Organization 101

My, Christy Falso (friend) inspired junk drawer. While visiting her in NY last week I noticed every drawer in her house was this organized, actually its probably more organized because the double A batteries would not be touching the triple A batteries. I was literally in awe, and feeling very unorganized about my life when I left.
My first project even before unpacking the luggage was this in her honor. I must say I love it! No more rifling through the drawer to find keys, batteries, etc. Everything has a place, and I am saving precious seconds of time during the day : ) So its been 5 days and I'm keeping it up. I suck at consistency as do my kids, so pray for me.



This was my second project. Saw this on the Today show with Nate Berkus. The kids helped me design it, they even put the desk and chair together. Its in their playroom which is right off the kitchen so I'm thinking its a good idea since they need to have it quiet when doing their geometry (yes that starts in 3rd grade!) but they often have questions so having it right around the corner from the kitchen makes sense.
It also frees up my kitchen island which I love, no more papers all over the place.
Yesterday was the first day back to school after trackout and they both loved, well maybe liked, doing their homework there. I also think they finished it in half the time because we weren't going around the house trying to find pencils, sharpeners, and paper like normal.
Once again I suck at consistency as do my kids, so lets hope it sticks!



Here's my latest idea. I think I've lost my mind. Can you tell this month is a slow month in the photography business. Do I need to get a life? Or does this make sense. I think I'm gonna try it, I'm due for yet another trip to the grocery store so why not start now. I don't know about you but I despise packing lunches. Why not shift the burden to the kids? Seems like I was making my own food at 8?
Here's what they say about it on the website....
I know some of you must already do this, but for me — this is something new this school year in our home. To save time and stress in the mornings, I have everything pre-bagged and ready-to-grab for the kids’ lunches. The only thing I need to do is make their sandwich. They are otherwise 100% responsible for getting their lunch bags, choosing a variety of items from this drawer, and packing their lunch.
We got big containers of things like pretzels, Sun Chips, crackers, etc. and put it all in snack-sized baggies. Plastic spoons are in the drawer as well, next to the applesauce and mandarin oranges. We have a drawer in the refrigerator that has the same concept: Cheese cubes, grapes, and anything else that needs to be refrigerated. All ready-to-pack. There’s my back-to-school tip-of-the-week. : )

So much for tradition

Gosh the girls start 1st & 3rd grade tomorrow. As always I am sad, this time sad that I no longer have a kindergartener and am one step closer to being a mother of two teenage girls. Where does the time go?
Today I took them back to school clothes shopping, not because they were well behaved,of course not, but because I remember so looking forward to this tradition every year as a child.
Now that I've experienced this back to school shopping as a parent I must admit that its much more pleasant playing the role of child.
Sophia my almost 8 yr old princess was insistant on buying a prom like dress for the first day of school. I'm not sure why they even sell these types of dresses, for what reason would an 8 yr old need a poofy, silky, "fancy" a.k.a. ugly dress? At my immediate veto Sophia then started whining and crying that she was going to be the only girl in Mrs.Reynold's class without a fancy dress. Seriously! What other kid would want to wear an ugly fancy dress to school? In fact I'm thinking if I relented she may have gotten sent to the nurses office for a clothing change, inappropriate outfit.
So I leave Sophia sulking and change gears, Logann. I love Logann but man she must be the most indecisive kid I know. She's too much like me I guess. She hems and haws over everything drives me crazy! But on a good note she is very easily persuaded. So I steer her accordingly and we have an outfit in 2 minutes. I think it also helped that she really had to pee so she was willing to move fast.
Then Logann joins forces with me and begins trying to help Sophia find something. She reminds Sophia that when she gets big she's going to be a fashion designer, she knows what she's doing, and is overly confident. Sophia however wasn't really impressed with Logann's fashion recommendations and basically blew her off. Now Logann's mad too "I spent all this time deciding for you, and you don't want my outfits." How dare you Sophia.
Oh the joy!
At this point I'm trying to recall how many bottles of white wine I have hanging in my wine holder at home. Wondering if I need to make a stop at the store. One things for sure, this back to school shopping will be the first and last. Screw the importance of tradition! In fact I'm thinking I might enroll them in a private school next year just so they can wear the same thing everyday. Great idea.
After a lot of back and forth we miraculously end up at the counter with 2 outfits, they'll be stylin alright, if only for the first day.

An apple a day keeps the vet away

Last night Edgar introduced Ella to frog hunting. It was 11pm, dark, they were wandering up and down the street. I had no idea what they were doing. By the time I realized they were ridding the street of frogs it was too late. Ella squished one monster frog in her mouth and spit it out. Absolutely disgusting! I quickly put an end to the killings such mean dogs I rescued. Out of guilt for leaving her in the crate most of yesterday I decided to let her sleep on the floor in our bedroom instead of downstairs in the crate. Then as a thank you I hear her in the middle of the night puking up frog juice all over my beige carpet. So much fun cleaning up dog puke, especially when you are hungover from some blue martini a friend ended your night with.
So this morning as usual Ella is combing the house looking to get into trouble. She finds Sophia's backpack strewn on the floor, of course. I don't think the child understands the concept of hanging up anything. Apparently Sophia had brought home an apple leftover from the yummy school lunch she never seems to finish.
I was editing photos in the office and heard Ella dropping something. By the time I found her she was a few chunks into the apple. So I just let her eat the whole thing. Figured maybe the apple will save us from the vet and all the frog juice. You know an apple a day keeps the vet away right?
Or with my luck she'll be puking up apple sauce tonight. Never a dull moment over here.

Pick Your Battles

Many of you know how excited I am that my girlie girls are playing tennis, the world's greatest sport! I first introduced them to it while my dad was visiting, convenienty planned as I knew he would have much more patience with them than I would. It worked, after a couple afternoons of playing volley in the driveway a.k.a. making grandpa chase the ball down the street they were hooked.
A couple weeks later while visiting my mom in Florida we took their new rackets to the courts. A net was something foreign to them and once again with 2 sleeves of balls we spent 99 % of the time retrieving the damn balls. The senior citizen playing next to us apparently felt our pain and came to our rescue with some more balls and a kid foam practice ball. Even with the extra balls I was still getting nervous, there wasn't enough contact being made. The lesson was going slow with our constant running to get more balls. I knew at that moment that I was risking losing my athletes to a lifetime of art or drama. I had to act fast!
Logann who strangely thinks like me, bored and frustrated then asked if I would buy her a ball hopper. Apparently she had eyed one at dicks while we were buying the rackets. My immediate thought was "seriously kid who gets a ball hopper after playing twice!" I wasn't sure I could commit to a $100 investment, these girls lose interest in everything fast. Plus would I be creating a spoiled,lazy player? Shouldn't she learn to deal with chasing balls as we all did? But on second thought what if the ball hopper kept her interest and gave us the opportunity to spend more time hitting. This ball hopper could lead to a college scholarship or at least just someone for me to hit with in a few years.
So I decided as I always do on a nights sleep that the ball hopper was a brilliant idea. We promptly ordered it up along with 48 balls. There was one condition though, if I ordered the hopper the girls had to hit 100 balls a day." Sure, sure of course Mom" anything to get what they want.
I must say when it arrived it felt like xmas for all of us. Amazingly I quickly assembled the thing without any cursing and we planned our first practice for the next afternoon. In the morning Logann was so excited by the hopper that she dragged it out of the garage and asked to play before school. "Not now" I told her, "put it back." An hour later as I was pulling my car out of the garage I heard an awful crunching noise and looked in the rearview mirror to see 48 balls rolling down the driveway and into the road. I was furious and screamed at Logann to go retrieve the balls. That was quite a sight I must say the two of us crazily chasing all those balls!
Logann was speechless for awhile, I could tell by her face that she was as bummed as I was by the complete crushing of the hopper. On the way to school I lectured her about doing what she was told.
"I did Mom, I put it away."
"Logann you don't put things behind cars"
"Well I remember you told me a story once that when you were six you put your bike behind your grandpa's car and he ran it over."
She was right I had done the same dumb thing at her age. Logann always trying to prove her innocence (not sure where she got that from) added
"Well its half your fault too Mom, don't you know when you back up you're suppose to look to see whats behind you"
I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and remembered the saying "pick your battles". I let it go. And like my grandpa I bought her another one.
We have a new hopper now and unfortunately because its been 98 degrees everyday it is currently housing a bunch of stuffed animals as part of some game the girls made up. I think Logann is afraid to bring it out to the garage. Hopefullly it'll see some action soon.
Tennis anyone?

Yesterday

I am missing yesterday already, a perfect day. John did his usual long run in the morning, I worked, kids played w/o fighting. Then we went and pigged out at our favorite brunch spot, San Remo. If you are local you must go there on Sundays so good and so reasonable! Afterward we headed to Jordan Lake with kids and dogs. We very rarely go to the Lake here, usually just opt for the convenience of the pool. I'm use to the big, beautiful, blue, clear Great Lakes. North Carolina has some very small, brown, murky, lakes. I know this is because of the red clay bottoms but still I will admit it freaks me out a little and gosh they are very warm lakes too.
Anyway we found a little hidden part of the lake where just one other family was hanging. Sophia like her mother was hesitant to jump in but soon did with a little coercing. Logann was typical Logann a fish. The other family didn't mind the dogs so we let them off leash so they could have their first swim lesson. They had fun exploring the shore and tip toeing into the water. We tried getting them to swim but forgot the steak at home. A stick and a sandal was not motivating them out deep.
The girls had a blast jumping off sunken tree logs. Then one of the little boys got a hook in his foot which freaked the girls out so we headed home. Next time I will remember to pack them some water shoes.
On the way home we got some ice cream at McDonald's. Sophia had won a free ice cream for good behavior at school. When we got home John and I read our books and took a nap while the girls played.
Happy hour & dinner for the girls, then I talked them all into going to play tennis. We played all the games their coach had taught them and then John and I played a couple quick games. It doesn't matter who won, but I can tell you John lost : ) We played til it started to rain and then drove back home in our wet convertible, oops we forgot to close the top.
Sadly enough we don't have too many days like yesterday. Simple, family, fun. No electronics, no fighting, no expense. Both John and I were thinking the same thing about the day, it was a great day!

Family Day

Sunday we had a family day, picnic & play at the park. It was so nice and relaxing. Can't remember the last time we did that.
Of course I had to bring my camera....

Comic Relief

The girls say the funniest things. I keep telling myself I'm going to document their sayings, because God knows the next day I've forgotten what it was I was going to document. Here's one from tonight.

Sophia: Mommy if I have 10 jobs can I have lots of kids.
Me: Sure I guess (I'm excited that she understands kids=money)
Logann: Oh good then if you have 10 jobs we'll get to live in a mansion Sophia
Me: Wait you are living with Sophia when you get big Logann?
Logann: Yes I am going to live with Sophia and her husband. I'm not going to have any kids or husbands. But I'm not going to be single because I'm going to be living with Sophia and her husband, and I'm going to have lots of animals.
Sophia: Well if my kids are scared of animals Logann, you're outta the house!
Logann: And Sophia is going to be a teacher and I'm going to be her assistant
Me: Hmmm...Sophia so what is your husband going to do for work?
Sophia (in her exact words) : I don't know but I hope he bees a doctor so we can be rich cause we're gonna buy a lot of kids!

Sophia has apparently already decided she is not going through labor!

Religion, Religion

Sophia came into our bed really early this morning. So at 6am she wakes up and just blurts out of nowhere to John and I (still sleeping peacefully)
"there are people who celebrate catechal church, for 40 days they have to give up something."
Me half asleep: " catechal WHAT?"
Her:"My teacher said there is this religion,blah, blah,blah"
Me: "Oh you mean Catholisism"
Her:"Yes I'm going to give up Club Penguin for 40 days"
Me: "No not Club Penguin, mom's best babysitter
Her: "But mom it has to be something you REALLY like.
Me: "yes Club Penguin is about the only thing you like, well other than food."

So then at breakfast she wanted to know what we were all giving up for Lent.
Logann's response "I ain't giving up nothing"
Sophia: "Logann thats not being nice to Jesus you need to be nice to Jesus!"
Me: laughing in the background

She then tells John he needs to give up basketball, not a great idea with March madness starting!
Luckily she doesn't think of anything for me : ) I really should probably give up alcohol I tell her, but will power & consistency are not among my better qualities.
Logann: "what is alcohol?"

On my walk this morning I got to thinking. Its great that the public school is teaching my child so much about religion. I dont even have to pay for the private religious schooling. Sad thing is she obviously has no idea what Catholisism is or that she was baptized into the Catholic church. We are a bunch of sinners as my dad would say. I did attempt last year to register her for CCD (religious ed classes) at St.Andrew's, but they wouldn't let us in, so I decided we were better off anyway and we went back to our atheist state.

Its very hard though living religion-free in the South where the first question out of everyone's mouth is "So what's your church?"
I guess maybe now I'll answer them with "the Catechal church"

A Good Day

Logann's been on my case about why I haven't been keeping up with my blog. I did take a hiatus once I started facebooking this year. However lately she and Sophia have been revisiting my blog and really seem to enjoy all the stories and photos I have shared of them over the years. So for them I feel the obligation to try my hardest to document our days, their childhood.
After a few yucky sick days Logann finally woke up without a fever or stomach bug. Both girls went to school and John had the day off so we were finally able to spend some time together. We took the dogs for their usual long walk through the woods. It is so nice that we both share a love of watching the dogs run free and hunt. Something about the Weims bouncing through the woods that really puts us both in a good mood. After our hour walk we were starving so we hit our favorite bfast place, Bob Evans. As John put it our food went down easy. We always clean our plates unlike so many other people I've noticed at restaurants. I wish I didn't like to eat so much!
We ran a couple errands and then did our own thing for the afternoon. Me working on my new business cards, a task that shouldn't take so long! And John went to Garner to visit a pharmacy and inquire about a job switch.
Took the girls and Shawna's kids who I'm babysitting overnight to McDonalds playland. The girls were nutty tonight. Logann has this new thing of showing off whenever other kids come over. Reminds me so much of my brother. She really should be his kid.
Shawna's kids were so easy as they went through their nightly routine. Wish I had my kids trained like that. But consistency is not my forte...at all!

This Crazy Life We Lead...

At 7pm as I was starting the bath for my girls I thought to myself "Gosh why does today feel like its been going on for 3 days?" Do you ever go to bed and wonder where the day went, what you did all day, and why you are so damn tired. All these daily tasks seem so trivial at the time but have you ever sat down and added them all up. An entire day in the life of a mom, or a dad, a parent, caretaker, its exhausting.
As a mother of a 6 and 7 year old I definitely feel some relief with my daily routine. I'm sure my list of accomplishments was so much longer when my girls were younger. In fact as I watch my friends with younger ones, I often wonder with two kids just over a year apart how the hell I did it and lived to tell about it.

So tonight just for the sake of curiosity I decided to make a list of all the things, trivial and non-trivial I accomplished today. Hopefully it'll make you start to wonder yourself why you are feeling so overwhelmed and can barely keep your head above water. Or maybe its just me? In that case please help me!

My Day (as best as my memory serves me at this ripe old age)

Awakened by Logann at 5:30am (not normal but she has the stomach bug)
Get her some wet washclothes, medicine, drink put her back to bed
Let the dogs out to pee
Back to bed thankfully
Wake up at 7:30am late yay!
Check email with iPad thats sitting on my nightstand - emails to respond to already, put that off.
Get Sophia up(a chore), get her clothes laid out
make her breakfast, brush teeth, hair, tie shoes - when is she finally going to tie a decent shoe lace?
rescue a shoe out of the mouth of the puppy
feed both dogs
look up the Wake County lunch menu - yummy cheese dunkers, yes she's buying! she needs to do that more.
pack her snack and all her school papers - that in itself I think is a full time job
get Logann all snuggled up on the couch - she's still running fever and staying home today
make John's coffee, no bagels left - sorry John no b'fast
get Sophia on the bus - phew we didn't miss it.
go to living room to find the dog has chewed up a book,nice mess,clean
Logann wants me to cuddle she's still really warm, cuddle, cuddle
kitchen is a disaster cant stand looking at it
unload dishwasher
wash a bunch of pots from last night
logann offers to spray/clean the counters, that lasts all of 2 seconds.
dog is eating some tupperware she probably found in girl's room, go rescue that
sneak away to get to work on my computer
fix birth announcement,
place order
upload a bunch of collage examples for client - tedious, time consuming parts of my job
get called into bathroom logann has diarrhea still, great!
save another shoe from dog's mouth
10am logann is hungry, make egg sandwiches for us & banana to hopefully get rid of this diarrhea that she's had for 3 days now
remember the probiotic i need to give her, mix it into the applesauce - spoon feed/force it down her throat
she wants to read me some books - we read a few books
sneak back to computer - finish editing headshots
logann races back to bathroom, calls me in, as i wonder/wish she would prefer her privacy while she is pooping
start to email over headshots
phone rings - chat with my friend Kelly for a few, mainly a back and forth of "boy we suck at making it all happen, how do all these other moms/business women do it?
while i'm on the phone i have a free hand....i must multi-task, no time to waste....change the girls sheets, pick up all the crap on their floors, throw in a load of laundry
look at a basket of clean clothes and consider putting them away...but i don't
logann finds me "what can i do" - guess the medicine is working, she's back to her old self
my cell phone dies, lose kelly - another thing i suck at, charging my phone : )
i tell logann she really needs to take a nap so she can get better, she pleads with me to lay down with her, she wins
12pm we lay in bed and watch 30 minutes of Where the Red Fern Grows on the iPad, nobody sleeps
Logann's bored - of course she like me can't sit through many movies
another trip to the bathroom for us -when is she going to be better?
I talk Logann into playing a couple games on the iPad as I am noticing how dirty my carpets are...must vacuum
I vaccum the upstairs
I clean up the puke I find in my walk in closet - dog puked great!
I sweep the studio
organize some new props i received last week
Logann still on computer I sneak back downstairs - need to finish catching up on emails
First I goof off, facebook....nothing exciting luckily.. I am off quick
UPS comes with client photos
package up all the photos
Logann is done playing
We decide to go to the gas station down the road and get her a popsicle - our big outing for the day
Neither of us are dressed though - yes by now it is 2pm!
Get me dressed
get her dressed
2 quick ponytails, teeth,ready to go
Before we leave I see the dog out back what does she have? - a bag of Miracle Gro topsoil that was under the deck apparently. great! fertilizer ingestion, another trip to the vet i bet.
a big struggle ensues as I race outside and wrestle this bag out of her jaw. Topsoil must be tasty, she wasn't giving in
Of course she is now covered in topsoil and decides to jump all over me
Back upstairs, new outfit
pass by fridge, "shoot what are we going to have for dinner, everything is frozen!" take some chicken out to thaw - luckily dinner doesn't have to be done til 9:45pm when John gets home.
get our goodies at the gas station - a cherry slushy for me, craving sugar all the time lately
back home in 10 minutes
clean up the dirty miracle gro dog
get on the internet to see if i should be concerned with the Miracle Gro ingestion...think i am safe.
find a few more school papers I need to fill out - permission slips, scholastic order forms, (never ending school stuff)
finally get back to my computer to send the email of those headshots
done
sign and collect all the checks i still need to deposit in the bank, though i know i'll never get there today either
take a couple photos of the dogs that are lying pissed off by the front door, they haven't had their walk today and they are mad
Logann wants to go outside so we go out to play basketball - its cold,she's still sick, we don't last long
4pm Sophia gets home
I round up the dogs, give the girls the phone and the lecture and lock the door behind me I have to get the dogs a walk around the hood and me some exercise before they(we all) go nutso - don't judge me here
Edgar gets all muddy on the walk
clean another dog
give the dogs water & dinner - they are early birders
kids are on the computer so i attempt to recreate my business cards - don't get very far, everything i need is all over, turns into a project I don't want to deal with
fight kids off computers
they go play while i try to figure out what to feed them
bagel bites, bananas and yogurt for dinner - its usually better than this, i'm desperate,not a good meal today
while eating sophia finds another pile of dog puke under kitchen table, of course right on area rug! puke is so much fun to clean up
dog steals half of logann's meal while i am cleaning it up - luckily logann isn't hungry anyway so dinner is over
homework time - thankfully they are both in a good mood and we move through it fast - not always the case
Sophia remembers that she has to read for 15 mins, so she reads me 2 books, the same ones Logann read me earlier, good and bad, at least I don't have to focus on what she is saying....yes that is terrible to admit
While she is reading I am generating a to do list I feel like I've gotten nothing done today!
7pm bath - wish they would just take a shower
luckily its a pretty good bath night - no fighting, no crying
pjs,
downstairs get them their snacks & drinks
7:30 both kids in bed, pat myself on the back
back to the emails, write long email and decide i'm done working today!
shit i haven't started dinner for john yet...
make chicken curry & jasmine rice - easy meal tonight. he never complains, i could feed him dog food and he'd like it, i'm lucky there
logann is up now screaming bloody murder,
back upstairs
her knee that she skinned a couple days ago is hurting
downstairs for motrin - the cure all right? and a bandaid - remind her that she is just really tired that it can't hurt that bad, get back to bed!
what is that smell though? find out that logann puked last night on her blanket how did i not see that earlier
blanket needs to go in washer
shoot there are clothes in washer from early this morning and clothes in the dryer too, hate when that happens! throw the clean ones on the dryer, there's always tomorrow when it comes to laundry
kitchen timer goes off dinner is done
go out to kitchen to find dog chewing on wooden spoon from curry...urgh! puppies what was i thinking?
put the dog in the crate i'm tired of dealing with her
dvr glee - the only show i watch now
realize i'm starving, guess i only had that slushy for lunch
about to dish me up some curry when sophia comes down from bed to give me her assignment for her secret pal, school project
she talks me into to letting her play club penguin while i eat- i'm easy i give in
eat, yum!
9pm i'm dog tired, john's not even home yet, still have to get Sophia back to bed.....
and so it goes

So now that I've written all that down I feel like I'm complaining. I'm not! I just really wanted to see where my day went. I find it amazing how much stuff we go through in a single day. Me, I consider myself lucky, blessed. I'm just an average mom, I bet I have it easier than most. I'm not a single mom, my kids are healthy, i don't have 4 kids like so many i know, i don't work two jobs, I get a lot of breaks. My life should be so easy but then why does it feel so crazy? What am I doing wrong? Is there a class for this, a magic pill, a fairy godmother. Its not that I'd ever trade all of this in, I'm just saying....when are you suppose to sit back and enjoy life, take it all in. How do you stop moving, shut off your brain, but still keep it all together? My million dollar question.

My Two Monkeys

It was a beautiful weekend here 70 degrees. We took advantage of it by going to the "castle park" The girls tried to outdo each other on the monkey bars for the most part. Look at the concentration!