Monday

Was hoping for a better week this week, but if Monday is any indicator how this week will go I'm going back to bed and waking up next week.

Had an appt at 9, got that done and was home around 10:15ish. About 10:22 I got a phone call from school that Audrey was in the office with a 101 fever and complaining of an ear ache. Off to get her and head to the doctor. Confirmed she had an ear infection. UGH!! Hoping she will feel better for school tomorrow as she has a speaking part in the assembly and she is not happy that she might miss it. This is huge for the 1st graders as they are leading the assembly for the first time. She really wants to be able to go. At least it's just an ear infection and not something that she could share with others.

I have no menu planned yet so that post will go up later, but I did want to share Audrey's good news. Last Thursday while I was helping at school I got an email from her gymnastics coach that she is ready to move to Beginner 2. When I told her she was so excited. I pulled her aside after school and said "Audrey in March you don't get to go to Beginner 1 gymnastics anymore." At first she got a sad look on her face and then suddenly it turned into the biggest smile I have ever seen on her. She said "I get to go to Beginner 2????!!!!!" She has been practicing so hard on everything and is having so much fun. Hopefully she will feel good enough to go to gymnastics tomorrow night too.

Audrey watching craft videos on the Build a Bear app!

Last week

WHOOSH!!!! Was crazy, insanely busy and crazy. Hoping for a much calmer week. Back Monday with a menu plan(I hope), some exciting Audrey news and so much more(maybe not all on Monday, but the menu and Audrey news will be). I need a week of normalcy again. I am craving more structure and control.

I am...

very sleepy!! Didn't fall asleep until after 2am and then was awake at 4:45 because Audrey needed water and again at 6:30 when the alarm went off.

trying to drink more water and less pop, but today called for a Dr. Pepper to wake me up.

working on finishing a banner for a bride and dreaming of all the things I want to do for the upcoming wedding season. And graduation!

reading all I can about SEO and feeling very overwhelmed and excited at the same time.
 
hoping the headache I dealt with all day yesterday and most of the night is due to the bipolar weather Missouri is going through. Snow on Monday and thunderstorms possible today. Mother Nature, please decide what season it's going to be.

catching up on shows like Parenthood and Covert Affairs. Also loving the new show Jane by Design on ABC Family. I love that the underdog girl is getting the dream guy.

loving using PayPal for shipping. Why have I never used it before???? Seriously so easy and they will pick it up for me. Considering our post office is downtown and has a parking lot of about 10 spots in a town of 100,000+ not including college students this will seriously be a huge time saver and good for my mental health.

looking forward to watching the Snoopy Valentine's Day movies tonight. We haven't watched them yet and even though yesterday was Valentine's Day, there's no reason not to watch them tonight!

thinking I need to do some reorganizing of my craft area. I feel like lately I'm losing my mind when it comes to finding things. Might work on that this evening.

 A glimpse of the banner for a bride. I have glitter all over my hands!!
 

10 on Tuesday Valentine's Day edition

Gotta show a little love for Valentine's Day. Since Valentine's Day is all about love, my 10 on Tuesday is going to be about love, well the things I love.

1. I'm a huge Google lover as it is and when they do Google Doodles I love reading about why they did the doodle they did. The Google Doodle in honor of Valentine's Day is AMAZING! So cute, reminds me a bit of the movie Up!

2.The new shows Smash and Alcatraz. There is something about the "boss" guy on Alcatraz that irks me. Part of me thinks he has something to do with all the guys coming back. I could be wrong, but somehow he rubs me wrong.

3. This article. LOVE the little girl and the mom. Glad the mom although she probably wanted to tell her daughter you don't have to color this, but she knew in order to teach her daughter about respect for teachers she knew she had to make her color it.

4. Learning. I really wish I could go back to school, but right now it is not in the cards for me. So instead I'm learning on my own. Right now my focus is on graphic design and SEO(search engine optimization), mostly for things I'd like to do with Pink Owl.

5. Quotes, I have a stack of quotes that I love. I'm always searching when I check pinterest, twitter or reading articles for something that speaks to me. Words are amazing!!

6. Time alone. I know that love is supposed to be about loving others, but I also believe that if you don't love yourself it's hard to love others. For me one of the things I NEED is time alone, and not just once in a while, but almost on a daily basis. It doesn't have to be hours, sometimes just 30 minutes. That is hard for me to get, unless I get up really early, which is hard because I also love my sleep.

7. When it comes to romance I love the little things. Sure big grand things are great, but it's the little things that matter. Anyone can plan one big thing, but it takes a real person in love to come up with the little things. The little moments, the sweet notes left on random days.

8.  Hearing Audrey read to me. She hasn't always been the biggest fan of reading so hearing her be excited to read makes me happy.

9. Having more adult type talks with Dart. Not on adult issues, but his understanding of things has changed so much over the last few months. The talks we have are so much fun. Getting his view on things and listening to him talk about his hopes and dreams is so much fun. It makes those moments when he is in full on pre-teen attitude mood so much easier.

10. LIFE!! Life comes with ups and downs and days where you just want to crawl in bed and pull the covers over your head, but then there are moments that you sit back and think "I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life," and it makes those bad days so much better.

Menu Plan Monday

Late getting this up, but a snow day has me all off my routine.

Monday-Cheesy Skillet Mac and Beef. So originally on the plan was Clam Chowder, but with the snow day I didn't leave the house and we didn't have enough milk to make Clam Chowder so I had to improvise!
Tuesday-Hot Dogs and Mac and Cheese Yes we had mac and cheese Monday, but this is a side. Gymnastics night needs something easy too.
Wednesday-Tacos-YUMMY!!
Thursday-Cheesy crock pot chicken-Have to set up book fair so an easy night will be nice.
Friday-Sunday-Out of town! Who knows what we will be eating, but I don't have to worry about it.

12 on 12

I totally forgot to post my 12 on 12 from January and it's now almost the 12th of February.

We got lucky on the 12th of January and had a snow day.

Top row: Dart curled up in his snuggie watching a movie. Audrey curled up in her blanket. A normal mess from Hurricane Audrey, cup on it's side. A look out the backyard.
Middle row: Spree candies helping me while I work. The makings of a Valentine's Day mini book on my table. Dinner was Hot Pot stew. Audrey playing on the I-Touch!
Bottom row: Audrey designing something, she is always drawing. A look at the movies the kids watched. Audrey's homework that we almost forgot about. Arrested Development on Hulu, love that show!

Hopefully I will be a little more on top of getting 2-12-12 on the blog.

10 on Tuesday

1. Favorite Super Bowl commercial is up in the air for me, I'm thinking the M&M's one



2. Saturday night was one of the best basketball games I've seen. MU beat KU 74-71. My brother said it was the loudest and craziest thing he's ever been to. So glad he got to go.

3. Winter is supposed to show up this weekend, minus the snow. Just cold. Hoping it will kill the crud in the air that has made allergies an issue for me this WINTER!! Seriously, it's winter, shouldn't be complaining about allergies.


4. Have you seen the cute cups at Starbucks????

5. Loving season 2 of The Voice. Have a few I like, I think right now Jesse or Tony are my favs. Loved Smash too. Didn't catch all of it so I will be watching it on Hulu tonight or tomorrow.

6. I also have season 1 of Downton Abbey to watch. Everyone seems to like it so I can't wait to watch it.

7. I know May is still a few months away, but I've started working on graduation designs. I'm making banners, cards, and picture announcement cards. Thinking about some kind of mini books too!

8. I'm really proud of myself. I painted my nails before Christmas to keep myself from biting them and so far so good. I haven't kept them painted, but I also haven't been biting them. I don't want them long so when they start to get too long and I want to bite them down I've been trimming them. I just might earn myself a manicure this year!!

9. I think the Full Moon is going to make me crazier. Dart has been crazy!!! 10 year old boys are just plain weird and when you add the full moon it makes them worse! Oh and the attitude comes out!

10. Audrey has gymnastics tonight, the 2nd night this week. She had a makeup class last night and tonight is her regular night. She is in HEAVEN! I think she'd go everyday if she could. She is loving it and working hard.

Blah!

Phil saw his shadow this morning, telling us 6 more weeks of winter. What he failed to tell us is when winter might show up to have 6 more weeks of it.

Feeling very blah today. Allergies are kicking my butt since it went from fall to spring. Think I might have a cold on top of it, hard to tell when all I'm doing is sneezing and blowing my nose to begin with.

Going to take it easy today and possibly watch lots of Gilmore Girls season 1.

35 before 36 update

1. Get rid of 60lbs. I don't want to lose it because you usually want to find things you lose.-Haven't done as good as I hoped, but we are getting a lot of the junk out of the house and that makes me happy.
2. Menu plan, will save time, money and help with 1.-Almost every week. I'm so happy, we've tried new stuff and found some really good meals. Has made things so much easier at dinnertime. 
3. Eat breakfast everyday. I'm horrible about eating breakfast.-Not good, this is going to be a bigger focus in Feb. Have you seen Peanut Butter Cheerios??? Seriously, probably not the best but YUM.
4. Get all recipes on cards. I might use them more if I don't have to dig through a box.-I made a good dent in them in Jan. It's so nice to have them on cards.
5. Get the kids in the kitchen to help cook more. They both usually enjoy it.-Audrey has helped almost every night. She is really enjoying it and dare I say, actually trying more things.
6. Read "Little Women". My name came from the book and yet I've never read it.-Not yet.
7. Get my first mani and pedi. Nope never had one!-Not yet
8. Start going to church again. I haven't gone consistently in several years.-No
9. Watch "The Wizard of Oz" This movie scares me to death. -No, but I did see the library has it.
10. Get to and maintain at least 65 items in my store.-At 55 right now. Working on some new things and a big idea.
11. Add digital cards to my shop.-No
12. Hold a couple of sales in my shop.-Planning on one in Spring
13. Find ways to cut shipping and supply costs.-Did some searching because of an idea I'm working on. Still working on getting it all figured out.
14. Add wedding invites, programs and guest books to my shop.-No
15. Add American Girl clothes to my shop.-Was hoping to have something already, but it's not finished.
16. Get my vision of "Colorful Minimalist" into my products and shop. Will blog more about this later.-Still working on, this will most likely be a year long project.
17. Learn calligraphy. Maybe not the "traditional" style, but I want to explore more with handwriting.-Pinned some ideas, now to just sit and work on them.
18. Learn more about graphic design. Can't afford to go back to school now so I will teach myself some.-Played around with some things. Been pinning and studying a lot of the things I like.
19. Teach Audrey to sew. I wish I would have learned when I was younger!-That will happen this summer.
20. Make mini books for me and to sell.-Made 1 and have sketches of 2 more on my table and another in progress.
21. Do more DIY items.-Pinning like crazy, just need to find time to do.
22. Do something creative everyday. Even just something small.-I honestly think I have. Even if it was just something simple like pinning inspiring ideas.
23. Do 12 on 12 every month. Take 12 pictures on the 12th every month.-Just realized I haven't blogged January, will do that this week.
24. Give more handmade items. Even if I'm not the one to make them.-Haven't had a chance this month, but Valentine's Day is coming.
25. Send/give cards every month to someone just for fun.-Not really fun, but I sent one to my Grandpa's sister after she had surgery. I did get a note from her that she loved it and it brightened her day, that is why I send them!
26. Project 365. There are several sites for this, but I found a site that will email me a prompt everyday.-SUCCESS! at least for January. I didn't always do what the prompt was, but I did something everyday!
27. Clean up external hard drive completely. Started good last year and then went downhill.-Still working on, but making good progress.
28. Blog at least 5 times a week.-Had a week this didn't happen, but it was a rough week all around.
29. Be less crazy about things like how the kids pick up their room and put away their clothes.-I CLEANED Audrey's room earlier this week, so hopefully it stays that way!
30. Be more patient. I am so not a patient person.-I've found myself asking for more patience a few times, this will also be a year long okay, life long thing.
31. Declutter. 40 bags in 40 days! You can find lots of info on the web about it.-1 bag of trash from Audrey's room and a bag for Goodwill!
32. Stop biting my nails. I don't want them really long, but I want them to have a little nail to them.-When I found myself starting to bite them I got out the clippers and trimmed them. They still look good.
33. Play more games with Dart and Audrey. We have a ton of board games and a ton of Wii games.-Played a few with them. We moved them from where they used to be so it's a little easier to do now.
34. Keep inbox and google reader cleaned out. They got out of control several times this year.-Email only has 1 thing in it and it's something that I need to keep there to remind myself to do it everyday. Google Reader has stayed fairly cleaned out.
35. Enjoy life more!!-Year long, but I'm doing good!