Getting Organized

With the impending arrival of Willow (and SUMMER!), I feel myself starting the "nesting" stage. I'm overwhelmed with wanting to organize every nook and cranny in my house as well as paint everything. I've come to realize in the past few months that my disorganization is very much rubbing off on my kids and I really don't like that. If I can't keep myself organized, how on earth can I honestly expect my children to be organized? Disorganization causes our family so much more stress than need be and it's time that stops!

So, I decided to start with the biggest culprit--paperwork. We have an insane amount of paperwork coming into our home and not a lot of it seems to leave. This is actually the second goal in my organization plan (the first was creating meal plans & grocery lists on a consistent basis which I will post about in the future). I find it difficult to find papers I need when I need them because of this. I do have what I believe is a decent filing system but I'm not great at keeping up with it--and therein lies the issue. First and foremost, I need to set aside time each day to go through and organize any paperwork from that day. If I can do that every day, it should never get overwhelming and take me hours to go through it. I recently had an epiphany--I don't need to keep everything. I've always been the kind of person who keeps every single bank statement, receipt, explanation of benefits, etc. forever. I have banker's boxes downstairs with files from 10 years ago (I know...crazy and unnecessary)! So, I'm purging.

And all that brings me to the reason for my post--implementing and using a family binder. I've been researching different ways to use these and what to include but haven't been able to find the "perfect" one to fit my family's needs. Along comes my crafty side--I decided to take the best of what I found and create my own. I started with the basics from Thirty Handmade Days. She includes several free printable sheets including Babysitter Info, Health Insurance Info, Other Insurance Info, School Info, & Utilities (this is one that will be incredibly beneficial for me) in her post and explains how she uses her family binder. I love her idea of having different sections and will definitely include some of those sections in my binder. (Side note: if you have children, I highly recommend checking out the Accountability Binder and School Binder posts. I'll be doing a blog post about these as well in the future.) The next site I found is The Polka Dot Posie. She includes a tab on her website with Home Planner & Management pages as well as extras for seasons like Christmas and Thanksgiving, camping/vacations, and even has multiple sizes to fit existing planners (some free, some paid)! They're incredibly cute and I decided to use most of these since most of the work is already done for me and I really like the pattern. I just fill it out, pop it in my binder, and go. I did create a binder cover (printable here), calendar for the remainder of the year (printable here), and blog planner (printable here) using a grey chevron pattern to match the rest her printables. I'm really excited and will do a future update on how this is working out for our family and any changes I make.

Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

DIYing - Hit or Miss

Recently I have been scouring Pinterest looking for ways to be more economical not only on my wallet but also towards the environment. Something I really want to do is make my own cleaners. I sometimes have trouble with commercial cleaners because of the smells, especially now that I'm pregnant. I don't particularly like the strong smell or amount of chemicals found in commercial cleaners either. And I really don't enjoy the price tag on a lot of them.

For the past 8 months, I've made my own powdered laundry detergent and have loved the results I get with our CD, but it doesn't seem to work as well on our clothing. My best guess is it's not working as well because we wash everything on cold except CD, which get washed on hot. The soap isn't really "melting" during the wash cycle. I found a liquid version of detergent that pretty much uses the same ingredients over at the One Income Family Living Blog and she had the same observations I did. It seemed incredibly simple and doesn't have many ingredients. Plus, she raved about the liquid version she tried so I was incredibly stoked to try it but severely disappointed in the results. Now, I don't know if it didn't work well because of the type of soap I used (Soft Soap instead of Fels Naptha) or what but I was definitely bummed about it. Actually, I still am... I might give it one more go and use Fels Naptha since that's what the recipe calls for and see how that works. Moving on...

I am in love with smells (good ones, not bad ones, in case you needed clarification). I'm a Febreeze junkie but can very rarely justify spending the money on it (even when I have a coupon), especially with how much I use it. I, of course, scoured Pinterest and the One Income Family Blog (if you click the link it'll take you to the recipe) had a recipe and I'm in LOVE! I bought a bottle of Snuggle in the Sweet Blossoms & Wildflowers scent and it smells amazing. I use it mainly on our bed linens in between washings and it's working just as well as Febreeze, plus it's ridiculously cheaper!

Another DIY recipe I found was to make hand sanitizer. I found this recipe over at the Little House Living blog and I LOVE it! (Hm... Pattern much??) I used Up & Up's green, moisturizing aloe vera gel in mine even though she says to use plain aloe vera gel. I like that it has more moisturizing properties and works just as well. It doesn't dry my hands out as much as regular sanitizer does. This is a fantastic alternative to washing your hands all the time, especially us mamas that are constantly changing diapers. I put in an old pump soap dispenser from Bath & Body Works and keep it near the kitchen sink.

The next DIY recipe I tried was making citrus infused vinegar. I really like the cleaning properties of vinegar but many times cannot stomach the smell. Side note: I still don't understand how people put vinegar on french fries! Over at My Merry Messy Life, she posted how to make it. It's sooooo easy! I used it for the first time this past weekend to clean my daughter's bathroom mirror and was pleasantly surprised that it cleaned just as well as Windex and left no streaks! I'll definitely be making a lot more of this to clean with. Now, I'll just have to eat more oranges. The next batch I want to make is lemon and lime.

The next few things I would like to try are making my own liquid hand soap (we run through it like there's no tomorrow and it gets expensive), making my own pad of paper (I use these all the time), and making my own fabric softener. I'll give my reviews once I make and try them.

Now on to more family oriented entertaining... I had my spring Thirty-One open house this past weekend and it was a lot of fun. Even though I only had 2 guests, it gave me a chance to sharpen up my talking points on the new products from my add-on kit, well brush up period because it's been a few months since I've had a home party. I have a party set-up next month and one in March already. I'm really hoping to get to the point where I'm doing at least 2 parties a week but would like to be doing at least 4 a week. I am working on building a team and have one lady who's about to join and another who may potentially join. My goal is to be a director by the time Harrison arrives in June.

Speaking of... I can't believe that I'm already half-way through this pregnancy! It feels like just yesterday we found out we were pregnant and in less than 6 months, we're going to hold another little baby. I am beyond excited but also a tad apprehensive. I don't know anything about baby boys! We're still trying to figure out the logistics of where Harrison and Love Bug will sleep in relation to each other but we have some time yet. :-) In the meantime, I'm just working on establishing some semblance of a cleaning routine and actually making/knitting some things for him. On an even happier note, I got the call from my OB this morning that my glucose levels came back normal so I don't have gestational diabetes! No finger pricking 4x's a day for me!! :-)

Well, that's about all I have for now so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

P.S. If you want to check out things I'm making for my LO's, check out my crafting blog, On My Needles.

Schedules

I find this to be the most difficult thing about being a mom. Trinity not really being on any kind of schedule yet is definitely throwing a monkey wrench in my routine, especially housework. I know that I need to get a handle on this because Kristi is going to be starting soccer in a few weeks and I've got a few projects coming up as soon as spring hits. Speaking of...

We're so excited to be getting our yard finished this year! We have so many landscaping ideas for our house but haven't been able to start any of them because the yard needs the final grating and top soil (don't ask). The thing I'm most excited about is being able to get my veggie garden going. My goal is to sustain our family year round on the veges I grow. I'm not really sure if this will be feasible this year since I'm very new to this and don't have a very good track record of having a green thumb (right mom?)! I have a feeling this will be a learning year and I'm okay with that.

I've been trying to find ways to not only save our family money but also helping our environment. Growing our own vegetables (and eventually some fruits as well), making my own cleaners and detergents are just a few ways I've been trying to be more green. I recently made my own bathroom cleaner from a post I saw on Pinterest. I have to say that I'm loving not only it's cleaning power but also the price and non-chemical smell. (If you'd like to learn how, check out my Everyday Uses board on Pinterest.) Let's just say that vinegar and Dawn are my new best friends! I also recently made detergent for our dishwasher and am loving it as well! For about $12, we got all the ingredients and one batch should last us between 3-4 months (doing one load of dishes a day). We were paying upwards of $6 for the store bought kind and we were lucky if the container lasted 2 weeks! The dishes get squeaky clean and I'm noticing that we're not getting any kind of spotting on our dishes anymore either--double score! The next DIY project I'm going to tackle is making my own hand soap and laundry detergent. I'm a big fan of scented soaps, especially from Bath & Body Works. but notice they zap all moisture out of my hands (even the moisturizing ones)! On a side note, I think it's a conspiracy because if the soaps dry out your hands, then you'll have to buy their lotions as well. I just love that making things yourself can save a ton of money and let's face it, who doesn't want to save money? Plus, there's a pride factor in knowing exactly what is in your cabinets and where it came from. Moving on...

Baby Kramer (a.k.a. Trinity/Gizmo/Chunky Monkey) is growing like a weed already. She had her first check-up this past week. She weighs 9 pounds 1.4 ounces and is finally starting to fill out her 0-3 months clothing. We've been having some feeding issues since coming home from the hospital but we seem to have them mostly resolved. We've unfortunately had to start supplementing her with formula and rice cereal (as per her doctor's instructions). The breast milk and regular formula are just too thin and she keeps narfing them up so we're adding rice cereal to the breast milk and switched her to the rice starch added formula. I was really hoping we wouldn't have to introduce formula but we just don't see any other choice at the moment. I really think she's starting to look more and more like Andy which is good. (I really think he was starting to get a complex!) I just can't believe that she's 5 weeks old already! Here's one of her more recent photos:

For being a shutterbug most of the time I've been really lax about taking pictures the past few months. I'll have to make a mental note to take my camera with me everywhere.

Last weekend we got to hang out with the Wilt family and it was great spending time with them (we don't get to see them very often). Jill showed us the most hilarious clip that I wanted to share with you because I just died laughing while watching it!

I don't have too much to update on goals yet except for weight loss. I'm not really doing anything special yet but am down 24 pounds since giving birth. I only have 14 more to lose to hit my pre-pregnancy weight! I can't wait to rev that up more with exercise, which I'll be able to introduce in another week or so. I'm going to start Zumba and am totally stoked about it! I'm also going to be trying some new recipes this week that will hopefully aid in my weight loss. One snack I would like to try is homemade potato chips. I love crunchy snacks like celery, carrots, etc. but sometimes would like to have potato chips. I don't really like all the salt and additives they have so I want to see how healthy homemade ones can be. Another snack food I really want to try is spicy roasted chickpeas. I probably won't make them too spicy since it's something I'm hoping Kristi will eat. It would be a great snack food to send in her lunches! This past week I did try a couple of new recipes. I found a recipe for crock pot honey sesame chicken and it's amazing! Although this recipe isn't one that would aid in weight loss (at least I don't think it would), it's one that will be at least a once-a-month dish. My husband really doesn't like honey and he fell IN LOVE with this recipe (as did my 6 year old and we all know how picky she can be!). I also made a crock pot chicken tortilla soup and it was pretty good too. It definitely needs some sour cream and cheese added but other than that, it's simple to make and pretty flavorful. I was hoping to find a recipe that is similar to the kind Smokey Bones used to sell but that hasn't happened yet. I also tried the pumpkin pie smoothies I found on Pinterest (actually all the recipes I tried were from Pinterest). This was the recipe I was most excited about trying and was actually let down. To me, it just didn't taste right. I'm going to try making it again but lessen the amount of pumpkin puree and add more milk. I think the pumpkin puree flavor is too overpowering, even when adding a Truvia packet to sweeten it. I'll let you know how the second batch turns out.

I keep saying this but I really do need to update more so these posts don't get so incredibly long. Until next though, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Goals: Why are they so hard to accomplish?

We are officially one month into the new year so I figured it was time for a goal update. Every time I make goals, especially those related to my business, I find myself trying to be realistic yet no matter how realistic they are, I just can't seem to achieve them. I had a major problem with this last year when it came to my TSFL business. I'm half-way through my first goals time-frame and have 1 client. I know if I want to hit my $2,000 goal by February 29, I'm really going to have to rev up. I'm thinking of different ways I can do that while having a new baby. I'll fill you in on that one once I figure it out.

Knitting: If you follow my crafting blog, On My Needles, you'll know that I'm actually doing pretty well with my 2012 knitting goals. I won't go into detail here since this is my more life/business-oriented blog so if you want to know, check it out!

Blogging at least 2 times a week: I'm doing okay on this one. I posted a total of 6 times in January which is the same as last year. While I didn't hit this goal entirely for January, I still did a decent amount of updating and will continue to strive toward reaching this goal (here's post #1 for this week).

Quiet time: Epic. Failure. It's the first of the month and I am making a commitment to achieve this goal this month!

Relational: I've definitely been doing better with this. I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'm getting better and for now, that's all I can ask for.

I know I'm not perfect and I know that on any given day or any given month I probably won't hit all these goals. I'm okay with that as long as I'm continually working towards them.

The last few days have been pretty uneventful here. I'm just really trying to work on getting the house in order for when Trinity comes. I know that if it's not at least somewhat organized and taken care of prior to her birth, it'll be a train wreck afterwards. I've mostly gotten her room finished, there's just some things I need to get packed and taken to the garage. I, unfortunately, need my husband's help with that and he's not been so helpful as of late (not really his fault though). My main goal for today is to get the kitchen completely cleaned, floors, counters, fridge, etc. Once that's complete, I want to rearrange some things so I can find a place to put away the rest of the Christmas gifts that are still sitting under our tree. All the decorations are off the tree, it's just a matter of the hubby getting it back down in the garage. He was really silly in that when he brought the tree up, he filled in the space with other stuff so now he has to move all that stuff somewhere else to get the tree back in--hence why it's still sitting in our living room. I'm really hoping he'll take care of that this weekend.

My next big project I want to do is get into our garage and start sorting through the yard sale boxes. We have so many of them because we were planning to have a yard sale last year, but our location just isn't ideal for it. So I decided that anything we were going to sell, we're going to send to a local consignment shop and see what happens. The nice thing is, if it doesn't sell, I don't have to worry about it. I'm hoping that once those things are out of there we'll have a lot more room. We'd ultimately like to have our exercise room out there. I know this probably isn't going to happen until at least the end of March or beginning of April. I have a few boxes already packed and upstairs so I'm hoping to get those sent over before Trinity gets here next week.

For now, I'm just going to focus on the next few days. So until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

9 Months and Counting

The last week or so has been one emotional roller coaster after another. It's not because of anything anyone did or didn't do. It's just my hormones raging. I feel like this time around my hormones have decided to wait until the very end of the pregnancy to show up and hit all at once. I remember with Kristi being emotional pretty much through the whole pregnancy. I mean, I'd have a crying breakdown every few days it seemed. This time, not even close, not even one of those until 2 weeks ago. With that said, I've now had those meltdown-type cryings like every other day the past 2 weeks--and it doesn't seem to be subsiding. I know one of the things that seems to spark these fests is the realization that we're not the most organized family in the world so every time I look around the house I want to pull my hair out and insanely, madly clean. I usually don't care that we have clutter because let's face it--we live in our house. We have a 6 year old who likes to do crafts and then jump into the next activity without cleaning up the previous activity (I have to admit she totally learned that from me). So I've tried coming up with something to help reduce clutter. For example, to reduce the amount of clutter with magazines (I subscribe to at least 10), as I read a magazine I dog-ear the pages I want to keep for future reference like articles or recipes. Once I'm finished reading, I rip those pages out and put them in a binder or my recipe box, then I toss the magazine. Well, I've been more than a little backed up on my reading so I have 2 stacks of magazines that still need to be read dating back to the summer. (I'm thinking one of those will go with me to the hospital since I'll have ample time to read them.) I'm also making a concerted effort to do something similar with all the catalogs I get. (The ones I mostly care about are the knitting/crafting ones.) Back at the beginning of December, I found the Amazon Wishlist toolbar for my browser so I can now create as many wishlists as I'd like and put anything from any website on them. Score! So I also utilize the dog-ear method for things I want and then go to the website and add them to my Purchase Later or Christmas/Birthday list, then toss the catalog. Since implementing this 2 weeks ago, I've already thrown away 4 magazines and as many if not more catalogs. I'm thinking I'll keep this method. Well, at least until I run out of room for binders that is!

Okay that was ranting a little so back to the original topic of my hormones...  I've been nesting. Crazily, hungrily, nesting, especially when it comes to Trinity's room/stuff. I'm mostly finished with her room. I just have to finish filing some paperwork, change the files out since it's the new year, and clean the top shelf of her closet so I can fit my Cricut and Rubbermaid container with said Cricut stuff in it. I have a few other things to remove but other than that, the rooms good. I have to finish making the organizer for the side of the changing table (I've created my own knitting pattern since I couldn't find one anywhere online which will also count toward my goal--yippee!), sew the bumpers for her crib, and finish knitting her crib blanket. The bumper project is the one I'm most worried about. I haven't sewn since middle school. My sister lent me her sewing machine but I'm most worried about trying to read the pattern and get them to turn out right. I picked up the fabric, batting, and ribbon last week on sale at Jo-Ann's so I'm hoping to get to this project this week. I'm about half-way finished knitting the organizer and 40% finished with the blanket, both of which are fairly fast knits. Now, if she decides to come early, I'm totally screwed!

Changing topics completely... I was so excited to wake up to snow on the ground this weekend! I feel like I've been dying this winter because of cold/snow withdrawal.  This is one of the craziest winter's I've seen in a very long time. I love winter and snow so it hasn't been my favorite winter thus far. A side note to Mother Nature--if you'd like to score more points, you still have time to send me a blizzard. The only thing I ask is that you don't send one when I have to go to the hospital for Trinity's delivery. That just wouldn't be nice. 

I'm pretty sure I've talked your ear off enough for tonight so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Time Management

My nemesis for today: time management. It's something in which I severely lack skills. I have tried utilizing different methods to help but they never seem to stick (maybe because I haven't tried them long enough??). I don't know. What I do know is that I have to figure this out. It's going to be even more imperative once Trinity is here. I think one of my major issues is that I don't prioritize. I'm really good at making lists but prioritizing--not so much. I also think I don't realize how long tasks take so I end up only completing like one or two things. And then I feel discouraged. So, it's definitely something I need to work on. Today was a perfect example. My plan was to put the changing table together, finish the load of cloth diapers, and finish cleaning up/decluttering Trinity’s room all before Kristi got home. I started all this around 1 since that is when Andy was finished moving the furniture around. I got the changing table together, the closet reorganized, and the book shelf decluttered. I didn’t even have a chance to start on the computer desk before she got home. In my mind, that should have all been completed prior to her getting home but in reality, there just wasn’t enough time. The next things on my to-do list were to get Kris her snack, visit John in the hospital, hit Wal-mart for yogurt, and pick up dinner. All in all, I was thinking as long as we left the house by 4:30, we’d be home and finished eating by 6:30 at the latest. Well, 6:30 turned into almost 7 so that wasn’t as bad. Ugh! Sometimes trying to figure out my day can be so frustrating. Maybe I shouldn’t be so worried about always finishing everything on the list? Or maybe I should make the list with less items? I don’t know. I guess this is a learning process that everyone goes through and I just have to learn!

I did get a bunch of stuff done today which was great and made me feel good, even if it wasn’t everything on my list. I was really excited to go through all the baby clothes that we’ve gotten so far. There are soooo many adorable outfits that I can’t wait to put on Trinity! Now, it’s just the daunting task of washing everything. I was undecided if I wanted to just use the detergent we have or to buy the special, dye-free/fragrance-free stuff. I started out using that with Kristi and then changed over to using our regular detergent and she never had any problems. I have mixed feelings about it. I honestly think Trinity will be just fine using our regular detergent. I mean, she’ll be snuggling with all of us so she’ll be exposed to it anyway. Okay… I’m rambling now so on that note, I’m off for the evening. Until next time, much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥

Parenting

The hot topic of tonight's discussion is: parenting, specifically the art of discipline (well, I guess it's not really an art per se). I have to say that this is the single most awful part of parenting in my book. Throw all the dirty diapers, crying sessions, lack of sleep at me that you want. I can handle all that with ease and maybe even some finesse, but discipline? I hate it. I hate every aspect of it. I know, I know. It needs to be done if I want a well-adjusted and well-rounded child and I know that by disciplining her I am showing her that I love and care for her. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Tonight, I'm really not liking it. I'm currently listening to my child cry herself to sleep because my discipline took away her favorite lovey, Dooda (those of you who know her know that she doesn't part with this lovey, especially at bedtime). I know it may seem harsh but we have honestly tried every other possible form of discipline that we can think of and nothing else has worked. We only had to do this one other time in the past few months so it's pretty effective. I hate causing her pain of any kind! She's my child and I love her and just want her to be happy all the time. I want what's best for her and know that what is best for her is boundaries, rules, and discipline. It's so hard for me to sit here, type this, and not just walk back and hand Dooda over to her. While that's what I truly want to do, I know I can't because that would completely defeat the purpose of the discipline and lesson I'm trying to instill. No one told me that disciplining your child would be one of the hardest and most painful parts of parenting. I remember when I was a kid, I thought my parents actually liked disciplining me! I never realized that disciplining me hurt them more than it did me! Okay...Ranting over.

Today was an entirely unproductive day. I had every intention of starting to take down Christmas decorations, put away the Christmas dishes, finish cleaning the kitchen, and a multitude of other things before Kris got home from school. Yeah, that just didn't happen. I woke up this morning around 4:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep until 6:30 and then my alarm went off at 7. I waited until 10 before attempting to go back to sleep so I could test my blood sugar and then laid back down until about 12:15. I felt so much better after sleeping. I have to be honest and say that I'm not really one for naps. During the holidays, when the whole family is snoozing after dinner, I'm the one knitting or reading. On Sundays (our rest day), when Andy and Kris are resting, I'm the one again knitting, reading, or doing stuff around the house. Even being 8 1/2 months pregnant, I haven't really felt an incredible need to nap during the day, except for this morning. While it felt good physically, it totally screwed me up mentally so hardly anything got done that I wanted (although I did manage to get the dishes finished and some laundry folded and put away). I guess I could be doing something around the house instead of sitting here typing this but hey... What's the fun in that? On that note, I'm going to catch up on some magazine reading (I've got 2 stacks dating back to the summer) and maybe knit another square on Trinity's baby blanket. Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Kids say and do the darnest things

Okay seriously... Kids are probably the funniest comedians around even though they may not always realize it or mean to be. I have to share a quick story that had me in hysterics laughing yesterday. So Kristi came home from school and immediately had to use the restroom. Well, about 2 seconds after entering, she was crying and yelling why I put the toilet seat down. I was confused for a minute until I went back and looked at her standing in front of the toilet crying. She was upset because Andy had put the toilet seat down and in her haste, she didn't bother turning on the light (there's no windows in her bathroom and our hallway is pretty dark because of the doors being shut since we're dog sitting) or looking to make sure the toilet seat was up. So, she proceeded to pee--all over the toilet seat lid. I found this hilariously amusing and couldn't stop laughing. I had to walk away after getting her fresh clothes because I seriously just couldn't stop laughing. I felt kind of bad because she was sooooooo upset and kept emphatically saying, "It's not funny!!!" She was even more upset that I was laughing about it. :-)

Snow days

Kris didn't have school on Tuesday so we spent the day lounging in our pj's, hanging together, playing games, and just having fun. We started with breakfast and then played some games. Tuesdays are my day to clean the bedrooms. Kristi wanted to help so I asked her to pick up her room so that I could vacuum. She lovingly obliged and put Gregorian Chants in her CD player to clean to (such a proud mama!). About 15 minutes after she started, she called to have me see. I walked in and was so proud because there was nothing on the floor! Then, I noticed the closet doors were closed. Out of curiosity, I checked inside and viola--all the stuff from the floor was now in there. I laughed, completely and totally. I did explain that "cleaning up" didn't mean stuffing everything in her closet. She was like, "Oh." So, she took everything out and this time really put everything away. And she did it all without complaining! Once that was done, I started vacuuming her room and she of course wanted to help.

The vacuum was a little heavy for her but all in all she did a really good job! So after we finished that, I did some laundry while she played. She helped me cook stir-fry for dinner. It was a really nice day of just spending some quality time together. :-)

As far as business is concerned, not much has gotten done there this week. Same with cleaning (except for yesterday). This week has been pretty crazy with things. 

On the weight loss front, this week was definitely disappointing. I only lost .5 lb which didn't make me very happy, especially since I've been 100% on plan. I don't know; I guess it's just an off week.

I got my upstairs office more or less completely set-up. That was a yay! The downstairs office is now 100% business only. It's kind of nice having my areas split up. I can't stand how cold it is downstairs so this is definitely helping me with school work and paying bills (although this week I'm already behind). We got the spare room/office set-up, all except the bed. All the pieces are there to finish setting it up except for the hardware. We went through more boxes in the rec room but still haven't found it. I'm assuming it'll be in the very last box we look in because that's just our luck.

After Kristi got home from school, we went to the store to get crafting stuff. Kristi was so excited to spend her allowance for the first time. We've been having some behavioral issues with her lately so we started having her earn allowance for obeying us, helping with chores (i.e. cleaning her room), getting ready for school without complaining, and going to bed without complaining (these have been the biggies for the past month or so). So far she's doing great. We've only had one evening and one morning where she lost part of her allowance. It was really cute to see her so excited though. I told her she could get whatever she wanted except for candy and she immediately gravitated to crafting projects (yup... she's totally my kid!). Here's what she picked out:

I have to say though that I was a little disappointed with our Dollar Tree's selection of crafting supplies. We have a HUGE Dollar Tree here so I thought there'd be lots of stuff to choose from but the crafting supplies other than paper was slim. I figured, "Why not go to Dollar Tree so she gets the most for her money?" The one in York has an isle with all kinds of glitter, glitter glue, popsicle sticks, fuzzy balls, googley eyes, etc. so I assumed this one would too. I think next time we'll just take a trip down there or maybe to Hagerstown (if there's one there). We could probably try Five Below too. I think the one I was in was pretty awesome! Anyway... She got a new folder for school since her other one is all messed up and she was really happy about that. She ran out of construction paper so she was really happy to find that. Of course, anything Ariel or Princess is a must on her list. LoL! :-)    

Well, that's about all I have for today so until next time, much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥

P.S. If you want to know what I'm currently working on, check out On My Needles!