My Baby Brother is 22.

I honestly cannot believe we are adults. Real adults. Pay your own way, make your own decisions, adults. Scary.

We had Matthew's birthday lunch at my Mom's yesterday after church. Tyler had to leave straight from church and head to work, so he missed out on the fun! But I took him steak and cake, so he was a happy camper!

Mom, Matthew and I. This picture proves that I'm the "future soccer mom" of the group. She's in a shirt from the juniors department, he's wearing skinny jeans. I'm in printed shorts. ha!

Mimi, Matthew and Papaw

Matthew and Danielle

My mom is so funny and made Matthew do a scavenger hunt for his birthday gifts. His girlfriend and I were dying laughing. He wouldn't ever tell her what he wanted, so she got mad that she couldn't watch him open presents! So she went this route. Best decision ever.

Hint #1 Rhymes with Slant.

Hint #2 Check your email.

The poor kid had to check 3 computers before he realized there was a gift card IN mom's laptop. ha!

Hint #3 They tried to make her go to Rehab, but she said no, no, no.

This was the hardest. It was hidden in the People magazine about Amy Winehouse's death. (still sad about that)

Hint #4 I honestly can't remember this hint... it had something to do with popsicles. ha!

Hint #5 Queen of Hearts

It was fun watching my brother being forced to play Mom's silly games. I love silly games and I will SO be that mom!

I made his birthday cake because my mom was going to get a box cake and canned icing. I admit I am a snob. Not so much against boxed cake, but I HATE storebought icing! Especially when it's so easy to make fresh buttercream. Yum! I loved his cake, but thought it might be a little girly. He said he loved it, so I was happy!

he was proud that he got all of his candles at once. 

Happy birthday, Matthew! You might make me want to pull my hair out, but I sure do love you!

Home Management Notebook

A couple of weeks ago Erin posted a home organization notebook. I have seen a few of these floating around pinterest and have been planning to make something like this for awhile. The ideas I had really weren't near as productive as this one little notebook, though. It has really been such a life saver! I know that sounds silly, but it really is wonderful. And you should make one. I already had a few of my printables saved from when I first started to get organized, so I am not sure where they all came from. But a lot of them I found through good old fashioned googling. Then when Erin posted her notebook she had a TON of printable sites to go a long with it.

I'm cheap, so I didn't want to buy a new binder. And I couldn't find one I liked. I'm still on the lookout for something I love, but I did want to make it look pretty and not just like the rest of my binders from school!

My first page is a weekly planner. All I have on here is my cleaning schedule, simple to do lists and specific prayer requests I want to focus on for the week. I actually have had this printable on my fridge for awhile, but I have used it differently than I am in the notebook. I love it because of the verse along the bottom and the prayer spot. I believe I got this from Jones Design Company.

This page breaks down cleaning weekly by room and also has daily and monthly tasks on it. I love this page.

My first tab is the "Niki" tab. Last week my trainer wrote a blog post about needing to keep track of your workouts. So I found this printable and have just begun using it. This tab also has my Junior League info!

The next tab is my "Food" tab. I have used this particular meal planner for a few months, too. Megan wrote about meal planning months back and linked to this printable. I love this. Also, I didn't have a grocery list this week because my mom randomly called and said she wanted to take me grocery shopping and I hadn't had time to meal plan.Yea, that's an unexpected blessing. :)

This tab also has some of my favorite recipes printed off in it. I also have a recipe binder. I put just a few of the recipes I make frequently in here.

The next tab is the finance tab. I added our budget and the bill paying schedule.

My fourth tab is home/auto.

The last tab is our CALL tab. It is housing all of our foster information. Like our fingerprinting info. :) I don't think most people are excited to go get fingerprinted, but when I got this email I was so excited to have another step to move on to!

I've also got our CALL folder in the back full of our paperwork yet to be done. I have a separate file for everything already completed.

I can see that I will definitely be adding to this as the time goes on, but for now these 5 simple tabs are perfect for our family! I am going to get a few pocket tabs for coupons and bills. Now go make your own and link up over at Blue Eyed Bride!

The Most Boring Blog Post Ever

Do you have a great cleaning schedule? I need it. This is possibly the most boring blog post you will ever read. 

We spent the weekend in Oklahoma with family so I have been playing catch up the past two days. All I can think about is whether or not there is a more efficient way to get my cleaning done. I'd love to hear how you do it. Do you do all your dusting on one day or do a different room each day? I usually do Kitchen/Dining one day, living room and bathrooms one day and bedrooms one day. Do you do laundry all at once or a little each day? Split it up by people in the house or do everyone's together? 

Also, I'd love to know your favorite cleaning supplies! I used to make my own laundry detergent until I started having allergic reactions to everything and switched to All Free and Clear. I use 7th generation or Mrs. Meyers sprays and soaps.

If you will, lovely blog readers, please let me know your secrets! 

The First of Many

I am not usually someone who freaks out over the small stuff. I really try not to worry about things that are out of my control. In other words. I am SO not Type A.

So this morning may have freaked T out just a bit when I panicked over not being able to find a folder. I have never in my life panicked like I did today. This particular folder is always in the same spot. But we are flip-flopping some things around and it apparently found a new home. This folder happens to have ALL of our C.A.L.L. and DHS  stuff in it. I can't really explain the amount of paperwork I thought I had lost. Months of filling out forms. Our birth certificates. Insurance information and OUR MARRIAGE LICENSE.

At one point I ended up in the floor of our bedroom sitting in a meditation position breathing deeply, counting to ten and praying. I was praying over a folder. But after I got up from my self induced calm-down-you-are-legitimately-freaking-out-your-husband session, I got back up and began to look again. And I found it. Everything. It had just fallen behind something else.

Then I posted to twitter. ;) And my sweet friend Kim "reassured" me that this would be the first of many panic attacks I have during this process. Kim was one of the first to find out we were doing this. She has 2 adorable miracle boys. One by the blessing of adoption and one by the blessing of biology. Both equally and perfectly hers. She is seriously such a blessing to me. I have asked her multiple questions and she has been so wonderful and patient answering them all. I told Kim I needed to mark this day in the calendar as one of our "firsts" during this season. She suggested I start a journal. Pretty perfect since I just bought a new composition book last week. It has a new duty.

Now that I have gotten this first panic session out of the way, we'll wait for the many more to come. For today, I am going to organize and print off the rest of the forms we have. Hopefully not too many to give me carpal tunnel.

The first is always the hardest, right? :)