N O V E M B E R Goals.

Holy crap! October has come and gone. In October we celebrated my birthday, took our kiddos to the pumpkin patch, attended a dear family friend's beautiful wedding, my Husband also officiated this wedding. I attended a great blogging event. 

Whew! It was a busy month! Now that it's November I'm itching to put up my tree but I'm trying to hold off till after Thanksgiving. What about you? Do you already have Christmas decorations up?

Tell me you already do, so I can plead this cases to my Hubby! ;) 

November Goals:

01// Read I new book.

Last month I read two. Pretty excited about that, let's keep the trend moving.

02// Finish Christmas shopping & wrap all the gifts.

Gah! I'm still not done. Almost just two left to get.

03// Finish making all my stock to sell at Phoenix Flea this month.

I got a fresh batch of new notepads to sell. And I need to start printing the prints I will be selling and packaging it all up.

04// Buy furniture for the guest room.

We need a couch in there, specifically a hide a bed one. We have family coming for Christmas and need extra sleeping space, plus I wanna couch in there any way.

05// Start a new workout routine.

Ya'll I'm so bored, I need something new.

06// Photograph new shop products.

07// Address & mail Christmas cards.

They are done. They are sitting in my office. They just need addresses & stamps! Feeling on top of it!

NEW TO THE SHOP:: Coffee First. To-do List Later Notepads

Happy Saturday lovelies! Today I'm excited to share with you a new product that just hit the shop. If you're a coffee drinker like myself, you'll appreciate this. Sometimes you just need to have your first cup before you can start to think about planning your day. Can I get an amen! 

It's also about taking the time to slow down before getting started for the day. Not everything needs to be rushed the to-do list can wait for a second. 

Each note pad comes with 50 sheets per pad. And measures 5.5 in. x 4.25 in. Perfect to fit in your purse, or to leave on your desk or counter. 

They are $10 + shipping. You can purchase them here in The Everyday Shop. They would make great hostess gifts or stocking stuffers this Christmas! 

These will also be available for purchase at the end of the month at Phoenix Flea for all my Arizona locals! Happy Shopping! 

How We Saved on Our Disneyland Vacation

This past summer we took a family vacation to Disneyland! It was the first time we've taken our kids as well as it was my husbands first visit. I did a lot of research before our trip, there's tons of useful tips on many blogs and websites. Doing all the research before hand really helped me wrap my mind around the park layout and what were the best places for us to start with little ones. What they might be attracted to most, what "lands" were most age appropriate for them as well. 

Right away we knew this trip to Disneyland was going to be done on a budget. Disneyland is just like any other travel venture you might do: It's as expensive as you want it to be. 

With that in mind we kept things about making memories and not about how much stuff we could bring home, or how much money we could spend on eating and treats. Besides the money we spent on tickets and hotel we brought $200 cash into the park. We used this money for food and souvenirs. Keep this number in mind as you read. 

Here's how we did Disneyland on a budget and saved money from my family of four! 

1. We booked our Disneyland tickets through Getawaytoday.com

First I want to say I'm not affiliated with this company we just found them very useful in planning our Disney trip and helping to save money. We saved $60 in tickets through this website, and we didn't have to pay for Zane because he was under 3, so he was free. We also saved 30% on our hotel booking through Getaway Today instead of through the hotel directly. 

     2. We stayed at a hotel with a free shuttle to Disneyland

Our hotel was 5 miles from Disneyland, I know there's a lot of debate and pros to staying onsite at Disneyland or across the street from Disney, but when looking at our budget and what we wanted to spend this didn't fit into our plans. We stayed at a hotel that had a free shuttle service, we could come and go from Disney and use the free shuttle service as many times as we wanted to. This ended up working out really well for us and was very convenient for our family. We saved $34 by using the free shuttle and not parking onsite. 

     3. Bring your own snacks & water bottles into the park

This was a tip I read on just about every website I found, and it's a good one! We bought about $40 worth of snacks, dry cereal and water to bring into the park each day we were there. Disney allows you to bring your own snacks, strollers even wagons into the park. Fill them up with snacks and water so that you aren't running to a snack bar every second for food! There are water fountains all around the park to refill your water bottles, also all of the dining places will give you free cups of cold water with ice that you can refill your bottles as well. Take advantage of this.

    4. Limit the amount of meals you eat in the park

We planned on eating only a few meals in the park, and a few snacks. We ate lunch one day in the park and then next day we ate dinner in the park. Both times we choose quick dining options instead of sitting down at one of the park restaurants. My kids shared meals since we had brought snacks in, and I even ate a kids meal as well since the portions were pretty big. We stayed for fireworks one night and had ice cream and shared a few larger snacks. 

    5. Limit the number of souvenirs and extras you buy in the park

Let me also say that during this trip we did not take part in any of the character dining experiences. This being our first trip we wanted to see how much of the experience we could get in before doing any of the extra stuff that costs more money. What we found out is that we got to see a lot of the Disney characters and Ava was able to interact with many of the Princesses and Fairies that paying extra for these experiences weren't needed. We also limited the amount of souvenirs. We decided well before going that we were only going to buy our kids 2-3 souvenirs each. We stuck to this number and tried to find things that would be lasting as part of their memories and not just trinket toys that would break easily. Each of our kids got a pair of Mickey ears (no personalization), and a clothing item. 

I hope you've found these tips helpful in planning your next trip! We had so much fun on our Disney trip and we're already looking forward to when we can visit Mickey again! Disney really is such a magical experience for your family. 

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Sharing My "Me Time" Secrets.

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Weave Made Media® and PEOPLE StyleWatch®, InStyle®, but all my opinions are my own. #weavemade #MeTimeMags http://my-disclosur.es/RgFrEH”

One of the ways I promised myself I'd starting "thriving" in motherhood this year was taking time for myself. As a wife and mom both of those are my favorite and most important roles I'll probably ever have but it's important since I'm the one taking care of people all day errrday to make sure that I take time for myself too! 

I think this is an essential in mothering and I think all to often most mamas don't make time for themselves like they should. I'm guilty too. 

That's why this year I promised myself I'd change that. 

Wanna know my secret? 

I realized that this was so important for me to do, vital even for me to make time for. To take time during the week and recharge! I told my husband how important it was as well, and I just put it as part of my regular schedule. 

Usually once a week I like to get out of the house by myself, unplug and recharge. I run errands, sometimes I go get coffee and sometimes I walk the aisles of Target. 

I also love to steal away "me time" moments in my bedroom with some of my favorite magazines and Netflix! This past Saturday was the first Saturday we've had free in weeks. I took two hours that day and locked myself in my room with my PEOPLE StyleWatch® & InStyle® magazines, a beverage and my Netflix! 

It was a much needed break. Mamas need moments too. 

But I am reminded that they don't have to be grand or even expensive at all. Just little moments that you can relax and make time for yourself to feel better and in turn that makes you a better more patient mama! 

Right now at Safeway save $1 on one (1) participating magazine title PEOPLE, PEOPLE StyleWatch, Sunset, and InStyle available through the Just4U online portal 10/23/14 - 11/20/14 (while supplies last) go here to register for Just4U and get your coupon! 

What are some of your favorite ways as a mom to relax and have some "me time" moments? Share them with me in the comments below! 

The Lord Will Fight for You.

this print and others are available in my shop, go here to shop this print and others. 

I started out this year knowing that there were some really specific things that God was asking me to surrender, some things God even asked me to give them up. 

They'd become idols to me. 

At first I'll be honest, I didn't want to. I wanted to keep them close to me, control them and I wanted to decide that I was going to do with them. Not Him. 

At the end of last year I surrendered those things to God, not knowing if I would get them back or see them again in my life. I did it knowing that God wanted to do some really specific things in my heart through that sacrifice. 

It was a pruning time for me. I think during that time God decided that he'd just prune all the things in my life while he was at it. 

All this stuff started coming out of the wood work, so to speak.

I began to be challenged in my faith. I began to be challenged in my relationships and friendships. Good and bad. 

This entire year has been a year of revelation, learning to trust God in new ways, learning to let go of things that weren't really my own anyway. They were his. 

As I mentioned I've been going through a rough time this year in my friendships. I've felt attacked, I've felt not heard or listened to. I've had my character come into question as well as my motives. Things that have rocked me to the core and deeply saddened me. 

I've gone back and forth about what to do. What do I say? How do I handle this in a Godly way? How do I show the love of Christ and rest in him through this time?

God kept bringing me back to this scripture in Exodus 14:14

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. 

When Moses says this to the Isrealites it's right before they cross the Red Sea. They are fleeing Egypt and breaking free from Pharoah. A time and season where they faced persecution and unfairness towards them. 

Some crazy stuff, plagues, death of first born sons, the passover. Crazy things I've never experienced in my life. 

And in this moment when they are about to cross the sea into freedom, Moses tells them don't be afraid (Ex. 14:13) stand firm and you will see deliverance the Lord will bring you to today. Then he says;

The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.

Sometimes there's a whole lots of chaos around us. Sometimes there's a whole lot of pain, uncertainty, sadness and heartbreak all around us. Sometimes our flesh wants to rise up and tell people off, or defend ourselves in righteous anger. But that's not what God wants. 

He wants us to be still. He wants us to rest in Him. 

He wants us to know that he will fight for us. He's already gone to battle for us. He's already won the victory for us. 

We need only to be still and rest in Him. 

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