2013 Resolutions

First of all....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! My hope is that 2013 be full of hope, faith, love, and endless blessings. 2012 was a good year for us and although it ended a little rocky with my hubby being in the hospital, all is good and we are truly blessed. We have our families, wonderful friends, and this little guy, my nephew born 1-9-12. LOVE HIM!!

Like every year, we start our year off with resolutions.... most forgotten by February. But still New Year's is just a new start, kind of a clean slate, I feel the same way in the beginning of the school year. I really have always had the same resolutions.. To lose weight, Be more organized, and have a baby. Every year since I was 23, those same 3.. geez..
Not that I want to blame everything on the CANCER... but that threw my life in a loop and just turned everything upside down and it has taken me this long to finally feel a little normal again- the 18 pills a day doesn't help, but I have come to realize that it is my normal now, and that I have to swallow my big girl pill (literally)!!

My only resolution this year is to be happy and HEALTHY and I think after that everything else will fall into place. I am notorious for breaking resolutions, but I'm determined and really I kind of have to...we both do ( myself & hubby). Being sick seriously sucks.
Here are some of the things I want to do to be more healthy..

1. Drink more water and give up soda all together. Which will be so hard for me, but it needs to get done.
2. Eat better- eat more healthier, home-cooked stuff, eat out less, which is hard when you both have full time jobs, but my food binder ( when I finish it) will help and keep us organized and ready for meals.
3. Exercise- EEK!! I used to love to run, but now not so much.... My sweet hubby gave me something this Christmas that will hopefully help and I'm determined to start on Monday, if this damn cold subsides....

YES, Zumba!! Don't laugh.. but it's something fun I can do while it's cold outside, at least I'm doing something. My hubby walks and runs, but since it's cold.. he promised he would do it with me.
4. Sleep better- I've been known to crawl into bed at 1 am on a weekday... not good! Messed up your whole day!! So I'm vowing to have a better sleeping schedule.
5. Take my pills and vitamins on a regular basis... sounds easy, but it's not!! but I'm writing down my schedule and putting alarms on my phone to remind me to take my pills

Like I said, maybe, just maybe if I  start to get more healthy other things will fall into place... I can maybe start losing weight and help me get pregnant. I've also brought a few books to help me along the way, one of them highly recommended by a friend. She says a lot of the stuff worked for her.. it's worth a try..

Also with healthy comes more ENERGY!!!!and maybe I'll have the energy to whip this little house back into shape... sneaky how I managed to put in my 3 original resolutions in there. I've become a fan of organizational blogs and You tube channels and often find myself saying "wow, why didn't I think of that" or "Gee, that's a great idea" but just tucked them all in the back burner that is my brain.... So while hubby rested I went back and to the blogs, channels, magazine file, and even my pins and started writing all the ideas in a notebook....

Slowly, I'll be doing what I can.. I've come to realize (and it took me awhile, without beating myself up) that my house will not look like those in a blog in one day, one month, or even one year.... my house is by far what I want it to be, but I've come a long way!!! and I'm proud of myself!! I keep adding To-do lists, ideas, and other stuff into my notebook & I love that I have it.
My hubby's other resolution is to be more organized with our finances, so we decided to add a finance tab in our home management binder and make a budget.

And now for the HAPPY LIST....
Just to spend more time with my husband (DATE NIGHT-movies, shopping, once a month & game night once a week!!)
Spend more time with my family ( thinking like a weekday dinner)
Don't sweat the small stuff
Blog more- I love blogs and I have grown to love writing mine!
AND CRAFT MORE... which makes my heart dance!!

I had some Christmas stuff that are too late to post, so I'll have to be mean and post them up till next Christmas, but I have one on organizing your Christmas stuff and another on documenting Christmas memories that I want to put up later tonight and this week...
What are your resolutions???


Have a great year & GOOD LUCK,
Michelle

Easy Meal Idea

Hola!! Sorry for the very late post. It has been a busy,stressful, and complicated week and because of this I didn't even make a to-do list for the week.  But I am looking forward to a better, but not less busy week
 ( fingers and toes crossed)!! I am counting my blessings and hoping for the best. First, my poor hubby became very ill and had to be taken to the ER. He's doing better, but still needs to take it easy for the rest of the week. Lots of prayer and wonderful family and friends helped him get through this. He's rarely sick, so it broke my heart to see him like that. We also had some major problems with our internet. Which is very frustrating.. especially when I have so many blogs that I stalk, um follow. Enough ranting.....
I have a fairly easy meal idea- its my go-to when I have a few pieces left chicken and not a lot of time. I don't have exact measurements or cooking times,and I am certainly no chef, but it's just a general idea of a simple meal that the hubby and I both enjoy.

{Chicken Tostadas}
Ingredients:
Boneless Chicken Breasts ( I cook about 3)
Mayonnaise ( About 1 cup)
Celery (about 1/2 cup)
Onion (about 1/3 cup)
relish ( about 1/2 cup)
Tomato and Lettuce
Corn Tortillas (to cook) or ready-made Chalupa shells


1. Boil water and cook chicken until it's done

2. Cut chicken or do what I do and  let the food processor do the work for you, lol!

3. Put chicken in a bowl and mix mayo, celery, relish and onion. Add salt and pepper to taste

4. Spread chicken salad on to chalupa shell

5. Top with lettuce and Tomato. You can also top with avocado, cheese, jalapenos, and my hubby likes to add hot sauce and a little bit of lemon or lime.

EASY DINNER IDEA- LOVE IT!!

There has been major spring summer cleaning going round here. I have purged so much for donation and thrown away even more.  I have been very busy organizing stuff and labeling boxes to go into our brand new STORAGE SHED- WE are sooo EXCITED!!! Why?? Cause we are finally reclaiming our guest bedroom and we have so many plans for it.  I also got my Becky Higgins page protectors and my picture order from Shutterfly and I have been busy sorting pics and putting pages together for my Project Life. I also worked on my niece's senior album- YES, i'm still working on it and hope to finish it before she graduates from college!!!!!! I've teased you so much with this senior album, here's a little preview....

Because my hubby is home sick this week I'm making a mini version of  my weekly to-do list and see how  much I can do. Have a great week Y'all!!


Michelle

CORRECTION!!! This one's for you hubby.....

I usually have my hubby- The grammar/ spelling cop proofread my posts, but today he was feeling a little under the weather so I decided not to bother him. He just finished reading my blog and noticed I had put that I was going to do a major kitchen cabinet/ PANTY overhaul....oops!!! I meant to say pantry, although my underwear drawer is serious need organization.... hehehehe!!!! Sorry for the mistake... I promise my panties will not make an appearance on this or any other blog..

Hello... Is anybody out there???

Just writing a little post for myself and my faithful blog reader, my husband Marc... lol!  This weekend we spent some time just enjoying the company of family and friends. On Friday, I wrote out a "organization/clean" to-do list  & a "crafty" to-do list for the week. My goal was to hit the ground running this Monday morning and start scratching off those tasks... HA!! 
My wonderful hubby felt sick this morning and stayed home from work today, so we've spend the day just being lazy....updating our itunes music, reading blogs, I installed my photoshop on my new laptop, and of course eating. Do I feel guilty.. NOT- AT- ALL. I loved that after spending the weekend with so many people, my hubby and I got this downtime to spend together.
My goal for Friday is to at least start, but hopefully finish some of the things I have on my to- do lists.

The Organization/Clean-up List

1. Clean and organize pantry
2. Finish organizing lower kitchen cabinets
3. Clean and organize laundry area
4. Start cleaning spare room

My plan is to do a major organization/cleaning overhaul in the kitchen cabinets/ panty- at this point it is desperately needed. I still need to get some more baskets, organizational items, and some planning to really make this happen. So I'll post some pics when it's completely done. The hubby (that's you, Marc ) and I added some shelving from Ikea to our little corner laundry area last summer. So now it has great shelving, along with a rod to hang our clothes to dry. I want to organize it a bit more with baskets and decorate it a bit more... looking for some cute ideas on pinterest.  Also our spare bedroom is a catch-all, junk room.. we've had some guests lately and no guest room, our goal is to clean it out and finally use it as a guestroom.

The Crafty List- this is the fun one!!

1. Finish my niece's senior album
2. Make a Christmas planner
3. Work on 2-3 scrapbook pages
4. Work on project life

# 3 and #4 will probably be on my list every.. single...week. But I really want to finish my niece's senior album and the Christmas planner this week. I need to put together some pages and print out some pictures for my niece's album and I'll be done, can't wait to give it to her. Why a Christmas planner? Cause Christmas is exactly 6 months away and every December I find myself scrambling putting together lists of things to do, gifts to buy, etc. I just want to have it ready, plus the hubby and I want to start buying gifts- two a month and I want to have an ongoing list to keep track of what  we are buying. I know they seem like VERY BIG plans, but I'm at least willing to try.... sigh.... Here I go....

Michelle