Seven Quick Takes

Make sure you check out the other Quick Takes over at Jen’s Conversion Diary.

 

–  1 –

Have you seen Dawn's binder system for her seasonal ideas? I'm so stealing her organization method! I have tons of seasonal ideas from my preschool teaching days that I want to use with the boys, but I'm an out of sight out of mind kind of gal, and these binders will help me tremendously!

 

– 2 –

You guys have made me feel a lot better about the possibilities of container gardening! I'm still looking at information and figuring things out, but thank you so much for your ideas and thoughts on this. I asked Kara a little bit about this a few weeks ago on her blog and she gave me a whole post of information from her brother!

 

– 3 –

It is so hard to figure out what is best for your kids, and it doesn't help that other people have their own ideas about that. We're struggling with one side of the family feeling like we're not doing enough with Big Kid to encourage his learning, and the other side of the family that has a "better late than early" kind of philosophy. We'll do whatever we decided to do of course, but it does keep my brain stuck on one particular worry- "Am I doing too much or too little?" I'm hoping that because I have that in the back of my mind all the time it means I'm averaging out just fine with him.

 

– 4 –

I've been working really hard to drink more water, have less caffeine and eat home-prepared foods rather than convenience foods. I've done really well this week- 1 cup of coffee total, at least 60 oz. of water a day (up from under 20- bad, I know!), and we've done well with foods. It all comes down to planning ahead and being prepared. If I take the time at night to think through what we'll be eating the next day, I'm prepared as soon as I wake up. I get right to making a good breakfast (rather than resorting to cereal every single day or worse- nothing) and I get most of lunch and dinner prepped while the boys eat breakfast and play first thing. It cuts down the actual time it takes me to make dinner significantly once all the chopping, defrosting, and finding of ingredients is done. Now I have to see if I can keep up with the planning part. I already know how helpful it is- now I just have to be diligent to complete it each week.

 

– 5 –

Big Kid is really loving these Brain Quest cards. He does a few cards with Daddy each night, and they've really enjoyed them. They're great little questions for him to think through- patterns, noticing things in pictures, vocabulary, etc. Plus it's something special he does just with Daddy- they've had some pretty interesting conversations over those cards.

 

– 6 –

I'm starting my 30 day declutter today. The goal is to toss or donate 15 items or more each day, 450 items total. I'm planning to start in the cabinets in my laundry room- I'm pretty sure there are things in there from when we first moved in that haven't been touched ever since. I'm trying to get rid of anything we haven't used in a year or so, except for seasonal items. I'll work in the bedrooms, living room and kitchen first, and when I've run out of things to get rid of I'll head to the basement where there are unopened boxes from our move 9 months ago. If we haven't opened it by now we probably don't need it. I'm going to look through boxes in the hope of getting rid of a good portion of them. I know I'll find most of my items to get rid of in the basement, and I'm hoping that from there it'll lead to a good cleaning of the basement. That's something I have to work up serious excitement for, because it is scary down there.

 

– 7 –

I'm almost done with my first sock! I have about half an inch left before I start decreasing for the toe. I've been knitting in every spare minute- I'm so excited to finish this one and get started on the other!