I love being a freak!

I'm kind of a freak when it comes to certain things.... like lists. I really like to be organized but most of the time I'm not. Lists help me with this. Jon makes fun of me and says that I always make lists but never look at them. Well, sometimes even writing it down helps me to sort things out in my crazy brain.

One of the things I've been struggling with lately is managing my time. I seriously have no clue how I had time to work and be a mommy. Both Jon and I can't seem to figure out where my time has been disapearing to. Well.... I mean.... I spend too much time on Facebook (working on that!) but sometimes it feels like my time just disapears into thin air. This leaves a TON of things left undone and me feeling frustrated and cranky. No bueno.

So, here's what I did: I made a list! Three lists to be exact. One for the things that I need to do. One for the things I have to do (no, it's not the same thing), and one for the things I want to do. Then I pulled out my calendar for the week. I love this calendar it even has a mobile app for Androids that allows me to share all the things we have to do as a family with my husband. It is amazing. Anyway, I took the lists and added the things I HAVE to do (like take Zoey to school, Girl Scouts, Young Womens, Scripture Study, etc)first. Then I put in the things that I need to do (like laundry and cleaning out the garage). Next, I put in the things that I WANT to do (like having dinner with friends, reading, and watching my shows). I found a TON of free time! I'm so excited to see how this works out. Hopefully this will help me to get more things done. I'll keep you posted!

Starting an Additional Blog

Hey guys!



I don't want to be one of those people who are constantly creating new email addresses and blogs and blah blah blah. BUT.... I got this idea for a blog not too long ago and I want to get it going.



I have a couple guilty pleasures when it comes to blogs.

The first? I love to click on my friends blogs and then up in the top right corner of the screen hit "Next Blog". I have found the COOLEST blogs this way! I seriously can sit and click "next blog" for hours. I don't know these people... I've even randomly and anonymously commented on some of their posts. I know it's geeky but what can I say.



Second guilty pleasure? This is a new one for me. I was reading a friend's blog and he pointed out that one of HIS guilty pleasures was to check his "stats". I didn't even know what that meant until he posted that blog. NOT FAIR, CHARLIE! I was totally cool not knowing how many people view my blog. But now that I know how to check, I do it all the stinkin time.



Okay...back to the new blog thingy. Well one day while I was browsing through blogs I stumbled across a blog of a family who had lost their baby over the summer while they were on vacation. I had mentioned this in a previous post a few months ago. This poor family lost their little girl so suddenly and were totally devastated by it. In order to cope with their grief the family started writing letters to the baby as if she were still alive but on a vacation or somewhere far away. I thought it was a great way to deal with such a hard loss. I dwelt on this idea for quite awhile and then I had this thought: I thought it would be so neat for my kids to have letters written by their mommy that they can look back on as they get older, and maybe even after I'm gone. So I wanted to start a blog writing letters to my kids about the little things that are easily forgotten over time. The things that I cherish so much right now. BUT then my idea grew again on me. I don't want to limit it to ONLY my children. I thought I could start a blog of letters to everyone who touches my life.



I'm not FANTASTIC as writing letters, but I do think that I can put my feelings and thoughts better in writing than speaking them. Did that make sense? LOL



So here's the deal, I'm starting a new blog. I'll keep this one for more detailed explanation of things going on in my life, but will probably update the other one more often. Thanks for being such great friends and following my blog. I hope you'll follow this one too! http://http://lettersfromme2you.blogspot.com/

Thanks Guys! I love ya!

You've Got Mail!

Lately it seems like the universe is trying to tell me something about the order of my house. It started a few weeks ago when I spent the entire day cleaning my house from top to bottom, only to have it completely annihilated within a few hours. I was so frustrated I "boycotted" cleaning my house for the next few days. That's when it got really really messy. We're talking out of control messy. Which equaled more and more frustration with the help I've been getting... or not getting I should say.


A few days later I saw a post on one of the blogs I follow with a cute idea of how to encourage your kids to do their part. The post showed little letter sized chore cards that had point values assigned to them. They then had two sets of mailboxes; one for each child and one for the parents. In the morning the mom would put the "letters" into their mailboxes showing them which chores they needed to complete. The mom would then flip the flag up to let them know they have mail. When the chore is complete they put the chore card back into the mommy/daddy mailbox to track points earned. I knew as soon as I read the idea that it would be perfect for my kids. They LOVE to pretend to play mailman! I put this idea on the back burner and continued my daily routine for a few days.


That next Sunday our 1st counselor in YW was teaching a lesson on organization/cleanliness/attitudes. She had the girls (and leaders) do a quick word association with words like Home, Parents, Dark, My Room, Messy. You should have seen the words I associated with my room and messy.... not pretty. One of my answers was literally "Ughhhh!" I knew that I needed to make a change in this home.



Yet again, a few days later my husband and I went to Target to do some birthday shopping for Jon's oldest son, Trevor. When we passed the dollar section I noticed these: (SOOOO EXCITED!) PERFECT! So each of us have our own little mailbox that will have our chores in it. I then went and created a few little letters with the chores I hold my kids responsible for using paint.net and laminated the letters.

I haven't implemented our new system yet because Zoey's been sick all week but I can't wait! The kids are pretty excited too. I'll let you know how it goes!

Kind of a dumb random post but it's pretty much all that's going on in my little life. hee hee I'll write more next week when we get home from our quick trip to Roosevelt.