New bow work for the day.

So, I'm going to try to make a bow a day or at least come up with a bow a week as far as new styles go. 

So, here was today's bow.

The whale bow! 

I'm in love. I want to keep this one myself, but I can't. 

No worries though, I'm about to create a new one that I'm sure I'll be in love with too.

This bow is available to buy.

Feel free to email me at Michelle.lauve@gmail.com 

Changing Direction and a Minecraft Bow

Well, it's obvious from lack of blogging that I simply can't make it as any type of work hard, eat right and lose weight kind of motivational blogger...

I'm still plugging away, but I find it rather boring to write about it..
It's a constant struggle and Easter really threw a wrench in my diet... I mean.. it's SUGARY overload in my face, so of course I had a breakfast full of peeps and cadbury mini eggs...

Anyways

I'm changing directions here.

Feel free to stop following me, I know I only have what? 2 followers now.
Nothing compared to my old blog of over 250+ and that's ok.

I'm just going to blog about what I do and my crafting.

CRAFTING! yes... and some PINNING...

There may be a little humor tossed in there here and there and that's it.

Still boring, but it's easier to write about since I have a craft passion.

I'm still very much a Powdered Sugar Princess and I will occasionally write about that journey.

It's now just a grab bag of shit here!

Welcome to my life.

Get ready for boring!

How about an exciting recap of my Friday night?

Last night I made this for my daughter.

Creeper Bow - My store front on Instagram
M. by Design - My Facebook "pages" - which "pages" gets me completely PO'd... I can't even go in to that now...

So, The Minecraft Bow - I actually love this thing.

I sort of wanted it for myself but yeh, where would I wear THAT?

Ha. My daughter looks better in it anyways.

I'm thinking my next will be Pokemon or Dr. Who?
or she will probably want one some Superman logo on it, maybe Batman? Who knows.

Anyways, it's now Saturday morning and I have two poopy boys who need tended too.

:)

I'm still plugging along!

and Blogging? Takes far too much time!

OK, not really... but my brain doesn't seem to know what to say sometimes when I sit down and want to write.

If I knew exactly what I was going to say, I'm sure this would go a lot faster.

SO - WHAT have I been doing for two months.

Well, a whole lot of "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

I've managed to get myself on a better track of eating breakfast instead of eating more or less sugary junk and that was a good start.

This is some of what I've been doing for breakfast.

Fruit - Blueberries and Bananas

and since I'm a die hard cereal fan, I found this - which is pretty good for the price and I found it at Walmart since I live no where near a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's type of store. It's basically Aldi and Walmart for us out here.

The next hurdle I had was finding time for everything in a day, everything I think I want to be doing.

Number one is:
Exercising! of course and then some ME time and just overall not being a crazed mom who was stuck in a rut of sweat pants and dirty pony tail hair.

I'm STILL stuck on that one a bit.

Mornings are going a TINY bit smoother.

I have my 7 to 9am pretty set with the babies. It's all about kids during that time. The Bus Rush for the middle one, Car starting and getting ready for the very oldest and waking, eating, diaper changing and watching for the Big Yellow Bus for the babies.

It's a good two hours or just crap that is going to go on each day. Morning life.

So, from 9am until about noon is where I TRY to get in my data entry.

This means there is NO morning shower...

EW right?

But, I need to get in what I can while the babies play a bit and then have a morning nap.

I REALLY really really wanted to have time there to exercise, but it's really impossible. There just isn't a good time later in the day for the data entry.

There is a later nap, but that is only about 45 minutes and kiddos are home from school by then and that's homework, get dinner ready time.

SO - Data has to be 9am.

Well - WHEN can I exercise?

Right now, in the nasty weather, it really isn't possible to even go for a walk with the stroller.

BUT if it were 50 degrees or above, I see myself taking a walk with them around 1pm or when it's actually going to be HOT, I'd like to walk 8:30 am until 9 and then again later in the evening.

SO - since that's a good time after lunch, I might just try to do something here at 1pm.

I do have a few problems inside though.
I can't use our treadmill when the boys are awake. They stand at the gate between the two rooms and scream at me and while it's easy to say "Just ignore it and they will go play" That just doesn't happen.

You can only ignore it so long before you want to rip your hair out

I have to listen to them do this while I work in the mornings. They love to crawl under my legs and cry and hang there for a few minutes each, as well as when I go to the bathroom they throw themselves at the baby gate until I've flushed, washed up and come out... SO why cause even more trauma to them at this point right? ha ha.

They also throw toys at me... I can see it now - Me, lightly jogging on the treadmill while ducking toys tossed onto the track... yup! A real intense workout huh? It could be a new fad even!

I figure, if I can get up the organization skills, I'm going to do a bit of stomach exercises and some light hand weights around this time. There had to be something I can do and Pinterest is full of home exercises.

Now for some Cardio...

Where can I get this in?

I honestly don't like dinner disruptions as we have enough of those with dance classes.

It's really important to me and the family that we have this time. 6pm until about 7:15 is dinner and from about 4:30 to 6 it's prep and cooking time.

This is a HUGE time of day that I'd like to see simplified but I just can't figure it out.

Sure, there is crock pot meals, but that is still some prep to add in somewhere. Chopping veggies and such - could be done the night before? That needs organized for sure and well - we just don't want to eat crock pot meals nightly.

Also - I don't see myself hopping outside or on the treadmill the second hubby gets home from work, and Tuesday and Wednesday are dance nights so that leaves me STILL trying to figure out a good time for working out.

What I'd like to see happen is I hop on the treadmill or do a video at around 4pm when the babies have a second short nap.
Is that possible? Maybe... I will be giving it a try today actually.

Tonight is dance, right at 5:30 and I don't have a dinner planned. We are just flying by the seat of our pants I guess.

So, instead of dinner(ing) I'll be treadmilling in my free time.

You know... sometimes dinner(ing) doesn't even happen because of kids and homework and just after school stuff anyways... Hummmmm... more to plan out.

So - I'm still around. Doing what I do. I've made some small changes, but others just get lost in the day to day.

Colds, sleepless nights and kids have a way of changing up just about anything you can plan.

Well - there's always tomorrow.

For now, I'm trying to drink real water (ok fruit water... I hate plain water) and trying to exercise at some point today. 

Check out my infused water. Yum! 

Where did she go?

Well, you are probably thinking I've tossed the idea of a new years resolution, but that is far from the truth!

The truth is that once I get settled back into the work week, TIME FLIES!

Between the twins, and the two other kiddos, work and general "house momma" stuff - there is NO time to blog like there was on Christmas break.

So, Where was I? Where am I?

Breakfasts - They seem to go well for the most part. I've switched up a bit to eating granola with bananas instead of Lucky Charms.. HA!

Not that the box of Lucky Charms has gone by the wayside.. I've managed to deplete the box of all it's marshmallows single handily so, those are on my healthful conscious...

Anyways - I wanted a few choice for breakfasts that were healthier and I found quite a few things.

Besides a granola cereal (organic, non gmo and all that god stuff) I also found a recipe from 100 days of real food for making our own granola.
I've found somewhat local honey - carried in the farmers market from about an hour away here in Ohio so I'm hoping to make the granola with that.

BOY is it pricey, but It tastes like heaven!

The after taste is very floral, almost like I'm eating the darn flower petals myself. HA! Yum, it's honestly very good if you like Honey and I like it enough to eat it on a spoon... mmmmmmmm

So, continuing with my sweet tooth, I'm trying to have my sweets a little healthier.

I'm still in the process of dissecting my day.

I must find time for the treadmill and stretching as well as some abdominal exercises to help with the big old Diastasis Recti that's going on in my stomach.

I'm still experiencing a rather large numb area where my incision is located, and my muscles are NOT ready for run of the mill ab work that's pinned heavily on Pinterest. Hopefully a few exercises from a friend who is also a physical therapist will get me in the right shape!

I've really got to work on bringing these muscles back together for the sake of not only my stomach, but in aid of my back, which, both areas are an issue for pain most days.

Who would have thought carrying twins could wreck that much havoc on the body!

Oh, everyone I guess! HA!

Honestly, I'm really surprised at the overall feel of my body, as I never experienced this with either of my other babies.

SO - I'm watching how each day goes with working, mom taxi runs and the general stuff. There has to be a time in here for ME to hit that treadmill!

I've been getting in a bit of exercise on the floor with the babies, but they really enjoy just climbing on me for the most part of they see me lie down. :)

It's all like a giant puzzle. Something will come together soon, for now it's working and staying on top of whatever I can manage.

I'll have to cut this short - No time for blogging, it's Friday and nap time so I have to squeeze in the rest of my work before these little guys wake up!

Hoping to post a chart of how to work out time where there is no time.

Day 6 which is really Day 1

Well, it's been a S L O W start.

I'm actually only on Day 1 of concentration of the "Stop binging on sugar and eating everything in sight" phase.

I spent a lot of time on Winter Break reading blogs and looking into recipes that I may want to try. I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to be doing. These things take time I guess but it's time for the real deal now.

Today I am going to fore go eating my sugary cereal. I'm going to eat along with my babies and have blueberries, bananas and the other half of their orange. Sharing is good stuff and leads to no waste!

BUT

No Rolos... or Diet Coke and a handful of chocolate covered sunflower seeds (but, hey, they were seeds, seeds are good for you right?)

I'm also planning out a shopping list for preparing to make food at home instead of eating out junk.

One of the biggest things to look at is WHAT the heck goes on in a day and WHERE there is time to not only sneak in exercise in these days of dark hours, as well as WHEN can I find time to plan out meals for the family.

We have been running the chaos train here and it's pulled into it's final stop. It just HAS to.

So - if you are trying to do this along with me, let's look at a break down.

This will be MY day, and it's simple to do it for your day too!

It may seem silly to chart each hour, but it's a good start.

What I'm going to do is look at the hours I'm awake and what I do during them.

Then I can pinpoint where I can fit in the things I feel like I want to accomplish.

So, it's two lists at the start - sort of... more like a web if I add things to it.. then a huge scribbly mess when I really get into it.



MY DAYS - typical Monday through Friday (this could be boring - so don't read it, I'm just mentally and visually mapping it out)

5:30 - 6:30am - Wake up with Cam - try to cuddle him in my bed for a few minutes until Corey wakes up (this varies depending on which baby had the worst night and is still sleeping)

7 - 7:30 - Downstairs we go for diapers, milk and cuddles.

7:30 - Poke 11 year old and force out of bed. This takes until 7:45

7:45 - Badger Hayley until she dresses, brushes her hair, and comes down to eat.

8:00 - 8:30 - Everyone eat and do the "BUS RUSH" - finish eating, packing lunch, school bags, teeth brushing and all that jazz...

8:30 - 8:40 - Wait for the bus, babies watch out the window to see the "Big Bus" - Highlight of their morning I tell ya!

8:45 - 9am - Ready my computers for work - (someone usually poops are this time.. or both.. TMI, but it takes time to change them both again).

9am - 10:45 - This time is sort of a blur but it consists of my entering data while the babies play in the toy room, watch a Baby Einstein movie or one Sesame Street. There are random diaper changes, fight break ups, and mopping up spilled water from tossing their cups.

10:45 / 11am - First nap. I am still entering data, but now it's quiet. :)

12:15 - 12:30 - Babies wake up and hopefully I'm done entering data. The latest I enter is until about 1:30. I'll use the time when they eat to finish up.

12:30 - 1:15 - Prepare lunch, diaper changes, clean the floor from the lunch... finish up that data!

1:15 - 3:30 - THIS is where I need to get some things done, but it's usually spent playing with the boys, cleaning, laundry, who knows what... (probably playing on the Ipad right?)

* so I'll give this area an asterisk so that I know it's a hot spot. * * * * DING DING DING! * * * *

3:30 - 4:30 - Babies take second nap for about 1hour and 15 minutes sometimes less. Also, Hayley gets home and we go over school, make a snack, look at homework - OR leave for dance... Dance - that takes up Tuesdays and Wednesday until about 5:30pm or 6.

4:30 - 6:00 - Like I said - DANCE, or... this could be another hot spot. * * * * - This time should be spent preparing dinner I guess. Look for making this a quick meal time planned around Dance times. This time is hard because it's getting babies up from nap, rushing to dance, or rushing for dinner. Add diaper changes and all that in too.

6:00 - 7:00 - The whole dinner thing happens. Baking, cooking, cleaning up everything and everyone.

7:00 - Breathe...

7:10 - 9:00 - I don't know what happens here. Brad and I usually play with the babies, help Hayley with homework she needs to finish up and just stare into space for the most part... The babies take baths/showers and get into jammies and have a bedtime bottle still during these hours. Then the whole bedtime routine of book reading, lights out and say good nights.

9:00 - 10:00 - Alone time.... Babies are in bed, We pester Hayley to pick out clothes for tomorrow, ask what day gym is, look for shoes, pack up school bags, pester her to take a shower, braid hair... brush teeth, maybe watch TV or poke the Ipad. (I'm currently addicted to playing "flow" and poking my Simpson's Tapped Out game)...

10:00 - 10:30 - REAL alone time. Brad and I watch something on TV and I try to go to bed early so that I can get up with whichever baby decides to cry and need patted down or  waited out...

Then, it starts ALL over again!

________________________________

NOW - Where do I fit in all the stuff I want to do?

Exercise and the "big clean out stuff"  I always plan in my mind.

Under the bed, in the crawl space, cleaning out behind the fridge and stove, the garage needs some work, the shed, and let's not forget about landscaping in the spring. Mulch to go down, weeds pulled, play set painted, trampoline netting fixed and the ever so far off ME TIME ideas that I fantasize about.

Rollerblading, Park walking, Bug picture taking, Minecraft, Sewing, Bow making, Swimming, Camping, Jumping on the trampoline with Hayley - Everything that sounds like fun but there isn't honest time for the unwinding.

Then there is the whole, shower, pee, make myself look decent thing I try to rush into the day somewhere... you get the picture. General human maintenance - it gets done, but usually at odd times.

Hummm...

This is going to be quite the strategy game isn't it?

What do your days look like?

Where is your free time and how do you use it to the fullest?

I'm thinking weekends, evenings when it's lighter outside and help from the hubby is what may pull me into a better regime.

I guess my next blog is plugging in where I can get things done and HOW I'm even going to go about this.

And with that, I'm going to think about this all for the last bit of nap time since I'm not working today due to the "snow day"aka extended Winter Break we have, not to mention there is a baby crying during sacred NAP hours... WTH?

Day 2!

Ok, I'm ready to start Day 2 off with a little better mood then yesterday.

I think I got 6 hours of sleep and that has me feeling pretty good!

I've also decided that I really need to break it down as far as what I'm trying to accomplish, but I'm not sure how to do that just yet.

I think the best way is to maybe map out my whole day and try to fit in the things I want to do with what needs done.

Maybe look at how I eat, how the kids eat and how we go about daily life to see where the major holes are.

I know I picked breakfast for to work on first. As of today, I have two sloth like pre teen / teens who are still sleeping until 11am, so breakfast turns out to be some sort of lunch for them.

For the babies and I, it's been the same thing every day for months now. Cereal and fruit...
and no, it's not the glorious cereal and fruit that I'd like it to be.

It's boxes processed junk cereal and half way good fruit because it's winter and I can't have my blueberries and raspberries daily.

What I'd like to have, in a perfect world would be for about 20 acres of blueberry and raspberry bushes in my backyard that produced fruit no matter what season... ahhhh, I can imagine that now.... mmmmm...

As much as I am a SUGAR ADDICT, I'm also a fruit addict.

Food Porn!

So the babies eat shredded wheat and blueberries from a bag... Frozen organic blueberries or just frozen Walmart no sugar added Blueberries and.... $8 dollar blueberries that I just HAD to buy at Sams's Club.

There they were... siting there all lonely and blue. They looked so ripe and round and delicious... so I splurged and bought them and I've been dolling them out to the kids and myself in equal numbers. I also made the babies smoothies out of them and some bananas.

While I have a few days here before working again, I'm going to try to map out better breakfasts and maybe figure out some go to breakfasts for those mornings when we have bad days.

If I'm up and down here at 4 or 5, and then we have a short nap and are back up at 7, I'm not going to be in a huge cooking mood, so I'd love to have maybe granola bars or some protein balls for the kids that can be easy to make ahead of time and easy to grab for the bigger kids on the go.

Hopefully I'll come up with something, it's first nap now, and I've got a few minutes on  my hands to do a bit of Pinterest looking.

I'd love to read what anyone else is coming up with for tackling the day, or what is the main focus on your New Years NEW YOU?

You don't have to be a blogger to comment, you can also comment anonymously!

January 1st! (it's not a warm and fuzzy kind of day)

Well, it's here and...

I am not off to a good start!

But that's OK right?

Because I'm a normal schmoe and this stuff is REAL.

I'm not promising an enlightening post each time I write - there will be ups and downs and today is a down for sure. But we can all relish that it's not going to be picture perfect right?

I made the mistake of staying up until midnight to watch the ball drop, hang out with my husband and tell one another Happy New Year before trying to get some sleep.

A baby started in around 2am crying. I tried to wait him out...

Long story short, he didn't go back to sleep until after 4. The baby who decided to sleep through the night (and noise) was up and ready to go by 5:50... Happily jumping up and down in his crib...

*sigh*

So that marks down night 400 something of sleep being under what... Uhm, 12:30 to 2 = 1.5 hours and then 4:15 to about 5:50... = another 45 minutes of sleep...

Now I'm no fool, I do try to go up to bed by 10 pm most nights unless there is stuff to do, and we all know there is stuff to do before bed!

Lunches to get ready, find clothes, back packs packed (not me doing all this but herding the other children to get their stuff together) You know, Mom stuff.

This is one area I am trying to organize better in 2014

Make big kids do their stuff without me telling them 1001 times to do the stuff. Add this to the list!

It's like a broken record... I say the same things each night then tell them "boo hoo" in the morning when they are in a mad rush out the door.

Well, you'd think they'd learn by now but, it's just not there yet.

Any ideas on that one?

Here are some of the consequences my little ones faces for not being bed ready and morning ready for me.

-Loss of computer time
-Loss of ipod
-Loss of play time
-Loss of video game / tv time.
-Chores

You'd think she's lost so much of all that this past school year that she'd be up and ready to go, but it's just not sunk in quite yet.

HELLO 11 year old child?..... *(Picture a cartoon here or me wrangling her by her neck)*... JOKE, it's a joke people, don't call CPS on me just yet!

Anyways..

Chaos. We live in a bit of chaos around here daily.

I'd like to erase the chaos this year along with the whole take care of ME thing... because that IS part of taking care of me when you think about it.

OK - on to Today - January 1st.

Today has been a very sloth like day.

My body hurts, my eyes sting and I've had quite a few cups of coffee to try to get through it.

Oh and NO please, the whole nap when the kids nap thing doesn't work. I can't tell you how many times I've been offered this sage advice and just smile...

For one, any extra sleep I get in the day after 10 am has me up at night for some reason, staring at a black ceiling wishing and praying I could fall asleep while everyone else snores around me. I've tried it. Countless times, especially when the Hubby is home and I can take a break and catch a 20 min nap. I'm burnt each time with insomnia.

and Two - on normal work days around here, I'm still entering data during first nap and let's not even mention the list of mommy things one needs to do in that very short one hour and 20 minute nap they take after I finish up my data entry.
Showering, laundry, breathing, making myself food, washing bottles, preparing them something to eat when they get up, checking the bills, cleaning up breakfast messes, socks and shoes that were left for me to trip over, phone calls that need made during a quiet moment... it goes on and on.

WOW - Today is just a whine fest of sleepiness!! I'm typing and looking at this like "Shut up lady! good lord"

OK, I have to get a grip on myself... but, but

How on earth am I going to try to briskly walk or exercise when I'm feeling like a wet noodle, completely sleep deprived?

I don't know. I really don't.

Just thinking about how I'm starting off this new year makes me tired already.

SO, I'm chalking this one up to a BIG FAT ZERO.

0 - 0

I mean who can even think straight on 3 hours of sleep.

Here's to a better tomorrow!


I'm not even spell checking this one. How's that for effort?