The kids and I couldn’t wait. As soon as the weather hit 70 we hit the pool. Fridays in summer are way better at the pool!
We don’t have one by the way. We are lucky to have found a members only pool. For the price of monthly pool service, we get to use this pool every day, even in winters when it gets to 90. Starting on Memorial Day to Labor day they have a lifeguard so this mom can actually swim with the kids too and not just be a mommy lifeguard.
Tips for large families: See those towels? They’re color coded, of course. There’s no confusion as to whose towel it is so there’s less fighting over them. In summer they are great since microfiber dries fast. No matter how many times they’re in and out, they always get a dry towel. Bonus points for the built in loops and snaps to keep them from flying away.
Looking forward to more pool days once school is out.
About Us – We have five children including 2 sets of twins. Currently ages 10,10,9,5,5. That’s 2 fraternal twin girls, a single boy, followed by 2 identical twin girls.
Feeling annoyed about washing the water bottles again, but my weird brain justified it by calculating how many water bottles I did NOT buy my kids and take to school everyday.
Since 2013 we’ve sent the kids with stainless steel bottles, adding up to 3200 plastic water bottles we did not have to throw away! This school year between the 5 of them it’s 900 plastic water bottles we did not contribute to the landfill (I’m so anti-plastic these days).
Here’s my “back of the napkin” math I did using the Evernote App handwriting note.
Well, we’re back to paper. Nothing can beat it’s simpleness, not even multiple linked, color coded electronic calendars. The #1 reason for going back to paper is – everyone in the house can see the calendar! The kids don’t get to use electronics during the week, the little ones don’t even have calendars and electronic calendars were out of sight, out of mind. My husband and I literally forgot about a lot of things even though they were in our phones. Reminders are harder to ignore when it’s on the wall.
If you remember, the whiteboard mentioned in this post lasted a mere 4 months. It was messy, the inks ran dry, and a pain to clean.
The calendar we’ve been using is a paper one. It’s larger to allow more space for annual events like birthdays, school schedules and individual kid schedules.
To save space and time writing each kid’s name, I use their designated number. A number 1 with a circle means it’s for the oldest kid, and number 2 is the next born and so on. My kids know their numbers and when written with their designated color, even the kindergardeners know which calendar item is for them.
About Us – We have five children including 2 sets of twins. Currently ages 10,10,8,5,5. That’s 2 fraternal twin girls, a single boy, followed by 2 identical twin girls.
When 3 of the kids started grade school, I thought I’d repurpose toy bins for their school catch all.
It worked a little too well, and those bins filled up fast.
So I went to Pinterest for ideas and fell in love with the idea of hooks by the door. My kids and hubby loved it too. It was meant to be the one jacket you use ALL the time but sooner or later most coats left the coat closet and became a giant mash of jackets on 6 little hooks and backpacks on the floor.
I wish I lived in an area where mud rooms are the norm but I do not so it doesn’t exist. My dream was for the mudroom to be the ultimate drop off zone for shoes backpacks and jackets.
So I’m happy to say inspiration hit again when I was staring at my semi empty coat closet that was just filled with stuff we didn’t use. It is a perfect space for all this gear plus behind closed doors to prevent visual clutter.
It took me 2 weekends. One to empty the closet and sort / purge. As standard under-the-stairs coat closets go, there was a bar up front and you had to wade through it to get to the back. That was the first to go.
The next weekend I installed hooks and set up shoe racks.
I was able to create a more usable coat closet with 12 hooks this time, a shoe rack, and even a tiny step stool ottoman for the little ones to hang up their coats. I was lucky to find a 6 hook rack with the hooks spaced far enough apart and the whole width just wide enough to fit the length of my walls.
I moved shoe racks that were being used to stack more useless stuff into the closet so there were 7 levels to.hold everyday shoes – one for each of us!
I found battery operated motion detection lights that only came in when it was dark and stuck it on the ceiling.
Now the kids enjoy walking in the closet to out away their shoes and backpacks without fear of being stuck in the dark.
I think it turned out pretty well!
After
If you want to give this a try just follow these 5 steps.
Empty the closet and find homes for everything but jackets and shoes going back in.
Measure walls and plan where hooks and shoe racks will go.
