Saturday's Snapshot

I had to share this. Last Saturday my new niece was baptized. I was trying to keep my youngest quiet so I could actually participate, and my Mom handed her (locked) cell phone. My purpose for the photo was to capture her in her heirloom "innocence". Oh, well!

Great Way to Get Rid of Clutter!

A few days ago, I posted about "preparing for preparation". I am on a mission to rid our home of clutter and excess "stuff" before the Advent season. This weekend I decluttered our bonus room (which will hopefully and eventually become our schoolroom), and then my son and I cleaned out his closet.

The one thing that usually holds me back from decluttering is, "What do I do with all these toys, clothes, tupperware?" In my case they tend to go into a box and get dumped into my basement. This is not decluttering, it's moving stuff around! I never get around to packing it all up and driving it to a donation drop-off. Knowing that it's my tendancy, I have put off decluttering, because I don't want to just move stuff around anymore.

I have found a WONDERFUL way of getting rid of the stuff! It's called Freecycle! Just visit the website, enter your city and state, and you're sent to a yahoo group that helps you easily get rid of ANYTHING. Today I filled a huge box with old toys, and filled a 55 gallon trash bag with 70 stuffed animals. At 5pm I posted them on my local freecycle group and by 7:15pm the lucky new owner picked it all up and drove away with it. All I had to do was decide who I wanted to give the stuff to! They come get everything, and I'm free of a whole room of clutter within a couple of hours.

So now my goal is to see how much stuff I can give away before November 15th!

It's the Simple Things!

I love simple little ideas. This one has been around, but I first saw it at Sycamore Stirrings so she gets the credit! She calls it "Muffin Tin Mondays", but it works any day of the week! Simply grab a muffin tin and fill it with different foods. This has been great for my toddler. Small children tend to compartmentalize everything, and she eats so much better when I present her meals this way. It works just as well for my 5 and 8 year-olds, and we do it often for dinner on soccer nights when we don't have much time (and we're trying to avoid fast food!).

In case your wondering what's in her muffin tin meal, she had turkey, mozzarella cheese, small R*tz crackers, peas, grapes and G*ldfish.