Getting some things done

Sorry I've been missing lately.

My nephew is here doing some handyman jobs around the house for us. He needed some $$ and we had a long list of honey-do's as neither of us are especially handy. I'm enjoying getting some things done around here - I love a completed to do list.

So....Blog ya soon.

Back to School Stuff

We're gearing up to get ready to go back to school around here. The girls don't start for another few weeks but I'm trying to get us back to more of a routine to make the transition easier. I made this picture schedule for the girls in the morning and it's working so well I'm going to make one for bedtime too.

If you have a school age child going back this year make sure you check out Flylady's Student journal to keep everything organized. I use her regular journal too.

I'm also trying to meal plan better (again...still?) and I've read some pretty neat ideas in this Back to School cookbook from my favorite recipe site Allrecipes.com

Got any back to school sites or tips to share?

If I Could Do Anything

So I know my blog doesn't always stay on track or focus on much most of the time. But, that's how my life is too. I've done so many things in my life, I've been a

• Teacher
• Corporate Trainer
• Door-to-door vacuum salesperson
• waitress
  
• cleaning lady
• interior designer
• custom drapery designer
• store manager
• custom framer
  
• fashion merchandiser
• bartender
• fine artist
• banking representative
  
• entrepreneur
• stained glass artist
  
• minister
  
• mother
• motivational speaker
  
• foster parent
  
• landlord
  
• fast food worker
  
• cell phone technician
• driver
  
• receptionist
  
• architect assistant
  
• photographer
  
• painter
  
• crafter
  

I've been reading a book I own called I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was . I read it once before when I quit my job, went back to school full time and finally finished my Bachelor's degree. The book says I'm a "Scanner" -that means I like to learn about a lot of things...a jack-of-all-trades if you will. I've always been good at many things but I've never been able to decide on just one thing to do with my life. I've always taken on projects and side jobs just to learn something not necessarily to earn money. Being trained as a custom framer and a drapery designer were pretty cool and I love having those skills even today. I've always felt like I had a problem because I couldn't stick to just one thing. But reading the book has really helped me accept that I don't have to. I can do a hundred things well and be just as happy as someone that does one thing greatly. Accepting that has opened up the world for me.

I'm thinking about these things again because after our decision we can finally look forward and decide to do something else for us. DP has been reading the book after my urging and she is really excited. She picked her college major by default and has been wildly successful in a job that she doesn't really like. As of today she's enrolling to get a master's degree in Library Science. If she could do anything in the world....she would be a librarian.

Now I just have to figure out what I want to do for a while. So I'm going to start focusing in on more goals and write down everything I want to do in life. Just last night I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to learn how to sail....he immediately said that a coworker of his has been doing just that all summer at a nearby lake. They give lessons there and you can rent a boat to learn on. Right on.

A big GRRRR to the system

So I've been waiting to blog about this for a while because I was hoping that this would be resolved quickly. But that would be asking too much of a disorganized mess of a system.

CJ has cerebral palsy, strong hypertonia from neonatal abstinence syndrome and now hip displasia. He wears a hip brace twice a day during naps and all night. We will be picking up his new leg splints this week. He receives an hour of Physical Therapy and an hour of Occupational Therapy a week. He goes to CP clinic once a month at the local Children's hospital and sees other specialists regularly.

His request to be catagorized as a medical needs foster child was turned down. WTF? His SW said (and yes I'm paraphrasing) but he's so fat and happy! OMG

We now have to get even more records....which is soooo easy when you're not the legal guardian (ask Baggage) get the pediatrician and therapists to write letters and then we can try to appeal the request.

You gotta be kidding me.

Princess hair

Taking the old adage "your hair is your crown" quite literally I created a princess crown hairstyle for Josie this week. Using a star parting pattern I made two strand twists and connected each of them all around her head. It was quite adorable and Jo loved telling everyone she was a princess.

Whirlwind

Our very close friends had a whirlwind match yesterday. They went into their first staffing informed, prepared and hoping for the best. They came home with two kids! They will have a weekend visit, take them back on Monday to gather their belongings and bring them home for good on Friday.

If they were chosen we thought it might be a fast transition because it's so close to the new school year...but wow. During their 2 1/2 hour drive home we dashed over to their house and straightened up the kids room and stocked up on kid friendly snacks. Our friends went to bed last night a little overwhelmed and shocked. From zero to mommies in just a few short hours.


Calling all instant families out there.....what can we do to support them through this whirlwind?

What the?

So the grocery ads came in the mail this week and one of the smaller low cost food chains had this picture on the front of the ad. What the heck is on this hot dog? Blueberries and ranch dressing? Anybody know?

Goals

My wife and I are obsessive goal setters. Her because she has always been a successful overachiever, me because if I don't have a plan, nothing will happen.

I grew up in a very poor, uneducated family. When I was in my early twenties working a corporate job I got hooked on self improvement seminars, books and audio courses. Goal setting and positive thinking was a completely new concept to me that no one I knew ever talked about. I loved it. I was (and still am) inspired by it. Now that I'm writing about it I'm thinking I need to start updating my collection since it's mostly tapes and I no longer own a tape player. I really want to teach my kids about it so that they can clarify for themselves what they would like to do with their lives early on. I always think about Tiger woods and wonder what it would have been like to find something I loved and been able to hone that skill my entire life.

We regularly have discussions about what we really want out of life, how to plan for it and what we can do now to get there later. A new financial tool I've been using is a great online site called Wesabe it's really helped me see exactly where our money goes.

One of my lofty lifetime goals is to live waterfront. I would love to wake up every morning to the sunrise playing off the water.

What are some of your goals?

Amazon's grocery store

This past week I got all of my amazon grocery orders in. I give it two thumbs way up! Here's the scoop.

Amazon has tons of grocery items now and you can get order just about anything that you can typically find at a grocery or retail store. They sell in bulk like a Costco or Sams but there is no membership fee and everything over $25 has free shipping. Bulk items delivered to your door rocks. No carrying big boxes of stuff to your car or into the house. With three little ones this was the biggest selling point to me. But I'm still very financially conservative (cheapskate) so I only ordered items that we use regularly: laundry soap, dryer sheets, toilet paper and trash Bags. I only ordered items that were comparable or lower prices than I normally find during local sales.

Here's the best part though....Every month amazon has different sale items, my best find was one of these sale items. If you bought so much of the All brand (I bought soap and dryer sheets) you got an additional $15 off your order. Then when I received my shipment some of the bottles must have been squeezed during shipment because it was a gloopy mess. I called amazon and they immediately sent me an entire replacement shipment at no charge. So I got.....drumroll......18 bottles of laundry soap for $40. Hello, I love amazon grocery.