Can't Stand the Clutter Anymore -- Organizing Time!!

I have a fairly big house.  It's an OLD house, built in 1908 I believe it was.  When we bought it we got an amazing deal.  It looked so big, that is, until we started putting furniture in it and living in it.  This old house has wonderful real hard wood floors (that need some TLC) solid wood doors and door frames (that they painted over for some reason, should be a crime) and a stained glass window in the mudroom closet (our house used to be a church rectory).  One thing about old houses though, the storage space is not very good.

We knew when we bought out house we were going to have to spend some money and get our hands dirty to bring our house up to speed.  One thing I continue to struggle with though is storage space.  We have 4 kids, I'm  a blogger and a sweeper so I have review products and prizes all over the place.  My husband has an ebay stores and we use the basement for his inventory.  We have an attic and we definitely store things like decorations and clothes the kids have grown out of there but what to do with things like extra couponing supply, kids toys, and things like that has been frustrating.  I can't stand the clutter and I'm slowly doing stuff about it.

I've been donating things like extra couponing stock to charities.  I go through my room and my kids' rooms periodically  to get rid of things that are broke, not used, and out of date.  Most recently I got tired of seeing all the baseball caps laying around constantly.  My husband wears baseball caps constantly.  You know how some guys say women are with shoes.  This is my husband with hats.  He wants to get this one and that one. He must have about 25-30 of his own.  Now my 3 boys are getting into it  So needless to say we have hats everywhere.  I just bought one one of those over the door hat organizers.  I feel better already. I've been picking up hats and hanging them on the hat organizer as I find them.

Step two in my organization process is my pantry cupboard.  Again we don't have a lot of cupboard space in our kitchen for 6 people.  Things are stacked on top of other things.  It's sort of like a Jenga game only not as fun.  Sometimes you pull something out and something else falls out.  Sure I've tried organizing it but the kids or my hubby just throw things back in any which way.  After doing it so many times, I gave up.  But I suppressed the frustration and bought some storage bins on sale.  I'm going to try a new approach.  Wish me luck!

Parental Guilt and the Eye Doctor

I've had vision insurance since I started working at my current job, nearly 8 years. We don't use it much, but it costs next to nothing so I got it.  Figured, better to have it on hand and not need it then not have it and need it, right?  I did use it once for my one son because he started getting migraines in 1st grade and they thought it might have something to do with his vision.  It didn't.

When I went on maternity leave with each child I had to fill out all kinds of forms.  Forms for FMLA leave, forms for insurance, forms for short term disability, etc.  I would have swore I added my two youngest to the vision insurance then.

Two different pediatricians stopped and looked at his eye starting at just before he turned 4 years old.  They thought they saw something.  Both of them did visual test and tracking tests. Both of them said No it wasn't what they thought.  They thought he might have had a slight lazy eye but he didn't.

Fast forward to Kindergarten registration this spring.  There was an organization doing vision screenings.  The lady had all kinds of cool gadgets and tested his vision.  Long story short here she said she thought he had a lazy eye. She had me do the tests and showed me what my son missed.  One of the things was very obvious. She filled out a paper for me.  She said "you'll have to take him to this certain pediatrician because they're they only ones that deal with lazy eye in someone so young. It's not a big deal, I had one.  All I had to do was wear a patch on my eye for a month and it was better".  So I called my vision insurance to make sure my son was covered.  He was never added to our vision insurance.  This was the very end of April.  I called my HR department at work.  They said there was no way to add him until open enrollment which was the beginning of June. I didn't really think it was a big deal because by this time several people had told me "oh he'll just have to wear an eye patch for a month or they might dilate his eyes with drops and he'll be fine"

So we got him on the insurance and scheduled an appointment, which happened to be this morning.  My hubby took him because I had just worked 7 days straight and this is my only day off in 2 weeks. Now I wish I would have gone.  My husband called me and said the eye doctor freaked him out a little bit.  He wanted to tell me over the phone but I couldn't hear him well and the baby was crying at my feet so I told him to wait until he got home.  He said the eye doctor looked at him and the first thing he said was "This is bad, he's never gonna be able to drive a car".  He said the doctor took almost a scolding manner to him to tell him that if we would have brought him in when he was 2 that he could have fixed it, no problem.  He said 5 (which is how old he is now) there's a slight chance they could fix it.  If we would have waited until 7, there would have been no chance of fixing it.  My husband said he told the doctor it wasn't even noticed or brought up until he was almost 4.  2 pediatricians checked him out and said it wasn't what they thought it was.  They dilated both my sons eyes.  We have to go get him glasses that have a strong prescription in one and and nothing in the other. He has to wear them for 6 weeks.  If that doesn't help or he refuses to keep them on then we have to do a patch for a month. They told us they didn't even know for sure any of this would work to fix his eye.  But we have to try.

Now I sit here, feeling guilty.  I feel like "what if I would have took him the first time the pediatrician said something then debunked it".  Or if by the 2nd time, it was brought up, I should have said, maybe I'll make him an appointment.  Of course, we would not have had the insurance still because my work never added him to the insurance.  Then I wonder, should I have paid out of pocket.  Then the other side is saying, yea but if I would have, the way this eye doctor is talking, we still wouldn't have caught it in time since we didn't even know about it until he was almost 4.  I don't know... I'm going through the what if's, the anger at myself, the sad thought that my son might not be able to go through the driving priviledge that so many teens look forward to.  I just hope we can get this straightened out (literally get his eye straightened out).

My Baby Boy Graduated from Pre-school

My baby boy graduated from pre-school. It seems unreal to me that next school year I'll have 3 kids riding a bus to school and gone all day. I'm a little sentimental about it right now.  He's my baby boy.  I still have my baby girl at home but I know soon enough I'll be writing a post about her getting ready to start school.

I work part-time outside of my home.  I work mornings so, when I come home at lunch time both  him and my baby girl are greeting me at the door.  Then hubby heads off to work. As sentimental as I am now I think it's really going to hit me that first week he isn't there when I get home.

The graduation was nice.  His teacher called each child up individually.  They got a cute little certificate and she gave them an extra award and picked something nice to say about each kid.  My son got a special award for recognizing his written name and counting to 10.  They had cookies and punch afterward and they had a bunch of pictures up from school days.  We were allowed to take ones we wanted that had our child in them.  I grabbed a few.

So mommas help me out.  How did you deal with your kids "growing up" milestones?  Cause this momma just might cry.

Letting Them Make a Mess..Have You Ever?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin As a mom of 4 there is a lot of stuff to do.  Loads of laundry, plenty of cleaning, getting ready for school activities, etc.  I also work part-time outside my home and run 2 blogs.  Every once in a while I just want to buy 15 minutes for myself to just have me time.  Blogging is my me time.

I had taken a planned day off of my day job today to attend my youngest son's preschool graduation.  I got some housework done, cooked supper, and caught up on blog correspondence.  My baby girl had been whiny all day.  Poor girl has teeth coming in.  I had given her tylenol, put on her amber teething necklace, tried to hold her and comfort her for a while.  I gave her things to teeth on, tried a pacifier.  Nothing was making her happy.  I finally decided to take a breather and blog I noticed she stopped fussing.

You know what they say, when they're quiet they're up to something.  So of course I go to check on her.  This is what I find.

She got into some of the Campbells label and box top stash I had been saving for the school.  She had them everywhere but she was enjoying herself.  Somehow she also got a hold of a box of rice.  She was so entertained with it.  I figured, she can't hurt herself with it so I let her go.  It was the first time she was content all day and I was able to attend to something else for a few minutes.

Have you ever let your child do something you wouldn't normally just to get a moments peace?

New Parenting Blog From Luv Saving Money Blogger

This is something I've been thinking about doing for a while.  I look at my 4 kids and realize how fast they grow.  My other blog, LuvSavingMoney.com is all about, well, saving money.  We are a frugal family by nature but there are so many things I like to blog about the just don't fit with my frugal blog theme.  So here I am, my first post on my parenting blog "3 Blues and a Pink" I think you can figure out the title for yourselves.
I have so many plans for this blog.  Documenting the activities we do over the summer, talking about Science Project stresses, and how fast the little ones are growing.  I hope to make this a welcoming place for all types of parents.

I'll be working on some design and set up for this blog so bear with me as I get this more personal blog off it's feet.