rotating and organizing kids' toys (and books): pt 2.

Yesterday, I gave you a glimpse of our kids' (sad, yet-to-be-decorated) rooms and the toys they keep in there.  Today, I'd like to show you the rest of what we have, how it's organized, and on what occasions it comes out of hiding.

We have two closets in the house that are filled to varying capacities with out-of-rotation toys.  The boys' closet is where we house board games, small bins of different 'kinds' of toys, and my craft supplies.  Here's what toys are currently in there, and out of daily rotation:

(each * indicates a single tub or bin):
*small plastic animals and My Little Ponies
*a few items of dress up to rotate in and out
*trucks and cars
*Barbies and action figures
*toy tool set
*pirate ships (you have to have two of these, or who will a lone ship battle?!)
*wooden castle and accoutrements
*army men, soldiers, knights
*puppets and puppet theater
*train tracks and trains

The bigger items, like the trains, castle and pirate ships, are toys that I'll pull out for a day or so, to give the kids something novel to play with.  They're really great for when friends come to play, since everyone gets really into playing with an unusual toy, so they all stay really occupied and don't fight a ton.  The smaller bins will come out occasionally to either join or replace the more semi-permanent bins the kids already have in their rooms.

Rocco's room also houses toys, but these are more of the 'puzzles and activities' sort that come out to be used at the dining room table, under varying degrees of supervision, depending on the kid.

(Yes, it's a hard closet to photograph, since it has a mirrored bifold door, and yes, if you're trying to count at home, we own three - count 'em, three - pack and plays.  And have a huge stash of diapers, clearly.)

To some, it may seem like a lot, and to others it might not seem like much, but it's a manageable amount for me.  I feel like it's enough to keep the kids' interest without overwhelming them - or me - with outrageous toy chaos.  I simply try to limit the space I'm willing to give anything - a certain number of shelves for books, a certain number of tubs for toys, a certain amount of space in the closet, etc.  Once it outgrows its space, I start chucking stuff.  It's one efficient way I've found to keep our things from outgrowing its welcome and/or ruling over us.

As for kids' books:  I am very, very picky about what kids' books we own, especially board books.  We love Sandra Boynton and Eric Carle, and almost anything else is kind of open to the chop, should I so choose.  For picture books for the younger set, I keep anything with stellar illustrations or stellar writing, and once the dedicated shelves are full, anything else is at risk of the chop.  We have an excellent public library here, so I have felt less and less need to 'own' throughout the years, since we have basically any title we'd ever want available to us.  And I have noticed that, with fewer but better books on our personal shelves, it gives the kids the opportunity to fall deeply in love with a few excellent books instead of just showing mild interest in a lot of mediocre books, if that makes sense.

The lower two shelves of that wider brown bookshelf on the left are where I keep the kids' books: picture books on the lower shelf, chapter books on that divided upper shelf.   Those are all the kids' books we own that the kids have free access to.  We use the library heavily, and there are many classic titles that are kept on upper 'school literature' shelves, so these are their free reads.  Everything else you're seeing is either books for school, or books belonging to me and Todd.

I lean heavily on the Ambleside Online booklists, and the 1000 Good Books list to guide what I keep.  Honey For A Child's Heart is another great resource for finding high quality literature for children of all ages.  I don't religiously follow these, but they really do offer great insight on the authors and titles that will feed the minds of our kids in the long run, and help me discern whether a book is a keeper or a tosser if I have to start weeding things out.

And that is how we keep our kids' stuff organized, limited, and easily accessed when we need it!

rotating and organizing kids' toys.

I would like to take a moment to announce that, now that we've lived here for ten months, our toys are now fully unpacked and organized.  It took me this long because none of the closets had shelving systems, so I needed to get those installed before unpacking the toys that are currently out of rotation and stored in the closet.  (I'm kind of a slow unpacker.  I am pretty high strung when it comes to organization, and I would rather leave something packed until I find the most logical, helpful spot for it, than unpack it and stuff it in a closet somewhere, all willy-nilly.  And since not every closet or cupboard is already set up for efficient organization, and since we're on a budget, I often wait.  And wait.  And wait.)

So all that to say, our closets are now organized, and while the room toys have been unpacked for a while, all the closet toys now have a home as well.  If you haven't gathered already, we have separate 'room' toys and 'closet' toys, which is a system that has worked really well for a variety of reasons, so I thought I'd walk you through what all we have and how I keep it organized.

Today, let me show you how I organize the toys that we keep in the kids' rooms.

Each bedroom has a limited set of toys that all the kids have free rein of throughout the day.  All kids are welcome to play in any bedroom they feel like, with any toys they feel like - there is no 'territory' beyond their special blankies and snugglies.  The boys' room has dress up and Duplos.  (My boys play with dress up way more often than my girls.)  As it is a very sad, windowless, undecorated room, I will spare you many photos, but you get the point:

Dress up is in that laundry basket.  The bin on top of the dresser is full of Lego instructions.

The Duplos bin slides under the bed when not in use.  And I hope it's apparent that the boys made their own beds, and this is not the work of a grown up (meaning, me).

The girls' room houses baby dolls, Little People/peg dolls/small dolls, and kitchen toys.  Rocco is the most frequent patron of this room's toy boxes.  (Again, not fully decorated, but at least it has windows, which is a definite step in the right direction.)

Look, it's Baby Todd!

Why, yes, that IS a tiny plastic Jesus from the Dollar Store that I just couldn't pass up.  Doesn't everyone have one?

Rocco's room has the baby toys and the board books.  The boys play in here more than anyone else. 

There is also an area in our basement where we keep the Lego table and the bookshelves.

You might have noticed that everything is separated by 'kind.'  This helps keep things really simple: When there are too many toys of a kind to fit in a single box, there are probably too many toys of that kind.  It's time to start weeding.  Secondly, it helps eliminate those stupid 'nowhere' toys, like Happy Meal trinkets and rando plastic bits.  If there's no logical place for a specific item to 'belong,' it might be an indicator that the toy doesn't really belong in your house at all.  And thirdly, it helps the kids immensely when it is clean up time.  They know where everything goes, and how to quickly get it there.  And for the littler kids, who have a hard time with broad instructions like "Clean up your room," it makes it really easy to narrow it down for them.  ("Lolo, go find all the baby dolls and put them in their box.  All the babies - Go!")


Now, we have a lot of toys that aren't out all the time, too, such as toys that we get out every so often, just for the day, or bins of toys that I will switch with the current room bins to keep things interesting.  Tomorrow, I can walk you through what all I keep back, how it's organized, and how I rotate it through.

See you tomorrow!

And for anyone that's interested, I will be live on Facebook again tonight at 8:00 CST, this time talking about groceries: budgeting (including what our budget looks like), menu planning, and shopping efficiently without losing your mind.  Join me over there!

what's up weekly. ('better late than never' edition.)

This week was pretty full for us, with lots of time spent with friends - which is the best kind of full, but it also kind of leaves me reeling, like, HOW IS IT FRIDAY ALREADY?!

Today is the last day of Term 2 of this year's homeschool schedule, so if we can get everything wrapped up today, we'll get to enjoy a week off next week.  It couldn't be better timing - the weather is beautiful, the house is grimy, and I am tired.  I tell myself I'm going to spend next week washing the windows and deep-cleaning the basement, but like... I probably will check out Deathly Hallows from the library and spend my week engrossed in that instead, if I'm being realistic.  So maybe Harry Potter and windows should be my goal, and skip the basement all together, because again, if I'm being realistic, having deep cleaned the basement will only show fruit for like three hours before the kids take over down there again.  So why bother?

ANYWAY.  Here's a rundown of our week:

Last Friday, I attended a girls' night with the women at our church, and there were sixty-five women in attendance.  Church planting is so mind-blowing ALWAYS: like, less than a year ago, there were maybe ten women total, and now there are sixty-five women who are here on a Friday night (and many others who couldn't make it that night).  Amazing.  Granted, we spent a lot of time playing 'minute to win it' games, and if you know me at all, you know how games-averse I am, so it kind of stretched me outside of my comfort zone a little.  But, on the plus side, I can now tell you that I'm quite skilled at knocking over water bottles with a baseball hanging from the toe of a pair of pantyhose dangling off my head...  I have arrived.

Penelope spent tons of time nature journaling, chronicling all the first signs of spring we're seeing:  robins, a redheaded woodpecker, daffodils, BUGS.  And so it begins.

On Saturday, I went grocery shopping, and I took the two big kids with me because they were wanting to spend some of their allowance money to buy birthday gifts for Finneas.  (MELT. MY. HEART.)  So we made a day of it - we did all our grocery shopping, then we stopped at Target and ate lunch at the Starbucks inside.  They felt so grownup drinking their hot chocolate, and if I wasn't an idiot, I would have had a photo-capable phone with me to take a picture of their pure elation.  Sadly, I am an idiot, so you'll have to be satisfied with a photo of their very own Starbucks cups, taken once we got home.

Sunday was the best kind of normal, full of church and fast food for lunch and naps and homemade alfredo for dinner and family movie night.

Monday was Finneas' fifth birthday.  I repeat: FINNEAS IS NOW FIVE.  HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN, AND WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?  The first thing he said when he got up that morning was, "I'm five now, Dad!  Do I look bigger?  I think I'm taller.  Are my hands bigger?" It was so stinking sweet and also a little heartbreaking.  I can't be expected to keep taking birthdays in stride, or I will have no babies left!  Luckily for me, they're all becoming pretty amazing big kids, so I don't spend too much time wishing for time to go backwards.

Monday night we got our first taste of a Missouri spring: tornado sirens going off at 10 p.m.  In our entire nine years in Iowa, we only had to head for shelter once.  Missouri is now tied for that record, and we've only been here ten months.  I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Missouri take that lead.

Luckily for us, the boys' room is the most sheltered in the entire house, so we carried the sleeping kids down there and they all curled up in the boys' beds together and tried to sleep.  (Their room is also pitch black, so please forgive the crazy flash photography.)

The rest of the week has been less eventful, thank goodness - just full of meetups and phone chats with friends, dinner dates, and these cuties:

And an interesting item of note: I bought this orange tree five or six years ago at a garage sale for five bucks.  It has never grown an orange, which I have found fully within the realm of expectation for a potted citrus plant living in the Midwest.  It has blossomed before, but never actually fruited... 

...Until the other day when Atticus found a real, live, baby orange growing on it.  In March.  Inside a very dark house.  In Missouri.  Consider me positively boggled.

Apparently it's gotten sufficiently jealous of my own fruitfulness, seeing as how I flaunt it each week in a pregnancy photo.  Twenty five weeks, baby.  I'm still waiting for the morning sickness to completely go away, and I think the orange tree is secretly glad about that.  It's always a competition with that thing.

tuesday in waco: the alternate version.

Annnnnd the Most Sporadic Blogger Award goes to... PAIGE VAN VOORST!!  (I'm so honored, and also not surprised.)

How has it been like two full weeks since we were down in Waco, and we were only gone for three days, and I'm still not through telling you about it?  Dumb.  Sorry.

I told you about how I spent my Tuesday down there, but Todd and the kids were spinning in a different orbit that whole day, since they're not uppity members of the media like yours truly, and at least one of them would definitely have covered the entire ballroom in poorly applied chalk paint.  So they found other ways to spend their time.

They woke up in our Airbnb, which we all loved. 

 

The owners of our duplex were really kind and were expecting their sixth child, too!  They were kind enough to offer to lend us their double stroller and baby carrier if we needed it, and even invited us to stay an extra night for free so we could attend a Christian homesteading event that was going to be happening the day after we were scheduled to leave.  (It looked so awesome, and you know I would have loved to go, but Todd has this stupid job back home he has to go to sometimes.)

Anyway.  It was so nice having separate sleeping space from the kids, which we definitely wouldn't have gotten if we were just renting a hotel room, and the kids had room to spread out and play throughout the morning.

They dropped me off at my sister's hotel, then spent some of the morning just driving around, checking out the town.  Then they headed back for lunch.  I had forgotten to pack any kind of booster seat or travel high chair for Rocco, so he got to have a solo picnic on my pajama shirt.

They laid low in the afternoon:  the little kids all napped, the big kids watched Leapfrog movies on the laptop.  Then they drove into town to meet me at the Silos for a bit.

Then we headed to a local bar/restaurant/thing for dinner the locals all raved about - for a bar, they made a killer shrimp taco.  I mean, truly stellar.  Apparently Texas is good at Mexican food... who knew?

Also, I spent my entire meal getting up and down to take the girls to the bathroom, because they were apparently coming down with some kind of stomach bug.  I swear I was in that nasty bar bathroom at least eight times in the hour we were there; no joke.  Penelope didn't eat anything at all - even though we ordered the kids a Texas-sized chicken fried steak with a side of George's famous dinner rolls dipped in George's famous ranch dressing.  That shows you how 'crappy' (harharnoreally) she was feeling.

After dinner, we headed back to our duplex, got the kids tucked in bed and called it a night.  And that was the Other Van Voorsts' day in Waco.

*Just a note about our Airbnb experience: we were kind of nervous.  Todd was especially weirded out by the seemingly sky-high likelihood that we would end up being murdered in our sleep.  It absolutely did not help at all that the place we rented was kind of far out of town, on this dirt road with a 'road closed' sign... HOWEVER.  We were pleasantly surprised to ultimately find ourselves wrong (and alive).  And now we're raving Airbnb enthusiasts. 

Seriously - it's not even a question in our minds anymore about how to travel with the kids.  $95 per night would have gotten us a single hotel room, where the kids would all have to divvy up sleeping space between a queen bed and a couple of pack and plays... leaving three kids to sleep in the same bed, and all seven of us sleeping in the same room.  We even had to brainstorm how we would put them to bed at a decent time, but still get some wind-down time of our own - watch Netflix on the laptop in the bathroom while hoping the kids would eventually fall asleep in the big room? 

But for the same price we got a place with tons of room for everyone - a bedroom for the big four, and a bedroom for me and Todd with an attached master closet to put Rocco's pack and play in.  AND we got to keep our food in an actual fridge, AND we had a stove on which to heat up Rocco's bottles.  AND it didn't smell and feel perpetually damp like most hotels do.  (Not sure if I've told you or not, but I get the serious jibblies about sleeping in untested hotels.  I really, really, really hate it.)  So, for us, it became apparent that it has become a no-brainer.  Todd has even started scouting Airbnb for more-local-to-us places (like the Ozarks) for more casual weekend trips we can take through the summer.  I mean, it's SO CHEAP to house us all overnight.  Why not?

what was up (that should have flushed down) this week.

Well, this week was spent getting back into the swing.  We took last week off of school, since we'd spent the early week traveling, and the latter part of the week recovering.  So it has been a week of laundry, cleaning and tooth-whitening... not that that really has anything to do with anything, other than I think I feel a sense of renewed vigor to get a handle on all chaotic aspects of my life, including my coffee-stained teeth.

So, not that this is of any consequence whatsoever and it's more just a tangential note: I have been trying activated charcoal on my teeth to see if that actually works to whiten them.  While I've only used it twice so far, and can therefore not yet speak to its whitening efforts, I can definitely tell you it blackens everything else.  And also I look really, really scary while doing it.  Which seems antithetical to a beauty treatment, but what do I know?  So now my toothbrush is stained black, and my washcloth is stained black, but my teeth are about the same color as they've been, so we'll see if I actually start making up the deficit at any point.  I'll keep you posted, but spare you current photos.

The most 'interesting' part of our week involved this sight:

It's never a good day when seeing the Roto Rooter van in front of your house is a source of relief.  On Monday, Atticus came upstairs and said the basement toilet wasn't flushing.  So I tried to plunge it, to no avail.  Since I had noticed the other drains in that bathroom acting weird lately, I pulled out the Drano and poured some down both the shower and sink drains and let it sit.  When I went to run water down to rinse it out, though... the water didn't go down.  It just stood.  And hours later, it was still standing.  And hours after that, there was sewage coming out of every single drain in the bathroom.  Awesome.

We have never once, in our nearly-ten-years of marriage, needed to call a plumber, but it was clear that Monday was the day to try something new.   So I called, they scheduled us for Tuesday morning, and we waited.  By Tuesday morning, all the backed up stuff was still sitting there, but it had... aged significantly in the meantime.  Our shower was seriously apocalyptic.  Luckily, the guy was able to snake our main drain pretty quickly, so the initial problem was fixed, but I was left with the task of cleanup.  Again, I'll spare you the photos (of which there actually are some, because Todd was trying his hand at hardhitting, gritty photo journalism).

Anyway.  It is safe to say that our bathroom is the cleanest it's probably ever been, now that I've sprayed and scrubbed and prayed it clean.  And my hands are probably the cleanest they've ever been, now that I've sprayed and scrubbed and prayed them clean.  And our pipes have a six-month clog warranty on them, so we can flush as many flushable wipes and tampons and apple slices and Barbie shoes as our little hearts desire for the next five and a half months.

Things that have been keeping my spirits higher than would be warranted if that was the only thing going on this week:

Rocco was getting his sassafrass on.

Penelope mastered the art of flight.

I matted this cute print in this cute frame, and actually got it hung on the wall.  (Though, hanging it kind of highlighted how much other stuff should be hung on the walls in there to make it look less lonely.)

This little lady seems like she never changed out of her pajamas, and also seemed to age before my very eyes.

And I am now 24 weeks along, and have officially sized out of all the jeans I own.  And I only own one very sad, poorly-fitting pair of maternity jeans (HOW?! WHY?!), so I'm taking this as a bad omen an indicator that I should just buy a bunch of leggings and settle in for the long haul.  I have a feeling I'm going to end up more 'voluptuous' by the end of this pregnancy than I typically get, or at least my lower half will...  At least I'll be sturdy?

Teeth, plumbing, preggo legs (Pregs? Leggos?)... yep, I think I covered everything.

my day in Waco.

Whew, sorry for the hiatus!  I've been slacking off.

So let's jump back in to our trip down to Waco.  Tuesday, Todd and I spent most of the day doing separate things, so this was a really full day when you put it all together!  I'll give you a run-down of Todd's day with the kids next week, and for today I'll just cover how I spent my day in Waco.  We got up early, and Todd drove me into town and dropped me off at my sister's hotel, and from there Lauren and I walked to the ballroom where the press event was being hosted.

We started the morning chatting over catered breakfast and great coffee, followed by a couple of presentations by Chip and Joanna on Joanna's line of home paint (I'm talking gorgeous colors, you guys.  It was literally the first time I've ever found myself thinking, "Purple could be a pretty wall color..." because even her purples were gorgeous), Chip's recommendations for primer (Kilz, baby; are you shocked?  That stuff is killer), and Joanna's new line of chalk paint.

So, I had never used chalk paint before.  I mean, I've seen it all over the internet, but it looked weirdly complicated in its simplicity (what do you mean I just kind of...slap it around and it's okay if it's streaky and it takes like ten minutes to dry?  And what is this wax stuff you coat it with?), and a lot of the projects done with chalk paint can get a little too 'weathered' for my personal taste.  Plus I'm kind of craft-averse at my core, so I'd always just kind of steered clear.

But then they announced craft time.  With chalk paint.  And I was like, umwhatdoido.  But I followed the other (craftier, bloggier, designier) women there up to the table to pick out my supplies and suddenly I was like, CHALK-PAINTED PICTURE FRAME YOU WILL COMPLETE ME.  I had been on the hunt for a frame for a print we'd gotten for Lolo a long time ago, and there was one that was the perfect size, and there was chalk paint in the perfect color (duh, it's a Joanna color - Cabbage Rose, for anyone wondering), so I tried my hand at chalk painting.  And you know what?  You really do just kind of slap that stuff around and it somehow ends up looking crazy good. 

A post shared by Lauren Chorpening Day (@laurennnday) on Feb 21, 2017 at 6:44pm PST

And you know what else?  Chip and Joanna just sat around chalk painting with us like bosses.  A couple of really low-key, crafting-on-a-Tuesday-morning bosses.

After Crafty Fun Time Yeah, we broke into small groups for some interview time with the Gaineses.  So, if you're ever wondering how to become more brave in your design choices while still sticking to a budget, I can tell you exactly what I think someone like Joanna Gaines would say.  Because I asked her and she answered me and I heard it verbatim from her mouth.  Which I like to consider 'having it on good authority.'

Then, we ate an amazing catered lunch.  (Real, live Texas brisket, and fried chicken, and biscuits and gravy... of which I was able to only eat the brisket, but somehow even being in the presence of a full-blooded Texas biscuit was enough for me to feel satisfied.)

Then we all headed over to the Silos for a tour of the grounds and the offices.  Then we got to shop.  And not only was there tons of beautiful stuff there, but they had given us all gift cards to the store that were so insanely generous, I kind of... ran out of stuff to buy before I actually ran out of money.  It was a foreign feeling, but not a bad one, I won't lie.

Then Lauren and I got to spend some amazing one-on-one time together in her hotel room while we waited for Todd to come into town with the kids (once the kids got up from nap.)  Which is honestly the whole reason I went in the first place - it just does my heart so good to spend time with her.  Then we all spent time hanging out on the main lawn by the Silos, which the kids loved, and since it was pretty late in the day, we kind of had the place to ourselves.  Once the grounds closed, we grabbed some food in town and headed back to our Airbnb home.

And that was my fun, is-this-really-my-life-somehow-on-this-rando-Tuesday day.