The Launch Pad

For those of you with children in school you already know how important this is! The Launch Pad is the place where everything you need that day is placed ready for you before you walk out the door. At our house each school-aged child has a bench in which book bags, musical instruments and sport equipment(of the small variety)can be placed the night before as part of the before bed routine. In the closet is a shoe rack with one shelf dedicated to baskets that hold hats, scarves, mitts, sunglasses, umbrellas or what-ever else is needed before leaving the house. I have a coat rack that I use to hang my purse and/or backpack for the day. The coats, sweaters and hoodies are hung up and shoes go on the bottom shelves of the shoe wrack. This set up seems to work really well for us. The before bed and Morning routines along with the launch pad have made it so that we can be out of the house within an hour of waking up and it is done with no stress! The nice thing about being organized like this also allows me to not think about it. If you knew what kind of morning person I am you would know this is a very good thing. :D

Back to School- Back to Routines

Tomorrow my three oldest children go back to school. This means the care free days of summer are replaced with the routines of the fall. I have to say I am looking forward to it. I like routines. When I was living in utter CHAOS I swore I hated them, that they were incompatible with me. LOL Boy oh Boy! Do I know better now! Routines are helping to bring me out of the CHAOS; they are my lifeline. They give me that place to start and keep me from getting overwhelmed. I have three that I use daily. In their most basic form they are as follows:

Evening

Brush teeth
Layout clothes

Morning
Make bed
Get dressed
Eat breakfast
Brush teeth

Afternoon
File mail
Read to children
Make dinner

This is the very bare bones of my routines. I also review them and update if needed this time of year. I will be posting my updated routines this week. If anyone is reading this and wishes to share a link back to their blog where they have posted their routines that is certainly welcomed.

Spring Project- Culling and Storing Winter Clothes

I started working on this last week and I am nearly done. This is an important job because it gives lots of space in the closets back which in itself helps to keep things tidy. It also gets rid of clutter that I do not need. I do one child at a time to not get overwhelmed by the job. I gather 1 recycle box, 1 donation box 1 to be repaired box and 1 rubbermaid container. I put all of the child's winter clothing on their bed and I start the process. I pick up each article and ask a series of question and follow the flow chart. It really looks a lot more complicated than it is.

			Is it in good condition?
		YES		NO
		Will it still fit next year?		Can it be repaired?
YES	NO				YES		NO
Put in rubbermaid storage container.	Put in donation box.				Put in To Be Repaired box		Put in Recycle Bin

Once everything is sorted the rubbermaid goes in storage until next Fall, the recycle box goes out to the bin and the donations go to their launch pad for delivery ASAP. I cannot express how satisfying it is when the job is completed

I`m Back!

I have a new puter and updated software! I am so excited to be getting back into the swing of things! I have missed blogging so much!

And Everything in it`s Place

Never has the old saying A place for everything and everything in it`s place made more sense to me. As I am on the journey to organising my house I have learned a lot of nuggets of good information; tips for cleaning, Ideas of how to store things, ways to plans what needs to be done. If I had to sum up the whole process in one line however, this would be it! Really it is what it is all about isn't it? So simple and I have always know this too! I cannot even remember the first time I heard this phrase! Through Flylady I learned that before I brought anything in the house of when I decluttered to ask myself "Do I need this?" " Do I love this?," " Do I have one already?"." I now ask myself "Do I have a place for it?" By doing this I have eliminated several ignitions of my hotspots. This is really big because the hotspots were a huge deal here. Mess would just be shoved from spot to spot until we were overwhelmed with it. So there you have it! One of my new mantras: A place for everything and everything in it`s place!

HAPPY FAMILY DAY!!!!!!!

A day off to hang out with the people you love! What could be better? Nothing I tell you! We are going to start ours off with a big breakfast of fruit salad, omelets and bacon orange juice and coffee. Then we are going pull on our long-johns, extra pants sweaters, snow-pants double knit mitts and toques (and take them off and put them on again because someone needs the bathroom), grab our skates and head to the rink for some fun. When we are done we will come home for hot chocolate, chicken soup and home made beavertails! Then I hope to spend the afternoon engaged in a rousing game of Cranium. I think I will find a good crock-pot meal so that I can play too. Then after the kids are bathed and pajamaed, we will tuck in for a bed time story. Then mom and dad will cuddle on the couch and likely pass out from our fun day with our little bundles of endless joy and energy. I love Family day!

I know some of my readers are from Ontario. Tell what will/did you do for Family 2009?

My Poor Little Sickies

My children are all at various stages of a nasty flu. It is heart breaking to see my babies so miserable. The menu on days like this is. chicken soup, tea and popsicles.

I make my soup from scratch. I save all the bones from the roast chickens and when I have at least 3 carcasses I put them in the crock-pot with 3 washed onions that have their tops and bottoms cut off but the skins left on. Next I add a head of garlic, a bunch of carrots and 6 ribs of celery treated the same way as the onions. I put my bouquet de garni (usually tarragon, savory, sage and parsley) in a tea diffuser and place it on top of the mountain of food goodness. Then I cover the lot with cold water and a splash of vinegar, turn the crock on low and let it go about 24 hours. When it is done I strain it. If the patient is experiencing tummy issue then I will serve as is in mug but if sustenance is require I will add chopped chicken and fresh peeled and chopped veggies and rice or noodles. I will often make a loaf of bread to go with it. I swear you can see the colour return to their little faces!