Oh my goodness, the past few weeks have been so super busy… but then again it seems that we are always so super busy anymore which is something I definitely want to work on because this Momma is exhausted! Anyway, hopefully, we will see the rewards of some of the projects we’ve been on and will be able to share them here soon.
The past couple of weeks we have been doing some major cleaning and organizing around here. I started in the storage shed where I bought a couple of big shelves from Sam’s Club when they had a special going on for Memorial Day.
The kids wanted to make bunk beds out of the shelves and I’ve seen some Pinterest ideas where they have used them as such but I needed them for organization. They did go together fairly easily which was a good thing. I put both shelves together one morning and then worked on the shed for a couple of days. Here is a rather embarrassing picture of the shed before:
As you can see, it was nearly impossible to find anything without moving a ton of junk beforehand.
And after:
I can find my square dance outfits easily and the kids love having space where they can play with some of the neat homeschool resources they haven’t seen before. I do need to sort through a lot of stuff and donate a bit but I am so happy that I finally have all of my homeschool stuff in one place! Really, you just don’t know how happy that makes this Momma!
We also decided to tackle the porch and the results have been great even though there is still a way to go before we can start enjoying the porch like we’d like to.
Here’s a before and an after photo:
I’ve never been able to walk off of that side of the porch before and I can actually set up my Gazelle and exercise out there… I haven’t yet but I could. We can actually find our fishing poles too now when the urge to fish hits us. The kids have had great fun running in circles through one gate and out the other… Oh, what I wouldn’t do for just a wee bit of that energy!
We also cleaned up the yard quite a bit and gathered up limbs, trimmed trees, and I finally got my little flower garden looking halfway decent, it still needs some mulch of some sort. We have also marked quite a few trees that need to be taken down because of various reasons. This will probably happen sometime during the next week or so.
That reminds me that we are still working on eating healthier and I am constantly learning new tricks and tips on this journey and I have been reading through my Trim Healthy Mama books over and over for more information. I can honestly say that I am feeling so much better than before and even though the scale isn’t showing a lot of progress you can definitely see and feel a difference.
Free report on herbs and supplements to combat illness!
We’ve definitely found some winning recipes and then we’ve also found some ‘not my favorite’ ones too while also coming up with a few of our own. I’m also working on tweaking our old favorites to make them a bit more trimmified… is that even a word? You can check out our menu for this week HERE.
In addition to the healthy food habits we’ve been working on I also decided to get a Berkey. You can read more about that HERE if you haven’t already. We are really enjoying the fresh clean water and it tastes SO GOOD! I also feel good knowing that we have a good way to purify water in the case of an emergency.
Click here to learn about why the Berkey Water Filters are so good!
It has also helped the littler kiddos be a bit more independent as they can reach and operate the Berkey without help. Instead of whining and complaining that no one has filled up their water bottles they can take care of it themselves… unexpected wins are GREAT!
The kids have also been learning about Emergency Preparedness in their On The Banks Of Plum Creek Adventure. They were surprised to see that the Herb Fairies Book they are currently ready actually mentions the book, On The Banks Of Plum Creek, that we are reading also.
Yes, I know most kids are out of school for the summer but we’ve decided just to go year round as we often need to take little breaks here and there for different things that come up. It also seems that if we break for more than a week or two at a time it takes FOREVER to get some of the kiddos back into the school routine so this is what works for us right now.
On top of all this, we are still square dancing at least two times a week and trying to keep up with two businesses. I have a wedding to officiate later this month and I need to work on some things for that as well as decide exactly what I plan to wear… I might need to buy something to wear but don’t tell Mr. Awesome… Shhhh! I’ve also been working on getting the kids caught up with dentist appointments and just made appointments for everyone to get their yearly physicals… Oh, what fun that will be! I’ve really been enjoying the ease of the Walmart Grocery Pickup service as I can go to the dentist and pick up my groceries on the way home… multitasking at it’s finest.
I’m sure there are a ton of things that I’ve forgotten to mention but maybe I’ll remember them and include them in on the next one. I hope you all are enjoying your summer and have a lot of fun plans! I’ve got to get off of here as I still have a ton of things to do today like give the dog a bath and make dinner among other things.
Talk to you soon!
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–Thank you!
