Unforgettable Childhood

In the middle of September Unforgettable Childhood will have a new home.

I am moving my Girlfriends Get Real site to Wordpress and I will have a special “KIDS” page that will have daily updates on creating an Unforgettable Childhood for your kids.

I am busy crafting and creating with my kids to make this a fun place to give you inspiration. I will let you know when the site is up and running. The goal is September 15th. See you there!

We love a good party in our house!

And, the Ultimate Blog Party was one of the best parties I have ever been to. I found so many cool websites that I love! My twitter followers went over 1,000! It was a great week.

I wanted to join the after party and share with you three new blogs I found during the party that I can’t wait to start visiting on a regular basis.

The first I want to share with you is Sugar & Spice & Frugal Advice. Barbie and Joelle are also SAH-moms of girls. I love their site. It has little bit of everything. Their purpose is to find sweet deals and everybody likes a good deal!

Another great blog that you should check out is Milk and Honey Mommy. She also writes for 5 minutes for Mom Going Green. But this is her personal blog full of all kinds of awesomeness!

Joy at the Stay At Home Missionary is another new favorite. She is a mother of five in Indonesia. Her husband is a Missionary Pilot. Her site is so cool and her stories are, too.

I can’t wait to keep visiting sites from the party. There are so many amazing blogs out there. Make sure you check these three out. I hope everyone that was hopping had a great time, I know I did.

Stop by next week for all kinds of Earth Day Fun!!

The scale still isn’t moving, but I finally did. . .

Last week I got to the gym 4 out of 7 days and walked outside 1 more day. That is the most exercise I have gotten in a month. It felt really good to finally get back into a rhythm.

I ran hard on the treadmill last week. The funny thing is, I really enjoyed it. Maybe there is an inner runner in me yet! I did a lot of abs last week, too. This week I need to add back in more strength training. Unfortunately I do not go to a huge gym and the heavy weightlifters take up a lot of space. I need to find the right time to go so that I can even get to the weights.

We had a lot of fruits and veggies in the house last week. The girls did a great job adding them to meals and eating them as snacks. I did get in a few servings, but I have a long way to go.

The next Mamavation Applications are being accepted until April 1st. If you are interested, you can find out more information here. Even if you are not interested in applying there is an amazing support system of women called the Sistahood that will motivate you and keep you moving.

This Monday night Leah @Bookieboo is giving away a pair of Earth Footwear Shoes! All you have to do is write a Mamavation post and link back to the Mamavation site.

Tune in tonight for Mamavation Monday on Mingle Media TV Network at 7pm PST/10pm EST.

I really wanted to get a post up on Monday for Mamavation, but it didn’t happen.

I have been working hard on a new website and I haven’t had the opportunity to write much for my own sites.

I finally got myself back to the gym. And I am loving it. It is amazing how quickly you can get out of the habit of going when you take a couple of weeks off. I told my husband I don’t know why I haven’t been working out. Once I get to the gym I love it.

I started some intense intervals on the treadmill this week. I am sprinting on that thing. I didn’t realize I could run that fast on a treadmill. I do get a little nervous that I am going to slip and hit the brick wall. Tonight a gal started talking to me when I was going 9.0 on the treadmill and I didn’t want to look at her for fear that I would lose my footing.

I stocked the fridge with fruits and veggies. My girls love green peppers cut up in strips. If I have them in the fridge they are gone before I realize they have eaten them. I bought a package of strawberries yesterday and they are already gone. Now I just need to get myself to eat them, too.

I am going to start getting back on the scale next week. I have about 8 weeks until my trip to Florida so there is no time to slow down now.

The mamavation applications for the next campaign are being accepted now through April 1st. You can go here for more information. The next campaign will begin on April 13th. Voting for the next Mamavation moms will be April 5th-12th. Stay tuned for details on the Twitter Launch party on April 12th.

Oh, and a little side note on the project I am working on. . .Gather Inspirit went live today. It is what has been keeping me from the gym. Head over and check it out.

A couple of weeks ago I received this package in the mail from Kroger.

I was really excited to try this new product. I received Shampoo, Conditioner, two different Body Washes, Hair Gel and Lotion. I have been using the products for the past two weeks.

I thought that the shampoo and conditioner left my hair feeling soft and clean. I wasn’t sure about the conditioner at first because it did not feel as smooth after I washed it out. However, after I got out and combed and dried my hair I was happy with it.

I have really dry skin and I thought the body wash offered a little extra moisture to it. I really liked the lotion. It didn’t leave me feeling oily, but it nourished my skin.

If you want more info from Kroger and a $5 off coupon go here. I received these products courtesy of The
Kroger Company for review and giveaway as a part of the Global Influence Network.

You can receive a package just like the one I received! Just leave a comment for an entry to win. This giveaway will close on Wednesday, March 17th at midnight.

If I were to stop and label my husband and I, that would be easy. He is a saver and I am a spender. We have had countless conversations about money (he is a banker by trade). Being the mother of the house, I do most of the spending. I buy all of the groceries and everything we need for the house. I clothe our children and take care of any school expenses they have. Without my spending there would be no food in my house and my kids would be naked. . .

When I entered into this massive Blogging Universe last year I started to read all of these amazing frugal blogs. I started to dream about living frugal. I started to dream about having money left in my checking account at the end of each week.

I have a lot of excuses as to why I have not started taking the advice of all the wonderful frugal bloggers that I read. . . First of all, I live in a very small town and the closest Wal-mart, Target, etc. is an hour and a half drive. It is not easy to save money on groceries when they are more expensive. The list could go on and on.

I am a coupon clipper, but I am not really a coupon user. I have good intentions, but I still haven’t figured out a system to get them used.

I am not a big spender, but I am not an organized spender. I probably go to the grocery store five times per week for things that I have forgotten.

I am kind of a frugal bloggers biggest nightmare. I need a frugal living makeover. Will you help me?

I am writing this post as part of the Inexpensively blog’s Blissfully Frugal contest to win a ticket to the Blissdom Conference. I would love the opportunity to meet some of you wonderful Frugal Bloggers in person. First you could scold me for not living frugal and then hopefully you could take me under your wing and guide me to living “Blissfully Frugal”.

Thanks to the One2One Network I have recently added two albums to my playlist on my Ipod.

The first is Brandi Carlile and her new album Give Up The Ghost.

This is Brandi’s third album. She explains the title on her website as this, “Brandi Carlile’s third album, Give Up The Ghost, unveils her talents in their truest form. After two albums and non-stop touring, she has let her guard down and offers her most candid recording to date. If the phrase “give up the ghost” most often refers to death or dying, it can also be used to describe the passing of stages in life, of transformation.”

I am glad that I had the opportunity to listen to this album. I probably never would have picked up this album on my own. It is easy listening with a folk feel. I love the guitar and Brandi has a unique voice that I really enjoy. Check out her website and you can listen to a little of her music. I am sitting here listening to it in the background while I write. I find the album relaxing to listen to.

The second album I reviewed was Five for Fighting’s new album Slice. I absolutely love this album! I find myself listening to the title song Slice over and over. The tune is so catchy and I love the words to the song. There is a lot of piano on the album and I love it. All of the songs really tell a story. I highly recommend that you pick up this album!

Here is a little background on the album from the website.

If every album provides snapshots of where an artist’s mind at heart is at the moment, Slice, the latest offering from John Ondrasik (aka Five for Fighting), is a collection of digital jpegs and faded Polaroids. The album takes stories of friends, family and even American servicemen, and sets them to music shot through with the spirit of the great songs of his youth. It’s a diary, or a blog, in which Ondrasik speaks his mind about current issues, experiences and sentiments, while setting those thoughts to piano, bass and drums.

The title track, featuring Ondrasik’s soaring falsetto, comes from a daydream that we’ve all had at some point in our lives—that moment when we long for a simpler time when life seemed better and the songs were bigger. It’s a sly play on one of those grand songs, Don McClean’s “American Pie”: “There was a time a long, long time ago/Chevies and levies played on the radio/No cell phones just 20,000 lights, swaying on a Saturday night.”

Thanks again One2One Network for the opportunity to check out two great new albums! Just what I needed for a Mom’s Time Out.