Haircut . . .

Chickens

We moved the chicken coop outside. It was in the garage until the weather warmed up a little. Isn't it cute?! Todd built it. It has 4 nesting boxes on the backside. It took a little coaxing the first time to get the chickens to come out.
But once they did, they loved it. I am sure it will not be long before they have eaten this overgrown grass down to the ground.
Look how big they are getting!

Laundry

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was going to try a new laundry system. And I did. And it has totally changed my life. I discovered it here.

We have no more laundry in the laundry room, halls , bathrooms, or mud room. Everyone keeps a laundry basket in their own room and everything dirty goes into it. On Monday morning I tell Justin to bring his dirty clothes to the laundry room. I toss everything from his basket into the washer. Yes, you heard me correctly. No sorting. I put soap, fabric softener, and a little vinegar into the washer. The vinegar helps keep the colors from bleeding. And then I wash and rinse the whole load in cold water. Later in the day I throw it into the dryer. When Justin gets home from school, I tell him to get his clean clothes out of the dryer and go put them away.

Everybody has their own separate laundry day. There is no more time spent sorting clothes into darks, lights, whites, and towels. And then resorting the clean clothes according to who they belong to. There are no more more piles of dirty clothes and no more piles of clean clothes.

I have to admit I separated white shirts out on Todd's day and Thomas' day because I just didn't want to chance it. But that's it.

I figure in a while when we are really into the swing of things, I will have the kids follow me through the process and then they can eventually do it on their own.

I cannot even tell you how much laundry has taken over my life the past 20 years. It has been overwhelming and crazy to manage with a big family. For the first time in my life I am in control of the laundry. And it feels great.

Necklaces

Aren't these so cute?!I made them from washers and metal stamps. They are only about the size of a quarter. I first saw them here at one of my favorite blogs, U create. And then followed her link to Not So Idle Hands for the tutorial.

Driver's License

Thomas got his driver's license. I don't remember driving a car like this when I was in driver's Ed.

College

Sorry I have been away from the blogging world for a couple of weeks. The next semester at BYU-Idaho has started and my current class has proven already to be the most challenging yet. I love the class and what I am learning but there is so much work to do.