Party planning mode.

I have a busy 4 months ahead of me...
I am on 2 committees at church. One for the Women's retreat that is in April and one for our VBS which, for the first year, is the first week of June.
My daughter, Amelia, will be turning 1 on April 26th and my husband turns the big 30 in June.
So...let's just say that the internet has been my best friend lately finding and collecting ideas for these 4 big events.

When my son turned 6 months old, I already had most of his party planned in my head...Amelia's is no different. I have had the theme in mind for a couple months, and am SO excited to get busy preparing for it. I already have a notebook dedicated to the party, and I even started shopping last night.
If you happen to follow me on Pinterest you have probably already seen me go crazy pinning everything...and you probably already know the theme to her party, which is Alice in Wonderland...or Amelia in ONEderland...ha..how clever is that.
Now...I have a pretty tight budget for her party...but that won't stop me from going "all out"
I am a bargain hunter..and I am pretty good at finding the good deals. I hit up Target last night to look at valentines day items on clearance. Since the story has The Queen of Hearts in it, I knew that this would be a great time to find party items...I didn't find everything I was hoping to find, but I was pretty happy with my deals.

Everything I bought was 50% off...now...in my head..that still wasn't as cheap as I would have liked to spend..I would have LOVED to wait until they were marked to 75%...but it was already pretty much picked over, and I knew if I waited, it would be too late and they would be completely out.

 Bags of heart shaped lollipops..marked down to .50.

 Photo frames. marked down to 2.49 each.

 Tea cups....(mad hatter tea party) $1.99 each

and my favorites...Glitter heart shaped plates. $1.24 each.

The best part is I will actually use this stuff after the party is over...its reusable..no paper or cheap plastic that will just get thrown away afterwards.

Here are the colors of her party...

And an idea for her cake...

I am a perfectionist when it comes to things like this...and I also think I need to do everything myself..
When I get an idea in my head its hard for me to just hand it over to someone else...so We will see how long it takes me to do this cake..lol. For my son's 2nd birthday his cake was much smaller but still took me 3 hrs to decorate with the fondant...Looking at this cake...it will take 6 hours..lol.

I am excited to see the whole party come together!

Keeping life organized....well..part of it anyway.

Now that we have gotten over a big hurdle, and my husband has found a new job, I am going to get back to my posts on organization. (I don't know why I couldn't keep going..little distracted I guess)

As I sit at the play room door with my laptop thinking about what to write..It finally came to me..

I am not just a stay at home mom...I also bring in some income by babysitting during the week. Right now I have 2 little girls that I have during the school year (One 5 days a week, and one 4 days a week.) And in a couple weeks I will start watching a baby full time. Now...if I were to tell you how old each of these kids were..you might think I am crazy..but before I tell you the ages, let me say that I have been babysitting since..well forever. My mom home schooled my brother and I, and she also babysat. I don't have very many memories growing up that didn't involve one of her babysitting kids. I LOVED it. In fact, the baby I am going to have soon, my mom used to watch his Aunt! I learned a lot about babies and kids growing up...because I was always around them, and I think it played a huge roll in me deciding I wanted to be a stay at home mom. Having 5 kids ages 3 and under sounds like a lot to handle (remember 2 are mine) there are times I don't really get a lot done around the house..but really its about staying organized. If I didn't have any organization to our day, things would go CRAZY very easily :)

First thing I do is keep to a schedule.
-Breakfast: 8:15 - 8:30am.
While the kids are eating breakfast I usually empty the dishwasher and/or do some things in the kitchen.
-After the kids are done eating, they go play for a little while.
Now..We have 1 room in our house right off of the living room that is devoted to playing..That toy room is a lifesaver!
-10 am we have some music time..these kids love to dance..and it gets some good energy out!
The dancing lasts about 30 minutes, then they go back to playing in the toy room.
-At 11:15 we start picking up the toys in the toy room..depending on the day, and how big the mess is...it can take a little while :)
-Following clean up is lunch! Same as breakfast, I usually try to load the dishwasher, or stand at the table and fold laundry while they eat.
After lunch its time for a 30 minute movie..something to settle them down a little.
-Nap time is between 12:30 - 1.
Usually they sleep for 2-2 1/2 hrs.
I would like to say that I get my house cleaned and get dinner ready for that night...ha! I have yet to give up a rest time for myself during their nap time...It might happen one of these days..but for now I enjoy the quiet.
After nap time they have a snack.
Then it's just about time for moms and dads to arrive.

And that's my day! I actually have diaper changes scheduled...haha..no seriously...(unless of course someone needs changed before that time)
So..call me crazy, but keeping your day organized is just as important as keeping your home organized. Of course there are days that things get a little off..but for the most part this is our day..5 days a week :)

I love being able to stay home and watch these kiddos..I believe this is my calling for this season in my life :)

-Nicole

"I waited patiently for the lord; he turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

These past 3 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. Of course I know things could have been
a lot worse, and it could have been much longer than 3 weeks. God is good, he knows what we can
handle, and he provides.

In those 3 weeks I have learned that trusting and clinging to God is the most important thing we can do.
I also learned that you must be specific when you pray! God listens...oh boy does He listen...need an example??

If you read my last blog you know that my husband lost his job 3 weeks ago.
He was offered a job at a 3 hour interview last night...exactly 3 weeks after loosing his job.
Looking back to that post, I asked for prayer that Justin would have a job offer in 1-2 weeks..that post was written on January 30th. Ten days later..he has a job offer.

I prayed that we would be taken care of financially...our tax refund arrived this week.

Justin will be working for TA travel center on the north side of Indy as a restaurant manager. When he applied for this job, he didn't know what the outcome would be because they are open 24/7.

I confessed to him a couple nights ago that about 2 weeks before he lost his job, I had been praying/wishing he had a job that allowed him more weekends off, especially Sundays....
Though, I know how much he loves the industry he is in, it's pretty much impossible for a restaurant manager to have very many weekends off.
Turns out that with this job, they aren't as busy on the weekends because truckers drive through the week. So he will always have either Saturday or Sunday off (As of now it looks like it will be Sundays for sure because the GM has been taking every Saturday off, but he said they would trade off an on.) Talk about ask and you shall receive!!!
He will also be working 5 days in a row, then having 2 days in a row off...no more 1 day off, then working 9 days in a row, then finally another day off.
Even though they are open 24/7, he won't work over night. He did have to take a bit of a cut in pay, however they pay their salary managers overtime (what!?) so that will help make up for that loss. There are also other great bonuses and perks.
He was told that they wished they had a GM position available because they would just skip this assistant manager spot. So there is a good chance for promotion.
Out of all that..by far my favorite part of all of this are the weekends my husband will have at home spending time with the kids and I..and even doing things for himself! Now he can go golfing with friends, when normally he would have to go alone because his day off was in the middle of the week when everyone else is working...it's the little things.

I can't tell you what a relief that has been lifted, and the stress that is now gone. I am so thankful that God listens to our prayers. You can't tell me He doesn't care or provides...we are living proof of it right now.

He starts training on the 20th. For 3 weeks he will be in Michigan...this is where I will need some prayer. Babysitting during the day, then having the kids to myself in the evening for 3 whole weeks will be a challenge and I am sure I will have less hair by the time he gets home..but it will be worth it. And I might actually get some projects done while he isn't here to distract me! :)

Thank you for the prayers. I can't tell you enough how much it means to us. I am looking forward to seeing what is ahead!!