Five on Friday - Valentine's Day & Other Favorites

*This post may contain affiliate links.

This week has been busy, exhausting, kind of weird, and a little sad.  Fortunately all of us here in our little family are all healthy and well, but this world we’re living in today sure could use a band-aid. 

Wednesday started out rough as there was a fatal accident on our route to school.  Two pedestrians were hit and killed and the police kept the scene “active” for the majority of the day while they investigated.  I ended up having to drive by it six times that day and four of the times I saw some pretty disturbing things that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind.  Later that same day, the school shooting in Florida occurred so my heart was even heavier after that.  In addition to those things, the weather has also been dreary every day this week, so that makes it even harder to be cheerful, ya know?

I try to stay positive here on the blog, but sometimes bad things happen and I can’t just let it go by unacknowledged.  All I know today is that I’m very thankful for a healthy and happy family, and I pray every single day that none of us are ever in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now that you know my true feelings about this week, let’s touch on some of the happier things that happened!

O N E – Valentine’s Day With My Lovies

Since Ash Wednesday fell on Valentine’s Day this year, Jacob’s school celebrated love day on Tuesday.  (We are Catholic, and Ash Wednesday is a very somber day so we don’t typically celebrate on this day.)  Tuesday also happened to be Fat Tuesday so in addition to the Valentine’s celebrations, his school also held their annual Mardi Gras parade. 

I volunteered to help with the class party.  The kids did a couple of crafts, ate some sweet treats (including a King Cake for Mardi Gras), and exchanged Valentines, and then the kids paraded down the sidewalk outside in Mardi Gras masks.  The older kids handed out beads to the younger kids and everybody danced and paraded around to traditional Mardi Gras music.  The kids had a BLAST.

Wednesday was actual Valentine’s Day so I left out Valentine’s cards and a couple of little goodies for the kids to come down to at breakfast.  They are both obsessed with PJ Masks right now, so they each received a PJ Masks mug with gummies inside and a plush PJ Masks character.  Jacob got Catboy, and Olivia got Owlette. 

We made breakfast for dinner that evening and I made homemade waffles with Valentine’s Day sprinkles.  We don’t ever really make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, but it’s fun to celebrate a little.

T W O – Closet Organizers

Both of our kids have closets that only have one hanging rack all the way across the top.  We hang all of their clothes because I don’t like putting them in drawers since they get wrinkled, but since both of them are still teeny tiny neither of them can reach their own clothes.  We have been working a lot on independence lately, but since neither of them can reach their clothes, neither of them can get themselves ready without help from Brian or me. 

I have been wanting to customize the closets and add some lower hanging racks that they can reach themselves, but because of time and money I have been putting it off.  I just so happened to come across these hanging closet rack extenders this week and I was intrigued so I ordered one for each of the kids.  They add an extra bar down low while also still leaving space to utilize the top rack.  I haven’t set them up yet, but I’m hoping to do it soon.  They are only $10 so I figured it was worth a shot to try!  Once I get them up and get the closets organized I plan to do another post to let y’all know how I like them!  

Amazon also has a few options as well and some of the pictures of how they work are better on Amazon.  These here look like the best option.

T H R E E – File Boxes

I finished up cleaning out and organizing my old school papers this week, and I wanted something to store them in so they would all be in one place.  I found some hanging file boxes and I loved them so much I got one for each person in our family.  I am making one file for each grade, plus files for report cards, awards, and important test scores, and that’s where each person will store their entire life’s worth of school stuff.  I was able to fit my entire school career (Kindergarten – College) in this one box and I will be doing the same for each of our family members.  Whatever doesn’t fit is getting tossed!

I can't find the exact boxes that I got online, but I did find a few options on Amazon that are similar, like this one, this one (which I've heard people rave about), and this one.  I love that the hanging file folders can actually hang in there and I love that they are sturdier than the typical cardboard banker’s boxes that are typically used for paper filing.  Once I get all of our boxes organized and labeled I plan to do a more in-depth post.

F O U R – This Post About Organizing

And speaking of organizing, did you catch my post about how I stay organized yesterday?  If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s staying organized!  I provided LOADS of information in this post, so if you missed it, you can find it here.

F I V E – Olivia and My Old Baby Dolls

This past week when I was doing some cleaning out/organizing, I pulled out some of my old baby dolls and Olivia was so excited to see them.  She wanted to hold my old Cabbage Patch doll and my favorite “real” baby doll and it made my heart so happy seeing her with them!  Both of them smell really old and musty, though, so I don’t think she’s interested in playing with them all the time.  Haha.

Alright, friends!  Have a great weekend!

*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites,  September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and Cup of Tea for High Five for Friday.