Storage Cubes?

I have been trying to convert our back hallway into a makeshift mud room since we don't have any room for a proper one. I purchased a very inexpensive bookshelf to store our mittens and hats in the winter and baseball gloves, shinguards, and balls in the summertime.

I have been using dairy baskets (I think that's what they are called) --they are the baskets that gallons of milk are delivered to the stores in-- to store the equipment up until now. The upside is that they are very durable and stack well; the downside is that they are really ugly.

I have been looking for cute baskets to replace them but I haven't been able to find anything durable enough that is also inexpensive. After I saw some recovered storage cubes on a blog that I am sorry I can't find-I'll keep looking and give credit when I find it- I thought that I could just recover these to make them cute.

I purchased some coordinating upholstery fabric and pulled out my handy-dandy glue gun. I wrapped the outside of the baskets in thin batting so the texture of the basket wasn't so obvious and then started cutting and glueing to fit. I didn't use any sort of a pattern but I did line them with the opposite fabric on the inside of the basket. I am still looking for a cute ribbon that will look good on the striped basket.

This fabric coordinates so well with my living room that I was tempted to put them in there instead but I think I will cover some more, and make lids for them to store our scriptures and a few small toys for Addyson.

ADD Relief

My son, Chandler has been diagnosed with Passive ADD. This is different from the more common ADHD because it doesn't have the hyperactivity issues associated with it. Chandler is a super mellow kid that rarely acts out at home or at school. He is generally content to daydream his way through the entire day.

Chandler has struggled a lot lately because we had to take him off Strattera. The medication had been working but he was suffering from a lot of side effects. After we took him off the medicine, he rarely finished any work at school and so this made homework really rotten. He had trouble focusing enough to get his chores done and even had a hard time when he was playing sports because he couldn't concentrate on what the coaches were trying to teach.

I was especially concerned since he was constantly comparing his progress to that of Cortland and Alexis. I know this is a real issue with multiples; but I hated to see him labeling himself as slow or not as smart as them.

I have been searching for a solution that would help him and I think we have finally found it. Chandler has been taking "Centering/Focus" by Deva Flower Remedies as well as an Omega 3 supplement. It seems to be helping. His grades have been steadily climbing over the past few weeks and he has been finishing the majority of his work in class. What a relief to see him being successful again.

I know a lot of other parents are looking for help with ADD and are hesitant to turn to all of the medications that are out there. I hope this post will be helpful to someone; I know I am very grateful to the lady that shared this information with us.

Happy Valentines Day

Isn't this cute? My friend, Michelle gave it to me. I love simple holiday decorations. I think this one would be easy to make; I love that the letters have little red hinges between them so I don't have to keep rearranging them.























We didn't have school on Friday so our Valentine's Day party was on Thursday. Somehow it caught me off guard. I knew it was coming, but I was scrambling at the last minute to put it together. (I am the party coordinator for Cortland and Chandler's class.) Our main activity was "Don't Break My Heart", the old tie the balloon on your ankle and hop around trying to pop the rest of the balloons game. The kids really got into it and had a great time.

We also planned to play Super Twister but we ran out of time. I usually spend lots of time coming up with cute goodie bags, and creative games but this time it was so simple. I guess it just goes to show me that kids just want to relax and be kids.

Bow Give-Away

I just discovered a darling blog http://allthingsribbon.blogspot.com/. She has the most beautiful bows and dresses and her prices are very reasonable. She is hosting a Valentine's Day giveaway. Visit her blog and enter to win this:

Boys in the Girls Bathroom?

A couple of days ago, I walked around the corner to find Collin very carefully drawing on the bathroom door. He was surprised when I asked him what was going on. It turns out that he was making a sign so that we would all know that boys and girls could use this bathroom. (Never mind the fact that we only have one bathroom right now.)

I explained that we don't draw on our doors, walls, furniture, etc. and we came up with a solution that we could both live with-for a while.

What a relief, now I won't be confused!

I "heart" magnet boards!

One of my favorite new organizational projects is a magnet board inside my bathroom cupboard. My cute girly girls love hair bows, flowers and clippies and our drawer had been overrun with them. Searching for the right accessory sometimes took longer than the hairstyle and when I am trying to balance a 10 month old on the counter at the same time...it can be precarious.

My fantastic husband had this one up for me very quickly with only a minimum of eye rolling (he couldn't believe that this was all for hair stuff!). I used leftover babyfood containers -I love those! for the tiny little elastics and clippies and some cute ribbon from Michaels dollar bins for the long bow holders. E6000 adhesive is my favorite for attaching plastics or glass and it worked like a charm for the magnets on the containers and the ribbons.

KC used contact cement to put the flashing right on the cupboard door and then trimmed it out with molding--it still needs to be caulked and painted, but that is for another day.

Each of my older kids also have magnet boards in their room. This isn't a great picture of the one in Cort and Chan's room but you can get the general idea. I love that they can display all of their artwork on it; they can also use dry erase markers on it but I haven't told them about that possibility. I don't need dry erase marker all over everything else. My boys love BYU so I used vinyl lettering to decorate the board.

I have seen this flashing used for backsplashes in kitchens. I love the idea of being able to stick my recipe right to the backsplash up above my workspace...hmmm maybe that will be a project for another day.

Running on Adreneline

Although my days are fairly routine, from 4-8:30 pm is a race. Keeping all 5 kids going and accomplishing everything they need to, and still making it to bed by 8:30 requires me to have a split personality. I am a combination drill sergeant, referee, cook, housekeeper and taxi driver.

Mondays are especially wild. There is usually more homework and we are trying extra hard to save time for family night. By the time that we are ready to start our family night, I have been racing and pushing for so long that I am really not prepared for a nice calm evening; so our family nights tend to be crazy. But we keep trying.


I found a great resource for FHE lessons. This book is awesome! We especially loved throwing marshmallows at Samuel the Lamanite (KC). I picked this one up at the grocery store of all places.

During the middle of our not-so-calm Family Night, Addy was having a fantastic time.