Marriage is fun! Date of the Month Club!

If you aren't following us by e-mail please do! That way you won't miss any of the great stuff we share here on The Seattle Sisters: Spotlights, Giveaways, Printable, Ideas and fun!

Seattle Sisters are busy women! There isn't anything they don't do.

I hope that this helps you live up to the amazing women you are while saving you time and money for this Valentines day! The great thing about this gift is that it's also a gift for yourself!

 The Date of the Month club is a fun idea I saw online a few years ago, and so I made one for my hubby. It's a great way to keep the love alive all through the year.

Here you can get all the printables that you will need to put this sweet gift together.

You will need these supplies:
Large Manilla Envelope ( I used a craft paper type)
2 feet of yarn or ribbon
A printer
a few good ideas

 
 Here's what everything looks like when you're done.
There are a few differences between this and what you will get. I have printed on my "12 Dates" 12 date ideas that I thought of... this is a gift we can't make them come up with all the ideas. Yours is blank. You can write them in yourself or get tricky and put text over the lines in a word processing program, Illustrator or Photoshop, or adobe reader.

Here is the great part... whether his idea of a good time is shooting guns, shooting hoops or shooting the breeze you can customize this 100% to be something that he and you will love together!

 

Here are the ideas that I came up with:

Go to an Angels game
Walk on the Beach at Alki
Homemade hot fudge sundaes
“Body shop” Maintenance
Museum
Picnic hike
Play catch at the park
Drive in Movie-Drive in Fun!
Night of zen
Bowling date
Wild west night- home cookin’
Cosmic date- everything under the stars

Just think of something that he likes to do or something that you always say you're going to do and  add that to your list. Keep in mind your monthly budget and keep the activities budget-friendly. You can have a lot of fun if you just simply plan ahead. MARK IT ON THE CALENDAR. MAKE IT HAPPEN!  The fun names add some spice to the activity as well...so get a little creative! A few of my activites are dates that could happen after we put the kids down. Making hot fudge sundaes, Night of Zen, Cosmic Date. Think of fun things that you wouldn't ordinarily plan to do!

These are extra Tickets. When he fills out his dates on Valentine's Night, He earns these bonus tickets! Your kit will also have blank ones that you can make up your own!

There are also 2 Getaway cards! Use 1 or both.
One is for a getaway and one is for a stay-cation. You can make home into a little resort if you can't manage to getaway this year. Work with a girlfriend, family or a baby-sitter to make this happen!  

You won't regret it!

Here's how I put it all together. I got a craft envelope, the size of a manilla envelope and cut the bottom portion off. and refolded and glued it with a glue stick. I attached a cute tag and a ribbon to tie it up with at the end. This part is mostly for my benefit since he wouldn't really care if it came in a Safeway bag as long has we got to have date night once a month and it would be totally planned!


Embrace your marriage and make it something special everyday! On every budget! At every point your life. Kids or no kids...babies or no babies...money or no money.

Nurture your marriage everyday.

Don't forget to download all 3 sheets.

 Download here

I printed on 3 different colors of paper for added interest. I used 1 cream, 1 light pink and 1 tan sheet of cardstock. this would cost less than $1 to print at Costco if you haven't got a printer...and you have over a week to get it done :)

Enjoy! We would love to hear some of your creative date ideas.
If you use the date of the Month idea for valentines this year we would love to hear. Please leave a comment!

“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an ART of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”

This is one of my very favorite quotes. It helps me to keep a grander perspective of my purpose and objectives through the mundane actions that can sometimes get me down. 

Remember to conduct yourself in the lower regions by the memory of what is higher up. And remember that you have been there. :)

Good luck with your week, everyone!

-Emily

Sister Spotlight: Shannon & Bring it on!!!

Meet Shannon Ellis

How the world sees her:

A former NCAA Division I volleyball coach recently turned stay at home mom.She's spent the last 12 years teaching and coaching at the collegiate level. 

How Shannon See's herself:

Now I’m home with my three amazing children and loving it.   

If you stopped by you'd find Shannon:

Most days I’m in sweats – not because I’m lazy but because that’s what you have in your closet after a decade of working in a gym.  Besides that way I’m always ready for an impromptu game or workout.   I love moving!

What she's passionate about: Getting healthier every day.  This is not a passing phase but my lifetime obsession.  I’ve also working feverishly to finish my first book which is about raising active, healthy children.  I love food, sports, reading, and sleeping.  Gosh I miss sleeping.  Someday I will get a full night of sleep again.  Of course we will let you know when the book is published!!

More about Shannon: 
Born in Provo, UT; raised in California and Texas; spent most of my adult life here in Seattle

Mother of Zachary (6), Tyler (3), and Edi (4 months) and Wife of my best friend Brian

If the house was burning and the family was safe what would you grab?....there is nothing I would need.  My family is my all.  And maybe my new laptop.

What is one of your Favorite Quotes?  “It’s hard to commit your heart to something knowing it could get broken.  Is it worth it to commit anyway?  I believe it is.”  - Hugh McCutcheon

Why Have we shined the spotlight on Shannon? 

(Besides the fact that she is super awesome and gave up being The head Volleyball Coach for Seattle U to be the Number 1 Mom of 3 stinkin' cute little ones, and is an amazing Personal Fitness trainer?)

She will be our monthly feature

"Bring it on... 
Getting Fit!  Getting Healthy!  
...for REALS"

 To give you a taste of what Shannons feelings about Fitness and Health are we've asked her to get us started on our way to being a better us... We are confident that you will love Shannon as much as we do and as much as Seattle U did for 10 years! (They didn't want to let her go! You won't either!)

Every January millions of women resolve to get healthier and then fail to make any ground.  There are lots of reasons why people aren’t in the shape they hope to be.  Life is crazy for all of us.  Sometimes it seems there is never enough time, money, or energy to get it all done. 

But maybe…maybe our health is worth investing a little time and energy.  Maybe it won’t take quite as much time and energy as we fear if we do it right.  Maybe we can get healthier even if we only make a little progress every day.   

I’m here to tell you that WE CAN!  

Many women see their body as the enemy to be conquered instead of a part of them.  We can all find something about our bodies to be grateful for.  Start right now by looking at your hands.  Think of all the things they can do.  They write, type, and eat.  Maybe they can sew, crochet or play the piano.  Maybe they can transform optimus prime from a robot to a vehicle in under a minute.  They are a part of your amazing body.  Your body heals itself when injured or attacked by disease.  It allows you to experience the bounty of this life through your senses.   It can run, jump, play and dance. The human body is a wonderful thing!  Even if you don’t believe in God, you must admit that the beauty and complexity of the human form is a miracle. 

One of the most amazing things about the body is that it is adaptable.  It is a completely dynamic system which changes constantly to meet the demands placed upon it.  If you want your body to give you more energy then you simply have to tell it to do so by putting just a little more load upon it (aka exercising more).  At first it will be uncomfortable but then your body will adapt.   

This is called the overload principle. 

Through this principle we can train our bodies (and our minds and spirits) to do anything. 

Even if our bodies aren’t perfect there is so much they can do.  People with chronic illness and disabilities are often so inspiring because they focus on what they can do rather than what they cannot.  My personal definition of health is having the energy to do all the things I need to do and the things I want to do and to do them well and with a smile.  At this time of resolutions I want to challenge you to put a positive spin on YOU.  Instead of thinking: “I really need to lose 20 pounds”, can you change it to...“I really want to get healthier so I can have more energy to do fun things this year”?  Now find one thing you can do today to overload your body just a little.  Maybe you could go up and down the stairs a few more times today, or do an extra set of crunches, or run around with your kids even when you don’t want to.  Your body will adapt and you will be on your way to meeting that resolution.  This is the year!

You may be wondering who I am and why I am so certain about this overload principle.  
Until quite recently I was the Head Volleyball Coach at Seattle University.  I worked there for 10 years after earning my Bachelors in Physical Education (BYU) and a Masters degree in Counseling (Bucknell).  After a year of agonizing over the decision I decided to step down and stay home with my family.  It was a brutal decision for me.  Besides the stress of making the finances work, I didn’t want to let people I care about down.  Coaching is an incredible experience.  You develop intense relationships with your players early in the recruiting process that last long after they graduate.   I would do anything to help them become their very best selves.  I saw my players make amazing transformations in mind, body and spirit.  It was an extremely demanding and completely rewarding job.  The time and energy it consumed just became too great for me to care for my family the way I wanted to.  Since I have left, I haven’t looked back.  My children are Zach (6), Tyler (3) and Edi (4 months) and they are my beautiful treasure.   I have learned that I can use my skills and all of the knowledge and experience I’ve gained helping people around me become healthier and happier.  (Watch for my blog and book to be unveiled in the coming months!) 

I am currently accepting a limited number of personal clients if you are interested in a more personal approach to health. I’ll be a regular contributor to the Seattle Sisters talking about nutrition and exercise and often within the context of crazy busy families.  If you have a fitness question you want answered I would love to address it.  I can’t wait to connect with my Seattle Sisters!

The magic in building a winning team, a killer body, a successful business, a strong family is just about creating a vision of what you want and then moving a little closer to it each day.  
 This is something we all can do.  It takes some deliberate effort but once you learn mindfulness you can truly do anything.  I’ve seen people accomplish feats they before said were impossible.  You probably have goals for yourself that seem just out of reach.  There is a way to make those goals come to fruition.  Hopefully I can share the keys to that process because once you learn it you can become the person you most want to be. 

Shannon Ellis

Fitness Consultant Extraordinaire

Shannon.ellis41@gmail.com

Start keeping your Blessings!

It Just makes sense to start out this lovely week and year talking about blessings as one of the first posts of the blog.

We started the dream of this blog with a small sister site called, "Sister Swap".   The Idea is that because we have been given so very much, and are so very blessed, that we should in turn bless the lives of others. There are many ways that we can do this, and it strengthens us as women to be able to help those near us, to see that we do bless and strengthen the lives of those we interact with.

At the very beginning of the year I saw something on Facebook of all places for something like this... you would think it would have been pinterest.   The post said to take a jar and everyday write down your blessings.  I thought ...simple, and wonderful.  We should all write down our blessings because we are truly blessed. 

But what about those of us who don't feel "truly blessed" right now? The sobering truth about life is that as we bring together women from all different ages and stages of life... there are bound to be some who are facing times when life feels like it's dragging them down! Husbands won't be perfect, in-laws wouldn't be supportive, children won't behave, money will vanish, and life can really get hard. But can we still not be blessed even amidst the CRAP that life throws at us?  It is good to recognize even when things are the most difficult, that there are people who lift us when we are down.  As women we set a tone for our homes.   We can lift and build ourselves and our families or we can sit and stew.




Just two days ago this song started playing as I was doing dishes and listening to Pandora.  The group "The Farm", from what I can see is very new, and it's one of their first songs called "Be Grateful".  It's a great message.





 

One of our Seattle Sisters, Katie Tyler put together an adorable "gratitude" chalkboard for her wall, where her family writes things that they are thankful for. I loved it! I asked her if she would share a snapshot and she did.  Don't you love this? I love it when we can fill our homes and our walls with meaning. This is a great example. And she's been able to keep it going for a few years.There are so many ways that you can instill gratitude into your everyday living.

Taking the blessing jar idea I thought about what would work for me and my family. So I pondered on the perfect jar for our family's Blessing Jar... and Yours! Don't think that this post is just about me starting a blessing jar! Oh no... hopefully some of you will share your success stories and others will be inspired to start counting your blessings...and one of our Seattle Sisters will get this super awesome Blessing Jar for her own home! 

Here are some tips to keeping this up all through out the year:

• Set a time when you write something down. for example: Sunday dinner. 
• Customize it to the year or your Family.
• Put a Child incharge of asking questions about the blessings that the family enjoed that day.
• Don't stop just because you missed a few days or a few weeks.
  (The beauty of this jar is that when you review the blessings they will come out in random order, if you miss a few weeks you won't even know :) )
• Date your Blessing cards as you drop them in.

We Hope that this inspires your to keep track of your blessings. 

It would be a fun tradition to sit together on New years and read through the blessings that your family has received/ enjoyed through out the year. These are often the non tangible gifts that mean the most but are easily forgotten in the busyness of life.

Have a wonderful and Blessed week! 

We are giving a away one of these awesome blessing jars.

Enter Below...it's easy...just share your blessings!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sister Spotlight: Jenna & The Amazing Binder!

     We want to introduce you to a Seattle Sister from Renton.  

Jenna

Mother of 2 , college grad and CEO of her home!

Why we know your going to love her? She's organized and real. She gives us a peek at her real-life organization binder that she has been using for years. This is no Pinterest fling... Jenna's the real thing! She shares her simple tips that anyone could do, and ... we have a surprise for you!

How long have you been in the area?: 
"I have lived in the Seattle area about 6 years with my husband. We now have two kids ages 3 and 5. We moved from Cheney after graduating from EWU."
  
What made you into the uber organized woman you are today?
"I have always loved organization but right after my oldest was born, organization became essential for me. I had just left my full time job and needed some direction at home.

I started with a good look at myself both physically and spiritually/mentally and decided on some goals."

What was the first step to getting you and your family organized?
" I took my goals and then I started a family binder."


Can you help us see how your binder is laid out?
 "Here's a personal tour... On the first page I placed a copy of my goals and objectives as a reminder. Then I placed tabs with main headings – 
Calendar, Financial, Household, Menus and recipes, Kids and Projects."

Jenna went into a little more detail for us hopefully you can get some great ideas from her:

• Calendar

I put this first because I refer to it the most often. You can put a monthly or weekly calendar here. I like to put both. In addition, this is where I have my “list of 7.” I write 7 things to do for that day in order of importance. If I don’t get to it all, I just start where I left off for the next day. 

At the end of the post print a full 2013 calender!

• Financial

In this section I have our family’s budget broken into fixed and variable amounts. The fixed amounts include bills that I am sure to get every month. After I pay them I put a check number next to that bill’s entry. The variable amounts have a separate page. They include items like gas, groceries, entertainment ect. And I keep track of them throughout the week.

• Household

I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep everything clean all of the time so, in addition to the regular upkeep I have certain days of the week that I focus on specific parts of the house. For example, on Wednesdays I deep clean the bathroom. On Thursdays, I hunker down and get laundry done. This section doesn’t have to be fancy –just something to help you to remember your plan.

• Menu and Recipes

Here I have my basic menu for the week along with some tried and true recipes placed in sheet protectors. It will only take you a second on the internet to find a ton of menu templates. The ones I like the best includes a spot to write down a grocery list.

• Fitness

I have always found it helpful to keep track of my exercise and it is so easy. It can be on any type of paper. Just make 4 columns: Date& Time, Activity, Duration, and Mood log. As you write this information down you can use it to adjust your routine according to your personal fitness goals.

• Kids

My kids section includes my son’s preschool schedule, any calendars for sports or other community classes they may be signed up for. Lastly, I have a list of my favorite places to go in the area. They include directions to museums, zoos and our local library schedule. I also have a list of websites on my computer where I can find easy craft or game ideas for the kids. 

• Add on Pages/Specialty   
  

Additional pages could include an information page for your babysitter, a list of family birthdays, addresses or online passwords.  The possibilities are endless.

  

This looks like a lot of work... How do you keep it up and use it? Any tips?

"Now here is the tricky part. You need to put the binder where you can see it and use it every day. It will not only save you time in the end to have all you information in one place but it will give you peace of mind. And who couldn’t use some of that? :)"

  To help make you life a little easier we have compiled some of Jenna's Great Ideas and a few of our own. We have been trying to master Jenna's art of organization and want to share with all of you what we have been working on!
Take them all or choose those that will help your family the most.

Please do not post these pages on your own website, sell them or download and redistribute.

The Seattle Sister's Home Management Binder

Following this link will take you to the list of Free Binder Printables. Get started today organizing your family in style. We have put a lot of time into these, please let us know how you like them! If you have success stories of organizing your life, or want to share your binder with us, please do!

You can't get organized with out a calendar.
Don't forget to get the new 2013 calendar for the year!

Seattle Sisters 2013 Calander

SUNSHINE

Welcome to a new week! This is one of my favorite quotes. I hope it gives you a little perspective to start your week out right!

Just the beginning...

We are so happy that you have taken a moment in your busy day to stop by and visit The Seattle Sisters... Of which you are by the way... A Seattle Sister of course! This is the first post of all time. I felt that it would be good to fill you in on what you've come for! The Seattle Sisters website has been a mental dream for me. I wasn't sure how to accomplish it or how to connect the dots, but like all things that were meant to be, it has just been coming together; the pieces are falling into place!

The predicament: I have met so many wonderful women in the area through PTA, Church, work, playgroups even childbirth. These are amazing women. I have seen the talents, ideas, creativity, resourcefulness, selflessness and love radiating out of these women... There is so much to learn from the women around us!  

How do I connect all of these amazing women together?

More than a party ... more than a get together... How do I connect real women together? How can we help each other, inspire each other, support and encourage each other?
The brain was spinning and churning and it was like all the pieces came together to accomplish more than I even thought in the beginning.

We can help each other, we can work together in our community regardless of the school or church you go to. Neighborhoods have no boundaries so we can help each other accomplish feats of service and simple acts of charity. We can connect ourselves to help each other succeed in many ways.

I found 2 women who are passionate about these things as well and we put our heads together and out popped the perfect solution!

The Seattle Sisters Mission statement is so simple... But so HUGE...

Connecting women and resources.

You will see many "Sister" groups that will hopefully be tools for

Connecting women together to accomplish more than we could on our own:  

Personally, Physically, Spiritually, Financially and Emotionally.

What will you find on the Seattle Sisters?

• Sister Spotlight - The Main reason!! We will feature women from the area each week. You will learn the hopes, dreams, talents and advice from amazing women who live right here! If we featured a new woman everyday we could probably have a new post daily for more that 54 years but, alas since we do try to sleep for a few hours each night we will stick to once a week for now :)
• Sisters' Service - We will list places were you or a group of you can find ways to serve locally, and specifically. We will also do group service collections for special needs in the neighboring communities throughout the year. 
• Sister Shops- will be a place where you can come and find resources from your local sisters. Looking for a Pampered Chef consultant, someone who does yard work, in-home childcare? Trying to find a place to advertise your availability as a photographer, nanny or house cleaner? This is a place where you can list your services and we can connect women together. We can help each other succeed in our ambitions and help build a thriving community!
• SHINE - This is a place where women can build their businesses locally. Your target audience is all within the greater Seattle area, with sisters in areas like Renton, Maple Valley, Issaquah, Bellevue, Kent, Federal Way, Auburn, Kirkland, Black Diamond to name a few. You can advertise for a very low fee and reach an audience that is 100% local to you! 
• Sister Facebook Sites - Sister Sales and Sister Swap - These active communities are there for sisters to freely swap ideas and bargains as well as clear out their closets and cupboards...all blessing the lives of their nearby sisters without obligation!
• Specialty Blog Posts - We have several planned and with your help this can only get better! From giveaways to printables. These will be things you won't want to miss!
• Local Advice - Local Business reviews and giveaways! Helping connect you to your local businesses, restaurants, parks and events. 
• Local Blogs- Are you a blogger in the area with features that would be beneficial to our readers? We would love to list your blog. E-mail us! If we feel that your blog is in keeping with our readers needs/wants and taste we will send you the sister seal of approval and list your blog on our site.

You can never have too many friends! I hope that this opens up an outlet where you can connect with even one more person, where someone can inspire you to improve your life, your marriage, your fitness or self esteem. Together we can BE more!

Together Debbie, Emily and Shelbi welcome you to take a look around! 
(Who in the world are we? Check out "The Sisters" tab)  

We are looking forward to all we have planned for you for the next few weeks!!

Follow us by e-mail so you can get the ideas, inspiration and fun stuff delivered to your inbox each week!  

E-mail us with any ideas! 

If you would like to contribute in some way we'd love to have you!