Weekly Challenge #2 - Launch pad

Week 2 Challenge was all about our launch/landing pad. That's the are that you dump everything in when you come in the door and search through the piles to find what you need as you're heading out the door. I actually have a nice entry - lots of room and a large closet to store everything. For the most part, it stays pretty clean, this happens to be what it looks like when we just come in from playing out in the snow and everything is still wet. **excuse the ugly photos - it was late at night and they look awful with or without flash**



When we first moved in I struggled with this area. It took me a couple years even to get what I wanted in the entry. The table and lamps were a Birthday gift and the bench came from JC Penny when I found it on clearance on their website. The closet started off with just 2 wire shelves across the top. Since this has been done for awhile now, I mainly just cleaned it all up. I pulled everything out of the closet and cleaned/decluttered as I put it all away.

Before

After


Before

After

This shelf has a bowl made by my Niece for our sunglasses, another dish for keys and the hugs and kisses jar is where all our change goes.

Thanks for visiting my pad. Again sorry for the hideous pictures. Feel free to join us over at A Bowl Full Of Lemons for the weekly challenges.

Week #1 Challenge

The first weekly challenge over at A Bowl Full Of Lemons was a home management binder. I am still in the process of putting mine together as I'm trying to find out just what format works for our family. Here's what my binder looks like....

The things that I'm including are:

• a monthly calender
• weekly meal plan and grocery list
• financial planning (calender, list, snowball payoff plan)
• School calender and information as well as Dance class updates - B is in Preschool so there isn't much, but enough to keep all together in one place.
• Emergency contact/Dr and dentist information
• Address book

Once I get it down to what I like and what works for us, I'll update with the pages I'm including.

Putting it all together

One of the reasons I wanted to start blogging again was to put all my thoughts, ideas, inspirations, challenges and the "every days" all in one area. So here I go.

I love to organize and declutter. I can't tell you how excited I get when I find neat little holders to make all my junk look all pretty and put together. I have been following along with another blog and their 21 day challenge to get my house clean and organized. I didn't "officially" join the challenge, but I did a few things here and there along with them. Now there's a new weekly challenge that I want to jump in on and tackle a few things that I'm needing to get done.

Over at this blog, you can follow me and other bloggers as we join in on the challenge - I'd love to hear all your "oohs and ahhs" at the pretty-ness that is an organized space, so leave me a note if you like. Check out a bowl full of lemons for the info and I'll be back with the first challenge - My home management binder.

Later!!

Same ol story....I'll try to change

It's the same ol story - I forget to blog for a VERY L.O.N.G. time, then I come back with all these great intentions on being an awesome blogger again.....only to fail. I hang my head in shame, as I am here once again.

I'm not sure I'm going to "fill in" the blanks of what has been going on the past year, I may touch on some subjects along the way, but for now I want to just start fresh. I want this blog to be about some of my personal goals - capturing my life as a Wife and Mommy of 2 - and basically all that rolls into "J & S plus a little 'b' and 't".

I hope to stick to blogging more frequently and build a little bit of a following if anyone is interested. I will try my best.

Here's to the new start....again......

Hello there!!

::WAVING:: to Stephanie - thanks for visiting. I haven't blogged in awhile...hmmm...since February? Really? I better get on that. Just thought I'd send a shout out to my friend who's stopping by. More blogging to come......

I'm back

Did you miss me????

I've been away for many reasons, some more complicated than others, but basically I was trying to get things back on the up and up before I went back to the wonderful world of blogging. So, here's my kids all grown up and heading off to college...ok, so I haven't been gone THAT long, but they have grown a bit since I've been on here.

Trever had his 1st Birthday a week before Christmas. We had a little party for him and he had a blast. His Godmommy (and my dear friend) Michelle made the trip down with her sister and niece - it was wonderful to spend a few days with them. My sister Patti and family also traveled down for the party which I honestly didn't expect - so I was really excited that they came. Papa and Gahma (as Brenna would say) came over as well as Auntie Chris and Jaden and some friends of our with their kids. I think Brenna had the most fun playing with all the kids since they were her age and Trever just watched and giggled at them all. It really was a wonderful 1st Birthday for him. The Big "hit" to the party was the boys throwing a sticky skeleton to the ceiling and jumping to hit it down with a blanket. Really - who needs entertainment when you have inventive kids around. It was awesome to hear all the kids laugh and enjoy themselves.

Christmas was good, not as hectic as it was leading up to be. Christmas morning was fun watching Brenna and Trever opening their gifts then proceeding to play with what the other one got. We spent the morning in jammies and enjoyed the day. Later on we headed to my parents house and had our Christmas with my side of the family. We played our dice game that has quickly become a new tradition. We did 1 round with everyone and then did an adult round after all the kids went downstairs to play. We had decided to not exchange gifts amongst "us kids" meaning me and my siblings and do the dice game. What a GREAT idea - we had such a fun time. There is always 1 or 2 items that are the "hot" gifts and it's so much fun to see who and what gets fought over. This year it was a GTO calendar. My brother-in-law Mike knew what it was when it was wrapped so he made sure he got it. Once unwrapped my other brother-in-;aw David went after it (the GTO man that he is) it went back and forth between them for a time...soon Tera got into it....then Mikie....the Jason and myself....then low and behold MY DAD gets up and takes it away from David...CLASSIC. We all laughed and really enjoyed it. I think that is becoming a huge favorite for us now and we're all looking forward to in again next year.

We traveled up to Minnesota for a quick visit and had Christmas with Jason's family. It was a couple weeks later than we had originally planned but the weather just wasn't cooperating. It was a good time and we all got some wonderful gifts. We took a picture of all the grandkids together and I think maybe 1 out of about 50 turned out. It's tough getting 5 kids to all look at the camera at the same time.

The new year came about with some changes. New plans and things to focus on with our family and a new outlook on our life together. There will be many changes this year. Some things are already set in motion and others will come throughout the year, but we're looking forward to 2010.

I do hope to get back to blogging more. Hopefully I'll have more to say to keep it going :grin:

See you all soon

Amazing - Stellan Update

I'm still amazed by the work of our Creator - our Healer. Stellan had an outstanding ablation and there is no SVT in sight. He does have some recovering to do, but he has left me speechless. What an amazing demonstration on the power of prayer and trusting in God.

I am so happy for Stellan and the rest of the MckFamily. Please go to their blog and get the full story on Stellan's amazing day.

Lots of love little man!!!!