elementary school year in review printable divider pages

At the end of every school year my kids bring home a binder full of papers: drawings, writing samples, report cards, photos, etc. A whole binder for each year. My oldest is finishing up elementary school this year, meaning he has seven binders full of papers crammed into a bookshelf downstairs. In my never ending quest to fit our big family in a little house, I decided it was time to consolidate. I had my boys go through each binder and pull out four or five favorite items from each year to keep and we recycled the rest.  Then I made year in review pages for each grade. Now instead of seven unorganized binders that no one ever looks at my son has a personal yearbook that hits the highlights of each of his elementary school years. Keep reading to download free printables.

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Of resolutions, chore charts, and really terrible mornings

Since it's the New Year and all I decided it was time to get our morning routine a little more organized (and by our I mean mine and the kids'). Here's the plan: I get up a little earlier each morning so I can exercise and shower before the kids get up, then I can focus on helping the big kids get ready for school while keeping the little kids from sitting in front of the TV all morning. Then I made a nifty chart for each older boy so they can see exactly what they need to do before school (including practicing piano and cleaning their room) and checkoff each task as it's completed. I'd wake them up at 7 and there'd be plenty of time to get everything done with no nagging from me. I thought it was going to be great.

So we tried it today and it turned out to be the absolute worst morning I have had in years. Suffice it to say everything on the list did not get done, and 20 minutes before school started I had three of the kids in tears (two screaming in time out while a third cried because the other two were making him sad), another one in trouble because he'd just hit someone, and the fifth sitting at the piano plunking out "I am a Child of God" while I tried very hard to keep my cool. And no, the irony of this was not lost on me. (Keep reading for more details.)

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stuffed animal swing {DIY hanging toy storage}

***You may have seen this project a few weeks ago at So You Think You're Crafty - if so, just scroll down for the tutorial***

I've spent some time hunting for a good organization system for my boys' stuffed animals. I've seen hammocks which hang in a corner of the room (won't work because there's no free corner in their bedroom) and large custom built stuffed animal zoos ($200+) and bookshelves with dowels running down the front so kids can stuff all their toys inside (it keeps them off the ground, but looks almost just as messy). I finally came up with a hanging storage solution that is pretty inexpensive and can be easily put together in an hour or two. It's simple enough that the kids can help with most of the construction.

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family command & homework center

With the prettifying of our kitchen, I decided it was high time to organize a narrow section of wall that leads from the front room into the kitchen. Before the kitchen update, it was a mess. It housed our phone, a calendar, random phone lists taped to the wall, and a big ugly shoe organizer that always had books and other junk stacked on top. Obviously I tidied it up now and again, but for the most part it was just fairly awful.

So I decided to make better use of the space. Here's a before/after (sorry about the before photo - I never actually photographed that space, but this photo of my son shows it in the background):

Ugh. I found another home for the shoes, then thought about what sorts of things would be most convenient to have on this wall, which is central to the kitchen/phone message taking/homework doing area. Here's the breakdown (as well as the sources for all the items I used):

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