Longboat Key, Florida

How fast time flies when your on vacation! My husband and I traveled to Longboat Key in Florida at least once a year. We love it there. We just got back and I think this was the first time we went that it was cooler in Florida then it was here in Chicago!!! We add a short stop in Clearwater this year and the kids had a blast at the pool in the hotel we stayed at. Just a short ride down to LBK and fun in the sun began! The kids swam at the pool or played at the beach everyday! I even got a great family photo of us. 

On our return flight home we end up stuck at the airport for over 5 hours due to mechanical issues. The airline was very nice about and even gave us all free round trip tickets for a future flight for our inconvenience.....Florida here we come again! 

Longboat Key on Dwellable

Took a break and scapped!

It felt so good to take a break from my chaos and scrap. Did a quick digi page. Enjoy!

Products used: Bella Gypsy Extra Strength Mischief Kit and I do what I want template from Bella Gypsy.

It's official ~ We are moving!!!!

I am so excited because the construction on our new house has begun. See me and the boys and our hole :)

So I have already begun our moving plans. I have created a moving binder, color coded system for the boxes that will correlate with what room in the new house they will go in, tabs in the binder such as address changes, moving to do, a moving calendar tracking the progress of our house as well as packing schedule and so much more. If anyone has moving tips or organization ideas for making a smooth move please share!!!

Chalkboard Paint ~ finally got to play with it!

I tackled my first project with spray painting furniture and using chalkboard paint. I picked a piece of furniture I knew the kids were outgrowing just in case I messed up! Here is what it looked like before:

Lego Instructions....Everywhere!!!

My son has so many legos! I have organized his legos by colors in drawers but he is out growing that storage so soon I will need to make a trip to Ikea for some larger storage. The other part of legos that is crazy out of control is the lego instructions. I had them all in a bin thinking a 6 year old could keep them organized that way. Wrong!!! When he wants to build he pulls out every instruction book and spreads them all over the floor. Then he finds the one he wants to build and starts building leaving all the other instruction books all over the floor. Then Tornado Trace comes into his room and steps all over the instructions on the floor, ripping, bending, and folding them! So I could not take it anymore. Time to organized all those instructions!

School Box

Thanks to Pinterest I am so motivated to do projects. I found this project here at I Heart Organization one of my favorite sites. Jen has amazing ideas and I heart her blog! Now let me tell you a little story as to why I wanted to make these boxes for my kiddos. They bring home TONS and I mean tons of paperwork from school. I began taking pictures of their art work when my oldest son was in preschool. After I took the picture I threw away most of the artwork and save a few pieces in a bin. After they complete a year I then take the pictures and put them together in any online book.

What's for Dinner?

I dread this question. I really dislike this question when I have forgotten to thaw the meat, need to go grocery shopping and have a child whining how hungry he is. I don't know about you but I feel like I am constantly thinking about food. I have to plan out a menu, look to see if I have all the ingredients, write the shopping list, drive to the store, pick up the items of the shelf, put them in the cart, take them out of the cart put them on the belt, take the bags and put them in the car, drive home, take the groceries from the car to the kitchen, take the items out of the bag and set them on the counter, take the items from the counter and put them away, take them out later for the meal and use them! I have touched all those items 10 times and haven't even cook anything!

I have kids so I am always watching the time. It's time for breakfast, it's time for snack, it's time for lunch, it's time for snack and now it's time for dinner and I don't have a plan! UGH!!

So I have been working on re-vamping my Household Management Binder (to be reveled soon!) and I knew I need to have a better plan for my dinner menu. I can handle the breakfast and lunch items but dinner needed a plan. I was looking at all the wonderful menu planners out on the web but none of them seem to fit what I was looking for. I was in the mood to scrap so I decided to make my own menu planner. What do you think?