Wordless Wednesday: Ladykiller

This is Samuel. We call him Samwich sometimes because that's what his siblings wanted him to be called when he was in my belly. Funny how we ended up calling him Sam when he was born. Here is his birth story, the little poop. He was born with poop in his lungs and was swept away from me pretty fast. He could have died. He has been a daredevil ever since and gives me mini heart attacks daily. I think I have my hands full with him. Then you toss his sister into the mix (Eva) and you have a real mess-making, trouble-making tornado. So much for WORDLESS Wednesday! I don't think I could ever BE wordless!

Tackle-It Tuesday: Swimming Stuff

Every Tuesday, I tackle a different project around my home that's been bugging all of us!

YIKES! This has gotten out of hand. This is the cardboard copy paper box that we use to cram all things swimming into. It lives at the bottom of our linen closet, which is in the main bathroom. Over the years we have acquired many swimsuits and other items. It's time to clean it out. Sure, we need to keep some extras on hand for growing boys and girls, but the trunks that are too small for Sam need to go. And the suits too small for Eva need to go. I mean, if we do have one more kid, people will give us this stuff as hand-me-downs or else we can probably afford the $7 to get a new suit at Target, you know? I have to learn to let things go!

Anyway, this situation gets as out of control as our Winter Situation (boots, hats, scarves, gloves, etc.), which we will tackle on another Tuesday!

Here is the finished product!

Do you like how it's by the toilet brush and plunger? I have to be breaking some sanitary laws or something. I think a nice Target basket it in order for the swimsuits!

Here's the giveaway bag:

These were hard to give away. Michael and Joel had twin trunks, so I only saved one pair for Sam.

Also hard to give away because I got these for tiny Sam.

Also hard to give away. A teeny little hippie bikini my girls wore.

Okay, are ya'll happy now? I'm cleaning this mess up! I know my husband will be thrilled. Let's hope not TOO thrilled or you'll be seeing the I'M PREGNANT post in a few weeks ... haha!

UPDATE: October 10, 2024 and we moved to the country-ish in 2017 to a HOUSE WITH A SWIMMING POOL! So now we have swimming TUBS of floaties, towels, much bigger swimsuits (they just stay in their rooms in their drawers now), etc. I used to keep a bunch of extra swimsuits and swim trunks around for those who would come over but forgot their swim things. I don't do that anymore because I just don't have the room, even in our much-bigger home!

Freaking Friday: Fifteen Minutes of Work, Then Play!

Thanks to my friend with the 5 kids (you hafta visit her blog now since I installed her Sitemeter so she can see that she's getting traffic from me), I have another blog post for you on Freaking Friday. I was doing her dishes and saying I felt guilty for sitting around her kitchen table entering giveaways online right before doing the dishes. She asked why did I feel guilty? She said work for 15 minutes (dishes), play/break for 15 minutes.

You could also do 5 minutes at a time.

My thing is I get overwhelmed by bigger tasks like helping a kid tackle their bedroom. But if we set a timer for 15 minutes and then know we'll go get some water and a snack after the timer goes off, it makes life a little easier. Then 5 or 15 minutes later you get back to the task til it's done.

My kids always gripe about cleaning up spaces, especially since most of the damage is done by the Littles (2-year-old Sam and 4-year-old Eva). I set the timer for 5 minutes and tell them to do as much as they can in those 5 minutes then they are done. I'll pick up the rest since they are my spawn lovely precious children.

PLEASIE ENTER MY GIVEAWAY of the Copy Kids DVD to get your kids to eat more fruits and veggies AND the Littlest Pet Shop 8-pack for your next birthday party! It's over on the 31st and I need lots of entries. I'll probably be not seeing you this weekend because my husband is coming home on Friday and we'll be busy all weekend, so just keep coming back and reading the vintage (4 years old) posts from back when I ONLY had 4 kids :-)

Thankful Thursday: Delivery.com Dinner!!!!

So I got home last night from a 4-hour playdate that was also a meeting about homeschool field trips and the potential of another homeschool group co-op. I took 6 kids and when we got home it was dinnertime. Kids get hungry, I was hungry because I was too busy yakking with my friends to eat lunch. Did I mention my husband has been out of town for almost 3 weeks? Then I remembered that I had a $40 Delivery.com gift card to try out and review. PERFECT TIMING!

How easy could it be, though, right? If I want delivery, I usually have to dig out old menus and then tally up how much it will be and try to figure out a tip and all that. I am telling you Delivery.com saved my night! It was so easy, too! I  just went to Delivery.com, entered my address, and immediately two of the best Chinese restaurants popped up. I'm in Kansas City, so we don't have a lot of delivery options, but I'm sure in bigger cities you'd have more choices for restaurants.

So I clicked on one of the restaurants and a menu popped up! And all I had to do was click on each item to order it and it added it to my cart and to my total. I also had the option of inputting special instructions, such as "no onion" or "no MSG." This also gave me the option of ordering a larger container of egg drop soup and a larger container of fried rice.

Then there was the total. All I had to do was enter the gift card code and it took $40 off the total. Then I also had the option to tip 10%, 15% or 20% and it calculated it for me and added it to my total. I got a ton of food for 7 of us and only paid $10 plus tip. Oh, and I paid it all online with a debit card so I didn't have to scramble to write a check. When the food came, we just took it and ate it!

A Delivery.com gift card would be perfect for someone who is homebound or just had a baby or who has a baby in the NICU and the last thing they want to do is cook. This is a great gift for a bachelor or bachelorette who doesn't love to cook (that was me once!).

My husband is out of town often and when he comes home he does not want to eat out. Delivery.com is going to be perfect for those times when I am too whooped to think about feeding a nutritious dinner to my kids. We all love Chinese food, so it is great. Can I suggest Jimmy John's sign on with Delivery.com, please? And all the pizza restaurants, like Pizza Hut, need to also take Delivery.com cards as payment.

HAPPY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!

My dinner!

I give Delivery.com 5 kids out of 5, my highest rating.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Tackle-It Tuesday: FINALLY My Closet?!

Every Tuesday, I tackle a different project around my home that's been bugging all of us!

Before we begin, I'd like to remind the class that I am in a rockin' giveaway hop that runs through July 31. You can check out my offerings here and enter to win my prize package! Now, on to my closet ...

I love to organize. I could come to your house and see a problem and fix it immediately. I recently helped my friend find a home for her Kitchen Aid mixer. Her husband  had told her to take it out of the kitchen; it was too big and there was no spot for it. I was like HUH? Where would you put it? You use it all the time! So I checked around and in her pantry I asked if I could move some things around to make a home for the mixer in the bottom of the pantry. I enjoyed moving things around and combining things to make room and it fit perfectly!

Alas, it's like those therapists who fix everyone else but their life is a freaking mess (equals over half of the therapists I've known in my life; no, I have not been to lots of therapy and when I've gone I've been told I don't need it. I used to work at a place with therapist and even dated a psychologist ... who was dating me, half his age ... see what I mean?). Anyway ...

So here is the post where the BEFORE pictures were. And here are the AFTER shots. My husband can send the swag to this chick right  here because she kicked my butt YESTERDAY and I knew I had to get on it. I mean, she's a professional organizer!

Voila!

Note how all the crap hanging on the door is gone?

Yes, this is like all the shirts and skirts I have, including maternity! And this seems like a lot of clothing to me, much of it I never wear.

I maybe have like 10 pair of shoes. Note the black color scheme. And how often do I wear those stripper heels?  Well, like 3 times last year. But they are so pretty and were bought by my man (and Jordan)!

Yep, here is what I took out of the closet to make it look clean. To make room for my shoes I took out the scrapbooking/memorabilia tub and put it on the cedar chest. Then stuff that was hanging on the door goes on top of the tub, right? Look, Aron is coming home Friday and maybe for a long time. I will have more time to work on this THEN. For now my head is barely above water with this house and if I can keep laundry done and dishes done and keep my kids healthy and happy and fed and clean and all that while doing it all by myself, then I'm doing a good job. I'm sure scrapbooking will be another post someday ... I do it very simply but have so much stuff to scrap and I save everything my kids have ever touched!