Housekeeping Disasters and FLY Lady

Okay, so you should all know by now that I'm not a great housekeeper. I think I'm a pretty good mom, though it took me awhile to admit that, and I'm still feeling guilty for hollering at E the other day when she drank water out of a dish rag.

And I think I'm doing okay at being a wife -- even if that means that this week the most I did was hug my husband, ask how his day was, beg him to take out the trash, and asked, "Are you okay? Are we okay??" as he ran out the door, to which he replied. "Yeah, of course! Always. I love you!" Ahh, isn't love grand?

But the housekeeping thing is just... meh. Here's my usual daily routine:

Waking Up (A Half Hour Late)

• Grab my bra off the bed post
• Trip over books and pile of dirty laundry
• While on the floor, grab my jeans that I wore yesterday from under the bed
• Stumble to the mirror while putting on jeans
• Make sure my hair isn't too greasy and try to remember the last time I washed it
• Try to figure out what day it currently is
• Simultaneously brush teeth and put hair in ponytail 
• Scrounge in the clean-laundry pile for a shirt
• Put on that shirt and decide it's too wrinkly
• Put on a sweatshirt over wrinkly shirt
• Remove toddler from hip by coaxing her with Cheerios and milk

Making Lunches

• Distract toddler with dancing and Shakespearean soliloquies in horribly bad olde-English
• Grab bread from cupboard
• Find turkey in cupboard from yesterday
• Throw out turkey
• Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Discover that toddler's lunch pale hasn't been cleaned
• Clean lunch pale
• Toddler wants to "help" (DO NOT ALLOW THIS)
• Lets toddler help wash lunch pale
• Change toddler's wet clothes (allow 30 minutes to 3 hours)
• Distract toddler with a YouTube video (must be longer than 5 minutes)
• Hit "restart" on video every five minutes
• Clean lunch pale
• Argue with toddler about why she doesn't need to help again
• Lie to toddler about the lunch pale already being clean
• OR pretend that cleaning the lunch pale is not fun
• Pretend it makes you cry

Getting Out the Door

• Send toddler out the door
• Give hugs and kisses 5+ times
• Send my husband out the door with toddler, missing half the items she needs for day care (not to worry, day care has extra boots and blankets)

I've only forgotten her lunch once, and I made sure to bring it over to her. I rarely forget the important things, and if I do I can get creative to make it work.

But sometimes "getting creative" is exhausting.

I'm trying out this new site my counselor recommended. No one paid me to say this. Ha! It's 100% free to sign up, and I've found the emails and plan that "FLY Lady" sets up incredibly doable and manageable, even with my busy lifestyle! Here's the link! Disclaimer: You get TONS of emails, so I recommend signing up for the "Lite" version if you sign up for the emails.

I've only just started this plan, but am already noticing SO MUCH of a difference in my attitude about housecleaning and the state of our apartment! If you decide to join me or have already tried this program, I would love to hear about how it's working for you!

Thievery and God... and Stuff

My weekend was a little hectic, so I apologize for disappearing for a few days. As most of you probably already know, we took E to the Montshire Museum this weekend. While there, I put my purse down to take a photo, got distracted, and someone took it.

I was so sure that I had just lost it, and I feel like for the first time in my life, I believed that I was just a ditzy mom, more focused on chasing after my 2-year-old, who would retrace my steps and find my purse next to one of the exhibits. After all of us searched the museum from top to bottom, we were pretty sure that someone had taken it, but I still believed that someone had just found it, that it would be returned.

Just to be safe, I called the bank to close my debit card, credit card, and Pay Pal accounts. When I did, I found out that someone was trying to use my cards and had attempted to charge a total of $762.00 on my cards. I had closed my accounts just in time (within 5 minutes of the attempted charges), and he was only able to get about $70.00 off of my debit card that the bank will refund us after the police report is filed.

This was hardly a devastating loss for us, but it still makes me ask the question, "Where is God (or positive energy or good karma) when bad things happen?" I firmly believe that these negative things that happen to us are of the Earth, that they're just life. Negativity working through other people is bound to touch as at some point. It's bound to blast through our lives in the form of a stolen purse, a stolen moment, a stolen life itself.

After I reported what happened to the museum staff, I looked up to see other moms searching the museum for my bag. My sister-in-law said, "Look at all the people who are helping." Women came up to me and asked if they could help. Families spent their last few minutes at the museum helping me look. The staff took down my information and are even having a meeting today with executives to discuss the situation and the possibility of putting security cameras in the museum.

This is the first time something like this has happened at the museum in over 10 years.

My mother-in-law helped us by giving us some cash to cover the amount we lost until the bank can refund us. She even took me out to buy me a new purse. I had lost the one she had gotten me for Christmas. She even took me over to Staples to buy a new Moleskine sketchbook to replace the one stolen.

Every time I look at that bag, I'm happy.

I kept asking myself, "Why did this happen to me?" And I came to the conclusion that -- God knew we could handle this blip, he knew that I would look to Him and say, "Thank you for picking me... and not some family who only had $70.00 to buy groceries for the week and no other source of funds."

I like to imagine that God delayed this guy's spending spree by 5 minutes. Maybe a slow-driving grandma pulled out in front of him or his super-sized McDonalds dinner that he bought with my money came out of the fryer a few minutes late. Ha!

And when I ask myself, "If God could do all that, why couldn't he prevent my $70.00 from being stolen?" I have to believe that there was a reason for that, too. Maybe he needed medicine for his son or food. Maybe he really needed that 42" plasma TV from Best Buy too... Okay, probably not, but... I have to trust that in the big picture, we're all heading toward something that's good and that for that to happen, some bad must happen along the way.

And all I know is that, when I follow that feeling I get when I do something good to help others, when I choose a path of helping instead of hurting and when I teach my child the same, it feels right. By law of attraction, I draw similar people close to me, and I'm blessed to say that these things have rarely happened to me. And when they do, I can always find the good in it.

And when I have trouble seeing the good, the good people around me find it for me. And when I really have trouble seeing the good, when I lose sight of the path, God shows me.

So, suck it, thief!

Back to the Future of Cards!

I’m going to combine Tutorial Tuesday into a Whatever Wednesday today and show you how I made my most recent card and tell you about the FUTURE of my cards and prints!

I’m incredibly motivated right now to help this local family, and I feel like the universe keeps giving me opportunities to continue helping.

As of tomorrow, I won’t be selling any more of my hand-drawn cards. This was the plan all along, but I think some small part of me felt like I could keep this up forever and keep donating all the profits. That’s just not feasible right now, and I need to focus on the next step, to ultimately help in a bigger way.

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So, to sum up the hand-drawn orders: today is the last day to place an order if you want one, and I should have all cards completed by next week.

If you’ve already ordered a set earlier this week, they should ship by Friday. And any orders from today will ship next week. Thank you all SO much! It’s looking like we’ll have at least $150-200 to give to this family this week. Yay!

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Going forward, I’m going to take most of these designs, digitize them, and have them printed. Using this process, I’m also going to be creating some parenting/new-baby prints with inspirational quotes.

The great thing about the digital process is that I can mass-produce cards and prints, add color digitally, and have them printed and re-printed to meet demand. AND a portion of the profits will continue to benefit our sponsored family. (I’ll have more information soon about how else you can help if you'd like, more details about this family’s situation, and the “Donate” button on the left side of my page will hang out there, probably indefinitely.)

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ALSO. Tune in over the next few weeks as I (quickly) churn out my first few batches of cards and prints. I’m getting ready to set up a table for the Child and Baby Expo (April 12th, 10am-2pm, Berlin Elementary School), so these will have a baby/parenting theme!

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And if you’re feeling bummed at missing an opportunity to buy one of my hand-drawn cards, here’s how you can make your own!

As I’ve said before, I’m all about CHEAP shopping, BARGAIN bins, and CLEARANCE sales. Storm them to find stamps, and pick up a cheap stamp pad. I found this “Hello Friend” one in the dollar bin at A.C. Moore. There are probably still some there! I used a stencil to create this oval, but I’ve also traced Tupperware lids and anything else I can find around the house – kids’ toys are great! Also, think cookie-cutters and magnets. You can make some great “tangles” or doodles by just filling these traced shapes with patterns.

For patterns, I think I’ve mentioned tanglepatterns.com, and the one I shared here is from The Zentangle Untangled Workbook by Kass Hall. There’s nothin’ to it!

Some of these patterns did take me some practice. And, if you look closely at some of my hand-drawn cards, you’ll even notice that I made mistakes. That’s what makes them special, though, and it’s one of the things I love about doodling and Zentangling. The mistakes shape the drawings. Many of my sketches were transformed by a 2-year-old bumping my elbow. I keep some scrap paper handy to stamp on and sketch. Then, once I know the layout I want to do, I go right to work in pen. I use an 05 Micron Pen to do the ovals. It makes the outline a little thicker. Then I use a 01 Micron Pen for the interior detail. But any old pen or Sharpie will work, and you should always use what feels comfortable to you!

If you make any of your own designs and want to share, please tag them on Instagram! -- #ymistrange

Moms' Night Out at the Oscars

Now that I have my planner all set up, I see that I have a busy night ahead of me making cards. I have two more shipments to get out before Wednesday! I still have a few more cards left if you're interested (see info at left)!

So, I have to get out a quick blog post now to tell you about how amazing it was to go to the Moms’ Night Out at the Oscars last night! I brought along my dear friend Molly. It seemed appropriate, as she was the one who encouraged me to try for a baby when I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the whole “trying to get pregnant” thing two years ago (and she was already 6 weeks along with her first pregnancy). Nice timing on that nudge, Molls! Nine months later, I had little E. We went through our pregnancies together, and she was a HUGE support as my anxiety spiked during my pregnancy. I still call her when E takes a tumble or comes down with a nasty flu… to cry and hear her tell me words of encouragement like, “You need to calm the f*** down.” Haha! Gah, I love her!

Ellie helped me get ready before my big night. She barged through the bathroom door while I was on the toilet, brushed my hair with Mark's hairbrush, pretended to trim my nose hairs with Mark's nose-hair trimmer, then said, "You need a bow, then you be all set!" Bippity, Boppity, Boo!

Molly and I arrived at the Sunset Ballroom on Shelburne Road. What a beautiful place to spend the evening! We checked out all the local businesses who had free samples – everything from amazing, organic body rubs to yummy candies and cupcakes. Heaven!

The food was delicious, and Molly and I sipped sodas and mingled a bit, then headed to the red carpet for some pics. We had lots of laughs, and before we knew it, it was time for the raffle. No winners at our table, but it was great to hear the cheers of excitement as other moms won some wonderful prizes.

More than anything, I just loved getting dressed up, feeling like a princess (in my VonBargen’s jewelry we borrowed), spending some time with lovely, amazing moms, and having a great friend by my side.

Mark said Ellie went to bed well with me gone for the night, and I was able to relax and enjoy some much-needed me time! Yay for getting pampered, wined, and dined!

If you’re a local mom, mosey on over to the Burlington VTMoms Blog, read some wonderful posts from moms in your community, and keep an eye out for other amazing events that you can be a part of!

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I woke up this morning to E climbing in bed with me, wearing her glasses (with the lenses popped out), and asking me to "wake up now." I stumbled out into the living room, and she happily raided my swag bag. Happy girl! Thanks again, BVT Moms!

My Planner!

Ok, so here's what I finally decided to do for my planner!

I had a lot of fun with this. I combined some ideas from different sites and simplified the process a bit for myself. What I love most about this system is that you can completely customize it for your needs.

First, I found a mini binder on sale at Staples -- I recommend starting with the stores that are least expensive and moving up to find supplies. My usual order of shopping is: Dollar Tree (500+ stickers for $1? Yes please! Some of the teacher stickers work great for this), Walmart, A.C. Moore, Staples, etc.

Our Dollar Tree store had large binders (if you prefer), stickers, post-its, and washi tape!

I ended up finding great deals on some clearance supplies at Staples and got the binder and dividers for $6 altogether. Raid the clearance aisles first!

I don't know about you, but I almost always have post-its (or scrap paper), random stickers, letter-stamps, and sharpies kicking around, so I didn't need to purchase those. I also had a hole-punch -- only a heart-shaped one, but it did the trick.

FREE TEMPLATE PAGES

For my first go at this, I actually measured and cut out some pages to put in my binder and sketched out some weekly and monthly pages, but that takes awhile, so I ended up putting together some quick printable weekly/monthly page templates that you can download in PDF format for free here. The file contains 3 different color options (blue, green, and pink).

TABS

My binder has 3 sections:

• WEEK Tab
  This contains my weekly template where I list my daily to-do tasks, appointments, etc.
• MONTH Tab
  This has my monthly template where I mainly list upcoming appointments, important events, etc.
• IDEAS Tab
  I've made more customized pages for this section, to have a little fun with it, and make crafty pages to inspire my daily sketch ideas and drawings.
• To Add -- ACTIVITIES Tab
  I want to add a page just dedicated to family activities that we want to try, directions to the location, and cost, to better plan our warm-weather adventures (if warm weather ever comes!).

I've been in doodle heaven lately, so this page on the left was one of my first!

WASHI TAPE

I'm finally hooked on washi tape after hearing other crafty bloggers rave about it for years and having no luck with it myself. The rolls I bought always shredded and never peeled off evenly.

I've now experimented with the Scotch brand ($2.99 at Staples) AND a cheap dollar-store brand. Both worked great, but I have to say that the dollar-store brand worked even better than Scotch. When I peeled the tape, it didn't roll back on itself like the Scotch brand, so no carefully unrolling your tape and getting it stuck all over your fingers only to grease it up and have it not stick! Also, it was quite a bit thicker than the Scotch brand, so more durable.

http://www.simplypchee.com

So far, I've only used the washi tape to stick things into my planner -- random scraps of paper to draw on or write notes, like above, under my "Doodle Ideas" paper. But, this crafty blogger mom (simplypchee.com) shared this image which shows what I found to be a really clever use for washi tape on your calendar.

I've had so much fun with this planner and have really put minimal time into setting it up. I hope that you find something similar that works for you if you're in need of a planner. And, feel free to shoot me an email at YourMomIsStrange(at)gmail(dot)com if you think of any questions I didn't answer here.

Happy planning!

For more ideas, see the links in my previous post, here.