{ what's on my mind... }

Discovered via Wide Open Spaces via A Cup of Jo

{ daily worth }

I've got a guest post up on DailyWorth.com today about how I sold stuff on ebay to pay off $15,000 in school loans! Check it out here.

{ bucket list }

We've been adding lots of fun adventures & ideas to ours of late. Things like, travel around New Zealand with the kids in a VW Camper Van for 3 months. It's fun to dream, no?

We made a FREE Life List download available exclusively at See Jane Fly. Download it here.

What's on your Life List?

{ inspired ME }

Discovered this lovely quote from Mother Teresa on Clover Lane's blog and wanted to share....

"Start by making your own home a place where happiness and love abound, through your love for each member of your family and for your neighbor. Try to put in the hearts of your children a love for home. Make them long to be with their families. So much sin could be avoided if our people really love their homes."

A few other things that are inspiring me lately....

How about a purge for Lent? 40 bags in 40 days Challenge.

43 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life on Zen Habits

Jamie Oliver's TED Award for his plan to overhaul School Lunch Food.

Tracie's suggestion that this book is a MUST read. Looking forward to reading it.

Overcoming the Guilt of Under-scheduling Our Kids post on Zen Family Habits.

Sara's Simplify Saturday routine with her family.

Loving Suze Orman's response to the age old question of kids allowances from Scholastic's Parent & Child here - excerpt: "They live in the house and there are certain things that should be expected of them depending on their age. They need to do these things regardless—they don’t get paid to live in your house. They get the privilege of living there."

Loving this post on Daily Worth about doing just one dumb money chore. Cross it off your list.

mantra poster available here.

{ organize ME - emergencies }

One of the things that has been on my never-ending to do list forever is to have car & home emergency kits. I am generally not one to lose sleep over things such as a pandemic or other global crisis since they are out of my control but I would like to be a bit better prepared. Ya know in case the world does start to come to an end? Or in case the mother of all snow storms knocks out power to our lovely abode for days on end. My darling dad gave me a great car emergency kit for Christmas for all of our road trips & travel - with space blankets, crank cell phone charger, water, space blankets, one of those uber cool tools that breaks glass or cuts seatbelts off, etc. So I'm good there, thanks to him.

But now onto the home emergency kit. I know various people will recommend having a 3-6 month emergency supply of food, water, firewood, etc. But seriously if "S&%#" is that bad then we've got more problems than that to worry about. So, I'm aiming for a 30 day supply of food, water, firewood, etc. I started a list here of all of the things to gather and am going to set about getting the rest of them this week. It may involve me having to go to Walmart. ugh. But I bet I can find a lot of the stuff here and at the thrift store. I am thinking that to save myself some sanity I will just order up one of these 30 day emergency food supply kits (that last for 20+ years) from here. This site also offers up what looks to be everything you need to survive an apocalypse.

ps - And before you all think I've lost my mind, even the uber-cool Design Sponge recently did a post on a winter survival planning + supplies. ;)

What about all of you? Ready or not?

{ family fun - Olympics week }

We love the Olympics! This week (and next) we are going to watch some of the competitions, make streamers, olympic torches, and other Olympic themed crafts, lessons, have a family Olympics competition, go skiing, go iceskating, read books about the Olympics, watch some Olympic themed movies and more! Here is a link to some great family olympic celebration crafts and printables.

{ feed ME }

Here's our weekly meal plan (tonight....homemade heart shaped pizza's!) {click on image to enlarge menu.} Get your own weekly Feed ME meal planner here.

{ fit ME challenge - week 5 }

Ugh. No, what I meant to say was GO! But, kind of ugh. I honestly thought that it would be EASIER by now. That I would be BOUNCING out of bed at 5AM ready to get my p90x ON! But, I have to drag myself out of bed and yesterday I just flat out turned the alarm off and went back to sleep. I missed 2 workouts last week (week) due to the little guy getting 4 molars in at once and not sleeping for 2 nights in a row. I ate chocolate the other day. A lot of it. And I just discovered that this cupcake store is a few blocks from my hotel (for an upcoming work trip to San Francsico). PEOPLE, I DO NOT have that much self-control. There WILL be cupcakes consumed.

Anyway, I'm trying to remind myself that all good things come to those who WORK at them. And I'm really hoping to get back into the workout groove at 5AM on Monday! GO! So, who's still with ME on this?

image via flickr

{ organize ME - toys }

Inspired by Jordan's post last week about toy storage, this weekend I tackled the kids play room. Henry hadn't really been able to play in there much because Sam's art supplies (glue, scissors, paints, etc.) and all of her beading supplies were out where Henry could EAT them. So, I spent some time decluttering, putting art supplies in the closet or on upper shelves where Sam can get to them and Henry can't and putting Henry's toy in reach for him. I dropped off 2 boxes of old toys to the women's shelter and tossed 2 bags of broken crap.

So, this week's organize ME challenge is to go through your kids toys - put like minded stuff together in bins, donate stuff the kids no longer play with - pare the piles down, make little areas or bins for different activities (eg. art table or a bin with art supplies, a dress up station or a bin with dress up clothes). Resist the urge to go buy things - wooden toys to replace the plastic ones you are sending to a new home, new bins to store more toys, etc. Make this project about simplifying not acquiring. Here are some more great tips on how to cut the toy clutter.

{ family fun - LOVE week }

The family fun theme this week is LOVE. We started this weekend by making valentines for Sam's classmates and homemade granola for her teachers. This week we are are going to have heart shaped snacks (watermelon, cheese, sandwiches, etc.), make glitter hearts, make pink playdough, do some valentine's learning activities (counting heart shaped candies) & coloring pages and deliver some heart shaped brownies to our neighbors (spreading love). On Valentine's Day we will have heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and make heart shaped individual pizzas for dinner. The kids will get little pink & red suitcases filled with crafts & games. {ps - Love these 40 ways to show your child LOVE.}

{ aahhh...the spending hiatus }

I think I might need to change the name of the spending hiatus. To {the year of mindful consumption}. To {I don't need it so don't buy it} or to {making do with what i have} or to {live well with what i have}.

I know I said last month that I was done with the spending hiatus (and it was a success) and yes, there are a few things on my list of things I'd like to get. But, upon further reflection, they aren't things I NEED. While I would love a VitaMix I have a cheap blender that works fine (albeit slowly). While I'd love a cute new pair of jeans, I have 10 pairs. 10 pairs. I think I have a pair that will work! There are people all over the world (Haiti being majorly on my mind) who have nothing. Nothing. This is what I've been thinking about.

We've also been hit with some untimely repairs (car, new dishwasher after old one died, hot tub died (not fixing or replacing that right now), etc. It seems like we have been burning through money on repairs and replacements lately.

I am doing a tradeshow in a few weeks in San Francisco and I was like, oh I want to get some new clothes (especially after these adorable suggestions) and maybe a new pair of comfy shoes, but then I looked through my closet and I STILL have so many clothes. Even after my ebay purge of 2009. I have lots of clothes. I have comfy 5 year old danskos that will work just fine. So I'm going shopping in my own closet.

I don't need anything. Repeat, I don't need anything. So, I'm thinking I may carry forth on my spending hiatus in 2010. Joslyn just ramped hers back up for the next 60 days. In particular when it comes to clothes and things we don't need. Not because I HAVE TO like last year but because I WANT TO. Hmmm...

So in light of all of these things I'm ramping back up. Full disclosure people.

{ps - but maybe, just maybe.... i'll reward myself with a new pair of jeans after my p90x challenge is over!}

Who's in with ME?


image above via flickr

{ organize ME - family fun }

I've written about this before....how I try to plan a fun family activity, lesson or outing once a day and schedule into my momme planner....sometimes this is as simple as a craft project after school, sometimes its an outing to the rec center and sometimes its something that requires a bit more planning, like a family olympics. We also just reinstated our family rule of no TV or computer games during the school week. So after school it has helped having something planned for in advance so Samme doesn't ask to watch a movie or play a computer game because she's "bored." {I'll post more about the no TV rule soon.} Anyway, I gather up all of the goodies on Friday and put them all in a bin on the table so we are ready to go each day.


This delightful site that I posted about last week inspired me to plan some of this family fun around a weekly {theme}. I like this idea and think it will help me plan our weeks a bit better.
For any given theme you can have the kids do crafts, read books, cook food, enjoy imaginary play, listen to and play music, sing songs, make art, go on field trips and all sorts of other activities that help them absorb and enjoy the information about the weekly theme.

So this weekend we started the {Snow} theme. Here are some ideas for building some family fun into the week around the theme of {Snow} - build a snowman, make felt snowman, create marshmallow snowman, make snowman pancakes for breakfast, make glitter snowflakes to hang from the window, read books about snow, etc.

Next week we are starting the {Love} theme and on the weekend we'll make valentines cards for classmates, valentines bracelets for grandmas, afterschool we'll make glitter hearts, have heart shaped snacks, decorate the windows with hearts, make a heart mobile, make heart pancakes for breakfast, read love books from library, learn about the heart, spread some love, etc.

The following week or two will be an {Olympics} theme to coincide with the start of the winter Olympics - we'll have a family olympics (sledding competition, go skiing together, snowshoeing, swimming, etc.), make olympic ceremonial torches and paint olympic flags, mark on a map where the different countries are, watch olympics competitions together at night, etc.

{ feed ME }

This week's meal plan (click on image to view larger). Keeping it simple...

{ Also purchased from the grocery store this week - pink tulips and daffodils. Love the little snippets of spring around the house. }

Happy February!