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!