Project Room: Before and After

I think I'm almost done simplifying my house!  Yay!

Tuesday I worked on the kitchen.  At first, I didn't think it would take very long.  I had recently organized the pantry and I pretty much use everything in the kitchen.  Or so I thought.  I gave away all of our plastic plates and cups (I haven't been able to use them ever since reading the book Boys Adrift - I postponed reading it for a long time because I worried it would have this effect on me.  I was right).  I kept some plastic tupperware for freezing stuff in because I don't have enough glassware to use for freezing.  I went through every drawer and cupboard.  It took quite a bit longer than I thought and so I had Rock bring home some pizza because I was tired of the kitchen by the end of the day.

I didn't take before and after pictures since there's not much difference on the outside and I didn't want to take individual pictures of each drawer and cupboard, but they are looking nice :-)

Tuesday night and Wednesday, I worked in our project room.  Remember how when I started all of this I mentioned that the room I was in (the computer/baby room) was the worst room in the house?  Well, I lied.  Okay, I didn't exactly lie because at the time it was the worst room in the house, but after de-cluttering for 2 weeks (or is it 3?) and sticking everything I wasn't sure about into the Project room, it was looking really bad.

The project room is technically off-limits for the kids unless I'm with them, but with how busy I've been trying to work on the house, I let them go and do stuff in there.  That didn't help the mess situation.  Anyway, here's the before pictures of the Project Room:

This is where I store all of our school supplies.  I'm standing at the door to the room  You can't see them, but by my feet were 2 boxes of supplies as well
.

 This is the wall when you walk in and look to your left.  We store pictures, journals, cards, and other mementos in these boxes.

This is the closet - it has our sewing, crocheting, beadwork, scrapbooking, and more school storage. We don't usually store the baby in here.

Come to think of it, I maybe should include some before and after pictures of the rooms in which there is not such an apparent change so everyone doesn't think I'm a total slob.  Anyway, the project room looks much better now.

I got rid of bins of markers (half of them were without lids), bins of crayons (half were broken), all my "crafty stuff" (pipe cleaners, fluff balls, styrofoam balls, etc; a lot of "science experiment" type things, many half-empty glue bottles, crafty scissors, felt, and other such things)

Here it is the after pictures:

This is taken from the same angle the first picture was taken.  The table and chairs where folded up on the right side, but you couldn't see them in the first picture.

This is about the same angle as the second picture above.  I went through the boxes, but I didn't have time to go through all of the pictures and all of the cards.  I think I'll take one box at a time to my mom's house when I go visit her since I tend to waste a lot of time when I'm over there.  I did empty two boxes though (a lot of old school work by the kids - I did keep a little).

 What I kept:

In the boxes: 2 boxes hold pictures (from the pre-digital age), 1 box has little baby crocheted items, 1 box holds journals and 1 box holds cards.  1 box is empty.

The top right compartment on the wire shelf in the corner has charcoal and pencil drawing stuff, next to that is the acrylic paints, paper and supplies.

On the middle-right row there are office supplies (envelopes, paperclips, etc), next to that are science things (flash cards, microscope, measuring tools, rock collecting things).

The bottom-right row has their nature binders (for collecting leaves, etc) and next to that I have what's left of our curriculums (Life of Fred, Discover the Scriptures, music games). I did have The Phonics Road in here.  Then I took it out and decided to sell it.  Then I put it back.  Then I took it out.  Right now, it's in a box in our front room getting ready to be sold (I've been giving most stuff away, but that curriculum cost me $400 for 2 years worth!).  I might still put it back.  It's a good program... I just have to decide if I want to use it or just do something simpler.  I'm also selling a piano curriculum that I paid $100 for, the Story of the World Activity Book, and the Grammar Punk curriculum.  I'm really not very good at following others' curriculums.  A Thomas Jefferson Education teaches to get rid of them and just study the classics anyway right?

Here is the closet now:

I know it still looks pretty full, but I did my best.  This was a hard room for me.

What I kept:
Right tippity-top upper corner: Rock's baseball cards (not mine to give away, though I wouldn't mind)
Under that: Sewing machine, lamp, the top drawer has cross-stich patterns, bottom drawer has beading things. 

Middle shelves (top to bottom)
1) Small container of tempera paint (I had 5x as much) to be used only on special occasions and when I get it out, and a small container of play-dough toys (I had 4x as much) - same rules as paint.  I almost got rid of both of these, but in the end I decided I still wanted to give them a chance to play with play-dough and paints on special occasions.
2) Bin of good paintbrushes (I got rid of a lot)
3) Bin of hot glue w/gun, bin of beady eyes (almost got rid of these, but Spice wanted them for when she gets around to crocheting animals), and cards (come to think of it, I think I'll throw these out tomorrow, we've had these for 9 years and I never pull cards out of it to give people, I'll just keep the few "thank-you" cards).
4)Bin of book-binding supplies, bin of sewing supplies (thread, scissors, needles, pins).
5)Bin of patterns and 2 more bins with other sewing supples (buttons, elastics, weights)
6)Book of needlework, and a file folder of cardstock (I got rid of all my scrap-booking supplies.  I haven't scrap-booked since Bud was one).

Top right shelf:
Bin of extra pens, bin of extra scissors, bin of extra glue and a bin of extra pencils.  (I purposely put all of these in hard to reach places.  If my children loose their pen, pencil, scissors or glue - they'll have to do a small job to pay me for another one - I want them to learn to be careful with their school supplies and I get tired of finding them all over).

Across the bottom (left to right):
1)Wrapping Paper and gift bags
2)Frames
3)Fabric
4)Crocheting and Knitting things
5)Extra binders, notebooks, and folders

I'm not allowing loose paper and all sorts of notebooks about different things out anymore.  Here's what we have out (in our devotional or in our free-time boxes):

Spice has two drawing pads for her drawings (she asked for two - one for doodles and one for realistic things), a poetry notebook (to write the poems she's memorized and the ones she composes), a journal (for her daily thoughts), a math notebook, and a dictation/language lesson notebook (also to write her stories in), and a nature journal.

Bud and Little Miss both have one drawing pad, a journal, a poetry notebook and one more notebook for stories, notes, or whatever they choose and a nature journal.

I have a drawing pad, a journal, a book of centuries, a nature journal, a notebook for my book and lecture notes, and a poetry notebook.

I started the living room today.  I made it through the books shelves.  I really have a hard time getting rid of books.  I think I might have to go through and do one more round just to pick a few more out.  Here are the books I got rid of:

I got rid of even more 6 months ago, but I still have quite a bit.  I really only want the best, but I have such a hard time parting with books.  On a side note, I had a few books that I purchased at D.I. because they were "Newbery Award" winners.  I planned to read them before recommending them to the kids, but since I hadn't had time I looked their reviews up on Amazon.  I was shocked by some of the content in the books!  No more buying books just because they are award winners  (I have found some good ones in the past) - I'm sticking to the lists of trustworthy sources that I have.

I did also make it through the front room closet, but I have no pictures.  I got rid of several shoes in there though.

So, that's all for now.  I do want to have this wrapped up soon.  We're not going anywhere this weekend so hopefully I can finish it all up on Saturday.  It'll be nice to get back to a normal routine again!  I trust that next 6-month purge won't be nearly as difficult!

The Bedrooms: Before and After

On the upper level in my house, we have three bedrooms, the baby/computer room, a hallway closet, and two bathrooms.  I finished tossing stuff in the bedrooms and closets last week and I tossed stuff in the bathrooms today.  The upper level is finished - yay!

I didn't take "before" pictures of my bedroom, like I said before - there's not much in there so there wasn't a lot of places I could fill up with clutter (Hmmm.  Maybe there's something to that...)  I just had to throw away a lot of paper (talks and things I had printed out that were laying on the nightstand), take some books to the bookshelf downstairs and some to the D.I. pile.  We had some weights on the floor that went into the master closet (now that there's plenty of room in there) and a guitar that went into the corner of the computer room (now that there's plenty of room in there).  Here's what's in our bedroom:

Actually, that's not all, there's a laundry basket that you can't see by the door and a little magazine holder next one side of the bed for Rock's books.  The nightstand drawer has the books I'm currently reading and the cupboard has two small bins with crocheting and cross-stitching supplies for the kids to do while I read at night (sorry if the detailed lists about everything that is left get a little boring - in my mind I think that if I can list exactly everything that is in my house and where it goes- I'll be about where I want to be in the amount of stuff I have).

I also didn't get a "before" picture of the girls' room.  They got started on it since they were so exited about getting rid of stuff, so by the time I got in there, they already had a garbage bag full of clothes that they didn't wear.  I should have taken a picture anyway, though, because I went through their closet and drawers with them after that and we came up with 2 more garbage bags full of clothes to give away.  I had no idea there was that much in there - it didn't look like their was.  The girls are pretty good about keeping their things organized.  Here is the after picture:

(I know I need some art on the walls - I've never been very much into decorating, but with how nice and simple everything is looking now - I'm seeing the need for a nice painting here and there.  The drawers are now about half full instead of busting with clothes.  Top to bottom left to right: 1)Accessories, 2)Spice's pants, 3)skirts, 4)PJs, 5)socks and underwear, 6)Little Miss' pants.

Here is their closet (I would love to have no toys in here, but Spice really likes to keep her doll's things organized.  If they are in the toy room siblings and kids that come over mess them all up, so I've allowed her to keep them in her closet).

Bottom:
The plastic drawers at the bottom hold doll clothes and accessories (ridiculous, I know, but she and her friends play with this stuff for hours).  The two purple boxes you see on the floor are the doll's beds.  She also has doll clothes hanging on little hangers on the stand that middle doll is on.  Funny girl.  I'm okay with it as long as she keeps it clean.
Right:
Spice's shirts and boots above them
Middle:
Hats and Spice's shorts
Left:
Top - clothes to grow into
Middle - Dresses
Bottom - Little Miss' shirts

I think the hardest part was giving up some clothes that were in perfectly good condition and that I liked, but there were just too many of them - how many shirts does a girl need anyway?  I'm still going through my closet periodically and getting rid of clothes that I'm realizing I really like on the hanger, but I don't wear them because I don't like them as much on me.

The boy's room "before":

Bud almost didn't allow me to post these pictures on my blog because he said it was embarrassing (he's wiser than I am).  I finally talked him into it by telling him how it's fun to see how peaceful a place can look when you decide to get rid of everything you don't need.  Here's their room "after":

Notice that the drawers can shut (I could usually accomplish this feat after organizing a bit, but now they are actually half-way empty so it was pretty easy.)

Boys seem to need to keep certain treasures. The box on top of his dresser is Bud's whittling stuff, the top red shelf holds Bud's current books, a water bottle and his scripture bag.  The middle shelf holds his rock collection and Bazinks' night time books (he sometimes reads in bed with his dad if he gets bored during our family story).  The bottom shelf is Bud's bug habitats.  The two swords in the corner are decorations that I plan to put up on the wall ones of these days.

Top box: Clothes to grow into.
Shelves: T-shirts
On hangers: Other shirts and suits
Floor: Shoes and a stool

Here's the hallway closet before:

I had each child pick one blanket for themselves and their favorite towel.  I got rid of all the rest (except for the ones in the basement guest room - I'll get to those later).  I plan to buy hooks this week to stick on the inside of their doors for them to hang their towel on when they are done using it.  This way, I can just gather up the towels once a week and wash them all instead of finding them in messy piles on the floor.

Here's the hallway closet after:

Top to bottom:
Things for our bed if we ever get a bed frame :-)
A picnic blanket and a baby blanket
Towels (these won't be in here once I get the hooks)
Seven "Cuddle" Blankets (they look kind of messy don't they?  I guess I have room to put two on each shelf if I want to right?)

I didn't get "before" pictures of the bathrooms either.  Since everything was just in drawers it didn't look like a very dramatic change.  I did toss A LOT of lotion and body sprays (I don't use either very much).  I go through a bottle of lotion like every three years so I had like a thirty year supply in my bathroom.  I kept my favorite lotion and body spray.  I only kept the make-up I use (how novel is that?), one bottle of hairspray (we use it so seldom and I had four bottles - I'm not sure why), three brushes (I don't think I'm responsible enough yet to trust myself with only one brush), and a few other things that we actually use.  I threw everything else away.  It occurred to me how much easier it is to clean somewhat empty drawers - maybe I'll get around to doing it more often!

The kid's bathroom has nothing in the drawers except some floss, toothpaste and Bud's eczema cream.  I put some extra toilet paper in the cupboard.

I'm so glad that the upper level is done!

I told the kids of a game we will be playing to keep it organized.  Every morning they get to move up the ladder 5 steps if I find nothing out of place when they are done with their morning list.  For every item I do find that is out of place (I'll be checking drawers and closets too) they'll get to move up one less step.  I want to eventually apply this to their zones as well, but I want to start practicing with a smaller space, and I want to clear their zones of anything we don't use before I start expecting so much.

Rooms I'm dreading getting started on now: the kitchen and our "Project" room.  Ugh.  I just have to remind myself how nice it will feel when they are done!  Hopefully I can get them done this week!

Seasons Passing

Yesterday, I and the family got ready to go to my cousin's sealing at the Draper temple.  As we were getting in the car I went to get my recommend from my temple bag and it was not there.  I had forgotten that I had gone to the temple with a friend about 2 weeks ago and I didn't take my bag - just my recommend.  Of course that was a big mistake because it means that I put my recommend somewhere that I don't usually put it and I could not remember where that somewhere was.  I searched everywhere for 20 minutes and finally decided that we were not going to make it.  I was very sad to miss it.

We still had to drive south for the reception so I asked my family if they would like to stop at some canyon and take some pictures.  I had been worried lately  that with all of our staying home to get rid of stuff, that we might miss the changing colors in the mountains before we managed to get out there (I'll post some more before and after pictures this week, if I had a solid week to work on it, I'd be done by now, but I've only had a couple days without having anywhere to go, so it's going slowly).  Fall goes so quickly and then the leaves are gone.  No amount of purging is worth missing Fall for!

We went up a canyon and found a nice looking trailhead.  I was happy to discover that there are still many green leaves and that we'll have several more opportunities to see the colors change before it's too late.  We took some pictures.  I won't post my favorites because we might use one for our Christmas cards this year, but I'll post some cute ones throughout this post.

 

Afterward, we drove to my mom's house to get ready for the reception.  At the reception I saw my beautiful cousin all dressed up in her wedding dress and I wondered how she was old enough to be getting married.  I first met her when she was seven and it was not all that long ago.  I looked at my little girl and realized that she'd be going into the Young Women program in merely a year, and I wanted to stop time since it keeps slipping away from me. 

A little while later, they had the father-daughter dance to Butterfly Kisses.  It brought back a flood of memories as well.  It did not seem that long ago when I was dancing to that song with my dad on my wedding day.  As I looked around at my five little kids I knew it wouldn't be too long before they would be leaving home and starting their own families.

I was filled with gratitude that I am learning to cherish the little moments with my children.  I am so thankful for the last two years that I've had Spice at home, for how close we are, for the many moments that I haven't missed.  I'm sure I still miss plenty of moments that I do not notice because I get distracted with things, but I am learning to be more aware and to not let them pass me by.  I am so thankful that I am seeing the beauty around me more and more. 

The other day, Spice was reading scriptures and she burst out laughing.  I asked her what was so funny and she replied, "Elizabeth's baby jumped in her tummy when Mary came to see her!  He must have been a smart baby to know that baby Jesus was in Mary's tummy!"  I laughed with her and was so glad to have been there at that moment.

Last week, I was reading to the kids about the resurrection and how Mary came to the tomb and found the Savior was missing.  We read about how she stayed at the tomb weeping after the disciples had left.  They had all heard this before, but I think it was the first time little Bazinks had understood it.  He stared at me wide eyed as I told the story.  I told them that Jesus then appeared and that she thought it was the gardener.  He laughed in anticipation.  He looked at me in wonder as I told him that Jesus said, "Mary" and then she recognized him and said, "Master!"  He laughed again with joy and then hid his face (he doesn't like me to notice when he gets too exited).  

Later, we were listening to The Lamb of God by Rob Gardner as he was helping me wash the dishes.  The song about Mary and the empty tomb came on.  He heard it and then asked me to play it again because he liked that part so much.  I was thankful to be there at that moment.

The seasons of life are passing so quickly.  I hope I can learn to treasure them even more and not take for granted all of the precious moments all around me.

Here are some pictures of dancing away that evening at the reception.  The kids had a great time.

Bud with my cousin, Elizabeth

Bazinks with my cousin, Stephanie

Spice, Bud and Little Miss

My parents with Ray

Elizabeth with Ray

The Master Closet: Before and After

I am waking up at odd hours of the night the last few nights and am not able to go back to sleep.  Last night I was up at 1:30 and couldn't sleep again until close to 4am.  This morning I woke up at 3:00 am and finally just got out of bed at 3:45 since I was wide awake.  I'm not thinking about anything in particular.  I think it must be my lack of exercise lately.  I'll be exercising this morning.  Hopefully that helps :-)

Since I'm up and it's too early to do anything because I might wake people, I figured I might as well post some more pictures.

First, I must thank Corri for this quote that I love:

"Seeking knowledge also can be an effective antidote to worldliness. We invest a great deal in the acquisition of stuff. Companies bombard us with slick, relentless propaganda as to why we must have their stuff, and we judge an individual’s
success by their stuff’s sheer quantity and supposed quality. I like stuff—I especially like the word stuff. But consumption never was creativity. It brings few lasting satisfactions and can bring burdensome debts. Stuff beyond
our basic needs does not liberate. Consider the overall investment of your time. You have to shop for stuff. You have to clean, maintain, and organize stuff. You lose stuff. You look for stuff. You polish stuff, secure it against theft, trip over it, recharge it, upgrade it, accessorize it, pack it, move it, unpack it, insure it, fix it, and eventually sell, trash, or bequeath it. Stuff has no use beyond this life, and it takes a lot from us." -Shawn Miller

I listened to the whole speech yesterday and it was very good (it's not about simplifying by the way - it's about knowledge, but really worth listening to). You can hear it here.

We finally had a stay-at-home day yesterday so I was able to resume my 6-month purge.  I decided to tackle my closet.  I really dreaded it and considered skipping it for several reason.  One is that I just got rid of a bunch of clothes 6 months ago and I didn't think there was that much in there to get rid of.  Also, I often stare at the clothes in my closet without having "anything to wear".  Third, it looked rather overwhelming despite all that.

I love reading in Little House on the Prairie how the children had their one everyday dress, a Sunday dress, and maybe one "second-best" dress for special occasions.  Of course, they had to make and wash all their own clothes by hand so laundry wasn't as "easy" as it is for me.  Unfortunatelly, when we started making things simpler to wash and make - we just used more of them - making clothes take just as much time as it did for them I think.

I sure wouldn't mind having three outfits!  Wouldn't that make things so simple?!  Sure, we might not smell very great by the end of the weekday (they also just bathed once a week - there wasn't time for such luxuries more often), but if we're all smelly we probably wouldn't even notice!  We should probably avoid extremes in clothing, though, and that would be rather extreme in our day I suppose, so I couldn't go quite that far.  I didn't go near that far actually.

Rock and I have never really been into thinking about fashion.  We try to look nice, but I mostly just buy clothes if I see a good bargain on something I wouldn't mind wearing.  I don't really enjoy shopping (unless I find some great deal) so I don't go very often.  So, I'm not sure why we still seem to accumulate clothes.  I guess for me, it's probably because I don't end up liking half of them very much after wearing them a couple times, but then they sit in my closet anyway because I just bought them and I'm sure I'll wear them again sometime...

When I went into my closet to take the "before" picture I wondered what in the world I was thinking.  Why would I show all these messy pictures of my home on the world-wide web?  I must be crazy, but it is rather motivating so I'll keep going - at least you'll see why I was feeling like there was starting to be too much to do.  I considered cleaning up a bit before the picture, but then, that wouldn't have been very honest right?

Here it is:

Now, keep in mind that Rock and I do not have a dresser (we don't have any bedroom furniture, actually, besides a boxspring, a mattress and a nightstand - we've never been able to find bedroom furniture that we both agree on.  I'm sure if we found something cheap that one of us really liked then we'd just get that, but the ones I like are pricey and I don't want to spend that much money if Rock doesn't like it and he feels the same way about the stuff he likes - so it's been 12 years and no bedroom furniture :-)  Obviously, it's not much of a priority anyway) so this is all of our clothes.  The top of the closet has exercise clothes, maternity clothes, winter gear, swimming stuff, Rock's bike things, medicine and a few miscellaneous items.

You can't see it in the above picture, but beween mine and Rock's clothes there are some shelves so I took a picture (I do fold the clothes when I put them in here, but they end up looking like they were just thrown in after anyone searches for anything):

There are also shelves at the corner of the closet so I took a picture of those as well:

 I know, I'm crazy to take pictures of such incriminating evidence.

At least it's much better now.  I threw out anything I hadn't worn in while and most things I hadn't seen Rock wear in a while.  We surely didn't need so many t-shirts so I got rid of a lot of those.  I also got rid of socks without matches and basically anything we don't use or need.

Here's what it looks like now:

 I'll be getting rid of the extra hangers, but I left them on for the picture so you could appreciate the amount of clothes we've given away in the last 6 months.  Those used to be all full.

The top of the closet now has:
Left bin - swimming gear
Black bag - maternity clothes
Corner bin - winter gear
Corner that you can't see - a small bin with what is left of our medicine (a lot of it was expired).

Here are the middle shelves:

Top to bottom: ironing stuff, Rock's exercise clothes, his t-shirts.

Corner shelf:

Top to  bottom: my exercise clothes, our shorts, my t-shirts/PJs,  under these shelves I've hung my jackets and sweaters.

The funny thing is that this morning, I didn't stare at my closet having "nothing to wear".  Even though there are less clothes - I only kept the ones I wear and now I don't have to sift through all the ones that I don't!  What a novel idea.  Rock thinks he could get rid of more.  I didn't dare get rid of too many of his clothes without his consent so there are still several in there that I don't see him wear.  I got rid of all I could from my side, but I think I could part with more in a couple of days.  We'll see.

It's really refreshing to have a closet filled with only things that we use!  I also love knowing exactly what is in each drawer and bin.  The drawers were starting to overflow and now there is plenty of room in each one.  I wanted to keep going through the house, but I stopped myself so I could spend some time with the kids.  I tend to get a little carried away sometimes once I get going.  I think I'll tackle the hallway closet and the boys' room next.

General Conference Inspiration

I decided to participate in a General Conference meme (thanks for passing it along Chocolate) It will help me get my thoughts down in an organized fashion.

General Conference Highlights, October 2010:

1. Who were your three favorite speakers?

Ha ha! Everyone of them was so insightful! The ones that stand out to me the most right now are:

Jeffrey R. Holland - He reminded me of the importance of the work I'm doing and of letting others know how much I appreciate their work.

Rosemary Wixom - I liked the image of holding to the rod myself so that my children can hold on tight to my hand.

David McConkie I always love talks that help me see how to be a better teacher. I loved how he emphasized how I need to immerse myself in the scriptures and being exited about the gospel so that my "learners" will catch my attitude - or Spirit. And that there is no real learning without the Spirit! Also that I can invite those from history into my home if I know them.

D. Todd Christofferson - I really liked the thought of how this life is a stewardship of time and choices and how we can consecrate it to God's purposes. I'll be studying this talk in detail.

Dieter F. Urchtdorf - Since I've been trying to simplify my life, this talk reaffirmed to me that it is the right thing and helped me get a vision for how it would look. I liked how he spelled out what really matters.

Quentin L. Cook - I loved the image of blacking out evil from our homes and lives and being a light to our communities. I pondered on his saying that freedom and light are hard to attain and maintain

Richard G. Scott - A wonderful talk on how to build character! We talk about this a lot at home so I'll be using this talk much to teach my children and in my own life.

Mary M. Cook - She stressed the influence that we have on our children - I loved how she said to not hold on to the world with one hand and to the gospel with the other, but to put both hands on the iron rod - to live the gospel with all intent and focus.

Dallin H. Oaks - I appreciate his way of detailing things that are sometimes hard to grasp in a way that they make sense. I like understanding how the two lines of communication to our Heavenly Father work.

David Bednar - I'm working on having the Holy Ghost with me at all times and this talk was very helpful as to how to do this. I also liked the thought of "receiving the Holy Ghost" as an invitation to action. I'll be teaching this to the children.

Larry R. Lawrence - Courageous parenting is so needed in our world. I liked the admonishment for husbands and wives to support and respect each other when one has a feeling about something. He reaffirmed my thoughts on postponing any pairing off until youth are ready for marriage and also about not allowing sleepovers. I am also going to step up my efforts for having personal interviews with each other as a couple.


2. Favorite talk?

This is a hard one! Elder Uchtdorf's might be the one because he gave me a more clear vision in what I am trying to accomplish in simplifying and it felt so nice.




3. Favorite hymn sung during Conference?
Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd

4. Who wore the best tie?
I didn't notice ties, but I did like the out-of-the-ordinary suit President Monson wore during his last talk.

5. Do you think conference had a “theme”?
The wise use of time stood out to me

6. Share a few of your favorite quotes (paraphrasing is fine).

(These are from my scribbled notes so they are mostly paraphrasing):

Character is the fabric of inner-strength woven by threads of righteous decisions. - Elder Richard G. Scott

We become what we want to become by consistently being what we want to become- Elder Richard G Scott

Don't do anything you wouldn't want your children to do - Mary M. Cook

Value children's [spiritual] life more than their temporary good-will. -Larry R. Lawrence

To develop your relationship to God, you must spend time alone with him. - Dieter Uchtdorf

Our home should be an incubator - Elder Robert D. Hales

Without the Spirit there is no real learning - David McConkey
On work:

"By work we sustain and enrich life. It enables us to survive the disappointments and tragedies of the mortal experience. Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated, but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires." - D. Todd Christofferson

7. Something that made you smile during conference.

Of course the airplane joke by Elder Uchtdorf was classic.  Even the kids burst out laughing.

8. Any evidence that your children paid attention?

I told the kids that if they had a question that they wanted an answer to, that they could ask Heavenly Father to help them find the answer during conference.  Spice said that she wanted to know how to have more faith and that her answer was to follow the prophet.

Bud's answer was funny and insightful.  He said he wanted to know when the second coming was going to take place and that his answer came from the 14 fundamentals of following the prophet: "The prophet will tell you what you need to know, not necessarily what you want to know."

9. If you had to give a talk in General Conference (don’t faint, this is hypothetical), what do you think you’d speak about?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of making our homes spiritual havens.

10. What are some of your post-conference goals?

-Keeping the Holy Ghost with me at all times

-Consistent personal interviews with each child

-Continue simplifying and only keeping those things in my home and in my schedule that really matter

-Making sure I show my appreciation more often - start sending those thank-you cards that I don't get around to sending ever.

-Teaching the kids about "receiving the Holy Ghost" and character

-Living a consecrated life

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Conference was wonderful!  I feel recharged and ready to take on another 6 months.  I am so thankful for living prophets.  I know they are men of God.

Another goal I have for the next few months is memorizing the Living Christ with the kids.  When I read about this idea in the September Ensign, I knew it was something I wanted to do with my kids, but it was going to be a while before I put the work into it.  I found in my e-mail inbox today that Rochelle from Discover the Scriptures has done the work for me so we'll be starting the memorizing today.  Want to join us?

Toy Room: Before and After

6 months ago we had a very full toy room.  Every bin in it was full to capacity and we had FOUR large plastic bins in the back full of stuffed animals.  We had many big plastic toys in the corner of the room, and lots of small plastic bins in the closet as well.  We had two over-flowing bins of dress-up clothes and many little plastic toys in various bins.  I was glad to have a whole room for it all - even though it was a pain to clean up (all of the bins were labeled, but toys often made it into the wrong bins) - especially when any friends came to play.

After reading The Headgates, I realized that this was not good for my children and that I needed to greatly reduce the distracting and entertaining toys around our house so we got rid of a lot.  The kids were hesitant at first, but then jumped right in and got into the spirit of it as they realized that this would help them spend less time cleaning and more time using their imaginations.

Since then, little things have been filtering in and toys have been scrambled into the wrong bins again.  I let the kids keep several "sets" of things and those sets were scattered.  Bud is in charge of keeping the toy room clean and I don't go downstairs to check it enough.  He did an okay job, but things did get put away in the wrong bins and he didn't always see the little things on the edges of the room, etc.

Here is the before picture of the toy room yesterday (the kids had already gotten out a couple of bins to start going through - it wasn't usually this messy).

It does look kind of bad, but every single one of those bins used to be completely full, as was every shelf in the closet and there used to be stacked big plastic bins in the back of the room.  Anyway, this time it was easy to just put empty a bin on the floor, ask them to take only the things out that they use, and throw everything else into a D.I box.

We got rid of almost all small plastic toys (they almost got rid of their Littlest Pet Shop set, but at the last moment, they went and got it from upstairs and brought it back down - not ready to part with it yet.) We also got rid of our wooden puzzles (no one ever did them), and several dress-ups that they didn't use.  I can't remember all we got rid of, but here's a picture of the boxes for D.I. (the bags are clothes from the girl's room and dress-ups):

Here is what is left:

The clear bin on the left has what is left of the stuffed animals - much improvement from the four boxes before!  We used to also have large tots in the squares without bins,  and now those are empty.  Here is what is in the bins:

Top to bottom, left to right:
1) puppets (they were willing to let those go, but I wasn't)
2) Littlest Pet Shop (maybe someday they'll go!)
3) Music (recorders, silky scarves, cymbals, etc)
4) cars and planes (there's only about 10 or so left)
5) dinosaurs (we kept about 10 - we used to have two big bins full - the clear bins like the one the stuffed animals are in).
6) Baby dolls and their supplies
7) Star Wars (two light Sabers, a spaceship and 3 characters - we used to have a lot more)

In the closet:

Left:
 -The plastic play-houses are for the Littlest Pet Shop games - they almost went to grandma's house, but they decided to put them back ;-)
-Under those are the dress-up clothes you can hang and the little bin next to them is for misc dress-up things also.

Right:
 -The big bin on the floor is for outside toys (balls, foamy light sabers, jump-ropes, etc)

Middle:
-The little clear bins are stacked and empty.  The big clear bin in the middle has the blocks, Tinker Toys and Lincoln logs.  There's not a ton left of those either, but enough for them to make a nice set-up if they'd like.

Here is the other side of the room:

As you can see, the bins are empty except for some rope.  I think we'll put the rope somewhere else and donate the bins to grandma who inherited some of our toys from the last purge.  We put the plastic drawers that used to be next to the bins in the girls room for their socks and underwear. 

The kids were thrilled with their improved, orderly, toy room.  It does feel so much more peaceful in there and more inviting as a place to use your imagination without a bunch of entertaining distractions.  I'm happy with the progress.

I'll have to put my 6 month purge on hold until next week.  We have too much planned this weekend, but conference ought to give me any additional inspiration that I may need to finish going through the house right?  It's been fun so far.