what helps me be more productive

I just need to come right out and admit it. I'm pretty lazy. I'd rather sit on the couch and read a book than be productive. So I've found a few things that help me get my day started and increase my productivity.

1. Get dressed as soon as I get out of bed. I don't usually take a shower until about 11 AM, and I used to just stay in my pajamas until then. But I've found that if I actually put some real clothes on, I don't feel so lazy, and I can actually get a few things done before baby naps and I shower.
2. Have a short goal list. I used to make huge, long lists of things I needed to get done. I would take one look at it and get so discouraged. So I made a sticky note goal list. It's just a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper with 9 sticky notes on it. I write one goal on each sticky note. Some goals are fun (plan a baby blanket for my daughter) and some are not as fun (deep clean my laundry nook). But it feels so good to get something done, take the sticky note off, and throw it in the garbage!
3. Be active. Whether it's walking with my mom in the morning, or doing Zumba or playing Just Dance on the Wii while baby naps in the morning, I find that when I do something active in the morning, I get more done the rest of the day.
4. Have a schedule. For me it's a cleaning schedule. I do laundry on Thursday and Friday. I clean the bathrooms on Thursday. I weed the garden on Saturday. You get the picture. I also gave myself a day off. On Wednesday, my only chore is to go grocery shopping. I don't know why, but grocery shopping makes me exhausted by the time I get home (which is usually 10 AM). So I give myself the rest of the day to do what I want. I still do the dishes and all that, but I work on projects or read books. It gives me a day to look forward to, and I like that it's the middle of the week so it gives me a nice break in the middle of my cleaning.
5. Do as much as I can while baby is awake. I know not everyone's baby is like mine, but my baby actually likes to watch me work. She especially loves laundry day. She hands me hangers while I hang up clothes. So I try to do as much cleaning as I can while she's awake, and that way I can have some downtime while she's napping.

What tips do you have that help you stay motivated and be productive? I'd love to hear them!

pinterest

Yes, I am dedicating an entire post to Pinterest. If you don't know what Pinterest is, I'll sum it up in one word. Awesome. Pinterest.com has nothing less than inspired me. It's basically a website where you can 'pin' things from any website to different boards. I think of it like having online bulletin boards. For instance, I have a board for recipes, one for crafts, and even one dedicated to cakes and cupcakes. All in all, I have 12 boards.

You can also follow other boards. So if someone has a lot of pins that you like, you can follow that board. The only thing I don't like about Pinterest, is that once in awhile, the website will just decide for you that you should follow someone. Then you have to go and unfollow all of their boards. But other than that, I have loved Pinterest.

Here are some of the things that Pinterest has inspired me to do:

1. Remember my last post, how I took 3 month baby pictures and had the letters above my baby's head? Got that idea from Pinterest.

2. Made THIS brilliant idea. Turn a 12-pack soda box into canned food storage? Although I found out AFTER I made it, that it doesn't fit normal sized cans. I wasn't aware that Campbell's soup cans were smaller than other cans. So that project didn't work out for me.

3. Made THIS no-sew jacket/wrap.

4. Made a bunch of THESE little bows, tied by using a fork.

5. Made Cinnamon Honey Butter. Delicious.

6. Made THIS pasta dish. Basically like carbonara, but instead of putting the egg with the cream sauce, you fry it and stick it up top. It was pretty much delicious.

7. Made THIS egg in a bell pepper slice. I made it for Mr. Webb for breakfast, and he rather enjoyed it. I didn't flip my egg though. I just cooked it a low heat for a long time.

8. Reorganized my cupcake wrappers. Luckily, I already had a container that worked wonderfully! Here are my before and after pictures of my cupcake supplies. See how much my container was overflowing before?

9. Made this paper star. I can't decide if I like it or not.

10. Used a weekly meal planner, and planned about a month's worth of meals.

So, in a nutshell, you should go join Pinterest. Because it rocks. :)

my summer so far

My chives:

Mr. Webb took up the grass along this fence line:

And we've planted a bunch of flowers. We have a lot of different kinds of lilies along the fence, some yellow snapdragons, some pink and magenta dahlias, and (after this picture was taken) we planted coral pink and orange zinnias all along the border, some pink geraniums, and some dianthus plants.

My sister and her two kids are visiting for a few weeks. My niece is extremely adorable.

But my nephew doesn't like being made to have a picture taken with his little sister.

A week ago, we had Mr. Webb's little brother and sister over for Sunday dinner. I made these awesome cupcakes with a decorating tube I got for my birthday. They turned out awesome!

a wedding and a garden

#1. A Wedding

#2. A Garden (specifically, my garden)

peter pan

We have a guest room/future kid's room, and I've been starting to collect Peter Pan paraphernalia to put in it. So far I have a set of four lithographs and this movie poster from Disney Movie Rewards (love this site). I've been looking for a thing or two more, and I've decided that I either want this, or this with this.

Which do you like better?

a visit

Last week, my sister and her family came down for a visit. I loved being able to play with my niece and nephew. Just look how cute they are:

did you smile when you saw this? i know you did!

so adorable

beautiful eyes

playing with uncle s.

baking a cake with aunt l.

hehe

he calls this "super klonk"

he is just so good at matching people

thoughts

1. I know someone AMAZING! She was just on TV moments ago, in the opening ceremonies of the olympics. Noelle Pikus-Pace. She was a big influence in my life, and I'm so excited that she was able to go to the olympics this year! They showed her for a few short seconds, dancing away in the stands, with blue and red streaks in her hair.

2. I also know a funny boy at work. He's a 6th grader. Yesterday I was in a crazy mood. It was the last 15 minutes of the day, and the kids and myself were ready to go home. But, we still had to do fry phrases for 15 more minutes. So, as I was walking down the stairs in the little theater, I may or may not have sang a little bit. Just some "do-de-do-de-do's," but he thought it was funny enough to say, "Mrs. Webb, you're so AWESOME today!" I turned to look at him, and he quickly added, "as ALWAYS!" Haha!

3. Back to the olympics. Should I be capitalizing Olympics? I'm not sure. Anyway, my favorite olympic sport, hands down, is speed skating. I've always loved it. It's so fast paced and intense. Of course this year I'll be making a point to watch the skeleton competition to see Noelle, and I also love the ski aerials, where they do cool flips and stuff in the air.

4. LONG WEEKEND! Enough said there.

5. Tomorrow, Mr. Webb and I are celebrating Valentine's Day. He's going to take me out to dinner, and then we are going to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. CAN'T WAIT! I've been waiting for this movie to come out for a long time!

6. I want to make some hip and happenin' yet cheap home decorations. Any ideas?

new microwave

Because, sadly, our old one decided to stop working. But we LOVE our new one. It heats water to the PERFECT temperature for hot chocolate, and pops the perfect bag of popcorn. Plus, now we only have to wait 30 seconds for leftovers to heat instead of 3 minutes!

The one downside is that is is HUGE! We new it would be bigger than our old one, but I seriously think I could fit in this microwave!

Molly loved that we got a new microwave, because I let her play with the box and packing supplies for the day.