Get it Done!

So this week, I have been dealing with issues that needed to be addressed.  One thing that we still have pending is filing taxes.  We usually do them with reasonable time.  But the last few years, we have been waiting to the last two weeks before they are due.

I have the paperwork ready, the problem is contacting our the tax prepare person and making an appointment.  We have to travel an hour to see her, and it must be on a weekend when husband and I are both available.

I have been working on our budget for this year.  I'm also consolidating my financial document files.  Trying to follow the method that Toni uses at A Bowl full of Lemons.

She uses a budget Box, I decided to use this instead:

Its a 7 pocket portable file holder. Added bonus a pocket in the front for Bills Due.  I have a pocket for stamps, a small calculator and the checks book.  In this picture you see it with the bills but I plan to keep it inside.  What I like about this organizer is that it has a zipper.  I can close it and keep all my documents save inside.

The tabs are labeled
Savings- here I will have a list of Saving Funds, like Christmas and Birthday Gifts, Vacation Savings, School Tuition Saving, Etc.
Expenses- Tracking forms of monthly expenses to help in balancing budget each month.
Budget- The budget for the current month
Pay Stubs- A copy of my husband pay stubs, all in one sheet, easier than having 4 loosely pay stubs.
Forms- Blank forms of the Expense tracker form
Bank Statements- Current Year

I'm using a budget form from Microsoft Works.  Its saved in my computer and I like it because I just enter the numbers and the worksheet does all the adding and subtracting.

I will keep posting about my finances project in later posts

Marriage

 A few days ago, I was watching a Spanish program on Hispanic channel.  Its almost like Judge Judy, the name of the program is "Caso Cerrado" ( Case Closed ).


The case for that day was a couple that had been married but was now divorced.  The man wanted the judge to make his ex-wife marry him again.  The funny part about all this is that they were now living together, after a time being separated.  What the wife argued was that he was a better partner being legally divorced than legally married.


When they brought in the witness for the case, the son of the couple was brought in.  The judge asked him questions about his parents relationship before divorce and now.


The boy's last statement was,"When I grow up, I'm going to be a divorced man too."


According to the man, he wanted to make thing better for the family, he was sorry for his past mistakes and wanted to remarried his wife.  But the judge did not think it was important.  Love to her, does not have a need for a legal document.


What?  What kind of values are we teaching kids viewing this program.  That marriage is not important?!  I was really appalled by the judge's thinking in this case. 


The judge always ends her program with a quote or statement.  And her last comment was that perhaps in the future a legal document will not be needed to express love for each other.


I'm sorry, call me old fashion. But I'm a defender of marriage.  Religious weddings are becoming rare and now to say that not even a civil wedding is needed is outrage.


All of our traditional values are slowly becoming extinct.  I'm really sad about all this.  We have chosen leaders for our country that do not have the same values as we do. How about those Congress women  that call themselves Catholic, but have been supporting laws that go against the teachings of the church.


Just recently, I sign up with the United States  Catholic Bishops Website in support against that new law  "Respect for Rights of Conscience Act."    I also sent emails to those leaders in my local area.  I have already received  a few replies. 

A certain Senator wrote this,"I have consistently supported women's reproductive rights and a woman's right to decide which health care options are best for her.  I believe comprehensive family planning services can reduce unplanned pregnancies by providing education, counseling, and contraception. "


"A woman's right to decide", If a woman wants to kill her own child, its ok.  We have laws protecting animals from cruel treatment, why are we not defending the life of an innocent child?


I'm sorry that I jumped into another issue.  But this are very important things to me.  


Marriage- "A committed, permanent, faithful relationship of husband wife is the root of a family. It strengthens all the members, provides best for the needs of children, and causes the church of the home to be an effective sign of Christ in the world" (U.S. Catholic Bishops, Follow the Way of Love: A Pastoral Message to Families

If we do not think marriage is important, then what kind of values will  we be teaching our children.

Today, I attended a Lent Retreat at my church.  And one of the things I learned today was that a strong relationship with God is needed for us to have a strong relationship with others.  It should form an equilateral triangle. Between God, Us, and Others.  This way when the storms of life hit us, there will be nothing that breaks that bond.  But sometimes we are far away from God and others.  Or we are much more interested in what the world thinks that what God's wills for us.  Sometimes we are very into the church matters, but at home our relationships are not going well. Or we do not treat others good.  There has to be balance in everything we do. 

And this is my prayer for this Lent season, "that those who are far away from God will get closer to him.  That they mend their broken relationships with others.  And that we all can form a strong equilateral triangle. In Jesus name. Amen."

New Changes!

As you can see, I have added a few new icons to my prayer shrine (feast table).  The child Jesus, is wearing his new dress for this New Year.  His Godmother is very talented.  Even makes his shoes for him and the hat.  All handmade.

The smaller icon of the Child Doctor is new.  I brought it from Mexico.  I also brought a set of Archangels.  I only placed the 3 that are spoken of in the scriptures, St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael.

Lent will soon come, starting this Wednesday.  The color of the table covering will change to purple in a few days.

I changed my Tupperware Modular tubs for this smaller ones.  I loved my Tupperware tubs, but this are much smaller.  And look nicer with the rest of the items in this corner.

Tuesdays I have prayer group at 9 AM.  Tomorrow we start Lent Season. I will be writing a post regarding this later this week.  Hope you have a blessed day.

Homework Desk

On Sunday, I worked in the office.  I have been going through piles of paper.  Sorting, filing, and shredding.

Here is the before picture of the craft zone desk.

One hour of going through the piles and designating an area for each item. This how I organized the desk.

I found those round containers at the 99 cents store. They hold color pencils, markers, and highlighters.

The magazine holders contain, magazines for scrap booking and other homework activities.  Our family picture journal is there too.  Have not done much in it in almost a year. Empty folders and folders with clipping from magazines that I want to use for motivation collages.

Did you noticed the collage in the second picture.  I made that  for motivation during my 30 day challenge of Body Gospel. I'm using the large calendar as a magnetic board.  I do not have more space on the side of the fridge.  I was not keeping up with updating the calendar.  I might use it later.

For the white magazine holders, I used a tape I found at Michaels.  R and T are my husband's and mine initials.
Both of our first names start with the letter R.  Our last name starts with the T.

This little area above this small drawers, its what I call my Lent meditation.  The little book has prayers. I have a thimble with the name of the City where I grew up, till the age of 8 years.  "Juarez".  I pray for peace to this city because there is violent crimes there almost every day.

This  is my new incoming mail, sorter.  It has more room then the one I was using before.  I found this one at Salvation Army thrift store. Paid only $2.99 for it. This will help me to not pile papers on top of desk.  I can quickly file it under a category and deal with it later. And in case I'm looking for something in particular it will be easier to find.

I learned about this method at A Bowl full of Lemons.

I will be sharing this post there tomorrow.

Taking Steps

Like I had told you in a prior post.  My goal for this week was to work in my son's room.  But to avoid neglecting the other rooms and daily activities, I worked in the room in short sessions.

Here is what the room looked before starting:

Its not a pretty site.  To be honest, I closed the door and walked away thinking I will never get it done.
This is not the first time this room ends up in this mess.  I have plenty of pictures to prove it, and I have managed to bring order to the room many times.

In just one hour, this is what I accomplished with minimal help from my son.

We picked up all the clothes from the floor and sorted.  Dirty clothes to laundry basket, clean clothes were folded and placed in proper drawers, jackets and sweaters hanged in closet.  Toys were picked up and placed in their bins.  Not all the toys were organized.  We still had a table full of all sorts of items.  But no problem we will work on that on the next day.

I actually worked on that myself.  There was a few boxes with all kinds of items and toys. I sorted them and placed in their bins. Broken toys went to the trash can.  And here is the result of the second day.

 I moved the table back into the living room and brought in a smaller table for son to work on his legos.

I had this shoe organizer in his closet, but I decided to use it for his car collection.

 The shelfs were used to hold all the toy bins.  The bigger toys go in the larger bins.  I had labeled his bins a year ago.  This makes it easier to know what toys go in which bin.  Specially when kids tend to dump all the toys out of the bin. I left some work to be done later.  Like the closet.

I want to organize it well, so that is easy to find his clothes.  School uniforms go on the bottom pole. Sunday clothes, like shirts and two piece suits go on the top pole.  You can see a skirt on your right side.  Here is where I had our Mexican traditional outfits and some Halloween costume.  I moved those to the guest room closet.  And instead placed all of my husbands over sized coats and jackets here.  I will post the end result pictures later.

The bottom of the closet needs organization.  There's a shoe organizer, and all the unused backpacks, travel suitcase, and sleeping bags at the bottom.

There is a futon matress on top of my son's bed.  My daughter is staying temporarily in his room, because its to cold in the attic room at this time. The guest room is used by my brother who stays here all week, and leaves on the weekends to visit my parents.  When the kids were younger, they always shared a room. Even though they each had their rooms.  So I decided to make one the guest room.

Last summer daughter decided to move to the attic room because she was tired of sharing rooms with her brother.  The attic room is divided in sections.  The storage area, the family room that never gets used, the craft area, the reading area, and daughters space.  But I will be talking more about that room later.  You can see a prior post of
daughters room
storage area
family room and craft area

  

TV /FAMILY ROOM

CRAFT AREA

Happy Valentine's Day

I wish you all a blessed day, filled with peace, love and joy.  My most sincere wishes.

Make someone smile today!

Plans for this week

Last year, I did good.  But this year 2012, I want to do much better.

Spiritual Goals:  Spend quality time in reading God's word and meditating in it. Pray for my family, intercede for others.

Physical Goals: Loose those extra 5 pound that over the normal weight for my height and age. Continue to daily do some type of exercise. Loose another dress size. I'm currently an 8. When I started exercising almost a year ago in March, I was a size 10.

Health Goals: Eat healthy foods.  More fruits and Vegetables in my diet.  No sodas. Switch to skim milk. Drink more water. Less pastas and fried food.  Less sweet bread.  Eat only whole grain bread and cereal.
Drink Shakeology, one serving each day.

Personal Goals: Spend more quality time with my husband and children.  Do fun interactive activities instead of just watching TV or sit in from of computer for hours.

At home:  Deal with the clutter.  One room at a time and set goals and work in each one until completed.

This past weekend, I browsed through all those home organization blogs to get inspired and see what ideas I get from other blogers.

Here is a few things I found.

This is a list found at Home-Storage-Solutions-101.comhttp://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/

I placed  it on a magnetic dry erase board in my home office.  Highlighted those areas that I have worked on this past month. Also those areas that I think are well organized, I can leave to the end of year.  I underlined those areas that I want to work on ASAP. 

Once that area gets completed, I will completely highlighted and continue with another area.  This zones or areas are meant to be done, one each week.  There is 52 weeks in a year.  So there is 52 projects on the list.

In a link party, I can't remember where either at A bowl full of lemons or Delightful Order.  I saw a print out of this statement.  So I printed it and framed it.

 It reads:"She turned her can'ts into cans and her dreams into plans.

And that's what I will be doing each day.  Remembering that things do not get done in just one day.  It takes time, determination and work.

15 minutes at a time or up to 1 hour.  I have been doing, 15 minutes in each room to tidy up. Those rooms that need more work, I will spend up to 1 hour in them.  But I will get it done!

No more procrastination!

This week, I'm working in Son's room.  Sorting toys and papers. Next room is my daughter's room. And then home office.  Each day I will spend 15 minutes in each room in my home. And up to one hour in the room I will be working for that day.  This prevents the other rooms from being neglected and clutter to accumulate again, if its already organized and clean.

I will post pictures on Friday!  If you do not see them, please remind me! I need your help, to remind me and check on my progress.  Thank you!

Do you suffer from Fibromyalgia?

You must read this testimony

Shakeology helped to reverse her fibromyalgia symptoms

Awesome testimony!

Great week!

Blessings to you all.  I had a wonderful week.  Some goals met.  I kept exercising to my new workout program Body Gospel

I had been wanting to get this workout since last year, but I was waiting to finish another round of Insanity before ordering.  I go a challenge pack.  Including Shakeology a meal replacement shake that helps you loose weight and gives you energy.

Thanks to my friend and now Coach, Angie from Confessions of a Mommy Jogger.  I was motivated to order this challenge pack.  My goal is to loose those 5 extra pounds.  But if I loose more, even better.

What I like most about this new program is that the music played is Christian worship music.  And Donna the fitness instructor prays before each workout, and motivates you with uplifting words throughout the workout.

One of the suggestions in her guide is to make a motivation board.  Here is what I came up with.

Body Gospel also provides a daily journal to track your progress for the 30 days of the program.

I love the scriptures used for each day. 
Day 1- "For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you." - Isaiah 41:13

Day 4- " Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies... she girds her loins with strenght, and strengthen her arms." - Proverbs 31:10,17

I pray that God will give me the strenght to finish this program and that I can be a blessing to other people by sharing this with the ladies from prayer group. 

I will keep you updated with my progress in the program.  If you are interested in purchasing this program.  Let me know. You can order through my coach Angie at,  beachbodycoach.com/KUAngie

Prayer Group Day

Good morning! Today, I'm meeting with the ladies for prayer and meditation in the Word.  After we will be exercising.  We changed the day to Tuesdays.

Since I just received Body Gospel package yesterday, I want to share it with the ladies.

Its a great workout program.  Easy moves, yet you are working out and best of all singing worship songs to God.

Today, I also want to share with you this awesome post from my friend Joseph.  His blog is journey of a Son
be blessed today!

Great Week

Its been a good week, and now its Friday!  My kids have left to school.  Now I'm ready to spend some time reading.  I have been reading a new book.  Satan, you Can't Have My Children, by Dr. Iris Delgado.  Great Book!

One of my goals for this year is to read more.  I have many books on my shelf that have not been read, many are half read.  So I want to read them and donate them to other to enjoy reading.

About this book I'm reading, it is giving me the tools to pray for my children.  The author has had experience in the subject.  She has gone through her own trials and knows that God's Word is powerful.  Our fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil.

Reading this book, reminded me of Stormie Omartian's books.  The Power of a Praying Parent.  I had this book, but in English, but I can't remember what happen to the book.  My Mom found the Spanish versions at Walmart and since then, we have been giving them as gifts to our friends and family.  Love that book.

I met with the prayer group on Wednesday.  I told them about the book.  I asked the ladies to pray for those that have stopped coming to the group.  I believe is the work of the enemy that wants to distract them and not receive the blessings from coming to prayer group.

After prayer group, two ladies and I exercised to a Zumba DVD.  We had so much fun!

At home, I have been very busy decluttering those areas in my  home that tend to pile up with stuff and paper piles.

One area that I worked in was the Kitchen.

This area above the microwave needed some organization.  With the help of some baskets here is the result.

 I moved the coffee maker to this corner with the coffee and sugar bins. It is so much easier to prepare coffee in the mornings.  I moved the dish basket to the other side.  The basket was blocking the disposal switch making hard for me to turn it on when I needed it. I also moved the utensils carrusel  closer to the dish basket.   Now I can easily placed them there after they are dry.  And they are still near when I need them while cooking meals.

I placed the ceramic dishes on the counter instead of the cabinets.  My kids can easily grab them to set the table and not reach up into the top cabinets. I have always been scared that they might fall.  I always used plastic cups and plates for the kids but they are growing out of them. I still keep them in a drawer close to their reach.  All the toddler cups have been retired.  Donated to thrift shops.  They are much better with spilling stuff.  I love that tupperware has this nice cups or tumblers with spill proff tops.  I use them all the time too.

I also worked in the office and laundry room.  I will show you pictures later.

Well have to get back to reading my book.  I almost forgot! I started the Insanity exercise workouts. I'm trying to do the exercises right after I finish the home blessings (5 minutes in each room tidy ups).  The first week is the hardest.  But after the first week, the pain becomes less and you begin to enjoy the workouts.

Hope you all have a great weekend!