30 Bags in 30 Days

30 Bags in 30 Days

My neat freak lovely husband has a rule that we have not stuck by in our house lately:

*If you haven't worn it, played with it, used it, touched it or even looked for it in the last year, we need to get rid of it.*

Which is a good idea, in theory. But that's a tough one for me, considering I come from a long line of pack rats. My grandpa was known to go to flea markets and auctions and come home with tools, old wooden pipes (we've found 13 so far), tools, glass electrical insulators (you know, the things that used to be at the top of power lines... I think. I don't know why he wanted those things), and more tools. He was a gifted wood worker and mechanic, so all of those tools came in handy.

I remember when I was little and my cousins and I would play in my grandparents yard, garage and basement. There was always so much stuff. But when you're 8, it's not stuff, it's treasure! There were places full of treasures! Garden sheds, tool sheds, storage sheds, 2 old Winnebagos and let's not forget the garage. The garage was the best place of all. It's not a conventionally good smelling place, but I love the smell of it and the memories it brings back.

My grandpa passed away about 5 years ago, and this past summer, his children took on the daunting task of sorting through everything at my grandma's house. And a daunting task it's been, it's taken weekend upon weekend to make a dent in that garage, but it's been interesting to see what's come out of it.

I wouldn't say my parents are anywhere near that level of "packrattedness", but it's not to say they haven't kept their fair share of unneeded items, especially in the basement. I'm pretty sure there are still Halloween costumes from 1989 in a bin somewhere down there. But who knows? They may just come in handy someday. 

I have a habit of keeping things too. My childhood things, baby things, things I found at Goodwill or on clearance that I never actually used.

Needless to say, my husband does not have my same feelings about "stuff", which is where that rule came in. It's not necessarily a bad rule, just one that goes against my pack rat nature. So, in an attempt to get ahead of the game, I made this list of 30 Bags in 30 Days after reading this post. I tried to come up with 40 places, but I just couldn't, so I knocked it down to 30. My goal is to organize one area each day and make an effort to get rid of (either throw or donate) the things we don't use or need. Some of these will be tough. 

By the way, I put my foot down on his one year rule: baby things and sentimental things are off limits. He knows better than to fight me on either of those. :)

So here it goes:

30 Bags in 30 Days

1.       Kids’ dresser

2.       Kids’ closet

3.       Kids’ book shelf and drawer

4.       Kids’ toy shelf

5.       Kids’ other toy shelf

6.       Jose’s dresser

7.       My dresser

8.       My hanging clothes

9.       Tupperware cabinet

10.        Pantry cupboard

11.        Junk drawer

12.        Top of fridge

13.        Our “random crap” cabinet

14.        Utensil drawer

15.        Under bathroom sink

16.        Linen closet

17.        Top shelf in bathroom closet

18.        Medicine cabinet

19.        Movie and game cabinet

20.        Movie drawer

21.        My crafty cabinet

22.        My car

23.        Front porch

24.        Garage toys

25.        Garage shelves

26.        Computer desk

27.        My book shelf

28.        Under basement stairs

29.        Basement storage

30.        Kids’ toys in basement

Little A's Owl Costume

Fall in Minnesota... you never know what you're going to get. Is it going to be in the 70's today or the 30's? Do I need a t-shirt or a parka? Can we go to the beach or go sledding today? Those are the kinds of questions one may ask on any given day of a Minnesota fall. Especially around Halloween time.

I loved Halloween as a kid! I loved dressing up as Pocahontas or as a princess or a cute witch. One huge bummer of Halloween, though, was the fact that it's usually pretty stinkin' cold (especially at night) and my awesome costumes were always RUINED by the fact that my mother made me wear my winter jacket while running around collecting candy on these cold dark evenings (how dare she!). I promised myself that I would never make my kids wear their jackets over their costumes, so here I am 20 years later, on the hunt for the perfect Halloween costume for my kids.

So far, I've done really well with either finding a costume that's warm enough to be worn alone (I think it was pretty mild that year) or ones big enough that the kids could bundle up underneath. This year was tough though, not only because by the time I was ready to shop, the costumes were pretty picked over, but also because I refuse to spend $30 on something they'll wear out, at most, three times.

Big A was pretty excited to pick out his costume, but I have a rule: No Scary Costumes until... ever? I can't stand all those bloody masks or creepy things, and for goodness sake, he's five. He loves superheros and wanted a mask and a cape. Well, school doesn't allow masks, so choice #1 Spiderman was out, Superman doesn't wear a mask, so he's out. We ended up with Batman since it's only a half mask and has the required cape. Problem solved.

Little A was a bit more difficult. Dear Target and Walmart, how do you expect me to take my one year old out in the end of October in a tutu and tank top? Hello people! Sincerely, Me.

All they have for little girls are tutus and tank tops and considering she's a big girl, the warm fuzzy baby outfits don't fit her either. So I was on a mission to give this kid a kick ass (and affordable) costume! So I decided to make hers.

I found an adorable owl hat (about $6) at Walmart and a purple sweatsuit ($3.88 for each piece) (fashionable, I know, but it'll keep her warm).

Then we headed over to Joanne's for felt. Lots and lots of felt. I got purple, teal and hot pink.

Actually, I think the teal was called Peacock and the purple was called Orchid,
I don't remember what the pink was called.

I cut tons and tons of feathers. I probably got about 35 feathers out of each sheet of felt. I bought six of each color, not knowing exactly what my plan was yet. I ended up needing about eight of the purple, three teal and two pink. I think I got them for 4 for $1 on sale.

I bought tacky glue, being the novice that I am, thinking "Hey, this is a good all purpose craft glue, this will work perfectly!" Wrong. After gluing a zillion feathers, I realized that most of them weren't sticking. I went back and ended up re-gluing most of them with hot glue. It wasn't that big of a deal as the process went fairly quickly. I suppose you could sew them on, but I don't have time to sew each feather on. 

Here's what it looked like all laid out before I started gluing.

I ended up changing a few things, but you get the idea

After I started gluing, I made a few changes to the wings. I decided to use the teal to make an edge around the wings, which made them pop a little more. The first two rows of feathers on the wings aren't individual feathers, they are rows of five or six connected feathers. I figured they would be easier to put on the bottom of the sleeves if they were all attached.

So here it is, the finished product. Sorry the picture is so blurry. It's hard to catch a kid on a phone camera.

Who Needs Math Anyway?

Since my last post, I found out that I DO get to graduate! Woo hoo! Thank you changed graduation requirements! So after five years of not attending a single college class, I get to graduate with my AA degree. It doesn't do much for me now, but that means I can enroll in the next program...kinda. 

I need to take a couple classes before I can actually apply to the K-8 program because I need to get my GPA up one tenth of a point and because I have to take and PASS Math for Elementary Teachers...  Ugh. How I hate math! Like, with a passion!

But in order to take that class, I need to A) pass the math placement test and score in to a college level class (yeah right!) or B) take the math placement test and score in to the prerequisite class and take that one as a sort of refresher. 

Honestly, I don't want to, but I think it would benefit me to take the lower math class first. So, until I can get in to take that class, I'll be sitting here on the computer studying math after the A's are in bed each night. 

Woo.

Wish me luck!