Decluttering Kids Toy Rooms

We all know the feeling. You walk into the toy room or your kids bedroom...or the living room, and you think "how did it ever get this messy?" And as soon as you start to clean up....you give up because you can't remember where everything went or how it all FIT in that spot, or you just get to overwhelmed. Here are a few tips that I've found to help keep this rooms that your kids spend time in clutter free!

1) Invisible (floating) bookshelves! These are all the rage and make for a neat conversation piece and way to ORGANIZE your books! Not bad, right? They are easy to make, offer book storage, and if done right, can add interest to your room.

2) Vintage Lockers: Vintage lockers are one of my favorite ways to add storage to my room. You can find them for fairly cheap at thrift stores, and you can store anything in them! Dedicate each different locker for a different thing - you could even add shelves to it to add even more storage room!

3) Have a yard sale: How many of the toys sitting in your house do your kids really play with? Sometimes the best option is to have a yard sale or donate to your thrift store. When you get rid of all the extra things you don't need, it is so much easier to organize, find things, and you automatically feel more light headed and neat!

4) Clean every time a mess is made! Instead of waiting for it all to pile up, clean as you go, it will be much easier!

5) Dedicate one day a month to working your super mom powers and giving the room an ultra cleaning session! Dust, vacuum, sweep, and everything else that goes along with it!

6) Baskets: I consider these organized chaos. Dedicate one basket for each different type of toy...barbies in one, legos in another, coloring books in yet another, label them and you have easy, and cute storage that you can pull out when you need them!

7) Ladders: Vintage ladders make for adorably unique storage. Lean them against your wall and set stuff that isn't played with much, or is more valuable, on the steps. There are a lot of great things you can do with this technique!

8) If you have a special toy room, it's good to only choose the most important toys to keep in your little girls or boys room. Or if you have a boy and a girl, possibly let your girl keep her more "girly" toys in her bedroom and your boy his "boy" toys in his bedroom and keep the toys they both enjoy in your toy room.

9) Always keep creative supplies in your toy room somewhere! Coloring books and crayons, pencils, markers, washable paints, creativity is so good for kids and lets them express themselves and grow!

10) A unique way to keep your weekly sports and classes in your head is to take a old mirror with a unique design, paint it a color that matches your room, and spray the inside with chalkboard paint. You now have an adorable and unique chalkboard to write reminders and dates on it! Don't forget the special I love you notes!

With these tips, your on your way to a fabulously clutter free room! Good luck and let me know how they work for you!

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hot Wheels® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Hereafter

Amelia died, however, all she knows is she drowned in the river and a few very small random facts that had came rushing back at her through the years. She doesn't know how old she is, who her family is, what kind of person she was, or how she died, or why she is still aimlessly wondering on earth, alone and confused. That is, until she saves Joshua's life and finds that he can see her. Soon an unrealistic to most, romance begins and with the comes feelings that Amelia never new she could feel again, and danger that she didn't know was possible.

"Hereafter" captivated me after reading only a few pages in. It pulled me in and didn't let me out again until I was too tired to keep my eyelids open. It was such a beautiful book and the characters feel real and like you wanted to help them. I enjoyed that Joshua was so accepting of Amelia even though he was human and she was ghost, I felt like that was more realistic than how many books turn the "discovery" into a frightening unbelievable drama for the person "discovering." It was a nice change! I did feel as if their relationship should have developed through the story a bit more, it almost felt choppy in some places and like it was moving at an odd pace skipping from spot to spot. I very much enjoyed reading "Hereafter" and look forward to reading more from Tara Hudson!

Prom and Prejudice

Lizzie, being the scholarship student at a prestigious school has not been welcomed with open arms by many. However, she learns to keep her good friends close and be thankful for the opportunity she has at becoming an accomplished pianist. However, throughout the years Lizzie developed a problem with "rich" people, sticking them in a category before she gave them a chance. So when Darcy comes around, she immediately lumps him together with the other people that had given her such a hard time in the past. However, as she unravels his true story, she begins to fall for him harder than she ever imagined.

"Prom and Prejudice" by Elizabeth Eulberg is a hard book for me to review. I can't quite come up with the right words to describe it. This book had so many of the same elements as the original masterpiece, "Pride and Prejudice." I felt like making the characters have not only the same names as in the original (Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, etc.) as well as very similar personality's, I felt like it was a little too obvious. Even so, I did enjoy this book and it was a fun quick read for a nice Summer day!

Yes Please!

Love and Lavender

Let me tell you a little secret.....

.....my family and I live in the middle of the woods in a rural area. We have two horses, one dog, and 7 cats (we just had 5 kittens last week). I truly can't imagine living in the cities, or even in a small town. Nope, I love the country life. Especially since the lake is just a walk through our woods away!

However....ever since High Definition TV made it's way into our life, we have right around 6 TV channels with two of them being music video channels. Now, we never used to watch much TV at all, and even less now, but it is nice to relax with the occasional show every now and then, which is why I find Verizon FiOS pretty interesting.....

.....I'll be frank, I only just discovered Verizon FiOS around a month ago. I am an all around Verizon girl, so I was interested to hear about it.

The feature that caught my eye the most? Verizon FiOS has advanced fiber optic technology (did ya get that? I didn't.) so it makes for better pixelation, less interruptions and wallllaaaah and not as much weather interruptions! HDTv is starting to look up....

And it's not to shab when you look at the fact that it's been rated #1 for overall quality and customer care, and value in the 2010 "American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Survey for the largest subscription TV service providers."

It's not just for the TV though. It's for your cell phone. You can finish last nights TV show on your cell phone....nifty!

And on top of that? You can Tweet and Facebook AND Youtube from your TV using your remote! Crazy indeed!

FiOS isn't just for your cell phone and TV. Nope, it's your internet as well. Tonight I've actually been having problems staying connected to the internet on my laptop, while it's better now, earlier I was resetting the router a sad amount (at least I got my exercise running up and down the steps!) however with FiOS, that issue is close to resolved because it's on of the top rated high speed internet service with very fast speed and very clear video.

While I am happy right now with our 6 TV channels and our internet and cell phone service (through Verizon), I can't help but eye Verizon FiOS and think of what can be done with it.....definitely time efficient and more multi tasking opportunity's that us ladies are so good at ;)

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Verizon FiOS blogging program for a gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.” (make sure you link to http://VerizonFiOS.socialmoms.com/about)

Nothin Like the Summer

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A large portion of my life has been spent on the road, traveling with my family. We have spent four winters in the camper traveling through Texas, Florida, and California, months at a time. Traveling is second nature to us, and we have stumbled across some amazing sights because of it. Sights that I think that every kid should see and would make wonderful Summer escapes.

Yosemite National Forest:
Yosemite is aaaaabbbbsoooolutely breathtaking. The moment you enter the park it is just stunning and magnificent. We went in the Winter with our camper, but had to leave only a day later because of a snowstorm that was coming in ( on top of the already 5 foot in some areas snow!) - and we would not be able to get out with our camper! It is definitely a place to go in the Spring, Summer, or even Fall. Treck your way past Vernal Falls on the Mist trail and with the sun behind your back, and if the falls are so full that you are getting splashed, you just might capture a full rainbow right in front of you! (tip from "The Photographers Guide to Yosemite") Gorgeous indeed and what a photo opp!

San Francisco:
San Francisco must be my one of my favorite city's that I've visited. It is so full of life and history, surprising and exciting things to be found in every corner. The countryside of San Francisco is equally gorgeous, be sure to visit the beach (no swimming - sharks!) and the lighthouse. It's quite a trek down stairs that are equivalent to 30 stories, but hey, it's good exercise right?!

Image taken by myself - San Francisco Light House

Tarpon Springs Florida:
Tarpon Springs tops my list for another favorite town. It is Grecian goodness all around, sporting a small town vibe, it is just a lovely atmosphere to spend the day meandering around exploring the little shops, checking out the aquarium, having some delicious ice cream, and ending the day with some dancing found right around the corner.

North Padre Island Texas:
While South Padre is the go to town tourist town, I have a special place in my heart for North Padre Island. Secluded and not busy at all, with dunes that you might here Coyotes howling in at night, horseback riding on the beach, and a less teenagery touristy vibe than other beaches, it is a great place to visit.

Calico Ghost Town (California):
This was one of my favorite campgrounds to stay at. It is a revamped old Silver miners town and has a old grave site, a mine to walk through, lots of shops to meander through, and is a great place to explore. A wonderful place to bring the family!

What are you favorite destinations? Any funny traveling stories? I know that I have a few...but we'll save those for another post!

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Alamo blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Purple Heart Book Review

Amazon Product Description:

When Private Matt Duffy wakes up in an army hospital in Iraq, he's honored with a Purple Heart. But he doesn't feel like a hero.

There's a memory that haunts him: an image of a young Iraqi boy as a bullet hits his chest. Matt can't shake the feeling that he was somehow involved in his death. But because of a head injury he sustained just moments after the boy was shot, Matt can't quite put all the pieces together.

Eventually Matt is sent back into combat with his squad—Justin, Wolf, and Charlene—the soldiers who have become his family during his time in Iraq. He just wants to go back to being the soldier he once was. But he sees potential threats everywhere and lives in fear of not being able to pull the trigger when the time comes. In combat there is no black-and-white, and Matt soon discovers that the notion of who is guilty is very complicated indeed.

National Book Award Finalist Patricia McCormick has written a visceral and compelling portrait of life in a war zone, where loyalty is valued above all, and death is terrifyingly commonplace.

My thoughts:

I was only able to get to page 62 before I finished. I wasn't able to "get" into it. The plot felt very slow and like there was never any changes, and as if the story line wasn't moving. Even so, a few of the things that I read, really stuck with me and I am always remembering them. Though I wasn't especially able to get into "Purple Heart," I do think that this would be a great book for a young adult boy with an interest in the military.

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

When I first picked up a young adult book many years ago at the library, "14 Little Blue Envelopes" was one of the first ones. And I've loved it since! Maureen Johnson helped me get into the world of young adult books because of her book, and look what was the result!

I was excited when I found out that she was writing "The Last Little Blue Envelope." And was thrilled with I was sent a copy to review (100% of opinions in this review are off my own.). In the last installment of this series, Ginny retrieves her lost envelope and finds her way back in Paris and is un - happily surprised by a few new changes. However, she begins to find love in unique places as she unravels the crazy mystery that her aunt left behind for her.

Maureen Johnson's books are must reads, and perfect to past down again and again.