No more Monday dread!!!!

Mondays....I used to dread them...another start to another stressful week. My mind set needed to change.  Slowly but surely, the Lord began to work on me and help me to see differently. It wasn't instant, it came slowly, like Lincoln logs....piece after piece until I was finally able to get victory over the dread! Do you have a few minutes? I'd like to share with you what I've learned....

The first building block, the corner piece....came from a message preached by my Pastor. It had nothing to do with Monday dread, but he said something...something that I didn't realize the importance of till later, when the other blocks were added on.... He said something like this: "did you know your week doesn't start on Monday? God intended your day to start on Sunday. All the old calendars have Sunday as the first day on the week on your calendar....the new Calendars are starting to make Monday the first day of the week.  Our week is supposed to start with GOD...moving the start day to Monday takes the focus off of where it should be. ....THIS was revolutionary to me!

Next came some information from a video I'd watched ..... It mentioned starting your day by filling YOUR cup before helping others to fill theirs. If we spend the day pouring out pieces of our selves into others cups.....a boss, a job, our husband or wife, our children, our friends....but haven't first FILLED our cups....what will we have left? How will we survive and thrive when our cup is empty?  Was I starting my day by filling my cup ? Did I have me time? That quiet time alone where I FEED my soul ? Quiet time....Prayer...Bible Reading...Postitive Affirmations? The answer was a resounding NO! Oh I read my Bible and said quick prayers, but was I focusing on those quiet times...allowing myself to be filled and fed so that I could help fill others? NOPE!  What WAS I doing? Checking my facebook....getting dressed, and going on through the day like a zombie!

I began to think....how can I change this? Apply this to my life? Then, I watched a video by Carrie Wilkerson. She mentioned "moving the needle" The premise was changing something in your habits...replacing it with something new so you don't go back to the old habits. What came to mind while watching this was that quote "If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail"  

Ok, now what? I PLAN to SUCCEED!!!

1. SUNDAY starts my day! I spend the day in worship to God at church ...starting fresh with God as the center. At home, I ask Him to be in control of the rest of the week, to guide me in my plans and daily activities...and make my plans accordingly.

2.  I start my mornings with a "power hour" 

     a. Quiet time/prayers/Positive Affirmations  (Philippians 4:8) 

     c. STAY AWAY from facebook scrolling during this time

     d. Wake children and get them started with their daily routines ....

     e. Complete the tasks for my business

     f. Go over daily list (Made the night before)

     

Then...after that, it's all about finishing other daily tasks ....do things always go according to plan? NOPE! But.....at LEAST I have a focus and can get My Days started right by filling my cup and putting the focus where it belongs.... and now...no more Monday dread!!!!!

      

Healthy from the Inside

It's been a LONG time since I've posted on here.... and a LOT has changed.  Namely...ME! There's a saying: "

If you know me based on who I was a year ago, you don't know me at all. My growth game is strong. Allow me to reintroduce myself."

This is SO true for me! I used to live my life "from the couch" so to speak. Oh I left the house. I coach volleyball and cross country, own a house cleaning/property management business, and homeschool as well. BUT.... when I was at home, I was doing almost everything from the couch.  I was constantly exhausted, overwhelemed, and gaining weight again.  I felt like i was spiraling out of control. Not to mention the fact that our finances were a hot mess! As far as my personal life. I felt like I had no real purpose. I had my children and husband, don't get me wrong, but I had always had a burden to help others and was looking for a way to do that.

So....I prayed.

I asked God for help in all of these seemingly unrelated areas. Health, energy, Finances, purpose....Little did I know that God would answer all of those prayers with ONE thing!!!

When God brought Plexus into my life, it was at just the right time.  He gave me hope for my health, showed me how I could be a blessing to others, not just by sharing what Plexus could do, but by loving them right where they were and sharing the love of God with them.  And, he also used Plexus to give our family much needed income!

I see so many wonderful dreams and goals that are now possible thanks to the gift that God gave me with Plexus....  I've also been learning SO much...about how to love people, how to love myself....how to love God more... How to get healthy on the inside...spiritually, AND physically!!! Yes...the growth game is STRONG with this one!!!

I'll leave you with one more quote:

"You are under no obligation to obe the same person you were a year, month, or even 15 minutes ago. You have the right to grow, No apologies."

Make your growth game strong and don't apologize for it!!!

The Keys are MINE!

FINALLY!!!...after a whole ton of ups and downs and almost not even GETTING the house...oh, and a whole lotta prayer....The keys are MINE!!!!

 Now, the real work begins!  Today, we closed on the house, tomorrow, we dig in and start renovating!

First up: Demolition!  We are going to remove the rest of the carpet from the dining room and kitchen, as well as the kitchen cabinets.....

Delima #1.....Where to find cabinets that are less than the 1,000 price we are looking at now....We have been looking on craigslist and ebay, but we have a "galley style" kitchen, which means, not a lot of space and NO corners...the cupboards are on two opposite walls only.  Gotta save money on the cabinets!!!

This is a pic of my kitchen..."before"...ICK!

An example of how beautiful a galley kitchen CAN look....WAY above my price range though!

Oh, and bigger than my kitchen too!

Stay tuned....I'll be posting pics of tomorrow's demo soon!!!!!

Life's getting PINteresting....

Still waiting for the actual closing on our house.....having to jump some hurdles and hop through some loopholes, but, In the meantime, I've been planning my list of things to do and the order to do them in.

AND....I'm dreaming a lil....wanna dream with me?  Come find me on Pinterest....my pinterest name is Volleysoft!!!!!

GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT IS EXPIRING TOMORROW!!!!

GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT IS EXPIRING TOMORROW!!!!!

All you wonderful friends who are following my blog, I'm gonna MISS you......UNLESS>......you follow me on Linky Followers!!!!  Here is what the linky widget looks like:

PLEASE feel free to  LINK up so I don't have to MISS YOU!!!!!

I'm SEW cheap takes it to the NEXT LEVEL!

WOW....It's been a while since I've posted anything!  Life has been EXTREMELY busy!  Since I've last posted, a new beginning has presented itself into the SEWcheap family....We're MOVING!!!  We've gotten an opportunity to relocate closer to our church and more central to pretty much everything, YET....it's still not in the city limits!

That's the good news....the bad news...the house STINKS!! No...LITERALLY!  It's a repo and whomever had it before us must have mistook it for a doggie litterbox!  Not to worry, though, it's not a NON-fixable stink.  We've had some professionals on the job and they've told us what has to be done to "DE-smell-ify" (extremely technical term! lol) 

That's the good, then bad news, now here's the good-er (purposefully bad English...must...refrain....from.....fixing......!) news.  We're gonna fix it ...and Y'ALL get to watch us do it....CHEAPLY!!!!!!!

THAT, my online friends, is why I say I'm taking my cheapification (I should write my own dictionary!) to the "next level".....Even if I DID have tons of moulah, I WOULDN'T wanna spend it all on costly reno that I can do MUCH more affordably (by God's grace). 

WAIT>.......I see you out there, looking at your computer screen and FREAKING OUT.....CHILLAX!!!  I'm NOT going into this alone with my unskilled self....No "Renovation Realities" here....(although, I'm SURE there will be some, er, snafu's here and there)  I have friends in skillful places!  I have a friend who is a  plumbing/heating guy, another who is a licenced journeyman electrician, still a few more who are builders (one owned his own building business...before becoming a pastor!), and still a plethora more who are skilled in areas such as drywall, painting, interior design...etc....BREATHE......I've got it covered! (Oh, did I mention, I've got GOD on my side? he's the MASTER builder!!!)

OK, so enough, type, time for pictures of the DISASTER waiting to be a DREAM!!!

Good evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to the tour of my Macaroni and Cheese Colored Mansion!  Yeah.....the color's gna go!  Leaning toward a light mocha with a light tan ......but.....hmmm....

 The garage door looks broken, but as you can kinda see in the next pic, it's just popped off ....easy fix.  This door is the reason I'm leaning toward mocha/beige/tan colors...kinda hard to paint a fiberglass door and...why buy a new one...this one's in good condition!

                                             The garage is of the two-car variety, lol

Here we have the master bedroom (12x15) the wall on the right is going to have a door framed into it to get into the room in the following pic. Notice the AWESOME windows????  NEW!

This pic is a little deceiving.  It looks like the walls are mildewy or something, but it's just a bad pic...and ugly blue paint!  This will be the spare room and a place for hubby n I to keep our dressers, winter clothes, etc. (maybe the treadmill too!)

 This bathroom brings new meaning to the title "powder room", um don't think the inventor of that name intended for the room to be POWDER BLUE!!!! ICK!!!!  BYE BYE POTTY and BYE BYE TUB!!!! Seriously, though, The tub is very small.  Also, across from the commode and hidden from view is a badly designed linen closed.  Gna rip that out and build some shelves above the new toilet.  The new space will allow for a bigger tub. I'm cheap, so the Tile on the walls stay and all the decor will become tan/white with white potty/tub/sink (yeah, sinks goin too!) Did I mention "NEW" meant what I can get for free, from craigslist, the paper, scratch and dents at the store, etc?  HOWEVER...the potty has to be new!  CHEAP, but new!

Here we have my tiny kitchen.  BUT....as you can see, I have a separate dining room, so I DON'T CARE!!!  Hoping to find cheap cupboards somewhere (old ones a builder's getting rid of or something).  Notice the floor?  That is CARPET!!!  Those are NOT just food/foot traffic stains!  ICK! 

This is the dining room.  We have new sliders and frame already (FREE!!!!).  Light fixture's gna grace a dumpster....notice the floor?  More ICK!  Gna tear up both rooms, don the haz-mat (LOL) and then, sand/grind glue from floor, bleach water wash floors and walls to doggie height, next, its on to using a paint similar to "KILZ" but stronger, called "BIN" (anyone seen any sales? lol)  The wall to the left of the sliders will eventually have a row of cabinets on the floor with a countertop that matches the kitchen.  There will be another row of cabinets going across the ceiling with a mirror in the middle (might do two full length cabinet end caps...whatever I find cheap!)

This is the upstairs living room.  I should mention here, that all of the rooms with paneling will be covered with a special paper that mimics drywall...CHEAPER than replacing with actual drywall!
Also, up comes the vinyl flooring and down goes the BIN...then on to fake wood flooring!  We'll use the same flooring in the bedrooms and hallway upstairs.  The bathrooms, kitchen, and dining room will get tiles.

The basement stairs....not a problem...for now.  Hubby wants to eventually make them wider and the vinyl has to go!

Here is our beautiful blank canvas known as the basement!!!  At the far end on the left, is where you will be one of two more 12x12 bedrooms (there is also another 12x12 bedroom upstairs that isn't pictured).  On the right at the same end will be the other bedroom.  Then, coming back toward the screen on the right will be a framed in laundry room, then a storage room that goes up to the stairs (not pictured, but on the right).  On the left, after the bedroom, will be a family room.  See the door on the left?  That is a badly framed in storage closet, It's gonna GO!  Also not pictured is a nice little pantry which will stay.  LOVE this basement!!!!!

I can't wait to get started..and SHARE it all with ya!!!  PLEASE post any ideas, tips, and links you think would be helpful along the way!!!

*For those of you interested in the AMAZING way God allowed us to get this home, keep watch for a post titled:  "God is SEW good!"

**Also anyone waiting to see my tutorial on upcycling jeans to a skirt, be patient....it's comming!

Give the Gift of BLOG for Christmas!

The holidays are here....Christmas is fast approaching and this household's attention has turned toward presents for family and friends.  Our family loves to make homemade gifts for Christmas. Besides being SEW cheap, they are from the heart, and mean more!!  This year, the ideas have been flowing in and I'm enjoying getting them ready.  I thought I'd share the ideas with y'all so YOU can enjoy them too!!!

This first idea is a little unconventional, but it truly is a gift that "keeps on giving"!  I have a friend who loves to quilt and another who is a homemaking, crafty, photograph taking, canning....you name it, she does it mamma.....To my surprise, neither one of them have a blog!  One of them didn't even realize the benifits of blogging, the other one just doesn't  know where to start.  My Christmas gift to them....helping them get a blog started!

Do you have a friend/family member who you think could benifit from starting a blog?

Here are some steps that might help you to "Give the gift of Blog" for Christmas!

Picking a blogsite:
There are many different places to go through when starting a blog...hubpages, wordpress...your own site and others.  Then, there's my favorite, blogspot!

Deciding a theme:
What do they like to do? Are they a quilter?  Do they make amazing meals? Are they bookworms? Are they weekend warrior DIY'ers?  Seamstress? Or maybe they could review products and have giveaways......show them some blogs that do things similar to their interests so they can see what others do....it'll get their creative juices going!

Designing(the fun part!)
Next, show them some neat sites with free blog backgrounds. A blog with an adorable background can mean more readers! These sites are usually pretty foolproof....(I know, cuz I can use em! lol)  They explain things in "See Dog Go" so even NON-computer geeks can understand.  Here are a few sites I have found to be good :

HotBiggityBlog

The Cutest Blog on the Block

Simply Blog it Backgrounds

Background Fairy

Now, why did I say this was the gift that keeps on giving?
Because, when their blog starts making money, it'll be like YOU'RE giving them the money.....a continuous gift!...here are some hints on how to get the moulah to start rolling.

Monetize:

Show them how to begin to make money on their blog.  Start by showing them how to get set up with "Adsence" if they're using blogspot.  Then, show them how to use amazon associates.  Next explain Adsence affiliates to them. 

These are just some basic steps to get them started on their trip into Blogville....there are, of course, many other things that can be done, but once you get them started, chances are, they'll catch the blog bug and take off !!!!

Dishcloth swap and Giveaway WINNER!!!

After a TOO LONG hiatus from internet in my home, I'M BACK!!! FIRST oreder of business: Pics from the dishcloth swap and notification of the winner!

The swap rules, in a nutshell...crochet 2 dishcloths and swap em w/ ur buddy. When all the swappings done, a winner will be chosen to receive 2 skeins of yarn and a crochet book....

 My "swap buddy" was "DONNALEE"   BUT, she didn't send me two dishcloths, she sent me 6! AND a set of adorable handmade oven mitts! (I'm using the other one...so its not in the pic!)

Also, Donnalee and I were the only two in the swap to "complete the transaction" , so, that makes Donnalee the winner! WHOOP WHOOP!

Show her what she's won Bob!....

IT's FRIDAY!  Time for a blog hop!  WOOHOO!!!!  Here's where I've placed my lilly pad today!

"My Favorite Friday!"

TGIF! WOOHOO!!!  Today, on "MY FAVORITE FRIDAY"  I'm featuring a favorite Blog site of mine:

Keeper of the Home !!!!

Her subtitle, which says "Naturally Inspired Living for the Christian Homemaker" is SO true!  Her posts inspire me to be the best "homemaker" I can be for my family and my God!

The current post up at "Keeper of the Home" is "Fun Frugal Memories to Make with your Kids this Summer"  What better post to put up in such a financially strapped time?  The ideas she has are wonderful! 

The most helpful post I've found so far has been Creating a Homemaking Binder. Here, she leads by example with this amazing binder.  I strive to be a more organized homemaker.  This post is easy enough to follow that I feel I can do it to!  I can't wait to finish my binder and begin my more organized lifestyle!

So, don't hesitate...>GO, NOW ....click HERE and check out this awesome "Favorite Friday" site!

FYI.....Here's where I'm hoppin this weekend!: