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2012 Goals- Parenting

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:41:00 +0000

You would think that since this the area in which I spend the most time that I would naturally be the most successful. Quite the contrary, most of the time I feel like an "epic failure" (borrowing a much used quite of DS16). I think i wake up every morning saying this is the day i will keep my cool, this is the day i will not raise my voice, this is the day I will not be bothered by the little things. Then I get out of bed. lol. Seriously, some days it is like that and other days have their magical moments.

All of the kids are reading Making Brothers and Sisters Best friends for school, or as I like to refer to the book when i am hunting it down, Making Brothers and Sisters be Quiet, or making Brothers and Sisters Get Along Before Mom Shoots Them. I think if I could end all the sibling bickering then peace would not only resonate through me, but resonate through my entire home. I think they live to torture each other some times. Thinking, back i did the same thing to my brother ;)

So as far as resolutions regarding my parenting I have the following goals for the year all of which will lead the a perfect happy home, or at least a few minutes of peace.

1) Continue my non-fiction reading schedule for Wednesday which focuses on parenting. My current reads for this area are The Power of Motherhood by Nancy Campbell and The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Ormartian.

2) Leave love notes for my kiddos each week. While I verbalize it every day, I want them to have it in writing too. These notes will include lots of praises because I am honestly horrible at that.
- I am planning on writing them a note each Wednesday and putting them at their spots at the dining room table.
- I am going to try and find nice little love letter boxes like I have for Hubby too.

3) Be more consistent.
- Be consistent in my praises
-Be consistent in my discipline (will be implementing a new 3 strikes your out discipline system).

4) Be purposeful in having fun with them.
-I like our family time to be engaging and fun. We also like to watch movies. We need a balance.
-The kids and the family got new games for Christmas. I need to have plan regular family time where we play our games. We use to be very consistent about this and then life got in the way. This year I am putting it on the calendar.

5) have more one on one time with each child
-even if I just get to go sit in their room alone with them or invite them into my room, I want some more alone time with my kiddos. Meeting them at their level. Just a few minutes of quiet uninterrupted quality time.
- I am putting this on my calendar too. If I can give fb one on one time every day (even if for a few minutes) I can certainly give my kids one on one time as well.

I know as we settle into our new place things will calm down on its own. I know as We become more and more consistent in both routine, praises and discipline things will calm down. i am looking forward to a fun joyful year with these children whom the Lord has blessed me with.

2012 Goals- Marriage

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Second to God the most important people in my life are my husband and children which is why make goals to improve my relationship with them.

My husband and I are very close. He is my best friend. But like any other relationship, it could stand to make some improvements. Many times we get caught up in our daily lives and in the duties of parenting and we leave little time to focus on being an actual couple. This year, I am hoping that if I set some specific goals and therefore making achieving my goals a priority, we will have more time together and further strengthen our relationship.

The last time Mike and I have gotten away for a vacation was August 2006. We went to a marriage conference for adoptive parents. We were in classes all day but we still had a relaxing time at a hotel. The time before that was may 2004. We went to a bed and breakfast for the weekend and it was amazing. To say that we need a break is an understatement.

Marriage Goals:

1) Have regular dates with Mike
- plan out a date each month with ideas i come up with on my own or ideas from www.datingdivas.com or even pinterest
- have at least one date per month that cost us nothing but time.

2) get away for the weekend with Mike
-this is going to take some strategic planning but I know it will be worth it.
-we really love going to B&Bs so it will probably be something to that effect- find a location by 2/13/2012 and give this to him as his gift for Valentines Day
-plan childcare for our two youngest children and find friends for our oldest two to hang out with for the weekend.
- pick out a new game for us to take with us for the weekend. We love to play games. The last time we went to a B&B we played Upwords all weekend long and loved it. Well and other things too- we are married after all.

3) leave Mike love notes each week
-a friend gave me a cute little hinged box that says "love notes" on the outside so each week I am going to leave Mike a love note. I am going to place the box on his pillow so he will know he has a new note. If he decides to reciprocate then great, but if not I am perfectly ok with that too. That is not my love language so no biggy : ) (Mine is acts of service)
-I am going to focus on things to praise him for because I openly admit I am not very good at praises. Fault pointing, no problem, praises... Since I know I'm the one with the biggest fault in this scenario it is something that I want to work on diligently with my Husband and my children.

4) I will continue in my non-fiction reading selection for 2012. I focus on marriage on Tuesday and right now I am reading Created to Be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl and The Power of a Praying wife by Stormie Ormatian.

I am just tweaking here and spicing things up a bit. My marriage doesn't need an overhaul, just a bit of a boost. I know if I work hard at these three goals we will be beaming at each other at the end of 2012.

2012 Goals- Spiritual

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:28:00 +0000

Wow, this year has absolutely flown. I accomplished some amazing things this year (which I hope to recap in another post) and I am looking forward to achieving some amazing things in 2012 as well.

I have two options: 1) I can type this up and actually get it posted or 2) I can fret about trying to make it all cute and then never get it up. I have opted for option one.

I like to break down my goals into different categories so I can not only have Macro goals, but micro goals as well. After all it is fine and good to say I am going to do X but if you don't have any micro goals on how to achieve X then X is likely to never happen.

The first area i am focusing on is my Spiritual Life

1) Daily quite time
- get up by 5:15 every morning for quiet time
- have Bible reading plan in place (I am reading Dr Horner's reading plan this year and very excited too. I have been waiting two months to finish another plan before starting this one) I am doing this reading plan alongside my hubby so very stoked about that too.
-I have my prayer app up to date and ready to go. I have used a couple of different apps on my phone, but my favorite right now is myPraypal.
-Continue Collossians/Philemon Bible study that I am doing with Ladies Group at Church
-Continue with my non-fiction reading schedule (will post more about this later). In a nutshell it is books that I read daily for further spiritual growth in specific areas of my life. Right now I am reading He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobsen and Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst for my general spiritual growth.

2) Post Scriptures around my home and change out regularly to both inspire and challenge our family.
- I pull these verses from either something I read during quiet time or from one of our three sermons each week.
-I actually started doing Wall Scriptures a couple of months back. We are simply putting the scripture in Word, changing the font to make it pretty and then printing. For years I have wanted to do this but kept waiting for the perfect way to do it. I don't have time for perfection and I don't think God cares how I am posting these scriptures, just that i am so we can pass them on to our children.

3) I am going to start writing down the things I am thankful for- a Thanksgiving List. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I just haven't started. I know there is a popular book out right now that talks about doing this. This is not where I got the ideas as I have not read the book. I plan to read that book over the next couple of weeks and let you know if it further inspires me in this journey.

I know I only listed this as three items, but it is a big load and will take huge dedication and commitment on my part and even that won't be enough without completely holding the Lord's hand to guide me through this year.

Do you have any goals this year to lead you closer to the Lord?

Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part Three (finale!)

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:46:00 +0000

WOOHOO!!!

I got it done. My master bath has completely decluttered!! Today I did under the bathroom sink and my little vanity. Plus I will share my pic from the top of the sink. That I actually did on Thursday. When we moved a lot of what I decluttered actually came out from under the sink so I was thinking there wouldn't be much that came out from under there. I forgot, however, that I never addressed all the knee braces from my oldest daughter's knee injury/surgery (two of which were at the tune of $500 a piece) and several wrist braces from all of my kids broken hands/wrists. I also had 7 beach towels so I got rid of one of the crusty ones. I need to get two new ones for next year that are a little nicer quality. It is not fair for anyone to get stuck drying off with an old crusty towel. For the records one of the beach towels we have is another high school graduation present. This is one of the most awesome beach towels I have ever owned. In 22 years, no tattering, no tears, no crustiness. It came from Macy's. The other things under the counter are: humidifier, cleaner, beach bag, clippers to do the boys hair, a first aid kit (that I originally put together as a girl scout to earn a badge when I was in like the 7th grade) and large bin to hold ace bandages and braces and such- we have a LOT of injuries in this house. We are kind of known for them actually.

My bathroom counter now has my Scentsy burner (with Vanilla Suede) Our toothbrush holder, cups and out weekly med packs. I will have to get a better after pic later. This one has my hot iron out cooling off and me draining a half empty thing of lotion into another lotion.

Next I did my vanity. I took everything out and off of it. I wanted the top to be completely empty and clutter free. Boy was there a lot of stuff in this little thing. I threw away a LOT of old makeup and make up that I had bought that I didn't like once I got it. In the drawer I know I hadn't cleaned that out in over 12 years. Maybe a couple of things here and there, but I haven't dumped the drawer out and trashed anything. It was like a little junk drawer for me. I had homes for lots of the items in there in other parts of the house so I relocated them to that area and then when I get to that area I will cull and declutter. So now in the top drawer I only have jewelry. It is so nice. Not sure if that will be a permanent solution, but it is the solution for right now.

In the bottom, I now have a basket that holds my makeup, a basket that holds my body sprays and make up remover, a plastic container for my lip gloss/balm/stick, an empty bag I use when I pack my makeup to travel and then a bag I put in my gym bag to take showers at the gym. Finally I have another little basket full of some private misc stuff.

This next picture is a plastic container full of keys I pulled out of my drawer. I know what about 50% of them go to, I just need to get them matched up and organized. We also have a lot of locks that are missing keys... I think I just found them. This round produced 2 bathroom trash cans full of trash and about a half of a paperbag of giveaways. The first picture is from earlier in the day and the second picture is from my finishing up (minus what I already moved out of the room.

I am so excited to have this done and next my oldest daughter and I are moving on the the hall bathroom and the linen closet just outside that bathroom. We have an ongoing problem for that bathroom and she came up with a solution that seems brilliant. We have already implemented part of the solution and it is going well so far. I will go into more detail when I do the recap of that room.

Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 03:34:00 +0000

Now this shelf hold things I use on a regular basis. Or at least that is the intent. But because my cabinets were so full it ended up holding much more. I must also add that right now all six of us are bathing in the master bath so towels for all six of us are in here. Once we get the hall bathroom tub fixed the kids towels will leave this bathroom so eve more empty space : )

The first thing I did was start at the bottom and work my way up. Not sure what is up with this system. Seems kind of odd to my. Kind of like my friend Christine who reads magazines from back to front. Ok, back to business. Under the shelf are my little space heaters. One I keep in the bathroom in the winter, because we keep our house REALLY cold in the winter to reduce energy use. And it only comes on when we are showering because i just can't come out of a warm shower into a freezing cold room. I also had a bathtub pillow down there, but I got rid of it because it doesn't suction anymore. The next two shelves up were the doozies. I had plastic bins that held all kinds of things. The only ones left down there now are: fingernail polish (I chunked about half the bottles) Plus my foot soaking bin was full of mani/pedi stuff. Between the two I was able to get all of my mani/pedi supplies including polish into one shoe box container and the soaking bin is under the shelf ready to use. Went through all the rollers and only kept the sizes I liked and will use on anyone.

I cleaned up all the towels. I am going to have two towels for the kids and I am getting rid of the old crusty ones. Once I get those truly narrowed down I will do a separate post. There are LOTS of towels in this house! The little three drawer container holds hairbrushes and combs (got rid of several) middle drawer is toothpaste, floss and a little container that holds tweezers and clippers. Got rid of several baby clippers (one- why do I still have these? two- why are these the only ones we never lose??) Top drawer holds sample lotions (that I actually use) and my cuticle and hand salves. On top I keep my blow dryer and I keep my flat iron just to the right. To the left of that container is our everyday stuff (lotion, deodorant, hair spray, mousse) Next shelf up is hand towels, wash cloths, cloth wipes (for special needs son) a container of q-tips and a container for my hair clips. Oh Mike's blood pressure cuff is on that shelf and Maddi's detangler.

On the top shelf I now onpy have my sound machine (which I use every time I take a bath), a spray water bottle, my bulk vitamin basket, Mike's bulk meds, and a shoe box container of bath goodies.

Now between my cabinet and my shelf I have gotten rid of this:
-a 13 gallon trash bag crammed full and SUPER heavy. i was quite surprised as I carried it to poly cart
-5 tubes of b**t paste
- 3 empty salad containers that I used like the plastic shoe bins to store stuff (this was me reducing, reusing and repurposing)
- a wicker basket*
- a cadoodle style box*
- a plastic container*
-2 blankets (one of these I am keeping but I am sending a different out in it's stead
-one bag of give-a-ways that will go to our church's Mercy Closet

The storage type containers will move from room to room to see if I need to repurpose them. Then if I find in the end I don't need them they will move right out the door.

I have already decluttered my bathroom counter but I will show you pics of that in my next post after I declutter under my bathroom sink. I also have a cabinet that I use as a vanity that I need to go through as well.

Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:01:00 +0000

So I am on a mission to declutter my home. I decided to start with the master bath for two reasons. One, I wanted instant gratification. I knew this room would be easy(er) and therefore if I got it done first I could run in there and jump around and celebrate my triumph when I am feeling bogged down in another room. Two, oh foo-y, I have been interrupted so many times in writing this that i forgot reason number two. Let's just go with I had to start somewhere. lol

So keep these things in mind as you look at my before and after pictures. First, I just packed everything outside of the cabinets in July and I threw some things away and gave some things away at that time. Second, i unpacked this room in August and at that time I had a box of trash (aside from the packing paper) and two boxes of give-away stuff. Third, again with the interruptions. I almost feel like I have pregnancy brain. lol

So this is my before pic of the cabinet that holds my extra sheets, extra toiletries and travel toiletries and meds.I started with the bottom cabinet. Again, the easiest. I have two sets of sheets for late spring, summer and early fall and then I have two sets of flannel sheets for late fall, winter and early spring. I also have extra pillow cases for my extra pillow. I also held on to a wool blanket we put in our vehicle that we put in there during the winter in case of a breakdown. I has able to get rid of two blankets and an empty plastic zipper bag. See making progress. Got rid of three whole things!

Next was the booger of a cabinet. All the extras and the "I don't want to deal withs because who knows what in the world I am supposed to do with these things" First I went through two containers of make-up. Some of which I had since I started selling Beauti Control in 1998. Samples and stuff I just never opened and used. The other was just stuff I stuffed in there to get out of my way. So I got sidetracked by a makeup that I found. Love that makeup brush. I loved it so much that I have had it since my High School graduation in 1989!!! Yes, I constantly washed and sanitized it! The reason it was packed away is that I did replace it with a new set from E.L.F. and I love them too, but I didn't know if I would so I help onto this brush 'just in case". i also got distracted with lipstick :D I found my favorite color, how in the world did it get stuffed in this cabinet?!?!?!

But alas, I got past my distractions and got the cabinet done.

last was the Medicine cabinet. I found empty boxes and empty cough drop bags. This was mainly in disarray. I did find6 tubes of B**t Paste. I kept 1 because my special needs son does require it on occasion but the other 5 are headed out the door. Also found a couple of tubes of A&D ointment from when my son was born 16 years ago... not sure why I have continued to hang on to it. So now everything has a basket or is standing neatly in the cabinet.
Ok, so that is one cabinet. I will show you my "get rid of pic" in part 2, but my intention wasn't to make this the longest post known to man. So it seems my master bath declutter will be a 3-4 part blog series. When I use to blog all the time I could easily go in and manipulate my text and pics to wrap around each other. It doesn't seem to be working right now and I don't want to get bogged down in that stuff so I am sorry if post isn't easy on the eyes.

Feeling a little discombobulated

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:21:00 +0000

Since we moved at the beginning of August I have had the worst time getting back on a schedule. So much of my life is the same, yet so much is completely different.

First, is our home. It is the same and when I mean the same, I mean EXACTLY the same. We have a mobile home and we had it relocated to our own land in East Texas. So it was so easy to unpack because I knew where everything went. It had to have been a record breaking speed. But here is the discombobulating thing about this. I can't begin to tell you how odd it is to walk out of your house and suddenly the scenery is different. Now I know how Dorothy felt. She went to sleep in Kansas but the next time she wakes up she is in Oz. It isn't just me either. It has really thrown a couple of the kids off as well.

Second, and this is a biggie. Our old church had Sunday morning service, youth on Wednesday and children's church from late September to early May. Now Suddenly our entire family is at church three times a week. Don't get me wrong we are loving it, but it has been a big change and I haven't done a great job of managing this change into our schedule.

Third, we are back to private in home speech therapy again. For the last three years we have been going to a hospital about 15 minutes away and doing speech there. Now I have a therapist coming to the house 2-3 times per week. Gotta say, on the one hand I am loving it. It is so convenient. I don't have to take anyone anywhere and I save money on gas. The downside... I worked out at that hospital and was able to kill two birds with one stone. Now I am having to find different times to workout and honestly that hasn't been working out too well for me, but it is getting better. The thing I love about the therapist coming here is that I am using that time to have my one on one sit down work with the other child. So I am still killing two birds with one stone, they are just different birds now.

Finally, Since moving I have been completely dedicated to getting up early and having my quiet time. Not being a morning person was just an excuse. I don't need excuses, I need God. Excuses is what landed me more than 100 lbs over weight. Excuses are what destroy families because they are too busy to deal with things. Simply put I am tired of excuses. I have found that you can do exactly what you WANT to do. I WANT to make God my priority and for me personally the only way that is going to happen is if I get up before everyone else and have my quiet time with God. So yes, I am getting up earlier- much earlier. Yes, I am having an amazing time with God, but boy am also having an amazingly difficult time getting my badonkadonk in bed on time! No excuses, I just like the quiet at night too. But it simply isn't going to work. I am not as productive at night and God is more important to me than late night solitude.

I am going to have some time this weekend to work on a schedule and I am hoping that will really make a difference. I have started decluttering and I am hoping to get it finished tomorrow and do a quick post. I am also hoping that our storage barn will be delivered tomorrow and I will be able to get some things out of the house that I have been storing in here. I am going to be very selective and careful about what goes in the barn because I don't want to end up having to declutter it when this is all over.

This is my temporary home...

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:11:00 +0000

Wow, long time no see. I have really missed blogging and haven't been able to since I completely messed up our website. I am hoping to get that fixed this week- if it is fixable. If not, there is no place like home and it will be back to blogger. Mainly because I have never had any issues with blogger and I am much more interested in actually blogging than setting up the perfect website and having the perfect posts on all the perfect topics. I have so much going on that I want to talk about. Not sure that my blog title even encompasses my entire life- not that it ever did. But I will tell you this. i do not anticipate doing any book reviews for anyone- If you see a review of a book on here is it because I chose to read it for my own personal growth and enjoyment.

I am still a HUGE book person so chances are I will still talk about books all the time. And coffee... it is NEVER going away, and if you try to force me to give it up then someone might get hurt. Just saying.

So here are some of the things going on in my family's lives that I am certain to talk about in the coming weeks (most are in no particular order):
Growing my relationship with the Lord
Fitness and a Clean-Eating lifestyle (I have lost 95lbs since I last blogged so this is a big one)
Setting up our new farm of two months- the work is never ending,
Simplifying our home and lives in general
Decluttering, Decluttering, Decluttering
Homeschooling- can't believe we just started our 12th year!

I'm sure I am leaving topics out, but you get the idea. So, grab a latte or a cup of tea, climb into a big comfy chair and enjoy.

Come on over

noreply@blogger.com (Brandi in TX) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:54:00 +0000

I have finally made the big move. For ease of use, time and manageability we have added all of our family's blogs to our website. I have loved using blogger and I love the setup of this blog, but we wanted a central location to handle everything for the family and we wanted a central site that reflect our values, interests and family life.

I have a long way to go to get our website revamped but it is getting there.

In the meantime you can still find all of the old posts from this blog, plus the blog for our home school, Prince "T" and Princess "C" on the front page of our website.

I hope you will take the time to visit our updated website. There is a subscriber on our front page so you can easily add our site to your favorite feed reader.

www.LoneStarGang.net

I look forward to you visiting us soon.

In Him,
Brandi