Spring is in the Air!

Spring is in the air.  We spent the morning outside today, colouring on the back deck, playing ball on the front lawn, digging in the garden and playing a game of chase in the backyard.  I love these days.  The breeze is cool, the sun is bright and the first crocuses have come up in my garden!  

Here are a few other signs of life coming up around the house.

  

There is nothing quite like the colour of green in the spring.  It is my favourite colour at anytime time of the year, however it is really during the springtime when I always fully appreciate it.  It's everywhere, breathing life into trees and shrubs and grass and giving me a renewed sense of how good life is.  

I can't wait to get into digging in the garden and watching my little patch of garden grow. Heaven!

What are we reading? What are YOU reading?

** Check out the giveaway at simplemom for a chance to win a pair of Crocs.  Ugly or not I've been a fan from early on...

Books.  I love them.  I surround myself with them.  A library or bookstore can send me into a tizzy.  I love the sound a book makes when it is opened up for the first time.  I love the smell of a new book.   The sight of an interesting front cover (yes I do judge a book by its cover!) can send me reeling in anticipation of a good rainy day (only to give me good reason to curl up on the couch and read, read, read).  

Books are everywhere in our house and we have been known to collapse haphazardly on the floor, a pile of books close by and spend hours reading book after book.  Right now we are very much into:

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

anything in the Olivia series by Ian Falconer

Stella, Fairy of the Forest by Marie Louise Gay

and Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me by Eric Carle

I too have had a chance to read a few good books of my own as I cannot fall asleep unless I've read a few pages - though some nights it really is only a few paragraphs before my eyes tell me NO MORE!  While I love this nightly ritual of mine, it pales in comparison to the cuddling up on the couch with my boy and our books!  These moments are truly magical for me.  I have always kept a mental list of books I want to read, and lately I find myself adding more and more picture book titles to that list, as well as all my favourite "chapter books" I read as a child in anticipation of many more hours curled up together.

What books are you enjoying right now?

On Keeping Organized

I would like to give a big cheer today for all the single moms out there.  Raising kids is an adventure, but raising kids on your own is a completely different life altogether!  I experienced a hubby-free three day extravaganza this week and though we survived (just barely) it gave me a fresh insight on what this child-rearing thing is all about.

I filled my days with activities:  playgroup, playdates, long walks, toddler yoga class and an invite for dinner at my lovely sisters (thank you!!).  All the activities and running around made the days fly by, and in no time Daddy was back home and life fell back into its normal routine. First, however, I fell into bed and only after a good night's sleep did we really all feel back to normal.  

These three days got me thinking about how I manage to stay organized (most of the time) and how our daily/weekly/monthly routines and schedules help us to keep things running around here.  Here are my top five organizational tips that, though not foolproof, certainly help me along.

1) Meal Planning

Every Sunday evening, or Monday mornings (when I haven't had the energy or desire the night before) I take out my binder and cookbooks and plan out my meals and grocery list for the week.  This time-saving tip has truly reduced those witching-hour stress levels, when everyone's hungry, there's "nothing" in the fridge/freezer/pantry to cook with and there's certainly no desire to start planning something.  Instead, I always know what we'll be eating for dinner, and because I always have all the ingredients I can easily switch my plan for one night to another night if, for some reason, time is running short or I just feel like cooking what was planned for Thursday on Tuesday instead.

I think the best part about this plan is that it has really inspired us to eat well.  We eat a variety of foods (I'm not whipping up a quick and easy pasta dish say two or three times per week) and I try to attempt a new recipe from one of my many well-loved cookbooks at least once a week. I shop once a week (most of the time) and I only buy what is necessary based on the plan.  This helps us keep on budget and our food waste is almost nil.  

I have even extended this meal plan (it started out as a "supper list") to lunches and now I rarely stand staring at the open fridge hungry yet uninspired by another cheese sandwich.  

2) 5-Minute Tidy

Every night, just before winding down for the evening, I take five minutes to do a general sweep of the house.  It is at this time that I do a final clearing away of clutter, picking up of toys, straightening out of shoes at the front door (you get the idea) for the day.  It allows me to go to bed knowing that things are in order and I can wake up in the morning feeling ready for the day ahead.

3) Labels, Baskets, Containers, Oh My!

I can't tell you how many baskets, small containers, trays and bowls that I have around the house to "catch" everything from my make-up to mail to out-of-season clothes to just about anything and everything.  Some are labeled for specific items, others are not but I know that unless I contain my things in something they tend to spread out, quickly and easily!!

I try to find pretty and unique containers and am always on the hunt for more.  Though I do like the look of an organized area with matching containers, I admit that I am not quite there yet and so have opted for a some-matching/some-mismatched organizational system.  Some days it is more organized chaos than others, but I'm working on it!

4) My Five-Things-a-Day Plan

On a day-to-day basis I find it hard to stay motivated and so I have devised a little plan that I use to try to accomplish five things a day.  In my case, the "five things a day rule" is generally applied to housework type things as I can easily find one hundred other things to do in which to fill my time.  Alas, the housework must get done and so I set a plan out in my head for the day to accomplish five things around the house.  On good days this might include washing the two bathrooms, 3 loads of laundry (washed, hung to dry, and/or folded), dusting the main floor, taking out the garbage and changing the sheets on the beds.  Slower days might find me making a mental list like: water the plants, sweep the floor, wash fingerprints off the mirrors, dust, brush the cat.  

Regardless of what is on the list I know that by the end of the day I have accomplished at least five things.  It is not a rule that is set in stone, and believe me there are plenty of days when I have barely accomplished one thing on my list (if the list was made at all!).  I have found though that it is on those days that my "five things a day rule" comes in the most handy because I know that I simply have to wake up the next morning and get back on track.  

5) No Pressure

 

Finally, in order to stay organized our philosophy at home is that there is NO PRESSURE.  If we're falling behind or too tired we know that we simply just need to look around and realize that life is pretty good.  This philosophy has reduced the nagging, reminding and "you said you were going to do it..." type of conversations.  We're not perfect, nor are we perfectly organized but we're working on it and getting better - most of the time!

** Check out Design Mom's blog this week where she answers your questions on all sorts of different topics.  

Sunny Valentine

I know that Valentine's Day was a few weeks ago...but this was so lovely and quick to do.  It's definitely something that can be adapted for any day of the year!

It's funny how things change after having a baby.  I was never a huge fan of Valentine's Day (save for the chocolate my mother - still to this day - gives me).  In fact when the first Valentines Day approached early in our dating relationship, I quickly set the tone by announcing my dislike of the over-hyped, over-commercialized "holiday" and insisted we let it go by unnoticed.  He was off the hook and he fell in love with me then and there, I'm sure!  I have, over the years in our relationship, softened my view of the day, and have been delightfully surprised to have received a few chocolate treats, as well as a few other beautiful surprises.

So it came to be that this year I found myself overly excited to start my Valentines Day tradition with my boy.  I scanned through my brain for some crafty idea, and found myself inspired (as usual) by Sharilyn over at lovelydesign.  Her ideas always turn out so beautifully. We have a few aunties and, of course, two sets of grandparents so I went to work preparing heart cut-outs from some colourful tissue paper.  I decided to go for a more traditional colour palette (pale pinks, purple and white for the grandparents and chose a more colourful 

collage for the young and hip aunties.  

Once the hearts were cut out, I cut a section of contact paper from the roll and using scotch tape on the four corners, I placed it on the patio doors (sticky side facing inside the room) at toddler height.  We then pasted away.  Later, during naptime, I placed another sheet of contact paper on top of the original one so the two sticky sides were stuck together.

Using an exacto knife I cut out the six rectangles that I needed (they were about 5cm x 10 cm), poked a needle-sized hole at the top and tied some white thread through it.  Voila, our Valentine sun-catchers were complete!

This is such an easy activity that we were able to complete it in just a few hours.  My little one loved it and kept asking for more!  They are so simple and so pretty - my only regret is that we didn't make one for ourselves.

Create and Play

I never thought I was a creative person.  I remember watching all the other more talented artists in my high school and silently coveting their beautiful drawings.  Mine never quite looked right.  I watched as my sister took up painting and produced beautiful pieces and again sighed, shook my head and thought about how uncreative I was.  I started work and day after day the drudgery of it all left me exhausted at night looking for a hobby to keep me happy.  I didn't find one.  And then I had a baby.  I took an extra year off work.  I started to explore.  To Play.  To Create.  I found things I love - beautiful things, things that make me happy, things that make my heart go pitter-patter.  Of course, that list of "things" starts, first and foremost, with my beautiful boy.  And it is with him and for him that I love to create and play.

Through all the chaotic frenzy of the daily routine, we always find some moments to connect and have fun.  I take a snapshot of many of those moments both literally with a camera and figuratively in my mind's eye every night before going to bed.  And so I thought I would begin to share those moments, those little snapshots of my days, creating, playing and enjoying life.