The Pit of Despair.. Oh wait, that's our Bedroom...

In the spirit of keeping it real, I will divulge one (just one for today, but don't worry, there are many!) of my problem areas--that room that no one ever ventures into, and thanks to child proof door locks, is always hidden behind a closed door -- our bedroom.  

I love the thought of a calm, organized, clutter free area.  A place to rejuvenate.  A place to sleep (do you hear that Baby Sam?  SLEEP) and a clear desk area where I can set up space and encourage  myself to be a successful student.  

This room is none of those things.  It has become a room of dumping and hiding.  All the piles that collect downstairs eventually move upstairs.  This room is the first that I am choosing to tackle for my own sanity, for a place to study and baby-willing a place to feel more rested and ready for each day.  

Here are a few "before" pics that I snapped this afternoon.  Yikes! I know!   I apologize in advance if any undies made it into the shot, I'm telling you -- keeping it real!

The first task I assigned myself was to empty the crib and change the sheet.  Time for Sammy to transition to the crib.  For real.  I was obviously joking when I said that a few months ago... Wish us luck with the transition and stay tuned for an account of my success with taming the stuff.  Too.  Much.  Stuff.

Preparing for the Year: 2015

I have been anxiously preparing (ok, I mean... Pinterest-ing) for the new year!  I'm not a resolution maker, but instead I try to set some goals, put new routines in place and come up with a bucket list of things we want to accomplish and experience. 

I tend to bite off more than I can chew, classic overachiever style... and then get frustrated/burned out/give up.  My stick-to-it-iv-ness sucks and thats something I've always wanted to change.  Well, why not now?

At times I have the desire to be a blog worthy super mom, and when I sit and actually picture what that means to me the first thing I think of is a mom who smiles and is happy.  Someone who enjoys their life, their children, their home, their marriage (or soon to be marriage).  I envision someone who is busy and productive, but has time and resources to make memories with their family. 

Is it strange to think that maybe my complacency and laziness stem from the fact that I just haven't been busy enough?  I have nothing to do so I do nothing?  We're about to find out, because this mama starts back as a full time student in just a matter of days! 

But, I digress, back to the purpose of this post... New Year!  2015!  It feels like its going to be a good one, and I want to do everything in my power to feel accomplished and on top of things.  I want to feel like I am living life purposefully instead of being drug along by life, struggling for footing. 

To my "2015" Pinterest board I have added a few pins about challenges that I plan to take on:
Resolution Blueprint
52 Weeks to an Organized Home
Declutter 365
Dave Ramsay's baby steps
Fiscal Fast

The first of these that I want to discuss is How to do a Fiscal Fast.  I'm excited about this and plan to follow through in January!  Can you believe it?  Excited?  Yeah.. I'm a little surprised too, chronic shopper that I am... but we have been in what I call "eff it mode" for the past two months.  "Eff it mode" consists of a loss of income (the child support that the ex-husband has not paid since the end of October) and the desire to enjoy life and the season without having to say no all the time.  "Eff it mode" was enabled by a new credit card, and boy did we put that thing to use!  I'm not proud of our spending choices, but I'm going to own them because we were fully aware of what we were doing.  The reality is that now its time to buckle down and be purposeful with our spending again, and we will start that by NOT spending for 30 days. 

With a few exceptions of course:

• Textbooks and school essentials
• Ashlyn's birthday preparations/gifts 
• Essential grocery items (including any medicine/first aid need that might arise)

Here is my gray area:
Gift cards -- during our Fiscal Fast, can we use gift cards we received at Christmas as long as we're not spending additional money out of pocket?
B/S/T items -- if I sell cloth diapers, can I re-invest those funds into new to us diapers?

Is the Fiscal Fast challenge about NOT shopping, or about NOT spending money?  In my opinion, shopping for pleasure is out.  My thrift store outings will be a no go, and instead I'll invest that time into decluttering our home, working on projects in progress and spending time with the family.  But I would like to have the option of a family outing to Cold Stone Creamery to use the gift cards that my Aunt, Uncle & cousins gave to the kiddos, and when I make the 3 hour round trip trek to pick up the girlie can I redeem my free Starbucks drink available on my Gold Card?  Can I spend the remainder of my Amazon gift card on items that aren't necessary?  Does this fast apply to my kiddos as well?  Good thing I've got a few days to determine our final guidelines!  What are your thoughts on my gray area issues? 

Stay tuned for more about my hopes, dreams, plans, goals and wishes for 2015!

Quitting Facebook

Gasp!  I've done it.  I've deactivated my facebook account (temporarily).   I'm going cold turkey and for the first time in my life I might be able to identify on a very small level with the way addiction feels.  When I turned the computer on this morning with the intention of checking my email, the first site I clicked on was facebook.  Its now my phantom limb.

Social media can be all consuming, the easiest distraction and quite frankly has begun to cause me more harm than good so it was time to step away for a bit.  I have tried before to limit my time online or my facebook usage and I've failed miserably.  As a parent, how can I try (also, somewhat unsuccessfully) to limit the time my kids spend on their electronic devices when I can not follow through with setting limits for myself?  I'm not setting a good example.

My kindergartener had a project that was supposed to be returned to school this morning, a BIG piece of paper where we were supposed to trace the hands of each member of our family and then decorate them with the things we like and are interested in.  We didn't complete the project.  We didn't even START the project.  Was it because it was forgotten under piles of paper and stuff on the kitchen counter that I haven't bothered cleaning?  Was it because when he brought it home, excited to work on it, that I said "Oh, we'll do that later..." I'm not saying that facebook is to blame for my son's homework not being finished, but what I can say is that my priorities are not where they should be.  I've let it go for far too long and now the time has come that something drastic needs to be done in order to make things right, or at least getting on the path to making things right. 

I'm not happy with me.  Its easy to admit, but hard to take action.  I've always been pretty good at identifying the problem, but from there .... ? Usually nothing.  I want to take this time and treat it as a reset.  Change my focus from -- "Who is doing what today?" "Are you kidding me?  Are they really that stupid?"  "Oh, my goodness, that person is annoying, but I can't bring myself to unfriend them" "Hmm, I wonder what is available on the b/s/t sites today."  "Oh!  I haven't checked the diaper swap pages, or the babywearing swap pages yet this morning even though I really shouldn't be buying anything right now" and instead focus on paying attention and engaging with my kids when they are excited to show me something or be fully present while I'm nursing our 4 month old (4 months already!  It instantly brings tears to my eyes to think about how quickly he is growing and how soon he won't need me in this way) and to spend time reconnecting to the amazing man I have beside me.  I'm tired of living a distracted life.  Its not fair to anyone that I invest more of my time and attention on things happening in other people's lives outside of our home and family. 

 I've committed to at least one week facebook free, which means the earliest I may return will be Thursday, November 13th.  As daunting as this seems, I'm also excited.  Its freeing.  I hope this helps.  I pray that this helps.  Please, let this help.

TGIF! {the To-Do list edition}

This week I've focused on making my daily to-do list manageable.  And not only creating a manageable list, but actually following through and completing each task.  (Crazy idea, right?)

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday were a success.  Tuesday and Wednesday even included a trip outside of the house with both boys and I was ready to pat myself on the back.  Then came Thursday.  I don't know if I was just in a slump and that is to blame for not getting through my reasonable list, or if not getting everything crossed off and completed is what sent me into a slump.  Either way it wasn't pretty.  I'm grateful I was able to keep myself somewhat in check and didn't fall into full on "I'm done with this" attitude, but I was irritated and as a result left nearly half of my list untouched. 

As a stay at home mom, I put a lot of pressure on myself.  I've said it before, and its worth mentioning again (and again) that my greatest struggle is how I picture things SHOULD be.  Thankfully I am learning to give myself a little grace and accept that some days aren't going to go as planned.  Sometimes I won't be as productive as I'd like to be.  Sometimes my child will act like a human pinball inside of Ikea and bounce around the store with me chasing behind to the point I will feel like I could have added "Exercise for one hour" on my list for that day.  (Tuesday.  Thank God for meatballs to make the trip worth it!)  Some days there will be a few things that don't get crossed off the to-do list.  But luckily for me, I will have another chance to try again the next day.

Yesterday my list included 15 min cleaning in our bathroom.  It didn't get done so I wrote it down on today's list.  I'm happy to say that I spent the 15 minutes cleaning, and then took a few extra minutes to sweep & mop.  Our house isn't spotless, but when I stay on top of things and rotate through different rooms that need attention, its not so bad! 

As soon as I finish this post which just happens to be #6 on today's list, there will only be three tasks left... including #5 - pack.  The biggest, the littlest and I are heading for an overnight trip to my parent's house this weekend.  I'll reward my efforts this week with a cup of coffee from our favorite coffee shop on the way up, and some good time with my family as a way to recharge before coming home and giving it a go again next week!

Tackling the To-Dos!

Lets talk lists!

I am the type of person that really enjoys the process of making a list, and crossing things off.  I think its because I strive to be productive and organized, but with 4 kiddos now, productive and organized are not always words that I would use to describe myself or our life.

Side note:  Does anyone else ever write something down and cross it off AFTER you've completed the task?

Sitting down with my notebook and a cup of coffee is part of my usual morning routine, but I frequently find myself caught in this vicious cycle of writing #allthethings, not having the time/energy/motivation/ability to finish #allthethings, and then feeling down and frustrated because if I didn't cross off #allthethings, than I must not have been very productive for the day.  And in my mind a non productive day is not a "good day".

Is this a struggle that all moms have, or is this a SAHM thing?  Either way, its something that has the potential to either leave me feeling great or (as its happened more and more recently....) not so great.

This week I am going to make a conscious effort to limit my daily to-do list to 10 manageable tasks.  I will brainstorm a special mama treat to celebrate when I am able to follow through on my list every day this week!

How do you manage your to-dos?  Are you a list person like me or do you have a different system?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions!

Putting Together a Quick & Easy Minecraft Birthday

Earlier this week we celebrated the middle child's birthday.  Where the last few years have gone is a mystery to me!  The night before his birthday we went on a mommy/son date for a haircut, dinner and a little shopping trip to Toys R Us to spend the gift card and birthday money that had arrived in birthday cards that day.  While we were out together I said to him that I didn't think I was ready for him to turn five and asked if he could be four just a little bit longer... he's a smart little guy though, and replied with "How about I be four for the rest of the night?"  Ok.  Guess I can't argue with that...

He is a Minecraft fanatic.  I'm not quite sure how that even came to be, but Minecraft on the iPad, Grandma's computer, playing "real life Minecraft" and watching Minecraft videos on Youtube consume his little (now) five year old life.  I should also mention that he was Steve from Minecraft for Halloween!

He had seen some Youtube videos of different Minecraft themed cakes.  One in particular in the shape of Steve caught his eye and he had me watch it with him multiple times.  Unfortunately for him, my cake skills are severely limited... fortunately for me, Pinterest has a plethora of Minecraft themed birthday ideas and I found a cake that I thought we could replicate AND that would satisfy our blonde birthday boy AKA DanRidesMinecarts. 

This is what we ended up with, I was so happy with how it came out and our birthday boy was pretty excited too!  It was easy to control the portions on this cake, we only needed to have enough for our little immediate family, but you could easily build something similar on a larger scale.  For this cake I used one box of chocolate cake mix, two 6oz packages of blue jello and one batch of Rice Krispie treats (and ended up with leftover "blocks" of each)  I used square pans, either 8x8 or 9x9, to make each component so it would be thicker and more block like than having the batter spread out in a larger sized pan.  I also grabbed a can of green Betty Crocker cupcake frosting, and the star tip was perfect for making the grass on top of the dirt blocks.  I will freely admit that the star of the cake was the little figures we found to put on top.  I was hesitant to fork out $25ish dollars for these guys, but he has played with them every day since his birthday so I've considered them just another one of his gifts.  We found the packaged figures on Amazon, Core Player Survival Pack and the Creeper Pack. 

The one thing I forgot to consider were candles for this awesome cake.  Thankfully the man of the house came to the rescue with the brilliant idea of using matches to represent the Minecraft torches. (I apologize for the crummy picture, but you get the idea)

We also decided to go the Minecraft route with birthday treats for his preschool class.  Again, with the help of Pinterest, we were able to come up with a cute and fairly inexpensive idea.  I like coming up with things that are a little different than the standard store bought, sugar bomb cupcakes.  I bought clear treat bags from the Dollar Tree (they come in packs of 25), a roll of green curling ribbon, a bag of stick pretzels, rolos and new cookies and creme Hershey's Kisses in very diamond-like blue foil.  Too keep these preschool friendly, each treat bag got two of each candy and a handful of pretzels.  The real Minecraft highlight of the treat bags were these free printable tags I found on Pinterest.  We downloaded the ones we wanted to use (diamond, gold & sticks) to a USB drive and took them to the office supply store to be color printed on cardstock.  HERE is the site I found on Pinterest full of great party ideas AND free food printables.

 All in all, I think we pulled off a pretty fun day for our boy!  Without breaking the bank, without spending WEEKS upon WEEKS planning and preparing and still managing to give him a themed birthday to remember.

Happy 5th Birthday DanRidesMinecart!

 

Goal Setting {Week 2}

After my mostly successful first week, I'm using this forum again to gain some accountability for a new week's goals! 

I sat down with my coffee this morning (anyone else's favorite time of the day?) and came up with the following list:

Goals for the week of March 10-16

1) Drink 4+ glasses of water each day

2) Focus on real food - No fast food or gorging on junk snacks

3) Dannon's Birthday!  (Wrap gifts, make cake)

4) Follow week 2 of 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home challenge

5) Wake up with alarm

6) Sell $85 worth of stuff and pay natural gas bill

7) Consignment sale prep

You'll notice my first two goals... I have felt pretty crummy over the last few days and I'm attributing that to not being aware of my water intake AND splurging on junk that wasn't in our budget and didn't agree much with my body.  The crap food I consumed over the weekend included a late night Dairy Queen snack of chicken strips & fries, Mt Dew, cheese cake complete with cherry pie filling, pizza, donuts and multiple Cadbury Creme Eggs.  I tend to go through periods of zero impulse control, and then I pay for it massively.  Enough is enough!  Its one thing to have a treat (or fulfill a pregnancy craving... thats where the Cadbury eggs came into play) occasionally, but I need to do a better job of cutting myself off.

I wrote "Consignment sale prep" as a goal for the week, and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to measure that.  I'm consigning at my second Super Kids Resale next month and I've got a lot to do between now and then to get ready!  There is definitely work involved in being a consignor at these types of sales, but its really something that I look forward to.  I have fun volunteering during the sale, I LOVE shopping the sale and I really love the check that comes a few weeks after the sale.  The income from the sale will be very beneficial to us this year, but I'm also at a bit of a disadvantage with our desire to leave the gender of our baby unknown until birth.  IF we knew we were having a girl, there are a lot of baby boy items I could tag for the sale and if we knew the gender I would also be able to stock up on clothes and other items we're needing for baby at a great discount.  But... since thats not the case, I will come up with a list of items that we're needing that can be gender neutral and I'm sure I'll find more than a few good bargains during the sale!