Puzzles

So this past week at MOPS we had a speaker who is a professional organizer. She does personal consultations and speaks about how to live a more organized life. Not perfect, but more organized. She was great!

I love organizing! I love the saying "A place for everything, and everything in its place". Now keep in mind I am by no means perfect at this, nor OCD about it, but I do like things in my home to look neat and tidy.

This also continues to be a need. We essentially live in a 3 bedroom home. We do have a room we could use down in the basement but we just aren't ready to put one or two of the girls down there. So, There are 6 of us upstairs in 3 bedrooms - the doorways are all within 10 feet of each other. Its cozy and to be honest I kind of like it....except when I walk into a room and trip over toys, books, clothes, shoes, etc. So organization is necessary in our house. I used to keep things organized to fit the maximum amount of stuff in a space. Now, while I struggle with it, I'm trying to limit the amount of "stuff" we have! We have plenty, so now I'm trying to be organized so that things are neat and we can find things when we need them.

So, lately - the bookshelf in Elsie and Henry's room has been bugging me. Probably because I sit and nurse Henry and stare at it. Stuff kind of mismashed everywhere in it. This morning, I couldn't take it anymore and went to it. I re-sorted things. Tossed things. Put things in a pile to sell. I also took to pinterest for ideas.

My girls enjoy doing puzzles and its a great quiet activity to work on while I'm fixing supper or we are getting ready for church, etc. However, the boxes get dilapitated and take up a lot of space. SO, here is my new system for puzzles and I LOVE IT!!! I know, I'm a neard.

So here is the big stack of puzzle boxes. Somehwat unkept.

 

Here is the puzzles in super cheap pencil bags (which I had)

And here there are inside the binder. 6 puzzless and it looks great. Its easy for Elsie to get off the shelf, and now there is room for a few more puzzles or books!

So yes I do realize I'm quite the nerd, but I love it. I love it when I come up with something new. Thank you pinterest for the great ideas! Now, to work on a few others!

Do you have any brilliant ideas - please share!

Grandma

My grandma has been with the Lord now for over 4 years, which just doesn't seem possible. I was very close with her, in fact she moved in my mom's home for her last few years so I was very lucky to get some extra time with her when we were visiting my mom.

Everytime I have a baby, it really makes me think of her often. She loved babies and so loved her grandchildren. Family was so very important to her. When she rocked a baby she always said that they like repitive words so she would often sing speak "oh, baby, oh baby" or repeat the chorus of the song (it could be she said that because she didn't remember all the words..ha!)

Georgie is actually named after her! She went by Lorraine, but her given name is Georgie. My favorite, favorite, favorite memory of my grandma is when at 93, she scooped Georgie up into her lap and rocked with her.



I'm so thankful the camera was so close and we could grab the shots. Her face just lit up as Georgie reached her arms up to her to be picked up! Without any hesitation my grandma scooped her up as if she was 30 years old. Such a moment that is etched into my mind!

 

I'm also thankful that she was able to hold Elsie once also, it was when Elsie was 8 weeks old and Grandma was in the hospital with pneumonia. Two days later she went to be with the Lord.

 

 

 

Its easy to be sad that she hasn't been able to meet or hold Maisie and Henry. I miss hearing her voice and her encouragement. I miss her classic one liners and funny sayings. I miss her food! I miss calling her to say Hey Grandma, how do you make .... I miss her deeply. However, I am so thankful for the confidence that I have that she is with the Lord. I also believe that she can see Maisie and Henry better than she may have ever could in her aging years. I might not be able to call and talk to her, but I know that her legacy is woven deeply into our lives and she is still a huge part of my life.

 

So, now as I rock my sweet Henry boy and sing speak Oh, Henry, Oh Henry...I think of her and know that she is still ever with me. I long to see her again!

PPMN

PIZZA PARTY MOVIE NIGHT

PPMN = Pizza Party Movie Night! I can't quite remember when exactly we started our tradition of Pizza Party Movie Night, but it has probably been close 2 years now....maybe even more. Friday Nights is usually dedicated to pizza and a movie, well often two since Matt and I will watch an adult movie following the kid movie.

Here we are tonight!

I can remember my friend in Denver giving me an article about the importance of quality family time and pizza night was a good way to do that - something along those lines. I think she may have even gave it to me before we had children and even though I don't remember all the details of the article it certainly left an impression. I can actually still picture the article, may even be saved somewhere.

So, when the two big girls were old enough to start watching some movies we decide to combine that with Pizza Night thus Pizza Party Movie Night was born. Almost every Friday night at our house is PPMN! We love it! Most of the time we order Pizza Ranch, sometimes its just Totinos frozen pizza, and a few times we've made our own. We started ordering a small cheese pizza and had leftovers but recently we've had to upsize to a medium cheese pizza for the girls!

Matt has been out of town all this week, so I think a few girl missed their Daddy.

 

 

PPMN is so cherished by our family, that earlier this summer when had missed a few in a row due to camping, travels, etc that Georgie wanted to have PPMN instead of doing something else really fun. Matt and I can't recall what our alternative plan was....it was someting kind of extra special but she was missing Pizza Party Movie Night so much that she wanted to do stay home.

 

 

Some movies are memorable, some....not so great, but ineveitably they all have music which means our girls are going to ....

 

DANCE!

 And it is even better when Daddy joins them!

 



Here We Go

So back in May I created this blog to try to start capturing our memories. As you can see its now September - no post. So here we go again. I love facebook but sometimes don't want to saturate people with our lives so I thought a blog will allow those that want to, come peek. I don't feel like I have anything enlightening to say but at least I can capture my own memories!

Life has been different with a fourth baby and Georgie being in school. I like how school has somewhat forced us into some better routines. Something I've already desired but didn't quite acheive. I do miss Georgie not being home, but I do try to find some special time with her especially on the weekends.

Today was picture today for Georgie so we sent her off and also captured some great pictures of Henry and Maisie together.

 

Georgie off to school for pictures!

 

Our two littles!

 

Sweet love!

 

 

 

Well there it is, my first official un-exciting blog. Enjoy!