I did talk about simplifying life a few posts back, right? Well… then why am I coming up with all kinds of projects that take TIME to develop? I already had something in the works, I was going to start it somewhere in September, but then a CT member came with a supercool project to develop alongside! I’m totally enjoying it, but it takes soooo much time! I don’t have time!! It’s hard to choose between something fun and something that has to be done. Working outside the house has become ’something that keeps me from home, family and the fun things’. And the schoolyear has only just begun, first week flew by! Leonie is enjoying herself though

Remember the blogpost I wrote with all my dreams and goals? I’ve been thinking about ways to keep track of my progress. I don’t want to make huge goals I can never reach. Like the saving, I don’t want to say: I will save X this month. I’d rather say: hey, by doing this, I actually saved X more than usual! That is something I’ll have to work on.

Because I still need extra time, I started searching for tips and tools to save time. A teething baby that needs his mommy isn’t much help, but hey, that’s why I want to stay at home. To have more time to devote to my kids, I don’t want to worry about my ‘other job’ that needs attention too. I think I have been ‘working’ in some way or another for the entire past week, while I only work for 3 days. How did that happen?

Ok, timesavers!

iVillage has 13 timesaving tips for busy moms (that’s me!)
Real Simple has 18 time saving tips (heck, they have tips for EVERY thing!)
Raising Small Souls has 12 (specially like #2!)

And my personal tip for us moms with little ones: you can do so many things while you carry your baby with you when he/she needs cuddle time! In stead of holding your baby in your arms, comforting him/her or trying to get him/her to fall asleep, you can wear your baby in a baby carrier and have your hands free to do some boring chores around the house! Invest in a good carrier (I myself have a Mei Tai and a RingSling) and you can carry your baby around and save time! I’ve said many times: if Julian decides to become a chef, it’s because he watched me cook so many meals while sitting comfortably on my back! LOL

Ok, this post cost me several hours to write, so time still is an issue here. Hope you have better luck! Here’s a sneak peek to tomorrows release at Elemental Scraps!

HUGE I tell you LOL I’ll be back tomorrow to show you what it’s all about!

This is the last day of my Summer break, tomorrow is the first day of a brand new school year! This one will be extra special, cause it will be the start of Leonies first REAL school year as well!! She will be in the classroom right next to me, which can be good and bad. We’ll see how it goes, I’m super excited for her, and she’s excited to. Got an all new Dora backpack, ‘lunchbox’ (although we use them for fruit) and cup, so she’s ready to start! It will be weird to drop her off at school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and return home with Julian. On Mondays and Thursdays I’ll take Julian to the sitter and Leonie with me to school. She’ll be picked up by that same sitter at lunch time so she can have some quiet time and we’ll get Julian together after school’s over.

The start of a new year brings me in a resolution-mood. I have all these great plans for this year, so many goals I want to achieve, so many dreams about our future. I have been at home since Julian was born for a long time, went back to work for a few weeks before 6-week Summer break began. It made me really appreciate the SAHM-life, and I want MORE! Right now I’m working 3 days a week, I’d love to cut back to only 2. Heck, I’d love to quit alltogether, but that’s not possible money-wise. But 2 days could work, if we make plans. And that’s where the resolutions come in.

* I want us to eat fresh, home cooked meals for at least 4 times a week. Saturdays are bread-and-soup days in this house, and Mondays and Thursdays I allow myself to eat something fried or from the freezer.

* I want us to eat fruit at least once a day. For Leonie it will mean she gets fruit in her lunchbox to school, Julian will eat his fruit at home or at the sitter, but the hardest part is getting MYSELF to eat fruit like I should. I tend to feed my kids and forget about me…

* I want us to cut back on sweets and snacks. I can only imagine how much money it will save us if we’re not buying something to snack for every day! This will be a toughy, cause we snack a lot… too much… and we don’t NEED to.

* I would love to learn how to make mealplans and STICK with them. It will save us money too, cause now we end up throwing too much stuff away and we’re eating expensive and unhealthy food too many times.

* I want to make our vegetable garden work! We do have some kind of veg-garden right now, but it has turned into a total fail this year. The weather wasn’t helping (too cold, too wet, too hot, too dry), and snails and cats weren’t helping either. I plan to do better from now on, as it will help save money (no veggies to buy) and it will make me feel accomplished. I like harvesting from our own garden, I don’t like the work it takes… but feeling accomplished is good, so I want to succeed anyway!

* I want to continue the journey to a simple life. I have started some serious decluttering in our house, and I want to get rid of more ’stuff’ in the next year. We have always put away stuff saying ‘we might need it some day’. Well, if that ’some’ day didn’t happen, it has to GO! I have also adapted a few routines that need to stay routines. Every evening I pick up the toys in the living room. All toys have a place to go, which is due to decluttering, and I can watch tv or work/play at the computer guilt-free when the room is toy-free. It only takes a few minutes, which amazes me! When I look back at pictures when Leonie was Julians age… there was a LOT of clutter in the background. We had a lot to learn then… Keep up the dishwasher and laundry-routines, the vacuming-routine, fit in some sort of cleaning routine… Or is that too much to ask?

* Right now we put a decent amount of money into our savings-account each month. But… we’d like to DOUBLE that amount. We thought of a few ways to save money, mentioned above, but we need to find more. We’re spending X-amount on the sitter, cause I work 3 days a week. When I can cut back on work, it will mean less income, but also less spending on child-care. Conclusion: I have to find something I can do from home. Conclusion #2: I already have something I can do from home, designing LOL Working outside the house less will mean more time to design, see where this is going?

* And from this point on the dreams start: we want to remodel our attic, our bathroom, eventually sell the house and find a new one in a better area with more space. It all comes down to money, I know people say money alone doesn’t make you happy, but it’s something that is attached to all our goals and dreams. I hope to share here what we did to save money, what we did to simplify our lives, what we did to reach our goals. It’s a new dawn, a new day, a fresh start of a new school year! I’m excited!!

Still with me? LOL That’s awesome! If you have similar plans or goals, I’d love to hear about them! At Elemental Scraps there are some exciting changes awaiting too, and I’ll let you know as soon as I have ‘permission’. Right now, I can only show you what will be released tomorrow, sneak peek time!!

Thanks for listening! Putting this all out of my head will hopefully help to keep up. I should scrap my resolutions! Wait.. make that: I should free time to scrap these resolutions…

Gosh, yet another week flew by, now I only have 1 day of summer break left! I am sooo not ready to go back, yet I have preperations to do next week, so I can slowly adjust to the fact that school will be starting again on the 23d. This year will be very special, cause Leonie will also be starting school! She will be in the classroom next to mine, and she is soooo ready to start! She is growing so fast, she’s such a big girl now, and I’m very proud of her. She will have a blast at school, I’m sure! This year will be all better, cause we found a babysitter for Julian that lives close by the school. She will pick up Leonie during lunch break, so she can have lunch in a different environment, and when school’s out, Leonie and I can pick up Julian and go home. Last year I had to drive to the sitter, pick up Julian and Leonie and drive home, which cost me sooo much time.

Ok, enough with the blah blah, lemme show you something exciting!

Crystal and me got together and had a BLAST creating this collab! If you look closely, you can see what the kit is about. There will be freebies to match on both our blogs, so check back tomorrow for more info!

Tomorrow will be the starting point for another fabulous round of Color Play at Elemental Scraps. I love the color palette this month, and was instantly inspired to create the 4 packs I designed. All goodies will be available for $1, so you’ll be able to mix ‘n match to create your own megakit! Now on to the sneak peek:

Want to win ALL 4 of my packs? Leave me a comment here, and I’ll be back on Monday to pick a lucky winner!

and 3 more CU products, coming tomorrow! Ow, and because it’s my birthday, you’ll get Birthday Bliss free with any purchase made next week. AND my entire store will be 30% off! Check back tomorrow to see what’s in store!