Oh Tuesday was CRAZY!  If any of you follow MFE on Twitter, then you also know that I had to take an unexpected 3 hour glucose test (which really takes 4 hours) and failed my last hour, BARELY!!  I’m now taking it again next week just to be sure.  Then our new car arrived after waiting 7 WEEKS!  So excited not to be sharing the construction pick-up truck with hubby anymore – not that it wasn’t “fun”, but have you tried getting kids out of car seats from a pick up when you’re 8 months pregnant??  Picking a car up always takes a couple hours to finalize paperwork, etc.  Thankfully it was a day my Right Hand was working, so even though I lost 6 hours of my day that I wasn’t planning on, I still got through the “toss it stage” of the fridge, freezer, pantry, kids and baking cabinets.

Here’s where I’m at before restocking the staples in each.
I keep an emergency list, Little’s schedule, Pediatricians office hours and Phone#
and Hubby’s Chore Chart (definitely a joke!) in the Little’s Pantry Cabinet.

I moved all the medicine to the bathroom in a sealed container
I love The Container Store shoe boxes as “pull out drawers” for bottles, etc.
These cabinets are deep, so I keep the excess bottles and extra formula, etc
behind the other items that I use daily.

This is the Base of the Little’s pantry cabinet.

Can you tell I’m a Costco shopper???  I love to stock up on staples.
It may take a bit to use them all, but so much easier to always have at my finger tips!
Also, love to have containers I can see through to know what’s in the pantry!

Have not done much other than toss from the fridge…

And my hubby helped me move some armoires between bedrooms.  Have you ever used Felt Sliders or Slider Pads for Carpet?!?!?  HOLY MOTHER OF MOVING EASINESS!!!  A great friend turned me onto these and loaned me hers today.  We quickly went out and bought our own.  Super cheap, VERY easy to move things around (without breaking your back).  Even pregnant me could do it – although I happily let cute hubby take care of it..but even he was super impressed!

I’ve also been keeping my notebook close by and jotting down things that I need to be sure to do….I wouldn’t call these New Years resolutions, but definitely goals that I would like to get accomplished in the month of January and certainly before my life changes forever and ever once #3 arrives March 8th.  Here’s a few teaser things from the list – trust me, there is more:

1. Wash car seat covers
2. Wash stroller covers
3. Restock kids medications – Hyland Teething Pills, Benedryl single measures, Saline Nasal Spray (1 for each), Vitamins, Tylenol (1 for each) – I like to write each Little’s name in a sharpie on 2 Tylenol bottles and 2 nasal sprays.  I’m so neurotic that after each cold, I replace with a new one even though I wash the syringes and lids between dosages).  The girls have not been sick THAT much and I’m not afraid to expose them to things as I believe it helps build their immunity.  But they have never really had the exact same thing at the exact time (plus the thought of the last cold being bottled up in there – hmmmmm)  it just seems like a good thing to do to have fresh ones.
4. Check your own medications – You will be shocked that you are probably using Ibuprofen from 2006!  I like to restock these at the beginning of the year.  Toss perscription drugs that you are not using anymore or that have expired.  Addie actually got into a bottle of leftover Vicodin that my husband had filled but had never used.  After spending a few hours in the ER and figuring out she had not eaten any of them, we quickly tossed what was not being used.  No need to take the chance!
5. Update your emergency numbers list – I keep this posted next to the Little’s schedule in their pantry.
6. Update kids schedules – I keep a schedule posted in the Little’s pantry so it’s easier for anyone coming to help with the kids.  Our nanny, hubby, grandparents, sitter – my mom actually asks me to email her a copy so she has on her fridge too.
7. Clean out purse and diaper bag – restock with essentials.  I have a wonderful girlfriend that I used to babysit for her in college.  With 4 kids, I was often tasked with helping her get organized.  One of my favorite things to do was clean out her purse and guess how many pens I would find….it was almost ALWAYS over 10!  Once there were 15 pens in her bag!  Love it!
8. Check passport expiration dates - put it on your calendar to renew at least 2 months prior to experation – a WHOLE LOT easier to renew!  If you do not have them for your kids or yourself, go ahead and get them.  MUCH easier when you’re not in a time crunch!  And you can do everything at the post office.  The passports are the easiest thing to use for the kids when we travel for ID.

Lastly, my sister gave me this in my stocking for Christmas.  I’ve seen and used similar lists, but this one is DEFINITELY a FAVORITE!  It’s the 2010 Paper Mousepad Calendar: Take Care of Business.  It’s a notepad that doubles as a mousepad and is dated for the rest of this week and then 2010.  There is a place for “Top Priority”, “Tasks”, “Correspondence”, and “Errands” – it has been super helpful for me organizing tasks for this week.  At $5.99 it’s a cheap way to stay on top of your game!

Lots more to take on tomorrow…hoping to post the results of the armoire switch.

Here’s everything I took out of Hayden’s armoire that I now have to make a new home for…

Tomorrow’s New Years Eve…we’re running out of time!!

TOSS, DONATE, EBAY, CRAIGS LIST, ANYTHING just get it out of your house!!

Give 2010 a FRESH START!!

YOU CAN DO THIS!!