$10 at Target: Back Seat Boredom Busters and Organization

When we bought our new van last fall, we moved my daughter to the back seat in preparation for when baby #3 would be joining us.  She loves having the back seat all to herself and being able to color and read to her heart's content, but unfortunately, it's become a bit of a mess due to a lack of organization.  I've been meaning to find something for her to store her different belongings, but it didn't happen.  That is, until I went to Target last week and found some awesome stuff in the dollar spot!

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The Best App for Organizing Kids Artwork and Schoolwork

When I was in 9th grade, my mom brought out a box of my old school papers, pictures I had drawn as a young child, lists of my first words and favorite foods to eat at different ages and so on.  She apologetically told me that she'd tried to keep as much as she could but couldn't hold onto everything and hoped I was okay with what she'd held onto.  I opened a box and it was like a walk down memory lane, except I didn't have memories of everything in the box.  I tried to organize everything by age and then school year but my mom couldn't remember all the dates and could only give me approximate time frames.  If I was lucky, I found a year or even a full date written on the back.  All those pictures and school assignments are now in a scrapbook of mine that I started on shortly after receiving this box of memories and I continued to add to it as the years progressed.  Now I have kids of my own and I find myself wanting to keep every single picture they draw or art project they make, but let's be real: there is no way I can physically hold onto everything.  So what's the solution?  I'll tell you: it's called Keepy.

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Medicine Cabinet Organization

When my husband and I first got married, we had a handful of medicine for basic things like headaches, sore muscles, allergies, a bag of cough drops and cold medicine.  A single box of band aids lasted us a year or more and a tube of Neosporin was barely used in the same amount of time.  Fast forward almost 9 years and the amount of medicine we have has at least tripled if not quadrupled and I'm buying a new box of band aids every other month (more in the summertime) and of course my kids insist on "girl ones" and "boy ones".  Trying to find the right medicine in the middle of the night was starting to become a problem because everything was all over the place.  Can you relate?

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Define Your Time: More Than Just A Time Management Course

Last November when I went to Pinners Conference, I attended a class about how to make the most of your time.  The speaker, Nicole Carpenter, founder of MOMentity, gave us 10 tips for getting more done and most of them were easy enough that you could implement them the next day if you wanted to.  If I had to guess one of the top 3 things most people say the don't have enough of, it's time.  It's elusive.  It goes by too quickly.  It's viewed as either your enemy or your friend.  It's something we don't have control over.  Or do we?

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DIY Hanging Necklace Holder

When my husband and I first moved into our house almost 6 years ago, we had our first shared closet since we'd been married 3 years before.  Up until that point, we'd always lived in apartments and all of them had small closets.  Or maybe they just seemed small to me considering all of my clothes fit into one closet with no room leftover for my husband...  My poor hubby always had to use the closet in the second bedroom for his clothes in each of the places we lived.  So when we moved into our home, we had a bigger closet, which was great.  But there wasn't any room for me to put my jewelry.  I don't like keeping it out on my dresser and prefer to have it out of reach of little hands.  So what to do?

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4 Tips For Staying Organized Using A Paper Planner

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I love paper planners!  I received my first one in 7th grade and I've been hooked ever since.  But it wasn't until I got into high school and college that I started buying planners that were both pretty and practical.  I mean, it's so much more fun to stay organized if you love what you're using to keep yourself organized, right?

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Multi-Purpose Closet Organization

When our home was first being built, my husband and I visited the site multiple times a week to check on the progress.  We were walking through one day during the framing phase and noticed what looked like a closet where we weren't expecting one.  This was really exciting for us because you can never have enough closets!

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How To Host a Successful Yard Sale

Each summer, my mom would hand us boxes or bags and tell us to go through our room and get rid of the things we no longer liked or used.  She also had us help with going through other rooms in the house.  Then we'd price the items we wanted to sell so we could put them in our yard sale.  We had to get up early on the day of the yard sale and help set up, try and sell things to our friends and then take it all down and give away anything that didn't sell.  For as long as I can remember, we did this every single summer.  Even after I moved away to college, I could count on my mom holding a yard sale.  I learned how to let go of unwanted/unused items, how to price to sell, how to count change and many other skills.

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Mod Podge Notebook

If you are anything like me, you like notebooks.  Big, small, patterned, solid.  I've got them scattered around my house and at least three in my diaper bag.  You never know when you're going to need to make a note or a list.  I'm also one of those people who really likes to write things down and I still have a daily planner.  (My husband buys me a new one every year at Christmas.)

And while deep down I know the purpose of a notebook is just to write things down, another part of me just loves pretty notebooks.  However, I don't like spending an extra couple dollars just to have a pretty print or a cute quote on the front.  Do you feel the same?

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Craft Room Organization {Using Chalkboard Labels}

When my husband and I started to work on finishing the basement, my only request was: "Can I please have a craft room?"  Knowing how much craft stuff I have, and how much my husband dislikes when I spread it all over the kitchen counters, he made sure that I had a space dedicated to my craftiness.  (He still likes to call it an office, but we both know it's really my craft room.)

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9 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Going to Disneyland the First Time

In a previous post, I talked about what I learned as I planned our family's first vacation to Disneyland.  We went and had so much fun and now that we are back, I have more tips to share that will make your experience at the park even more magical and stress-free.

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7 Things I Learned Planning Our First Family Trip to Disneyland

We recently went on our first family vacation to Disneyland.  The last time I went to Disneyland was about 15 years ago when I was in junior high so I didn't do much planning (besides finding ways to make money to spend).  In addition to this being our first vacation to Disneyland, it was also our first big family vacation with our kids.  While trying to figure it all out, I didn't really know where to start, so I turned to Facebook and asked my friends for their best Disneyland vacation planning tips.  Then I went to my Disney Pinterest board to look through my saved pins.  I was working within a short time frame (less than 2 weeks to plan it all out) so I needed to get as much information as possible as quickly as possible.

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Guest Post: Smart Credit University: How to Create a Monthly Budget

I'm so excited to introduce the guest poster for today's blog post!  Kevin and I met almost 9 years ago, when we lived in the same apartment complex while I was going to college at BYU.  We didn't interact too much until I started dating one of his best friends.  Even after that relationship ended, Kevin and I still stayed friends and have kept in touch over the years since graduating, getting married and starting our families.  Kevin is truly one of the most honest and genuine people I know.  You can count on him to follow through and he really cares about people.

When Kevin contacted me about doing a blog post for Sunshine and Munchkins, I was thrilled because I love having people share their knowledge on subjects they are passionate about.  Today, Kevin is sharing some tips for how to create a monthly budget.  Check it out below!

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The DOs and DON'Ts of Planning an Extended Family Vacation

A few months ago, we approached my husband's family about doing an extended family vacation as a way to have some family bonding time and create fun memories.  Out of the six kids in his family, four live in the same state as us and within a 30 minute drive of us and each other.  His parents are also local, so we see them fairly regularly.  However, two of his other siblings and their families live in two different states, so we don't see them very often, maybe once or twice a year and it is a rare thing to have everyone together at the same time and place.  Everyone was excited about it, but then the holidays came and life got busy and it got put on the back burner.

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Meal Planning: How Do I Stick with It? (Part 2)

Last week I posted about how to get started with meal planning.  I got a good response so I decided to do a little follow up post about how to stick with it once you've started.

Like with many good intentions, we start out strong.  But after a while, we can fall into the trap of complacency.  Life happens.  Other things take priority.  I totally get it!  However, I think it's easier to stick with something when we think about our "why" or our reason for doing it in the first place.  Maybe your "why" for meal planning is to put healthier meals on the table.  Or maybe it's that you want/need to stick within a budget.  Whatever it is, if it's important to you, then you can remind yourself of your "why" when it comes time to do your meal planning each week (or however often you do it).

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Meal Planning: Where Do I Start? (Part 1)

When my husband and I first got married, I didn't know much about meal planning.  I was used to cooking meals for myself and sometimes my sister, who was also my roommate.  What I made totally depended on what I happened to have on hand that week and more often than not it was a can of soup, pancakes (or some other breakfast food) or maybe a casserole if I was feeling ambitious and needing leftovers for a couple days.  It's not that I didn't know how to cook, but when you're cooking for one, it's just not super motivating to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Fast forward to 2016.  I've been cooking for my family of two, then three and now four for the last 7.5 years and it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I finally decided that I needed to start meal planning.  My reasons were simple: 1) I wanted to make sure my family was eating well, 2) I hated hitting 4:00 or 4:30pm and realizing I had no idea what I was making for dinner that night and then rushing to figure it out, and 3) I wanted to save money.  I decided that I have enough things on my plate as a mom, wife and adult, that if I could make my life a little simpler by planning out our meals for the week then I should do it.

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4 Reasons Why Your New Years Resolutions Are Going to Fail (and how to make sure that doesn't happen)

At the end of last year, I shared a few of my New Year's Resolutions with you.  Changes I wanted to make in my life over the next year.  Some are goals with a deadline.  Others are characteristics I want to develop over my lifetime.  I have self improvement goals, relationship goals, academic goals, spiritual goals, physical goals, and so on.

I was doing a little research and found a recent study giving the statistics of the length of time a person maintains any given resolution.  (My nerd is starting to show, isn't it?)  The study said that only 75% of resolutions are maintained through the first week, 71% past two weeks, 64% past one month and 46% past six months.

So here we are.  Three weeks into 2016.  How many of your resolutions made it past the two week mark?  All?  Some?  None?  Don't beat yourself up if it's less than what you'd like it to be.  I think it's human nature to have the best of intentions when it comes to setting goals.  So why aren't we able to achieve the goals we set?  I think it comes down to four reasons:

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Finding the Balance Between a Clean House, Happy Kids and Your Sanity

Today, like most days, I was straightening up the house—putting away toys, starting the laundry, cleaning off the counter—with my kids trailing behind me.  From the 3 (almost 4) year old: “Mom, what are we going to do today?  Where are we going to go?   Can I watch a show?  Can we do a project?”  The questions keep coming, like they do from curious preschool-aged kids.  And then there’s me, trying to answer the questions as they’re asked, still while trying to clean up: “I don’t know what we’re doing today.  We’re not going anywhere until the house is clean.   No, you can’t watch a show right now, I need you to help me clean up.  We'll do a project when your brother's asleep.”  Meanwhile, the 19 month old is pulling out all the toys I just put away and dumping blocks all over the floor.   Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

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Junk Drawer Organization

Ah, the junk drawer.  Everyone has one somewhere in their house.  Maybe two or three.  It's that convenient place where you throw anything and everything, thinking that you'll "put it where it really goes later".  But later never comes and pretty soon you can't open/close the drawer without having a little fight with the inanimate object.  It's ok.  I've been there too.

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