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friends to read and write count to 100 and so much more they finished kindergarten loving school and their teachers of course they had rough patches tears and failures but that s part of life isn t it kids have to experience the bitter taste of defeat to persevere and to one day become independent adults and good humans so mamas of summer babies who will start kindergarten at five i know it s hard but it will be okay you ll both learn and grow so much this year trust your gut and have fun buying school supplies and clothes if you re five year old is staying home another year that s okay too you do you these four were so sad to say good bye to their beloved kindergarten teachers rylin is really hoping she s in the first grade class adjacent to her old kindergarten teacher s room i m most proud of the kids behavior at school i was concerned about a few of them before they started but school staff was nothing but complimentary about them one day all four kids earned a blue meaning their behavior was exceptionally good hugs amber p s stay tuned for a list of our favorite school supplies share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet print opens in new window print more share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading one massive challenge may 30 2018 amber 3 comments as a mom of quadruplets i m accustomed to questions from curious a passersby friends and co workers i think i ve heard or been asked almost everything many people marvel at the amazing aspects of having quads one and done and they always have a friend this is all true parenting quadruplets is wonderful and we enjoy these perks most people also anticipate the obvious challenges inherent with raising quads what it was like caring for four infants diapering four infants the expenses etc these all challenges we face but there really is one massive challenge we face being first time parents to four children at the same time there is no learning curve for us we have to figure everything out for four children simultaneously for us the first time is also our last time with each stage we learn new things conquering new challenges and feeling confident in our parenting skills but almost as soon as we figure it out that stage is gone just like that tomorrow these sweet babies will graduate from kindergarten and this phase too is gone i m oh so proud of these once itty bitty preemies who can now read write and count to 100 but it is bittersweet indeed please excuse me while i ugly cry way to go rylin harper sydney and mason share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet print opens in new window print more share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading a quick konmari how to january 18 2018 january 19 2018 amber 2 comments i am obsessed with organization scroll through my pinterest account and you ll find hundreds of organization hacks and clever storage ideas i ve been organizing and reorganizing my belongings since i was a child over the years i always went about it in the same way go area by area e g closet cabinet room take everything out chuck what you don t want then put it back in a more organized way it tended to work in the short term but wasn t ever really effective this was frustrating the konmari method is different from my previous ways of organizing and any other method i ve ever seen it s not just another decluttering method or quick fix to be completed in a weekend 30 days or any set amount of time rather it s a shift in thinking you develop yes it takes a lot of time and effort but i assure you it s worthwhile once you commit it has been life changing for our family seriously when i come home from work it looks like a maid tidied up except we don t have a maid we leave our house regularly by 7 20 am with our things mostly in order it is a breath of fresh air if you re serious about shifting your mindset and want to tackle your home konmari style you ll get your hands on her book the life changing magic of tidying up the japanese art of decluttering and organizing if you want a preview or just need a quick tutorial to get you started keep reading determine what you do want instead of focusing on what you don t want konmari suggests focusing on what sparks joy in other words keep what you love she places a lot of emphasis on touching items to decide whether they spark joy and honing your instinct to choose when you really touch and examine your possessions you start viewing then differently only when you know what you do want can you discard e g literally throw away donate or gift unwanted items 2 go in order rather than tackling items by location konmari is strict about going in order clothes books papers komono pretty much anything else which i sorted into smaller categories such as personal care items cleaning supplies kitchen toys sporting goods and outdoor toys tools and sentimental items the order seems arbitrary but it is quite important you start with items that are easiest to discern whether they spark joy and finish with the most difficult because you develop the skill when you begin a category it is imperative that you take all items of the category and pile them up together especially if they are stored in several areas this allows you to see everything in the category yes it s daunting ya ll when you make a massive pile of stuff it is totally overwhelming and you ll want to bail don t this is part of the process and only when you go through it this way can you take stock in what you own to decide what you really want this was just one box of clothes stored under my bed the actual pile of clothes from my closets dresser and under bed was enormous i don t have a picture of it i think partially because i was getting engrossed in the process but also partially out of shame there were clothes in my house that went to college with me i mean when you start pulling all of your clothes out the excess becomes embarrassingly apparent we found gems among our things which were begging to find new homes i thought books as a category seemed trite until i actually started piling our books together we love literacy and reading especially with the children but i had no idea we were book hoarders remember you are not choosing what to discard but rather what to keep keep only those things that bring you joy marie kondo these books were from the shelf in the playroom children s books also lined shelves in our upstairs den and each of the kids rooms in addition to children s books we had a personal library of our own adult fiction and non fiction books once i identified our most treasured books we amassed twelve large reusable grocery sized bags stuffed with books which i donated to our local library when i heaved these bags in the librarian was confused and asked if i was returning materials when i explained that i was making a donation she was awestruck what s even crazier is that if you toured my house you d have no idea a single book was gone we still have plenty of books to line our shelves and entertain our family the difference is that we can easily locate certain books and treasure our stash 3 put everything away once you ve chosen all the items that bring joy it s time to put them away in their category if you start storing things all over your home again you ll rebound without a doubt because you ll never know what you have it s important to store things so you can see them and they look attractive to you and it s easy for you to maintain before konmari we were infamous for packing closets and cabinets so full that we d have to empty them to get to items in the back we likened it to a game of tetris what a waste of time and energy i found the illustrations in spark joy extremely helpful for this phase in the process before you put away any clothes please watch konmari folding clothes and learn from the master http on today com 2xadj6u i thought i knew how to fold clothes and when i first watched her folding i thought it seemed 1 impossible 2 ridiculous then i tried it after some sloppy work i mastered her technique and stored my clothes using it afterwards i marveled at how much space it created and how easy it was to find things when i folded my pajamas according to this method i emptied an entire drawer which now houses things that used to litter my nightstand e g books sleep mask and journals the beautiful wood of my nightstand now shines in it s glory and it gets dusted regularly because it s not covered in stuff if you fail to fully implement the konmari method please do yourself a favor and learn how to properly fold and store clothes even if you think you know how already i promise you are worth it check out this beauty and it s contents sorry to disappoint but i don t have a real before picture in fact i ve gotten pretty new lamps and a new alarm clock since i tackled my night stand please settle for this staged version so you can see how i used to clutter my nightstand fake before if you don t change your way of thinking you ll rebound marie kondo those of you who are beginning the process of konmari good luck you can do it hugs amber share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet print opens in new window print more share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading how i began the konmari journey january 10 2018 amber 5 comments after christmas and before the new year i typically start feeling overwhelmed and anxious why stuff there s so much stuff at that point we still have christmas décor up and we ve received lovely gifts although i enjoy christmas décor and appreciate receiving gifts it all just becomes too much i start feeling weighed down and claustrophobic last year i went on a purging rampage thanks to a 30 day declutter challenge i was following according to this particular challenge we didn t need much stuff and should get things down to a bare minimum i ravaged through the house room by room as the challenge prescribed sacking things for goodwill donations we had less stuff but it wasn t working for our family at one point the challenge leader suggested having only enough plates for your family which meant keeping a measly six plates what if we had company over what if i didn t wash and dry the dishes immediately after each meal what if we broke one it wasn t long before i realized this was for minimalists and minimalism wasn t our style yet we did have far too much stuff that s when i was introduced the konmari method and it was life changing i used a free app from our public library overdrive to listen to the life changing magic of tidying up the japanese art of decluttering and organizing during my commute to work then i borrowed the companion e book spark joy an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up to better understand the method visually and get started on our home it took us about six or seven months to get the majority of our house done using this method and we re still working on the last bits in this process i realized several things about our stuff i kept things for just in case moments that never came you know things such as i ll keep this dress in case i m invited to a theme party or i ll hang onto this in case i lose five pounds i kept things because someone gave them to me even when we bought replacement items we kept the old item if it was still usable we bought things because they were a good deal even if we didn t need them we had so much stuff that we didn t know what we actually had and sometimes bought duplicates our things were unnecessarily time consuming when i told people we were doing a serious declutter of our home using the konmari method many were shocked saying things like but your house is so organized or your things are so tidy already yes we kept things looking tidy and for the most part they were organized but the sheer quantity of things was overwhelming i spent ridiculous amounts of time working to keep things in order and keep track of things because there was a lot of it here s what my closet looked like before konmari the matching hangers and items sorted by type made it seem tidy but notice how much is in there i couldn t find things and really didn t know what all was in my closet either in addition to what was in my closet my drawers were jam packed and i had under the bed storage boxes loaded with out of season clothing i didn t do a good job of showing what junk was resting on the shelves above my clothes it was a mess ya ll here s what my closet looks like now the changes are subtle there s still a lot of clothing in there but notice the spaces between the hangers i no longer have out of season clothes tucked away and i can easily see what i have which means easy access and no more buying duplicates by mistake the bed linens aren t stuffed under my shirts they have a new home in a pretty sea grass basket as a result it is more pleasing to the eye when i enter my closet imagine such little changes throughout your entire home and even life stay tuned and i ll explain how konmari is different from other methods of organization i ve used over the years and what benefits we re enjoying you can pop over to our facebook page for a quick video tour of our house on a typical afternoon https www facebook com fourtoadore ref bookmarks if you relate to any of my sentiments of having too much stuff you may want to snag or borrow a copy of these books a few disclaimers for the books the author marie kondo is japanese and therefore her books have been translated from japanese some things don t translate perfectly into english also there are differences in asian culture and western culture that you ll notice that said i enjoyed both books and found them very helpful hugs amber share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet print opens in new window print more share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading back to school september 17 2017 september 21 2017 amber 1 comment when i was growing up back to school shopping always helped ease the sting of summer s end as i prepared to send my own kids off to school for the first time back to school shopping helped spark enthusiasm for all of us of course things are different than when i was a kid we did very little traditional shopping and instead went online for almost everything including school supplies in fact the kids school supplies were delivered directly to their school it was a cinch shopping for back to school clothes in texas can be a bit tricky given our weather it can still be rather hot until halloween but classrooms can be chilly and school dress codes aren t conducive to summer clothing the girls and i had fun perusing the dollbaby back to school collection at la bella flora children s boutique considering a transition to fall we chose the back to school floral top with leggings for girls in navy these pieces are ideal for fall weather in...