven year old do all the cooking have my kids fend for themselves.

But I don't think I will. I want my old life back where I fought every day with Persistence to do her hair and I was trying to teach Victor how to pick out matching clothes in spite of the fact that he's homeschooled. I know that most days I care too much about the little things that don't matter but if I don't care about the toilets getting scrubbed who will? And what is life all about if it's not clean toilets and matching clothes and combed hair?

If I didn't have all those things to care about then I wouldn't have my family and I really do care a lot about them.

Organized Art Supplies

Jane's organized art supplies. Let's all move in with Jane shall we? She's just too wonderful.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

Are you surprised to see SHS? I am! We're not having very good luck with it lately so thanks to those of you who are persevering with or without me!

My floors have been much cleaner than they have been the last two months. I'm not going to add any new habits since I'm still working on some old ones. Thoroughly Mormon Millie posted a link to a great article this week. Are You Choosing a Dirty House?

Sometimes, we create our own cleaning and organizing problems when we refuse to change old habits and try something different. Often our habits create stress and steal valuable time, without really improving out lives.

Read the article and tell me what habit you could change to make your life easier. I have to admit that I already do most of them because I'm so lazy.

I think the biggest time wasting habit I have is buying things that I end up returning. I hate shopping and I hate spending money so half the time I buy something I end up taking it back. I'm usually dragging cranky kids with me so I rush through stores and don't spend enough time deciding what I really need. Then I have to drag those same cranky kids back to the store to return things. It doesn't make much sense does it?

I am becoming overwhelmed with trying to keep our family clothed. Especially since I've been sick. My two year old has been wearing her Church dresses with tights everywhere because it's too cold for her summer clothes and she's grown out of all her long pants. Is that pathetic? Just this week I finally made it to the store and bought her three pairs of pants and ordered some shoes on line but do you think I can find shirts or socks to match? That seems to be more difficult than I can manage. And that's just one member of the family. I need a personal shopper!

It gets worse when you consider the fact that I'm growing out of all my clothes and I'm too tall to buy maternity clothes. What did I wear with my last three pregnancies at this stage? I have no idea. I know I have some things in a box that will fit me when my stomach gets bigger but that would require me to go down to the basement and find it.

What were we talking about again? Oh ya, habits. Get going on them.

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Take Five Friday

My organizing friend Christine Rice has a new blog carnival that I'm sure you'll be interested in. It's called Take Five Friday. Post about an organizing project you have completed in five minutes and leave a link in the comments on her site.

Here's one that I posted about this week. Find a pretty basket at the store or in your storage and fill it with bathroom essentials that may be cluttering your counter. Fast and easy!

Organized Playroom

This is what happens when a friend with six kids comes to visit! Victor cleaned it up last week and then the two older kids and I went through and organized all of it. Persistence is ruthless when it comes to throwing things out because it's usually her job to clean it all up. She was trying to throw some things out that made me say, "No! We have to keep that!"



Much better. There was a basket full of things that belonged in other rooms. We got rid of a box of stuffed animals and another box of dress-ups and junkie toys.



This is a tiny room that doesn't even have a closet so it doesn't hold much. Some day it will be a guest room but I like it as a toy room. (And some day I will make a real curtain for the door!) It is just off the living room so it's easy to put things away that wander out and we can shut the door when we don't want to look at the mess. Better yet we can lock the mess in and the kids out! It's been nice to get all the clutter out of the girl's bedroom. We kept two boxes of dress-ups and costumes, one box of stuffed animals and dolls and one box of dishes.



We have one cupboard in the living room that's full of puzzles and games and my kids have a box of Lego's, a box of trains and a box of cars under their beds but these are the only toys the kids own. Are you feeling sorry for them yet? I'm not and you can be sure we won't be buying them any toys for Christmas. I think they already have more than enough.



Really, what more does a cowgirl need?

A note about our tumbling mat in case anyone asks. I keep it in this room to give the kids a soft place to play. We bought it the year I was pregnant with Lovely and it just about saved our sanity that winter. The kids tumbled away the cold dark days. Anyone with little kids should get one if they have the space to spread it out. It folds up neatly in a corner when you're not using it and it's also great for forts. We got a good deal on ours because it was damaged but they can be pricey. It would make a great Christmas present for the whole family. Haven't you always wanted to see your husband do a cartwheel?

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.

Now I'm Stealing Websites

Instead of posting my own photo today for GeMoOrgNo I'm going to link you to an organized kitchen. You'll find some fun ideas there for organizing your own kitchen.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.