Let's get organized!!

That's easier said than done for this Momma...I am not a "neat" person. (This drives my dear sweet husband crazy too, as he is borderline OCD about tidiness) It also doesn't help that whenever I start organize some room or area or what have you, I am either distracted by something that I find to be more exciting OR Baby A demands my attention (and usually my boobs!) and by the time I get back to the process of organization its either time to go pick up one of the big girls from school or cook dinner or give baths or its bedtime....something! And then the day is done, and my organizing got as far as making a bigger mess in order to clean up/organize what was before, which of course is completely counterproductive.

I am currently in the process of cleaning up and organizing my office/guest room. You might not know it by looking in there, but I have actually made quite a bit of progress between the baby feedings, school pickups, homework help, dinners, etc. My biggest problem right now is that because we just moved into this house this past August, and because its a brand NEW house, I'm having trouble finding a place for everything. I have ZERO shelves in this room (aside from the bookcase that my husband bought and is now full of crafting items and scrapbooks). My biggest goal for that room at the moment is to simply throw away many of the items that are not needed. I am a packrat by nature and tend to think that Murphy's Law of throwing things away will bite me in the butt...."As soon you throw it away, you're going to need it for something!" BUT! C'est la vie. If I need something that I have wound up throwing away, then I will either consult Pinterest to see what I can use instead or I will just go buy it again....so my mission is to fill at least three garbage bags with junk/trash by the time I have finished that room. I have already filled one. I have also found quite a few items that I am going to sell...either on the Facebook page or on eBay....



So what's the point of my ramblings? In an effort organize, I have set a goal for myself (three trash bags full) as well as provided a reward (money from the stuff being sold!) How do you find the motivation to do something you're not naturally good at?

After I get my office organized (or maybe while I work on the office....-see?! I get distracted) I am going to re organize my Pinterest boards and I am going to do something totally awesome....wanna know what??? Keep an eye out for my next blog post and/or watch my Pin boards! I am excited about it :)

'Tis the Season...

for not knowing what the heck I'm going to buy for everyone!! I seriously I'm even at a loss as to what I should get for my 7 year old daughter! Honestly, who can't think of gifts to get a seven year old?! Well...this mom. I have a few ideas, but some these ideas require way more cash than I really have to spend this year. And then when I do finally come up with some really good ideas within my budget, other Christmas expenses pop up. Like Christmas cards, or new Christmas lights, food and ingredients for Christmas dinner and goodies, and so on. Seriously, why does Christmas have to be so darn expensive? But I digress...what am I going to get for my kids and husband?

So I have my husband who will literally just go out and buy whatever he decides he wants whenever he decides he wants it. And yes that means at Christmas time or his birthday. Its awful when it comes time to shop for him. Luckily I think I have found something relatively cheap enough to fit my budget but that doesn't suck. And mind you, my husband is really bad about selling the stuff I buy him (he does at least wait a few months, but still...) But I'm pretty sure he'll like what I'm getting this year.

 Luckily its slightly easier for my girls to get a gift for the General this year. I decided that rather than buying everyone "toys" all the kids are buying books for the rest of the family. And my oldest, S, was able to find books for A and I and the General at the Dollar Tree and ended up only spending $3 !! Great deal if I do say so myself!

As for gifts for all three girls I am trying to follow this rubric...

Three gifts each from Mom and Dad (represents the gifts from the 3 wise men) and four smaller gifts from Santa- 

Something to play with 

Something to wear 

Something to read 

and Something to share. 

I will be consulting my Gifts Board for many of my Santa gifts as well as for teacher gifts. Does this Christmas season have you pinspiring to get your shopping done?

Christmas Pinspiration

Ok, so I have always been kind of crafty, but when I was introduced to Pinterest (and I mean really introduced....to-the-point-of-sitting-there-browsing-every-category-for-an-entire-day-introduced) it was like my understanding of crafty got blown to smithereens. I now consult Pinterest pretty much daily in search of neat crafts or fun activities for my kids or recipes or exercises or home decor or photo ideas or funny quotes or....well you get the idea. It just amazes me the types of things that people have thought of, created, tried, washed, rinsed, and repeated, and I, in hopes of being the best mom I can, have decided that I can benefit from other people's varying degrees of genius.

So now you know a little bit about my Pinterest interest (haha, I crack myself up!). I supposed you might like to know a little bit about me. I am 25...well I guess I could just go ahead and say I'm 26 since my birthday is in 3 days. I have a most of the time wonderful husband, but in all fairness I am also only a most of the time wonderful wife. His name is Matt, but I think for the most part of this blog I will let him be known as General (a nickname he would like to have stick, but hasn't yet lol) No- he's not a general in the military...he earned his General Field Professional ranking with Halliburton and if people call him General then he would have the name of a famous car... you figure it out. All kidding aside he really is pretty wonderful. I also have the 3 most beautiful daughters IN THE WORLD. I'm not kidding when I say this either. I'm sorry to say, that while you other moms may have pretty or beautiful or gorgeous daughters, they just aren't as stunningly beautiful as my girls. I don't mean to burst your bubble or sound mean, I'm just stating a fact. While some of you may know me and know my gorgeous daughter's names, those of you who don't know me will only know my children by their initials :) Sorry...I'm one of those protective mommas. My oldest, S is 7, I is 3, and baby A is just that a baby...like a brand new baby. As of this post baby A is 2 1/2 weeks old. See? I wasn't lying. She's tiny. And I love her! I love all my girls :)

Now, what have I pinned and tried lately? Well, my girls are enjoying the Advent Calendar I created for them to count down the days to Christmas. I took a few ideas from Pinterest and made them my own. I always loved advent calendars when I was little, and I still do. My favorite is of course the kind with candy under each date. But, I don't know how to make those, and it never fails that when I go in search of something specific like that at the store, I can't ever find what I'm looking for. So, I made one for my girls. I had a felt snowman countdown wall hanger that I had gotten a few years ago in the $1 spot at Target. Its pretty basic and you're supposed to move the attached candy cane each day to count down until Christmas. To me, this was boring. Soooooo.....I looked at Pinterest in hopes of finding a way to make it more exciting. I found this:

I thought this was a great idea! Instead of chocolate or a cartoon picture each day, my girls could DO something to get in the Christmas spirit. I used some of these, some I thought of on my own, and some from other Pinterest posts. I wrote one activity on a Christmas tag, rolled them up and put one in each of the date pockets of my $1 Christmas countdown. So now each morning, I and S take turns reading what their activity of the day will be. They really seem to be enjoying each activity, which helped spark a whole new Christmas discipline plan. (I'll explain that in my next blog post). Here is the list of activities that I included in our Christmas countdown.

1. Watch a family Christmas movie (ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas provided us with "Elf" this year)

2. Go through old toys and make a donation to Goodwill

3. Make paper snowflakes (the only snow we'll see living in Texas!)

4. Make a paper chain to decorate their rooms

5. Wrap Christmas gifts

6. Write letters to Santa

7. Buy a gift for a child in need

8. Make an ornament

9. Scavenger hunt for a Christmas toy (Dollar Tree- here I come!)

10. Make and send Christmas cards to a recovering soldier

11. Have hot cocoa and watch a Christmas movie in our PJs

12. Decorate a gingerbread man (so much easier than a gingerbread house)

13. Go see Santa

14. Drive around and look at Christmas lights

15. Write a Christmas story

16. Sing/Listen to Christmas songs

17. Read a Christmas book

18. Make reindeer horns/elf ears then take silly pictures

19. Make Christmas cookies

20. Have candy canes and read the story of the Candy Cane

21. Make a Christmas card garland, using past family cards

22. Have a Santa Suds bath

23. Have hot cocoa and watch a Christmas movie in our PJs (repeats are totally ok!)

24. Read the story of Baby Jesus

Now, I may know what each date is, but my kids don't, so they're still surprised. But I need to know in an effort to make sure I have all of the necessary materials they might need for that day's activity. The best part about this list is that its really pretty inexpensive and most things can be down with items you do already have at home!

This is how the final project turned out. I have it hung so that both of my big girls can reach it and they take turns pulling out the day's activity each morning. 

If you have any other ideas for activities that I might be able to use next year or that other readers might enjoy feel free to leave a comment on this post! And just because its December 6, doesn't mean that you can't start doing some of these now! Many of these are fun for everyone so do something and be Pinspired!