Routines

Before I had Cloe and Blake I had several different "routines" - Every Sunday night I would give myself a microderm abrasion treatment, Sundays were Soup Sundays - i made a different soup, I did sit ups and push ups everyday, I saw my friends (which never seems to happy now) ..... Now I am lucky if I wash my face before I go to bed :-)

With 2012 one of my goals is to incorporate some of my routines back into my life - they made me feel better and I was happier.

What routines do you have?

Fall Decorating Ideas

Anyone have any good, but simple, fall decorating ideas for inside and outside?

Negative vs. Positive

Well, the rush of summer has kicked in, and looking at the schedule it's not going to slow down any.  I don't know about you guys but we have something every weekend (Graduation parties, birthday parties, weddings ..... the list goes on)  up till our vacation - then yes .... a 2 1/2 week vacation!!  I think I am going to need a vacation from our vacation, hahaha!! 

So, what's my point??  The point is, although we are all busy, we still need to find time to enjoy the things that really matter in our lives.  I say this because I am probably the worst person at actually doing this.  I am always going, and never enjoying.  I am always worrying about making everyone else in my life happy and not realizing what I need or doing the things that I need to really be happy.  And when I do, I feel guilty for not being at home or doing the stuff around the house that needs done.

Why is it as women, we try and please everyone besides ourselves?  Is that the way we are suppose to be or is that the way we are made to be?  That is an odd question but one that I have really been thinking about a lot lately.  But really, does it matter?  Does it matter if this is the way we are suppose to be or the way we have been made to be?  Not really - I think as long as you (i.e. I) realize it, then it can be changed so that joy also comes out of making others happy. 

I think this is also dependant on the people that surround you.  If you are around positive people, you will be positive.  If you are around negative people, you will be negative.  So my question is, if you are around negative people - can you still be positive?  And how do you turn the negative into a positive, can that be done?

Anyone???

Philadelphia Cooking Cream

Have you heard of these yet,?  Have you tried them?  If you haven't - go to the store and pick one up this weekend.  I had a coupon (yes I use coupons and that is a topic for another blog) so I bought two different ones, original and santa fe.  I made the recipe on the back of the santa fe container the other night and it was delicious - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas!  Justin even liked them, said he would eat them again - and he did last night as left overs.

Each container comes with a recipe on the back as well as a little recipe booklet that has a couple additional ones in it.  I am going to try Chicken Bruschetta Pasta next week.  I will let you know know how it turns out.

I found this to be a very easy weeknight meal that didn't take a lot of prep or cooking time and turned out really good.  I made Spanish rice and refried beans to have along with the enchiladas - yummo!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend - I am off to change a stinky diaper :-)!!!

Is 21 months to young for a toddler bed?

Cloe has always gone to bed with no problem. We can lay her down and with minimal fussing she just lays there and goes to sleep. Well something has changed .... the last two nights when i put her to bed, she just screams and she has figured out how to climb out of her crib. I am afraid she is going to get hurt but i think she's too young for a toddler bed. I don't remember when I transitioned Elijah into a toddler bed - he didn't sleep in it anyway. He hated his room being upstairs by himself .... but that's a totally different story! BTW, he's 13 today - can you believe it?? Any thoughts?

Fabric softener

who uses it - HOW and when do you use it .... what kind do you use?

I have never used fabric softener but I have recently thought that might help some of the laundry issues I am having. With that said, I alway thought it was something that you had to add after the washer ran for a while .... which would NEVER work for me. I put the laundry in and forget about it till later.

thoughts ... recommendations???

Organizing Bills

OK so .... I can't stand having all this paper around - so I am looking for suggestions on how to organizing and store bills.

How do you track, record payment / confirmation numbers so you can reference payments and do you keep the paper documents? I have files of paper bills that i want to get rid of and keep electronically somehow.

I started using Mint.com for my budget - although I haven't had time to really dig into it yet, but I don't think I can log confirmation numbers on payments that come out of my checking account. I can categorize things so i can run reports on utilities, groceries, etc ....

Any thoughts / recommendations??