UPDATE: Decluttering & Kids - Artwork

*Minimalist Reading - NO time to read this long post? Just read the bold parts and you'll get the summary version! You're welcome!

I previously posted about decluttering, kids and artwork. If you haven't read that post, you could take a look at it HERE. I'm not going to recap everything I covered but I am going to update a bit and maybe streamline the whole process in a more condensed form of 'instructions' on how to make this work for you.

Why an Update?

It's just past the holiday season for us - that means Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year just wrapped up. Now the 5 and 6 year old are ....drum roll.... 6 and 7 years old! (Life is good!) but the art work has increased, not slowed down.

The girls have spent a solid 2 weeks off of school and now they are heading back (As in, this coming Monday!) so what should we do with our weekend but tackle 'The Beast' aka the Art Wall.

Previously, when I talked about managing the art work mess (because, really, that is what it is) I said that I was updating our scrapbook every week. Well...that fell flat quickly! Nobody has time for that!

I've settled for updating only during the girls' school breaks (or when the art wall gets CRAZY! but trust me...we just pile that art work on there if we can! One on top of another, over another, over another!)

I'm going to walk you through the actual step-by-step of what a ONE day digital scrapbook marathon looks like for me.

How often should you do this: Once or Twice a Year

Tools you will Need:

• A Mixbook account (FREE) - Referral link ~ Thank you!
• A Dropbox account (FREE) - Referral link ~ Thank you!
• A Phone with the Dropbox app or a Camera with the ability to download your photos to your computer
• A mountain of artwork that needs to be organized
• If you are using your phone to upload your photos, make sure you are able to use WiFi to upload them or that you won't mess up your phone data plan by uploading a gazillion photos. Wifi = good.

Simplest Steps:

1) In your Free Dropbox account, set up the following file structure

Create a folder called 'Scrapbook' or 'Mixbook'
Inside that folder - Create the folder '2013' (or whatever year the photos were taken)
Inside the folder 2013: Create two folders 'Family' and 'Art'
Inside the folder 'Art': create one folder for each child. Only have one? Skip this step.
Do this for each year.

* Set up your phone to automatically upload your photos to Dropbox whenever it has access to your home/free Wifi. (Otherwise, you can easily go over your data limit)

2) Take photos of ALL the artwork that your child/ren brings home. I do this two or three times a year, not every week as I had said before. Weekly is just too much work.

3) Go through ALL photos after they have been uploaded to Dropbox and delete any that are blurry, out of focus, people are blinking, unflattering, or otherwise not something you would want in your scrapbook. Art work, you just make sure you don't have duplicates.

4) Delete ALL photos off of your phone/camera that you have uploaded to Dropbox.

5) When you have uploaded all of the family/art photos you are going to for the year, your folders are done/full!

6) Upload all the Family photos for the year into one mixbook (labeled correctly) and press 'Mix it' or lay it out manually in the way you want your scrapbook to look. Press save.

7) Upload all the Art photos for each child into separate mixbooks (labeled correctly) and press 'Mix it' or lay it out manually in the way you want your scrapbook to look. Press save.

You are done scrapbooking an entire year's worth of art/family photos in a matter of a few hours.

This is my process for scrapbooking. It's lazy, easy, and saves me a lot of time. I just 'mix' the artwork for the girls and don't bother laying them out. I *DO* put a photo of the girl on the cover of her art book, but that's it for customization.

Do you Print or do you Email?

Personally, I email links to family and friends. It has always been my intention to send these out as Christmas gifts but I never get around to it - because I'm lazy. One of these days, I might get around to it. But I think most people in our family prefer digital.

That's it! I've actually spent more time on this blog post than on doing the scrapbooks today. (I'm waiting patently as all 800 photos upload....*rolling beach ball* so...yeah. I hope this was helpful in tackling your artwork mess! Remember - Work Smarter, Digitally, not Harder!

Cooking - Cookies that Last 6 months

A quick note on this post: I have a deep freezer (small size). That is how I freeze so many things. I choose to freeze things because I find it easier than canning 99% of the time. I kind of moan and groan if I have to can stuff. (Except jam, that is awesome or pickles which I'm attempting this summer).

We got our freezer on Craigslist (caution! danger!) for $75 the first week I came to New York. I looked at my fiance's tiny messy freezer and said 'this is not going to work'. Thus, a freezer was acquired.

If you don't have the space or money for a freezer, you could still follow this post! But maybe not everything I post for freezer stuff is something that will fit into your life. Just pick and choose of course!

I love homemade and I love working smarter instead of harder. That being said, we also don't eat a lot of desserts. All things in moderation! The girls and I do have lots of little tiny tea cookies to go with our tea, but we don't really do the over indulgent desserts after every or even every other meal.

So how did we get cookies that last 6 months? And how stale were they?

If you haven't put it together yet, I mixed up a 3 dozen batch of cookies with the 5 (then 4) year old in December. This was a LOT of mixing - I don't have a mixer! But cooking that many cookies and then freezing them or eating them...not the best of ideas. And I was CONVINCED (still am) that these are the best cookies (those fabled Neiman Marcus cookies) I've ever had. I'm sure it's due to all the butter.

Instead of baking 3 dozen cookies and making the family sick with so much wonderful, the 4 year old and I made cookie balls and set them out on baking sheets and froze them. As each sheet was frozen fairly solid (about 20 minutes) I would pop the cookie balls off the baking sheets and toss them into a freezer ziplock bag. We did this for an hour or two until all the cookies were frozen into little balls. Of course we baked a few :D

So here it is in June, 6 months later, and we have 4 cookies left! We are a family of 4 and anytime we felt like a 'treat' we just popped the cookies in the oven (4 at a time!) for 20 minutes at 325 F.

This was such a success after only a few hours of work that I plan to make a few more batches of frozen cookies soon! This is a great way to bake - one time that lasts you 6 months. And this is my cooking strategy. I try to find ways to batch cook without killing myself (these cookies were pretty easy! though I might change my mind after mixing again) that pays off in 'dividends'.

Things that I like to batch cook in this way:

Cookies (duh) - I recommend at least 2 dozen or more at a time not more than 4.

Hand pies - With fruit or leftovers in them! It's all about finding an easy dough recipe and having your filling pre-selected and pre-made!

My Breakfast Mix - Instead of cutting vegetables every morning, I cut a few things up once, fill a ziplock bag, and have a mix that will last a month.

Breakfast Burritos - a stack of tortillas and some scrabbled egg mix. Fold up those burritos and freeze them! The trick is not overfilling them - my struggle!

Bread - This one seems strange but I like to double rise my bread, form it and then freeze the rolls or little loafs. This makes bread with dinner super easy. I set the dough out on the counter and let it thaw - I pop it in the oven for 30 minutes or so and we have fresh bread with dinner! Takes a bit of work but if you're already making bread - making extra is easy!

The trick is to find something your family would want to eat regularly (who doesn't love cookies?!) and something that can be frozen for a while and pulled out as needed to suit your needs!

How can you become like the Minimalist Martha? Find something you could make in bulk and freeze - and make something every week or two. Soon enough, you have a Baking Day (like Saturdays!) with the family and you are pulling a long list of 'homemade' things out of the freezer whenever you want. Guests coming over? Tell them "It's all home made" and choose to keep or spill your secret on how you manage the time!

Once a week or once a month, it's the little things that make life a little easier. I haven't made cookies in six months, but we eat them all the time and they are always fresh out of the oven every time!