: Working it :: School Style :

I don't know about you other Mama's out there, but sometimes school mornings are HECTIC!

We've got homework that needs to be taken back to school plus the other random items that are required for the day {insert 100 day}, then the lunch kit with the well rounded meal and a good snack.

Let alone a full {half decent} dressed self and children, teeth brushed, breakfast eaten, bed made, hair done...the list seems never ending!

And that's only with one child going to school full time!!! Honestly I don't know how you Mama's with more than 2 kids do it?!?!?

Last year I was driving back and forth from preschool 5x's per week but school didn't start until 9 am so from 7 am - 8.45 am we could make it out the door as a loving family...this year feels like a different thing! It's been a HUGE learning curve and I hate leaving a disheveled home to return to so something had to change!

Jacob needs to be dropped off between 8.20 & 8.30 am -- some mornings we try to walk which means we're all out of the house by 8.10 am but as I need to get Cole to school for 9 am 3x a week we often end up driving, which means we're out of the house at 8.15 am.

Some mornings a week Mr. L is home but there is not really any help coming from him, sometimes it's more of a pain cause he get's in the way of our groove and then we all end up frustrated!

So in my need to get more of a grip on what is happening in our home {in the pm & am} I've made some changes and I can't believe how much of a difference they have made in our routine!

Here's the after school/evening routine that we have going:
Backpack is unpacked at kitchen table, notices&homework is left on the little desk in the kitchen.
lunch kit is emptied and put in cupboard {kids cupboard}
Backpack is hung on the hook in the laundry roomHomework is completed during snack time
Lunch for next day prepared

Now to the evening routine, when we're tucking the boys in bed I will be laying out their new clothes for the next day on the end of their beds. I used to have them downstairs waiting for them but then it was on my plate to get them dressed. This way they get themselves dressed when they wake up. They know what to where and there is no arguing {even boys can be VERY picky with what they wear}. It has easily given me back 15 minutes of my morning routine!

The morning routine is the same every school day:
Get up
Make bed {Jacob helps Cole}
Get dressed
Get breakfast {Jacob can do this for both of them if I leave a bowl out or leave a muffin in a ziplock bag on their plate}
These are our favorite {healthy&easy} breakfast muffins ~ recipe to come..Brush teeth, comb hair, wash face w/ wet wipe {all in the powder room on the main floor, if they end up going upstairs, they get sucked into the toy room...NO GOOD!}I get the lunches/snacks together and place their bags at the foot of the stairs, if they forget their bag - tough beans! They know it's their responsibility and they have to take it to school {obviously if I see it still hanging there I will remind them}.

As for my routine, I don't get out of bed until I've already thought up what I'm going to wear...I find nothing more frustrating then going into the black hole that is our closet and humming&hawing over what to wear. So while I'm listening to the news on the radio and checking my email messages on my phone {this drives Mr. L nuts!} I also think up my outfit, most days it's nothing special but it's clean and so am I ;)

I usually eat a shake for breakfast and try to eat it while I'm getting ready, but some mornings {like Wednesday's} I'm heading out the door with it in hand, such is life!

All this organization helps me {& them} out SO much...it keeps the peace when getting out the door with 2 other littles {hats off to all the other women who do this with more kids and don't look like Cruella Deville!}

I would love to know your morning routine and what keeps your family ticking and running on love not frustration -- I'm sure I've got much to learn!

{XoXo}

: Happy Valentines Day :: Question for you :

Q: What do you do to celebrate, do you even celebrate Valentines day?A: As for us, we celebrate, in a very loose way. We try and get out for a date at least once a month and so during February we make out V-day celebration, but really it's not that big of a deal.

All I want for V-day {now that we have kids, home etc.} is some flowers and some cuddles from my boys..maybe some extra ahem, cuddles from Mr. L -- that's it, not a big deal in my eyes.I don't feel that Mr. L has to prove his love for me on this particular day, really we just feel it's a good reminder to take account of our love and how thankful we are that we have each other and our family.

...that being said the one thing that I always love to get is flowers and Mr. L has a pretty great eye at putting together flowers so when I woke this am to these beauties I was pleasantly surprised!I'm hosting a ~LOVE FEAST~ tonight for my all my boys...and we have a few gifts for each of them, really it's just another reason to put priorities where they should be and that's in spending time with our family and each other...then after the "LOVE FEAST" I'm off to zumba and Mr. L will tuck the boys into bed....ahhh the life of a glamorous housewife ;)

Hope you all are feeling the love today and everyday!
{XoXo}

: New Post :

I wrote & published a post earlier today...once it was posted I re-read it and realized that it wasn't really making sense and was all over the place, so I deleted it.

If you read it; great --- if you missed it; don't worry you didn't miss much ;)

Happy Love Day tomorrow!{XoXo}

: Today :

Today has started off beautifully, we woke up to beautiful blue skies {when we were promised rain}

Enjoyed coffee with this little guy with the peace of the birds singing..that was until my three other guys decided to join me ;)Mr. L has to work today so he's off to Vancouver and I'm going to do my best to finish the office and get started on the other projects I need to get done!

This upcoming week is another really full week and I want to get some of these things checked off my list of to-do's...But first I'm off to build a couple train sets -- such is the life of a Mama to boys!

{XoXo}

: Foundation Friday :: 52 weeks of blessing :

I can't believe how quickly a week fills up and then flies by! And this week seemed unusually full and then proceeded to just whiz by!

So this week my challenge was to give an anonymous gift to someone I didn't know. This would be no. 50 of my 52 week challenge. So today along with purchasing my coffee -- I picked up the tab for the people behind me...such a simple pleasure that was. They don't know me; I don't know them. It was just a random act of kindness {this was the first time I have ever done this} and something I hope to do more often!

I'm up to my eyeballs in papers -- today is "sort through the office now Shawna or you'll never do it" kind of day. I love being organized and having a place for everything and everything in it's place but it's getting to that organized place that I don't really like! HA! Oh, and you'll be happy to know that I did find my little scrabble "loveyou" plaque for V-day --- it was in a box in our spare room closet, it's a good thing I went through that closet yesterday and organized it!This weekend we don't really have any big plans, we've got a few projects on the go at home that we need to tackle, I need to do a long walk today {from recovery of a very long run} as well as a run tomorrow -- we might have some friends over on Saturday night and then we'll be at church on Sunday and I think Mr. L may have invited some friends over for Sunday night and then we'll be back at Monday - phew!

I'm really hoping that tonight if I get my work out in and get the boys to bed at a decent hour I'll be able to take a chunk out of my digi-scrap project! Have a wonderful weekend Lovelies and here's to hoping Mr.Sun comes out for us!
{XoXo}

: BlaBla Thursday :

Thursdays are my "home days" I just have to go out for two things on Thursdays - dropoff&pickup of the biggest boy. No in and out of the house, no need for groceries or stopping off at the store for misc. items...all that was done on Tuesday, so today I get the joy of feeling like the Mama of little ones who doesn't live in her car being the "mom taxi" and I revel in it! I started my morning off enjoying fresh flowers {thanks to Auntie Joan}, coffee and time in the word..but I couldn't decide what I wanted to read {devotional/bible/themessage etc.} so kinda spattered a little between them all - HA, what a dork I am!

So today I'm trying to accomplish {finally} cleaning out under our ensuite sinks...not that they were not clean, they just were not organized. When we moved in all of our toiletries were in baskets which worked fine in the suite & our old house, but this house - not so much. So I've bought containers to help contain the unruly toiletries as nothing annoys me more than having random items all over the place, especially in the morning when all of us are trying to get ready!

Then that darn linen closet and spare bedroom closet are going to get the full flush out - I'm hoping to be finished that by the time I have to go pick up the biggest boy from school.

After all that, I have laundry to fold and put away - truly I never feel caught up on laundry and that is SO annoying to me; hey wait Auntie Joan is in town...she's good at keeping up on laundry, maybe she'll be able to come over and do it for me ;)

Ugh, the list never stops!

If all goes as planned {ha!} I'm going to sit down this afternoon and do some scrapbooking {digi-scrap} -- I have a bazillion photos to scrap, but one of my goals this year is to get our lives scrapbooked and in the beautiful albums I have...so here's to step one!

Later tonight I've got coffee with a friend and a nice long run {pray for me; my legs are wanting to fall off my body from Zumba on Tuesday night!} --- should be a great end to my day!

Here's to getting things checked off the list and earning my keep around here ;)

{XoXo}

: What I LOVE Wednesday :

Well we're back at Wednesday and unfortunately our weather has turned and is no longer the beautiful Spring like weather, but that's okay -- we've been blessed for the sun we've seen for the past few days!

Anyway here are the things I LOVE this week...

Jesus Calling - Kids Devotional, I heard about this devotional a while ago and fell in love with the thought of it. Then yesterday I actually got my hands on a copy and all that I heard was true! Can't wait to get my copy!

Ikea "up close" mirror - Mr. L bought me this little ditty for Christmas. See whenever we're away in a hotel I always use the magnified side for plucking my eyebrows {& stray hairs} - so he thought I could use one at home and I LOVE it, I use it every day!

Zumba class -- my girlfriend K does this class and so I've joined her for the last few weeks, super fun, super work out and I fear I'll either throw up or faint, but I seem to always make it through the class...a few pints of sweat later ;)


Barnes & Noble Owl book ends Saw these and fell in LOVE, I ordered them just the other day for $27 and just saw that the price went up to $40 again as of today -- LOVE it when I get an item on sale!

Good Bites Sandwich cutter - since my biggest little boy has gone to school he's come home with a bad habit of not eating crusts {thank you school friends - grrr} so I found one of these little fancy schmancy sandwich cutters at the dollar store, ahhhh, I'm in LOVE - such a great little tool and JJ thinks his sandwiches are the best! Win Win = LOVE!
Well, I'm off to get said biggest boy from school and then we get to have a visit from Grammie & Grampy who just arrived back from Hawaii {lucky them!} - Have a great day Lovelies!

Ps. How much do you LOVE the Starbucks Valentines day specialty design, so fun...it's the little things that make my heart leap ;)
{XoXo}

: Tuesday Twenty-Five :

Today is another beautiful day in our neighborhood...really starting to feel like Spring.

We had a great weekend around here from overnight guests, matinees, church and a small shindig for Superbowl, we were busy and life was full {maybe a little fuller than I am comfortable with} but fun all the same!

Today was my bi-weekly trip to the states and yesterday - ugh, yesterday I was just trying to get my bearings from the weekend..work-out, clean, empty dishwasher, pick up boys, and repeat!

I'm still trying to organize and sort through things in this house, including the boys toys etc. So today I picked up some containers that will hopefully aid in getting a grip on organization around here.

But for now, I'm going to do a list of twenty-five random things about me..'cause you know I'm just THAT interesting {lol}!

1. we saw Tin-Tin this weekend; phenomenal movie!
   
2. I do almost all of my grocery shopping in the states and save close to $400 a month {and almost always run into an fellow Canadian while shopping}
3. my middle name is Adrianne - I used to always say "Anne with an E" when I was younger, dreaming of one day being Anne of Green Gables
4. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, but LOVE the smell of a freshly lit cigarette
5. I drink soda water like it's going out of style
   
6. I love the color white
7. my go to color to decorate with is green
8. I am a traditionalist
   
9. I get headaches often, but rarely state when I have one {I have one now}
10. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 13, when I was 16 my parents told me I could get second holes if I got my learners permit. I now have 6 holes in my ears
11. I do not enjoy Madonna or her music. However I'm fascinated with the fact that she's over 50 and just that HOT
12. I watch weekly, TheBachelor, Greys, PrivatePractice, Tori&Dean, HouseWives -- all PVR'd to watch at my leisure {when the little fella's are sleeping}
    
13. I have 2 friends that just each had a baby in the past 24 hours, both boys and both beautiful!
    
14. My standard drink @ Starbucks is a grande americano with room
    
15. I enjoy guy movies more than girl movies, my all time favorite is TopGun
16. I love me a good magazine, typically a design or celebrity based magazine
17. I have a small obsession with nautical items & monograms
18. I enjoy running but have to work myself up to going for my runs
    
19. black and white photos are my favorite
20. Mr. L & I met at bible study, he thought I was "annoying" and tried to set me up with his best friend - hello!
    
21. I have always liked shoes&purses&jewelery&nudenailpolish - I have great memories of going through all these items at my grandma's places, however I don't spend tons of time on any of these items and don't consider myself "girlie"
    
22. black is the base for my wardrobe with a few colors thrown in
23. I would rather wear a skirt than jeans
24. I wash my hair max. 2x's per week
25. I have no tattoos, but if I were to have one it would be a Jesus fish on my foot

There ya go, nothing fabulous -- but it's me and that's real --- and it's much harder to think of 25 things then you would think it would be ;)
Happy Tuesday Lovelies!

{XoXo}

: Foundation Friday :: 52 weeks of blessing :

It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday! And to boot, it's SUNNY!!! I don't have much time to blab on and on, but I wanted to share with you my no. 52 & no. 51 blessings...just for ideas for y'all in case you want to join in {please let me know if you do join in!}

No. 52 :: package of tulips in an old peach jar, with a starbucks via attached to it -- easy peasy and so cute! Total cost: $4.50
No. 51 :: box of peppermint tea w/ a sleeve of ginger cookies & card a lovely little treat for a friend to enjoy once the kiddies are in bed! Total cost: $2.00
So as I was setting out to bless somebody else, we ended up being blessed by this sweet little package that was dropped off...a Starbucks card for moi and two chocolate suckers for each boy. Wow, how blessed did I feel!??! SO blessed! Thank you Auntie C!
We were downtown yesterday afternoon to pick something up and while we were in the parking lot Cole said to me; "mama, you just have to take my picture under the 4 - cause I won't be 4 for very much yonger" -- bah ha ha! But it's true, so I did take a photo; he's such a gem! I've got carpets to clean, coffee to drink, windows to clean {thanks to Mr. Sun} and a coffee date tonight, couldn't think of a better way to start the weekend off!
{XoXo}

: It's FEBRUARY! :

In posting my salted caramel corn recipe yesterday I completely ignored the fact that's it's February -- ha ha --oh well!

We're not big Valentines celebrators, yes we do the typical cards&candies to friends and Mr. L and I plan a date night out in and around {but not on} Valentines day.

However, I've found since the boys have been in school all these little "Hallmark Holiday's" are really quite the big deal! So we did some crafting yesterday and turned our little house into a fully decorated Valentines home..well maybe not SO decorated to some, but to me the little perk of pink is quite the injection of color in my little beige, white & gray world ;)
Here's the few places we decorated
My little shelf above the phone and my lap top in the kitchenThat's it for the V-day decor, I have a super cute frame I made with scrabble letters, but I can't seem to find it -- ha ha, not quite as organized as I would like to be in this new house!

And last but not least, the winner of Tuesday's giveaway is....drum roll please....
Congratulations K - I'll send it out to you via snail mail!
{ps. each of you had your names put in a hat and the winner was chosen randomly from my little 4 year olds hand ;) we play fair around these parts}

Now I'm off to see if I can find the rest of my Valentines decor that's still missing and maybe organize a room or two...should be a good day! I love Thursday's they are one of my few "home" days and I plan to make the most of it!

*Oh! And I have yet to deliver my little blessing for this weeks "52 weeks of blessing" so tomorrow I'll share that with you as well as what I did last week :) -- Now go bless the socks off someone, you know you want to!*

{XoXo}