There is a lot going on here, but I have been finding it hard to grab the camera. I am juggling a few crafty projects and will try to post them soon. It has been a pretty typical springtime in Michigan and we are enjoying the longer days and more sunshine. As soon as the weather was right we tapped the maple tree in the front yard and have been making some syrup. Here is our first batch and you can see the bucket hanging on the tree outside the window. It is fun to enjoy the bounty of our land even if it is only a small plot of earth. We are lucky that my grandpa chose to plant sugar maples when he put these trees in 40-something years ago.

Some days are warm (today feels like summer and the kids are in shorts!) and the snakes come out to enjoy the sun:

Last Wednesday my daughter was playing with one (that is a normal springtime activity around here), and she put this one out on the ice that was still covering the lake. It slithered away, then slithered slower and slower and slower… I walked up to look out the front door at that point and so we all jumped into rescue mode. Had to slide this little guy back over to the dock like a hockey puck so that we could grab him and put him back up on the warm grass. The kids said, “But he’s cold blooded.” So that led to a nice little science lesson about the pros and cons of cold-blooded vs. warm-blooded animals. Oh, the joy of homeschooling. I love how you can integrate these “lessons” into daily life and they haven’t got a clue that it is school.

As wonderful as the weather is today, we are still in Michigan and I have to remind myself that it could look like this again next week:

But for some reason this year, I am enjoying all of it. I don’t feel in a hurry for summer. I have a sneaking suspicion that having longer daylight hours is helping with that. And of course a few warm days are a nice reminder that winter doesn’t last forever. I also still have some sewing projects I would like to get finished before I start gardening again. These sheepskin slippers might still come in handy before the warm weather arrives for good!

My sister in law asked me how to store kids clothes without a dresser. Since we have moved a million times and not always had dressers for everyone, I have figured out a few things. My son currently has a pretty small room without much room for a dresser. Actually, there is room for one, but it takes up valuable floor space that he needs to play legos! He also has some built in shelves, so I decided to use those to store his clothes. This is the $1 solution!

It is just a cardboard box covered with some scrapbooking paper. Obviously, not a permanent solution for a destructive child’s bedroom. But it is doing the job and could be a good solution if you are living some where short term or as a stand in while you look for a more permanent solution. And yes… when I fold my kids clothes I sort them into outfits and put them in 2 gallon ziploc bags together. It may seem like more work, but has saved so much time because I don’t have to go pick out the kids clothes every morning, or wash clean clothes that they have left on the floor when I send them back to change out of the wacky outfits they put together on their own. I don’t care that much if they wear wacky stuff out in public or anything like that. It is just that if I have to look at them all day, I really like their clothes to be aesthetically pleasing to ME. I know it is one of those things I will have to let go of as they get older, but hopefully they will have better taste by then!

The boys socks and undies are stored in these cheap baskets from the dollar store. It’s working for now. His room needs an overhaul soon. New paint, new blinds, and some better storage for toys. So I will probably be rethinking all the containers on his shelves and come up with something a little more coordinated.

I also have a friend (with six kids!) who gives each kid a laundry basket that fits into their closet to store all their clothes. Everything is in there together: socks, undies, swimsuits, shorts, and t-shirts. It goes straight from the laundry room to the bedroom closet. She lives in the tropics so the kids wardrobes are a little simpler than living with seasonal changes. I have always kept this idea in the back of my head for use at an appropriate time. But at this point my compulsive desire to sort things has me keeping things in separate baskets, drawers, or tissue boxes.