My story- Bringing you to date.

Cohen, is my second born. His birth brought immeasurable joy and unbelievable chaos to my life. I guess, I just thought because I had a hard core system in place, complete with a personalized handbook, and 3 years of experience in motherhood, my transition from pregnancy to baby would go much smoother this time. Boy was I wrong! I now had to learn to balance work, housework, and life with 3 boys! (The fact that I live with 3 boys still cracks me up considering I spent the majority of my life scared of boys- we will discuss this at a later date!)
I had forgotten how priceless and necessary those mommy naps were (you remember the advice "nap when the baby naps") until they were no longer available to me. Mommy naps were replaced with time spent with big brother out of fear Colby might feel uneasy about the shift in attention the new baby brought to our family. The guilt hit a new high as each child vied for my attention and the house screamed for a bath. Add in severe sleep deprivation plus trying to go back to work at 4 weeks postpartum, and it was a recipe for disaster. I felt my life was completely out of control.

But in true DRS fashion, once again I had a plan. I decided to give myself a deadline for when my life should be fully back in order. So sometime in early February I counted out 6 months from Cohen's birthday and marked in ink the date my life was to be back in order. (I have provided you a picture of my 2008 dayplanner as proof of this experience.) Well Cohen's 6th month birthday came and went and my life was no more close to mirroring Donna's life then the day Cohen came home from the hospital. Daily, me and the house battled; and more often then not- the house won! Countless times I tried to get back into the zone with my housework but I just could not get back into the groove.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the chaos, a new obsession emerged- couponing! I discovered "The Grocery Game" late one night as I spent some "quality" time with Cohen who was still not sleeping through the night. I watched as this lady demonstrated how she was able to get $150 worth of groceries for nearly half the $ amount by utilizing coupons and advice from "The Grocery Game." Knowing that Donna would approve, I had to try it myself. Sooooo in January of 2008 I became an official member of "The Grocery Game" and my budget has never been the same. (You will learn more about "The Grocery Game" and other tips for saving money on Thrifty Thursdays)

I bring this up because it was couponing that eventually introduced me to the world of blogs. You see, I had no idea what a blog was until a few months ago when a friend suggested I check out the blog Money Saving Mom. From the moment I linked on I was hooked. Not only did this blog take me to a whole new level of couponing, shortly after I started following this blog Money Saving Mom did a series of posts on blogging for profit. I was intrigued. I asked myself: Is blogging something I could do? What would I write about? How would I have time to keep a blog up and running when I don't even have time to empty the dishwasher? How do I even go about getting started? What would Donna think?- there was no precedence of blogging on The Donna Reed Show.

That was when the light bulb went off! I could use my blog to educate America about the symptoms of DRS while at the same time creating the perfect medium to achieve ultimate Donna Reed status in all aspects of my life- world wide accountability!