That Hair!!

Being a parent is full of decisions - some small, some big, some that you never think about but just do, and some that you agonize over for far too long!!  I never thought we would have to decide (and agree on) if we needed to cut Micah's hair before his first birthday!  Since we first laid eyes on Micah and saw his awesome head of hair,  we agreed we would cut it around his first birthday, if he needed it.  But seriously,  this hair is out of control!  It gets in his eyes and nose constantly, and I'm sure it tickles his face.  With family pictures, Santa pictures and holiday pictures all looming in the near future, we needed to make a decision.  We finally decided that we both love his crazy hair,  and that for now we would try to tame it and only give him a little trim in the front so it isn't in his eyes....now I just have to work up the nerve to do it! Lol

When did you cut your little ones hair?  What finally nudge you to do it?  I'd love to hear your stories!!

Have a great day!
Beth

My New Hobby!

I have a new addiction...oops, I mean HOBBY!  I stumbled onto it completely randomly while watching some of my favorite Youtube vloggers.  I saw them doing it, and it just clicked!  Not only is it fun and creative, but helps me with that whole struggle to be organized. 🙄

My new hobby is Planning with Stickers - sounds boring right?!  Go look on Instagram, Pinterest or YouTube, I'll wait...🤔  I had no idea that using stickers to decorate your planner was a thing, but it is!!  And it is really popular, there is a whole planner community!  And the stickers 😍😍

Right now I am using a simple planner I got from a dollar store to practice, but I am excited to start using my new planner next year (which is so incredibly soon!).  It took me a few weeks to convince myself to splurge on a fancy planner, but I think it will really help me stay interested - well that and the stickers lol.

You can read more about my planner journey on Mommy Needs A Plan.  I have lots of ideas and thoughts that I'll sharing over there, but I'll be sure to do some planner posts on here as well!  I'm also on Instagram under that name,  so if you're interested come follow me!

Here is my spread for this past week, before I filled anything out.  #beforethepen #practiceplanner

I am so excited to start using my Erin Condren Lifeplanner in January!! 

If you want me to do a detailed post about what it looks like on the inside and the accessories I have - leave a comment!  I'm always happy to talk your ear off about it!

So, there you have it!  My weird new hobby, that will hopefully help me succeed in organizing my life! 😉😊

Have a great day!

Beth

Soup's On

Check this out! Soup's on! I know I wanted to post about power bowls. I will I promise! It started to rain here and get cooler. I have been wanting to make a hearty soup. I've been searching and searching. I haven't found the exact one yet. I want a little bit of beef stew and French onion but beef or mushroom barley. It all started with this mushroom barely soup I had. I licked the bowl, it was amazing.

This is a beef and barely soup in the slow cooker. They are instructions for stove top from the link I got this from.

I will say I will be tweaking these steps slightly. The barley needs at least 2 hours to cook. There wasn't clear directions. It said to simmer for 1 hour, so I turned it back on and let it cook for one hour. I tried it and it was still crunchy. We had take out for dinner ha! I put it on high for 2 hours and that did the trick. So if you're going to be putting this in the slow cooker I recommend at hour 5 you put the barely in.

Ingredients

2 pounds stew meat (the more marble the better)
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups of water
3 heaping tablespoons of better than bullion
2 sweet onions chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1 cup barely rinsed
3 carrots shredded (to be put in the last hour)
1 russet potatoe shredded (to be put in the last hour

Instructions

Salt and pepper the stew meat. Add oil to pan and heat at medium high. In small batches (I have a Dutch oven did mine in 2 batches) brown meat in thirds so there isn't crowding. When all the meat is browned put it back in the pot and add 2 cups of water. Bring water to a boil, stir to get all of the delicious browned bits. Pour the beef and water plus the remaining 6 cups into the slow cooker. Add the celery, onions and garlic. Set on low for 8 hours. At hour 6 is when I would put the barley in. At hour 7 add the shredded carrots and potatoes cook for 1 more hour, hopefully this will turn out great! The flavors are so yummy and it smells so wonderful all day long. My husband and I had ad to try some so we had a late night bowl. We had ours with garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Who Would Have Guessed?!?!

Part Montessori/Part Organization/Part Distraction - this actually works to keep Micah away from the electronics behind and helps keep my living room tidy!!

So it turns out that the best way to help me keep my house clean was to have a child!!  I have struggled with keeping all the parts of my house clean, on a daily basis, somewhere around forever.  I have never been able to do it for more than 2 weeks at a time before something falls off the wagon (usually the kitchen), and once one part goes it all seems to go!  Then I'm back to messes everywhere and no willpower to keep it clean! 😶

I definitely struggled with this problem the first 6 months after having Micah, but can you guess what happened to make the change??  He started crawling, and all of a sudden I couldn't ignore the messiness because he was all over it...oh, you don't want me to put all the shoes by the door in my mouth, pull all the laundry off the couch or play with the garbage bag...😫

So, I had no choice but to start cleaning and picking things up on a daily basis (well, almost daily)!!  I also decided I wanted to teach Micah to be tidy and pick up after himself, but it would lack conviction if I didn't practice those skills myself.  The third thing that prompted my tidiness was an introduction to the world of stickers in planners!  I talk all about my new addiction on a different blog Mommy Needs A Plan (created so I don't overload this blog with planner stuff).  I love using my planner and it really helps me get things done!  I may do a post here or there about it, just because I love using it!

I have managed to keep my kitchen and living room clean and keep up with the laundry (washing, folding and putting away) for about a month now.   This might not seem to be that long,  but sadly it's kind of a record for me!  I have found that it is easier for me to do almost all of the cleaning right after I put Micah to bed (dishes, wiping counters, vacuuming, ect).  I do run laundry throughout the day and fold as possible but my helper is not so helpful,  so I do what I can.   I also put all of Micah's toys away with him.   Obviously he doesn't help with that yet either,  but he will hopefully learn that cleaning them up is part of our bedtime routine.

Every night I try to incorporate just a little bit more of the house into my routine.  As each area gets easier to clean on a daily basis it gets faster to finish, giving me more time to clean somewhere else.  Does this mean I have done dishes at 2am?  Yep, but I was determined to keep the kitchen clean and now I don't need more than 30ish minutes to tidy the entire kitchen each night - including the dishes.  My plan is to eventually spend no more than an hour every night to keep my house looking good 😎

Some of you are probably horrified by the thought of staying up just to clean, but I'm a night owl.  If I go to bed before 1am, I'm probably sick lol.  Cleaning before bed actually helps me sleep,  and having an almost 7mo helps too (not as much as you might assume though lol) 😅.  This weird routine actually works great for us.  It leaves me with the majority of my day to spend with Micah, which he demands anyways,  and I don't feel the stress to get housework done all day!! 👍

Here is what my living room looks like this morning...

It's 8:56 am - I swear!

I would show you the kitchen but I don't  want to spoil the surprise...😘  See you next week!

Have a great day!!
Beth

Felicia's Journey

Hi Everyone!

I'm so glad we are back at it again. I've missed blogging and I have been Pinning as if it's going out of style! 

Though we all took a break, life still goes on. I had a huge lifestyle change over the summer. My husband and I decided to talk with a friend who transformed his life and learn what to do.  We did what he said, got a calorie goal number and started off with 500 calories less than that. Just changing our food we have both lost 30 + pounds. I feel really good, of course as I'm still going to keep at this. We have both gave into cravings, which you must do, the point is to get back to eating healthier. What we learned though is that we felt awful after eating our cheat food. Not guilty but down, our bodies were talking to us, making groans. I'm finding it's pretty easy to choose well. My latest obsession is power bowls. Jamie and I have been making them. They are insanely good. I love food, anyone who knows me knows that I love food. Well I hope that with my future post you too will fall in love with healthy food. 

You may wonder how we came to wanting this lifestyle change. We decided to start after our summer cruise. You've heard it before. I'll start on Monday, after the holidays. Well I've had enough I really wanted to start, my husband has even taken a break but I kept on it and I'm so happy I did. I caught up to him. He was over 30 lbs and I wasn't there yet. I know when he recommits he will loose faster than me. I was really worried about being on the cruise and gaining a bunch. I didn't, that ship was so big I walked a lot and maintained. Good to know right. Walking really does help. That is my next step. I feel pretty good, not as tired as before so now I'm ready to get back to the gym and kick this into high gear.

Our trip this summer was one we will never forget. I'm so blessed to have friends that took us, my son still talks about it. I remember my travels with my family that's what I wanted for him too. I never had a passport as a kid, didn't need one to travel to Canada. He does, that just makes me so happy that when we want to we can plan another trip anywhere. We really can now, not much stops us these days. He is down to one therapy. Which is huge! He is an awesome kid, it's amazing how much he knows. I love how he can carry a conversation and his thought process is so great. He comprehends a lot now. I just was thinking about that the other day. I wish he could pass school work by having a conversation instead of writing it down. We are always working on stuff to improve ourselves. This is just one of them.

I can go on and on! I've missed you all. See you next week with a power bowl recipe! Who knows I might post one later I might not wait!

Oh here is a picture of Hubbard Glacier....