"Some Scratches" An Update

Last week I told you the story of a Craig's list find. 

A leather couch and loveseat with "some scratches."

It was a great deal mainly because the corners were ripped to shreds by a cat with some emotional issues.

The silent conversation Jeff and I had over the seller's head went something like this:

J: Are you serious? The corners look terrible.

Me: I can fix it. Trust me! It is perfect for our space. It is the best deal of the century.

J: I adore you and don't want to hear you whine about the 'deal of the century your mean husband wouldn't let you buy.' So okay, but I reserve the right to say I was right.

Me: You won't be sorry! I love you most fantastic wonderful husband!

I fixed it with a patch of faux leather and hotglue.

After deciding the couch was PERFECT, but the loveseat didn't really fit in our space, 

I advertised just the loveseat on Craigslist.

I said things like "classy mahogany brown leather" and "professional looking patch that does not detract from the beauty of this quality piece of furniture."

I sold it in 5 hours for the same price as we paid for both the couch and loveseat.

I said before that God gave me this deal! He is a good God who takes care to clothe the lillies of the field and find the perfect deal for my basement furniture. (Matthew 6:28)

I am so fantastically blessed to have a beautiful couch that was essentially FREE!

Before basement remodel.

After new windows, paint, baseboard, subfloor, carpet and pad, and new lighting. Before dreamy leather couch.

After!

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, 

what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. 

Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not much more valuable than they? 

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? 

See how the lilies of the field grow. 

They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, 

O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. 

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:28-35

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Know When To Skip the Housework

I've heard a lot of advice recently about not cleaning my house.

* the dishes can wait, the babies can't *

* a clean house is the sign of a boring person *

* Don't cook. Don't clean.

No man will ever make love to a woman because she waxed the linoleum.*

~ Joan Rivers

* Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like 

shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. *

I was contemplating all this cleaning vs. enjoying life while drinking my coffee one morning this week.

I was definitely on the "enjoying life" side of things instead of "cleaning up after life."

Watching my young son toddle about rewarded and warmed my heart. 

The girls were occupied cleaning their room. Usually I'm doing morning chores too. 

But this morning, I heartily agreed that chores could wait. 

What could be more important than soaking up this moment?

But then I realized it was because of "chores" that this moment existed.

Without housework, the same scene would be impossible.

If the kitchen wasn't cleaned, my french press would be too dirty for my morning cup of coffee.

And my mug would be dirty too.

If the 7 loads of laundry weren't folded the night before, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair. It would be piled high with a mound of clothes instead.

If the girls didn't know how to clean their room and didn't expect the morning ritual, they wouldn't be occupied so I could read stories to just one quick-sitting boy.

If it the room hadn't been dusted and vacuumed in the last week, I would be annoyed at how dirty everything was instead of how the sunlight peered through Rem's light locks.

Chores are needed.

I think the idea is not to get obsessed with keeping a perfect house, 

but some regular cleaning and upkeep is absolutely necessary.

I like the quote, "My house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."

Yes, there were chores waiting while I relaxed in the joy of these moments. It's never done if you have children and/or eating going on in the house.

I follow a daily cleaning list called the Motivated Moms Chore Chart (see the link in the sidebar). I didn't come up with it, but think it is brilliantly compiled. Chores are divided into small tasks that I can complete in little bits of time throughout my day. 

Everything eventually gets done and everyone is at peace. Even my dust bunnies.

Home should be welcoming and we should never be a slave to needing things perfect. Its the "Mary vs. Martha" scenario all the time. Serve/cook/clean or soak up a precious moment?

Remington started finding prizes to show me.

His grunted "words" crack us up in their complex simplicity.

Ba - bottle

Ma - Mom

Ma- more

Sha - shoe

K - kitty

Da - Dad

Th - this, what's this, hey look at that

Do you do Motivated Moms or a similar idea?

Maybe you can just get things done without a list. 

What's your method for keeping caught up so you can enjoy the moments?

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Keeping Kids' Clothes Organized

I have what I think is a good system for maintaining my children's abundance of clothes.

Can you tell?

Ehem.

Even good organizing requires maintenance. Apparently. 

If seasons did not change, children did not grow, and grandma's avoided fantastic clothing sales, well then, I could organize once and it would stay that way.

Every few months I have to get in the girls' closet and do purging, sorting, and exchanging clothes. As the above picture aptly describes....

...it was time.

I've discovered one major pitfall to keeping things organized and functional:

Too many clothes!

It isn't fair to ask a young child to keep a room and closet clean that is too full for even an adult to manage. I want my children to be able to dress themselves and put their own clothes away to keep things tidy. When children can't find anything or put anything away by themselves because drawers are too full, it's time to get rid of some things.

My main system from day to day is two bins in the closet. One for outgrown things and one for too big things. Yet every few months the drawers get too full and I find I'm having more fights with the girls about what they are wearing. 

"No, you can't wear that, it's too small."

"No, you can't wear that, it doesn't match."

It's time to go through their clothes again!

These three things help me with my very opinionated girls and their clothes:

• I edit their wardrobe without them present. When they are organizing with me, everything becomes their favorite. It's hard to find a time to get into their room without them around, but it is possible. This morning I stayed home from church with Rem because he had a fever. While he slept, it took me less than an hour to get things back to functional in the girls' closet. I keep the favorite items of clothing (unless they are completely outgrown or look too shabby) and my children are none the wiser to all the purging I did.

• Remove the "nos" from their closet (and house!). When I am saying "no, you can't wear that" too often, it's time to just get rid of that stuff. Like skirts and shorts that are too short, a crazy patterened skirt that matches nothing, and jeans that are constantly showing off the butt crack. Esentially, it gives the girls endless choices because I'm not going to say "no" to what they pick out. No battles, happy and somewhat fashionable children = happy mommy.

• Solid bottoms (pants and skirts) and patterned tops in the same general color scheme. This idea is related to the one above because it is just one more way to have the girls' wardrobe wearable. To the left is an outfit that Emma would love to wear. If you don't have a problem with crazy outfits like this, then good for you. I personally don't want the arguments... or the stares. "Solid bottoms and pattered tops" is my tip of day. (Solid bottoms does not include tights or leggings).

Camouflage (even in pink) is a solid color according to my children. I'm not arguing with that one.

I do these occasional purges when most of the kids' clothes are clean after I've done "all" the laundry. I have a good idea of what we have too much of and what is needed. 

Have you ever bought your child something (even on a good deal) and realized it was totally unnecessary. I've done this so much! Living with excess makes me feel wasteful and unwise. After I've gone through the closet I have a list of things that would be helpful in their wardrobes -- a much better feeling! And I can tell those thrifty, clothes-loving grandmas what their granddaughters need. Today I discovered that Emma has only 2 short-sleeved shirts that fit (Mandy has 14 :/). Mandy, on the other hand, needs shorts -- she has 1 pair that will fit this summer.

Labeling the drawers with names and pictures makes it easy for a 6 year old and a 3 year old to put their own things away.

I've found that three draws somewhat full for each child is plenty. Any more than that and their large closet looks like this:

Things that I am giving away go in the car immediately. Out of sight, no one goes through them again, and they are ready to donate. I purged 1 large tote full of outgrown items to give away. Anyone need 3T girls clothes (mostly winter)? I'll take them to MOPS or contact me via fb or phone.

It took me about an hour and I listened to classical music. Even though I skipped church, I felt God's blessing on me this morning. Honestly. Keeping my home peaceful (unlike the above picture) is a beautiful feeling.

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Basement [another update]

We are enjoying our "new" basement space so much.

We knew when we tackled the project that it wouldn't be easy.

From dank and moldy,

dark and creepy,

dirty and cluttered,

to...

light and airy,

clean and dry,

Before and after:

 This is the basement view from the bottom of the stairs looking straight ahead and to the right.

The biggest difference [besides the mold scrubbed from the walls] are the new windows. Before they were covered with cardboard because they were broken or missing. Can we say classy?

Jeff put in the new windows and also added moulding. The top, faux crown moulding covers an uneven ledger board. The base moulding makes the room feel very finished and I love how it looks.

Another before:

We used this space for storage, but never used it for playing. Besides being very dark because of no windows and poor lighting, it was cold and damp. We [being Jeff] repaired the major leaks with better outside drainage and Damtite on the inside walls. It still felt damp and objects on the floor drew moisture. I had given up hope for ever turning this into a usable space until one of many internet searches produced a product called Dricore. 

I did a lot of research and the product seemed to be the answer to all our problems. It protected against small leaks, provided insulation, and added a subfloor that accepts carpet and pad. 

This is the Dricore product after installation and before the carpet

The Dricore subfloor is a genius solution and I can't say enough good about it! The temperature in the basement rose about 5 degrees and the floor feels solid and warm.

Before and now:

We use this space all the time! The kids enjoy playing down there. 

Friends and cousins have a place to run and play.

We are basically done, with just a few details to finish. 

Recover the couch, paint the stairs and stairwell walls, and figure out a shelving unit for toys.

This is just lots of fun and I wanted to wait until every last detail was done before the BIG reveal. For now, this is the new functional and fantastic space at our house. Come over and play any time!

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"Go to the basement!" punishment

My kids like to drive me crazy and "run the loupe." The loupe goes through the living room, dining room, hallway, mudroom, and right through the middle of the kitchen and back again in a circle. Pushing some noisy car, screaming and chasing eachother, blankets over their heads and running into walls. It's especially loud when other kids are over. Oh my! 

Every day when they are running to and fro, I say, "If you want to run, go to the basement!" There is plenty of room down there. But the children do not go unless forced.

"Come on, please just go play in the basement!!?" I beg, I plead. I force.

They cry.

And what's not to love?

Windows covered over because they are broken.

Mold growing in the corner.

Cold, uneven, dirty concrete floors.

Storage space mixed with all the un-loved and broken toys.

Dark and dank. 

Circus paint treatment from previous tenants. Not to mention the outdoor siding used on inside walls.

One of my nephews was over at Christmastime and I sent the kids downstairs to play. Soon after, my nephew came up crying, "There are mice and slugs down there!" And what could I say to comfort the poor boy. It's true.

Mice and slugs.

For 9 years we kinda pretended like we didn't have a basement. On tours of our house, I would skip that door saying, "Oh, its just the basement. It isn't finished. More like, "It's frightening."

About 8 years ago, Jeff made a valiant effort to spruce the place up. He thought it would be a fun game room for friends to hang out. He cleaned it all up, put up the falling down ceiling, and painted the walls white. The big problem was still the coldness, moisture, and it was VERY loud. Two adults couldn't have a conversation if anything else was going on. 

We rarely used it.

Jeff and I decided it was time to tackle this project. Is it even possible to turn this unused, creepy, dank space into a livable, inviting retreat for young and old?

We started about 3 weeks ago with a major clean-up. Also, Jeff installed new windows. Let there be light! A subfloor was next. Then paint. Then carpet. I can't wait to show you the results.

Someday soon, "go play in the basement" won't be a punishment. :)

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