Not-Corelle and Dirty Socks

How many pairs of dirty kids' socks can I find in 30 seconds? Four. And this was after pick-up-put-away time. How many feet do my two children have?

Believe me, we've been working on making socks land in the dirty laundry for the past 9 years.

I'm gearing up mentally for another hard day of sewing. Part of that is making sure the home front is in order. Except for laundry to fold, the house is in good shape.

The folding-and-putting-away-the-laundry habit is another we've been working on for the past 9 years. It happens when I do it all, but my goal is to raise responsible adults. Sigh.

Correction: Kris often jumps in and folds or makes the kids fold the laundry. The putting away part is lacking until I crack the whip.

Then I have to check that certain members of our household didn't just throw their entire pile of clothes in the bottom of a bedroom closet. It has happened multiple times, yet one child constantly wonders why I have to check for that.

Kara has a new junk bunker for her closet to sort her various fold-up clothes. We're done with dressers in her room. Too much wasted space.

Kal is next. I think his dresser is inefficient, sooo... Ikea again? (I'll work up any excuse to go.)

Not-Corelle and the kitchen island

We're loving the new kitchen island from Ikea. It's just what we needed for this space. Kal and Kara are enjoying breakfast and snacks there.

It's the Vadholma island. I had to look that up. Otherwise, I was going to string together random letters to say what the name of it is. Still learning my Swedish.

Even though the island is only 10 feet from the dining table, which is where all the family meals are, Kal loves that he's closer to the action. The dining table feels more isolated in the morning when everyone is running around to get ready for the day.

Plus, Kara has found yet another surface to use for her craft projects. I love how creative she is.

We're also loving the new not-Corelle dishes we have from Ikea. They're much like Corelle: a stack of 16 dinner plates takes the same amount of space that 4 or 5 heavy stoneware plates take.

When you have no cabinet space, the not-Corelle from Ikea, or the normal Corelle, is a great way to go. I've seen not-Corelle from Target, too.

Time to sign off and start in on the sewing for the day before I wake up kids for school.