And so it begins...

So... all this packing I have been complaining about? Tomorrow our friends are coming over to help us with the transplant of the majority of our house.

I'm excited.

I'm dreading it.

I'll be a much happier person once it's done. It really is going well and what is best is that I have not semi-permanently disabled myself in the process like my last move.

On a good note I feel like I'm more prepared for this move. I'm sure the majority of my lack of organization on my last move was the fact that I couldn't walk.. sit.. stand... FUNCTION because my back hurt so bad. I'm able to take my time this move and pack some daily and I'm not hurting.

Did I mention I'm not hurting?

It's fabulous!

I may be MIA for a few days while we get this done. I promise that once I get settled I'll recap the Home Journal and move along on it's creation.



  PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

Home Journal: Making Changes

So we now have our "Perpetual Cleaning Schedule". Do you remember when I said to change it to fit you? That is the whole point of the HJ, to fit your needs.Well I am already changing mine again!

I have been following and finding new bogs and I found an amazing idea at Echoes of Laughter - Revolutionize Your Laundry Routine. Her idea is AMAZING!!! I have always said that if it isn't it the laundry room it doesn't get washed and yet I am always hunting for the thing they lost that they need... the night before they "Neeeeeeeed it!" with Angie's system I can really mean it!

Broken down simply:

• 1 basket per family member in their room ( I like these corner hampers from Kohl's!!! or maybe some collapsible.... so many to choose....)
• 1 family member's laundry washed per day
• 1 basket of laundry returned FOR THEM TO PUT AWAY! ( I love that part!)

I really can't wait to implement this! I just have to decide when to do who's. Since my "Change sheets" Day is Thursday I'll do linens Thursday, soooooo.....My current idea is:

Sunday: NO LAUNDRY
Monday: NO LAUNDRY
Tuesday: Etcs
Wednesday: Mom & Dad's Laundry (we will probably share a basket.)
Thursday: Linens
Friday: Halie's Laundry
Saturday: Kaelyn's Laundry

Sounds good for now. I'll let ya know how it goes and show you my new perpetual when I get it typed up!



  PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

Boxes

I'm seriously tired of looking at them.

We've taken one load of smaller boxes (DVDs, books, glasses, & other kitchen things) and a desk out to the new place already... mostly because we were tripping over things we'd packed because the apartment is laid out so odd. We start the official move Friday so there is no time, nor reason to waste gas, on another 2 hour round trip so I'm staring at this:

 

My living room is only about 10 ft wide and I have furniture in here to boot, and the office is where the front door is... I have a mild claustrophobia and I am really getting cringy and about to pull my hair out... 4 more days.

What's even more of a pain is that it really doesn't look like we've accomplished squat on packing and we have, really. Aside from the master and Halie's bedroom, and like 1 box in Kaelyn's,  it is almost packed.

I can't wait to get to the new rental and start UNpacking. That part, I like. This one? I hate it.

In other news.. I'll be getting back to the Home Journal as soon as possible! I hope you're having fun working on yours!

Until next time!

 PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

Meal Plan Monday May 14

Linking up with Laura @ OrgJunkie today!

Click the image to visit other meal planning bloggers!

PS. Getting on her website on Mondays is tough. Bandwidth issues.

With very few days until the move actually starts in earnest I've got to get back into meal planning so I can get the most tasks done with minimal effort.

I have packed up my kitchen, keeping out what I thought I would need and in cooking a full, SIMPLE meal on the stove I kept reaching for things I had packed up. So this week I'm going back to the crock pot - ALL WEEK!! I'm also using what is already in the freezer (less to move!) so that means lots of chicken!

Monday & Tuesday: Second Chance Meals Chicken Enchiladas & Enchilada Bean Soup
Wednesday: BBQ Rubbed Crock Pot Chicken
Thursday: Chuckwagon Stew
Friday: Four Bean Chili
Saturday: MOVING DAY #1! We'll eat somewhere, at some time... I promise?
Sunday: Leftovers or Creamy Farmhouse Garden Soup

I'll also be adapting a few of these recipes. I pulled these from OLD blog posts before we started eating healthier, so I am going to do my best to adapt them to something a litte more suotableto match teh P90X@ meal plan we've been eating.

• Less salt (the BBQ Rub has 1/4 cup!!!!!)
• Less fats (including whole milks, butters, & creams)
• More whole grains, like brown rice, etc.

I'll update the recipes in a new post if I make any major changes, otherwise I'll just add a note to the original. :-)

Facebook Fan Page

Bit the bullet and made a FB page for the blog again. Maybe we can get the love spread all about LOL!

Until I get 25 fans I can't get my fancy own URL sooooo....

Click my cute profile image for now :)

  PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

Happy Mother's Day!

Home Journal: Food Journal

The Home Journal isn't just for household chores and the like. FlyLady calls it a "Control Journal" so that you can take control of your life. This is one of those additions that goes towards that.


If you've followed DA a while you might remember these diet & exercise journal printables I made a while back. When I was following a strict wheat free diet and needed to track everything for fertility purposes it was my best option. 
With my NEW Home Journal I wanted to add more pizzaz & color, so I made......

My kids, My life ♥

An amazingly talented friend made this for me and I am IN LOVE with it...

So I just wanted to share :)

When I picked the quote I was searching for something about sand to go with their pictures from the beach. I didn't know it was a song. All I knew was that the quote fit where I am in my life now perfectly.

Infertility was my mountain. A battle I faced, and I've only recently realized that it never had the power to completely defeat me because it was too late!!! I have these two in my heart & life... already in my hands.

The song however... the one playing in the background.... wow!
Very fitting.  FYI: Screw you, Infertility.

Home Journal: Perpetual Cleaning Schedule

I hate this part.. don't we all? But it is the part that has to be done or things get away from us and then we spend our free day doing it all. 

Creating a cleaning schedule changes that rush when friends & family come over (or the embarrassment when they just stop by!) and allows you that free time when you do get a day off. 

In order to create your cleaning schedule think of the things that you have got to do or things go nuts. This isn't the standard things, like dishes &

Home Journal: Important Numbers

We all have cell phones that we have our most important numbers in.. but what if our kids need the number and they don't have it saved. Or the baby sitter... or you can't find your cell (usually guilty!) And I included a spot to put your street address so that during an emergency you can read it if you are frazzled.

Here is a screen shot of my printable Important Numbers PDF .

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

This makes a thin but chewy cookie that I lined out tonight and fell in love. I wanted an egg free PB cookie because I don't care for the texture, and since I need them wheat free, oats was my best option for a binder. Using Margarine made them dairy free, but I added mini-chocolate chips (yum!) But you can use real butter if you don;t need the dairy-free that tends to make a different textured cookie than margarine. As a matter of fact if you use GF oats, no egg, and no dairy, the only allergen in them is nuts.
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies
Ingredients

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 4 Tbsp margarine
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Chicken Barley Soup

Those of you that know me well know that I never follow a recipe to a T. I have been doing well following the P90X2 recipes but we've been using them since January so I wanted to mix it up a bit. This came out even better than expected! I am AMAZED! I even had it for breakfast today! what?!?! It's good! 

Chicken Barley Soup

Serves 6-8

Time till serving: approximately 1 hour

#AvengersMonth Giveaway by a friend!

Do you love Disney??? My friend Amanda does!

She's the author of Living with The Magic and is an Independent Travel Expert for Mouseketrips, LLC as well. (So if you're planning a Disney Vacay CONTACT HER!!!) She is hosting a giveaway for a $125 Disney gift card AND an Avengers gift pack with the new movie release! (George already saw the movie on a BroDate and I can't wait!!! I couldn't go, I was having Strawberry Mango Margaritas wit the girls....)

It's also DragynAlly's birthday so head over to "The Dragyn's Lair", follow her awesome blog, and give her some birthday love!!!
Go! Go! GO!
'

Home Journal: Dear Babysitter

Hello, All! Today I'll share my "Dear Babysitter" sheet. I got a lot of these ideas from Tip Junkie's Executive Home Maker Binder but this idea is one I have played with since Halie started babysitting. Since I'll have other teens in my home babysitting over the summer while Halie visits her dad, I thought a clean cut sheet woudl be better. Halie loves it, go figure!!

Here's a screen shot of mine until I can get you a picture:

I created a pink and a darker neutral with fill in the blank options, including a space to put your 9-1-1 address for emergencies. If you are interested in printing your own click to

DOWNLOAD

Printable in Pink

Printable in Dark Neutral

This is one that will be laminated so that I can put in a visible place while the babysitter is there... still working on a cute display option! These also work well in a page protector. Dry erase still wipes right off!

So far on our Home Journal we have covered:
Weekly To-Do ListDear Babysitter
Stay tuned for:Important NumbersPerpetual Cleaning Schedule (Editable in MS Office) 15 Minute Quick CleansPrintable Chore Charts (Editable in MS Office) ...and more!

Home Journal: Things To-Do

First up I'll start with my "Things to do this week" list. This is one I'll laminate and hang where everyone can see it. Dry erase markers work great on page protectors or laminate, so it makes this reuseable!

OK so in a page protector propped by the glow of the laptop screen isn't a GREAT pic...
but you get the idea LOL!

When you download the PDF it comes with my attached "Use Ideas" page. to show you how I use it. When printing, if you don't want the "uses" page printed  just be sure to set it print page 1 only.

If  you're the kind who needs a more goal oriented to-do page try my "week at a glance" PDF. with spots for dailies, notes, goals, projects, and more.

I kinda like them both, so I may do one to hang and one for my HJ....

DOWNLOADS

Option 1 (with honey-do's)

Option 2 (with goals & tasks)

So far on our Home Journal we have covered:
Weekly To-Do List
Stay tuned for:Dear BabysitterImportant NumbersPerpetual Cleaning Schedule (Editable in MS Office) 15 Minute Quick CleansPrintable Chore Charts (Editable in MS Office) 
...and more!

Tip Me Tuesday: Re-Purposing Tees to Bags!

Today I'm gonna hang out at

 

with some re-purposed tees the girls and I made into reuseable bags!

Our easy instructions (step by step pics soon!):

1. Snip the collar & sleeves off.
2. Trim a loop off the sleeve & stretch it out to make a lacing.
3. Snip holes in the bottom band,
4. Thread "lacing" through & tie off.

WE LOVE IT!!!!!

Kae used a tank so there was no need to cut her collar off, but Halie and I liked the slouchiness (is that a word???) of the looser handles from the sleeves & collar being snipped. It was great way to save some of their favorite shirts that didn't fit but I couldn't convince them to give away. I'm thinking about making a whole stash of them (all those tees with worn edges or small stains?) for my Aldi shopping trips!

We got this idea from the Dollar Store Crafts Blog!

For full instructions go to:
Three Awesome Teen Girl Craft Night Ideas