Stop and Smell the Flowers

I am finally having some blogging inspiration.  I have a notebook (although it is a small notebook) with a list of "blog ideas".  If you haven't noticed, and I'm sure you have, I have been in a blogging funk.  I either can't think of anything to write about, am too busy, or just plain not in the mood for the computer.  I guess sometimes life gets in the way of our hobbies :0)

I have said it before but this time I am really hoping to get more blogging done in the near future, both here and on my family blog.  Life is busy for us right now.  Gardening is in full swing,  kids are wrapping up the school year with many activities and events, and there is a constant list of to-do's swirling in my head.

Even though there are more times than not when our life is a little chaotic, we feel rushed and panicked, I am trying to teach myself to not just look at the flowers blowing by but actually stop and smell them once in a while.

What's on Your Book Shelf?

I have been on a reading kick lately. I have been actually reading big girl books instead of just Batman and nursery rhymes! It's a nice change. I haven't spent time reading in a very long time. I went to the library the other day and in the few minutes I had to look for myself I found a few books. Currently I am reading...

Organizing Your Home and Family by Sandra Felton.
And Fresh Living by Sara Snow.I am looking for some ideas on books to read. Categories I am interested in include simple living, green living, frugal living and homesteading. If you have any recommendations I would love to hear them.

What's on your book shelf?

We had a very busy weekend. Friday I went to my first produce auction. I am so excited to share with you what all I got. It was a great experience. I spent all weekend canning and putting up produce.

This week I am focusing on some family issues so I may not be around as much. I am still planning on hosting the Frugal Tuesday Tip so make sure you come back and join in! I will also have Hy-Vee and Fareway match-ups on the blog, they may just be a little later than usual. I also will be sharing a wrap up post of my no spend challenge for the month of August.

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. Here is to another crazy week.

She's my friend, I've just never met her...

That is what I said to my kids on the way to meet Jennifer from Getting Ahead. Jennifer and her family live in Ohio and I have been reading her blog before I even started my own. She was one of my inspirations from the beginning. When she emailed me and said they were coming through my area and asked if I wanted to meet I was SO excited.

We woke up early on a Monday morning and headed to a park to meet them. It was awesome. We have so much in common and it breaks my heart that they live so far away because I feel like we could hang out all the time!

Our kids got along great and it was exciting to finally meet someone I have been following for so long. I hope we can meet again some day. For now, I will just have to continue to follow her life through her blog and email of course!

Homestead Update

Ahh it's been awhile since I posted about what has been going on around the homestead. The summer is flying by and in less than 4 weeks the kids will be returning to school. That means a schedule again. I could use a little more structure in my own schedule. I feel like I bounce from one thing to another. Between cooking, cleaning, gardening and taking care of 5 children s needs there is never a slow moment it seems.

It has been a busy summer. The garden is doing well (pictures and post to come soon) with the exception of Japanese beetles that have infested and pretty much taken over my green beans. My herb garden is good, although a little weedy and overgrown. I have been drying quite a few herbs, including mint and basil.

The chickens are doing pretty well. I did lose one a couple weeks ago. I think due to the extreme heat we have been experiencing. The younger birds are actually bigger than some of my veterans and are doing well. I got my first pullet egg a few days ago!

I plan to update a little more on each one of these topics as time permits. Life is busy right now. Our newest baby has started crawling and pulling herself up to the furniture so that starts a whole new adventure for us all, trying to keep all the small pieces of dirt, toys and food from ending up in her mouth!

Bloggy Love

This morning I met up with some local area bloggers. It was fun to meet and come up with new and exciting ideas as well as learn some new things along the way.

It was nice to meet Todd from Dad Loves Movies. I am uber excited to find his blog. It is nice to find someone who shares a love for movies like my family does.

Julia from Confessions of a Frugal Mind was there as well. I met Julia at the last Blogger meet up. She has a great site that shares coupons, sweepstakes and is currently hosting a give-a-way.

Of course Julie from juliecache.com was there. She is the mastermind behind the meet ups. Julie is also the one who did my blog makeover!

Looking forward to the next meet up. If you are local and care to join us, send me a message!

Local Area Bloggers and Twitter

I had a great morning spending time with some local area bloggers. I met up with

Julia at Des Moines Frugal Family Examiner and Juliecache.com
Julia at Confessions of a Frugal Mind
and Kimberly at Frugal Playground

We met at Panera and I was happy with myself for not buying anything! Even though my sisters drink looked really yummy.

We discussed lots of topics and even came up with a few new ideas for our blogs. Stayed tuned!

Also, I decided to join Twitter. I have no idea what I am doing yet but we will see what happens! Come follow me #FrugalLearning

Sorry my blogging has been absent lately. I am 7 days away from my due date and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately. We have managed to remodel our basement, move our 4 boys into different rooms, paint various areas around the house and complete many other projects the last 2 months. I am finally feeling prepared to have a new baby and welcome it home.

Once the baby comes and I have settled into a routine I am planning to resume my regular blog posts. Thanks for being patient with me and not running away! I will be sharing with you the news of our newest addition soon.

Fall Decorating

Here is a picture of my mini pumpkin patch. These are Jack Be Little pumpkins. This was my first year planting them and I really just did it for fun. I love the looks of these little guys and I love decorating the house with them. I didn't know I would get so many! Fall is my favorite time of year and what better way to decorate than with homemade/homegrown decorations! So far I have a little pumpkin display in each bathroom. I have some on top of the entertainment center. Unfortunately it doesn't cover up my lovely rabbit ears antenna. I also put some in this little dish to display on the kitchen table. Isn't it cute? I am thinking I need some ribbon or something to tie around the bottom. I'll have to keep my eyes out.

Has it really been over a week since I posted? Wow. Things have been so hectic around my house. We are deep into remodeling the basement. We just finished painting this weekend and last night we went and looked at carpet. I really want to move the kids into all their new rooms in the next week or so.

Our baby is due in just under 5 weeks. I have alot of work to do!

My goal for the month of October is to have a no spend/low spend month. We didn't follow the budget very well in September. We ate out alot that month. I am hoping that even though I am approaching my 9 month of pregnancy I can muster up enough energy to have home cooked meals each night.

Yesterday I had a mini baking day. I baked 3 loaves of bread. I would really like to minimize our grocery budget for this month and try and eat from the pantry as much as possible. The kids are all getting used to eating homemade bread so I am going to try and not buy any store bought bread for the month.

My pantry is looking great for this winter. Once I get things moved back to their right positions downstairs I will take an inventory of all my canned goods. We are getting ready to dive into the homegrown chicken we prepared during the summer months and I have a whole hog on order that should be ready hopefully in another month. I will probably have to get another order of local beef ordered and then we should be sitting pretty good for the Winter months.

Embracing the Fall Season

Autumn. This is my absolute favorite time of the year.

Windows open.
Smell of fresh air.
Beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow all around.
Chili's and soups.
Jackets and jeans.
Football.
Kids playing outside.
Jumping in the leaves.
Fall decorations.
Cuddling under blankets.

Wild Plums

The kids and I were out hiking and I found a good selection of what I thought at the time were wild plums. Turns out after a little research online I was right. I have heard of them but never seen them before, at least not that I recognized. It looked like some of the trees were ripe and ready to be picked. Here are a few I brought home.Most of them though were not ripe. I will have to keep my eye on these little treasures.

Announcement...

Baby Figgins is due to arrive November 7, 2010.

My Day

This is how my day went.

Woke up to a water main break outside and low water pressure followed by NO water in the house. This lasted all morning.

Went to the dentist for a sore tooth thinking it was just a cavity. I am scheduled for a root canal on Wednesday.

Came home to youngest son still not feeling well after 6 1/2 days of a fever. Took his temp it was 103.5. Spent the next 3 hours cuddling him.

Youngest son had doctor apt at 3pm, couldn't find the source of the fever, we'll wait it out and see what happens. Realized while there I forgot to set the fish out to thaw for dinner tonight.

On the way home from the doctors office there was an accident on our turn off, the road was closed, so I had to take a detour. All I wanted was to be home because my head was really starting to hurt.

Home finally, my head is throbbing, youngest is wimpering, the the last thing I want to do is figure out what to make for dinner.

Hubby went off to pick up Subway and McDonalds while I sat and cuddled my baby. Hey, I said it was a pantry challenge not a no spend challenge right? I hate being weak...

Not Feeling Like Supermom

I am feeling a little stressed! Can you believe it? Having 4 kids, all boys none the less, one a teenager, one wanting to be a teenager, a preschooler who wants to do everything himself and a toddler who never stops moving and is great at throwing tantrums Do you blame me for being a little overwhelmed? While I love them all to death, there are some days that are so challenging. I feel like I have had more and more of them lately.

What started this whole debate with me tonight was that I missed giving my youngest his nightly medicine. While it isn't horrible that I forgot, the fact is I have forgotten it at least 3 times this week. Our evenings are so chaotic, and I never seem to have enough time to get everything I need to get done.

I think what I need to do is sit down and really prioritize my day. I think that getting on a better schedule would really make a difference. I feel like some days, we are all over the place. We clean a little, bake a little, go downstairs and throw a load of laundry in, do a little school time, clean a little more, oops someone forgot to take their vitamin, run some errands. It seems like nothing is ever consistent. I don't think I need to have a minute by minute routine but I think I need to get my days a little more organized.

I seem to have endless to-do lists, laundry, cleaning, and planning and almost each night I go to bed and I sit back and think "what did I miss today?" There are days when I feel like I completely fail as a parent, a housekeeper, or a spouse. It is hard to juggle so many things at once. How do you make sure each child gets the attention they deserve?

I think the most important thing I need to do is sit back and see what my priorities are and fulfill them first. Then everything else needs to fill in somewhere. I think getting on some sort of schedule for each day will help me. Scheduling certain things for specific days instead of trying to do it all in one day. And the things that HAVE to be done each day take priority. I am really bad at that.

Do you schedule out your days? How do you keep from getting so overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of being a wife and mother?