Well I chose Tuesdays to post the project I finished just because I have the Weekend and Monday morning free of children for few hours just to tackle some of those projects that I left to do later.

This week was organizing my medicine cabinet (I call it my pharmacy). Here is the before picture.

Yah, that messy!!! I’m not messy in heart but somehow I always have more important things to do. Well last week I decided I want to organize this chaos and on one of the days I had the kids in Summer Camp, went shopping and bought few stackable clear containers which was actually designed for CD. It worked perfectly; here is the after picture, my pride.

I’ve to say I’m quite proud of myself and I managed to keep it the same so far. I’m good in organizing momentarily but keeping it tidy is a challenge which I’m working on. Surprisingly it didn’t take that much of a time either. I thought I had to spend so many hours on this but after the initial buy of the containers, it took me half an hour to go through all the medicine and throw away expired vitamins and organize everything buy category. Now when I need bandage for kids or a pill for my headache I don’t have to go through the things I don’t need I just pick up the proper box. It saves me a lot of time and a lot of nagging if my husband has to get something from there.

I credit the whole idea to the fact that now I have 1.5 hours three days a week to thin and plan in peace. There are no one to interrupt a thought, or an act, or what ever I was doing. The fact that I bought the containers was that I wasn’t running to get out of the store I was actually walking on the aisle and looking at the displays.  Project number one done, next stop is organizing our garage. I have three weeks to do this and then boom back to reality. Do you have organization challenges like me? Share it with us, together we learn more and even challenge each other.

Until Later,

Our first week of summer day camp is over. This week’s them was Princesses and Superheros. This was a big deal for me because my son is very picky in terms of classes and he has never been to a summer camp before. The camp was for all week from 9:30 am to noon, which was more than the time he spent in preschool in one week.

It was a good practice for all of us to start a new trend in September. I also had my daughter in the rec centers kids club three days a week. This program is only two hours from 9:15 and is a wonderful program to prepare the child for preschool. I had my son in the same program last summer just before he started preschool.

On Monday, I had them both at their programs “at the same time”!!!. My God I had a whole one and a half hour to spend on myself   Yahooo!!! The only problem was that I was so not used to this luxury that at the end I did nothing except sitting in front of my computer and browse the web. If you ask me, Monday was useless I spent the whole time debating on what I should do. I learned from it though to plan my day the night before and have my breakfast even before the kids wake up. They say practice makes perfect, I was better on Wednesday and even best on Friday. I had my breakfast before dropping them off. Then in that 1.5 hour, I did my grocery shopping. I even had enough time to put them away before picking up my daughter. We had 45 minute to kill before picking up her brother so I drove back to home (it’s only a 7  minutes drive) cleaned up a bit and went back to pick him up.

I’m looking forward to the next week, and am planning to sign them up for another week in August as well. They are having fun and I’m having some me time which is much needed. This summer camp reminded me of how simple and quick chores can be without kids or with only one of them. I remember when I only had my son some things looked very difficult to do but now the same things looks easy when I’m only with one of them. It’s funny how life makes you stronger and change the way you look at the world around you.

Anyhow, having this time to myself opened my eyes to simple but efficient things you can do in a very limited time. Now I’m always on the look for things that can be done correctly in a very limited time. So at least until the end of summer, I try to document these things, and my projects around the house that hopefully, is going to be finished.

Until later,

We are having a lovely summer; it’s rare in Vancouver to have few sunny warm weeks back to back. Our typical weather is maybe a few sunny weeks between rainy ones, temperature of 25°C (77°F) is hot and to my standard beach weather; although there are lots of people going to beach at lower temperatures. We had higher temperatures these past couple of weeks. Although this weather is not helping the Kelowna fires, the kids are enjoying this weather and drinking it to the last drop.

I normally don’t mind our weather, I really miss the rain after a few weeks of sun! My friends in Vancouver thing I’m nuts to miss rain but well I love rain most of them, what can I say. My only problem with weather is that when it’s sunny I feel guilty to stay home. When it rains or is cold I don’t mind to stay home with the kids or just go to classes or play dates that was planned before. On the other hand when it’s sunny I think I will miss the opportunity if I’m not out there enjoying it. So on sunny days we go out spontaneously, we will stay long hours and go from places to places.

It is fun to enjoy the kids outside and much easier to handle them, but then my time at home for daily chores are limited. This is the only excuse I’m going to make for not posting lately. I’m going to blame it on our good weather and lack of time not lack of discipline.

Busy moms blog will have a new facelift and new sections in near future I might add. I’m working on a new design now that I’ve almost finished my graphic design course.

Well this was only an update; I’m not writing as often but still am alive and will try to post more often.

Until later,

We just got back from our road trip to San Francisco a few days ago. Lets just say it was a very long road trip, it’s about 1500km (1200 miles) from Vancouver to San Francisco.  We spent around 7 days there  for my husbands  family reunion before we headed back home.

I was worried how the kids would handle the long drive, as my daughter is usually very impatient in the car. I did a lot of research and talked to many moms aboutit. By the time we were supposed to leave, I had a clear idea what to expect and had planned how to tackle the issues.

My husband, sister in-law, my mom and basically everyone around me suggested buying a portable DVD player to entertain the kids with movies. The idea didn’t appeal to me. I thought why would we go on a vacation if they are going to sit in the car and watch TV. To be on the safe side, and also to agree with my husband, I agreed to buy the DVD player but not to use it until it was absolutely necessary.

I found a snack and play travel tray online

It was a good thing I found a little baby shop in Bellingham (just south of the Canadian border) on the way to San Fran and bought it there. (Unfortunately it was too late to order online as we were leaving in three days when I first found it)

I packed lots of different snacks and fruits. My snacks were of low sugar, low sodium, like nuts, dried fruit, low sugar cookies which I made, low sodium pretzels and rice crackers. Fruits were the meaty ones with less water like apple, banana, and pears in order to  make sure to avoid extra bathroom stops and sugar highs.

I also packed each of my kid’s backpack with small toys (big enough not to be eaten) that did not require batteries or make any sounds. I also packed another bag for myself to give away surprises later in the middle of our drive. That bag was full of paper, coloring books, books I picked form library, some new toys and entertainment I bought from Dollar store to keep the interest going .

It was great the minute we put the trays on as they were busy playing with their toys and they had their snacks and lunch on it. The Trays could easily entertain them for a few hours and it was easy enough for them to unlock one side of it.

We were on the road for a day and a half each way and didn’t have to use the DVD player which made me quite happy. The kids learned how to communicate better and be each others friends, and entertain each other.  They learned to pay attention to the nature around them. We played I spy and sang to sing-along kids rhymes. We also made up some games which I don’t remember.  We really connected to each other, which was great especially for dad and kids as they are not always together with dad going to work every day.

So if you are planning a road trip, it is a good idea to invest on the snack and play travel tray, its worth every cent of the money you spend. Check their website at

Family Travel Gear

Until later,

I loved the recipe swap of Our Chaotic Life, so here is a light pasta Salad my husband loves and kids don’t mind.

Before I start I have to say except for baking  I don’t use exact measurements, with salads I just look at it if it is colourful and has enough of each color I’m fine. I’m approximate measures below.

Direction:

I cook the pasta as per package, and then mix all ingredients in the above order.

I’m using less red onion as I’m not a fan of raw onions you can add the whole onion, this is great for sides for BBQ, or a light lunch. You can add a cup of feta cheese and make a complete meal out of it.

You can make and keep it in fridge in air tight containers for almost a week .

Enjoy.

You can also join Our Chaotic life for it’s recipe swap and add to the wonderful collection. To do so, click on the button below.

Until later,