This week’s Frugalicious Christmas post is triple beaded bracelets.
I didn’t get to Hobby Lobby this week so I had to wing it. Luckily, I’m an avid beader and have tons of beads laying around. So, I chose stretchy bracelets that can be made to match your favorite red sweater or to go into your favorite little girl’s stocking.

These bracelets are pretty cheap.  Like I’ve said before, beads are easy to come by.  Thrift stores often have great old necklaces for cheap, as do garage sales.  I like picking through them and finding some with great beads I can re-use.
You can also find nice bead combinations at craft stores or Walmart.  I found some very pretty glass beads at Walmart for really cheap not long ago.

Your supply list:

• enough beads for three bracelets
• stretchy cord
• ribbon or short strip of fabric

You’ll want to string three strands of beads, making each strand different. 
One strand should be more colorful with slightly larger beads.

Another strand with plain beads – using all the same beads on this strand will work well.

And then your third strand can be a combination.  But try not to make the beads on this strand too large if you’re first strand has bigger beads on it.

Make sure to create your bracelet to fit the size of the wearer’s wrist.  Tie them off very well and cut off the excess cord.

Last, you’ll want to tie a short piece of ribbon around all three bracelets to hold them together.  Tie them at their knots to hide the seams.

And you’re done!

This project took me about a half hour but would have probably gone faster had I thought about the size beads I’d need.  My rubber cord was a bit thick for most of my beads so I had to search for quite a bit to find some with big enough holes in them.

These bracelets make excellent stocking stuffers or can be made by girls for their friends as Christmas gifts.  They make a great girly girl project for you to do with your daughters, too.

I’m hoping I’ll get to Hobby Lobby this week.  I have a really neat project I’d like to complete for next Saturday’s post.

There was this lady at Publix today.  She was old older (as in older than me) and driving around one of those motorized buggies that I’d like to drive around in sometime just for the fun of it – and because driving one gives you the right of way anywhere in the store. 

What was I saying?
Oh yeah.  The gal in the little go-cart checked out with 3 bags of groceries, and accepted the bag boy’s required offer of assistance out to her car.

While Ryan and I were filling up our water jugs in the entryway I saw this lady pull out of the store and stop her buggy right in the middle of the lobby walkway.  She struggled to get out of the cart, seeming to be either ignoring or not hearing Bag Boy’s offer that if she would like to go ahead and drive the buggy all the way out to her car, he would be happily bring it back in for her.

Turns out she was ignoring him.  Because she proceeded to tell him, once she was free of the vehicle, that she didn’t need the buggy and could walk out just fine.

So, like the good Publix employee he was, the capeable, young man turned to grab her 3 wee grocery sacks.
To which she exclaimed a quiet but animated tone, “Oh, no!  You just go on and drive that buggy out to my car.  It will be better for you to not have to carry all those bags!”

Bag Boy was clearly perplexed, probably wondering what about his physique gave this lady the impression he couldn’t carry a few bags of groceries. But he followed her instructions anyway, tracking her slow trudge with the motorized cart all the way out to her car, loading her 3 bags into her car, and driving the cart back up into the store.

And I stood there chuckling quietly.

So I find humor in the oddest places.
I’m okay with that.

This morning I woke up to 50 degrees.  I am so cold.

And I really, really want a hot shower.  But you guys know why that’s not going to happen.  Even if I did turn on the water heater it would be an hour before it warmed the water all the way.

So, I’ll just sit here and be cold.

I feel like some kind of wimp.  50 degrees is not all that cold, really, and I’m not even outside.  So, I’m not really sitting in 50 degrees. 

But I’m still cold.

I’ve lived in Rhode Island, and on the east side of Washington state.  I know what cold is and 50 degrees does not count.

But I’m still cold.

I guess it’s time we start looking for wood for the fireplace.  It’s supposed to get below 40 tonight!

And just thinking about that is making me feel even more cold.

*Edit – I posted this 10 minutes ago and the temperature has actually gone down to 48 since then. I think I’ll get up off my duff and make some hot coffee or something.

Kait and I are different.  She likes displays.  I like everything clear.  She’s sentimental over things like candy wrappers.  As much as I like candy, I could never find a good reason to keep an empty wrapper. She likes post-it notes.  Everywhere.  I don’t like paper at all, no matter it’s stickiness.

We have different decorating styles and our definitions of declutter differ because our definition of clutter is different. 

So, we’ve come to an agreement.  
She must house keep daily.  That means, make her bed, pick up her floor, and keep things in order.  
If she keeps this up, I won’t clear her room for her. 

It works well because I rarely have to remind her to clean the place up.  Kait likes her stuff, but she certainly doesn’t find comfort in chaos.   

It’s the mirror.  One whole wall is mirrors.  The house came that way.  As neat as that is, it does make any mess in her room look twice as bad.  Her room just wasn’t as messy as it looks in the picture.

Her biggest job today was her closet.  Closets in my house seem to get out of control quickly.  Kait decided that her closet needed a good makeover and she spent most of her time going through everything in it.  She sent out a large bag of garage sale stuff, and a smaller box of stuff to store.

I’m happy with her progress today.  She worked hard and her room looks very good for it.

She’s a good kid.  A real good kid.

We have to remember, when we live in the same house as other people we have to show each other a little courtesy.  Obviously I’m not the kind of mom who’s cool with her children tossing their stuff everywhere.  However, I do listen to them.  I think this is important when parents go from one extreme – keeping everything, to the other extreme – getting rid of everything.

Many mothers go from clutterer to declutterer in marathon style. If you’re finding yourself suddenly passionate about minimizing, remember your family might need a little more time.  Don’t be a pushover, but do be balanced. 

What I’m saying is, consider them.

And remember not to push your husband in any measure.  Sure, tell him what you’re up to.  Ask if he minds if you get rid of his such-n-such.  But don’t toss anything unless you’re sure he’s cool with it. 
And by no means should you invade his garage.  Just close the door.  Pretend it doesn’t exist. Whatever you have to do.  For many men a well stocked garage is like a dream come true.  It’s comparable to a woman’s dream of her perfect wedding day.
Just leave it alone.

Tomorrow I think I’m going to tear apart the hall closet.  The closet with all the games and craft stuff.  It’s not going to be the easiest task, but it has tons of potential for improvement.

Today’s recipe is called Butter Spiced Hot Chocolate. 
I made that name up.
It began as a combination of 2 hot cocoa recipes.  However, when I realized I didn’t have what was called for in either recipe I had to wing it.  So I made this one up.

It’s got some yummy fall and winter spices in it. 

Okay.  So I’ll admit I’m not very good with artsy pictures. 

So what.

Anyway, while it was cooking it smelled incredible.  There is nothing like the smell of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon to make a home smell like the holidays.  These 3 spices shout Christmas.

• 2/3 cup hot water
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 7 cups chocolate milk (if you use regular milk just up your cocoa powder and sugar a little)
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 TBS cinnamon
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1 TBS rum extract
• 2 TBS butter

Bring water, cocoa powder, and sugar to a gentle boil, stirring so it doesn’t burn.  Then add your milk and other ingredients and simmer until nice and hot, stirring occasionally.

Very easy. 

What did we think?

My boys had been waiting for a day like today – rainy and cool - so they could offer some hot chocolate to their neighbor buddies.  Those boys downed it like mad and thought it was a pretty terrific drink. 
On a side note, can 65 degrees really be considered ‘cool’? 
My boys had mixed reactions.  Joe, who is a pretty plain kinda kid, didn’t like it at all.  He pulled his marshmallows out and split the rest with his friends.  Gabe thought it was magnificent. Matthew gave it a 4, which means it’s top on his list but not his very favorite.  The younger kids thought it was yummy cause it had sugar in it. 

Kait really liked it, but said it definitely doesn’t beat the maple & butter recipe.  She did say the spices were too much and she thought it would have been better with less spice.

I absolutely loved it.  It’s thick, creamy, and dark.  Not only does it smell like Christmas, it tastes like Christmas, too.  I think I might make this one again, only in a single serving for me. 

Here is the video.  My camera died so it’s pretty bla - but the kids are cute anyway.

I learned a long time ago that the bathroom was not my favorite room to clean. When we moved into this house a couple of months ago I made a conscious decision to only keep necessities in the kids’ bathroom to ease my burden.  This makes it very easy to keep up with. 

Even when it gets to looking like this:

If we weren’t a family of almost 10 I would say that our storage space was more than adequate.  But, since we have a lot of people sharing this space I need to make an extra effort to keep things from getting too out of control.  The bathroom cupboard has always been a challenge for me.  Until recently I found it necessary to keep every lotion and soap bar or bottle I came across.  And every towel, no matter it’s condition.  And every half empty bottle of some hair product that we didn’t like.  You know, just in case.  But that just created more work for me.

So, my tip for minimizing your bathroom cupboard clutter, should you be wishing for a clear space look and less to do…
Trash it.  Give it away.  Something.  If you don’t use it don’t bother keeping it.  If it’s ripped trash it.  If you don’t like the way it smells, why store it?  It takes up space, creates clutter, and takes time to organize every time you do a thorough bathroom cleaning.   

It took me about 45 minutes today to evaluate the cupboard situation, trash junk and remove any unnecessary collections of junk bottles, scrub the floor, the tub (yes, Marty, I do sometimes clean my tub), the toilet, etc…

*Sam(3) saw my friend Marty cleaning her tub a few weeks ago and exclaimed that it was amazing – implying that he’s never seen such a thing before.

I folded the towels and put them away correctly – something my boys have yet to get,  put freshly cleaned bath mats down, cleaned out the sink which was full of sudsy water and a rubber snake???  Good place for him to take a bubble bath, I guess. 
I’ve stopped asking.

I wiped everything down and I just want to say that those fancy, artsy, stucco-looking, textured walls are not. easy. to. clean. 
Pretty, yes, though you can’t really see their texture from the pictures.  But not exactly the best wall choice for a bathroom that is likely to be used by children.  Plus, it’s kind of scratchy if you bump up against it.  A person could cut themselves.

Just sayin’.

The finished cupboard -

We don’t have a place to store towels so I have to keep them in the bathroom cupboard.  We just have the one basket of extra soaps, hair stuff, and such.  No need for anything more than that.  Kait has her own drawer for her personal items.  She doesn’t want them mingling with the boys’ stuff.  I don’t blame her.

I also like that the little stool fits under the sink.  It’s not used all that often anyway.

And the finished bathroom:

It really is a pretty bathroom, even if the walls are a bit dangerous.  I also noticed while cleaning today that the bathroom counter top is just set on the cabinet and not attached to it at all.  I think it’s because it doesn’t fit properly but I’m not sure it’s supposed to be detached like that.

And, yes, the mirror is crooked.  But so is the light fixture.  If I were to straighten the mirror the light fixture would look dumb. 

I love this house, but I’m really glad we’re just renting.

Kait has been working on her room for a little while now and is vacuuming so I can get after pictures.  I’ll have her accomplishments posted soon.

After finishing up the bunk room I came out and saw this.

Keep in mind, we only have 9 people in our family.  And my cup was still sitting right where I left it on the coffee table.

So how…?

Nevermind.

Yiyiyi! - the bunk room.

This particular room is my biggest pet peave.  The room with the most people living in it.  The room with the LEGOs.

The room my 4 oldest boys share. 12, 10, 7, & 5.

I had the 2 younger boys go clean up this room this morning.  So, this is what they think of when they imagine ’clean’.  I’d be embarrassed to even post the before pictures but, even though the before room was bad, it wasn’t near how bad it used to be after they ‘cleaned’ it before I started minimizing.

So, here it is.

4 boys means a lot of clothes – And I’m against dressers for my own odd personal reasons so their clothes are not stored in the dresser in the picture.  It’s all toys, LEGO magazines, papers, rock collections, dress up superhero stuff, nerf guns, etc…  Just about all their toys except for the LEGOs reside in the dresser drawers.  The rule is they can keep anything they want as long as they can store it neatly.  This allows them the freedom to keep things I would deem junk, but also allows me to tear through there tossing stuff when the thing gets unruly.

It’s working out well for both the boys and me.  I went through them today and trashed a lot, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as what I usually need to do, and only took about 1/4 the time it usually takes for me to go through their toys.

Their clothes are actually stored in plastic bins.  We went to this system about 2 years ago and I love it.  However, they still get a bit unruly, as you can see from the picture. 

There was a lot of work to be done – and a lot of stuff to get rid of.

Two plastic bins of garage sale stuff later (most of it came out of the closet):

Since we’re now hanging our shirts out to dry on hangers, then just bringing them in and putting them directly into the closet that way, I noticed that the bins we were using were way too big for just their shorts and pants.  So, I got rid of 4 big bins and went with 2 smaller bins we already had.  The 2 oldest share one and the two youngest share the other.  Then there is a smaller bin for belts, socks, and underwear.

I went through all the clothing and bedding and discarded anything ripped, and put stuff we don’t wear or use in the garage sale pile.

There is a lot more stuff in the garage sale pile now.  Seriously.

My daughter said, “Mom, didn’t you just go through all the boys’ clothes just a few weeks ago?”

I had.  But I guess I missed a lot.  I also get better every time I de-clutter.

Here is final after vacuum view.

The rule with the LEGOs is that current projects must stay on the LEGO table.  Not on the floor, not on the dresser.  The blue bucket is also filled with LEGO pieces.  They actually do pretty good with this rule because one time I went in and tossed every last LEGO piece into the blue bucket.  It was a consequence they didn’t think I’d follow through with.  But they took me much more serious after that.  LEGO pieces are hard to find when they’re mixed in with 10,000 other LEGO pieces.

The top of the dresser houses Esther, Joe’s spotted lepard gecko, and the alarm clock.  Which is useless.  They set it for the wrong time – like 2am, then never wake up to it when it goes off.

And I hate the mismatched bedding.  Hate it.  My goal is to buy them all the same colored sheets with different colored, but same style comforters or quilts.  I’ve had this same goal for almost 2 years now though.  It just isn’t high enough on my list of spending priorities, I guess.

My oldest boy, Joe, loves it when I go in and get rid of junk.  He is my minimalist in the making with an appreciation for clear spaces.  I think if he had his own room it would be perfectly kept.  My 7 year old likes his room spotless, too, but I just don’t see him accomplishing that on a regular basis.  He’ll just need to marry a good woman, I guess.

I’m really happy with the finished bunk room. I think it looks pretty good for being shared by 4 young kids.

Tomorrow it’ll be Kait’s room.  She’ll be taking care of that on her own but I already warned her about before and after pictures. I’m sure it’ll be spotless by the morning.  She is no minimalist but she always keeps her stuff neat.  Rarely do I have to ask her twice to get her room picked up. 
It’ll be a good, “how to live a minimalist lifestyle when not everybody in your house is on board” post.

Maybe I’ll do the kids’ bathroom tomorrow instead of taking the day off. 
Shared by 7 people with just a small cupboard - this is where real minimalism kicks into high gear.

I’ve been working on the idea of simple living lately.  As you might know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, we’ve stopped using electricity so much, we don’t have cable, don’t over-commit, don’t have as many things as most families of 4, are minimizing our stuff stash, etc…

But am I really on the road to the simple life?  Is this the right direction?

I read this blog post recently and what the author pointed out really stuck with me.  Living a simple life isn’t necessarily about what you don’t have or do have, or where you live, or what kind of milk you drink. 

Do you honestly think eating granola or living in a log cabin or beating your pillows to a pulp will make your life simpler?

Well, yeah, I guess I did kind of take the view that moving into a log cabin was simplifying. (not the pillow thing, though.  I’d feel kinda stupid.)

But I really am wrong.  Reading Patrice’s post gave me an entire new perspective.  She goes on to correct the kind of thinking I’ve been hanging onto.

Simplicity isn’t living in a log cabin or doing yoga. It’s not about eating organic food or getting rid of call waiting. It’s doing things like marrying a good person and keeping one’s marriage together. It’s staying out of debt and living within one’s means. It’s about dealing with the monkey wrenches in life, like having a handicapped child, in a manner that is mature and stable.

In other words, simple living can be summed up in three simple words. Got a pencil? Here they are:

Make. Good. Choices.

I loved her post. 

I am seeing a much larger picture now.

I’m going to keep working at the physical aspects of simplicity – I think they have a lot of merritt.  However, I’m not going to ignore the less obvious simpleness of my good marriage, my delightful kids, my quiet, yet oh so lively house. 

The fact that my family is already living quite a simple life….

I can feel good about that.

My friend Heather recently asked me to post specifics about how I organize.  Well, since I don’t organize really, I thought I’d just give specifics on how little stuff I have, and how that helps me to keep our home clean.  Some rooms have less, some have more.  I’m only an aspiring minimalist.

And I’m a work in progress.

As I desire more and more to live a minimalist’s lifestyle I find myself getting rid of more and more stuff.  I’m not what I would call “there” yet, but I am getting closer and closer all the time.

I am trying to get my stuff together and put on a show of all my junk for the neighborhood and see if I can trick them into believing they want it for themselves.  We like to call this a yard sale.    I have a good corner of the garage already piled with stuff for the upcoming day, but thought it would be smart to go through each room and do a clean sweep for anything else I’d like to get rid of.

I started in the nursery.  It really isn’t a nursery, but it’s the room the smaller children stay in and it’s where we keep all the safe toddler toys.

I only snapped one before picture – the closet.  It was the only really disastrous spot in the room.  It’s because we don’t keep a whole lot of unnecessary extras that it is so easy to clean up when it disarray sets in.

I had let it get a little more out of control than I usually do.  After going through all the little boys’ stuff, getting rid of shoes that don’t fit, neatly hanging the clothes, and putting all the toys back in their rightful bins, It came out looking like this.

*I want to remind you that we have almost 8 children.  This picture shows the complete extent of our indoor baby and toddler toys, with the exception of a few more cars that go in the big gray box.  When inside, my smaller boys are exclusive Hot Wheels car players – rarely wanting or needing anything else to occupy them.  I could actually get rid of everything else in the picture and they likely wouldn’t notice.

Then, after a little pickup of the bedroom and a vacuum of the floor, I was done!

Jesse actually sleeps in the toddler bed.  I have a twin bed for Sam but he falls out of his bed almost every night so I’m just going to leave him on his toddler mattress on the floor for now.

And I’d enjoy a little decoration but we move around too much to spend much time on that.  Besides, I’m kind of liking the clear spaces look.

I don’t think there is any right way to organize, store, or keep the extra toys, sheets, and bedding our kids have.  What works for one mom may not work for another.   
However, if you’re like me and just don’t want to mess with all the work that goes into storing and organizing a ton of stuff you may find freedom in passing the excess on to a family who could use it.    
The key to making this happen is to stop hanging onto every toy your kids have, get rid of your large stacks of excess bedding, and be more careful about what you decide to bring into your home.

This isn’t always easy, I know. 

I’m there.
I’m so there.

But practice does help.  The more I work at downsizing, the easier it gets.  The less we have, the less we realize we need.

And there truly is a freedom in the freshness that results from releasing the weight of stuff.

Next we’ll be diving into the big boys room.  Four boys sharing a bunk room doesn’t sound very minimalist friendly, does it? 

I’m up for the challenge.