the novice housewife

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED!!!

2010-06-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

I have decided to switch to tumblr it is so much more user friendly :) so I'm over at

http://wildwhisper.tumblr.com/

I'm still keeping this account so I can still read all the great housewife blogs ;) xo

Implementing Lazy Tuesdays

2010-05-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

People tell me all the time that I clean my house a lot. I don’t even notice it because 1) it is my job. It’s what I do instead of working. I clean my house and run my home for hubby and I. and 2) I am slightly compulsive about cleaning. I am utterly incapable of relaxing in a home that is visibly dirty. It’s no so bad in other peoples’ houses because I of course realize not every home has a borderline compulsive, housewife to clean it but, in my own home I simply can’t stand to sit down with my computer or watch t.v. if things are amiss. It leaves this constant nagging voice in my had saying “You know you don’t have a right to be sitting here doing nothing when there are things to be done.” To me this is a true statement but. I wonder is that really a good thing?
It makes me happy that I take pride in my home and taking care of stuff for hubby while he works to pay our bills helps to maintain equality in our relationship and helps me to feel fulfilled. I wouldn’t change that for the world but, I’m not so sure it is healthy for me to believe I don’t ever deserve a break. So today I woke up and the house was only moderately dirty and I didn’t really feel like doing anything. I sat down and started to procrastinated. While I was trying to distract myself with Law and Order my mind started to wander and came to thinking about how much I have been procrastinating recently. I thought back over the past few weeks and saw that it was starting to be a pattern. On Mondays my house is wrecked from hubby and I both being here all weekend. I still clean on the weekends but our house is so small that if we are both here it gets immediately dirty again. So on Mondays I spend a good chunk of the day cleaning and when Ty gets home I’m exhausted and I spend the evening cooking and talking with him and trying to get my week figured out so when I wake on Tuesdays I seem to be prone to procrastination.
I have decided to make Tuesdays a lazy day to give myself a break. My plan is to wake up on Tuesday mornings and clean the house as little as I can manage. Today I washed enough dishes for there to only be a few left in the sink, wiped down the counters, cleaned the litter box, picked up the living room, made the bed, and then lounged on the couch, played on the internet and watched t.v. I even took a much needed nap. It was wonderful. I am going to try to make this a weekly ritual. Wish me luck on that :) xo

the nine rooms of happiness

2010-03-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

Lucy Daziger and Catherine Birgdorf M.D.'s collaboration on how to improve your life and your outlook. I am starting it tonight I will report back!!

I heart my life

2010-03-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

For pretty much my whole life I have had an ongoing list of goals and for a lot of years some of them have always been the same. Lose weight, quit smoking, get more sleep, get my driver's license, go to college are just a few of the reoccurring items. Recently i have started to realize how not addressing these issues has made them worse. what was 30 lbs overweight is now much work, i went from 1/2 a pack to 1-2 packs a day, I have a fear of driving bordering on phobia.. It has all just snowballed. because of this realization I have made a pact with myself to do something about it. So I am designing my own self improvement program. i have entitled it the I heart(the symbol not the word)my life program. Basically I started out by making a master list of everything i want to accomplish then I broke it down into steps to accomplish each goal and then broke that down into baby steps I can accomplish in 3 weeks or less. I am also going to implement a rewards system so that while accomplishing a lot of small goals quickly I am also rewarding myself on a regular basis to keep myself motivated. So as my 'program' evolves I am going to document it here. everyone wish me luck.

the glamour wall

2010-03-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is a project that I have started with the printer/scanner/copier i got with my lap top. I am always looking for motivation and inspiration to get me thinking or moving or whatever else I may need a little nudge for. I have tried vision boards which is a concept Oprah implements which is where you take pictures of everything you want to possess or work towards and make a collage. You put this collage somewhere that you will see it often and supposedly you will start to accomplish these things just by subconsciously reminding you to work for them every time you see the board. I tried this and for me it doesn't seem to work. Maybe I am too skeptical or lack the faith in my subconscious for it to work. So I got the idea to print out pics of women who have strong characteristics that I desire to have. Women who exude these things to the point that it's the first thing I think of when i see them in t.v./movies/magazines. I printed them out and made the large collage featured above. I also added some adjectives that I want to be described as and some hearts to show my great admiration :) This is just the beginning i left alot of open space because I plan to add quotes, excerpts, more adjectives and anything else that i find that inspires and provokes.

InSoMnIa SuCkS

2010-03-11T03:42:00.000-08:00

Insomnia - Chronic inability to fall asleep or remain asleep for an adequate length of time. Apparently this can be caused by a number of diseases, disorders, and environmental issues. But what if like me there is nothing 'wrong' other than the fact I can't sleep. I have taken more over the counter sleep aids than anyone else I know and alot of the prescription sleep aids are addictive. I am already addicted to T.V., internet, cigarettes, caffeine and I'm sure a few other things that are slipping my sleep deprived mind right now. So, adding anything else to that list is probably a bad idea. Maybe I'm just not meant to be a sleeper. Or maybe I am putting too much worry into sleeping. Growing up i had a mother who LOVED to sleep. She'd stay up late at night then, sleep until noon and then, later on, take a nap if she could manage it. In turn during the years of my life I lived with my mother she encouraged me to sleep as much as possible and would tell me and other people quite frequently that sleep was one of the best things in the world. I honestly can not give an accurate number of times she told me to enjoy to be able to sleep whenever and however long I could while I was young. While I was young I did just that. I slept ALOT. I went to bed early on school nights when I lived with my grandfather because I wasn't allowed to go out. I stayed up late on weekends with my friends then slept the day away with no worry about it. I slept in class if the feeling struck me and when I got in trouble for it I slept in detention or ISS and if I got suspended for that I slept my sentence away at home. I pretty much slept any chance I got. Then I became an adult and I knew my lazy time was over. After I turned 18 and eventually had to get a job I started sleeping only a few hours a night. There just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day for my new freedom, new friends and new job. While everyone on the outside of my life thought I was getting plenty of sleep I was in fact sleep starved. That lasted almost 5 years. Then my husband got a good job and he told me I could quit working so I thought awesome free days again and a chance to catch up on the sleep that I had been losing. The first few weeks I went to bed when I always had and got up at roughly the same time. Then I discovered internet t.v. and my nights got a bit later and then they progressively got later and later until I was sleeping all day sometimes not seeing sunlight at all. When February of 2009 came around and my then fiance decided it was time to get married i openly invited the challenge to plan our wedding in 6 weeks. I have always been one to want to try to do anything that people thought I couldn't do. I started of the journey with a lot of confidence. But about half way through i realized there was no way I could get everything done unless I could make more hours in the day. A few days later was the first time in years I stayed up all day and all night and all day again. I thought there was no harm in it. That if I did that a few times I could get everything done and change my sleep schedule around too!! Sounded like a good plan. The only problem with that plan is once you stay up like that a few times when you already have sleep problems your body ends up just keeping itself up once you reach a certain point of sleepiness. We have now been married almost a year and I am still going whole nights without sleeping and alot of those nights I stay awake worrying about 1)not getting enough sleep 2) or losing a whole day because I didn't go to sleep until 6 a.m. My new mission now is to figure out how to sleep again during normal night time hours for the 8 hours or so a night I need. I can't help but laugh at the irony of googling insomnia at 6 in the morning after you haven't slept. lol.

our first tax season as a married couple

2010-02-20T15:26:00.001-08:00

This year was our first year to file married on our taxes. I have always done our taxes myself and i was worried that would be alot harder than filing single. fourtunately i was wrong it was super simple I used hrblock.com freefile and it was super easy. they give you step by step instructions and when you get your refund direct deposited it only takes about 8 days to get it. i am really proud of myself. So we got our money and hubby's check on wednesday and today is the first day I haven't had major errands and chores all day. I am thankful for the day to relax. I am also extremely thankful for some of our purchases. I finally got a new computer. Windows 7 is amazing to all who haven't tried it. I am actually posting from this nifty desktop gadget. it just hangs out on the sidebar of my desktop and i can post while i'm watching t.v. the internet. it rox. and we got a wii. they are alot of neigh sayers about the wii but me and hubby think it's frickin amazing. we get our weather and news straight from the wii. i downloaded sonic for sega genesis directly to my system. I also bought karoke registration because i love to sing and i got wii fit which is exactly what i need to lose weight. a little electronic buddy telling me i need to exercise and that i'm doing a good job though it is also gonna tell me i am fat that's still a good motivator because i'll want to make it stop calling me fat and the only way to do that is to lose weight!! So the wii fit is my first step on trying to make exercising a habit. we also got the new super mario brothers!!! I 'm so frickin excited. you see nintendo was the big thing when i was a kid and so was mario and now i can play it without having to blow in the cartridge to make it work. lol.
I have also spent alot of time rearranging and organing our house in the past few days I just finished going thru all our files i gotta hang our new shower curtains organize our closets and several other organizing like things. my fun project is printing out my fave picks adn putting them in this awesome frame i got.. so that's all for now. xo

new year's eve '09

2009-12-31T17:17:00.000-08:00

not only is it the beginning of a new year and a new decade. it's also a full moon, a blue moon and a lunar eclipse. frickin awesome. coincedentally ty and i never go out and this year i can honestly say it only happens once in a blue moon.

i am sitting here with sopping wet hair, bout to get ready and wait on hubby. ty is as always the designated driver and tho i norm don't drink i am having visions of trash can punch. love my besties can't wait to see ya'll. with that said i want to annouce that I am dubbing 2010 the year of love and change. love for ourselves, our family, and our freinds. and the strength for all of us to change whatever we want. I am regressing back to the days when we were told that we could do anything, be anything. I am challenging myself and anyone else that can read this to be WHOEVER we want to be. to say the thought provoking things, be the people marching outside the box, tell everyone we care about how much we love them and to love ourselves enough to care for ourselves and make the changes we need to make the most for ourselves not for anyone else. I believe 2010 will be epic and i know this to be true because i am going to make it that way. So starting tonight let's usher in this decade the right way!! Be inextricably happy, a little bit (or a whole lot) over the top, let's open our eyes and live our fucking lives because they can be taken away in an instant, call ur parents more, get up earlier, hangout with ur besties even when ur busy. embrace who we are and what we can each uniquely contribute to ourselves our family our freinds and by exsistention the world and universe. make a point to kiss/hug ur partner (man, women, dog; whomever ur partner in life is) everyday. have lots of (protected, responsible, consentual) sex (save that for the same species). scream, cry laugh, sing, freak out if u need to!! hell if u want to. but no matter what u do be geniunely yourself, take off the mask, step out from behind the security blanket and shout ur exsistence from the rooftops!! no more watered down version of myself b/c i am worried someone might not like it. life isn't fair. we all know it so why are we sugar coating. happy 2010 people. lets make this year and this new decade OURS. fight hard, love harder, believe hardest.

xo
Pene

sick on christmas...

2009-12-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

.. but it's all good. so Ty and I have been sick for about 4 days or so now. So we were both thinking that christmas was gonna be awful. Today we woke up around noon (the first christmas I remember ever getting to sleep in) and we looked outside to see everything covered in snow (the first white christmas since 1926 in our area). We still felt terrible so we called the one place we were suposed to gather at today and told the fam we couldn't make it. Then we commenced to putting together the furkids main present which was a replacement cat tower. They had had one when we moved in here but it had eventually been torn apart by human kids trying to climb in it after the cats and when i had taken it down Scrat jumped on the top of it, dug in his claws and tried to defend his tower so we figured we would replace it. After it was put together scrat immediately jumped atop it and took his rightful place back as kitty king of the cat tower. Then we gave them cat nip and gave them all their toys including a mouse shaped laser pointer that was bought for scrat that he won't have anything to do with but tabby LOVES it. then me and hubby opened our gifts. We already knew what we got because being sick we stumbled thru the store together on the 23rd barely holding one another up. Despite that we opened our gifts and fained suprise which actually made it a whole lot more fun than normal. by the time we got to the second gift we were both laughing so hard we were practically in the floor. then we went to redbox and i got to get chick flix (another xmas gift from ty) and because my hubby is so wonderful i have been allowed to opt of cooking today too so we will be eating pizza tooday. It's only 4 oclock and it is one of the best christmas's i remember in years. I am about to go curl up on the couch with my vicks and dayquil and watch julie and julia and pray for the return my health. I hope everyone is having an awesome christmas.

so i've been MIA because...

2009-12-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

I have writers' block. I have been writing poems and stories and the like since I was 4 and for 20 years it has always felt the same. Normally my head is a mine field, synapses firing everywhere, constant thought. Every. Single. Second. I am being serious I can't clear my head for anything! To go to sleep i have to make a thought pattern and tell myself a mental story to be able to fall asleep. it sounds crazy I know, and unmanageable, but, after 24 years of it it's like the hum of a computer, forever in the background so it goes unnoticed. Unless, ofcourse, it stops all together. Usually when i try to write it just flows out through the pen. Releasing that idea out into the universe. Well, when I have writer's block it's my internal hard drive just goes to sleep. I sit down with a pen and paper or computer and suddenly that familiar hum that is my chaotic thought process just stops. Now if I could do this trick on command I'd be ecstatic about it but since it only happens when I WANT to write it's maddening.
Then, yesterday, I signed into yahoo and when my homepage popped up I saw a picture of britany murphy looking chic as always so I smiled and went on to read the headline assuming that she had been nominated for an award or helped some under privileged children so I read to myself in my head "britany murphy ... died today at 32." so i got upset i been watching her in movies since clueless and it really bothered me so i opened the article and began to read expecting to see she had secretly been doing drugs or some other reckless activity that had lead to her death (hollywood, ya know, what would anyone think?) but no it said 'natural causes' which scared the crap out of me. I mean who the heck thinks that a 32 year old to die of natural causes. but this event has disolved my writer's block so hopefully i will have some new posts soon.

the day before thanksgiving...

2009-11-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

i have been up since 8 and for this housewife that is way early. I braved the grocery store today. I do not advise anyone else to take on that endeavor. I thought my head was going to explode. it was like everyone had temporarily lost all sense of good graces and manners. I have also been to the dollar store which was atleast not as bad.
I have finally returned home with all of the necessary supplies and now I still have to cook ALOT of food today!! this is my first thanksgiving dinner as a housewife. all the fam is going to be out of town so I am making this feast fit for a king. there will be pictures lots and lots of them. just wanted to drop in and leave a few lines. I am so glad hubby has a 4 day weekend.

nocturnal

2009-10-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

With hubby now working a later shift my old nocturnal sleep schedule is actually much closer to his schedule now. Thank goodness because I was sooo tired of stressing about sleep. I was obsessing so much I made it nearly impossible to get any sleep.
So last night around 1 a.m. I got the idea to get all of my lists (yes I am certainly a list person) that were strung between almost every notebook and binder in the house and get them all together, rewritten and organized. I had also been given about 50 lbs. of baby books which were just sitting in a chair in the living room so I knew I was going to have to rearrange our bookshelf to make them fit.
Well I moved the books around first. Hubby is going to hate it when he wakes up because they are all arranged from large to small now with all the paperbacks staked on top of each other rather than them being seperated into mine and his and his being ordered in series but, in my opinion if you have a series and book 1 and 4 are hard back and books 2,3,5 are paperback and no where near being comparable in height you are just wasting space. He's a libra so his brain doesn't work that I am a gemini and that is one of the ways my brain works. lol. So if I wake up from my nap today and they have all been moved I 'll have to blog again about the hilarious argument we will have about it.
After the hour I spent rearranging the bookshelf (and it looks lovely might i add) I started on my list organization project around 2 or 2:30. Once I got started this toothache that has been coming and going came again and it was here to stay so I just kept playing Ugly Betty on sidereel.com and working.
It is now almost 1p.m. and let me tell ya what I have learned.
1) being a gemini I am both type A and type B, when it comes to my lists I am type A all the way.
2) if you are obsessive like me and you are gonna work on to dos and such don't do it at night or atleast if you do don't plan to sleep because when you close your eyes your brain won't let you forget that you have more to do.
So far I have gotten my day planner (plan ahead 2010 weekly/monthly planner. $4 at walmart and it is better than the $20 version I had before AND it's just a simple spiral so it's not bulky) updated up to december 1st. I sent a few emails that were on one of my daily to dos from 2 days ago and now I am rewritting 'the ominous to do list' that was mentioned in an earlier post and I still have a huge pile of other lists in front of me from legal sheets to post its and the sad truth is these are just the ones from the past 3-5 weeks! I am not going back any further than that because if it's older than that and it hasn't gotten done and I don't remember it then it's not important.
During my nocturnal journey with the bookcase I also had to move some of my back issues of Glamour, Oprah and Self and then I ran across some old sheet protectors for a binder and got the idea to take all the articles I'm saving those issues for get a big binder and sheet protect them all so a) I won't have magazines from 2005 (i'm being serious) laying around and b) I will have the ultimate coffee table book with out paying the magazine companies $30 a peice for the same articles I have already paid for to get their coffee table books!!!
Finally, I wanted to announce that I am going to be starting my own website. I am still in the brain storming phase but it is going to be a site for newly married/committed young women who are becoming housewives and want to take pride in housewifery. I want it to be a reflection of 1950's housewives but with a much more modern twist. I know there are several sites reminiscent of this online but in this case I will research, write and actually try out all the tips I can find myself. I am a southern girl and alot of the pages I have found for housewives are also from the east or west coast and the women are a different generation than I am. I am a 24 year old southern woman and I want to be the proof that you can be strong, self reliant, opinionated, not always perfect or proper and still take pride in homemaking, still be somewhere between June and Lucy.

I have come with tales of groceries and gadgets

2009-09-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to tell ya'll about the wonderful and cheap products I have found.
Cascadian Farms Organic Cereal
It is just sweet enough naturally, it is super filling and it's less than 3 dollars a box. Here in Texas milk is about 2 dollars a gallon. That should give you some idea of how much grocery cost is comparatively in your area.
Jello No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
This comes in a box and calls for milk and melted butter. You put it in the fridge for 1 hour and then add the topping and serve. This is good enough and close enough to real cheesecake that if prepared with care (so that it looked pretty) it could fool most people into thinking you had been in the kitchen for hours preparing cheesecake ;) and it's only $1.85 at the local Dollar General.

Now I would like to tell you about a couple of gadgets I have stumbled onto in the webisphere. I found an add-on for the google toolbar that makes it where you can post to blogger from your toolbar. It has space for subject, label and post and the option to save a draft so if you were collecting info for a blog this would be an amazing resource to get it all here as you discovered it. Since I am always multitasking it is great to be able to blog and watch online t.v:)
I also started using yoono's desktop application and it is great. Yoono brings together all your social networking, email, rss, IMs, and internet music sites together in one place, allows simultaneous status updates across all networks, and gives you pop-up updates anytime someone posts or sends you a message and now you can download it to your computer so there is no need to even open a browser.

Finally, I would like to make a public declaration that I am finally embracing my geekdom. I had an epiphany watching the bang theory monday night. Two of the super geeky leads were arguing over whether or not Wolverine from xmen was born with bone claws. The answer to this is yes. I know this beyond all doubt because I have personally held the Wolverine Origins Comic Card (circa 1994) that depicts Wolverine with his bone claws broken and mangled from battle. This happens before he is injected with adamanthium and his skeleton is cover in this metal giving him adamanthium claws. I actually have this card in my home it is part of hubby's comic card collection. It wasn't the fact I knew the answer that threw me it was the fact that I would have argued that fact with someone had they of doubted me because I KNOW this to be CONCRETELY true. And that fact is what made me start to think over all the things like that, the fact that I always wonder why the guys in the comic/manga/gaming/roleplaying section of bookstores look at me so strange, the fact that I know what the term DM means in the world of dungeon and dragons. I know that the newest game from the makers of Baldur's Gate comes out on Oct 20th, I know how to spell Baldur's Gate, and who makes the games for that matter, I know how to beat several of the main quests on Oblivion, I know who R.A. Salvatore is. I can visual determine whether a martial art fighting style is japanese, chinese, brazilian etc. I know the difference in a wakasawshi and a katana I know which comics are DC and which are Marvel. I can do ANYTHING on facebook, myspace, twitter. I know who Stan Lee is. I can name all of Kevin Smith's movies IN ORDER. I know what wtf, lol, lmao, idk, pos, pc4pc all mean. I know batman is the only superhero with no actual superpowers. I know who the illuminati are. All of these facts, once realized, made me decide to except, embrace, and publish my geekiness because it is the age of the geek and i'd rather be me than most other people so being a geek can't be too bad. lol. ok I am done with my proclamations for the day. I am seriously considering messaging Yoono and asking them to add blogger to the network so I can be on yoono and update as the thought strikes me. hmm

Working on understanding blogger completely then the page will have better design and pics and such.

xo
Mrs. Chambers

Have you ever had one of those days...

2009-09-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

...not a bad day, we all have those. but a day where you figure something out and the universe seems to make a little more sense. not only does it make more sense but it goes out of its way to show you through a series of coincidences or events that reinforce your new found information. well i had a full 24 period that almost every contact i had reinforced an idea that I stumbled on to.
I have always been one to give advice. I have this issue with having an opinion about everything. I have gotten better at keeping them to myself as i've gotten older. But I have never gotten better at not letting other people's problems plague me after giving advice. I always wonder if it was the right advice even though in my heart I know I would never give anyone advice that I didn't believe in my heart and my gut was true and I've been told I'm right most of the time, I've had people believe that I am always right. But, how arrogant it would be of me to believe that God is the only being that is infallible. Apparently I do have good instincts.. when it comes to other people... but, that's not the real point. The point is that I will make myself sick and lose sleep wondering about other people's problems when no matter whether I gave them advice or not (which more than likely I did). Don't think that I mean that I just push my advice on people all the time but some people ask and usually if i have a good idea about a situation I will give my input.
Then yesterday after being up and worrying about a serious situation I realized that I have my own problems that I need to address but I am using my energy on other people. I am a very blessed person and I haven't always been but yet now at the best time in my life I am anxiety ridden and it is because I am still mourning the craziness of the world, the impurity, and I am still grasping for power in a world that I look at as out of control. But, it's not out of control. I have control, over MY life, over MY problems. Other peoples' are out of control to me but, not my own. Other peoples' problems shouldn't be in my hands and they never have been, they're still not. Only in my head were they ever my troubles.
So I have decided to purge these self inflicted toxins from myself and move on. Stop helping people that I know to be capable solve their problems because they second guess themselves. My new theory is if someone asks me for help I'm going to tell them what I know to be true: pray or meditate (whatever the belief may be) and trust your instincts because that's what they are for. The truth is I don't have the answers and it's nice not to. It's a relief and the persistent burning feeling in my stomach and tightness in my throat is already subsiding. I slept a dreamless night for the first time in a long time. 12 hours. got up at 9:30 a.m. My sleep pattern for months has been about 5 a.m. to 3 a.m. and there have been nights I haven't slept at all and still was up until 5 the next day. 36 hours of self surrender and I sleep like a baby. So my words are I don't know, but you do.

xoxo
Penelope

max factor

2009-09-21T12:27:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to let people know that in January they will no longger sell max factor cosmetics in the U.S> I think this is sad because I love their panstick makeup, Max Factor himself did the makeup on I love lucy, it is the only brand you can st...ill buy real retro makeup from . So if you love panstick foundation or 2000 calorie mascara stock up. i am. I am praying that we'll still be able to order it from europe

well this is the first time...

2009-09-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

.. I have really talked about this.I have been having trouble transitioning into the wife/housewife roll. I have been speeding through my housework taking no care or pride in it. staying up all night and sleeping all day. being short with my husband. not making good dinners, just kinda throughing things together and there are times i go days without even stepping outside and weeks between going anywhere but home.
I realized in doing these things I am taking my husband forgranted and not showing him appreciation for working. But I am supposed to put his feelings before mine always? I enjoy the time alone but should I be going to bed with him and waking up with him even though I don't work and we have no children? Should I be ok with him wanted to play video games or reading in all of his free tiime, if he works and does the man jobs. He even does laundry a couple times a month. I know I have it good. that I am extremely blessed to have found the perfect man right out of the gate. But for some reason I am having mood swings and being easily irritable and not taking pride in anything iI do, which are all signs of depression. I don't believe in therapists or psych meds so I need to know what to do. Like step by step instruction on how to get out of thus situation. I really want to embrace retro housewifery because I know i would be happier but am finding very few step by step guides. So I am going to do some reasearch and see if I can't start a website of resources and advice I have learned from first hand experience. I am going to start out with new recipes and changing my sleep pattern. Any advice will be welcomed.

xoxo
Mrs. Chambers

hey ya'll

2009-09-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

I spent my weekend refreshing season 2 Gossip Girl before the monday premeire. but I decided rather than not do anything productive to make a cleaning schedule, a morning routine and a goals list. after I'm finished I am going to post pics of my list incase anyone would like to follow my lead. Well I wanted to pop on to let everyone know I have not abandoned blogger talk to ya'll again soon.

mental organization

2009-09-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

I am working on a new from scratch layout for blogger so that I will feel more inspired to blog. It is the weekend and hubby is off. We are probably going to spend the weekend in. I believe it will be raining all weekend and we live in a flood zone :( so leaving probably isn't such a great idea. Especially with our two cats (the furchildren) being scared to death of water AND storms. I just spent about 3 hours downloading new images for a blogger layout and a myspace layout. My inspiration is how peaceful fall rolling in makes me feel. I think they are gonna be awesome!! I have been writing down ideas for some posts so i'm hoping once I get these layouts done everything will be clear enough to post some things. anyway xo to all for now.

Flawlessly Fearless In Texas

fall is like tomorrow!!!

2009-09-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

Things I Have Accomplished This Labor Day Weekend
1. I learned how to knit through many mistakes and lots of trial and error.
2. I overcame a cold.
3. I cleaned my house to its most sparkly of states after 2 days of laziness due to said cold.
4. I got my husband to watch twilight with me
5. I started reading life strategies
6. mass amounts of laundry with help from hubby!
7. made new myspace background though i now want to change it to a fall back ground

TOMORROW
1. new myspace pics!!
2. cooking three dinners because i forgot to separate my hamburger meat :P
3. making a chocolate cake because I want to
4. hopefully relaxin with hubby for his extra day off and going to bed early

So here in glamtown, Texas we had a few days last week that were cool but the summer is still trying to hang on. But for a born and raised Texan there are some sure signs fall will soon take over. The pool here in the complex is closed for the season I am pretty sure no yelling kids or soaked sidewalks in about a week. I hear the school bus every afternoon right before hubby gets home and it's quiet here all day which means the neighborhood kids must be in school. There are halloween decorations in all the stores. Then there are the thing that this Texas girl notices every year, the color of the sunsets are changing and they are creeping a few minutes earlier everyday, there is a smell on the cool breezes that break through the summer heat that makes you want to stop and sit outside and have coffee, that makes you visualize trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves and jackolaterns. I begin to dream of pumpkin pies. The a/c doesn't come on as much at night and concrete feels cool under barefeet.
There are many things that I am going to accomplish this season. why? because it is my favorite season and fall makes me feel renewed. makes me feel like it is time to wake up early and enjoy the cool mornings with a good book, coffee, and open windows. Time to have dinner on the table by sunset at 5 and be in bed cuddling watching primetime t.v. encores by 10. Time to go on long walks to look at the changes in nature everywhere. time to take a zillion pictures of everything around me. time to write all the time. Time to be festive. Time to accomplish everything I want and be the happiest I can be. there a few things I am super stoked about that happen between now and January.

1. I get to decorate my own house for halloween and I am hoping to make marshmellow spiders and worms and dirt and rent scary movies to sit in the dark and watch with hubby!
2. I am going to cook my own Thanksgiving dinner possibly for just me and Ty. for that night after we are home and i want it to all be our fave comfort foods.
3. I get to have my own Christmas Tree with mine, ty's and the kitties' presents under it
4. christmas baking for hubby and friends!!!

So stayed tune. I will be posting things like crazy about this trip I am about to embark on I want to post tips and recipes and pics and funny stories, lessons learned, accomplishments made. I am hoping this will keep me on track and maybe give ya'll some entertainment.

lotsa xo's :P
livin and learnin

awww texas mornings

2009-07-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to make a lot of changes to my life all of which are for my own health and a very good cause. There is one goal I have that I lose sight of why I it is one of my goals.
You see, I have this habit of staying up until anywhere between 5 to 7 or so a.m. and then sleeping until 2 to 4 p.m. Then some nights I don't sleep at all. Others I'll go to sleep at like 6 p.m. and not wake up until one the next day. My sleeping patterns are all over the place. obviously a problem. It isn't healthy for anyone to do that. A sleeping pattern is definitely necessary.
So I set my goal to sleep midnight to 10... and then 1 to 11... and then 2 to noon... I just couldn't convince myself that getting up early was worth it. I am a housewife. The earlier I get up the longer I am here, awake with just me and the cats. But at the same time waking up at 2,3,or 4 in the afternoon feels.. pathetic, lazy, depressing and a slough of other negative adjectives; no matter what time you went to sleep.
Then last night I became impossibly groggy at about 11 o'clock and just feel asleep. This morning at 6 I woke up, it wasn't enough sleep, i was still foggy, but for some reason I didn't go back to sleep.
After Tyler went to work I got out of bed, put in the complete 4th season of Sex and the City, and made a cappuccino. It rained outside for a little while and there were no barking dogs or screaming kids to disrupt the sound of the rain falling. Our cats were quiet because they had just had their morning snack. I got to use the t.v. unlimitedly as loud as I want (thanks to microsoft and a little thing called the XBOX 360 when Ty is home I can't even touch the t.v.) I got to savor my coffee and had no need to rush to clean the house (it was actually clean by 10 o'clock) it was relaxing and I felt like I had real time to myself.
I think this could be the answer to why I am irritable and feel rushed all the time and overwhelmed. I haven't been having time to myself or enough waking hours during the actual daytime. There's only so much you can do at 2 a.m.
So 6 a.m. is a little too early because it's 1 now and I think I am going to have to take a nap but 9 would be great so that I can reap the benefits of these Texas mornings. Today I am grateful to have found my reason to go to bed early and wake up early.. one small step for penelopes everywhere.

xoxo
Penelope

hey ya'll

2009-07-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

My name is Penelope, I'm 24 and I live in a small Texas town. I just married the greatest guy ever and I am lovin married life. But getting married is a big change and I am taking on the age old task of being a housewife. Now to clarify I have no intention on staying inside from dusk until dawn cooking doing laundry and etc. I want to be an elementary school teacher and work towards my doctorate in psychology. I am also very independent and opinionated. One of my other personal goals is to be a writer. I am currently workin on a non fiction piece about the 'secret life' of a small town. However, perhaps my biggest aspiration is to keep a happy, warm home, and raise happy children in a loving enviornment. I want to be able to make spaghetti from scratch, make perfect homemade lemonade, make a home that everyone feels cozy in as soon as they walk in, and eventually raise polite and well mannered children and at the same time work with children and teach them the fundamentals they need to get through life, write books that will captivate people's souls, and study to help people through the crisis in their lives.
Most people would say that is alot to accomplish but these days there are single mothers raising families on their own and still being highly successful business women. Their are women who never get married, women who have house husbands. So I think having a few degrees, some best selling books, a happy marriage, a loving family, and still be able to make an apple pie from real apples isn't so much to ask.
I am also engrossed in everything girly and retro. polka dots, hot pink, gingham, high heels, pearls, red lipstick, black liquid eyeliner, cookbooks, anything fuzzy, sparkly or cute, all social networking, ballet flats, big sunglasses, cute clothes, all shades of pink, my kitty cats, pin up girls, 50's fashion, golden age hollywood, marilyn monroe, and i really want to get more into that and learn more about it. I want to be a glamourous, intelligent, healthy, accomplished women. So that is now what I am workin on and I am gonna drag ya'll along on my journey and share all the stuff I learn on the way up! love ya'll

xo,
living and learning in glamtown, Texas.