Decently and in Order Pt. 7 The Boys Room

The boys room holds alot of things so this will take a few posts. We have 3 boys in here, all of their clothes, home school supplies, art supplies, games, toys and entertainment center! We had a full finished basement at our last home in Virginia designated as the "play room"; So I knew it was going to be a challenge fitting everything in here but we did it!

Our over the door shoe organizer utilizes otherwise dead space. Each boy has a column, that goes from smallest to largest. The top has socks The two middle rows have shoes that are in between the boy's current sizes and are waiting to be grown into. Then the next rows are slippers, tennis shoes, church shoes, and sandles =)

Homeschool drawers and reward charts

Each boy has a chart and gets paid 5 cents per magnetic sticker he earns. I believe this will teach them that they are rewarded for working, and hope they will never have a "welfare" or "entitlement" attitude that is plaguing our society today.

Each Home School drawer is designated as well with a picture ( This picture idea was taken from a sweet friend at Calvary Baptist Church named Connie.)

Inside the "Mommy" drawer I have my teacher planner, reward stickers, name tags, crayons and pencils.

I will show you what one of the boys' drawers look like...Here is what is inside of Noah's my sweet middle boy =)

Each boys has similar age appropriate school work including handwriting tools, basic skills books and a calender.

The "All" drawer: I guess I will have to add Rachel's face when she starts school in 2 years =)

I keep everything that all the boys should be learning together in here; including the 50 states, US Presidents, Kid's bible, Science book, and Spanish book.

Well, that is all for today. I love seeing how other mom's organize their children's rooms to give me ideas. I hope this helped give someone some idea's as well =)

Going Cardless!

After Reading The Money Saving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine this week, I was very motivated to get our finances in order. The biggest thing that really jumped out that we are not doing right now is using cash. Sure we don't have any debt not even a house payment(Praise the Lord!) or use credit cards for our home. Yet Crystal says, "debit cards give you a false sense of security and the opportunity to cheat on your budget when the temptation arises." That is so true! We have known about the cash envelope system since taking the Financial Peace class back in 2008; yet we always came up with some excuse like: we track our expenses on a spreadsheet, or we are too disciplined to need to use cash only. Time after time after time we would overspend on our budget even though we tracked it all down, even seeing it on a spreadsheet in the red did not stop us because we had "extra" and were not going into debt or anything. Chris' job now has irregular income since it is commission only so we really really need to get this right!
Here is the "envelope system" We label each category of our budget and stick the money in it.
We also stick an index card in with the monthly allotted amount, purchase dates and prices
The book also has several charts and maps to fill out at the end of the book. We brainstormed some financial goals. We set some really big goals Like paying cash for a second car and turning our current home into rental property after saving enough in cash for a second home.
I was also convicted about my daily schedule or lack thereof so I really enjoyed filling out the "time budget" worksheet at the back of the book! I will need alot of prayer and help from the Lord and my husband to stick to this!
My husband was very motivated too and made this very intricate spreadsheet on excel to map out all of goals and progress! I think he should have been a professional chart maker..... =)

How We saved $60 on hair cuts

Yesterday I posted an update on my 2012 goals, and I didn't realize how much not making a goal bothered me. I made most goals and excelled at many but one goal had no progress: Keep up with hair cuts quarterly. This morning Chris was cutting his hair and asked for me to do the back for him.

I thought well if he is cutting his own hair why not me? My friend Liz had cut her own hair a couple months ago and I couldn't tell she didn't go and pay someone to cut it. I had this phrase stuck in my head from one the motivational books I read last month, "Losers make excuses, Winners make a way." Am I not more than a conqueror through Christ, Can I not do all things through Christ? I had just gotten out of the shower with freshly washed hair, the kids were still in bed and the scissors in Chris' clipper kit were just too tempting..... I was thinking of watching a youtube tutorial first but it was almost time to start the day with the kids; so I just went at it. I combed my hair and then cut off about 3 inches and layered some around my face.

I am really surprised that it does not look bad at all! Hair cuts for me are around $30-$40

( because I have long hair?) plus tax and tip $50! Chris' hair cut is usually $10 plus tax and tip $16! Also the last time we both got our hair cut we did not like the job that was done and lost money! So I figured we saved at least $60 this morning and any bitter feelings toward a hair cutter. I wonder if there are any more people out there who cut their own hair?

2012 Goal Review

God is Faithful and January went well with my goals =) Here is an update on my goals so far!

1) Read through the bible in one year

My bible reading plan that I picked up from church had me read through the book of Genesis, Matthew all of proverbs and the first 20 something psalms. I have been so blessed and God has answered questions directly many days with this reading plan.

2)Read 6 books

I have read 3 books so far! The Necessity of Prayer by EM Bounds, Jumper Cables For Your Mind and Power Phrases and Affirmations both by Don Howe( The owner of Chris' new company he is working with)

3)Pass out a gospel tract to every store clerk

I don't get out much but God blessed me to pass out a gospel tract at Walgreens, Dillons, the Gas station and a sale on craigslist.

4)Eat out only once a week

This goal was more than exceeded! I only went out to eat once at Hyvee, our grocery store cafe way back on January 2!

5) Run 7.5 miles a week

I am really excited to report I have been keeping up with this one as well and am even going past the 7.5 miles a week. Last week I ran 10.5 miles! On Saturday I surprised myself and ran 3 miles non stop!

6) In home dvd work out once a week

I also had 4 workout sessions on the TV this month

7)Take vitamins and juice daily

Most days I took my vitamins, I fell off the juicer everyday goal because my juicer is on it's last leg. I have been researching juicers and think I found just the right one online =)

8)Reduce weight to 130 lbs.

I guess I should have told you that I started at around 141-144 a day depending on what I ate. This last 2 weeks I have been staying down under 140lbs! Today I weighed in at 136.6 lbs!

9)Keep up with hair cuts quarterly

I really have got to get this done I even contemplated cutting my own hair a couple of times. I have not had my hair cut in over a year!

10) Improve home organization

This month I labeled all the storage totes in the garage and also organized all of our family photos from 1983-present!

Tomorrow is February 1st and I am hopeful that God will continue to give me strength to get a little closer to my 2012 Goals!

Decently and in Order Pt. 6 The Laundry Room

Our Laundry Room has a nice shelf and cabinets for lots of storage...when there is storage space, I get excited that means there is organizing space!

There are two doors in our laundry room one to the hallway and one to the garage so it was hard to get everything in one photo. This is the best "whole look" of everything pic I could get.

Inside the cabinets I have stain remover, soap, bleach, an iron, and a plastic drawer. The plastic draw holds on top: thread, middle: needles, safety pins, tape measure and on the bottom: buttons. ( Yes this is my complete sewing kit) It is all I need for now all I know how to sew is a button on and maybe a hole...lol. Oh and of course Duck Tape at the top! Just in case needle and thread does not work out for me....j/k =)

In basket #1 I have child safety mabobs.

In Basket #2 I have batteries

In Basket #3 I have light bulbs....I need to buy some more as you can see =)

The shelf has 2 candles and a basket. The basket on the shelf stores dryer sheets ( I got this idea from our pastor's wife)

This is where we put our dirty clothes.

I made this sign with my cricket and some vinyl=)

I have an over the door hook thing, so when I get something out of the dryer and don't want wrinkles to set in I hang it immediately on a coat hanger and hang it behind the door. Our old faithful ironing board we have had since we first got married stands beside the washer =)

We also have our drying rack and steam dryer attachment standing beside the dryer.

That is all for the Laundry room =)

Decently and in Order Pt. 5 The Living Room Cont'd

Here is the Living room ! The kids are on the couch watching Pink Panther, but you can only see one kid...

Our coat closet has of course coats, my diaper bag/purse, our steam mop, kirby vacuum and accessories, and a stick vacuum that the previous home owners left here...I need to sell it on craigslist because I do not use it!

I love this little cubby shelf! I keep my running shoes by the door at all times to remind me that I NEED to go on a run(more like a slow job but hey it is better than not doing anything)! There is a race car over there in the corner....no matter how organized I think I am there is always a race car out of place somewhere in our house with 3 boys!

We store our hats and gloves and scarves here in the cubby shelf baskets in the winter time =)

Like I said last time our living room serves as an office for my husband. He has alot of paper work with his new job and will get more and more as he serves more clients. We will have to stay on top of everything so things do not get cluttered!

We had to get nicer printer and fax machine for Chris' job too. He really does read all these book on top of the desk too! I think he is reading like 15 different books right now including My Upmost for his Highest, and lots of Bible dictionary and concordance things in addition to daily Bible reading and his Business books. Chris reads alot!

Underneath the desk he keeps two storage totes and the paper shredder.

This is what was in one of the totes....I was being nosey ....lol. There are more boxes: one with wires, one with note cards, the other with envelopes containing receipts keeping track of his business expenses, a business CD and Microsoft Office. The other tote had printer paper, folders, and more business books.

I am thankful for a husband who loves to organize even more than me sometimes =)

Decently and in Order Pt. 4 The Living Room

Our living room is very multi-functional especially since Chris now has his office at home =) I will focus on the office side next time I post. The three things that are out on this side of the living room are the excersaucer, the bookshelf and Entertainment stand.
All we keep on the entertainment shelf is the wii, wii remotes, wii balance board, and dvd player. It makes it much easier to keep up with dusting only having these items out.
Here is a look into one of our black organizing boxes on the book shelf...you probably guessed there were books in here!!!

I keep a photo album for each child from birth to 2 years old =) I will admit Joshua's is not finished and Rachel's is empty.

The bottom two storage boxes hold the wii accessories, and 3 cd/dvd holding zipper cases that are black and you most likely cannot see in this picture.

On the middle shelf we keep 2 photo albums with the sticky back and pull away clear film to hold larger photos and wallet photo, 2 photo boxes, and a picture frame. I just yesterday organized all the photos in the boxes from 1982-2011!! I also came up with quite a large burn pile (on the right of the photo) mainly from the days before I knew Christ and would never want anyone to see them ever!!