We have too many toys in our house... that is the opening line to way to many conversations between my husband and I. I think because we both grew up in larger families and felt like we did with out in some areas, we over compensate with our own children. Granted we have four of them and money is always tight. But some how the toy collection just keeps growing and growing and growing! We have a playroom. A room that is a decent size and is completely dedicated to the housing of said toys. That room looks like a tornado blew through on any given day. I counted the toy boxes (rubbermaid storage containers of the medium to large variety) there are 12 of them! Holy cow 12 toy boxes!! Each of my four kids have two boxes of toys, one dress up box, 2 baby doll boxes and 1 play kitchen box! As you can see there is a good reason for a lot of conversations revolving around the amount of toys our kids have. So yesterday, feeling quiet ready to start my spring cleaning, I decided to venture into the danger zone (playroom) and started to purge. I tried really hard not to think about where the toy came from or anything sentimental. I simply looked at how much does it get played with and more importantly how tired am I of picking up said toy. Once the determination was made with the above criteria the toy was put in either the give away pile or back into the toy box to live another day. My bestest friend in whole world gave me some great advice about purging toys. She said that I should set aside one box of sentimental toys. Maybe some that really have a meaning or that all my kids got to play with. At the time I thoughtno way I am getting rid of it all. But then when I actually started the process, I had to admit to myself somethings needed to be saved. Like the it's a boy beanie baby we got when #1Son was born, the tummy time toy that all my kids have just adored, the Elmo (sack race) toy the #1Son and BB both played with so much, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet nite time toy that sings a lullaby, etc... I set aside a toy box just for keep sakes. After 3 hours I had narrowed the excess down to...

drum roll please****

Each child has one toy box!

I gave away (actually dropped off to the thrift store) 2 45 gallon contractor grade black trash bags full of toys!!!!

We have one keep sake box that will go in the attic.


And I can finally walk through the playroom. I still have a little bit of organizing to do and I may even give away some more things. But I am so proud that I was able to purge as much as I did. It felt so liberating. It was kind of weird cause I felt like that was a lot of money gone out the window. But at the same time I felt like maybe some other children would be blessed by getting some nice toys from the thrift store. So it was definatley a win win situation.

Now I am going to tackle all the clothes that are piling up around here.

Looks like this year it won't be deep cleaning and window washing its going to be purging as a theme for my spring clean.

I am determined to get organized no matter what.

Now that I am feeling better and things are relatively back in order around here...
I am the most terrible blogger. I think everyday about the things I want to blog but then life gets in the way. I guess with 4 under 6 I can not expect a lot of down time. Since we moved into our new house I have been waiting for our routine to kick in. It has been 4 weeks now. I have the bedtime thing down again. One of the best blessings about this house is that my kids are not all sharing one bedroom anymore and so bed time now takes 30-45 minutes instead of 3-4 hours. I thought when we were in our apartment that I might just lose my mind over bedtime. It was crazy I would put them all to bed around 8:30pm and the last one would fall asleep around 11:30pm. Of course I would always think that they would sleep in more but NO! The first one would wake up and the rest would follow way too quickly! SO now that the girls have a room and the boys have a room, bedtime is awesome! So the routine is re-established. Bath time is working better too. As well as meal times (for the most part). Nap times are glorious! If only I could get BB and Princess to sleep at exactly the same times I could get a full two hours of peace. OK so routines are getting back in order. So, why then is there not enough hours in the day? Did someone shorten them to 20 hour days and not tell me? Seriously, I am finding it crazy to fit everything in.
My business is on the back burner (for a little while). I just can't seem to fit in the work I need to dedicate to it. I actually feel like a slacker. But then when I have days like yesterday, where I got up and started cleaning the house and did not stop until 9pm and still had more to do, I tell my self Superwoman could not do any better. How do other women do it? I look at their houses, so spotless and orderly. I am ashamed that mine looks like a national disaster area all the time. I wonder how does one get to all the chores everyday? I mean I know I am a natural born procrastinator. Probably a little lazy, scatter brained and naturally blond. But seriously! How is it done?

OK so that is my mood today. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned yesterday. Because when Mommy gets sick the house goes to pieces and it takes twice as many days to set it straight. What do they do when I am in bed? At least no one was neglected or hurt. Daddy says that it is because only the Mommy actually knows how to do EVERYTHING...hmmm sounds good to him I think.

Right before I got sick our life got turned a little topsy turvy (again). DH's 19 year old cousin (I'll call her Silly girl) came to stay here. How this exactly happened is a blur to me. She came up from Louisiana with her Mom and Sister to see Pop. You know when the hospital mistakenly told he was going to die. BTW He is recovering nicely from a surgery and on the road to recovery. Their visit was scheduled to last only a few days. Silly girl came to visit us and DH's other cousin (we'll call her My wifey). So Silly girl decided she wanted a change of pace. Life is not so good for her in LA. She has had it really hard in her short life. Lots and lots and lots of dysfunction. I should have known DH could not resist helping someone. He has such a big heart. I think half the time we have someone living with us who is trying "to start a new life". So it is with Silly girl. We have strict guidelines for. And being a teenager she is totally finding her boundaries. But on the whole I can not complain. She lives here and right now till she gets a job, I have a live in babysitter. That is nice for sure. We are hoping she can find a direction for her life so that things will get better. If nothing else we want to expose her to a different kind of family life. Maybe she will be able to see what a functional family looks like. I am hoping and praying that things work out for the best.

I have to go and start my list of to do things...you know like set up appointment for #1Son to register for school, make BB a Dr appt, make Princess a Dr appt, clean up the house, file paper work, hmmm I know there is more but right now all I can think is pour another cup of coffee...yeah that is what I will do.

Till next time...

On Friday I turned yet another year older. I had all these great plans for my birthday. DH was going to take me out, yes just me and him, you know a REAL date! We planned on dinner, a movie and possibly a little birthday shopping. Yea!! I mean we NEVER get to go out with no children. I woke up Friday to my DH's darling cousin standing beside my bed with the most beautiful boquet of flowers (yellow and red mini roses...my favorite) and a card. I was so surprised!! And felt so special! DH told me to get dressed he was taking me to lunch. Another surprise since our plans were for Saturday! So I got ready left our kids with our new live in babysitter (more on that one later) and left for lunch and a little shopping. There was this nagging feeling of illness but I just kep thinking it was because I skipped breakfast. Lunch was great. We went to our favorite little dive. They have great food at really affordable prices and the atmosphere is great. By the time we finished lunch and walked across the parking lot to a little boutique I wanted to check out I was not feeling well at all. After glancing around the boutique I decided we needed to go home. Things were going south fast! I started to fall asleep in the car. That never happens. Of course I was totally racking my brain trying to think of any explaination that would make me not sick! I mean come on itis my birthday! I don't want to be sick on my birthday. We got home and I totally changed into sweats made sure the babies were fed and down for a nap and crawled into my pillowy soft bed. DH had not even gotten ready for work or anything. NOrmally I see him off and then decided whether a nap is in order or not. I fell asleep, you know the kind of coma llike sleep that makes you feel like you have not slept in a week straight? I did not wake up until 5pm! That is five striaght hours of completely uninterupted sleep! How that happened I am not even sure. As soon as I opened my eyes I knew how sick I was! My whole entire body hurt. And I was shivering cold despite the fact that I was wearing sweat pants, t-shirt and thick socks, not to mention the quilts on the bed. Can anyone say fever?!?! Thank God, Silly Girl, (Daddy's cousin) was here to help. I was completely out of it for 24 hours and then even today I am still feeling weak and queazy. I have no idea what this Death bug was but it was aweful. DH now has it and my kids are showing a few symptoms! I rang in my 32nd year in style! Hopefully this is no an omen of how the rest of the year will go?!?!