Bet You Thought This Would be More Mom Talk

I hate to disappoint, but this is not another Mom Talk post.  I've got my mind on something else and just couldn't get my thoughts together enough to write a full post!  What is my mind racing about you ask?? Read on!!

I've got some big plans for August.  Huge, and I want you to join me.  Let's do this together!! I suppose you'll want to know what you're committing to first, huh?  The Kitchen... A huge overhaul of the kitchen.  This will not be a total kitchen remodel. It is, a total reorganization and spruce up.

This overhaul has been on the radar for a while.  I've given myself an entire month for this project because of my 3 little guys, and the sheer size of my kitchen.  I don't like projects to interfere too much with my daily duties, so this project will be broken up into small easy to manage tasks.

Of course I've already gone and done my research (please read, drooled over super organized Pinterest kitchens). I've also done some rough sketches and notes outlining where I want things to go and how I want various areas to function.

My goals

Re-caulk the back splash and sink 
Purge (it's always a good idea to get rid of stuff)
Clean and shine cabinets (inside and out)
Add liners to drawers.
Add dividers and drawer organizers.
Rearrange drawers and cabinets to make them more functional.
Spruce up my Command Center
Add some organizational items to the fridge and pantry
Lastly, I want to add a bit more decorative items in the kitchen.

My Timeline

August 1 - 3, I'll be tackling the caulking.  I've been putting it off long enough and it needs to get done ASAP!!

August 4 - 17, I'll be tackling the cabinets and drawers in the main part of my kitchen.

August 18 - 24 will be my Command Center Spruce up.

August 25 - 31, I will finish things up in this kitchen overhaul with my fridge and pantry.

So who's with me? Anyone? Need to organize a cabinet? Need to clean out some shelves? How about getting rid of some things you haven't used in a while.  Even if you only have time to do one junk drawer... do it!! We can do this together!! No need to feel over whelmed, we'll tackle a little each day... We've got the whole month!!

Friday Five: Summer Squash

Hey!! It's Friday, and the Friday Five is back.  This weeks Friday Five is all about summer squash.  Yes, those sunny, gloriously yellow veggies that are kin to zucchini.

Months ago, as part of a lesson for Earth Day, we reused some old beach buckets as planters.  It was a simple project.  Drill holes in the buckets, fill with gravel first (for better drainage), then soil, and add some store bought seeds.  This project, which was really just supposed to get Ace's interest in reusing something old.  I thought maybe he'd get a little confidence boost by growing something himself.  It has become so much more than that.   He is so proud of himself, now that we are eating food that he actually grew.  Our little bucket plant has produced some awesome produce.. lol!! We've got squash coming out of our you know whats!!  So now what, what do we do with all this squash?  Kind of reminds me of a story I used to read my class in October... Too Many Pumpkins.  Anyway, at first I was just cutting our yellow squash and adding it to out tomato sauce... But that got old.  So I've done a bit of research and tried a few things and I have come up with Five Things To Do With Summer Squash.

1.  Add It To Tomato Sauce.  As I said before, when I first began harvesting our squash (kind of giggling that I'm harvesting anything), I just chopped it up and added it to our tomato sauce.  More veggies never hurt anyone.  My favorite has been to make a really chunky veggie and turkey tomato sauce,   and top some cheesy pasta with it.  Yes, just pasta with melted sharp cheddar cheese.  Comfort to the max!!

2. Squash, Onions, and Brown Sugar.  This was delish!!  I added a bit of fresh nutmeg as well to give it more of a nutty flavor.  It was everything you want in a veggie dish: buttery, sweet, and gooey.  At least that’s how I like my veggies.  Even Ace braved eating it.  He claimed to have liked it, although he didn’t ask for seconds. 

3. Baby Food.  For me this was obvious,  since I make a lot of homemade baby food.  Why should we (us teeth having folks) enjoy all the squashy deliciousness?  For little CJ I made a few different baby food concoctions.  Yes, I'm like a mad scientist with the baby food maker.  His favorite had to be the sautéed squash with pear. Now, there is a fine line that differentiates his yells that say, "Give me more, faster woman!!” and his yells that say "put another spoon full of that slop in my mouth and your laundry will pay!”  But, I am very confident he loved it.  I used about a cup of the Sautéed Squash recipe and 1 peeled and steamed pear.  Blended and voila... Happy baby.

This was actually squash, carrot, and tomoto puree

4.  Yellow Zucchini Banana Walnut Muffins.  I actually made these this morning and had the absolute pleasure of drinking a cup of tea and nibbling, okay... devouring these warm cinnamonny, dare I say, Healthy muffins.  I will admit I tweaked this recipe a bit.  In the past I have attempted to sneak super healthy muffins on a plate for the guys in this house and I ended up eating a dozen no butter, no sugar muffins by myself.  So I added 2 tablespoons of melted butter, and used 1 cup of brown sugar instead of the 1/2 cup Truvia, 1/2 cup brown sugar.  I also used pecans instead of walnuts.  They turned out incredible.  I think I will do a separate post and give them their own spotlight.  They are that good.

5.  Squash Stamps.  I know you were ready to read one last foodie thing right?  Nope.  This is a good ol' art project for the kiddos.  This too will have it's own post.  It's just so fun, and the boys loved doing it... who am I kidding, they love anything with paint.  Quick overview: Slice the squash into about 2 to 3 inch pieces.  Place each piece on a separate plate with different colored paint and let the kiddos go to town stamping some really funky circles.

Hope you've enjoyed!!  Please feel free to share any other things to do with Summer Squash!  I'll leave you with this beauty, a Summer Squash Flower of course.

Mom Talk: The Myth of the Super Mom

Hello all!! Welcome to my first Mom Talk Monday.  Mom talk will be exactly what it sounds like, posts about things moms talk about.  My hope is to give my take or opinion on various concerns that moms have.  I find that amongst all my mommy friends and family the conversation is typically the same.  We all have the same basic needs, concerns, and joys.

For my first installment I want to tackle the myth of the Super Mom.  We've all heard of her.   She always looks fantastic. Her home is elegantly decorated and spotless.  She successfully completes all her pins from Pinterest (apparently, you're supposed to use it as inspiration to actually do projects... not just dream about them... whatever!!).  Her kids rooms' are always perfectly cleaned and organized. And speaking of kids, they are always well behaved and neatly dressed (there is never dried Mac n cheese on their chins).  They are potty trained before 2, and eat what they are given.  Which, of course is only fresh fruit or veggies (that she grew in her own garden) with organic meats.  Oh, and she and her husband have the perfect marriage.   I could continue, but I'm sure I don't need to.  A lot of us moms have this idea of what we should be then feel guilty for not living up to this fantasy.  Or we strive to do EVERYTHING to become her and we are resentful... at least I was.

Clearly I'm a Super Mom, Check Out my tumbler!!

The truth, that I believe we all discover in our own time is that she doesn't exist, she's a myth.  a complete fabrication of our minds.  Sure, there are times when my house is spotless, and my kids are neat and tidy.  However, usually my home looks lived in and if you popped in unexpectedly you might find the boys and I in our pj's well past 11am.  Of course I offer my children various healthy meals and snacks, but there are days when I can't toast a pop tart fast enough, and yes I have the number to Dominos stored in my cell phone.  The love my husband and I share is immense... one for the story books, and even so, there are times when we get on each others last nerve!

A very good friend of mine, said to me "Wow, you're such a Super Mom".  While I gladly accept any compliment I get, I was really thinking, You're the Super Mom, Ms. Full time working mother of twin girls... two-year-old twin girls!  Of course I told her so.  We all do our best in whatever situation we have.  Last summer I had lots of mom guilt (thats a whole other topic) because I didn't do anything with my boys.  I was pregnant and hot and quite frankly I just didn't feel like it. We sat in our air conditioned home, they watched more TV than I care to admit, we did hardly any tot-school,  and that's okay.  It's okay if there is dust on the base boards, or a sticky spot on the kitchen floor.  Sometimes the kids will be off the hook, and sometimes their rooms' will appear to have had some type of toy grenade explode in it.

It's time for us to give ourselves a break.  Be the best mom we can be with out completely loosing our  shit minds.  Stop assuming the grass is always greener or uh, cleaner?  Enjoy and be proud of your own life, home..whatever, because in our own respect we all have a little super mom in us.

The Hand Me Down Situation

Hello friends!! So I finally did it... I found a way to organize the kiddos Hand me down clothes.  Wanna see how?... read on!!

Seriously with three boys the clothes were out of control.  When Ace was born we got loads of stuff... LOADS!! Lol, two showers and everyone's coworkers' kids' clothes hand me downs (did you get all that?).  Now, I am not one to turn things down (at least I wasn't... More on that later), so I had to find a place for all the clothes. One cute little baby boy... No problem!! His baby clothes load was stored neatly in the closet separated by homemade size dividers.  Clothes that my baby boy grew out of we're just tossed in an old diaper box.  Problem... He just kept growing out of them!! Duh!! The boxes began to get overwhelming!  Enter... Bear, right on time.  All Ace's clothes went into Bear's drawers and all was well again.  Until the seasons changed, and of course Bear grew out of his clothes.  Needless to say everything just got out of control again.  Now, I did take control back and pack a few diaper boxes for donation, and I had some make shift system of transferring clothing from one room to the next, but... It. Was. Not. Working!! Then I got preggers again and really lost control.  On top of all that, with clothes in boxes I had no idea what kind of inventory I had.  Okay, obviously I had some idea but, to really know what I needed for the next season meant emptying boxes which was a pretty daunting process.  After unpacking all the baby clothes, and receiving a new haul for Ace from my cuz (we like to keep it in the family!!), things got really out of hand!  I knew I needed to do something.  I needed a system that would work for me and my needs.  So this is what I did:

My Process

Of course I had helpers getting into EVERYTHING, which of course adds to the mess!!

First, I go crazy on Pinterest and Google Images.  There is tons of inspiration out there and it really
gets my creative juices flowing.

Next, I like to think about what I've seen and imagine it in my own home.  I saw some awesome stuff, one was a completely organized shelving system, sitting pretty in matching labeled bins.  I mean, it was like a personal second hand store in the basement!  Awesome organizing, but it wouldn't work for me because I hate running to the basement.  Yes, I'm lazy like that.

Then, I really hunker down and decide what I want my finished project to look like and how I want it to function.  I make a plan as part of this step and make a list of things I need as well as a timeline.

Finally, I start.  After all the steps.. I'm seriously excited.  It's like Christmas, because I know soon I will have this awesomely organized gift of a space.

So, yeah... I started with this.  These were only clothes that were is CJ's room.  In-San-Ni-Tee!  Keep in mind, things always get messier before they get better (at least in my case).

I ended with this.

 Lol... are you as excited as I am?  The top left are things going to goodwill.  The top right is organized and going to my another one of my cousins, expecting her first boy!! The clear bin is going in our basement for "just in case".  The blue bin will stay in CJ's closet for easy access.  I repeated this project in each of the boys' rooms over the course of about a week.  So they each have their own bin.

I separated clothing by season and  size, summer/spring and winter/fall and used a post-it to write what is specifically in each package (which are jumbo sized Ziplock Bags).  Now when it's time to shop for a new season I can lift a package and see what I have without taking everything out.  Laaaaaaaaaaaa!! That was my super sing song voice by the way.

Some of you may be thinking... How did you fit all those clothes in that one bin?  Answer: I didn't!! I had to pare down... A lot.  Part of my goal was to make sure I only kept what could fit in these bins.  The clothes that didn't make the cut went to in a donation box. When all was said and done I had bought 3 blue bins with lids from Walmart and 1 package of jumbo Ziplock Bags.

I am truly excited about this new system and I really think its going to work for us.
My next task (at some point) will be finding a way of wrangling all the little shoes, and big shoes for that matter.

So, how have you handled your hand me down situation? Any ideas for shoes?


Thanks for reading,

Leiah

Iheart Organizing

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself

Allow me to re-introduce myself, my name is... well, I guess I'm channelling a little Jay-Z there.  Okay seriously, My name is Leiah.  I am the mother of 3 wonderful little boys and married to my best friend.  My hubby, Mr. Roseyglasses (trust me he hates that name) is my great love.  I knew it from the start (okay the middle) of our first date, but that is another story for another time.  My oldest son, Ace (formerly Munchkin) is 4, going on 40.  He's such an insightful, inquisitive little man.  My number two is Bear.  I've decided to drop the Little since he's just getting so big.  Bear will be 3 in September, seems like just yesterday I was writing my first post while he slept quietly in his crib... Or was he on my lap?  CJ is my newest arrival, and my third little man.  He's 7 months old now and partially the reason this blog has been so inactive.  He is my sweet baby and I am currently experiencing the bitter sweetness of watching my tiny wrinkled infant disappear and transform in to a fat legged crawler on his way to toddler hood.

This blog is my open diary.  I write about all kinds of things, but I suppose you can check out my About Me page to read about all that.  Moving forward, I'd love for you to join me as I experience (and share) my life as a stay at home mom.  My ups and downs, my progress and procrastination.  My mini obsessions (like Pinterest... I know I'm not the only one), and my continued learning.

Welcome Back to Rosey Glasses.

Leiah

P.S.  Like our new look?  Head on over to Latoya Monique Designs.  She is Awesome!!

Organized Diaper Bag

I find the difference between my packing the diaper bag as a first time mother, and now as a third timer, hysterical.  I used to take everything but the kitchen sink.  I was so worried that I'd need something while we were out and it would essentially make our lives miserable for that (very small) period of time.
I've narrowed down what I typically used to bring to just the essentials. Here's my list of what I try to have in my diaper bag at all times.

Baby Needs:
Diapers (about 1 per hour you"ll be out) Although I usually just bring three.
Mini Wipes Case of course
Diaper Cream
A Changing Pad
A burp cloth
A large receiving blanket that usually doubles as a burp cloth, or a cover for feeding
An extra outfit - Sleep & Play, undershirt ( be sure to change it out as baby grows or seasons change
Extra Bib
A hat and baby mittens

Mommy Needs:
Wallet and car key
Comb
Lip gloss
Sometimes an eyeliner
The baby record books for the doctor
Receipt and Coupon holder
Breast Pads
Antibacterial wipes and gel

The Extras:
Boogie Wipes (mostly for Munchkin and Bear)
A baggie filled with mini packets of cleaner, and stain remover wipes

This is everything on the list, plus Munchkin and CJ.

 I know the list seems pretty long, but it all fits neatly in my diaper bag.  When I was searching for a diaper bag while pregnant with the Munchkin, I had one thing on my mind.  CUTE!! I wanted it to be baby cute, so I chose one that was brown and turquoise with a cute little teddy bear. Blah Blah Blah.  It had only one large pocket which basically meant it had zero organization.  Everything was just in there.

I chose this diaper bag for its function and basic style.

Here it is empty, just waiting to be filled with all its goodies.

Here's How I organize my bag.

First, my stuff.  I usually don't take my own separate bag if were going out for a short trip.  This all fits neatly in the zippered pocket in the front.

 Next I fill the two snap pockets in the front of the bag.  One gets the goodies like Boogie wipes (which smell delightful if I may add).  In the other, I place the hat and mittens.

                           

Onto the inside.  In the main space I add the burp cloth and Receiving blanket.  I have a snuggle thing (can't think of the real name) over the baby's car seat, which eliminates the need for a heavy winter blanket.

The two empty back pockets get diaper cream, lotion, and diapers.  I usually bring between 2-4 diapers, since he gets changed right before we leave to go anywhere.

 There is another pocket with elastic in the front (see, lots of pockets = awesome organizing), this is where I keep the extra outfit and bib.

The back open pocket gets the pad and wipes.

There are two side pockets on the outside of this bag.  One is used for antibacterial wipes. I like it here, because it gives me easy access.  My antibacterial gel is a mini one that usually clips onto one of the straps.  The other pocket is currently not being used, but at some point a water bottle or sippy cup will go in there.  I also have a little mini pacifier holder, though It's kind of pointless since CJ doesn't care much for them.

Sometimes depending on where we are going I may bring a toy or throw some extra snacks for the big boys.

All packed up and ready to go!

Quiet Over Here

Things have been mighty quiet here at Rosey Glasses.  I'm imagining virtual tumble weeds.  All for great reason though.  I am enjoying my guys (the big and the littles).  I've been keeping home, playing with race cars and Legos, EBF, and celebrating my wedding anniversary.  Oh, and patiently waiting for Spring.  I've got some big ideas cooking for when the weather gets warmer and I can bring all three outside.

Thanks for stopping by!