Pinterest- The Highs and Lows

Tonight I became one of my favorite people in the whole world.  Mary Poppins! 
 
That was my favorite movie as a kid.  I cried the day that I found out that Julie Andrews really had strawberry blonde hair (I think I was in 6th grade).  I love the scene where she sings "spoon full of sugar" and they "tidy up the nursery".  I don't know about you, but getting my kids to help clean up is like a form of ancient Chinese torture.  Many times I hate to fight it and know that I can do it faster and without the weeping and gnashing of teeth, therefore I just do it myself.  I know that I am enabling my kids but I like to look at it from the perspective of saving them from the Evil Queen (me) who comes out when they take forever cleaning up and fight the entire time.

Rewind to last week.  I was going through all of my old magazines that I had dog-eared the pages of cool things I wanted to do/try and pinning them to Pinterest so I would have an easy way to find those good ideas and put them to good use instead of sitting ignored in a file folder downstairs.  One of the things I came across was from FamilyFun magazine.  It was a way to get your kids to clean up.  (Tried to pin, but couldn't find it!)  So, I tried it out on my kids tonight.  Guess what?  GENIUS!!!!!!!!  My kids cleaned for 30 minutes straight and were begging for more.  Now they are nicely playing together with all of the toys they discovered during our "game".  JACKPOT!  Are you catching my excitement?

Here is what you do:  Grab a flashlight (or headlamp my case).  Prepare the kids that you are going to play a game.  Shine the light on something that needs get put away.  Have the kids race to grab it and put it away.  That is all.  Seriously.... my kids were fighting over whose turn it was to clean up.  My house looks really good.

If you are not on the Pinterest bandwagon, you are missing out.  Of course, I have a million (okay not quite that many) pins and have only tried some of them, but I am working on it.  There is one thing that has caused me to wonder on my many pinterest wanderings and that is.......how do all of these women have time to do all of this crap amazing stuff.  Do they not sleep?  Do they not have children?  Do they just hole up in their house (with the occasional daily trip to the craft store)?  Are they made of money?  Do they have a wife housekeeper that does all of life's daily drudgery?  Maybe they don't sleep?  Whatever it is, I am amazed!  I feel like most of the time I am just trying to keep up with the laundry and the kids' school and activities.  Perhaps when my kids are older and I win the lottery I will be able to do more projects.  For now, I am kind of a once a month (if I am lucky) type of DIY person.

I have found some really amazing things on Pinterest.  However, I have also found lots of equally UNamazing things.  Meaning that it looks amazing and then when you try it, but it was a total waste of time and money.  I am going to go through my experiences in Pinterest.  For specific links to pins, check me out on Pinterest (at Lisa Coombs Lord).  I have created two new boards "tried and failed" or "tried and AWESOME".

Let's start with the bad news.  Any sort of pin that involves using glow sticks to make things glow in the dark: Fail.  Most of the science experiments in general: Fail.  Microwaving something to "clean your microwave": Fail.  Many of the other "homemade" household cleaners: Fail.  Most of things that didn't work for me, I deleted, but from now on, I will be moving them to the "tried and failed board".  Any pins that you have tried that have been an epic fail?

Now for the good stuff.  What has been good?  The Coca-Cola cake. 
DELICIOUS!  Lots of butter, but delicious.

The Taco Ring.
 
Well, let's just say that the 4 year old who won't eat ANYTHING asked for seconds and thirds of this easy and delicious recipe.

Hot dog octopus.

Another favorite of the "I go to bed hungry most nights of the week because I won't eat my dinner" 4 year old.  In fact we had it for dinner tonight!

So, that is the skinny on Pinterest.  Let me know if you have found any new favs and check out my pins!

Lisa

Back in the Saddle

I'm baaaaaack!  I took a month off and it has been wonderful.  Of course, I squeezed Christmas and a 10 day vacation in during that month off, so it didn't really feel like a month off.  However, I am finally feeling like I am getting caught up on things and starting to WANT to do work related things instead of feeling bogged down from them.  Isn't that a nice feeling?  I feel like my house is (somewhat) under control and mostly clean (as clean as it can be with 3 little people undermining my efforts), my life is going at a decent pace (instead of so incredibly fast that I can't even keep up) and I have even had some time to do some tasks that I haven't done in a LONG time!  I even went through all of my old magazines and files from old magazines and either pinned them on Pinterest, threw them away, or kept a select few for a SMALL file of ideas (mostly decorating ideas for the house).

We left for vacation on the 28th so Christmas felt rushed and hectic, especially since the kids did not know we were leaving (Not doing that again.  Do you know how hard it is to pack for a 10 day road trip without little eyes figuring out what you are doing.  Almost impossible.  Had to tell them we were going to the cabin for a few days so they at least didn't wonder why I had bags out to pack.)  But we got all of the Christmas stuff down and put away, tree taken to the recycling (it had a terrible smell by the end) and most of the gifts put away in their new spots.  Whew!

While we were on vacation, we celebrated slept through New Year's.  we had spent the day at LEGOLAND and watched the fireworks there (they rang in the "new year" at 6:00) and then had dinner (which Jameson fell asleep during).  By the time we got back to the hotel (at 8) everyone was tired and promptly went to sleep.  I was flipping channels and missed Eastern New Year's celebration, so I headed to bed too (By the way, who is with me that New Year's is one of the most disappointing holidays with way too much hype?).  Therefore, it didn't really feel like New Year's.  New Year's day was spent at the beach and driving to Anaheim (the poor boys didn't get to watch any football- but it was kind of nice to have a husband for a change on New Year's day).

My birthday was on the 5th and we spent the day at Universal Studios and then drove to Vegas for the night so we wouldn't have to drive straight through on the way home (did that on the way there and thought I was going to die after 18 straight hours in the car).  Vegas on your birthday?  Heck yeah......except it was at the end of 8 exhausting days on the road so we got to the hotel and went straight to bed.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, but it didn't really feel like a birthday!

That being said, I felt like I missed the holiday season this year and therefore I am just getting around to setting my goals (not resolutions) for the year.  This last week has been a blessed one with time spent catching up and hanging out with my little guy (who has been ignored a lot this last fall/winter with me working so much).  I feel like myself again, instead of a cranky, overtired, stressed woman just trying to keep it together.  I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be "normal".

New Year's Eve 2012-2013

Stayed tuned for more blogs on our trip and holiday season!