Reorganization Take 1

With the arrival of the twins in about 4 weeks, the house transformations are just about finished - for now. Of course, with my crazy pregnant lady eye, I have found MANY more projects that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to take on but alas - priorities.

I started with the kids room and my beloved closet system creation.

We have taken out half of the play area to accommodate the TWO closet rods and bin shelves that were seriously needed. I just picked up three closet maid 6 cube shelves to flank the rods. The cube bins now hold their socks, slippers, underwear, under shirts, school pants and school gym uniform. With summer coming up, I am thinking of putting a bin on top for swim trunks.

Since our boys are getting older, this will be their changing area and where ALL of their clothes will be kept. I have lifted up their beds for storage underneath as well - where they now store their PJ's and spare sheets. There is also a large dresser for the boys to keep their jeans, tee shirts and sweat pants across from their closet.

The extra cubes hold extra diapers for the girls, pillow cases and crib bedding. Though, I may end up putting the swim trunks and swim suits in there as well. As with all new systems we will need to try it out to see if it works for our family. There are more photos here.

I have moved ALL kids books into this window nook. It doesn't always stay cleaned up but it is a good out of the way spot for the kids to grab books.

The girls have inherited their own dressers. PJ's are still kept under the crib as well as the diaper changing things. In our house, bedtime consists of my husband and I grabbing a spot on the floor and getting everyone ready. With the diapers and PJ's under the crib, it makes it easy to just grab supplies instead of running around the room for things. It may not work for everyone but it fits in with our families system.

there was ANOTHER one . . .

Well, we found another baby on our ultrasound this week!!

This is why I have been so sick - TWINS!!! #5 and #6!!

So. . . you can expect a MAJOR reorganization of the ENTIRE HOUSE!

AAAHHHHH!!

I might have to even scrap my beloved closet system in the kids room and start again. I have so many configurations going through my head! should my toddlers share a queen bed or move to a single & toddler bed? where do we fit another dresser? where do we build another closet? Is it time for my boys to have bunk beds? If so, where do we put them?

Once the shock is gone - I am going to get down to business! So, hopefully, I can keep you all up to date with the house and LIFE changes!!

In the meantime - any new organization products or suggestions are ALWAYS welcome!! It might be time to reinvent the wheel!!

New addition means NO POSTS!

Just to give you all a heads up . . .

It has been a very long time since I have given you all a post. Not that you are on the edge of your seat waiting daily for word from me. I am 10 weeks pregnant with baby #5 and MISERABLE! When I can keep my children fed, dressed and alive while keeping my own food down and clothes from stretching out, I am sure I will be up to my crazy organizing self!

I have BIG plans for the house - ORGANIZING and GUTTING rooms!! It will be very exciting!! Mostly for me but I shall pretend that you will be excited with me. In 6 weeks when the reorganization of our home begins, I will keep you all posted. This baby was just the motivation that I needed to get our home to run like a well oiled machine!

Happy Fall and I will post soon!

Garden drama

My "adventure with gardening" has had a few losses and a few new “pets”.

First . . . my acorn squash and several of my zucchini plants have died. They just wilted and then the stems disintegrated in my hands. Some say it was a mildew and others a borer. It could also have been a sickness that cucumber beetles possess. I lost a couple of cucumber plants to them as well so I am apt to blame them. I cannot totally complain – we have been eating zucchini with EVERY meal for the last two months. Plus, the acorn seeds I saved not thinking they would grow, produced ONE acorn squash. It may not sound productive but it was an experiment after all.

I have managed to save at least ONE zucchini plant and it is producing as we speak!After spending countless hours on garden net I cleared out the dead stuff and mounded dirt on the damaged parts of the stem. In a couple of days, I will be eating MORE zucchini. Now, “lovingly” referred to as Zombie-cchini.

After coming home from vacation, we were bountifully blessed with four eggplants, a pound and a half of tomatoes, three zucchini and a “pet” groundhog. He/She (not named of course!) was living under my sunroom DIRECTLY behind my veggie bed. It had to walk down the center plank, past all of the green onions and broccoli to get to its home. Naturally, I was a raving lunatic and utterly distraught for two straight days!My amazing husband JUMPED into action. Luckily, our neighbors across the alley had just caught two the week before and still had the trap they borrowed. I waited to rest of the evening, and most of the night and then halfway through the next day. Still no sign of the silly pest! Upon further reading, it seems that the groundhog does not like the “pitter patter” of stomping children and the noises of a house with four children ages 7 and under. So, with the assistance of my mother in law and sister in law (and their subsequent knee braces and crutches), we all headed out of the house for the day.

By the time we arrived home, the PEST was in its cage and ready for my husband to find it a new home – across THREE highways and far away from my veggies.

Our last "pet" is one we have had for a while and I REALLY like her (or him). One night, while tidying up my living room, I “stumbled” (after a screech and a jump) upon a small praying mantis on my husband’s chair. How it got in our house, I will never know – though, I have PLENTY of suspicions and animal loving boys to blame! I quickly grabbed my husband and, without actually TOUCHING it, instructed him to take it straight to my veggie bed.

Well, after a couple of months – I still have a pet mantis! Whenever I am out there, I will find her hiding somewhere, eating all of the pets I don’t want. She is a very useful pet and getting quite large – I guess that means that she is eating VERY well!!!!!

Experimenting with Gardening

It has been QUITE a while since I have posted anything and here is why - I have started a Veggie garden! I have been engrossed in it to the point of near craziness and have discovered a new 7 month hobby to occupy me (because I am not busy enough).

After hearing and reading about "The Square Foot Garden" concept, I realized that THAT is exactly the kind of growing that would work in the city. We are blessed with a decent size yard for our area but nothing large enough for rows and rows of veggies and sections of orchards that I, longingly, envision in my head.

The concept is simple - you can grow a lot of food in ONE SQUARE foot of dirt. So, my husband built me a box (4ft by 10 ft) - NO digging required and I mixed the soil (1/3 peat moss, 1/3 manure & 1/3 vermiculite) then filled the box. As my mothers day gift, the whole family went to the nursery and I picked out my starts.

In the raised bed I planted: 1 green pepper, 3 Roma tomatoes, 6 red leaf lettuce, 6 romaine lettuce, 4 zucchini, two acorn squash (from seed), 5 celery, 5 broccoli, 4 eggplant, 1 burp less cucumber, 10 green onions, 9 spinach, 4 cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley, rosemary, 2 sweet basil, sage, creeping thyme (edible) and curry.

You can see up to date photos of the bed here!!

In large pots (I picked up at BIG LOTS for $16 bucks) I planted: 2 Roma tomatoes & 2 burp less cucumbers.

You can see up to date photos of the Pots here!

I was also given several Cherry Tomato plants by my green thumb neighbors so I have a few more containers and pots around the yard with 5 more tomatoes. We REALLY love tomatoes!

Lastly, after watching several youtube videos on making my own potato bin - I did it! I think I will do things differently next year but, we will have potatoes in the fall!

My experimental gardening has been going well for the most part. The weather was CRAZY hot during the first few weeks so the spinach went to seed and never recovered. I finally pulled it out and put in a few more green onions I had in the kitchen.

I have spent most of the summer battling CUCUMBER BEETLES. They have really attacked the cucumbers I have in my bed. When I thought they were controlled, I got a total of 2 cucumbers and now the virus that they spread has taken hold and my cucumber is pretty much dead. I have decided NOT to pull it out because it still has a few places for them to attack and I don't want them to move to the cucumbers that are in the pot.

Yet another bug I have discovered while gardening is the CABBAGE WORM. It is a white moth, that lays it eggs on cabbage and broccoli leaves. The eggs then hatch and these green worms eat the leaves and eventually try to work their way to the head of the broccoli (in our case). They are "cute" according to my bug loving son but my 14 year old brother in law wasn't too fond of finding one on his plate for dinner (not my doing). They are very hard to spot because they are the SAME color as the leaves and they are usually found on the back of the leaves or on the stalk. If you see little black or orange pellets on your produce, start checking the leaves and stalk around it for a worm - those are their "left overs".

My newest PEST is the SQUASH BUG. They are U-G-L-Y and kind of smelly and really annoying. I found several batches of eggs on the underside of my acorn squash leaves today. In the last two weeks, I have been killing two bugs a day. Ironically, I pick them up and SQUASH them. ha ha ha ha ha

They like to bury down to the roots of your zucchini and squash and eat away. Keep an eye out for this obnoxious bugs and get to them FAST!

Adventures in Felt Food

I have been having a ridiculous amount of fun making FELT play food for my kids play kitchen. There are NUMBEROUS blogs to check out on the subject and you can get great ideas on etsy (or just buy them if you don’t want to make them yourself).

Here are a few Links I think you should check out; they are VERY impressive!

Homemade by Jill (she also has LOTS of links)

American Felt & Craft blog

Ivers (check out her felt food photo stream)

So far, I have made a pizza (which is a little more involved than I originally thought but, I think it will be worth it in the end). I am making all of the toppings separately so my kids can get creative in their pizza toppings

The sauce and cheese are essentially one piece of felt just edged. I currently have basil (or spinach) and tomatoes for a margarita pizza. I will also be making mushrooms, pineapple, pepperoni and possibly even green peppers. We will see.

I have also made orange slices and fried eggs. With plans for pancakes after my pizza project is done.

Feeding The Masses

It seems to me that my kids are ALWAYS hungry. I feel like I am CONSTANTLY preparing food (& cleaning up after it). Well, I finally got organized this month and even on day two I have noticed how much easier it is to feed the masses.

I have designated a drawer in my fridge and a bin in my cabinet JUST for snacks. It took a bit of time, separating and bagging things when I came home from the store but it is worth it in the long run.

As for making lunches. . . Through this blog, I have been blessed with ideas shared by people all across the globe! I cannot even believe that I can say that! SilverMoon Dragon shared with me a GREAT idea for getting school lunches ready. She just prepares all of the items ahead of time and then her children pack their own lunches! BRILLIANT!

I made turkey wraps for all of my family this morning and cut them in half. That way, they don’t waste the other half and I won’t have to make them again tomorrow. Plus, if someone is extra hungry, they can grab one out of the fridge.

I have also made a box full of bagged lunch items: veggie chips, pretzels, raisins, dried fruit, trail mix, seasoned toasted garbanzo beans, and fruit bars. Along with the celery, carrots and cheese sticks in the fridge, my boys can pick three items to go with their drink and sandwich (or wrap).

One last thing that I did this morning was to cook up a family size package of chicken tenderloins in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. They can now be used for our chicken pizza tonight, quick protein snack before soccer practice, sliced on top of a salad or diced up in a lunch wrap. Since my 10 month old still eats fairly simple, they are perfect for her as well. So, for $8, I have a multipurpose food ready to go, feeding a family of 6 for about a week.