Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

I seem to have dropped the bloggy ball again.  Life is blessedly busy and eventful and this little blog has taken a back seat for the past week or so. I've been busy with a large organizing/redesign project at a client's home, happily preparing my classroom and lesson plans for the upcoming preschool year, and deliriously overcome with joy and thankfulness for this little bundle. . . Our sweet little granddaughter was born last Saturday and this is a photo of her snuggled in her car seat, ready to leave the hospital.  Everyone is doing fine and we are so thankful for God's little miracle. 

We have a new member of our family ready to arrive in just a few days.   Our youngest daughter and her husband are expecting their first child (our first granddaughter) any day now.  A few weeks ago they had a maternity photo session with Andi Grant at our house.  I missed out on getting to watch the adventure, but Papa got to help with gathering all of the props.  I love that the photos were taken at Brown Wren Acres, the same place where their engagement photos and wedding photos were taken.  Each set of photos represents a letter of the alphabet and Ashley and Chris plan to make an alphabet book for little Miss Charlotte to enjoy.  What a special way for her mommy and daddy to show her how much they love her. You can check out more of the photos at Andi's website .

Monday Motivation: Getting Control Of Household Paperwork Out of control paperwork seems to be the number one problem most of my clients have. I would say it has to be my number one problem as well. I still struggle with it, but I've come up with some systems that help me to create order out of the mess pretty quickly.   If you're overwhelmed with papers, here's how to take control and set up your own system to make your life easier. First we'll start with figuring out what you have. Let's pretend you have papers all over your house and they are totally disorganized. Don't apologize - just get started: 1. Start with a large surface, like your dining room table, to use as a staging surface. Cover the surface with boxes or other rectangular containers to sort your paperwork in. Some of the categories you might choose are: Bills, medical, car, school, insurance, photos, banking, stationary, taxes, recipes, contact info., appl...

One of the great things about having grandchildren around is that they help you to slow down and look at things.  I tend to rush through life and in the process miss the fun.  In my effort to get to the end I forget about the journey.  I might be pleasantly surprised if I took the time to explore something I've never seen before.    Littlest grandson climbed up onto the truck box in the back of his uncle's pickup to checkout the view through the window.  He sat very still for several minutes, staring into the truck and didn't say a word.  Finally, he turned around and shared his thoughts.  "Big truck".  Why, yes it is.  Just the facts.  No other details needed.  Plain and simple.  Life should be simple.                            ...