Benjamin's first Mini Marathon (And Bobby's too)

This morning Benjamin ran his first Marathon. His first Mini Marathon (2.5 km) in the Eindhoven Marathon.

He trained with his football team  for the past few weeks. Bobby also trained with him. there were just 3 other children from his football team. But he was excited and motivated to do it.

Among the thousands of people that ran just the Mini Marathon , Benjamina and Bobby ran , after a fun kids oriented warm up session with music and dance.

In 14 mins and 45 secs they completed the 2.5 km Mini Marathon.

Perhaps , next year they will train for the 5 km.

Proud you Benjamin.... and Bobby too!

Watch the video to the beginning of the Marathon.

http://bjd.smugmug.com/Family/2014/i-K7mZwTM/0/O/IMG_6708.jpg

The numbers and the name

Just before the race

The Football team

The rush

Key supporter

Getting ready for the start

The runners with their medal

Day 6: Managing mountain of clothes

Kids grow up so fast, sometimes I end up having clothes of different sizes in a drawer. Up in the attic I have boxes designated for different sizes.



Whatever fits in a box , stays for that size. Whatever is faded, frayed, worn enough and not worth it to pass on to the next boys, is put in a bag for the charity, or dumping clothes in the cloth bin. Same goes for shoes too.








To keep in check, for those small clothes that go back in the drawers, it's

 a good idea to sort them out in the wash itself. Once washed and ready for folding, its a good idea to check them for size and separate them immediately.


It is a constant process of sorting clothes and having just the right size, and the ones that kids will wear. This helps kids to also independently choose their own clothes without you telling them its too small, or hearing them say they don't like a particular one.

Day 5: Organizing Kids memorable school papers

A borrowed idea when my folders of the kids school papers were bulging and couldn't fit further that Group 1.

I borrowed this idea with free printables from Its always Autumn.
This is how the kids folders looked like.Already full and crowded.

And this is how its probably going to end like. I downloaded the cover printables to stick on the front cover of the folder.



I will select a few drawings, kids class diplomas, and reports to add to the file.












Hopefully, I can get these kind of  folder boxes here in the Netherlands or improvise with regular boxes and carton folders.









I find it really hard to throw away pictures, so I keep the best pictures (select few) in the folder and click a picture of the other pictures and save it in an App called Artkive. This gives me a chance to keep them, label them, date them and even have the option of making a photobook of all the pictures later on. Less bulky, all priced treasures available.
Who says we have to let go of every scrap of paper?

Day 4: Separating Library books

Living in the Netherlands, with kids attending the local Dutch school using the Dutch library and the International School library, means a lot of books lying around. How do I make keep my sanity and library fines in check?

By keeping them separate. I have separate baskets in the playroom for the library books with a list of books borrowed on my phone. Easier, most libraries have their own app where you can log into your account. This means you get to see the books you borrowed and  the due date. And also sends you a reminder of the date approaching. This means even if you can't get the books to the library before the date , or need more time with the books, you can extend them.

Currently, we have only books from the International School library, so I have a basket for each of the boys to have their selection in. The list lets me know how many and which books I need to return when the day arrives. (In case the books end up in different rooms). 

Day 3: An extra box in the freezer will save you one day

My boxes of doubles in the freezer

When you are making a dish , such as chicken curry or anything for that, it doesn't matter if you make one family of four portion or double it. I do this very often with beef, chicken, fish and veggies too. I make double portion and divide it into two or three (as per the quantity). We have one portion for dinner and I freeze the other.

So one day when I busy or lazy, and haven't got a chance to do grocery, or haven't had the time to cook, I can just defrost one of these boxes and tada a wonderful meal ready. Most of the time the sauces to the curry thicken and the flavors go deep into the meat. Yummy!

Day 2: Circle of Life: Laundry

Laundry is one thing I detest doing. There is no point to doing them especially when you have boys. By the time its washed, occasionally ironed and put in its drawers, its back in the laundry hamper in no time. Why bother?

For a while I used have four baskets and the most work I would do is separate them after wash into each family member and pick out clothes for each day from there. So I skipped the part of folding and putting it into drawers. It worked for a while. Then it got all mixed up with dirty and clean clothes and the boys looked and smelled wonderful (sarcasm).

When we bought our first home last year we had space for a proper system. I wanted the washing machine and dryer to be downstairs in the kitchen extension room we had(The Dutch call it "bijkeuken" , a room next to the kitchen). That gave me the opportunity to hang laundry out when the weather was good. Typical Dutch homes, usually have the provision for the laundry department in the attic room or corridor outside the attic. Many times I would be in denial, since I never saw the laundry. There were those smelly days when I would forget to take the wet clothes out and hang it to dry or use the dryer. Thankfully, I remember a week later. On wash cycle once again! With loads of nice perfumed softener to take the moldy smell out.

So, with the washing machine in the bijkeuken and the dryer on top of it, these two machines were nicely tucked away in the corner hiding behind the door to the playroom. We also placed a stand cum pull out shelf (the entire length and width of the machines) in between them. This gave me the opportunity to place the basket of wet clothes on the pull out shelf and load them into the dryer at the height of the dryer. And fold clothes immediately out of the dryer into the basket.No bending down.

We also bought a Trofast Ikea shelf with a single bucket in each section (three in total). This was going to be our solution to the laundry flow. One of the buckets would be used as dirty laundry, the second when the clothes are dry and I haven't had a chance to fold them and the third as and when I fold and iron them. This way I wouldn't have baskets of clothes on top of my breakfast nook table and that room looking like a mess. I have enough space to set up my ironing board and iron when I have time.

My breakfast nook

The laundry system on the bottom. The top boxes are for paper waste, plastic and bottles for recycling.

Also fixing a laundry day and folding/ironing day helps. So you know those are your days and you are not dealing with piled up laundry from two weeks at some point.

Now, this is a system that is now working. It might all go wrong later, perhaps. But for now, my family has clean clothes and the bijkeuken doesn't look like a outlet store disaster.

Day 1: No day like today

Ok.. I am severely late to start the 31 days, due to my birthday, a wedding and last day of work before yahoo ! maternity holidays. Those are all good reasons to state and make use of. I guess.Nevertheless, here is........

 Day 1: No day like today

You know all the post and great advertisements that pile up on the table by the hall, or the kitchen counter, or even the dining table?

The best way that has helped me, is to tackle it the day it arrives. If you have 2 minutes to stare at that pile, you have the time to deal with it. I usually separate them into two piles. "A discard immediately pile" and an "action pile". Those advertisements, junk mail, I immediately put in the discard pile. And hide the toy store advertisements away from the kids and for me to scan later on.

I open up the rest and scan through its content. Those that deserve to be in the "action pile", gets there. The envelopes are in the "discard pile", unless there is a sender address sticker that I want to save. All those in the "action pile" get transferred to the office room , to the various file trays marked  "to pay" , "to file" , "to read and act upon". Okay, this might take a minute more than 2 minutes. But its sorted and the kitchen counter/dining table/ hallway table stays clean everyday.


At the end of the week, or when I get a chance to go through my file tray(ideally in the same week itself), bills are paid, documents are filed in the right files, action is taken to those you need to do something about. My husband tends to scan them(even bills we wish to keep) too and maintain a digital record. I haven't reached that phase yet.


Another new thing we have started is have a shared family calendar synced on our devices. Those things that require both my husband and my attention , such as a football game, a doctors appointment, a dinner party etc... get tagged with the "Daniel family" color coded tag. So we are both aware of something that requires both our attention. This helps us not to make another appointment when we can't call or reach the other person at that moment.



Also, the usage of Evernotes has helped in me not nagging him to do certain things around the house. I just add it to his action points and tag them urgent. Like " hang curtains in baby room" . "Fix leaky faucet". It has also helped us individually to put a tag on things we need to do at various urgency levels, make lists, clip internet links we want to use later on and aid in our purchase. I even put " one day project" ideas in a folder to think about later when I have time. So, its documented and not forgotten and gives me the freedom to take it up when I want.




Clearing the mind as much as possible with the "things to do" is the purpose. And of course changing the action tag to "action completed" brings me so much of pleasure. No more paper bits, different places on the phone. I am only doing doable items for this day and not staring at an entire list and missing them everyday.Peace and calm.