A Change Up

My blog has lacked a little bit over the past several months.  The easy thing to say, and it is true, is that "life got in the way."  We have been very boring people for the past year which just means we haven't done much.  We are hopeful now that Darryl is slowly getting back to work we can start planning things like fun little day trips and activities, crafting plans for me and other fun things along the way.  I've been re-hashing ideas for my blog and this is what I'm hoping to start posting:

Monday - "Make it Monday".  Since I accomplish most of my crafting or creativity on the weekends I decided to make Monday the day I post about it.  It might be a holiday craft, an organization idea or some cleaning tip I picked off of Pinterest and tried.

Tuesday - "Teaching Tuesdays".  I'll share our homeschool adventure from the week before. Picture of just our general day but also any fun stuff we do like crafts, experiments or field trips.  This might also include my simple reviews of our curriculum or ideas for organizing homeschool chaos in a tiny space.

Wednesday - "What we're eating" I don't always have new recipes to share but when I do they will show up on Wednesdays.  I may also just share fun snack ideas, my favorite kitchen tools and total failures that I try :-)

Thursday - "Thoughtful Thursdays"  This is the place I'll share everything from a book review to what I'm reading to what I'm learning in a Bible Study to some other truth I want to share.  This is also where my goals for the month will show up and also the recap :-)

Friday - "Food Friday".  But in this case it will be our weekly menu.  I hope to clean up my "recipe" section on the blog (I got lazy with that!) so I can provide links for the recipes I'm using again (and again).

Saturday and Sunday - These days are reserved for posts about the family.  The best snap shots of the week, some adventure we went on, "Things my Kids say", holiday posts ect.

I plan on putting this new plan into place starting Saturday with lots of fun pictures!  If I miss a day here or there it's ok - I may not have anything to share or sometimes, life gets busy.  With homeschool, babysitting, AWANA, soccer going on, Choir Practice and more . . .days are sometimes short!

A Few of My Favorites

Here are a few blog posts that I found this week that encouraged me, stepped on my toes, or just made me smile.

1) The Year of Less - If you remember, my theme word last year was Simplify.  For as much as I cut out, I realize I could do more.  This post gives some simple reasons why we should live for less (And if you check  out the blog, she has other great posts too! )

2) Mothering.com shared an awesome post called 10 Great ways to be an unhappy mom. Wow, nailed that one right on the head!!

3) I Heart Organizing - A great post about . . .how to organize Lego's HA!  We are now the proud owner of our first Lego's and I want a plan in place now.  I love the Trofast system and, guess what? It is SOOO affordable. I actually want to get two systems - one to house all of their cars and trucks and then one to sort Lego's in.

4) The Sullengers - This is my inspiration blog - the whole reason I started blogging.  Ashley posted a great post about dealing with Denial.  She also gives some good insight on how to help others that are grieving and are IN that denial stage of grief.

5) Everyday Atchleys - Are you looking for a good laugh??  Read this post. The blog author makes me laugh 9 times out of 10 blog posts.  I wish she and I lived next door because we would be fast friends!

6) 31 Days to Impress your Kids - I just did a quick look at this one and it struck me as something that could be good.  I need to go back through and read it completely now though :-) 

A Few of my Favorites

This week (and maybe in the future - who knows!) I've decided to share some of my favorite blog posts from this past week.  Posts that made me think, smile, or dream a little more.  To me, Sundays are the days to sit back and read something without feeling rushed so, take time and check out the following posts:

1) Rainbow Birthday Cake from Comfy in the Kitchen - Sure she shares an easy recipe but she also is not an over the top birthday party planner and that was great to see.  It often seems that blog land shows incredible parties that many of us can't recreate- this post does not do that :-)

2) Little Writer from Superchikk - I love this blog in general but this particular post shares her sons progress with learning to write and how it ties into the meaning of his name.  Such a great post!

3) Operation Christmas Child; Paper or Plastic from Mama Jenn- This is the first post I read this year about Operation Christmas Child and it reminded me that I wanted to do this with my boys.  My goal this year is one box.  I plan on taking the boys to the store the first week of November, allowing them to pick out toys for the box and then we can actually pay online and then will be able to track our box to see where it goes.  I really loved this post !

That's all for this week.  In the future, I am going to add these as I read them - I know there were some more great posts this past week but I can't remember them!

Enjoy your Sunday (Today I'll actually be busy prepping for a special party for a little boy turning 4!)

Just a Few Blog Posts (and Blogs) you may enjoy

Normally, I like to post "The things my kids say" on Sunday because it is light and fun plus it allows me to remember all of those fun things so I can put them in the scrapbook.  Well, they've been gone all week, as you know, so I have just missed those little voices instead!  The good news is that throughout this week, I've run across some blogs and/or blog posts that I really want to share with you so the timing is perfect.

One of the tasks that I accomplished this week was cleaning out and organizing the toys.  You may find this hard to believe but my kids really don't have that many toys.  We live in a small house so I think sometimes it looks that way but neither of their toys boxes are full and I have one 9 cube storage unit that holds all the rest of their books and cars/trucks/matchbox cars.  Other then a few big items like a kitchen and a tool bench well, that's it.  So for now, this blog post isn't something I would use but I love the concept as my kids get older.  It's a great way to get them to keep what they love instead of forcing them to give away toys.  The article comes from a blog called A Slob Comes Clean

The next blog is called 5 Dinners in 1 Hour.  A Friend of mine tried it and loved it (she actually then managed to win a 6 month subscription!)  I love the concept, printed the sample menus and am  considering buying the 3 month program in order to "learn" it and in the process make our family favorites fit this style of prep/cooking.

Just click on the "button" and it should take you to the site.

I'll be sharing more about this later but for now, it is just this blog post that shares some Bible Study books to use with your kids.  The post comes from Inspired to Action.

Finally, if you have boys, check out The MOB Society (Mothers of Boys) .  I've read through a few articles recently - it really is a great blog. 

Enjoy your new reading material :- )

My Favorite Reads - Blog Style

Like most blogs, I keep a running list on the side of my blog of the blogs I follow and read.  I actually update that list fairly frequently and, my general rule of thumb is if someone hasn't posted after a month, I remove them from the list (unless it is a real-life-friend - then I let them stick around longer).  Plus, if I find that I always skip over that blog when I'm looking for updates, I delete it.  I like to keep that list fresh and also not let any sit stagnate.  So with that said, I thought I would pick out my "most favorite" blogs from the list and share - maybe you are looking for some new inspiration or just something different to read.  Just because I'm only picking my most favorite, doesn't mean the others aren't great - these are just the ones I gravitate to first :-)  Come on now, we ALL have favorites!

I'll start with my "Inspiration Blog" - the blog that actually moved me into creating my owl blog.  It is the story of the Sullengers who's young daughter drowned in a terrible accident.  It has been encouraging to read her blog this past year as they have overcome over whelming grief and welcomed in a new baby.  They just posted family pictures where are amazing (11/08/11) including the idea the photographer used to include Preslee in their family photo.

The next blog, entitled "Everything Beautiful" is written by a friend of mine from High School.  We played Clarinet together in band (she usually won 1st chair and left me in 2nd every time!).  It has been great to reconnect with her "all of these years" (haha) later.  Her story is amazing and she isn't afraid to mince words either (which is one of the many reasons I adore her!).  She fights for some great causes and shares her heart willingly.  If you enjoy being challenged - take time to check out her blog :-)

"Our Happily Ever Afters" is a current favorite more because of what they are going through right now.  They just adopted a little boy from Korea and I've really enjoyed reading about the transition as they have brought him home.  I will admit, sometimes her life seems a little like a fairy tale but, as is true in blog world, we only put in blogs what we want others to see :-)  I think really, her life is just different then mine and that makes things easy to look at with rose colored glasses!  She really is such a tender hearted, kind person though, it is hard not to just enjoy reading about her life :-)

This next blog, "Superchikk" is just a simple blog about her life with her family but I just love the way she writes.  This is one of the blogs that I always look for updates on because . . .shes just fun!

 



I hope you'll check these out as well as a few others on my blog roll or click on some of those buttons on the left side too!  I will admit, some of the "buttons" are not blogs I click on that much anymore but Oopsey Daisy, Craftomaniac, and House of Hepworth are really great blogs too! 

Enjoy some new reading!