Posts belonging to Category Home Organization

With every baby comes a room change in our world, leaving me flailing as to how to decorate spaces on a dime.  I had heard of people using shower curtains as window treatments and so set out on a mission to find cheap drapes for a new room soon to be occupied by our 1yo daughter and 3yo son.  There are 3 windows in the room, 32″ x 65″ or so.  We priced out unlined drapes at PBK and would have spent at least $250 to get a product that wouldn’t block the sun and wasn’t all that interesting pattern-wise.

You can imagine my elation out shopping at Tar.get, when I found these clearance shower curtains, lined and in beautiful masculine/feminine patterns:

Who knew shower curtains could be so nice?

I got them for a steal at half off: $15/ea and took them home to set to work.  Mind you, this is an EASY DIY–I am no seamstress.  Anyone who can sew a hem can do this.  You could also work it with sewing glue if you don’t sew.  It’s definitely not rocket science!

I first cut my curtain in half–the dimensions are 72″ x 72″, so I knew I’d have plenty of curtain to cover my windows.  

You’ll now have two separate panels, each with a rough edge.

You can lay the other panel aside. Don’t forget to be cute while being crafty–a definite plus!

Mama's best helper

Now fold once and twice on your rough edge and pin. You’ll want to have 1/4″ to 1/2″ stitch allowance.

Then set to sewing your seam.

When you’re done, admire your work, then set to hanging. I used shower curtain hooks and slipped them right through the holes at the top of each panel.

Voila, curtains!

Take that, PBK!

And with that, you’re done! We plan to hang the curtains on real rods ($2.50 ea), which will bring the project total to a whopping $55 in expenses. That’s a good feeling when you’re living on a budget! Enjoy!

I’ve spent the last week exchanging and replacing 3 of our expired car seats and washing the new ones as I continue to nest. For anyone else in the same boat, Babies R Us has a promotion until Feb. 20 where you can trade in your old car seat (or stoller, high chair, etc.) for a 25% discount on a new one. At least it is something!  I ended up with a better deal than anything I could find online.

Also, my husband let me know about another car seat recall of Britax infant seats.

Can I do this in a suburban?

The advent of my third trimester has me contemplating logistics, especially those pertaining to car seats.

I need 5 seats in our suburban come April, 4 full forward facing seats and an infant seat. Our 50 pound 6 year old has frequent meltdowns in the car due to sensory and other challenges, so I must keep him in a five point harness. I can’t move the 5 year old into a booster without inciting more meltdowns since the 6 year old would remain in a car seat. The 6 year old cannot sit next to the infant. I would like the 3 and 6 year old in back with our carpool seat (not always in use) in between them and our infant and 5 year old in the middle.

I can get three in the middle easily, but then two kids have to climb over the back seat through the rear of the car, which is awkward and painful and not a very practical long term solution. I would like to keep one third of our middle bench row folded down so kids can get in and out of the car and I can help them buckle.

I have scoured car-seat.org and other car seat forums and my head hurts. There is anecdotal evidence of 3 Radians in a third row of a suburban, but no one has posted an actual picture of this set up in a Suburban. I cannot ascertain if a minivan third row is wider than that of a suburban since the wheel wells take up so much room, though I will try to measure a neighbor’s minivan and compare this weekend. As much as I would rather not swallow a fortune worth of new car seats, I do have two forward facing ones that are about to expire anyway.

The Radians are 17″ wide and the Chevy website says there is only 49.4″ of hip room in the 3rd row, which would make it an inch and a half too narrow. Does anyone have any experience with 3 forward car seats in the back of a suburban?

We are hosting Christmas this year, and since my blood pressure has been a bit high, I’m trying to rest as much as possible in these last weeks of pregnancy.  My parents will do most of the cooking at my home on Sunday, but I’m trying to keep this house in some semblance of order prior to Saturday.  I’ve solicited the help of my older two children in this regard, as I bark orders from the sofa.  They did a lot of cleaning for me yesterday, and I was quite impressed.  This morning I wandered into the schoolroom and discovered their battle plan.  Gianna had posted the following notice for her siblings (this is the unedited version)–

Rules for Makeing the house Neater–

1.  When you leve the room clean it up

2.  Clean up the room before playing

3.  Don’t play with a lot of toys

4.  Don’t make really cool things (ouch!)

5.  Try not to cut paper

6.  Keep small and breakable things away from Claire

7.  Don’t let the babys get markers

8.  Don’t let the babys get sicors (scissors)

With the exception of #4, which stung a bit, not a bad list.

This is a fun post from the GeekDad blog.

Top 5 toys ever.

All free. All time tested. All in high demand in our household.

Brace yourselves!  Christmas is just around the corner, and like it or not, trying NOT to think about Christmas will not make Advent a more holy season in your life.  As our family has grown we have desperately searched for a system that will make Advent a time of joy and spiritual preparation, not a time of intense insanity and panic.  With 4 children, a very pregnant belly, 8 nieces and nephews, 5 Godchildren, 4 Advent/Christmas birthdays, and the other usual obligations of the holidays, the absence of a good plan would be catastrophic (not to be dramatic or anything).  From years of experience, I have learned that a “good plan” requires that we start our Christmas preparations in October (and no, this does not mean we decorate and put up lights prior to Halloween!)  It simply means that there are things that can be done in October (or earlier), and those things should be finished and checked off the list so that life is a little easier.

Last year, Mr. Red and I made notes of every task that we needed to complete prior to Christmas Day.  We mapped them out and spaced them out and made reasonable decisions regarding how we could spread out the tasks and make our very long “to do” list more manageable, and, perhaps, enjoyable?  We came up with the following schedule, and I am posting it here.

As a brief disclaimer, I am NOT posting this schedule to make you panic about your own plan.  Perhaps you have less shopping to do and starting in November isn’t that big of a deal.  Perhaps  you live with and are related to a bunch of saints who have all decided to forgo gift giving in lieu of charitable donations.  Or perhaps you are a saint and running around to stores at the last minute is a joy?  God Bless you if this is your situation.  I am posting the schedule for those of us who are not Saints, do not purchase gifts for Saints, and for those of us who shudder in horror at all those unnecessary trips to the store to pick up “forgotten” items.  You know, those of us who allow these trips to cause stress, and then take that stress out on our children and spouse.  Not that I am speaking from experience here or anything.

But back to the schedule.  We broke our schedule up into months, and near the first of each month I look at the “to do” list and assign each task a day.  We tried to group tasks by store (so for example, a task might read “Target Trip” and we tried to include all the regular yearly purchases into that Target Trip list).  Some of the tasks may be particular to our family, but I’m hoping by being so particular, it may help you remember something and add it to your own list.

October–

• Assess Credit Card Reward Status (we get free gift cards from our credit cards, but these need to be ordered several weeks in advance)
• Schedule Christmas Pictures
• Schedule Haircuts for Christmas Pictures (best done 2 weeks prior to photos)
• Purchase tickets to a Christmas Show (for example–Nutcracker/Handel’s Messiah), or if busy, make decision to forgo shows this year!
• Purchase kids Christmas Outfits–Girls, remember sweaters, hair accessories, and shoes.  Boys, remember shoes and ties.
• Order online Christmas gifts for–5 Godchildren, 4 Birthdays, our own 4 children, my parents, Mr. Red’s parents, Spouse, Mr. Red’s secretary, and any other person who needs a gift.  Obviously not all things can be ordered online, but order what you can and make a list of those things that need more thought or a trip to the store.
• Order Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Catalog for my children to pick out gifts/donations to 3rd world families.

November–

• Goodwill Trip (we purge our drawers in October and try to drop these things off to declutter before the Holidays)
• Target/ Walmart Trip–Purchase new outdoor lights (make sure they match old ones and white cords), purchase Christmas card letter paper and envelopes, special ornaments for Therese’s stocking, stocking stuffers for kids, wrapping paper, tape, bows, batteries, envelopes for sending pictures to Grandparents.
• Get Pictures Taken (order Christmas Cards) **best done in early November or late October**
• Wrap Birthday gifts
• Post Office–Ship Birthday gifts for those with early Advent Birthday and purchase stamps
• Put up outdoor lights on a nice November weekend (this avoids bad weather and you don’t have to plug them in until December)
• Purchase additional Christmas gifts at the Store (ideally, all gifts will be purchased by the end of November, I try to set a hard deadline here and not worry about getting a good sale later as this usually leads to more stress and extra time running around in December).
• Write Christmas Card Letter

December–

• Put important Advent/Christmas Events on Calendar–local parade, visit with Santa, Christmas shows, Macy’s Light show and Dickens Village in Philadelphia, Santa riding by on Firetruck, Living Nativity at local Church, Church Christmas Concert, kids Christmas concerts, a date and directions for getting your Christmas tree and include any notes about instructions for tree (max height, trim bottom branches, etc.)
• Calendar date for putting up tree/trimming tree
• Get out Advent Wreath and Christmas Book Basket from basement, Get out Nativity from Basement
• Set DVR on TV to record televised Christmas Specials (Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Home Alone, Christmas Carol, Frosty)
• Set timer for Outdoor Christmas Lights
• Address Christmas Cards
• Local Store for fresh wreath and Flowers
• Decorate Inside of House
• Ship all Birthday gifts
• Wrap Christmas Presents that need to be shipped
• Ship all Christmas Presents
• Mail Christmas Cards
• Mail/Ship Christmas Pictures to Grandparents
• Wrap all gifts for Christmas Day
• Make Gingerbread Men cookies
• Make Christmas Morning Waffles and freeze (at least one week in advance)
• Trip to BJ’s/Sam’s for wine/beer, and food for Holidays (we host and need to stock up)
• Grocery Store trip for Christmas Morning/Day, for all things that can be made in advance
• Wegman’s last minute trip (23rd or 24th) for last minute items only (such as fish or very fresh produce)
• Make desserts for Christmas Day
• Finish all yearly Charitable giving

Obviously the food prep stuff in December can get tricky.  I’d suggest laying out details and making very specific lists about 2 weeks prior to Christmas.  I will try to post more about this in December.  I realize not everyone hosts Christmas Day like we do, so your December list may be less complicated.  I hope this basic breakdown helps you with your own Advent survival plan!

And please, please, please add anything you think I might have forgotten/not thought about in the comments.  I would love to revise this list and post it each year to help our readers and myself.

Leo has been in a phase of telling us all that everything is “not fair.”  For example, it is not fair that other people can stay up later than him, it is not fair that he cannot watch TV whenever he wants, it is not fair that it is raining when he wants to go outside.  This is part of being 3, and it is adorable in it’s irrationality, I love the idea that one might even expect anything to be fair anyway.  Recently, however, he came up with one idea that I totally agreed with:

It is not fair that I don’t have a baby book and the older guys do.

Totally.  It is not fair.  Life is not fair, but in this case there is something I can do about it!  I have promised Leo a baby book for his 4th birthday.  He has instructed me to wrap it and give it to him as his real present.  But, how, and when?  I was intimidated, but then I found this tutorial over at Clover Lane.  I love Picasa, and all of my pictures are there, even in order by month and year, so this should be pretty simple.  I can take my computer to Ballet and scrapbook on the go, I can scrapbook at night during the playoff games, without bringing out a whole mess of supplies and having to order a ton of pictures.  This will be a labor of love, but I will really do it.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Clover Lane: Scrapbooking With Picasa.

This car seat has seen a lot of use. Our oldest son watching football in 2005

Inspired by temperatures that have dropped below 100 (and perhaps some wishful thinking), we spent the weekend cleaning closets, trying on, sorting and handing down winter clothes.

I promise we never travelled like this.

I realized that our infant car seat had been in the closet for several years and a google search told me that it would have an expiration date on it. Sure enough. It expired in 2010.

So what am I supposed to do with it? The internet says to cut the straps and throw it away so it can’t be reused. This seems like an expensive and useful piece of trash. But if it is truly unsafe, perhaps it’s what I need to do?  I also feel badly that someone could have been using it for the last 2 years. What have you done with expired car seats?

Let's Get it Started

Greek Yogurt, where have you been all my life? With the high energy/protein requirements of daily life these days, beginning the day with toast, cereal, or any of the usual quick breakfast options leaves me faint on the couch by 10am. Eggs are a little high maintenance and aren’t all that appetizing 7 mornings a week, and before now, yogurt didn’t quite have the protein to satisfy me. Enter nonfat Greek yogurt: one individual-sized pot has 14g of protein (the same amount of protein as two and a half eggs, and twice the protein of a normal pot of yogurt), only 130 calories, and 40% of the calcium RDA, just for starters. That is packing a serious nutritional punch. My sisters-in-law were eating it with honey and slivered almonds mixed in when we saw them at Christmas. My kids love it, and it’s quick before school and so healthy. It’s about 1.5 times as expensive as normal yogurt, but less with sales and coupons, and now all the store generic brands are making their own Greek yogurt. Bring on the day!

Who needs a cleaning lady, anyway?

Have you seen the new dual-action Lysol wipes? I have always been a fan of Lysol/Clorox wipes for quick cleanup, because they are durable, quick, and lighter on the chemicals than spray plus paper towel. Now, some mastermind at Lysol Headquarters has taken it to a new level. The new dual-action wipes have one side that is the usual softer side for wiping, but now the other side has a scouring texture for scrubbing. With that scrubbing side added, I can deep clean a large-ish surface in our house with one wipe in no time flat. Cleaning the gooey cup holders and other heavily-soiled surfaces inside the car? A breeze. Scrub then wipe then toss it out. Thank you, Lysol, for eliminating a few extra steps and making quick cleanups even quicker.