Day 1: 40 Bags in 40 Days

I am joining in with Ann Marie at www.whitehouseblackshutters.com with her 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge. We honestly don't have nearly as much stuff as we had this time last year. We have gotten rid of a lot of things and we have already packed quite a lot so the last third of this challenge will be at our new house so I will be unpacking and sorting.

Here is my photo for today.

I still have things lying around here that will inevitably get throw into a box on the last day of packing so I am trying to avoid anything being packed that we don't need or want. Also I want to note that I wouldn't throw out a spray bottle but there is some mystery thing inside it... 

Just because he is cute...

 Here is what I am going to be cleaning out tomorrow. 

Including my MIA makeup bag. 

{Countdown until moving: 4 weeks 1 day}

Oh Hello.

So lets be honest...I haven't been on here in quite awhile. So I thought it was about time that I updated the ol' blogger and get back to my random rants.

During the month of January we had planned to do our 30 days of Green Smoothies and start our 100 Days of Real Food challenge...I'm not going to lie...we haven't followed the rules 100%. Things have gotten a lot harder this time around. I have an extra toddler during the week to feed, we have an extra adult living here (which is actually really fun, more about that later) and our boys have been eating a LOT! For example last night for dinner we had a bag of organic whole wheat pasta, a can of organic tomato sauce and oregano and some garlic thrown in. It fed us but the boys and Joshua were still hungry so they had bananas with almond butter. We ate a whole jar of almond butter in less than two days. Which is really okay but I haven't gotten quite used to using food so fast with my planing. 

So with the big eaters around here I have decided to just let it be. I try to not buy things that are against the rules but things like almond milk slip in...Mahon and I can't have regular milk. Making almond milk is alright but a bag of raw(ish) almonds (click here for the truth about raw almonds) is expensive! We normally buy the best quality that we can afford but we rarely buy food online since I buy most of our food weekly. I have made cashew milk also and I do like it but it doesn't last very long and Mahon doesn't like it. I have been careful to not get the one with carrageenan in it. However I did come home with some Trader Joes taziki dip that had it on the lable TWICE! UGH! We will eat it and not get it again. It does bother Mahon's tummy to consume carrageenan.

Green smoothies are awesome. I really love them. I keep forgetting to make them! The first week or so was great but then I let it slip away. 

I was also planing to contribute to this clean eating group on facebook but I didn't really follow through there either. I didn't want to make this year a year of not doing that I said I was going to do! But life happens and we have three very little boys that trump every other priority.

Also in other news... WE ARE MOVING!!! We found a house to rent less then ten minutes away from our current duplex. We don't move in until the end of March but I am very excited about it. I will post more details about it in the coming weeks...or lets be honest...the next time I remember that I have a blog. 

{10 Fun Facts About My Boys}

So here I am at 4:38am on a Thursday morning... If you know us very well you know that means today is my Saturday...Just like vacations and sleeping in, Saturdays mean nothing to moms of toddlers...but it is a nice thought! I still feel like I should be sleeping right now. The grizzly is wide awake and wouldn't stop talking about monsters and the moon so we decided to let daddy get some rest while we watch some shows.
I thought he would lay down and fall back to sleep while watching a show...

He won't stop moving.

I may just be up for the day.
So here are some fun facts about my boys...

1) W&M are obsessed with the moon right now. They talk about how it is "asleep" during the day and it wakes up at night. They want to see it before bedtime every night.
2) W&M turn 3 in two weeks from yesterday.
3) They do NOT like it when I sing. Little wolf does though for the most part.
4) W is fully potty trained, no accidents, he has never wet his bed. ::knock on wood:: M is not interested in it at all.
5) I may have twins that are almost three but they have nothing on little wolf in the crazy department... He is WILD! I am always finding him in the table dumping out cups or ruining cell phones.
6) W&M know all of their letters, they kind of know the song and I have never heard them say the whole alphabet in order correctly but if you ask them what a letter is they will tell you.
7) F loves to dance, he is a dance machine. If you turn on music around him he will dance. Unless I ask him to...in front of people...my boys never want to do their tricks on demand. :)
8) W&M have learned the words "tasty" and "delicious" and they sometimes tell me at dinner that their food is "de-lish-us". I love it.
9) I am very proud of my boys manners skills. Especially when they use them with each other without being told. It is adorable.
10) I am trying to embrace their love of "going bye bye" it is hard to get three boys ready and out the door and it can be intimidating taking them places by myself. I have a long list of "what ifs" in my head. I can usually find an excuse that keeps us home like not having enough gas or money or someone to go with but the truth is we all need out if the house...everyday. I want to be an adventurous mom! Not one who keeps her boys inside until they lose their love of adventure. I won't let that happen!

Oohhh! I just saw a yawn! We might get back to bed after all.

{we love a good adventure}

Thank you Dunbar ladies for joining us!!

{a little update}

Our screen-free week went great!

I was so nice to have a break from screens. It was a strange feeling knowing I have complete control over how much we use our screens and yet it felt like a vacation from it. I will be much more intentional with my screen time.

I really missed snap chat.

We did call it quits one day early...(I was dying to see what happened on Once Upon A Time) ... but that's okay. Everything in life is a choice. Everything.

Right now I am trying to get a sourdough starter thriving, and working on some water kefir and I have started baking my own bread!

I decided to start keeping a journal so that's where most of my thoughts and the little (and big) things that happen during the day get jot down. I was trying to remember what everyone did before Facebook... it was called a diary... and there are a few people (me included) that need to go back to that way of sharing information. :)

{screen free week}

Starting next Monday we are going to participate in the CCFC's Screen Free Week. (April, 29th - May, 5th) Here is there website to learn more. http://www.screenfree.org/ .

We used to do this as kids and I am so excited to do it with my boys! I am mostly excited for more time with my husband. I honestly do not think we have a problem of watching tv too much. I'm sure on some days the boys get more then they really should but hey everyone has hard days. But it is the leappads, ipads, cell phones that take up a lot of our time. It is the go-to thing to do.

 I would like to change that.

Here are the {RULES} we would like to stick to:

1) No TV for anyone.
2) No screen games, LeapPad, IPad, or on our cell phones.
3) No Facebook, social media or other types of internet.
4) The only screen time allowed is for bills, and Joshua and I must both be present.
5) Text and phone calls are O.K.

I am also not going to be using pinterest for my recipes...gasp...So I must have a plan.

Overall I just want to spend more time with my cavemen and learn something.

{live simply}

That is all I really want to do.

Live simply.

But how can I teach our kids to do that when the is a constant flood of toys into our home?

I used to have a very bad shopping addiction, I still like to shop but now I try to really evaluate what I'm buying. Does it have a purpose? Will I want to take it with us when we move? Where will I put it? And with clothes I just don't buy them unless I need them. I don't really see any needs coming up anytime soon. We decided at the beginning of the year we would only buy things second hand unless we really needed it. We haven't stuck to that 100% but I do much better then I used to and that is the goal... To try.

If you have been in my home you have probably noticed that I have clutter.

The stuff you own ends up owning you.

Toys.
The boys have so many toys that they no longer value them or take care of them. If I threaten to throw them away they say fine. We put almost all of the toys in the basement last week except for the zoo animals and they haven't even noticed. They don't care about toys.

Paper.
I have SO MUCH paper. Old bills, coupons, junk mail, insurance paperwork, car paperwork, taxes, pet paperwork, I-might-need-this-someday paperwork... It makes me crazy. I have a tub of things to sort in my room. It owns me.

Crafts.
Everything can be used two or three or more times. Everything. So I tend to save everything that could possibly have another use which is better then throwing it away... But now it owns me. I have tubs and shelves and baskets full of things to repurpose.

Clothes.
I have enough clothes to go weeks without doing laundry. That is not ok.

Pinterest.
Yes there is even clutter here. I can't find the really importient pins that help make life simpler because I have created so many boards and I have too many things pinned.

So my goal here is to challenge myself to really take care of these problems. I will probably handle clothes and paper first. It may take me all year but I am going to try.