Wanna know something funny?

I could make a trillion excuses on why my traffic to my blog fell. Loooooong before I had to rebrand it. A lot was consistency. It's something I've struggled with my entire life.

My husband and I decided that today, Monday, February 15th, 2016 was the day we were going to turn our life around. We were not only going to eat better, and start working out, but we were going to concentrate on each other, our family, and God again.

Consistency is the key to success in so many areas of life.. business, love, life, weight, parenting, education, romance, relationships, finances.

Just giving my whole three readers a morsel of insight to think about.

If you feel like sharing- (yeah, the whole three of you), what do YOU struggle with, as far as consistency goes? If not, no worries, I'll just keep sharing my journey with myself. You can call it accountability. Failure is not an option this time. . you might not be watching, but my kids are.

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Valentine's Day

Aside from watching Charlie Brown, our Valentine's Day is just another day. We don't really do anything "special". I mean, I get the dollar fifty hearts with chocolates from Walgreens, and sometimes give the kids cards, but this year, I wasn't feeling it.

I've been sick with an ear infection. 102* fever, and all. Who gets ear infections at over 30 years old?! Me.

Yesterday my hubby took the girl child to a Father/Daughter sweetheart dance at a community Rec Center. They had a blast, until "Whip and Nae Nae" came on.. and my husband said, "Whip? A-No-No."  They decided then would be a great time to go get a snack. They took pictures with Belle, and spun and danced the afternoon away. When they came home, I asked the big boy child, (who's almost the size of man, by the way) if he'd be my valentine and go out on a date with me, despite the fact that I was hopped up on Dayquil & Sudafed. We went to go see 'The Good Dinosaur'. Such a cute coming of age type movie- definitely scarier for little ones, great for the 7 and up group. I digress. We had a lovely evening, and he asked me to be HIS valentine with the other chocolate heart I bought. It was perfectly perfect. Maybe I'm doing something right with him, after all.

My daughter is my artsy one.. she made breakfast in bed for the hubster and I. Scrambled eggs, with a smiley face of ketchup on and around the eggs. So cute. She also made us a card in her crochet club, it was perfect!

I feel like maybe we're doing something right with this one, too. My little guy went Pee-Pee on the potty, so at this rate he WON'T be getting married in diapers, so I guess I'm doing okay with him, too!!

Well, I wish you and yours a happy Sunday-which-also-happens-to-be-Valentine's-Day. Go be with the ones you love, and tell them you love and appreciate them not only today, but every day of the year. Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone.. so enjoy TODAY while you can!

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Happy New Year

As I sit here flipping between Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest and the other stations, I have come to the realization- I am really an "old married woman"!  I had to make the kids cover their eyes during several performances and even a few commercials.

But seriously.. I'm a native New Yorker, and so grateful I'm in the comfort of my own pajamas ..house, yelling at the kids ..enjoying snacks with the kids, and not in Times Square wearing a diaper. (Did you see the chick who admitted that on national television?!)

New year's eve is special to me, because that's the day I met my husband. Both of us weren't supposed to be at this party, but magically, we were. As fate would have it, we married 3 years later and had 3 amazing, but occasionally obnoxious, children.

Three seems to be a good number for me, huh?

Anyway.

2015 started out okay.. we went on a great impromptu vacation to Tennessee and stayed at this adorable little cabin near Gatlinburg. Then, after the kids finished with school, we went to New York for 3 weeks to visit with our family and celebrate my cousin's wedding. Little did I know that that would be the last time I got to see two very special people in my life. Less than two months after we got back, my great Aunt Lu and my best friend Kristy passed away just days apart.

My world changed again. I spiraled into a deep depression, and didn't want to bother with anything for quite awhile. There are still days where I just "don't wanna." I do it though, because of those three kids up there. They really are quite incredible. They've given me some of the best memories of 2015.

So as I sit here with under 9 minutes until the ball drops over New York City, I listen to my loves toot their noisemakers, and jingle their pots and pans, and wish you and your family and friends the happiest and most blessed years ever!

Good riddance, 2015.. Welcome 2016! Happy New Year!!

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Mom Fail- Pre - holiday Edition

With the hustle and bustle of the upcoming holiday, plus holiday break, I forgot today was Friday.

Well, not really, because I thought today was Thursday.

Would have sworn to it, last night and this morning.

Until this morning when my daughter said, "What did we get my teacher for Christmas, Mommy? Oh, and I was supposed to bring in a snack for our Polar Express party."

"Okay, love, mommy will figure something out today, and you can bring it to school tomorrow."

*Giggles* "Mommy, tomorrow is Saturday!!"

What?!

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggggh. I start running through the pinterest ideas that have been shared by all of my overachieving-mom-of one friends, and realize there's no way in high he'll I can even compete and start weighing out the other options my teacher and other friends recommended in a Facebook post from earlier this week.

So, dressed in sweats and a tee shirt (it's the last day to clean before the kids are off for 2 weeks, and I have out of state company coming tomorrow!) I bring her to the bus stop, and as soon as her bus drove away I went and waited at Applebee's for them to open, then went to Dunkin and got munchkins. As I dropped the miscellaneous munchkins off with the office, I prayed that they actually made it to my daughter's class.. As I buckled my little guy back into his car seat, he reached up and grabbed my head band off of my head.

As I watched the two snowmen on springs waggle in my son's grasp, I can only hope that this is what she remembers, not the grinch mama who almost forgot 4th grade Christmas.

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Tis the Season...of Chaos!

Oh, for the love of God!

Stop. Don't touch that. Stop arguing. Take your medicine. Go away from him. Are you kidding me? Leave her alone! Leave him alone! Stop shouting! What are you doing?! Lay down. Get off of that. Stop. Just stop. 

Then tears. 

Usually from the girl child. Sometimes from me.

There's not enough wine in the world to get me through this winter break. 

And it didn't even start yet.

Internet people, help! 

What do you do to keep your sanity over Christmas break?!

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Florida Spring Cleaning.. In December

One of the hazards of living in Florida is the fact that it usually very hot, all year round. When you talk to most people that are from out of state, you find out that they miss the snow, the multi colored leaves in the fall, or just the overall sense of "change of seasons". Rarely, do you hear somebody complain about not having Spring, because in our spring, the weather is just gorgeous!

However, one of the things about our spring is the fact that it's too hot to open up the windows, air out the house, and clean the house from head to toe. Most of us northerners do it anyway, but complain that it's too hot or humid or just leave the house for the day so we don't have to endure the undying 80 + degree heat.

This week,  our weather is gorgeous.  A crisp, 79* at 8:45am...

Twenty days before Christmas,  I decided we are going to purge and organize our house. Our front shoe/coast closet took a day and a half,  and I'm starting to panic,  but there's too big of a mess for me to just stop now!! The good news is that this weekend it is community yard sale weekend. Bad news is that I have a lot of crap,  but I'm not quite sure any of it is worth selling.

I'm hoping tomorrow my husband can take our broken couches to the dump, so I can get the carpets cleaned, and the living room done before Christmas!

I moved a love seat outside and came in for an iced coffee because it was too hot. Pray for me, because at this rate I will be done by the time next Thanksgiving rolls around!

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Skelf on a Shelf

This is the post I shared on my IG tonight.

My daughter asked me, begged me, for a girl #ElfOnTheShelf. Everyone in her class has one, she says. "Please mommy?"

Like a good mom, I told her that I do a great job reporting to Santa how they behave, besides, when they misbehave, Santa probably hears me yell. We giggled.

Tonight, I had some errands to run, and when I came home, she greeted me with, "Mommy, we have an Elf on The Shelf now!"

"We do?" I look around trying to figure out who or what she was talking about.

"Yes, right here, I made its hat, and we can't touch him or he'll lose his magic powers. What do you think?"

"I love him", I said with giggles, "you are the most creative little girl I've ever met!"

"I wonder where he's going to move to tomorrow. I hope he moves!" She beamed with pride.

So, world, meet our "Skelf", or Skeleton-on-the-shelf!

#nightmarebeforechristmas #wenttoherhead #skeleton #ontheshelf #skelf #skelfontheshelf #wehaveaskelfontheshelf #rrwl #lifeinlivingchaos

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