Organizing Toys

From this distance it doesn't look that bad, right? The toy organizer was a fabulous gift that has allowed the boys to find a toy quite easily. Well, they were able to find farm toys in the "farm" tub or animals in the "animals" tub, until Jack went and dumped every single tub.

Yep, every single tub. Like this one, which now contains all of the "guys", characters, Happy Meal toys, etc.

And this one. The "farm" tub.

Don't forget about all of our "Little People".

The before and after shots look pretty similar, but up close, it's so much better!

My little helpers, Henry & Jack.

Counter Space

Please tell me that I'm not the only person that has a messy counter! This little space is where I organize school papers, bills, my to-do notebook, and it also houses a few other items.

Ugh! Messy, messy, messy!

I snapped the above pics and then took everything off the counter, wiped it clean, and went through everything. A few things went to the recyle bin and a few more to the trash can. It took about 15 minutes to do and looks so much better!

See the little journals? Inside I've jotted down major milestones and funny things the boys have said. I've gotten into the bad habit of jotting things on scraps of paper or posting it on Facebook. I'm hoping to get back into using these journals since they'll be right at my fingertips.

Keeping little ones busy during dinner prep

My little boys can sense when I need a time in the kitchen to make lunch or dinner. Sometimes it seems like they're planning my meal demise. What to do, what to do. Well, there are tons of sites out their with busy bag ideas and others with quick printables.

Here's a connect-the-dot that Henry happily completed today while this mama finished making lunch.

Target

Target  has new coupons up!

Did you know you can combine a Target coupon and a manufacturer coupon on one item?

Be sure to read Target's coupon policy.

Happy couponing!

 

Welcome!

I guess I should have started my blog out with a welcome, but it came about in an accidental sort of way. I've been blogging our family life for a few years now and recently posted more organizational entries on my family blog. I started following Jen's blog about a year ago and I've been happily implementing a little organzing around my house while I stay at home with my boys.

The other day I decided that it would be best to keep family in one blog and my other loves in this blog. I'm excited to have the opportunity share my love for photography, scrapbooking, couponing, and general family life with others.

In the right place at the right time

The boys and I went to Hy Vee to pick up a few items the other day and came across a deal.

It was originally $2.99 and marked down to 99 cents. Well, I just happened to bring my coupons in with me and I had a coupon for $1.00 off this item, which made it free.

I'm looking forward to finally trying this product and the best part is that it was free!

Organizing Recipes

I found myself searching through a mess of recipes on Friday. This shopper had purchased everything needed for making spaghetti and meatballs for our family dinner before Trick or Treat on Monday. Then I went to make the meatballs, but couldn't find the recipe. Grr.

Ugh. Just look at that unorganized stack taking up precious cupboard space.

So can you guess what happened? Yep, I decided it was time to finally conquer this task that Jen had mentioned earlier this year.

When Matt and I were married we started out with the traditional recipe card box, but then once we discovered the Food Network we started printing off recipes and then added them to a binder.

Last night I spent I weeded out the recipes we've never used or tried once and didn't like. That left a bit more room in the binder or some dividers.

I used my handy dandy label maker to label each divider.

Now all of our recipes are in the right place and I have a little extra room in my cupboard.