Project: Simplify: baby stuff

So this week of Project: Simplify was a bit easier for us, as hot spot #3 is officially "toys and/or kids' clothes" and we do not yet have kids. (If you want to get really technical about it, I'm not a parent yet, and the blog hosting the challenge is Simplemom.net, but I can honestly say that both parts of the name are things I'm aspiring to be.) We have, however, begun collecting baby stuff--gifts, borrowed items, hand-me-downs--so it was a good week to finally organize some of that stuff.

Here was one of my little collecting corners, plus the bassinet some friends lent us:

I cleaned out this empty dresser and put some stuff away here (like non-newborn clothes and diapers)...

...then had Eric move some stuff around in the other room.

He put together this changing table, also a loaner, and switched the dressers with the shelves and I filled the baskets with diapers and newborn clothes. Now we've got this handy changing area right next to the bathroom!

I also moved a few baby items that we won't be using for a while into the storage closet at the back of the house. As I look at these photos, I'm struck by the fact that we don't have a single thing on the walls in the bedrooms. I would like for that to change. Hmm...anyone have ideas?

It's been fun to see Eric take the organization process seriously. I didn't realize until he told me that when he cleaned out his closet, he organized his shirts--short-sleeves together, then solid button-downs, then checked button-downs... Wow. He's been putting his shoes away when he takes them off (a small miracle) and even suggested that I could use the top shoe spots to hang my slippers before getting into bed! Sort of like a guest row. Cause even though it's our bedroom, only his clothes are stored here.

In case you get your kicks looking at other people's messes (and inspired by their newly organized spaces) like I do, you can go to the results pages, like this one and scroll down.

Lots of kiddos and a happy heart

Just a few of the good people I've been blessed to hang out with recently...

Happy hour and the McMenamins Grand Lodge. Veggie burgers and Cajun tots, baby.

Beautiful Freya.

Reading Kayleigh Bea's alphabet book that we made for her at Emily's baby shower:

KB's newest way to get around:

Chase being Chase.

Today was Kayleigh's first birthday party at the Children's Museum. Fun!

Brother and cousin helping Kayleigh open her gifts. Wish I had a good shot of her birthday outfit, which was so very cute.

And some other kiddos I've been hanging out with...

I've been coordinating an indoor play area at our church for the past month and a half and it has been so much fun! We usually have 5-10 kiddos and their parents, but because of spring break, many older siblings were home and we had 15 kids! I occasionally write about it and post pictures at my ministry blog if you want to check it out: wwchispanicministries.blogspot.com. Being with kiddos makes my heart happy.

Silver Creek

Spring has sprung in Western Oregon and it seemed fitting to take advantage of the spring weather (= warmish rain) and take a hike on a free Monday after a long, full weekend! We headed to Silver Creek State Park, which was our go-to hiking place when we lived in Woodburn. It's a bit farther away now, but it's certainly worth the drive, especially when we take the back roads.

South Falls:

Walking under the falls:


Part of the loop called the Trail of 10 Falls was closed due to a rock slide, but we still saw plenty of gorgeous cascades. The water is very high at this time of year. If you click on the picture and zoom in, you can see the tiny people to the left of the water and get a sense of how big this waterfall is.

Behind the falls:

Our lunch stop. Just after this picture was taken, it started to hail!

The lovely boots passed along to me by our dear Chicago friend, Megan, when she was out here last year. They have accompanied me on some wonderful adventures.


It was a really lovely hike. I always feel so grateful for the time that Eric and I can be together in the quiet beauty of nature.

After, we stopped in the quaint little town of Silverton for the 1/2 price pizza deal at this great little pub on the main drag. It was a bit chilly outside, but the heat lamps made it cozy and it was great to hear the rush of water again. The creek you can see behind Eric is the same one we walked along several miles up in the hills.

A day well spent.

Stuff I love: Public Libraries!

Isn't it amazing that we have these places we can go and just by showing someone a little card, we can take home as many books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines as we want--for free?! They say, "Just be sure you bring them back." Oh, ok. And we pretty much always do. I also love just wandering through the library and picking up things I never imagined I'd be interested in, but I find myself leafing through, totally absorbed. And if, amazingly, among the thousands of volumes there, they don't have exactly what I'm looking for, I can enter the title into the computer and request that someone drive the cute little library truck across town and bring it to me from another branch. Cause they always have it somewhere.

You can stay at the library all day if you want, wandering around or watching the ducks at the pond through the window or doing nothing or working away on your laptop or reading the newspaper. Their restrooms don't say "For customers only" and all you have to do is show that you're from around here to access it all! And at the Hillsboro Main Branch, the beautiful library pictured above where we've spent a few Saturdays recently, they have cheap but tasty coffee and donut holes at the cafe. How great is that?!

Extra Credit

Eric was inspired by my sudden flurry of organizing activity and decided to clean out his closet. I didn't tell him he needed to do it, but I did take a "before" picture and show it to him (hint, hint, wink, wink). So maybe he was inspired, or embarrassed, or maybe he's nesting, too :) Does it matter, really, if the result is a clean closet?

The before shot. Yes, that's his purple bathrobe--a hand-me-up from my sister. I think it's from Victoria's Secret:

After:

We found this sturdy shoe rack for $12 at the Goodwill and thought it might fit in the closet, but no dice. These shelves used to be overflowing with craft supplies, but I found a new place for those, so I can use this for anything I want. Hmm...maybe some baby stuff :)

I love it when everything has a place!

Project: Simplify -- Paper Clutter!!

The never-ending pi-i-ile...ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah...

The second hot-spot in Simplemom.net's Project: Simplify is paper clutter. Joy! Unlike last week's challenge which I tackled in a day, this one took my alllllll week.

Where did all that paper come from? Here:

Here:

And here:

I got excited about sorting while catching up on old episodes of...wait--I gave up internet TV for Lent. Oh, yeah. How about some music?

This find in the pile gave me a good laugh:

I think I picked this up at a community event last summer!

With all the paper on the dining room table, I marveled at my cleanish surfaces.


Piles in process. I'm down to stuff-to-be-recycled, stuff-to-be-filed, stuff-to-attend-to, and stuff for-Eric-to-go-through.

Filing and attending.

Ta-da!

A clean table again!

It's not pretty, but that's what the roll-top is for, is it not? Oh, you have something that needs to be attended to? Just put it in the artichoke hearts box please.

Now the trick is to stick to the system! I will do it this time!

Good stuff we've been eatin'

We don't usually try out so many new things within such a short period of time, but we've been inspired these past couple of weeks by some recipes found in the magazines Sunset and Mothering, and all of them have been exceptional! The first two and the last one are tasty ways to get in some good spinach, and they are all yummy!

Veggie Enchiladas -- these were a bit spicy and super delicious, and they got better every day (though it didn't take us too long to finish them off)!

Spinach Dinner Salad with Sesame Tofu -- this salad has a kick to it and is quite filling. I would have never considered putting radishes and apples and celery together in anything, but they come together nicely.

Curried Carrot Coconut Soup -- we used plain, non-fat yogurt on top...mmm....


Mat's special banana bread. Hmm... I have this recipe written on a the back of a receipt somewhere. I'll have to find it!

Spinach Strata, with all our substitutions :) This is an incredible dish!!!
1 med. onion, finely chopped
3 tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (ours was in powder form and freshly shaken from a bottle)
1 1/2 c. cooked spinach (or what we used: 10-oz pkg of frozen spinach, thawed with all the excess liquid squeezed out)
8 c. French of Italian bread, cut in 1-inch cubes (we used whole wheat bread from a sliced loaf)
2 c. Gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (we used sharp cheddar, but Swiss cheese also works)
1 c. Parmesan cheese, finely grated (we used the bottled stuff)
9 large eggs
2 3/4 c. milk (I think we used soymilk or rice milk)
2 tbs. Dijon mustard

In large, heavy skillet over medium heat, saute onion in butter until soft (about 5 minutes). Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and continue cooking 1 minute. Stir in spinach. Remove from heat and set aside.

Spread out 1/3 bread cubes in well-buttered baking dish. Top with 1/3 spinach mixture and 1/3 each type of cheese. Repeat layering twice with remaining bread, spinach, and cheeses.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and mustard. Slowly and evenly, pour this mixture over strata. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours, up to 24 hours.

The next day, let strata stand at room temperature 30 minutes while preheating oven to 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered in middle of oven until golden brown and cooked through (45-55 minutes). Serves 6-8.

Walk There: Orenco Station

I don't remember if "Orenco Station" is the name of this particular route, which we've done once before, in the Walk There book, but that's where it was. Friday was a gorgeous day and I'm so glad we got out and enjoyed it, because the relentless rain seems to have returned for a while.

We started at the Max station and meandered through a very, very old neighborhood of Hillsboro, which still has a few buildings left from when the Oregon Nursery Company (--> Orenco--get it?) established something of a company town. If you look closely at one of those upper middle windows, you can see the old doll that was waving at us and freaked Eric out.

I love all the big old trees that arch over the narrow streets and the funky little houses, and Eric is intrigued by the abandoned golf course that's next to this neighborhood.

We crossed one main road and suddenly we were in the middle of trying-to-be-urban suburbia. There are lots little parks and big houses with tiny yards, then those fade into apartments. It is a good location, though. Right next to the Max, just a few blocks from a cool shopping center that has apartments and condos above local businesses, including one of our favorite natural grocery store.
A little bit of pergola. Pergola is a word I'd never even heard before I met Eric.

We ended up stopping at that store, New Seasons Market, to use the bathroom and sample their samples. They always have the best samples!!

I saw this sign on our way home and it struck me as funny:

And, just for kicks, here's my ginormous belly. And speaking of kicks, I've been feeling a lot of those these days. I love it!

Project: Simplify -- the closet!

Warning: the pictures in this post are not for the squeamish!

My friend, Abby, recently took on the Project: Simplify challenge posed by Simple Mom and I decided to join her (the nesting instinct is real, people!)! The first step is actually writing a family purpose statement, but we haven't done that yet (I'm excited about sitting down with Eric to do it soon, though!). Every week, a new hot spot is announced, and participants agree to post before and after pictures. Gulp.

Hot Spot #1 is the closet/clothing area. I don't actually hang up most of my everyday clothes, so I don't go in my closet very often, but I do store my shoes there. A few things you might notice:

1. there is a hanging shoe storage thingy, but most of the items in it are not shoes;
2. there is a second hanging shoe storage thingy in the basket on the floor, still in its package (helpful, I know);
3. my closet may or may not have a floor.


Here's what the rest of the room looked like. This used to be our bedroom, but we moved our bed to the other room and started collecting gifts and loaned baby gear here. It also serves as my changing room, as it houses my dressers and closet.

So, I pulled out everything that was on the floor, turned pandora to something lively, and got to work. I ended up getting rid of about a third of the shoes that were in there, plus a bunch of clothes. Thankfully, our church is having a rummage sale next month, so I had Eric take the stuff over right away. The pregnant lady's not supposed to be lifting those heavy grocery bags of clothes, you know. I also packed away some clothes that I won't be wearing for several more months, put the bags and suitcases in a storage closet and organized what was left. Turns out, my closet does have a floor, and it needed to be vacuumed very badly! Ta da!


And just for kicks, I cleared out the rest of the room, too!

It actually feels good to go in that room again! And I love that every pair of shoes (even my slippers!) has its place. I'm not sure that there has been a time in my entire life when I could say that.

Anyone else want to simplify with me? You'll be glad you did!