10 Little Known Facts About Myself

As a new blogger, I thought I would share a little bit about myself to all my followers. I am by no means a super interesting person, but here are ten little known facts about myself!

1. I am born and raised in Grande Prairie and so is my husband. We actually went to the same high school as well but I was a few years behind him and we never met until one night when we were both in Edmonton!
2. I was homeschooled from Grade 3 to Grade 6. My Mom was an elementary teacher and homeschooled all three of us kids for a few years. 
3. Growing up we had four cats at one point! I was also very fortunate to have a horse from age ten until just last year.
4. I have dislocated my shoulders four times. Three times for the right and one time for the left. My favourite sport is still volleyball and I’m quite careful while playing.
5. I used to be a snowboard fanatic. It’s actually something my husband and I did frequently while dating. I haven’t been on a snowboard for about 7 years now. Hopefully, one day I’ll get back into it. 
6. My first vehicle, when I was 16, was a blue truck! I loved it and fondly name the truck Blue Belle.
7. If I were to go on vacation, I would prefer places like Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand to a beach vacation.
8. My brother and sister in law live in Paris right now!
9. I have an intolerance to most alcohol. This started after having my second child. I get super flushed and hot. I haven’t quite figured out what types of alcohol causes the reaction and what doesn’t. 
10. I can’t stand scary or overly gorey movies.

There you have it! Ten facts about myself. If you’d like to share please leave a little known fact about yourself in the comments. Thanks for reading!

The Weekend Hustle

This weekend was busy and relaxed all rolled into one. It started with husband’s work Christmas party on Friday night. Yay kid free night! And an excuse to dress up nice. The previous years Christmas party had a magician, this year it was a murder mystery Christmas Party. Sort of like Clue, there were facts about the characters on our table and we had to guess who was the murderer and their motive. The actors and actresses incorporated one of hubby’s co workers to play a character as well. Each character came by and talked to us once or twice. It was a lot of fun and in the end I had the correct culprit and motive!

The kiddos got to go to The Northern Spirit Light Show with Grandma, Grandpa and their cousins. Then my son had soccer Saturday morning. So far I’m really liking the organization and variety of drills at indoor soccer practice! We’ve only done outdoor soccer games before. Saturday was relaxing and filled with family, movies and muffin making.

On Sunday, I kicked it into high gear and tackled the one side of our basement( one sides finished the other is incomplete) and the craft corner in our kitchen. Oh my goodness! I know sensory play is important but I vacuumed up a whole canister full of coloured rice off the basement floor. Needless to say, the kids hadn’t played with the sensory table that was fall themed with beans as a filler, for a few months. I decided it was time to part with as the mess it created brought on anxiety and I prefer the smaller bins at the kitchen table anyways.

In the basement, I also got rid of a broken electric race track and downsized our wooden train track lot. Our basement isn’t set up how I’d like it but it’s getting there. Next big project is to move the 7ft trampoline outside or into the unfinished side of our basement. There’s a lovely space behind our sectional that would make the perfect play area once the trampoline is out if that space. The kids in the trampoline gives me a heart attack quite often so it might be time to get rid of all together and opt for the smaller one person style.

What’s with surfaces being magnets for clutter? We had a desk in our kitchen for the purpose of LEGO play for my son, when my daughter was two. It turned into a piled up mess of craft supplies. I got a white cabinet on Black Friday sale last year. Just built it last month, procrastination at its finest. It’s perfect for storing all the colouring books, markers, paints, play dough etc. So now the lovely white cabinet has replaced the cluttered desk in our kitchen.

And that was the extent of our busy, yet chill weekend hustle!

The Great Toy Purge

November, is a great time to do a thorough overview of the toys in your home. With Christmas coming, and more toys, it’s perfect to sort through what toys you have now and purge what your kids don’t need or use. Studies have shown that having fewer toys can help children to be more creative, to focus better and use their imaginations. Less toy clutter, can lead to increased focus and joy! Just like a cluttered home can make us feel overwhelmed, so too can a cluttered playroom leave our children feeling the same.

With a garbage in hand and donation boxes ready, I started a fun playlist and got to work in our living room which houses the majority of the toys. First off, I like to pull out the toys from the storage ottoman and off the cube shelf to assess what we have. Immediately, I toss away McDonald’s toys or Dollar Store toys we’ve collected and anything broken or missing pieces.

Next, I assess which toys the kids have outgrown. My youngest is 3.5 yrs now and is growing out of the Little People stage. My oldest is 6 and he had a monster truck phase almost a year ago now. I asked him if we could part with some of his collection and he was totally game for having another child enjoy his monster trucks. We decided to sell them and he could use the money to go towards something new. If you choose to, and have the time, by all means make a sell pile as well! Once Upon a Child is another option to bring your toys to as well for re sale.

 I’ve  included my son in the toy purge process since he was four about. He is usually quite understanding when there’s a toy he hasn’t played with in a long time, that’s it time to get rid of it. This time around he wanted to keep nerf guns and bey blades that are stored in his room. My daughter is still a little young to understand so I just watch what she plays with for a week or two to help decide what’s worth keeping. Recently, she was really into Peppa Pig but right now has shifted to Spirit from Netflix. Since Peppa pig is still fairly new but hasn’t been played with in the last week, it’s up on the chopping block. If come after Christmas, Peppa pig hasn’t been played with in a weekly basis, then it will be time to let it go.

After, I’ve sorted through the grown out of toys, I evaluate which toys I see the kids play with a lot. Our play kitchen and play food get played with often so that’s a keeper for sure! My daughter has a few dolls she loves and some she never goes for. The ones that aren’t loved go in the donate pile. My son enjoys his LEGO right now and my daughter loves her DUPLO so those stay too! We had an abundance of hot wheels and LOL Dolls, so I went through those and kept the favourites.

One of the hardest things I find to get rid of is toys you wish your kids would play with, but they just don’t. For us it was the raved about magna tiles, they were a hit for a month then maybe were played with once every 3 months. So I parted with those a while back as well as wooden building blocks. My kiddos just never went for them, even though they are a great open ended toy.

Some other timeless items we decided to keep are some wooden train tracks, Melissa and Doug Doll house and barn, dress up clothes, age appropriate games and a marble run. Anything sentimental or very much loved and played with is a must keep. We also always have a couple colouring books, markers, paints and play dough on hand. With the changing holidays we tend to do crafts as well.

Recently, I have implemented  the rule that if you take a toy out, you must put it away before taking another toy out. This is helping keep our home and living room tidy and relaxing.
Now, that you’ve gone through the kids toys check out my blog post about Toy Storage Solutions here:

https://honestprairiemomma.blogspot.com/2019/11/toy-storage-solutions.html?m=1

Here are a few great questions in the form of images that have helped me to purge the toy clutter:

Toy Storage Solutions

The secret to toy storage success is choosing solutions that make it easy for children to clean up. Depending on the age of your children, you could make labels for bins that toys go in. I am about to re-implement this into our household with a 6yr old and 3 yr old. I tried photo labels when my son was 4 and daughter was 2 but it didn’t work the best for their maturity levels at the time. This time around we will have a play food storage bin, LOL Doll storage bin, little people storage bin etc. You may prefer everything just goes in one big toy box or ottoman. This worked great for us when the kids were little. Today, I’m here to discuss which toy storage solutions are my favourite and regularly used in our household!

1. Toy box- Little Tikes makes a nice big toy box in different colors. Some of them have two drawers underneath or a shelf up top to hold books. We keep our large toy box in the basement play room. All toys that are downstairs are stored in here other than a princess castle that doesn’t fit and our tub of train tracks.

2. Cloth Book Racks- each of our children have a cloth book rack in their rooms. It keeps titles visible and is very easy for them to put their books away. My daughter has the book rack with two storage baskets at the bottom which we keep her dress up clothes in! They may look small but these drawers hold 5 dresses, purses, a doctor costume and fire hat!

3. Cube Shelf-  these type of storage shelves are very versatile! You can place larger toys like buses and trucks in their own cubby. You can get cute cloth style baskets to organize toys in. Or you can use plastic baskets; this is what we do because of dog hair being attracted to the cloth baskets. Cube shelves can also store books. Depending on size ( we have a two cube by three cube one) they can be placed horizontally or vertically. We got ours off Amazon but places like Walmart and IKEA have cube shelves too.

4. Stuffed Animal Storage- my kids aren’t super into stuffed animals, yet we seem to accumulate them. In my daughters room, I have a hanging organizer in the closet that holds her teddies ( see photo below) My sons teddy bears fit nicely at the end of the bed. You can also get corner nets for holding teddy bears as well. If you have lots of stuffed animals consider the wooden teddy bear zoo’s that are popular right now.

5. Hot Wheels Storage- there’s quite a few different ways to store hot wheels. You could put them all in a storage basket, or use the over the door shoe organizer to hold the cars. Our favourite is the 100 car plastic storage suitcase.

6. LEGO Storage- our oldest boy is 6 right now and we just got him a LEGO table for his room. I went to Superstore and found a small red plastic four drawer storage unit. It works perfect as we don’t really organize the LEGO in the drawers. I just have one drawer dedicated to LEGO men and the rest is assorted!

7. Storage Ottoman- we have a grey storage ottoman in our living room that’s from Homesense. It holds the toys that don’t fit in the cube shelf, like the small doll house. Toys are neatly tucked away in the living room for when company comes over. The dog also uses it as her perch in the window.