ROH: Phase 1 Complete

So it turns out all this “free time” I thought I would have between semesters evaporated once the semester ended! LOL! This is not to say that I haven’t had free time because I certainly have, it has just been taken up with new things! Every weekend in May has been jam packed!

When last I left you I was on a mission to reorganize our home and purge the clutter/junk!!! Here’s the deal, our house is only a little over 1300 sq ft, so this makes weeding out the junk crucial. After living here 10 years, having a cute #littlecaveboy and just acquiring the normal junk that goes along with living – we have reach critical mass.

Two weekends ago the beginnings of a major house purge happened when my neighbor and I had our semi-annual yard sale! I sold tons of baby boy clothes, household items we no longer used and some of our clothes! What didn’t sell we hauled off to Goodwill! Our closets are so much lighter now.

That was Phase 1, Phase 2 is going through the house, ruthlessly purging things we haven’t use or touched in years – i.e. throwing out the junk. So after the initial haul to Goodwill, Caveman and I naturally came straight back inside and went through our closet again! There is another bag waiting for Goodwill in the garage, with more being added every few days! We don’t have that much, but our clothing situation has really gotten to the over flow point.

While we are on the topic, let’s call out my real problem – I am a pack-rat! I keep things that the average person would never think twice about tossing out! I get crazy about hoarding papers, any papers really; school papers, college papers, old receipts, old paid bills from almost 10 years ago, etc. This drives Caveman crazy, and me too if I’m honest with myself. I have slowly been letting go….Frozen anyone? Moving on…

I have been attempting, at times more successfully than others, to purge one or two small areas each night. This week my main focus has been two tall bookcases (that I hope to better utilize soon) in our Master Bedroom. If you follow me on Pinterest you know I’ve been pinning loads of Master Bedroom ideas for a little over a year now in the hopes of making our Master Bedroom into a retreat instead of a dumping ground. So Tuesday night I attacked one of the shelves in the bookcase. It held two large 3-ring binders full of old college papers. We have the college degree, so seriously it’s time to throw it out. Thursday night it tackled another shelf that held a large stack of random papers that no longer mean anything to anyone. Tonight there will be a few ahem accordion files that I plan to tackle in a nearby closet.

Think baby steps here people! I’m not becoming overwhelmed like I have tended to do in the past and I already feel so much better. Caveman is happy the “piles” are leaving and so am I! I’m expecting Phase 2 to take a bit longer, maybe even the entire summer, but I’m committed to letting go of the junk and allowing our home to breathe!

The yard-sale weekend was also Mother’s Day! We didn’t do anything super special just hung out and spent some quality time with each other. Here are a few “faces” of my #littlecaveboy as I attempted to get a true smile. I think I like these better!

More of our May adventures next week!!

Happy Good Friday!

Happy Good Friday to you!!

This is been one crazy week, no make that week & a half around these parts! So let me just break down a few details for you! Last weekend Caveboy came down with a stomach bug on Saturday morning. I, thankfully, have only had one other experience with Caveboy and vomit. I would like to state here and now that neither of these experiences do I ever want to repeat again, but I also know that inevitably they will in fact repeat at some point in the future! We made it through the weekend and the week began.

Monday…Caveman came down with a milder, albeit still draining version of the stomach bug.

Then on Tuesday…I took Caveboy down to school for Kindergarten Registration!!!! My baby is going to school next year – officially! And although he’s not really a baby anymore, I’ll always…

He also went on to his preschool that Tuesday and dyed Easter Eggs, that Nana hard boiled eggs the night before (thanks Mom)!

Wednesday…was relatively quiet, thankfully!

Thursday – Caveboy had his Easter egg hunting party and had way too many sugary treats, which he kindly shared with Caveman and I!

Here we are at Friday! Good Friday to be exact! I am so very thankful for my savior who died for me! And you too!

I hope you all have a happy & safe Easter Weekend!

 

Review of 2013 – Happy 2014!

2013 Recap…

2013 was just full of surprises for our little family. Opportunities we thought were coming our way crumbled right before our eyes, but God opened other doors and brought blessings that were better than we ever dreamed.

From January through May I posted lots of different looks and styles here on RubysNPurls. I had fun with them but once June hit and I returned to college part-time, I found that I simply didn’t have enough time for everthing and blogging too. I was also really unhappy with my weight & to be honest was tired of posting photos of myself in outfits that weren’t that great. I knew once I started walking to school my weight would improve and it did somewhat over the summer, however it wasn’t until Caveman and I started the Paleo Diet in early September (4th to be exact!) that I really saw an improvement in my weight, my mental health and my energy levels.

As I’ve lost the weight, now down 30 lbs, my style has evolved as well. I am turning to more classic/taliored looks and surprisingly to me, wearing more black. I’ve always liked black but as Caveman told me recently, “Honey, black is your color!” LOL!

I also highlighted a few home improvements that we tackled in our backyard, along with the bounty from our garden and a quick little DIY. It was a good year, but as we look out over the coming 2014 we’re seeing lots of big changes in our future.

2014 Goals

I saw a quote similar to the one above on Pinterest the other day only it said “Amazing, Loving, Strong, Happy, Selfless and Grateful”. I think these are the qualities I will be striving for, as a person, as well as a Mom this year!

I saw this one too and (I’m not sure of the source for either of these, so if you know it could you please pass it along?) I really liked it…

“2014 is your year to ..Begin, have NO regrets, Hone your personal style, Love, Simplify, Go on an Adventure, Change your outlook, Love WHAT you do, BE YOU!”

Most of these were already my goals for 2014, this just put them into words beautifully!

As far as social media, you’ll find me on Pinterest & Instagram because I enjoy both so much. But here on this little space, my time will be limited. My focus has shifted away from style/fashion posts to spending quality time with my family, being real and in the moment. I think that’s one reason I really like Instagram because it’s a snapshot of a moment, not some longwinded explanation of what’s been happening with me, blah, blah, blah. That’s not to say that I don’t love dropping in with a post every so often, so for now I’m keeping an open mind and keeping the blog open. I’ll re-evaluate as the year progresses!

I hope all of you have a truly blessed and wonderful 2014.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I promised to be back with our Christmas Cards this year and I aim to deliver, even if it is a couple days after Christmas!

I’ve been using Shutterfly for about 4 years now. I like the quality of their photos, photo books and photo cards, as well as their prompt delivery of said products.

After Caveboy was born I was very insistent on having a family photo each year and would force my guys to comply and the photos always looked like they had been forced, but over the past couple of years I stopped trying to force the photo shoot horror on them and have attempted to just get a few decent photos of Caveboy.

Front – Christmas Card 2013

This year, with my crazy school schedule, work and just normal life stuff, Caveman gave me the best Christmas gift a few months eary – a family photo shoot. Oddly enough even though my guys were cooperating, Caveboy looked like he could cry or was completely bored in most of the photos or they just turned out too blurry or dark.

This cover photo is the very first photo we took and it is completely us right now! Caveman has never been that relaxed in front of the camera so he looks to be more at attention, Caveboy currently sings/rhymes/talks all.the.time. these days and I’m smiling praying everyone else is too! This is what happens when you use the self timer to get family photos, but again this photo is completely us at this stage in our lives.

Back – Christmas Card 2013

I decided to use our Halloween costume photo on the back because it was really cute and turned out remarkably well for an inpromptu family photo. If you’ll recall I wasn’t able to make the dress I had planned for the day of Halloween but the weekend after Halloween I quickly finished it in time for the postponed party at our church where we were able to attend as one of the Duck Dynasty families!! The pink & olive green camo pattern mini dress was a hit along with Caveboy’s fleece beard and Caveman’s attire. It was a great memory and a great photo to include in our Christmas greeting this year!

The individual photos of Caveboy were included because everyone loves to see how much he’s grown. On the cover that photo was taken after we had returned home, in our front yard. The photo on the back was taken during the photo shoot earlier in the day. It was the least dark and actually in focus of the bunch. So I guess you could say this Christmas card is filled with planned and unplanned photos and that makes it all the more special to me.

Shutterfly makes creating cards easy, just upload your digital photo and place in the card. Shutterfly makes picking out a card extremely hard because there are just too many great card templates to choose from!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a very blessed and Happy New Year! See you in 2014!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Shutterfly. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. I did not receive anything from Shutterfly to endorse them, I just like passing along info on a good company when I can.

October!! Already!!

Between school for both Caveboy and I, his being preschool two days a week and mine being university life every.single.day. I don’t have much time for anything but the absolute necessities. So to say life has been crazy lately is the biggest understatement EVER! I just thought I’d pop in with a few quick & random things though…and play along with Five Favorites again today!

First off… I’m so, so glad fall is here! Not only does fall bring spectacular colors, crisp mornings and evenings but it also brings pumpkins and loads of fun festivals. I do so hope we can squeeze in a couple this year despite my crazy schedule.

Second, have you guys signed up for Everlane yet? I love silk blouses and I really want to try one from Everlane. Corilynn showed her’s off today and it is gorgeous! I think I’d like one in the cream or olive!

What’s been happening in our little corner of the world besides school? Well Caveboy turned 4 earlier this month & I made up some super cute Save The Date Invitations for the kids.

I downloaded the blank dinosaur printables from here (& I would love to be able to use these somewhere!) and then tweaked my information in Photoshop using some Dinosaur fonts (Dinosaur Jr, Prehistoric, Jurassic Park, You Are Loved – to name a few). I downloaded this Dinosaur Party Pack from Tip Junkie and tweaked them some in Photoshop to better match the colors I was using and to create water bottle labels.

Caveman texted me the other day and asked if we could start the Paleo diet? Of course I was on board, but neither of us was prepared for the amazing results that would follow. Within 24 hours (cause we kinda jumped in cold turkey and all) Caveman and I both felt fabulous. As in I was waking up earlier without joint pain due to inflammation, dido for Caveman. He’s been having so stomach pains and thought originally it was an ulcer, that has completely cleared up! We are both down by 10 lbs within a week and a half of going Paleo, so I’m not seeing any grains in our diets for a very long time… as in ever! We are both hooked and (because we needed an AND) Caveboy loves eating this way too. In fact, he’s actually eating his Paleo lunches I send with him to school, where as he hadn’t been eating the grain filled lunches before. Winning!

Thanks for continuing to stop by and check in on the little blog, but I have to warn you now that blogging might be a little sparse for a while longer. I’ve wanted to post a few times recently and even took some outfit photos last month, but they looked terrible and I simply haven’t had time since. I have been on Pinterest lately though so you can catch me there too.

Until next time… Happy Fall Y’all!