Organizing, hoarding, sorting, and teaching our kids to?

Growing up my mom kept everything... if she could even fathom a use for it in the future- she kept it.  She would have garage sales, on a monthly basis in the summer and if something hadn't sold all summer long, she would keep it through the winter on the chance that it would sell the next summer at her garage sale.

The pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with me.  I don't want to keep stuff.  I buy stuff, use it and then when I see that I don't have a use for it anymore- I might try to sell it if it's a high $$ item, but if not I just give it away. 

As I get older I'm trying to find the balance between my mom's, and my philosophies of keeping stuff.  We don't have a ton of storage space and so I find myself in a battle with the kids with what to keep (that they haven't touched in a year) and what to give away.  We just rearranged rooms in the house and converted the "office" into a bedroom.  The room is a good size, but there is no closet in it, and the quote for building the closet into the room was too much for hubby and I to agree to.  This weekend we spent all of Saturday putting in a closet system.  It's open shelves so the goal now is to make all the stuff that my 12 year old son can't bear to part with- look semi-organized and neat on the shelves...

I've got a bunch of clear storage containers on it now, but am wondering if I should try and find some more closed storage so we don't see all of the lego's and kinex and bakugan and nerf darts quite as much when we look at the closet wall.  The problem comes in finding covered non-clear bins that can be stacked and are small enough for all the small stuff that has to get organized. 

If you have any great ideas... I'm open to suggestions! :)

He is a 12 year old boy though and I do believe it would take a miracle to keep it as neat as we see in the magazines...  I'm just hoping for semi-neat. lol!

Little kids

I have four kids.  They were all born within 2 and 3 years of each other so I found myself with four kids the oldest 6 and the youngest a newborn- almost six short years ago.  It was hectic and chaotic and many a day when my dear hubby came home from work I was ready to walk out the door for a trip to the store and just a few minutes of quiet to restore my sanity. 

It's amazing how much life changes in those six years.  My oldest is now 12, my youngest is almost 6.  The oldest was at that time just starting 1st grade and I was getting used to having him gone to school all day long.  Now I'm treasuring the last few months I have of my youngest still being home for 1/2 a day while the older kids are at school.  I have much more quiet time to reflect and recharge for the still chaotic and hectic afternoons after the kids come home and the even more crazy push in the morning to get to school on time.

I'm babysitting some friends kids today.  Two sweet little kids- one boy and one girl, and I'm remembering what it was like when my two oldest were that age.  We played trains, and played with the little people and cars.  Had a handful of crackers for a snack that lasted the whole morning (instead of a box that is gone in minutes now).  A train show on the tv brought squeals of laughter and glee and exclamations of surprise and happiness.

I need these days of playing with little ones again to remind me of the happiness of those days, and still remember the craziness and how hard it was.  I don't want to forget how hard it was.  By remembering that I'm much better at stepping in and trying to help out those friends of mine that are in that stage right now.

Snow Day's

We are on our 6th snow day off of school in 2 weeks... tomorrow will most likely be our 7th. 

I'm not "stuck" in the house, the driveway is clear and I have 4 wheel drive, but I am still basically staying home and pretending I'm stuck.  I guess I'm just a homebody and if I have the opportunity to just let the kids watch tv, play games and hang out at the house- I'm happy. 

Now hubby would be even more happy if I could convince myself to get some more housework done while I'm "stuck" at home. lol!

Average-Mom

What does an Average Mom do when it's winter time and she get's the seasonal blues??

She stops posting on her blog and whines to her hubby...

And her not-so-average hubby arranges for her to have this:

It was a very sweet gesture from him and helped pop me out of my rut that I had been in.  We are now digging out of our second of two snow storms in 8 days... I'm so looking forward to the possible 60 degree's we might have next week!  I'm also insanely jealous that two friends of mine are going to HAWAII tomorrow!  Someday I'll get over there and I think I will have to schedule it in January or February... the perfect time of year to escape the cold and bask in the sunshine! :)

For now I'll warm myself up with a cup of hot cocoa, and a blanket and enjoy my book!