"7" Month Two May 8th, 2014

Monday was the start of month two of 7. Let me tell you, if you can make it through month one, month two is cake. Literally, cake, everyday. If you so desire....

Month two focuses on clothes. We can pick 7 articles of clothing to wear all month. They can be laundered, so we won't be avoided at gatherings come week 3, but otherwise your 7 are your 7. Shoes count as one in a general category, although we decided the whole shoe closet wasn't open, everyone would pick the few pairs they really needed and stick to those.

I started working on my 7 the day before small group. My list was fairly easy, but the process was made easier when I showed up at group to find out that everyone decided a workout outfit was a freebie, since not allowing that would discourage people from working out. Since I LIVE in workout clothes this helped me a lot, because I got to pick some more clothes. Woot woot!

Here are my 7 articles (no shoes in the photo, so 6 I guess). The biggest challenge is Indiana May. Do we pick winter, summer, or something in between. For example, today was 90 degrees, but next week it will be back to 60. So I chose:

1. Blue "fancy" top. I can wear this to church or "out" with jeans, or in a pinch with my black pants.

2. Jeans. All purpose. Enough said.

3. Green dress. I figured if it gets hot, I can wear this, and as a bonus it's an entire outfit in one item. 

4. 3/4 sleeve tee. It's paperthin, and I found a hole in it when I photographed it, but I guess it'll get lots of love for the next 25 days.

5. Workout top (You may notice a lack of workout bottoms. Don't worry, I'm using the freebie capris for both tops)

6. Black Matilda Jane pants. These are no yoga pants. They are nice and thick and warm, which is great most of the time just not today. 

7. Shoes

Picking out my 7 I realize I have a LOT of stuff I don't really like, is in poor condition, or I just haven't worn in forever. I'll be investigating that further this month.

Dinner Date May 7th, 2014

When did dinner at a sandwich joint and a trip to the grocery store become date night? If you're 21 and reading this, you're probbaly horrified, and feeling pretty sorry for me right now. But if you're a mom of young kids who's been married more than a decade, you know the secret.

The secret is time together. In the presence of the one you love. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be expensive. It DOES have to include that special person. Tonight the girls have Awana, and Mike and I have date night. At the beginning of the school year, we went to dinners, dessert, and as always had a great time. 

One week we decided to run to the store to grab a few things, and realized we had just as much fun. Some weeks we even skip dinner and, dare I say it, shop at Meijers AND Sam's on the same night. 

Here's my date tonight. Isn't he handsome? Love this guy!!!

Crazy Days!! May 6th, 2014

Don't you just love when your kid gets off the bus and you immediately have to put them to work? Poor Ms. O, she took it like a champ! When she got home today she had to sit right down and work on homework. After homework she got changed and I took her to dance.

Beginning of the year dance included a leo, tutu, pink tights, and matching pink ballet slippers. I wish I had a picture of what end of the year dance looked like, but let's just say it involved some random dress, blue short socks, and ballet slippers. I have given up, and am officially ready for summer.

Olivia usually dances on Mondays, which of course I chose because it fits in our schedule. This weekend is her dance recital though, so practice was changed to Tuesday at 4 instead of Monday at 3:15. Since Tuesday is a Clara preschool day I dropped Olivia off, picked up Clara, hit the Bread Smith, and came back. I was doing mental math in my head, figuring out the best way to use the time between 5 and 6 when the sitter comes to watch the girls so Mike and I can go to Rumble.

I'm sitting there waiting, and waiting, and it feels like forever because I lost my phone, and no one wears a watch these days, and there isn't something useful like a CLOCK in the waiting room. Ms. Bonnie is a saintly, patient, and flexible dance teacher, but punctual she is not. I figured she'd missed the time and dance was running a bit late. Dancers streamed into the building and I think, "okay, here it is, the class change!" Ms. Bonnie opens the door and lets the other girls in, but our girls don't come out. I ask in a slightly panicked voice if class was done at 5, and she let me know that it went until 5:30, which I would have known if I had read the email she sent (I added the last part, Ms. Bonnie would never say anything like that out loud).

I knew at that moment that my kid's dinner would be microwaved burritos with some carrots on the side to make me feel like less of a mom fail. I knew that my Olivia birthday crafts would be strewn about the living room. and that I would be lucky if I had time to change my shoes before rumble. The best laid plans! The good part of this delay was that it forced me to search for my cell phone, which was hiding under the passenger seat (I can't make these things up).

Here's Clara with her dirty post preschool face. Preschoolers these days, they really party it up on the playground ;)

Cinco De Mayo aka May 5th, 2014

What a glorious day!! Started out as most of mine do, with a butt kicking workout class. Kathy the queen of abs was teaching today, and my body really needed her intense moves. The kids were getting crazy, but in a good way. They were all pretty cute and I think they're as sick of being pent up inside as we are.

After working out, I went home with Clara and we just hung out together. So many days I am too busy. Housework, business, grocery lists, everything eats at my time. Today I made the decision to be conscious and present for Clara, and she shined. I was her horse, took her on a pony ride and ate hay and carrots. I was a client in her beauty salon where she proceeded to douse my head with a spray bottle and "comb" my hair. I was a soft lap for her to sit in and listen to stories. Whenever she asked me to do something, I fought my normal response of "not now," and said, "I would love to!" to everything. I think she was a little surprised, but a LOT happy.

Clara is wearing the first piece of Matilda Jane I ever bought. Well, I bought this and the deer dress from our fall photos the same day. While I sold the deer dress, and repurchased later, this is the original knot dress from Olivia. Talk about getting your moneys worth!

Here I am with my horse saddle on, covered in princess stickers, and letting Clara use my phone to take photos.

When Olivia joined us we went on a trip to Hobby Lobby. An hour later my kids were still well behaved and we headed out with a cart full  of birthday magic. Well, the magic will happen once I get everything put together, but I am so excited about Olivia's party. I'm hoping it's as much fun as I think it will be.

On the way home from Hobby Lobby Olivia got a bloody nose. As I frantically threw the Hobby Lobby ad into the backseat, I realized I had only one other choice in my purse. Let's just say it was made to be absorbent, and Olivia was happy to have something, anything to stop the geyser.

We had planned a Cinco de Mayo dinner, but ended up eating the soup in the crock pot since I had to spend a good deal of time cleaning nose bleed out of my car. It was okay though, because Clara refused to try the soup. I asked her to take one bite, then watched out of the corner of my eye as she ate the whole bowl. This momma's still got it!

We ended the day with a run. Olivia and I are on week 3 day 2 of C25K. We did great, except when we ran through some smoke from leaves burning and she had an allergy attack. She kept going and finished strong. That's, as they say, my girl!

Happy Star Wars Day and Other Bits of Miscellany May 4, 2014

It's Star Wars Day!! Yes, I went there. I own my geekiness. If you have no idea why this is Star Wars day just Google it. Everyone needs to learn something new each day.

It's May 4th, but nobody told Indiana that. It is still pretty chilly. We aren't bowing to conventions like weather and temperature to pick our clothes though. No, no, no!! After months of dreary darks and sensible warm clothing, we are seriously rebelling. 

Olivia chose to layer beautiful spring colors. And I FINALLY got a picture of her without her two front teeth. Oh, these are the days! 

Clara chose to rebel in a more Clara method, which involved wearing layers to church, and, as soon as we arrived, stripping down to only her tank style sundress. She pretty much rocked that look the whole rest of the day. Since it's the same Gymboree mermaid tank dress she wore last year (apparently, I have a compulsion to pick this up in larger sizes whenever I see it) there is no photo. Suffice it to say, Olivia would never have been able to choose an outfit like the one Clara wore, especially not to church, but with the second kid you loosen up a little more. God help the poor third kid if it ever comes along. It'll be lucky if we make it wear underoos and brush it's teeth twice a day. Oh STOP feeling sorry for this kid. It's completely imaginary. As evidenced by the fact that I'm referring to it as it.

At church today Mike & I officially became new partners. I even got a corsage. I don't think I've had one of those since high school. It felt pretty spiffy. All kidding aside, I am so excited to be a bigger part of the missions of this church. Clay is out there, doing tangible things that help real people, and that is a place I want to be.

This afternoon we headed to our small group. Tomorrow officially starts month two of seven. We'll be wearing our seven articles of clothing for the next 28 days. We decided to give one workout outfit as a freebie, which both surprised and encouraged me, since I wear workout clothes 5 out of 7 days on a slow week. Now I have to redecide what my 7 will be. There will definitely be another workout top thrown in though!

A Day in the Park May 3rd, 2014

What a great day! I am super tired, but in a good way :) 

Started the day with Clara and a morning run. My friend Tabi and I utilized my double stroller to run at the park. A beautiful day for it!

All bundled up!

By the "falls"

In the afternoon, Olivia and I went for a run. As we were running she got tripped up by the stroller, and fell down hard (she IS my kid, she takes after me to a T). I thought we were done, but she gets up, knees and arms bleeding, and keeps running. Really proud mommy moment there.

Later we went out for some grown up time, with dinner at the Bonefish, Bowling, and dessert at Indulgence. I can't believe these guys are leaving, I'm going to miss them terribly.

The only time I was winning ;)

May 2nd, 2014 Cutting the Cable Cord

Here we go folks. It's official. The Evans family is cutting cable out of our lives. Well, sort of.... For years we've been discussing ditching cable. Our cable bill is ridiculously high. We have so many shows DVR'ed, yet we never watch them. We were pouring money down the drain, becasue we didn't want to lose the Notre Dame games. Yes, it may be shameful to you, but we love watching football. We have friends over, we eat, talk, cheer, and groan (a lot of that for Notre Dame fans ;) ). We knew we needed ESPN to get away games, and ESPN required a lot more channels. 

But no more!! I finally broke down and told Mike we could go out to a restaurant for every away game, hire a sitter, eat, and still come out on top in regards to cost of cable. Once Mike was on board I hit the internet, looking for advice, ideas, and a strategy. I found a TON of information, but what we decided on was this:

1. Local channels + HBO from our local tv provider. Yes, this is possible. Only with Comcast, but it is possible. I will tell you I price compared (bundle of the above with internet) and there was a $70 difference.Yes, $70!! Per, stinking, month. Not a promotion, just the difference. When I called back to really cancel I got the same number again. But the awesome representative did find a new plan for our cell phones saving us $80 monthly on those.

Oh, and this includes a HD DVR box as well

2. Netflix-great for old seasons of shows, movies, kids programming

3. Hulu Plus-this one is more for new episodes and current season shows

4. Amazon Prime streaming. We already subscribe to prime for the shipping benefits, doubtful we would have signed up for this otherwise. 

*We have a Playstation & a Tivo, both of which you can use to stream these options wirelessly. If you don't have them you may need to buy a Roku or Apple TV.

5. Internet-lots of shows broadcast on the internet, entire episodes

Doing this is saving us $110 per month total, even with the cost of the subscription services thrown in. I for one, am excited about this new chapter, and ready to break up with my 400+ channels.