New year- new thoughts

  So today marks a new year. I started this blog last spring with big cleaning ambitions and then summer came with its own sweet unbusy business. Then honestly I just felt bad about coming back because I hadn't done what I set out to do. But today I have just been needing a space to write out my thoughts about the new year.

  New Years are about resolutions and while I don't usually buy into that, this year I have a few things I want to focus on. Two really. One is sort of multifaceted while the other is very traditional.

  The traditional one is weight loss. I have to be honest and say this is really the first time in my life that I actually feel commitment to this goal. I am thinking that, that fact will make the difference. I have two motivations in this. The first is to be a healthful example for my two little girls who every day are tuning in more and more to the things I do. The second, is the wedding of a good friend, my college roommate, coming up this June. I am going to be a bridesmaid and I want to look nice for the ceremonies. Mark is also in on this goal with me and I think that will help. He was very successful last year and lost 60 pounds, but sort of slacked off toward the end of the year and he wants to pick back up.

  The other goal has to do with intentionality. I wants to be intentional with my relationships this year. I want to focus on people and how I can show them love. I want that of course to start at home with my family, but then also extend into all areas and places. Jesus loves me so much, and I want to be part of sharing His love with others. To go with this I will also have to be intentional with my choices, to look at my schedule and what fills it so I can have the time to focus on things that matter. I want to be intentional with my attitude. To choice peace and joy because that what Jesus offers to me and wants me to choose minute by minute.

   2012 was a pretty good year. I feel like I grew a lot in my relationship with God, with my husband, and as a mother. It is my prayer that this time next year I will be able to say the same. 

Happy New Year!

Princess Pary Wrap up, Birthdays, and Tween fears

The princess party was a huge success! Even if at about 40 mins out I was still slicing apples and shaking nervously about getting it all done. We finished hanging the last decoration as the first guest arrived which to me is right on time. For the first time ever, everyone we invited said that they were going to be able to come. We did have two families cancel day of due to sickness, but that still left us with 42 people including us. Ha. It was crowded and busy and hectic, but it was wonderful. I enjoy having people we love and who are big parts of our lives here with us to celebrate. Eldest had a great time. We were sad to miss friends who live far away, one friend in particular who has been here to set up, celebrate, and clean up every year up until now. He moved away in January and we still miss him dearly.


Today was Eldest's actual birthday. We had our traditional morning wake up muffin and Happy Birthday song. Then Mom's family called (all together) to sing Happy Birthday. Dad took both girls out for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, where she was given a dessert and made to wear a Sombrero while they sang to her in Spanish. Dad says the look on her face was priceless, glad he caught it on Instagram. This evening we went out to dinner with mom's family to celebrate more.


I also had 6th grade graduation tonight, and had a mini-melt down over the state of girlhood. I remember my 6th grade graduation and how awkward and childlike we all looked. The boys in their stuffy shirts and ties and the girls in "church dresses". Well tonight the boys still looked awkward in their stuffy shirts and ties, but the girls looked like they stepped out of this year's prom catalog! I saw several pairs of stiletto heels! I guess it has just been an emotional thinking back time for me since the weekend, but it makes me so sad. What are these girls going to have to look forward to in High School?  What sort of things will they be wanting to wear? Then what about my precious babies who were in Princess dresses this weekend? I worry about all the pressure we put on girls. How early it is starting, and how it comes down to the responsibility of parents to put their foot down and say "NO" they are only 11 and 12 after all. It is my prayer that my girls will find their beauty and value in who they are in Christ at that and every age instead of in what they wear or how they look.

Saturday

I love Saturdays. The girls got to bed rather late last night, almost 9 o'clock, so they weren't up before us this morning. Husband and I actually just got to wake up ourselves! There is nothing better in the world to me than that. Then we had our usual pancake breakfast. Yet, another recipe from the "red plaid" Better Holmes and Garden Cookbook. When I found that recipe I couldn't believe that I have ever made pancakes from a mix.



After Breakfast, I gave the girls a bath because I needed to roll Eldest's hair and I knew that those sponge rollers would need as much time in her hair as possible. Poor thing, she is like her mother and has very, VERY hard to curl hair.


Nana and Poppi came by with the tables and chairs for the party tomorrow. Then I made the dips, a chip dip and a fruit dip.


After lunch and naps, it was time to get Eldest ready for her first dance recital tonight. Miracle of miracles, her hair curled! She looked so cute! She did a great job at recital. We are so proud of her. 


Then this evening, we cleaned the floors. We have cherry hardwoods which are beautiful when they are clean, but are so hard to keep that way. We have a Shark steam mop, and I love how easy it is, but it had been leaving my floors kind of filmy and not shiny. This evening I had the idea to use a mopping solution with the steam mop, and the floors look great! I will use that from now on. The house is all ready for the party. Now all that is left is to finish food prep and decorate tomorrow.

Princess Party Prep and Graduations

The last two days have been really busy. My husband kindly took my Thursday task of cleaning bathrooms. Which was great because I had to work late, we had to run to the store, and we had Eldest's preschool class graduation. She won't be going to Kindergarten next year, but she will be moving up to the 3 day a week class. The graduation was "wild west" theme. It was very cute!



Today, Friday! Today's task was cleaning the girls' rooms. It mainly involved dusting and organizing toys. Eldest had rehearsal for dance recital tonight, so Nana took her to that because, Husband, little E, and I went to church for the Senior Dinner. We have so many kids graduating this year, it is going to be really bittersweet. After we got the girls to bed tonight. I organized treat bags for our party guests: swords and mustaches for the boys; wands and bling for the girls; plus lots of candy for everyone!


It is going to be a super busy weekend. I want to make sure I enjoy everything that goes on, because if there is anything the slide show at graduate dinner taught me, it's that you blink and they are grown.

Princess Party Prep- Days 3 & 4

The party prep is still going pretty much on schedule.


Tuesday was back to work for me. Husband called to let me know that Eldest woke up from nap with a fever. I took her to the doctor so that we could get a jump on what I was sure was the same tonsillitis that little E had last week. Sure enough, that is what it was. After dinner at home, the evening cleaning tasks were our bedroom and the office. Those went quick enough.



Today was a super busy day at school. I had a meeting this afternoon as well. While I was at work, Husband had spent the day power washing the porch and sides of the house (since the party will be mostly outside). The porch looks wonderful! It looks brand new! I started fixing dinner. Then after dinner finished cleaning the kitchen. Here is a great tip that I figured out tonight. As I mentioned we have white cabinets and the sides of the cabinets closest to the stove top get really nasty. You know what works wonders on that? A magic eraser! I cannot sing this product's praises enough. If you have little kids it is must have! It gets rid of ink, crayon, and now grease on surfaces! You do have to wipe down the surface after using the magic eraser or you will have a white film, but that is a small price to pay for such easy cleaning. 


The other task for this evening was supposed to be cleaning bathrooms, but by the time I finished with the kitchen it was already 7. So I decided to skip the bathrooms tonight, and instead go ahead and clean the living room. I will get to the bathrooms tomorrow. 


I have to say the house is starting to look very nice. Eldest is getting excited about her birthday party. Plus, this has been a manageable break down for getting the house clean and ready for the party. 

Princess Party Prep- Day two

The prepping for this Princess Party for Eldest is in full swing. I have an incredibly busy week (unusually busy) both at school and at home so I am trying to get a head start on what I can with this day off. Today, Husband and Poppi tackled repairing the outside spigot on the far side of the house. We left the hose attached through the winter two years back, it cracked, and we never got to repairing it until today. Nana came over too and helped me entertain the girls outside and weed the flower beds. 



Then during naptime, I started cleaning the Kitchen. The microwave was in desperate shape, so I used the vinegar trick I found on Pinterest. I have to say it worked wonderfully, with the exception that I was low on regular vinegar and not wanting to use it all I used apple cider vinegar instead. In case you didn't know, apple cider vinegar smells HORRIBLE when heated. Given its name you would think that it would smell nice, but that is a bad assumption. Thank heaven for Febreeze. Next up to clean was the top of the refrigerator. We got rid of some of the cookbooks we never use. I cleaned all my glassware that my mom convinced me when we moved in would look nice and store it out of the way. Then came the cabinets. We have white (Canvas is the color technically) cabinets and while they aren't bad to look dirty like a white car would be, they were in need of a good scrub.


We decided to go out for dinner to our favorite new Mexican place. After that, we stopped at a park so that the girls could play a little. Finally this evening, I made a cleaning schedule for the rest of the week. I will list it here as well as add in the other things that will make our week so busy.


Tuesday- Master bedroom and office, Eldest has school during the day and dance in the evening
Wednesday- Bathrooms and finish touching up Kitchen (our one night with nothing this week)
Thursday- Living Room, Eldest has "graduation" with her pre-school program this evening
Friday- The girls' rooms, Eldest has recital practice (Nana will be taking to her), and Husband and I have Senior Dinner with our Seniors at church (we teach High School Sunday School) Little E will probably accompany us
Saturday- General Straightening, Prep food, Eldest dance recital at 2, then our Niece's dance recital at 6
Sunday- THE BIG DAY- Church, grab some lunch, get the girls home for a quick nap and set up and decorate


Whew! I am exhausted already just thinking about what is in store. But how blessed we are! That thought will carry me through the week. 

A Start or Weeding Safhaven

I've been actively reading blogs about homemaking for a little over a year now. There are a lot of great blogs out there, but honestly most of the women who write them are SAHMs. Which don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to start and fight or discussion of that, but I am a teacher actually. I always say with teaching, I get to pretend to be a SAHM for a bit of the year. So I've been toying with starting my own blog on Homemaking from a working outside the home perspective. Because I can't be the only one who works outside the home, but still wants their home to be an inviting welcoming space.



A little about me...


I'm Amber. I am, dare I say it, 30 years old. I have been married to my true love since October 2005. I have two sweet girls and we are coming up on the summer I have been waiting for, 4 and (almost) 2. I teach at the Elementary School that I went to, and most of the time, I absolutely love it. Enough about that now, if this whole blog thing works out there will be much more to come. 


 The idea... Weeding Safhaven


There is this video game called Animal Crossing, that my husband and I used to be quite into (in that long ago time B.K.). In this game you set up your own little town ours was called Safhaven. Which is all very cute and fun, but if you don't play daily then a funny thing happens...you grow weeds. So whether you come back to the game two days or 4 years later, you will have a town full of weeds that you must go about pulling. 


Okay, okay so what does that have to do with a blog? Well, we were married for two Summers before Eldest came along. I honestly can't tell you what we filled those Summers with. (I should pause here to mention that Husband is also a teacher at a local community college and works at home doing Internet based classes during the summer.) By the time the third Summer started to roll around, we had just moved into our newly built house and had a sweet baby girl. Needless to say that adjusting, settling in, and surviving were the top priorities on our list that summer. The next Summer started off well enough, we were happy and had big plans. Our plans got put on hold however, because in July I was hospitalized with Pulmonary Embolisms. But as our little girl sat on the hospital bed and sung "God is so good". It was over within a few days, and I was home to recoup and re-adjust to life. By the fifth summer, I was pregnant once again, expecting little E right before school would start back. Last summer, our 6th together, we were happy and traveled and just enjoyed a more quiet and settled life than we had had in a while. 


Which brings me to this summer, this blog, and a big plan. I have weeds in my own little real life Safhaven. Our home,which isn't all that messy, has started to accumulate a family's worth of things and is in need of some weeding. So I have these ideas to work through several projects and come out on the other end of the summer with a cleaner, more organized house, and a cleaning plan that will be daily and manageable for a mom that works outside the home. I thought that a blog, a written record, might help to motivate me and keep me on track. 


The plan wasn't supposed to go into action until I was off for summer, but since we will be hosting a 4th birthday party for Eldest here next weekend, a full week and a half before I am really off, things had to start a little earlier.


It's a long weekend, what with Memorial Day being Monday. Little E, has been a little sick, and we were advised by the Dr to keep her home from Church today, so today started the first of my big cleaning plans. The Windows. Now anyone out there who has little ones knows that cleaning windows and glass doors is a necessity with usual cleaning because of "jam hands". That isn't what I am talking about. I'm talking about a good inside and outside scrubbing of panes, and sills, and screens (the last part taken on by Husband and the water hose). 


The other task for today was making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow. I love to cook. So I hope to add a bit of that here as well. The recipe for the cinnamon rolls came out of the "red plaid" Betty Crocker Cookbook (its my staple cooking tome). This is my fist attempt at making homemade cinnamon rolls, but they are doing their final rise in the fridge tonight and so far they look amazing. I'll let you know how they turn out next time.