In the past few months, I have dreamed of what I'd write about in a "resuscitating the blog" post.  Well, here it is.

Why I let this page fizzle out:

My second son was born in February of 2013.  Precious as he and his brother are, I let blogging ideas pretty much consume my thoughts.  I was fixated on coming up with great posts, so much so, that I would plan entire days around completing crafts or making foods that I wanted to write about.  It was daunting, tedious, and there ultimately wasn't much to gain....without a great deal more work.

When people say, "Don't blink!  Your babies will be grown before you know it," I feel rushed to suck up all the joy and cuddles that one can fathom.  It is a pressuring phrase!  But...it is true.  They do grow quickly, and I needed to spend that first year and half of little Jo's life focusing on him and his big brother.  That decision prevented a great deal of stress, believe it or not.  Being present for my babies has been so wonderful and rewarding.

You know what else?  I was afraid of coming across as a show-off, narcissistic, know-it-all with the material I was posting.  Doing arts/crafts and coming up with recipes are two things I deeply enjoy, but I never wanted to make any one (especially moms) feel that they were not "measuring up", because they weren't also spending way too much time trying to perfect something that they really didn't have the time to do, like I was.

I am very grateful to still have the ability to jump on here and write any time I want.  If I continue to create posts, the focus of the blog may shift a bit.  Reason being, my focus has shifted as well.

If you have ever had nail fungus, then you know it can come out of no where, it doesn't mean you're a "dirty" person, and it never wants to leave once it finds a home in your nails.  It is stubborn to say the least!

The dishwasher and washing machine are a couple contraptions I never really thought I needed to clean before I became the keeper of our home.  I mean c'mon; aren't they supposed to clean themselves while they clean our clothes and dishes?

It turns out that there are a lot of ways these overly used machines can get gunky.  Grease, soap scum, pieces of food, etc. can coat the inside walls and corners.  This can make them look dingy and smell stinky.  It can also decrease their efficiency, so cleaning them about once every other month is a good idea, and may even release your inner cleaning super woman!

I will be doing a post in the future on how to clean your washing machine, but today I'm going to tell you how I clean my dishwasher.


You will need:
-two coffee cups
-enough white vinegar to fill both of the cups
-an empty, icky dishwasher
-Citrus Bliss essential oil or essential oil of choice
-baking soda
-Domo is optional, but he is a good cheerleader.

1.)  Empty your dishwasher completely, then take out the bottom rack and make sure there is nothing gross lingering down on the bottom.  You'd be surprised about what you can find!

2.)  Place one cup on the bottom rack and one on the top, then fill them with white vinegar.

3.)  Drop four or five drops of essential oil into each cup.

4.)  Turn the dishwasher on its hottest cycle, then let it run the entire time.

5.)  Next, you can sprinkle one cup of baking soda on the bottom of the dishwasher floor, and run it on its hottest cycle again.

The vinegar helps to get in there and loosen grease and gunk, while it sanitizes and removes musty odors.

Citrus Bliss smells like Heaven, and can make your whole house (and dishwasher) smell glorious!  Why not clean with boring vinegar and baking soda, and have some delicious smells going on in there, too?  It really helps to add extra fighting power to eliminate odors in the dishwasher!

The baking soda does a lot of work, too!  It freshens the smell, and really brightens the dishwasher by removing the build-up that the vinegar didn't get.  The two work hand-in-hand.


Do you see those cute, little toes on the rug up there?  Oh, how I love my little guy!  My two-year old was "helping" to clean mama's dishwasher.

Citrus Bliss includes:
Bergamot, Clementine, Grapefruit, Lemon, Mandarin, Tangerine, Vanilla, Wild Orange

When I had my first son, it took me a while to finally settle on a good diaper cream.  We literally had tubes and jars of different creams everywhere in the house.  Not many of them worked.  Some had chemicals in them that I wasn't too fond of.

This is a fun, little craft that you can include the kids in.  One recent, boring day we got out a bushel of supplies, plopped it all on the kitchen table, and got to work making garden cards for our Spring (if we ever get it planted!) garden.


You will need:
popsicle sticks (large or small)
sturdy colored paper
glue
scissors
seed packs for inspiration
laminate covers

We picked out a few seed packs that would be fun to turn into tags, and cut out the corresponding shapes to match.  Each fruit or vegetable cut-out got its own background, then was laminated (at the same time as all the others).  We then glued popsicle sticks to the back of the laminated cards.

I meant to label them before laminating, but I might just write what they are on the sticks.  I think they look kind of nice without any writing as well.  Below are some pictures that show the process.

My guys really liked being involved, because they got to play with paper, glue, and (kid-safe) scissors.  They aren't old enough to cut out the shapes yet, but I imagine that this would be a really fun thing to do with older kids.






Linked up with:
Simply Designing | Ginger Snap Crafts | Lady Behind the Curtain | Creations by Kara|  Someday Crafts | Life with the Crust Cut Off |  The Turquoise Home

I'm sure a lot of you know that most mouthwashes on the market do contain some pretty icky ingredients. This is a very simple recipe to make, and it does the trick without any toxic chemicals!

Homemade Mouthwash

1/4 cup distilled water
10 drops of peppermint essential oil
5 drops of malaleuca essential oil
3 drops of clove essential oil
3 drops of rosemary essential oil

Mix this up very well before each use, as the oils and water naturally separate.  I just used an empty vanilla extract container that I've had for a while.

Your breath will smell so fresh after using this mouthwash each morning!  There are other homemade mouthwashes out there, but this recipe is my favorite, because it's so easy to make, the ingredients are easy to find, and it really works.  The malaleuca will aid in killing nasty germs, too.  Did you know that if you have a cold sore, it can also help get rid of it?

Malaleuca is known to be:

• Analgesic
• Antibacterial
• Anti-fungal
• Anti-infectious
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-parasitic
• Antiseptic
• Antiviral

Don't forget to keep it out of children's reach.


Linked up with:
Simply Designing | Ginger Snap Crafts | Lady Behind the Curtain | Creations by Kara|  Someday Crafts | Life with the Crust Cut Off |  The Turquoise Home

This is so much fun for the kids!

Making a "Dirt and Worms" Sensory Activity for your kids is fairly easy.  All you will need is:

coffee grounds (for the dirt) Cheap coffee will work. :)
cooked spaghetti noodles (worms)
raisins (bugs)
some grass, flowers, weeds, etc.

I just put all of this into a large tupperware, and my boys loved it.  They threw the worms up in the air, and scattered coffee grounds EVERYWHERE.  I think I developed an eye twitch, trying to keep it away from the carpet, but their smiles were worth it!

This activity is pretty baby-friendly (if you leave the grass, flowers, and raisins out).  Most of the "ingredients" are edible and non-toxic.  Just watch out for baby eating the pasta, and getting a caffeine rush.  Mine had to sample the spaghetti, and seemed to be disgusted by it, but kept eating more.  Mom of the year here.  Yep, that's me.  I let my kid eat coffee coated spaghetti.

I got this idea from my favorite kid-friendly learning blog: Fun at Home with Kids

Have you ever made ranch dressing mix from scratch?  It's really easy, and tastes even better than store-bought dressing in my opinion.  You know exactly what is going into it, too!



Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

Ingredients:

2 Tbsps. dry parsley flakes
1 Tbsp. dry onion powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry dill
1/4 tsp. sweetener of choice (like sucanat)

Salad Dressing:
Mix with 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of mayonnaise, and 2 cups of buttermilk or kefir.

Vegetable Dip:
Mix with 1 quart of sour cream, yogurt, or Greek yogurt.

For a thick spread: 
Mix with 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 cup of sour cream, and 16 oz. softened cream cheese.

Ranch Avocado Dip:
Mix with 1 cup of pureed avocados, 1 cup of sour cream, and 2 cups of buttermilk or kefir.  Add a little cayenne if you like!

Chipotle Ranch Dip:
Mix with 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of mayonnaise, and 2 cups of buttermilk or kefir.  Add 2 tsp of chipotle chili powder and a pinch of cayenne.

Notes:

-You can play with other herbs to customize it to your likes.  For instance, I like to add a little cayenne every now and then.

-The flavors blend together and taste best if the dressing, dip, or spread is mixed up the night before and kept in the fridge overnight before use.

-Unless you add some homemade whey as a part of the wet ingredients, the dressing will only last about two days in the fridge, even if you use homemade mayo.  The friendly bacteria in the whey will help maintain the freshness for much longer.  Just mix the whey into the other wet ingredients, and let it sit on the counter overnight before refrigerating.

As you may all know, I have a serious sugar addiction that I am battling.  I give up sugar one week, then I'm back on it the next!  So, if I get to eat sugar, I'm at least trying to eat unrefined instead of white, refined sugar.

This recipe is insanely simple.  It's not even really a recipe.   To make homemade powdered sugar , all you have to do it to put a granular,  unrefined sugar , such as sucanat, coconut sugar, etc. into food processor, then blend it until it's smooth and powdered.

That's it!

The color of your sugar will vary based on which type of unrefined sugar you choose.  Most of them will turn out looking slightly brown .  I tried to use mine in a frosting recipe, but it looked like a gross chocolate frosting without chocolate.  What good is that!  You may as well go ahead and add the chocolate , so I did.

You can use this homemade powdered sugar in SO many recipes!

My dad is in the furniture industry.  He gives us the scoop on certain things like furniture safety with children.  You all may already know that kids can easily pull televisions and dressers over onto themselves, which can be extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal.

I LOVE my baby Jo.  That's just how I had to start this blog post.  Jonah turned one last week, and we celebrated his birthday with loved ones this past weekend.  After hosting my first baby shower for a dear friend and an essential oils class in January, I felt ready to host one of my children's birthday parties at our house (also a first).

I think Jonah will probably get mad at me if I try to throw him a "Jonah and the Whale" party when he's older, so I took the opportunity to do it now, before he can put up a fight.  Plus, whales are cute and the theme was a good way to incorporate blue.

I found most of the whale supplies at Party City and on Amazon, and I made a couple of things, too.


So, above is the cake that I ordered for Jonah's smash cake.  I actually ordered it with no icing, so I could make my own with sucanat, which is pure, dried cane sugar juice.  Don't try to make a white icing with it (like I started to do!) or you will end up with an ugly brownish icing.  I surrendered, and added cocoa powder to make it a chocolate icing.  If my little guy is like me, he loved it, and the pictures do prove that to be true.  I will probably be doing a post in the future on how to make powdered sugar with sucanat.  I made the whale with fondant, but he didn't get to eat that part as I imagine he wanted to :)



Back to the birthday boy...here he is as a newborn, and also as a big boy at twelve months!  He likes to pull his month stickers off of his shirt as soon as I put them on to take his picture.  I was really sad as I put the month sticker sheets in storage, because it just means he's out of the "month counting", but I still get to rock him to sleep and hold him tight, because he is a cuddle bug!  I'm so grateful for that!

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law gave Jonah a book called "If I Could Keep You Little."  There isn't a more suitable gift (for me!) on his birthday than this book.  Have you read it?  We read it before bed last night, and I almost cried.  It's about all of the things that the parents would miss if their child stayed small and didn't grow up.  It made me want to live it up right NOW, and enjoy my boys to the fullest, because as I hear...they grow up fast.  So, today we pulled out their tent, since that is about their favorite thing on the planet right now to "live it up".  I also ordered a toddler craft book with a bunch of ideas, because we go a little stir crazy inside in the Winter, and mommy needs to get these boys into some fun activities.

Back to the party...
...here are some pictures of the event!

If you come across this post, and are doing a whale party yourself, please let me know if you have any questions about where I found any of the party supplies.