Everything Has a Home

I'd never had a hard time keeping my house neat, tidy and clean until I had three kids and lived in an unfinished house. Something radically changed in my ability and motivation. Now, I find I am struggling to simply keep on top of the kitchen island, let alone the rest of the house.

My mom came by yesterday to give me a hand. She reminded me to give everything a home. And once it has a home, any time it is out, it is to be put back into its home immediately. I am sure this is the secret to success, and I have known it and not practiced it very well.

Here is what my house looks like ( the downstairs) after my mom came:

 Here is the hutch in our dining/ kitchen area. So much less dumpy.

 Our living room, with specific cubby holes for certain things.

 Our other living area. Clean and neat.

 My desk! The dumping ground for everything in Dave's pockets and anything I don't have a home for.

Here is the office that has become somewhat of a play room.

I am very motivated to keep up with it. The boys even saw some of the work and commented that the house looked beautiful. Matthew and Levi even tried telling Declan off for spilling lego all over the floor. "The house is beautiful Declan. Stop messing it up."

Keeping a house is far from easy but I know that keeping the rule of giving everything a home and always putting things away is the solution.

Where Was This At Christmas Time?

I don't know if I have ever taken time to look at this kind of snow too closely. When I look at it, it almost looks like fluff growing out of the plants, not just landing on it. So beautiful!!!

A New Room

Sometimes I forget that I live in a house that is under construction. Not that I stop noticing its unfinished walls and floors but I just make it my normal. Our home is functional and I've tried to make it cosy even if it is unfinished.

Lately, while Dave has time between deadlines, he has put his energy into working on our house. First stop, one of the bedrooms. We moved the two older boys into it, freeing up the next bedroom which will be the next project to finish.

There still aren't any floors or window frames and we haven't yet put up the molding but I am so happy with it. A few touches to make it more decorated (baskets and shelved books) and it will be perfect.

Needle Madness

Another Christmas has come and gone. How sad is it that I have NO pictures of it? I guess when you are hosting an event you have other things on your mind!

That's right! Dave and I hosted my family this year for Christmas. Counting 12 children, 1 teenager and 8 adults, it was quite the party... although I guess that is what most Sunday afternoons look like also. 

We decided to do something very untraditional. To keep stress low, lasagne, garlic bread and salad for Christmas dinner. I was able to make the lasagne several days ahead and freeze it, leaving the majority of the work in the past.

I believe a good time was had by all and the food seemed to go over well also. Always good when that happens.

Boxing day, however, means, "get this tree out of my house"! Christmas is over, now lets clean up.

A good sign of a neglected tree is if it looks like this:

Where are all the needles you ask? Scroll down.

 Yup! there they are.

Several factors contributed to this mess. First being that I didn't water it. That's a big one. Initially I had it in a huge bucket of sweet water and I just never added more. Second factor was the bucket. We don't use a stand, simply a bucket with the tree tied to something. So the tree branches are actually resting on the lip of the buckets making it quite the task to try and get more water into it. Third factor, it is in the same room as our wood burning fireplace. It gets quite hot and very dry in the house, let alone that room alone. Over all, the tree and I didnt really stand a chance. Even if I had been a bit more diligent.

What did that get me?

This!!!!

I had to empty my vacuum three times just to clean up the needles in the house. Lets not even mention the needles on our porch and out the back door! Dave actually got out the blower and blew the needles out of the porch so we would stop tracking them in on our boots every time we went out.

I love real trees. Ill deal with the mess. No big deal. I am thankful for Christmas and I am also thankful that it is over for another year.

Tonight is New Years Eve. May you all have a wonderful new year. We plan on staying in and keeping it low key. This year has been strange. We plan on finishing it the same way. Doing nothing!

Trimming the Tree

We usually try to get our Christmas tree around December 5th since it is Sinterklaas. My sister in law, Vanessa, gave me that fun idea. Our husbands, who are brothers, are Dutch and as a way to do St. Nicks in our own way, we try to get our tree and decorate it.

This year it was the 6th. So we failed a bit but no one seemed to really care or even notice. Daniel and Amanda ( my brother and his wife) along with the kids, and Connor (my other brother) came with us this year to Thomas Tree Farm to chop down our tree. We hop on a wagon pulled by some horses out to the trees and come back on a tractor ride with our freshly cut tree.

Its expensive but an enjoyable tradition ( at least the boys and I think so).

The boys decorated vigorously and within 5 minutes they were done. I managed to catch Matthew adding a few ornaments but it lost its appeal after a handful or ornaments were placed.

From this picture, you can clearly tell they were the ones decorating. I think there are 5 ornaments on one branch. Pretty! I told myself I would go back later and move things around but it appears not to bother me. I think I just like the warm lights. I dont actually pay attention to the decorations once they are on the tree.

Along with the fresh cut tree I added some other trees (just not real).

This is usually the tree that the kids are able to decorate and undecorate all month long. They never really got to it though. So, it remains mostly plain which is still warm and cozy.

Are you wondering how the tree is standing up to Declan? Its a good question. I think one of the reasons I haven't noticed the crowded ornaments is that Declan removes them quickly and in great number. I have found them all over the house. Once I find them, I find a place for them on the tree in a slightly higher location. By Christmas all the ornaments will be at the top of the tree.

Meh! Its what we do :)

Hope you are all having a wonderful time getting set for Christmas.

Room Makeover

Living in a house that is under construction is difficult. Add having three boys three and under plus 2 extra adults and a baby, a dog and a cat and saw dust everywhere and you'll see how sometimes I can feel like I might go crazy.

Our home is wonderful and I love it but sometimes I just want a normal house. One that stays clean for more than a minute.

Over the holidays in particular I began to really hate being in my room. It is the one painted bedroom in the house and should be a wonderful place to be. I didn't find it that way. It was always messy, no matter how hard I tried. It made me uptight and I tried to avoid it as much as possible.

When I mentioned my discomfort to Dave he took my ideas and put them into action. After a few hours of rearranging and cleaning here is the finished product:


We moved the bed to the middle of the room. It was actually nicely made and everything but just as I was going up the stairs to take a picture I noticed the boys had gone in and reeked havoc so please excuse the mess.


The crib is now on the back wall next to the bed.


A dresser and mirror on one side of the closet.


The TV and the other dresser behind the door.

With all of this done the room feels tidier, cleaner and more organized. I know Dave really didn't want to move everything around but once he had finished he said, "It feels so much less cluttered this way." I agree. And you want to know the best part? There are no hidden corners for him to store all his clothes -he tends to keep piles on the floor near his side of the bed.

Dave Has Been Busy

I came home the other day to many huge changes. I had been in town for a few nights due to bad weather and Dave was home working away. He managed to get lots done.

The first things I saw when I walked in the house were the new lights hanging as you go into the dining room.



It will be these lights that we have hanging throughout the house- usually by doorways.

Next, in the way up the stairs Dave installed another new light.


I love it. It was meant to hang in the mud room but it was much to big so it hangs in the stairs and now has electricity to it. We have light on the stairs!!!

Once you get to the top of the stairs take a look at the new view:


Notice anything new? Its got drywall!

When you go through the hallway there is a little crevice where we have set up a little reading area for the boys


and then we have the other two rooms (all the bedrooms are now dry walled)


This one is Daniel and Amanda's. We were in the process of working on it so I didn't get any better pictures.


This is the other bedroom that will serve as an office/ storage area for Daniel and Amanda for now. I think this room is my favourite. Just look at how bright it is? And there will be a skylight at some point too.

One final change was a light in the bathroom. It used to hand in the stair way but with the new one we were able to displace the other one.


The next step will be dry wall in the downstairs room and electrical everywhere. Im so excited.!

Their Own Room

The older boys have finally been moved into their own room. Nothing is finished and they are currently sharing a futon but its pretty nice having them out of our room.

Here's what I've done with it decor wise so far.

Not much has been added to the shelf yet since I know it will be a bit of a fight for the first few nights just to get them to sleep instead of play. We'll add things slowly once they have learned the rules a little better.

Here is their shared bed. My cousin Grace bought the banner for Ewan but since he doesn't have a room I thought it worked perfectly here. It was something I wanted to do all along.

Both of the boys are currently afraid of the dark so as their light and nightlight we have stars. I love it. It warms up their room a bit and they always ask for their stars on. Im not sure what I will put on their dressers... once again, it will have to be added slowly so they don't play with it or be something they care nothing for.

Here is a picture I took a few nights ago of how it looks when they fall asleep.

Matthew is always pretty ready for bed since he doesn't nap but Levi is always very ready to play. So after some rowdy time I found them asleep like this. Levi's bum was right in front of Matthews face and Matty's neck looks so uncomfortable.

Dave and I are enjoying our room with only one boy. It was about time wouldn't you say?

What Would a Christmas Tree be...

Without ornaments such as these?

Ugly Tree

Special circumstances brought us our tree this year.

You see, with an unfinished house and a hubby pretty busy with work during the day and house work at night we haven't had a chance to really get a tree. We love cutting down a tree every year and normally do this at Dave's family's place but we just didn't have time this year.

Here enters out ugly tree.

My Aunty Peggy called me over the other day while at my moms to take a look at her tree. Someone cut one down for her and brought it right into her home but it was just too big a tree for her place. She asked if I needed one and I let her know that we would really appreciate it. Dave was able to pick it up on the way home from work and it made it so much easier and cheaper.

Isn't this just the ugliest tree you have ever seen??? I love it and once it is completely decorated it will gain some character and maybe even look sweet. Currently, however, it is full of holes and has coloured lights on it (I dont normally do that but I wasn't home when the tree was put up- I'm a white lights kind of lady).

No matter how ugly the tree is, though, I still really love it. It makes me think of my thoughtful Aunt, my adorable husband who braced the tree and put up the lights just to make me happy, it brings warmth to the house, it's the very first tree in our new house and soon it will make me giggle because of how the boys decorated it.

Ugly tree or not, I think all Christmas trees brighten up a home. Next year I just hope we can be a bit more on top of things and aim for a little bit more... tree.