Eating Real: Week One Prep

Okay, there is literally nothing worse then logging in to make sure the post you scheduled is up and realizing that it is gone. Where did it GO!!! Super sads x 100000

So, I will try my best to recreate the post. here goes.

So, today marks my journey into "Eating Real". I am not going to do this thing cold turkey, so I'm following the mini-plan to get things clean in 14 weeks.

So, the plan I'm following is from the blog 100 days of Real Food and week one of the mini-pledge is to eat fruits and veggies at each meal. So basically I have to eat a minimum of two different fruits or veggies at each meal.

ha!

this is easy for Taylor and even Mike, but me and Jackson (well, with fruit he's good) good luck to us!! I am not a big fruit person and Jackson will only eat french fries, carrots and lettuce. Luckily there are some great easy ideas up on Lisa's blog. So, maybe this won't be so tough after all.

I did some mindful food shopping this past weekend and have all our dinners and my lunches planned out.  I know the kids eat a ton of fruit during the day so I'm not too worried there.

If anyone else out there is tackling this challenge let me know, and share some recipe ideas. I need help!!!

I'm so bummed, my original blog post was way better. Well, at least I had fruit for breakfast....

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year! Let's do this 2014!!!

Project Life 2014

Have you guys heard of this? Project Life? It's this really cool spin on scrap booking, and you can do it with an album that you can buy at craft stores with all the cool paper goods and templates or you can do it digitally. Though trust me, a visit to AC Moore and I came across all the Project Life products and it was derfinitey a struggle. There was a legit "okay, step away from the display, just back up slowly and everything will be okay" moment.  I have a serious love of paper goods and printables (and they are all so pretty!!) and all that so this was hard to walk away from all of that. But, I'm really trying to simplify and purge and teh last thing I need is more paper stuff to take up room that I don't have, so I'm going digital.

"The idea is simple: Photos + memorabilia + journaling together in an album - everything slips into pockets. No requirement to cut or glue or embellish a thing."

And it gets even easier if you decide to do this on your computer (in my opinion). So, while I'm not announcing this as a resolution, I thought it would be fun to take my yearly photo album project and step it up a notch. So, for 2014, every week I'll be creating a page (or most likely 2). It may be full of pictures, or maybe just a few with some journal notes, but I'm hoping it will give us a fun look back on the year. I'm also hoping that it will help our annual album not be all about the kids. I'm pretty sure 2010-2012 don't have any pictures of me and Mike in them. Yikes!!!

I'm pretty excited about this, and if you you were once a scrap booker in a former life (aka before kids) this may be right up your ally too, so definitely check out the site, and the digital products.  You can even get some freebies to download to get started!!! Becky Higgins (the creator) also offers some pretty cool classes, so I'd check those out too.

Oh, and if you do decide to use the product, let me know and link up so we can help each other stay on track!!!

resolving

Last year around this time I went all out and proclaimed that I'd make things "easier" and have monthly resolutions as opposed to some grand yearly ones. Well. That didn't work out too well.

This year I'm keeping things simple...

1.) Buy a house
2.) Get healthy (this means eating better/eating "real" and getting back to my pre-baby size)
3.) Watch all of these.

Should be cake.

My 5 Favorite Christmas Songs....some of which are not about Christmas at all

One of the best things about this time of year is the music. Here are my 5 most favorite songs, some of which have nothing to do with Christmas at all.


5. Never is a Promise-Fiona Apple
I know right? Such a great holiday song. I don't know why, but it just reminds me of winter. Maybe it's the video, I dunno. Regardless, it's on my spotify Holiday playlist

4.  Last Christmas-Glee
Yes, that's right. Glee. I do love the Wham version, but the Glee one is my favorite. Though my heart does break a little when I think of Rachel & Finn singing together amongst the Christmas Trees.

3. Where Are You Christmas-Faith Hill, kid from the Grinch
Wow, okay, my holiday song list is a bit depressing. I'll make this a tie.

3 take 2. The Waitresses: Christmas Wrapping

At least this one has a happy ending.

2. Long December-Counting Crows
Another song that has NOTHING to do with Christmas, other than the fact that it's about the month of December. Again, just a wintery song that makes me think of this time of year.

1. All I Want for Christmas-Mariah Carey
There is no justification needed for this song. It is by far the best holiday song ever and as far as I'm concerned the Christmas season does not officially start till I hear this played on the radio.

This post is inspired by MamaKat's Pretty Much World Famous Writing Prompts. Check em out!

holiday shopping for your 2 and 5 year old

I FINALLY started/finished wrapping gifts yesterday. I was hubby and kid free and it was amazing.
I watched 3 episodes of Orange is the New Black and only misplaced the tape for wrapping the gifts 17 times. Go me!

I don't have an elaborate or well researched list of what kids want this year, I just know what my kids asked for and what they are getting. So here she goes.


For the 5 year old boy obsessed with lego's and anything Disney/Pixar..

The Lego City Garage is the only Lego set that Santa will be bringing to our house this year. He got like 3 REALLY big sets last year, and only one is still half standing on the Lego table.

I may want this more than my kids. He was flip flopping between this one and Skylanders SwapForce (whatever) but they were both on sale half off, so I got him both. This way he can play his skywhateverstupid game, and I can play Disney. Mind you, the only video game he's ever played is Star Wars legos, and I think Mike did most of the work on that one. Should be interesting to see how these pan out..

He is also getting a few movies...

I'm excited for Despicable Me 2 because we haven't seen that yet.

I also got him a bunch of books, and a few that have different plans for building things out of legos.
Oh and he got a sweatshirt.

Okay, now for the 2 year old that acts like she's 16..

When asked "what do you want for Christmas" Taylor will, without a doubt tell you "baby doll, stroller, pink earrings" seriously. every time.  My sister is getting her an American Doll baby, so I had to get an appropriate stroller.

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/doll-pram-stroller/?pkey=e%7Cpram%7C24%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C14&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules-_-

This actually isn't the one I got. It's pink with white polkadots, but you get the picture.

http://www.tinyblessings.com/childrens-jewelry/child-earrings/flower-earrings/february-birthstone-pave-flower-baby-childrens-earrings-14k-gold.html

What 2 year old doesn't need $40 earrings??

These are guaranteeing me at least 30 minutes of crying and torture as I attempt to take out her $5 Claire's earrings (that have not fallen out yet!) and put these babies in.  This is the gift that keeps on giving.

Another great thing to do with a 2 year old is to take her shopping to the Gap Outlet when the whole store is 40% off.  She got her own shopping bag and just walked around and picked stuff out. She also bought a few things for baby peaches....as I found out yesterday. I was going through "her" bag yesterday to get wrapping and was like "oh, I didn't even know she picked that". She's set for winter 2013/2014. Never. Again.

i have no idea why it's sideways...

holiday wrappings

If you are like me, you haven't starting wrapping your holiday gifts. And that's okay (or at least this is what I keep telling myself). It's gonna be all okay.

I am really torn between using all the wrapping paper I already have, printing some, or just using the butcher paper that I have and wrapping all the gifts in that and using really cool tags. The only issue with that, is that 90% of my presents are for the kids, and while Jackson can recognize his name, I doubt Taylor will. Decisions are the worst.

Like trying to decide which labels I want to use.

I have a SERIOUS addiction to printables. I have no idea why. They just make me happy. So, I thought I'd share some of my favorite holiday printable finds with you!

The cool thing about searching for these babies was that it introduced me to some cool new blogs, so please check em out!


These babies from Domesifluff are super cute. I printed these out on label paper so I can easily stick them to gifts.

I love me some snowman!! These are super cute and wintery fun (from Domestifluff)

These ones from PaperCrave are pretty cool and funky, and come in a few different colors.

I  literally just found these now and may go print them. How cute are these woodland/chalkboard ones from lia griffith???

I want my presents to look like that.

And for some more woodland creature fun, check out these ones (and the wrapping paper!!) from elli

Okay. I seriously need to get my wrapping act together. Good luck to all of those that haven't started either!! I hope these labels help :)

Holiday Wish List-for me!!!

It's that time of year folks! That special magical time when bloggers around the world post their favorite things to share with the millions or in my case 5 people that read their lovely blog.

So, without further ado, here is my personal holiday wishlist in all its sadness glory!

I am trying really hard to use my camera as much as possible. I switched from my lovely 50mm to my kit lens, because my 50mm doesn't have auto focus, and trust when I say when you are trying to take pictures of kids and a Rottweiler, you want auto focus. This little baby will do just the trick, and won't break the bank.

I am all about getting fit in the 2014. For reals. I have a lovely FitBit flex, but I really think I want this, their Aria scale.  For like 2 months I thought I was doing so good and losting weight, then I found out my scale had been LYING to me the whole time after a visit to the doctors crushed my soul. This thing takes your weight, BPI, etc. and then sends it off to your computer to analyze it. Super cool.

As if my list weren't sad enough, yes, i want a new pot & pan set. Mine is okay, I've had it FOREVER, but this stuff is super cool and safe and doesn't release nasty chemicals into your food.

Wait! It just got sadder. Yep, I want a salad spinner...

If I REALLY wanted to ....wait maybe I will later...I can fill a JCrew cart with expensive craziness and pretend that there is a chance in hell I'd get any of it.