Stream of Consciousness Sunday - Rituals

A rare weekend without kid sports is coming to an end. Last weekend was the finale of a really fun & busy kid hockey season so I didn't find time to do any free writing.  I'm back - once again at the end of the day when I should be logged into work right now, but I'd much rather chill for just a few minutes more...

So here's my 5 minute brain dump...

Rituals.

Our snow is almost gone... a bit early for Minnesota but we're not complaining. Everyone has seasonal rituals. Call it New Year Resolutions, Spring Cleaning, Fall Back whatever you prefer, we all have certain things we do when the change of the seasons come along.

The want-to-be interior designer & personal shopper craves changing things up in our home for the Fall, the holidays & now for Spring. It started out as something for my kid, to create life-long memories & traditions - but now I realize it's exactly those things, but for myself. Often times we wish for things we saw other friends have but didn't...and for me it was family rituals & traditions. 

So when the forecast called for sunny skies & temperatures in the 60's, the rest of the winter decor had to go. Out came the bunnies, the Easter eggs, the linen pillows, a lighter throw for the living room couch and the gardening decor. The look is fresh, much lighter, more crisp, a bit eclectic but still warm. I planted my second tray of seeds & did a little shopping... incorporating a few new pieces of decor into the mix. 

My favorite go-to places for the finds are HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Zulily & sometimes Marshalls. Check out my Tumblr blog & you'll see a few of the fun things I spot.

Overall it was a great weekend, it actually hit a record 70 degrees today - but I'm curious if I'm the only crazy mom who lives for the seasonal switch?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Link your new posts to All Things Fadra (feel free to use her SOC Sunday graphic).

Stream of Consciousness Sunday - Under The Wire

It's late on Sunday night & I could just as easily skip this task and chill. It's been a busy but a productive weekend, but 5 minutes of writing will do my mind good. So here it is:

This week's 5 minute brain dump...

When you're a working mom, you can find yourself living for the weekends. All week long you are racing against the clock. It's not easy to work an extra hour or two here & there anymore in the office. You squeeze as much as possible into each day, then drag your laptop home at night or for the weekend & using whatever little bit of energy you have left, usually in the wee hours of the night, you try to focus on what there wasn't enough time for.

But it's hard, so hard to squeeze that time away from my child, the housework, and all the other family obligations that we all have. I was a very productive mama this weekend - mountains of laundry washed, folded & put away, floors vacuumed or swept, bed linens stripped cleaned & replaced, grocery shopping done, bathrooms cleaned, plants watered, family time - lots of it with an outing on Friday night, hockey on Saturday & church activities Sunday morning. 

Meals for the week have been planned, the kid has started his homework for the week. It's going to be Spring soon, so I started planting a few seeds. My hubby asked if I intended to start my entire garden from seed this year & I hope to be able to get a good portion of it started from seed vs buying starts. Every year there is so much more to learn about the art of gardening.

So I didn't blow this off - I'm finding time to do the things that matter, the things that re-charge me & make me relax a bit more going into the next work week, even if it means getting things done under the wire.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Link your new posts to All Things Fadra (feel free to use her SOC Sunday graphic).

Stream of Consciousness Sunday - The Volunteer Society

Every time I get through an exceptionally stressful week, it feels like there should be a break where I don't have a ton on my plate, but that never happens. Being a parent presents you with so many additional responsibilities...those things that no one tells you when you are discussing starting a family. 

It's been both good & bad that we have only been blessed with one child. Given that between work, church & personal agendas there are an amazing number of opportunities available to give of your time for charities of your choice. But when kids are in the mix, you come to realize that things seem to have changed significantly since we were school-aged.

So here's my 5 minute brain dump...

They start you out easy with kid sports. It all seems so low key - relatively inexpensive and manageable. You fill their preschool days with as many activities as you can, wanting them to try everything & figure out what they really enjoy. There's swimming lessons, t-ball, soccer, gymnastics, tumbling, skating lessons and here in Minnesota, there is hockey. The list goes on & on.

From the first open house for elementary school you figure out that not a lot happens in the schools unless parents are available to give of their time & talents. The long table of sign-up sheets was so intimidating. Looking at the names of the events, you have no clue what any of it is, or what you are getting into if you volunteer. 

The easiest route to take is to volunteer in your kid's room - that you can handle, knowing that you'll have to bite the bullet & find at least a couple more things you can take time off to help with in the course of the year.

You feel guilty after the first year of school when you figure out that the majority of the go-to volunteers are the stay-at-home moms - and that doesn't work for you - a working mom.

Then comes the sports leagues, where they have you write the checks up front - one for the fundraiser & the other for volunteer hours.  There is a minimum & your motivation for getting all your volunteer hours in is the threat of that enormous check getting cashed. You are after all a parent living in a volunteer society and they have you at hello.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Link your new posts to All Things Fadra (feel free to use her SOC Sunday graphic).

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Late to the Party

It's Sunday evening & I'm not the least bit stressed for a change because it's a holiday weekend & I know I get to spend tomorrow at home with my family. I have some work to do from home, but knowing I don't have to rush my child out of bed, off to school, then race through rush hour traffic to get to the office is a rare treat. So here we go.

5 minutes seems like an eternity & a heartbeat - all at the same time. Finding 5 free minutes to write shouldn't be difficult, right, but it is. My 2 boys, the big and the little are both fast asleep napping, so continuing making dinner can wait. 

I admit it, Fadra, I miss the writing prompts. So many things racing through my head as I sit inside the warm house, thankful this Minnesota winter has been crazy easy so far. A shortage of snow & bitterly cold days makes me appreciate why we love to live here & not the East Coast given the hell Boston has been delivered in the past several weeks.

I worry about the fact that we can see the grass in our yard & the days it warms up I'm afraid the tulips that I planted in the backyard might get a bit confused & start to bloom way too soon. Spring planting is not that far away.  

Last year I started with quite a few plants from seed, but I was a bit late to the party & could have started that process much earlier.  Excited to get planting in only a few short weeks this year, I have a wonderful collection of "Grow Journey" seeds from South Carolina's Tyrant Farms.  Google them if you're curious. I'll be blogging quite a bit about my gardening adventures in the months to come.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Link your new posts to All Things Fadra (feel free to use her SOC Sunday graphic).

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Letting Go

So, technically it's not Sunday yet here in the Central Time Zone, however I'm pushing hard to get back into the habit of blogging at least once (or twice) a week. It's been an eternity since I was in a writing groove, but I'm determined to let the words flow once again. There's no better way than this to oil the gears, so here it goes.

The office. 

It's always been my downfall, my Achilles heel, my torture chamber of disorganization. It's the dumping ground for mail, catalogs, magazines, crafting supplies, wrapping supplies, scrapbooking supplies, mountains of books, gifts, Munchkin school papers, etc. I could go on for hours. It's the one place I toss things in to be dealt with another time, were I shut the door & say "don't go in there." 

There is sentiment, worry, doubt, fears, fabulous memories & not so fabulous ones. Old photo albums, old cards - all those things which I am afraid to let go of. But it's time... beyond time for a cleanse, a massive purge, a new start.

Before I can change my mind, before I have time to question if I'll need it someday.

Three bags of shredding & garbage taken out in the past couple of days. It's a small start to letting go.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Link your new posts to All Things Fadra (feel free to use her SOC Sunday graphic).

Almost Spring Cleaning

It's been months since my last post - June of last year - gasp... it's true. This blog has been on ice - literally, stone cold as I am super busy with the normality of daily life. Work continues to be a constant challenge. Downtime is non-existent in the world of overlapping campaigns.

So while everyone else was busy making New Year's resolutions, I was trying to hold my head above the water - meeting deadline after deadline. In what little "downtime" I can squeeze out, my goal for 2015 is to dig out of my world at home. Reminders are everywhere about purging. There are how-to books, professional organizers, blog hops, magazine articles, infographics - so many ideas.

I started with a few trips to sell both Munchkin clothes & then my old Maternity clothing. A Goodwill run followed with old clothes, kid underwear & white socks & old tennis shoes - things I did not want to end up in a landfill. I have another trip to PRISM planned with a ton more maternity clothes that are in great condition, but were not new enough to sell as well as excess toys that I decided not to give Munchkin for one reason or another. I went through old cosmetics & purged things I've held on to since we moved into this house & tossed a ton. I went through our pantry to remove expired items and cleaned the shelves on the door of the refrigerator. I've rounded up all the vases from around the house & organized them all into a single location.

In the office a frequent tossing of catalogs is due for attention as well as the mountains of mail that needs to be sorted into toss & shred piles. The mountains of papers & receipts are so overwhelming at times, but I'm determined to tackle a little at a time until everything is manageable ongoing.

The needs are endless and this Full-Time working mom is determined that 2015 will be the year I finally conquer the clutter.  What are you doing to make strides to purge & keep your home organized?

Need some tips to get you started? Try this Pin from Better Homes & Gardens Magazine: " Expert Advice to Tame Clutter": https://www.pinterest.com/pin/34762228350008561/

Wishing on a KitchenAid Mixer - a Kitchen Dream

I just ran across a fun giveaway posted on Dagmar Bleasdale's blog. http://www.dagmarbleasdale.com/2014/06/kitchenaid-mixer-giveaway/#more-17345

I follow Dagmar on Instagram & she had a tease about this sponsored post for PartSelect.com.

The rules: 

• "How to Enter: choose from one of the blogging topics, write a post on your blog about it, and send the URL of the post to contests@partselect.com. Easy!"

My chosen topic:

• "Do you long for a dishwasher? A double oven? Beyond a KitchenAid Mixer, tell us about your top three dream kitchen appliances!"

So in the slim chance that I actually win one of the 3 KitchenAid Mixers they are giving away, I'm sharing my top three dream kitchen appliances.

1. If cost wasn't a factor I'd chose the Thermador PODC302J.  Each oven is 4.7 cubic feet! I miss the double ovens I grew up with at my parent's home & when we are hosting large family gatherings, the two ovens is almost a necessity. As long as there were no strings attached & I had my choice, it would be a loaded package like this one.

See Photo on http://www.warnersstellian.com/product/11016/thermador-podc302j

2. My second choice would be a much larger refrigerator. We have a very small opening today & I was sad with how tiny we had to go to replace our current refrigerator.  This Electrolux EI23BC35KS would certainly work for us with the double doors, double wide shelves, ice & water in door, plus shelves & baskets in the freezer.

See Photo on http://www.warnersstellian.com/product/10009/electrolux-ei23bc35ks

3. Choice number three would be an upright freezer.

The Electrolux EI32AF65JS has some great features. An alarm system to alert you of a power failure or if a door has been left open. With 18.6 cubit feet of space I would be able to go prepare meals in advance and have plenty of storage to hold it all. Shelves would be wide enough for full size pizza boxes. I could even make homemade ice cream or Popsicles.

See Photo on http://www.warnersstellian.com/product/10505/electrolux-ei32af65js

One day when we remodel our 80's era kitchen, I hope to add at least one of my dream items to our plans. One can certainly dream, right?!

I was not compensated for this post, but I sure as heck hope I win a brand new KitchenAid mixer... I know you're jealous of my old school hand mixer. 

(And yes, I still keep it in the original box.)