Overnight we have been plunged into winter. Yesterday was my first prenatal since becoming overdue and rumor has it that the large winter storm that came through last night and is still lingering today will effect the barometric pressure so much that all the babies due within a couple weeks will be born before Halloween. I can only hope.

When I woke-up this morning I knew I simply had to get out of the house so I was off to Peapods to pick up a late birthday present for Mavis. We still haven’t celebrated her recent milestone of 2 so I felt like I better prepare. Soon the baby will come and soon things will go back to “normal,” at least I will be able to bend over again–an essential skill as any mom knows.

Except I realized that we are not a normal family. With the coming of really cold weather comes a host of logistical problems. I remember how relieved I was last year when the weather finally got warm enough to do away with coats and shoes became an option. it is oh so much easier getting children out ot the house when they can go as they are.

Two nights ago we were going to go for an evening walk. Coats and boots were required and I almost lost my mind trying to get everyone dressed, especially since some of these clothing items haven’t been used for over 4 month.

So today my task is to evaluate coats, mittens, hats, boots, scarves, snow pants and all those good things and see what is missing from our family inventory.

At Peapods I found these great tools for keeping mittens attached to coats. They had 3 (2 “girl” colors and 1 “boy”) so it seemed perfect.

Coats and mittens are now secure. Two has boots but no snow pants. We have 1 pair of boots that is tight on Avril but too big for Mavis. The girls both have snow pants and we have plenty of hats and scarves.

Now the question is how do we store these extra items in a way that is neat and tidy but encourages the children to get dressed by themselves, and prehaps more importantly clean up after themselves? I am really regretting not getting that coat rack I saw at Ikea a couple months ago, but back then it was warm and didn’t seem a priority.

I ordered a new book from Vision Forum called Large Family Logistics. Just as the weather changed overnight, almost overnight I realized we are on the verge of being a “large family.” In any case I definitely need help with logistics. Coats are just the tip of the iceberg. But for now the plan is to keep the 3 everyday coats in the front hall closet and all the snow pants and extras in the children’s closet in their room. Hopefully in a semi organized way. Shoes I haven’t figured out quite yet, maybe something like this with bins for each child to keep their shoes in. I don’t know.

Proeun says we are simply outgrowing our house, which I think just means we need more organizing. I started with the coats.