Nailed It!

Ok. I am embaressed to show you the following picture. It is the before of my front closet. Let me just set this up for you. 

1. A family of 5.  So times 5: coats, shoes, dress shoes, light jackets, sweatshirts (most people probably keep those in their bedrooms but our closet is so small in our's that Jim and I keep ours in the front closet....etc. 

2. Not living in a mansion. 

3. Small closets built in the 50's that were put together very cheaply and impracticle. Enough of a set up?

4. It is also winter. So (x3) Snowpants, boots, coats, hats, gloves, scarves.  And this is what you get: 

(wait......excuse the paper taped over the front door window. I hate that thing. Anyone that walks up to the door  can see right in. I used to have a curtain for it but it got paint on it during this redo so I put paper up and have yet to make another curtain. Bare with me. One thing at a time. ) 

Horrible, right? It was only this bad for about 2 months. I gave up. I threw things in, closed the door and waved the white flag. I surrendered. I kept the door closed and pretended it wasn't even there. :) But the OCD in me couldn't live like this. It yearned for order and clean. It couldn't stand the horrible 70's, orange, tileing on the floor. So I went to where most of us go: Pinterest.

Now prepare yourself, because I totally rocked this closet redo. The paint looks a lighter shade than it really is, It's darker in real life. 

 You can only see it a little but at the bottom of the closet to the right is a big space taker in the closet.Behind the door there to the right is an air vent in the bottom of the wall so inside the closet is where it's covered. Annoying space-taker-upper!
Also, See the carpet I put in by myself? Woohooo!

I did 4 different kinds of hooks because I couldn't decided on 1 or 2. Lol. They only had 6 of the ones I really wanted at Hobby Lobby and then I liked 2 other ones and the kids wanted these silver ones for their backacks and such, so we went with it. 

 I put  a shoe holder on the side for now till I can build a shoe shelf on this side.  

I put the shelf that was in there back up, just WAY higher up. I moved our 72 hour backpacks to a different closet since they wouldn't fit on the higher shelf and are pretty heavy anyway. Now I have 2 nice baskets up there to hold flip flops and misc items and then the white basket has pool toys. 

Everything tucked nice and snug with room to spare. In the summer I plan to paint the door white as well.

Nailed it, right? :)

(also. I showed Jim the final redo and he said, "Way cool! I like it a lot" Which means I am Queen of the world. 

P.S I wonder if I should tell him I plan on changing the carpet on the stairs in the spring and painting the stairwell. Hmm. I'll wait and surprise him. ;)

Someone posted this website: Here. I am in love with this idea. It is right up our alley. My kids are going to freak when they wake up and see what I did tonight. Late night snack.

Stuff.

I need to blog more often.
I started a child care in my home. It is going well. I have a few part time kids and one full time baby starting in 2 weeks. I am SO excited. I love that I get to add to our income but still be in our childrens lives. If they have a late start at school: I'm still here. If they have a snow day: No worries! Sick? Still here. Summer time: Nothing to it. I have been praying for months (almost a year now) that I would know what to do. When Jim first got sent home from work with his shoulder injury and we had to frantically start looking for something, starting a daycare felt right. I prayed and it still felt right. That doesn't mean it's been easy though. I have had soooo many ups and downs ( a lot more downs than ups, unfortunately). It's been a hard year, but I am hoping that finishing up this year and going into next year will be better. Jim is still in a lot of pain and thinks he re-tore his shoulder after his surgery. He also has had severe pain in his neck, elbows and wrists and after months of tests and waiting and misdiagnosis' we finally have an answer. 2 Ruptured/damaged disc's in his neck. The doctor says that is causing all the pain in his arms and wrists. They are sending him to a pain specialist to get shots and if that doesn't work: surgery. The hard part is the waiting though. We thought he'd be able to get right in, but there's papers that need to be faxed.... then more information is needed from the doctor......then we have to wait for approval.....then, if he's approved by the pain clinic at U of M then they can schedule an appointment, but who knows if that will even be this year at the rate everything is going. And worst of all, he has to keep working every day, through the pain. It's been tough, but, the Lord only gives us as much as we can handle, right? My sister Katherine gave me an excerpt from a book at the beginning of the year that has been wonderful. I love these two quotes "In everything...give thanks" and  "Father, I don't know why You're causing, or allowing, this thing to happen, but I'm going to give thanks in it because You ask me to. I'm going to trust You to have a purpose for it that I can't know and may never know. Bottom line, You're God- and that's good enough for me. " 
For the month of November I made a thankful tree and each day we put something we are thankful for as a leaf (idea from my sister Kat). It's been good for all of us. Samantha's are practical (toilet paper, kleenex, ears, windows) Ethan's are sweet and funny (baking with Mom, a house, underwear) and Paige's are in between (dishes, socks, clothes,  Mom and Dad). It's funny to hear what they say each day and our tree is getting more and more full of leaves. It's nice that we can really focus on the things that we have and are blessed with.

We just had parent teacher conferences for all 3 kids. They are all doing great. Samantha (kindergarten) needs to work on using her "inside" voice a bit more and also not being so chatty, but she is doing great otherwise. Ethan (2nd) is doing very well. He's reading at a 3rd grade level and his math is going good. He could work a bit more on math at home through a website they use at school and his teacher and I did discuss having his start seeing a speech therapist for his "th" sound. It was a concern of mine when he was in kindergarten but at that age you figure they will just grow out of it. He hasn't and I'm glad to be getting on a path of helping him. Paige(3rd) is doing very good. She is reading above average and is doing well in math and social studies. She just needs to continue to challenge herself with both reading and math.

That's about all for now. I'll try and get back here more often.

72 hour kits

I have been having this feeling lately like I need to be more prepared for emergency's. We have always tried to have our food storage for 3 months (sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, depending on money) but i've never really had 72 hour kits ready by the door. Now I am doing it. I have read about a zillion blogs and articles on the subject, I have studied lists and googled items and found that there are a lot of different things you can put in them. I am starting small. I have a long list of things that will be put in each bag but with limited money right now I am starting with a few things a week and then going from there.
My 72 kits are going into individual backpacks.  One for each person in the family. They are at the top of the front closet. I know in Michigan we don't have an abundance of natural disasters or emergency's. Hurricane's, Forest fires, tornado's (not like tornado valley), earthquakes, mud slides, sunami's..etc. My sister did point out that we have snow storms though. So if nothing else, I will be prepared for that.  I started with some food. That's what I worked on this week:

Here is what all of our packs look like with the food in front of them. I only had 3 backpacks for now so the other two are duffel bags. I will eventually get backpacks so they are easier for each person to carry. 

Each pack has:

*4 - 8oz bottles of water. They say you should have a gallon of water, per person, per day and I have a lot more but just for now I feel like more water would weigh the kids down in an emergency. I plan on putting more water in as they get bigger. 

*3 Granola Bars

*2 Packs of Instant Oatmeal

*2 Small packages of crackers

*1 Can on Mini ravioli

*1 Breakfast Bar

*1 (2 in the kids) thing of On the go peanut butter

*Applesauce Pouch

*2 Fruit Snacks

*1 Bowl of Instant Ramen soup

*1 can of veggies 

*In Jim's a my bags we each have a large can of fruit

Let me add this thought: While looking through all the suggestions for what to put in these kits there were a lot of things my kids don't like and would never eat and/or can't eat that you, yourself, could add. Things like Trail mix, Packages of tuna, beef jerkey, dried fruit and so on. 

Packed like a boss. 

BAM!

In the next few weeks I will be working on the next phase. I have already bought a lot for it but need a few more things! 

Fall 2013 Bucket List

I have a bucket list that I hope we can accomplish this fall.

2013 J, Jr. and H. Koepfle Family Fall Bucket List

Pumpkin Picking

Cider Mill

Appleumpkin Festival

Get family pictures taken

Jump in Pile of Leaves

Carve Pumpkins

Corn Maze

Carpenter Farms

Trick of Treating

Bake Pumpkin Seeds

Decorate house for seasons

I am super excited about all of these. I love fall. Life is really hard right now but I can never stop loving fall. :)

1st Day of School 2013

First day of school 2013. Super sad for me but the kids seemed Ok. 

Ever year we do this to watch the kids grow. 

(Here's last years2012)

Ethan wanted to write his own beginning part. It say's,"Ethan K is going to 2 grade"

(Last year2012)

I tried to get her to not have candy as her favorite food, but she insisted. :)

(Last year2012)

First day! Ethan got his haircut the night before at 7pm by Jim's cousin Mikey. Thanks! 

Back to School Feast

Every year before school starts we have a big back to school feast. I asked the kids what they wanted and they said Breakfast. :) So that's what we did. Bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs. hashbrowns and waffles. With Oreo shakes for dessert. I normally have a theme for  each year and I struggled with what to have this years be. With teaching the kids gratitude I thought about having something along those lines but it didn't feel right and then I was reading my friends blog about her back to school feast and her theme hit me like a ton of bricks. I got teary eyed and knew that I would have that as our theme as well. I hope my friend doesn't mind I stole her idea. The theme for this year is: "Be still.. and know that I am  God" I'm going to get teary eyed writing this, but I need my kids to know that they are never alone. That in their trials and hardships they always have their Heavenly Father. I talked to them about if they are having a bad day or feel sad or need guidance that they can simply be still  and open their hearts and mind and feel God guiding their lives. I made them each a little thing with this saying and laminated it to keep in their backpacks. 

They make their hats each year, one year they cut out magazines and put them on, but this year after seeing my friends blog Paige insisted they get to use  glitter. I can't tell  you how much glitter we had all over the house. They each, at some point, got some in their mouths and Paige was worried, Ethan told her her poop would just be pretty. Oh, the things little boys say. 

Womplers Lake and Snorkeling Lessons

We went to Womplers Lake with some of Jim's family We always have fun and the kids had a blast this time because Jim's dad, who is a Master Diver (Scuba) (I say, like I have any idea what I'm talking about.  Lol.) taught the kids how to snorkle. They worked on clearing the breathing tube and what not. The kids went on and on about it. 

Then after that we went to  Putt putt in the Irish Hills. Always fun. At the end Sam does an awesome dance. :)