Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial. USED FOR:  LATTES | SMOOTHIES | BAKING

ALL DAY ENERGY WITH INCREASED FOCUS

Matcha provides 4 to 6 hours of mild steady energy as it acts as both a stimulant and a relaxant. This is ideal for focusing on whatever the day throws your way.

METABOLISM BOOST

Consuming matcha green tea can increase thermogenesis (the body's own rate of burning calories) from a normal 8%-10% of daily energy expenditure, to between 35% and 43% of daily energy expediture.

IMPROVED SKIN HEALTH

​Scientists have discovered that Matcha Green Tea helps protect the skin from harmful UVrays, while improving blood flow and oxygen levels lifting the overall quality of the skin.

137x THE ANTIOXIDANTS OF BREWED GREEN TEA

Antioxidants are essential as you age to boost your body's natural defenses against oxidation. Researchers have found that a high level of dietary antioxidants can prevent many age-related diseases.


As some of you know, I'm slowly easing my way into living a healthier lifestyle again. As part of that, I was thrilled the be chosen to review Organic Matcha- Green Tea Powder by KissMe Organics.

I have to say that this whole experience was a good one. The company is very personable and easy to work with! For someone who thinks excellent customer service should be something that all companies strive for, this was certainly a plus. On top of that, they gave out a free recipe book to help get us going! With any luck, I'll have that uploaded somewhere online soon and I'll be able to share that with you too!

I haven't had a ton of time to test this out, but everything that I've put it in has come out yummy! I'm really looking forward to having the time to try out making a green tea facial mask. After all, we all need to relax and take care of ourselves, right?

I'm not a huge health nut or anything, and those who know me know that I'm still not a grown up because I don't really love tea or coffee. However, from time to time, I do like green tea. Funny how sometimes you like something and other times you're just meh, whatever. In this case, I'm glad to have this on hand for when I am in the right mood!

Definitely a product worth checking out, if you're at all curious!



 I received this product in exchange for this review from Tomoson.com. Y'all know that my thoughts are my own. ;)
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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Wow, week 9. The last time I posted, it may have been week 6. I bet you're wondering what happened to 7 and 8, eh? I know there were really good reasons that they didn't get posted but blast if I can remember now what they were! I do hope you'll forgive me though!

This might be a good time to mention that if the challenges don't go live here, they are going live over at the Facebook group. It is a closed group so nobody outside of the group can see your before/after photos. If you'd like to join, just drop me a line and I'll get you added.

Now, on with the show....Since I didn't post my before and after photos for weeks 6, 7 and 8, I'm going to share them with you now. I don't want any of you thinking that I'm not right in there with you as we do these. Ready? Let's go!


This is my bedside table after I got it cleared off, but clearly before I dusted it. Eww! What I love most about this is the fact that I now have space to put my new table lamp..as soon as I remember where I put it! I do need to take some time and get those stickers off of there. I have no idea how they got there, but they need to go!  (Week 6)



 Week 7 - Before : The bookshelf of doom..Ok, it wasn't that bad but it was pretty ick. The challenge for the week was to tackle just one shelf in the living room. This was my choice. There were books falling off the shelf and about an inch of dust.

Week 7 - After: Far less dust and far less books. I actually pulled a dozen books off of this shelf and posted them to PaperBack Swap. I realized that as much as I love John Grisham, I rarely, if ever go back and read his books again so I kept only a few that really appealed to me and let the others go. Actually, they're still here so if you're a fan, find me over on the site and request them!

 Week 8 - Before: Last week, our goal was to tackle just one side of the kitchen counter. In this case, we started with the left side. This folks, was my left counter before I started. Food that needed to be put away mixed with dirty dishes waiting to be washed and all sorts of things! You see, I haven't had a functioning kitchen sink since before Thanksgiving. We did have a plumber come out but he didn't fix the problem and we haven't really had the money to try again since. What does this lead to? Using up all of the dishes in the house and then being completely overwhelmed with what to do about it. I'll tell you my solution below because I can't wait to show you the after picture!

Look! Clean counter! My favorite part? The labeled containers. This is something I've wanted to do for a while but never had the proper tools. Justin got me a new labeler for Christmas and I had the most fun labeling all of those containers. I still have a couple of empty containers that will get filled soon but for now, seeing the ones that are done puts a big smile on my face! Where did all the dirty dishes go, I'm sure you're asking yourself...Well, they went to my bathroom. That's right..this girl has been kneeling over her bathtub doing dishes. It's a slow process because I only have a small shelf in there that I'm able to use for drying, but bit by bit, I am catching up on all of those dishes. I refuse to let a goofed up drain/vent/whatever it is get in the way of me having an area that I can prepare food for my family. After all, there are those who don't even have running water, how can I complain about a few minutes kneeling on the floor doing dishes?

There we go. I think that has us all caught up until this week. I don't actually have a before picture because this is a task, that for me, is a relatively small one. This week, I challenge you to go into your bathrooms. Find wherever you store medications and check those expiration dates. If it's expired, let it go! That's it. Pretty simple, huh?

See you next week for a new challenge!


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Can y'all believe that we're already on week 4? I feel like this year is already speeding up and flying by even faster than last year! How did y'all do on Week 3? I admit that I didn't get mine done until Sunday afternoon. I had the boys here for a 4 day weekend and it always feels like chaos ensues. I wouldn't change having them here though. I just have to learn how to fit things in. We did do 6 loads of laundry though! We still have quite a bit more to do but at least we all have clean clothes now! We also have this:


That's right! Open space! I threw out a bunch of things and shifted some of the rest. The only thing left up on that shelf is 2.5 boxes of lasagna noodles. That's the major inspiration for me adding lasagna to my menu list for this week. The boys will be here and they love it, plus I certainly have some of the ingredients on hand! Time to use up some of that.

For this upcoming week, we're headed into our bathrooms. If you're like me, you have at least one drawer in there that starts out organized and yet somehow becomes the bathroom junk drawer. I totally admit to having one. In fact, do you want to see it? Here it is:


Yep, there it is in all its..glory? Pill bottles, kids shower stuff and who knows what else. Time to sort through that and put it back to a condition where I can actually find things. Since I have medications in that drawer and you might too, I'm going to remind us all that there are right and wrong ways to dispose of medications. If you're unsure on what to do with something, check out what the FDA has to say.

Until next week, happy organizing your way to a house full of yay locations!


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How did everyone's weeks go? It's hard to believe it, but we're already on week 3 of this year! That means it's time for a new challenge, but before we do that, how about we check in on last week's challenge? Here's my after picture for cleaning off one of the end tables:


I'm so much happier with how it looks! I confess that it's probably the only clear space in my living room (including parts of the floor right now!) but every time I walk into the room, my eye is drawn to that space and it makes me smile. I love creating yay spaces. Having them motivates and inspires me to work on the next area which is....


The top shelf in one of my kitchen cupboards! Yep, this week we'll be creating a yay space in our kitchens. Mine apparantly looks like something the creative folks behind Chopped would use to create one of their baskets. I see Chocolate Cheerios (how long have those been there?!?), hard taco shells, bacon bits, bisquick and who knows what else. Time to throw out the old, expired food, keep what we love (and will eat) and donate any of the rest. If it's unopened, it will go to the local food bank. If it is opened, I'll post it to Freecycle. People around here are in some tough places and even a 2/3 box of bisquick can be a real blessing.



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It's Tuesday and it's already shaping up to be one of those days. It turns out that Peter is home and so I don't have to go into town today. I feel a bit at a loss. I've gotten pretty used to not spending my day at home. That's ok though. I'm going to take the chance to put together a new bookshelf that I purchased and continue with my goal of organization and simplification for this year. Nothing like an organizational project to put a smile on this girls' face. :) See? There it is...right there...a smile...hehe

So, how did all of you do on last week's project? It was a fairly simple one. You just had to find that junk/miscellaneous stuff drawer that we all tend to have and get it cleaned and sorted. I did mine this morning and ended up tossing out a bunch of stuff and tossing a bunch of other stuff into a freecycle bag. Now I can actually open and close the drawer without anything getting stuck!


Look at all that free space! The only thing missing from it is the other turkey hook (I have no idea where that wandered off to.) and my mandolin (which last time I tried using, I couldn't get it to work. It's probably user error though.). Those will both fit easily in there with plenty of room to spare. I love it!

This week's challenge is going to be just as easy. We're going to go back through the 7 weeks and make sure those areas are still looking nice and spiffy. If you've kept up on them, this challenge shouldn't take you more than 15-20 minutes throughout the course of the week.  Just in case you've forgotten or if you're brand new here, here are the areas we've tackled so far:

Week 1: Kitchen table or other dumping ground
Week 2: Bedside Table
Week 3: Top of the Entertainment Center
Week 4: Laundry Area (not the entire room, just your washer/dryer & any shelves above)
Week 5: Fridge Door (Interior)
Week 6: Fridge Shelves
Week 7: Junk Drawer

Don't forget, I'll be doing these right along with you. I know a couple of mine are going to need a wipe down and pick me up. That's ok. That's part of regular maintenance. Our goal is to declutter and reclaim space, not perfection. Now, let's get to it!



New to Tackle It Tuesday - Clean Life, Clean Home Challenge? Don't worry! Just jump into this week's challenge. Be sure to come back and post your blog links to celebrate your progress and achievement!

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It's Tuesday and I'm back! Did y'all miss me? It's been a rough few weeks but I'm back. I'm 100% well but I'm one heck of a lot better. This is going to be a quick post because I need to get out the door to get my kiddos. So, here we go...

Does anyone remember that we were working on cleaning out the fridge? Well, here's mine (after I filled it up with deliciousness last night):


It's not perfect but it sure is one heck of a lot better! How did you guys do on that? If you got it done, make sure you leave me a link to check out so I can give you some comment love! Plus, cleaning is more fun when you do it with friends.

Now, for this week, I'm keeping it simple. I want you to do one drawer. For me, it's going to be this kitchen drawer here:

It's not really a junk drawer. It's all kitchen items. I just don't remember what the heck is in there anymore. That means it's time for a clean out and most likely a serious purge. If I don't remember having it in there, chances are I haven't used it in the 2 years or so since I put it in there!

That's it for me for today. It's another crazy busy day and I need to scoot! Let me know how y'all do! You know I care!



New to Tackle It Tuesday - Clean Life, Clean Home Challenge? Don't worry! Just jump into this week's challenge. Be sure to come back and post your blog links to celebrate your progress and achievement!

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Ok, I have a confession. I was still sick all last week! Can you believe it? This thing has lingered on and on and on. I am finally on the mend and so thankful for that. I hate being sick but it's worse when it's in the lungs and the slightest amount of movement gets your heart rate up.

So, since I seriously lost to the battle of illness last week, I decided to break the fridge challenge into two parts: the door & the shelves. I figured since not a single one of you posted your challenge, maybe y'all needed another week too. I'm warning you though. This is your last week to tackle this alongside me.

Ready to see my fridge door? I took everything out, threw away old food (Can you say salad dressing that expired in 2007, anyone?), wiped out the bins and then put everything back in. Drumroll please.....


Doesn't that look so nice? Plus, there is actually room for more items if I find them as I clean out the rest of the fridge! I love it! Ahh...Organization makes me happy...



New to Tackle It Tuesday - Clean Life, Clean Home Challenge? Don't worry! Just jump into this week's challenge. Be sure to come back and post your blog links to celebrate your progress and achievement!


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Hey everyone! It's another Tuesday and since I did get a few responses saying they would be interested, today will start our first of many, many cleaning and organizing challenges. Since I have to prepare for a move, I will certainly be doing this right along side all of you.  I do need to mention that these challenges are in no related to the fabulous ladies over at 5minutesformom.com. These are all me.  I'm posting them on Tuesdays because well, these are all areas I need to tackle each week and as I prepare to start packing.

This week's challenge is one that I know all of us can tackle! We're going to find one space in our house where everything just seems to get dumped. Ok, if your house is like my house, that can be two or three places, but this week, I just want you to choose one.  I chose my kitchen table:


Now, I suspect you might be thinking that it doesn't look too bad. Well, I will confess that last night, I decided to go out and remove all of the holiday decorations that had been adding to the clutter. Yes, I am still putting away holiday decorations, but that's another challenge.  In fact, I'm going to share that challenge with you. If you have not gotten all your decorations down and put away yet, get to it! Clear out the space in your home to make room for other things that make you smile!  My goal is to have all of mine out into the barn by the end of the weekend. It should be sooner but I have to take the weather into account.

Ok, now back to this week's challenge. Ready? I want you to find your spot, clear it off, polish it up and then keep it like that for a week. Think you can do it? I know you can! As for me, I''m going to go tackle mine right now and then next week, I'll share my after photo as well as the before one for next week's challenge! Good luck and make sure you come back and share your links with me! It's good to feel that none of us are in this alone.



PS Today is the 12 year anniversary of my son's death. I've chosen not to post about it this year, but if you're looking for the post about it, you can find it here.

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Hello hello from snowland! That's right, it started snowing at some point and isn't supposed to let up until tonight. Gee, just when I was starting to enjoy temperatures reaching 31. Well, that's what I get for living where I do. Lots of snow and not a good Chinese or Mexican restaurant for miles and miles... Does anyone feel sorry for me yet? Want to ship me some good beef and broccoli? *grins* No, I didn't figure.

Well, since it's snowing and the van is being well...old, I won't be going out anywhere today. So, I've decided it's the perfect day to tackle my stove top. Right now, it's half covered with canned goods that I need to throw out and some food I need to put into a bag and list on freecycle. Clearly I didn't totally complete my mission yesterday when I cleaned out those cupboards. I'll do that first thing and then I'm going to give the stove a good scrubbing. It's one of those flat top glass ones so I need to really scrub. The owners of the house didn't leave it for me in pristine condition so I think I'm still scrubbing off some of what they left. Then, once that's done, it will be back to "The Wall." I'm going to start tackling the drawers in there so that I can start putting things away where they belong. Sounds fun, right? Y'all wanna rush right over and help, right? No? Well, that's ok...I'll just give you a challenge of your own to make up for it. *winks*

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it is to go back into your kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. I want you to open up your cupboards under your sink and see what insanity lurks within. *grins* Ok, that was getting a bit dramatic, even for me. Open up those doors and see what's hiding in there. Do you have cleaners that you never use? Boxes of trashbags that have gotten shoved to the back so you forgot you had them and went and bought more? I know that under mine, I have about a dozen vases. Trust me, it's on my declutter list. So, I want all of you to clear all of that stuff out and put back only what you love or what you'll use.

Good luck!

I think that I mentioned before that I wanted to do both small spaces and a whole room for this challenge. Well, I had two small spaces in mind and today I tackled the first one. I have 4 cupboards in my kitchen that are dedicated to food storage. Sadly, when I moved in, I unpacked the kitchen in a hurry and ever since then, I've had a tough time finding things when I wanted them. Well, no more! Ok, no more for these two cupboards anyway..hehe..



Meet my cupboard before I touched it. Things were just tossed in there anywhere I could get them to fit.

And this is my lovely cupboards after I pulled everything (yes, everything) out of them and figured out just what was in there and umm..just wasn't any good anymore. I think the most wow thing that I found up there was a box of Hamburger Helper. Now, I know that there's nothing particularly special about Hamburger Helper. It's in millions of cupboards across this country..but how many of you can say you have a box of it that expired in 2003. Yes, 2003. That's not an 8 folks, it's a 3. This means that I actually bought this box before we bought the house in 2003. We moved it with us to that house. Then, I moved it to Buffalo and back with me. I cannot imagine what I was thinking, other than I never thought to check the date on it. *shudders*

Now, I bet you thought I'd totally forgotten to give you a challenge for today. Nope! I remembered..mwahahaha (that's my evil laugh..pretend to be intimidated, ok?). For today, I want you to go open up your kitchen cupboard where you store things like glasses and coffee mugs. Do you have enough that you could invite your entire neighborhood and not run out? Take some time today to slim down the herd and make room for more things that you love!

Edited to answer Laura's Challenge Questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

- Honestly, the hardest part was making myself stand on the step stool to pull down what had been shoved onto that top shelf. I have a real fear of heights so getting up there was a challenge. I did it though!

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

- Well, first I got rid of that box of Hamburger Helper that expired 7 years ago. I also got rid of items that we'll never eat or that had been way expired. Eating it is not worth the risk of food poisoning! Then, I put things in groups of like so that I can now reach right in and find it. I can also glance in and see what I need to get at the store. Time saver and money saver all in one cupboard!

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

- I freecycled the food that could be freecycled and tossed out what couldn't.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

- Hmm...creative storage. Nope, it didn't happen in this space either. I just used the shelves that were already there and the food that we already had, as well. I did, however, do mental divisions of food types in the cupboards. This is my daily food cupboard. I still need to tackle my baking/dessert cupboard.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?

- Well, I don't think I probably should with this space. Looking at the before and after photos, I can't see much of a difference. I know that there is one because I've been cooking out of this cupboard since I did the challenge and it's been a huge difference to be able to just reach in and grab what I need. Organized spaces = Organized Peace of Mind and cleaning/organizing this cabinet has made a huge difference for me. What a prize that is!

Whew! It's Friday. Can y'all believe it? This week has seemed to just scoot right on by. Today should be a pretty quiet day here. I'm home alone (ok, I'm almost always home alone) and working through my schedule. I'm running a bit behind, but that's ok. It's only time and I know that I'll get it all done.

So, let's see...what do I have on today's agenda that is all about Finishing things up? Well, I'm waiting for a lovely lady to come and pick up a bunch of things that I'm freecycling. I love getting things out of the house almost as much as I love finding spaces for the things I love. I also went ahead and called the school to find out when the boys Birthday club is. I cannot believe that Ben is going to be 10 next week and Roger, 9, just 15 days after that. They're growing up far too fast for this mama's heart.

The big thing though, and I think y'all know what I'm talking about..my kitchen. I've been working in there all week and finally, I can see some real progress. Sadly, my nearly empty sink got refilled this morning when I unloaded the dishwasher. For some reason, the thing gets one glass clean and ignores another and I've learned that once it's chosen to ignore that glass/cup/bowl/piece of silverware, etc it will never get it clean, no matter where you put it. So, there are more dishes in my future. Other than that, I just need to finish clearing the floor of some things (grocery bags, boxes that go to my dishes, etc) and sweep it. With any luck, I'll have it all done today and be able to post some after pictures right here on the blog.

So, what are you all finishing up today? Has anyone else been working on their kitchen? Let me know! Do the linky, leave a comment! I want to know!

Happy Frday, y'all!

So, remember how I said I'd be back with pictures? Well, I am. In my new schedule, I do the Flylady zone mission plus 2-15s in whatever zone we're in. So, while I am totally embarassed about the state of my kitchen, I'm not going to beat myself up. If I did, I would only feel down and then I would sulk and pout and not do a darned thing about it. Instead, I'm tackling each room, even if it's only for 30-45 minutes each day and I know that soon enough, it will be beautiful and sparkling..for the first time since I moved in.

Before:


After:

Yes, those are food crumbs on the counter. Yes, that's a pan full of brownies on the stove. The crumbs, I'm sure, will be wiped away before I go to bed tonight and as for those brownies, well, one of tomorrow's 15s will surely involve chiseling them out of the pan.



And there it is! My lovely shining sink. I still have to finish the remaining dishes and shine the other side, but let me tell you, whenever I walk into my kitchen and see that side shining, it's just going to make me smile and encourage me to keep on tackling what needs to be done around here.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement! I'll be back tomorrow with an (almost) Wordless Wednesday post. I still have to take my photo!

Woo! It's Tuesday and I don't know why but I woke up in a great mood. It might have something to do with the fact that yesterday's first run of the new schedule/routine was a total success. I only missed 2 things..about 30 minutes of kgb work (due to my laptop going so slow it was taking far too long to answer anything) and my 2 minute hotspot cleaning (part of my before bed routine). I'm totally thrilled with that and found myself humming and singing in the shower this morning. Even now, I'm totally smiling. Granted, some of that has to do with reading my friend Kath's totally awesome blog. If you guys don't know her, you're totally missing out. She's fantastic and one of these days I'm going to remember to tune into their show over on TrainREK radio. She does it with her husband, Jay, and it's all about Geekdom. Oooh, I just looked and they even have their own website now! So, like I said, I read Kath's blog and was grinning and loving it and now I'm over here writing and loving it. Sometimes, the internet is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of beautiful things, I'm working this week on turning my kitchen into a beautiful thing. It's long been believed that the kitchen is the heart of any home and if that's the case, mine may be in need of bypass surgery. It's not been clean and organized since before we moved in, I swear. Now, I do have to say that it's getting better and I have total faith that by the weekend, it's going to be well on it's way to being a happy, healthy heart which will put big smiles on my face whenever I go in there.

Today's tackle is going to be working on that. My goal for today is that by the end of the day, I will have my right sink totally emptied and sparkling. I have total faith that I can do that and with any luck, I'll put a post up here at the end of the day showing everyone my before and after. After all, if your blog readers can't hold you accountable, then who can, right?

So, I'm off to work on my tackle and I do hope to hear what all of you are tackling today. I admit it..I love comments..and even more, I love comments from all of you.

Today's finish it project is actually really easy. Yesterday, I unpacked 7 boxes in the kitchen..yes, 7 and yes, there are still more in there. I see some decluttering appearing in my future. But, for today, the project is really simple. Three of the boxes that I unloaded yesterday contained all my glass stemware. Of course, after being in storage for 2 years, where sadly there were rats..(don't get me ranting about the place I lived for the past 2 years..heh)..well, clearly they all need to be washed. So, that's my Finish It Friday goal for today. I want to get all of them washed, dried and put away. There's a small cupboard above my fridge that should hold them perfectly, since I won't be needing to access them on a regular basis. I do think I'll leave a couple of the "cheaper" ones down though for me to use as a water glass or just something to help me feel pretty and special. A girl can never feel too pretty or special.

Now, what are all of you going to finish today? Drop me a comment and let me know!