Kitchen Love.

So, I am a recovering hot mess.

Today I want to share with you some things that I've been able to accomplish but I want to make one thing perfectly clear.

This did not happen over night.

Not in a week.

Not in two.

It took me months to even get to this point.

And that's why I'm posting now. I didn't want to post about something that has worked for 2 days. I know myself all too well to think that mastering something for 2 days is enough to justify telling you all about it and then have to retract my words of wisdom and eat them with a side of ranch.

Anjolee and I often begin a conversation talking about what time are we supposed to be at so and so's baby shower and then inevitably end up discussing:

What is wrong with us? Why don't we have it all together? Why are we HOT MESSES?

At first we consoled each other exchanging stories about how Jane Doe is so much worse than us. Or how complete chaos is just the way it is when you have young children. Or how our state of mental health will get better someday...

That was not good enough for us. We have each sort of come to terms with our level of hot-mess-ness but at the same time, reigned it in and taken it head on.

I began with the kitchen. It truly is grand central station for our family. I showed you the way I organized the kids HERE and now I'm going to tell you the rest of the story and some face-lifting I did with the system all together.

First, I have to give credit once again to THIS article I mentioned before from zenhabits.com. I think I mis-lead you into thinking it was only for depressed people. It's not. It's for those of you who want to get out of a rut, get excited and DO SOMETHING about those things your not so motivated to do but that are nagging at you day and night, night and day.

Groceries. Meals. Food. It's something we have to have ALL day. Ever thought about why God made our bodies NEED food? Sometimes I think it's inconvenient to eat. To cook. To grocery shop. Just give me a feeding tube and I'll hook it up on the way to church. Geez.

But, that's not exactly the perfect plan God had in mind. Why bother with all of it without a plan? Have you ever found yourself staring into your fridge just one day after a trip to the grocery store without even one meal to be made of all of it? Possibly b/c you didn't have a list or a meal plan? Yeah and then you go out to eat or order pizza. Or eat fruit snacks and pretzels for dinner.

I confess. We've done it on more than one occasion. On lots of occasions, actually. I decided I was tired of throwing my money away and disappointing my husband.

Back to the drawing board.


I have decided to make it simple. I pick 8 meals-maindish, sides, and all- (with each having the left over potential) and write them down on an index card. I base my list from those meals and then post them on the fridge. I take them down as I make them and if it's a keeper I store it in my index card holder. If it's a stinker, it goes in the trash. Eventually I will have a ton to chose from. I just go to my box and pick the ones I want for that week. I will expand on this system later but for now thats it and we love it. No more letting food rot b/c I forgot I even bought it. I keep a magnetized notepad on the side of the fridge to keep up with basic items that need to be bought (baking soda, toilet paper..etc). *The yellow paper is Mia's cafeteria menu*

I've never been a calendar girl. Literally and metaphorically speaking. Ha. But now, I am. I've had this calendar for years and never used it the right way. I got those silver mesh magnetic pen holders from the container store for $3.99. I also have magnetic green hooks for keys and another mesh bin for my sunglasses which were perched on my head at the time of the picture. I am very selective as to what goes up on this side of the fridge b/c it faces the living room. So, not much is allowed up there. Invitations are allowed up there to refer to for details. Jules the rat keeps putting her stuff there but since it was her bible story and church artwork I left it.

On to Grand Central Station. I re-arranged a bit and spray painted the tired looking wicker black. The cheap, 99 cent cans from Wal-Mart is what I used. That took me a while. It took several coats and with all the rain we've been getting it was a challenge. My old self would have wanted to finish the project in two hours and accomplished it at all cost. My new self accepted that it wasn't going to happen that way and I sprayed the layers on when I had time, and that did not involve ignoring my kids or my responsibilites to get it done. AND I emailed Lexi my labels. She printed them and laminated them for me which was a huge favor. Thanks Lexi! The finished project makes me smile:

On the top: Photo boxes. We each have our own to put our personal cards and special things. Mostly this is birthday and mother's/father's day cards. Simple as that.

Top Row L to R: Gratitude box (stationary, stamps, envelopes) to make good use of their sweet artwork and brighten someone else's day, *binders, school paper bins

Second Row L to R: Play Doh, Math games and sight words ready and waiting, backpacks/lunchkits

Third Row: Perler Beads (details below), Aquadoodle, Easy Reader Books, Library Books

Bottom Row: Art caddy (containing markers, glue sticks, scissors, crayons, and colored twisty pencils for everyday use), Notepads/Coloring books, Shoe Bins

Because all of this stuff is organized and not piled 10 feet high on my kitchen table this is what we can do:


We made spiders from styrofoam balls cut in half, painted black, pipe cleaners for legs, and various thing for eyes b/c I was not about to go back to the store for the googly eyes that I forgot to get.
Here is Mia posing in front of our spiders creeping around on the spider web on our fireplace....a Swinney tradition. Notice the much more subtle and quite charming shimmer green on her face? That's eye shadow I used for her school costume parade. But alas, she HAD to have the real deal for Trick or Treating and we all know how that turned out. P.S. I love the color of her hair, especialy when she wears black.



My turkeys made turkeys! I didn't have a package of good old fashioned construction paper so we raided my craft paper and came with these fancy gals. O.k., so Jules was not interested in tracing the feathers, cutting out the feathers, or anything really except telling me what to do and how to do it. She stapled the feathers together and glued the eyes on, though. That's just how Jules rolls. Mia's is the one with eyelashes...her special touch.

Here they are perched up on my kitchen window sill.

Here is the beginnings of what will be Christmas ornaments for each of their classmates. They LOVE Perler beads. You place them on a peg board template and iron them together. We added superfine glitter to some (and if you are my facebook friend you know exactly what that lead to..iron...superfine glitter...angry bedazzled husband). This is an age 4+ project. Jules made the yellow pink and black star by herself. Mia created the pink heart with the 3 black stripes and the other two stars. I did the rainbow heart and loved every minute of it. I am a crafter at heart so the girls don't have to ask me twice to help.

We will add little jingle bells, ribbon, and a tag for the finished projects.

We've just been working on them after school b/c they take quite a bit of time to do. It's been one of the things we replaced tv with and one way we've "slowed" down our lives. A bucket of beads that includes 3 templates is under $10 and will make about 36 ornaments. You can get a two pack of their special green tweezers (highly recommended) for $1.99 or less. I leave them in their very own cubby so that we can get to them easily. Available at all craft stores, Wal-Mart, and Target (i think).

Our Christmas gifts made with love this year will cost about 40 cents each including the ribbon, jingle bells and glitter.

And to get sappy: Jules was napping on the couch so Mia and I started to work on her ornaments. Mia said Mom, lets not wake Jules up...

Why, Mia? You don't want her to have fun?

No, I just really need this time with you. I like this. Just me and you.

In a world that's full of everything you can possibly imagine YOU and TIME is what your kids need more than anything.

I know cramming all this info into one post is not the best method but I'm behind and I've got to get caught up somehow.

I hope you feel inspired. Please know that this is the ONLY thing I have together right now. My laundry system is SO tanking. My kids room is in shambles. Our bedroom is ugly and there's clothes all over the floor. But, I started somewhere and that's what counts.

*I refered to our binders earlier. I've already explained the girls' binders HERE. I am going to make a binder like THIS one that Anjolee blogged about for our mail/bill system. I have the binder but it's empty! Soon to be calm controlled mail management!!