Organizing and more

Most people go through a major spring cleaning but I am going through a major mid winter cleaning and organizing. It is hard to keep up with living in a house with so many people but it really needs work. I have been working for days now trying to get this house in some sort of order. It is hard to say the least. I am not for chore charts and all but I am hoping that everyone will pitch in and help once they see they need to help to keep it clean. The organization is another task altogether. It seems that people come in the house (I have this problem too) and just drop what they have and leave it. Esp. on the the kitchen table, counters, by the front door, in the living room. When they are doing something in the living room it just gets put on the living room tables and not put away. How hard is it to next time we are up to put it in it's proper place!!?? So from now on I am going to be doing several sweeps a day through the kitchen, living room and what is not put away is mine!!! Ok, I say this now but will I stick with it?? I guess I will have to see!!!

A coupon frenzy!!

Well, I have decided to REALLY try this time to get a hold of this couponing business. I am an at home mom and I feel like that is the best way I can "make" money for the household. Do my best to save money! I know it can be done it just takes time and effort, right?! Well, I started off this Sunday with my 4 papers. Unfortunately there were only 3 inserts in mine but 5 in some peoples but, oh well. I have been clipping off and on all day today and a little yesterday. I also went through last years coupons and got rid of all the ones that are expired. Hanni helped me with this by putting in piles all the ones with 10 at the end and 11 at the end. She was so excited about helping!! I am (hopefully) almost done with clipping from this weeks papers and ready to go through what I have and organize it all. Then I will go through ads and figure out what is on sale and where I can get the most "bang for my buck". I am not expecting to save a huge amount the first few weeks but I know if I stick with it over time my stockpile will fill up and we will need less and we will save more. Randy seems excited about this also and seems to be trying to learn about it! I am praying the Lord with guide me in this and help me to succeed not just for my own satisfaction of succeeding but for my family as well! It would certainly be nice to take a grocery bill one week and do something fun with the kiddos instead, or better yet, save our pennies!! I am sure the kids like the first option better. I guess once they figure it all out we will be compromising!! lol

New Year??

Well, it is now officially 9 hours into 2011 and I don't feel different at all. Except full. Yes, the food to celebrate New Years Eve and New Years is always awesome here! Just like every other changing of the year it is just another winter day. People make resolutions and usually by Jan 3 they are done with them so I don't make resolutions. I figure making life goals is great though but that can be done any time. Why do we have to wait until a new year to start to make better changes for ourselves. I personally have made a goal for us as a family to work together and be a better unit. I did this in December and so far so good! Now, not because it is a new year but because it needs to be done, I am making a goal to make more time for Randy and me. We are seriously lacking in us time due to his work, school, kids, my parents, other household responsibilities. I don't want us to be one of those couple who when the kids are older and the responsibilities are less that we don't know each other anymore. So that is a HUGE goal for me! I do hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year and I hope you all have many blessings this year!!

Our extended family gets smaller and our immediate family gets bigger

Well, our Turkey Day weekend took on an interesting twist. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving by the way. I cooked all week and made pies all day on Wednesday. Five pies and a cheesecake. For 7 people in the house, it is a bit much, but hey, we like our Thanksgiving sweets!!! I also made two turkeys!!! That is right TWO!!! For 7 people!! Why?? Well, I am used to making a 24-26 pound bird and this year I was stuck with a 13 pound bird. I didn't want to mess up my stuffing recipe so I just got 2 13 pound turkeys. They were both beautiful and yes, we will have plenty of leftovers, which is good! Randy and I also got up at 3:00 am and hit Toys R Us for sales Friday morning and I didn't even feel like I was sleep walking this year!!

Our interesting twist is, we will be expanding our family today. No, I am not pregnant!! Randy's cousin who is 15 will be coming to live with us! We have prayed and talked about this decision and decided it is the best thing for all of us involved. The kiddos are so excited and we are getting excited too. I will not go into all of the details but we will be picking her up today at around noon in Charlotte. Any and all advice on raising a teenager will be very much accepted and I would be grateful though since I and just entering that stage with Gracie and have no clue what we am doing. lol We are excited about this new journey and trusting God to guide us in this path. Please keep us in your prayers as we enter into this new venture of our lives!!

Life can get stinky sometimes so now is the time...

Life can definitely get stinky. I always try to stay positive though, to a fault. I have, however, decided what better time of year to be thankful. So for this little project of mine I have decided to find something to be thankful for each day. Sometimes while I think about it (yes, it sometimes takes me all day) I come up with a few. I am taking one or a few more of those things and putting them up on my facebook status each day at least until the end of November. Now I know many people have done projects like this but it is truly a great thing to do and really has shown me so far the blessings I have. Yes, some days can really be hectic and frustrating but there is always one different thing each day to be thankful for. I am extremely excited about this and so far have looked at each day a little differently since I started doing this. I try to never put a complaint on facebook, that is what I have my blog for. lol Although, I don't really have too many complaints in life, I have an awesome husband who loves me, sweet, loving children who really try to do their best to be their best, great parents who we have been able to make a great family life with, wonderful pets, a roof over our heads, warmth in the winter, cool air in the summer, food in our bellies, clothes on our back, and a lot of things to make our life comfortable. So do I really have much to complain about?? Well, maybe, since we do have some issues (mainly medical), more on those I'm sure in later blogs, but mostly I have tons to be thankful for!! So I am going to stick to my goal and pray that I inspire someone out there to see how much we do have to be thankful for no matter what is going on in one part of our lives. If nothing else we are blessed that we have a God that loves us and should be thankful for his promises.

I have been so lazy but...

Ok, so I was so excited to finally be blogging several months ago but what happened?? Life happened! I am going to try again though. I am going to make a goal for myself to post at least once a week on my personal blog and once a week on my family blog. There have been so many times that I have thought about picking up the computer and blogging but usually it is at the most inconvenient time so, yes, I have been lazy about it. I will try to get better though!
I did have the most incredible weekend! I say incredible because it was great but horrible. Yesterday morning my two youngest woke up extremely hyper. I knew they just wanted out. Out of the house, able to make noise, run around, and be able to be kids! Randy is working nights so they have to be quiet during the day usually. I had been researching for places to pick apples to take Eli on a field trip next week but realized that most of the places were closing quick (running out of apples) or already closed for the season. I figured, if we wanted apples we better go early in the week! Well, with the kids being so hyper I decided to go get apples yesterday. Unfortunately, Gracie wasn't able to go with us since she had a big project to do for school that is already late!! Ack!!! She was so good though at home and finished her project and did most of it on her own without Grandma's help! So proud of her!! So the two little ones and I made our trip up the mountain. I heard ooh and aah over all beautiful colors of leaves changing. They tried their best to take turns talking to me and each other. They chose Cracker Barrel for lunch without arguing over where to go! I got back in the car and headed towards the exit the waitress told us to go to for apples! Eli even held Hanni's hand in the car to comfort her crying because Mommy wouldn't buy her a crown at Cracker Barrel! Wow! I had to look in the back seat and make sure I got MY kiddos!! We get to the orchard and didn't expect to actually pick our own apples since it is so late in the season but surprise, we got to!!! We got the pick Mutsu apples!!! They are so tasty too!! I think it is my new favorite apple!!!! The people at the orchard we awesome also!!! We loved apple picking and will definitely go back next year a little earlier in the season as a whole family!!
Then this morning we got up and my sweet husband made cinnamon rolls and biscuits for the family!! Love it! I went out to get my paper and got home and the house was filled with smoke. Ok, there goes my great weekend. Randy went under the house and under our furnace was a place where rodents made a nest and their feces was on fire!! Yuck!!!! Fortunately, my husband was able to rid us of the problem so the house doesn't catch on fire. Ok, stop laughing and close your dropped jaw. At least, that was our reaction. Then my husbands flash drive was missing. We turned everything upside down looking for it and never did. ALL of his work for the semester is on there and other projects. So, we did have a rough day today and Randy has been working all day to try to re-do some of the work. Most of it he will have to do at the school though. Ugh! On a good note though, we made caramel apples with the apples we picked yesterday. We also had some great homemade popcorn. Spicy-sweet kettle corn and low country boil popcorn! We are definitely enjoying this cold fall weather as a family and loving the season!! I am really going to try to blog more but if I don't I will try not to be too hard on myself. I am probably just enjoying my family!!

A little early but we do have a birthday coming up

Eli's birthday is the next in the house. His birthday is still over two months away but with his birthday we really need more planning due to Gracie's schedule over the summer. Whether she will be here or not. Will we be gone, should we wait for her to return? She is usually in Florida with her other grandparents during Eli's birthday so it does take some planning. We don't usually do big parties with the kids though so that is a good thing but still, we have to plan so we know what we are doing somewhat. Well, over the past couple of years, Randy and I have gone to Florida to pick Gracie up from her grandparents. Last year, for the first time, we took Eli and Hanny with us. We stayed a couple extra days and had a blast. The kids loved it and especially loved the beach. Eli held a huge love for the beach! He loved the shore, sand, and would even sit with me on the beach and just watch and listen. He didn't go into the water as much as the girls and loved playing in the sand, although he did do his share of time in the water. He just really loved the beach. I was thinking since we do have to get Gracie around the time of his birthday, we celebrate his birthday at the beach. That would definately mean sacrifices though. We usually celebrate the kids birthdays with my parents and they wouldn't be there to celebrate. :( Also, Eli wants a skateboard, which isn't quite decided on (do they come with bubblewrap for the kids protection), and he wouldn't have a place to try it out if he got one. Randy also wants to go to his mom's in LA if possible when we go pick up Gracie and that would really limit our time to do this, if we even can. Randy only has four days off and that isn't much time to do everything. I really want to do E's bday in FL but Randy is pushing to do it in LA. Also, the cake situation? I really want to make a cake this year. I would have to order it online at least to have it by the time we celebrate. All in all, with Eli's love of the beach though it seems so perfect to have a party at the beach for his birthday though. I guess we will have to have alot more thought and more adult family discusion about this whole thing to figure out what we are going to do!