March 2015 Goals

I didn't really set any specific goals for February and I feel like the month was a crap-shoot. I fell off my workouts after being sick for two weeks. I kept eating decently most of the time so I suppose that is something. This month though I really want to be focused and get a lot done.

1. Focus on Dutch. I have been here nearly a year and still can't understand anything beyond basic greetings, "Do you want a receipt" (which I only know because of the word "bon"), and some gibberish I can't understand that is, "do you want a bag?" I want to know more than this so I am really going to get back on it.
2. Stop watching so much Netflix and get back to reading. I have so many wonderful books I wanted to complete this year so I will be focusing on reading.
3. It is March and getting warmer I will run at least 3 days a week incorporating Fit Tutor as well as Insanity Asylum Vol. 2. To hold myself accountable I will be posting on Instagram, so follow me there and let me know so I can follow you too! 
4. Clean eating.
5. Focus on creating inventory for my Etsy shop and post at least one new item every other day.
6. This is the big one so I saved it for last. We have really been trying hard to save money and focus on getting ahead. A while back I read about this 31 day no spend challenge so we are going to attempt to complete it. Things we will have to do differently are:
1. We will have a weekly grocery budget as we do not have a stock pile or stocked pantry/freezer so we will have to buy groceries weekly as usual
2. Meals will first and foremost be planned around anything in the freezer/pantry to ensure those items are used in a timely manner.
3. No prepackaged products will be purchased, most everything will be real whole foods made from scratch. 
4. We are going out of town as we have a weekend away pre-planned but we will have a budget and will not spend on souvenirs and we will bring our own snacks, breakfast items, and water bottles.
5. The kiddo and I will ride our bikes as much as possible instead of the train. there will be a once a week exception for cheer, but otherwise we need to get comfortable going longer distances on our bikes.
6.  Date nights out of the house will still happen but will need to be creative and find fun, free/cheap things to do, each date night will have a spending cap if we feel the need to spend.
7. Do a daily post of what we did that day, and how much we spent, if anything.

Spring is on its way and I really want to feel like I am accomplishing the things I aimed for this year, so this month I will be crushing goals! What goals are you focusing on completing?

Countdown 2 Xmas, Day 6!

Happy Saturday, everyone! Hope you are having a lovely day. Our day is drawing to a close here in Amsterdam. It has been a wonderful day full of excitement and family time.

Today is Day 6 of the #Countdown2Xmas! These bloggers are giving us some amazing content!

Make sure you check out Day 5, and Days 1-4.

Today we have three more great bloggers, let's see what they are posting:

Crazy Cass Life

Alexis gives us some simple tips for making Christmas magical regardless of age!

Young Love Mommy 

How cute are these egg snowmen?! I was going to do winter themed lunches as we countdown the holiday break this week for my kiddo and a couple of these will be perfect in the snowman themed one!

Living in this Season

Keri brings us some adorable activities to do with your toddler or young child, they are simple and use basic art supplies, crafts anyone can do!

I am in love with all the fun Christmas posts happening! We just need to get our butts in gear over here in Holland and get a Christmas tree and get it up and decorated!

So, this one time I started a blog...

Writing honestly has never really been a passion of mine. I remember in first grade doing a creative writing unit and that was my worst nightmare! I remember sitting in class not having a clue as to what to write. I know I came up with things...mostly ridiculous spellings, but they were words on a paper nonetheless.

As I got older and had to write for assignments I usually enjoyed research, especially in college. I then became an English/Humanities teacher and loved helping teach my students how to research. But, still didn't consider myself a creative writer.

When we moved to Austin, TX I started the blog Travels in Austin and recorded a few of our travels around Austin.

Of course, we then moved...to Los Angeles. I didn't have anything more to add to our Austin Travels but have let it stay up because it still gets a few visitors each week lol

Then, upon moving to Los Angeles in 2010 hubby and I decided it was best I stay home with the kiddo as we were now living in a much more fast paced city with people that didn't often share our same moral beliefs and we wanted a constant contact for the kiddo who was racing into teenagehood. Since I wasn't working outside the home any more I knew I wanted to do something to fill my time. But, we then moved to Vancouver.

Upon this move is when I decided to finally create this blog. The original name was Adjusting and Readjusting...I started off with my first post, but after a while I just felt the name didn't fit what I was putting on the blog. So, I renamed it Diary of an Urban Housewife.

I named it this because I don't really have a niche and I wanted to be able to share all aspects of my daily life.

I love sharing everything from my weekly menu, crazy things I am encountering in my travels, the different craft projects I am doing, and the stuff I'm reading.

Blogging is something I have truly become passionate about. I am looking at finding my first blog conference to go to {if you know of any in Europe coming up please let me know} and would like to collaborate with some other European bloggers to do some sort of European City Tour or something neat like that.

So, that is why I blog, to just talk to people and share the things I am doing so people have a point of reference if they are interested in similar things! :)

Do you blog? If so, why?

Feature Friday #2

These weeks seem to be going by faster and faster these days! I am less than two weeks away from my Hawaii Spring Break trip with my 14 year old to visit my best and oldest friend from childhood! I can't even believe it. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii but to get to share that with  my daughter and my best friend...talk about a dream come true!

Another exciting thing that happened to me earlier this week is my feature over at The Wednesday Round Up!

Go on over and check it out! While you are there check out all the other great things that were linked up last week and this week! 

Last week I did my first Feature Friday and I linked up over at a great site called Blogitudes. If you are a blogger and do a weekly wrap up like this head on over and link-up! Otherwise, if you just love to read go check it out and read the other bloggers who link up! 

What I Read

This last week I read some great articles by other bloggers. The first thing I read was this great article from a blogger I have followed for many years. This woman in fact is who {unknowingly} inspired me to start my blog! I loved everything she posts and since it is somewhat from her everyday life I loved reading it so figured I would do the same! Well, the last week in February, I didn't find it until earlier this week though, she had the opportunity to interview a young woman who runs ultra marathons! I am a runner. I truly love running, I love feeling the sun on my face, I enjoy spending time with my girlfriends when I run. I however have no desire to run any longer than 13.1 miles. I am though inspired by those who run marathons, ultra marathons, triathalons, etc. I find it amazing that they have the willpower to make that happen! So, go on over to Creatlive and read the interview with Samantha Gash, ultramarathoner!

The next thing I read that really spoke to me was from The Jenny Evolution. She has written part one of her experience with something called Novasure.  This is a procedure that isn't quite as intense...but with a similar outcome, i.e., no more children, as a hysterectomy-but helps with women who have seriously unbearable menstrual cycles. Go on over and read it, it is a great article documenting her experience. Here is part two.

The final thing I read was a super fun one! It is from Blogitudes herself. She took a writing prompt and wrote a very cute fictional piece called,  The Letter. I've never read a piece of fiction on a blog but it made me smile and let me know that just when you think things are bad, something good always comes out of it. Yeah, yeah, I'm a major sucker for a happy ending! 

What I wrote:

This last week I wrote another piece on my deep cleaning schedule. On the agenda was cleaning my foyer, porch, and laundry room. These are very small areas in our city condo so they are easy to do in one fell swoop! Go on over and check it out! 

Another fun piece is my lamp makeover. This was a cute, easy, fun project! Plus, you can check out one of my pinterest boards. Go follow me if you aren't already, I pin good stuffs. 

My most popular post this week was my What I Ate Wednesday post along with my week in workouts. 

What did you read this week, anything I should check out? Leave me a summary & a link in the comments and I will gladly pop on over and check out any interesting articles.  

Feature Friday!

Hi! So, I wanted to start doing a Feature Friday to feature some of my favorite posts for the week that I read an wrote!

What I Read:

My good real life friends over at Food For Your Cell wrote a great article on 15 Minutes to Better Health. These are easy things that you can do everyday to improve your health. Go read it, what will you start implementing today?

The other thing I was reading this week was up on Cheerfully Imperfect ; her post about the 30 day fermented foods challenge she is doing. I am always looking for new and different ways to improve my health and learn about new types of food and improve my palette. I don't usually go for fermented foods but her list of fermented foods really got me thinking. So I've gone out and bought some keifer, some coconut yogurt, and kombucha. The recipes I am going to try making are the pickles, applesauce, and ranch dressing for my salads.

What I Wrote: 

This week I had a couple of great articles I feel! The first was a post about how each week I focus on one room/area of my home to deep clean. I assign a task to each day and do those, they take usually no more than 15 minutes. Here is the article.

The other post I want to talk about is an awesome keepsake I created for my daughter and her cousins. It is an ornament I made with a picture of the 3 of them in it with some sand from our favorite beach and some baby shells we all found together. Go check it out as it is a great thing to have in mind if you are going on a big vacation this year, it is something you can gather most of the supplies while on vacation! 

So, that is for my weekly wrap up! I hope everyone has a great weekend!