A ho-hum week, stocking stuffers and continued OCD

We'll start with the ho-hum week. 

I worked on Monday to do a make-up day for my aid who missed a day two weeks ago.  I had a new shirt, so I took a selfie.  It made sense to me at the time.  It doesn't now.

On Tuesday the kids were cuddling with Ginger on the couch after they got up.  I forced them to participate in a picture.  They were all, obviously, thrilled.

After Spencer went to school that day, Elliott and I went to Walmart.  Spencer is going to a girl's birthday party this weekend and we were looking for a Frozen necklace for part of the gift.  We found one and at the same time I found Snoopy earrings.  Later that day, out of curiosity, I put earrings in my second holes for the first time in about a decade.  The left one was still completely open but I had to somewhat re-pierce the right one.  I found directions on how to do it on the internet.  Thanks internet.....that trick to dip an earring in vaseline before puncturing the thin flap of scar tissue was really helpful, because the needle alone wasn't working.   I also checked the 3rd hole I have in my left ear.  It's still completely open, but I don't have any earrings that are tiny enough to put in there.

The Snoopy earrings came with Woodstock too.  I'm giving them to Maryellen.

That afternoon we drove to the bus stop.  Sometimes when we're waiting I let Elliott get out of the buckle in his car seat.  He thinks it's the best.

We played outside that afternoon.  Yes, he's wearing shorts.

On Wednesday we ran about 7 million errands in the morning.  We walked to the bus stop that afternoon.

That night Elliott said he was "really disappointed in Daddy" when Michael didn't put a sticker back on his hand after washing them before dinner.

See, I told you it was a boring week.  What wasn't boring was the multiple times that my kids woke me up during the night with their various crying and sleep yelling episodes.  But there are no pictures of that.  Spencer totally freaked me out when he screamed, "I didn't do ANYTHING!" at the top of his lungs at 1 am on Tuesday.  In typical dad fashion, Michael slept through it. 

Moving on to the stocking stuffers.

The kids got some fun projects in their stockings for Christmas.  We kind of forgot about them until this week when Spencer wanted to do them.

This is a turtle that hatches out of an egg.  They both got one.

Elliott's

Spencer's

And they both got a mystical tree.  It goes from "naked" to fully grown in a matter of hours.  Elliott's is yellow and Spencer's is green.

And now, let's talk about my continued neurosis when it comes to home projects and organization.  This is just a random assortment of what I've been up to the last 3 or 4 days.

#1. I used some Christmas money to buy metal flowers (and a turtle) to put in the front yard.  It's part of my continued effort for home beautification. 

#2. I decided that I am going to finally do something about this box that is full of random papers and pictures and has been sitting in my closet for years and years and years.  It was even in my closet before we moved.  It's just embarrassing.

 I'm also going to check all these old discs and CDs and do something about them too.  Our old solution of just sticking this basket in a closet on a high shelf so we can't see it is no longer going to work.

I bought these boxes at Costco to help with organizing both the box and the basket.

#3. I sorted Elliott's clothes and got them ready to give to my friends.

These for Jeannette for Clark.

And these for Elisa for Max and unnamed and unborn baby boy #2.

#4. I re-organized my make-up and hair stuff so that I can find things (they were a little buried before) while I'm getting ready.

I also re-did the cabinets under the sinks so I can put all my stuff away when I'm not using it and it's no longer sitting on the counter.

This is huge. Just huge.  It took 2 years to get to this point.

#5. I put together a basket for nail and hand care items to keep on my bedside table.  My cuticles are horrible pretty much year round, but especially in the winter.  This is my attempt to not look like a beaver has been chewing on my fingers.

And that's it for tonight.  We're going to Super Bowl Central this weekend, as well as having friends over for the Super Bowl, so I should have some genuinely fun things to talk about soon. 

Home (and other) projects

My January organizing and de-cluttering fanaticism continued through this past week.  I just haven't lost steam yet, so I'm going to keep going until I'm over it.  

OK, this is not organizing or de-cluttering, but we did have a beautiful sunset last Tuesday.

On Saturday Maryellen hosted a Pinterest Party for my ladies group.  Everybody had to make a recipe from Pinterest that they have never made before.

And then we did a craft found on Pinterest: painting rocks.

The best part about this craft is that it puts absolutely no clutter in my house. I put my day and night rocks in the front yard.  I'm keeping my heart one to use for Valentine's Day and then it will go in the Valentine's Day box in the garage for the rest of the year.

After I got home from the Pinterest party we went to IKEA to get some stuff to organize the pantry.  I had the pantry really well under control after we first moved in, but especially in the last 6 months, things have gotten very messy in there.  We stopped at the park on the way home.

I knew exactly what needed to be done so it didn't take me very long to organize everything.  It looked fantastic when I was done.

I was able to make space on a lot of the shelves by moving stuff and getting rid of other stuff.  I decided to move our popsicle molds into the pantry from a drawer in the hutch in the dining room since there was extra space now.  When I did that I finally found the little rubber bumpers from the door stops.  I had removed them when we moved in because they are a choking hazard.

They have been replaced.

Another thing I found in the pantry was a chocolate bunny from Easter.  He was buried under all the kids snacks.  That was the main thing I wanted to organize because the snack section was such a mess.

On Sunday he got chopped up and baked into some muffins. 

After breakfast I decided that I really wanted to move this pot that sits by the front door.  I was just tired of it being in the front yard.  It's not particularly pretty and I'm tired of having to constantly plant new flowers in it.  The biggest problem in moving it somewhere is that it is HEAVY.

We rigged a dirt moving system out of the wagon and a sheet.

But even without dirt, the pot was too heavy for us to move.  So Michael went next door to see if our neighbor, Jesus, could help.  They came back with a dolly, loaded the pot and moved it to the back yard.

Ahhh.  So much better.

I had somewhat thought about planting herbs in the backyard, but Elliott had such a good time just playing in the dirt that we decided to leave it just like this for now.

Once the pot project was done we were mentioning to Jesus that we had a tree expert come over to look at our tree a few weeks ago, because it is tilting over even more than usual and roots were coming up out of the ground.  The tree guy said that the tree is still really healthy and its roots are really strong.  We're not in any danger of it falling over, but he said it was pretty bottom heavy and right heavy.  He gave us an estimate of $250 to trim it up, but he pointed out exactly which branches we needed to cut out.  Jesus said that he could help us do it, so he went home, got his chain saw and came back.  

This is before.

During

And after.

We re-wrapped it with lights as soon as we were done and it looks so much better now.  It's way less shady in its current state, but I'm sure it will fill in again soon.

And finally, Spencer has school pictures again on Thursday, so I found this great 75% off outfit for him to wear.

The pants and sleeves are too long, but it was either go a little too big or a little too small.  I think it will look fine.  I'd like to order one 8 x 10, so it's not like I'm looking for perfection here.