A Quarterly Check Up: The Halfway Point

Can you believe that we’re already more than halfway through 2014?!

In order to actually accomplish my New Year Goals this year, I’m holding myself accountable by holding quarterly checkups on the blog. You can check out my goal list here and my first check up here.

So here we go, my ½ year check in:

Goal #1: Use my camera more and my iPhone less.
I started off doing pretty well with this one – grabbing my actual camera for Jack’s birthday, our trip to Williamsburg and even the aquarium. It all went downhill from there though and I barely picked it up on our trip to Ocean City last month. Instead, pretty much every picture came off my iPhone. Darn.

OC collage

Okay, working harder starts NOW! I will definitely have my camera hanging around my neck for our upcoming Independence Day celebration and will also make it a point to take it on our next beach trip. I’m undecided about BlogHer though – part of me wants to have my nice camera, but the other part wants to pack light… Hmm, we’ll just have to see how much room I have in my carryon. Score: 2 out of 5

Goal #2: Make a workout habit.
I totally kicked butt on my very first DietBet, but then I failed on my second one. After doing so well and adding the elliptical to my morning routine, I totally fell off the wagon. I did run a couple 5ks through, so that’s good!

Iron Girl

I’m still sticking at around 15 pounds down since the beginning of the DietBet, but as of this week I’m back on the elliptical to get to my next goal of 20 pounds down. It’s only 6 pounds away… which still feels like SO FAR away right now. Wish me luck! Score: 3 out of 5

Goal #3: Eat out less and home more.
We are still doing great with this goal and I’ve been doing a really good job of packing my lunch or eating at home every single workday. We tried out Blue Apron and I’ve also been stopping by Let’s Dish on a regular basis. I’ve even tried out a few new recipes and have become totally okay with the concept of sandwiches for dinner. YAY us! I still want to try doing some group cooking, but with the summer being so busy I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t get to this until the fall. Score: 4 out of 5

Goal #4: Take Jack somewhere new each month.
As I expected, this has been one of the hardest goals for us to consistently stick with. However, I’m super happy to say that we’ve kept it up so far! At the beginning of the year we did the mall choo-choo train (January), a bouncy house party place (February), and the Baltimore Aquarium (March).

In April we did Mommy & Me swim classes at the local gym as our ‘fun place’ for the month. It was Jack’s first try at swim lessons and it was pretty touch-and-go. I feel like the instructor pushed him a bit too far the very first week, because it was a challenge to even get him in the water by the second. I was stoked that Jack FINALLY felt comfortable dunking his head under the water by the end of the 6 week session!

We took our awesome family trip to Busch Gardens in May and had so much fun. Not only did we meet Elmo, but Jack rode every single kiddie ride in the whole park. The weekend was a perfect little getaway for us and I would really love to get back there again soon.

We also visited the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in DC on a Sunday in May. It was a pretty hot day but it was also a grand total of $0 – entrance to the zoo is free and we even parked for FREE on the street. Since we didn’t spend any money to get there, we really just wandered around for a couple hours until we got bored and left in search of food.

I’m counting Ocean City as our somewhere new for June, even though Jack went there last summer too. Although he had been to the great OC before, he still checked off something new… a bike ride with Grampy (or “Dippy” as Jack calls him). My dad and Jack rode ALL OVER Ocean City and I’m not sure who had a better time. Check out my super excited face in the background…

IMG_5570

I love this goal because it’s just the kick in the pants I need to keep life interesting. It’s so easy for me to just stay home and get stuff done every weekend after a long week at work, but that’s no fun! On our list of fun places still to visit is a local petting zoo, the Smithsonian museums in DC (maybe dinosaurs?!), and some sort of berry/fruit picking. Score: 5 out of 5… now I have to keep it up!

Goal #5: Be more like the ant.
After months and months of paying as much as we could, we finally paid our VERY LAST truck payment in June! As of now, we own all of our vehicles which feels totally amazing! Now that the account is closed, our goal is to put that monthly payment amount into our savings account. We also opened Jack’s college savings plan and those payments start in August. So we are moving in a good direction as long as no surprises come up… and they always do, right?! Score: 4 out of 5

Goal #6: Be the best blogger I can be.
I’m working on this one – controlling the feelings of competition and jealousy will be an ongoing battle for me. I’ve been so thrilled to have a few of my posts featured on BlogHer and I’m really looking forward to attending my 3rd BlogHer conference later this month. I also did a little site update to freshen the look and make it consistent with my brand-new business cards. I still get really frustrated with Facebook and the fact that it keeps hiding my posts from my readers, but I’ve been doing a lot of deep breaths. When you guys hit ‘share’ on stuff that really helps, so thank you so much! As I said at my last checkup, I just keep writing what is in my heart and am lucky to have the BEST readers anyone can ask for. So I’ll just keep on going and hope for the best! Score 4 out of 5

I’m really glad that I’m forcing myself to check in on my goals this year, instead of just realizing in December that I haven’t thought about them in 11 months. This really is the first time I’ve done so well on any kind of personal goal or yearly resolution… and I’m already halfway done. Now I just need to finish the year out strong!

Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2014? How are you doing so far?

 

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DIY: Not Your Grandma’s China Cabinet

I’ve always wanted a china cabinet. Like a REAL, grown up china cabinet.

I was given my paternal grandmother’s china years ago when she passed away and I’ve never had a place to display it. So, for almost exactly 10 years it was wrapped in newspaper and stored in the backs of closets, in my parent’s basement and then finally moved into my own basement when we did our last move about 2 ½ years ago.

Well, I finally have my very own china cabinet! It was in terrible shape when I first got it – the top portion needed some hard scrubbing, three coats of Old English cleaner and two more coats of Orange Clean dusting spray – but now it’s gorgeous!

I mean, it still smells a little, but it really is quite a hottie:

china cabinet - before

Once I had it set up in my kitchen and anchored to the wall (I highly recommend these: Safety 1st Furniture Wall Straps) I wasn’t really sure what to do with it.

Mixer

I knew I wanted to store my mixer inside, because it’s cute and I like it to be on display. But other than that, all I knew is that I didn’t want some boring old set up of china that could have been taken straight from my grandma’s house. I imagined something fresh and eclectic that looked like it belonged with the rest of our house… so here’s what I came up with:

First I gathered all the china and some other stuff that I thought might work in the cabinet.

stuff spread out

Then, I started playing with different stacks of stuff. I wanted to include some silly stuff, some color and also make it balanced to the eye.

book stack

 

teacups

 

yellow owl

 

silver owl

I had to move things around a few times to make sure that it looked ‘right’ to me… I tried different stacks of plates, adding in random vases and trinkets, and at one point considered including a small painting or picture. When I thought I’d found the perfect setup, I realized that the door wouldn’t close with the large plates stacked by it, so I basically had to move everything around all over again.

Here’s a close up of where I ended up:

finished cabinet

Here is a wider view that shows you how my big, handsome china cabinet looks with the rest of the room:

after - wide shot

Also, here is what Jack was doing while I was moving things around in the china cabinet:

Jack angel

However, before you think he’s a little angel playing nicely with his grill… here is the other side of the room:

mess

What do you think of my china cabinet? Am I weird for including my flying pig with my grandmother’s Millefleurs by Franconia china set? Do you assume that bloggers all have clean houses because of how they crop their photos?

 

Disclosure: Pocketful of Joules is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

 

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5 Tips for Having an Awesome 4th of July Party on a Budget

We’ve been talking about having our friends over for an outdoor party pretty much ever since we moved into our house a couple years ago. We even added our fire pit with the hopes that we could have some fun ‘couples nights’ sitting around a bonfire with marshmallows and wine.

Work and life kept getting in the way though and we keep putting it off. However, our neighbor’s annual fireworks plans nudged us in the right direction. Every year he has spectacular fireworks that rival the county’s show, right in our backyard. This year, we decided to take advantage of the free entertainment and have a party!

We didn’t want to go CRAZY though and end up with something that was just going to stress us out. See, I LEARN from my mistakes… After swearing off Pinterest and keeping it ‘easy’ I think I’ve come up with the perfect plan. If you’re planning to have an Independence Day party, or any get together this summer, you may benefit from these tips too!

#1. Keep it Easy AND Tasty
You don’t have to be a master chef to invite people over to your house. We’ve decided to keep it simple by grilling hotdogs and hamburgers the day of the party. I’ll make my easy pulled pork recipe in the crockpot that morning, so that I can pretty much forget about it until people start showing up. Add in a couple bowls of potato chips, a watermelon and a store-bought sheet cake, and we’re good to go.

For drinks, we are going to stock up on bottled water at Costco and have invited our guests to BYOB or BYOW (for my wine loving friends). I’ll start the party off with a few bottles of wine chilling in ice. Oh, and we can’t forget the s’mores makings! I plan to have marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars on a tray near the fire pit. It doesn’t take a bunch of time or money, but I think that everyone will have something to enjoy!

#2. Ask for Help
You don’t have to do everything yourself. If you have a couple friends who love to cook or bake, see if they’d like to bring something. If your brother is a strong and helpful guy, ask if he can come over early to move some chairs outside. Maybe your sister has a super awesome corn hole set? Remind her the day of the party to bring it over with her.

Remember, there are no bonus points for running yourself ragged to do it all on your own!

#3. Don’t Check Pinterest
Look, I love Pinterest too. There are a bazillion fun ideas for pretty much every aspect of your life. However, in the interest of keeping your party SIMPLE and not driving yourself nuts… just stay away.  Otherwise, you’ll end up buried in mason jars, glitter and a glue stick and want to just call the whole damn party off! I just keep telling myself that in order to have a successful party it is NOT required to have fresh squeezed lemonade with sassy homemade ice cubes and hand picked twigs…

#4. Hit up the Dollar Store
I stopped by the Dollar Store over the weekend and got the MOTHERLOAD of party supplies for a fraction of what it would have cost anywhere else. Here are some of my scores:

flags

I grabbed 8 flags ($8 total) to put by our mailbox and next to our driveway so that people know that they’re at the right house. The best part is that after the party I can just stick them in the basement until next year.

plates

Plates, plasticware and napkins were $7 total for EVERYTHING. Just for comparison basis, I checked Party City’s website and an almost identical set of forks was $4.99. So in just plasticware, I saved almost $12.

all lanterns

 

lantern - lit

Okay, I saw these cute lanterns and snapped them up! Only $1 each and they even LIGHT UP!? I’m probably going to spend more in batteries than I did on the lanterns, but I don’t care because I’m in LOVE. I’m going to throw some of these up in the trees outside so that after we watch the fireworks we can follow the glowy trail back to the house.

glow stuff

I’ll admit, I might have gone a little crazy with the glow sticks, necklaces, and bracelets ($14 total). But when I was a kid I remember ALWAYS wanting to get the glow necklaces at the fireworks and they were like $5 each and my parents would say no. So GLOW NECKLACES for EVERYONE! I might end up hanging the smaller glow sticks on the edge of our fence so that people can see where to go.

If you’re planning a party, RUN to your local Dollar Store RIGHT NOW because they are a treasure trove of awesomeness!

#5. Mismatched = Eclectic
I don’t know about you, but we don’t have a matching outdoor seating set for 20+ people. So, mismatched is the way to go! We’ve got some Adirondack chairs, a set of porch furniture stolen from our sunroom, a hammock, random outdoor chairs, some wooden indoor trays that we’re going to drag outside, etc. I also have a bunch of picnic blankets that I’m going to spread out on the ground for seating. Nothing matches and that’s totally okay. Because the word of the day is ECLECTIC!

I’m super excited for fireworks. And cake. And s’mores. Oh, and wine. I’m trying hard not to over-think things or stop by Pinterest for just a couple minutes (because we all know Pinterest sucks you in for at least an hour). I have a little anxiety about the number of people coming over, but I think that the plan for everyone to stay outside helps a lot!

How about you – do you have tips for throwing a low key party that doesn’t drive you nuts? Are you also obsessed with the Dollar Store? Would it be weird if I kept those lanterns up year-round, because they are SO freaking cute?!

 

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