Valentine's Day Haul

I'm sure you've noticed that the stores are fully stocked for Valentine's Day and maybe Easter by now.  It's crazy how early holiday decorations show up in stores.  It seems like you've got to scoop them up early or the selection is pretty slim once the actual holiday nears.

I have already picked up several cute things for Valentine's Day so I thought I'd give you a little run down from my recent TJ Maxx, Dollar Tree, Aldi and Target trips.

TJ MAXX
My store only had out a few Valentine's Day things.  They were so sweet that I scooped them up.  I'm surprising my kids with this sweet Valentine unicorn and mouse for their bedrooms.  Then I picked up this super sweet mouse couple for myself.  They were all just $9.99 each!  I was so impressed with the quality and the size.  Each animal is about 18 inches tall and really detailed.

ALDI
My Aldi has these $2.99 hyacinth bulb vases in pink, blue and white.  They're so pretty!  I picked up several to give away and a couple for home.  My elderly neighbors rarely leave their house so I was thinking it would be fun to have a plant that grows quickly for them to enjoy.  Kevin has one in his office and we have two at home.  They smell amazing.  I'm excited to reuse the vases, too.

DOLLAR TREE
My store had tons of cute Valentine's Day bags, lot of cute trinkets for favor bags and stickers.

Aren't these all so cute!?!

I also stocked up on some favorite items while I was at Dollar Tree.  I love these tin pans for taking dinner to friends.  They aren't super heavy duty, but they do the job just fine.  2 pk for $1.

The thank you notes at Dollar Tree are so cute.  They come in an 8 pack for just $1.  I also got Kevin's valentine while I was there.  It was just a dollar.  He's such a deal hunter that I know he'll love his valentine even more knowing that it was only $1.  They had TONS of cute valentines.

Remember my fairy garden post from last year??  My kids had the best time with their fairies and gnomes in our backyard.  I picked up a couple more homes, mushrooms and my mom found the leaf slides and rocker for me at her Dollar Tree.  It's all SO CUTE.  I think I'm going add these to my kid's Easter baskets this year.

Dollar Tree has metal Matchbox cars that are so cute.  We stocked up on several different ones and a car calendar to use for potty training prizes for Fletcher.  He was so excited about all of this.

TARGET:
I picked up several cute things in the Dollar Bins for Olive's class Valentine's Day party.  They had these packs of word searches, color by words and animal bingo.  I also let her pick out a cute set of unicorn valentines + erasers to give to her class mates.

 I've been avoiding buying any Valentine's Day candy because I love it so much.  I wouldn't be able to stay out of it.  Have you picked anything up for Valentine's Day yet??

Empty Box Challenge

Hey, friends!  Hope you had a nice weekend.  We got a little snow and enjoyed a quiet weekend at home.  I have a really fun challenge to tell you about today.

You know those boxes that are delivered to your door regularly??
Think Amazon, Target, Hello Fresh, Chewy and more.
If you're like me, you've always got boxes to break down and get rid of.

Well, let's try something new in 2019.
I'm keeping up with my plan to declutter my whole house.
Remember back in April of 2018 when I shared my 100 Days of Decluttering project with you?

I was so inspired to clear out the clutter and give my house some breathing room after reading Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K White.  The book is so simple and so inspiring.  I've share my copy and continue to promote the book because it's that good.  It's a steal for under $12.  I know Marie Kondo is taking over the world with her magic of tidying up, but I prefer this approach to decluttering.


EMPTY BOX CHALLENGE:
Take the empty boxes that build up at your house this year and fill them with donations.

It's so simple.

Clean out your shoes, your accessories, your clothes, your toys, your pantry, your garage, your books and your cabinets.  Go through all your stuff and get rid of the things that you no longer need or want.

No worries if you don't have lots of clutter, fill the boxes with trash.

Or deliver someone a delicious dinner in a box.

Donate books to your local library.

Donate kids items to local foster care communities or shelters.

Donate professional clothes to career centers.

You get the point.  Use the boxes that come to your house to help motivate you to tidy up, organize and share your things with others.

I'm continuing my decluttering challenge from last year into the new year.  I'm anxious to keep going through things my kids outgrow, boxes we have in storage, holiday decor, books and more to give our house some breathing room.

Leave me a comment below if you're interested in joining me in this challenge!
I'd love to have you participate and cheer you on.

 Ready, set, donate your stuff!!

3 Goals

Happy Friday!  Hope you've had a great week.  It's been snowy, rainy, we've all had colds, Kevin was out of town for a couple of days and I'm so glad he's back.  I'm not cut out for parenting solo.  We've gotten back into most of our routines this week.  The weatherman is calling for us to get more snow this weekend!  Bring it on for our three day weekend :)

We sat down as a family to come up with some goals for the new year.  I thought I'd share three goals for each of us with you today.

Whitney:
1. Read more
I've got a devotion, readings for Bible study/church, magazines and reading for fun.  I'm about to wrap up my first book of the year plus tons of kids books.  How do you read your books?  Do you have an app? a kindle? paper books?  Do you buy books?  borrow books?  borrow digital books??  I'm clueless.  Help a girl out so that I can read more this year!

2. Stock the fridge with healthy foods, meal prep and meal plan
If you follow me on Instagram @polkadottyplace, you've seen all the great produce I've found at Aldi lately.  My goal this year is to serve my family the best I can by buying, prepping and having lots of healthy foods to eat.

3. More consistent wake time and bed time.
I've been getting better at waking up at 6:45 every morning before the kids get up, but it's still requires efforts and alarms.  You guys know I struggle with going to bed anytime before 12:30 most nights.  This old night owl is trying to change her ways haha.  Maybe I'll try setting a bed time alarm?

My word of the year for 2019 is LISTEN so I'm also working on that.


Kevin:
1. Be more efficient at work during the week so I don't have to work weekends.
2. Finish reading War & Peace and read chapter books with Olive every night
3.Get used to using a standing desk at work


Olive:
1. Learn how to read more words.
2. Try out tennis (she starts tennis today!), more swimming lessons and lots of games!
3. Ride a bike without training wheels


Fletcher:
1. Potty training (we are well on our way because he decided it was time! :)
2. Swap out that baby bed for a big boy bed
3. Eat as much chocolate as possible :)  He's a foodie with a sweet tooth.

What are you working on this year??

In case you missed it on Polka-Dotty Place this week:

Monday: Best Banana Muffins
Tuesday: Snow Much Fun
Wednesday: Winter Wardrobe Tips & Tricks
Thursday: Christmas Break Recap

It's time to link up with my favorite blogging buddies for High Five for Friday.  Join us with up to 3 different blog posts and be sure to look around to find some new blog friends.

Becky @  By BMG Blog
Della @ Della Devoted
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Whitney P @ Come Home for Comfort

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Break Recap

We felt so lucky to get two weeks off for Christmas break this year.  Olive and Kevin's breaks overlapped.  It was so nice!  We had a busy week of Christmas followed by a slow week to just enjoy some time off together.  I realized I never got my act together to get a post up about it so today's the day to recap Christmas break.

The fun started with Olive's class Christmas party.  It was pajama day so that they could take a ride on the Polar Express. Santa and Mrs. Claus came to her classroom and we had a great time partying.  I was in charge of the craft.  I made ornament kits for each child.  They decorated the trees with stickers and the teacher complimented the craft.  Which is always a good sign when you're planning a school party :)  She came home from school and we kicked off Christmas break!

 I love being in her classroom!

My friends and I got together for a fun, KID FREE Christmas lunch.  Two babysitters corralling kids meant that we got to enjoy some uninterrupted delicious food.  We just love this local pop up restaurant.

We did Christmas with friends.  I was asked to bring fruit so here's my fruit tree tray :)

Santa happened to be in our neighborhood a little ahead of schedule (wink wink he manages to come to our house early every year) and we had a great Christmas celebration.  The kids were thrilled with their gifts.

When Santa brings you EXACTLY what you asked for - you JUMP FOR JOY!  Fletcher got the Paw Patrol firetruck and Olive got a Barbie Dream Camper.

Christmas Eve at Kevin's parent's house.  We opened gifts, ate delicious food and had a fun night.  We also celebrated getting engaged 16 Christmas Eves ago.  We've lived a lot of life together :)

Christmas Day we headed to lunch at Kevin's grandparents.  They go all out with their decorations and the kids love it.  Dancing with Santa is a must.  Meals on TV trays.  Tinsel covered tree and spontaneous sibling snuggles.  Melted my heart.

Olive became super interested in checkers over break.  We played lots of checkers.

Christmas Day dinner at my parent's house.  My sis and my mom :)

This picture makes me so happy!  All the kids and cousins gathered around.  And my parents went all out decorating their house this year.

We had a yummy BBQ baked potato bar for dinner.

Austin had a policeman party to celebrate turning 5.  Obviously these guys were excited :)

The kids got some Christmas money.  They loved shopping for themselves.  I learned that I do not care for LOL dolls - any other moms feel that way???  So many tiny tiny parts.  Fletcher grew his fleet of construction and emergency vehicles.

My Dad's police department moved into a new building.  We headed over for a tour.  The kids love talking about bad guys/playing policeman and seeing Papaw in uniform.

These two nuts pretended to be Christmas carolers again and again.  Their play list was pretty minimal sticking closely to Jingle Bells and Rudolph.  Give them a door bell and an audience and they'd sing all day.

My brother invited us to visit him at work.  He teased the kids and told them he worked at a beard factory.  They thought it was hilarious and couldn't wait to see where beards were made.  Turns out that's not his job, but it was really cool to see what he does all day.  Keep up the good work, Ty!

Kevin's brother, Kyle, helped the kids build elaborate train tracks.  They loved it and were thrilled when Kyle gifted them all the trains to take home.

It was PJ Day at church the Sunday after Christmas.  The kids had been looking forward to it for weeks.  It was really sweet to see all the kids show up in pjs.

More trains.

More adventures.

Basically, my house looked like this for a solid week.  Toys everywhere.  Kids snuggling.  Kids fighting and lots of relaxing.  Good thing they're old enough to help clean up now.  It was a really great Christmas break!

Winter Wardrobe Tips & Tricks

I'm giving myself a winter outfit challenge.  My hope is that I'll start wearing more things in my closet, find new favorite outfit combinations and keep myself from getting bored with my clothes.

It can be tempting to just buy new things every season.  However, that's not realistic and it'll leave you with a ton of clothes.  My game plan is to pick up a few new things every seasons that I love and avoid the temptation to BUY BUY BUY.

First, I made sure that all the things hanging in my closet were things that fit, things that I loved and things that made me feel good at the beginning of winter.  I sold, donated or threw out the items that didn't make the cut.  I can't tell you how much better I feel about getting dressed in the mornings knowing that I could wear any combination of clothes hanging in my closet.

Before/During & After:
Kevin's stuff on top.  Mine on the bottom.
A bit of a train wreck + a cat.

All white hangers.
Only hang up clothes for the current season.
Tops all together sorted by types.
Vests, sweaters, cardigans and pants on the other side.
I love this set up!
Off season clothes neatly folded and stored in the top of the closet along with off season shoes.

Second, figure out a formula to making outfits you love.  I love skinny jeans, booties and pretty tops.  Throw on some leather earrings and I'm set.  This type of outfit work for me in all types of settings for my mom life - library, church, appointments, Bible study, errands, etc.

I'm currently loving these distressed Rockstar skinnies from Old Navy and my new Lucky booties.  And floral print is always a favorite.

Outfit #1

Thanks to my sweet hubby for always snapping outfit pictures for me.  I love this picture of these three cuties!

Outfit #2
I have five or six plaid flannels that I love to wear.  Most are either from GAP or Old Navy.  I love the lightweight, soft ones the most.

Outfit #3
I also love a bold lip with any outfit.  Isn't this mauve color so pretty??

Outfit #4
Is pattern mixing still a thing??  I don't really care - I love it!

Outfit #5
Third, if an outfit makes you feel good, wear it a lot!  I love this top and blazer combo.  See what I mean - I love these jeans - so much that they made it in every outfit picture I snapped this month - ha! 

Last, Pair down your accessories.  I've gone through my coats, scarves and shoes.  I only kept the ones that I really love wearing.  I need to go through my necklaces next.  I rarely wear a necklace so it shouldn't be too hard to weed some out.

FYI I've been living in my Walmart puffer jackets this winter.  They are so warm.  I'm still in shock that they were under $20.

What wardrobe challenges are you facing??  Could your closet benefit from a clean out?  I love projects like that and wish I could come help all of you organize your homes.