5 on Friday.

Happy Friday!
I’m linking up with Darci, Christina, April & Natasha for best link-up of the week....

1.) Modern Girls Guide to Bible Study
I’ve mentioned before that I’m doing an online bible study led by my friend Brittany from Happy is A Choice.  We started on Monday and I’m really love it!  It’s a great easy read and I love Jen Hatmaker’s sense of humor and the way that she makes things very relatable and easy to understand.  I cannot wait to see what else this study has in store for me!

2.) Sick Babies.
My kids have been sick for almost 2 weeks now!  They haven’t slept since last Thursday.  This mama is tired.  We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday and Jordan has a virus and Olivia both an ear infection and a sinus infection.  They’ve both been very clingy.  I’ve been dying to get back into the gym.  I’ve been trying to fit in workouts at home, but it’s not the same.

3.) Meal Planning/Meal Prep
I’ve been trying to be better about meal planning and prepping meals ahead of time. Our food budget has been pretty out of control and I know that meal planning will totally cut it down!  I’m hoping to really put in 110% this week and stick to it.  The cost savings would be great and I know that it will help us on the quest to lose weight.  I'm also planning on sticking to my Tone It Up nutrition plan about 90% of the time!

4.) Bravo
Does anyone else love Bravo (or trashy TV in general?).  They always put out shows that just suck me in.  I obviously love Toned Up with my girls Katrina and Karena from Tone It Up.  I just love getting the glimpse into their lives. They are exactly how I imagined them.  I also love Shahs of Sunset and Vanderpump Rules.  I cannot wait for the finale of Pump Rules! I’d die to have Stassi’s wardrobe/hair (or just to look like her).

5.) Five Year Anniversary.
Typically when you get married, you don’t really celebrate your dating anniversary anymore, but yesterday marks the day that Tj and I started dating 5 years ago!  We didn’t really do anything. We babysat our niece last night so her parents could go to the Jay-Z concert, but I came home to a completely cleaned house. We’re talking mopped, counters cleaned, the whole nine yards.  He bribed his friends with wine to help him.  I’ll admit it was a DISASTER as with the sickness that has been in our house, I have had no energy to clean! 

We were babies here!  This was about 2.5 months after we started dating.  We were at the big St. Patty's day parade here in buffalo!

A Photo An Hour.

 Last week, Steph from Southern Mess had a fun post called A Photo An Hour.  She decided to host a link up with Meg. O from Meg O. on the Go to have everyone else join in on the fun.

My day can be pretty hectic/boring, but I thought this sounded really fun.  Some photos were taken with my camera and some with my phone.

I woke up before the kids. It's a miracle. I spent some time drinking the green juice I made last night (Kale, Kiwi, Pineapple, Mint) and a coffee.  I sat down with my devotional and my bible study book to get some uninterrupted time in.

The kids are up, so I made them some breakfast.

I attempt to put on makeup and get dressed

I have to unlock Olivia from the bathroom because Jordan locked her in while I ran to the basement to grab some clothes. How he managed to lock her in while he was out of the bathroom, I have no idea. The skeleton key wouldn’t work so I had to take apart the door.

My makeup is finally done and I’m dressed, which means I put on a clean tee and clean leggings.

I’m going stir crazy because I haven’t been to the gym in a week because the kids have been sick so I try and get in a workout. It was a success.  I loved the Love Your Body HIIT workout workout from Tone It Up.  (My booty is still sore this morning!)

I make some lunch for everyone, homemade mini pizzas.

I attempt to put little munchkins down for a nap. I was not successful.

Jordan’s doing the usual, destroying the playroom. He’s pretending his safari truck is a lobster and yes, he is wearing his rash guard and swimsuit.  He said he wanted to wear it so we could go to Long Island on a long long drive to go see Grandpa and Grandma and go in their pool.

I attempt to clean up my office/sewing/guest room so we can put the new bed in.  (I wasn’t that successful  and I swear it really isn't "that" bad, the pictures make it look a lot worse.)

I start doing some meal prep.  I’m making spaghetti squash for dinner and I decided to try out the oven method for hardboiled eggs.  It turned out pretty good.

Jordan passed out right before 6, so Olivia and I are having fun playing in the kitchen while we wait for Tj to get home.

 Olivia gets a bath and then goes to bed. Somehow her brother is still sleeping (and slept until 8 am this morning!)

Sparkly shoes can make any bad day better.  I'm also a million times more productive when I wear these around the house. 

 I find Wickett curled up in his new favorite spot, the kitchen sink.

I decided to take an Epsom Salt bath and go to bed!

This was a really great idea.  I'll have to remember this so I can do another one!

2014 Goals

I’m a little late on the blogger bandwagon of sharing my goals for the year. Better late than never.

I try not to overload myself too much but I always like having goals to strive towards.  I try and break them down into categories.  Here are my goals and a few cute picture of my kids.

Personal:

Be present more: In this day and age with all of the technology, I want to be more present with my kids and my husband and spend less time with technology when I am around them.

Faith: I want us to be more active in our church.  My son goes to Sunday School every week, but us actually making it to church is hit or miss.  I also want to start doing some bible studies. I’m a part of one right now that starts tomorrow. I’m pretty excited for it.

Self Care:  I’ve already touched on this subject last week.  I want to take care of myself better, so that I can be better equipped to take care of those around me.  So far this goal is working out well.  I have been trying to care out time for myself here and there.  I got my hair cut (for the first time in 9 months), I have taken a few bubble baths and put on my favorite masks. I also want to improve my health.

Run a Half Marathon:  This is pretty self explanatory.  My goal is to run one half marathon this year.  I wanted to try and run the Buffalo Half Marathon at the end of May, but if that one doesn’t pan out. I plan on running in the Mighty Niagara Half that’s up by Niagara Falls.

Blogging:

• I want to increase my followers to 100.
• I want to be consistent with posts 4-5 days a week..
• Plan ahead- I don’t want to be writing posts last minute.  I’d like to write them and stock pile them up to be published so I don’t feel so rushed and flustered.
• I would love to be in a place to accept sponsorships/ad space.

Professionally:

• Open Etsy Shop- This is been a goal of mine for a while now.  This year I am going to make it happen!
• Take Photography and editing classes.
• Open a Photography business- I would love to be able to do family pictures, events, newborns and maternity shots.  Not necessarily to make a ton of money, but to be able to do something I have a passion for and to be able to support my hobby.

 So what are some of your goals?  

#GetFitAndFab

Going along with my post from last week., I’ve been trying really hard to take care of myself and my body.

So far, this week has gone really well.  I made it to the gym 3x.  I planned to go everyday, except Sunday, but my kids got sick and I didn’t want to infect the entire daycare.  When I go to the gym, I’ve been trying to get my cardio in, which includes my C25k that I’ve started to prepare for my 1/2 marathon. I’ve also been doing some of the workouts from Tone It Up.  This week, I also plan on starting up some Barre workouts online from Barre3.

I’ve been doing much better on nutrition too! We’ve been juicing and I made up some quick and easy Burrito bowl lunches for us to just grab and go.

The juice I made had apples, pears, kiwi, celery, carrots and a couple of strawberries.  It was delicious.

I also took some time to myself.  I did an at home micro dermabrasion kit and put on one of my favorite Lush face masks (Mask of Magnaminty) while I took a long bubble bath.

This coming week, I plan on taking  new yoga class, working on my cardio and getting 100+ ounces of water daily. If I complete all my goals this week, I’m going to treat myself to a new piece of workout clothes.

I’m linking up with Brittany from Happy is A Choice and Sam from Life Style Love.

DIY: Kids Room Art

While my husband was off on a ski weekend, I got a little crafty.  I made a few picture ledges (all by myself) and I cannot wait to show you those once I get them hung on the wall.  I also did a quick (cheap) canvas craft for the kids room.

It was so simple.

I just used some paper punches (which I got 50% off at Hobby Lobby), some scrapbook paper, a canvas and Mod Podge.  I think the whole craft (including the punches) cost me $10.

All I did was use the punches to cut hearts and some starbursts out of the scrapbook paper. 
Then I put some Mod Podge (I use the Matte kind) on the canvas with a brush and just placed on the hearts and starburst randomly.

Once it dried, I covered the whole thing in a layer of Mod Podge.

This is how it looked when it was all dry.

Easy Peasy! I plan on putting it in with the kids gallery wall along with  few other DIY canvas projects I have up my sleeve.

Have you ever used Mod Podge before?  I think I’m a little obsessed with it right now!

Guilty.

Before kids, 9 times out of 10, your #1 focus is on yourself.  You make time to stay in shape.  You make time to get massages or facials.  You put yourself first.

Then it happens, you give birth and see your child for the first time, that you love more than anything. Something changes, instead of focusing on yourself, your entire life begins to revolve around that little human being.  You stay up late with diaper changes and feedings, you’re typically covered in spit-up, you can’t remember the last time you showered or brushed your teeth. The next thing you know, you’re looking at yourself in a mirror and you don’t recognize yourself. It wasn’t as bad after baby #1, but once Olivia came around, I was 100% guilty of this.  I still am and Olivia is 18 months old.  

I was reading reading one of my favorite blogs, The Naptime Diaries, and came across a blog post that she wrote titled 5 reasons mamas don't take care of themselves. Something clicked in me after reading that post, that in order to take care of my family, my friends and others around me, I need to take  care of myself first.  Self care is much more important that you realize.  One of my goals for this year was to start taking care of myself.  When  you take care of yourself, you are more confident and happier. I want to be happier, I want to take care of myself and to be a good role model for my daughter as she grows up. 

For the rest of January, I am going to really focus on getting in some me time.  I want to start going to bed at a reasonable time, so I can start waking up early. I want to be able to have some un-interrupted time to be able to have some time with God, to focus on my bible studies.  I want to go to the gym and eat to fuel my body. Not necessarily with the goal of losing weight (but that would be a great bonus!), but to become healthier and to help relieve some of my most recent symptoms (I’m allergic to something and have “attacks” weekly. but we can’t pinpoint what it is).   I want my children to have a role model in being healthy and in being in touch with their faith.  

This is my year.

5 on Friday

Finally it’s Friday! I’m looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing tomorrow!
I’m linking up with Darci, Christina, April & Natasha for best link-up of the week....

-ONE-
One of my 2014 Goals (which even though it will be up very late, I’ll have a post on next week), was to start becoming more active in my church and in my faith. I’ve been reading the Confident Woman by Joyce Meyers and have been reading the 365 Devotional that goes along with it every morning.  I’m really loving it!  I’m also starting an online bible study with Brittany from Happy is A Choice.  We’re following the book A Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study by Jen Hatmaker.  I can’t wait.  I think there may still be time to join in if you’d like!

-TWO-
Finally getting to see Wicked! I’ve always been a huge Wizard of Oz fan, my grandmother and I used to watch it all the time when I was younger. She died when I was 5 and every time I watch it, it makes me think of her.  I’ve always been into musicals and was in select choirs and such throughout high school.  I fell in love with it about 10 years ago, when it came out.  I’ve been dying to go see it and for Christmas, my husband bought me tickets to see it when it came here to Buffalo.  We saw it Wednesday night and it was AH-MAZING!  Plus, it was nice to be able to have some alone time with my husband. 

-THREE-
The Tone It Up Love your Body Challenge! Another goal, was to get healthier.  This challenge is really helping with that.  If you’ve never heard of Tone It Up, I’d check them out.  It’s two best friends that want to help empower woman and help them to become healthier.  They even have their own show on Bravo called Toned Up.  Karena and Katrina are so positive and have such an infectious way with people.  I’ve been following them off and on since after I had Jordan.  They also have a really awesome Bikini Series that they start in April!

Karena and Katrina!

-FOUR-
My new Keurig that my dad gave us for Christmas! I know we’re super late to this bandwagon, but we had a Tassimo before and couldn’t justify buying a Keurig while we already had that.  My dad decided to buy one for us and I love it!  I drink a cup a day and so does my husband, so we would waste so much coffee when we would make a regular pot.  I’m loving trying all of the different flavors and I love that I can just make hot water with it for oatmeal, hot cocoa or tea.

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-FIVE-
I’ve been a little Pinterest crazy lately!  I’m on a major home decorating spree and I’ve been pinning up a storm (Follow Me!). I love that you can find just about anything your heart desires on Pinterest.  It even has me wanting to build some of our own furniture because I can’t find things that I love in our budget and these bloggers make it seem like it’s not so intimidating! 

Kids Room: Inspiration and Plans

One of my goals this year is to really focus on our house and making it more of a “home”.  We’ve lived here for almost three and a half years and I don’t think a single room is “finished”. 

One of the first rooms on my list, the bedroom that our kids share.   Yes, we have a three bedroom house. Yes, my kids share one of the smallest rooms in the house.  My daughter is a light sleeper and we wouldn’t be able to be in the living room watching tv (her room shared a wall with it) while she was sleeping.  Since moving them in together, she has slept like a rock. Plus they don’t spend much time in their bedroom. Mostly just for sleeping and reading books.

When we moved Olivia in, we painted the room gray and haven’t really done much since.
Here are some shots of the room as it sits right now!

Here’s some of the inspiration and things that I would love to incorporate into their room. I have no real theme, mostly just an eclectic whimsical mix of things that I think my kids would like.

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

These are the things I’d love to accomplish in their room over the next few months.

- Re-finish their dresser and put on new knobs
- Finish gallery wall
- DIY art
- Add one more gutter shelf
- New area rug
- Throw Pillows
- Bed Tent/Canopies
- Star Decals on ceiling
- Pom Pom fringe on drop cloth curtains
- DIY Lampshades

I am so excited to have a fun place for our kids to spend some time reading and sleeping. I have a ton of DIY things planned, to keep us on our small budget and I cannot wait to share some of them with you!