Meal Planning Monday

I had all of the best intentions to do this first thing this morning, around 5:30, before the day got crazy. But then I overslept and the day was crazy the minute my feet hit the floor! Now, I only have about 5 mintues...but I know if I don't do it now, I won't do it at all...so here we go!

Monday:
Whole Wheat Spaghetti w/ Turkey meatballs

Tuesday:
I'm traveling and our house is showing (fingers crossed) so daddy is taking the kids to Grandma & Grandpas.

Wednesday:
Salad & Italian Dunkers using leftover spaghetti sauce w/ some added gr. beef

Thursday:
Zesty Crock Pot Chicken

Friday:
We are having a football party at our house! Well...its just me and the kids so I don't know if that counts as a party...but we'll have all sorts of finger food snackies like pizza rolls and cheese sticks. You know, totally healthy!

Saturday:
ITS FINALLY FOOTBALL SEASON!!!! Paul and I will be tailgating at the ISU/UNI game enjoying a wide variety of yumminess, and maybe a beverage or two! I know for sure I am taking these:



Ham & cheese sliders

Sunday:
Juicy Lucys w/ sweet potato fries!

Have a great week everyone!

God grant me patience. Please!

I feel like this might be a repeat post...but I don't have the patience right now to sift through my old blogs!

Yesterday was not my finest day as a mommy. My patience were running very thin and of course, those are always the days that the kids are on their finest behavior. Right? Uh...no.

Maycen is old enough that, save for the occasional meltdown, we really only deal with drama. Okay, by "drama" I mean, completely dramatic over reactions to every single thing that she doesn't like. And by "only" I mean, 7 or 8 hundred times a day. Maycen puts 100% into every emotion she feels. If she is happy she is ecstatic. If she is sad it is the worst moment of her life. If she is mad, she hates the world. You get it. Most days I can recognize it for what it is and let her get her emotions out but, unfortunately, yesterday was not that day. I sometimes find myself engaging with her at her level. I know it is ridiculous and I'm disappointed in myself when I let it happen, but it does none-the-less. We ended yesterday with one of these overly dramatic fights. When all was settled down I explained to her that part of the reason it happens is because she and I are so much alike and sometimes, when we are both having a bad day, it happens. She got a kick out of that and we hugged and kissed and shared "I love you's" and decided we would start over in the morning.

My two kiddos couldn't be more different! Brock is loud and destructive and rambunctious and ornery and not emotional at all one minute and a complete lover the next. He can hit his sister as hard as he possibly can and then as he gets sent to his room for the 100th time he'll look at me and say "mommy, are you happy with me?". There is no level 5 with Brock. He is either at a 1 (sleeping!) or a 10 (climbing the pantry while throwing things at his sister, literally!). This can be exhausting, and I know we are not the first parents to go through this. He is a 4 year old boy and I don't expect the unreasonable, some days it is just harder than others to remember that. Yesterday was certainly one of those days.

I absolutely hate the days that I spend more time disciplining my kids than having fun with them and I am thankful that we get to start fresh every day!

Today we have cleaned the house together, watched Tangled (twice!) and baked cookies. It is definitely a better day.

Thank you, God!

Wait...wasn't it just May?

(...this post will written as though my last update was at the beginning of summer, instead of in February!)

Hi Peeps!

Remember when you were little and it seemed like time moved sooooo sllllloooooowwwww? Especially when it came to Christmas, Birthdays and the first day of school! Remember how "old people" would tell you to enjoy it now because as you get older time goes fast? I've decided they lied. Time doesn't go faster as you get older. No...it literally disappears!

One minute it was Maycen's last day of 1st grade and an hour later she is one week into 2nd grade! I really don't know where the summer went...but I do recall a few bits and pieces...so here is a quick recap from May-August:

May
The big news in May was that Paul was finally promoted to Store Director!!!! Big Fat YESSSS! He has worked for Dahl's for a long, long time and worked hard. It was a well earned promotion and the best part is that he is still at the Ankeny store! We are so excited and I couldn't be more proud of him!

Maycen "graduated" from 1st grade with flying colors! She excelled academically in Mrs. Piper's class! The last day of school was followed immediately by her spring dance recital. It is always such a busy, but fun, weekend! Maycen loves performing for her family and showing them what she has learned from year to year. This was the best recital yet and I really don't know how next year will top it!

June
Happy Birthday Brock!!!! My little man turned 4 and I still can't believe it! Maycen also had her national dance competition where she did amazing! It was the best she had ever done her solo, and all of her groups performed very well! It was a great finish to another dance season!

July
What a busy month. Between the 4th holiday and Summerfest, the first two weeks just fly by! We celebrated the 4th at some old friends (old in relationship, not age!) and really enjoyed hanging out and catching up! Summerfest was a fun and busy weekend as always. The biggest thing that happened Summerfest weekend was that Paul and decided to go browse a few open houses while we were kidless...you know...just to see what's out there! Well, we all know what happens when you do that. We found a house that we fell in love with. At first we didn't think there was any way we could swing it, but after talking to a realtor and mortgage consultant we realized that if everything fell into place just right, we might actually be able to move into it! So, we spent the last couple of weeks of July using every minute of free time to get our house ready to go on the market. This included painting nearly every room in the house, swapping out doorknobs and hinges, fixing little things that we have put off, cleaning carpets, etc, etc! It was a lot of work and, in the end, we agreed that even if we don't sell our house we are very happy with the changes we made!

August
The first weekend in August we attended Paul's 20 year East High School class reunion. We got to spend some time with old (again, relationship...not age!) friends and had a great time. It was held in the same ballroom at Adventureland Inn that Paul and I had our wedding reception and it was fun to be in that room again! The greatest state fair in the country began the following week and of course we attended "East Side Night" on the first Friday. Saturday we spent a family day at the fair. It was the first time Brock has been and after 9 hours he was over it! I was supposed to go to the Sugarland concert on Sunday night, but woke up to news of the terrible tragedy in Indiana and the fact that the show had been cancelled. While I was disappointed it was impossible to be too upset after viewing the footage from the stage collapse. So sad. It was a blessing in disguise since it was the night before the first day of school. We had a wonderful relaxing afternoon and ran a few errands as a family and both kids were in bed early after a busy weekend!

That brings us to this week! I still can't believe I have a 2nd grader (pictures to come)! The first week of school went great and Maycen loves her teacher Mrs. James! On Monday Brock will officially start Pre-Kindergarten at La Petite and we are excited about that! We aren't sure if he will go to kindergarten next year or not, but either way this will be good for him!

Summer is certainly winding down and before we know it the leaves will be falling! I always look so forward to the next season and this year that is especially true as we have so many things to look forward to! Unfortunately the house we wanted sold, but fortunately we found a lot we love and are going to start building it while we continue to try and sell our house. It is in the Cherry Glen development and the lot we have picked out is huge and will never have anyone build behind it! I have so many plans for the house...I'm praying it all works out! Maycen told me yesterday that she can picture herself opening Christmas presents in that house...and that's all I needed to hear!

I am still loving my job! I continue to learn something new every day and, after being in the same industry for nearly 12 years, it is so rewarding. I'm making plans to hit the road hard in September, October and November and I'm excited to do it!

I just started to write about our September plans...but stopped myself! Because I AM going to do a better job of updating this little blog thingy! I promise. To try.

In the meantime I'm off to clean the house and get ready for the Reba concert tonight at the fair!

Much Love.

Oh. Em. Gosh.

Hi y'all. Remember me?

I had such good intentions when I started this blog. I was going to post everyday, every other day, at least twice per week! Now here I am, 3 months since my last post and that one barely even counted as a full post. More like a half post. Or maybe even a quarter! In that one I even promised that I would be back soon to post the makeover story of my favorite new piece of furniture...and then *POOF* I fell off the face of blog-earth!

Not to worry my friends! I am back. I won't make promises about how often I'll post, but I promise to do a better job of keeping everyone updated on the goings on in the Johnson house!

For today, lets get on the same page and have a re-cap of the last few months.

Paul
Just last week Paul finished up training for work that we called "Grocery College". He made three seperate one week trips to Chanhassan (I'm sure I butchered that spelling), MN to attend classes put on by SuperValu. It was his first time really traveling for work (NO, I don't count the trip to Dallas for the Cowboys v Packers game as a work trip!) and I think he realized that its not quite the relaxing days away from home that he's envisioned it was for me all these years! Next week he is headed out again for a few days, only this time going south for a convention.

Steph
Wow. Where do I begin? I think when I left off I just been laid off from NationJob. Through November and December I worked a little as a contractor for them, picked up hours/classes at the gym, and enjoyed some time home with my kids. January 1st I started an exciting new chapter in my professional career. I am now the Iowa & Nebraska Representative for MED Alliance Group out of Chicago selling medical devices. I won't bore you with all of the details except to say that I took over the territory from Jackie (step-mom) and the way that everything fell into place, I knew I was meant to do this. It is a little scary in that it is a whole new industry for me, but with her guidance I am learning so much and enjoying every minute of it. One of the perks is that I work from home so, even though the job itself is more demanding and will require more travel time, the net gain is more time at home with my family! I am still teaching classes at Farrells, and enjoy every minute of those!

Maycen
100 days into her 1st grade year and she is excelling at math and reading. We are SO proud of her. Like her mom she is a social butterfly and often has to be reminded to sit quietly, but overall she is a very good student. Of course dance is in full swing and the competition season starts in about 2 weeks. She has worked very hard on her solo and group dances and is looking forward to performing them on stage!

Brock
Drum roll please.................Brock. Is. Potty Trained!!!!!!!!!! In early January I took him to Target and said "pick your potty!". He picked the cheapest frog potty there was and that night he started going on it and hasn't looked back! I swear I felt like this day would never come, but now it has and its so nice to not be changing diapers anymore! Hopefully soon we'll actually be able to move the potty from the kitchen into the bathroom...but that's a whole'nother blog! He is also back at daycare full time and just got moved up to the pre-school room this week! He is learning so much! Its hard to believe he will be 4 already this summer!

That's about it for updates! We really enjoyed the holidays and are so excited about what 2011 is going to bring for our family!

I'm such a tease!

Okay...I have about 2 seconds to post this before I MUST get in the shower and get ready for the game [GO STATE] so it is only going to be a sneak preview. I'll post the entire story tomorrow!


Before:

And....after:

Isn't she pretty?

Need a little help from my friends!

Happy Saturday Peeps! Can you feel it? Winter is in the air!

You know, I thought I'd have all of this extra time on my hands now that I'm not working full time. Wrong-O Joe! This week was crazy busy and went by in a flash! By the end of the week it was cold and wet and I found myself not wanting to leave the house at all!

I had another one of those weeks where I felt like I got a lot done, yet my house looks like a tornado hit it! It didn't help that on Thursday Paul decided to clean our dryer by taking the vacuum/leaf blower to it. Here's this thing. I ADORE that my husband takes initiative on stuff like this because, well, frankly....I don't. But sometimes it backfires and this was one of those times. After some blood, sweat & tears (mostly by Paul) we decided that the dryer has died. The cause of death is unknown except that it was working fine pre-leaf blower treatment, but now doesn't so much as try to turn on. I'm sure someone out there knows how to fix it (and its probably a $2 part) but we decided to take the $100 to have someone come look at it and apply it to a new set. We got a great deal at Home Depot, so on Wednesday we will be the proud owners of a new washer and dryer! And...in accurate reflection of the nearly reverse roles in our home...Paul is MUCH more excited about it than I am! I do love that man!

But...our dryer saga is not what this blog is about. I know I have a lot of work from home/stay at home mommies that read my blog are friends on Facebook where I will link this blog and I need some advice.

What do you do with a very active 3 year old boy for 8 hours/day? 

Seriously. I don't know!

Here's the thing. I had the whole "working outside the home 8 hours a day, Mommy" thing down. We had schedules and rules and some rules we bent because we were too tired and didn't have enough time with the kids  anyhow. I (sorta) knew what I was doing in that realm.

But, this staying home thing has me sputtering!

This was our first week home and I had decided to treat this one a bit like I would a vacation week. We hung out, watched some movies, ran some errands and had very little structure. Obviously, moving forward, I don't want him spending all day watching SpongeBob and Alvin & the Chipmunks while I clean/paint/organize, etc. I need to learn how to balance getting stuff done around the house and spending some QT with my little man. Now that I'm not working outside of the home I feel a lot more pressure for the house to be clean and organized and for Brock to be learning and doing creative things like he did at daycare.

Wow, this is really a rambling post, isn't it? Sorry for that! If any of you have any advice on schedules, activities, ideas on how to balance working from home with being a stay at home mom, I would LOVE it! I know we will find what works for us but I would love to hear what has worked for you!

For the record, I tried desperately to combine reading, art, creativity and computer lessons by having him spend yesterday morning reading DIY Blogs with me. Yeah. Didn't work!

Its going to be a cold, wet day and we are looking forward to a relaxing one! I have a 1 1/2 hour kickboxing class this morning (that I need desperately!) and Mikki's daughter Kaleigh is coming to spend the night with us (this kids are coming out of their skin with excitement...apparently she's cool and I'm not!) and Maycen has dance...but other than that it will be a day of movies, football, food and cuddling!

Have a great weekend everyone!

And...of course...GO CYCLONES! Big game today after the heart breaker last week (that I'm still not ready to talk about).

Week(end) Recap & Meal Planning Monday!

Wow. Its only been a week since my last blog, but it feels like much longer!


Last week was crazy with a capital 'C' around the Johnson house. It was my first week of unemployment but Paul was out of town Sunday through Friday and Brock was still in FT daycare, so it seemed more like a week of vacation! Do you ever have those days or weeks where you feel like you got a lot done yet, when you look around, it seems like NOTHING got done. Yeah...that's how it felt! I finished a big DIY project that I had been working on (pictures soon!) for a while, got my home office corner of the basement set up to be more conducive to working from home and cleaned out the kids closets. BUT, the house didn't get a good cleaning, only half of the laundry got done and my car still looks like I live in it. Oh well, there's always this week, right? Right.

The kids and I were very happy to have Paul home on Friday afternoon! We even snuck in a little "date" of dinner & drinks with some good friends. It was much needed adult time for me after being home alone with the kids all week!

The weekend was a good one, if not heartbreaking. Paul decided to skip the ISU/NU game on Saturday to stay home with the kids, so I headed up to Ames with my dad & Jackie. I'm not ready to actually talk about the game yet...its still too painful. I will say that I am very excited about the things that are happening in Ames and think that the Cyclones football team is in good hands!

Paul had to go back to work on Sunday and apparently nobody informed my kiddos that when we 'fall' back in time, we get to sleep in an extra hour, so we were up bright and early! Maycen had dance and a birthday party in the afternoon so Brock and I ran some errands. When Paul got home from work we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's house for what may be the last "cookout" of the year before the snow flies! It was a nice way to end the weekend, and I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in Sally's potato bake!

This is the first week of Brock going to daycare only on Mondays and being home with me the rest of the week. It will be an interesting and exciting change! #1 on our To-Do list is potty training. Wish me luck!

Meal Planning Monday:

Monday: Not sure yet (this 'plan isn't off to a very good start). I teach KB at 5:30 so we might just wing it!

Tuesday: Steaks, veggies & potatoes on the grill.

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner!

Thursday: Some kind of soup...not sure yet.

Friday: Homemade pizza.

Saturday: Sloppy Joe Casserole. Shell pasta, hamburger, spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese in a casserole w/ colby jack shredded cheese on top. Easy peasy!

Sunday: Beef & noodles.

I'm hoping to update you on all of my projects this week! Happy Monday folks! Enjoy these last 2 or 3 days of sunshine and nice temps...I hear there is a chance of flurries next week!