A Life Less Ordinary.: Lego

A Life Less Ordinary.: Lego: "What is it about those little Lego men that we all love so much? Is it that they seem to live the perfect lives? How many of us ..."

Lego

What is it about those little Lego men that we all love so much?  Is it that they seem to live the perfect lives?  How many of us can rebuild and redesign our homes or cars whenever we like?  How fun would that be?!  As I recently stumbled across a small colony of these little guys in my house plants, I couldn't help but smile; they inspire a creative spirit and have brought joy to many a home for so many years, it's no wonder they have won a spot in our hearts. 

With the love of Lego there comes many a storage issue.  Plastic totes and shoe boxes overflowing with those loveable little building blocks is bound to be a recurring problem us parents should have dealt with yesterday!  I'm pretty sure that anyone with kids will confirm with me that stepping on one of those 1x2 blocks is liable to make you keel over in pain and curse the little pieces that for some reason we still adore.  Here's what we have done to keep the cursing to a minimum in our house:

1) Jars.  Who doesn't have jars laying around in their kitchen cupboards?  We've filled them with pieces, (easily sorted by color) which not only makes it easy to find *just* the piece we're looking for but makes it a cinch to put away leftover bits from projects.  Nevermind the fact that they look great lined up on the bookshelf...

2) Rubbermaid totes of all shapes and sizes.  Yup.  You guessed right; this is another way to store unfinished projects, complete with instructions for finishing either never or some distant month in the future;-)

3) Shelves.  OK.  So seriously, your kid has built something like one hundred little models; where in the world do you store them all?!  Shelves is one of the only practical answers.  We like the shallow shelves for the cars and the smaller projects but also have some deeper ones.  The nice thing about the added depth is the kids can 'play' with their masterpieces on the shelves themselves, kind of like a little table that ensures no pieces will end up in your path. 

4) Seating with storage.  We have been so lucky to have tracked down some half size piano benches at second hand stores and from good friends.  The fun thing about them is the seats themselves are so simple to recover that they fit into any decor.  The best part about them = the seat itself lifts off to reveal storage underneath.  Nevermind that they are unique, cool looking and a great addition to any room.  PLUS they are perfect to pull out whenever extra guests show up at your house for an unexpected (but welcome) visit.  We like to store completed instruction manuals and those tempting Lego magazines that keep showing up in our mailbox every month or so.

5) Picture shelves.  OK so I *swear* those little Lego guys are breeding like rabbits.  Tossing them all in a plastic tote or jar just seems wrong; after all they are SO.DARN.CUTE.  Nevermind the fact that hopefully I'm not the only Mom who has picked up a set just because I liked the little person on the box.  You know the shelves~ Ikea and Jysk sell them; they are about 2.5 to 3 inches deep and have a little ridge on them to display pictures and art in an interesting and easy way.  Perfect for lining up all those little men and ladies and that protective little edge keeps them from falling over in a drunken stupor.

How do you store and sort your kid's Lego?

Lego storage ~ a dream come true?  Perhaps.  But no matter how organized and fun they look displayed and stored, those teeny, tiny, little building blocks kids (and adults) have adored for decades seem to end up under our feet.  Darn.  Good thing they are cute.

Snow or SPRING?

Now let me start by saying I ADORE the snow.  Truly.  There is no one who likes the snow more than I, and aside from one measley (but appreciated) snow day in early January we have had next to nothing more than a few glimpses of my favorite white stuff.  I can almost hear you snow haters telling me to stop talking about the snow; but what's not to like?  Here are my top 10 reasons why you should reconsider and share my love of the snow:

1) It's an excuse for being late
2) A reason to kick your kids outside to play for hours on end
3) You can see your kids whereabouts because everything is white and they are typically brightly colored    OR, if you are 'fortunate' enough to have a teenager they are a lovely contrasting black color.
4) It hides the garden beds you forgot to clean up before fall hit
5) Snowball fights!
6) Snowmen (need I say more?)
7) Friendly neighborhood conversation
8) Sledding!
9) The kids fall asleep early from exhaustion
10) It's just soooo pretty

That being said, the power of the sun over a person's attitude is clear to me as I happily walked to my post office box on my lunch break.  Today the sun was out almost all day, WOW!  (Honestly, I kind of forgot what it looked like).  It's 5:15 p.m. as I type this; waiting for the water (but not watching it) to boil for dinner.  And while the sun has gone down over the mountains (that luckily surround me) when I look outside at the budding spring flowers and the snowdrops poking out of the ground I can see that the seasons are changing before my very eyes.  After all, the groundhog did not see his shadow and so we're supposed to get an early spring, right?

Either way, I am thankful for the unexpected happiness that the sun brought today and the possible predictions of snow for tomorrow.  Yes, it is safe to say that I LOVE living in a place where four seasons do indeed exist.