Cleaning Progress/Online Drawing Game

Oh my goodness, it continually astounds me how often I can clean out closets and organize toys and gather piles for donation and still have more to deal with a few months later!

How is this possible???

Oh yeah. 

I know.

I have three tiny humans who accumulate stuff (toys, crafts, clothes, books, priceless “treasures”) on an exponential level. And I have mild OCD/anti-stuff tendencies that I have to constantly keep in check.

So...cleaning and organizing makes our household go ‘round—especially as things like a new school year approach. (As I’ve already mentioned on this here blog.)

Luckily, I made some excellent headway today in Chica’s room, which was pretty much disaster zone ground zero.

Look how tidy and serene it looks now!

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Already my soul feels calmer.

And, look—you can see the top of her dresser again!



And I don’t have a before picture, but there is significantly less stuff on her hanging shelves, so no more fear of the (now-reinforced) mounts pulling from the wall!



And holy cow, for the love of all that is holy...her closet was my afternoon miracle. Just look at how situated everything is!



Sigh.

If only it would stay that way for longer than a day. ;)

And, hey, are those a couple of new school dresses (the front three or four) I spy??

Why, yes. Yes they are.

Because I risked life and limb and heat exhaustion in the back-to-school crowds the other day to snag her (and Chicklet!) a couple of lovely, inexpensive little things.

So in case you can’t tell, I’m feeling much better regarding Chica’s space after our work today—and the bestest part of all is that we had a wonderful time tackling it all (the closet, specifically).

I don’t know what it is, but Chica’s room has always been the bedroom that invites more play than the others. So we spend far more time in there—and in the closet, of all places. 

So it was a blast to hunker in there this afternoon and rotate books and organize the holiday ones (we pulled the Fall ones to the forefront—wohoo!) while Little Man was finishing his nap.

I adore this kind of in-the-weeds time with the kiddos, and it’s always such a joy to see them greet old books like friends, or just snuggle up with a device while we’re packed in like sardines, limbs all on top of one another. :)





Leave it to my kinda-sorta-hoarder eldest to try and squirrel some of her favorite old books away to be reaquainted without fear of siblings stealing them, ha.

Oh, and though this picture was before everything was tidy, I should note that we took a significant step of moving her nursery-days glider out and donating it this weekend.

I was interested to see how she would feel about this change, but all fears were cast aside that night when she lit up like a megawatt bulb when she realized she didn’t have to wedge herself between the glider and the nightstand to browse through her Fancy Nancy stack of books to pick one for her bedtime story

She was so pumped, actually, that I’m not looking to fill that space right away. I think it’ll be fun to just let it marinate and have a bit more free room for awhile.

Okay, so now that I’ve totally bored you with a play-by-play of cleaning, if you’re still with me, I’ll give you a prime example of why this sort of organization helps me to be a better mother.

Tonight, because Chica’s sheets and blankets were washed and fresh and her room was spotless, I was feeling so zen that I decided to have some special one-one-one time after bath, tackling one of her remaining Summer Art Challenges.

This one was to play around with an online drawing game, from among several that we’re suggested.

I don’t know if it was the special treat of some quality time just us, or Chica’s excitement, or just the fact that I adored both sites that we tried, but this might be one of my favorite challenges so far, if you can believe it. :)









You can’t see the screen in this last shot, but her smile is more beautiful anyway. ;)



I would definitely recommend both sites for an everyday diversion or a special computer event—and we plan to check out the others on the list another day.

Also for another day (tomorrow)...tackling more of this organizing!

With some fun thrown in, too. :)

Over and out, m’peeps.