Toy inventory

Last year we did an inventory of all the toys we had. It was one of my favorite blog post. It was nice to see what we had and I wanted to do it again this year.

One of the big difference is this year, Madeleine doesn't play with as many toys. She has favorites and plays with them for hours. We are lucky enough that when she grows out of them that we have plenty of younger friends to pass them onto. At this point, we don't really need a toy rotation either. All of these fit in Madeleine's room and she is responsible enough not to trash her room. On the occations that friends come over and everything gets dumped out, it takes me less than 10 minutes to clean everything up and about 20 for her. It's a good balance right now.

List of Madeleine's toys 

1. Train set

2. Two waldorf dolls

3. Sophie

4. Tiny purple baby

5. Two bears

6. Two puzzles

7. Knobbed cylinders puzzles

8. Wooden rocket

9. Wooden plane

10. Three wood trucks

11. Chemistry blocks (in green bucket)

12. Geeky blocks (in green bucket)

13. Drawing board thing

14. Doll house

15. Duplos (120)

16. Wool ball

17. Tin tea set

18. Dissecting doll

19. Doll stroller

20. Kitchen

21. Rodie

22. Bead set thing

In full disclaimer, we do have two small containers of toys that Madeleine doesn't play with for friends that aren't her age. We have a shoe box of playmobiles and small box for tiny babies. They rarely come out though.

Madeleine spends a lot of her time playing outside. Her dolls and bears go with her almost everywhere. The white bear is her bear and the "pink" bear is the bear that her friends play with. The knobbed cylinders are one of the most frequently played with toys. Madeleine uses them for play food and I have also seen them used as logs on the back of the trucks or just lined up across the floor.

I love watching her play. She's getting more creative. She "reads" books to her dolls and likes playing nap time. Her duplos recenty have been rockets and blocks have been used to build houses.

It's been awesome. Can't wait to see next years photo.

A long post about dolls

I got a new job!

Baby X is leaving our home for good at the end of August, but I have a nice little side job to keep our budgeting going after he leaves. 

I am helping (and learning even more) to make Waldorf dolls for a lady that sell them here in Princeton. She just got a big contract from a toy company and needs help making them. I've made a few on my own, but I'm even more excited to help her. Her dolls are beautiful and so sweet, and I can't wait to learn even more from her.

 The 3 dolls I made. We only kept the bottom one.

Waldorf dolls are pretty special and expensive. 

They are made of all natural material and are filled with wool. (The wool makes waldorf dolls feel warmer than most dolls, since the wool gets warmed by your body heat).

 They have neutral facial expressions so that kids can imagine them feeling a range of emotions. Ella (the bottom one) for example is usually sad because she wants a cookie and I won't give her one. (Madeleine yesterday, "Oh no!! Ella sad!" "Why she is sad?" "She crying. No cookie. So sad.")

Usually since they are pretty expensive, a child only will have one or two dolls at a time. The thought behind this is with few dolls then a child will love and appreciate each doll more.

 We found this to be true in our home. Madeleine currently has four dolls, and it seems like the sweet spot for her right now. She plays with all of them frequently and we have enough dolls for when friends come over. If you want to read more about the benefits of having less toys, I recommend the book, Simplicity Parenting. It's a pretty boring book, so I didn't actually finish it, but the part I did read was amazing and has influenced my parenting. It kind of reads like a text book.

Waldorf dolls come in all shape and sizes. I have found that materials for a larger doll cost start around $60, and the smaller ones are closer to $40. But the real cost is the amount of labor that gets put into these dolls. Each of my dolls took me a day or two to make. I think this is pretty typical and dolls tend to start around $100 a doll. (I think the average is probably closer to $150. The toy store I think is selling them for $130 each) Some doll makers' work are incredible and they spend weeks on each doll. Their dolls are auctioned off to doll collectors that can easily end up over $2000 per doll. 

Here are some of my favorites.

This little doll is from Bamboletta, one of the most well known doll makers. She cost $135.50.  You can check out their page here.

You might not be able to tell but this doll is made extremely well!  Her face and body was carefully sculpted with needles. You can check out this doll maker facebook page here. If I remember right, I think her dolls run around $350-$700.

The queen bee of doll making is this maker in my book. She's incredible. Her facebook page is here. If you scroll down on her facebook page she has a video of her making the faces. She said some dolls take 80 hours to make the faces! Seriously so much work and love go into her dolls.

Now you might be like wow. Why would anyone spend that much on a doll? Well, Waldorf people in general appreciate and pay for people's craft. I like them for that a lot. But don't worry if you want a doll, there are also places to buy them used. You can get them as low as $30 and they are still in pretty great condition. We have bought two that way.

Also, there is also the option of making your own. There are so many people who have put their own patterns up on pinterest for free. They have great directions and if you have the time, it pretty simple. I used this tutorial for the first doll I made. She has a link to the pattern and everything.

And last but not least, I think, is introducing your child to a doll. Another amazing doll maker (seriously, I would love to see one of hers) put up this great way about how to introduce a doll to your child. 

http://www.figandme.com/figandmeblog/gandme.com/2011/12/meeting-and-friendship.html

It might be silly to some people to put this much work and money into a doll, but dolls and kids have strong relationships. Sophie is basically a member of the family in our house. Madeleine's dolls give her comfort when we can't and she role plays frequently with them. They have been potty trained, had their noses blown, and even given pep talks.

Dolls are special, and I really love the fact for these special toys are not something that is quickly bought.  They are generally carefully loved and thought out from when they are being made to when they are being presented to the child.

 One of my favorite things was taking a knitting class here in Princeton and mentioning that I wanted to make clothes for one of Madeleine's dolls. My teacher got excited and told me she had made her daughters some years ago. She brought them to the next class. They were so beat up. The hair was tangled and the skin of the dolls were broken. She told me that despite the fact her daughters were in college that these dolls were still loved and part of the family.

I like the non-disposable nature feeling that it gives these dolls. I like that they are eco friendly. I feel like they line up well with some of our goals, and I'm so excited to make them.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Facebook

I'm definitely one of those people that like facebook better than real interactions sometimes. I feel like this is not a popular opinion, but over the last year or two I've decided that I really am okay with it. While I get daily conversations with other in person friends, I have no guilt for hanging out at home and only talking to people through facebook.

Other than keeping in touch with real friends through my news feeds, here are some other ways I use facebook.

I use it to plan events.

Neighborhood playgroup? Meet up at the farmer's market? All happens through facebook.

I use it to get parenting advice.

I love this one. When I was a new mom, I joined many parenting groups that focused on different parenting styles. As I ran into problems, I could ask or just browse through the archives. My questions are usually answered within a few minutes. Now that Madeleine is a toddler I have one group that I mainly use that actually has a few of the leading experts in the group. It's nice getting answers from them.

I use it to learn hobbies

There are so many things I have learned thanks to facebook and youtube. Crocheting, doll making, sewing, cooking, just to name a few. When I start a new hobby, the first thing I do is look for a facebook group.

I use it for home education.

I wanted to teach Madeleine the colors a few months back. After asking a few questions in a group, I had a full month unit given to me of what books to check out, what questions to ask her, and different activities we could do. On a smaller day to day bases, I have literally hundreds of ideas at my finger tips and unlike pinterest, if I have a question, I can ask the person directly who I'm copying the activity from. My favorites are actually the waldorf groups right now since I like how they set routines and teach chores and cooking to toddlers (and many other things that are all fantastic).

I use it for finances.

There are several groups that I'm part of that help with money. There are some that effect us financially but are not directly related like minimalism groups and the Non-consumer advocate.  But then there are some that are very money oriented like my budgeting group and investing group. I don't participate much in these, but I learn a lot from just reading other people's posts.

I use it to decorate my house.

When we moved into our new apartment, I filmed my living room and asked for feed backs in one of my groups. I got it within minutes. Free interior design advice in minutes. Pretty sweet.

I use it for social issues.

I love all the discussions about social issues. I like that I can pick when I feel like discussing it on friends' pages or reading a certain article. I also like that I can then discuss this with my friends when I see them again. Matt and I have many discussions about race, poverty, class-issues, politicians etc. that began with something I saw on facebook.

I use it for news.

Believe it or not, at this point I usually have a friend close to where most major stories happen. I usually find out major stories before they are published. I feel like the news articles that my friends share are more well-rounded than what's on CNN.

I use it for religious discussions.

There is always religious discussions going on with friends. Again, I like the fact that I can choose to skip them when I don't feel like hearing about it and "eavesdrop" on conversations when I do. I like it because I feel like it is more civil, and when it gets hostile, I can skip it. 

I use it to achieve goals.

I have several groups ranging in size that help me achieve goals. We report what our goal is and where we are at, and people cheer or give encouragement. I like being passive on most of these, but one of my favorites is a small group of 20 women. We share what our plans for the day are and check in at the end of the night. I'm one of the youngest in the group, and I have received some great tips from these women.

I use it for shopping.

Most people I think are aware of the facebook yard sale for their areas, but there are so many other things you can buy off facebook. Like vintage dolls? There is a group for that. Homeschool materials? Dozens of groups for that. Anthropologie or Boden clothing? Places for that too. 

There are other things I use facebook for with my in person friends such as remembering birthdays and stuff but I feel those are more typical uses of facebook. 

You might be thinking that I could do all of this with people in real life, and it's true. But I like that I don't know these people usually. I like that I can ask and if they judge me, it won't effect my real life. I like that it won't ruin friendships or place labels on me that I don't necessarily identify with. I also like the people I meet and chat with. I like that I can bounce ideas off of them without telling people I know. I like that I see over and over people are in general good.

Anyway, what do you facebook for? Do you like or hate it?

Lost things

With two toddlers now in the house life is getting even busier. I often find myself writing pretend blog post in my head and never getting around to writing them. Hopefully soon I'll find more time to sit and write. 

In the meanwhile, life has been pretty amazing. We now have two little people walking around the house. Baby X decided last week that he wanted to walk more than crawl. Madeleine couldn't be more excited about it. They play all day with each other. It's the best.

We have been traveling a lot. With Madeleine being a bit older, we have gone to NYC twice this last month and then DC this last weekend for a wedding. It's really odd for me not to have weekends to myself. Between Matt getting toe surgery and the traveling the house fell into a huge mess. I lost every item that was important to me.

First the computer screen broke. So we had to shell money out for another computer. I wasn't thrilled about it and I'm still using my old computer with a broken screen. With that said, I'm surprised how much I'm loving having yet another computer in the home. Matt can now leave his mostly at work and I like having a flex computer that plays ted talks or music throughout the day.

Then a few days later my wallet went missing. That was my 3rd favorite possession after my wedding rings. It was pretty traumatizing but after a week of looking we gave up. I'm still hoping it turns up.

Then just this weekend my wedding rings disappeared.

This whole experience has been kind of weird. It's made me realize how much Matt and I have turned to minimalism. For each thing, we talked and discussed what need to replace, and in the case of our wedding rings, we had a conversation about what they represented and that it was okay. Matt offered to replace them, but for now I think I'll just use a ring already have.

Having my favorite items lost made me realize that we could let go a few more things in our home. I put a handful of items on freecycle and dropped off a lot of baby clothes at a donation place. We are around 1,100 for things that we have got rid of so far this year. I'm slightly off on my counting. We're getting ready to rid ourselves of even more things as we are preparing to switch apartments. 

I'm realizing more that I like my home to have space for the things we love, not full of the things we like. I love having room for the kids to paint and make messes. I like that I can host bookclub and have people over to dinner with little stress. I like that Madeleine and Baby X have plenty of room to run trucks and cars around the house, and that Madeleine running through our house isn't the end of the world. These things are more important to me right now. 

Kitchen stuff

 Have you heard about this book?

It was published here in the US in October last year and now it's all over the place. I've seen so many articles on it and I'm even part of a facebook group that is just dedicated to her process. (There are just under 4,000 members now and about  new people are 500 add every few days.) Marie Kondo is apparently a huge celebrity in Japan. So logically, I was curious about this book.

The first hiccup happened when I was #9 on the waitlist at my library! What? I never have to wait for books. I was pretty peeved. But then on my decluttering groups, I started hearing about people who were #367 or even #523...I stopped complaining after that. On Friday, I received an email that it was waiting for me at the front desk. :)

.

This weekend I read it, and I didn't really find that it was a must read for me. A big reason for this is that a lot of the information is online. I already knew about 2/3rds of the book just by reading articles and looking on pinterest. Another thing is that our home isn't a hopeless mess. It's pretty organized. That's not saying that her ideas aren't helpful, just some of her methods I found that we have our own system that works just as well. A few of her ideas I already do, like emptying my purse every day.

Then of course were the things I did find interesting.

1)  She says never let your parents find out what you are getting rid of. It causes them anxiety.

2) She was hired by a lady that was really organized but hired her to help figure out what was "off" about her home. In the end, they decided that there was too much "word clutter". Every time this lady opened up a cupboard or looked at something, her brain was confronted by information. I thought this was really interesting since I had just emailed an article to Matt earlier this week about this very subject. 

3) There is this thing she called the younger sister thing where you pass off all of the things you feel guilty about getting rid of to your younger sister even if she doesn't want them. 

4) She said in order to keep a clean house you need to have a vivid image in your head to motivation you. For us originally it was to have enough room that kids have enough room to play and that we wouldn't fight over the house. Now that we are getting to the point that it's very manageable that vision is expanding. Like a place to have people over or so we know where absolutely everything is. 

Madeleine's room has reached that point. When we get her ready for bed, I can actually tell if there are any toys that aren't put away. It's nice and it's a relaxing thought that I won't find any toys around the house when I reset to zero at the end of the night. 

I finished reading the book and Matt asked me what I wanted to do now that Madeleine was asleep. I told him I wanted to take everything out the kitchen since the furniture was out of the living room still from book club. So we did. Here is what it looked like.

We were pretty happy to see that we actually use 80% of this stuff on a weekly bases. We pared down a few of the 20% that we didn't use weekly or were broken.

It was lovely putting everything back. We have had so much empty space in our kitchen. So when we put everything back we were able to condense it down a bit. I was able to make Madeleine her own little shelf to keep her things and we still have an empty cupboard left that I put the craft supplies that Madeleine uses while I cook and extra lightbulbs. 

We also found out that we have a few things we really need to upgrade or replace. All of our measuring spoons and measuring cups are broken, and we need a long term plan for cups.

So yes, this is everything in our kitchen. It's about as minimal as we'll get as long as we keep up our currently diet and lifestyle.

3 Minimizing things

2015 has been pretty awesome so far. I really love our new year's resolutions. I'd share them but Matt and I are still refining them so we have solid ways to check our progress.

I wanted to share a few things.

This ebay listing is crazy! Matt and I have chatted about it all weekend. I can't imagine selling everything on ebay at once!

Also, I read this article about resetting at zero once a week. I grew up with having the house completely clean once a week, and I have never been a fan of it. But I do like the idea of starting the week off with a blank slate. Empty email, organized fridge. No to do list etc. It just sounds like a great way to stay on top of things and have time for yourself.

Finally I'm gearing up for the no impact man challenge that I'm planning on doing next week. I'm hoping to write a blog post on it in the next few days!

What are your new year resolutions? Do you find yourself refining them after the new year?

All of Madeleine's Toys

I'm currently obsessed with photography collections that highlight how people's homes work.

Here's my list of what I have found so far so you can get a better sense of what I'm talking about.

Weeks worth of trash

What people eat in a day

Groceries for a family for a week

Food that was found dumpster diving

Where kids sleep around the world

Children's prized possessions from around the world

Buried Alive - Homes of families in LA

And my very favorite the book Material World that takes photos of family's possessions from around the world.

I'm hoping to have my own versions of some of these projects down the road, but today I made up my own and took a picture of all the toys that Madeleine currently has in her toy rotation.

Since we do have a toy rotation, a lot of people that come over offer to give us toys, because her room looks empty. In realty though, Madeleine has plenty to play with. She plays with all the toys about every 3-4 days. The stuffed animals, dolls, blocks, and the legos are always out. The rest I rotate out in the afternoon after nap time.

List of Madeleine's toys

1. Sophie

2. Two small corolle dolls

3. Two small target dolls

4. Waldorf doll

5. Itty bitty baby

6. Bigger Corolle doll 

7. Some of our old stuffed animals

8. Baby Dino

9. Crocheted Noah's arch toys

10. Two Under the Nile Dolls

11. Tickle Sloth

12. Chile doll

13. Two handmade bears

14. Red car

15. Three wooden trucks and cars

16. Three hotwheel cars

17. Rubix cube

18. Lots of duplos

19. Rody

20. Doll Stroller

21. Train Set

22. Freaky monkey (she loves this thing)

23. Mooska fairy

24. Small set of old fisher price people

25. Felt Nativity set

26. Three tolo animals

27. Tow Mater Truck

28. Rubber penguin

29. Rainbow blocks

30. Chemistry blocks

31. Dress up wood bear

32. Wool ball

33. Spiky ball

34. Tennis ball

35. Castle set

36. Musical instruments

37. Song flute

38. Puzzles

39. Melissa and Doug puzzle train

40. Bead rollercoaster

41. Bangles

42. Princeton bracelet

43. Magnetic drawing board

Not shown is her play kitchen and doll house. Everything else is here. 

So with the toy rotation the way I have it set up, everything gets played with. Her favorites of course are her dolls. She usually has two or three close to her at all times. I actually am pretty happy with the number of toys we have at the moment, so we aren't planning on buying her any for her birthday or Christmas. We got her some activities to do with us instead. We are really excited.

Another bonus of doing this was I got to check to make sure that everything had it's pieces, and they did! I'm thrilled. I love her room has things that has only things she loves in it.

This is what it looks like normally.

I'm hoping the rest of the house is like that soon. We really love her room.

Mommy fashion and Project 100

Matt has been bugging me for the last few months about spending more money on myself. He thinks it's silly that I get more excited about dressing Madeleine than dressing myself. We aren't so cheap that I can't get new clothes if I need them. He says there is no reason that I hang out in the house some days in our old high school P.E. clothes. It's been an on going conversation and last night I finally cracked and started to do something about it.

The biggest reason is our bedroom isn't functioning as well as it needs to be. It works great for Matt and me sleeping there, but Baby X sleeps in there for his naps. I hate having to kick aside clothes aside to put his bouncer down while he's screaming. It really annoys me, and clothes on the floor is one of Matt's pet peeves.

I also got these two articles in my facebook newsfeed. 

This one on general home organizing and this one that is specifically on laundry.

The first one made me feel less guilty about getting rid of perfectly good clothes and the second is what I've been thinking about for the last few months.

I loath doing laundry with all my heart. I told my mom in college that the only reason I was going to college was so I could make enough money to pay someone to do my laundry. I've done laundry a total of four times since we got married (Matt is a "bit" OCD about his laundry so it works out). But even still, if I can reduce the amount that Matt has to do this evil chore, then I'm being a sweet wife and should do it for his well-being. 

This idea of reducing laundry had occurred to me before. The thing is we don't have a washer and dryer. So we went the other way, we have a lot of clothes so we only have to do laundry every 3 weeks. It was working for a while, and when we had enough clutter that the rest of the house seemed pretty clean the clothes were at the bottom of my list. Now they are at the top, right under dishes.

So last night I went through all my clothes. I got rid of everything that I have owned that was stained, ripped, or more than five years old. 

Stained and ripped clothing

After that I took inventory of everything I own, according to the Project 333 rules.

Blouses                          2

Button downs                4

Long sleeve t-shirts        5 

Short sleeve t-shirts       10 

Tank tops                      5

Cardigans/Jackets         4

Sweaters                        2

Sweatshirts                    2

Coats                             3

Shorts                            1

Pants                             2

Skirts                            6

Dresses                        3

49

If you include all my shoes and accessories, the total is 58.

I don't know if that seems like a tiny amount or a large amount to you, but before I started this I gave myself the goal of 100 for a year round wardrobe. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that limit now that I'm quite a bit under it, but I'm definitely going shopping.

"Matt, I only own 49 articles of clothing."

"Uh huh. I told you you need to buy more clothes."

"Okay, you're right. Want to go shopping for date night?"

"..."

So today I went to pinterest to figure out what I need to buy to look less like a bum around the house. I quickly found a big problem. A lot of the "stylish mom" outfits are not kid toddler approved.

(So cute! But do you think the skirt can get thrown in the wash? And that shirt would have a baby hand down it in less than a minute. And how in the world does she have a spare hand to hold a clutch?)

1) I use to wear light happy colors. I really did. Just each of them encountered some type of food that made a stain that left me sobbing by the counter as Matt explained to me why he couldn't get it out. Now I stick to clothes that I either can't see the stain on or can bleach.

2) Blazers. So cute. Not so comfy when juggling a kid on your hip.

3) Same goes for heels. Cute, but not practical when you're running out of toy store because your toddler decided she liked Kate Spade better.

4) Scarves and necklaces. How do you train your child not to choke you? Big pretty colorful jewelry looks nice, until you can't breath.

5) Quality. I love quality clothing, but it's hard to justify the money when small people just like to smear strawberries on my clothes multiple times a day. But the lower quality clothing pills and doesn't drape as well. How do you solve that problem?

6) V-necks and scoop necks look flattering, but little people like tugging on said necklines and then everyone is staring at your bra. I'm so grateful that fellow mommies are oblivious to bras and breast flashing. Saves me a lot of embarrassment.

7) How do you find t-shirts that you can't stick your finger through or won't lose it shape? I can't scrub a stain out if the material is only a 1/128th of a inch thick. Toddler clothes are made so much better than women's clothing.

So these are my current questions that have prevented me from buying clothes for myself. I know there are stylish moms who probably think that these are just minor inconvenience that know how to easily work around these problems. But I group those ladies into "the people that know how to pull off the color brown." I still puzzle over that one.

What problems do you come across when buying clothes? Do you have any solutions or suggestions?

Simplifying and Zero Waste

Back at the beginning of the year, my resolution for August was "Simplify my surroundings". Matt and I have actually been doing this all year. I hate cleaning and he hates a messy house, so my solution was to get rid of stuff. When I told Matt way back when about it, he gave me a hug and told me that he felt like a big burden was taken off he shoulders before grabbing a garbage bag and started throwing out stuff. So we started in January instead of September. 

I'm so glad we did. I greatly underestimated how long it would take and we love having simpler lives. Through this process, we have freed up 2 closets, halved the number of books, clothes, and toys. And then it didn't stop there. We started simplifying other parts of our lives. We've simplified our schedules. Everything that needs to be scheduled with a secretary are only on Mondays and Fridays. Tuesday through Thursdays are for friends, hobbies, and spontaneous adventures. We've simplified our parenting style, our expectations, and our routines, and it's been lovely.

In order to do this, I've read a lot of books and blogs about it, and the result is our goals for our lives have permanently changed. But in the middle of my simplifying journey, I stumbled upon a different lifestyle that has also enriched our lives.

One of the many, many times I was pursuing pinterest, I stumbled across this kitchen. The lady that pinned it said. "This pantry is lovely, though the lady's philosophy is a little extreme."

Well, that got me interested. I clicked through and read about this woman named Bea and her family. She lives a zero-waste life. What does zero-waste mean? Well, this is a picture of her family's trash can for the year. (And yes, she's married with 2 kids.)

 It seemed way too extreme to even think about at the time, but it stuck with me. (Just like RIE parenting, which now I also love). 

A few months later, I visited her page again and saw that she wrote a book. My library even had it. I was so excited to read it that I was a bit annoyed when the person before me had it a month and half overdue. One of my wonderful librarian friends saw that I was eager and sent them a nice email reminding them. Apparently it worked, because the next day that book was in my hands.

It was a fabulous read for me. It wasn't overwhelming. The organization was great and I was motivated to start making small changes in my life. I started off really simple goals. Bring reusable bags to the store. Recycle stuff. Go to the thrift store even if it's a pain. Things I did sometimes that wouldn't kill me to be more consistent.

After a while, we got in the habit. Soon after, other changes came from these tiny actions. We started biking 5 miles to the grocery store. We started eating local. We have a small compost pile to take out in our kitchen. (Princeton is really awesome so we have a compost area by the community garden.) We started bringing tupperware for things to be weighed out in. 

It was really interesting for me to see that as I started to try to eliminate trash from our home that our home has drastically changed in many areas. (If you are wondering no we aren't even close to being like Bea. We still taking out trash and using disposable diapers.) We have a different perspective about food. (We picked apples from our local farm, made applesauce, and are getting ready to can for the first time.) I started enjoying cooking again. I buy mainly from etsy now. I haven't shopped on amazon in so long that I even forgot the password.  I prefer to buy things etsy "local" than a big box. (I also found especially for quilting supplies that it's a lot cheaper!) Matt and I now discuss what we like in our home and what is pretty instead of what is practical.

I think a great example of how we have change is when we went shopping this week. While we were checking out, Matt looked at me, and said, "Wow. We've gotten crunchy." I looked as he explained how we not only brought our own bags, but we had containers from home for our bulk goods. We also didn't have as much produce since I had already bought some from our local farm store and from our garden. Now I have really crunchy friends, and I don't think I come even close to them, but it made me smile. We have come a long way, and it's been a journey that I've been really enjoying.

I'm really excited to see where this simplifying/zero waste things leads us. Right now it's lead me to my new September goals. And I'm pleased to say that not only have I been "sugar free" for 5 days, but my energy is back to normal!

So tell me, what have you been exploring and reading about?

September Goals

This month I set two goals for myself. They are both difficult, but if I can pull them off, I think it will really help out our home.

1. No Sugar and 2. No spending.

The no spending one has a few really basic rules. 

1) Food, gas, and bills are fine.

2) Everything else can wait.

Unfortunately, I lost my memory card in Utah and I didn't buy a new one, so blog posts aren't going to have any photos. :( Oh well. On the upside, this should be the easier goal of the two. Actually the no spend is a small incentive for me not to buy any junk food. It will save me more money at the end of the month. (I'm aiming for $500ish of spending? I'm really just trying to save as much as possible, so I can reevaluate my half of the budget.)  

The no sugar goal I think is going to kill me. Yesterday was the longest day of my life. My energy levels were all over the place. As a mom, I guess I reach for the giant costco bag of chocolate chips a few too many times, because I'm definitely feeling the withdraws. I actually tried going off sugar last month and I didn't even make it to 48 hours. Oops. This time though I'm doing a lot better. It's a really weird thing though to define what's going off sugar. When I google it people have so many different definitions of what no sugar is. For some people, it's no fruits. Others it's no fruit or carbs. Some people it means no desserts. There are so many different opinions and I actually didn't define it for me before I started. I thought it would be pretty straight forward, but instead it's lead to a few head scratching moments. 

Like muffins. I love muffins. They are tasty and easy to make. I also know that they almost have as much sugar as a cupcake. Cupcakes do count as sugar, but do muffins? Bread isn't too different from a muffin, but I had already decided that carbs are definitely not disappearing from my life. We live naturally a bit more vegetarian and while carbs aren't a huge part of our diet, they definitely have a presence.  So where do I draw the line? 

I've kind of decided that if it's from a box I don't care, since I make most of what we eat from scratch. The things I actually buy in boxes are things that shave off hours of my time - like pasta, bread, and crackers. Fruit I also think is okay. I haven't had any yet, since the fruit in our kitchen isn't ripe. I always feel weird cutting out an entire food group from my diet. It makes me uncomfortable. 

Matt just informed me that the tiny bit of maple syrup I poured on my oatmeal was all sugar. Oops. I guess I really do need to make guidelines. Maple syrup comes from a tree (we pay extra for that kind). It's natural. It can't be that bad right? I guess we better trek over the library and find out.

3 Suggestions for Organizing with ADHD

I've had ADHD forever and organizing for me is really hard. I tend to lose everything if I don't keep things clean AND organized, and that can be a lot of work! Over the years though, I've found three things that help me function.

1. Get rid of as many things as possible. The less stuff there is, the less stuff there is to distract and stress. That's actually why I'm so drawn to minimalism. It is a way of life that helps me keep my life in control.

2. Define the space. For example, my bedroom currently is for sleeping, dressing, and reading. Anything else cannot be in my bedroom because it distracts from those objective. Now that I'm married there are a few more things in there, but for the most part we stick pretty closely to those things.

Another example is that when I was younger, I had a designated space for homework outside of my room. That space was specifically designed just for homework and had other distractions minimized. It was actually right by the laundry room, so that I had white noise and my siblings would usually leave that part of the house alone. In college, I did the same thing by finding a place that I can focus that had no other big distractions. Each room, closet, and drawer in our home has a very specific purpose. By defining the spaces and using them only for those purposes helps me a lot!

3. Walk through your routines. One of the worst experiences I had in college was having a roommate "help" pack my closet after I asked her not to. When I came home and found everything in boxes, I sat on my floor and cried. I felt so overwhelmed because I seriously didn't know what to do with everything out of place. I ended up pouring out all the boxes and redoing everything, so that when I moved to my new apartment (with a new roommate) that I could set up my routines.

Every time I move to a new house I do this. It is that important.  

So what I mean by walk through a routine?

Let's take walking into my house after going some where. (This is probably the most important one I have).

So when I walk in, I open the closet closest to the door. I dump everything in my purse into my necessity baskets, hang up my purse and coat, and then put away my shoes. 

What this does...

a) keeps stuff from getting accidentally lost in my purse

b) gives my keys a designated spot

c) keeps me from buying duplicates of things that I lost

d) keeps my shoes and coats off the floor and together

e) helps getting out the door quickly

Necessity Basket

When I get ready to leave again, I can pick out what purse I want. Grab whatever I need, and put my shoes on. It's all there. If I need sunscreen or a full diaper bag, I have it all in my necessity basket.

It's not how most people organize there coat closet, but even if I get distracted, tired or sick this routine is so solid that I never lose my keys or wallet. Everything has a place and it's easy and convenient for me to follow it. If your kid has ADHD, you can walk through it with them! The way I graduated college was I had a counselor at BYU who did this with me once a week with my homework and backpack. It saved my grades and my sanity.

So I hope this isn't too complicated and answers any questions about organizing with ADHD.

Institute of Contemporary Art

So on our day at UPenn, we stopped by the Institute of Contemporary Art.

When I was looking for things to at UPenn, (this was before I found out how huge the campus is) I found out that this place was free to visit thanks to a grant that someone donated. I was really grateful for whoever gave that grant. Contemporary art is something that I'm trying really hard to learn to appreciate, but I'm not quite to the point that I'm okay with spending money on to see it. I usually end up not understanding or disliking 75% of it, so it's a bit harder for me to rationalize the money.

The other thing that I was immensely grateful for was the kind staff. They didn't say one thing about me bring Madeleine and our stroller in with all the stuff dangling off it. I overheard the man at the front desk give someone a long list of what was expected out of visitors. There were a lot of rules, and they didn't tell me any of them. It was sweet of them to not stress me out and just let me enjoy the museum. 

They do let people take pictures though, so I actually get to share some of the things I liked in the museum. :)

This was the beginning of the 2nd floor exhibit. I loved the big 50 for some reason. The typewriter was working, and they encouraged people to write something and leave it for the museum. Madeleine loves pressing buttons, so she left them her own message in gibberish. 

Right around the corner was this beautiful room.

I loved the balance of color to white space. The whole wall on the left was covered in the big bold paintings and to the left of them (not pictured) were two framed quilts and this statue titled "Pyramid Pumpkin."

This is the kind of contemporary art I don't really understand. It was cute though? So I took a picture.

This notebook was also in the room. Everyday of the exhibit, they turn the page. This was actually one of my two favorite art pieces in the museum. I love the ugly scribble, contrasting the beautiful art piece on the other page. It made me think that every artist starts somewhere and practice of any type is valuable. It motivated me to keep drawing, with the hope that my own ugly scribbles can one day be more like the beautiful picture on the right.

Around the corner were a few old tvs. I'm not sure what was on them, but it was part of a film exhibit.(Madeleine was being good and I figured I shouldn't test her by making her sit.) 

There was another movie half way down this hall way with a little nook for people to sit in and watch. Madeleine loved looking out the window at all the people below, giving me a chance to rearrange the stroller so I could carry her and the stroller down the stairs.

The hallway

In the nook

These stairs are just decorative, but I thought they were pretty cool.

The first floor...well...I didn't like almost anything on it. While it looked a little bit interesting, I didn't get the point. The funny thing was several of the artist had little essays explaining the art, and it just made me more confused.

I kept walking around trying to find something to connect with and of all things it was the carpet.

The piece is titled Carpet (Office and Ollie's Room) by Rodney McMillian.

When I read the title of the piece, my heart softened a bit at the ugly piece of carpet on the wall. I have no clue who Ollie is, but let me tell you, if Madeleine's floor could speak, it would have a lot to say. It would probably complain about all the food she throws under her little table. It would probably talk about how Matt fell asleep on it last night when he was trying to comfort her after she woke up screaming from teething pain. It might say that her running her cars all over it tickled, or that her dancing made it laugh. 

This hideous carpet does have a story to tell. Maybe even an important one, but I would have never thought about any of it, except for the fact that some guy named Rodney decided to see if he could make people think about it.

It's kind of weird to me to think about the carpet. Matt and I are currently working on minimizing our lives. While I'm pretty sure we'll never become true minimalist, we are drastically editing down our possessions. We don't own much compared to many people, and we had already gone through lots of our stuff when we moved to Princeton. At this point, most of the things we are getting rid of are sentimental. This ugly carpet made me realize that it's okay to stop and pause and think about the items that we are getting rid of, but in the end, I don't need to hold on to them. They all have to leave our home at sometime, otherwise they just sit there in our home museum with no purpose but to remind us of the past. 

When I got home, I was able to let go of a lot more of our things. Even if I didn't understand or even like 90% of the stuff at the Institute of Contemporary Art, I did leave learning something new, and it did change my perspective in a way that helping me achieve one of my dreams. 

Which I guess is really what contemporary art is all about.