Busy Weeks Ahead...and Behind

I'm not sure about you all but my week was super duper busy. And trust me, we did not end easily. I have had lots of things to keep me busy, which I guess is a norm when you have 4 girls and another baby on the way but I feel like the days just start so hectic and end even more so. Yesterday, Friday, was the busiest of the week for me! I usually plan for Fridays to be a bit easier on my schedule but not this one. Let me recap what's been happening here.

This week has been full of many things. Schooling with the girls (an everyday thing), a toddler causing mayhem (also an everyday thing), we also had apples to can (which was held up by a bad stove), a yard to prepare for winter (like picking up all the toys and stripping down all my tomato plants), and, as you may have already read, I am in the midst of an  organizing challenge for my craft space. I am also doing a crochet along which gives me a new part to my surprise creation every week. Oh, and add to this list my wonderful idea for our Halloween costumes.This is just a glimpse of all the things I put on my list everyday, some good and exciting, some stressful and exhausting. Bottom line, I'm filled to the max.

After this week, and especially last night (we fixed the stove and canned all...night...long), my back hurts, my feet hurt, my brain is on overload, the project list seems to be multiplying, and all I really want to do is put my feet up, take a lot of naps, and maybe read or watch some movies or just be creative...really, do anything but work my tail off.

That being said, I am so excited about what we have accomplished! We have a big storm rolling in, which means I am skipping my planned trip to get some of the needed supplies for Halloween, and I'm just going to focus on my family, the things I can do, and resting. Sometimes God sneaks in a few moments that force us to slow down. This seems to be one of those days. Normally, this might drive me crazy but today, I am relishing in what has been accomplished and resting in the fact that I have plenty of things to keep me busy. (I might also be praying we don't lose power so I can watch the Cubs in the first game of the NLCS but I digress.)

I was going to give you a list of all the things I accomplished this week but I realized that this list is more for myself and the most important of things was this: the whole family survived another week of school, activities, and life. We had food to eat every day, I can't even count the number of disastrous mishaps we have narrowly avoided, and we may have managed to clean a few things as well. Did I say the whole family survived another week? Cause this toddler of ours is making the whole family second guess our sanity and ability to be a parent (or sibling).

Bottom line, enjoy today. Enjoy the weekend. Rest. And revel in the lovely chaos of  life. (Also, enjoy a couple of pics of my accomplishments.)

Happy Creating~
Jennifer

Passions and Pennies

As we embark on this new stage of life with the expectation of our new baby coming in a few months, I have been on a mission to get more organized so I can enjoy my passions. Let's be honest. I'm one of those women that has many passions including but not limited to scrapbooking, crocheting, sewing, card making, and lots and lots of other things. So organization is a must...especially in a small space. No, I'm not nesting. I've been working on downsizing, organizing, purging, and whatever else is called for to accomplish this great feat for quite some time now. I would say this all started last year sometime and I have been doing an okay job. But, baby number 5 in roughly 1100 square feet is a challenge when you don't craft. Add that in and it can get overwhelming.

Currently our 4 daughters share a room. This room has just enough space for the 4 beds and clothing. Then our old bedroom is the playroom with guest bed and the smallest of rooms is what we like to call the 'bonus' room. "Bonus" in the sense that we get to store all the fun scrapbooking, crocheting, sewing, and office items in one space instead of out in the living room or bedrooms. Creating this bonus room came on the heels of moving our bedroom out to the garage. It was a wonderful idea that quickly turned crazy. As much as I adore my husband, he often uses my bonus room as a dumping ground for anything he doesn't know what to do with. Let's just say that is a lot of stuff. We are working to change that. 😁

Over the summer while we had our break from school I did some major reorganization of my scrapbook paper. I wasn't quite done but as the school year neared I ran out of time to focus on it. I was desperately trying to do this reorganization on a budget since we are always looking for ways to cut back. I bought a few new things but not too much but ended up getting stalled after a time. Then a friend of mine suggested I get involved with Totally Tiffany's Get Organized Challenge. It had me intrigued. It is a free 8 week course on totally reorganizing your craft space to make everything more accessible. I was optimistic that this could be the final push I needed. So, I plugged in last week, watched the video, and to my joy found that her techniques were right on the track I was already doing! What?! How amazing to find a group that encourages us to get things ready to go. But, does this push you to use their specific organization tools and supplies? Nope! Tiffany does share the products she uses at the end of each course but she does it in that way so that if you don't want them or don't need them, you can just turn it off. Wow...I am hooked. She shares tips on everything from how and why to organize in specific ways to purging... and all in great detail. Each week focuses on a specific area of organization. For that geeky organizer in me, well, let's just I am STOKED!!! Haha. So, I am full fledge in this movement. It is week 2 but you can join in at any time and I highly encourage you to do so. These techniques are just was the crafter in all of us needs in order to be able to craft with joy instead of stress and guilt (I should be cleaning,  I can't find my table, maybe I should burn this room down, ya know, that kind of stress). Once completed we can finally enjoy the freedom to craft when we want instead of the dread of looking for things...like the floor. 😳 Click on over to the link I included and get involved! Remember, it's totally free and gives fabulous tips. You don't have to do the whole thing but even just glean tips for future use. Plus, it's always fun to have others invested in the journey with you. In the meantime, enjoy these horrific pictures of my messy scrapbooking space...here's hoping I can find just the balance and space to really enjoy this room in the near future.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. You let me know if you join the group!

Happy Creations~
Jennifer