Etsy Shop Grand Opening Celebration!

I have some huge, exciting news.

I now have an Etsy Shop!!

The Good Son is still not sleeping through the night and I thought I should make better use of my free time instead of playing Candy Crush Saga. Besides, I am stuck of level 65, aka 8th circle of hell, anyway. So, I have created a shop for all my printables.

Don't worry, I still have some awesome free printables on here. And will have more to come.

In the meantime, why don't you celebrate my Etsy Shop Grand Opening with me?! You can score some sweet discounts and enter for a chance to win custom printables.

All the details are on my FB event page. (or see below)

~~Etsy Shop Grand Opening Celebration~~

Celebrate the Grand Opening of my Etsy Shop (http://etsy.me/11zxWCx) and receive discounts and a chance to win custom printables!!

My Etsy Shop officially opens on May 6.

But you can get discounts and a chance to win custom printables now.

~Attend the FB event and get a 15% discount. Invite your friends for a 20% discount. Simply have your friend leave a post on the event wall saying you invited them and you BOTH will receive a 20% discount.

~Visit my Etsy Shop (http://etsy.me/11zxWCx) during the Grand Opening Week, May 6 – May 12, and send me a convo in Etsy to get a 25% discount. Favorite my shop or any item and receive an additional 5% discount.

~Enter to win custom printables!

1^st prize is a customized Home Management Pack (http://etsy.me/100uiA2), a $30 value!

2^nd prize is a customized You Pick 3 Pack (http://etsy.me/10RVGql), a $25 value!

3^rd prize is a customized You Pick 2 Pack (http://etsy.me/17vzBgl), a $20 value!

Simply attend the FB event for an automatic chance to win.

Score more entries
~Leave me a comment on this post.
 
~Follow me on Twitter and tweet this. Tweet: "Etsy Shop Grand Opening Celebration from @thegoodwifeblog http://on.fb.me/11zGWaL discount codes and prizes"
 
~Follow me on Pinterest and pin my blog post or Etsy shop or favorite shop item.

The drawing ends on May 12 at midnight CST. The winner will be selected using random.org. I will contact the winner via email and they will have 24 hours to respond. If they fail to respond, a new winner will be chosen.

Thanks for all your love and support and welcome to my Etsy Shop!

Asian Slaw with ginger peanut dressing

My doc recently told me that my fatass needs to cut down on meat and other shitty foods. I am not happy about that. But I am happy with I find a recipe that is meatless and tasty and somewhat healthy. 

And this is all that. Plus the grocery store had bagged cole slaw on sale for a dollar and I had to do something with it.

And, of course, this is another recipe that came into my life b/c of Pinterest.

The original recipe says it makes 6 side dish servings, but I ate this as a main course and had leftovers for 2 days. The dressing is a nice balance of hot and sweet, spicy and flavorful.


Ingredients:
For the Dressing
1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced

For the Slaw4 cups prepared shredded coleslaw
2 cups prepared shredded carrots
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 cup cooked and shelled edamame
2 medium scallions, finely sliced
1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts (or you can leave them whole)
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions
~To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until well combined. Set aside. 

~Combine all of the slaw ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss well. Let stand 10 minutes.

recipe from: here

Chili Lime Ramen

I love ramen noodles. 

It is probably due in part to my brokeass college days and how you could by 13 for a fucking dollar back at the local Stop and Shop. I lived on ramen, Mr. Pepper (Dr., to you regular folks) and Marlboro lights. But now that I am older and trying to live healthier, I have ditched the soda and the smokes. 

But I still love me some oodles of noodles. 

The problem is, is all the junk that is in regular ramen. And all that damn salt. It makes me thirsty for weeks. So I decided to turn this cheap eats into something a bit more like real food. And I wanted a flavor that I have never seen on the shelf.

This chili lime ramen would have a big "HOT AND SPICY!" label on the package and that's just the way I like it. I added a *heavy* amount of chili flakes, but you can turn it way down to give a sweet, yet spicy, tangy, yet salty flavor. 

The sauce made enough for two packages of noodles, so you can either half the recipe or save the rest of the sauce for ramen the next day.

Ramen Noodles with Sweet Chili Lime Sauce
Ingredients: 
1 package ramen noodles
3 tablespoons sugar (I used Splenda, since I have the 'betes)
3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
1 3/4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 zest of lime
1/2 teaspoons red chili flakes
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoons salt



Directions:
~Discard flavor packet from ramen noodles. Cook according to package. Drain.


~Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl, whisking to combine. Pour half the sauce over noodles. Eat.


recipe adapted from: here

Is this real life? Blog living v actual living

There has been some conversation between some friends about how much pressure we all feel to live in a house that is magazine ready at all times. The pressure seems to be worse when you love to look at home/living/organization blogs.

I grew up in a house that was neat only b/c my folks were never home to make it messy. Same thing goes for my cousin who I adored in high school - spotless house but her family was never in it. Then I see my neighbors homes and they all seem to be spotless, except for their kids' rooms. And it makes me feel like shit. Like I don't have my shit together, that I am living in filth and that cameras from Hoarders could show up at any minute.

But then I think I have to cut myself some slack. I have a three year old that has to be asked 10000 ways from Tuesday to pick up her room. I have a baby that is *still* not sleeping through the night. I go to bed at 8:30 for christsake.

In short, I think we all need to relax a little. To know that no one is perfect and that while I might talk a big fucking game about my house being clean and organized all the time, the fact is, life gets in the way.

And like standing in my underwear in front of a crowded bus stop, I present the current state of my home:

The blog version of my dining room:

and the real world version:

The blog version of my living room:

And the current state of destruction:

Nice, huh? Lived in. Normal, I would think. A house with two kids under the age of 4. The house of *gasp* a working mom.

There is a bag of dog food in the dinning room that needs to be put away. There is a box of Christmas wrapping paper under the coffee table in the living room. There are towels and toys everywhere in the living room.

And wouldn't you know that when the house is most often in this state is when my neighbor with the magazine ready home shows up to talk about a neighborhood yard sale. Or my other neighbor with the clean house stops in to drop off the casserole dish she borrowed.

I think for the next few years this might be my life. And it might just be ok.



Want to weigh in? Tweet with me and make me feel better about the current state of my house: @thegoodwifeblog

Owl Valentines

It's time once again for shitty homemade Valentines!

Last year, I made cheesy candy treat bags.  The year before it was handmade cards and the year before that was a Valentine Breakfast! Can you tell I like to get my craft the fuck on during a holiday?

This year is no different and so I made owl valentines.

I saved some toilet paper rolls, let The Good Daughter color some paper (I did color some too) and then I hot glued that shit together to make these owls.

And I had to cheese it the hell up by adding sayings like "Hoo's Your Valentine?" and "Owl Love You" and of course "Owl Be Your Valentine." All in all, it was an easy craft that allowed TGD and I to spend some time together, for me to get some wicked hot glue burns and for all the other 3 year olds at daycare will think are the shit. 

What more could I ask for in a craft?

Homemade Valentine Coupons and a Free Printable

So, its Valentine's Day again and time for something special for The Good Daughter. 

Now that she has a lot of responsibilities, I thought it would be a great idea to make her a coupon book to get out of some of them. 

So I made her a Valentine coupon book full of coupons for things like "get out of time out." There is only one of those, for my sanity.

The rest are good for things like getting out of one chore or 15 minutes extra of tv/computer/game time.

There are also coupons for unlimited hugs and kisses and cuddles. 

I simply printed out the coupons on regular paper, cut them and punched two holes on the side. I cut a piece of pink cardstock and glued the title coupon to the front and tied it all together with some heart ribbon I had left over from last year's Valentines.

If you would like to make this Valentine coupon book with 16 love coupons, just click here for a free printable.

Week 45 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 45 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on keeping a family calendar.

Keeping a family calendar is a great idea when you have kiddos you need to take all across town. Since mine are still littles, they don't yet have much in the way of a social calendar. But I imagine that soon their dance cards will be filling up with scout meetings, dance class, soccer practice and all that other junk that kids tend to do once they hit school age. The only person I really need to keep track of right now is The Good Husband and most days I barely register when he is home.

If I *were* to keep a family calendar, however, a great spot would be in the Family Command Center/Launch Pad. A great trick for keeping everyone sorted out, is to make appointments and events for a single person is a separate color. So appointments and events for me would be written on the calendar in pink {duh} while TGH's would be in green, The Good Daughter's in blue and The Good Son's in yellow and family events in black. That way, looking at the calendar at a glance would reveal a when someone needs their ass on the soccer field at 6 pm while someone else is across town at piano lessons.

Stickers are also another great option, with everyone having the same sticker next to their event on the calendar. 


But the key to keeping a family calendar that won't have to leaving junior sitting outside dance class waiting to be picked up, is to keep it in a central location that all family members can see and edit if needed.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Turning my Daughter into an OCD Freak

I wanted to title this post "Turning my daughter into an anal (as in anal retentive) freak", but was scared of the traffic I would get. O.o 

The thing about being anal retentive/OCD is that I get to raise my kids that way. I am sure they will both love need therapy because of it. 

Like most parents, I suspect, the kiddos give me trouble listening and getting shit done. Especially in the mornings. So with advice from a friend, I made this chore chart for The Good Daughter to use.

It lives on the fridge, below our Family Command Center, so TGD can see it easily and follow it.

I included the simple chores she needs to do everyday. Some "chores" she does everyday already, so there was no fight there and it was an easy way for her to earn her stamps/rewards.

We use stamps that she got from Santa to mark off each chore. If she gets stamps for each chore for the day, she will get one sticker. If she gets 5 stickers, she will get a reward. A reward that she chooses- so far this is going to the park. 

I like to start the chart on Monday to give her a chance to earn her reward by the weekend and to get her into a routine for pre-k in the fall.

So far it seems to be working. There have been no meltdowns in the mornings while trying to get dressed, even if she does still take her sweet ass time. And it is a nice way to settle down at the end of the night, by stamping the chores that she did and talking about doing them again tomorrow.

If you like this chore chart and would like one customized, just shoot me an email - majorwife at gmail dot com - and I will be happy to make one for you.

Week 44 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 44 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on crafts.

I will admit that I like to get my craft on and on.

But I don't have a lot of crafty shit just hanging out. I tend to buy what I need for a project and nothing more. So I end up with odds and ends and a whole lot of tape.

But I keep it all fairly contained within a drawer in our buffet. 

If you have an entire room dedicated to crafting or just a drawer, the first rule is to contain, contain, contain. Keep all of your paints in one spot or container. Same for makers and pens and scissors and the like. Keeping everything together and grouped will make for less mess and easy retrieval when it is time to get your craft on.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges