Apologies

We would like to apologize for our lack of consistency.

Sorry!

We found it extremely difficult to keep up with the blog, not having Internet access at home.
We have returned to being customers/slaves of Cox Communications - we traded our previous Internet speed in for the slowest possible.  It still works quite well.

This week, starting with a glorious snow-day today, I am going to attempt to post all the missing days!
I will most likely do about two per day...if you care.

Anyway, we are still keeping up with our year-challenge - just having a hard time keeping up with pictures and writing. 

Something about having two-kiddos-under-two, battling tax season while being a full-time college student, getting involved in the community and church hunting takes a lot of one's free time :)

Happy Snow Day to those of you experiencing it!!

"Snow Outside" Dave Matthews Band
You should listen to this song today!

Day 34: Our bath/shower area

This one sort of speaks for itself.
We simplified our shower/bath area by eliminating products we don't use and organizing what we had a little better.

You can see, this is before we have switched to any natural products what-so-ever...

Day 33: We bought a scale

We've been trying to eat better, eat less and exercise more.

In order to push ourselves a little bit, we have bought a scale to keep track of our weight!

 

I do need to be careful though - I am nursing two little nurslings and noticed myself getting dizzy the other day as I was counting calories...

My goal is to eat healthier - not necessarily less - but, less junk.

AND to drink more water, instead of other sugar filled beverages.

Both of us have lost a few pounds this week and I am feeling a lot better about my body already!  Just getting a little more active each day helps a whole lot!

Day 32: My reading list

At this very moment, I am "reading" about ten different books.

"reading"= have read at least one chapter and have the book sitting out in a random place for me to pick up whenever I get the time/urge to read it; OR am continually turning to it when I decide I need advice.

+ two e-books

This is not simple.  This is too many.

What's my plan of action?  How am I going to simplify my reading? 

I DON'T KNOW.

But I think I should.


What do you suggest?  I clearly don't have enough time to get through a book quickly; I rarely sit down to actually read more than one chapter at a time.  I want to read all of these.  I need to read some of these. 

help.

Day 31: Quickbooks

As a family, we do a pretty decent job of keeping track of our finances and setting up a realistic spending plan.  Thanks to my wonderfully-smart-accountant-of-a-husband, we have our moneys set.  Recently, he set us up as a company in quickbooks!  Instead of telling you about quickbooks or the why and how of what we are doing, I am going to allow him to do the talking.  He is very passionate about it, and pretty good at explaining things. 

Go ahead honey.

((This blog post is on its way.  Justin is smack-dab-in-the-middle of tax season and finishing up his last semester at LSU...he will write when he has time.))

Day 30: Garage

The garage at our house is normally referred to as "Justin's garage."  It has become more of a storage space than a place to park a car.  It isn't very big, but we can squeeze our van into it if it is going to hail or something. 

Recently, as we have been clearing our living spaces of "stuff," we have been boxing that stuff and setting it in the garage to be delivered to an organization on a later date.  That stuff has been PILING up. 

Plus, Justin's work bench area has been filled with projects that need to be done.

One night, after we put the kiddos in bed, we decided to clean the garage out.  It only took us about two hours.

((some fun things to notice as you look at these pictures:
My husband's collection of hot wheels (as well as bottled water and can goods in case of catastrophe.) The toddler bed that needs re-finishing that we bought at a second-hand-furniture-store.  The street sign above the work bench... The graffiti wall.  Our bikes up-top!  The little pink riding car Jane got for Christmas.  The riding lawn-mower that we are storing for Justin's parents.  [Top right photo] My cutesie husband sitting on said mower.))

So, there you have it.  Justin's garage is clean and somewhat organized.  We moved a lot of the un-used stuff to the shed.  We took the boxes of donations to our van (which later ended back up in the garage because we didn't have time to deliver them.)  There is now room to work on "the toddler bed project." I am beyond excited to grab those bikes down for a stroll once springtime hits!