A Productive Morning

This morning has been going pretty darn well so far! Audrey woke up earlier than I wanted her too. At about 7:30am I finally went in to get her out of bed. In actuality it worked out well because I need to start getting up earlier. I find that I'm much more productive in the morning than I am later in the day and into the evening. So this morning I've had computer time; gotten Audrey and myself breakfast; unloaded the dishwasher (I put my handwashed dishes in there to dry); washed the breakfast dishes; made the bed; washed, dried and put away a load of laundry; done my swish & swipe in the bathroom; organized three cabinets in the kitchen; cleaned up Audrey's room (although it's probably a wreck again); wiped down the counter in the kitchen (along with a handful of other things and not in any particular order). So far, I'm feeling VERY good today! Later on I have to go donate plasma, but besides that I plan to be at home utilizing my time here, that way, later in the day, I can spend my time relaxing with my family!!

Things I Love Thursdays...

A tall glass of sweet iced tea! Aaahhh! I can taste it now. I grew up in a family of of iced tea drinkers, although most of them favor the unsweetened version (blech!), so I don't know why I'm so obsessed with sweet tea. I actually don't drink it all that often because of the calories. Right now, being on the not so lovely diet, I'm restricting myself to drinks with no calories, so I've been substituting the sugar with sweetener, which tastes okay, but it is definitely NOT the same. Also, I'm not too into flavored teas. I like Snapple's Peach Tea and Sweet Leaf's Rasberry Tea, but that's about it. And I do not put lemon in my tea, I just have it in the picture because it makes the glass prettier!!

The Natural Cleaning Switchover

Yesterday I took my first step in switching over my cleaning supplies to natural products. Clorox has a new line of natural cleaners called 'Green Works', so I bought the all purpose cleaner. I used it for this first time this morning in my daily bathroom cleaning and the first thing I noticed is the lack of fumes. It has a very light lemony scent to it, nothing harsh at all, which I'm already loving. Now I can clean my bathroom without feeling like I'm filling my lungs up with toxic fumes!! YAY!

As I said in my previous post on this matter, I'm planning on slowly phasing out all of my "normal" toxic cleaners in favor of more environmental and people friendly ones. This is not something I plan to do over night as I still have some pretty full bottles of cleaners in my cabinet, but I hope that within the next several months I will not have those yucky things around anymore!!

I LOVE Anthropologie!!! - Part Deaux

This post has a few of the kids items that I think are adorable!

Like this oh-so-cute dollhouse! I don't know what it looks like opened up, but I bet it's uber cute!


This little strawberry hat would be adorable on any baby girl.

And what about this darling dress?! Don't you think Audrey would be cute as a bug in it?!

I LOVE Anthropologie!!! - Part Uno

This is my absolute FAVORITE store EVER!! Come to think of it, I've never actually set foot into the store, so I guess it's my favorite catalog/website! They have it all: clothing, accessories, dishes, furniture, bedding, etc. It all seems very vintage and kitschy inspired, which is right down my alley. I was just browsing the website and I kept finding myself saying, "I would love to have that!", over and over again. So, why not do a series of posts on some of my favorite things?! Sounds like a blast to me!!

I guess I'll start in the kitchen, as that's the first section I go to on the website, each and every time!


I love anything that is a butter yellow color. It's honestly just a very milky and delicious color to me. Could I interest you in a glass of freshly squeezed o.j. served out of this pitcher? With pulp, of course.


And if you're going to serve fresh squeezed juices, you definitely need this icy blue juicer, right?!


Here's another gorgeous butter yellow piece. A colander. If I was draining pasta in this baby, I would be smiling!!

And how great are these glasses?! Fun and educational at the same time!! ;D

And how about this oh-so-cute sugar bowl? A little bird perched atop a grapefruit, in my opinion it's very tweet!! *Did you get my little play on words there?! It's a bird, so it's tweet, and since it's a sugar bowl, it's sweet! Sorry it's late and I'm tired, so the cheese factor is very high right now. I can't be responsible for the words that I type.*

Oh, how I would love a cold glass of iced tea served in this goblet on a hot, Texas day!!


And everyone should have some well placed honey bears in there kitchen, so why not have these salt & pepper cuties?! Fun for the whole family!

Okay, so I have other pictures that I wanted to show you in the "kitchen" category, but if I put them ALL up, you'd be here for quite awhile. So, just go now and check out the Anthropologie site for yourself and if you see something that I might like (which is practically anything) don't feel guilty about buying a little something for me!!

Oh yes, and I have to give kudos where kudos are deserved, thank you to my WONDERFUL sister in law, D, for turning me on to the magic that is Anthropologie!!

A New Goal...

After hearing a lot about the topic and reading articles about the topic, such as this one. I'm really serious about phasing out my normal household cleaners in favor of the natural stuff. Really, there is no reason to not be able to make this transition. There are SO many all natural products on the market now and they really aren't much (if at all) more expensive than the "normal" products. Maybe it's because I have a toddler and we are planning on expanding our family in the not to distant future, but the effects that these harmful cleaners (now there's any oxymoron) can have on babies, toddlers and unborn children is not worth the couple of dollars that I might save. So, over the next couple of months I'm planning on completely phasing out the harmful stuff in favor of having the natural stuff around. Now does anyone have any good, natural cleaners that they love to use?

'Friends' Clip Friday

Things I Love Thursdays...

These new Nabisco 100 Calorie Oreo Candy Bites are awesome!!!
They taste just like the real thing (actually I think they're better), and it's just 100 calories per pack. And you get a nice handful in each pack. Perfect for those sweet cravings, yet completely figure friendly. They have been tested in my house by myself, my daughter and my husband. Everyone loves them (hubby says they're better than regular Oreos too)!
I can't wait to try the 'Chips Ahoy' ones next week.

Pink Cupcakes

How cute are these? I'm thinking of making them for Audrey's birthday party in April. So girly!!!

Works For Me Wednesday

This is actually my first Works For Me Wednesday post. Hopefully it's decent!!

What works for me is using empty wipee boxes as storage boxes. Having a 21 month old we go through LOTS of wipees and I haven't been one of those economic people who just buy the refills. I actually buy the tubs of wipes. I started saving them, being the packrat that I am, knowing that I would eventually have a use for them. And then it struck me as I was weeding through my two "craft" drawers. I could use these boxes to organize all of my craft stuff. They work great! I now have an armoire half full of wipe boxes. And they have moved over to cabinet storage for pens, markers, chargers, coupons, etc. and now even to storing some of my daughter's smaller toys.

I use the Huggies brand of wipes for two reasons.
1. I like the actual wipe the best. They are thicker than other brands.
2. The boxes come in many pretty colors and the sticker on the front of the box is actually stuck on the plastic wrapping around the box. So when I take off the plastic to open the box there are no stickers to peel off, perfect for writing the contents of the box on the front with permanent marker.

Organization 101 - 10 Easy Ways To Get Organized

1. Hang up your keys. (Preferably by the door.)
   
   
2. Find a place for your purse, coat, gloves and other frequently used items and always keep them there.
   
   
3. Make your bed each day as soon as you crawl out of it.
   
   
4. Get dressed. Even if you are a stay at home mom or a mom who works from home, get dressed. Clothes really do make the man or woman. You'll be just as productive as you are dressed which means if you are dressed for sleep (pajamas, sweats or a robe) then you will get about as much work done as you would when you are sleeping. That may be stretching it, but you get my point.
   
   
5. Wash the dishes and wipe the counters after each meal. No matter how large or small the meal or how tired and in a hurry you are, do the dishes. Even if you are hurried or late in the morning you wouldn't dream of leaving the house half dressed. Make leaving your kitchen clean as important a priority as getting dressed for work. This may seem impossible at first but once you are on top of things it should only take five or ten minutes to clean your kitchen.
   
   
6. Get rid of trash. About 50% of what unorganized people have in their homes is trash or stuff they will never use again. Stop wasting time taking care of it, moving it or stepping over it. As you walk through the house, pick up garbage and toss it.
   
   
7. Control your laundry. Don't let it control you. Follow these simple steps to help keep your laundry from taking over your home and you.
   
   
1. Place a hamper or basket for dirty clothes in each bedroom and/or bath. Make sure that everyone's dirty clothes are put in the hamper before bed and in the morning.
   
   
2. The laundry isn't done until it is put away. Get out of the mind set that if it is washed and dried it is done. Folding and putting it away is equally as important.
   
   Some of us think that if we get the laundry washed and dried that's all we need to do and it's okay for the family to just pull stuff out of a pile. That makes as much sense as cooking a meal and expecting everyone to stand at the stove and take turns scooping the food out of the pan and eating it one spoonful at a time. You wouldn't dream of doing that. Yes the food is cooked, but the meal is not complete until the table is set and the food is put on plates. Do the same for your laundry. Put it away.
3. 
   
8. Pick up continually. This may seem like a pain to do at first but if you stick with it, it will become a habit. I didn't realize how much of a habit it had become for me until I was visiting my daughter's the other day (Hey! That's me! ;-) -Tawra). As I was walking into the kitchen, I picked up empty glasses and odds and ends on my way. Then when I walked from the kitchen to the bedroom I picked up toys as I went in there. It wasn't even my house but I had seen something out of place and out of habit picked it up.
   
   Every sock or glass that you walk past is a spore waiting to flourish into a vortex of debris. Catch it while it is small!
   
   
9. Read and dispose of newspapers and magazines. There are usually two reasons people have stacks of newspapers and magazines piled around:
   
   
   1. They want to save an article in it. If that is the case then cut the article out as you are reading the magazine and file it. Trust me, you not only won't cut that article out at a later time, but you probably won't remember what or where it is.
      
      
   2. They don't have time to read them. If you aren't going to read them the why are you subscribing to them? Stop your subscriptions. This doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. If you can't keep up with the daily newspaper then just get the Sunday paper. Most people usually have more leisure time Sunday to read it. Pick out one or two of your favorite magazines and stop subscribing to the rest.
   
   
   
10. With any item, if it is broken or you don't use it anymore get rid of it. That includes clothes, toys, furniture, decorations, dishes and exercise equipment ;-). If it's not important enough to fix right now, you don't need it!

Article from : Living On A Dime

Organization 101

I've been thinking about the whole organizational topic for awhile now. I am definitely NO WHERE NEAR as organized as I'd like to be. Or for that matter, need to be. I often find myself getting overwhelmed when I start to think about routines, schedules, weeding through junk, cleaning, etc. Not necessarily because I can't do these things, I know that I can (and I can be pretty darn good at it, if I may say so), but the overwhelming feeling comes from not knowing where to start. Or from seeing a starting point, but also seeing the mountain that needs to be climbed after that initial starting point.

I know that I need to do something about becoming more organized in my life. When I do follow some sort of routine, or when my house is cleaner I just feel better. Both about myself (that I'm actually doing it) and I feel less stressed. Now I know that some people might read this and say, why on earth would a homemaker get stressed? Don't you stay home all day, everyday? And to you I would say that trying to keep a household running in tip top shape can be stressful at times. And add to that the fact that I do have a part-time job, plus we are down to one vehicle at the moment. Anyways, enough with that rabbit trail. Another thought that kind of freaks me out, is that now that Audrey is approaching 2 years old we're talking more and more about starting to expand our family, and the thought of having to do all that I do (without the organization) while having a toddler and an infant scares the living daylights out of me!!

I didn't want to do this as a "New Year's Resolution", because I feel like that would be setting myself up for a quick failure. I never seem to thrive when it comes to making resolutions at the beginning of a year. Also, I know that one of my other problems is my 'all or nothing' mentality(I suffer from this in several areas of my life). I think a lot about what the end product should be and I try to do that from day one, thus setting myself up to completely burn out and get totally unmotivated for awhile until the memory of my failure has been erased from my brain.

So, I'm going to come up with a plan to slowly, but surely get myself organized. I figure since I'm on a roll with my whole new eating plan, I might as well put some of that determination into another area of my life. One of the first ways that I am going to do this is by following Crystal from Biblical Womanhood's lead. In December she did a series for a couple of weeks called Making Your Home a Haven. Now she is keeping up with this by doing a Making Your Home a Haven post every Monday. So starting next Monday I'm going to join in on the fun!!

I'm also going to sit down (tonight or tomorrow) and think long and hard about what I would like to accomplish in this arena. And then actually plan out the steps that I need to take to fulfill this desire. Wish me luck and look for more posts on this topic coming soon.

No Soda - An Update

So, I'd thought I'd give an update on my "no soda drinking" excursion to my faithful readers (Bryan, D and Mom, that's you!).
Since December 20th the only regular soda that I've had was one small glass of Sprite at a friend's graduation party a few weekends back. Besides that it's been tea sweetened with artificial sweetener, diet coke (and only a few of these) and water.
I'm very happy that I've actually started to nip this habit in the bud. It's something that I've really struggled with since my early teen years. I'm a soda-holic!!
I've definitely noticed a major difference in my stomach size since I quit drinking regular sodas and limited consumption of diet sodas. All the carbonation was making me, well, bloated. And that is just no fun!

I'll update again, probably next month, and let you know how the trek is going.
Peace!

Long List of To-Do's....

Today is going to be a LONG of cleaning for me. This week was my first back to work since the holiday break, so Audrey and I have been thrown off kilter. Yesterday Audrey was SO fussy and wouldn't nap, and then she was fussy again last night. She also had a small bout of throw up. So, needless to say mommy has been off with keeping up with the house. So, since we're home all day today (and since I have a BUSY weekend ahead of me), today I'm playing catch up. Audrey actually hasn't even been out of bed today. She was awake playing in her crib for awhile this morning, but then she fell back asleep and is still asleep at 11:14am!! Poor baby, this is SO not like her, so I know she's in need of the extra rest.

What I've Done:
1. Laundry-
~I've completed several loads, now I have one load to fold, one load in the dryer and one load in the washer.
2. Unloaded dishwasher, reloaded and turned on.
3. Rinsed the left over dishes (to be loaded after current load is done).
4. Cleaned Audrey's highchair & tray.
5. Cleaned up main bathroom-
~picked up dirty clothes
~put toiletries back in proper spots
~toilet
~mirror
~sink and counter top
~emptied trash
6. Master bedroom-
~made bed
~emptied trashcan
~put dirty clothes in hamper
~put things back in proper spots
7. Audrey's room-
~changed sheet on changing pad
~changed sheet in crib
~put bedding into wash
~picked up toys and clothes
~emptied trash
8.Swept house.
9.Took out some trash.
10. Cleaned the kitchen counters.
11. Picked up miscellaneous stuff in the living room, dining room and kitchen.
And other little things here and there...

'Friends' Clip Friday

Things I Love Thursdays...

Okay, so I'm going to go back and forth between "Thankful Thursdays" and "Things I Love Thursdays".

I love catalogs! And it is really hard for me to get rid of them once they are in my possession. I could look through the same catalog 50 different times. I honestly think that Bryan thinks I'm crazy when I sit down on the couch to look through the latest 'Oriental Trading Co.' catalog. But what else can I say besides, I LOVE CATALOGS!!! Maybe I'm living vicariously through the catalogs. The other day I got a Pottery Barn Kids catalog in the mail and I was having such a blast looking through it, of course wanting to buy so much of it for Audrey. But I know that I can't afford PBK, so why do I do it to myself? Well, one can dream, right?! Here are some of the catalogs that I receive normally:
~Pottery Barn
~Pottery Barn Kids
~Crate and Barrel
~Ikea
~Anthropologie
~Room and Board
~Oriental Trading Co.

The Story of Stuff...

Check out this video. It's about 20 minutes long, but well worth watching.

'Friends' Clip Friday

Thankful Thursdays

I'm going to start (and hopefully keep up with) a new weekly post. I think we all need to take time a remember how much we have and how great life is!! So often I find myself griping about things or making it seem like life is so bad, but it isn't!! Life is wonderful!! Sure I've had my fair share of downers, but I have also been so, extremely blessed!! So here we go...



I thank God SOOOOO much for my wonderful husband and my beautiful daughter. These two make life worth living!! No one else in this world brings me as much joy as Bryan and Audrey. I love them more than life itself!!

So I'm Finally Doing It!!

I'm actually breaking my soda addiction. Tomorrow marks two weeks with NO sodas!! Well, except for one sip I took of Bryan's when I was choking. I have struggled with this "addiction" for a VERY long time now. And when I drink any sort of beverage I don't sip, I gulp. I'm a VERY thirsty person!! So I always order large drinks if they're available. And I could easily go through 2-3 cans/glasses of soda during a meal. VERY bad, I know. But I decided to kick this nasty habit! I don't want to be ensnared by it for the rest of my life. And I don't want Audrey to pick this up from me as she gets older either. One of my focuses this year (not resolution!) is to make small changes in my eating habits. I don't want to get into the habit of denying myself of having certain foods or drinks (Lord knows, if I deny myself I ended up giving in later with a vengeance), but I want to be healthier. For myself and my family. I know that one of the MAJOR side effects of changing my eating habits is weight loss (YAY!) which is good for me and my husband and even my daughter (in certain ways), but I want to be able to encourage my daughter (and any future children) to have a healthy lifestyle as they get older. I don't want them to have the same "issues" with food that I have. I want them to love food and enjoy it, but not obsess about it. I don't want them to have to struggle with their weight for years on end like I have. I want to instill in my daughter a healthy self esteem and I think, no, I KNOW, that starts with mommy having one. The old "Practice What You Preach" thing. I know that my insecurities are going to eventually rub off on her and I don't want that to happen.
So here's to healthier living in 2008!!!

Kinda Puts Things In Perspective....

Look at this article about weekly food expenditures in families around the world.

What category would you fall into???