Family Notebook, Part 1

Happy Day-After Christmas! I am hoping you all had a wonderful holiday with the family, a joyous time of giving and a great memory making venture! We had a great time with my husbands side of the family. Since I spent my Thanksgiving time with my family in Georgia we were not able to see them over Christmas. I am a little sad, but thankful and content!

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about this year and what I want to change and do differently in this next year. There are a lot of things and a lot of areas of my life and my family's life that I see changes necessary. Basically, I need help. What do I need help with, you ask? I need help with organization and time prioritizing. I have been thinking about the kind of help I need and what decisions I am going to make, for the betterment of our family and the functioning of our everyday lives.

So, this brings me to the MAIN part of this post. A Hodges Family Notebook. Yes, you read that right. For years now, I had played with the idea of a family notebook, I have attempted to kind of put one together, and then I kind of get lazy. Well, I have been doing a lot of research about a family notebook and have seen some awesome ideas [go to my boards on pinterest if you don't believe me!] and I have decided to really, really try to implement this notebook for me and my family for this next year. What is a family notebook? Well, I am glad you asked! I want our family notebook to be our "hub" of information, our "go to" for just about everything we need, when we need it. Here are some of the things I plan to include in our family notebook:

Addresses/Phone Numbers - I can't tell you how many times I have had to call my mother in law, or sister in law, who are both wealthy with information, and it would be nice to not have to take time out to call them and ask them for information that they have already previously given me...and I bet they would appreciate it as well!

Birthdays/Anniversaries - I have a goal this year, and to meet my goal [which I am not going to reveal, because I don't want my family and friends to know if I fail!] and this is an essential tab to have in the notebook.

Emergency/Doctors/Medicinal Information - Danny and I have some health issues and we need to keep all of our information in one place so we can have fast access to give to doctors or maybe in case we have an emergency. Also, there is a lot that goes along with having a special needs child. We have lot of appointments, lots of records, and lots of info to keep up with. This section should help me with all of that info.

Menu Planning/Recipes/Groceries/Coupons -  I have proven time and time again that I can save a significant amount of money if I plan my meals for the week or month and then grocery shop based upon these plans. On average, when I meal plan, I save about $50 a week. That is a lot of money and a necessity when we are a one income family.  I want to keep my favorite recipes, tried and true ones, in this section, and also my inventories and coupon planning [I am by no means an extreme couponer, but I do use coupons when I can!

Bible Reading and Scripture Memorization - I have joined with a PB group of like minded brothers and sisters and we plan to read the Bible through in a year, and I am real excited about that. We also want to plan our devotional time with the kids a little better and this is a perfect place to keep this information for both my hubby and I to get to.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly To do lists -  This will include a daily agenda, appointments, and things I need to get done around the house.

2013 Calendar - This will be the main place I will keep appointments and obligations

Fitness/Food Log: Self  explanatory...I hope...

Finances/Budgeting/Bills - We are starting this new year hopefully really in tune with Dave Ramsey and his methods of budgeting and paying off debt. We really need help in this area and I am really in need of a specific and organized location to keep my records.

So, this is what I am working on at the end of this year. What I want is to hear back from my friends, especially those with families, and I want to hear if you have a home management notebook or method, and if so, what is it. I would love to hear your ideas and stories, etc. so please get back with me. You can email me or message me on facebook, or leave a comment here [I know, that is not always the easiest thing to do!]. Please share your thoughts with me. If you want to know more about my research, you can follow me on pinterest and look at my pins and boards. I have pinned a ton of sites that have tons of free printables and tons of information on how to create a family notebook and the purposes of a notebook of this sort. Let me know what you think!

Reflections of 2012

Here we are at the end of the year. I usually spend a lot of time at the end of the year reflecting on what has happened this year and where I am physically, mentally and spiritually. I am usually down in the dumps about my reflections, but I am trying not to be that way this year. I want to look back on this year and truly look back and think about the good things that have happened, the bad, and the downright ugly. There are so many things to look back on and want to change or do better at. Then there are some things I feel like I did well with, but need to amp it up, so to speak. Then there are so many things that I fell so drastically short on, so many ways I failed or bombed. That's okay, though. I always try to go into a new year with a new plan, new year's resolutions, so to speak. I always seem to start out really well, but then I dwindle down to my comfort zone again. Anyway, these are just some thoughts I am having while I am reflecting. I hope in the next couple of weeks to have some realy good thoughts down in multiple areas of my life and I will share some of my plans for the upcoming year with you all. In the meantime, what are your plans for the new year? How do you come up with plans for the next year, or do you even plan at all? I really would love to hear from you all!

Pain That Will Make You Cry Like A Baby!!!

I want this post to be very informative and very helpful to all of my friends and family. I want to talk to you about home remedies for toothache pain. There are some important things that you need to know, and this past week/weekend has given me a lot of experience and I have a lot of advice for you!

Okay, when you first start to experience dental pain, you have a short window of opportunity to decide whether or not the pain warrants a trip to the family dentist or not. Some things to consider are what day of the week is it? Some dental offices can not see you right away, especially if you are not an established patient. If you are an established patient, you will already have a leg up because dental offices are generally good to their established patients. Also, just how bad is the pain? Is it a sensitivity or is it actual pain. Don't dilly-dally! Make that appt!

Okay, if you are near a weekend and the dental office can't see you until the next week, you are going to be in some inevitable pain, so there are some things to think about. If you have tooth pain and it is GREAT, there is a great chance that you have an infection. A lot of dental offices are not able to fix yout tooth until you have been on antibiotics for a day or two, so you might want to consider going to an urgent care center so you can get started on your antibiotics and get some pain medicine if necessary.

Here are some awesome home remedies to try until you can be seen for your appointment:

  Salt Water: Mix a heaping spoonful of salt in a small glass of lukewarm to warm water, swoosh around inside your mouth for as long as you can, spit out. Repeat a couple times.

Cloves: Rest a clove against the sore area until pain goes away. You can also use a drop or two of clove oil (too much can be toxic) on a cotton swab and hold against the tooth

Alcohol: Swoosh a bit of whiskey, scotch, brandy or vodka. A strong mouthwash that contains alcohol will do the trick too.

Hydrogen Peroxide: Swoosh a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Try diluting with a bit of water.

Vanilla Extract: Saturate a cotton ball with vanilla and hold in place. Can also use a cotton swab dipped in extract.

Almond Extract: Same method of treatment as with Vanilla (above). Peppermint Extract: Same as with Vanilla (above).

Tea Tree Oil: Just a drop or two will do the trick. You can also add some to a cotton swab and hold in place or add a few drops of tea tree oil to a small glass of lukewarm to warm water and swoosh this around.

Oil Of Oregano: Mix a few drops with a bit of olive oil, then saturate a cotton ball with mixture. Can replace the olive oil with lukewarm water if preferred.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Soak a cotton ball with apple cider vinegar (ACV) and hold it in place. Can also try regular household vinegar.

Ginger Root: Take a fresh piece of ginger and chew it a bit.

Garlic: Take a clove of garlic, smash it and apply (settle it inside cheek). You can also mash some garlic with salt.

Onion: Slice a piece of fresh onion and hold it inside your mouth. The onion needs to be freshly cut (so it provides a bit of onion juice).

Cayenne Pepper: Make a paste with cayenne pepper and water.

Black Pepper: You can use this full strength or make a mix of pepper and salt.

Baking Soda: Take a cotton swab and moisten it with a bit of water, dip it in baking soda (coat the swab really well with baking soda) then apply. You can also make a mouth rinse by mixing a heaping spoonful of baking soda in a small glass of lukewarm to warm water, dissolve the soda then swish the mixture in your mouth.

Ice Pack: Cover an ice pack with a face cloth or towel then hold over your cheek where the problem is. This will help numb things. If that doesn’t work, try the opposite–a hot compress (not too hot that it burns your skin).

There are many, many websites out there and information out there that can help. I personally tried all of the remedies above. Unfortunately, my infection was so bad that the remedies only lasted for a couple of minutes and the pain was then greater than ever. The one thing that helped when ALL ELSE FAILED was Ice Water. For 18 hours I had to swig a little bit of icewater and swish it over the infected tooth. As long as I did this constantly, the pain was somewhat alleviated. One word of advice, don't drink all of that water that you are swishing...if you do, you will find yourself vomiting at 5 in the morning because you are drinking too much water.

  Keep in mind that home remedies are not cures. They are just ways to help alleviate the pain until you can see the dentist.

I hope some of this information helps, and may the Lord bless you to feel better soon if you are in pain with a toothache!

Enjoying The Day

I am so excited. We have company coming in this evening. The kids are really excited because it is their little cousins. This is going to be so much fun!We are going to have a big homemade pizza party this evening and just enjoy each other's company. These times don't come around often enough! I have enjoyed picking up around the house with my little 14 month old tag-along buddy. He is the youngest of the kids I watch right now...until Monday! He goes wherever I go and I forgot how much I enjoy having kids this young around. He is a delight. I am also thankful my husband would go to the grocery store with two little three year old girls and do the grocery shopping for the week for me. He is so sweet! Off for now! Get out and enjoy your day!!!

My Little Sponge

I never knew Josiah could or would be THIS excited about school and learning. He is literally my little sponge. He has learned all of his letters in upper case and lower case, and he knows all of the sounds of his consonants and vowels. We can't go anywhere without Josiah telling us what letter EVERYTHING starts with. I can almost say it is like a new fixation for him...but this is a good one. He also is counting like crazy and can count by himself to 100 and is so proud of himself. He doesn't really understand what reading really entails, and is not really into wanting to read, but he loves sounding out the letters in words and doesn't realize he is reading some simple words. Josiah also loves teaching Bethany what he has learned, and Bethany loves hearing what he has to teach. At the beginning of every week on Monday, the teacher sends home 5 front and back pages of "optional" homework. It is suggested by the teacher to do the homework one page a night and turn it in on Friday for stickers on his chart and "husky bucks". He begs me every Monday evening to do all of his homework. We do it all that night, and then he begs me for more. He also asks the teacher to send him home extra work because he already finished his. He loves to sit and do what he calls "seat work". Bethany and the other kids love to do it with him too, so I have to keep them all supplied with pages to work on. If there is no homework to do, there is usually some fussing, but I can usually turn the fussing around if I give him some pages to color. Coloring has always been something that Josiah has NEVER liked to do, but now, he loves to color and practice staying in the lines. I let him do it as much as he wants because it improves his fine motor skills and hand strength, an area where he is lacking. So, I am just so proud of my little boy and so glad that he is soooo in love with learning right now. I hope this love for learning and doing things lasts for a long, long time! Happy Saturday and Happy First Day of Fall!!!

Days Two, Three and Four, Week One Challenge

Okay, so Day Two was a big bust...and I mean big! But, what do you do when the kids are lethargic and just want to lay on the sofa after vomiting all night? Well, we put in a few movies until momma regained some energy after being up all night with the sick kiddos. Do I feel bad or guilty about that? Um, no, not really. I was able to stay off of the computer and get some things done...like nasty, dirty laundry, and when the kids napped, I did a little computing. Day Three we went back to no TV and no computer while the kids were awake/around and I got no fussing from the peanut gallery. That is an improvement! We have gotten a lot of stuff done this week. I have gotten some cleaning things done that I have procrastinated on for quite a while, and the kids have found a new interest in old toys and have learned how to occupy themselves with other things. I think we are going to take this on as a Two Week Challenge...maybe even more! Happy Friday to everyone!!!

Week One, Day One of No computer/no TV challenge

Well, I made it through the day with no computer/no tv while the kids were asleep [okay, so they are not here right now, so that still counts, right?]. I can't tell you how many times I turned to go to the computer [okay, so I did turn on pandora and listen to music from the computer, but I did not sit down and vegetate at the computer and waste time!] and then turned back around and decided to do something else. Here are a few of the things I did instead: I began to prepare for dinner, I folded two loads of laundry, I changed three diapers for a stinky Mr. T, I played playdough with my daughter and the other kids, I washed dishes, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, I filled out my fridge calendar for the rest of this month and this following month, and I did a few rows of crochet on a baby blanket. My husband woke up this afternoon and went on and on about how having the blinds up and the windows open makes the house look so much brighter and cleaner...no, dear, that is the cleaning I was doing [I love him, he is so sweet!]! So, Bethany asked me three times if she could watch a movie. I told her: "No, remember, this is no TV or computer week." She responded well when I suggested other things to do. One time I pulled out a slip of paper and told her we were going to do what the paper said, and it said to play playdough, so she was happy. When Josiah got off of the school bus, he said: "Momma, I'm not going to ask you if we can watch a movie, because it's no TV week, right? Well, I am going to ask you if we can do a piece of paper!" So, we went in, had snacks and Josiah got to pull three different pieces of paper for a TV alternative. He got to play on the front porch with Daddy, got to color and he got to play playdough also. I really, really enjoyed my computer free day, and I think I am even going to bed early tonight because I am exhausted!!! Happy TV/Computer free week, y'all!!! :-)