the Life of Olena

So I am avid follower of the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons , and I love it. I have been dying to get my home as organized as hers so I finally tackled a few projects over the weekend. I have to admit there is nothing better than opening the door to such a clean and organized space, it brings such peace to the day :) Hall/Linen closet. I made sure I had 2 sets of sheets and pillow cases for each bed. Everything else, went to goodwill this morning. They all now perfectly fit in the big tote on the top. Before, every time you pulled something out an avalanche of linens would fall on your head. And often this was fixed by just shoving everything back up there. Make up and Meds are in the mesh baskets that pull right out of the frames so that I can look through it easily. The large tall tote holds stuff like shampoo, toothpaste, extra vitamins, and lotions. Lower shelf, as you can see it towels and wash clothes. I got the box from the grocery store and it holds my hand towels perfectly so

She doesn't have many hanging clothes, so what few items she has are in my closet. Instead we use this space for toys. One, this avoids the extra space that a toy box requires, and of course it allows for a much more organized space. It also make it easier for me to go through all of the toys quickly every few weeks to rid the collection of any broken and/or unnecessary aquired junk!! thankfully I found time to clean her carpet and I have to say I am very impressed with myself. It turned out beautiful. I scrubbed all of the spots (marker, muddy foot prints - kids and dogs - and only God knows what else) with a baking soda paste, and then I used the carpet cleaning machine with a little bit of softner (for smell) and a little bit of soap! Looks great huh?! organization for the DVDs and other media. She is working hard huh? After I finally opened the door and let her after a full day of forbidding her entrance. She came in laid on the bed, covered up and said "aahh, it is grea

A few advantages to this - 1. my floors get cleaned 2. the puppy gets his excerise 3. both are fully entertained for at least an hour!!

I am worn out and beat to the bone tonight but I do have lots to share and talk about so stay tuned this week and I will update as soon as I can. Enjoy a few pics.

Today we finally had some beautiful weather. It was in the mid 70s, a bit too cold to swim so since she was driving me crazy to put her suit on and play in the water, we decided to have some fun in the mud! Not sure what this is....Kung Fu Mud fighting I think :) She was thinking about what she wanted to do next. This is her look of satisfaction. water+dirt=one extremely happy 6 year old. I love the butt!

This was my solution to a daughter who was insisting all day that we needed to find a way to make a tree fort. A kid table set, a flat sheet and about 6 binder clips and you can build anything! She loved it, and at least it was out of my way unlike the usual big fort built right in the middle of my living room.

It has been so unseasonably cold, this is what us Michiganders have had to resort to...long johns and our bathing suits :) LOL. I told her it was still too cold to swim so she came out of her room with "just the right solution!" and those were her exact words. On a side note, my daughter has the strangest fashion sense.