Project: Simplify Hot Spot #2 Completed!!!

This week's hot spot was a big one for me... paper clutter. I am one of those people whose house fools you. You think it's all picked up and organized.. but, you haven't opened any of my drawers... and that counter top... it doesn't look like that on a normal day. I was a bit relieved when I saw Project: Simplify's hot spot for this week, and then felt a little overwhelmed. But, I'm all done and it feels really, really good! :) This is what our island looks like on a normal day at our house:

and these are the drawers that overflow with all the stuff on the counter top when we have visitors:

This is just a bunch of paper clutter (that I've stuffed away in a closet) that has accumulated over the years, including a box of owners manuals for almost everything in our house... I got rid of about 90% of this, which wasn't too hard because, as you can see, I had a little helper. :)

Here are the finishing touches on the island and drawers...

I made a "mailing center" drawer and a "processing" drawer for our bills, receipts and other miscellaneous things needing to be processed, which (hopefully) will be done weekly.

Taking a break

I am trying to finish up my nice long break that I got to take today... Louis has been having a hard time the last few days. This has led to him not being able to go to school today or tomorrow. We had a pretty rough morning. My wonderful husband came to my rescue and took the rest of the day off work so I could take a much needed break. He's so good to me! Before I get back to working on my second hot spot for Project: Simplify, I thought I would post some pictures from our new camera that we recently bought and are soo excited about! We pretty much missed Kinsley's 10th month of life because our old camera has been broken, so we are trying to make up for it. :) Oh, and we are dog sitting for my parents, in case you're wandering... we did not get a dog!

Project: Simplify

Our family has been a bit out of the loop the last few months... So, first I'd like to acknowledge how sad it is that this is my first post in almost three months and that it's not even about our family.. well, not completely, but it kind of is. For a while now, too long of a while, Rob and I have talked about how we wish we were so much more simple.. how we could make our lives just simple and not have so much "stuff". We are soo tired of all the "stuff" we have. Well, I found this blog not long ago and it has started giving me some direction in how to make our lives more simple, one step at a time. So, I decided to join Simple Mom in Project Simplify. It lasts for five weeks and each Monday she reveals a hot spot in your home to clean and organize and you have until that Friday to get it done and then reveal how it went and post before and after pictures. The first hot spot is your wardrobe. Being the procrastinator that I am, however, I did wait until Thursday to start. I actually was able to finish on Friday morning... but, I spent the rest of the day getting our house ready for my parents to come for the weekend.. so, here I am, Saturday night, finally revealing the outcome of my closet. It really felt soo good to do this and I am pretty proud of myself that I got rid of about half of all my clothes! I only did my half of the closet, so we still have to work on Rob's. I told Rob that at the end of the five weeks if his side isn't straightened up by then, I will do it. I think that actually made him nervous though, so I have a feeling it will be done. :) Ok, so here are my before and afters (not including my drawers, because all the drawer pictures together made me dizzy so I just included my closet).

My get rid of pile!

And here is a totally random picture that just makes us laugh. Kinsley, hanging with the bats at the zoo...

Parenthood

Some of you know that the last three weeks have been pretty rough for our family. When Kinsley was about 2 months old, we thought we were learning soo much about being parents. We have now learned that the baby stage is easy peasy (or God just gave us a really easy baby, which I think is most likely the case)! Parenting is defined as: 1. the rearing of children 2. the methods, techniques, etc., used or required in the rearing of children 3. the state of being a parent; parenthood.

Parenting is hard!! We are trying to figure out what the best "methods" or "techniques" are in "rearing" our sweet 9 year old boy. The last two days, amazingly, have been perfect (almost)! On Monday we started a behavior chart with Louis and if he gets a certain amount of stars each week, he gets an allowance. You don't think that's bribery, do you? Well, we think it's working! Woo hoo! We know this won't last forever because everyone has their days and moments when things just don't go right and we are prepared for this.

Last night I was doing laundry while both of my precious children were sound asleep (amazingly) and I was waiting for my wonderful husband to get home from a late night at work; I was folding little boy boxers and little bitty girl leggings and onesies and thinking how much I love being a mom!

Joy!

On November 30, Louis was officially placed in our home! While we have already begun facing some difficult times, our hearts are so full of joy to be blessed with another child!

You have filled my heart with greater joy...

Psalm 4:7

Pumpkins, Wolverine and a cow

Here are some pictures from our busy weekend... Hope you all had as much fun as we did!! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin carving

Quick shot on the obstacle course at the fall festival.. look at those muscles!

Getting ready to "trick-or-treat"

Our little rolly polly taking a break

Sleepy cow

Goodnight!

The Past Month and a 1/2

This post is looong overdue! The past month and a half has been quite busy for us. For those of you who don't know... we are expecting baby Catoe #2! No, I'm not pregnant... Louis has been a part of our lives now for almost a year. He is sort of like our 1/2 child right now because he is only with us half of the week. We are so ready for him to be with us 100% and hopefully it will be in the next couple months that that will happen. Football season just ended for him so we are happy to have more time at home to spend together as a family and Rob is happy to have some help in the yard on Saturdays! :) Louis is a great helper and he actually enjoys helping Rob in the yard and me in the house! Kinsley will be six months in about a week and is getting soo big! She can't quite sit up by herself yet, but we keep thinking she's going to get up and start crawling any day now! She's also very excited to have a big brother! Here are some pictures of the last month or so...

Our big baby...

...caught this!

Chubby cheeks

Our little football star about to make a tackle!

The birthday boys- Louis and grandaddy have the same birthday!

And here is a sneak peek of what is to come! :)