This morning I woke up full of energy, in a great mood and ready to take on the world! Well, once I’ve had a cup of coffee or two!

Here’s what we’ve got going on:

Today I’m writing over at Must Love God today

I’m sharing my experience with Couch to 5 K running experience last week.

I’m busy preparing to re-launch Pleased To Geek You

Yes, yes, yes, Pleased to Geek You is coming back very soon!  I’m working on collecting great post ideas, products to review and planning a great Re-Launch Bash with lots of goodies for YOU!! Hop over to Pleased to Geek You and sign up so you won’t miss a single post!

This week I hope to tackle our taxes so we can plan our summer vacation

We’re planning our vacation with my in-laws and we’re really looking forward to a nice break from the normal busy schedule. A nice beach vacation sure sounds great right now! How nice our vacation is this year, depends mostly on how well taxes go.  Say a prayer for us, ok?

I’m hoping to declutter our house like a mad woman over the next few weeks

More and more I’m realizing that the chores in the house are not causing me all the stress – it’s all the STUFF in our house!  It’s  absolutelyincredible the amount of clutter that our house has accumulated since we’ve moved into this house!  I’ve done Simple Mom’s Spring cleaning in the past and LOVED it.  This year I might just have to join in Project: Simplify 2012 to help me get the clutter out!

Spring is coming (Did winter ever show up?? ) My tulips are coming up already!!

We’re already planning our garden for this year. We’re hoping to add 3 more square foot beds year plus we will be adding more chickens to our clan. Kevin’s working on a new moveable chicken coop. Something like this:

image credit: UrbanChickens.org

So there’s my  Monday morning ramble. What’s on your mind this week?

Yesterday I bought two cupcakes

I walked out to my car

In the parking lot

and ate both

by myself

alone.

Of this, I am not proud.

Yesterday morning I went to a fun Valentines day party at a friends house.  There we were, a group of friends catching up, chatting, and having a great time. Inside all I wanted to do was cry… so I did.   Right there in front of everyone.

Stress can fill you up and overflow when you’re not expecting it.

For me it was a feeling of being out-of-the-loop. Like I haven’t made time for my friends and therefore I don’t even know what’s going on in their lives.  I adore my friends.  I want to be there for them, a support.  I want to be a dependable friend again.

What used to be a peaceful stay-at-home mommy gig is a thing of the past.  I’m busy and I’m not doing a very good job of setting boundaries or making time for the social life that I once had.  My business is doing great. I adore my clients – they are not the problem.  My workload isn’t even the problem.  I’m able to meet my deadlines, I love the work I do, and from what I hear I’m doing a pretty darn good job - I just haven’t found balance.  I need to set up work hours, days off, etc.  I need to limit my social media time – I pop in and out all day, with no purpose, just “because”.  I need to stop the distractions and stay focused.  The cursor on my Mac occasionally has a mind of it’s own and clicks open Hootsuite at random times of the day.  It’s habitual.  It’s unnecessary.  It’s eating up my time.

So there’s a look into my life right now.  A real honest look.  I need to find a balance, create boundaries and learn how to deal with my stress better.  Cupcakes aren’t cutting it.

I’d love to hear how you handle stress.  What do you do?  I know what I SHOULD do. There’s this great book, filled with verses that encourage, convict, and direct but sometimes it’s not my first pick.  I’m not looking for the spiritual answers here. I just want to know that  I’m not alone here.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s sat in the car devouring a cupcake, ice cream sundae, bag of oreos {-Insert your guilty treat here-}  then followed that secret cupcake with a does of shame or self-pity.

Meal Planning – UGH! I’ve been doing a terrible job planning our weekly meals lately and each night I stare into the fridge trying to figure out what I can whip up for the fam.  It stresses me out when I’m not prepared. I’ve recently started trying to plan our dinners 2 weeks at a time. It seems to help but I’m still really struggling to come up with some new tasty dishes.

In comes Food On The Table…

I was able to try out Food on The Table a few months ago and I was really impressed.

Check it out and if you sign up in February you will get Food on the Table FREE FOR LIFE!! Whoot!

*if you are reading this post in your e-mail or through an RSS reader you will need to click through to see the video.

Disclosure *This post contains affiliate links – I make a little cash if you use them Thanks!

Last year I joined in the A Day in the life Challenge that Simply Rebekah holds annually. It was lots of fun so I decided to join in again this year.

7:16 am: Awake but lounging in my bathrobe, I’m not entirely ready to start my day.

8:16 am: Contemplating tackling the sink full of dishes so I don’t have to worry about it later – Did most of the dishes,

9:16 am: Back to work. I use a dry erase marker and write important reminders right on my desk – it works great and I’m not wasting paper!

10:16 am: Working on a client’s website

11:16 pm: Still working on the clients site!

12:16 pm: Little boy came in and asked me to help him put on his bear feet slippers. Yes, he is still in his PJ’s (and so was I!)

1:16 pm: Lunch with the kids - Stromboli ! Delish, however, not the healthiest lunch!

Whoops!! I stopped taking photos at lunch! I spent the rest of the day, no joke, working!!

 I started again the next day around 3pm!  

3:16pm: A surprise trip to the new cupcake place with Claire. Our Girls Afternoon out! Yummmm!

4:16pm: Looking in the fridge to figure out what in the world we will have for dinner!

5:04pm: Walked into the kitchen and noticed the time. I’d really better decide what’s for dinner.

6:16pm: Finally decided on dinner – Leftover buffet! Chicken stew, curry chicken and rice, Stromboli and salad.

7:16pm : Rebekah called and mentioned that she was in the area, which gave me the perfect  excuse to invite her to come over and eat leftover Chicken Curry with us! It was a very nice surprise!

That was all... Once Rebekah went home I hung out on the Allume Twitter party, watched Parenthood and fell asleep!

Stop over and see all the other Day in the Life photo projects that were shared at Rebekah’s Link Up! 

Many of you have seen the Tweets and heard the buzz… You’ve been waiting on the edge of your seats to hear what the big news about The Relevant Conference is… well, TODAY is the day!

I’m thrilled that Sarah Mae asked me to join in the fun and share the exciting news with you.  The Relevant Conference is now:

Congratulations to Sarah Mae and her team on the new name, the new site and the new great community for woman!

Why a new name… 

Sad but true, the name Relevant was already trademarked.

Why “Allume“ (ah-loom)

Allume, french for “Light”. Allume is not just about a conference it’s a community of woman who reflect Christ’s light.  At Allume  you’ll find articles, podcasts, videos, and all kinds of goodness to encourage you in the Light.

What’s Allume Social?

Allume social is the Christian women’s social media conference that focuses on ministering to the woman, the blogger, the story teller. We want to love well, encourage, and spur women on to shine the Light that lives within them via the online space.

When Sarah Mae told me the new name, it just felt right. To me “Allume”(ah-loom)  reflects what can happen in the hearts of the woman who attend the conference. It’s the re-lighting of a dead or flickering flame for some of us, weary moms, worn-out bloggers. I know it’s just the beginning of February but I’m already looking forward to October and the new Allume Social!

Some changes you don’t want to miss:

The new site: www.Allume.com

The new twitter hashtag:  #allume

Allume on Twitter

Allume on Facebook

Now off you go…. run over to the new blog www.Allume.com/blog and read more!

See you at Allume Social 2012! 

One of my long time imaginary online buddies, Crystal Paine aka. “MoneySavingMom”  became a in-real-life buddy when I met her at The Relevant Conference back in 2010.  I had been following her blog for quite some time, I even spent many long Sunday afternoons clipping coupons, organizing my coupon binder and walking out of CVS with my stash of freebies.

I attended the Relevant Conference again this year and Crystal was there sharing her new book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget with all of the attendees. I was ready to get my hands on the book (and I wasn’t alone!) I’m pretty sure Crystal’s table was buzzing with blogger all weekend!

I sat down and read most of the book in just 2 days, and I’m not a big reader.  NO LIE.

Crystal had made The Money Saving Mom’s Budget easy to understand and shares ideas that you can implement right away!

Right in the beginning of the book Crystal outlines steps that you can take to meet your financial goals. Each of these goals is broken into monthly actions, which really helps to break down the process into doable steps.

Rule #1 – Set big goals and break them down into bite-sized pieces
Rule #2 – Streamline your life and cut the clutter
Rule #3 – Set up a realistic, workable budget
Rule #4 – Take the cash-only challenge
Rule #5 – Use coupons
Rule #6 – Never pay retail
Rule #7 – Choose contentment

My BIG  ”ah-ha” from the book:

Goal Setting

For many people goal setting comes natural to them, second nature. They know what they want to accomplish and most have a deadline in mind. I have lofty dreams, and I do often set goals – for me it was the idea of breaking down a goal into bite-sized and measurable pieces. I love this idea because it can be used in so many different areas of our lives, including finances.

For example:

I’m trying to lose at least 70 lbs this year. That is a very overwhelming goal.  A big goal.  It often seems unattainable. But if I break down my goal into bite-sized pieces, it’s much more encouraging to look at how the goal breaks down into monthly or even weekly goals.

• I need to aim to lose 5.8 lbs per month
• That’s just 1.45 or about 1 1/2 lb a week.
• Doesn’t that sound much more achievable?!

Thanks to Crystal today I’ll be giving away a copy of Money Saving Mom’s Budget.

To enter this giveaway use the awesome Rafflecopter widget below!

 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

AAhh… the Never-ending to-do list.

Let’s take a look at what got checked off the list this month:

The House

• Organize kids toys – The toys are in much better shape, we picked up a small bookcase for the living room and that helped with our toy clutter a lot. I’m also really working on teaching the kids where the toys should go. I just need to make up some photo labels for the bins so both kids can clean up without wondering where to put things. 
• Move more toys upstairs – This isn’t necessary since we got the extra bookcase.
• Create a play area in Claire’s room - this is on-hold until my mom moves out and we move Caleb back into his own room
• Finish the final curtain for the sunroom (we’re slowly making progress on this never-ending item) – yah.. about that… 
• Hunt down and buy curtains for window in the living-room – it was blocked for the last 3 years so I never bought a curtain for it. We re-arranged our living room and now the curtains have been discontinued! *sigh* - I found one that I need to order but it still might not be the right color, we’ll see. 
• Continue to de-clutter the house (office supplies, books, craft supplies, clothing, toys, etc) I filled an entire bin with extra office supplies that I really don’t need… I still have a long way to go to get things as simplified as I’d like.
• Organize our wardrobe

Housekeeping

• Get back to meal planning – Success I planned 2 weeks of meals now I just have to go to the store and buy all those groceries! 
• Get back in to the Friday laundry-day routine – Success!! I did 90% of the laundry today!! It feels great going into the weekend with all the laundry done. 
• Start using the cleaning schedule again – I just fixed up the schedule last week and I hope to start following it again this coming week, I’m also planning on sharing the schedule with all of you!! 
• Plan a freezer-cooking day (hopefully convince Rebekah to join the fun) – we talked about it… that.is.all

Family Goals

• Take more photos – I took a bunch of photos this week and I’m actually getting very intrigued with Project Life so I may just try to do a simplified version for our family.
• Spend Sundays doing family things (park, movies etc.) we’ve spent Sundays either sick or lazy… but as a family so I guess we’ve been successful! 
• Go on a great summer vacation – No progress on planning this
• Entertain more – we miss our friends and hope to start having a social life again
• Have Claire start doing daily chores and help more around the house  - I’m creating something that will help her to do chores, I’ll be sharing about this sometimes soon. 
• Limit TV time! - I’m currently sitting infront of the TV and not even watching it… but it’s on… I’m the only one in the room… looks like we still have a TV issue
• Play music in the house during the day – We’ve been doing this much more. I’ve been enjoying Grooveshark while I work and playing Seeds of Praise Cd’s at night for the kids. 
• Plan our spring garden - not even on my radar yet! 

For the Kids:

• Start having “mommy time” each day with the kids – put it on the schedule! – the kids have been having daily Ipad time with mommy for about 2 weeks now. It’s not quite what I was hoping for but it’s a step in the right direction
• Pick out a book with Claire to read together – not done this yet
• Take kids to local children’s museum 2 times a month – we have been too sick to do this yet
• Start going to story time at Barnes and Noble again – Nope
• Start family bed time routine – quick devotions and story time – Nope  
• Move Caleb back into his bedroom – Not yet
• Move Caleb into a toddler bed – Not yet
• Transition Caleb out of Pull-ups for good  - Very close only using Pullups for nap and bedtime
• Take the kids outside to play/explore more. Who wants to buy me THIS book that I’ve heard great things about?  - Snow and rain, we’ve been inside

Health/Fitness:

• Start by walking 30 minutes a day - I’m really dissapointed that these health/fitness goals have not happened yet
• Try the Couch to 5K running plan
• Continue to track food on My Fitness Pal
• Lose 70 lbs. Yes, 70.  I’ll be tracking my weight loss in 10lb increments monthly.
• Go to bed earlier! Before 11pm!

For the Mommy (that’s me!)

• Read more – I have more e-books on my Kindle to read than you could imagine. – I’ve started reading again! yay!
• Have ‘mommy retreats’ 2-3 times a year – Planning to have one in February!
• Read 3 parenting books this year
• Read 3 marriage books this year
• Start taking classes at the Philadelphia School of Art and Design! - this may or may not happen until the Spring session when they have the Illustrator class that I really want to take.

Last night I ran out to Staples to grab one thing. One THING!  All I needed was a lanyard for a homemaking project I’m working on (coming soon!).  While I wandered the aisles of Staples, out of the corner of my eye I saw the unmistakable aqua colored display.

Be still my heart!

I tried to withhold my excitement, but I couldn’t resist.  I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I was “Oooh-ing and Aweee-ing” when I walked by all of the products.

I grabbed a binder and assortment of sticky notes and labels.  I exhibited a great amount of self-control when I saw the journals, notebooks and paper. I grabbed one journal.  Pretty office supplies just make me want to be at my desk, even at 2 am when I’m knocking out a project for a client – being surrounded by simple, yet pretty binders, notebooks and paper just seems to make it more tolerable!

These are just a few of the beautiful new products:

Some people have closets full of beautiful clothes and shoes, some love purses … me?  I’m crushing on some office supplies!

Who wouldn’t love these beautiful sticky notes that fit right in your binder or planner?

How wonderfully practical is the filler paper with perforated task list?

A beautiful journal? Yes please!

How brilliant are these ElastiNote® Tags for labeling your cords?

It’s hard to say which product was my favorite, because the all have very practical uses.  The one product that I was smitten over was the Stack+Fit accessories, which I did not purchase, but I would LOVE to have grace my desk!  You can check them out on the Staples website by clicking the image below.

So there you have it – a post all about office supplies!  You can see that I have a serious problem here, can’t you?

* This is NOT a sponsored post I just love office supplies! All opinions are my own. Avery, Staples or Martha Stewart are more than welcome to contact me if they would like me to do an official review… I sure would LOVE that Stack + Fit set! *

Image credit: Staples, Avery and Martha Stewart

This weekend while I was packing up the last of our Christmas decorations I grabbed the 2 rolls of wrapping paper that were still in our diningroom (isn’t that where everyone wraps their gifts?) I brought the rolls up to put them away. That’s when I realized that I really need to address my wrapping paper storage issue.

You see I love wrapping paper. I’ve tried to store it in a storage container made just for wrapping paper but not all of the rolls would fit (I have LOTS of wrapping paper). Currently our wrapping paper is stored in a closet in the kids room:

It drives me crazy!  I have got to find a solution… so I headed straight to Pinterest -  Shocker, I know!  -  I found some great ideas  that I hope to put some of this ideas into action.  Until then, I think I need to go through my stash and get rid of at least half.  I think having a gift wrap/gift bag swap with friends could be a fun way to mix it up a bit.

Here are a few great ideas and tips I found on  for wrapping paper organization

*Please click each photo to go to the pin on Pinterest, there you will find a direct link to the creators website.

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This weekend I met up with a bunch of friends at church for a a “fun night” put on by our church’s woman’s ministry.  Everyone brought a healthy appetizer or snack to share and we even did some zumba ~ wow these hips are hurtin‘!  One of my friends brought a delicious pumpkin dip that everyone loved – myself included!

Fast-Forward to Saturday night: I was working in the kitchen whipping up a lasagna for our Sunday dinner, When all of the sudden It happened,the Nutella craving hit! You know the kind: grab a spoon and scoop straight from the jar! I opened up the fridge I saw a tub of Cool Whip and it hit me… Nutella Dip!

Simple Nutella Dip

1 cup Cool Whip ( or one really big dollop!)

2 real big tablespoons of Nutella

Mix together!

Voila!

Shazam!

P’chow!

Enjoy!

I grabbed some strawberries and when they were gone, but there was still dip in the bow, so I snuck into the kids animal crackers – it was delicious!  This was a great way to lighten up my usual Nutella treat.

How do you enjoy your Nutella?

I’m linking up this recipe at :