Q & A
I hope everyone had a great weekend! I thought I’d kick the week off with a Q & A post so here we go!
What are your thoughts on babysitting and how do you manage it? (i.e. how often do you use one, where did you find her, how much do they charge, do you have things you check about them first, how do you know the kids are happy with them, do they manage three kids ok, is it better to have someone older or do younger babysitters work ok too, etc.)
Whew! Now THAT was a question! :) A really good question. Babysitters are an absolute necessity in my opinion (unless you are lucky enough to live by grandparents who take over that duty!).
We don’t have a set amount of time that we use babysitters. On average, at least once during the weekend so Kenny and I can go on a date. Date nights are a huge priority for us. Especially since baby #3 came along. It’s the only time we can actually talk without interruptions! Regular evenings after kids are in bed don’t count – we are both plopped in front of the TV with our laptops completely exhausted from the day. Kenny makes sarcastic comments about whatever show we’re watching and I roll my eyes at him and blog the night away. We need our weekend date night to hold hands, focus on each other, and feel like a couple again. Other than that we get a babysitter whenever we need one. Lately because of the new house stuff – a lot! Right now we are averaging 2-3 times a week that we need a sitter. If it’s just for an hour or two after school, I have used girls age 12 and up. For an evening when kids need to be put to bed, I always get a sitter at least 15 years old. I just feel better about someone a little older at night time. I’m lucky because I know so many darling babysitters in my ward (church group). I know their families – I’m friends with most of their moms and know those moms are close by if there is an emergency. I have a list of about eight girls I can call who I know and trust and who my girls LOVE. My girls are at the age where getting a babysitter is like Christmas. Seriously. They get SO excited for a “teenager” to come over and do nothing but play with them. Kole always cries when I leave, but is over it two minutes later (I always ask!). All three of my kids handle sitters well because we use them a lot. Obviously I talk to my girls about their sitters (did you like her? what did you do?) – if there was ever a time they didn’t like someone or I didn’t feel good about someone I wouldn’t call them again, but that hasn’t happened yet. I usually hear – “when can we call HER again!?” As far as what we pay our sitters – we pay a generous hourly rate for two reasons: 1 – we live in an area where everything costs more and 2 – I want my babysitters to know that I value them and I want them to WANT to babysit for me. :) I think it’s best to ask other moms in your area this question because fees vary so much depending on where you live. My Utah friends pay a lot less than I do, but San Diego is an expensive place to live which unfortunately means everything costs more (including babysitting).
I have a question for you – do you keep any of your kids’ clothes? I know you are a master organizer, and through posts, it sounds like you send a lot to your niece, but everything?
“Master organizer” eh? I don’t know about that but I’m certainly not going to stop you from calling me one. ;) Ok – kids clothes. Man! I’ve said this before. Kids’ clothes are the HARDEST thing for me to get rid of! Seriously! I do so well with everything else – including a lot of their school work, but the clothes get me every time! I always think … “oh I have to keep this! It’s the shirt Addison wore for her first day of pre-school, or those were the pajamas El slept in every night at age 3, Kole came home from the hospital in this one. I can’t possibly get rid of it…” I’m a sucker for the memories that come with their little outfits!
So here’s what I’ve been doing with kids’ clothes. Every season I go through my kids’ closets. (I actually have this on my current to-do list right now for the summer.)
Yes! I still send a lot to my niece (isn’t she a doll). :) She is one year younger than Addison so size wise it works out great. I also have some friends with daughters younger than mine who I give clothes to from time to time. And I take a lot of stuff to Goodwill. I swear I’m there at least once a month! I have to admit though that right now I have three HUGE bags in my garage full of too small kids’ clothes. A lot of them are too small for my niece now because I’ve waited so long to get them to her. I need to figure out what to do with them. Some people have suggested selling them on eBay? The clothes are all nice and in great shape (mostly from Gap and Gymboree) but I don’t know if it’s worth the time to try to sell them? I’d love to hear what some of you do with kids’ clothes!
Erin, what do you do with all of the doll clothes and accessories and shoes??
When you have little girls this kind of stuff can take over your house! I used to have one drawer that held doll clothes, shoes, and accessories —
but with new dolls came new stuff the girls had to keep so this drawer is now for doll clothes only. And it doesn’t look nearly this neat. All the doll clothes get taken out and stuffed back in on a daily basis as dolls attend a variety of social events and functions. :) As long as the clothes end up in the drawer at the end of the day, I’m ok with the messy drawer. As far as doll shoes and accessories go…
Remember when I re-did Ellie’s closet? All of that little girl stuff that is so small and gets all over the place was driving me crazy! So I bought some clear plastic bins, organized all of their small toys, slapped some labels on them, and called it done!
One shelf holds small dolls, doll shoes, doll accessories (all of that random – what in the world do I do with all of this?), and one bin just for polly pockets and their clothes. This system has worked beautifully! We all know where to put things away and where to find things. And since I’m feeling a bit witty tonight I’ll add that I no longer “sweat the small stuff.” :) (Yeah… probably more tired than witty after all…)
What do you do with all of your kids’ little creations and notes and such? I have boxes and boxes of it all, and more keeps adding to the collection. Do you take photos of some and then toss them out?
Ok. The short answer is this: some stuff I save for my kids’ albums, some stuff I save to display, some stuff I save for me. If you want a more detailed answer, I’m going to direct you to three posts that will show you exactly what I do with everything. :)
Project Life Organization Update
What I do with kids’ school work
Hutch Organization (where I keep my keepsakes)
If one of your children makes you a really special mother’s day card or something, do you include that in their album or do you keep that in a keepsake box for yourself?
Similar question to the one above. If it is something that my kids have made for me, I keep it in my “Erin’s Keepsakes from the kids” box. Kenny and I each have our own. (See my hutch organization post I mentioned above).
If it is something that I want to keep for me AND I want my girls to have it in their albums, I usually take a picture of it for their books, and I keep the original. Here’s an example:
This note Ellie wrote me on the left (which is an all time favorite that I blogged about here) I actually took out of her album and put into my keepsake box. If you look at the bottom right of her book, I took a picture of it for her to keep. I wanted this story in her book, but had to keep the original for myself. :)
If one of your children has a special event like a birthday party, a baptism, etc. do you put a few photos of that event in all of the siblings albums too, to show the different things that happened that year? Or do you stick strictly to that child’s own events in their album?
Another great album question! Let’s say I’m developing Ellie’s 6th birthday photos. I develop a bunch for Ellie (usually a two page layout in her book with my favorite pics from the event – hoping from now on to limit this to a one side layout). Addison will get one maybe two pics from the party. Probably one of her and Ellie on El’s b-day and then a general pic of all the party guests or something. For Kole’s book I would include one picture – maybe Ellie blowing out candles or something and write in his album “Ellie turns 6!” So yes – I do try to document important sibling events in each album but the child experiencing the event gets several pictures while the other children get one maybe two. This is one of the many reasons I like to do separate albums for each child (even though it is a major time commitment!). I like the focus of their albums to be about their childhood, but this of course also includes what is happening with siblings.
I have been following your blog for several months and love it! My question is what is your workout and diet plan? — I agree with the last person, a workout post would be great. How do you stay in such good shape? — An idea for your new Q & A section, could you share your workout routine with us??!
So many questions about exercise this time around! (And thanks for the sweet comments that went with them!) My exercise routine changes with the wind. Seriously! I have to constantly adapt to the current schedule/situation with my kids. Only one thing remains certain: I always exercise! It’s great to look good, but it’s even better to feel good. I feel so much better when I exercise and I’m a big believer that something is better than nothing. When I started therapy with Kole in our mornings it ended my walks/runs with friends. So this is what I currently do: I pack lunches and lay out clothes the night before, kids are up at 6:30 and I get them all dressed and fed and me in my workout clothes. Around 7:40 Kenny heads out to take the girls to school and Kole and I head out on our walk/run. Therapy starts at 9:00 (they come to my house) and I need a little time to pick up the house and wipe the sweat off of my face before the therapists come so I have 45 min – 1 hour to exercise. (This only works if I have everything ready the night before so we are ready to walk out the door with the girls.) I put Kole in the jogger and we’re off! I walk the first half of our route (usually mentioning and pointing to everything along the way “see the dog Kole! woof woof! say dog!) and then the second half I jog. I say to Kole “ready, set, and he says GO!” His first word he learned in therapy. :) So workout routine isn’t anything too special. Just a walk/run with my boy in the jogging stroller. Here is my diet plan (if you can really call it that): I maintain my weight by eating a lot of the same things. Usually Bran Chex for breakfast (because it’s fast and easy and I like them), and my turkey sandwich, baked lays and strawberries for lunch…
Dinner is always different – usually a Lean Cuisine because of convenience, working late husband, and hatred of cooking, but if I do cook something else I just control my portions. Always popcorn for a snack. Of course I snack during the day. Sometimes healthy, sometimes not so healthy. I just always exercise and I always pay attention to what I’m eating. If I’ve had a cookie earlier in the day, that was my treat and I try to eat better the rest of the day. Exercise is key because I always eat better if I’ve exercised.
Additional posts I’ve written about exercise and healthy eating:
My #1 priority
Healthy Eating
Kicking it in gear
Workout music
I hope those answers helped some of you! I didn’t have time for all of your questions, so I’ll do another Q & A post soon. If you have any of your own answers to these questions that might be helpful to others or a question for me please feel free to comment!
It all started with a shelf (home decor re-cap)
It all started with a shelf.
And my magnet board today. Aren’t the typewriter magnets fun!? I picked those up at the last Queen Bee Market. And I love that picture of my girls on the beach in Maui. Summer time. :)
I took everything off of it and sat with it completely empty for months.
It felt good to have a clean slate.
Our birthday spotlight was a fun addition. No cost since I just painted an old frame and used mini clothespins I already had on hand. (Clearly I got my money’s worth out of that can of aqua paint!)
Dear Phillip
You rock!! You were my pick from day one and I am so happy you didn’t make me look like an idiot in front of all of my blog friends. When you won I cried. Not because you didn’t make me look like an idiot in front of my blog friends (although that was a bonus). I cried because I am SO happy for you. Love your voice. Love your style. Love the way you pull that cat like face and move your feet around when you sing. Love the way you headed to your sweet family so soon after you won. Love that I am validated. Patiently waiting for your first CD.
xoxo,
a fan.
p.s. Did I mention that you rock!?
p.p.s. Back to regular posting soon. :)
Makes me happy
Of course if Ellie is leaving notes for the “toofere” so is Addison. She is counting the days until she loses her first tooth. I hope it’s a ways away. I love her baby teeth smile so much.
Last weekend Ellie sat down at the table, pulled out the crayons and in half an hour presented us with this book all about butterflies…
Addison made this page on a school computer today. It made me smile when I took it out of her backpack. Yes. Those are definitely the many feelings and faces of my Addie. She especially nailed the “angry” face. That one was a regular pretty early on…
Although I still give my Addison props for knowing how to look fancy while pouting.
Teacher Gift Ideas
Fashion Friday (for the kiddos)
Matching days are getting few and far between, but I’m desperately trying to keep them alive! I’m also trying to keep my girls little as long as possible which is evident with the popsicle “sweet” outfits I scored at Gymboree. They might be wearing matching popsicle tanks in high school if I have anything to do with it. Which I won’t. Which is why I’m not all that excited about high school.
And aren’t these simple grey ruffle dresses cute!? Target baby! So cheap and they fit darling! I love them on my girls. They come in other colors and when my mom came to babysit the kids while we were in Virginia she brought them the yellow ones. We laughed. We do that all the time because we have such similar tastes. These dresses are fun because you can add leggings, tights, a belt, headband, any accessory in a fun bright color looks so great with the grey stripes. Makes me want to find a grey striped dress or top for me!
Isn’t the dress cute with this pink shrug I bought Addie!? Also at Target! Looks so cute over the grey. I picked up these colorful socks for the girls too. They have to wear good running shoes to school which means we always need ankle socks and I was going crazy with all of the white socks in the laundry! I could never tell the difference between my socks and Ellie’s socks and Addie’s socks. They were all identical other than a slight size difference. I’m loving these new colorful socks! So easy to match and the girls just share them all. I don’t know why in the world I didn’t think of colorful socks sooner.
Since I’m on a stripe kick, here are a couple of other dresses I picked up at Children’s Place last week… 10 bucks each baby! Love that.
And another summer dress from Children’s Place that was also on sale. Nice and comfortable which is why you see a smile on this girl’s face.
My little man has been involved in some fashion pampering of his own. A couple of weeks ago he got his first hair cut. :)
Spring/Summer Mantel
I love these candle sticks so much that I’ve had them up all year. Fun to display decor other than candles on them like I did in the Fall.
I bought these glass jars at Pottery Barn several months ago. LOVE them. While I was at it I also bought some sea glass to give the mantel a “summery” feel.
Ever had one of those? :)
p.s. You can see the rest of my recent home decor here.
**Linking up at Home Stories A to Z
and The Lettered Cottage
Ready for Summer
We completed almost everything on our list last summer. Aside from a few minor activities like Ellie’s addition to the list…
“get a puppy.” I’m positive that will make it on this year’s list as well. I’m even more positive that it won’t be checked off at the end of the summer.
I’m also thinking it would be fun to make a list of books for the girls to read and maybe some fun movies I’d love to show them this summer.
Another list that will be taped to our back door soon is my annual summer “get out the door list.”
My Mothers Day
This was a favorite. Apparently the girls were trying to spell out “Happy Mothers Day” in yarn but it was taking too long. So they just did the initials H M d and added some periods (that look like o’s) in the middle instead. Kenny and I had a good laugh coming up with a variety of things this could stand for. :)
:)
After doing our “house homework” we went to dinner. I decided on Outback. Kind of obsessed with their sauteed mushrooms lately. Then today was another great day of being pampered and showered with cards and hugs from my sweet kids.
Fashion Friday
I’ve also worn it a few times with the belt on the outside of the sweater. Because why not? I think this yellow belt would look great with SO many colors of tops/sweaters. It has inspired me to do some more shopping. Doesn’t take much. I’ll let you know how that goes! :)
One last picture of my yellow sweater with a white tank and my beloved Anthro belt. Only because this favorite belt of mine was starting to feel a bit left out. :) I was on my way to dinner with friends when Kenny took this. It has been one birthday after another lately (our favorite excuse to eat out!).
This week I tried Thai Food for the first time! My friends are desperately trying to get me out of my turkey sandwich rut. I liked it! Almost as much as my turkey sandwich. ;)
Project Life Organization/Update
I gave Ellie and Addison each a section in this crate and labeled each of their folders by the season/year (that makes the most sense for the way I scrapbook). The last section held extra school work.
Well. Life is a bit busy right now and I have had zero time to scrapbook. The kids’ school stuff/memorabilia has been piling up. So a couple of weeks ago I dumped everything I’d been stashing in the middle of the living room floor. And then I organized it.
This is the new and improved folder system! Which totally looks just like my last folder system! But I tweaked it a bit. I made some new folders for the girls for all of their 2012 stuff and then I changed the last section (which used to hold school stuff) into a section for Kole. Now Addison is blue, Ellie is yellow, and my little dude is red. It’s SO hard for me to look at this and see how behind I’m getting on their albums, but at least everything is organized so that when (if!) I find some time to scrapbook it will be a cinch to catch up.
I’ve been asked many times how I decide what I should save and what to trash. Kids come home with SO much stuff. Initially I save anything that speaks to me and makes me smile. Stuff that shows their personality and is my favorite. I also save things like report cards, awards/certificates, etc.
Addison’s Spring 2012 folder – a Kindergarten homework packet, what she is grateful for, running club certificate, various handwriting and artwork that show her growth in Kindergarten.
Ellie’s Winter 2012 folder – PE certificate, baptism program, birthday party invitation, a princess she drew one afternoon at home, note from mom that was in her lunch box on Valentines Day, note from Addison that says “From Addison. love you Ellie.” I found that one on Ellie’s bed one afternoon and may have teared up just a bit before filing it away.
I said these are the things I “initially” save because less than half of this stuff will actually make it into their albums. This is the first cut. Then when I’m actually putting together their albums I just pick a few things I think they will cherish most to save. Usually the certificates get tossed and the special notes and artwork find a way into their books.
I was surprised when I started sorting through my stash that there was so much for Kole! I have done NOTHING for his scrapbook. Wait. That’s not true. I’ve done these layouts:
His first folder holds hospital stuff – ultra sounds, blessing certificate…little items like our hospital bracelets I keep in a small pocket holder that came in a baby kit I ordered from Becky Higgins years ago.
I even saved the page in my planner for delivery day. I was induced and knew the date I would give birth with all three of my kids. Not a bad set up for someone who loves to plan. :) The rest of Kole’s folders are organized by year and are full of things like birthday cards and doctor visit info.
So even though this doesn’t look much different, it feels A LOT different to me because I’m caught up! Caught up on filing things I may keep for their albums.
Now to answer this question:
“Hi Erin. I have a question for a future Q & A… what did you decide to do with your kids photos? Are you still doing a Project Life album for each of your children or did you decide to do photobooks in the end? I keep alternating between the two and am so indecisive!”
I’ve decided to stick to what I’ve been doing – individual Project Life albums for each of my three kids. I really debated just going to one family album – it would be SO much easier to stay on top of! But at the end of the day, I just really want each of my kids to have their own special albums that document a bit of their childhood. Created with love from their mom. It’s my gift to them. And I just can’t switch to digital photo books because I love including their school work/memorabilia. BUT. Since it is getting harder and harder to find time to scrapbook, my plan is also to SIMPLIFY in a big way. I’m really going to cut back on how many photos I put in each album and my goal is to fit at least two years in each binder. This will be tricky for the picture taking maniac that I am. :) But I don’t want them taking 20 albums away with them when they move out. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing.
Aside from organizing their school work, I’ve also been attempting to organize my photos and select which ones will make it into their albums. That’s the most time consuming part for me! I keep thinking I’ll have time to develop them and get to work scrapbooking, but honestly, every time I find a spare minute during my day I am on the phone dealing with house stuff. Once this house is built and I have an actual scrapbook room I will be a scrapbooking machine! I won’t come up for air! I’ll scrap all day and all night!