How To Organize Lego Instructions

I'm truly not too proud to admit when something isn't working.  And call it January, but I'm renewed in my mission to make my house work for me.  So, I've been assessing some things lately, things that could be better.

Last January (do you see a trend with the January?) I blogged about our newly created Lego storage solution, and I have to say, 12 months into the deal and the solution was mostly good.

I love the separate bins for all the Lego pieces.  A year ago I would have said and probably did say to my husband as he sat on the floor for forever with the children and sorted ALL! THE! LEGOS! that it wouldn't last, that the Legos would get mixed back up in a matter of weeks, certainly the color separation would not last A YEAR!  The It Feels Like Chaos Household could NEVER manage color sorted Legos!

I was wrong!  The color separation has lasted an entire year!  The kids actually DO put the Legos back into the right color tray.  Their dirty clothes in the hamper is an entirely different less successful story, but this?  Blue Legos with blue Legos, they will do!

Now, the surfaces that I envisioned as building areas atop the Lego storage drawers and on the nearby table are really mostly used as display areas for all the random Lego creations my kids build and then cannot bear to take down EVER.  They seem to build on the floor and the table is always messy looking.  I would much rather the table be an open white space just ready and waiting for whatever creative thing they wanted to build that day and then take down so that the next day or for the next person that lovely white, open space was available.  And to be honest I'd love to see the clean, uncluttered table every time I walked into the playroom.  

But, that is not reality!

There is give and take here.  We have started working with the kids to clear off the table when it gets way too cluttered.  But also, they play with the random creations on the table that look like clutter to me.  So, I've learned to let it go a bit, my desire for the clear, white space.  They call it "Legoland" and now that the girls have their girl Legos all 4 of my kids have fun playing "Legoland" where they make up adventures and stories to act out with their Lego people and Lego buildings and Lego vehicles.

There was something that was not working at all, though, for any of us and it was the binder idea to store all the instruction booklets for the Lego creations.  It was a great idea in theory, but in the practice of our lives this happened:

The binder rings stopped meeting properly in the middle (4 kids will do that to the best of them) so pages kept coming partway out.  Also, some of the books would fall out of their protective sleeve if the binder were turned and held the wrong way and it was hard for the younger kids to get the books back in.

So, out with the old and in with the new!  This weekend I took all the instruction books out of their  protective sleeve binder pages 

where they were sorted by type of Lego 

and piled them all into one stack and put them into a plastic bin with a lid!

I slapped a label on that baby and slid it under the Lego play table.  DONE!

So simple that it made me smile!  So much easier for the kids to rummage through without fear of messing up a system and so much easier for them to put all the books back when they are done (or I refuse them dessert until they clean up their mess).

It reminds me of a question I ask myself often, "Why do I make things so hard?"  Really, usually, the simple solution is the best one!  Save yourselves the effort and go straight to the bin!


Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.
 

Today

I didn't blog over the Christmas or New Year break and now I don't know how to get caught up, so for today, I'm focusing on today.

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This afternoon I smiled finding these two cozy creatures in our playroom tucked into little beds created just for them by my daughters:

The white one is "Sheepie" and she is a sheep (I know you'd never have guessed from her name!) my 5 year old daughter has been playing with a lot lately and then the purple one is "Beauty", my 8 year old daughter's stuffed horse.  The girls have been caring for these two particular stuffed animals for several days now, dressing them in doll clothes, pretending to feed them and read them stories.  It is all very cute and this image of the two animals tucked in together just made me appreciate anew the sister relationship and friendship my girls have with each other!

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Speaking of sibling relationships, part of my 6 year old's homework packet this week was this new year activity and one question was "This year I want to. . ."  and the kids were supposed to write something they want to do this year.  My little guy wrote, "Play with (and then listed the names of his big brother and big sister)."  He could have said travel to New York, go to the moon, eat ice cream for breakfast every day, anything!  But, he just wants to play with his big brother and big sister!

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Something slightly less heart-warming came home from school today with my 5th grader, but it did still make me smile.  A desk citation:

My 10 year old is by far my messiest kid and he's always had messy desks at school so really I'm just surprised this is the first one I've seen this year.  

But, I love the ingenuity of his teacher!  Each kid in the class has a job that they applied for and earn a salary for doing.  My son is a banker.  There are computer techs, greeter/hospitality person, a zoologist (to handles the classroom pet), a security guard, a meteorologist, a clerk, a librarian, and custodians.  The custodians hand out the desk citations.  And the fine is a stiff $100 deducted from your account.  I hope my son can still afford the rent for his classroom desk and chair that comes out of that account!  Oh, and he applied for the banker job because it was the highest paying job in the class, but now after doing it for a semester he's decided it's "not worth it because it's too much work".  "Well, " I said, "Remember that lesson in the real world, the highest paying jobs are not always the best ones!  Money cannot buy happiness."

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I hope your today is awesome!  Find more Friday Fragments here.

We Survived Two Years of Four Kids!

On Christmas Eve we celebrated two years of being a family of six.  Two years since we brought Little Girl home from Ethiopia!

We have decided to celebrate the anniversary of that day when we stepped off the plane from Ethiopia with our new child and were finally all together as a family of 6 every year with a fun family outing.  

This year the weather was beautiful so we decided to do the same thing as last year.  We had a picnic at a park and then rode the pedal boats around the lake.

My husband and the boys were in one boat and I was in another with the girls.  

My girls giggled about the duck with the "crazy hair"! 

Do you see him 3rd in line with a puff ball on the back of his head?

Here's his (her?) close-up:

Then we spotted a turtle on some pontoons and petaled over to get a better look, but as we got closer, this large rat-looking creature that we later learned was a nutria, suddenly swam over and climbed onto a pontoon!

We followed that guy all around the lake when he got in to swim

I'm not sure if he's cute or one of the grossest creatures I've seen, but he sure made our day more fun and exciting!  And educational as we went home and researched nutrias, also known as coypus or river rats!  Apparently they have become quite the pests as they eat so many plants around the wetlands.

It was a great afternoon and then we went home and cleaned up for Christmas Eve church!

Adding a child older than the age of infancy to your family through international adoption is such a surreal thing.  I really cannot describe accurately how we feel about two years because it all just contradicts itself.  In some ways two years feels like too small of a number, it seems like Little Girl has been with us much longer.  "Really, she's only been with us two years?" we sometimes think.  But, in other ways it seems like just yesterday that we brought her home or that we were in Ethiopia with her.  

And then in so many ways, most ways, she has adjusted amazingly well to living in America, being in our family, and speaking English.  But, then sometimes there are still things, like what I call "orphanage behaviors" that crop up and I think, "Really?  We're still seeing this?"  But, I think both realities are normal.  She has come a very long way, yet to some extent her past will always be a part of who she is.

Two years in and having four kids is still very busy, messy and loud (it is funny to go back now and read my post "4 Weeks of Having 4 Kids" and my views then about color-coded cups and less stuff are absolutely still true!), but the blessings are magnified, too with four children!  Mostly we are just so thankful we get to be a family!

"How I Spent My Christmas Vacation" by my husband

In the 2 nights leading up to Christmas my husband spent 14 hours assembling toys!

One large dollhouse from Costco and one foosball table.

He got them done and the kids were super excited on Christmas morning, but note to self for next Christmas:  Only "no assembly required" gifts for the kids!

What's new?

It's a new year!

I know this because in the last 6 days I've exercised 4 times, done some organizing, am already behind on my read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, and have had more than one green smoothie!  All that can only mean one thing, it's the first week in January!

The new year is so like a set of empty storage bins, the possibilities are endless!

In this new year what's new here on the It Feels Like Chaos blog?  (Hint: If you are reading this in a reader, click over to the blog to see.)

I know!  It was more than time for an updated blog header!  Nothing like being 2 years late to allow my header to reflect our family of 6 rather than 5!  And while I do think the change is better, it's not perfect.  I am not a blog designer.  But, the imperfection?  It suits us here at It Feels Like Chaos.  Perfect would not feel like home!

We rang in the new year in our traditional style with sparklers and sparkling apple cider (that Little Girl insisted on calling "wine", no matter how many times I corrected her -- if you are her preschool teacher, just know we did not actually give her wine although I'm sure she will tell you we did!).

But, in this new year, what really matters are the new things the Lord has for us.  Because He's always up to something new:

"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:19

So, I'm not only asking questions like what to fill my empty storage bins with, but what does God want me to fill 2014 with?

Happy New Year, Friends!  If you are like me and have already broken a resolution, remember that truly every day is a new day. "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

Merry Christmas From The It Feels Like Chaos Family

May the miracle that is Christmas surround you and bless you with His love.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Gifts that Require No Shopping!

As I finally finish my Christmas shopping just today, my children remind me of the heart of Christmas:

The handmade gifts they've carefully created and lined up under the tree.

"And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"  Matt 18:2-3