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!

Priorities Changing

Two weeks ago my mom went into ICU with critical heart failure and went onto a ventilator and was sedated. I haven't talked with my mom (I have talked a lot TO her) in the last 2 weeks but I feel like our relationship has changed dramatically. I was so angry with her before for not being the 'perfect mom' or notmaking what I thought was great decisions while she was raising me. I have had a lot of anger bulit up that I could not move past... until now. Seeing my mom in a position where her passing is a high probablility and not being able to communicate with her has made all of those things I thought were a big deal, small.
I have been, and still am, scared that I may not ever be able to let her know how much she is actually loved and appreciated by all of us. I realized that if she wasn't the mom she was then- I wouldn't be the mom I am today. So actually I owe her a huge apology for being upset. She didn't do all of this on purpose, although her health she could have treated better. I know that she did not plan all of these things to happen and all I can do now is tell her that I love her and hope she hears me. If I am lucky enough to get to talk with her again I won't take it for granted!
My mother in law flew across the country to be with our family while we try to navigate doctor meeting and trips to a hospital 40 min away to see my mom. I wish that my in laws lived here and times like this make me wish they lived here even more! I don't want to have our family spread out across the country, I want all of us to live on the same street (think Everybody Loves Raymond lol)
So I haven't been able to blog lately because my Three Ring Life is more than just a title!

Family of 6 and still organized?

Here I go with my oxymorons again- urban farming, paintetly crazy, on and on. Before I even get going on this post I have to tell you that my house is quiet, and it's kind of throwing me off balance. Im not even typing as fast as I normally do, maybe because I'm not being rushed... hmm.
I manage to stay organized even with my chaotic schedule. Most people think they can't get organized or that it takes up too much time to stay organized but they are wrong! Come on, try it ;-) there is nothing to gain but a little sanity and that is an amazing thing. Our Family Binder is a powerful tool on the road of information for our home and all the members of the family! I heard about this about a year ago and it has really helped me. The binder contains things like schedules, address and phone numbers for friends, addresses and phone numbers for the family yellow pages from dance studios to garden centers, basic medical information, cleaning schedule for the house, birthday and anniversaries, you get the point. When I need something related to any of these things, which is often, then all I have to do is pick up one binder.

My family binder looks like this-

Obviously I use Rosie the Riveter on a lot of stuff and my family binder is not any different. A calendar is a great go to item to have front and center. I color the days that we already know will be filed with a birthday, anniversary, holiday or vacation and I match the color on the bottom with the event (that's what I blocked out in the bottom white section). Then I put what the averages are for the month temp wise so that I kind of have an idea of what to expect. In the upper right section I have a list of my main projects for the month. This helps remind me what I need to focus on or accomplish. For April I had this website, my dance wear company, organize my laundry room and get the garden boxes filled with dirt. So there is the cover and I made it in Microsoft Publisher but if you are using a Mac I would suggest using the program called Pages.

The tabs of my family binder-

You can make up your own tabs that fit your family and you don't have to have 8 tabs either. Avery sells tab dividers in 5 as well, if you're feeling really frisky you can get up to 26 tabs but that would probably just get confusing unless you were combining your family binder with your coupon binder.

I found some great prices on my binder supplies and if there is one thing a busy mom needs- save time and money!!! I use only Avery because I believe that you get what you pay for and their Heavy Duty binders have never let me down. Because the company makes a great binder for a reasonable price I also use their tab dividers and I am loving them. So here are some links to get you started. Next week I will detail all of my sections and how I set them up.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will answer you!




Avery Heavy-Duty View Binder with 1.5 Inch One Touch EZD Ring, Black, 1 Binder (79695)





Avery Big Tab Insertable Plastic Dividers, 8-Tab Set, 1 Set (11901)





Avery 11902 - WorkSaver Big Tab Plastic Dividers, Slash Pocket, 5-Tab, Letter, Assorted-AVE11902