Boys Detective Kits

For Christmas this year, I asked my brother what I should get for my nephews. He said, anything artsy or scientific. They really like "Aunt Kiki gifts." Last year I made then super hero fort kits with sheets and various accessories with which to build a fort. Rave reviews. They have had hours of endless fun. Great. Now I have to be creative. So I looked on Pinterest, of course because we all know creativity is really stealing someone else's idea. I saw some detective kits. Great idea, and most of the stuff can be purchased at the dollar tree. But I popped into Michael's one day, and they had almost everything I needed and the rest of the stuff I picked up at the dollar tree. A lite time on the computer s d the printer, and voila. ... An "Aunt Kiki Gift"

Strike Lessons

 

As we enter day five of the strike and it seems to be nearing an end (hopefully) there are many lessons I have learned. Here are a few.

Here is my fiance, in support for the cause!!!!

 

1. No one who has never been a teacher understands it or has a right to think they do. But everyone thinks they understand and have a right to judge it.

 But I learned my lesson. Everyone only knows what they saw their own teacher doing and didn't see the things she did when they were not there. People also do not understand how much education has changed in the last two decades. In my eleven years, a teachers responsibilities have gone from busy to crazy to absurd to borderline impossible not because of the children, but because of other demands being placed upon us. I could explain but people wouldn't get it anyway.

2. Teaching is not a choice- it is a calling.

People keep saying to me and my friends, "well, you chose this, you could choose something else."  People. this is a CAREER not a job.   I have gone to school for 8 years for this. You chose to be a teacher so you get what you get.   This is why we have a union.  When the part about "you get what you get" reaches critical mass, this is when we need the union and need a strike.  Also, If I chose this profession please someone slap me. It is crazier than you know.  And you are completely insane if you do it, particularly in certain neighborhoods.   I was called to do it by God. Should I turn my back on that I shudder to think what would happen. Common sense says I should leave and get a corporate job and make more money. I have contemplated that several times. But then I see the children. Going on strike, though some would say I am refusing to work or I have walked out on the kids, has deepened my resolve to stay and be a teacher and to be even more committed and in love with my job.

3. Unions are not obsolete dinosaurs from the sixties.

The police are working without a contract, have not been paid what they are promised for NATO. The fireman are struggling with crazy cuts. The librarians were forced to have fewer hours despite what their contract says. The bus and train drivers haven't had a contract in years but have never gone on strike because they didn't think their demands would be met. All these people showed us sooooooo much support- all honked or turned on sirens when they went by. The nurses from Cook county fresh off their own fights against injustice and craziness with Todd Stroger were there at rallies with us Parents who should have been so mad and inconvenienced were instead our biggest cheering section. People at the grocery store, the park, the coffee shop, the gas station, the teachers store (yes I went there while in strike) all said "I hope you get what you want. You deserve that and more." Chicago is still a union town - even in the absence of a Daley. I used to think unions were dumb. That I should be allowed to negotiate my own contract and stand on my own merits. I never would have imagined what it was like to need a union until I needed a union. I do not agree with their opinions all the time. They support some causes to which I a opposed but I have learned this week about solidarity and that it is so much more than a word. As the city stood with us and marched with us, I learned the power of the 99%. They aren't movie star pretty or even always eloquent but they are the people upon whose backs everyone else is standing.

4. Being on strike is so exhausting, more so than working.

I hesitate to put this one on here, lest people think that striking means doing nothing, and therefore my job is not really that crazy. But the walking for miles and miles and yelling and yelling, and the rally after rally, and the pure raw emotions that you experience from being in a situation where NO money is coming in and you have no idea how long ot will end- is exhuasting. I have blisters, sore muscles, tight shoulders, a sore throat, and back... Being on strike is not easy. It is not a decision we made lightly. It is not something we went looking for. But once the announcement was made, we did what had to be done- though it was crazy, and exhausting and pretty much impossible.

5. If you can get someone to say something on the news three times it will spread like wildfire and you can not prove it isn't true to people no matter how much you prove it.

The raise is 16%. Lie.
The average CPS teacher makes 76k. Lie.
Teachers don't want evaluations. Lie.
Teachers don't have evaluations. Lie.
Students will miss out on their learning. Lie. (strike days must be made up so each child will still get all their school days).
They are close to a deal. Lie.
I really don't believe anything they say anymore. I am starting to rethink whether OJ did it and everything. The news is a dog and pony show. I knew they were inaccurate but now I think they are robotic copycats who repeat things other people said without checking facts or listening to the arguments for both sides.

6.  Some people who have watched me struggle and have been there when I lost my job on more than one occasion and have listened to my stories of unfairness and injustice still did not support me while on strike. 

So that means they think I am lying about my experiences and deserved to be terminated?  That I was treated fairly and don't need to stand up for myself by way of a strike?  So that means they think exactly what about me?  I'm not really sure how to proceed from here on that one.  Especially since I would suport them in a similar fight.  Especially since I did verbally support them when they were not being given contractual raises, etc... 

7.  Normal, every-day Chicagoans are AWESOME!

There was so much support from the community while we are on the picket lines!  I would never have predicted that part.  It was SO UPLIFTING, after years of being mistreated by the board of education and city hall, I was thinking I was done with Chicago and wanted to look for a life elsewhere.  The city rose up to meet us.  The parents who should have been mad about the inconveience, were instead supportive and accomodating, both poor parents and better-off parents alike.  And not just parents- but most of the regular people just going to work were in solidarity with us.  Chicago is full of awesome people, we just can't seem to elect any of the awesome ones. 

Dear Mr. Mayor

September 11, 2012       

Dear Mayor Emanuel,

I love my job.  I eat sleep and breathe teaching.  Every commercial and TV show I watch make me think of a lesson I could teach on cause and effect or some other reading skill.    I spend upwards of a thousand dollars on my classroom each year, and I am happy to do it to provide a magical place for learning with all the supplies we need.  I am in my eleventh year of teaching in Chicago Public Schools.  Let me tell you a little but about my experience.  My first year of teaching involved working at a school where the principal illegally fired the entire middle school staff in the middle of the year and put her friends and family in their positions as substitutes for the rest of the year, and was fired towards the end of the year for “financial mismanagement,” but that was the least of her offenses- walking into your classroom and screaming at you because the children were wearing shoes- that’s right, she wanted everyone in slippers- and screaming at people for all sorts of things- I don’t like the desks arranged this way, cursing people out in front of the children, etc…  The school was also being investigated for making an abnormal amount of gains the previous year.  People were being pulled in rooms and interrogated by state investigators. Luckily, I wasn’t at the school the previous year, so I escaped interrogations, but I was asked if I heard any rumors.  The person the board of education chose to replace her?  A person who had been fired with cause from being a super-intendant of a school district in another state.  At summer school, she pointed at all of us in a staff meeting and said “I don’t trust you, you were all probably in on it with her, and I am trying to get rid of you.”  I went and found another job.  I found a great school with shoes, and a principal who was interested in the students and the instructional practices, and I was very successful and I have the data to prove it.   The principal said she was “very impressed” with me.   At the end of that year, I lost my job due to declining enrollment.  I searched all summer for a new job, but I ended up being able to come back to that school because someone resigned.  The following year, I again lost my job due to declining enrollment.  I went to work at another school on the west side.  In October of that year, I got off the bus (I could not afford a car on my year 4 lane 1 teachers salary and pay back my student loans) and walked toward the school and was beat on the side of the head four times with a piece of metal rebar and mugged by a guy in a Halloween mask- all within eye-lines of the children who were on the playground waiting for school to start.  Of course, the school’s surveillance cameras were not working.  Were they fixed afterwards?  No.  A guy coming out of weekend basketball a week later was shot in the parking lot and no cameras were working to get justice for him either.  I started asking the security guard to walk me to my car at night (because I stay late planning, etc…) and found out months later that the principal yelled at him for it, saying that was not his job and told another staff member that it must have been my boyfriend who came to the school and beat me.  (I had no boyfriend at the time.)  I came back to work a week after the 20+ stiches in my head though I could have sued the school system and probably could have retired.  I had a black eye for about two months afterward.  You can fact-check this with the police department, and the workers compensation department at the board of education.  I had two little girls in my room who were clearly mentally ill and making it impossible to teach, and I referred them to the counselor and brought the issue to the principal and assistant principal and I was sent to a class on classroom management.  So I soldiered on the best I could.  What was my reward for my commitment to children and loyalty to my employer?  I lost my job at the end of that year due to declining enrollment.  From there, I got a job at another school on the west side, and I was in heaven.  The staff was a true community and the principal allowed us to be the experts.  The school was a rarity in the area for not being on academic probation.   He told me I was a great teacher and that he appreciated all my hard work.   Then, the board of education promoted him out of the school.  He was replaced with a principal that told me that I could not teach the children the nation’s national anthem, nor allow them to do puzzles in the classroom when gym had been cancelled.   She came into my classroom and derailed my lessons and told me to have the children get off the carpet and go back to their seats or to stand at the back of the classroom instead of the front while I delivered instruction and then would say “Now, move now!”  and would wait until I moved.  Then, she made me and another teacher move all of our things in November and trade rooms for no reason, simply derailing instruction for an entire week as the students carried heavy things from class to class, and then my classroom which I had spent weeks setting up before school was chaos- with piles of things everywhere.  There was no support or discipline.  The zero tolerance policy was not followed when a child brought a toy gun to school and told people he was going to shoot them.  There was no response for a child who brought weed to school in the third grade and was trying to sell it.  I was offered another job in the middle of the year, and because of my teaching year one experience, I decided to leave in the middle of the year because I was drowning with all of this.  I went to another school and was told I was an excellent teacher.  I tutored kids for free, I received a superior rating.  The principal was fine, though struggling to get a handle on everything as a result of being new, but after what I had been through I could deal with that.  What was harder to deal with was mandates on instruction from the area office.  They had a mandated program for reading instruction and assessment which was not based on research and was ineffective, but God help you if you didn’t do it.  There was a mandated program for sight word instruction that was not based on researched best practices, but God help you if you didn’t do it.  There was a mandated program for everything.  And one day I added up how many minutes they had mandated for all these programs (20 minutes a day of this, 60 minutes a day of that…) and it exceeded the amount of minutes the children spent in school.  Most teachers in the area just seemed to be making up the data that went with the programs, because God help you if all your kids didn’t a passing score- special education students included.  Some of them told me as much.  Let me be clear that I never made anything up.  But I soldiered on, SNEAKING real education and teaching in when I knew I wasn’t being watched so my students were able to make gains.  I was at this school for two and a half years, teaching in the shadows, instructing in secret, spending hours and hours after school trying to make that work. Then, the summer that Ron Huberman was trying to put 40 kids in each classroom, my coworkers and I started getting nervous because the enrollment of the school was getting low, so we divided the number of students by the number 40 kids per classroom and used the published salary records to determine seniority of the teachers at the school and I figured I was safe with my nine years with the board compared to the other teachers.  Nope.  I got a letter in August of that summer saying that I, a tenured teacher with a superior evaluation rating and the highest improvement data in the school, had been honorably terminated due to a lack of money.   A tenured teacher is supposed to be placed in a pool or reassigned teachers and retain benefits for a year.  But not me!  This letter said I wasn’t even going to be allowed to sub in the district and my benefits were expiring at the end of September.  The principal that I had been working under had been removed from her duties and replaced with a principal from somewhere else who had been removed from his duties by a different area officer.  The new principal who had NEVER watched me teach a class was sitting at the job fair a few days after my letter arrived advertising for my replacement.  Did I mention this happened to six people at my school at the same time, and we were all replaced in this manner?  I had been let go due to a lack of money but he was hiring all the replacements plus an extra teacher THREE DAYS LATER?  I filed a grievance.  They said I had no right to get my job back.  We all filed another grievance because all the fired teachers were of one ethnic group and were replaced by teachers from a different ethnic group.  Apparently the equal opportunity employment commission has an office inside 125 South Clark street.  The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission never called me or emailed me or talked to me.  They did however, send me a letter saying my claim was unfounded.  How they did that without getting the details remains a mystery for me.  I found a job at another school, this time on the south side but the only thing available was a temporary position for a teacher on leave.  I took it.  I proved myself.  I got a real position.  My principal is very happy with my performance, and I received another superior rating from a principal who RARELY hands out that type of rating.  She is doing her best to turn the school around, but it is very challenging and will take a few years, as she has built a strong foundation in the primary grades, it will only get better as those students move up through the grades.  But the board often does not give a school that much time.  Last year, my kids made more gains on the particular test that measures gains than anyone I know of, though many of them still did not test at grade level. My school has been probation for years.  I am worried about losing my job again, and this time, with a master’s degree- which should make me more desirable but instead makes be more expensive- and eleven years in the district, I am worried about losing out to less experienced, less expensive teachers in a job hunt.  I am committed to urban education, and I am very, very good at it.  I came to Chicago because I was called here by God.  This is where I am supposed to be, this is what I am supposed to do.  I work with those children the Bible calls “the least of these.”  I work with them ON PURPOSE, not because I can’t find work elsewhere.  I am highly qualified, highly motivated, and love the children more than you know.  A recall statute in the contract would help the children and the test scores.  When I am recalled, I will help the test scores of any school where I might land.  It would give the students a sense of community.  Do you know I have NEVER been able to watch my students go through a school and watch them graduate?  I think you do not understand, Mr. Mayor exactly what it is that we are asking for nor exactly why we need it.  I can see how as an outsider, you think the way you do.  In other large school districts, the principals must choose from a pool of displaced teachers before making new hires.  I do not feel this is an unreasonable request, especially after living through what I have.  Principals often base their hiring decisions on money rather than quality because they are so cash strapped, but this is not what it best for children or the teachers, nor is it best for the city, where the teachers buy houses and city stickers and pay the highest taxes in the nation, and are part of the middle class that keep this city afloat. 

I also restate my promise that I put on your Facebook page earlier, to donate any raise increase, 9% or 16% (or however you do the math) when the contract is reached to a charity of your choice if you agree to do my job for a week- the lesson plans, the classroom management, ALL of it.  But it must be during a hot week, and you must work the hours I work over and above the contractual hours and drive yourself back to the north side in 2 hour rush hour traffic each night afterwards, just like I do.  I will even help coach you with the planning. 

Humbling explaining, because explaining is what I do,

Kristen Kelly

 

3^rd Grade Superior Rated Teacher in CPS and loving it even though it is very hard to do 


P.S. Someone told me that offering to give up the 9% belittles the cause that we need it.  I am not giving it up- I am willing to sacrifice it to myself to teach a lesson.  Which is exactly what I do when I sepnd tons and tons of my own money on my class.  I sacrifice it in the name of someone's learning.  I need it too.  I am getting married in October (a wedding for which I am paying the Chicago Park District thousands, and also pouring thousands into local businesses- see it is good to pay teachers, we ALL win).  I could really use that to start a college fund for my future children (college is projected to be how expensive in 20 years?) or pay the sky-high property taxes we have now that my future hubby is a homeowner. 

 

Peacock Fascinators for the Bridesmaids- Tutorial

The peacock theme is coming together nicely!  I just love the colors and I love how each one is unique. 

I made a veil (you can see it later) with peacock feather accents, and I wanted the bridesmaids to have little fascinators as well. 

Here is my inspiration, an etsy store that sells them if you don't want to go to the trouble to make them yourself:  (Click on the picture to go to the store)

But since I did not want to pay $20 to $40 a piece for them, I made my own!!!  I bought peacock feathers on eBay from this seller : http://stores.ebay.com/naturesfeathers

They were $20 for 50 feathers.  I am going to use them in the bouquets too, so it was worth it.  The "stems" are not really long, but they are perfect for what I need.  You can get them cheaper if you order them from China or Hong Kong, but I wanted to get started right away, and did not want to wait for the shipping. And boy, was Nature's feathers fast!  I ordered the feathers LATE on a Friday night, and they came on Monday!  I started crafting immediately.  I made something for the flower girl, which I will post later. 

Today, I got around to doing the bridesmaid fascinators.  All six of them done, three months before the wedding!  I am feeling pretty good about where I stand, so that I will not be rushing.  I know that sounds niave even as I type it.

First, start with a felt triangle:

Next, trim the peacock feathers.  I just eyeballed it, and found a peacock feather with a large eye and one that was a little smaller.  Make sure you have sharp scissors and a steady hand.  This is like giving a feather a hair-cut. 

Here it is all trimmed up:

 Next, you need the "sword" feathers.  I did not have them, so I went to JoAnn and bought these in the floral department.  These are $5 a piece (but I had some kind of coupon, I can't remember how much I saved) and come with the sword feathers, some peacock feathers, and some little turquoise feathers.  I DID NOT use the peacock feathers from this floral thingy because they are much smaller than the ones I bought.  But they will be fine in the bridesmaid bouquets.  I needed 3 of these because they had two "sword" feathers each.  (the one picured has only one because I had already cut the other one off. 

I used one "sword" feather and two skinny turquoise feathers for each fascinator.  I arranged them on the triangle.  The best way to do this is to hold the feather and triangle up to your head and make sure that it is not sticking way way out and then hold it in place, bring it down to the table, and glue it. 

Next, I placed the peacock feathers down to get the arrangement just right.  After that, I squeezed out a pretty good amount of hot glue.  I gently placed the feather down and patted it into the hot glue.  I used this technique so the feather would not become separated while it is being worn.  

Glue both feathers down, and..... voila!

Some of the sword feathers curve to the left and others curl to the right.  All of my bridesmaids will be wearing them on the right, so I just made sure that no matter which way the sword was swooping, the fascinator looked right when I held it up to my head.

Now you need to attach the hair clips.  I hot-glued part of it, and I am also going to attach part of it with thread and needle. 

 I am probably going to add something sparkly to the tip of each one.  The next time you see these, it will be on my bridesmaids!



Centerpieces

I just got a quote from a caterer for the wedding.  It is TWICE what I told them my budget was.  So I am freaking out.  So when the going gets tough, the tough get crafting, at least that is what my "aunt" Karen used to say.  Or maybe it was "the tough go shopping."  But since I have to spend three years of my future child's college tuition on a dinner and some chairs, I decided on cheap crafting instead.  I have been googling and spying etsy and everything I can think of for cheap centerpieces.  It seems that everything that looks cheap really ends up being 8 to 10 dollars a table.  That's not cheap.  13 tables x 10 dollars a piece is $130.  Silliness.  For something that is just going to get thrown out. 

Could I make a cool centerpiece for like 2 dollars?  Have you met me?  Of course I can! 

I love tissue paper poms, but I thought just placing those on the table would be lazy.
Here is a pretty one from etsy:

But some other things I thought of doing started looking like more work than building The Great Wall of China, like these beauties.  I could do them, but that started looking like a TON of work to have a cluster of these on each table. 

 So I made a tissue pom and then added one more step- a light from Dollar Tree.  Voila!  Now I am going to throw some votive candles around it... but not too close..... and maybe throw some flower petals on the table and its done.

Here is the one that I made today, sitting on the coffee table.  It is a little wonky because I was playing with it a lot, adding tissue paper, removing tissue paper, just all-around experimenting with it, so it is a little beat-up looking. 

This one workds because I can make it for a few cents worth of tissue paper (fewer sheets actually let the light shine through better) and a Dollar-tree light. 

Here is the Dollar-tree light.  The tissue paper is just resting on top of the light.  For the real one, it will be affixed with tape or something.  Or perhaps the bottom layer of tissue will just be wrapped under the lamp.    The lights are battery-opperated, but Dollar Tree has inexpensive batteries too. 

What do you think? 

I really shouldn't post until I make a pretty one.  I have a fear that people are going to steal my idea, take a better picture, and post it to their blog and get a million hits and take all the credit.  But then I remembered that no one really reads my blog like that.  Lol. 

Handfasting

Getting ready for the wedding! I really am sick of the unity candle, and my sister already did the sand ceremony, and if someone else that I know did it at their wedding, I don't want to do it at mine.  Different Bride.  That's me. 

"Jumping the Broom" is an African-American tradition from before the emancipation proclamation, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do it because I am not African-American, nor were my ancestors enslaved nor forced to create their own marriage ceremony out of thin air because they were prohibited from traditional legal ceremonies.   I thought it might be weird if I did it too since I did not share this past.  But then I remembered. . . oh, yeah, wait, I AM weird.  So I decided to jump right in to that tradition. (pun intended)

But it got the teacher in me thinking about what I could do to incorporate things from the heritage of BOTH of us, and use it as a "lesson" to our guests about our two different cultures.  (I PROMISE NOT TO MAKE THE GUESTS FILL OUT A COMPARE AND CONTRAST WORKSHEET, maybe...)

 I saw "Irish handfasting" on Pinterest, and thought that would be a good idea.  I did a little research and found that it is an ancient Irish custom that pre-dates the church in Ireland, but that the symbolism was so great for marriage that the church often kept it as part of wedding ceremonies, and "Christianized" it.  The Irish hand-fasting tradition is the origin of the term "tying the know."  Great!  I love etymology! 

(Click on the picture to read someone else's blog about it)


I learned in my research that the Irish tradition usually uses 13 different ribbons, each one a different color, and the colors each mean something different. 

(Click the picture to see what the colors mean)

I was thinking of doing that but I thought trying to tie 13 strands at once might be a little tricky.  Then, I found this verse that says "A chord of three strands is not easily broken"  Well, isn't that convenient?! 

I liked the idea of our hands being tied during the vows.  The tie is supposed to be loose enough so that you can slip out of it in order to exchange the rings.  (I guess rings are okay since we can not walk around tied together with cords.)

Then, I needed to add the words into the wedding ceremony.  So I wrote a little script for the pastor, incorporating all my ideas.

Here it is (below) What do you think?

Hand-Fasting

"Tehran and Kristen have chosen to participate in a couple of wedding traditions that honor their different heritage.  One of these traditions, from the bride’s Irish heritage is the ancient Celtic and Irish tradition of hand-fasting.  In pre-Christian Ireland and the times of the early church, it was commonly the way that couples were “married” before the church became involved with weddings.  This ceremony of hand-fasting is in fact the origin of the term 'tying the knot.'”

"Will the bride and groom please cross and hold each other’s hands"

(officiant wraps the chords around the hands and ties a visible knot at the bottom)

"The couple’s hands are tied with a cord of three strands to represent the bride, the groom, and God.   They were inspired by this passage of scripture: "

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

(Prayer)

Now we the bride and groom will exchange their vows.  (Chords are not removed until AFTER the vows)

He he, I love the one about lie down and keep warm- perfect for Chicago winters.  Now I have to write a little ditty for jumping the broom...

Baby's First Birthday!

Liam is one!  I can't believe it.  My little sister's little baby now looks almost toddler-ish.  Oh well, time for a party then! 

I take NO credit for her super-cute decor, whatsoever. I just thought it was awesome and needed to be shared.

She set up a "smash the cake" photo-shoot a day in advance and had a photo-bug friend come over and shoot pictures. These pictures are the ones I took, and they are not quite as good as her friend's pics, but I do have the rights to these to post : )

Jenni is so clever, It was her idea to tape balloons to the back of the house and put out a blanket and snap away!  Those colors were her idea too!  The green and the blue are her go-to colors for everything (her wedding, the baby nursery-click here to see nursery, home decor...) and she usually just changes the accent colors.  This time, the accent is orange.

Party Table!

Hand-made banner by Jenni!

She spray-painted little dinosaurs from the dollar-tree to math the theme, and I hot glued them to a paper runner for decoration.

We made tissue-paper poms and hung them on the chandelier which my dad raised up with zip-ties so no-one would bump their head.  Okay, some people still bumped their head on the tissue poms but they were cute, so they weren't moving!

My sister has been practicing her icing skills, and even has the frosting tips and everything, like a good southern mama practicing her home-making skills.  Super cute cupcakes!

Here is the birthday boy, seeming happy about the attention. (Or at least the cake)

Jenni, Me, and Liam:

Sometimes, we party as hard as we can, and then we just can't eat one more bite of cake.  Happy Birthday, Liam!

$8 closet makeover

I was inspired to organize by this blogger's post. She used dollar tree bins and tags that she made on the computer.  Cute!  And I have a desire to ba all organized and can't seem to pull it off, so anyway, one small closet at a time, right? 

Here is the before picture of the closet:

I bought 8 bins at the dollar tree and made my own tags.  I just did free-hand drawing so they are all different.  But I think that makes them cute.  I hot-glued the tags to the bins.

Here is the after:

The sheets had to go to another closet, but that's okay because there was room.  There was one left over bin so I used it for cleaning supplies under the sink.  I feel very accomplished, and the labels will help me and future hubby keep our things in the right places.