I Am Officially A Pinterest Addict.

Hi. My name is Lauren and I am a Pinterest addict. I guess it could be worse! I have discoved how to make my own laundry soap. Which smells AMAZING, might I add. This weekend I will be attempting to make my own bread for the first time along with my own fabric softener! So excited.
I have also started planning meals for an entire month. Well during the first part of Feb., soccer season begins. That will be 3 evenings a week I will need dinner via crockpot. Pinterest has given me so many great dinner ideas. There are several blogs I have found that give a lot of make ahead meals that I can freeze. HELLO FREE TIME!!!!  This is going to help me out BIG TIME!! I can get most of my frozen meals prepared one morning while my daughter is at school. So cool!
I don't know what I will do with the extra time I will have from doing this? Play on Pinterest some more' perhaps.

Out With the Old and In With the New.

WOW!!!! It is almost 2012! Where did 2011 go!??!!!!! In just the last few weeks, my daughter turned 3 and my sone turned 6. We found out we were expecting a 3rd and then much to our disappointment,we had a miscarriage.Halloween and Thanksgiving have both come and gone.We made it through the 1 year mark of my Uncle Whyne's passing.One child is out of school for Christmas vacation and the other gets out in a day and a half. I have blinked and the year is almost gone.
It is scary how much time seems to move faster and faster with each passing year. I can remember being young and it would feel like time was at a halt and going by sooooooo slowly. Not now! I wake up at 6:30 and then all of a sudden,it's bedtime again. Another day done and crossed off that we will never get back.
Right now my children are so excited about Christmas that they can hardly stand it. Today is the 13th of December. In 12 days, there will be no more gifts under the tree.I'll be thinking about Spring and flower beds as I try to unswcrew toys out of packages since they are no longer held in with twist ties. I want to savor the next 12 days and see Christmas time through the eyes of the two most precious gifts I have ever received.
We have a sneaky little elf that has been visiting us for the last 2 weeks. his name is Frodo Doh-Doh. The best part of each morning to the two of them is seeing where Frodo Doh-Doh has moved to and if he got into to any mischief the night before. I have been trying to have fun with it this year. I have. Mostly. Except on those nights when I wake up at 4 am and realize that I forgot to move him and have to come up with something half asleep.
I know that I must enjoy these days because they too will pass in the blink of an eye and all too soon I will be handing out money instead of toys to two teenages who think that Christmas fun is lame and want to sleep until 12 on Christmas morning instead of waking me up before the sun. The thought of it brings tears to my eyes as I type.

The Days Are Long But the Years Are Fleeting.

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. I thought it was just a couple of weeks but has been a bit longer than I actually thought. I have been consummed by planning birthday parties, playing taxi, coaching both of my children in soccer, COUPONING (!!!), playing teacher also now that we are in full homework mode.
Soccer season ends this weekend which I find bittersweet. I LOVE coaching! This season though my daughter was old enough to play also. Coaching 2 teams at one time has been tough. She is in one age group and my son is in another. Until this season I have NEVER missed a game! That has been the hardest part for me. Hopefully next season I can get them on the same team or at least on the same group of fields!
I have REALLY been sucked into the worl of couponing. It is getting better and better with each trip and I am learning little trips as I go. I have yet to get my bill from $300 down to $50. That is what I would like to learn how to do. I know that like everything else, with practice, I will get there.

Church Shopping

Up until about a year ago, we were members at a church that we were very actively involved in. As does every church, there was drama. I know that some of you are thinking "My church doesn't have any.Thank goodness." WRONG! You just don't know it. It IS there and every church has it. It reached a point though where I was unhappy and so my loving husband, being the man that he is, decided to go along with my idea of church shopping.
Now when I think of shopping, I think of something that easy to do. Church shopping is NOT easy. Parent 1 has certain needs that need to be met. Parent 2 has some of those same need but not all of them but they also have some that Parent 1 doesn't have. Then you add children into the equation. Child 1 is older and can do more. Child 2 is still pretty young but old enout to have needs, not just nursery. This is a hard thing to do. Meet ALL those needs. And find it in 1 place.
Fast forward 1 year. We are back to our starting point. Kinda. We have yet to find that place where everyone can agree. Church 1 that we originally began in has changed some. Lo and behold, there are more options now to meet more needs of all 4 of us! I don't know yet that it is where we are suppose to be but there is no happenstance with God. No coincedences. Who knows, but for now, we will see.

A Little About Me.

First things first. I am a Christian, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend. I have 2 children. A boy who is almost 6 and a daughter who is almost 3. I have an amazing husband whom I love dearly. I am a Stay At Home Mom. I am the Room Mother for both of my children's classes. This is a new thing for me. My son just entered "Big School" this year. A.K.A.-5K. My daughter attends 3K at another school. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to do this, this year. I also have the chance to come into my son's school and help out in other areas. This is very important to me because when my son says "So-and-so..." I want to know who so-and-so is. I want to see what he is doing in school, not just what he brings home in his folder.
I also enjoy couponing. I am not one of those couponers who can go to the store and get $300.oo worth of groceries for $2.15. If I can save half of what I spend, I am THRILLED! I have also just recently decided to begin The Total Money Makeover. I know some of you might read that and think, "wow,she is about 3 years behind the bandwagon." I am an inpulse spender so I think this will be a great thing!
I also enjoy running and working out. I was a fitness instructor up until the beginning of the summer. I know that when I start back running and hitting the gym next week, it will be like starting alllll back over again. I am looking forward to it though. Not running or working out, I feel like I am taking advantage of gifts that God has blessed me with.
I am VERY Type A. You know those people. The types that have their Christmas Cards finished before Halloween. They can turn to any month for the next 6 months and tell you if they should have anything on the calander. The menu is planned out for a month. They don't like disruption to their schedule. Yeah, that's me. I wasn't always like this though, believe it or not. Having children changed me. I can't run a household smoothly with 2 VERY active children and not stay on top of things. When I say active, I don't mean like running and climbing the walls. They do that too though! But they each have a few activies that they each participate in  each week.
Some people think that I push my children too much and don't always let them just be children. I don't feel that way. I danced when I was younger but that was it. Both of my parents worked CRAZY hours so that was all I could do. I want to nourish their interest when they express interest. I want them to strive to do their best. I see so much potential in each of them,that I just want to help them bring it out. I don't want them to settle for average. It is not an average worl out there. It is a dog eat dog world and it will be even worse in roughly 20ish years when they reach the work force. Average might not cut it then.
But this is just a little about me. Nice to meet you!