Regan Ramblings: Celebrating and Cleaning Out

We've had a special event to celebrate around here, lately. Now, I'm not a big party kind of girl, since I'm more on the quiet, introverted side. But, I like to happily treasure special moments to remember from history. And this week we've been remembering that it was six years ago since we first met our daughter, Penny, in Thailand. Here is the first picture, ever of the three of us together as a family.

And here is our recent family picture taken for our church directory. Notice any changes?

And how did we celebrate? I gave her a card and a gift of markers, since she's enjoying art so much. If I think back, a set of markers was one of the first gifts that we sent to her as a care package almost two years before we were allowed to go to Thailand to bring her home. That two year wait was hard! But, now the time just flies by! Here's a picture of her taken on the 11th of this month, exactly six years after the above picture.

We celebrated at home, by eating Thai food, that I made, myself. It is called Tom Sab Moo.

I also made sticky rice, which Penny said that she didn't normally eat with a soup-based dish, like

Tom Sab Moo. But, that's okay, we still loved it.

Well, that is, Penny and I enjoyed it. However, Jay had to eat chicken soup, instead, because he had stayed home sick with a stomach bug. Notice his separate bowl. Poor Jay!

Fortunately, it seemed to only be a 24-hour bug and he was able to go back to school on Friday.

Penny and I have been working hard, plowing away to get our homeschooling tasks accomplished. We are hanging in there and not giving up especially on the Algebra. We're so excited that we are on the last chapter in our book and managing to handle the lessons on Quadratic functions. We couldn't do it without the online homework tutorials that accompany our Prentice Hall textbook. What a lifesaver! Here is a link, in case you are ever interested in checking it out. Pearson Prentice Hall Online Algebra I Help

In the evenings, when I'm just relaxing, I like to read some blogs. One of the blogs I enjoy reading had an article about a coat closet makeover. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I thought of my crowded, dark coat closet which sometimes spews items down at me when I open the door. I decided one afternoon, when Penny was napping and Jay was at work, that I would just empty that closet and reorganize. I didn't have the time to paint it, as I'd really like to. But, it sure was fun to purge.

I got to thinking about what was NOT working for us. 1.) There were too many coats jammed in that little closet, so that they'd fall off of the hangers, when looking for the right jacket to wear. 2.) Penny could not reach the step stool where I had it located on the top shelf. 3.) The container for the many coupon ads was falling apart. 4.) It was hard to find items as they weren't all organized well. 5.) The linens (dish towels) on the bottom right shelf were always falling out and the cat would sneak in there and lay on top of them.

So, I decided to tackle these problems head-on, by first removing all said items from the coat closet.

I moved several of the large, long coats that we don't use as often to a rod that hangs over our dryer in the basement, to remedy the problem of having too many coats in the closet.

I also decided to remove all of the cleaning items that were thrown into an ugly cardboard box ever since we moved in two years ago. I got rid of any items that we didn't need and neatly placed the remaining items in one of the totes that I've been using for hauling library books around. After all, I also have other bags I can use to haul the library books around in.

Jenny always makes these tasks so much more fun, as she's happy to be more than helpful!

I repurposed the use of a couple of magazine holders that we had in our office and decided that they would be the perfect things to hold the many coupons/ads that we get from the newspaper. They are a little more pleasing to the eye than the cardboard holder that had been duct-taped. And I placed all of the plant-related items together, in one spot, next to the magazine holders. I even got out my handy label maker and officially labeled where the items are to be placed, so they will hopefully stay in their new home.

I addressed the problem of the stray dish towels, by repurposing an office depot box and covering it with adhesive shelf paper. Now the towels are neatly folded and corralled into one box, which I can easily pull out from the bottom shelf. And hopefully, the cat won't fit in the box as easily, to mess up the linens.

You may ask yourself, "Why didn't she have four matching totes for those shelves?" Well, in our other house, the shelves were being used for a different purpose, and we only had enough space for three of those totes on the shelf in our coat closet. Thus, the case of the missing tote from Walmart. But, why worry about trying to find a match, when you can make up your own from what you have lying around your house?

I cleaned off the top shelf, so now there is enough space for all three of our lunch boxes. I also moved our Jack-O-Lantern, which we keep in our coat closer year round. After all, it's a great place to store extra stashes of candy when one might have a craving. But, now it is placed up high, where one won't be quite as tempted to reach in as often. And I moved the step stool to the floor, since there was now enough room for it. Now, Penny will be able to easily access that step stool.

I'm feeling very happy about my closet overhaul. And how much did this makeover cost me? $0.00! That's the best part of all. And so for the final reveal, here are the before and after pictures….