Shout Out: Pinterest

Ahhh Pinterest... Is there anything better than snuggling up in bed with a cup of coffee or tea with a computer on your lap surfing the world of Pinterest? Amazing recipes, killer work out ideas, fabulous fashion and beauty tips, gorgeous wedding ideas (why did my wedding have to come before Pinterest?!?), adorable animals and hilarious jokes all in one place! 

If you haven't been on Pinterest, I highly suggest that you do but be forewarned it is fantastically addictive! With so many ideas floating around on the internet it can be hard to find what you want or find the things that you never knew you wanted! *Enter Pinterest*

Looking for something specific? Search it.
Looking for things your friends love or want to do? Add your friends and see it in your feed. 
Looking for inspiration? Scan the popular feed and enjoy the world being opened up to you! 
Want to keep that idea close? Pin it to a board.
Want to share your idea with a special friend? Send it to them!
Having a bad day and need a laugh? Check out the humor section!
Want to help your children to learn? Check out the education section for awesome ideas!
In a rut and have no clue what to make for dinner? Check out my favorite section, food and drink!
The possibilities are endless!!!

Pinterest has been described as virtual clutter but if we keep it organized and really use it and benefit from it, is it a waste? Personally, all of my recipes nowadays come from Pinterest. In fact, I not only have boards separating the different kinds of food but I also have a board called "Current Plan" where I put pins of this weeks recipes and any other things I am going to try to do or work on. There is also a board called "OrganizedForReal" to help get my blogs out there! It's helped me plan vacations, set goals, helped me with my job, helped me understand myself at times and helped me to have a good laugh! In fact, feel free to check out my boards here! 

Obviously you can tell that I love Pinterest but to fully understand, you will have to try it out for yourself! So go ahead, set up a free account and get to pinning! But as always, let's stay OrganizedForReal!

Recipe: Sausage Bisquik muffins

     Tired of cereal for breakfast but you need something really quick in the morning? Tired of breakfast really adding to the morning drag? Well then, I have a great recipe for you! I made these for the first time (will totally be making them again!) yesterday after I found this recipe on one of my Facebook groups and I had everything I needed to make it in my kitchen, only four ingredients!!!

Sausage Bisquik Muffins

1 cup of Bisquick (next time I will home-made mix that I plan on making)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs (beaten)
1 lb sausage (I added the seasonings that I always do to my sausage to make it spicy Italian sausage)

Mix in a bowl and add to a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and there you have it! 

      An amazingly easy breakfast! Perfect for a couple mornings depending on the size of your family! I'm sure they would freeze well also, may have to try that next time! Make some ahead of time to easily add to your meal plan when there simply isn't enough time in the morning. Pop them in the microwave or toaster oven and breakfast is served! Who doesn't love a simple flavorful breakfast? But of course, here we are keeping it OrganizedForReal!

Hello? Is anyone there?

     Yes! I'm here, I'm here! I'm back! Being sick at home for a while and not being able to do much leads you back to the computer quite often! It's been far too long that I've been away from OrganizedForReal! Let's try to change that shall we? New day, slightly new look to the blog too!

      The last few months have brought about quite a few changes for us, nothing too big like a house or a baby but there have been a couple things that have made a significant impact on our lives. Not too long ago I discovered Dave Ramsey. Long story short, I've become obsessed. In fact, right now as I am typing, I am listening to his show on his website. Here in the Hull household we have adopted the baby steps and I am happy to say that we are on baby step 3! But wait, what are the baby steps you may ask!?! Simply put they are as follows:

1.) Save 1000 dollars in an emergency fund.
2.) Pay off all debt (except for your mortgage).
3.) Build a three to six month emergency fund.
4.) Save 15% for retirement.
5.) Save college funding for your children if you have any and if you choose to finance their college. 
6.) Pay off your home mortgage.
7.) Build wealth and give, give, give!

     In our journey, I have have read tons of financial articles and I am just amazed at the financial situation of the average person today! The average person is in debt over 15,000 dollars! I'm not in any debt so there is someone out there with a whole lot more! People have become so used to making payments on EVERYTHING that they have no idea what it is like to have any money leftover at the end of the week, to have money to save or even money to give. It's a sad situation. One thing that Dave tells many people is that they are making way too much money to be as broke as they are. That's just such an amazing thought to me. 

     Yesterday I got to help someone come up with a budget and they will be current on all bills, paying bills on time and in advance and have baby step 1 done as well by January 1st! "Well that must take a lot of time to figure all that out!" is what you are thinking right? WRONG! We figured it all out in about two hours! It was amazing! And this morning I heard from her again and she said that she got to sit down with her husband last night, they looked over it, made a couple minor changes and they are going to be following the plan and working on it together! How awesome is that? 

     Needless to say, working with this family has definitely given me an boost and an idea. I am thinking about becoming a financial advisor. Yes, there are financial advisers out there but most are just focused on investing not on helping those who are struggling now. I have no idea where this is going to take me and I have a lot of research to do before I decide anything. 

      But I also wanted to come back to this blog with a slight spin on things. We are going to stay OrganizedForReal but I also want to include some articles on how to be organized with your finances, your budget, saving you more money! What do think? Can we do it? Sure we can! Let's get OrganizedForReal!!! 

Project: Sugar Scrubs

     Sugar scrubs- so luxurious but they can be so expensive! I did a quick google search of sugar scrubs and you can spend between 10 and 90 dollars on one sugar scrub! I can't believe that! You might be surprised to learn that you may even have all of the ingredients that you need for your very own sugar scrub in your very own pantry! So not only will you save money but it will be an all natural product that is even safe to eat!
      
     Yesterday was girls day at one of my girlfriends and on the agenda along with coffee and lots of talking was making sugar scrubs! Nikki had gone to the dollar store the day before and found adorable glass jars, some ribbon and scrapbook paper for cute tags! We had looked at several different recipes online, Pinterest of course, and decided that we would make two different ones. We talked about the combination of ingredients that we wanted to have in each one and came up with "Lemon Drop" and "Cinnamon Roll"! 

     For the "Lemon Drop" recipe, put about 5 cups of white sugar, about 1 1/4 cups of lemon juice and 1 cup of olive oil in a bowl and mix. The "Lemon Drop" is great as it is but we decided that next time we would add some lemon essential oil so that it has an even stronger lemon scent.

     You may need to adjust the sugar or the liquid in order to get it to the consistency that you prefer but remember that as it sets in your jar that it will separate and you will need to mix it when you use it. 

     When we were coming up with the recipe for the "Cinnamon Roll" we were thinking of literal ingredients in a cinnamon roll. You have sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon right? Now how amazing would those ingredients be in a scrub? We made a double recipe of two different mix's, a light and a dark mix and layered them to look like frosting on a cinnamon roll!

     For the "frosting" mixture we used 3 cups of white sugar, 2 cups of coconut oil that we melted. With this scrub we wanted it to be thicker so that the layers would stand out better instead of them mixing in the jar. 

     For the "cinnamon" mixture we mixed 3 cups of brown sugar, 2 cups of coconut oil, 2 tsp vanilla and 2 tsp cinnamon. Then we just alternated layers and we think it turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself! So cute! And let me tell you, they are heavy jars!!!

     Now as you can see in the "Lemon Drop" jar, it was already separating by the time we took the picture as it was the first one that we made. There is nothing wrong with that, just be sure to mix it as you use it.

     This morning when I took my shower I decided to use some of the "Cinnamon Roll" scrub before I shaved. When I opened it, it was as I had expected. There was a layer of solid coconut oil on top. So I dug into it and I think that as I get down into the sugar it will be fine. But next time we may try and do half coconut oil and half olive oil. Now if you use a smaller container for your scrub and your shower gets nice and hot, it may remelt as coconut oil has a low melting point at 76 degrees. 

     But to know how great this sugar scrub really is, you are going to have to try it out yourself! Its a great exfoliant, but not harsh. It's super moisturizing with wonderful healthy oils, leaving your skin silky smooth. And we can't forget that they smell great!!! So go ahead, try them out and let me know what you think of them and be sure to share your favorite recipes with me! So until next time, scrub away and stay OrganizedForReal!

New Year

      A new year, a new start to my blog? Perhaps. Sometimes life gets too crazy but then you have to step back and realize that some things need to take more priority than they have in the future. That's what I feel like is happening for me. Life has been ridiculously busy and lots of things have gotten pushed aside. But the last few weeks I have had a break from work and have been able to get caught up on some things, have some time to relax and have some time to refocus.   

Blogging is something that I really did enjoy. And how amazing to check on my blog and see that there are over 3,300 views of this blog! With things slowing down in my life, one of the things I have been working on is getting my life back into a schedule and order. I  have lots of things that I want to share with you and I can't wait to do it! I'm going to try to post a couple of times a week. Possibly a meal plan along with another post. Be sure to check out my other blog at runningformemyselfandi.blogspot.com for my fitness and health tips as well! So until my next post, stay OrganizedForReal my friends! 

Exciting news!

      So for those of you who have been following me and wondering where I have "run away" to yet again, I'm sorry I haven't been around. Life just never seems to slow down and in fact it only "speeds up". It's like I'm always "running from here to there". 

     Ok, enough puns! I'm excited to announce that I have a new blog in addition to OrganizedForReal! Check out Runningformemyselfandi.blogspot.com! So as you may have guessed I have a new hobby that I have fallen in love with, running! So go ahead and check it out as I start my new journey in running. 

      And again, I am sorry that I have been very active in the blogging world but I hope life will cooperate with me and let me get back into it. I am hoping to have a short daily running update on my new blog but also a weekly update on this blog as well. My love of cooking and organizing hasn't changed and there is so much to blog about. Well I better "run"! Sorry, last pun I promise! So until we meet again, stay OrganizedForReal!

Motivation and Inspiration

     Happy Monday everyone! Sorry it took me so long to post this, had some issues with Blogger on the iPad. This week isn't starting out on the best of terms for me, I think my allergies are trying to become a sinus infection and I have been dealing with some heart issues (don't worry, I've had this for years) but I guess that gave me more time to work on today's post. 

     

     When it comes to organizing we all have to to find our own motivation and inspiration. Those things may sound like they are very similar but really they are two different things. What is your motivation for being organized? Motivation is defined as:

1.) The reason or reasons one has for acting in a particular way.
2.) The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

So what is your reason to organize your life? Is it to decrease your stress level? Is it so you can focus more on spending quality time with your family? Is it so that you can find ways to save a little more money? Is it because you can't stand the chaos anymore? Find the reason you need to organize your life and then you will have your motivation. Motivation is what moves us toward our goals.

But then the second thing we have to find is our inspiration. Inspiration is defined as:

1.) The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative

So what is it that mentally stimulates you? Is it a picture of a calm and organized. Space that you would love to call your own?is it a certain type of music that makes you feel productive? Is it the calm that you feel when you are in an organized space?

There are so many ways that we can find our motivation and our inspiration. But it is something that we can only find for ourselves. I guess you could say that motivation is the reason that we want and inspiration is the reason that we do. 

So today, think about the things that you want for your life and then find what moves you to act. If we take some time to determine this, then we can be OrganizedForReal!