I have some 'splaning to do!

Do you want the good news or bad news first?

Good News: I'm back!
Bad News: I'm over a year late. :(

First off, I'm sorry I lied. When I posted last, back in September 2011, I said I needed to take a month away from blogging but that I would be back in October. Yea... that was 14 months ago. So technically, I lied. But I promise it was for a good reason and I'm really hoping you are a "better late than never" sorta person!

Remember the health problem I mentioned? Turns out I had, as my husband liked to say, a "parasite." (I'm being sarcastic... I totally knew I was pregnant.)

His name is Bug (not really, but that is what we call him) and he is now 10 months old.

Yep, Mrs. 2010's Housewife is a mommy! SURPRISE! I am sooo going to get one of those t-shirts that says "I'm so crafty, I make people."

I just told a friend today that everyone knows a child is going to change their life, but no one is prepared for just how much! Becoming his Mom has not only added to my life, it has made me a completely different person.

Needless to say, The 2010's Housewife is going to change too. In fact, it's changing to a whole new blog! http://the2010shousewife.com/

I have missed blogging, but not everything about it. I don't miss the pressure to blog everyday or the fact that keeping track of advertisers/sponsors/giveaways was a full-time job. This time around, blogging will be something that adds to my life- not adds stress to my life!

I learned a big lesson when I decided to dust off the virtual cover of my blog book after months of inactivity. What did I find? The 2010's Housewife has had more traffic the last 14 months than it did when I was posting multiple times a day! What does that tell me? You like me... you really like me! :) For that reason I'm giving you the new & improved Mrs. Housewife (+ mommy).

I hope you like it! I have been working with an amazing designer named Sara from MoonsteamDesign, who has been so helpful, enthusiastic and encouraging!

I think it's safe to assume that my posts will be moving more in the new Mommy direction, but I still enjoy crafting, cooking and all the other creative stuff I used to blog about- so if you were a fan/follower before, I hope you continue to enjoy my new content. (Only this time around, I won't be clogging your Google Reader with content that isn't really special to me!)

I want to say that this time around I am going to try to post only what my readers want to read, but in all honesty, I'm probably just going to be posting what I feel like talking about. My hope is that you are still interested! But if at the end of the day, it's just me left standing I'll be okay with that. I'm sure my mom will continue reading so I'm guaranteed at least one follower!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy following along on my new adventure as Mrs. 2010s Housewife + Mommy!

Modern Translation: The Awesome Wife's Guide (Rule #18)

* A good wife always knows her place. 

Oh I know my place alright. At least I do now. My place is beside my husband. 

The last couple of months have been stressful for my family. My husband and I are both dealing with unrelated but simultaneous health issues. As a result, I haven't been able to blog as much as I would have or wanted to. I have been feeling guilty for each week that went by with few and, I admit, weak posts. Behind the scenes, I've also felt guilty about not having the energy to keep the house clean and not having cooked a real meal in over a month now. 

The other morning I woke up and, as per usual, started running through the list of things that needed accomplished that day, then the list of things I could have accomplished a couple months ago, and finally the list of what I though I could maybe get accomplished that day- if I was having a good day. I finally gave myself permission to not blog last week and that really helped. But now that I've done some thinking and reminded myself of my priorities, I need to give myself permission to not feel guilty about not blogging. 


I've read a number of blog posts about finding a balance in one's life between work, home and blogging. It seems every blogger reaches a point at least once over their career where they need to give themselves a hearty dose of reality about in which order those three things fall on the priority scale. I didn't think my wake up call would be coming so soon!


Don't get me wrong- I love blogging, I am not burnt out on it and I soooo plan to continue blogging. Right now, however, I need to put my money where my mouth is and truly place all my focus and energy on getting myself, my husband and our home back into shape.This rule couldn't have come at a better time because I truly needed to remind myself where my place is. I love my blog life, but my place is first and foremost beside my husband, as the best and healthiest wife/person I can be. 


So, I am taking the month of September off. I don't want to do too many things not very well. I want to get back to where I can feel proud of myself and say that I am tackling every venture of my life the best I possibly can. I will be spending the month bringing "healthy" back into mine & my husbands lives, finding my blogging inspiration and stockpiling some awesome posts for October, and putting all the pieces of the puzzle back to where they need to be. 


I don't want to worry anyone- neither of us is dealing with a serious illness. We are just learning to live with some minor health issues that haven't let either of us feel like ourselves lately. 

I appreciate your understanding and the best support anyone can give us is to stick around- don't go anywhere because I will be back and (fingers crossed) better than ever with some BIG SURPRISES!

We Have A Winner! UPrinting.com Giveaway

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Drum roll please.....

The Winner of the UPrinting.com Brochure Giveaway is....

#2: I follow your blog! (Zoe).

YAY! Congratulations Zoe! Be sure to come back & let us know how you use your brochures!

You will be getting an email from me & UPrinting.com very soon. Enjoy your prize and thanks for being a new follower!

Thank you also to all who entered and continue to read The 2010's Housewife!

Celebrate with Upromise!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPromise for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do u Upromise yet? If not, you should! 

Upromise is an online college savings account that allows you to save up for your childrens education through a variety of different means: by shopping online, using eCoupons at the grocery store and even by recycling ink cartridges. What makes this program even better is that extended family can jump on board too and help make your kids educational dreams come true! To date, members have received over $600 million in money towards college through Upromise rewards programs! 

Upromise is celebrate their 10th Anniversary by giving away $20,000 to users who share a story about how a parent has supported a child's dream! 

 

All you have to do to earn your chance to win is submit a story via the Upromise to Dream Wall www.upromisetodream.com. You can also participate by reading and "liking" other people's dreams. 

If you happen to come across my dream, I'd love for you to "like" it! Here is my submission, titled The Children who Changed their Dreams... daily!

My parents were incredible to my brother and I growing up. We were the kind of kids who had lots of dreams, ever changing and developing. Fortunately, we were blessed enough to have two parents to support each and every one of our dreams, no matter how temporary. My parents encourage, supported, built equipment for, bought supplies for, and served as assistants for all of our various adventures- from music to fighting for animal rights, to journalism and motorsports, from baking to pottery and photography, and everything in between!

That probably isn't worthy of the $10,000 Grand Prize, but I'd be MORE than happy with one of ten $1,000 prizes! 

I'd love to hear what your dream is! Submitted a comment below to share and please enter it as well on the Dream Wall (you do want $10,000, dont you??) www.upromisetodream.com

Be sure to check out the dream wall official rules before submitting. I can't wait to hear about your dreams- Good Luck!

How to Clean a Broom

I'm getting ready to share with you, once again, another embarrassing household secret of mine: my dirty, dirty broom.

Eww!


Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewww!


There are no excuses, but I will say that we have a dark kitchen floor... which shows EVERYTHING! So this broom gets used probably daily. On top of that, we have a very hairy black cat that sheds hairball tumble weeds on a daily basis as well. With that said, this broom is almost 2 years old and has never been properly cleaned. Eww again.


I found this tutorial online courtesy ehow.com, Cleaning a Plastic Broom, which I followed, sort of.

Step #1: Beat the s@*#& out of it on the side of the front porch to knock off furballs.

Step #2: Vacuum

Step #3: Rinse under hot water

Step #4: Soak in a bath of soap, bleach and water. Ehow said to use dish soap but I dropped in a couple dishwasher detergent packets. I thought the bubbling effect might help break up the dirty particles. I also didn't follow the ratios they gave. I filled up the tube I had with hot water until the broom was covered, added 2 cups of bleach and 2 dish soap packets.

I soaked it for about 20 minutes. Now, I'm not exactly sure that I didn't create some sort of toxic fumage in my bathroom with this mixture so I opened all the windows in the house and turned on the exhaust fan. Let that be a warning/disclaimer to all. I don't want to be held accountable for lost brain cells. 

Step #5: Rinse out all the soap with hot water.

Step #6: Second soak in hot water and 2 cups bleach.

Step #7: Sit out to dry in the sun. Because my mother said so. 

I know, something looks a little off. As it turns out, the bristles on the broom have split at the ends. Just like my hair in middle school. I was going to cut them off so it looks nicer (because I feel like it is clean now but still looks dirty) but my husband said that it probably picks up better like that so I kept that as is.