Starting a New Adventure

Over the weekend I started a new adventure.  I signed up to become a distributor for AdvoCare.  This company provides overwhelming results in weight loss, energy supplements, and fitness and wellness aids.

I have taken the first step into providing more for my family. I have been a stay-at-home mother and wife for the last 7 and a half years.  I started online college last year and have also been volunteering at my children's school as the PTO Vice President.  I didn't think I could fit any more on my plate, but my sister-in-law told me that because I am involved in so much, it will only help my business!

So here I am! I am excited for the possibilities!

Soon I will start recruiting people to take on the 24-Day Challenge.

Stay tuned for more information!

Popularity Contest?

When I was younger I had a small group of friends.  We were inseparable, we did everything together.  But there were times when I would not be invited to things. I felt left out, like they were mad at me or just didn't like me any more. When I grew up I thought to myself, I want my kids to someday have a group of friends that will love to be around them. I want them to have play dates and go to each other's birthday parties. I want them to feel included. 

Sometimes, you don't always get what you wish for.  I find myself feeling awful for them when they don't get invited to play dates or birthday parties.  They see what is going on and they know when they are not invited, they then cry to me about it and my heart breaks.
What am I supposed to say to them? How do I ease that hurt that they feel? I sometimes just do not have the words to make them feel better.  All I can do is simply cuddle with them and let them know everything will be okay.  Sometimes I cry with them.  It brings me right back.

Yes, that was in my past, but when you have children, you want everything for them. You want them to be happy and loved.

Today my heart aches because it has turned into another one of those days.  Though in a strange way I feel like it's been a slow process in the making.  It's strange to say, but I feel like I've seen it coming.

I just hope that my kids will bounce back from this, myself included.  I want nothing more than my kids to be happy and love life and the ones in their lives.

Weekly Menu Planning

For a long time I have been trying to get more organized. It was my New Years resolution.  I have done research on organizing pictures, books, files, and life in general.  Now I am working on organizing our weekly menu.

I will admit, in the past I used to make whatever we felt like for that day. But it is time for a change.  Gone are the days of Mommy the Short Order Cook.  Starting this month I will from here on out be known as, Mommy the Amazing Chef.

I have looked at many free printables from multiple bloggers, but I never came across one that I really liked.  So, being the creative gal I am, I made my own.

Down the left side I put the meals of the day.  B for Breakfast, L for Lunch, S for Snack, D for Dinner, and of course D² for Dessert.  The reason for D² is because everyone always wants seconds.  See how clever I am. Tee hee. 

I also have another list for the groceries I will need for these meals.  It is a little extensive, this being because I am a couponer and like to know what I am paying for everything I am buying. 

{Click here to download for FREE}

I scoured my cookbooks looking for recipes to switch up the every day meal we usually go with, that being spaghetti.  Mind you I still have put spaghetti on my new menu planner, only because it is an AWESOME family meal. I love how it brings us all to the table. 

My next venture will be creating chore charts for myself and the kids, because this summer I will be needing all the help I can get. Thankfully they are both old enough to start helping around the house.

Again, I have found some very cute templates, but in the end i will probably end up making one myself.

Well, that is it for me today.  Do you have any awesome templates or Menu Planning tips to share? Leave a comment.

Planning for Little Man's 7th Birthday!

I am sorry it has been a while since I have posted. I have been busy with PTO, Kid's Schoolwork, My Schoolwork, Volunteering, Cooking, Cleaning, Being a Mom, and... Planning for Little Man's 7th Birthday Party!!

I am extremely excited for his birthday this year. We have both agreed on a pretty nifty party theme. This year the theme is.... Superhero Theme!!

I have had so much fun scouring the internet to find ideas for invitations, party favors, decorations, and other awe-inspiring ideas. All of my work has paid off and I have been slaving over the details like a workhorse. (I may have to enlist the help of my PTO lady friends to help out with some decorations. We will just see when I end up burning out.)

So far I have bountiful amounts of ideas. Masks, capes, comic book fighting word decorations, and SUPER cool invitations.

The invitations I found on etsy are absolutely amazing looking. However, at $30 for a set of 12, and me needing 24 invites... I decided to make my own for half the price. There is no way I am shelling out $60 for invitations.

The Etsy Invitation

My Invitation

Though mine may not be as perfect looking as the etsy invite, I love how the ones I made turned out. I still have about 18 more to make. Lord help me! My hands are going to feel dead by the end of the weekend. 

The capes will be made out of tablecloths. Little Man's will be black and he will have a black mask. The boys at the party will have blue masks and capes, the girls will have pink masks and capes. EEP! I'm so excited to see them run around the playground in masks and capes!

I found a good tutorial here ---> How To Create Superhero Capes

Next was the fun part... I got to use spray paint!!! I bought white masks from Hobby Lobby to use for the boy and girl masks. Then I spray painted them Hot Pink and Ocean Blue. I got the spray paint from Hobby Lobby as well. I love that place.

The next idea I came across was fabulous! Onomatopoeia words with jagged bubbles staked into cupcakes! No need to mess with fondant! This idea I got from Cupcake Decorating Ideas.

I am also going to make those into larger cutouts to hang around the party area! This is going to be one AWESOME party!!!!

I can't wait until March 30th. Little Man will be turning 7 and I will be turning 82! Not really, but it sure feels like it. I will make sure to take a ton of pictures of the exciting events.

Project Gallery

What started off as an idea in my head has exploded on our walls. So far we only have two walls with photos on them, but in my head I would like to have every single one of them loaded with pictures.

I have found many crafty blogs with posts regarding gallery walls. I love every single one of them. they have all given me inspiration to create my own.

First place we started was the wall in our "dining room" area. I put dining room in quotations because it's not really a room, but more of an area behind where the couch and desk sit.

The wall was white and bare. Nothing to give it any life. So, after we got our taxes I made the ultimate decision and booked us an appointment to get our pictures taken. The whole process from leaving the house to leaving the mall was an adventure in itself and I will not get into that. But, needless to say, after 4 and a half hours, we had our pictures and were headed home. The next day I started my project.

First I measured out where I wanted to the pictures to sit, and then I started hammering in some nails. I love hammering nails, it's fun.

This is what the end result came out as...

Though, I know it is not the biggest and most extravagant gallery wall every made, but for now it is simple and I love it. 

The next wall I tackled was the bare wall next to our GIGANTIC television. Trust me when I say it is big. 

There was nothing next to the television. It was where we had our love seat, but we moved that in December to make a space for our Christmas tree. After Christmas was over and the tree was put away we really didn't feel like going through the trouble of moving the love seat back, so we left it in the family room. 

Now I was faced with about a 5' x 3' area to work with. So I set up shop. I craftily made a desk out of two tv trays and the top to my old desk that mysteriously lost one of it's pieces, thus making it so I could not put it together. I laid the top of my old desk across the two tv trays and viola! A new desk for me! I set up my laptop with my printer next to it and had my very own work desk. 

Then I realized the wall needed a little something. So I started digging for pictures that would fit the frames I had. Sadly only 1 of our newly taken pictures would fit. I was so sad. But I did not let that get me down. I love looking at old pictures and reminiscing on the good old days. 

After about 20 minutes of trying to place them where I wanted them to I ended up with a pretty neat looking wall. 

The quilt in the frame is from a quilt that my grandmother made me. It had already been torn up between me, my kids and the dog using it. So I decided to turn it into art. I cut out my favorite part, (the only piece left untouched) and placed it in a frame. 

I love my walls. I will most definitely be adding to them in the future. I can't wait to show you all the process and how it all comes together. 

RAWR!

I am a couponing MONSTER!

Last night I stayed up super late to get all of my deals in order, my extensive shopping list together, my transactions separated, and my coupons divided up.

I woke up at 7am ready to tackle the day.

My first stop Walgreens. OOP (out of pocket) was $16.42. But, I saved $20.23. A 55% savings! WOOT!!

Next stop was Publix. I am in LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, with Publix. Their Buy One Get One Free deals are outstanding and I absolutely adore (as Fancy Nancy would say, adore is fancy for really liking something), pairing those deals with coupons. So, OOP there was $69.52. I wasn't planning on spending that much and I stuck to my list, however, I made a fatal error and forgot a few coupons at home. My reaction was as follows, "Aww, Poopstick!" This outburst was then followed up with a few strange looks from other shoppers. I gave a big smile and a slight nod and kept walking. Anyways, as I was saying... I saved $33.84. A 32% savings. I know I would have done better had I not forgotten the blasted creamer coupons. Blarg. Oh well. On to the next store.

Last but not least, Kroger. I love Kroger when they have their awesome Mega Events. This week it was buy 10 participating items and get $3 off instantly at checkout and save $2 on your next purchase. So of course I made my list out to where I would have 4 transactions and get to use 3 $2 coupons off my purchase.

I started off with my 10 Totinos Party Pizzas. They were on sale for $1.29 and I had coupons for $1 off 5. So I rang all of my pizzas up so I would have my 10 items and $2 coupon. After I paid I noticed that I didn't get my $2 Catalina coupon. "Uh... excuse me? Oh no you didn't!", is what I said to the self check out machine. I spoke with the self checkout register assistant came over and asked if I needed help. I said, "Yes sir. I scanned my items for the buy 10 item get $2 back deal and I did not receive my coupon." He looked into my bags and said, "Ma'am, you only have 9 items in here." OH MY GAH! How embarrassing? I was so mad at myself for not double checking to make sure that transaction was complete before paying for it.

After kicking myself in the ass, which is hard to do and looks silly when you are doing it in the middle of the self check out lane, I sorted out my remaining items and placed them neatly together so I knew what went with which transaction and this debacle would not happen again. The rest of my orders turned out like I had planned. My OOP for Kroger came out to $72.20. I saved $35.67. Drum roll please.... My savings was 33%.

It wasn't too bad of a day. I got a good amount of groceries, though I wish I had spent a little less. I still came out on top. I love when things go right.

Next week I will make sure to have every coupon with me before I leave and I will double and triple check every transaction before paying. I still can't believe I did that. Grr.

Now time to spend a little cuddle time with the babies before we head off to the basketball court.

Finally...

I got a NEW, to me, camera!

Now I can take pictures of all my crafts, projects, adventures, and my little ones.

Another awesome thing happened. Last night I got my new photo organizer. So far I have used 15 of the 16 cases. I had a great time going through all of our old photos and trying to separate them into the right categories.

After my Grandma had passed I went up north to Wisconsin to visit my Grandpa for the funeral. We went through all of the pictures she had, and boy did she have a lot. I would have to say she could have easily had over a thousand pictures of her family, spread out between over 30 or so photo albums. I got to take home all of the little albums she had of my two babies and also a couple that she had with pictures of me when I was a baby.

Yes, that is me.

It was so much fun getting to reminisce old memories with my family. It was sad that a death in the family brought on the reunion, but it was also nice to see my extended family. Some I had not seen in over 10 to 20 years. It was amazing to see the look on their faces when they realized it was me.

Anywho, back to the story at hand. I received the new photo organizer last night and today I am happy to say that all of my pictures are not put away in an orderly fashion. Before they were either hanging out in an old shoe box, in small albums, or laying around in drawers. I admit, I didn't take very good care of my photographs, but again, that is why I bought this awesome organizer.

YAY! This thing is the shizz!

Next thing I need to do is create labels for each of the boxes. 

I highly recommend this photo organizer. Jen from IHeart Organizing! was a genius when she put this nifty organizer on her site. I am obsessed with her blog and with my new photo organizing friend!

Tomorrow, I will show you how I jimmy rigged my own crafty little corner. I think it is pretty spiffy.