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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Guest Post!! :)

Hi guys! Today, I have a special treat for you...a break from me! (Just pretend you're sad about that.) Truthfully, I really wanted to give you an opportunity to meet my friend Nicole. I refer to her frequently and have stolen several 'catch phrases' from her. (If ever I use the words 'crap ton' to describe something I have a LOT of...that would be thanks to Nicole. 


Anyhoo...Nicole has been blogging for a long time. She, in fact, is the one who inspired me to start blogging. She is as real as they come, people. She's hilarious, a bit dramatic at times :), incredibly fun, a fantastic mother, a perfect co-teacher (we used to teach kindergarten together before she abandoned me to become a SAHM, a freakin awesome cake maker/decorator and is addicted to cleaning, cooking  and organizing. 
These are my homegirls...
L to R: My sister Mary, friend Sarah, me, and friends Anabelle and Nicole (Doesn't she look like fun?) 


Let's put it this way. She and I used to go to a training meeting together one Monday a month, a drive that lasted about 35 minutes one way. I would always offer to drive because I knew that by the time we arrived, she would have sifted through all the trash and 'stuff' in my car leaving it beautifully clean...until the next month.  :) I miss those days...  


Anyhoo, I'd love it if you'd hop on over to her blog and take a look-see! Even better, be a follower. (All the cool kids are doing it.) You won't be disappointed. She's got pictures of cute kids, tips for organizing, cleaning, cooking, MENUS, and more. It doesn't disappoint. Leave her a comment and tell her I sent you! (Lol...I've always wanted to say that. hee hee...)


On that note, I leave you with my friend, Nicole!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Hello there! I am Nicole from A New Normal and I am so happy to be here today! Here's a little about me, cuz I am sure you are all dying to know, right?  I have a three year old little boy named Brody, a four year old little girl named Delaney, a step-son, Daylen, who will be 14 in two weeks and a step-daughter, Kaylie, who is 16. I can't forget to mention our four legged kids- we have a mutt (Sandy) that we rescued in Mexico and a mastiff (Opie) who is about 170 lbs. and full of spit. Life is not boring.
Right now, our biggest challenge is living in an 1100 square foot house with all the chaos (Kaylie does not live with us, so it's just the 3 kids). Next year, Eric and I will be living our dream and building our own house which is the reason we have downsized for the time being!! Whew...so that's my life in a nut shell!


If you know me, then you know that I love things to be organized and neat. I believe that it helps our life flow so much better when everything has it's place, when I am not looking all over creation for something (I realize creation right now for me is tiny, but you understand) , or when we need to get out of the house quickly. I am a work from home mom and need to manage my time well. Being organized totally does this for me. While I don't have multiples, I do have multiple children and know how hard it is to keep things clean, safe and organized, and I wanted to share a few of the tricks that help me.


First of all, I clean with Shaklee cleaning products. I. love. them. They are non-toxic, organic and super concentrated, so they save us money! Plus, the kids can be around them and even help! Oh yeah, and they totally work!! I like that I only have a few bottles under my sink, as opposed to a bunch of cleaning products that I have to dig through to get to the one I need!!

The Basic H makes all three of these, plus you can wash the floors, your car, your couch, the possibilities are endless!
To make the window cleaner, all you need is 16 oz of water and TWO DROPS of the Basic H- if you only made window cleaner out of the Basic H, it would be the equivalent of over 5,000 bottles of Windex. Talk about saving money (and the planet)



I don't know about you, but I can't stand how much mail comes in everyday (okay, I admit, I don't actually check the mail everyday, but still)! I was sticking my bills in different places and then totally forgetting to pay them. It was bad- like breathing a sigh of relief because the lights were still on bad- all because I would forget to pay the bills because I never knew where they were! Who does that? So I said enough is enough....and the Finance Binder was created.





**Random fact:  I really love binders- forget flowers, Eric could come home with a new binder, some new dividers, and label maker tape and I would feel like the luckiest girl in the world.**


Another way that keeps our life in check is menu planning. This is something that has tremendously helped us to save money and become more organized. It also eliminated the question that I would hear every day around 4:00- "What are we having for dinner?" At first, they would still ask and I would point to the board with an annoyed, duh look on my face, but now, they just look. I love it! Next to the board I have my daily and weekly schedule and my dry erase board.


This is our menu board...that's magnet paper- I know- 
your mind is blown!


Here's where ya get to me know a little better.... and when you may raise your eyebrows and say, "holy smokes- nerd". I get excited over really random things. Like, when my car is super clean, or when I get a new SHaklee shipment in the mail, or planning a trip to Ikea- total excitement. Imagine, just imagine how excited I was when Eric and I planned a trip to Ikea to get a life changing piece of furniture. 
Are you imagining it? No? Come on.... me, jumping up and down, doing a little shaky shaky thing with my booty- yes-there was scene. But that's okay, because this shoe cabinet is amazing!! No more shoes all over the house, no more searching for that one missing shoe- nope- all right there. 


                   




                             


That's just a few ways that I try to keep my family organized. Thanks for having me here today! Ami is a great friend of mine and I am so grateful to be able to guest post on her blog! She has some super awesome readers! And if you are looking for a work from home job, I encourage you to check out Shaklee. It's a wonderful company and I love what I do!


Feel free to pop over to A New Normal and let me know your favorite way to organize!!




Coming soon to a blog near you: Shaklee vs. The Bunchkins.... dun, dun, dun..... 

Can you handle it?









4 comments:

Mary said...

I miss the days when we lived together and I never had to vacuum Nicole! You are a super organizer and I love the menu planning with recipes : ) I can't wait to use the basic h from shaklee that I got in the mail yesterday!!

Anabelle said...

Remember, before Nicole moved in, we used to call her to come over to clean for us? So fun!

Do you still offer that service, Nicole??

Menu planning has seriously saved my marriage! No kidding. It's the best thing EVER. Maybe I should try it a month at a time too.

Nicole said...

Mary- I LOVED living with you! Cleaning that house was always fun! And I'm excited you got your Basic H- the cleaning cloths have been ordered and I will get them to you as soon as they come!
Anabelle- I will come clean your oven-if you become a member and order something from Shaklee;)And I'm so happy you menu plan now!! So awesome. It's the best. Thanks girls for commenting on my first guest post! And thanks AMi!!

Delaney said...

:)
-Delaney (Your class of 2003)

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