What a week!

It has been a very cold week here in Tennessee! The good thing is everyone and all the animals have survived the freezing temperatures. I'm very proud of my daughter Brittany and I, for helping each other deal with the animals all week.  We have carried 5 gallon buckets of water down to feed the animals every night,  because the water hose down to the animals has been frozen! 

Adyson has enjoyed the weather too! She got out there on Monday and made snow angels on the deck! She was so proud of herself. 

I'm still working on goal number 2. (So I have found an app "Meal Board" in the App Store. I LOVE this app. It has a pantry, shopping list, recipes, the works!!!! You can also go and get recipes from websites (there is about 15 websites connected to this app) I am going to be using this app a lot in 2014! I am very excited about it. MEAL PLAN BETTER) I'm going to be hitting this one hot and heavy this weekend.  The freeze and the kids being out of school extra time through me all off! 

Glad the temperatures are back to normal! The kids are enjoying not have to bundle up like Eskimos to go to the car! Now time to hit the normal routine!

What did you get accomplished today? 

Winter prepping on a farm!

Tennessee is due to have an extremely cold spell over the next 2 to 3 days.  To prepare for it, we went and got hay for the animals.  Made sure their stalls were clean and put down fresh bedding. Today was also family day so everybody joined in to help. 

 

The cows always try to overpower us when we feed them! 

Poor Brittany trying to hide behind a tree and fool the animals.... It didn't work. 

The water buckets have been emptied cleaned and refilled. The heated water bucket has been plugged up. Hoses have been disconnected from the pipes. All the animals have been fed. The hay has been covered. 

We went yesterday and got groceries. We bought five cases of water, had to get eggs and bread. I made sure I had 10 gallons of water out in the garage. We checked our propane tanks and our grill out on the back deck. 

Now it's time to start on the inside stuff. I'm doing loads of laundry in case my pipes freeze tonight and tomorrow. All the dishes have been washed everybody's taking showers. All in all it's been a very successful Sunday afternoon! 

WHAT DID YOU GET ACCOMPLISHED TODAY? 

Adyson chart

Adyson will be 5 years old in February. She will start school in August. So it's time for the behavior and chore chart. I found pictures to match the behavior or chore I would like her to complete. 

ADYSONS CHART-

There is no whining/crying- we've been having the issue lately of crying/whining when asked not to do something, or when being told no. So trying to stay positive in 2014, I want to reward good behavior! 

Eating-(you'll see breakfast, lunch and dinner listed on chart) Adyson has the issue of not eating. She fidgets, talks, "I'm not hungry".... Etc... We have to set timers, threaten, it justs makes meal time the most frustrating times of the day. So from now on it is what it is, if you don't eat then you don't get a sticker, no more negotiations. 

Brushing teeth- She's still excited to brush her teeth, but she ASKED for a sticker for this, so what harm is there in giving her a sticker for what she loves doing! 

Learning- We try to learn something everyday. Whether it's a letter, number, math, but something. So if she can sit and focus and learn then there needs to be a reward! 

Cleaning up- I usually let Adyson play where ever and we clean up before bath. That means no fussing about doing it either. Clean up means ALL the toys from  everywhere in the house get picked up and put where they belong. Not thrown somewhere! Also her room gets cleaned too! 

Bath time- We've been having a problem with Adyson and getting water all over everything! Floor, toilet, sink, walls, floor mats get soaked. I'm tired of cleaning and drying the bathroom EVERY DAY. So hopefully the positive of getting a sticker will help! 

Bedtime- This is a bit of a problem.  Getting out of bed several times for various reasons. Drinks, hungry, potty, scared, her "friends" told her to play, etc. So maybe the sticker will be the positive reinforcement! 

I'll give you guys an update in a couple weeks to see how this works out! I'm excited, Adysons excited. I've just got to keep the excitement going. Children learn what they see, not what you try to teach them (my opinion).  You can't expect your child to have manners if you don't show them, and use manners yourself! 

What did you get accomplished today? 

Breakfast with leftovers & Saving Money

Today I was feeling nice and I decided to cook breakfast for my family! So I picked a recipe off of Pinterest that I have been dying to try.

 Apple slice pancakes- I added a few extra ingredients to the pancake batter.

I used golden delicious apples and thinly sliced them. Dunked the apple slices into the pancake batter and cooked them as usual. 

Recipe- (I got the recipe from -pancake mix) this makes a huge batch of pancake mix. Then you just measure out what you need

 And tweaked it a little bit

2 cups pancake mix

1.5 cups water

1/3 cup oatmeal

1 scoop protein powder

2 eggs 

3 tbs oil 

Mix together & dunk sliced apples into batter and cook as normal. They were so good. 

Instead of syrup I used peanut butter and honey! They were amazing! Since I have so many leftover I decided to freeze them individually to have breakfast all next week! As cold as it's going to be in the morning all next week I think this is a great idea for a hot breakfast before school. 

Take them out of the freezer open the Ziploc bag and pop in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Instant, homemade, and wholesome breakfast in seconds! 

After breakfast I thought it was time to do the annual piggy bank dump. So I helped Adyson dump her piggy bank and sort all the change. Adyson gets all this change from making change at the grocery store, picking change up off the ground, us paying her allowance to her in change and she turns and keeps it in her piggy bank. Every year I help Adyson dump her piggy bank and we take all the rolled change and put it in her savings account.  She gets so excited to count her change and roll it! 

                                                  

She was so excited when she was counting her money to find out how many quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies she really had.

For whatever reason Adyson insists on having three piggy banks and I'm not complaining. At least she knows how to use the piggy bank and where to put the money and how to save it.  That's all that matters to me!

                                                      

She  needs a few more coins in each slot for the money holder to fill each one of them up. So basically, Adyson has saved $44 in change for the year 2013! Not bad for a four-year-old! Her goal for 2014 is to make more money, she wants to save $50! 

Speaking of saving this is the first week of January and I am going to do the Facebook challenge that's been going around about saving money. Only I'm going to do mine in reverse. It's supposed to be save a dollar week one saved two dollars week two save three dollars weeks three etc. 

Since I want to use this Facebook challenge as a way to save Christmas money, I'm going to do it in reverse. Week one I'm saving $52, week two I'm saving $51, week three I'm saving $50, etc. So the closer to Christmas the less I have to save and I'll already have a majority of my money in the savings account! It will also be easier as it goes through the year having to save less money as the weeks go by.  So until I get my Christmas savings account set up at the bank I decided to make me an envelope! 

My mad money envelope is just a little envelope that I keep a little extra money in for those days when the kids and I want a little pick me up. It may be a treat to Subway or a treat to go get a milkshake, rent movies. The mad money envelope comes in handy when were just having a bad day or a rainy day or for whatever day! I try to put $5-$10 in it every week. It's never let us down yet! 

Don't forget to subscribe!

So what did you accomplish today?

Tackling the Christmas Warranties~

                       Feeling very frustrated right now! I had been keeping notes all day of what I was doing and organizing and apparently I didn't save them! BREATHE, BREATHE. OK I'm over it! So Like I said I have started organizing -the master closet, master bedroom, master bath closet. I am going to move a little furniture around in the master bedroom too.

                      Tackling the desk is a big job! Its the catch-all of the master bedroom. I get so upset every time I look at the desk. I know its there somewhere but, its just buried in the junk I don't want to deal with. So today I it was time. I started gathering my receipts for taxes! Little by little I could see the desk. You guys should know by now that I am a complete organizing freak.  I started creating file folders for the new items we got for Christmas, I create file folders for ANYTHING that has a warranty. Around January  EVERY year when I create new file folders for the new stuff we got for Christmas, I go through ALL the folders and toss expired warranty paperwork/information. Do you just LOVE the envelopes I created for taxes!!! I also created a hanging folder for the Armada, yes I know I bought it 3 months ago, yes I know I am behind!

                       

My receipt catchers are awesome! HAHA

I am very proud of myself for tackling the desk. Cross my fingers that I will keep up with it in 2014. Over the next couple days I am going to be cleaning out more closets, finishing my bedroom up. Hopefully by Sunday I will be able to post about the meal planning app I found and how my cleaning schedule is going to go for 2014. I am still playing with it! 

I am still reading Six Times a Charm, I'm on the 3rd book in the set.  Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner Its funny and I can picture me in the book :) 

Today was a great start to 2014. How did you do today? What did you get accomplished? 

Happy New Year!!!! 2014

                 Hello ya'll! I hope everyone had a great and safe New Year! We had a blast with our neighbors. Staying at home, us girls did some online shopping while the guys went out and put the husbands tractor back together! So we accomplished a lot! It was great catching up with them. 

                 The husband got out there this morning and tested and ran the tractor! I cleaned up the cow stall. I checked the cows for bugs/mites, and good news everyone was CLEAN! I just love it when my animals are bug free! I have been thinking about a lot of things I would like to accomplish in 2014. 

So here goes my list of goals for 2014:

1- You know I LOVE books. But I think my husband will start throwing out books if they dont get read. I made a good dent in the books in 2013, but I still have many, many, many more to read. Sooooo..... I am not going to PURCHASE any books in 2014. (If its FREE that's not a purchase) I must read what I have already been blessed with. Read more! I want to read 30 books! 

NO PURCHASING BOOKS IN 2014. 

2- You know I love to be organized. So I have found an app "Meal Board" in the App Store. I LOVE this app. It has a pantry, shopping list, recipes, the works!!!! You can also go and get recipes from websites (there is about 15 websites connected to this app) I am going to be using this app a lot in 2014! I am very excited about it. 

MEAL PLAN BETTER

3- Ya'll know I have been moving towards better foods for my family. So in 2014 I am moving a little closer to CLEAN EATING. I have read some terrible things about the chemicals, hormones, pesticides, and all around junk in our food. So I have several goals in the category lined up. The first one is no more fast/fried foods. I also want to master a homemade hummus recipe this month! I have tried a few and can't seem to master any of them! 

MOVE TOWARDS CLEAN EATING. 

3- Adyson- Sometimes I feel that her needs are pushed to the bottom of the pile. For example, Adyson loves to go to Story Time at the library. Sometimes I just cant get going fast enough in the morning to take her. I feel bad that she misses out on that time, its only once a week!! Also I feel bad that I don't read to Adyson at night. By the time bedtime comes I am just ready for the house to be quiet and lights out! Adyson deserves my undivided attention for 15-20 minutes everyday.

4- Brittany- Her and I never have time to just hang out! There is always an excuse, - can't find a sitter for Adyson, there is work to do around the farm... She is a teenager and does want to go out with her friends but we don't get the chance to do much together. 

5- More Positive- I worked on this in 2013, I fell off the wagon a few times, it happens. 2014 is going to be the year! No more yelling. No more getting frustrated with things I can not control. I need to learn to ENJOY life. I will step in JOY! 

6- Blog on time- Life happens, lazy happens, but this year I will be more aware of blogging on time. My biggest issue is doing exactly what I'm doing now and thinking and typing at the same time. I need to take notes throughout the week so when its time to blog its easier! I plan on posting a lot more this year! 

7- Continue with natural cleaning-  I am going to continue with finding as many natural cleaners and making what I can! I can't wait to find recipes for window cleaner, tub scubs, floor cleaners, etc. 

8-Work out 3 days a week- I jumped on this band wagon for about 2 months in 2013. I lost interest when it got cold outside. Sorry I am not fond of the cold. Yes I know I can exercise inside, I guess I just needed the "cold" excuse. I am going to pick random work outs from my Pinterest. I'll work on getting a routine when I get into working out!

9- Music- My wonderful husband bought me a keyboard for Mothers Day 2012. I have learned a few songs, but dying to learn more. So this year I am going to try to teach myself to read music and play! I am hoping to be able to play 12 songs (1 song a month) by the end of the year. I would love to be able to play some Christmas songs next year! Anyone know of a good music app that will help me read sheet music?

10- Christmas stuff- I would love to make our own ornaments and decorations this year and have an "old fashioned" Christmas. I have found lots of ideas on Pinterest on my Christmas Board. 

11- Do more myself- I hate when I can't do something and I leave it for the husband to do. I am tired of always giving him a "to do" list. So 2014 is the year I will learn to be more "manly". I will learn to use a drill, level, and a whole bunch more! 

12- Schedule- I need to create a schedule and keep it! I have certain things that I do on certain days (I will start blogging about all this, this year). Since the holidays have kept me hopping and has blown my schedule out of the water. I need to plan a little better this year! 

In case you haven't noticed my "theme" of goals this year is to take a step back and enjoy life. Try not to be so rushed. I'm going to start small so its not so over whelming. 

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Happy New Year! What are your goals? What are your resolutions? How are you going to make 2014 count?

A year in review

                       I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great year this year. We took a different approach to Christmas this year and I think it worked out beautifully. Instead of buying a bunch of little gifts the kids were asked what "big/most important" gift they would like. We were tired of buying the little stuff that always gets broke, lost, or never used. So this year the kids  picked out a "big" gift and that was it! It was simple, the kids were over joyed!!! 


                     I'm proud of all of my accomplishments this year! I'm glad I had the support of family and friends. My biggest accomplishment this year was QUITTING SMOKING!!! July 17 was the last real cigarette I had. I had an electric cigarette for a bit, but I don't remember when I gave it up! During week 1 I listed all my goals for 2013. 

GOALS 2013....

1- quit smoking----DONE- I feel great since I quit smoking! Everything tastes better since I quit smoking!

2- Family Time- DONE- every Sunday is family day!  This is how we spent this last Sunday. Teaching the youngest to IMessage! She was so excited that she could text her daddy, sissy and mommy.... Oh and did I mention she has figured out how to video chat too? She can call her grandmother now! 

3- Get Organized- DONE- operation-kitchen-reorganization, Adysons Room I would like to organize my room and closet in 2014!

4- Eating Healthier- DONE- I no longer buy the boxed/frozen meals. I read labels of the products I buy. I'm cooking healthy! Buying healthier cuts of meats. Buying more veggies and fruits! 

5- Exercise- I have been a little sporadic with this. I plan on improving this in 2014. I have gone through Pinterest and found 100's of pins for exercise and pinned them to my board. 

6- Read More (52 book in 2013)- My last count was 13 pleasure books and 17 educational/informational... not too far off!! 

7- Brain games- I loved this challenge. I did use up all the crossword puzzles, Sudoku books I had. Now I have them on my phone and ereader! So I can play them all the time and be more Earth friendly! 

8- Blogging- Considering this is my 1st year of blogging I think I did alright. I have lots of ideas for next year to improve! If you have any suggestions let me know! 

9- Be More Positive- This was a tough one. Everyone has moments of frustrations, anger, its just a part of life. However I really tried to keep good spirits through it all this year! I am going to focus on only positive in 2014. 

10- Crafts- I may not have done 1 craft a month (which was the goal) I did more then I had done in 2012 (which was NONE) my favorite craft was the Halloween Village, Halloween Soaps, Laundry Soap, bath soaps, Christmas Ornaments. OK so I had fun doing them all!!!! 

11- Music- FAILED-  I am going to start over in 2014! 

12- No Chemicals- I tried lots of things this year. Most of them worked. I had a few fail. The biggest disappointment was dish soap I was really hoping to make my own stuff. After tons of research and several recipes everything failed. It failed because my water is too hard! So I found commercial stuff by 7th generation that is more natural and Earth friendly. 

13- Gardening- This went OK. Not as prosperous as I thought! But I am gaining experience and thats what matters! But I did have great luck with African Violets I'm very proud of that! I plan on starting more in February!  This is what they look like now almost 6 months later! I am so proud!! I am going to do many more in 2014

I had a wonderful year. I am blessed! I learned a lot about myself and my family in 2013. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us! 

See you all in 2014!!