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Ready to go back to school?

We’re not really going back to school! But do you remember being in school on a Friday and you’re daydreaming about the weekend? All of a sudden, your teacher throws in a pop quiz. Wait, what? I know I was never a fan, but I thought it would be fun to incorporate a weekly pop quiz here on the blog. Don’t worry, you won’t get graded on it. It’s just a fun way to get us thinking about random, fun things. I often think of crazy thoughts and wonder if I’m alone in this. And it’s a nice escape from reality.

Quiz: “Do you remember your childhood dreams?”

Get your thoughts out, it’s quiz time. Be sure to share with the class by adding to the comments below. I can’t wait to read everyone’s thoughts. Have fun.

Happy 4th of July

Wishing everyone a wonderful Independence Day and hope you enjoy your time with family and friends. I would also like to say a huge “Thank You” to all of those serving our country now and those who have served in the past. Without them, we certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the freedoms we do.

We were lucky enough to see a fantastic fireworks show up close with our friends and neighbors last night. It’s always great when you don’t have to fight large crowds!

Enjoy your day and all the goodness it brings.

Amy

Can you believe it’s February already?

I know we all say that “time sure flies”, but man, it’s going a little too quickly. You shut your eyes for a minute and so much time has passed when you open them back up again.  I cannot believe we’re in February already.  Stop the clock!!!!

I hope you all had a great January. Ours was a little busy, as the winter months usually are for us. In January, we celebrated my son’s birthday, my youngest daughter’s birthday and also celebrated my oldest daughter and son-in-law and their sweet baby with a shower in St. Louis with family and friends. That’s a lot of partying going on in one month!  I’ll share details of Ellie’s birthday party, which was a lot of fun, and the baby shower in a post very soon. Stay tuned for those.

Since time is passing so quickly, I can’t sit around and not get things done. This month is about organizing and continuing on my decorating journey.

I’m going to enjoy a cup of coffee for a moment and get started on my projects.  I’ve got a lot of plans, including painting, wallpapering (?) and re-arranging.  What’s on your to-do list for February?

Amy

It’s still the New Year period, right?

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

As is typical fashion for me, I’m a little behind on life!  Haha, I’m not sure how things really get done on time around here.  But because it’s still the New Year period, I’m good, right?

Anyway, I truly hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and New Year celebration.  Our family had a great holiday.  As some of you know, we built a house last summer and were able to enjoy this Christmas in our new home.  For Thanksgiving, I was blessed to have all my kids home with me.  After we celebrated Christmas in the new house, we traveled to my family in St. Louis.  It was loud, chaotic, fun, silly, full of love and we so loved every minute of it. Being able to spend time with my family means so much and I’m so appreciative that my parents let us stay with them!  (I’m sure they count the minutes until we leave 😉 )

One thing I told myself for this new year is that I need to focus on myself and my interests.  I am a self-proclaimed “people pleaser” and that gets in my way a lot (I probably use that as my excuse).  I have so much that I want to do and I’ve put them off for so long now.  I’m putting it out there for you to hold me accountable to get things done.

So that being said, one of the things I have put aside is my blog.  So much has been going on in my life that I want to share, so I’m going to get to it.  The biggest thing is our new house.  I’m going to be doing a couple posts on the process of building our home and the end results.  Although I have a lot of decorating that I want to do, I have to remind myself that we’ve only been here for 4 months.

Ok, I don’t want to bore you, just wanted to touch base and wish you all a Happy New Year and let you know that I’m back!  (Yay you).

I’d love to hear how you’re tackling 2018, please share with me.

Until next time,

Amy

Organizing Closets for an uncluttered mind!

Organizing Closets

There is something about cleaning and organizing closets.  For me, it clears the clutter that surrounds my mind.  Do you know what I’m talking about?  Today, I’m going to talk about organizing my linen closet.  Clutter is everywhere in our daily lives, in our homes, in our cars, in our jobs and in our minds.

Just by tackling one little area, you’ll (at least I do) feel so much better.  It’s amazing.  I challenge you to organize one area in your daily life.  Let me know how it turns out for you.

Isn’t it amazing that we live with things for so long without noticing how cluttered it is.  Our linen closet is one of those areas.  We have the smallest linen closet and way too many linens.  I have a hard time throwing out perfectly good things and always say I’m going to come up with some way to recycle them.  Well, time goes by and I haven’t come up with a way to re-use the items and just turn around and walk away.  And so the clutter continues.  Hoping I’m not the only one out there that does this!

We are in the process of making some big decisions (more on that later)  and clearing clutter, organizing and simply cleaning out a lot of stuff is on the horizon right now.  This stuff just needs to get done, so I’m taking one area at a time and changing it.  As you can see, our linen closet was stuffed full of linens I forgot we even had.  When did we ever use all these things?  Perfectly good sets of sheets (although I can’t remember what bed they go on!).  Perfectly good towels (they just don’t match my color scheme at the moment).  It’s a shame really that all these things are sitting here.

Instead of coming up with a recycling plan, I’ve decided to donate all of these things.  I know there are people out there that need them and really don’t care what color they are.  So off to the donation center they go.

When we look at these “jobs”, it gets a little intimidating with where to start.  I started by taking everything out of the closet.  I folded everything and separated by style!  I then cleaned the shelves and walls within the closet.  I had purchased some bins at AtHome and Marshalls.  I bought what I thought would fit in my closet (I did measure before I went) and prayed they all fit.  It’s so hard to resist all the cute bins and buckets out there nowadays.  I had to control myself to this particular project only.

Once I decided what I was going to keep, I arranged my buckets accordingly.  On the top shelf, the bucket contains our extra sheet sets.  I also have a small bin for extra pillow cases and hand towels.  I added the shelf up there to give me that extra room for the smaller buckets.  The middle shelf holds the towels and washcloths we use on a daily basis.  Again, I added a shelf to give me more space.  The bottom shelf holds two buckets that I can put extra towels, bath mats and odds and ends in.  With this extra space, I can now keep my cleaning supplies from Grove Collaboration, which is collected in the cute bucket I received from them with my order!   This makes it so convenient to quickly clean the second floor!

Organizing Your Linen Closet

Newly Organized Linen Closet

Now, I stand back and marvel at the organization and how pretty the closet looks now and then wonder why on earth it took me so long to do this.  Crazy right?  Well, now I’m on to the next project.  Stay tuned.  If you have any great organization tips or projects of your own that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them.  I hope you all have a great, un-cluttered day.

Uncluttered, organized linen closet

Amy

 

*Disclosure:  This is not a sponsored post.  I am not making any commissions from my purchases or referrals.  These opinions are my own and just want to share where I shop.

My visit to a college campus

My son was home for his Fall break this past weekend and I brought him back to school. Because he attends school in Indiana and we live in Ohio, I decided to stay over to avoid a 10 hour drive!  

When we got back to campus, he proudly walked me around to show me where all of his classes are. I even got to see the car he’s making in his Epics lab. It was so heartwarming to know he’s very happy here and seems to be in the right place. That’s all we can hope for for our kids, to be happy in their moments. 

We enjoyed a nice dinner and then I dropped him off at his dorm to do that studying he was supposed to do over break!  I’m not gonna lie, sitting in a hotel room by myself was kind of like heaven!  I miss my husband and my little one, but mindless time alone is a luxury. 

So today, I take my time getting ready and then head to Starbucks to get my coffee. Of course there’s a line that stretches a mile long. (How do these kids afford this every day?). I relax with my coffee and wander outside to see all these kids shuffling to and from classes, all while basking in the beautiful weather. I love to people watch and a college campus is a great place to do that. As I’m looking around at all the people, I make a huge observation, hardly any leggings on these girls!!!  

I know, why am I checking out what they are wearing?  I wasn’t really, but just happened to realize that the majority of girls are wearing jeans and pants, not leggings. I don’t know about you, but everywhere I go at home, practically every girl/woman is in leggings. And pretty much every one of those girls/women should NOT be in leggings. This is where I thought that’s all I’d see, on a college campus. I’m pleasantly surprised. 

I’m going to enjoy these last moments on this campus before I head back home. I can leave my baby boy this time knowing he’s ok. He’s happy, he’s healthy and he’s growing. I’ll only have a few tears this time because I always miss him, but this time, they’re tears of joy.  

Enjoy your day and find the beauty in the small things. 

Until next time. 

Happy Easter

Did the Easter BuHappy Easternny hop by your house?  He made a quick stop here and hid some eggs while he was here.  Unfortunately, it’s still a little too cold here to have an outdoor Easter egg hunt, but, he found some hard places to hide inside.  Our little one should have fun.

We hope your family has a Blessed holiday and enjoy time with your family and friends.

 

Happy Easter.

 

My view from a volleyball game

  As I sit here at a volleyball tournament that my son is playing in, I get angrier by the moment. Why am I getting angry at a sporting event? Sports are supposed to be a good time and especially when they are kids, 18 years and younger. If you’re at all familiar with volleyball tournaments, they typically take up most of your day and it’s a lot of sitting around between matches. Sometimes you move from court to court, sometimes not. You bring your own chairs and claim your stake in the prime spot on the court! Of course, every parent is vying for that middle spot at the end of the court to film their kid. Because you know, everyone’s kid is a D1 player!

  
So back to my anger. Maybe I’m not really angry, maybe more annoyed. Annoyed at the behavior of these kids. Not all the kids though, just a few, because for the most part, these boys are great kids. The few I’m referring to are the ones that walk around here feeling entitled, acting like they are owed something. They don’t show any respect for adults, let alone their peers. They are just rude. I’ve been on the receiving end of this behavior from boys I don’t even know. I’ve been bumped into without an apology, I’ve had my belongings walked on, without a thought about what they may have just ruined! It really makes me mad. I guess I’m just mad at their parents. Yes, their parents are to blame for this.

I get mad and annoyed because I have worked so hard to teach my kids to be good people. To think about others and above all, be respectful of their elders!! (Yes, I’m old; therefore I use the word ‘elder’). I have taught them right from wrong. I have taught them that regardless of other’s behavior, always do the right thing. Sometimes it’s painful for them and sometimes it’s painful for me to have to explain why other kids don’t do what’s right.

So to all those parents out there that think it’s ok to be your kids friend and not do your job of parenting, shame on you. You need to do your job. If you don’t have time for it, maybe you shouldn’t have had them! Just sayin’. But remember, you’re the one that will have to eventually deal with your rude, entitled kid, because no one else will.

As I sit and write and reflect on my madness, I’m actually feeling better. I’m better in knowing that I have done a great job in raising my kids and I feel better in knowing that I actually feel sorry for you. I just hope karma doesn’t bite too much.

Until the next tournament.

Amy

Merry Christmas from the Carter’s

Tree with lights

It’s Christmas Eve, 2015!  The weather says otherwise outside though, which I’m thoroughly enjoying.  I much prefer warmer temps than the bitter cold we are used to having here in Ohio.  It does make it hard to get into the Christmas spirit, but we are managing just fine.   Right now, we’re waiting on Jake to get home from his dad’s house so we can celebrate Christmas before we head out of town in the morning.  This is one of the pitfalls of divorce, splitting our time!

Ellie is patiently waiting, not really understanding that Santa is coming a little early so we can get on the road first thing in the morning.  It’s tough to maneuver Santa coming before she goes to bed, but, we’re going to try it.  We’ve been watching the “Santa radar” so she can see that he’s on his way. We have set out some goodies for Santa, because regardless of what time he gets here, he’ll still be hungry and thirsty!  And, as being a true Carter, Ellie insisted that Santa prefer beer and brownies!!  (Thanks for that Elle!)  I’ll let you know how it all turns out.  I’m sure once she sees her gifts, she really won’t care what time or how they got here!

Santa treats

We’ll be heading to visit family in the morning for the holidays.  I’m very excited and blessed that we’ll be able to spend time with our family.  The only ones missing will be Grace and Matt! 🙁  I’m finding as the older I get, the more I want to be around family, which I guess isn’t the worst thing!!

So, from all of us here at the Carter house, we want to wish you all a blessed Christmas.  Whether you’re with family or spending some time alone, we hope it’s magical.

Tree lit

Marshmallow “Pops”

3 on a plate with logo

 

With only a few days before Christmas, there is probably still lots to do on your list:  buy the gifts, wrap the gifts, bake the goodies, plan the meal and so on!  So much to do.  I’m sure you’d like a simple, easy and fun dessert to have available.  The kids love these and they are the easiest things to make.  I made some for my daughter’s class at school, they were a hit.  What’s fun about these is that you can change up the theme of them for each holiday, as I’m sure you’ll get asked to make these all the time!

Just four simple ingredients is all it takes and I’m sure you have most of it in your pantry already.  You can find the recipe here, Marshmallow Pops.  I found the sticks at Pat Catan’s, which is a craft supply store here.  It’s just like Michaels and Joanne Fabrics.  You may even be able to find them in the grocery store.  The sticks are sturdier that straws but if you can’t find these sticks, you could certainly use straws.  There are a ton of options in the paper straw world right now and those can be found pretty much everywhere.

ingredients

I used dark chocolate, it’s healthier you know!!!  (That was my justification to eating several).   I purchased the jumbo marshmallows to use, since they are bigger and more impressive!  And you can use any sprinkle you have.  I did find that the colored sugar sprinkles didn’t show up on the chocolate as well as the “jimmies” did.  But, use what makes you happy.

close up white bowl

wrapped in basket

I hope you get the chance to whip these up for the holidays, but if not, find some time after the rush is over and sit back and enjoy a “guilt-free” snack.

wrapped pop

Happy Holidays and please don’t blame me after you’ve eaten a few too many  🙂

Till next time.

 

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