OK everyone, today I’m keeping it real and letting you have a peek at the state of my office and craft closet.  I am knee deep in clutter and trying to juggle the kids, school, blogging, and reorganizing this mess.

I’m trying to balance it all and today I’ve fallen a little behind.  So please forgive me–but don’t worry because I DO have another back to school tip for you.  I just need to run to the store to get something to finish the project.  So check back this afternoon to see a great long term storage solution for your kids homework and art.

Thanks so much for reading this blog and taking time out of your busy day to stop by.  I am so grateful for you and appreciate you readers SO SO much!!

Summer time is crazy and so fun right now.  All my family is in town and I’m out of the office today.  But I promise I will make up for it with a bonus post tomorrow.  I’m a little behind on finishing my projects, but I’ve got something great going on in my kitchen.  Check back tomorrow to see my almost finished island. 

These pics will give you a clue.

So do you remember the design board I created for my son’s bedroom?  Here is a refresher for you.

Well, turns out my oldest son totally vetoes it.  What?!  My sons who are three and six share this bedroom and my six year old has quite a sense of his own style—already.  He is not into the orange headboard, in fact, he’s been begging me to paint it light blue for over a year now.  I keep telling him that the walls are light blue, so we need to choose a different color, but he is not easily swayed.  I also keep trying to convince him that orange is so awesome, but he’s not buying it.  I don’t think he’s really opposed to orange, it’s just that he really wants the headboards to be blue.

So lately I’ve been thinking about kids and their own sense of style and personality.  Wait—I have three boys!  Boys aren’t supposed to care about this kind of stuff, right?!  That’s what I would have thought.  But both my three and six year old have proved me wrong from a very early age.  It all started with their clothes.  They totally have a preference on what they wear every day, and are extremely defiant if I recommend they wear something else.  My oldest had a favorite striped sweater that he wanted to wear EVERY day when he was 2.  Last year there was a “car shirt” with no sleeves that he wanted to wear while it was snowing outside.  There were many tears shed when I told him no on that one.

Now my three year old is the same way.  I always try to convince him to wear his cute shirts, but every day he refuses and wants to wear something else.  I think he cycles through about 5-6 shirts even though there are probably 20 + hanging in the closet.  And there is a certain pair of shorts (the cutest one’s!) that he refuses to wear.  I still have no idea why.

So I let my kids have their own sense of style and even though they are often times mismatched and wearing something I do not like, they are happy and expressing who they are.  It’s so much fun to see their personality develop.

As for the blue headboards, I’m not sure which route to take yet.  I know that I can see the big picture with his bedroom and he doesn’t even care if it all “looks good” or not.  I think I will come up with a few options that I’m happy with and have him choose between those.

Are your kids like mine?  I would love to know—especially those with cute little boys.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and jcpenney blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

I’m taking a break for the holiday, but I wanted to let you know about a GREAT sale going on now through the 4th at Home Decorators Collection.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this store and I’ve never seen a sale like this here, so take advantage if you can!  Click the ad below to start shopping & don’t forget to check out the “outlet” section for even better prices.

Have a happy 4th!!

Congrats to Brittany!  She is the lucky winner of a free pizza coupon and bamboo cutting board.

Brittany Carver says:

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA®. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of our family traditions is Friday pizza night.  My boys are super picky eaters, but they LOVE pizza and will eat tons.  It’s always a great time to be in the kitchen and enjoy quality time at home together.  So when FRESCHETTA offered me a coupon for a free FRESCHETTA® Simply Inspired pizza and bamboo cutting board, I was excited.  They also provided me with a free pizza coupon and bamboo cutting board to give away to one of you lucky readers.

The new Simply Inspired pizzas feature larger cuts of fresh vegetables and a thin, light crispy crust.   There are eight different varieties to choose from: Harvest Supreme, Classic Brushetta, Hawaiian Style, Chicken Bianco, Farmers Market Veggie, Rustic Pepperoni Pomodoro, Southern BBQ Recipe Chicken, Tuscan Farmhouse.  All I can say is YUM!

My husband in not a fan of fancy flavors or veggies, so we decided to try the Southern BBQ Recipe Chicken.

There were a few things we liked about the pizza.  First was the packaging.  It doesn’t come in a big, bulky box.  It comes in a FRESCH-TASTE SEAL™ package which keeps the pizza fresh and uses 30% less packaging material.

Second was the large pieces of chicken.  The toppings were more substantial than we had expected.

Third was the taste.  The sauce had great flavor and overall, we really liked the taste.

However, there was one thing we didn’t care too much for.  That was the thin, crispy crust.  Although it tasted just fine, it was way too thin.  Definitely not something to fill you up.  After eating the whole pizza, we felt like we had just eaten a very light snack.  We ended up eating a second dinner right after.  But the pizza was delicious. For more info on the pizzas you can visit FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™.

Now on to the giveaway.  Here is what’s up for grabs: a free pizza coupon and cool bamboo cutting board.

To enter simply leave a comment on this post.

For additional entries you can:

1. Like Freschetta Simply Inspired on Facebook (you’ll also get a $2.00 coupon).

2. Follow Frescheta on Twitter.

Leave a separate comment for each telling me you “liked” or “followed.”

I will announce the winner on Friday.

With all the talk about Easter this week, I thought I’d share a family recipe that we love to have on Easter.  I’m not big on a traditional Easter ham, and I usually don’t like to cook a huge meal that day.  So we keep it pretty simple with a crock pot dinner that is easy, not too heavy, and SO delicious using Coke.  Mmm!  Although I’m a huge fan of Diet Coke, it will not taste the same unless you use the real thing here (save your Diet Coke to drink with your meal).  It’s a sweet and spicy pork that you can use for sandwiches, tacos, burritos, or our family’s favorite, in a salad.

Sweet and Spicy Pork

Put a 3-5 lb pork roast or loin in the crock pot.

Mix together the following ingredients in a blender:

1 (7 oz.) can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce (without the chilies!!  Just use the sauce or it will be way too hot)

1 C Brown sugar

2 Cans Coke (not diet)

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. dry ground mustard

Cilantro Ranch Dressing

Mix together in a blender:

1 Ranch dressing packet

1 C milk

1 C mayo

3 tomatillos

½ bunch of cilantro

Pour the mixture over the pork and cook on low for 5-7 hours, until the pork shreds easily with a fork.

It’s a quick and easy meal that my family absolutely loves that doesn’t keep me in the kitchen all day.  Plus, all the simmering flavors in the crock pot will give your home a wonderful aroma all day long.  We build a big salad bar whenever I cook this pork to keep things a bit healthier.  We use romaine lettuce, fresh tomatoes, black beans, avacados, sour cream, cilantro, home made salsa, and tortilla chips.  You can pretty much use anything you want.

We top it off with a little of the cilantro ranch dressing.  I make this a day in advance so the flavors have lots of time to blend together.  It also gives me one less thing to do when I’m getting dinner ready.

I usually try to use a big roast so that we have lots of leftovers the next couple days.  This meal has become our new Easter tradition.

What are you guys cooking up this Easter?  Do you have any favorite recipes that use Coke as an ingredient?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Coca-Cola® blogging program. If I am one of the first 100 blogs received by SocialsMoms, I will receive a $25 gift card. For more information on the program, click here.