Top 10 of 2013

Radio and TV stations everywhere are playing the top moments from this year. Weather it's songs, movie clips, commercials, etc- now is the time to recap the year gone by. So, I present to you my top posts of 2013. In the past, I was able to do it by page views but I honestly think my stats are all screwed up so these are my personal favorites:

#10 I liked doing the research for I pity the fool. I'm not an April fools day prankster but I do have a sense of humor and enjoy a good laugh. Initially, I honestly thought that these were real! I wonder what they will come up with next year!

#9 When I initially wrote this I felt it was a cop out posts of sorts. Pinterest roundups are the number one rule for getting through writers block. But, I actually did all these and LOVED it! I never did a follow up post on it because the only pictures I had were crappy iPhone pics and I didn't feel they were post-worthy. Next time, I'm doing a follow up to share my results and why I recommended it.

#8 One of the things I would like to do going forward is offer more helpful information on my blog. It's easy to go on and on about yourself and what you are doing but there's more to life than that. Sometimes, i feel like my thoughts and opinions wouldn't be helpful to someone else partly because I assume everyone already knows this stuff and partly because I just need  to exude more confidence in myself. But, I got some feedback on the post I wrote about what I liked to use during my son's second year and it turns out it was in fact helpful for some people.

#7 I'm one of the select few people on the planet who enjoy planning parties and celebrating occasions. We have a lot of grief and tragedy that surrounds us and I think it would be shameful to one day have your life snatched from you and you haven't had a chance to celebrate any particular event (big or small). Elaborate isn't always my thing but acknowledgement is. You never know when it's all going to come to an end so you might as well celebrate while you can!

#6 Road trips are our thing! We've done around 26 this year (someone buy me a gas gift card, please?!) and we don't plan on slowing down. We have so much fun being out and about- I hope we get to not only continue but broaden our destinations as well!

#5 What a difference a year makes!! I think I have to do this more often!

#4 I've never really had a definition of "me". I read a lot of other's 'about me' and Instagram bio's and think, "wow! I wish I had something snazzy to say about my self like that" but the right words elude me. This post helped me dig into who I am and put words onto paper. While I still don't have a snazzy IG bio- I do have a new 'about me' page that I was pretty pleased with. I've also learned a few more things about myself that I'm looking forward to updating.

#3 I am grateful not not only be able to have had my son but to be around everyday to watch him grow, learn, and influence his little developing life. Maybe because he's my first I continue to be amazed at what he is capable of achieving. He has aspired me to grow, do better, become better, to be a better person.

#2 I'm a plan ahead'er (that's the second time I've used that word here) so it makes sense that I would enjoy getting my goals on paper. Plus, I'm a list maker so combining those two makes for one of my favorite posts. Which reminds me I need to create short term goals to reach these long term ones. Sound like a New Year's resolution to me!

#1 I don't know if it's my sense of supermom or my desire for women to stick to get and uplift each other but writing and researching my international women's day post gave me a renewed sense of hope that maybe, just maybe... one day working moms will one day get fair treatment and benefit for bearing children and still trying to contribute financial support to the household.

2013 Survey

I did this survey last year when I got it from Dani. I like the way it recaps my entire year so here goes...


1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?

Raise a 2 year old?! Other than that- I've got nothing... nothing.

No, no... wait! I've never been to

Christmas re-cap

I'm not really good at doing re-cap posts these days. So instead of trying to recap our amazingly wonderful Christmas, I thought I would list my top 6 favorite Christmas memories from this year.

6. Winning this awesome giveaway hosted by Jen!!! It's been almost forever since I've won a giveaway. I know exactly what I'm going to get too!

5. My son asking Santa for markers.

4. Getting some ah-mazing gifts from my loved ones including reaping the benefits of my brother freelancing for Coach AND my brand spanking new iPad (and some other swoon worthy gifts to boot!!)

3. Accomplishing my mission. And for $4, plus I gained a $20 gift card to Shutterfly- winning!!! For the future- remind me that this is something that I want to do every year, so don't procrastinate.

2. Making it to Christmas with everyone alive (my family has a knack for facing tragedy in the month of December).

Why, yes my husband's Christmas stocking is being held up by a bottle of Jack Daniel's!

1. Getting my Christmas wish 2 years in  a row :)

I hope you all enjoyed/ are enjoying your holiday celebrations! We don't really do Kwanzaa but I know a lot of people who do. Also, New Year's is right around the corner. And I've got a whole new set of goals brewing for 2014.

Merry Christmas!!

WW: sneak peek pt. 3

Christmas PJ party!

I'm way, way behind on this but I had a rough two weeks. I mean obviously- 'cause I accidentally published this last week with NO pictures. Well here' why: It seems as though the stores near me are Christmas PJ scrooges. Not one single store in a 20 miles radius had Christmas PJ's for boys. Not even Target. I don't know what gives but I've never seen anything like it. If I had known that I would have gotten some while we were visiting with our families back in New Jersey over the Thanksgiving break. So this is officially becoming a throwback Tuesday post. I'm throwing it back a whole year, ha!

I'm kind of disappointed because I have been dressing this little guy up in Santa gear since his very first Christmas back in 2011. Boy how time flies!

Actually I think I'm going to make it a mission to find this kid some Santa PJ's for Christmas Eve. Bonus points if I can find him a festive outfit for Christmas Day. Double bonus if I can find a Santa hat for our annual Candlelight service at church.

Alright guys, I'm off on a mission to get this child some festive Christmas gear this year- I can't let my streak be broken!!!

This post is being included in the Christmas Pajama Party link-up with Darci, Natasha, Ashley, Jenny, and Julie!

WW: sneak peek pt. 2

WW: sneak peek pt.1

Mind Right Monday: December

I'm linking up with Dani again today for:

Last one in 2013. I can't believe 2013 is coming to a close!

Goals for this month:

-finish out my Christmas shopping. Well I have no choice.

- Decorate the house for Christmas & winter. Yes, I decorate for winter because then I don't have to change everything back until March instead of January.

- Order Christmas cards. Preferably this week. Anyone doing a card exchange??

-increase water intake to a 80% average

fall to do list... now done.

Even though it's not technically winter for another 21 more days I feel like I should wrap up our fall and let the winter festivities begin. Besides- we've already had 3 days of snowfall and you know it's not really winter around these parts until you've had snow. And plus now that thanksgiving is over I'm in a wintery christmasy mood.

At the beginning of the fall season- everyone was posting their fall bucket lists. I knew I wanted to so some fallish stuff but I never came across a fall to-do list that was actually doable. Plus I'm not very graphic savy and I can't really come up with 20 some odd items to do so I never posted a fall to-do list. But then one day I was perusing the isles of Joann fabrics and came across this wall art and I knew that I not only had to have it hung in our home but this was our new bucket list! The icing on the cake?! It was 50% off! I had saw something like this last fall at Marshall's and wanted to get it but the line was too long and I didn't have the patience for it. I've been kicking myself ever since. So once I came across this one I was not going to pass up the opportunity again- and the checkout line way short. I was meant to be.

All-in-all we had a pretty awesome fall season. We managed to get 6 out of 9 things done (or at least 6 things that I managed to get pictures of because how do you do "cool breezes").

So below is my fall crossed off and now a done list!

{HARVEST}

{PICKING APPLES}

30 Days of Thanks

Days 1 through 6
Days 7 through 12
Days 13 through 18
Days 19 through 24
Days 25 through 30

Ahhh. My final thoughts of Thanks. When I first started writing this I didn't think it would be so hard. But I didn't want to be redundant, I wanted each week to have a theme, and therefore putting myself withing those writing limits made this more difficult than I originally hoped. But I whenever I feel like things aren't going write I can use this as a reference to show just how much is right.

30 Days of Thanks

Days 1 through 6
Days 7 through 12
Days 13 through 18


{DAY 19}I love having a Mother's helper! She comes in once a week and helps me out while hubby is at school. She plays with, occupies, and is just plain awesome with my little guy while I get some mama duties done like cook, laundry, and cleaning. She's usually only there for about two hours but it's amazing how much you get done without someone pulling on your leg!

{Day 20} My neighbors shoveled our front walk while we were away for the weekend. I'm thankful for that! It's been snowing almost once a day for about a week. They knew we were out of town for the weekend and lent a hand while we were out! So one morning my hubby got up and after doing our front he did theirs as a thank you. Well, the next morning they did ours again. It's now become a game of who can do whose first.

Thoughts...

Every once in a while you need a brain dump. I'm unloading right here....

Don't forget I'm still co-hosting this awesome giveaway!! You know black Friday, small business Saturday, and cyber Monday are this weekend. How awesome would it be to have some extra shopping money?! Hop to it- ya only got one day left!

Our family pictures are back!!! I'm so excited! We have quite a few to choose from and that's what I would call a success. I absolutely loved what our photographer was able to capture. She deserves a gold medal. I'm going to be sharing a few sneak peeks with you soon- so stay tuned!!

I need a vacation. Like a plane ride away with ocean water, a bathing suit, and an umbrella drink type of vacation. Although I'd settle for a car trip and bathtub. I just need a few moments to not be someone's employee, take a break from all of the obligations and rigmarole.

I didn't know how to spell rigmarole until I needed to write how much I needed a vacation.

It's Thanksgiving y'all!!! I've been waiting for today for quite sometime. I'm usually good for dessert so I made apple pie, sweet potato pie, and I'll probably throw in one more item as the day goes on (depending on if I can get some kitchen space). Now I'm off to go eat until I have to be rolled away from the table :) Hope you enjoy!


BONUS!!!!! Use code FREECAL at Shutterfly.com to get a free 8x11 calendar. Make a great Christmas gift!

I'm linking this post up {tomorrow} with Darci, April, Christina, and Natasha for 5 on Friday. I have something else I want to post tomorrow and I have this thing with posting twice o the same day. So, you got my 5 a little early :) Ok- for real, I'm off to eat.

WW: coloring