The Under the Bed Bed

Not a week goes by where my husband and I aren't woken up in the middle of the night to a sweet voice saying,

"Momma, I had a bad dream, can I sleep with you and daddy?"

We used to say "sure honey" and they'd hope into bed with us...the result?  Ryan and I didn't get ANY sleep.  We learned quickly that our boys are VIOLENT little sleepers!  We were getting kicked and pushed all night...

So although we'd love to say yes, we know better now....plus, we're in a queen and it's barely big enough for us (especially when I'm pregnant and if you haven't noticed yet, I'm pregnant more often than I'm not!)

So our solution to the situation is a toddler bed mattress tucked under our bed.

We pull it out, throw the pillow on (also under the bed) grab a blanket (yep, that's under there too), say a prayer with them and roll back over to sleep.

It used to be a huge hassle.  We'd either spend 30 minutes convincing them to go back to their bed (without crying so they didn't wake up the siblings in the room) or 10 minutes setting up a makeshift bed on our floor for them.

But now it's much more simple...they're even at the point that they'll just come down, pull the bedding out and fall asleep with us never even knowing they came down (until morning when we almost trip over them!)

It works for me!!...Anything to simply life and get everyone to sleep a little better is a blessing around here!

Bah Dah Bah Bah Bah...

THANKFULLY my morning sickness is tapering off!  I'm feeling better and better every day!

What a trial that was!...I usually have several "tricks" up my sleeve that help when my morning sickness kicks in...

But this time, for some reason, very little worked to cure my morning sickness.

Trust me, I've tried it all in the last 2.5 months...

~Ginger (and Ginger ale)

~Preggy pops

~Sea Bands

~Vitamin b6

~Half a Unisom at night

~Crackers before your feet touch the floor

~Laying on my back

~Eating every hour

~Sweet-tarts

~Peppermint

Thankfully, protein is what I crave...and sometimes that does help...

But when all else fails, this pregnancy, my "life-saver" has been these:

So yes, BAH DAH BAH BAH BAH...

I'm LOVIN' it!

The Purging of STUFF

Our house has been undergoing a serious "purging" over the last 2 weeks. We just have so much, STUFF, you know? Just stuff...it's everywhere, I look!  Stuff, Stuff, STUFF.


We live in smaller home (for our family size) and we often talk about how we wished we had more room.  But, the simple truth is, we do have room...it's just that STUFF is taking up all our room!

Finally, after a late night talk, Ryan and I got serious.  The next day, we went into "purge" mode and decided to "half our stuff".

This wasn't just casual "Spring cleaning", this was serious, no emotions, "just let it go" cleaning like we'd never done before.

My first spark of inspiration came from my friend Amy, at Raising Arrows, who has been blogging every Saturday as she "halves her stuff" room by room.  Well, we caught onto her vision about 3 months late, but caught up in two weeks!

~~So what'd we do?

Well, first of all, we decided to "practice what we preach".

You see, one of my boys is always saying, "But I need..." 
To which I always say (and now he quotes...), "No, that's what you want.  What you need is air, shelter, sleep, clothing, food, water and Jesus."

So, we simply stopped riding the fence on certain toys, clothes that we've hung onto that get worn too infrequently, books we'll never read again, etc.  And we even took it a step further...

We took a spin on the Amish saying for clothing:

"One for wash, One for wear,

One for play and One to spare"

We have tubs full of cute outfits and matching accessories.  But being a practical momma, I usually gravitate for clothes that can be mixed and matched.  Simple, solid, practical. 

So, we accumulated 15 trash sacks of clothes as we took each age's "tub" and simplified to 7 play outfits, 5 dress outfits and 4 pajamas for both winter and summer.

Yes, those 15 trash sacks sat on our front porch for a few days...

I'm sure our poor, sweet neighbors were less than thrilled!

And let me tell ya...

It felt SO good to condense all our STUFF we had in storage, down to half of what it was before!

Around the house, we literally went room by room and just started throwing stuff into boxes.  We don't use it?... we don't need it.  Can't remember the last time we touched it?...we don't need it.  Etc.

~~The hard part
We had to resolve to not let our my emotions get too involved.  My love language is gifts, so I remember almost every item, who gave it to us, if it's clothes~when a certain kid wore it...and on and on.

Plus, I kept struggling with the thought that we were being ungrateful for all the blessings we had recieved.  But the Lord kept reminding me that people gave us these things to bless us, and if they are no longer a blessing (but a burden, taking up space we need) then it was time to let them go.

So I had to "put on my brave face" and just think practically...which is not an easy endeavor for me!

~~The fun part
Some people don't think of garage sales as very much fun...but I do!!!  We had a one-day yard sale.  I put an ad in the paper and 2 simple, paper signs up on busier streets and set our stuff out.

I went for SIMPLE pricing.  All clothes, all shoes $.50.  We weren't out to make money, so I priced low in hopes that more would get purchased!  And it WORKED!!!

Almost all the toys/decor were $.50-$1.00. 

Books, VHS tapes, DVD's and CD's were $.25 (I told you I wasn't in it for the money...I wanted to get RID of this stuff!)

We had four "big" items (a TV, an old laptop, a DVD player and a camera) but everything else was small "piddley" stuff.

And guess what?  We made almost $800 dollars in those 6 hours!!!

Pricing low was worth it (pun intended!) and now we are a lighter, happier home with more room to run, play and prepare to GROW even more!!!

Thank you, but NO "Thank You"

I used to keep a box with all the old cards I would receive from friends.  In college, that box turned into 2 boxes.  Then in our early married life, it turned into a medium-sized tub...


I had a lot of cards!  Most of them were "thank-you's".


During the season of friends having weddings every weekend and then friends having babies every month...


I acquired a lot of "thank you" cards!

I decided in our first move as a married couple to throw away most of my "thank you" cards I had received.


That was a hard decision for me.  I knew people had spent precious time on those cards, spent money on the postage and were truly grateful for the gift I sent, or the food I delivered.


But I had to do it.  I had to get rid of the cards I would probably never look through.  I had to simplify the "clutter"!  And, after all, I knew they were thankful, I didn't need a card to remind myself of that!


What do you do with your "thank you" cards?


Well, I get very few "thank you's" anymore, because of my new policy...my new "shower gift".


In fact, I'm kinda known for it now...


Along with any gift I give or any meal I deliver is a verbal warning (or a note) saying,


"and please, NO THANK YOU CARD!  Instead, use the time you would spend writing me a card, to cuddle your new baby a little longer or fix a special dessert for your new husband or...(the list goes on)."


I don't need thank-yous.  I know people are thankful...I've been there--I know how thankful you are to get a new sleeper for a new baby or to get a meal after a long, hard day, etc.


Trust me, I know what a blessing those things can be...I've had 4 kids within 6 years.  I know how treasured those acts of kindness ares...but I also know the TIME it takes to write thank you notes!


So... don't spend time sending me a thank you...use that time to enjoy your family and I won't have to feel bad about throwing away your card :)


(Don't worry, I still keep some though!  I know "cards" are some peoples love languages...I know who those friends of mine are, so I keep those because they are full of memories and love for me!)

Linked to:

Making Sweet Cereal A Little Healthier

My husband and I love sweet cereal!  As a result, so do our kids!

Over the years, we've spoiled ourselves (and our kids) with a pantry full of delicious, sweet cereal choices for the morning (and for late-night snacking)!

Well, Since Ryan and I have started eating healthier (remember my posts of losing 30 lbs?) we've learned to enjoy some new breakfast choices (like Mini-Wheats!) but, still, we have a weakness for the sweet, kids cereals.

So here's what we've done to make them a little healthier as we wean the kids (and ourselves) off of them!

Mixing Trix and Kix

We bought a couple of these plastic cereal boxes at WalMart ($5)

We mix a full box of Trix with a full box of Kix (both are off-brand)

This is just a small portion of the finished product, but as you can see,
it's still colorful enough to trick please the kiddos!

The Key: Each time you mix the cereal,
add less and less of the "sweet" cereal...

next thing you know, your family is weaned!!!  :)

We have also mixed Cocoa Puffs with Kix...it's pretty tasty, actually!

We do the same with Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes

We also have two of these smaller boxes (WalMart $2.50) for mixing...

1) Honey Nut Cheerios and plain Cheerios

2) Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and plain Cheerios

(Since Cheerios are pretty healthy, all-in-all, we've kept this mixture even and don't plan to "wean" off of the sweeter cereal here...instead, it just makes them even healthier!)

It works for us!

This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday and Real Clean Wednesday!

10 Uses for a Pizza Cutter

I love my pizza cutter. I've talked about it before in my "A Few Of My Favorite Things" post but seriously, I use my pizza cutter just about everyday...I've figured out it can make my life a lot more simple and meal-prep a whole lot faster!

So here are just 10 ways (of many) on how I use my pizza cutter...

1) Cutting pizza (brillant, huh?)

2) Cutting sandwiches in half for the kiddos.

3) Cutting up pancakes in a jiffy!

4) Cutting meat quickly.

5) Cutting quesadillas nice and neat.

6) Cutting the crust off of bread (not that I would ever do such a wasteful thing for my kids *wink*)

7) Cutting grapes in half for your toddler.

8) Cutting up spaghetti for little ones.

9) Cutting hotdogs up.

10) Cutting up potatoes. Yep, I use it even on potatoes!

So in other words, I use my pizza cutter on pretty much EVERYTHING :)

If you can think of any more uses for a pizza cutter, do share, Share, SHARE!

This post is linked to Top Ten {Tuesday} at OhAmanda, Real Clean Wednesday at IDreamofClean and Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.