It's spring break here. That time of year when many are vacationing and working on their tans. This year I decided to keep the little ones in day care and work work work on my house!!! It's hard to believe, I know, but it's quite difficult to really get some good work done with two 2 year olds! :)

My biggest task: Our storage room/area. It has become a disaster. There are bins and bins of clothes. Most of which my kids have grown out of, some which I find at thrift shops and are HUGE deals, all of which has been gone through lately in an effort to switch out closets and get those spring/summer/next size stuff out of bins and into closets. That also means I have to get what was in closets back into bins. This "obsession" with clothes began when my very first foster child came to me with the clothes on her back and nothing else. She was to get a clothing voucher, but it took a little while. She had on disgustingly dirty sweat pants and shirt that were also way too big, no underwear (4 1/2 years old), boots that were dirty and huge, no socks, and a huge and filthy coat. I wanted to just throw it all out, not knowing what could be lurking within. BUT, I had NOTHING. I didn't even have one thing she could wear until we could get to a store. It was late, she was scared, I did not want to go to a store, but I didn't have a choice. Since then, I have compulsively picked up very good clothes at extreme deals at some wonderful thrift shops my friend and I frequent. I've gotten Tommy swimsuits for 30 CENTS, Gymboree items with tags still on for less than one DOLLAR, etc. BUT, it's time to part with much of my JUNK! I've become an eBay selling fiend! :)

I just posted a pair of Keen waterproof sandals that I found last week at the thrift shop and bought for 75 CENTS. Someone emailed me and wanted a Buy it Now, within 1 hour of my posting. He bought them for $20!!!

Back to my organizing craze of the week... so that's what I'm doing. Organizing needed to be done anyway and my space has been dwindling, so I am hauling out major amounts of things to give away or put on eBay. Much of it will wait to be listed until Fall/Winter, but there is lots for now too. I'm keeping a lot, don't get me wrong, but getting rid of tons. I still want to have things if a new little one comes to stay for a while. I have decided recently to really focus more on boys. I have more room for boys, and I think Olivia just needs to be the only girl for a while once Girlie leaves. So, I'm mostly getting rid of my girl things, but keeping a couple outfits in each size "in case". :)

Friday I began the cleaning and sorting. Monday Olivia and I went thrift shopping with my friend J and her daugther. There were some things we needed, mostly for Olivia for this spring/summer. I found some great items and got her an awesome pair of Lands End boots to match her winter coat next year. I paid $4 and bought the same boots in purple for her for this year on eBay for almost $20. Tuesday we went scrapbooking at a friends. I've been working on Girlie's lifebook and really got a lot done. Today it was back to the organization. Olivia and I dropped the others at day care and then picked up some much needed items: 4 storage containers, 2 laundry baskets, a tall cabinet like one we have already in the basement, a corner tool stand (rakes, etc), and a shoe shelf for in the laundry area. I thought I would never see the end of this job, but I really have worked hard today and can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel!!! Yay!!!

Tomorrow I plan to work like today and hopefully complete my task. Then Friday I am going to keep Braeden home as well. We are going to go to IHOP, on my parents, for breakfast to eat off of their WHO menu. Then, he is going to get his pics done in the morning, I haven't had new ones of him since his adoption in Oct 06! We are then going to go see Horton in the afternoon. Should be a fun day to end spring break. Not much of a "break" per se, but a great sense of accomplishment!!!

Happy Spring!