Triplet’s 11th Birthday

December is Birthday Month in our House as well as Christmas

Our two oldest living at home turned 18 & 19 this month, along with the triplets having their 11th birthday today.  They were 3 1/2 years old when I first met Dave. It’s been a joy getting to watch them grow up.

We don’t have them today on their birthday (one of the negatives of divorce, but if not for divorce Dave and the kids wouldn’t even be in my life… so I can’t say it is all bad! )  So we celebrated with them on Wednesday.

We took them to a Japanese restaurant.  We tried one for the first time (for the kids) for Dave’s birthday in October, but it was disappointing. We wanted them to see the kind of display you normally get at a nice Japanese restaurant.  We went to Genji’s in Reynoldsburg Ohio because we knew it wouldn’t disappoint. We were right!  Excellant food, excellant service, excellant show.

I didn’t take my good camera with me, but I got a few pictures from my camera phone while I was there.

They used their chopsticks with “training wheels” as they were told.

They are all good eaters (not like my boys) and enjoyed the food.  Alex got steak and looked over at us and said… “This is AWESOME!”

Zach was loving the food – they got the kids plates (since they were still 10 when we went on Wednesday they were still legal! lol)  He just got his new glasses this last weekend… looks great doesn’t he?

The kids had a great time.  Of course they had the birthday celebration at the restaurant. They came out banging a drum and singing. They brought them a pineapple all decorated. Fun!

We then headed to the Aeropostal store so they could use their gift cards. They are finally big enough to fit into their clothes and they are thrilled!

Once we got home, we gave them their joint birthday gift.

A new laptop. Having triplets it can be interesting when they all three come home with the same projects due at the same time. They all want to use the computer at one time.  So this laptop will help to eliminate that stress. There will be a computer in the house that they can all be on one at the same time if necessary.

Happy Birthday kids… love ya!

 

DiGiorno pizza Review

(This post was originally posted on Chat with Sandy on 12/26/10)

Feeding Large Families Can Be Expensive

With both of my older boys home we have been having meals with all ten of us.  I have been lucky in the sense that we have 8 children, but 3 of them don’t live with us anymore.  Mix that in with the fact that my 4 step children are only with us 1/2 the time, we don’t have that many meals with everyone home.

But for 2 weeks with them home from boot camp we have had and will be having many meals with everyone.  Finding meals that will feed all of us for not a boat load of money (and that are easy too) are pretty important.

I didn’t have any problem at all with doing a shop for Collective Bias for DiGiorno Pizza.

Off to Walmart I went on December 23rd to do some shopping.
I checked Consumer Queen’s Data base to see if I could find a coupon. No luck on that one…poo.

A sign of the holidays… isn’t it?  The store was really crowded.  I didn’t have any problems finding the frozen pizzas.  I was a little bummed that they didn’t have a vegetable pizza – that is my favorite. But I ended up getting a meat pizza, cheese and also a mushroom garlic. They cost $4.98 each.  Pretty good for a nice thick pizza like that don’t you think?

Dave had purchased a Red Baron pizza at Kroger the week before. It didn’t have nearly so many pepperoni’s and was much thinner. It wasn’t so good.  He told me that he was trying to decide between the DiGiorno and the Red Baron. I had to laugh because he had no idea I was going to be doing this shop for the DiGiorno the next week.  He picked the Red Baron because it was less expensive. He told me later he was sorry he did.

The pizza went over well.  I had several thoughts from my family.   Here they are:
1) “It was Great!”
2) “It was too doughy”
3) “The mushroom garlic was too garlicy”
4) “Make sure you get this again”
5) “I wish they had veggie”

I started out with 2 pizzas and 6 people.  My boys and Dave. Then Dave’s 4 kids came over and we popped in a 3rd one to cover us all.

Three self rising DiGiono pizza’s, 2 liters of pop and a bag of chips later, we had a lunch meal that fed us all.  The pizza’s cost $4.98 each, the 2 liters of pop cost $1.76 and the chips were $2.88.  Total cost of the meal:  $19.58 to feed 10 of us… for a total of $1.96 per person.  Pretty good!

Here is the whole gang… being goofy!  Thanks DiGiorno for the pizza!  lol

Disclosure:  Collective Bias compensated me for the pizza and shop. The pictures and the opinions are those of mine and my families.

Happy 23rd Birthday John

John is my 3rd oldest son

Let’s see the many faces and stages of my boy!

From this 23 years ago today

To 9 years old

And our trip to Disney.  He LOVED that hat.  He got so much attention for it. Got called down out of a crowd to be on the set of Nickelodeon for a game.  To John at his 13th Birthday

To his 17th Birthday

To Graduation at 18 years old

Here is John the big step brother. Yeah… He’s like that.

John the dog lover.  Gotta find him a puppy! To John my goofy guy (When did he get to be SO dang funny? )

He cracks us all up!

To my loving, sensitive awesome son….  that is going to make one very lucky  woman one heck of a husband.

John.. I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished!  You are going to be moving soon to Lexington be one of the youngest buyers (and one of the best) that CarMax has ever seen.  I hope they realize what what a good guy they have.

Happy Birthday son!

Organize Your Family with Cozi

Here is a Free solution that can help you keep your family organized, yourself organized and so much more!  This is a simple site to use and can do so much for you.

You can create a page that you can keep your family updated with pictures of the kids and events.

You can make a grocery list and have it texted to your phone or you can even call and get it verbally!

Your whole family can use and be a part of the family calendar

There are dinner ideas

There is a place for lists (To Do’s)

There are all kinds of ideas and solutions for helping you to organize.  Why use it? Here are a few reasons why.

There have been many reviews done on COZI…don’t believe me? Check these out!

Organizing for Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving can be a time of stress but shouldn’t be. It should be a time of family fun and everyone coming together to eat a wonderful meal. Of course it is all to help us remember and realize how thankful we need to be for everything we have.

There are many this Thanksgiving who have lost their jobs, lost family members or are fighting life threatening illnesses. Along with our thanks we need to pray for them.

Enjoy your family, make amends if things are problematic and have a fun day together. To help make your day come off without a hitch planning ahead is essential.

Here is my list of To Do’s that may help you in keeping your cooking/planning stress down so that you can enjoy what is most important on Thanksgiving: Family and Friends
1) Make a list of who is coming to your meal.
2) Plan the menu. Make note of what days you are going to prepare each item.
3) Make a grocery list from the menu.
4) Check what you have to see what you need to buy.
5) Plan your grocery shopping day, making sure you have time for thawing of your turkey or premaking dishes. (Good  idea to make room in your refrigerator by cleaning out the old left overs, so you have room for all the food).
6) Do your shopping.
7) Try to clean your house in preparation the day before you have to do your cooking so you don’t over load yourself. Have your kids and husband help if possible.
8) Start your cooking, making sure you have storage space for the food. (Plastic bags can store many things including sauces. Just seal tight and lay flat..you can add many layers of food in a small space.)
9) Plan your Thanksgiving day cooking so that everything finishes about the same time.
10) Clean as you go and you won’t have as many dishes to wash after dinner.

Personally I am one that does the basic clean up to make room to get pies out and served, but I have no problem letting dishes set until after all my family/company has left. I would much rather spend time visiting with them while they are here than being up to my elbows in suds in the kitchen.

Eat lots of turkey, take that walk after the meal and enjoy family!

(this is a revised version of post from last year.)

Mini Office – You don’t have to have a whole room

If you have a home or small apartment that is “office challenged” then you can find a place to call your own. Here are some ideas

1)If you have a chair you sit in routinely in the living/family room, you can set one up there. You just need a side table where you can set up your sorter like in the picture above.

This shows the whole thing. I got two of the cubby units from Target and hooked them together for my table. I have 4 compartments to use. Two on the front side that I use a cubby basket for my trash can, then the other 3 are for books. (The other 2 slots are on the back side)
I have a portable file (Hecht of an Organizer) that I use for my business files. If we have company over I can pick it up and move it out of site.

I then have this over the arm organizer that holds pens/calculator, plugs for my camera and phone, chargers and a flat top surface that I usually have my Blogging notebook sitting on.

2) Closet not being used. Take off the door (it can be left on, you will probably just have to move your chair out to close the door) and hanger rod. You can paint the inside to make it look cute. You can build in a shelf for your desk. You can add some more shelves above it on the wall for storage of your items. On the right and left hand walls you can put up a magnetic board, bulletin board or more shelves. (I am picturing a single door coat closet when I talk about it)

3) An old wall unit or armour not being used can be used for an office.

4) Under the stairs storage area. Paint it, put in a light and desk. There is storage on the steps above (make shelves there) and on the side walls.

Be creative…think outside the box. A corner of your family room maybe that you can put a small table or corner desk may work.
If you have a kitchen counter top that you can steal a corner of.
Let me know what creative office space you may already have or take pictures to let me see what you have created!!

Decorating for Holidays

Is Decorating for Christmas -Fun Or Stressful?

Christmas Decorating

Christmas lights and trees, candles, Santa mugs, stockings, garland, ornaments….ahhh the Christmas decorations! The time is almost here! Usually this is a time that is really exciting and fun. The expectations of getting out the Christmas decorations and decorating the house is something that children and adults look forward to – right?

Where are the Christmas Decorations?

But what if you aren’t sure where all the decorations are? Are they together? I seem to remember seeing a box of ornaments under Jimmy’s bed sometime this year…I think. Katies stocking may still be in her room from last Christmas, I don’t think she ever put it away. Does that sound familiar?
How about this – How in the world am I even going to put a Christmas tree up? There is literally NO room for it. If I move the pile that is in the corner where the tree used to go, I don’t know what to do with it. I can’t move it to the basement – that is full. The garage is over flowing, we can’t even get the car in there. You can’t walk into the spare bedroom!! Does that sound more like you?
Either of these situations (and there are many more) are VERY stressful. There are expectations for Christmas. Having family over, sitting by a fire and enjoying family time. But if you have too much of a mess to decorate or have people over – then you are going to feel even more stress than most people do at the holidays.
So what do you do?
Depending on how much “stuff” you have and need to move you need to find some help! If its family or friends or hiring a professional organizer – you probably can’t do it yourself. Don’t plan on being able to tackle all of your house before the holidays, that is probably an unrealistic goal. But sit down and think about how much you NEED to do so that you can have family over or if nothing else, get some decorations out for your kids.

Start Small
You just have to start out bit by bit. Pick one little corner, or chair or table top and start there. You need to be tough with yourself at this point. Do you REALLY need it? Especially at the holidays there are a lot of people who could use your things. They would actually get used and be appreciated. They wouldn’t be stuck in the back of a room unused for years collecting dust.
Many people feel like as Professional Organizers we will come in and throw everything out. We won’t do that – but if you have 3 times the amount of stuff in your house than can fit – then you have to be realistic and do the math….something has to go to be able to change your home.
Get out your bags for donate and trash. You can feel like Santa and fill up lots of bags to give to other families to help them. That may make it easier to part with things that you feel an attachment to.

Win Win
It can be a win win situation. By decreasing your “stuff” and making room for the holidays to come into your house and make your family and yourself happy – you are increasing the little bit that many families have. This year is worse than any other since the depression for families. Many, many people have just been laid off and need your help.

Get Organized

What if Everyone Says You Need to Organize, But you Aren’t ready?

This can be tough. What if your husband or wife, friends and family are telling you that YOU NEED help? You may not think you are ready for that step.
First of all you have to think honestly to yourself…..
1) Are you happy with how your house looks?
2) Are you proud of your house?
3) Are you embarrassed to have people in your house?
4) Can you find what you need when you need it?
5) Are you ready for a change?
6) Are you ready to stay in the situation you are in?

These are several things that you can ask yourself….and be honest with yourself. You don’t have to tell anyone your answers.

If other people are telling you have a problem…and you don’t feel you are ready…you need to ask yourself…why?
Why do you want to keep your home the way it is? If you aren’t proud of it…if you can’t have company over because you are embarrassed…..then why aren’t you ready to make a change?
Change can be scary. It can be hard…and that is usually the reason that we are resistant to it. We are scared of things that can be hard. We are scared of things that make us face reality. No one likes to do that. Plus it just seems too overwhelming to us to handle.
When you do realize you need help…then to reach out and get that help is the hard thing….once you get going…it will feel wonderful. It will feel like a weight has been lifted and you can breath.
Imagine if your mother in law or friend decides to drop in at on you at the last minute and you have no problem saying ….”Come on in and sit down!!”….without embarrassment! That would be great wouldn’t it?
Think about it!