31 Days- Overcoming Shopping Bulimia

While I was away this weekend, I realized something about myself! I have shopping bulimia.

I'll explain that in just a minute. First, let me give some background on our budgeting methods. We use a cash budget. We pay bills first, then put back savings, then take out a set amount of cash for 1- groceries 2- "slush fund" (incidentals) 3- my allowance and 4- Clinton's allowance. We only use our debit cards to buy gas. It usually works really, really well. Whenever, we have extras we need to shop for, we save up for it! Like when we went school clothes shopping for Emma, I set aside money for weeks. The reason this method works so well, is because I NEVER go shopping anymore. Like clothing shopping. Because I have shopping bulimia.

Sunday, we stopped at Target on our way home. I just HAD to check out the little girl's clothes section. Then, I just HAD to buy everything!! I shopping binged. I'm serious!

Then, I realized, in the check out lane, mind you, that I had way overspent. And felt sick. Metaphorically, purged.

On the upside, Em looks fabulous in her new clothes!

Acting silly in one of the new outfits!

So how do stop doing this? How do I make it through a trip to target with my friends (because if Clinton was with me, he'd rein me in himself!), and not binge?

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

 

Today is the 23rd day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days- Day 18

This is my last post for a few days because... I am going on a GIRL'S TRIP!

These four crazy girls are having a reunion!

Misty, Cassidy, & I are loading up tomorrow and heading to Hot Springs, AR to see Tiffany! I can not wait!!

I've been thinking about it, and I don't think I've been anywhere, without Clinton, since Emma was born!

Look out, Hot Springs, here we come!!

31 Days- Day 17

I took Emma to the dentist today. I had an appointment, also. It was something I'd been putting off, but my month of "overcoming" myself persuaded me to quit procrastinating!

It went pretty good, she was a little nervous, but was pretty much a champ! We BOTH have to go back, though! I have a cavity (ugh!), and Em has the beginnings of one (uh-oh!). The dentist won me over, though, by saying on the next couple of visits with Em, he won't be working on her teeth. He's going to have her come in and "count her teeth". Just basically getting her more comfortable about going there. He did say that he will be giving her laughing gas when he does do the work.

And y'all. I. can. NOT. wait! If she is as hilarious as she was when she got tubes in her ears, we are in for a treat! One thing is for sure, I will be videoing the whole thing! I'm laughing already!

Right now, I'm really having an internal struggle. This is DEEP, people.

I thawed out chicken for supper to make this, Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole. Some of my friends have HIGHLY recommended it and it sounds delicious!

But Paula cooked ribs today. All I can think about is ribs now.

Source: someecards.com via Amber on Pinterest

What should I do? I know what Clinton is going to say, not to go out and buy BBQ when we have food in the house, blah, blah. He's a cheapo. I, almost loaded up Em and went out to get some, my craving is that strong. Thankfully, she threw a fit (yay?), so I didn't go...yet. I thought, post on the blog about being strong and overcoming things, and you'll be about to fight it. It's. not. working. I'll keep you updated on this predicament.

Edited to add:
Immediately after writing this, I went into the living room, still thinking about heading to the BBQ restaurant. And I see this...

Sweet? No. She is, apparently, firmly in her daddy's pocket. Conspiring against me!!

So that's it, all I've got going on for today!

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

Today is the 17th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days of Overcoming Myself- Day 11

I originally got the idea for the topic of Overcoming Myself because I am not good at following through with things. Like posting everyday. Take this post for instance. I was totally getting ready for bed, and thought "CRAP, I didn't post today!" And y'all, I really had planned to WRITE, not just post pictures and witty ;) comments. So instead of a good in-depth post, you are getting this little blurb of an apology, all in the name of posting daily.

Sorry.

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

Today is the 11th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days- Day 8: Rethinking my approach

...to day to day life.

On a typical day for us (Mon, Wed, Fri), we wake up whenever, I fix Em something for breakfast (or lunch depending on the time..I know, I'm awful!), then I work while Em watches TV and plays until the afternoon when its time to cook supper.

I don't think this schedule is working very well.

#1- I HAVE got to start getting up at a decent hour!! Clinton has been working nights, so he has forced me out of the bed when he got home the past two mornings. And, I feel great! I always feel so much better, and feel better about myself, when I get up early than when I sleep all day! I'm really hoping to get into a new routine that I can stick with!

#2- I am planning to go to the 9:30 Jazzercise class (MWF). This will be another reason to get out of bed early, but it will interfer with my work hours if I continue to work during the daytime.

#3- I RARELY take any time to play with Emma. Usually, it's time for bath and bed before I realize that I haven't spent any QUALITY time with her that day! I do not consider time spent in the same room together as QT! This is the MAIN reason I want to rearrange my schedule!!

#4- I never take the time to do any housework besides a load of laundry here and there. Clinton (who is VERY tight with money) told me that I needed to hire a housekeeper again if I wasn't going to clean. That means its gotten very bad! Saying the dust was an inch thick might be an exaggeration, but it's not far off. AND oddly enough, after my workout this morning, I used my adrenaline burst (it could have been the 5 Hour Energy I drank and the Dr. Pepper I chased it with) to clean house, the WHOLE house (minus my bathroom because I ran out of steam, ha!)!

#5- I usually plan to do one cleaning item per day. I don't actually do it, its all good intentions. Then the next day, I think well, yesterday's chore didn't get done, and it needs to be done before today's... vicicious cycle! But I noticed that if I got down to it (like today), I could get most of the cleaning done in a couple of hours. I thought that if I designated Mondays to cleaning day, then the house would be decent for the rest of the week, with only minor touch-ups needed. BUT doing one thing each day makes it seem like less work somehow... I'm still debating on how I want to proceed with this. What do y'all do?

So taking those things into account, I am going to try out a new routine.

Wake up early
Go to Jazzercise
Clean/ Play time
Lunch
Learning Time/ Work a couple hours
Supper (the Southern in me keeps coming out! I have the hardest time saying dinner, which, according to my family, means lunch!)
Work
Bedtime

With showers, laundry, and the other stuff thrown in there!

I know appointments, play dates, and other things will change things, but this for when we are home all day. What do y'all think? Any suggestions? I need all the help I can get... trying to be SuperMom over here. Ha!

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

Today is the 8th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days - Day 7

Y'all. I got up at 7 a.m. today, and on a Sunday, too! Woo hoo! Go me! Clinton made me get up.

We went and got groceries, and it was great being practically the only people in the grocery store! We got home and unloaded, and there was just enough time for us to get to Cuthand for church. I'm headed down the road and literally thought to myself, today is going to be a good day. Then, realized that I forgot something at home. Whipped around real quick, and came home. Headed back out, with about 30 minutes before church and a 30 minute drive ahead of me! And 5 minutes later, I, of course, got pulled over.

Cop asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I said "I'm sure I was speeding, I'm late for CHURCH!" Emma was in the back seat screaming "We're going to be late for church...we're going to miss it... is he going to put you in jail??" Of course, I'm going "Hush... hush... hush!" Then he sits in his car for 15 MINUTES and comes back with this

59 in a 40, and NO, that's not a warning. Ugh!

Then I sped all the way to church and made it there right on time! Ssh! Don't tell anyone! 

Despite all that, we still had a great day. Church, lunch with the family, visit with my mother-in-law, cleaned house, got work done! Feel very productive! AND have plans to workout in the morning, IF my wake-up call comes through! ;)

Today, I feel like I have it together. I don't know if I will tomorrow, but today feels good!

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

Today is the 7th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days of Overcoming Myself- Day 6

I don't know that I've made any strides today in "overcoming myself". But hey, the challenge is to blog everyday, right? So here's today's post!

It's finally COLD in Texas! I hope it warms up a little, because right now it feels like we skipped fall and went straight to winter!

I put my fall decorations up last month, but didn't remember to get a picture of it until now! I just used stuff I had, so it feels a little skimpy, but at least I didn't have to buy any more!

Clinton and I fixed the most amazing meal tonight! He smoked some chicken leg quarters and made baked beans, and I made baked potato salad. Recipe from here! I love it when I find keeper recipes on Pinterest!

I should say that our day was pretty good, until this evening. Emma behaved so bad that I went ahead and gave her a black mark on her behavior chart instead of waiting until bedtime (like I usually do!)

AND she was just hours away from getting her 10 purple stickers and her special treat! Ugh! Aggravates me to no end!

 This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,200 blogs participating, come join us!

 
Today is the 6th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days of Overcoming Myself- Day 5

Well, I did it. I committed myself to a YEAR of exercise. Or at least I committed my money. :/

I signed up for 12 months of Jazzercise!

As I was leaving the house to go up there, I kind of had a bad feeling. Thinking I was wasting my money, blah, blah. But when I got closer and pulled in, a feeling of relief came over me. I was relieved that I was finally doing something about my weight, which has really been bothering me. And now that I've signed up, I'm excited! Watching my friend, Misty, finish up her class while I was there, helped. She's an instructor and looks great!

Now, I just need to stay motivated and get Misty to call me every morning to make me go! ;)

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,100 blogs participating, come join us!

 
Today is the 5th day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning.

31 Days of Overcoming Myself- Day 4

It's the little things. The little things in life that make you feel better about yourself.

Like waking up on time.
Actually doing your hair and make-up.
Doing more to Emma's hair than just pull it into a ponytail.

Today was picture day at school!

There are actually 3 braids, but someone wouldn't be still enough to get a good picture of it!!

I got the hair tutorial here. It was actually really easy, and looked cute!

It was, also, Teddy Bear picnic day!

I got Em to school on time.
Went to work, and felt productive!
Went to a Parent Volunteer Meeting at school!!!

Today, just has been a good day, people!

After work, we all went to the driving range for some fun.

Daddy's clubs are just a little bit too long for her. He's already shopping for her own clubs, ha!

Do you see me?

Besides the good day we had, Clinton and I sat down and discussed our budget and spending today. It got heated and tears were shed. Not me, him. Just kidding. Even though, we take pride in being very fiscally competent, we still need to reassess sometimes. We both came out feeling much better about things. To reward ourselves, we went out for burgers and ice cream! Em was thrilled!

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,100 blogs participating, come join us!

 
Today is the fourth day of the challenge. Go here to read from the beginning. 

31 Days of Overcoming Myself- Day 3

One of my biggest problems is time management. Trying to be supermom is hard, especially when you work from home (and you are lazy). I've been using a daily schedule for a while now, to keep me on track. If I don't have a reminder of the things I need to get done, I'm likely to be sitting on the couch, watching tv for hours, or lost in iPhone land. I have been slacking on following my schedules, but I'm working on being back on track!

Speaking of the pressure to be supermom, my friend Tiffany, wrote a good post about that on her 2nd day of the challenge, 31 Days of Letting Go: Day 2!

Here are my daily schedules for this week so far. I, actually, followed it today! (Except that I didn't wake up at 7, oops! Not going to tell you what time I DID wake-up, but I'll just say that I didn't start working until 10:30...)

I usually ignore that "Cleaning Goal" part! Ha!

I got the printable schedules from Buttoned Up, they have lots of cute organization tools!

I struggle with trying to do it all, be it all, for everyone. I'm always falling short. Supermom syndrome. How DO they do it?? However, I usually feel better about myself if I follow my schedules and get SOME things done around here. Not that I get to feel like that often.

Having to schedule play time, is not a GREAT moment for a mom, but if I didn't put it on the schedule, it probably wouldn't happen at all. Emma told me the other day that I NEVER play with her. Talk about a knife to the heart. She, also, said that I never smile and I'm always mad. I wish I could just go with the flow and play when she asks and throw my schedules out the window. But I, also, know that, then, nothing would get done, including WORK.

So how to balance is the big question. Working from home is the best of both worlds, but I still can't master it. Anyone have any solutions on how to balance everything? How to be a supermom?


This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 1,100 blogs participating, come join us!

This is the third day of the challenge. See Day 1 here and Day 2 here!

31 Days of Overcoming Myself: Day 2

This morning got off to a bad start. Like everyday of my life, I overslept.

I have this inability to wake up on time! I try. I set a ton of alarms on my phone, which go off literally every 15 minutes for at least an hour (usually two), not to mention the snooze that goes off in between. My days and nights are seriously mixed up. So that is definitely something to work on...still. 

So anyway, I woke up with 30 minutes to get ready, fed, and get Emma to school. Never fear, I have THAT down! 

Last night was not a good one for Em and me. She got her first black mark on her new behavior chart, because we had a two hour fight to get her to clean her room. I am exhausted right now from just thinking about it. And I was totally feeling guilty about it this morning (even though it was all the little heifer's fault!), so I decided that I would pick her up from school at noon. Normally, she goes to preschool from 8:20-12, then they walk her over to Mother's Day Out for the rest of the day. I thought we'd go to lunch or do something fun together, but she wanted to go home. She spent the afternoon doing puzzles and watching Disney Junior, and couldn't have been happier.

Meanwhile, I ruined supper. I'm not even going to get into it because it was TOTAL FAIL. I like to think of myself as a good cook, so it hurts a little. Deep down.

Usually, at this point of the day, I'm done. I'm just going through the motions to get to the end. So what happened next totally surprised me. Emma asked if we could make crafts together, and I said yes... with the kitchen still a disaster. I, almost, spit out my usual response of "not right now", but thought better of it. Blog challenge changing lives over here!

Thankfully, we have plenty of supplies in the craft closet! We decided to make a monster!

Here he is... Em said he ate the monkey :/

Then she asked to finger paint and I said go for it! Who cares about a little mess! It's washable! 

She insisted that she have her chair to sit in... lazy like me :(

Right now, she's coloring and waiting for me to get finished so we can watch a movie and eat popcorn (which is what we were supposed to do last night before the clean room fiasco!). And I'm kind of feeling like super mom. I might not have fed her appropriately tonight (wait, did she eat anything?), but she enjoyed herself, and I did too!

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 900 blogs participating, come join us!

31 Days of Overcoming Myself

Last night, my friend, Tiffany, started bullying asking me to join her in a 31 day blogging challenge. You have to pick one topic to write about everyday of October. I was hesitant because #1 I didn't know what I'd write about and #2 I'm not great about following through with things. So I thought about it, and that second reason (not following through) is one of the long list of things I'd like to change about myself. Not change myself really, I am who I am, just tweak here and there. So there it is, my topic for the challenge... Overcoming myself to become a better version of Kayla. I will write about my little issues and how I am working to fix them.

This comes at a great time, too, since my 29th birthday last week, I've already been putting more effort into "getting it together".  Getting it together is my pet phrase. I've written about this before, several times, in fact. It has its own category on this blog, Working On Me. Somehow, all my good plans never quite work out... see lack of follow through above.

This post is linked to a blogging challenge on The Nesting Place at thenester.com! There are currently over 900 blogs participating, come join us!

Here's a good laugh for you...

I've had my new car for about three months now. During the first week of having the car, Clinton and I discovered that the passenger seat wouldn't move forwards or backwards. It took us two months to get it back up to the dealership to have it looked at. They told us they needed to order the parts yada yada yada. The parts came in, and we finally got it back up there this morning to get it fixed. 

About 30 minutes later, the service department called...they took the seat apart and found the problem... stuck in the seat track. was. a. piece. of.... beef jerky. Kill me now.

In my defense, it was really good beef jerky. I'm kind of obsessed with it. And on a side note, it's nearly impossible to find! Frito Lay, here my plea...

I thought my hubby would help hide my shame by picking up the car for me, but no. When I went in, the lady said "Oh, the car with the beef jerky in the track." Guess, that's what I'm known for now.
I just said "Yes, I am ridiculous..."
She said, "Oh, don't worry, Honey. That wasn't even the strangest thing we've found in cars." I can only imagine.

Sleepless Nights

I've gotten into a bad habit of staying up all night. All night. I've always been a night owl, and a late sleeper, but staying up ALL night is a new thing.

I tried to lay in the bed and WILL myself to sleep, but I have this aversion to laying in the dark. Can. not. stand. it. If I do not fall asleep immediately, or soon after turning off the light, I HAVE to turn it back on. Why? Because my brain goes into over drive.

 

 

Worst moment ever? When you realize that you need to take a sleeping pill, but NOW it's too late because you won't be able to wake up when you need to!!

So I finally give up and get up, then I...

Read. I'm currently reading The Outlander Series, and the books are FOREVER long, so I got no where. BUT the story is really good!

Did laundry. Not really, but I wrote that to make it SEEM like I TRIED to be semi-productive.  

Watched TV. Well, its on, but nothing is on at this point but infomercials. Ugh.

Caught up on reading my blogs. Sorry, if you get alerts for comments, and I woke YOU up.

Looked at countless hairstyles for little girls online. Tried to find something I thought was "doable" for Em's hair tomorrow. Decided to just do pigtails.

Took another shower tonight. Because I decided my hair really DID needed to be washed, ha! I'm writing this with wet hair. Can't blow dry it because Emma is sleeping on a pallet right outside my bathroom door. Got her out of my bed, but not out of the room. YET!

Searched Pinterest for insomnia sayings... you. are. welcome.

Blogged the ones I found. Not as funny and cute as I was hoping for, but whatevs...

What do you do when you stay up all night?

Resolutions for 2012

 

2011 was a darn good year. But that doesn't mean I don't have big plans for next year! Several big plans, so bear with me...

I broke it down in categories, see already working on my organization goals!

Personal goals
Lose weight- 30 lbs before May (and our beach vacation), plus the 10 or so I've gained in the last two weeks. I don't know how much because I refuse to weigh myself :/
Learn how to fix my hair
Learn how to do my make-up (I always hate the way it comes out)
Actually fix my hair and make-up (whenever I am leaving the house anyway! And no, I did not do it today... that starts tomorrow!)

Goals for Emma
Potty Training ASAP
Teach Emma to write name/ letters
Work on getting her to clean her room more easily

Household Goals
Clean out and organize medicine cabinet
Organize laundry room
Turn hall closet into a craft closet
Clean out garage and install shelves, organize
Reorganize pantry and kitchen cabinets
Reorganize my closet
Figure out a better storage/ organization options for bathroom

Time Management Goals
Come up with a good/ consistent work/daily schedule
KEEP up with my cleaning schedule

Financial Goals
Pay off credit card debt
Do Not charge ANYTHING on credit cards
Build up savings
Pay off medical bills
Stick to monthly budget

Miscellaneous Goals
Learn how to use my Canon Rebel (not using Auto Mode!)
Learn how to use my PhotoShop
Blog more
Craft more
Update Emma's scrapbooks

I am optimistic that I will look at this list on Dec. 31, 2012 and see that most of my goals have been completed! Keep me motivated people!