A Splendid Surprise

I've found myself overwhelmed with upcoming events in my life. I have several social events that I'm hosting in my house in the near future, plus I'm preparing to have my mom move in with us.

One project that I need to address soon is the upstairs closet. It may not seem that important, but I need to move my current school room into that closet. Unfortunately, that closet has become a catchall for any number of things. It literally became impossible for me to walk into it (it's long and narrow) because of the mess.

Yesterday, instead of dealing with anything, my response was to go in my room, close the door and take a nap.

Last night, Dave and I had to go to a meeting. When we came home, Madeline announced that they had cleaned out the closet. What an incredible surprise! I would never have even thought to ask them to do that. It looks great, too. I'm able to see where everything is, and it will be much easier to decide where things should go.

I love my kids.

Keeping Track of Pencils, Etc.

I wanted to pass on a little trick I implemented this year for school. The kids' pencils and pens, glue sticks, etc. were always getting lost.

This year, they each got a pencil box. Okay, no big deal there. I bought a roll of colored duct tape for each of them (Madeline = blue, Henry = green, Grace = pink). They each (at least the two older ones) started with 10 pencils, 3 pens, a scissors, a glue stick and 24 colored pencils (plus some stand by pens). On each of these, I wrapped a small strip of their respective duct tape.

Now, when I see anything lying around that should be in the box, I know exactly who to call and have them put it away. It's a small thing, and it took a bit of time to set it up, but it's been very helpful in the day to day running of school.