My semi-organized life

Honestly I suck at being organized. I have tons of ambition and then I get suckered into FB news feeds (which can be super boring most days) or Pinterest, a life long addiction I think. On a good note, Pinterest does have a ton of organizing tips that I either a)plan to use in the future, b)have attempted to use and never followed through, or c) really do work out to my advantage. Currently I'm hunting down storage ideas because our new house literally has no closets worth storing anything in and it's driving me nutso!! Also, as we live in a super small town and the nearest Walmart or super center of any sort is 45-55 minutes away I have to plan meals for 2 weeks or more before going. I've always had a calendar available and a white board for weekly reminders but I came across this incredibly cute set on Pinterest, every month has a theme. I love it and it keeps things fresh and festive. Best part, it's free! Is she not awesome?! http://www.creativideeworkshop.com/share.html   I'm on the second month of using her printable's. She has tons of other cute festive/monthly printable's available too, which I look forward to using as the holidays come up. I've seen so many other bloggers and websites that have their own but I really like her styles. Just darling and I don't mind having them on display.

So the way I use these is pretty simple. The meal planner I literally spend hours planning meals, mostly because I get so sick of eating the same thing all the time, but then I also have to consider that not everyone likes the same things and we have picky eaters around here so I try not to have two meals in a row that not everyone will eat. This can be a very daunting task. Then on the side of that I have the shopping list. Granted I usually use a major shopping list like this (sideways sorry), to take the store for major shopping days. So the fridge list is generally used for items we run out of and will need replaced. Most things like milk or veggies are replaced at the local store weekly.

Includes Price matching that I find a Pricematcherz.com (lists local store deals so you don't have to look for hours in the papers) 

 The Weekly Planner I use for reminders because for whatever reason it's easier for people to see a list of things to do than actually look at a calendar (these people include my one in only husband who needs multiple ways of telling him something is happening so he can't say he didn't know about it!) And the monthly planner is, well, a monthly planner. Permanently written on it are things that happen every month. This includes spelling tests and what days the kids have P.E. so they know what days they have to wear tennis shoes and what days flip-flops or dress shoes are ok to wear. And each month I go through the school calendar as well as my own personal scheduling book and write down things on the paper itself. If things come up I can easily add to the calendar because these are all in the plastic sleeves you can buy for like $1 to use in binders, and I tape them to the fridge. Makes it easy to switch out monthly printable's this way too. Also I keep Teagan's dance calendar and the school calendar behind the monthly so I always know where it is and can use it for the next month.


On a non schedule based organization topic I use a lot of flipping Thirty-one products in my house. I have a million totes I swear. But for my kitchen I have this family organizer which I love. Currently it's kind of a mess and doesn't match my kitchen at all, and actually won't match when I repaint either, but whatever lol. Each kid has a pocket for their school things, spelling lists, memos, weekly news,etc. Then one pocket is for bills, and then I have a few extra spaces for the kids who aren't in school yet. I have plans of organizing life enough to do activities with them a few days a week here shortly so they will get filled, but for now they're empty. The organizer is only $25. Seems pricey but Thirty-one makes quality products from a Christian based company, you can't go wrong with that! (I am in no way affiliated with the Thirty-one Company past or present, and am not in any way being asked or paid to say this, I truly love their products).

Oh ya, I have a cleaning list that I printed off from somewhere, I'm horrible at following it. Those marks are from 2 weeks ago lol. Anyhow, there's a glimpse of my semi-organized life. It's a work in progress but some day I'll have everything down.

Maddox's surgery

Before, all he cares about in watching cartoons

My little monkey, thumbs up for all the Popsicle's and crackers you can eat!

A lot of people didn't know, but Maddox had surgery last Friday to fix and umbilical hernia that he'd had since he was itty bitty. Literally itty bitty, the kid spit up everything his first 12 months of life so he weighed next to nothing. The spit up and the constant crying had played a big roll in this hernia issue. And for years the pediatrician's have said "well if it's not gone by two" then "if its not gone by time he's in school" and so on until I put my foot down and his current pediatrician agreed it was time to take care of it. She was slightly worried that the closer of the two doctors in the area wouldn't do the surgery because it was small but he did. He said the fascia was tight so there wasn't any chance of it getting worse as he got older, however that also meant that it wasn't gonna get any better. Ultimately it was never gonna cause any long term effects but for peace of mind I didn't want him to get hurt playing football or landing on something wrong and damage the intestines that were sticking through the hole. That, to me, seems like something that would be way worse and more traumatizing than the minor surgery (that took like 25 minutes) it took to correct it. Currently hes doing good, and was actually up and moving around quite a bit the day of. 4 days later he's back in school (Labor Day weekend worked perfect, he had a few extra days if he needed it) and yesterday we were at the fair all day and he seemed to be doing great. I'm quite proud of my little guy. He's a tough cookie and even came out of anesthesia without any issues. The nurses were all quite surprised at his nonchalant attitude the whole time, and even happier that he didn't freak out when he woke up. He wasn't able to look at the incision for the first few days because that did freak him out a little, he just didn't want to see the blood, but now he's cool about it and happy to have a "normal" belly button for once. He's a great kid, proud to call him my son!

Baby shower!!

Before moving I was given the honor of hosting a baby shower for my oldest and dearest friend who is due to have her second baby, A GIRL!!! on Sept 5, however she will be induced on the 28th of this month. I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am to meet Baby Shaye and love on her :)
For this baby shower I wanted to do something incredible! Being on a tight budge of course I had to limit how extreme I went with this. I ended up choosing a vintage shower theme, mostly because I love vintage anything, roses, light pink colors, etc. This ended up actually costing me less than $100 for everything, including the money her loving grandma ended up sending me because she just thought it was so sweet of me to host the shower for her and she wanted to help out. Most of the items I bought were from a garage sale or left over from other parties. Probably the most expensive were the drinking glasses which I decided to use mason jars for and lucky me, caught them on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, making them less than $1 a piece. I added chalk board sticker, ribbon, and bottons(which I had on hand), and found some pretty light colored straws to drink from. I also bought bottled water and tied pink ribbons to them for those who don't care for juice or punch.

For food, the mom to be offered to bring a meat tray despite me telling her she didn't need to, and her mother in law brought the veggie tray, I ended up purchasing cupcakes, made cream cheese/feta/cranberry roll ups, chip dip, bought animal cookies (because we had just discussed how yummy they are) and making a fruit pizza. The cupcakes were made by an old friend at Cakelicious based in Lincoln, NE https://www.facebook.com/Cakealicious28 and they were absolutely amazing! They had slid around in the car but I didn't have time to fix them before setting them out, didn't matter, they were yummy regardless!  My mom let me use her silver platters as they fit along with the vintage them and added something special. I also had found a cute wooden doll cradle for $5, a vintage baby scale for $20, some pillowcase dolls, and a very old copy of Mother Goose to use as table decor. The roses were cut from my own front yard (I worked all summer to try to keep them from drying up lol). 

All and all I think it turned out wonderfully and everyone had a great time. I'm glad I was able to pull it all off and make it look presentable. Thinking I may have to plan another party sometime soon for someone else, it was rather fun!

Nomads

Well it's that time of year again where we move...its really starting to wear on me but we gotta go where we know we can save money. So small town Nebraska here I come. Part of me are really excited to move, I've lived in Lincoln about 90% off my life and honestly sick of it. Minus my mom and a few close friends I'm not missing out on much. I sit at home with 4 kids all day and don't do anything so living in a small town with nothing to do really isn't gonna be that big of a change for me.
Why are we moving? because Josh got an amazing new job at the Aurora Coop which will pay him more, as well as pay for his cell phone and our internet. Among other yearly perks and bonuses. Being the largest agricultural company in the state I guess they have the money to be able to do that.
Where are we moving? Fullerton, NE a town consisting of 1306 people...1312 when we move in. That's a huge leap from the 225,000+ population I currently live in. We'll have family there and Josh's dad bought the house next door. Which I'm hoping he will let us completely renovate and call home but that's kind of up in the air and Josh doesn't care for the layout, which isn't optimal but it has a lot of potential if you have the right mind set. Josh isn't one who can see outside the box unfortunately.
I think the kids are gonna love it though. With grandpa next door they have a pool and the four wheeler, grandpa has an air boat too so there's always gonna be something to do in the summer. In the winter they'll have tons of land to just run around on and do whatever kids like to do in  the snow. They'll also be going to a school with one classroom per grade, which is fine, I know especially Maddox will benefit from the smaller class setting and teacher to student ratio. I fear Teagan may end up bored though if they are teaching at the same level she was learn her in Lincoln. But I can't judge too much, they're a little more modern of a school then their current school is so I may be pleasantly surprised.

Anyhow, that's our life story. Moving our clothes and small things this weekend so we can get the kids prepped for the next school year which starts on the 15th, and Josh starts his new job the 12th. Fun times!

Disappointed

Its been an incredibly stressful last couple of months, financially thinking we were ok and everything all at once happens. We've been fortunate enough to receive benefits form the state up until last month when they were sending everything to a non existent address so I wasn't updated on anything. When I finally do get updated and everything sent in for re-submission we are informed that we make too much money for assistance. We can survive of course but it means absolutely no free money, no buying kids toys, or random items we don't really need. I saw this coming, I really did just hoped it wouldn't be too soon. On top of needing to buy brand new tires because we have so little tread it's illegal and blew a hole in one tire last week...ya we need new ones! its been a rough time for sure!!
This month I'm going to Indiana for Scentsy convention, which has been paid for already so it's not like I can not go, I'd lose the money. But I still have to pay for part of the gas and be able to eat decently. When I get home I get to purchase plates for my car, being a huge SUV it's gonna be around $200...that I don't have. OY! Just can't win...ever.

Wish my 35,000 in school loans would've provided me with a career for my kids. But now they're trying to get rid of Medical Assistants all together so its a worthless degree to boot...so flipping awesome. Wish I would've seen this coming too. I pushed to graduate with honors and I did...for what reason? WAAAAH!!! crying mode here....

Anyhow, I'm back on the money saving bandwagon...I have to be. We'll never get out of this slump otherwise. I've spent three hours or more on my computer today looking for coupons, sales, samples, etc. Kids are incredibly bored because I'm not doing anything with them, and I have to get to the store soon to buy some dinner. Being broke bites!!! Hopefully I can get good at this money saving stuff and not have to worry about it too much. Just need a flippin financial miracle right now is all.

Insanity

I've been sooo busy lately I haven't had time to post anything. I was standing in my kitchen just now making dinner...specifically http://www.mostlyhomemademom.com/2012/02/slow-cooker-salsa-chicken.html...and thinking I needed to blog again (you know, since she blogged the recipe...). so here I am. Kids are out of school now so I should have more time to blog. That makes no sense, I know. But for me it means I'm not on any kind of schedule so I can sit down at the computer while kids are playing and make a nice little post more often than I have been. Get it now? :)

If you know me, you know I've progressively gotten bigger since high school, even more so after kids, and even more so after my father died last September. I've been trying to get in a few work out a week just to make myself feel better I guess, but it wasn't getting me anywhere. I never eat a ton of junk food but I never eat really well either so in March, after many tears, I told my husband "Well I guess I Have to do Insanity in order to lose any weight!" kind of joking because Insanity straight up scared the hell out of me!! But he said he'd do it if I did. The fact that he's never wanted to work out with me in the past gave me the kick in the ass to do it. So the week before Easter we started it up. And I tell ya, I hated it for like 2 weeks straight, I was soooo sore all the time. (before pics below...hubby is gonna shoot me for posting his)

                               


As you can see, I had a lot to change. Keep in mind I have had 4 kids so my belly is obviously not pretty lol.
We never did J's measurements, he didn't care to anyhow so whatever.
After one month, and many additional rest days (some out of just being too busy), we finally had a good flow going, not so sore anymore, and starting to see definite muscle definition through our arms and legs. My clothes fit better and I was down a pant size. The pics below are the first day of month 2 Insanity, J, being a guy, has more noticeable definition than me...wish girls didn't have to work so hard for good lookin bodies!!!

We Finally finished the program up at the end of May. It was probably the longest 2 months of my life!! seriously, I've never worked so hard ever...hell I never worked out other than doing some Zumba or pilates once in awhile, so this was a huge change. I also want to mention that we did not take any supplement, or drink Shakeology, etc. I'm sure if we did we'd notice a bigger change, but we did both change our eating habits quite drastically so that's helped. (side note, J  never tells me one short leg is riding up and the other isn't in pics...sigh)....here's the last day pics. I weight 194.6 when I started and only lost 2lbs. buuuut Muscle is more dense than fat so I'll take it even though I still would like to lose pounds too. Josh on the other hand lost like 4 or 5lbs. (waaah!!).  the only thing I vise ably see a difference in is my arms. Now if I take a pic on my iphone...for whatever reason you can see more definition in my body overall, but not my nice $500 Nikon..sigh. 

So now we're working on Insanity Asylum's Vol. 1, which is sooo much more fun. Can't wait to post results!! 

*side note, I recently started the 24 day challenge with advocare and have lost another 4lbs. I also started a running program last night which I hope helps progress my results a little faster.

side by side comparisons

blah, so much bra strap fat in the first one!!!

A&F says I'm fat

And I don't really care. This guy who looks like he was the creation of an elephant and pit bull really can't make me feel bad about myself and it's annoying how many people are effected by this. Here's the deal, work out,get fit, go wear his clothes if you want. It's not a surprise that they carry clothing meant for the perfect and the skinny so I don't see why his statement has anyone in an up roar.
I wear a Large shirt, I've even gone into the store because I had a gift certificate and bought a large jacket, that large was too small for my shoulders and I gave it to my more petite mom. I never went back assuming they cut their clothes differently. I didn't care for multiple reasons. One, they're priced outside my lower middle class income. Two, its not my style anyhow.

Abercrombie and Fitch is not the first company to refuse to sell bigger sizes, just the first to give such a blunt reason, however there's no hidden innuendo behind the other store's decisions in the matter. Heck Lane Bryant only carries plus sized clothes, can I cry now because I can't find a store that carries in-between fat and skinny clothes? And Victoria's Secret carries only women's underwear, why not men's too? Get over people. Go shop somewhere else, like you already do. The majority of the people complaining are over weight anyhow. As am I, but I work out 6 days a week to change that and I'm not sulking over a company's reason to not cater to my clothing size needs because they don't think I'd market their clothing well. To each his own. Hell even Mike Jefferies doesn't represent his own clothes well. Ugly people usually aren't popular either unless they have something other people want, like money....just sayin.