Everything's Coming Up Green

Archive for the ‘just a note’ Category

Have you ever felt uninspired?

Well that is me lately when it comes to this blog. Each day it seems like the elephant that follows me from room to room. When I started this blog I had grand ideas of it making money within a year or two. I knew it would take work but I thought I could manage it. I started writing posts for the blog back in April of ‘09 and went live in July. By the time we went live I had an eight month old and had just discovered that I was pregnant with baby #2. To say I felt a little over my head would be a serious understatement but I pressed forward doing as much writing as I could manage with a small child and morning sickness. Then Sammie came along and I realized just how good I had it with just one kid. Now I have a toddler and a nearly 5 month old (already?) and I am working hard to have a menu plan for the week and get the grocery shopping done let alone sort and organize my coupons so that they are ready at my becking call. Why do I tell you all this? Well it’s simple; I am sharing this with you because no one’s life is perfect including mine. There are times in life that one needs to scale back their expectations of themselves and those around them. The house won’t always be picked up, dinner may be late, I won’t score the best savings I could have and if I get a post up on this blog it may not have a picture but that is ok. I am choosing to be ok with that. The point of living the frugal life is to be able to have the freedom to enjoy special moments that cannot be manufactured and scheduled; the moments that just happen because you were there at the right place at the right time to experience them instead of working extra hours to keep up with the lifestyle you have created for yourself. I am choosing to be present with my daughters; to sit and snuggle with both of my precious daughters on my lap; to chase my little girl until I’ve cornered her and have an impromptu tickle fest. The toilets and the laundry will get done eventually and I will still blog in those windows of time that I can find, but my heart is with my girls right now and not with becoming a financially successful blogger. I hope and semi-plan for that to happen down the road when the girls can truly play with each other but for now I will share what I can and if there is a sweet urgent deal I will probably shoot it out via facebook.

I love you all. Thank you so much for continuing on this journey of life with me. It’s been fun so far and I expect it to only get better!

   Oh the joys of motherhood. There are none that compare to it. But I will say that motherhood is quite time consuming. So is moving. Two weeks after giving birth to sweet Sammie we made the move out to my parents house in the country. Though my youngest brother had not quite moved out yet, my other brother had already given notice at his last house and was living with us in our house. With all of his stuff in boxes and a lot of our stuff in boxes there really wasn’t much wiggle room left for a very wiggly toddler. So we decided that  though all four of us would be living out of one room for a little while it was worth it to have the rest of the house and the acrage for Emma to run freely. I will be honest and say that it has been a challange. I am quite the servivalist but even I have my moments of enough is enough. But we will be out of boxes soon. My brother’s former room and our soon to be bedroom was mudded last night by my dear husband and will be sanded and primed tonight. Maybe, just maybe we will be moved in by next weekend (pretty please God!) I am taking before and after pictures so that you can enjoy along with me wonderful transformation!

   In the mean time I am busy cleaning and cooking for my side of the family’s Easter celebration on Saturday as well as gearing up to start in on the garden beds next week in preparation of planting the following week!

   Thanks for your patients during my first few weeks of new baby. Life is never quite what we expect.

Well it is official. Samantha Jane was born March 1st at 11:12pm weighing in at 8lbs 14oz and 21 inches long! She is a beauty and a treasure! I will be taking a week or so off from blogging to get to know my new little girl and become aclimated to our now family of four. I will be post soon a list of the upcoming kids consignment sales in the Omaha area so stay tuned for that!

What is going on? Where have you been? Well let me tell you. I have been busy being pregnant-still. The thing I have learned over the length of this pregnancy is that the further along I have gotten the smarter and more developed my toddler has become. I know, I know, I should have seen this coming but I looked at her one day and realized that she was no long my little baby she was indeed a toddler and had fit the description of one for a while now. Along with it came the understanding on her part that if the laptop is out mommy is not giving full attention to her. Plus she has learned to close the laptop, oh how wonderful. This has been a good and a bad thing. It’s good in that it reminds me that she is my first priority over this blog and that I am a stay at home mom for a reason. On the flip side there are certain things that are better off left to be done during her nap time such as dishes (my kitchen is not the most child friendly at the moment and she seems magnetically attracted to every unsafe area in the kitchen when I am standing at the kitchen sink), sweeping-toddlers and dirt piles don’t mix well, showering, and as of late, taking a nap myself. This doesn’t leave much time during the day to get any writing done never mind letting you know about new coupons and deals that come up. And since she doesn’t go to bed until 7:30pm so she can have daddy time it doesn’t leave much adult time in the evening let alone writing time.

All that to say that I am not giving up. I know from experience that once the baby is born and we have had a fair amount of time to get to know each other as well as my body beginning to recover, I will be able to accomplish regular house chores much quicker allowing me additional time to blog. Also once we are successfully moved out to my parents house I will be at greater easy since they’re house is much more child friendly.

In the mean time I will continue writing and posting hopefully at least a couple of times a week. Please know that though I haven’t posted much I have lots of ideas rolling around in my head and am looking forward to sharing them with you sooner than later!

   So I shared with you last month our 2010 financial goals and today I would like to share my personal and Blog goals. I am really excited about this year’s goals for myself and this blog! I know it’s a little late. I actually had these written the middle of last month and forgot to post it. I think I was trying to find a picture to go with and I have decided to forget the picture and just post.

 Here are my Personal Goals:

Get back to my pre-Emma weight plus 9lbs.

 I can’t say for sure how much this will be until a couple weeks after baby girl is born. I will update this once the baby is born. I gained 50lbs with Emma and was able to lose all but the last 15lbs before I got pregnant again. I did lose an additional 3lbs before I started gaining weight with this baby which helped to keep the weight gain down this time. Obviously I am not done with this pregnancy so I don’t have a total weight gain but I will say that 2 weeks from term the gain is significantly less. On a shorter term I would like to be at my pre-pregnancy weight before the beginning of June (Which is whenwe go on vacation for a week with Joel’s family-think swimsuit, yikes). We’ll see how farfetched this goal is.

Read a book a month.

At this point I don’t care if it is fiction or non-fiction; I just want to get back into the rhythm of reading. Beings that it is now February and I didn’t get a book read in January, I am now already behind and need to get myself caught up. I am planning on making a list of books I would like to read very soon. When I do I will share it with you!

 Help with my parents/grandparents’ garden.

 With moving out to the “farm” to live with my parents/ grandparents I’ll be able to help keep up the garden this year. Though I love gardening I haven’t had one of my own yet. The first house we lived in was a rental and our current house has no back yard and a stamp of a front yard. My parents don’t garden but my grandparents do, however they are both getting older and can’t keep up with the yard and the garden like they used to (they are green thumbs and like to stay active so they generally take care of the outside). I look forward to helping them and giving them relief while allowing them to work on it as they are able. Obviously this will take effect when we actually move out to the farm and spring arrives for planting.

Go on at least 2 dates a month.

Date night for us doesn’t have to be overly amazing. We just like spending time together. We went several months without going on a date and it was rough. We could feel the strain of not having alone couple time. I also plan to start stay at home mini date nights as well. What can I say, I like spending time with my man and I’ll come up with any excuse to do it.

 Now on to my Blogging Goals:

 Post weekly grocery spending and savings.

Joel and I have put together a very nice Excel spread sheet to track my Grocery spending and savings. This way I can keep track and not only make sure that I stay under budget, but I can also know exactly how much I have left over at the end of the month and either roll it into next month’s budget, put it into savings or put it towards debt. Our budget is $250 a month or $65.50 a week. I will have a breakdown of the last month and what I have spent thus far this month coming really soon, like hopefully by the end of the week.

Post monthly financial goal updates.

 I really want to keep accountable with our financial goals and what better way to do that than to put them out there for all of you to read. Then they will also stay fresh in my mind and I will hopefully be diligent to be working on them throughout each month. I would love it if you all jumped on board with me and we can all keep each other accountable. Post 3-4 days a week. I say 3-4 days a week but in my mind I am really shooting for 5-6 days a week. I set the goal slightly lower because I am notorious for biting off more than I can chew and with a baby nearly here, well, I’m just trying to be realistic.

Increase traffic on this site.

 I am starting already to link with other blogs to get our name out there. I will also be looking into networking online over the next couple of months.

    There you have it folks. Hopefully you all will keep me accountable. I plan on updating you each month on how I’m doing on meeting and completing my goals.

I realized this last weekend that when we return from spending the New Year with hubby’s family in Kansas I will have a mere 6 weeks until my due date. And with the wake up call of my sister-in-law delivering a good two weeks earlier than her due date, I am realizing that I need to get on the ball and prepare the house and stock the freezer. On top of this my father is having hip surgery the end of January and will need help with trips to the doctor and getting around the house and since I am the only one without a “job” that means my name is on the list. Needless to say January is lining up to be a very busy month.

Though I don’t have a plan set for the next month, I am going to be working on a to do list for January. I need to make a list of meals I want to make and freeze for baby time. I’d like to have at least two weeks worth of meals in the freezer. I also would like to have the house in extra working order so that I will have minimal up keep when baby girl is born. And let’s not forget the Christmas decorations that need to come down.

I’ll be honest in saying that I am more than a little overwhelmed. Especially being 34 weeks pregnant with a one year old running around, and piles of snow outside. But I am confident that God will give me the strength and stamina to accomplish what He deems I need to get done. The rest was obviously not important.

My plan is to create a game plan this weekend while I am out of town. I will be mostly absent over the holiday, but will return in the new year with my shiny new game plan, goals for the 2010, and shear excitement of what God has planned for the upcoming year!

Also, in January I will be having a giveaway to launch Everything’s Coming Up Green’s Facebook page! I am very excited about this!

   I have felt lately that my life is all over the place. I seem to get it together in one area only for another to go to pot. I have begun this week making a list of goals for myself and this blog, and Joel and I will be sitting down next weekend to layout our goals for the upcoming year. One of the goals on the top of my list is creating a weekly schedule for cleaning and meals. I truly believe that both are vital to household sanity and with another kiddo arriving soon I can use all the help I can get!

    I am actually excited about setting goals for the upcoming year! I have never been one to fall into the trap of New Year’s resolutions, but having accomplished our big goal of my being able to stay home with the kids we are in great need of new goals to pursue. On my part being home all the time now doing the same things day in and day out I am in great need of focus, otherwise I get lacks and depressed. On Joel’s part, he’s already got me home and needs a new focus as he sits in front of a computer all day. We are both excited to see what we can accomplish in 2010. Once we get our goals ironed out I hope to share them with you. And maybe you can share some of your goals with us!

   We are fast approaching Thanksgiving Day and though we are not hosting the holiday at our house we are busy with preparations for our trip to Kansas to celebrate with hubby’s family. We will also be celebrating our beautiful daughters first birthday which lands on turkey day this year.

   It’s amazing to me the laundry that suddenly appears when you are washing in preparation for a trip, and I am bound and determined to have the dishes washed and the house clean before we leave tomorrow afternoon. There is really nothing quite like coming home to a clean house. It is so much easier to start a new week knowing you are not behind the ball. I also plan on being well rested for this extended weekend. There is nothing worse than starting out the holidays out of town exhausted. We shall see if all my plans come to fruition. I’m not holding my breath but I do think it’s attainable. 

   My brother will be house sitting while we are gone but we will be sure to turn the temp down before we leave to save as much as we can on utilities. Every penny counts these days and with the cost of utilities going up you gotta make that penny sing. Now that E. is a little older and it is easier to add layers on her the temp is going back down a little, at least until kiddo #2 comes along in February.

Anyway, enough of my babbling. What are you doing in preparation for the holidays?

I apologize for the lack of post over the last few days. The flu struck our house working its way from E to Joel to me. I also took a spill during that time. Needless to say I have been out of commission. We are all doing better, but still a little tired. I hope to get a few posts in this week but my in laws will be in Thursday evening to visit for the weekend. I hope to have the next installment of saving on groceries next week as well as the next installment in budgeting 101. Thanks for your patience.

I have been spending the majority of the day cleaning up after a pester of a mouse. Not exactly what I wanted to spend my day doing but sometimes interruptions happen. It’s not such a bad thing that I disinfected my counters and attacked my remaining stack of dishes. The frustrating part was cleaning dishes that were already cleaned. It just amazes me all the places those little rodents go. At the end of all this I think my kitchen may be the cleanest it’s been since before E. was born!