Great Post at Mommy Life

I just thought y'all might want to take a look at this post. This is a subject that really touches a nerve with me. I came right up against it for the first time last year at Thanksgiving and I really liked reading an author's take on it.

Consignment Shopping for Kids

There is not much secondhand shopping in our little town. Yardsales are wonderful and plentiful, but it's tough to get out of the house alone on Saturday mornings and, frankly, I'd pay full-price before I'd try to take four kids yardsaling. Thankfully there is a huge consignment sale for all things kid-related twice a year. I've been shopping there since Levi was a baby and in the last few years I've sold some things, too. Last year I even made more than I spent! Last fall I was too busy to sell anything and only shopped a little on the last day (everything half off!), so I'm planning on making up for it next week! Hopefully, I'll be able to clean out some storage space, make a little money, and get all of the kids spring/summer clothing bought in one fell swoop. Since this is a big project I thought I'd think out loud for a bit and try to get organized.
The first thing I need to do is go through the clothes we have in storage and in the closets and pull out the clothes I'd like to sell. Since there may be more babies in our future I don't want to get rid of everything, but I do feel like I'm holding on to too much. For the boys clothing, I'll only get rid of things we have too many of and things we just don't use (I've been holding on to a baby sleepsack for 6 years, but I swaddle new babies so it's never been used). The girl's clothing is a little trickier. We only have Brenna so far so I feel wasteful holding on to all her clothing and yet I'm especially attached:) I think I'll save most of her church dresses, coats and shoes, but only keep the really precious casual stuff.
Once that's done I'll separate the "to be sold" pile into fall/winter and spring/summer piles and tag everything. The woman who runs this particular sale has very specific rules about sorting and tagging, which I used to thing was such a pain. It makes shopping so easy, though!
Now, I'll prepare to shop! Thanks to my parent's generosity and hand-me-downs from my sil, I don't have to buy much. But as I'm going through all the clothes, I can pull out what will fit this spring and summer. Christian's clothes are already out since I keep clothes for the whole first year in one container -otherwise I'd be getting out a whole new wardrobe every few months. Looking at what they already have will make it easy to put together a list of what they still need. And, hopefully, prevent me from going crazy with the church dresses. I love church dresses:)
One final thing I need to remember is to make a list of everyone's size and make a tracing of everyone's feet.
Then I'll go to the first sale for seller's only. This is where the best deals are snatched up and where you find the best selection. I also try to go back on Saturday when everything is half-priced, but this sale is so well attended that most of what is left will have been over-priced to begin with. There are deals to be had, but I don't kick myself if I miss it.
I'd also like to go through the movies and toys to see what we could thin out. I'm not sure I'll have time though so that may be put off until we move everything downstairs. Then I'll just set it aside for the fall sale. And I keep meaning to make up a few extra baby carriers and hairbows to sell. Sometimes my good ideas are more than I can follow up on though so we'll just see how that goes.
Next I need to think through exactly what kinds of clothes the kids need. They have a pretty simplified "uniform" already but I'd like to have it written down. My brain seems incapable of processing thought these days (as in I frequently don't remember the you know, thing that you say with the letters word I'm trying to say).

Progress on the Downstairs

Casey has really gotten a lot done already. We had to wait for the air conditioning unit to get here since the whole plan hinged on whether or not we could get a deal on it. We bought it directly from the manufacturer - there's a plant here in town - and saved a ton!

This is the new closet in the big bedroom downstairs. I'm hoping the double folding doors will make this wide closet more accessible than the one in Brenna's room which only has a narrow door - and lots of wasted space.

Here's the bathroom. It has a wall now and a bathtub! We've done a lot of wondering about why the builders put the toilet so close to the plumbing for the tub - there is just enough room. I'm looking around now for a vanity and sink. I really like this... but $1500.00 (on sale!) is a little out of my price range! I'll have to see what I can come up with...

This is the closet in the small bedroom. I originally didn't want a closet in this room. It's fairly small and I didn't really want to eat up any floor space. Plus I already had the furniture all arranged in my head:) But after discussing it with hubby and my remodeling guru, Meredith, I mentally rearranged things and made space for a closet.

I'm getting very excited about all this. Hubby keeps reminding me that there will probably be very little cash left over for decorating when we get done - I think he's worried I'm getting too carried away:) But I'm hitting the yardsales and planning on having one myself to raise some spending money.

Perhaps this should've been a big kid only event...

I thought we'd make homemade valentines. Seemed like a simple enough project. I let them eat their valentine candy from Grandma. Oh. My. Word. The control freak in me wanted to hand them each little heart shaped doily and tell them where to put it and how much glue to use, but I'm trying over come that impulse. Mostly because it doesn't work - they're way too fast for me. And that's why some of the valentines Brenna made have candy wrappers glued inside - that's right, empty (possibly licked clean, but I kinda hope not) candy wrappers. They had lots of creative fun - that's what I keep telling myself. Now excuse me, I have some slave driving, um, I mean supervising to do.

New stuff at my house

It's looking like a season for new stuff at our house. The new haircolor is looking pretty good. It isn't a new color exacly, just a little more "toffee" and a lot less mousy. I liked the Perfect 10 haircolor alot (the comb thingy is great), but the scent was quite strong. The conditioner smelled great, though.
In other news...Levi is ready for first grade work. We've nearly finished everything I had planned for kindergarten because he flew through the work (and because I didn't want to overschedule him so I didn't plan enough). By the end of February he'll be done with the Starfall reading workbooks - which we have loved - and with the Saxon Math K (I should have just started with the first grade Saxon). It's also time for the third Draw Write Now book. I'm ready to start planning for the fall, but I guess I'll be planning out the rest of this year first!
We're planning our garden. I've never done a vegetable garden before. Casey tilled up some land for me at our old house when Levi was a baby because I wanted a garden, but surprise, surprise having a baby was more of an adjustment than I thought and the garden just didn't happen. This year I'm planning to start very small and put my little helpers to work!
And one final new thing...an exercise program. Now the whole weight loss thing is hardly new to me. Stop laughing, y'all. But exercise is a whole different story. My aunt has had wonderful success with Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds videos. Dawn recommended them ages ago and I even went so far to as to buy the video a couple of months ago, but I put off trying them until the other night and now I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner. It's so quick and simple, I can do it in front of the tv without moving furniture around and it's effective - I can feel the burn:) Meredith's post about her new scale really got me thinking so I've been talking to Levi and Brenna about being good stewards of our bodies and making healthy choices...hopefully my desire to be a good example will overrule my desire for more chips.
So, all that, combined with working on the downstairs, means there's a lot going on here at Walton's Mountain:) But that means more to blog about!

It's the first ever Fight the Frump Friday!

I'm sitting here at the computer in my black yoga pants and black t-shirt with my really dark brown (when did my hair get so dark?) hair pulled back in a ponytail. Blah. No makeup, no polish, no perfume. Blah. Care to guess how I'm feeling? That's right. Blah. So I've been reading Mrs Fussypants' fabulous blog and waking up to the idea that a) I've gotten frumpy and b) there is something I can do about it. I'm just tickled with her Fight the Frump Friday idea so I'm joining right in.
Now I could use some new clothes, I need to lose weight, and I'm dying to try that new mineral makeup stuff. But yesterday I pulled 14 grey hairs out of my very dark hair so I'm starting at the top with this stuff...in butterscotch boom or full-tilt toffee (who comes up with this stuff?). I use to dye my hair all the time but I haven't done it in ages because, well, because I have four kids and I don't have time. But it only takes 10 minutes and I need to lighten up:) Also, there was a $7.00 off coupon. Just how expensive is this stuff if they're going to take seven bucks off? Whatever. I want to feel pretty:)

A happy ending

A mom in the UK got a wonderful gift from her twin baby girls when they were born. Y'all go read all about it!