I Dream of Spring….cleaning? March 16, 2012

Spring is just around the corner here in Ohio! This past week it has been in the 70′s. My windows have been open, the breeze is blowing and I love hearing the birds chirp throughout the day.
That being said, the last few days I have had the urge to clean. With it being so sunny the past few days, I see the fingerprints on the windows, dirt marks on the walls, dust a few inches thick on all the furniture, and clutter all through the house that desperately needs to be put away.

Yesterday I came across a fabulous spring cleaning challenge over at I dream of clean. Perfect, I am so participating and the prizes are pretty awesome! It’s a two week challenge that starts on March 20th and everyday there will guest bloggers posting on a variety of cleaning tips and tricks! To help you out even more there is a free printable spring cleaning checklist , which will help you keep track of everything you want to clean/organize in your home.

So who’s with me? I am so looking forward to getting my house nice and clean and organized. This will also help me get ready for the big moving garage sale I will be having in May, more on that to come.

Let me know if you plan on participating and if you have a blog and would want to share you stories, pictures and tips then I can link up your blog here!
Good luck and happy spring cleaning!

Easy summer marinade June 8, 2011

Do you grill a lot in the summer time? I know we do in our house! Not only does it save me from firing up the stove but I love the way grilled food tastes. It’s even better when you have a husband who is the master of the grill. Jason has gotten really good at grilling, knowing how to cook different meats, when to turn things etc…
I came up with the marinade and it is delicious! So here you go and enjoy!
This is an estimate measurement, cuz I never measure anything and it is good for about four chicken breasts.
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup grape seed oil (can substitue olive oil, but grape seed oil is better)
4 cloves of fresh minced garlic
1-2 tsp. Southwest seasoning
1-2 tsp lemon juice
And if you want to spice it up 1/2 of one finely chopped
jalapeño!

This marinade is great for chicken, pork and shrimp! If you scale it down you could also use it for veggies! Yum!
Let me know what you make and how you like it!!!

June break May 27, 2011

I am so excited! As many of you know my hubby is in school with the air force and his quarter is coming to an end. Which means we have three weeks of break coming up! But first we have to make it through the dreaded finals week.
During the June break we will be traveling home to Minnesota to visit family. Jason is also running the grammas marathon in Duluth with a bunch of friends. Then this same group of friends are going on a canoe trip in the boundary waters. The kids and I are going to be hanging out in the cities! My father in law is retiring from his current job and I am helping plan his party! Should be a lot of fun!
I can’t wait to see all our family and friends. We have a good group of friends who love to play games and I can’t wait! I thought I would share some of the games that we like to play. These are also my top five favorite games right now! I realize that by revealing some of these game it might classify me as a dork but I am prepared to handle it, cuz the games are just to much fun!

1) Dominion- this is an interactive card game where you are trying to build your own deck of cards that helps you earn the most points possible. Each of the action cards give you different abilities. Their are attack and defensive cards as well. The object is to earn as many point cards as possible!

2) Forbidden Island- don’t worry it’s nothing dirty….lol this is a game where everyone works together to gather treasure pieces before the island “sinks” you are given a character card that has a “special” ability to help you or the other team members in achieving that goal!

3) Settlers of Catan- an interactive, resource based game. The goal is to get to ten points and you do that by “settling” the land, trading resources with other players and by buying development cards.

4) Ticket to Ride- the goal of this game is earn the most points by build train routes all over the country. The shorter routes are easier to complete but are also small point value and the longer cross country routes are a little harder to complete but are worth a lot more! A fun and easy game to learn!

5) Modern Art- this is an auction style game, don’t worry you don’t need to know anything about art! You buy, sell and trade painting based upon market value, all while trying to earn the most money. Person with the most money at the end of the game wins!

A new one we just bought and have not has a chance to play is Power Grid. We have heard a lot of great things about this game and we will be learning it over break!

Anyways, I hope you take a look and maybe try one or all of these games. They are great quality games that are a lot of fun! Let me know if you try them and what you think!

Blah May 4, 2011

So lately I have not been blogging, not because I don’t want to, I have just been in a funk. I partly blame it on not having a full-size keyboard for my iPad. It takes me longer to type only using my thumbs. I am also blaming it on this crappy weather. It has seriously been raining non stop for the past month if not longer. Ugh… I really just don’t want to do anything. I mean, I do things, obviously I have a house to keep up and children to take care of. When it’s raining day after day I really just want to sleep or watch tv. I am always tired and I honestly think it’s because of the weather and what do ya know, it’s supposed to rain all week, again. Now, I am very thankful that we have been blessed with rain, but I wish we had a couple of days to dry out and let the kids play outside. I know my kids get cabin fever and when then happens, it seems like everyone gets irritable.

Maybe this means I need to get creative and think of some things that we can do indoors and yet keeps the kids entertained, that’s not watching tv or playing in their toy room. Hmmm….do you guys have any cool ideas?

And hopefully in the next week or two I will get a full size keyboard and that will help with the posting. So hang in there with me!!!

New favorite healthy meal April 19, 2011

I know it has been awhile since I posted. I have nothing to blame it on other than pure laziness. How sad is that. Anyways, I am here now and hopefully I will be better about posting every week.

Well I wanted to share a fabulous new recipe with you. I found it on eatathomecooks Which happens to be one of my favorite blogs. The recipe is Mexican veggies and cornbread. Now I am by no means a vegetarian but man this was so yummy. My kids even liked it, but my kids are among the weird kids that actually like veggies.

Well here is the recipe I modified it only a little, so be sure to check out the original recipe:

2 zucchini

2 medium to large carrots

1 red pepper

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 cups of frozen corn

2 cans diced tomatoes with juice

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

Sea salt to taste

1tbsp olive oil

Cornbread

Bake your cornbread according to package directions. I made mine into muffins cuz it was easier. Chop all the vegetables. Sauté onion and garlic. Add the carrots and let cook for a few minutes. Add the remaining veggies and seasonings and cook till they are tender. Serve over warm cornbread and top with light sour cream and shredded cheese!

The mixtures of cornbread and the veggies is wonderful, you get a little sweetness due to the cornbread! Plus talk about low fat and low calorie. For the veggies cooked as described above it is 139 calories. Then you will have to add the cornbread. Depending on which type of cornbread you use the calories will vary. The ones I used were 170 per muffin and I had two.

Anyways give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!

Ps. I am having problems linking up to my blog so once it is fixed I will link to eatathomecooks.com

My living room makeover March 20, 2011

As I mentioned in my last post, I was giving my living room a facelift! So here are some photos to show you what I have done. I till have a couple of thing left to do, like replace the curtains, but those will have to wait till next week.

This is my entertainment stand. It used to be dark and dingy and the cupboards on the from where the curtains are kept falling off. So my friend Sarah helped me sand this down and paint it cashmere white. I made the curtains out of some soft canvas fabric I got on clearance at JoAnns. I then bought some shimmery blue spray paint and refinished the old hardware. They match the curtains perfectly!

The newly spray painted hardware!

This is a matching much smaller stand that we use for all our board games! It was also very dark and dingy. I think the white totally brightens up the room. I bought the blue candle at target for $6 and the white ones at Tj Maxx! I also put new hardware on is cabinet.

I found these knobs at Hobby Lobby! I love that place!

This is my new ladder book shelf! I love it!!! I got a great deal on it as well. I found it on amazon for $40 with $30 shipping. I did a lot of research and most of these type of shelves start at $80 and up as high as $200 not including shipping. So I am very happy with my find. The bottom shelf is Jasons, he has a bin for all his text books and binders for classes. On the next shelf I found that fabulous blue bin at Tj Maxx for $10 and it is the new home for preschool workbooks, crayons, notebooks etc…I also store some of my cookbooks there for easy access. Then on the third shelf have my basket where I keep bills that need to be paid, checks that need to be cashed, the checkbook, address book etc… I love that everything has a spot!

I need to do something with one or both of these vases…any suggestions?

This is the start of my picture collage…(spelling?) I still need to find a few more frames to to give it more of a complete look, so I am keeping my open for some fun and unique frames to bring more color to that wall…blue and green!

These are the throw pillow case cover that I made. I really liked the way they turned out. I need to go get to big white button to use on the flap of the two toned pillow, in think it will give that extra something.

I also need to find some fun flowers to put in the hanging tin, but I love my bird hooks! I love the vintage looking birds! Oh and that black shelf underneath our wedding photos is going to eventually be replaced with a white or brown shelf of some sort. I am still looking for exactly what i want.

Finally we moved this little love seat from the kids’ play room out to the living room. We had a chair that was falling apart, so instead of buying another chair we just repurposed this and it works great! Maybe in the fall I would like to replace our end tables. They are very old and scratched up….hmmm maybe in can paint them? Lol but I would really like something that is not as heavy.

Well that about does it for now. I will take pictures when I get the new curtains and when I get some of this other stuff replaced. Over all I really like the changes and my living room is so much brighter!

So here is a break down of what it cost me so far:

Paint and supplies $13
Fabric for curtains and pillows $12
5 candles $22
2 vases $8
3 candle holders $6
Storage bin $10
5 picture frames $22
Ladder shelf $71
Bird hooks $5
Grand total: $169

I still need to get curtains and that is going to cost me another $40 and maybe another $10-$20 for fun picture frames. I am very happy that I am able to totally give my living room a new look for around $220!!! Talk about design on a dime…

Life update March 18, 2011

Okay, so as always life has been busy the last couple weeks. However rest and relaxation are coming. Jason finally finished this crazy hectic busy school quarter. For the past three weeks I haven’t hardly seen him at all. He is now on break and has been a huge help in getting some of the things crossed of his “honey do list”, like take down the Christmas lights, yes it has been that crazy around here.
Since my decision to downsize and simplify, I have taken on my craft closet and got that organized and got rid of a ton of stuff. I have also given my boys their own rooms, Jason and I were sick and tired of fighting nap times and bed times because they would get up and play. It has been a great decision and our evenings have been less stressful!
I also decided that my living room needed a makeover. Not only did I simplify it and got rid of a ton of stuff but I also did a lot of DIY projects and gave some old furniture a facelift. But I have a whole. Log post coming that will be dedicated to all the fun projects that I have done in my living room!

So anyways, I am currently planning a monster truck birthday party for my handsome now four year old, Bo, on Saturday! Tomorrow I will be making a cake and cupcakes, cleaning, getting food ready for Saturday, and finishing up a few things in my living room so I can take pictures and share them with you!

Simplifying February 27, 2011

So much for posting every day in February huh. Between everyone in our house being sick, traveling to New York and trying to get my life back into a schedule, things have been a little crazy. Over the past two weeks we have been going 100 miles an hour and it was stressing me out. I don’t know why but in the last week it finally dawned on me that I do to much. Me do to much? Haha. I have way to many hobbies and I commit to do way to many things. So as hard as it is for me to do this, I will be letting some of my hobbies go, maybe not for forever but definetly till some or all of the kids are in school.
So you may be wondering what hobbies I have well let’s see, there is
Scrap booking, card making, sewing, baking, cooking, party planning, Pampered Chef, the occasional jewelry making all while trying to run a household, teach my 3 year old preschool, manage 3 kids under the age of 4, going to the gym, heading up the spouses bunco night and being a wife. I think I did so much because I like the idea of staying busy and being super mom. But I realized that I can do all those things without over committing and being so stressed out about how I am going to finish everything and then feeling like a failure because I didn’t get everything done.
I have also come to realize that some of my hobbies I am really passionate about like cooking and party planning. I want to focus on one or two of my hobbies and do them well and enjoy my time doing them.
So all this to say that I will be downsizing my craft closet. I am actually a little excited to simplify things a little, to have more time to just enjoy the small things!

Homemade Sugar Srub February 11, 2011

I Love sugar scrubs! It leaves my skin so soft and very moisturized. My only complaint is that sugar scrubs can get expensive.  Then I started thinking that they can’t be hard to make and probably a lot cheaper. I did some research and there are only a few ingredients. So I made my own! Here is the recipe if you would like to try it!

This recipe will make 4 Jars

3 cups white sugar ($2.19 5lb bag, 50cents for this recipe)

1 1/2 cups Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil ($3.99)

1 Tbsp Vitamin E oil (found in the vitamin aisle) ($6/bottle but $1 for the recipe)

Fragrance ($2.79 at Michaels found in the candle/soap making aisle I used half the bottle) I used Eucalyptus Mint

4 Jars I used one size smaller than these ($1 each)

 

Combine the oils and sugar and mix well.  Add Fragrance and mix well.  Put as much or as little fragrance as you want.  I used about half the bottle. Easy Peasy!

You can always adjust the recipe to have more sugar or more oils etc…Experiment!

Total cost: $10.89 making them Aprx $2.70 each. SCORE!!!

Now go enjoy a long soak in a hot tub!

To clean or not to clean February 8, 2011

Many of you know that I am always looking for new and improved ways to maintain a cleaning schedule, to be more organized and to be more productive.  I have tried numerous things to help me and almost all of them have failed.  I have these expectations of what I “should” be doing and then I get overwhelmed with the thought of everything that I have to do to meet those expectations.  That then puts me in a funk that is hard to get out of.  I develop an attitude of “I can’t do it all” or “It won’t be perfect, so why bother” or “The damage is already done and I don’t know how to fix it”.  Recently, and I have to keep telling my self this, I realized that 1) I have set my expectations to high to be like Martha Stewart and 2) I really can’t do it all.  I have to set a realistic schedule, one that works for my family. I always end up comparing myself and what I do to that of what my friends and family do. The reality is whatever they are doing works for their family but it may not work for mine. Anyways, I came across this fabulous blog the other day and I really like what she had to say. The post is titled “Are you a Messy Perfectionist“. Yes, Yes I am. I Know how to do things and yes I like to do them right. Read her post, it really is fantastic.

Along with that post she did a series of posts to help you figure out how to create and maintain a calendar and cleaning schedule for your home! I also really enjoyed this series.  I felt it was very practical and very doable.  As I was reading I didn’t feel overwhelmed or that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.  There are three easy steps

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

I am going to dedicate a whole month to this type of schedule to see how it works!  I have a good feeling about this system, because the systems is designed to work for you not the other way around!

So what are somethings you do to stay organized. Do you have a cleaning schedule? How do you stay on top of the clutter?