Being Blunt

I currently feel like I am drowning in a sea of things I need to get done. I feel under appreciated and taken for granted. I do not feel the love...

I will survive.

My Baby Is What!?

Happy

5th Birthday!

Cutie Patootie!

You made "4" look adorable.

You bring so many giggles to our family. You keep us entertained with your antics.

I can't believe you still put your "bappy" in your mouth.

I love how you add an "okay" with a southern drawl to the end of EVERY question.

I love how you say "awesome" when you think something is great.

I love how you talk about your "boyfriend" like you are a teenager.

I love your hugs.

Have a great year being "5."

On To The Next Phase

I can not get my computer to upload photos...argh. So here is a pictureless post. Sorry.

I finished the clothing phase of being a better housewife. I can't believe it is the 24th of January and I am still keeping my new year's resolution!

I am ironing on Thursday. My ironing board is put away at all other times. I am not stressing out cause I have to iron at night OR right before we leave to go somewhere on the weekend. Why didn't I do this years ago?!

I organized all the clothes in the closets and drawers. I am responsible for all of those except for Manga Dork's. She will be hanging and putting away all her clothes and I will keep her in check with routine inspections. All sloppy or misplaced items will be pulled out.

I will be doing 2 loads of laundry daily. One in the am...one in the pm. Everything must be hung or folded and put away right from the dryer.

I cleaned my laundry room that had become the unofficial "junk room." It is SO empty and FABULOUS! I figured out what supplies I used for "clothing" and made sure I had everything I need...all excess stuff was pitched.

I am changing sheets every Monday...which counts as my AM load that day.

I can already feel the difference just this one "phase" has made on my life. My change in attitude has helped too.

Now what to do next?!

Hello.

Hello.

Do I hear snoring?!

WAKE UP!

I am going to be needing some advice on "FOOD" cause that is what phase I am attacking next!

Do you do meal planning? Weekly? Monthly?

To Text Or Not To Text

Manga Dork is officially ungrounded. She has been gounded for about 5 weeks due to some very scary midterms.



I handed her back her cell phone, computer privileges, and ability to do things with her friends. It was such a nice break from these things {for me}.



Things can not go back to the way they were. Too much freedom = teenager not taking care of her responsibilities. I need to make new rules. I don't want to be uberstrict or too lenient. This is my first teenager...I need suggestions!



What rules do you have for your teen regarding cell phones/teting?

Computer privileges?

Time with friends?

Changing Sheets

How often do you change your sheets? Do you have a certain routine?

I "Bear"ly Kept It A Secret

Yesterday I took my 3 kiddos to meet up with my SIL, niece, and nephew. We didn't tell them what we were doing. My kids thought we were going grocery shopping.

When I pulled into the movie theatre parking lot I said, "We're going to see Yogi Bear!" They were all excited...even the teen.

It wasn't a great movie. I suggest waiting for the rental. But we did giggle.

They had a great day off school...and I got some pretty solid "mommy of the year points."

Did you do something special for your kiddos yesterday!?

I Challenge Y.O.U.

I am doing something today to SURPRISE my kiddos. Just something little...but I think being SURPRISED triples the FUN!

I challenge YOU to do something to SURPRISE your kids TODAY! Show you love them by planning something special...big or small or tiny...they will LOVE that you thought of them and made the effort JUST FOR THEM!

Come back here tomorrow and we will share our FUN experiences.

Happy Monday!

It Would Be Alot Easier If We Lived In A Nudist Colony

My back started feeling SO much better yesterday around noon. So I managed to get all my ironing for the next week done! Here's how I set it up...

I put all the shirts in the order that he would wear them {left to right}. I seperated them from his others with one of his magnetic bracelets his patient made for him. It must have worked cause he removed the right shirt this morning!

Then on the back of our bedroom door I put all his pants on a waterfall hanger. The top pair is the next one to be worn. Must have understood that concept too cause he got the right ones! It felt so good last night to just sit down and watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills without worrying about ironing. Next week is the season finale?! How am I going to live without my weekly does of Beverly Hills?!

The next thing I wanted to work on is organizing our hanging clothes in each closet. Ours was ok, the littles' was a mess, and Manga Dork's was so bad she just kept wearing the same things over and over...a little too lazy to figure out what else is in there.

Dr. Hubby's was easy. Of course the ironed shirts are now on the top to the right.

When you wear nothing but denim skirts and vneck tshirts it is REALLY easy to organize...lol. I really need a makeover.

Wild Child and Cutie wear the same size MOST of the year, and I keep their clothes to one side of the closet. But from January to shorts wearing weather they are in two different sizes...mostly because of pant length. This is Wild Child's side of the closet. We have {left to right} matched outfits, shirts only, jeans.

This is Cutie's side. We have {left to right} matched outfits, dresses, lifejackets, tutus. Her side looks a little fuller cause more of Wild Child's clothes were in the laundry due to going to school every day.

And this took F.O.R.E.V.E.R.! Manga Dork's closet {right to left} vests, tshirts, long sleeve button up shirts, sweaters...open the other side...

{right to left} sweatshirts, skirts, dresses, jeans, shorts and capris. She was SO excited to have everything matched and ready to be worn. Her useable wardrobe has at the very least TRIPLED! I am so glad not to be seeing her wear the same 3 sweatshirts and a couple tshirts OVER AND OVER.

Continueing with the "Clothing" theme I am going to tackle my laundry room next. I can't wait to get it set up to make laundry time easier...

Do you have a laundry room?

Where is it in your home?

Does it ever end up being the place where you stash junk you don't know where to put?

Not that I would do anything like that....just askin. ;)

Ironing Out The Kinks

For the last few days this is where my butt has been. For some reason my lower back muscles have decided to go on strike. I am tired of sitting around surrounded by too much stuff to do. I am going to attempt to do my ironing. I have a feeling my butt will end up right back in that massaging recliner though!

Here's what I came up with to make ironing a little more tolerable...

I chose Thursdays for my ironing day. Why Thursday? Because it is already the day I do not make any appts. or plans for during the day. I have TOPS at 6 pm. Cutie does not have preschool. It is my favorite tv night {Vampire Diaries & Beverly Hills Housewives}. I did not want to choose Monday for several reasons, but especially because Monday is usually a dreaded day already!

I gathered up my supplies. I purchased extra shirt hangers, a hanger that will hold 6 items, a new ironing board cover, and ironing spray. I already had my iron and Twilight cup for adding more water.

I have had this cover for 5 years. That is not dirt. It is dark lint stuck in layers and layers of dried ironing spray starch. The water swirly stains are from me knocking the iron over when it is not on and water leaking out of it. Because I leave the ironing board out all the time, it becomes a "catch-all" for things that need to be put away. I plan to only bring it out for ironing day once a week.

I removed the old cover and now it is fresh and clean and bright. There isn't much creative design in the ironing board cover options. I found a few pretty ones on etsy.com, but I wasn't willing to throw away $45.

It even has a little pocket on one side. I got tickled at the warning not to put your iron in there. I am sure that is for the blond housewives who think it is a great place for their hot iron while hanging up each piece. lol

So why not dry cleaning? We live in the COUNTRY country. The little town with Dr. Hubby's office doesn't even have a dry cleaner. I was so jealous to read about Chanda's cheap prison-ran dry cleaners. What a great idea!

I am sure I will never LOVE ironing, but I think this plans makes it a little more manageable.

Time to tackle another housewife chore...

Taking A Snow Day

How cute is that furry little face?! Toby always looks like he was hit in the face with a snowball when he comes in from taking a pee-pee.

I am still not 100% and can't sit for very long.

They messed up on the bumper of my car so it will be another week before it comes home!

We have 4 maybe 5 inches of snow! No school!