Flu has hit and gone

My husband, my second son and I all had the flu this past week.  I haven't had the flu since I was twenty and it is no fun. Especially when your spouse is sick at the same time and you have a one year old to take care if.  Let's just say she watched a lot of Dora the past week.  But thankfully we are on the mend and starting to get back to normal. 

Photos January 7

Cleaned and rearranged boys playroom. Much better but will be a pain when it comes time to paint. 

Do I smell something burning?

Found this on top of a light bulb that was on. So glad I found it in time. 

Snowmogaden 2014

Of course the day we get over a foot of snow my husband has the flu. Three driveway shovels later and I am exhausted.  

 

I just shoveled ten minutes ago.  

Year in photos - January 5

Look where I found my daughter (16 mo). 

Year in photos - January 4

Busy day.  In laws came for a visit and instead of staying overnight left before the snow storm starts tonight. We opened gifts and had a wonderful visit. Forgot to take pictures in all the mess but here is one of wonderella the stuffie Poppa gave my daughter. 

Restorative discipline

We have needed to do some sort of new discipline system in our house for the past couple of months.  The boys have forgotten how to listen and be kind to each other.  My second sons classroom uses this system of discipline with card flipping and the ability to go up or down.  I tried a ladder type approach to this before and it worked well.  With this one we start fresh each day and the consequences and rewards are clearly stated and given immediately. Let's hope this turns their behavior around for 2014.  

Granted it's not perfect pretty like my craftier friends would create but I managed to create it in 30 minutes and that's all the time I had to give to this.  I will update in a couple weeks on our progress. 

Year in photos - January 2

First snow of 2014 

How to Organize Pinterest?

That is what I need.  I started with Pinterest early on when it wasn't as big as it is now and didn't realize I would need a whole organization set to my boards and now that I have 3,000 pins I realize hey it's kind of hard to find things when I need them.  So where is my 30 days to organize your Pinterest challenge?  

Let's see if I can create one really quick (side note - why am I so stuck on this 30day challenge thing?)

Day 1 - Decide on what categories you need for your boards.  Write then down on a piece of paper

Day 2 - Ponder some more on these names to make sure you've got everything you need.

Day 3- Make a written list of your current boards so you can check off the ones you've cleaned out.

Day 4 - Create the new boards you need from the list you made on days 1 and 2.

Day 5 - Start with a board that has the least pins and review.  Move pins to appropriate boards if necessary.

Day 6 - Move on to the next board. Make sure to cross off the boards you complete on your list from day 3.

Day 7 - Continue this process until all your boards are cleaned out.  Some boards may take 2-3 days depending on size.  

Day 8 - Keep the list of your board categories handy so you remember to pin things to the right places.  

Ok so not 30 days but the best I can come up with in 5 minutes.  Good luck and happy pin organizing!

January 1 - 2014 - Year in photos

Let's see if I can actually keep this up.  One year of photos from each day.  I'm cheating a little already since it's the 2nd and I didn't actually take any photos yesterday so I'm going to use one from NYE. 

New Year - Let's get it started

Welcome 2014!  It's a new year and of course I have the I want to completely revamp me, my house, my fitness, my motherhood, what kind of wife I am attitude and realize whoa!  that is way too much and I will not be able to do it all.  But in my face on my Pinterest feed are all sorts of 30 day challenges that tie to the new year.  The 30 day Mom challenge, the 30 day plank challenge, the 30 day squat challenge, the 30 day marriage challenge, how to save money by putting a little away each week for the year, the 30 day fitness challenge, the 30 days to an organized house challenge…. you get my point.  Who doesn't love Pinterest but at the same time think that it's a little unrealistic.  Granted I get some wonderful ideas and inspiration from Pinterest but also I pin a lot of things I never even look at or read.  I think... oh I should do that / read that some time.  But let's be real.  My computer time is limited to minutes here or there and the likelihood of me actually following through with anything is well - slim.

Take this blog for example.  How many times have I posted how I really want to keep up with it?  Well how many times have I thought I should come on here and post how I don't keep up with it? You wouldn't know because I don't ever actually do it.  

My husband would say that's a classic me.  I have grand ideas that I am some superwoman that can do it all and accomplish anything that comes to my head but then my actual time ability and focus doesn't quite live up to that.  Although I feel I can attribute a lot of that to my 4 little distractions called children.  Oh wait make that 5 - children and husband.  Oh wait 6 - children, husband and house.  Oh wait 7 - children, husband, house and computer/phone.  Ok so maybe I have a little ADD - but honestly who doesn't.  There are so many distractions in this computer driven world.  

I'm sure you've seen on your Facebook feed that article "I'm getting a divorce in 2014"  The premise is that our iPhones are taking over our social lives and we ignore our real life relationships because of phones.  Now I would go farther and say this applies to not only phones but laptops, and tablets as well.  I know my husband and I sit at night with the tv on with our phone/tablet/computer in front of our face.  So not only are we not talking interacting with each but we also have two devices on at once leading to even further distraction and less interaction.  So I totally get the premise of the article.  The key though is moderation and balancing it.  It's easy to get sucked into Facebook, instagram, linked in, twitter, pinterest, blogs, etc. and before you know it - you're hooked.  just need to balance our unhooked time as well.  Thankfully my daughter manages that for me since she won't let me be in front of the computer at all while she is awake.  

So what's my point…. well I guess it's that I'm human and I need work like the rest of us.  We should always be trying to better ourselves.  But like everything else it's about balance and consistency.   Yes I want to try to improve things this year.  Those things include every aspect of my life but I need to remember to balance it and take it slow.  Don't they say it's 30 days for a new habit to form?  I guess that is why all the challenges are 30 days…(sidetrack!)  So maybe my 30 day challenge is to blog more and keep up with my improvements and see if I really can revamp some of my in 2014.