PYHO: One Click Away

Last week I posted about my time management or lack there of. I came in today to read emails, reply to comments and realized that I had not written another post since that one. Boy, that is disheartening.I obviously did not motivate myself enough to write anything. It's not the motivation, really. I have that. It's finding the time, the peace and quiet of the day to write down what's on my mind. When I get an idea to write about something, I've been typing snippets of it on my "notes" on my iPhone. Good idea, right?

Not really. I never seem to get back to them. Then when I do, it's been a few weeks and the idea seems dead. Who wants to read about a silly story that happened three weeks ago? Maybe some one.

I'm not going to let this get the better of me and my writing. For now, my life behind the keyboard has been very full and I know that if I stepped away from the real life, what's going on, that I'll miss it. Then I'll have nothing to write about. 

Miss K went to her very first dance competition this weekend. We left the boys at home. It was mother/ daughter time. And thanks to the lovely hotel we stayed at, the use of my lap top never happened. They want to charge $9.95 a day for internet use. We were there three days!! I was hoping to write about the weekend. Post pictures of my sweet girl taking classes, dancing on stage. But it has had to wait.

Last week Little E was sick, a sore throat that started on Thursday that lo and behold became strep throat on Monday. I have no idea how my husband checks the kids while I am away, but I know he is not like myself. I ask how the kids are feeling in the morning. 

So a trip to the pediatrician, a throat culture and we determined he has strep. Four dollar antibiotics and two days home for me with the little guy. And amazingly I never noticed that he was a little run down. Because by yesterday afternoon, he was full of himself.

I'm glad to be back at work today. It's quiet here today. Which is how I am writing this post. Stealing time here.

So you see, I have stuff to write, but not enough time to click it out. The stuff of my life, which my life is consuming.  Does that make sense? I am not complaining. Just venting. I take conferences for scrap booking to have time to do that. I need to take a getaway weekend to write. Authors do that, right? I'm not an author, but heck.

I'm glad I have this outlet when I get the time to use it. My friends on the other end of this, the ones who comment, encourage and read my "stuff",a BIG thank you. A million thank yous. For without you, I might not write as often. 

I know that is not what this is about but today. thank you!!! 

PYHO: Time Management

 
Time management has always been an issue of mine that I just can't seem to conquer. Being a mom to an eight year old child with ADHD, that is involved with extra curricular activities, plus an intelligent, full of energy four year old, those responsibilities take up a lot of my time. 
Then you add in working outside the home 15 hours a week split between three days, all the chores that come with owning a home that have pets living in it and dedicating my family and myself to our church. 

And I can't forget spending quality time with my husband after the regular day to day chores are done, when I'm finally sitting down taking a breath of air. 

Where is the ME time? Now, I do have free time in my day and when that time is, varies from day to day. Sometimes that time still gets used for some other unexpected trip to the store, the bank, or a catastrophic mess (we've had a few of those lately) and when the day is over after those "extras", I am exhausted. Leaving my extra time in the evening, to pass out asleep.


The time that I try to set aside for myself is split between three important things to me. Blogging. Reading emails and other blogs. Reading my devotions and Bible. I have several other things I would love to do, but they get put by the wayside more often than not. 


I love to write when I have the time. Okay, we've covered that my time is very limited. I used to sacrifice sleeping time and would stay up at least an hour longer to write my posts. But that caught up with me after too many weeks of doing that. Then I dipped into my time that was spent on reading my devotions and wrote posts during that time. 


Feeling guilty about not reading my devotions caught up with me and I had to find time some where else to write my posts. Really? How does anyone else do this? How do other bloggers find the time to write posts, read other posts, read emails, respond to emails? 


Why do I feel so guilty about something that is supposed to be a hobby? Something that I enjoy. 

Meals Planned Out

What method do you use to create your dinner meals for the week? Do you randomly go through what foods you have in the house, go shopping to fill in the blanks and wing it for the week? Or do you plan meals, then fall short and go out a few times or pick up fast food as a last resort? Or do you plan the meals and then actually follow through?

I have been there on all of those. And I'm sure there are even different ways of planning your meals for the week and grocery shopping. 

I had been struggling in this department. I love to cook a meal for my family. I do admit that I have those days that I'm not feeling my best, tired from a long day of battles and I will order pizza. But having a plan for the week, a plan that some one else has created is making my life easier. At least in the food category.

Thanks to my sister in law, who also uses them, I found Emeals.


At first I viewed the samples and used a few of the recipes from there to check it out. I needed to see what the reaction was from my family. The reaction was very positive. So I went ahead and signed up for a membership. 


I picked my favorite grocery store, the types of meals that I wanted recipes for and then the weekly menu, ingredients, directions for preparing and shopping list are all done for me. I love it! No thinking about what should I make this week.


Now for my family, we do have a crazy schedule for the week with Miss K's dance classes and mid week church so we have to pick which meals will be best on the nights we leave home early or get home late. Other than that, it's take the guess work out of the equation for me. 


My time spent in the grocery store is cut in half now. I found that I'm not buying things that I don't need for the week and sticking to the grocery list. You do have to remember, it's only dinner meals that are on the list, so you have to make sure you get your breakfast and lunch items on your own. I have my own sub shopping list that I downloaded into my Excel files for the staples that we run out of, toiletries and foods that will not be in the emeals list.

But this has been a blessing so far.


My biggest hurdle that I'm going to have to overcome.....shopping the sales and couponing. I love to buy bulk when my most used items are on sale with a coupon. I've been failing in the coupon department (it is SO time consuming for me) but have kept up with my bulk items. It feels different shopping for my picked out meals and no extras. I'm still weighing my options on whether I will completely cut out bulk buying. 

For now I'm staying with what works for my family and myself. 





I was not contacted or compensated by the creator or founder of Emeals.com to write a review.  My article is solely my opinion about their product/service that I currently use.






 

Whose Sideline are you on

Today is the BIG DAY!! I'm sure I don't have to remind you that it's the day for the Super Bowl XLVI, but if you're a hermit or you don't want much tv or maybe you avoid sports at all costs then maybe you don't have a clue what day it is.

I think even if you fall into one of those categories, you would not be able to avoid it. When I went to the grocery store and Walmart yesterday to get my regular groceries for the week and the rest of the food for my party, it was pretty obvious that many parties would be going on.

The chip isle at Walmart was running low on nacho chips for one. There were two vendors loading the racks on a Saturday...something I have never seen.

The condiment isle was picked over in the wing sauce section and there was an over abundance of ranch dressings shoved into many places. Wings anyone??

I am not joining the crowd with home made wings. Been there..tried that. I would normally buy the wings from my favorite local restaurant/lounge (who by the way makes the BEST teriyaki wings) but I cheated and bought some Schwans wings. It's close enough to home made.

I'm hoping they turn out good.

Kick off is at 6:30pm tonight and I sure hope that I've got all my snacks ready to go by then. I skipped on making the pizza puffs this time. My friend is bringing several items and I don't think we need them. Thank you Pinterest for the recipe and idea. I'll be making those for dinner in a week or so.

Shamely, I am rooting for the Patriots! Thankfully it's hubby's team. Since my 'boys couldn't get there. It was pretty funny when we explained the Super Bowl to Little E. My hubby said that we were rooting for the Patriots who were playing against the Giants. (blech) Little E says "Well I'm rooting for the Cowboys daddy! GO COWBOYS".

Hahaha! That's my boy!

Maybe next year. 

Enjoy your game day and may the best team win!

Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking.

If you had asked me if I liked to scrapbook five years ago, I would have answered "umm, no I've never done it. I was given a kit as a gift once and I'm not compelled to do it."

Then a friend of mine invited me to a scrapbook event called National Scrapbook Day. I brought what little supplies that I owned at the time along with photos of Miss K to work on. Turns out that the consultant that was hosting this event was the mother of a childhood friend of mine. I was in awe of the huge quantities of supplies she kept in her home to create scrapbooks.

After a full day of cutting photos, creating beautiful pages with my little girl's photos with my artistic flair in them, I was in love.

I spent over a hundred dollars that day buying more stuff to work on. I even won a full scrapbook kit to create a large album from Creative Memories.

After having my second child, finding the spare time to work on my books is much harder. I was working full time including Saturdays, which left only Sundays to myself. A few friends and I tried to organize scraps at each others houses every few months but that has fell by the wayside. It happens when someone has another baby too.

I met my best friend through scrapbooking. She used to go to the same events that I did and discovered that our children attended school together. Last year, she and I attended a scrap at a Bible Camp. It was the best weekend, despite the snarky remarks from a few attendees and sleeping on youth camp bunk beds.

It's that time again this year. I received the invitation bulletin for the Scrapbook at the Bible Camp. I have talked about it several times to my friend, that we need to go. Not just to work on our books, but to "get away". But now that I got the invite, I am having reservations. I do love to scrap but it's quite expensive. And I'm low scale compared to some of the ladies that we met last year. I would bet that they have have spent thousands!!

So I was standing in my computer room AKA the catch all room, looking at my craft racks. I stopped to gaze at my Cricket machine and many of the other supply items I have stored on my shelf. I love my hobby and it's so expensive. Can I really afford to go??

Friday Fragments: Episode #183

My husband decided to have dinner out on Tuesday night after Miss K's dance class. She gets finished by 6:45-7:00pm so it's a common thing for us to go out. But this week was the Schwan's Tuesday and since this weekend is Superbowl weekend I needed snacks for the party. For the life of me I could not remember the delivery man's name. I had the hubs leave him at note.. addressed..Dear Schwans' man. Yeah, that's pretty sad. 

*******

I punished the kids this week with taking away the privilege of riding in daddy's Element when they wouldn't obey and were being disrespectful to me. It was a long ride home for me having to listen to Little E saying  "we're never getting to ride in daddy's car again" over and over and over again, in between sobs. It was more of a punishment for me than them!

*******

I walked into the restroom at work on Wednesday to wash m my hands real quick, knowing that Little E was in there. I figured he was probably sitting on the toilet reading a magazine. To my surprise, he was standing in the sink trying to get a paper towel. Of course the first one he yanked off, tore and it was not good enough anymore. Again, he is becoming more OCD daily.

*******

I was so glad to see that Grey's Anatomy was new this week. It was quite a different episode than normal and my husband said he just couldn't get into it.

*******

I'm planning a Super Bowl party for this weekend. I've bought most of the food and we've invited a few people but some can't come. So I hope I don't have too much food. I've got wings, twice baked potatoes, cheese sticks, dip and chips, mini pizza puffs. I haven't had a party since Miss K's birthday and I'm actually excited about entertaining.

 *******

I try really hard each week to keep up with my weekly devotions for church. This week I've actually made the time to read the booklet and keep up with the Bible passages. I want to share a few sentences that really struck a cord with me in my devotional book. 

Christianity is not just about getting forgiven and going to Heaven when we die.To give God nothing when he has given us so much would be to sin against his love; it would be to turn God into our servant and salvation into an insurance policy. 
 It makes you really think.

WW: My Pegboard

 Are you on Pinterest? Share the last five items you pinned, choose one and let it inspire a blog post.

Source: healthyisclassy.tumblr.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Source: lifeoflovely.blogspot.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Source: signsbyandrea.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Source: cleaneatingmag.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Source: amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Source: theaprongal.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? I have discovered the dark side of browsing, blogging and "pinning" things that interest me, inspire me and make me swoon over. 

My latest pins on my boards have mostly been about food. I love a good recipe and I used to be more traditional about where I get my recipes from, good ol cookbooks. The problem with cookbooks though, there are no photos of the finished product, no reviews and certainly no one suggesting different variations. 

I'm loving the virtual pins of photos and more photos of food. My latest favorite that I can't wait to try is baked s'mores. I like making real campfire s'mores because it's fun, but the chocolate never melts! I love, ooey gooey chocolate. The combination of warm melted chocolate, soft marshmallow and crispy graham cracker crust. Oh my!

I'm just salivating sitting here thinking about this treat! If only the calories weren't over the top, I would eat them all by myself.

Today I am linking up with Mama Kat for her fabulous Writer's Workshop.

PYHO: Drawing the Line

I tried feverishly without any luck to find a previous post to give back information on the post I am writing about. Of course, I'm not very good at always labeling my posts and cannot find the one I want. I thought for sure that it was a PYHO that I posted it in, but I cannot seem to find it. so hopefully for those of you who read my blog regularly, you'll remember this person. If not, I hope that I can give you enough back ground.

When do I draw the line? Or where do I draw the line? This friend of mine has made decisions and said things that have bothered me before and being the good friend, I let them go.

 When we first became friends it was just she and I. We spent time together, having long conversations and enjoying each others company. One of the conversations was about when they used to have a playroom in their house before their youngest was born. They used to have the children of their guests play in there with their own children. After their youngest was born, instead of letting other children play in their kid's rooms with their kids they forbade it.

I didn't think much of it. She told me that the rule applied to her sister's kids because they were destructive and broke toys and made messes they didn't clean up.

The first time we got our families together, my kids were allowed in the bedrooms. I thought nothing of it.

A few times later, we showed up to closed bedroom doors. It wasn't noticed until Little E attempted to go into her boys' room and was told he wasn't allowed. That struck a nerve. 

Really?

My kids have never been allowed to leave some one elses house without helping to clean up and we have never broken a toy. So what the hell happened?

Of course I let it go. I never said anything. Which I regret now.

I thought subtlety sending the message that if she was going to dis include my kids, then I would be the same way. But it only lasted so long at my house.

My husband and I decided that we would limit the playing to either Miss K's room or Little E's. We alternated it each time. We haven't been together with our families in awhile and the kids were really excited about having their friends over. I still had my rule of one room open. It was a bad night for me and maybe I was just feeling weak and didn't want to argue.

Miss K asked me if she and one of the girls could go in her room and the rest of the crew play in Little E's. Sure, why not.

You would think a child the age of eleven, my friend's oldest, would be the most responsible. Maybe when they're keeping a close eye on him. He should have been the one keeping an eye on the little ones to prevent breaking toys, but he broke several toys that belonged to Little E.

You know how it goes though. They don't say they broke the toy. The kids bring it to me and tell me it needs new batteries. I was a little surprised since the toy was only three weeks old. I complied and replaced the batteries. Yeah, it didn't fix the problem. After further inspection,it was discovered the toy was broken. A toy that I don't know where to buy, since I have never seen one in the store. One that was a gift from my older brother to my son.

The icing on the cake. My friend never offered to replace it or even half attempt to. Not that I would have let her pay for it, but the offer would have settled my mind. So now I am unsettled about it.

So the line has been drawn. I'm not sure if I should say something? We're pretty close of friends, or at least I thought so. Do I risk the friendship? It is that petty? I know that if I don't say anything, my actions will speak louder than words. The next get together at my house, you'll be sure to know that the bedrooms doors will be locked. The message will be loud and clear. Even without words.





I am linking up with Shell at Things I Can't Say for her weekly meme, Pour Your Heart Out. Link up and join, read others, support those who have poured their heart out this week.