Fall Cleaning

Now that I have a few frozen tundra winters under my belt, once the weather turns cool I realize how very shortly we are going to be cooped up for a LONG Wisconsin winter. Once this sets in I open my eyes to the disaster that my basement has become from just shutting the door and putting off cleaning it because we had a sunny day to enjoy.

Today I just couldn't take the mess any longer so I sat Taj and Peylyn down with a shape sorting game and got to work. I have pretty much cleaned out the last of the few lingering battery operated toys. Not only was I tired of going broke from replacing the batteries, but as I look at these things you realize just how they rob a child of using their imagination. What fun is it to shake a car and watch it go around a plastic track when you can make your own track from blocks or something else and push a car where ever it is you want it to go. I always feel so proud when my kids get some fancy, shiny and loud toy and all they want to do is play with the box.

I am no where near done, I still need to set up an art table for Zola and Ajay, pick through last years art work to hang on the walls cheer the place up and try to figure out the best way to sort the stuff we still have so that it always gets put back in its place. Hopefully now with the older two in Montessori this year they will both really carry the rules of organization in the classroom back home as well. A girl can dream right?

Awesome folding plant stand I bought at a rummage sale. I felt it was too great to sit around all winter waiting for plants and my kitchen is too small to use it indoors for my soon to be herb garden.

Cabinet filled with crocheted food and dishes, I plan to add burners and a sink some time this winter.

Talk about an awesome rummage sale find, how about the Haba pram that my dad picked up for $30! The kids play non stop with the pram, grocery cart and cradle that was made for me when I was little. No plastic toy would hold up this well outside of the landfill!