Mommy’s Retreat Basket – Mini-Project #17 in 52 Weeks of Organizing Home(school)

When Mommy’s Attitude Flags…

“More is caught than taught,” an old adage goes.  And, when I look at what my children may be “catching” from me lately, I am not a proud Mama-Educator.  Too often lately, I note myself acting tired or impatient or reacting with frustration and unkind words.  When I mention this to friends, they tell me it is “normal”, “understandable”, even “excusable”.  That may be so, but it is not what I want to model for my children.

Perhaps Prayer is Lacking

As I reflect on why my attitude and approach is sometimes negative, I realize that somehow I have let my personal prayer time get busied out of daily life.  Sure, I continue efforts to “pray unceasingly” with my children with our Prayer Pegs, some days doing better than others.  But, rarely these days do I wake up early to pray on my own – seeking guidance and fortification from our Lord or simply spending a moment of quiet in His presence.  And, if I don’t wake up to do this before the children get up, I seldom make time for it during the day or prior falling asleep at night.

Making a Mommy Retreat Basket

There are many reasons I fail to pause for a daily retreat with our Lord.  One is quite practical.  I often cannot find where I last put some of the things I like to have near me when I pause to be in His presence – a journal, a Bible, the Catechism, a devotional, etc.  So, yesterday morning, even though the kids woke shortly after I had said a silent Morning Offering in bed, I decided to do something about this.

I fished a basket out of the jumble of baskets I have tossed in a corner of our garage.  Then, I collected a Bible, a copy of the Catechism, a candle, some matches, a notebook and pen for journaling and … Oh!  I could not find the wonderful little devotional I started earlier this year but then got out of the habit of praying with.  But, I did know where I had a box of faith-related books waiting for our basement shelf project to be finished.  So, I selected a devotional from there that I used long before marriage and kept to revisit another year.  I wanted to put a rosary and some inspirational music or message CD’s in the basket, too, but realized two of my children were getting antsy.  It was time to stop preparing to pray and to just get to it.

The First Step Back to Better Days

Thus, after I attended to my children for a few moments, I prioritized sitting down at our kitchen table with my Mommy Retreat Basket in front of me.  I lit the candle, read a devotional passage, journaled for a few minutes and then invited my daughter to come sit in my lap to say some prayers with me while one son played and the other snoozed.

My daughter and I closed my quick, but fruitful, morning retreat with me saying that I had lit the candle to remind us of how God’s love shines so brightly in our days and that we know, even when we blow the candle out, that the light of His love in our heart remains.   Then, together, she and I blew the candle out, gave each other a little squeeze and a warm smile and got back into the busyness of our day with her siblings.

Mornings Blessed; Days Follow Suit

Now, as I look back on yesterday, I can see how taking just a few moments to organize my Mommy Retreat Basket enriched my day and helped me live my call better.  Throughout the day, I found myself hearing and being guided by the Word and also by the wisdom I attained from the devotional reading I meditated on during quiet moments for the remainder of the day. 

And today?  Even though all three of my children were up and geared to go before I took out my basket, I remained confident that I would find a time for personal prayer even if it wasn’t solo time.  Sure enough, that time materialized and developed in way I did not expect.

While the children were eating their breakfast, I fetched my basket, lit the candle and began to pray, read and journal in my children’s presence as well as the Lord’s.  In the moments I prayed aloud, my two older children put down their food, folded their hands and prayed with me.  They did this without being prompted nor asked to.  They “caught” the desire to pray in the moment!

Then, before I blew out the candle, I spied our chair pocket on the back of Jack’s seat and asked Luke and Nina if they would like me to keep the candle on while I read them our daily prayer from Give Me Grace by Cynthia Rylant and a story from Devotional Stories for Little Folks by Nancy Nicholson, which is their current devotional.  They did. 

When we finished reading and discussing these, they wanted the candle to remain lit while they offered prayer after spontaneous prayer for our food, our family, our home, our neighbors and our thanks to God.  Needless to say, my smile shined brighter than the flame on the candle by this point.  I was amazed by how taking a few minutes to tuck all of my preferred prayers tools into a Mommy Retreat Basket manifested in a better day yesterday and such a warm, enriching start to my children and my day today.

Mommy’s Retreat Basket is proving to be a small step of organization that is having big effects on our day.  In using it, I sense God's grace pouring down and feeling a bit better about what is taught and caught in my children's daily learning.

How about you?  Have you noticed yourself neglecting personal prayer time? Have any small organizational projects helped you carve out daily retreat time?  Do you have a favorite devotional you would like to recommend?  Do you find yourself better able to model patience, act with love and live within your call as a result of one small intentional choice?  Do share in a comment!

This post is being shared at We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday, because Mommy's retreat Basket has been working for me (and my kids!) consistently now.  It is also shared at Women Taking A Stand's Thankful Thursday, since I am so glad that I took the time to make my Mommy's Retreat Basket and to share it with my children and I'm an Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon links at Training Happy Hearts and make a purchase of any item, I may receive a small percentage of your purchase prince to help defray the cost of training my children up.  Our family thanks you if you choose to help support us in this way!

52 Weeks of Organizing: Classroom, Shoes and Books

Everyone pitches in...

Okay, so the last time I actually posted about our progress in the 52 Weeks of Organizing Home(school) Challenge, I was only on Project 14.  Now, that is pretty pathetic considering we are actually in the 41^st week of the year. 

So, let me set the record straight:  I have not stopped trying to organize our home(school) as part of the 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.  I did, however, revert (more than once) to my old, not-so-effective habit of putting organization low on my focus list – doing what I could, when I could, as I could, around the busyness of my children and their needs, the desire for our family to spend ample time together enjoying the great outdoors and, well my own distractable mind. 

As I look back at the past several months, I see a two-steps-forward-one-step-back pattern in which the steps back were sometimes enormous ones that set me further “behind” than I was to begin with.  Not so heartening…  Yet, there have some successes and those are worth noting.  Among them, I:

Recreated Our Classroom Space (#15)
 

I spent quite a lot of time making a classroom space that would work for us this fall based on our needs and goals.  You can see pictures and read all about it here and, if you’d be kind enough to do so, you can click over to our contest entry at My Special Needs Network and leave a comment, which will act as a vote towards helping us win $250 in sensory supplies and equipment.

Enabled More Independence with Footwear Storage and Accessibility (#16)

As the kids’ feet are getting bigger, my old system for storing and accessing shoes was not working.  One recent morning, the shoe explosion by our front door was just more than I could take, so I printed out a kids’ shoe-sizer and measured the each child’s foot.  Then, I spent time sorting out out-sized and out-of-season shoes (the latter of which I had to retrieve with our welcome, but unseasonably warm weather of late).   

From there, I re-purposed shelves, bins and boxes that we already had in order to house everyone’s footwear close to the front door.  Once this functional, but far from fancy (or even appealing!) updated shoe system was in place, the kids helped me put their shoes where they belong.  No more shoe explosion!  Ahhhh.  (Happy sigh.)  However, further work still needs to be done both in simplifying our shoe collection and also in finding a more compact, attractive, yet accessible system to house shoes by the front door for a family of five. Ahhh!  (Not-so-happy groan.)  Your ideas are most welcome!

Re-Housed Kids’ Room Books (#17)

We were all satisfied with the Montessori-Inspired Quiet Time and bed Time Book Shelf System we had in place.  That is, until Jack moved in with his siblings and began to wreak havoc on it.  Now, paper-paged books just aren’t safe in his 15-month old curious hands.  Something had to be done.  

I wanted to take the shelf out of the kids’ room, but Luke and Nina protested.  So, we compromised.  We decided to take the labels off the shelf and to fill it with board books that Jack could use without causing too much damage.   

Then, we opted to limit paged books that would be housed in the room to two bedtime reading selections, which are now kept on a high shelf for Mommy or Daddy to retrieve as needed.  

Of course, this required clearing that high shelf, which had collected an entire shopping bag’s worth of odds and ends, which the kids were reluctant to put back where the bits and pieces really belonged or to part with the things altogether.  It also meant stopping to read each of the "I remember this board books" that they had not seen in a while before shelving it.  

And, of course, Jack tried to unshelf the Jack-safe books as quickly as Luke and Nina could shelf them.

So, a project should have taken under a half hour turned into one that dragged on all afternoon.  That's okay.  No one ever said organizing with five- and four-year-old “help” is expedient or easy.  But it sire is worth it. Through “helping”, the children gain a sense of ownership over the end result and also begin learning life lessons about decluttering, organizing, cleaning and maintaining spaces.  Plus, in this case, we now have tweaked our bedroom book system to one that works for little hands and big hands alike.  

And, let me tell you, Mr. Little Hands is happy to be able to select books without anyone stopping him. And, mama is happy to make the room just that much more Montessori-inspired by revamping this corner to allow for more independence and freedom for Jack.

Moving Forward

Of course, there has been far more organizing going on in the house than those three projects – including much time spent slogging through our basement disaster – but it's slow progress down there and nothing  worth documenting yet.

Thus, in week 41, I find myself not even half-way through the 52 projects goal for the year.  I could be disheartened by that, especially as the 52^nd week is just around the corner and autumn always flies by.  But, instead, I am choosing to be motivated. 

It’s time to really rev things up again.  If I aim to reach my goal of doing 52 projects, I cannot keep up the haphazard pattern of work I have been in nor can I simply do one project week.  Nope.  I have got to focus, focus, focus and make this a DAILY habit – over and above other habits and interests. (Um, like stealing moments to blog instead of to clean and organize at times.  Oops!)

Now, I know I have intended to do this before and failed.  Today is a day to begin anew.  Wish me luck!

(And, sorry, no before pictures.  It's hard enough some days to motivate to organize without taking a picture of the small corners of disaster I have yet to tackle.)

How have your own organization projects been going?  Are spaces you've finished working for you or do old habits come back to haunt you?  Any ideas for maintaining "done" spaces would be appreciated.

This post is being shared at I'm an Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

Intentional, Organized Listening for the Car: Our 14th Mini-Project for the 52 Weeks of Organizing Our Home(school) Challenge

We have a problem here.

One day just over a week ago, I went out to my car to find a loose CD on the passenger’s seat. My husband had used the car for something and, obviously, had not cared to listen to the children’s music that was in the CD player, so he’d ejected the CD and tossed it on the seat.

Now, you’d think that this small act would not phase me, since the rest of my car has been sorely in need of a clean up anyway. But, it did.

There was a place for CD’s in the car and floating CD’s can get sat on scratched, lost or ruined. That said, I cannot blame my husband for not putting the CD back where it belongs. As I looked at our CD box and bag in the car, I realized a greater problem: There are far too many CD’s in the car in the first place. I had never taken out the entire collection I’d put into the car in the spring for a long road trip we’d taken. So, we had two problems and one wish, it seemed, to deal with:

• Problem One:  We needed a CD organization system in the car that would make accessing CD's and putting them away easy.
• Problem Two:  We needed a limit on how many CD's we would store in the car.
• Wish:  I wanted the selection of CD's in the car to reflect our mission, goals and homeschooling curricula.  In other words, to encourage a love for God, others, movement, working, playing, beauty and learning and to include fun enrichment for the kids. 

Thus, it was time for a bit of thoughtful reorganization, Organizing Junkie P.R.O.C.E.S.S style.

Plan your attack.
The box and bag in the car containerized the CD’s kept them accessible for grabbing, but the sheer number of CD’s in the car made it hard to find or put away any particular one, especially when driving. Since a friend recently handed an unwanted visor CD holder to us, I decided to use it. That way, this mini-project could be completed for FREE in one afternoon around the kids’ play and rest times.

Remove items from the space.
While the kids were engaged one morning, I ran out to the car and grabbed the box and bag which housed our in-car CD collection. Quick and easy.

Organize stuff into piles, sort & purge.
Not so quick;y, I took all CD’s and cases from the bag and box and sorted them, putting CD’s in their correct cases and making piles of CD’s or cases that somehow were without partners. Since we listen to and enjoy all of the CD’s still, I chose not to permanently purge any through donation, sale or trashing, but rather to simply limit the number that I would put back into the car to ten and to find a new home for the rest.

While doing this, I took the time to catalogue over half of the CD’s in a database by title, artist, subject, themes, concepts/skills, before I realized I was getting distracted by a secondary project – cataloguing our family’s music collection. That project is a time-consuming one, and one I am not sure is a good use of time. For while it may help me to better access our CD’s when planning specific lessons and activities, it will not do much to alleviate a more immediate problem in our home – clutter!  Truly, there are far more important tasks to tackle that I literally trip over some days.  So, I got myself away from the cerebral, computer task and back to the initial concrete task I had begun:  organizing CD’s for intentional listening in the car.

Containerize.
I selected ten CD’s to put back in the 12-CD holder based on when the kids and I usually find ourselves in the car, what our needs are at these times (calming, alerting, fun, learning, etc.) and what part of their curricula might be supported by certain CD’s (such as faith formation, reading/literacy, music appreciation, etc.)   In other words, I chose some Classical Music, Lullabies, Scripture Songs, Classic Children’s Songs, Nursery Rhymes, Movement/SPD Break Music and Special Interest CD’s (dinosaur ones). That way, we have a variety of music at hand that can easily be popped in to suit whatever part of our daily rhythm we are in the midst of.  Relaxation? Quiet time? Faith formation?  Learning? Fun? Sensory Diet? All there!



(NOTE: One of the CD’s I selected is 28 Instant Songames - an early learning and sensory-motor friendly CD we love.  If you buy this CD from Future Horizons, using the code HAPPY, instead of purchasing it elsewhere, you can get 15% off and free shipping within the continental U.S. Plus, we’ll get a percentage of the sale to help us defray homeschooling and at-home therapy costs. In fact, you an use the code HAPPY for any purchase at Future Horizons (including conferences) and to get the same deal.)

Evaluate your plan.
Our new in-car CD storage plan is straightforward and simple.  Moreover, it works! 

It has made selecting and putting away CD's in the car so easy for me this week, and - bonus - the kids have been enjoying the "power" of asking for me to put the visor down so they can make requests.  The true test, however, came this past weekend when Hubby was in the car.  Guess what?  No CD's on the car seat.  So, I think we've found one easy solution to two problems and one wish.

Solve and simplify.
So far, so good.  No need to do any further solving or simplifying at the moment.  We just swap out the less-requested CD's sometimes, which we have already done with a few between writing this post.


Smile, relax and enjoy your hard work.
Trust me, I am smiling!

We have a solution, too!

It may seem like this mini-project was too simple and easy to be a true accomplishment, but I still count it as one. I feel that any baby-step toward better organization is a HUGE stride in the right direction for our home and family.  Plus, this step was less "baby" than it may appear. Between pauses to attend to the children and my Type-A need to begin cataloguing our CD collection in a database, the project took longer than I expected.  Through completing it, I not only got a little closer to the total home(school) organization I seek, but also made progress in disciplining myself to stay on one task at a time until it is done.

Now, I am pleased to have a system in place has already been helping us enjoy music time in the car with more intention and organization, not to mention less CD’s floating around on my passenger seat! Better yet, it was a (relatively) fast and frugal fix!

How do you make something as mundane as getting from here to there more meaningful and fun for your family? Do you have particular CD’s your children love to listen to?  What CD-storage systems have you found work best for your family in home or car? Please share in a comment.

 

This post is being shared as a part of We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday and will be shared as part of the Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

Disclaimer:  If you click on the Amazon Widget and make a purchase after you click, we will get a very small percentage of the money you spend back, which helps defray our homeschooling costs.

Making A Literal “Bed” Room: Our 13th Mini-Project for the 52 Weeks of Organizing Our Home(school) Challenge

The Need for Sleep

As a former teacher, whenever I see articles filled with back-to-school tips, I marvel that what I consider a basic and vital piece of advice is often overlooked:  Get enough sleep!

Ideas for easing into the first day of school, maintaining backpack safety, traveling safely to and from school, eating healthy lunches, dealing with bullying, developing good study habits and the like are all important.  But, without a healthy dose of sleep, no students day can be as good as it can be.  Likewise, droopy-eyed educators can hardly be at their best.  Thus, as we think about back-to-school time here, we think about our bedroom environments. 

For months now, Jack has been able to roll, crawl and scamper, which has made the fact that he has still been sleeping in Mommy and Daddy’s bed a bit nerve wracking.  Momma cannot get much sleep between wake-ups for nursing, tending to the “big” kids and worrying that the baby might fall or crawl right off the “big bed” in the middle of the night.  So, I knew moving Jack to his own bed was important. 

The Dream and the Reality

Since before Jack's birth, my hope has been to change the Office-Learning Space into a third bedroom space, so Jack could have a safe Montessori-inspired bedroom until he is old enough to move in with Luke, leaving the third bedroom to be transformed again – this time into Nina’s big girl room.  That way, I could sleep better knowing Jack was safe.  Jack could learn to sleep on his own.  Everyone could get enough rest.  And, Jack could have the Montessori beginning I so dreamed for all my childen, asleep or awake!

Reality, however, teased that if I waited until I am able to clear the Office-Learning Space in order to make it a bedroom, Jack might be a teenager.  So, I adjusted the plan and decided that Luke and Nina’s room could become a sleeping room for all three of our children with a few slight modifications.  I could simply take out the dollhouse and play kitchen and put down a mattress for Jack.  Then, his independent sleep habit could begin – and Mommy-Teacher might catch a few more worry-free winks herself.

Simple project, right? 

Wrong!

Just as I was about to get to it, Jack changed the plan again.

Reality Changes

One evening earlier this summer as I was reading Luke and Nina a bedtime story as part of their 5 T’s, I turned to see Jack scaling the ladder on their bunk beds. 

Uh oh!  Not safe! 

As I took Jack down, only to have him head right back for the ladder, I began having visions of him trying to climb up to Luke’s bunk in the middle of the night.  I also wondered if I would wake one morning to find Luke and Nina teaching him to jump from the top bunk onto the lower one or onto his sleeping mattress.  Scare-ree!

So, my intended small project for reorganizing sleep spaces became a larger one.

A Multiple Day “Mini-Project”

Over the course of several days, I moved everything but the bunk beds out of Luke and Nina’s room into the hall, disassembled the very heavy bunk beds, found homes for pieces of it in other rooms, stopped tripping over the play kitchen and dollhouse that were temporarily housed in the hallway by moving one to the living room and the other to the Office-Learning space and then puzzled out how I could fit the extraordinarily heavy bottom piece of the bunk bed, lighter, but awkward, top piece and two crib-sized mattresses into the kids’ room as their “safe for Jack to explore” beds.

The result?  A literal “bed” room.  Three beds from wall-to-wall, with a small bureau, a shelf, a book shelf and a stuffed toy bin thrown in for good measure. 

Assessing the New Sleeping Space

Now, is our literal bed-room an ideal set up?    

No.  I can envision many better alternatives, but none that work with the time and budget resources we have.

Is it a move in the right direction as far as my dream of Montessori-izing my home?   

Sort of.  At least Jack has a relatively safe place to sleep, where he can independently get in and out of his own bed.

Is it working for us for now?   

To a degree.  Jack is out of Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom and not scaling high places in his new shared bedroom.  and, it is such a joy to see the kids slumbering together.  However, the slumber does not last through the night.  Mommy is still suffering interrupted sleep, ending up going in with the kids for their multiple wake-ups. 

Plus, an unforeseen glitch has arisen:  Jack has developed an attraction to the window fan that we use to keep the kids' room cool.  During our bedtime routine, he constantly crawls from his bed, over his sister’s and up to his brother’s, where he can reach the fan.  So, we keep removing him and he keeps returning until we simply unplug the fan in order to damper Jack’s attraction to pushing its buttons.  Unplugging the fan, in turn, makes the room get uncomfortably hot as the night wears on, which can make sleep difficult So, I have to sneak back into after the kids have settled, but before their first night waking, to turn the fan back on in order to preclude additional heat-discomfort wakings.  (Thank goodness fall is just around the corner!) 

Additionally, I learned the hard way – or rather Nina did – that the corners of the disassembled bunk bed can be dangerous.  Nina landed on one on her back on one when she was horsing around and got a big, bruised “owie” on her back.  I have since jammed a pillow over and around that corner as a temporary safety solution.  (Yep, that mushy maroon colored pillow in the photo above is the one! And, while we are talking about bedding, please excuse the riot of colors and patterns we are using.  I know they don;t do much to create a peaceful environment, but they are what we have and as we work on night-time incontinence, we find it is difficult to keep matchy-matchy bedding sets on all at the same time.  Quick changes, not coordinating bedding, are the current rule.)

Is creating the space a step in the right direction in developing better household sleep hygiene, and, as a result happy, healthy homeschooling?   

Yes!  In the past few weeks, all three children have managed to get to sleep in their own beds, without a grown up laying next to them, on more than one occasion.  Granted, there were complaints and tears, and staying asleep without adult help is a skill the kids still have to master, but, I am happy with one small success at a time. 

Yes, for now, I am counting the completion of our new children’s sleeping space as a triumph.

Any tips for magnifying our success with our literal bed-room or with improving sleep hygiene are most welcomed in the comments below!  We'd also be glad to hear how others have successfully helped their children master the skill of staying dry through the night.  Thanks!

This post is being shared as part of the Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

Putting the Real in Ideal: Our Version of Chair Pockets

In an ideal world, I would have the time, sewing talent or money to make or order custom kitchen chair versions of these nifty organizers:

But, since I don’t, I have gone with a “do what you can with what you have” philosophy.  So, here is my economical version of our first real chair "pocket" organizer:

Now, I know what you’re thinking: That’s just a bag hung on a chair, not a pocket.  You are right.  But, I got tired of waiting for the ideal chair pocket to materialize with our limited budget of time, talent and finances.  So, I rummaged through a literal pile of possibilities until I grasped a solution – a bag of just the “right size” that I like but rarely have had an occasion to use.

You see, our no-cost-to-us chair bag serves the same purpose as a more ideal store-bought, or (dare I dream) custom-made chair pocket would.  In fact, it is even a tad more functional and smile-inducing for us.  Not only does it hang on a chair and coral our Morning Circle materials, it also pleases me to remember the colleague who gifted me the bag after some travels in Asia.  Plus, having a bag instead of a pocket is handy for us, since the bag can easily be carried from its home on the kitchen chair to a blanket on the front lawn, or to a chair on the back porch, or to wherever else we choose to have our breakfast and Circle Time.  That works for me!

What’s in our chair "pocket" bag?  Right now:

• Give Me Grace by Cynthia Rylant, which we have begun using once again as part of a Morning Prayer Pegs
• Psalms for Young Children by Marie-Helene Delval, which is our current devotional
• The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds, which is our picture book of the week (Luke's choice, after he won it through our library's summer reading program)
• a therapy brush, to remind me to begin Luke’s Wilbarger Protocol brushing and compressions right after breakfast

In the future, I will be adding a few other materials, which will hopefully include a magnet calendar that I have been working on, a portable daily visual schedule and a prayer intention book/album.

Do you use anything akin to a chair pocket?  Do you do a morning circle or breakfast book basket?  What tools and resources do you find enhance your breakfast time rhythm and how do you organize them?  Is there a way you’ve adjusted an ideal vision to meet the realities of your time and resources?  Please share in a comment.

This post is being shared as part of the Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing, since it is yet another small project I tackled to help me organize materials to keep our homeschool rhythm moving smoothly, as well as at We Are THAT family's Works for Me Wednesday, since translating my ideal vision of a custom chair seat organizer to a reality within our family’s resources works for me, and at Life as Mom's Frugal Friday, since our chair bag provided a no-cost alternative to a possibly pricey custom made chair pocket for us.  Please visit these link ups to enjoy other tips and inspiration.

52 Weeks of Organizing Our Homeschool Challenge, Mini-Projects 9-11

Two weeks ago, I officially began participating in 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge by focusing on Our Homeschool.

Jumping in on the initiative 15 weeks into the year meant budgeting a bit of extra time to “catch up”, so I might have a hope of actually completing 52 mini-projects to improve our homeschool organization by the end of the year. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, life's course and my plans did not mesh.

A week ago Wednesday, a stomach virus hit our home. It mandated that organization efforts make way for caring for sick children and doing crazy amounts of laundry. That is, until our Easter weekend in ER began, when even much of  the laundry had to be let go

Since we got home from the weekend, most of our energy has been focused on simply getting healthy and returning to a sense of normalcy.  That is till in progress.

Fortunately, there has been some minor progress on our 52 weeks, too.  I the past two weeks, we:

9. Organized a Quiet Time and Bedtime Bookshelf:  Too many books were only adding to clutter in the kids’ room, so we revamped a bookshelf to create a kid-friendly system to help with limits and living by the adage “a place for everything and everything in its place”.  (Now, we just have to apply that adage to the rest of our home!)
10. Created an Accessible Kids’ Art/Craft/Office Supplies Area:  The kids and I hung a shoe sorter on the back of the door to house art, crafts and office supplies I want to keep accessible for the kids.  I decided not to fill it all at once, but to only put out a few materials at a time until the kids prove that they can use them respectfully, accessing them and putting them away by habit.  So far, so good. They are doing so with their crayons!
11. Created a CGS Corner:  I unburied a piece of furniture to repurpose as “altar” space for a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd corner in our Play and Learning Space and have designated a nearby work shelf to house a rotation of CGS materials.  (Honest disclosure:  I am still trying to figure out where to store the materials that are not in rotation and would appreciate ideas.  Also, actually putting the corner to use is still more a want-to than an am-doing.  One step at a time...)  

On a note-so-easy-to-admit note, I also returned to my bad habit of starting too many things at once.

Yes, as I reflect back on the past two weeks,I recognize that I have begun, but have yet to finish, the following mini-projects:

• creating a Sensory Activities Organizer
• creating a system for tidying and purging the kids’ drawings
• designating portfolios for the kids’ creations
• beginning routines and rhythms binders for my eldest two
• making a plan for work shelf rotation
• culling and organizing assessment files
• creating Assessment Binders

What's the sense of starting something you don't finish?  It doesn't help to organize anything.  In fact, it can make both mind and home more cluttered.

I know some may disagree, but I am discovering that multi-tasking does not always work!  Juggling a variety of projects at once always worked well for me as a Singleton, but as Wife, Mom, Homeschooler and Crumb Winner*, it doesn’t. Simply fulfilling the basics of each of these roles is multi-tasking enough!  When I throw working on more than one other project -even a related one - into the mix, things go awry.

So it is that in the past two weeks, I realized that, outside of the regular juggling all wife-mom-(insert role)'s must do, for me, becoming a uni-tasker may be the most productive and pleasant way to live .  So, this week, my goal is to pick ONE mini-project to complete, before moving onto another. Whether that project will be one of the unfinished ones listed above or something completely new depends on how life unfolds.

How about you?

• What progress do you hope to make with your 52 Weeks?  
• Have you recognized a need to change any long-ingrained habits? 
• How are your own organization efforts going?

As always, tips, encouragement, shared challenges and successes are always welcome. Do comment!

*NOTE:  Daddy is the true breadwinner of the family; I just work for extra crumbs for us.

Baby Steps towards More Organized Kids Art Supplies: Crayons

Since the Reggio Emilia model of early childhood education piqued my interest, I have dreamed of having an incredible home art studio for my children.  Space and organization (or lack thereof) work against making this dream a reality anytime soon.  But, if I hope to provide my children any semblance of such a space before they transition from preschool to their prepubescent years in the blink of an eye, I’ve got to stop fantasizing and start making time to take baby steps!

One baby step I have taken in the past month is to re-purpose a clear vinyl over-the-door shoe bag as an accessible art supply center for the kids.  Now, I know, this is not anything earth shattering or original but it is a tiny step in a direction I seek to go and, more importantly, it has helped the Luke and Nina keep their crayons more organized for over a month!  To me, that equals success since all my prior attempts at crayon corralling and organization have proved fruitless.

So, what’s the system?  Simple!

We hung the bag over the door to our Office/Play and Learning Space and put plastic cups in the pockets.  We were going to fill each of the pockets, but decided to do so only one medium at a time.  (So the kids can build habits of taking care of supplies slow and steady.)

The quintessential cliche of kid's art supplies came first then:  crayons.  (Not because we like being cliche, but, rather, because I am so tired of finding crayons everywhere, despite different storage and access solutions I have tried in the past for them.)

So, the kids then sorted their crayons out into “color families” by hot and cool colors and ones they thought blended together well.

They put these in the pockets.

Now, whenever they need crayons, they simply go take the cups out and bring them to wherever they want to use them, returning them when they are finished.

Fewer crayons are lost in odd corners of our home; less are being prematurely and unintentionally crushed to bits (say, by being stepped on as opposed to being purposely broken for DIY recycled crayons.)  Everyone knows where the crayons go (except Jack, who is convinced they go in mouths!) 

Life is good.  One baby step at a time, slow and steady, we are succeeding in Organizing Homeschool and supplies. 

52 Weeks of Organizing (Homeschool) Challenge

Laura over at I’m an Organizing Junkie began the year off with a 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.  Well, here it is Week Fifteen, and I am just jumping aboard.  “Better late than never,” as the saying goes.  And, in my case, better with a single-minded focus for my 52 mini-projects than with my usual scattered approach – starting too many things in too many areas of our home and lives at once, resulting in little success at finishing any.

So, what is my focus:  Organizing Our Homeschool a bit better! 

Yep!  By the end of the year, I hope (key word – hope!) to accomplish 52 “small” projects, which will make our home a bit more organized and our learning activities that much more effective, accessible and exciting.  (And, yes, regular readers, I know I have attempted a similar long-term, short steps project before with my self-initiated Creative Curriculum for the Home, but I got waylaid by life events and lost steam.  So, I am letting that go for now and seeing if Laura’s 52 Weeks might help keep me on-task, motivated and accountable.)

So, with no further ado, let me announce:  We have begun our 52 weeks of Organizing Challenge and yay, Daddy, yay, me! Since Daddy has been around to play house-husband a bit more often of late, in the past month or so, I have made a good start at catching up on half of the fifteen week’s worth of projects I am “behind” on.

I had to laugh when I saw this week's 52 Weeks post over at Organizing Junkie is about Organizing Closets.  For, although the part of our home I began with is not a closet, it was being used more like a deep, dark closet.  during months of pregnancy, ligament pain, hubby being away and having a newborn and two older youngsters vying for attention, I got into a bad habit of tossing things in there "to get them out of the way", before closing the door and ignoring the mountain of mess behind it.

Yikes!  What a disaster that room became.  In fact, I was actually going to put up some "before" photos here to own up to my shame, but -oops- I left the camera out and the kids got to the buttons.  Those photos were accidentally erased, it seems.  (Probably better that way!)

Photographic evidence aside, let me just say the room was not one that was safe to move in.  So, my first 52 Weeks mini-projects involved braving it, bit by bit, from the door in order to begin turning it into a workable Play-and-Learning Space again.  I am proud to say, progress has been being made.  In recent weeks, the following mini-projects have been checked off:

1. Recovered Play and Learning Space, Pt 1:  I sorted some books and with muscle help from Daddy and even the older kiddoes, removed book boxes from the disaster room to recover our Office/Play and Learning Space.  Granted, the boxes invaded the laundry room, where they are now stacked safely until the basement family room repairs are done and the books can be shelved.  (If the repairs to the basement get made this year, we will cull our book collection further, putting “keepers” in their permanent home on bookshelves in the basement family room - another item for my 52 list!)
2. Recovered Play and Learning Space, Pt. 2:  To get through the aftermath of my insidious "toss it in and block it out" habit, I had to remove boxes, bins and piles of  “kids’ stuff” and other junk that had piled up in the room.  Some of this was thrown out altogether; some was freecycled or donated.  Much of it is now stacked with a minor semblance of order in the garage until it can be further sorted, organized and labeled according to mini-projects yet to come (Can we say, "future mini-project?").
3. Recovered Play and Learning Space, Pt. 3:  I uncovered the boxes and bins of breakables, memory items and other “important” stuff from the center piles in the room and, after having to part with a few items that sadly didn't make it, I stacked the rest in neat boxes “safely”  along one wall of the room until the basement family room repairs are done and the items can be put in their permanent homes.  To be honest, I really don’t like it still in the room, but i cannot think of a “safe” place elsewhere to put it. (Ideas, welcome).
4. Rediscovered “Work Shelves”:  I rummaged through the house to find any and all white shelves that could be re-purposed once again as work shelves for the kiddoes.  I must say that cheapo ClosetMaid-type shelves have served me well over the years as toy storage, book storage, clothing storage, end tables, shoe bins, low benches for the kids - you name it.  I love their flexibility, even if I dream of getting furniture and storage pieces that are a bit more high-end.
5. Set Up Uniform Trays and Bins on “Work Shelves”:  After realizing I will not get around to re-purposing collected clementine boxes by reinforcing the bottoms of them and, perhaps, painting or covering the sides of them, and also recognizing that not only did I not like the look of these boxes “as is”, but also that smaller bits of learning materials fall right through their non-reinforced bottoms, I gave in and spent a few dollars.  With help from Dollar Tree cookie sheets and bins, I set up the shelves with practical “pull out” containers for play and learning materials that have a uniform look I can tolerate.
6. Created a Baby Corner:  I cleared one corner of the Play-and-Learning Space for Jack, setting out up to three activities/toys on the floor for him to access. I ensured there were no loose cords or other dangers in the corner and that space can be “fenced off” if need be once we start spending more time in the room again.  (Now, I just need to keep an eye out for an inexpensive non-breakable mirror or reflective surface to put up on the wall for him.  Anyone know of one?)
7. Made Morning Lotto Charts:  Recognizing the need to find more time for cleaning and organizing overall, and to get a better start on our days, I worked with the kids to create Morning Lotto Charts.  We put these on the well, at first, to get used to using them.  Then, we moved them to the kitchen table.  Now, they are in binders.  (My goal is to create a “mission control”, “household notebook” or whatever you wish to call it, for each of the children over time so they are trained never to get as disorganized as I have become.  Wish me luck.)
8. Made 5 T’s for Bedtime Charts:  Knowing that sleep (and good sleep habits!) are vital to maintaining both health and an alert mind for learning and play, the kids and I created 5 T’s for Bedtime Charts to help us re-focus on pleasant bedtimes, which, I believe, will lead to more pleasant and productive days!

And so it is that I not only have begun my 52 Weeks of Organizing Homeschool efforts, but documented them also.  I apologize for not including visuals, but (a) there was that button mishap with the camera and (b) if I wait to post until I have photos taken, cropped and uploaded another week or more will slip by before I finish this post.  I don't want that to happen. 

Why?  Because, even though I have made a fair start on my own, without the well-wishes, encouragement and tips afforded by others meeting similar challenges I am not sure I will stay motivated to stay the course.  So, please, bring them on!