Organizing in the New Year

Christmas is over and new Years is fast approaching. Resolutions are starting to sneak in your head and if they haven't already then they will soon. As I said in my last blog I love starting the year out with a couple of new goals instead of a crazy huge list. I am always on the hunt for new household forms, calendars and printables to keep all of my To Do's in order. There are a couple of blogs that I follow and there are always great ideas. I try to implement some of these and adjust until I find what works for our family. Tiffany at The Nest Effect has an array of free printables and helpful tips on getting your paper mess i.e.; mail, bills, files in order and staying in order! She also has a store on Etsy that will blow you away! I have not been let down by her products.
Another blog that I follow is iHeartOrganizing. I am passionate about organizing because it keeps my home running smoothly. As you may or may not know my two oldest daughters split their time between their dads home and mine. Sometimes this can be chaotic because we need to make sure that their routines are always incorporated and their spaces and rooms are ready for them. When they are here they have chores and things that we expect them to do but when they are not here I pick up their chores so some of my lists have to be easily divided and merged at any time. I love having a busy home but it also has to be clean neat. With 4 kids, 2 small businesses and this blog none of this would be possible without organization.
I am also an app junkie! 2012 brought our entire home into the Apple world. It started with an iPad for my birthday last January, then an iPhone for me, then my hubby, then spring was 2 iPod Touches for our 2 oldest for their birthday and finally a Mac replaced our old HP and most recently I was surprised by an iPad mini the day that it came out! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my mini! I am planning on doing a blog about my favorite apps but one that I highly recommend to my friends, family and clients is GetOrganized. This app contains 52 Organizing Missions and IT WORKS! Even though I am organized I was still able to use this app and it helped me get rid of a lot of clutter that I didn't see. Get Organized Wizard. If you have experience with other apps or missions I would love to hear about it!
So as the New Year is almost here I encourage you to tackle the paper monster or cleaning beast that you have been putting off! 20 min a day can take care of a lot of things that you need to get done and you will feel better knowing things are getting done rather than ignoring them.
Happy New Year!

Accomplishing goals

Hot damn! I just saw my numbers for my blogs and I can't believe how much you all visit this site. There are only 2 conclusions- 1) You like what you are reading or 2) BRG has discovered my blog and stalks the crap out of it now ;) LOL I don't really care if she did but I do care that you all are taking the time to visit my site so thank you! I have had one hell of a year and I want 2013 to know that Im not scared ha ha ha! Last New Years I wanted to accomplish a few things and creating this website was one of them. Next year my goal will be to organize it and make timely posts like 1 time a week or something. I am constantly working on something for the kids, a project around the house (or some else's house), company or the latest crisis so I am sure I will have plenty to write about. I just want to challenge everyone to start looking, if you haven't already, at what you want to accomplish in 2013. I don't like overwhelming lists so I "Keep it simple stupid" and only write down 2-3 goals. If you make too many goals or try a huge lifestyle change AND 4 other things all at the same time, I don't think it will work and later you will end up with that same guilty feeling that you have before. We all know that feeling and it sucks! So if you are willing to share your goals then I would much appreciate it. My 3 goals that I will be trying to improve on are 1) Focusing REGULARLY on my websites and companies. 2) Being nicer to those that are not nice to me, even if it makes me grind my teeth. 3) Communication. I believe so strongly in communication and the older I get the more I realize that it could have fixed a lot situations. So instead of getting frustrated I am going to communicate the best that I can and 'communication' is not German for "one way" it means that I am going to hear others out and try to understand their side. BOTH WAYS, this has to go both ways in order for it to work. Now if the other party/person fails at communication then o well but I know that I will be doing my best! I hope that the holidays bring great joy to your life and that we are all ready to take 2013 by storm. CHEERS -Adrianne

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day! Please take the time to remember the fallen and the ones that are in harm's way, their families and the ones that have yet to come home. It is so important that we also set the example for our children. Help someone today, be kind and get yourself out to one of the parades! Enjoy your family and friends ;)

It's Simply Complicated

Many things have been sparking my interest in writing on my blog again. Food, politics, child rearing. You name it and I have an opinion! I would just like to state that I AM NOT PERFECT, I make mistakes but I think that I am growing and learning and changing. I'm trying to go off of a saying that I heard a long time ago- "Keep it simple stupid." Come on how much easier can it be? It seems to me that humans (I think mostly men) feel the need to change or interfere with things that are not broke! Or if something is broke we figure out how to insert a middle man, tax it, exploit it to the fullest and then when it all goes wrong we blame it on something else all together. Lets take for example our food. We (Americans) eat processed food with chemicals as part ingredients and then when our body starts to fail we turn to our doctor who then prescribes medication that can have horrible side effects... Before we get to far into this I would just like to point out that I am not against medications, doctors, hospitals etc. I am against bad eating habits and finger pointing at our bodies for having a flaw. Is it really that hard to look at what we put into our bodies and make the connection??? That saying, we all know it, "You are what you eat." O how true it is. My husband and I recently watched Forks Over Knives and another great movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This adds to our movie list of Food Inc and Dive. I think that anyone who eats food should watch all 4 of these movies, twice! After cutting out 80% of processed foods, milk and meat I am happy to say that I have lost over 30 pounds and feel so much better in general. It is amazing what can happen with just a couple of changes and knowledge of what you are eating. I beg my fellow moms out there to watch these movies because we as moms are responsible for what we feed our families and what kind of eaters we raise.
Ill continue this discussion soon and get more in depth about each movie and why I recommend them so much.

Breathe in, Breathe out

Well I'm back. It has been a roller coaster 3 months but I am ready to write again. My mom passed away after 27 days of fighting like heck to stay with us but God was ready to have her even if I wasn't ready to let her go. Although I am deeply sadden by her passing I am so happy to be able to tell you that she did eventually get off of the ventilator long enough to tell me she loved me, to ask about her grandchildren, to smile and laugh a little. I know that she fought for the few hours we had together and we, her and I, needed it so much.
Shortly after my mom passed away, school was out for the summer and my girls were here for a week and then off to camp and back again for the remainder of their summer. My 12 year old had a friend come stay with us which was supposed to be for 2 weeks but turned into close to 5 and it really made the summer more fun. I love having a busy house and having all the kids around. We did however have a run of events that is nothing short of typical in my world. In a 2 week period I managed to back into my BFF's car, flood my master bathroom to the point that our renovation for the room that was probably going to start next year- started now, find lice on all 4 of the girls hair in the house (minor but still!), get a mole removed unexpectedly from the bottom of my foot because "it looks iffy", have one of our chickens get ate by the dog next door, and a couple of other things but I will save that for another day. So Summer 2012 has just proven to me that I am even stronger than I thought :)
Through all of the craziness that I refer to as my Three Ring Life, I actually found and tried some great things since I've been MIA here and I am very excited to posting about them and giving this blog some structure. Lets hope the rest of Summer and Fall 2012 go smooth!