Holiday Traditions

I can’t even explain how excited I am for Christmas. I have always had such a deep love for the holidays, but mostly because I absolutely love the holiday traditions with my family. They seem pretty simple, but I know I am spoiled with it.

Ever year on Christmas Eve, we go out to my grandma’s house for supper and presents. My grandma usually makes a huge meal (for any event) and we eat, talk, and then slowly move in to the living room. It wasn’t a holiday until Michael and I fought over who was going to sit at the head of the table. Neither of us liked it, because your back is to the cabinets. Every year, it was always the kids who got to sort the presents and since Mike and I were the only kids, we would always sort the gifts. We would take turns opening and the kids would play with their toys, while everyone else continued to talk.

A College Student’s Letter to the Younger Generation

So here is my disclaimer: This is my opinion. These are the thoughts that have been going through my head. I am sorry if anyone gets offended. If you don’t read anything from this entire rant, at least skip down to my Stop/ Learn. That’s the message I really want to send.

Dear Current Middle School and High School Students,
Hey! College life is great. It is a lot of work, and definitely a struggle, but it is so worth it. But I didn’t write this to talk about me. I wrote it to talk to some of you.

Maybe this isn’t my place to judge. Maybe it’s not my place to talk. But I am tired of seeing it on Facebook. Kids are getting suspended. Kids are into drugs. And having babies.

I read my news feed on Facebook and I see people complaining about school and promoting the legalization of weed all over the place. What happened to playing with dolls or video games?

What Strengths Training Did For Me

I want to apologize to anyone who talks to me on a daily basis for anytime in the future. I have just completed the strengths training through the TeamMates and Gallup partnership! So bare with me if you have no idea what I am talking about or if you think I am a little crazy.

My first reaction to my strengths when I took the strength finder was “My mom has these on her top 5 and I am just like my mom, so why don’t I have them on my top 5.” I didn’t know why I wasn’t a Maximizer and I thought for sure that I would be a Woo. I think that I was almost disappointed with my top 5 because they weren’t what I was expecting, but after reading through the definitions of each of my top 5, I understood immediately what those strengths looked like within me.

Why a Liberal Arts Degree is for Me!

Lately, I have heard a lot of people talking about Universities and how Technical programs are becoming way more efficient. “Liberal Arts is a thing of the past” Lots of people have said that they don’t see why people would spend so much money on a degree that doesn’t really teach you how to “do” anything.

I know the economy hasn’t been great and people don’t always find jobs with liberal arts degree, but people don’t always find a great job with any degree and you are more likely to find a job that pays more than minimum wage with either a degree, or experience.

I am going to University of Nebraska for a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree. My major is Psychology and I have a quadruple minor. My minors are Child, Youth, and Family Studies, Women and Gender Studies, English, and LGBTQ Studies (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual and Queer/Questioning). I have a VERY liberal arts degree.

My New Blogging Plan

I have struggled with what this blog is about most of the time that I have had the blog. I have spent hours searching other blog sites and reading all about what they do for their blog to make it work.

I am going to try something new and I hope to keep with it throughout the school year. I may have a few weeks were I struggle to keep up, but I will make sure to at least post every once in a while. I am really excited to start this!

My plan is to have a different theme for every day Monday-Friday. Each day will have a theme but it will be broad enough that I can write about a lot of things that are under that category. Every week will have a different blog post for that day of the week.

Monday’s theme is Money Saving Mondays. There will be different things like saving money on a certain project, idea, or bill. Depending on the week, it may be something kind of off the wall, or something that Matt and I have really applied in the house.

Tuesday’s are Tasty Tuesdays. This includes recipes, kitchen tips that I have found helpful and other kitchen oriented posts. This may get pretty narrow depending on the week, but I am going to work on trying a ton of new recipes soon!

Wednesdays are Weigh In Wednesdays. This may be misleading because it sounds like I am 100% focused on weight, but it will actually be about overall health. It will be for mental, physical, and emotional health benefits. Sometimes it will be about my physical process of getting to my initial goal weight (Seems like I was at the same place last year) Sometimes it will be health tips that I have put together or learned along the way!

Thursdays are Try It Out Thursdays. This will be college tips, new craft projects, decorating tips, or just a new place that I visited in Omaha. It will be recommendations for things that I think everyone should try at least once.

Fridays are Freestyle Fridays. This is really broad because I wanted to have a day where I could write about something not in one of the previous categories. It may include a variety of many things. Some of the posts may fall into some of the categories above, but they also may not. This may include traveling or fun things that Matt and I do. This is just kind of a fun day for me to play around with my blog.

I hope to you check out my blog posts for the weeks to follow. I know that I am going to aim to continue this plan for the rest of the summer at least, but I hope to continue it into the school year as much as I possibly can!

Off the Desk Paper Organization!

Since I’ve been at home since the move, I have taken it into my hands to do the house cleaning (for the most part), meal planning, and organizing (again, what I can do.)

I am constantly finding that I don’t have a place to put the bills other than under a magnet on the fridge because 1. there are two drawers in our kitchen and they are both taken. and 2. There isn’t a whole lot of table and counter space as you walk in the door. (Bonus because our tables don’t become a catch all). Anyway, I am always afraid I am going to lose an important piece of paper and not be able to find it when it comes time to pay that bill. Our office desk is less than functional because we have a TV sitting on it to be used as a monitor for my broken laptop.

I decided that I needed some kind of organization process for mail, bills and other things of the sort. I finally got the hammer and nails out to hang up the bulletin board in the office and started to work away. I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to print on envelopes and it took a little experimenting, but I finally got it.

10 Things To Do AFTER Moving to a New City

This is a blog in progress, but I am quickly working on a checklist of things to do after you have moved to a new city.

I am moving from Lincoln to Beatrice to Omaha all in a 2 month time span. I finished my college semester and I am planning on moving to Omaha shortly after returning to South Africa. Beginning of June, I will be packing up my belongings and moving to an apartment. I have been working on downsizing and packing my things, but there is a lot more to moving than your moving your stuff.

You are moving your life as well.

I am slowly creating a to-do list of things that need to be done after your move.

Why You Should Let Your Kids Pick Their Paint

Wow, has it been a crazy month or what. My laptop screen broke, I got back into the states (currently working on the blog posts to share my great experiences) and now I am in the process of completely cleaning out my room and getting rid of anything that I possibly can.
Now, maybe I am writing this blog to prove a point to my parents, but maybe I am just curious as to see what other people out there think.
I am trying to redo my room for my little brother who turns 7 in 2 weeks. I wanted to do it as a birthday present, but also as a bribe to get him to get rid of some of his toys and start keeping his room clean. (Yeah, right. A 7 year old boy keep his room clean, I know. I am crazy.)

If you have never met him then you wouldn’t know that he has lived and breathed John Deere and tractors since he was learning to talk. He actually learned his colors by the brands of tractors (John Deere Green, Allis Chalmers Orange, Case IH Red… So on..) It was adorable.
       I want to paint his room Green, With a yellow and a Black stripe. Like the picture to the side, without the yellow ceiling. I am hoping to get creative enough to put a little red barn and a dirt path on the wall, but first I have to get past my parents.

Why I Am Moving In, With No Ring In Sight.

I guess this isn’t really something that I need to broadcast, but I wanted to address it anyway. I am moving into an apartment with Matt this summer. We have no plans of marriage in the foreseeable future.
We have found a place in Omaha that we will be moving into. I am going to school. He got a full time job! I am going to continue with my military training.

Here is why I am addressing this. Many people have given me questionable, weird looks when I say that we are getting an apartment together. That I am switching from Lincoln to Omaha for school. I have gotten some “shame on you” finger pointing and some disapproving looks. I know that it doesn’t matter what other people think, but at the same time it does matter to me.

Bucket List Number Two

If there is one thing that came from all of last year, it’s that life is too short. WAY too short.

When my grandpa was in his last few days of life, he pulled me aside and told me not to work too hard, because life goes by way too fast and you won’t be able to do all the things that you want to do in life. He told me that there were a lot of things that he wished he had time for.

After he passed away, I made myself promise that I would do as many things as I could, without worry about cost (to an extent), time, or other people’s worries. I have made a long bucket list of all of the things I want to do before I graduate college and have been slowly crossing things off this year. I have crossed off Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming as places that I have traveled to. I crossed off volunteering in an animal shelter, because we did that on spring break. Today, I crossed off making homemade ice cream with my mentor. One step at a time, I have been crossing things off. I have been working on reading my entire library, but the problem is that it just keeps getting bigger.