Casual Fridays: Link party

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One Word 2014

Happy New Year!!

I love starting off fresh in January thinking about everything I will accomplish in the New Year! Now I am not one who sets resolutions, but I have always been a goal setter. The past two years I have participated in the one word movement and have had great success with it. My first year I choose the word CHANGE and you can read about it here. Last year I choose the word ORGANIZE.

To reflect on my one word for 2013 I had two areas I wanted to organize - my home and my life. Moving into a new home required me to organize a lot. I got motivated with some help of my favorite bloggers and ended up winning fabulous prizes for my organize home. Go check out my organized playroom that won me first place.

I also organized my life better this past year. I went back to using a planner where I actually write things down. I attempted to use a technology planner (Cozi) so I would always have it on my phone but it just wasn't working for me. I think because I am such a visual person I needed to write things down (in pretty colored pens too!). There are so many free printables for planners online. I used several printables from Jamie at DIY Home Sweet Home when I created my household binder.

It was so colorful and worked out great for me. I was remembering more, staying on task more, and overall just felt more organized in keeping track of things in my life and my family's life. Organizing is a never ending word for me as I am constantly organizing, and re-organizing.

So bring on 2014! What's my one word this year???

Yep Focus! I have so many projects on my to do list, started but not finished, and rolling around in my head but no plan for them yet. I need to focus and complete the ones I have started, plan for the ones in my head, and act on the ones on my to do list.

I have to focus more on my school, my blog, my family, and me this year. I need to focus more on staying on task, having a plan for everyday, and focus on sticking to it.

I need to focus on not getting distracted. This will be a hard one for me because it happens all the time. I go to get one thing out of the pantry and the next thing I know I am re-organizing it because it's a mess. I need to get better at putting the "need to re-organize the pantry" on my to do list and stay focused on that days tasks!

Do you have a one word? I would love to hear about it. Feel free to leave me a comment or link up you blog so others can be inspired by our one words.

Thirty Days of Thanks

What are you thankful for??? Join me in doing the Thirty Days of Thanks. Thirty Days of Thanks is where you post something you are thankful for each day. Post it on your blog, Facebook, or just jot it down. I did it last year and loved doing it as it really made me realize what an amazing life I am living and all the wonderful people in my life. It was also awesome to look back on what I wrote. If you have a blog or social media site where you are posting please feel free to link up below.

Nov 1: Today I am thankful for Advil. I know that is silly but there are days that I just don't know how I would survive with out it.....being a woman and all!

Nov 2: I am thankful for my son Nathan. He is such a thoughtful kid. I am so blessed to have his positive energy in my life!

Nov 3: I am thankful for my son Trace. He is the sunshine in my day!

Nov 4: Today I was thankful for coupons. Did some Christmas shopping and everything is so expensive but with coupons I got some good deals!

Nov 5: I am thankful my husband takes the financial burden so I can stay home with my boys. I love that I am there for them everyday, in anyway!

Nov 6: Today I am thankful for my parents. I love hanging out with them and making them laugh! They have always been there for me, supported me, and help me become the woman I am today! Love you both!

Nov 7: After watching Greys tonight I am thankful that both my babies were born with no complication and remain healthy today!

Nov 8: Today I am thankful for my girlfriend who always make me feel special around my birthday.

Nov 9: Today I am not feeling very thankful. Having a terrible day! But I guess I have to be thankful for bad days so I know what good days feel like.

Nov 10: I am thankful for another year in my life. As much as I dislike getting older on my birthday, I love to add another year that I have lived in the physical world!

Nov 11: I am torn on my thankfulness today. I can be thankful for more than one thing today right? First I am thankful to my Father, Grandfathers, and best friend Michael Buck for their service to our country. Today and everyday my thoughts, prayers, and thanks go out to those who have served, and those who continue to serve our country.

Today I am also thankful for Grandpa Kotwica. Today is his birthday.Even though he is no longer with us here in the physical world, I know he is with us in spirit. I am thankful for the time I got to spend with him. He came into my life through marriage but filled a void in my heart from losing my own Grandfather so early in my life. Love you and miss you tons Grandpa!

Nov 12: Today I am thankful for quite in my house. There are just some days I enjoy the kids being in school all day and the husband in the office!

Nov 13: Today I am thankful for the love that my kids give me everyday. I know someday to soon they will no longer want to crawl up in my lap and cuddle with me so for now I will cherish those moments and be forever thankful for those moments of love!

Nov 14: Today I am thankful for my car. She is getting old but runs great and I love not having a car payment!

Nov 15: Today I am thankful for my husband for giving me a break from my daily routine. He is such a great husband and dad I never worry leaving him for the weekend

Nov 16: Today I am thankful for my mom teaching me it is better to give than receive. As I sit here making my Christmas cards I am thinking about the smile it may bring to a friend or a family members face when they receive it. I am also thinking my extra cards should go to a good cause.

Nov 17: Today I am thankful for love. I watched my parents today and even though they drive each other crazy once in awhile they truly love each other. They get each other and accept each other for who they are. Almost 45 years of marriage will do that to one another :)

Nov 18: Today I am thankful my dog Hazel is still here with us. She is almost 11 years old and her age is starting to show. She is such a good dog and I love that she still wants to play with me at night!

Nov 19: Today I am thankful for my bed. Silly but true. We spent a good amount of money on our bed and I love it. I sleep so much better and it really helps my back.

Nov 20: Today I am thankful for candles. It is amazing to me how a scent of a candle makes me feel. I love it when my house is filled with a wonderful scent.

Nov 21:Today I am thankful for coffee. I treat myself to coffee at Starbucks and today it was just extra yummy!

Nov 22: Today I am thankful for my a day with my husband. I love spending time with just him even if we are just running errands.

Nov 23: Today I am thankful I got so spend time with my husband's side of the family. We don't get to spend much time with them and I really enjoyed my time with them. I am glad it worked out for everyone and we were able to get together.

Nov 24: Today I am thankful for my cooking. My mother taught me well as I made a wonderful dinner for my parents and my family!

Nov 25: Today I am thankful for how I was raised. I had my boys teacher/parent conferences today and got nothing but praise for how good my boys are doing in school - from school work to their behavior. I have to give some credit to my parents and how they raised me, as this is where I learned it from. I also needed this myself as I feel I am too tough on my boys but today help me realize there is a reason why I have rules and expectations.

Nov 26: Today I am thankful that my husband and I can be silly and make each other laugh. I really think it is a strong trait and helps us to have a great marriage.

Nov 27: Today I am thankful for my neighbors. We have been in our new neighborhood for a year now and could not have asked better neighbors!

Nov 28: Happy Thanksgiving. Today is the day I should be thankful for all my loved ones in my life, but this is a Thanksgiving I will never forget. I guess for today I am thankful that I now know the truth.

Nov 29: I am thankful for my friendships. I have so many amazing friends and even though some of us are so many miles apart our bond is still so strong.

Nov 30: On the last day of thanks I am thankful for sleep! Wow this holiday was exhausting and now on to Christmas!!

Teacher Gifts!

Wow, these last few weeks of May are flying by! I have so much going on with the kiddos before they get out of school. Just a few weeks ago it was teacher appreciation day. The kids always give their teachers something small to just let their teachers know they are appreciated.

I found the cute printable tags on one of my favorite blogs eighteen25! I love, love their ideas. You can find the printable here on their blog.

For the end of the year gift for the teachers I like to do a bit more to give them a BIG thank you for all that they do. Here is what I pulled together for the teachers last year.

You can find my post about it here. I got wonderful feed back from the teacher on how much they loved them. This year my boys gave me the best Mother's Day present created by my Mom. I loved them so much I decided to make them and give them to the boy's teachers.

Aren't they so stinking cute??? They were so easy to make. All you need is a pair of rain boots, rocks or gravel, dirt, and herb plant of your choice. I also added the colorful duct tape for more color but it is not easy to put on with out any kinks! My husband drilled holes in the bottom of the boots for drainage. I filled the bottom of the boots with rocks to weight them down and then filled with dirt. Planted the herb, gave it some water and attached a to/from tag to it. My son who was in preschool is finished now and his teachers absolutely loved them!

What are you giving the teachers for the last day of school? I would love to see.

Organizing the Boys Closets - Reveal

I'm so excited to show you how the boys closets turned out! If you saw my before pictures here you know I was working with a mess of items, and in a sea of un-organization! Knowing that I did not have a budget to get my dream organizers for both closets I worked with what I had on hand. I once again used dollar store storage to tidy up both closets.

I created, using some old Ikea wicker baskets I had laying around, a basket for clothes that are too big and one for clothes that are two small.

I love the tags I made. Green for one son and Red for the other! I printed out the paper, and text. Trimmed and inked the edges of the text paper just to make it pop out a bit. Then matted and laminated. Then tied it off with some matching ribbon.

I had some left over dollars on my Office Depot gift card so I picked up two green file bins as I knew they would be the perfect size to house all the boys friends. When do boys out grow stuffed animals? The boys stood their ground about not wanting to give away their friends!

My younger son gets all the hand-me-downs including shoes. 13 is too big for him right now so I keep them in the buckets for when he will fit into them. They were previously in a diaper box and I had no idea what type of shoes or size were in there. Now I can easily see I have a few pairs for him when his feet grow.

Since our house is brand new and we are waiting to paint after our year patching is done by the builder, I created a decor bin. Our younger son continued with his train room theme that he had in his old house, so the items in his bin are ones that will go up after we paint. My older son wants a lego room, so as I find items for his theme I have been placing them in his decor bin. I also put baseball pants, shirts and socks in their hats for an easy grab at game time.

Both boys closets are now color coded which makes it easy for them to pick out a shirt that matches their pants or shorts.

Now when I am hanging up their laundry I am happy to do so. Before I would go into their closets to hang up their laundry and want to quickly shut the door again. Now I can't help but have a smile on my face when I open the door. Silly how the simple things like an organized closet make me happy!!

Organizing the Boys Closet - Preview

This week I am focusing on organizing the kids closets!

They were a mess and I needed to get them back in control. The boys were just throwing stuff in there, my husband and I were stacking clothes on the top shelf that were either to big or to small. Here is my 5 year old's closet:

Let's play a game called what's wrong with this picture. I need to have my boys and my clothes organized by sleeve length and color. For example my closet runs: no sleeves, short sleeves, 3/4 sleeves and long sleeves and then by the rainbow (red, orange, yellow...). I usually set up the kids the same way. My 5 year old never follows it! Look at the pampers box - ha my kid has been out of diapers for so long. There is a bazillion shoes in there. I also love the swim stuff mixed in with the sweaters - same season right??

Hmmmm......animals, shoes and clothes - seems organized to me NOT!! The bin holds clothes that are too small for my son but the bin wasn't big enough to hold all the clothes so the solution: stack it on top so your 5 year old can knock it down!

I have some work to do in this closet!! Here is my older son who is 7, he carries some of my characteristic in organization - he keep his closet color coded!

Ready for round two of what's wrong with this picture! Basically his whole top self is full of clothes - clothes from summer that never got put away, clothes that are too big, jeans that he has put a hole in the knee (that I swear I am going to fix but by the time I get around to it they are too small for him) and a bunch of socks that my son wore for months and then said they are too big and keep falling down!

Both boys just chuck stuff on the floor!

Hmmm.....something seems familiar here - animals, shoes, and if we just throw some clothes on the floor it will look just like my 5 year old's closet!

As much as I would love to put up an organization system for them (we had them in our previous house and it worked great for them) we have so many "new home projects" that I have to put that on hold for now. However, if I don't find a way to organize the closet in a functional way for the boys it will continue to end up like this, and only get worse. So off to the Dollar Store I go to find fun, colorful, storage for the boys!

Organizing The Master Bathroom

I need to get organized! I am going to start with my Master Bathroom.

I wanted to post my bathroom before pictures but I had a whoops....I accidentally deleted my pictures. Boo! So I thought I would share some inspirational ideas I saw on Pinterest.

I love the pull out drawers on this one!