Onward MARCH...MARCH....MARCH?

whoa?  March?  already?

*cough* not prepared for time to go by this quickly *cough*.

Here's a brief check-in of what last month held for me:

The habit I worked on was stickin' with an all cash budget

The "new" thing I set out to do was homemade marinara sauce.  Didn't accomplish this one, but I did manage to make my own bodywash, try a new laundry detergent recipe & make granola bars from scratch.

The organizational projects: Went through our bookshelf and cleaned that up, cleaned out under our bathroom sink and started on the massive upstairs project---this project is massive and...ongoing.  I spent an entire weekend sorting and packing away all of our outgrown children's clothes...which amounted to 18 totes.  yup.  EIGHTEEN!

The books: Finished "Loving the Little Years" & "Eat that Frog".  Working my way through "7:an Experimental Mutiny Against Excess"

So...March is here!  Which means planning a first birthday party for my sweet lil' guy.  We're also attempting to potty train our super stubborn sweet daughter.

The habit I'm working on for March: My husband and I are both seeking to cultivate a more purposeful prayer life.  I'm doing the 31 days of Praying for your husband & we are working in other areas to really bring much more intentionality to our prayer lives

The "new" things to try: homemade marinara sauce, homemade whole wheat bread & homemade refried beans (did this last week--yum!)

The organizational projects: Finish the dormer....and work on our closets, freezers & pantry

The books: Finish "7: an experimental mutiny against excess", re-start "Sacred Marriage" with the husband.

Pinterest inspired....

So yeah, once a week I suppose will be the best I can do.  I want to be an all-star blogger, but honestly, I've been stepping back more and more from being "plugged" in.....and secretly, I'm really loving it.  I took a "media fast" last week and what it revealed to me was startling.  I need to unplug more.  Engage with my children & husband more.  pray more.  read stellar non-fiction books more. dig deep in God's word more. 

That being said, blogging...well, if I have a free moment....you'll find me knee deep in this book at the moment.

But, I had wanted to share these recipes....both pinterest inspired!

First: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent.  I used an assortment of recipes to create our own.  Having had a terrible experience with liquid homemade dishwasher detergent, I have been thrilled with this powder recipe!  I used both lemi-shine powder and the lemonade packets (it's the citric acid)---but our rinse aid compartment is broken, so I added the lemi-shine for good measure.  But, if you need a rinse aid---try vinegar.  You'll need to mix it occassionally to break up clumps from the citric acid. We re-purposed a formula container

I used:
1 C Borax
1c Washing Soda
1/2 c salt
2 packets non-sugar Lemon Kool-aid
1/3 c lemi-shine (powder)


The second: Homemade Bodywash.  I followed this recipe off pinterest---there are many to choose from, but I chose one that did not use vegetable glycerin.  We re-purposed an old ketchup bottle :)


A few notes:
-It took about a week to thicken up and lather just like commercial bodywash.  Worked fine before, but it does thicken a bit overtime.
-If I were to make handsoap, I would probably add glycerin to help thicken it up.
-I tend to use a bit more of the homemade than I do of the commercial.  Even still, if I went through a full bottle each month (not likely) I could make 12 bottles for the price of one store-bought bottle...
-I LOVE this stuff!  Tried Irish Spring and it did not work well.  Dove worked awesome and I'm hopeful I can find a good soap to make bodywash for the kids

I never pay more than .50/bar of soap after sales and coupons...and often less than that.  We figured that one bar of soap produced around 26oz of bodywash.  24oz of Dove Bodywash is nearly $6 at Wal-Mart.....that's over a $5 savings!

back on the wagon

I've missed two days in a row.  Let me catch you up.

If I had posted Wednesday, it would have read somewhere along the lines of:

"dear friends from MOPS,

Thank you so much for helping me get my screaming toddler into the car today.  By you taking my son (who was in his carseat), I was able to wrangle the toddler and save her from running into the parking lot.  So thankful for you all."

"dear middle-aged woman at craft store that was not wrangling two children under the age of two.

Yes, "god bless my heart" indeed.  And thank you so very much for knowing that I too had been driving around town to find that product only to find it at THIS store.  The fact that you grabbed it and bought the last one while my toddler reached for yet another glass item made me sort of want to punch you in the face....but I'm a little classier than that."

Thursday would have read something like this:

still royally ticked off at the lady from the craft store.  the nerve.....in retrospect, I'm wondering why I didn't tell my daughter to bite her.  Did I mention she started biting recently?  The toddler, not the lady from the craft store....though I suppose she could be a biter since she did snatch the last item on the shelf even though she didn't have two children to drag to YET ANOTHER STORE.


As for today....

My husband had the "day" off.  He's working this evening, but we were able to run errands this afternoon.  After two different craft store visits, I'm happy to report I found the over-priced item I was in need of.  Let the homeade gift-making commence!

Oh yes, we decided this year we would try the "homeade" route.  With minimal sewing skills---and no real ideas on what I'd even sew--I've opted for all gifts that don't involve sewing.  Somehow the homeade gifts are turning out far more expensive....ahem.  Either way, I've nearly finished FIVE whole gifts tonight....which would be amazing except for the fact that we are making multiple gifts per person.

Did I mention we leave to go out of town in a week to spend Thanksgiving with the in-laws and swap those gifts?  It'll happen.

One more thing...

dear lady from the craft store, I'm sorry.  I've moved on.  I don't know what was going on in your day and you had every right to that item.  I apologize for the terrible glances I shot your way.

sincerely,

lady with the two screaming kids.

one heck of a project....

When we moved into our new-to-us home back in May, I was certain we'd be unpacked within a month or two. For the most part we were, aside from two rooms that have boxes with who knows what in them at this point.

I knew when we moved that I wanted the process to be as efficient as possible. I labeled every box I packed with a colored number. The color represented the room it would go to, the number corresponded to a list that said what was in that particular box.

As we unpacked our belongings in our new home, a few items just didn't quite find their place & they joined the boxes in the room upstairs, what was supposed to be my office/craft room. Time went on and our spare bedroom became an impromptu office...(which really means it just got filled with paperwork & odds and ends.) Anyways, we're three months away from baby's due date & in need of that second room. Which means we are needing to transition the pseudo office/guest room upstairs.

Problem.

That room is & has been filled with boxes...nearly floor to ceiling...and the problem has grown.

See for yourself....

We started on this room a few weekends back and have already made tremendous progress. We are both getting really excited with how this room is turning out! I'll continue to post updates on our progress!