Boat

The "river" by our house has enough water to put the canoe in. With record rains and snow runoff the river is brimming. We dusted off the oars and spent the day shuttling the canoe between put in and take out points. It's nice to drive five minutes to put in, we just need to find a better spot to take out. Carrying the canoe with a kink in my neck is not so fun.

Graduation

Well, it's that time of year. The end of school. Graduation time. Thankfully we didn't have to buy the tassels or rent the robes. It was a short and sweet presentation of the kids singing a song, reciting a poem, a slideshow of the kids throughout the year, and candy awards. Lily received the "Lifesaver" award for helping save the day when her teacher needed a helper. Lily had great teachers this year!

5x5 (day six) A Happy Closet

I did start this project earlier in the week, but I didn't do the bulk of it until today. Remember all that stuff that I took out of Emma's closet? Well it had to go somewhere and the hall closet seems the best option. The good news is that I went through the totes and emptied three out of five. That's not bad. The rest of the shelves got reorganized and stuff got shuffled around to fit better. Tada.... a closet.

5x5 (day 5) Ummm....

I got nuttin'. It's Friday and I'm pooped. Here's my list of excuses;

I french braided Emma's hair for school, that never happens. She wore an "explorer" Indian costume that I made in November for Lily (that she never got to wear). A friend called at 7:01 AM to ask if I could watch her son at 7:30. I babysat her son until noon. Lily had Park Day for Kindergarten which meant I got to hang out in the park for a couple hours. By then it was almost time to pick up the older two from school, wherein I also picked up a couple extra neighbor kids to carpool home.

Whew. It's our last Friday before school lets out next Thursday. I'm happy/tired that school is almost done. By the time we get through all the tests/projects/field trips of May I'm almost ready for Summer to start.

Tomorrow I will do a 5x6 project. I promise!

5x5 (day 4) Piles of Piles

I make piles. There I've said it. My piles are procreating and making more piles. That's not good! I am (patting self on back) pretty good about keeping up with my laundry. I get clothes in and out and out the door pretty quickly. However, the dryer is the first flat surface once you walk in from the garage or the last surface as you walk out the door. I have a problem with putting things on the dryer to go out the door or putting stuff down as I walk in the door. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

The piles before:

A clean surface:

5x5 (day 3) If You Move A Bookcase

If nothing else, this challenge has me looking around my house for stuff that I would like to do, but never have the motivation to actually get done.

So far I've moved a bookcase from the basement to Lily's room. For those of you counting that's two sets of stairs.
Then books got moved from a hall closet to the bookshelf which opened up a shelf in the closet. (The bottom shelf had all kid books.) Yes, the others shelves are in need of help as well, but that's another day. Several baskets have now migrated from the basement to Lily's room, including one that needed the liner sewed up. I'm going to head back to the basement and go through toys. It's a thankless job that I'm dreading. Frankly I'll get more done if my kids aren't involved, but this might be a task where in I will lose myself and never find my way out of the basement. If you don't hear from me in two days assume I'm under the piles in the basement.

The good news is that I've filled 4 grocery bags and tossed them. I'm still not done though. I'm close but it's the last 10% that takes the longest. This is the before;
This is the "in progress";
I'll be honest. I haven't finished. But it is so much better than it was that I may be motivated to finish tomorrow. I keep finding things to move to different parts of the house; clothes that need to go to the repair pile, toys that have been misplaced, books that need to get donated, ...you get the picture.

Today is been really productive, but it's tough to see. I'd post a picture of my trash can that is now half full, but that's a little gross.

5x5 (day 2) Hooks and Buttons

I did wake up with a plan. A very small plan. I just needed to get some hooks for Emma's closet and put them up. Not as easy as it should be. Thankfully Michael was able to lend a hand. As Michael finished, I thought "hey, it looks like an octopus!" Michael noticed the same thing.
This is Emma's closet a little more organized. The bins above need some tags so that I don't forget what's in them. The basket, well let's hope Emma knows how to use it.
One more small item on my never ending to-do list. This jacket has been without two of it's buttons for close to two years. It's a small miracle that I didn't lose them. I finally sewed them back on today.
Please notice the unfuzzy pictures. I did take the time to break out the "real" camera and put away my phone camera.

5x5 Challenge (day 1)

The challenge for the week of doing 5 awesome things for 5 days was thrown out late last week. It seemed like such a great idea until I forgot about it over the weekend. Admittedly I was a deer in the headlights as I fast and furiously tried to think of something to do. Emma's closet has been begging for an overhaul and thus the first "makeover" for the week.

(Don't ask where the stuff went!)