When I...

When I finally wrap my head around the events of the past two weeks I promise that I will fill you all in.  I must admit I have realized that when I get nervous I get writers block. I know me? Have nothing to say...never?  I actually have so much to say just not sure how to express it in writing.  I was thinking of recording me doing an interpretive dance but I thought that may be a little out there.  I also thought about maybe doing a little video diary, like a "Momma Cam"  but every time I tried to video Addie played with the keyboard.  Instead I will continue to type so you will all have to be patient until my nerves settle down!

Cool for Teachers

I was on the Ann Taylor Loft website yesterday and noticed that they offer a discount to teachers.  I thought that was awesome and wanted to share in case anyone out there is a teacher!!  Here's the link.

This Week

This week has been very exhausting, exciting, emotional and evolving.  I have so much too share with you all but so little time.  I promise to carve out some time on friday to fill you in on what this crazy week is bringing me.  Tomorrow night is my first networking event, I'm calling it Cupcakes, Cocktails and Contacts so wish me luck that I won't be the only one there!!

Talk to you all soon.

Cinderella and the Tough Stuff

I have been struggling for awhile whether to keep Augie in daycare or to pull him and I must admit it has been a daily flip.  I know that for those of you that work full time, you are thinking "what???" I would give anything to be home with my kids, and I know exactly what you mean and that is part of the problem.  I feel like Cinderella and I'm waiting for midnight.  As I have said before me being a SAHM was never an option, so now that I am I feel like I'm living in a fairy tale world.  Part of what has kept me guarded by getting "too" comfortable is keeping Augie in daycare.  By doing this I am constantly reminded that staying at home is not an option and that at any moment I will find a job and will be thrown back into the reality that I dread the most.  But for now, part time daycare is a huge financial strain, and although I do work during that time, Addie doesn't let me work the whole time and pretty much my work becomes a wash on most weeks and I still find myself working at night. 

So although I have been battling with this for months, I have been battling it alone, I haven't spoke of it and have been going through all of the pros in cons in my head.  These pros and cons have come with multiple tears, Augie loves school, and I love getting some time for me alone with Addie.  Well today it all came to a head and I finally feel a release. My mom called me, we talk everyday so this is no surprise, but today she brought this up and man if I didn't attack and become super defensive.  I immediately got short with her, giving her every con I could think of and making her feel bad that she isn't closer to help me and so on and so forth.  When we got off the phone I thought "well who in the sam hill was that?!?!?....what just took over me"  I'm still not quite sure why I reacted like this but the only thing I can think of is that my mom uncovered the fraud that I feel like I've been.  Well I went into school and talked with the assistant director about pulling Augie and it went really well, one major issue is that I'm the school board president and will most likely have to resign, which I don't want to do.  Then tonight once we got home, I talked with Augie about it, I asked him what he thought about staying home and not going to school anymore, he looked at me and said "momma not work?" I said "ya, momma would work a little, but Augie wouldn't go to school anymore....what would you want to do?"  he responded "Augie wants to stay with momma"  and so it was decided.  I'm going to keep him in until May and then pull him.  I'm sure between then and now I will go back and forth a hundred times, just typing it now is making it hard to breath and I'm tearing up.  I told Jason that he has to give me more time on his day off and he said "sure, ok", which you all know what that means.

Thanks for walking with me down this next journey, and whether you pray or not, please think of me while I try to find my glass slipper and make this all work out.

PS I called my mom back and apologized, I never want her to feel like she can't suggest things to me, I cherish the open relationship that she and I have and I never want her to edit her emotions or feelings around me.  We all need to have someone that we can literally say whatever to and never feel judged.  She is that to me and I am forever thankful.

Free Shutterfly Book

Just got this code from Pampers for a free 7x9 photo book I'm not sure if it's shareable but I thought I would share in case it is.  GT62-3M0M-GRKR-8JRRZ3  Let me know if it works for you too!

5,000 Mark

Did you notice I reached the 5,000 view mark!!!!! Thank you so much for reading and for all of your feedback, I really do appreciate it.

Gold Stars

To follow up from my last post, when I was overwhelmed with house work my sister reccomended an app that she uses as well to help her with housework.  The app is called Home Routines and as simple as it is I am finding it so effective.  It breaks your day in to two segments; Morning Chores and Evening Chores, and then it breaks your home into Zones.  There are suggested things for chores and zones but everything can be customized.  As you complete each task you give yourself  a gold star and you can see how much you have accomplished for the day.
 I am really loving this and I am finding that this is just what I need to help keep my home in order.  My Morning Chores conisist of this:

• Start Washing Machine
• Check Calendar
• Breakfast Dishes
• Wipe Highchair and Table
• 15 minutes in Focus Zone

My Evening Chores are:

• Dinner dishes
• Wipe highchair and table
• Pick up toys
• Make coffee

Because I am not overwhelming my self on a daily basis of trying to clean the whole house at once, I find that since beginning to do this on Saturday my kitchen and dining room have stayed cleaned and yes my sink is still shiny!  So along with the help of the little fairy, Fly Lady and the home routines app I am confident by month end my whole house will have a deep clean that will be easily manigable for me to upkeep.  Which is a huge relief on my mind, body and spirit!

A Shiny Sink

I have found myself to be extremely overwhelmed this week  which typically leads me to being discouraged.  These two things always go hand in hand with me, like peanut butter and sticky stuff.  One of my biggest causes of overwhelment (is that a word?)  is with housework.  I actually do less of it since I lost my job. Although the addition of a child has something to do with it, the main reason is because when I'm not busy with the kids I feel like I need to be working to try to bring in some type of income.  Plus I'm always picking up toys, doing the dishes and tiding things, so finding time for major scrubbing, dusting or mopping just doesn't happen.

Yesterday I was on the phone with my sister who I might add is the Queen of household management.  Her organizational skills could be in the Guinness book of records.  If I could just do 1/5 of what she does I would be so happy, so when ever she gives me insight into her world I always listen with open ears.  She told me about a website called Fly Lady.  I decided to check it out, the premise is that she encourages you through baby steps and not conquering everything at once.  So I went to the intro page and she said to go shine your sink.  I thought "huh" and well "how shiny can my sink get."  Because we live in an older home most of our things have not been updated, with this being said cleaning can be very unrewarding when your hardwood floors don't shine and your bathroom caulk is stained.  But nonetheless, I took that little purple fairy's advice and when I woke up this morning I set out to shine my sink.  I followed her directions and filled both sides with bleach water to soak for an hour.  After my hour soak was done I began the scrubbing and shining process.  I even broke out the old toothbrush and scrubbed.  Now one thing the Fly Lady didn't address was the possible mayhem that may take place in your other rooms while you are shining your sink.  As I was elbow deep in soft scrub with my ipod blaring I realized that monkey 1 and monkey 2 were being awfully quiet.  I walked into the living room to find that Aug had gotten the craft bag out of the closet and all of the markers, crayons, paint and playdoh were strewn across the floor everywhere.  Fortunately I caught it before a major disaster happened.  After my quick pickup  I went back to shining.  Aug ran into the kitchen swiftly grabbed the tape from the junk drawer and was off.  I quickly put down my towel to see what he was up to and I found he had wrapped Addie up in a spool of ribbon and was taping it around her like a present.

Once I got them settled at the table for lunch, I did my last bit of shining and just like the purple fairy had said I felt great,  I had accomplished something!

Macaroni Kid

I found the Macaroni Kid newsletter in December and I must say it has been a lifesaver.  This is the National Link but you can select the city that you live in/near and subscribe to the newsletter via e-mail.  It is awesome, they send out a weekly e-mail listing all of the kid friendly events in the area in the upcoming week.  It really is a great resource for kids of all ages, she also has other tips and tricks.  I was very fortunate to get in contact with Bree the organizer of the Northwest Columbus Newsletter and she featured a little article that I wrote, link to my article.. It's the first time I have ever written something that has been included in something other than my trusty blog!!

Make sure to check it out!

Pregnant in Heels

Ok, maybe I am over reacting, but Jason flipped it to Bravo's new show Pregnant in Heels. Within 5 mins I felt my self getting extrememly irritated and secretly wishing bad things upon these people!  I mean these people don't even know how to name their own child?!?!? Has anyone else seen this show? 

Very Excited

So with my new Arbonne adventure it has really gotten my creative juices flowing, pair that with this blog and my faithful 13 or so followers and I've decided to embark on yet another adventure!  I know, I know I have a full plate but I'm super pumped.  What I am organizing is a twice a month get together.  I'm going to hold it the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at Urban Podiatry uncle Scot's office.  Which is a really cool building and he has done some amazing things to the property.  I of course have a million ideas for my little gatherings but my mission is to just bring women together to meet new friends, make new business contacts and just get out of the house and have fun.  I'm going to host/sponsor them so I will bring all of my Arbonne for people to try and fun things for us to do, I'm also going to invite different guest speakers or if other business owners want to talk about there services.  I'm really looking forward to it, and as I finalize everything I will keep you all posted.  I hope you can all come some time too!!

Now I'm trying to think of something fun to name it, I want to make up little postcards to put up at some different places.

Love Me Some BabyLegs

BabyLegs are on sale today on Zulily about 45% off!