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Christina

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February Before and After: Can’t Paint? No problem!

Hey y’all! I don’t know about you, but I hate (with a deep, searing passion) white walls. I grew up in a home that had color on the walls. I owned a home that had a nice beige (oddly the builder’s color wasn’t bad…I was pleased) throughout but even then I added my own touches with a chocolate brown accent wall and a nice retro blue bathroom. Basically, I love color.Well, enter the Hubs. Back then he wasn’t The Hubs he was The Boy. And I loved him – still do, just much, much more. Anywho, he loves color too…but when we moved in to our apartment it was white. As in all white. Seriously. Everything. Walls, carpets, trim, ceilings. It’s like living in that white box challenge on HGTV’s Next Design Star. I think you get the point. And we can’t paint. Well, that’s not entirely true. We can paint…

2011 Goals

I know it seems a little weird for me to be writing about this so late in the month when everyone else on the planet has already abandoned resolutions until next year, but I wanted to spend some time talking about my personal goals for 2011.I don’t like the term resolution because no one ever really keeps their resolutions. They seem to just be a novelty that we discard by the end of the first week in January after we’ve failed and beat ourselves up about it. So this year I decided to write a list of goals for myself rather than “resolve” to do one or two things. I’m a pretty goal oriented person so it helps me to stay on track by having a list.Here is my list:1. Pay down debt. (We have already made so much progress with this. My husband and I are working so hard!)2.…

Weekly Goals 1/24/11

Alright, time to check in with my goals for this week and take a look at how I did last week.This was last week’s list:1. List extra wedding supplies online.2. Finish the last few (belated, yikes!) Christmas gifts and mail them.3. Inventory and clean out pantry – including spices and oils.4. Inventory and clean out fridge5. Menu plan for the week (Menu Plan Mondays are coming!)6. Drop off dry cleaning.7. Iron and rehang bedroom curtains.8. Run to post office and buy stamps – mail correspondence.9. Clean and tidy guest bathroom.10. Clean doggie stuff – and doggie!11. Update and maintain our receipt spreadsheet.12. Blog (guess I can check that one off?):Coming up soon – Menu Plan Monday, 2011 Goals, Dollar Tree picture frame B&A, Kitchen Cabinet Decrapification B&A13. Iron on Brownie patches for a friend’s little girl. :)14. Stick to my Chore Chart (I’m using this week as a trial for…

Weekly Goals 1/16/2010

Alrighty! Time to get back into this Weekly Goals thing. Actually, I’ve been doing it behind the scenes since I started on one of my trusty junior legal pads, but I really need a little more accountability for it. I worked really hard last week and reached most of my goals so I was satisfied! So, I think for the time being Sundays will be my Weekly Goals post!Here goes:1. List extra wedding supplies online.2. Finish the last few (belated, yikes!) Christmas gifts and mail them.3. Inventory and clean out pantry – including spices and oils.4. Inventory and clean out fridge5. Menu plan for the week (Menu Plan Mondays are coming!)6. Drop off dry cleaning.7. Iron and rehang bedroom curtains.8. Run to post office and buy stamps – mail correspondence.9. Clean and tidy guest bathroom.10. Clean doggie stuff – and doggie!11. Update and maintain our receipt spreadsheet.12. Blog (guess I…

I Think I’m Falling in Love

When I lost my job due to the economy, I was really sad. Teaching wasn’t just a job for me, it was who I was; my purpose, my life. I cried for a week solid. I kid you not. I went through mood swings and sadness and insomnia. (My poor husband.) What would I do now? The one thing I felt worst about was that I had lost my purpose. I have always felt that teaching was my calling. It was the one thing I was supposed to do with my life. And maybe that’s the case. But I have to tell you a secret…I think I have found a new one. And I am in love.I never thought I’d say this…and…it’s almost hard to do so. I…am falling in love…with…Ready?…being a *gulp* housewife.Whew. There, I said it. But seriously folks, I really kind of do like being at home. I…

Office Decrapification the Before and After

Before the holidays, I started reorganizing our home office. Actually, I kind of ambushed my husband when he walked in the door one afternoon and basically told him I couldn’t take the unorganized, never fully unpacked, clutter bomb of an office anymore. (I may or may not have been that nice about it. 😉 You decide.)The office has gone through several transformations since we moved in, but it had up until now, never really been functional. For a long time we didn’t even have bookshelves, which is saying a lot considering we have many, MANY books. (The previous office breakdown garnered those. Hehe.) To say the room was a mess was well…generous. This is what it looked like before:And this:And this:Do you see why I was ready to tear my hair out? Let me just tell you that weekend there was much gnashing of teeth at my house! My hubby…

Weekly Goals

Wow, it’s been a month since I’ve blogged. I didn’t think it’d been quite that long. Oops. Oh well.I have a few things lined up to blog about this week though so hopefully you’ll see more of me soon. I’m still not quite sure what this is going to be all about, but I’ve been making lots of notes.Eva, a friend of mine, has a blog here and in it, she’s recently been posting weekly goals to help keep herself motivated and on top of things. I thought this was a great idea, so this week I’m stealing it. I hope she doesn’t mind. 😉 Also, while you’re there – check out her I {heart} Mondays! section. It is soooo creatively inspiring!So here are my goals:Finish the home office decrapification (yes, that’s a word, I saw it on another blog I’ll link to later this week, and I love it!) and reorganization.Make…

Organizing the Organizer

I spent all last week trying to get caught up around the house. It’s now a new Monday morning and I want to organize -how- I clean the house, so that:I don’t try to do too much in a day and get frustrated because nothing is getting done,I do a little each day on a schedule that fits my tutoring schedule,I have a morning routine (Now that I’m not working a full time job, this has been the hardest part)I found some great organizational tools here to help me revamp my household notebook. I have one at the moment that I learned about on an old HGTV show called “Mission: Organization”, that contains our take-out menus and the dog medical records and our household inventory (info for insurance purposes in case of disaster), but the new one really works more as a hub for all of the schedule, routine, and household…

How did I get here?

The simple answer to that would be that I got married, but really, it’s not that simple.In July, I married the man I have loved since I was 19. (I’m 31 now, so you can begin recommending me for sainthood at any time… 😉 ) Within a month, I lost my job and had no prospects of finding a new one. I’m a teacher, so losing a job 2 weeks before you’re supposed to return to one doesn’t really afford you the opportunity to teach somewhere else that year. I am truly blessed that I can work if I want to and we can afford to have me at home, but it is definitely new territory for me and it has not been easy.So, that’s why I’m “accidental”. I didn’t just fall into being a housewife, but it’s definitely the life I didn’t “plan”. Up until now, I had worked…