What I Can Get Done When I Don't Work

I've been off since December 19th and don't go back until January 2.  I had a whole list of projects that I wanted to get done.  Organize the play area, clean the kids rooms, clean my closets, get rid of magazines and I've gotten to most of them.  We've even fit in a shopping day.  Of course I've been bringing the kids to school because there is no way I'd be so productive with them around.  Jacob just moved to the toddler room on the 20th and so they told me to bring him as much as possible while I was off to get him acclimated to the class, especially since they were going to be light on kids, he'd get more attention and adjust easier.  So twist my arm.  And well Riley is Riley and does better in her routine and with the social stimulation so they've been going to school most days.  I will say drop-offs have gotten easier because they now have breakfast together so Jacob goes willingly with Riley.

Here's some stuff that I have gotten done!

For the play area - I made a magnetic chalkboard.  I just spray painted an oil pan from Wal-Mart with chalkboard paint.  I still need to get some clothespins to clip to that ribbon above it so the kids can hang their creations from it

I hung owl decals on Riley's wall.  I bought these well before I left ConAgra and they have been sitting in her closet for oh over 3 years

I hung these owls in her room - these were a 4th birthday gift, under a year to get something done is looking pretty good these days!

A panoramic view of Riley's room

I also went through 3 years + of cooking magazines and pulled out and scanned all of the recipes that I have lofty aspirations of making one day!  A lot of these magazines were older than Jacob!

And on top of all of this, we got rid of bags and bags of clothes!

And I'm so not ready to go back to work!

New Play Room

We decided over Thanksgiving to convert our loft area upstairs from adult work area/scrapbooking central to kids play area.  We were both sick of the mess in our living room plus we were having a hard time keeping Jacob out of everything so we dumped our desk, moved my scrapbooking desk/supplies downstairs to the back corner of our living room and moved all of the kids stuff upstairs.  My scrapbook table in the living room isn't ideal but I am hoping that it helps motivate me to scrapbook some since I haven't scrapbooked in about 3 years!

Jacob enjoying a bottle in the new play room

A view of the loft from the nook, we put screen up along the banister so Jacob can't throw stuff through the slats

Toy corner of the nook

Reading corner of the nook

The kids love their new area, Jacob I think is too young and keeps wandering out but they both were giddy with excitement when we gave it to them.  Jacob loves to go head first down the two stairs that are in the nook that lead to the loft, it's quite a site, we've tried to teach him to go backwards but he prefers to lead with his head.  I have some ideas on decorating so I'll get to that after we're done with birthday parties galore over here!  I also want to come up with a way to block it off so Jacob can't wander, we close all of the bedroom doors so he can't get into anything and it is a baby proof area with the doors closed but it would be nice to keep that area contained.  Any ideas are welcome, you can see the opening at the far end of the second picture!

Out of Control

We had our carpets cleaned Friday so we had to move everything out of our living room, rather poor Marc had to move everything out of our living room since I can't even bend over enough to get my shoes on (can we say Tom's are my best friends right now!).  Saturday when we were putting everything back we decided to reorganize so in order to move our bar we had to take everything out and realized for the first time how many glasses we really had, out of control!  Since we are in major reduce mode as we try to move all of the baby stuff plus Riley's stuff plus trying to live back into our living room we are packing some of these bad boys away for storage. Now if only we could find some storage in our house, do you think the HOA would care if we dug ourselves a basement???

And this doesn't even include the stuff that we use every day!

Nothing Says Adult,

...like a brand spanking new, 6 piece bedroom set! Marc and I finally decided to upgrade from our mish mosh bedroom furniture that was a compilation of my bedroom furniture that I had since I graduated from college and a night stand that Marc found in the trash at my old apartment complex. Yes, it was time to become adults! (We still need to add a few touches, like a new TV, lamps for the bedside tables, and a sheet for the bed spring) but it's a huge improvement over our previous furniture!