Our "Vacation" Week - House and Ladies Guild updates

Jay had the first week of November off for his "vacation" week.  They assign the vacation time.  I took off Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the same week.

We had plans, big plans.  First we wanted to tackle the garage.  It's not easy to maneuver around in there.  I have some appliances in there from the move that my dad was going to take.  6 months ago.  But I cannot blame the craziness on them alone.  It is so overwhelming.

We also wanted to finish hanging stuff and putting things away in Lauryn's room, organize the laundry room, and to complete our week, make a trip to Ikea on Friday.

Well, we got partially through with the garage.  Most of the way through actually.  Unfortunately, we did not grow up in the digital age.  Most of the "stuff"left to go through are the boxes and boxes of photos and memorabilia I have from childhood, along with scrapbook supplies, and yes, still the appliances.  We also have a lot of cameras to go through to sort what to sell, keep, and give away.  They are all non-digital but were really nice in their day.

I still need to organize the laundry room but I came up with the brilliant idea to use the nice fabric baskets I had in Keegan's nursery that are now replaced by bolder brighter colors.  Hopefully I will be able to post on that soon.  As for Lauryn's room, I was able to hang everything.  By. My. Self.  That was a huge feat as I normally make my dad come over and hang stuff in trade for pizza.  I do still have a huge box in the middle of her room but overall, a lot of progress.

These pictures are in progress.  I do not have any good before pictures - it was CRAZY.  The top picture has everything pulled out in the drive-way etc. 
The bottom picture is still in progress but it shows the piles we made.  The appliances are on the left and the majority of the middle is old photos etc we have to go through.  I will probably scan a lot of them.  I also want to do old school scrapbooking for those photos (which I love but have very little time for).  I plan to do digital scrapbooks mainly for the future.  I never thought I would convert to digital scrapbooks but time and money wins out.

 

Lauryn's room - minus the big "L" that will go above her headboard.  It's already painted and the last thing I need to hang. The first Picture is mid-way. I painted the picture frames and printed quotes to go in them.  I put a lot of thought in to the quotes so I was excited that LJ really loved the quotes in them.  I painted the missing "L" too, it's the darker pink with the lighter pink on the sides. It will go around the white frame above the headboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday night was our monthly Ladies Guild meeting.  It was also time to put our names in for office. I am officially the new VP of Ladies Guild come January.  I am quite excited about it.  I do believe it is where I should be and I am surrounded by such an amazing group of women.  Now to make God proud :-)

 

Flashcard Organization

In case you haven't noticed (which if you know me, you probably noticed all to well), I become easily consumed (okay - obsessed!) with things.

One of my more recent obsessions has been Keegan's schooling and all things knowledge.  Recently, to coincide with my obsession, the Target Dollar Days section had lots of flashcards.  I had already been obsessed with their and Dollar Trees flashcards that were usually of the Mickey, Pooh, and Veggie Tales variety.  Now they had all sorts of learning ones, including ones that will be above Keegan's head for a while.  I stocked up.

Something I noticed about flashcards is how hard it is to keep the boxes in shape.  I was able to buy index card holders at Walmart on clearance to organize them.  I am "building" my mommy school supplies in coordinating Thirty-One gifts (www.mythirtyone.com/karawilliamson) organizers and the index card holders matched perfectly.

I printed labels for the holders on 2"x4" mailing labels and used packing tape on top of that to secure them better and somewhat water proof them.  I am happy with the end result.  Pretty and Functional and Educational.  Triple Win.

My "stash" of flashcards:

The printed-at-home labels on the index card holders - I doubled up on most of the sets:

Stashed away neatly in a Thirty-One Gifts All-in-One Organizer:

Keegan's "Not-So-Baby" Room

I've been working on Keegan's room and it is bittersweet.  It is still very toddler-esque but most of his sweet nursery bits are gone.  While there is still a crib and changing table, there are brighter colors and a whole heck of a lot more toys.  Slowly but surely it has been coming together and now all that is left is really just painting the rocker white and making navy slip covers for the cushions.

When I was pregnant I had registered for (and received) some fun animal baskets that fit in the cube spaces. The colors were lime green, aqua, and navy and I figured the lighter tones and navy nursery colors could evolve in to those bolder brighter colors.  Next up was all the baskets in similar colors from Dollar Tree.  You just have to love Dollar Tree for baskets and baskets for organizing.  Our baskets have books in some, cars in some, musical instruments in some.... it's a way to keep things clean and organized easily!

In addition, Keegan loves Buzz and Woody from Toy Story.   He has never seen Toy Story, but he loves them nonetheless.  The colors go perfect - I found the Toy Story table and cube chairs from Walmart on clearance for about $20.  And of course his tons and tons of toys actually are all bright and cheery too.

The final touches were pinterest inspired.  I bought certificate frames (from Dollar Tree) and painted them navy, aqua, and lime green with cheap acrylic paints and then printed up some printables (I found through my sister through pinterest) to frame.  You can write on the outsite with dry erase markers too.

Now to the pictures - which I apologize but my only working camera right now is my iPhone and I am no photographer.  I can't wait to have a really nice camera....one day....


Keegan's Nursery (before):


 (not quite finished/before his arrival)





(SO TINY!)

Keegan's Room

 

 

 

 

The start of a new obsession: The Household Binder

*** As I come across additional sites with resources and printables I will edit this post and add the link at the bottom.***

I have become obsessed with a new project:  a household binder.

A binder with all your to-do's, what's where, menu planning, phone number at a finger tip, organization for your household.

I found a set you can order on etsy (the pdf files) that I love but it's $40 and in the spirit of my post on budgeting, I figured I better find a way to do it myself.  Actually making the documents myself, at this point, seemed too time consuming and stressful so I've been doing some "research" on the web.

Here is a great site with explanation and a ton of free printables:

http://organizedhome.com/household-notebook

Here is another site that if you subscribe to it you can get free printables (they're kinda cute too!):

http://getbuttonedup.com/tools/

The original site that got me hooked:

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/


Her Etsy with her uber cute pages for sale:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/IHeartOrganizing?ref=seller_info

Today as I painstakingly (what?!?! It takes a long time to save and print all of these free printables!  Totally cutting in to my "I am going to nap when Keegan naps for real this time" time!) save and print the documents so that I can put my binder together (I must get a large binder from mom and see if she has page protectors or if I need to buy them) I have also decided, why not do the the Three P binder as well (see below), and a sewing binder, potentially other craft binders, and medical binder(s) for the kids as well???  A monster has been created.

Post on the Planning Ahead (3P: Parties, Presents, and Packing) binder:

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/09/uheart-organizing-planning-ahead-binder.html

*** Additional Resources***

More Free Printables!

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/householdsavings/tp/Household_Notebook.htm

http://www.bloominghomestead.com/search/label/printables

http://printables.yourway.net/home-management-notebook/
(free printables or for only $7 you can download them all at once - time saving!- for only $7)

http://www.thissimplehome.com/2012/02/household-binder-project-part-1.html
(links to printables)

Budgeting

Hoping my accountant husband decides to work on our budget soon.  I've put all the numbers down on paper and it does not look pretty.  My style of a budget is pretty archaic.  I listed out all of our monthly expenses (which add up quickly - especially with child support, daycare, debt, and outrageous charges for cable).  Then I put the average date of the month they are due.  The next thing I did is I listed out our income based on a 4 week month.  Then I put what gets paid each pay period (based off of the average date things are due and how much we are taking in on that week).  It leaves us with a grand total of $224 a month.  Yuck. (I estimated high end charges for everything - I want to be prepared)

There are some solutions thankfully.  As the debt gets paid off that will be more money left over.  Also I need to look in to our cell phone and cable bills to see if there are cheaper options.  Our water and electric are even higher now then they were when we lived in the exact same floor plan 1 block over.  Not sure what is up with that?  So bizarre.  The AC is as old as the house (15 years) so I am sure that's a huge electric expense.  We don't have sprinklers or anything weird so not sure why our average water bill jumped from around $80 to over $100.  Water in Lehigh is notoriously high cost low quality. 

The biggest fix would be to upgrade our poor AC.  But that will cost between $4000 and $6000.

And I don't even want to get in to the student loan debt I have.  Who goes to law school (which I loved) and gets in deep debt when your goal in life would really be to be a housewife?  This girl.

Although - what I need to do is get my butt in gear to get in to teaching classes at undergraduate college level.  That could be more flexible scheduling, income, and make use of my degrees. AND if we moved to Orlando someday I could try to teach there (or online - I think I'd like to teach online classes).  I have to look at the bright side of my schooling :-)

And I can't forget that said Brilliant Hubby graduates in December. I'm hoping he can get a good job pretty quickly.  I have no idea how that will go.  I also know there are way more opportunities for him in Orlando so I have to get my office here in tip top shape and a plan B for myelf ready in case the next few years bring a move for us. 

We also have some items I want to sell on E-Bay.  Little creative ways to both make and save money will be so helpful.  We bought Keegan awesome toys the other day at a second hand shop - it felt so good to get great quality toys at a fraction of the price.  I think I will bring old stuff there too to get some credit. 

So anyways, budgeting it is.  I think Hubby is going to put me on a cash budget.  I think this is a good idea ;-)  He wouldn't force it on me.  He knows I am stressed and we both know things are going to be fine (and we are so much better off than the majority of people in this world). We also both like to spend and need to rein it in.

And we need money to hopefully go to Disney soon ;-)