1. Oh, I am fixing to be so busy!

2. My girls'are making changes, big and little.

3. During the day, I can always think of something that needs to get done, my list never ends.

4. Animal Planet (these shows sure can break my heart); are you kidding me???

5. Right now I'd like to be on a beach with my toes in the sand enjoying the sun.

6. Don't have anything right now as my favorite gadget.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to pork chops for dinner, tomorrow my plans include cleaning and Sunday, I want to get some scrap booking in!

Courtesy of my sweet friend Grateful for Grace today we are talking about what products we are as I will put it "snobby" about.  Right now I can only think of two products I am totally in love with. 

Number 1:
Taco Casa Sweet Tea
It reminds me of the tea I drink when I am back in my home town or what I make at home myself.


Number 2:
Kraft Asian Sesame Dressing
KK and I LOVE this stuff, we are by nature Ranch girls' but this stuff rocks!!!! We eat it on salad, rice, and baste our chicken with it to bake Asian chicken.  It is almost the very same dressing you get on your salad when eating at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant.

Please check out my friend Grateful's blog for more product "die hard" fun...... http://gratefulforgrace.blogspot.com/

What works for me....well as the mother of small kids staying organized (or maybe I really am just obsessive compulsive.....not sure which, the story I am going with is I have four girls;) is a must.  We have added several new ways to stay organized this year.  I am bad about not keeping up with my day planner but my funny friend Sara of Scraps of Sara fame made me one several moons ago, that I am diligently trying to keep up with.  So much so that I have even removed the original one and added in a new one for this year.  Aside from that I am normally a list keeper, "things to do" type usually.  This year to get more organized and have everyone doing their part, myself and several of my home school mom friends' implemented a new chore/reward system for our younger kids called " I did my chores" which BTW, is working beautifully here and my younger girls' are even doing things not on their regular tags YAY. As well as the extra tags have become my "to do list" so that I don't have scraps of paper all over the place anymore.  I keep them tacked to the wall over my desk so as KK and I get things done we move our tags too. The thing I am keeping the most on top of is my menu calendar.  I feel like our household gets in a rut with eating the same things over and over so I started keeping a separate calendar from the one I use for keeping everyone's appointments/activities organized where I am just writing in what we have for dinner.  This has helped me when deciding what to have for dinner so as to not repeat meals quite so often.



Also, it looks as if the girls' and I will be doing a Mother/Daughter Spring Break vacation. We found out last night that inventory time at DH's work rotates each year and it is falling right around that time so he won't be able to get the time off after all.  It makes us sad but a trip all us girls' will surely be an adventure and certainly memory making for totally different reasons. 

As for our day today:
We got the house cleaned, floors swept and mopped, laundry caught up, bathroom wiped down, trash taken out for pick up, tea made ( I was craving a frosty glass), and in about an hour we'll pick up the girls' and then they are off to youth group tonight. (edited: they weren't going but thankfully plans changed)

Check out: http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com for more Works for me Wednesdays and not to mention a really great blog to read.  Shannon is super funny and has great tips and other great blogs to share!!!!
  

1. Enough with the crazy weather here (the back and forth temps can quit now).

2. Crimes against children cause me to be conflicted.

3. I've been craving Mexican food (Mamacitas).

4. My Busy Body makes me laugh.

5. I wish I could go on vacation next week.

6. My best friend has been on my mind lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with a family friend, tomorrow my plans include deep cleaning my kitchen floors and organizing my closet and Sunday, I want to relax and grade this past week's school work!

My Diva is on the front page of one of our local papers for being apart of a peer mediation group. She is one of my public schooled kiddos who is getting really involved with helping out at school.  I was so
surprised when the paper came today and pleasantly so!! I am one proud momma today....God sure has this girls' heart to help others.  She is also helping with the daily flag ceremonies, balancing her studies, doing peer mediation, and is playing viola in the orchestra.  We just got report cards in last week and she is on the A-B honor roll.  She has taken several standardized tests this year and her most recent one for reading she tested at a 11th grade 5th month reading level which put her in the top two spot for reading in the whole school.  I am just so pleased she is doing so well and that this family's love of reading has transferred so well to each of my girls'.  Other than loving getting the paper today not much out of the norm has happened.  We got the house picked up, the bathroom cleaned, trash taken out, trash can brought in, bathroom rugs cleaned, and dinner in the crockpot.

1. It's January; and 77 degrees....it is just so weird to be wearing shorts.

2. Mexican Food is what I'm craving most right now.

3. Cork and wine go together like Cream and Coffee.

4. Prayer Time is so nourishing.

5. Let us dare to dream.

6. Done cleaning my home.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a new made for t.v. movie, tomorrow my plans include some baking and cleaning my fridge and Sunday, I want to help out a dear friend with a project!

I got up with my alarm and thought o.k. let's get this day started.  I went in to wake my middle girls' for Diva to just be in a foul "I'm tired and don't want to get up" mood.  Then DH gets up and her mood breeds him being grumpy too.  This combined with the fact that I woke with a splitting sinus headache didn't make it more fun.  Only things really on the books for today are cleaning up the house a bit and laundry.  I am this morning so I think I will have a second cup of coffee to warm up.  Hoping my head eases up even just a little that would be great!!!! 

Right now since making a goal not a resolution ;) ;) what works for me is my huge American Made (that is the name of the company) reusable water jug.  It holds your daily requirement for suggested water intake.  This works for me for many reasons the biggest one being as a teen and young woman I had frequent kidney infections.  Now that I have started being diligent about my water intake as well as using cranberry supplements I haven't had one, Praise God in over a year YAY. Plus it helps with the weight I am trying to lose.  I am also back to doing my M-F workouts which I hate to admit made me feel much better after being woke up last night by my youngest who decided to stroll into my room at midnight ready to play.  She didn't fall back to sleep till 3am, I let her kick me into the crevice against the wall for a bit then I got up and slept on the couch.  I woke with a start because there was so much silence.....we had a power outage and it was 6:30am. Thank goodness I woke up because if I hadn't woke up the girls' would have missed the bus.  I was rummaging around for matches to light candles then, through drawers for our flashlights.  We didn't get power back until after 7:30am. I was able to go back to bed for a while, then we had breakfast burritos and coffee.  Got back up, cleaned, did laundry, worked on organizing my calendar, and watched part of an Unsolved Mysteries Marathon.  KK got her school work done and just finished getting ready for youth group as they are supposed to be leaving a tad early this afternoon.  She is starting a pre-youth group bible discussion which I think is so wonderful!!!!  My MIL has dinner covered tonight so I get a night off from dealing with it YAY.  Gonna watch Bones tonight, read to my girls' at bedtime, and read some more from my last Jan Karon book.

Please check out the blog Rocks in My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday.....see link in sidebar.

They are so cute.....I won their Superstar c.d. at a MOPS meeting and decided I would give it to my Love Bug for Christmas.  They have taken traditional worship songs and kids praise songs and given them a cute beat.  Turns out my little Busy Body is absolutely in love with this c.d.  She keeps coming to me saying "Dance and Sing Momma" and bringing me the disc.  It is playing right now as I type.  Those with little kids' should check it out.

Today we are back to school YAY......I needed the break but I was beginning to feel out of whack without our usual consistency.  I got up and got the middle girls' who were excited off to the bus stop, made coffee, got to sip it in the quiet till everyone else got up, put on my spa socks and we had breakfast...bananas and yogurt bars YUM.  Then we got dressed, cleaned up the house, and now I can sit for a bit while Busy Body "dances" and KK is doing her school work.

Will have only a tad of picking up to do after lunch, then all that is on the books is dinner, a baby shower for two friends, and DH will do the nightly wind down with the girls'.

Today my sweet Busy Body is the big 2.  She has gotten to be mostly with her favorite person her Daddy most of the day.  We got up, went to church, to lunch at Taco Casa, then the "teenagers", myself, and Love Bug went to see Bedtime Stories which was really cute, then we stopped by the grocery store for a few things for dinner tonight, and came home.  We have picked up and are getting ready for dinner.  Busy Body got two shining stars animals which when she (read that as I) logs onto their site gives her a star each named after her.  I thought this was super cool.....she has one in the Andromeda constellation and one in the Pegasus constellation.  We are gonna eat, give Busy Body her gifts from us, and then watch a movie together.  It has been a really nice day.  All afternoon my sweet girl has run around saying "It's my birfday" and when we ask her how old she is today she replies " I two".  She is SO cute and sweet and funny.  We just love her, she sure is a keeper ;)