ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ HOME/ Uncategorized

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

Here Are My Goals…What Are Yours?

(please share!)

EVERY MONTH GOALS 2016

~Meaningful Marriage (Love Todd Well)

~Meaningful Parenting (Love Kids Well)

~Meaningful Home (Loving Home Environment + Beautiful Home Atmosphere)

~Computer Clutter (Notes, Reminders, Photos, Emails, Posts)

~Blog Posts In Order (Plan Ahead; Work Efficiently)

~Socialize (Social Media Flow + In Real Life Socializing With Loved Ones)

EVERY WEEK GOALS 2016

~Start Day With Scripture/Journal/Meditation/Prayer

~Blog Posts Planned For The Week (Work Efficiently)

~Home Blessing Hour (One Hour of Cleaning…Dust, Bathrooms, Sweep, Mop, Vacuum)

~Date With One Of My 3 Lovelies (Girls are Growing Up. Do It Now!)

~Grocery List/Meal Plan (To Feed Them Well)

~Move Body 5 Days a Week (Walk, Yoga, Strength Training)

~Greens + Berries + Supplements + Water Every Day (Hydrate + Nutrients)

~Clean Mama Monthly Rotating Cleaning goals

SPECIFIC GOALS LAST WEEK

~call carpet repairman

~call carpet cleaner

~load to goodwill

~~~finish painting basement~~

~~~research gallery walls~~

SPECIFIC GOALS THIS WEEK

~call carpet repairman

~call carpet cleaner

~load to goodwill

~finish IF: Local conference decor

~call plumber

Home Zone This Week: (15 minutes a day in said zone)

~ the Living Room

Hot Spot This Week: (5 minutes a day in said hot spot)

~ Rescue Laundry Room

Computer Hot Spot: (getting my digital organization on!)

~Immedite Inbox Folder

~Important Inbox Folder

Last Week’s Most Clicked On Links:

5 Steps You Can Take To Heal Your Gut | Raia’s Recipes

No-Knead Bread | The Quick Journey

Winter Capsule Wardrobe | Plant Based Bride

Simple Baked Oatmeal Cups | Making It In The Mountains

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate | Anderson & Grant

Cleansing & Healthy Herbal Tea | Prepare & Nourish

Christmas/ Decorating/ Holidays/Parties/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Sponsored

Easy Simple & Functional Holiday Decor

The holidays are a busy time, especially for Moms preparing their homes for kids winter break or out-of-town guests. Every year, I strive to make this time of year a simple and slow as possible, especially once my kids are on break from school. This year, that has meant paring down my holiday decor and keeping only the things that are simple, efficient, practical, functional & bring us joy.

Here are a few ways I’ve kept holiday decor functional but still beautiful:

ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ HOME

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

Hello Linkers & Readers!

Did you notice we got a bit of a facelift? It is a brand spankin’ new theme on this blog from Nudge Media. I am absolutely loving it & hope you all are too! I’m excited to share with you all some of the features of this awesome blog theme called Driftwood from Nudge Media. But the BEST news first: Nudge Media is having a Holiday Special for any theme, PAY WHAT YOU WANT option! Click through to see what it is all about.

Attention Bloggers:

This amazing, fully customizable blog theme can be yours! Click here for all of the details. You will love Kathy from Nudge Media & the amazing work she does. Her eye for design & ability to create beautiful but highly functional blog themes is beyond amazing. The theme comes ready to install with a few clicks and is super intuitive and easy to use!

A few great things about this Driftwood – WordPress Theme:

~Responsive Design – Looks beautiful on all screens
~Beautiful Featured Post Slider
~Theme Options Powered by the WordPress Customizer
~Upload a Logo or Header Image
~Blog Layouts
~Page Templates
~Custom Widgets – About, Social Icons, Recent Posts
~Widget Ready Area
~Menu drop-down support
~Post share icons – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+
~Recommended Posts
~Full Width Footer for Instagram feed
~Retina Ready
~Outstanding Support
~Works with WP 4+

Can you see why I am so excited? It is an amazing theme. Go visit Nudge Media & tell her Amy from New Nostalgia sent you!

———–

Here Are My Goals…What Are Yours?

(please share!)

EVERY MONTH GOALS 2015

~Meaningful Marriage (Love Todd Well)

~Meaningful Parenting (Love Kids Well)

~Meaningful Home (Loving Home Environment + Beautiful Home Atmosphere)

~Computer Clutter (Notes, Reminders, Photos, Emails, Posts)

~Blog Posts In Order (Plan Ahead; Work Efficiently)

~Socialize (Social Media Flow + In Real Life Socializing With Loved Ones)

EVERY WEEK GOALS 2015

~Up Early Every Week Day (Start Day With God & What Matters)

~Blog Posts Planned For The Week (Work Efficiently)

~Home Blessing Hour (One Hour of Cleaning…Dust, Bathrooms, Sweep, Mop, Vacuum)

~Date With One Of My 3 Lovelies (Girls are Growing Up. Do It Now!)

~Grocery List/Meal Plan (To Feed Them Well)

~Move Body (Walk, Yoga, Strength Training)

~Greens + Water Every Day (Hydrate + Nutrients)

~Clean Mama Monthly Rotating Cleaning goals

SPECIFIC GOALS LAST WEEK

~~~decorate for Christmas~~

~fix chairs

~~~drop off load to donation center~~

SPECIFIC GOALS THIS WEEK

~mail Christmas packages

~wrap gifts already purchased

~rescue laundry room

Home Zone This Week: (15 minutes a day in said zone)

~Enterence, Front Porch, Dining Room

Hot Spot This Week: (5 minutes a day in said hot spot)

~phone photos (purge)

Computer Hot Spot: (getting my digital organization on!)

~work on organizing recipes on New Nostalgia

Last Week’s Most Clicked On Links:

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn | Table For Seven

Embroidery Hoop Holiday Tree Collage | Made In A Day

The Word My Son Taught Me To Eliminate | Reviews, Chews, & How-Tos

Lime-Cilantro Riced Cauliflower | Frugal In Florida

Free Printable Gift Tags | Crafty Housewife

Christmas Bucket List 2015 | Harvest Lane Cottage

Decorating/ HOME/ Homemaking

New Plans For Our Family Room & Smart Shopping Online

{Some of my Family Room List items. All items can be found on Shopswell}

Our family room is in our basement. We use this area to watch recorded television as a family, to workout, play games & to play ping-pong. It is long overdue for some attention. The couches were given to us and are at least 15 years old. They are sagging and worn down with holes starting to form! Our TV is nice, but I know my husband is dreaming of one a bit larger. The basement family room in general has been very neglected by me and needs my cleaning, organizing and decorating touch.

{our basement that needs some updating & attention}

We have 3 girls, 12, 14 & 16. We really like to encourage them to have friends over and this space is where they like to take their friends. We decided it was time to create a comfortable and beautiful space that they would be proud of & love to bring their friends to just hang out. We also decided it needs to be done ASAP because our girls are growing older and before we know it they will be up and gone. Now is the time to invest in our living space and create the priceless memories with them before it is too late!

I started decluttering the space about a month ago. All that is left to declutter is our crazy board game shelves and our bookshelves. Many of the games on the shelves right now are for kids and our girls have outgrown them. It is time to minimalize! Todd will have to minimalize the bookshelves as most of the books on them are his.

Here is my list to- do for the basement family room:

Minimalize the game shelves.
Minimalize the book shelves.
Get carpets cleaned
Paint. Change red wall paint color to a nice mellow blue.
Create office space for Todd
Decorate

Here is my list of things to shop for:

New treadmill (our’s is old and the motor is SO LOUD!)
New television
New window treatments. (Right now we have pillows stuffed in the window. Ugh.)
A rug
New couch & love seat
A mini refrigerator for drinks
Some end tables to set drinks.
A game table
Lamps for cozy lighting
Pillows & soft throws
A few accessories to add some character and warmth.

It is a lot, and some things may need to wait as we save, but it is never too late to clean, dust, organize, dream and start shopping for what we can buy right now!

I have found the greatest site to do some organizing, dreaming and SHOPPING! It is a site called Shopswell. You all know that I love Pinterest, and Shopswell is like Pinterest for shopping! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on Pinterest, went to click on an item I’d like to buy, and the link is broken or the item is not for sale. On Shopswell you will never have that issue! They show only items that are for sale, and their price.

The site is super easy to use. You set up an account, which is where you can create and keep as many lists as you want. I, of course, made a list simply called “Family Room” because I’m a simple girl like that! You can get as creative as you want for your own lists. I am keeping items that inspire me and items that I would like to purchase for our basement family room.

I’m eager to make more lists. I made a second list called “Household” and of course, I have to have one called Wish List! There is so much that you can shop for on Shopswell. Home decor, fashion and tech are just a few of the categories. They even have food you can shop for!

You can share your lists and look at other peoples lists for more ideas and inspiration. My “Households” list was inspired by looking at others household items & their lists. If you find something on a list that you like, you can put it right on your list. They have turned shopping into a community experience.

Another feature that is very cool is their Priced Tracker. Once you add a item to a list you can then click the “track” button to add it to you Price tracker list. It will stay in your Price tracker with the current price, and can be set to alert you when its gets to the price your willing to spend on the item.

Don’t forget to enter the Shop.Share.Win. Program where you curate and create lists then share them. Each month they give $10,000 back to the Shopswell community based on credits earned for helping others. You can get the full details and rules on how to play and win HERE. You can also track the top earners, its updated every 24 hours.

I will keep you updated on our basement progress. Let me know if you create a Shopswell account so I can come follow you!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying/ Sponsored

Organize Your Phone In 10 Easy Steps

I get bitten by the organization bug much harder in the fall than in the spring. The cool, crisp fall weather makes me want to just hunker down in a cozy home, and there is no cozy if there is clutter! I love sitting under a warm blanket with a fall scented candle lit, scrolling through my phone and doing all the things our amazing phones do these days! I was doing this just the other day, about to instagram my yummy cup of Pumpkin Spiced Chai Latte, but, then…in the midst of my insta moment…the annoying ‘out of storage’ screen pops up.

How many of you have gone to take a photo with your phone, only to get the dreaded little screen that pops up letting you know that you are out of storage? Ugh, this has happened to me so many times! Well, no more. It is time for some fall organization of my phone, starting with photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive

Phone Organization

Step One:

Get photos off my phone and onto the cloud with Amazon Cloud Drive.

Todd and I have been Amazon Prime members for a few years now, and love it. The free 2-day shipping is great, and we also love Amazon Prime Video. What we didn’t know until recently that if you are a prime member, you already have access to Amazon Cloud Drive with Prime Photos, which provides unlimited, secure photo storage as part of your Prime membership!

I was very excited about the unlimited photo storage, especially when I found out there is a handy Amazon Photo App for my phone. What this means for me is any photo that I take with my iPhone can easily be stored in Amazon Cloud Drive. This can be done by setting it to automatically store every photo you take, or choosing them manually. I no longer have to take up precious space on my phone and see that dreaded warning screen telling me that I have no space left to take another photo!

As a blogger, this is especially exciting. I take most of my blog photos with my phone, and before discovering Amazon Cloud Drive I had over 2,000 photos on my phone! Many of them were photos taken for my blog, some I had already used, and some I had not. They are were all screaming to be organized! I had access to another type cloud storage, but it is also being used by my whole family and all of their devices, and is one that is not unlimited, so it stressed me out to upload all my many blog photos to that specific cloud storage.

I plan on using Amazon Cloud Drive for my own personal iPhone photos, my Kindle photos, and my personal laptop photos, paying specific attention to my blog photos. I can’t believe I will finally have all of my blog photos in one spot, accessible from all devices. Talk about Fall Organization! This is something I have desired for a long time. Once I get all of my personal & blog photos organized, I will then see to the rest of my family’s photos, which will probably end up on Amazon Cloud Drive, too, since it is unlimited!

Don’t have Amazon Prime? No worries, I will explain at the end of this post some amazing deals offered for you from Amazon Cloud Drive for non-prime members.

Now that photos are off of my phone and I have freed up a ton of storage space, I can organize the rest of my phone.

{my sweet screensaver…can’t believe they are teenagers now!}

Step Two:

Update Apps

I had not been able to update my apps due to lack of…yep…storage space. Now I can! I had 37 updates just waiting there for me, and now my phone will work with efficiency.

Step Three:

Voicemails –Listen to & delete all voicemails. I had listened to all of mine, but had not deleted them. They were starting to pile up! I also went in my settings and set them to automatically delete after a certain period of time.

Step Four:

Messages — Read, respond to, & delete all messages

Step Five:

Voxer –(I’m assuming you all have and love this app as much as I do) I listened to and deleted all old messages (these were taking up a ton of space!) I use this awesome walkie-talkie type message app everyday. It makes driving in the car so much more fun when I am alone. I blab to friends or listen to my messages and just love how it turns car time into connecting time!

Step Six:

Reminders–I took a quick peek at all of my reminders and clicked off items that were finished, and deleted lists that were outdated.

Step Seven:

Frequently Used Apps –I put frequently used apps on front home screen. This is my personal preference, then I use folders on the second home screen. There are several ways to organize apps. Some like to do it according to color, some like to alphabetize them. On my front page I do a combination of color and type.

Step Eight:

App Folders–organize rest of apps in folders on 2nd home screen. I saw a great idea online recently where you organize according to action word:

~look up (yelp, contacts, safari, contacts, weather)

~listen (music, spotify)

~talk (message, FaceTime, ichat)

~shop (amazon, walgreens, iTunes)

~share (snapchat, twitter, vine, periscope)

~photograph (photos, instagram, Amazon Cloud Drive)

~navigate (maps, around me)

~read (amazon reading app, mashable, Bloglovin’)

Step Nine:

Contacts–Go through contacts and update information.

Step Ten:

Notes – clear out notes. Delete unwanted, file the rest into Evernote

———–

Oh my goodness I can’t tell you how much better using my newly organized phone is!

What made the biggest difference is dealing with my boatload of photos. It took quite awhile to move over 2,000 pictures using the Amazon Cloud App, but that was to be expected with so many photos. Now that the bulk of my photos are moved over, doing just a month at a time is super fast. I find myself keeping about a week’s worth of photos on my phone, as I like to share them on social sites like instagram, so that gives me some time to do just that while still staying organized and on top of my photos.

Want to know more about Amazon Cloud Drive?

Photos and files can be shared via private links from within the Amazon Photo app or by selecting a folder or file to be shared using the web interface on your computer. Love that! This would be super useful for holidays or vacations, to share with your friends and family.

If you are already a prime member, you have access to Amazon Cloud Drive with Prime Photos, which provides unlimited photo storage as part of your Prime membership. In addition, Prime members get 5 GB of additional storage space for videos, movies, music, and files.

If you are not, Amazon recently announced two unlimited storage plans, both start with a free 3-month trial:

Unlimited Everything Plan ($59.99 per year—equivalent of less than $5 per month): Store an infinite number of new and existing photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music in Cloud Drive.
Unlimited Photos Plan ($11.99 per year—equivalent of less than $1 per month): Similar to the Prime member benefit – non Prime members can also store an infinite number of photos in Cloud Drive without worrying about taking up space on phones, cameras, or other devices. This plan also includes 5 GB of additional storage for videos or other documents and files.

……………….

What about you? Do you store your photos in the cloud? Do you find yourself annoyed when your phone photos take up all your storage space? Do you have any more phone organization tips for me?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Healthy Eating/ HOME/ Homemaking/ How-Tos/ RECIPES

How To Use Pinterest When Making A Menu Plan

Do you find yourself pinning a bunch of great looking recipes on Pinterest, but then never get around to actually making them? Do you want an easy way to streamline menu planning each week? Then this post is for you.

I don’t know about you, but the weeks that I actually take some time to make a menu plan go so smoothly compared to when I don’t. It is a great feeling to know exactly what foods I plan on making each week, and it saves so much money in the long run, as it keeps me from quick grabbing food on the go or running to the grocery store several times a week. When I know the recipes I am going to make, and make a grocery list to make sure I have the groceries on hand, then making meals actually becomes an enjoyable process!

Pinterest is a GREAT way to not only find great recipes, but to simplify the menu planning process.

Most of the recipes I use are either on my blog or on Pinterest, and I am always wanting to try at least one or two new recipes a week. Using Pinterest for menu planning helps me to easily find and gather recipes from both sources.

I simply made a board titled Recipes To Make This Week. This is where I will gather ONLY the recipes that I plan on making that week. I then go search my own New Nostalgia board and New Nostalgia Food board. This is like my own personal recipe box. My blog is full of recipes that I love and use often, so it makes sense for me to pull from there first. I then go to my Recipes: Menu Plan board. This board is where I pin recipes that I am craving, or recipes I find that look so good that I want to make them ASAP. The last place I search for fun recipes is among all my other Recipe boards, that are sorted alphabetically according to food/cuisine type.

How To Use Pinterest When Making A Menu Plan

Make a board titled Recipes: To Make This Week
Make a board titled Recipes: Menu Plan
Gather pins from New Nostalgia board and New Nostalgia food boards. (a shameless plug!)
Gather pins from your general recipes boards…or come visit mine.
Put ‘must make soon’ type recipes in your Menu Plan board
Put ONLY recipes you are committing to make for the week in your Recipes: To Make This Week board.

Once I have all of my recipes for the week gathered on my Recipes To Make This Week board, I then make a grocery list by clicking on each one and making sure I have all of the ingredients on hand. If I don’t have it, it goes right on my grocery list.

I use the Reminders list app on my iPhone, I type the list, then go check my cupboards, speaking to Siri to add anything I am missing. I also use Siri if I am out and about and remember something I need to add to my list…this is especially helpful when I’m in the car! I simply say “Reminders Grocery List” and she will then ask me what to add to that specific list, I answer, and she adds it for me.

It saves paper and I can access it on my laptop and on my phone. I usually do this while at home on my computer, but the beautiful thing about this is I can do it all on my phone while sitting in my car waiting for my kids! I can access all my Pinterest boards, and gather ingredients I need on my Reminders app. It is such a timesaver.

I do not get so detailed as to assign each day of the week its own meal and recipes. I just gather a few meals, snacks, & breakfasts, enough to get us through the week. My mood can change each day as to what I feel like eating, so I try to just have a handful of recipes that make pretty balanced week. To do this, I am purposeful to keep in mind a variety of meals.

I talk about having general recipe dinner categories during the week (fish, pasta, chicken, breakfast for dinner, meatless, one grass-fed ground beef recipe, etc) in this post if you would like to read more on that subject.

…………

What about you? Do you use Pinterest to menu plan? Do you have a method that works well for you? Was this post helpful?

Frugal/ Gardening/ HOME/ Homemaking

My Simple Potted Plants

Follow New Nostalgia

I kept my potted plants simple and cheap this year! My energy has been down and I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money on plants. I’d rather save it for making fun summer memories with my girls!

Here is what I did:

2 Green pots of Dalias to greet my guests at the stairs by my front porch

1 Galvanized Steel Bucket holding herbs and a Mother’s Day gift from my Mother-in-Law

1 pot of my favorite funky spiral grass named Corkscrew or Juncus effusus ‘Curly Wurly’ that I plant every year. It is so easy to keep happy and I love how fun it looks.

1 pot of plain jane red geraniums (pictured above). They are the cheapest way to add color and take very little care.

1 pot of snap dragons. They were on sale and I wanted to add a pop of yellow to my backyard.

All in all, I only spent $25.00 for potted plants for both the back and front yard. Not bad, huh? They are nothing fancy, but they sure make me happy and make our little yard look thought of and taken care of.

……………

What did you plant this year? Do you plant the same types of flowers every year?

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