Se7en’s Fabulous Friday Fun #90

1. I just love “Let the Children Play:” Take a look at this clever post full of storage solutions for loose parts in the playground.
2. Okay you have to know I love Katherine Marie… Just look at her series on Monsters…
   • The Monsters are Coming;
   • Fun With Monsters;
   • Monster Treats.
3. And if you are headed for a nature walk, gathering treasures anytime soon then you are going to love this post by Krokotak…love and adore their crafty creatures!!!
4. This was my year to learn about Twitter, it took me until August to actually tweet a tweet – but I will never look back, totally love crafting something to say in 140 characters or less… Here is everything you need to know to get going with Twitter – on MomCrunch of course – because they are fabulous at teaching the basics. Where was this post a couple of months back I ask myself!!!
5. There is everything to love about round-ups on the Long Thread – have a look at Halloween!!!
6. And Ohdeedoh featured these: Travel Books from Lonely Planet, just for kids… look totally adorable!!! Just the covers make me want to travel!!!
7. Looking for some South African recipes of note and if you are a local you may well want to enter the Yuppie Chef’s Enkosi Cookathon Competition – You do, You really, really do!!!

And the se7en+1th Thing: If you feel like organizing!!!



8. This week on Org Junkie’s 52 Weeks we are at Week 41: Best Organizing Advice + GiveAway.

A week away always leaves me a bit up in the air around the house when I get back. Turns out a week in Lesotho is no different and no matter how little one packs there is still a heap to sort out when you get home.



It always seems to take a week to re-enter from a trip, no matter how long it was… Here is our re-entry strategy:

1. Be prepared: Before we leave home I make sure that there is one outfit ready to wear in everyone’s closet. Then when I pack our bags at the place where we are staying I make sure the dirty laundry gets packed in loads: A load of jeans, a loaf of shirts and a load of undies – trust me a week away: 8 times ten undies for everyone and 8 times ten pairs of socks and you really have a load of laundry – just undies!!! As soon as I walk in the door I plonk the first load in the washer and let it wash away while I unpack the rest.
2. Clear those surfaces: Nothing like dumping stuff as you unpack from a trip, just too lazy to put it all away. Six months later we can still have stuff lying about. The brute force method works here… I just walked around tackling a surface at a time. And yes it took all week and we still have the odd stone and vitally important pamphlet and so on lying around the house – but those last bits and pieces are in the “claim me pile” and if they aren’t claimed really soon then they will vanish.
3. Clean/Air whatever needs it: Things that we don’t often use tend to get dumped back into the cupboard and forgotten until next time. Hang all the sleeping bags out and air them and then return them to their bags and place on the sleeping bag shelf…
4. Putting the trip to rest: Unpacking and putting the bags away… how often do we unpack and then sit and sit with bags underfoot. The bags become a glorious game and we end up with them underfoot for eternity.
5. My kids have been packing for weeks and weeks: Little bags of essentials for their trips have been the game of choice for at least the last month… So it was the week to seek out little bags and backpacks packed with things like: 5 markers, a favorite book and an apple. Seek out all the bags and empty them… and put the stuff away as well!!! Now the bags are back in their spot – you know: “Keep like things together” and the markers and important treasures are back in place too.
6. My bag: It becomes the pit of a “catchall” when we are away and literally it can take a day to sort and toss and unpack and put away all the strange things that land up in there… I tell you: sweetie wrappers, half a sandwich, a pack of face-paints, a pack of cards, three maps, a book, a picture book, a stack of addresses of new friends to write to… the list is endless and everything needs to be dealt with.
7. Get back into the rhythm of home: This one is hard… how do we fall out of routine so easily and then back into the worst habits so quickly when we get back. Turns out my kids worked really hard on this trip – and they were tired when we got back… often four of them napping in the afternoon, which is unheard of in our house… So had to ease up on school a little bit and make every effort to get them to bed on time.

And finally the se7en + 1th thing…

8. Photographs: My nemesis!!! I forced myself to edit and delete and sort and label photographs this week rather than uploading and blogging away and dealing with the consequences later. So delete, delete, delete… Keeping the best and I should probably delete the ones I kept by at least a half again… but it is better than my usual upload and forget about it policy!!!

And just when you thought I was done… ask any blogger if they think their blog and their readers will still be around when they get back from some time away… and I am happy to announce that I totally love our blog readers and so thrilled to see you following along after our time off… Anyway when I got home last weekend the last thing I expected was to come home to a blog award… and yes if you follow me you know I am useless at blog awards… always forgetting to follow up and press on and link back and link ahead and link, link, link… Anyway first thing Monday morning when I should have been back at the grind I was actually smiling at receiving this from My Love Bumps… who used to be local and is totally lekker!!!:

And all awards come with a bunch of rules and if you now me rules were meant to be broken:

Here are the rules:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter (s) on your blog – Yup!
2. Link back to the blogger (s) who awarded you – Yupk!
3. Copy & Paste the award to your blog – Yup!
4. Nominate 5 blogs to receive the award – Yup!
5. Let them know of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog – Getting there!

And since it is the dead of night and I can’t possibly ask any of these bloggers how many followers any of them have on twitter or anywhere else… And since asking a blogger their stats is a bit like asking someone their age or worse their weight… I am going to amend #5 and send you five fabulous local bloggers to enjoy…

1. Becoming You: Love this blog a local mom with fabulous design style – her blog is like reading a glossy mag –
   every day!!

2. Love and Lollipops: The name says it all – fun, activities for kid lets – lots of them and they are wonderful!!!
3. Beautiful Girlhood: The best teen blogger I know – by far!!! Pop over and say hi to her brand new baby sister!!! Too darling for words!!!
4. Mel’s Mouthful on Mothering: Love this homeschooling mom, who writes what she thinks rather than what folks think you should think.
5. Joyful Mama’s Place: If you need to look at sweet babies then head on ever and look at her darling baby… Her blog is packed with interesting activities that she does with her preschoolers.

That’s us!!! Have a great weekend…