Okay so this week I officially started the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge by White House Black Shutters and so far so good. I got off to a slow start but picked up some momentum on Wednesday in order to finish strong on Saturday.


 Here's a day-by-day recap:

Monday:
I began the challenge in my master bedroom before pic can be found here. I had already purged a lot of MY side of the closet a few months ago as apart of my new baby nesting bug; but I barely touched my husband's side. Primarily, because he always says I have "Waaay More" clothes and shoes than he does; and I contend that while I do have more, it's no where near "waaay more" as he so eloquently put it. And that he has a whole lot more than he thinks; and what's worse, he has a ton of items that he does not and/or will not ever where in this here life. And I proved it! I wish I had taken a picture and sadly we have since moved so the opportunity has passed, sigh.

Bag total: 2

Tuesday: Tuesday I started de-cluttering my emails and since I have 3 this was a daunting task and I soon realized I would need to dedicate more that one day to this task.

Bag total: none, 3,000 emails sorted into folders or deleted

Wednesday: Today was a day where I let myself get overwhelmed. I looked around my home full of boxes (we just moved a week ago) and I saw all that needed to be done and I got discouraged. So instead I avoided the problem and took my children to the park so I wouldn't have to see it.

Thursday: This was the day I woke up and go back on track. I resolved that this problem wasn't created overnight and it definitely wouldn't be fixed overnight. So I rolled up my sleeves and I started in my kitchen pantry/cabinets and in my fridge/freezer getting rid of old or unwanted items. Next will be to organize

Bag total: 2

Friday:  I  took this day to de-clutter and de-crapify my kid's room in preparation for their remodel. Because they don't yet have too much, I was able to tackle toys, clothes, and shoes

Bag total: 3

Saturday: This was a day spent away from home.as we went to a consignment sale hosted by a local parent group here in Northern VA.

Bag total: 0

Have you started the challenge? Tell me about it....

Hello All! I hope you have been making headway in the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge. I must say I'm quite pleased with myself and can't wait to attack more junk. But in an effort to not have this be 40 Day Central, I decided to share my first big project for this year with you. And it is.... (drumroll please) ..... The Boy's Room!!!!!

I'm so excited to be able to start this project! It's been a long time coming and I can't wait to get started. I have been Pinterest crazy these last few months getting ideas for all sorts of projects for around the house. I've started a mood board with Olioboard using my first inspiration piece, my son's onesie. I love the bright and playful colors and how they can be tailored to each of the boys; light shades for the nursery side and the darker shades for the "big boy" side. Here's how my board looks now. Keep in mind it's a work of progress, the pictures are just up there I'll arrange them later; AND my first mood board:



Tomorrow we will be going out to start looking for furniture for our oldest's big boy side. While surfing the web a week ago I came across a consignment sale hosted by a local mom group Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples they do it each year and are said to have a great turn out each time. I hope will either be able to snag a bunk bed or trundle bed so that when Chipmunk gets older we won't have to purchase anymore furniture. Along with whatever else I can find. I asked my husband to come along with me in an effort to keep myself grounded and on budget.

I will also be taking the bottom storage part of the old bed frame that we are getting rid of and making a storage bench like the one I found here by making a cushion top. My mother gave me the idea of using outdoor fabric to cover the cushion when I was racking my brain trying to figure out what type of durable fabric I could use. So needless to say I will be elbow deep in some colorful types of fabric soon.

Well gotta hit the hay the sale starts at 9am....

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be participating in White House Black Shutters' 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge; and after much thought I've decided to start on Monday, Feb. 25th. I will document my progress and post my updates weekly. I can't wait to start decrapifying and decluttering to see how many bags I get. Although I don't think it will be 40 since we just moved and I did some purging beforehand. But you never know so we will see.

If you want more information about the challenge and how to get started click here

Although I didn't do a new years resolution this most recent move got me to the realization that I needed to update/revamp how we do somethings. I knew I needed to make some changes but it is especially imperative now that we have two little ones to tend to in additon to everything else we do. A few of the things I want to tackle are: organization and planning, eating more healthy foods, losing weight (typical), and some DIY/Arts&Crafts projects including how to sew with a sewing machine.

The biggest and most important of these will be organization and planning. I will be tackling everything from decluttering and organizing our papers to organizing our pantry and the closets. Thanks to a few of my fellow bloggers I have plenty of tips and such to get this endeavor done. I haven't decided for sure but I think I'm going to purchase and follow the "Project Organize Your Entire Life: The Quick Start Guide" ebook, written by the good folks over at Modern Parents Messy Kids, to serve as the springboard for this project. But until then, I will be starting with this 40 day challenge by Ann Marie over at White House Black Shutters. I'll be doing this challenge as I get our new apartment home in order. I'm excited to be starting this project because I know it will be beneficial to myself and my family with a lasting impression for years to come. Check back soon for when I will be starting the challenge.

Let me begin by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I hope this new year has been all that you hoped for it to be.

So after a 4 month hiatus from blogging.... I have returned. I have really missed blogging and being able to share my thoughts. It was hard to make the decision to stop blogging especially since I had just started. But it was the best thing for me to do at the time. What have I been up to? I'm glad you asked :). In the past four months I have been continuing with my frequent doctor visits, the homeschooling of my son; and taking care of our newest addition, Chipmunk, and attending the Commander In Chief's Inaugural Ball. We also went through the ordeals of house hunting and moving (more on that headache later), now reorganizing/decorating our new apartment. I have also been doing research on several things, one of those main things is blogging. I want to make this blog all that it can be; whatever that means. I've been paying attention to some of my favorite bloggers and getting tips on how they run their blogs. While I still feel there is tons more to learn, I feel equipped to begin again.

So I will start with our most recent occurance: moving. We have been in our new apartment for about 2 weeks now and it's still kind of hectic trying to figure out how best to store and arrange our things. While this wasn't the place we really wanted, it seems that this was the best choice, pricewise and otherwise. We started our hunt in December with hopes of finding a townhome or single family home to rent (we are a young military family so we decided purchasing was not a good choice for us now). My husband was recommended a realtor that was said to be good so we called her and signed on the dotted line. In the beginning she was great! Showing us tons of beautiful homes and giving us advice and information on the area; as we are relatively new (been here a year). Our lease was going to expire the first week in Feb so we had tons of time. But then it happened.... The holidays came and something changed. She started showing us less options and more importantly less impressive options.

I don't know if something in her life occurred but she became difficult to reach and just unsatisfactory. Several times my frustration level hit it's peak. My husband not wanting to start over with a new agent convinced me to keep with her and he would talk to her about our concerns. Needless to say it didn't really change and when it was all said and done she caused us to lose two great places. One because she did not contact us back in time and the other because she did not "present" us well to the prospective landlord. So with only a week left we had to start looking for an apartment. And we found one; 3 days before we had to be out of our current place. While we didn't get the town home we wanted (one of them had TONS of living space and a DOUBLE OVEN ARRRGH!!!); this apartment turned out to be just what we needed. With only a short time left on my husband's assignment to this area; this apartment was bigger and cheaper than our current place and cheaper than any of the town homes we saw with a better commute. Additionally, it has some lovely features I am excited to put to use. Small things like all black appliances and clean white cabinets in the kitchen and a separate vanity in the master bedroom will surely keep me smiling; and saving major bucks in rent and gas a month will most definitely keep my husband smiling. Now for the fun of decorating and reorganizing. Updates on the progress will be posted soon.