Resolve to Spend 5 Minutes a Day

How many times have you looked around and thought, “I wish I had the time to organize my (you fill in the blank here)…”?

Well, this year I’ve resolved myself to start small – with 5 minutes a day. If those tasks can add up to mountains in 5 minutes a day, then mountains can be tackled 5 minutes a day, too.

I am going to work on my craft room. Now, just need to pick me up a new timer since mine broke but in the meantime I will use my kitchen microwave timer.

If you would like to join me please leave a comment at Clutter Control Freak Blog

New Year Fun - 2008

Kelli at "There's is no place like home" is doing this really cute feature. Here's what she said:

With the New Year right around the corner, this is the perfect time for a peek through the past year of blogging. I would love for you to join in with me!

Post the first sentence of your first blog post of each month. You can also add a favorite picture from each month.

January

A Photo a Day.

February

Well, on Monday the triplets had their 2nd Wacky Gym class.

March

Wow this month went fast.

April

Will this Spring be any different?

May

There appear to be many clouds; but they quickly pass.

June

I'm having a hard time trying to keep up with my every day stuff like menu planning.

July

Snap and Scrap is having a journaling challenge.

August

10 Happy Things

September

Here is a quick page I made using Groovy Gardening by Burkhart Scrapzone Designs

You can download it here.

October

My kids just love watching Hanna Montana.

November

I’ll tell you 7 things about me that have NOTHING to do with scrapbooking, just for fun…

7 things you don’t really need to know about me, but sadly, now will…

December

There is a brand new Club Deco kit over at Deco Pages for December and it is awesome so far.

2009 Book Club



In 2009, I decided to join an online book club. There will be 6 books for the year. Hopefully I will be able to keep up. Right now my book is on hold at the library so will start it as soon as I get it. I am trying to read Twilight as I'd love to see the movie but want to finish the book first.



Book 1:

Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

(Scroll down to read more info about our current selection…)

• reading dates: January 1 - March 5, 2009
• topic: money management
• pages: 400

Schedule for Book 1

January 1 - Preface to the New Edition and Prologue

January 8 - Chapter 1: The Money Trap: The Old Road Map for Money

January 15 - Chapter 2: Money Ain’t What It Used To Be - And Never Was

January 22 - Chapter 3: Where Is It All Going?

January 29 - Chapter 4: How Much Is Enough? The Nature of Fulfillment

February 5 - Chapter 5: Seeing Progress

February 12 - Chapter 6: The American Dream - On a Shoestring

February 19 - Chapter 7: For Love or Money: Valuing Life Energy - Work and Income

February 26 - Chapter 8: The Crossover Point: The Pot of Gold at the End of the Wall Chart

March 5 - Epilogue and Chapter 9: Now That You’ve Got It, What Are You Going To Do With It?

For more information go to Simple Mom.

Menu Plan Monday

I don't know what it is but menu planning to me is a lot of work and time. I just get so aggravated every time I try. It maybe the fact that every time I make a meal my family doesn't like it and I feel like I wasted my time. Anyway, I'm trying out a new system. I am using springpad to type in all my recipes and make a menu plan. It is great as it does make a shopping list easier. The only problem I am facing right now is that I can't figure out how to print up the recipes as it's only printing one page and not my entire list.

Sunday - Stir Fry (favorite)
Monday - BBQ Chicken Casserole (Crockpot) (new)
5 cup fruit salad (play date) (new)
Tuesday - Santa Fe Chicken (Crockpot) (favorite)
Wednesday NEW YEARS EVE- Potato Casserole (new)
London Broil (new)
Buffalo Chicken Dip (Crockpot) (All Time Favorite)
Thursday - BBQ Meatloaf (Crockpot) (new)
Friday - Cornbread or Regular Stuffing (new)
Chicken in Oven (new)
Saturday - Chuckwagon Chili (Crockpot) (new)

All About Me Album 2008

Check out the All About Me 8 x 8 album I made. I got the book for free and just had to pay for shipping.

If you sign up here you too can earn a free book too.

2 Days Left on my Ebay Sale

I am sick to my stomach. I can't believe there is only 2 days left for all my scrapbooking stuff and they are selling for way too low for what I actually paid for these things. Not to mention I have to pay a listing fee of 20% to the ebay store who listed these for me. Was it worth it? Okay, maybe I should calm down as there is still 2 days left so I could still have some hope. If the Bid links don't work below try searching for auctionmojo012 in the ebay store.

Alphabet punch set (Bidding price now is $9.95) I paid $100 or so for this brand new. It has hardly ever been used. So far no bids. Bid Here.


Creative Memories Albums and Tote (Bidding price now is $29.00) It is a 16 piece lot. 4 brand new scrapbooks size 8 1/2 by 11. They sell for $33 a book if you were going to purchase them from a CM consultant. 5 new page refills that sell for $15 each from CM consultant and 6 page protectors that retail for $7 each from CM consultant. Not to mention the Generations tote I think they are about $30-40. So you see why I am so upset about this. It's selling for less than one actual scrapbook. If you bought these items new it would retail for over $279. I just want to cry! Bid here.

30 sets of Close to My Heart Stamps (Bidding price now is at 26.56) What! That's less than $1 a set. If you purchased these sets from a CTMH consulant you would pay $12 or more per set). I paid $360 plus and it's right now selling at a little over $26? This is heartbreaking! Bid here.



Can you see my heart is breaking over my prized possessions. Why did I have to declutter my office? I should have kept everything for my children to enjoy for the prices that they are selling at.

Digital Printing

I found another website to print digital photo books in 8 x 8 size. It is called Arts Cow.

Right now they are offering 8 x 8 (39 page books) for 11.99 with coupon with free shipping when using my referral codes below.

Here are my coupon codes Expiration date

ZQCYFXT		Feb/09/2009
ZLQF5VH		Feb/09/2009
ZVB9W6U		Feb/09/2009
ZHUF5EG		Feb/09/2009
ZXCT8S4		Feb/09/2009
ZUTQ7DB		Feb/09/2009
ZM5GWRZ		Feb/09/2009
Z1RBGRF		Feb/09/2009
ZWBTC9U		Feb/09/2009
ZBXVBK2		Feb/09/2009

If the code is already used by a friend try using the next code as each code can only be used once. After the 10 codes are used I am able to get more codes.

Happy shopping.

Ebay Sale

I'm cleaning and decluttering my craft room. So far this is what I have for sale on ebay

Alphabet punch set
http://cgi.ebay.com/Family-Treasures-Full-40-pc-Alphabet-Punch-Kit-lc-MINT_W0QQitemZ350143842131QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842131&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Creative Memories Albums and Tote
http://cgi.ebay.com/16-Pc-Scrapbook-Lot-Creative-Memories-New-Sealed-Tote_W0QQitemZ350143842183QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842183&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

30 sets of Close to My Heart Stamps
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-30-Close-to-My-Heart-Stamps-by-MY-ACRYLIX-Mint-MIP_W0QQitemZ350143842268QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842268&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

So far the bids are at $9.97 but there are still 6 days left. Go check them out and good luck if you decide to bid.

Husband MEME

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? Hanna Montanna as he watches it every night with the children.

2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Thousand Island or Russian

3. What is one food he doesn’t like? Seafood

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Diet Sprite

5. Where did he go to high school? Port Richmond

6. What size shoe does he wear? 11.5

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Computers or any type of gadget

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Corned Beef

9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? Popcorn

10. What is his favorite cereal? Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch

11. What would he never wear? Bright colors

12. What is his favorite sports team? He doesn't watch sports

13. Who is his best friend? Me

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Be on the internet instead of cleaning up the house

15. How many states has he lived in? 2 states

16. What is his heritage? American

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? Ice Cream Cake (he loves carvel)

18. Did he play sports in high school? Not in high school

19. What could he spend hours doing? working

Fridays Fave 5

Hello and welcome to Friday's Fave Five. Thank you for coming by. I'm so sorry I am late with this. I've been working on the MOMS Club Newsletter for January and did manage to get 2 scrapbook pages done for my CT. If you're new, welcome. Join in. You can find details here.

Now on with my five!

1. Date Night With My Son. My girls had a dance party to attend where it was drop off no adults for 2 1/2 hours. I have never left them before and was a little hesitant about doing so. My children are now 4 years old so most places allow them to stay unsupervised. My son was a bit upset that he wasn't invited to the dance party but I told him that he'd spend some time with Mommy along like a DATE. So we went out for dinner. We went to Lobster Shanty. He was such a good boy too. He did tell me that he missed his sisters though. After dinner we still had an hour and 15 minutes to spare so we went to the mall. Even with the economy crisis the mall was extremely crowded. At the mall we went to the pet shop to look at the animals and then he rode on some rides. All in all, I think he had a great time. It's not very often we get to spend one on one time together.

2. Santa. I helped the kids write letters to Santa. We brought the letters to the library where they were able to sit on Santa's lap and give them their letter. I managed to get photos of 2 of them (Naomi and Justin). Victoria was deathly afraid of Santa and refused to sit on his lap or get near him. So I didn't get any photo of her with Santa.

3. Dropped Off Stuff to Ebay Store. I finally had the chance to get to the Ebay Store to drop off some of my scrapbooking things. I just don't have the time to upload everything I had and figured I might as well have someone do it for me. I am selling 2 alphabet punch sets, Creative Memory albums, 30 sets of my Close to My Heart stamp sets and a Generations Scrapbooking tote. I just don't use them and might as well get some money back for them. Here's hoping I make something back for everything. Everything will be listed on Sunday. Ebay seller name is Auction Mojo 012 if you are interested in looking at my stuff.

4. Rummage Sale. I went to the rummage sale at our local high school with the children. I promised them they could get something as they love yard sales. I spent $3. Naomi got a little pocketbook with a little dog that looks like this one. Of course, hers is stuffed.
Justin got 3 games. Monopoly Junior, yatzi Junior and Scrabble Junior. Victoria got a barbie doll. Not bad for only $3. Already we have played Monopoly and Yatzi a few times.

5. Excitement of the Lights. Now that it gets dark at 5 pm the kids get so excited while I drive around. They oooh and ahhh over all the lights on all the houses. This year they are even rating them saying I like this one better than the other one.

Blog Candy

If you love scrapbooking and card making check out Irina's blog Everything Paper Crafts! She is giving away blog candy this week. The drawing will be on Monday Dec 15th. For more details go here.

Grocery Savings and Donations

Take a look at what I got for $9.24 out of pocket. I literally sat down with the flyer and pulled out all my coupons for items that were on sale that I normally purchase. I had coupons for Chex cereal, Colgate toothpaste, Blistex, Jif peanut butter, Store coupon for lettuce plus a $25 gift card that I earned for free from last week's shopping. I saved $11.18 from price plus and $21.68 in coupons. I got 25 items see below.



I am in the process of decluttering my house. I got rid of 14 bags of clothing and toys. The triplet stroller, single stroller and children's desk they didn't take today but I called them again and they will be coming back to take them too. Trying to make room in the garage to get my husband's car in there. I have tried to sell my stroller with no luck so I am just going to donate it.

Gift Wrapping

I purchased the score-it mini a couple months ago and never took it out of the box. I recently saw some tutorials on splitcoaststampers and wound up making some boxes with my Stampin' Up paper. This first box was the first one I made the other night. Tonight I put the ribbon and button on it.

Tomorrow I have to bring a gift from home to a MOPS meeting. Well, this box I made by just looking at the gift. The fan was done by using my scor-it then glued down with glue dots. Also put a button in the middle. The ribbon is more of a brown shimmer but the photo doesn't show it correctly. It was fun making these boxes and I hope to make more in the month.

Crock Pot - Rice Krispies

Is it possible? I'm making Rice Krispy Treats in my crockpot. Can this really be done? Just dump and put on high for 1 hour. Hoping it works. Got the idea from A Year of CrockPotting. Beats waiting around on the stove for it to melt. I'm always looking for easier ways to make snacks and meals.

This is what it looks like after the kids got to it.


VERDICT: This is fast and easy. Definitely will be making this again. The kids loved it.

Fridays Fave 5

It is going to be difficult finding 5 things this week that made me happy because it's been a very emotional week with the unexpected passing of my niece. Every Friday Living to Tell the Story runs Friday's Fave 5. It's a list of 5 things that made you happy during the week. Details are here and don't forget to sign in on Mr. Linky so that we can drop by your place.

1. The calls, e-mails, visits and cards received this week both from family and friends that brought me comfort during my grieving.

2. Decluttered laundry room. In order to keep busy I joined in on I'm an Organizing Junkie's monthly round up the laundry room. I managed to clean out my laundry room. Get rid of some clutter and make it more functioning.

3. Finished my holiday shopping. With the help of ebates.com which was recommended to me by my friend Sam I managed to get all my shopping done for the holidays. The benefit is I will be getting money back in February for using their service.

I wanted to tell you about Ebates, a shopping site that gives you up to 26% Cash Back every time you shop online. You can shop at over 1000 stores including Barnes & Noble.com, Gap, Target, Buy.com and Expedia. Plus you get additional savings with exclusive coupons, free shipping offers, and limited-time sales!

Sign up with Ebates today and we'll each get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase!

Click here to sign up:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=dUYN%2BVTcREgZSf9RzdBU1Q%3D%3D

Happy shopping!

4. Saved $ using coupons. I again saved almost $100 in groceries. I got some things for free too like coffee mate creamer for my coffee they were 99 cents this week and I had 50 cent coupons which doubled. I also got croutons for 19 cents and cereal for a dollar a box using coupons for both. Not only that I received a $25 gift certificate to shop again next week.

5. I ordered my planner for next year. This year I got my planner from CVS and the size was 8 1/2 by 11 which I did carry around and I tried to write in it often which I did. So this year I decided to go a bit smaller. I think I chose the 5 x 6 size so I can move it from tote to purse as needed. I also found a sight where I could customize my own pages where I was able to add photos to each tab and even have printed some of my appointments already. I ordered it from Franklin Covey. I found the website through ebates.com while searching for calendars.

What are your favorite things from the past week?

A Mother's Prayer

Dear Lord,

It's such a hectic day, with little time to stop and pray. For life's been anything but calm since you called me to be a mom. Running errands, matching socks, building dreams with building blocks, cooking, cleaning and finding shoes and other stuff that children lose. Fitting lids on bottled jugs, wiping tears and giving hugs, a stack of last weeks mail to read, so where is the quite time I need? But yet when I steal a minute, Lord, just at the sink or ironing board to ask the blessings of your grace. I see then in my small ones face that you have blessed me all the while and stopped to kiss that precious smile.

How to Clean House

~How To Clean House~

1. Open a new file in your PC

2. Name it 'Housework'

3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN

4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN

5. Your PC will ask you, 'Are you sure you want to delete Housework permanently?'

6. Calmly answer, 'Yes' ... and click mouse button firmly !

7. Feel better?


Works for me!

Emily We Will Miss You

Potential Gone

The future that I thought was bright,
now all looks dark without your light.
Potential gone; I cannot see
a future now for you, or me.

And yet; although your time was short,
and you didn't have the life you ought,
you brought me joy beyond compare
to counter now my dark despair.

You brought me hope for nine months long.
You placed within my heart a song.
A longer life was not to be.
So now, with prayers we set you free.

O God, please take this little life,
that won't now see a world of strife.
Surround your child with all your love,
and take him to your home above.

Dick Underwood 2008

Deco-Pages- Club Deco and Challenges

There is a brand new Club Deco kit over at Deco Pages for December and it is awesome so far. With only part of the designers having submitted their contributions it promises to be a true "Mega" kit. The Designing Team has used the theme: Cabin Fever. You can just imagine the colors and elements that are going into this! It's wonderful! Check out this partial preview of what is already available for Club Deco members!

December Color Challenge. If you are a Club Deco Member, the starter kit is free but if you just want to participate in the challenge you can create your pages with the color pallet or purchase the starter kit for $1.99 in the store. Look at this months color challenge starter kit created by Lori Staton!

Scrap by Numbers Challenge hosted by Marcee Fairchild (RoseMadeDesigns). This challenge consists of adding a certain amount of elements to the page as specified in the challenge guidelines. There is a starter kit that is available for this one but it isn't required to use it. This challenge is connected to two other challenges: the Material Girl Challenge and the Holiday Challenge. The rewards for these kits coordinate with the starter kit and reward. Check out the starter kit for these challenges. December Magic can be found here for $2.75.


I love the non-traditional coloring of this kit! Stop over and check out the Material Girl and Holiday challenges to see the coordinating rewards!

Then there are a ton of other challenges too. I host the Gallery Hunt Challenge in the Creative Team Challenges. In this monthly challenge I offer two quick pages created with a kit from one of the design team members. This month the kit is Merry and Bright by Deb Ammerman. All soft and glittery, this kit was wonderful to use. Check out the QP's that I made for the challenge.



I hope that you'll come over and join us this month in the challenges and share some of your experiences and pages with us! Hope to see you there!

My Laundry Room

The month of November we were decluttering and organizing our laundry room. I'm an Organizing Junkie hosts a monthly decluttering challenge.

Before: Kids corner when you first walk into the laundry room from the garage. The big pink bag was their soccer stuff (which ended the beginning of November) so that was moved into my garage.

After: I removed the soccer stuff. Hung up their coats and put their book bags on the bottom shelf. I did leave the box for the boats. I still have the problem of the hooks being too high for the kids to do it themselves.
Before:


This is where I put my incoming mail and magazines. Also our shoes go here. In the after picture above I moved all the kids shoes to their side.




After: I removed a lot from the top shelves. I grouped all their games and put their craft supplies into those rubbermade containers.

All their games and craft supplies are also in this shelving. I have a whole bunch of games and puzzles that I am going to donate.

I removed all the clothing. Their costumes were put into their dress up. All the other clothing was taken down and put in donation bags. I then had room to put my baskets here for when they are not in use or when I have little bit of clothing to put away. I did have a blue small basket that my son sat on and broke so I need to get new basket for his clothing. My new laundry system that seems to be working is I fold the clothes as I take them out of the dryer and sort them in baskets. One basket for my son/ one for the girls/ one for my husband and my stuff. I find it easier that way then putting everything in the basket and doing it in another room. I also have the kids help me during laundry time. They transport the wet clothes into the dryer. They push the buttons. They also fold towels. I have them sort the clothing too. They sometimes pull out the clothes and hand it to me to fold.

The top draw I cleaned out and this is where I put my pocketbook and keys when I walk in the door. I also put my outgoing mail there or anything I need to take with me for the next day so I don't forget anything. Below that I cleaned out the shelf so now I have my gym bag there and my husband's lunch bag. They were were the baskets were under all the clothing before. Below that I organized more of our pantry stuff.

What is This?

Credits

Library Story Time

Gymnastics - Trial Class