I'm BACK!

So apparently I decided to take the summer off.

I actually didn't, I just had other things to do. 

I love blogging, I really do, but I also love sitting on the porch and spending time with family and friends. Haven't seen me lately? COME VISIT! :)

I promised pictures in this post (according to my post 3 months ago). Check out my Pinterest-TONS of pictures ;)

Back to why I originally started this blog. The church has too many taboo topics, that the Bible actually talks about. Submission, Sex, Love, Marriage, the way you live your life, obedience, the list goes on.

Yeah, I'm going there. Check out To Love, Honor, and Vacuum. Seriously. 29 days to great sex challenge. This is for you, Christian married women! Ugh, are brains are so full of how BAD sex is before marriage that  half (probably more) of us don't even enjoy it when we are married.

Better yet, read her article on submission isn't abuse. The comments as well. Wow. What Submission Isn't

My list goes on and on about what I want to talk about. and my BIGGEST concern is that I might not be right. That what I say might not be in line with God's vision for us. 

But I am trusting that God is leading me to these thought-provoking articles for a reason. That he gives me such strong ideas because he wants me to share them with you.

I want to go there, because not many people do, and we are just hiding behind our "Christian" label, when we should be shouting it to the world. I feel there are too many people out there showing off their "Christian" label and making us all look BAD. Why don't we start showing off how AWESOME and WONDERFUL it is. How God loves us and wants us to love, obey, and follow Him.

We can do it. We should do it. We are called to do it.

Let's start talking.

Hiatus

Who am I trying to impress anyways?


It's been a wonderful month (aside from not blogging)
My coupons are well on their way to being organized with dividers I got at Dollar Tree (only $1!)
I'm making progress in spending my time the way I want to, instead of trying to please others.
AND my house has been relatively clean, without me going crazy each day trying to keep up with it...YAY!


I've just been thinking about a lot over the past couple weeks. Why I do what I do, and what I would rather be doing. A girl I went to school with took a hiatus from Facebook to get away from it all and focus on herself. I don't think I could do that. I think I'd be very bored with myself. So I started thinking. Why am I so focused on a "show-room" clean house, when I don't have anyone coming over? Billy doesn't mind a "lived-in" look. Heck, I don't think I mind it much either. So if Bill and I are happy, then why am I choosing to clean the house over going out? or sitting down and watching a movie? or taking a walk? or doing something I enjoy? 


...Yeah, I'm not too sure. So I've been working on it. 


I had a fantastic weekend. 
Started off Thursday at the Sweet Valley fair, got some photo frames for my wall collage I'm working on. 
Friday Bill and I spent the day shopping for the pampered chef party, and we had lunch at cosmo's cheesesteaks in Kingston-YUM. The party went very well, enjoyed every minute of it.
Saturday Stef and I went shopping, and then I watched some netflix for the afternoon
Sunday I went to church, then watched more netflix (yes. I was lazy. I enjoy it)
And Monday Bill and I did some errands and visited his family in Mtn Top. Then a cookout at moms :)


Cleaning? Yeah, I took about 1/2 an hour each day to straighten up...not enough to keep me from doing what I wanted. And the house is pretty decent. :)
No coupons this weekend because of Memorial Day, so I got a break there.


So maybe I will be posting more regularly again, and maybe I won't. But either way, the next post will have pictures. Pictures are so much more fun, aren't they?


Hope you all had a wonderful May :)

Slacking and Succeeding

Hello slacker. (speaking to myself). Organizing? Couponing? Time Managment? How are these things going?!

This is my living room MESS. I hate it. Piles of to-do and to-file and to-toss. It really is hard to keep up with it all. Fortunately, I had time tonight to tackle most of it. I think a Home Office is in my near future....

My coupon binder. It needs more sheets and more dividers. I will tackle this next week. Stay tuned for some more couponing tips, I know a few of you who are just waiting for me to help you out, and believe me, I want to :)

See? lots of coupons NOT in sleeves. So not helpful.

So maybe a few more posts on my problems, then I will start sharing my progress. And in the time-management area, there has been DEFINITE progress-Woot! Now to get on an even better schedule, including daily blogging, couponing, and loving. That will be a success...

To be continued...

So here's the problems

In my last post, I mentioned I had my own plan for this month. A focus on where things are in my life and how I want to change them. I chose 3 main points for the month of May. And here is the problems I have with them. I apologize in advance for any ranting that might go on.


Streamline Couponing:


Problem? 
-Couponing takes time and effort to get the maximum savings. I check at least 2, if not 3 blogs as often as possible-multiple times per day to stay current and catch the best deals. That takes a TON of time.
-Then they need to be organized. A lot. I do have a binder. I have sleeves full of coupons. They need to be organized better IN the binder though, cause I can't find a thing.
-There are a lot of stores. and a lot of deals. I need to begin to track prices to be able to determine a "good deal" quicker.


Fortunately, this all won't be hard because I have time at work to work on it, and I have my ideas and some tips in place already, I just need to implement them :)


Stick to a Budget:


Problem?
-We eat out. A lot. Turns out, last month we spent over $140 on fast food (as my friend Kasie shakes her head in disgust) We need to cut way back on that if we want to ever get ahead.
-We have a good amount of debt. I want the personal loans and credit card debt paid off before children. and I want children soon.
-We don't have much savings, and we always wish we did when our cars break. which they do. a lot.


So, we have plans. We need to watch our spending. It's as simple on paper as weigh down, and yet just as hard to actually do.




Spend Time More Wisely:


Problem?
-I think I have a slight OCD problem. I can't just "straighten up" the house, it needs to be CLEAN for me to feel like it's presentable. it cuts into time to go and do things and have fun. I need to let go of my inner expectations I'm trying to live up to.
-I want to visit more people, and have more of a social life. I don't make time for it, and I want to.
-I want to read more of the Bible. To have my "Jesus Time" more often. More regular...
-I also want more quality time with Billy. Who doesn't want more quality time with their Husband? I want memories, new experiences, and laughter <3


So, I need to work on the whole housework taking over my life, and start focusing on some other priorities.


Keep checking in to see how my month goes :)






Side note. I attempted homemade seasoned baked french fries. Won't do that again. Ore-Ida is the way to go :)

May Challenge

Money Saving Mom's May challenge is freezer cooking. And while I find the idea fantastic, I'm not quite ready to jump in to all that just yet.


I do have some goals for May though.
1. Streamline my couponing.
2. Stick to a budget.
3. Spend my time more wisely.


With that said, I will be talking about various topics that are on my mind, while focusing on one of the three goals for May.


By the end of the month, I want to have a couponing "schedule" that works for me, a clear idea of where our money is going and where we need to cut back, and a regular schedule that reflects my priorities accurately, because my time now does not.


I'll update a few times a week hopefully, so please keep checking back :) Oh, and I'll share my couponing tips too, because I know so many of you are intrigued ;)

The Final Days (of the challenge)

I combined the last three days of the challenge...at least for the most part.
I've been lazy, or busy, every day this week. Lots of time has been spent at mom's just watching TV. 


I did have Thursday afternoon off, and did a ton of cleaning. I basically cleaned the whole house and finished the majority of my laundry ( finished it today). 


Between the 3 days, I did clean out and mop my closet floor, wipe down all windows (that hadn't been wiped the other week when Billy was cleaning), finished wiping down all mirrors and glass doors, and cleaned my bedroom blinds. Just have to do the downstairs blinds now.


I got a majority of my 5-7 things done each day. 
-Started going through my e-mails...little by little
-Made dinner plans with some people and returned messages
-organized my coupon binder -what a relief
-finally blogged-sorry for the slacking
AND I got to go see Kasie tonight! Yay!


One project I did during the week was cleaning the grates on my stove. I saw on Pinterest that you can put the grates in a gallon zip-loc, pour a few tablespoons of ammonia in it, and let them sit for 12+ hours. 

Here is what they looked like originally-who knows what all is burnt onto these.

After 12+hours ....EW.

They did NOT come completely clean...but a definite improvement. I will probably try this again and again until they are completely clean.

You can kind of see the yucky burnt stuff on the left and the clean and shiny part on the right.

Today's "challenge", the final challenge, was to clean the medicine cabinet. I keep all of our medicine in a bin that I've had for years.

The stuff next to the bin should be in the bin, but I didn't have room.

Few empty boxes, and some empty bottles- all in one bin, yay.

So all in all, this challenge was good. I attempted a lot of new things I had been wanting to try, and cleaned some things I probably wouldn't have bothered with if not for this challenge. I got into some routines I will keep, and have also found what doesn't work for me, and hopefully I will keep up with the cleaning on my own terms, or maybe even make my own challenge.

Moneysavingmom.com IS having another challenge for the month of May. I don't know what it is yet, so I don't know if I will be following along, but I will still be posting about cleaning/couponing/christian living as often as possible, so please keep checking in and reading. Let me know what your interested in reading about or what I might be able to post about to help in any way.

Thank you all so much for following along as I get my house all clean and organized, it's been fun :)

Have a wonderful weekend <3

Today's challenge was to clean out and organize all the kitchen cupboards and pantry. Lucky for me, since this challenge began, I already cleaned out under the sink, all my drawers, and the pantry. I had two cabinets that still needed some work though....

I'm not a big fan of this cupboard. Which is why it's all pretty much thrown in. I saw a pegboard on Pinterest that was framed and painted and used as a pot hanger....

But here it is, much more organized.

At one point, this held some food, and store bags, and appliances, and random other stuff.

Now it looks SO MUCH better:) all our kitchen gadgets.

The 15 minute challenge was to clean up the bathroom, which I got Billy to do. He also took care of sweeping and mopping the downstairs, which I didn't even ask-SCORE!

My to-do list included:::

1. Make dinner-it's cooking now

2. finish laundry- done and put away

3. swiffer upstairs-done.

4. make a chore list-done and agreed upon :)

5. go through my emails-that's for after dinner.

And finally get rid of 7 things

-a couple cds

-an old utensil holder

- a few foods that expired

- a bowl that belongs to a friend

- Ketchup that I bought for work

What a successful night :) I hope you are all enjoying following along this cleaning journey with me! I'm planning what I will be doing for the month of May...Any ideas?