People are Nice

I've seen some sweet gestures lately that remind me that most people are nice.  If you're looking for encouragement about the state of our world, read on....

When Andrew was in 2nd grade (6 years ago) he made a valentine for one of the young ladies who worked in his after-school program.  We left that school a couple of years later, and wouldn't you know that the same young lady ended up becoming the preschool teacher at his new school?  Now Andrew is in 8th grade, and this week she sent me this message:

"Mrs. X and I were just talking about how wonderful Andrew is, and I remembered this sweet Valentine from him way back in the day!"

This isn't a tale of Andrew's sweetness (though he sure was!) but rather of somebody thinking a kind thought about one of my children and actually reaching out to tell me.  So many times I think about how wonderful somebody is but don't go the next step to let them know.  Gotta change that!

7QT Friday, I mean Monday

Life has been relatively boring around here lately, hence the lack of writing and gramming.  Not boring as in "nothing to do" but rather boring as in "same old stuff, different day" kinda routine.  But I'll try to pull together 7 quick takes to help me get back in the writing game....and then post them late.  Sorry Kelly!

1)

I filed my taxes this week.  I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've ever filed. 

I completed our federal, waited for MA state to be released, then did those too.  I filed for JP as well, and charged him 10% of his refund for my services.  Gotta teach life lessons!  I've said it before, but I've used many different tax programs (worked at H&R Block and at CPA firms) and TaxAct is super easy to use and sooooo inexpensive.  JP's taxes were filed for free and I think mine cost about $60 total. 

7QT: March for Life, Run for Life, Patriots for Life

It's a (barely) snowy Friday morning here - we've had such a nice dry winter, I can't complain at all, plus it's Friday and the Patriots are in the playoffs this weekend, so Colleen's a happy girl! 

Why you gotta talk about yourself in the third person, Colleen?

That's a good question, Colleen.  I'll get back to you.

1)

My three oldest babies are marching for life today!!

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo - What I Love, What I Like, and What I Can't Get on Board With

In light of the Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, I thought I would repost this article I wrote a few years back.  I loved reading this book and applied changes to our house immediately.  The new show makes me like the author even more - she is so cute and joyful - and is inspiring me to go through my home again.   I am planning to start the process (though on a much smaller scale!) on our first snow day, yay! My family is so excited ;)  Here is the original post in it's entirety....

~

So if you're like me from last week, you don't know what the KonMari Method is.  You've never heard of this bestselling book that seriously is changing people's lives.

Isn't the author, Marie Kondo so beautiful?  Doesn't her living room look so peaceful and uncluttered behind her?  The tidying method she explains in her book is called the KonMari method, which is a play on her own name.  Get it?

We are beginning the process of seriously trying to sell our house.  We have a realtor coming over at the end of the month, and we have been saying that we need to get the house ready but have lacked the major motivation needed to do any work.  Six kids and sick kids can do that to the best laid plans.  So there I was, in the middle of Lent, feeling overwhelmed at the thought of getting my house ready to sell and keeping it ready to show.  

Book, Cook, Look - January 2019

Here's what I'm reading, eating, and wearing this month...

~ BOOK ~

For Christmas, I received Rachel Balducci's book, Make My Life Simple, and loved it as much as I love the author herself.  Rachel's newest book is part FlyLady, part Marie Kondo, part spiritual director, and 100% real.  She gives good, practical tips on how to simplify your life in all areas, while sharing bits and pieces of her own journey and struggle.  

Rachel doesn't know this, but she helped me with my laundry game years ago, when she blogged about her system.  It's how we've been doing it at the Martin Casa for a long time now, and it actually did make me like laundry a little better.  Not quite as much as Rachel, but she has her own kind of crazy :)  

A new tip that Rachel shared was about self-care being worth our time because it actually saves us time in the future.  She explains how just making time to get her eyebrows waxed reduces all the worry and work put into trying to make them look ok every day.  Once you just get it done, you can move on and focus on the bigger important things in life, but if you keep putting it off, it's actually draining your energy every day.  Makes total sense, and fits in with my Dad's motto of "For all the time you've spent complaining about doing it, you could have already gotten it done!"  Life lesson right there.  

So go ahead and get yourself this little gem of a book, it's a quick read full of lovely advice on the importance of destressing and simplifying our lives as much as possible.  Good work, Rach!

7QT: Blogs, Sex, and Taxes...Oh My!

Happy 2019!! Linking up with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes Friday....

1)

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear blog, happy birthday to you!

 I hope to keep blogging through this year, as it will be 11 whole years this month that I've typed our family's memories in this little space.  Each year I make a book from this blog, and hopefully one day my kids will appreciate the yearly "scrapbooks" their mom took the time to create.  Or at least they can pull it out for the therapist to explain exactly how I ruined them ;)