Disney contest

It's T minus 2 weeks until Disney time.  And in honor of that I thought it would be fun to have a little contest.

So here it is:

Guess how long it will take for the first child to say "I'm bored" in the car on our way to Disney World.

The winner will get one handpicked Disney souvenir mailed to them at the end of our trip.

Here are some things you need to know:

• We are stopping part way the first night and it will be an 8-hour car drive (yikes!) to that destination.
• There will be a DVD player in the car to stave off boredom.
• There will be 2 DSi's in the car to stave off boredom.
• Julie can't read or she gets carsick, so cross that activity off the list.
• You can guess within 5 minute intervals.  You will put your guess in a comment in hour/minute format.  For example, you can guess that they will be bored in 4 hours and 20 minutes.  
• We will round to the nearest 5 minutes to determine the winner.
• The first comment to pick the time closest to the correct time wins, so read all the comments to make sure you are putting a unique time in.
• You MUST be a follower of my blog to be eligible
• For every post that you comment on next week, you will be eligible for an additional entry (up to 6 entries per person).
• The contest will end on FRI APRIL 22.
• The winner will be announced the week of May 1 and your prize will be mailed the week of May 8.

Good luck to you all!!

Stylin' and Profilin'

OK, so I'm not really profilin'. I don't even know what that means, actually.

But according to Amie at And we're off to I am stylin'.

See, here's proof:

She gave me the Stylish Blogger Award!

When you get awarded this wonderful honor, you get to pick another 10 blogs that you think are stylish too.
Crystal's Craft Spot - so crafty she can't help being stylish
Stacy Makes Cents - frugal, witty and funny
2Wired2Tired - 2 wired kids + 2 tired parents = one great blog
Jill Savage's blog - Jill runs a great organization for SAHM's called Hearts at Home
Queen of Tweens - Shanna is new to blogging, go give her some comment love
Iheart Organizing - Jen just has the cutest blog and the cutest downloadables
5 Minutes just for Me - My Aussie friend always has gorgeous pictures on her site
Lifting Revolution - what's more stylish then learning how to take care of yourself
Knits, Reads and Reviews - see cute knitted creations or find a great book
Ramblings - 3 kids, and a SAHM, lots of cute stuff there

For the last part of the assignment, I'm supposed to tell you 7 random things about me.
(You can find some other random things about me here.)

1. I love to peel things - sunburned skin, that blue stuff that comes on new appliances, fruit roll-ups, you name it.  Yes, I'm weird like that.
2. I can pick up sanddollars off of the ocean floor with my toes.  My husband says I could kill a small animal with those toes.
3. I hate surgery but I've had 3 surgeries in the past 2.5 years.
4. Tulips are my absolute favorite flower.  I wish I had picked a sturdier flower to be my fav cause tulips are very fragile.
5. I think board games are the best.  My little man inherited that love as well.
6. I play piano and flute and I had a handful of solos as a teenager in our youth choir.
7. I have been watching "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" on Netflix every day at lunchtime for about a month.  It's like a soap opera and I'm hooked!

So there you have it.  To sum up:  I'm stylish but a little odd :).

How about you?

Book Review: Organized Simplicity

This week I decided to read Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (and yes, I spelled that name correctly, but I don't know how to pronounce it.)


Tsh is a blogger turned author, which instantly drew me to read her book.  She blogs at SimpleMom.net. 

This book is divided into two sections.  In the first section, Tsh defines what living simply in the real world looks like.  Her definition of living simply is to "live holistically with your life's purpose."  She talks about creating a purpose statement for your family and how every family's purpose statement will look different.  What is important to one family may not be important to another.  With that in mind, we are to reevaluate how we spend our time and money. Once we do that, we will realize that a lot of things that we enjoy here in the US are really luxuries, not the necessities that we think they are.  Such things as cable TV, 2 cars, or even a clothes dryer are not in the average home around the world.

Once we have a clear purpose statement written we can move on to the second section of the book - 10 days to a simpler, more organized home.  In this section, Tsh takes you through each room of your house - living room, kitchen, bathrooms, kids rooms, master bedroom and entryways.  As you go, you sort, declutter and clean.  Her mantra throughout this organization is "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." (William Morris)  So as you declutter, sort things by asking, Is this useful to me?  Is this beautiful to me?  If it is not, toss it.  You will also keep your purpose statement in mind and redefine your rooms purpose in light of that.  For example, if your purpose statement is to lower your family's ecological footprint, you might lessen the amount of electronics you have in the house or choose to put up a clothesline.  In the end, you are left with a home that has less clutter, less stress and one that more adequately meets your family's purpose statement.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book.  It was very well-written and well-organized.  You would have thought Tsh had been writing books for years.  We don't have a family purpose statement and to be honest, the thought of making one is pretty daunting for me.  But I think the concept of having a purpose statement is excellent.  Businesses and corporations have them and refer to them often in their decision making.  My childrens' school has a purpose statement that the whole school quotes every morning.  Every child there knows it and every teacher teaches with it in mind.  So a family purpose statement may be something we will work on in the near future.

In terms of her decluttering "rules."  I think they are awesome...in theory.  I tried it out (not as extensively as she outlines in the book) by cleaning out my closet.  I tried to be really objective and get rid of anything that had not been worn in a year, anything that didn't fit, anything out-dated or the wrong color.  And I got 2 garbage bags full of clothes ready to be donated as well as a basket full of nicer stuff ready for the consignment store. 

But I still have a lot of clothes.

So did I really only keep the useful and beautiful stuff?  I don't know. 

Next I tackled my linen closet.  I found 3 old quilts that we no longer use.  I put them on a local classifieds site to see if I could sell them. 

But if they don't sell, am I willing to just give them away?  I don't know.

All that to say, I think this is a wonderful book with a wonderful concept but for me to really follow the plan in it, I will have to have agreement and assistance from the family and a lot more will power than I currently have.  Not only to get rid of non-essential things in my house, but to limit myself and not buy more of them.  I do recommend this book and because of that, I give it:

5 out of 5 stars

I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the book:

"The secret to happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." (Don Millman)

What I Learned Wednesday: Changing your Blog Background

Last week we started a new What I Learned Wednesday series. We started pimping up our blog and I showed you how you could create a signature for your blog. 

Notice anything new on my blog?  If you are reading this in a reader, click on over and see the new look.  What do you think?  (Don't worry, it's not done yet.)
Today I'm going to show you the easy way to change the background on your blog.

Notice I said the easy way ... because that's the only way I know how to do it so far.
(All this assumes you are blogging with Blogger.  If you are using Wordpress or some other platform, then you probably know more about this than I do.)

1. Your first step is to find a background you like.  Now you can pay for one of those, but why do that when there are tons out there for free!  Just Google "free blog backgrounds for Blogger" and you'll find a bunch of sites come up.  Look over them and find one you like.  Different sites have different styles.  Some are scrapbooky, some are more modern.  Find one that suites your taste and your blog.  I found mine on Hot Bliggity Blog.
2. The background you find should have a bunch of code with it.  Copy it to your clipboard (the site I used did the copying for me when I clicked the "Install" button).
3. Go back to Blogger, to your editor and click on the "Design" tab, then on "Page Elements."  Click on "Add a Gadget," then on "HTML."  Leave the title part blank and paste your code in the box.  You can preview your blog to make sure it looks like you want.  Then make sure you click on "Save."
4. If it doesn't look right for some reason, you can change the template of your blog to Minima.  To do that, click on "Edit HTML" under the Design tab.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  Under the Old Templates heading, click on Select Template Layout.  Minima is the first choice.  
5. After you have changed to Minima, look at your blog again.  If you have a weird box at the top, go back to the Edit HTML section you were just in.  Scroll down til you see /* Header.  Look in that section, any time you see "header _px" change the number in the _ to a 0.  Do the same when you see "margin _px."  That should take care of your box.

I really hope all that works for you.  I'm certainly no expert and I'm learning right along with you.  So, good luck and let me know in the comments how it turned out.

I'm SocialMoms Blog of the Week!!

Wahoo!! 

I was just chosen to be SocialMoms Blog of the Week.  If you'd like to see proof, check it out here.

I'd like to say "Welcome" to all those visiting from SocialMoms.  I'd love for you to check out some of my favorite posts and series.  Learn to be your own medical advocate or learn more about blogging.  Want to cook only once a month or find a great book to read?  I've got posts on those too.  And my favorite posts?  Those involving my two cute kids, of course.

If you like what you read, feel free to follow me.  I'll be happy to return the favor.

To my regular readers, here's more about SocialMoms.  SocialMoms (formerly TwitterMoms) is a network site that helps blogging moms connect with other blogging moms, especially through social media.  There's always a weekly commenting contest where one lucky commenter wins $100 Amazon card (I haven't been lucky yet - still holding out hope though).  But my favorite feature is the Discussion Forum, where new idea prompts are posted.  Go visit and look around.

I'll be back tomorrow with a new What I Learned Wednesday post.  See you then!

My vicarious life

Like every good blogger, I love to read other blogs.  I get ideas. I laugh. I cry.  It's a great escape. 

I am especially intrigued when someone has a unique blog idea.  You know, like the Julie girl on Julie and Julia who had the wonderful idea to cook her way through Julia Child's french cookbook and blog about it. That was a unique blog idea.

Most of the time, I feel like my blog is very generic, a dime a dozen.  I would love to come up with a great premise for a blog.  But, alas, until I do, I have to live vicariously through others who have great ideas. 

So you can share in the vicarious living with me, I give you my current 3 favorite unique blogs.

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff is a wonderful Christian writer who knows how to satirize Christianity in a way that isn't sacrilegious but makes me crack up almost every day. He created his blog in response to the blog Stuff White People Like (just for the record, I've never read that blog, so I don't know anything about it).  I look forward to reading his witty posts every day. 

101 Books - Time magazine produced a list of the 100 greatest English-speaking novels since 1923 and Robert Bruce had decided to read through them all...and blog about it.  101 Books is one book-lovers journey.  He not only reviews the books, he looks up everywhere that the book has been - on the big screen, in articles, etc and he gives you little precursor information prior to his reviews.  He also has his own rankings going to see how much he agrees with Time magazine.  I think it's a wonderful idea for a blog if a bit time consuming :).

I heart Organizing - Jen runs a blog all about organizing.  She organizes the spaces in her home (and takes beautiful pictures of it), she organizes her life with a household notebook, and she features other organizers with great ideas.  I have seen and read a lot of DIY blogs for updating your house, but to me, a blog all about organizing is very unique.

So there you have it.  The blogs I look forward to reading every day.  Click on 'em, check 'em out, see if you find them as worthy as I have.

Totally Bummed

I have to admit it.  I'm an huge American Idol fan.

And I was HUGELY disappointed last night. 

My favorite, Pia, was sent home last night and I think that was a horrible mistake.

She is beautiful and she is an awesome singer.  I mean look at her in that dress.  Doesn't she look gorgeous!

I guess I'll try to look on the bright side.  We were big Chris Daughtry fans from Season 5 as well and he came in fourth.  And guess what?  I don't even remember who won that year.  Chris did so well even without winning and the winner didn't do well enough to be worth remembering.

So my hope is for Pia to do well even without winning.  I, for one, will buy her CD.

Now, I have to go figure out who to cheer for now.