Archive for the ‘Works For Me Wednesday’ Category
Of Goat Milk Soap and Scentsy
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
I found two products that are going to be a staple gift from me for Christmas.
A friend of our family for years and years started selling goat milk soap. She started her own small business called Healthful Ablutions. Bonise sells the most wonderful smelling and feeling all natural soap I have ever had the pleasure of using.
I received my first order a couple of weeks ago and I am HOOKED!
I ordered Oatmeal Milk & Honey and it is divine! Bonise also sent me some “Pink Sugary” bath fizzy because she is a sweetheart. She has a huge list of all sorts of soap, and lotion sticks (also 100% natural) that I don’t have the time to list here. These soaps are great for sensitive skin and good for the whole family. I love that I can even use it on my baby girl. I’ve seen people on Facebook comment that it’s helped with skin conditions they’ve had for years.
I’d also like to try the lotion stick that is a bug repellent. I hate spraying my girls down with the chemically “Off” but I am paranoid about ticks so I use that for now.
Bonise doesn’t have a website but she does have a Facebook page.
You can contact her there as well as at bonise.soap@gmail.com. Her Facebook page also lists her phone number and her address because she is that available and approachable when it comes to her wonderful soap.
Because I love her soap so much I’m offering you, dear reader, a chance to win one of her soaps!
If you go and “like” her Facebook page, look around at some of her different “flavors” of soaps and then come back and tell me which one you want to try I will enter you into my giveaway to win the bar of soap of your choice!
The giveaway will end Monday, July 25th.
UPDATED 7/25/2011***GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED BELOW!***
The second product I’ve discovered and love is Scentsy. I’m sure many of you have already heard of Scentsy and may even sell it. But if you don’t, they are wickless candles that are safe to use around small children. They scents come in small bricks that melt in a beautiful warmer. My husband has forbade me to use candles in the house anymore because he didn’t like the soot it was creating on the ceiling. Plus he’s terrified of causing a fire. I love candles and was extremely, shall we say, resentful of not using candles. These are a great compromise.
My consultant is my friend,Christine, located here in Massachussets and my cousin, Heather, also sells them. She’s located in Texas. But, if you aren’t in any of these areas you can go to Scenty’s website and find a consultant close to you.
So, my friends and family can expect one of these two gifts for Christmas this year.
It’s kinda nice to already know what I’m getting people! (wink!)
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are THAT Family
**** I literally had my husband draw the name of our winner out of everyone’s names written on little pieces of paper.
ERIN CACACE YOU ARE THE WINNER!!! Congrats! I’ll put the order in and get you your Mimosa Mandarin soap as soon as possible. Enjoy!
{WFMW} Homemade Sinus Rinse
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
In 2003 or 2004 I had sinus surgery. My sinuses were inflamed and I was having trouble breathing freely at night and taking over the counter allergy medication like crazy. Once I had my sinus surgery it cleared away all the inflamed tissue. I could breathe again! But, I also came away with a fabulous homemade sinus rinse recipe that I had to use while my nose was healing. I’ve used it ever since. It has kept my nose moisturized, allergies at bay and colds at bay. I don’t have to use allergy medication as long as I’m consistently using this solution. When I do get a cold it helps the cold go away a lot faster. I swear by this stuff! It’s inexpensive and easy to make. Works for me!!
Homemade Nasal and Sinus Rinse
1 Gallon Distilled Water
8 Tsp Baking Soda
8 Tsp Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
Mix soda and salt into gallon of distilled water. Shake well.
How to use: Rinse sinuses once or twice a day.
Measure out a cup of the solution and heat in microwave until luke warm. (This may not be necessary depending on the temperature of your home). Using an infant nasal aspirator, GENTLY squirt half a cup of the solution into each nostril letting the water flow out. Blow nose as needed.
Note:If you feel stinging in your eyes you’re squirting to hard and too far up!
It may seem weird to do this, at first. (Especially using one of those nasal aspirators!! They’re not just for babies??) The point is to not feel like you’re drowning. The solution is not supposed to go all the way up your nose. Once you’ve used the solution for a few weeks you’ll really start to notice a difference. Especially during the cold and flu season.
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
{WFMW} Audio Books
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Or alternately titled “How Audio Books Have Changed My Life”.
Ok, so maybe my alternate title is a little exaggerated but it shows you how much I love audio books! I’ve been listening to audio books for about 5 years now. Which is about how long I’ve had kids. I’ve found that since I haven’t had as much time to actually read like I used to (many moons ago) audio books have made a nice replacement. They’ve also made tedious housework and chores fun! Well,maybe not fun but more enjoyable.
I listen to audio books while doing laundry, dishes and sundry boring tasks. My husband and I used to listen to my audio books when we were living in Rhode Island during the week and commuting back and forth on weekends from Massachusetts and back. I even got Mike interested in a couple of James Patterson novels! We would pull into our parking spot and sit there and listen to the end of the chapter because we were so drawn into the story.
By listening to audio books I’ve been able to stay on top of my “reading” list.
If you’ve ever tried to buy an audio book you know that they are EXPENSIVE. So, to get around that here’s what I do:
1. I check out audio books from my library. They have a great selection and I can also request a specific one online that they’ll bring in from a sister library in a neighboring town. I have several newer ones on hold right now. I’ll bet you can do the same thing at your library.
2. I take them home and upload the CD’s into iTunes on my laptop.
3. Then I create a play list of that book and upload it on my iPod. It’s that simple!
4. Just make sure to delete books from your computer as you go because they can take up a lot of space on your computer.
I have so enjoyed my audio books. The readers are so good and make the characters come alive. In fact, there’s one series that I’ve only ever listened to and couldn’t actually read because it wouldn’t be the same!
Here’s a short list of audio books I recommend to get you started if you’ve never done this before:
1. The Jester-By James Patterson
2. The Eve Dallas/ In Death series by Nora Roberts (This is the one I’ve only ever listened to. I’ve never actually read a single book from this series and I’ve listened to almost the whole series thus far.)
3. Any book by Sophie Kinsella. (Author of Confessions of A Shopaholic)
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. The Bible. Yes! You can even get some Bible reading in audio book form!
6. Any books by Ted Dekker are also good in audio format.
Another side note I will add is to make sure the books say “Unabridged”
because then you know you’re getting the whole book on CD. Some of the books are “abridged” which means the whole book isn’t being read to you.
No time to actually read? Audio books work for me!
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
WFMW- Repurposing Envelopes
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
You know that annoying junk mail you get? The credit card offers and such? Well, I used to throw them right into recycling. But, I discovered a much better use for these. My girls love to color pictures and then pretend to mail them. I was forever giving them my good envelopes to put papers in. And we were going through envelopes way too quickly. So, I started saving all the envelopes that come in the junk mail for my girls to use for themselves.
Now, I get to keep and use my own, nice, envelopes and my girls can have a ball and use as many of “their” envelopes as they want!
This is also a great idea for preschool teachers. If you’re a preschool teacher, ask parents to save these envelopes for your preschoolers to use in class!
As a side note, I also keep every piece of paper that has a blank side to it for them to color on. I feel like this saves money and is a good repurposing method for paper.
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are THAT Family.
{WFMW} Homemade Smoothie Pops
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
I’ve recently got this idea from one of the parenting magazines I subscribe too (can’t remember which one!) and I loved it. Homemade smoothie pops. They’re healthier and cheaper than regular, store bought popsicles. They taste delicious. And they’re so easy!
I’ll show you how I did it but you can always tweak it to suit your tastes.
1. Start out by making your favorite smoothie.
I make mine with strawberry or vanilla yogurt because that’s usually what I have on hand. I add frozen strawberries and blueberries, a little milk to thin it out and some honey or Stevia.
2. Pour smoothie into small, plastic cups. Cover with plastic wrap.
These were 4 oz cups which actually came out too big. I bought 2 oz cups for the next batch I’m making. You can also obviously use Popsicle moulds if you have them.
3. Insert popsicle sticks.( I inserted plastic knife handles instead of popsicle sticks because I didn’t have any popsicle sticks!)
4. Freeze for at least 6-8 hours.
*Sidenote- Don’t tell your kids you’re making them because they will ask every half hour if they’re ready yet. Or is that just my kids?
5. Tear (or pop) the popsicles out of the cups/moulds.
6. Enjoy!!
What kind of smoothie would you make for these? How would you tweak it?
These homemade, healthy treats work for me!
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.
Kiddie Comission, Chores and Tablespoons
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Since Katelyn and Madelyn are 2.5 and 4.5 years old we decided a couple of weeks ago to implement a chore chart and commission system for the girls. We are doing this a la Dave Ramsey. We’ve decided that we are not going to do “allowance” but rather pay “commission” for doing chores around the house. The girls both have specific daily chores they are to do to earn their $1 a day for 5 days. The rest of the chores they are expected to do because they are members of our family. We will not be paying them for every little thing the do! They will each get $5 dollars a week as long as their daily chores are checked off on their chore charts:
They are required to give $1 to church, $2 to savings and keep $2. They put their money in some glass jars we have so they can see their dollars building up.
This way they are learning to give to church (We believe in tithes and offerings to church) save for their future ( maybe a car??) and then have money to spend as well. This will also teach them to value their money and make good choices when it comes to spending it. Katelyn seems to be having the most trouble with this. Madelyn doesn’t seem to care all that much.
Katelyn asked the other day if we could stop at Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s. I told her I didn’t have any money for it but that she was more than welcome to spend hers. However, if she spent her money on junk food she wouldn’t have any left to go to Toys R Us in a few weeks to buy a toy. She got all upset and said ” I don’t want to spend my moneys! I wan YOU to buy it with your moneys!!”
Aaahh.. the refreshing candor of children.
She also asked how much “moneys” she was getting and I said she was getting two dollars after giving to our church and saving. She cried ” I don’t want two moneys I want seven moneys!!”
We have quite a few lessons to learn, don’t we? But this is a great lesson in reality that many adults don’t get these days. Katelyn doesn’t like delayed gratification just like most of us!
She’s also learning working and getting money go together. This has been fun and eye opening!
Katelyn’s daily chore list is as follows:
Pick up toys in her bedroom
Pick up toys in playroom
Feed our dog Benny (I put the food in his bowl. She brings and takes the bowl)
Put dirty clothes in hamper/shoes in shoe basket
Madelyn’s chores are as follows:
Pick up toys in bedroom
Pick up toys in playroom
Put her shoes in shoe basket (we have a problem if losing shoes and/or tripping over them because they are always scattered around. Drives me nuts!!)
Put her dishes in the sink (or on the kitchen counter)
Everything else they are expected to do because we told them to and because they are a contributing and valued member of our family.
This chore chart and commission works for me!
And on a side note I wanted to share this small tidbit that has been working for me as well.
Do your kids eat oatmeal? Do your smaller ones have trouble getting the oatmeal from the bowl, on the spoon and into their mouth with out dumping it all over their shirt? Same goes for any kind of cereal.
I’ve found that a measuring Tablespoon works perfectly for this!
It’s deep enough to keep the oatmeal in the spoon without it pouring out as Madelyn tries to get it in her mouth. Eating oatmeal has become much less frustrating for her and me!
This post is linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
The Credit Card Monster
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
We’re going into week 5 of Financial Peace University this coming week and I’ve already learned so much. Last night we watched Dave Ramsey speak on “Dumping Debt” and he taught on a lot of myths and then told us the truth about those myths. One of the myths he spoke about was that we are taught in our current society that you must have a credit card to be an adult and to build good credit. I believed that myth for years and ended up going into a lot of debt because of it. The debt was completely my fault. I’m not blaming the credit card companies for my debt. They are marketing geniuses and market aggressively to consumers. They are not out for our best interest as much as they want us to believe they are.
Here’s one of the myths about credit cards that Dave pointed out last night in the class (it is also in the workbook. I want to give credit where it’s due and not infringe on any copyright laws!)
Myth: I pay mine off every month with no annual fee. I get brownie points, air miles and a free hat.
Truth: Recent Dun and Bradstreet study found that when you use plastic instead of cash, you spend 12-18% more because spending cash hurts. So what if you get 1% back and a free hat?
He also showed a study on why McDonald’s now takes credit cards. With cash customers used to only spend an average of around $4. Now that McDonald’s takes plastic they spend an average of around $7.
There was another report that stated that 75% of all air mile points are never used or claimed. I can vouch for that from using my Discover card and then closing it never having used any of the points or miles accumulated on it. I didn’t have enough to do much with anyway! We used to own a GM Master Card that you could rack up GM points with and get money off a new GM car once you had enough. We thought that was a fantastic idea! We loved GM! Dave points out that the money you have to spend to get those points is A LOT only to go buy a brand new car that loses thousands of dollar in value once you drive it off the lot. Not good math. Ummm… we did that. We still have that car. And it was payed off years ago thankfully but we paid a lot for it. Dave only buys gently used cars, by the way. But that’s a lesson to be saved for another day!
The point is, many people think they can “beat” the credit card companies at their own game. Usually they aren’t. Credit card companies aren’t making billions off Americans each year because they’re dumb. They are always going to find a way to make money off even the most frugal, careful and responsible person. It only takes one crisis, one lost job, one time of paying your monthly balance late or forgetting and then you are rocketed into credit card hell. (My words, not Dave’s! The point is the same though.)
Here are some “Credit Card Crumbs” as Dave calls them from his lesson on dumping debt.
- The Total American consumer debt is more than $2.7 trillion
- The average household credit card debt has increased approximately 167% in the past 17 years
- There are 1.3 billion credit cards in circulation in America
- The credit card industry mails out over six billion credit card offers each year, sending an average of six offers a month to each American household
- 45% of American cardholders make only the minimum payments on their consumer debt
- The average balance per credit card-holding household is more than $9,300
- It would take over 13 years to pay off the average credit card to balance if only making the minimum monthly payments of 4% at an average interest rate of 15%
- Credit card interest rates are often raised when a cardholder takes out a new loan, such as a mortgage, car loan or other type of credit account.
- A singe, first offense late payment can immediately raise a cardholder’s interest rate as high as 34%. A “late payment” is defined as anything that posts after 2:00 pm on the due date.
- In addition to increasing the cardholder’s interest rate, a card issuer can charge a fee of typically $29-39 for a late payment.
- The credit card industry takes in $43 billion per year in additional, unexpected fees from the consumer, such as late payment, over-the-limit, and balance transfer fees. Late fees alone bring in more than $11 billion.
- Overall, American households spend over $412 billion in credit card charges each year.
Wow. Last night’s lesson was so eye opening. I was amazed at how much we fall for marketing schemes! And the amount that Americans waste on debt each year is astounding. I was mad at myself for the part I’ve taken in being careless with our finances. We have one card left to pay off and thankfully it will be paid off by the end of the year. And that will be the last credit card we own. We’re making sure every credit card account we’ve ever opened is completely closed.
Dave even showed results from a neurological study that showed the difference between pain sensors and those who paid with cash registered more pain that those who swiped with a debit or credit card. Psychologically, we don’t see using plastic as spending “real” money.
That’s why we’ve loved (and hated!) using the cash system that Dave Ramsey teaches. Here’s the little envelope system that comes with the FPU kit. However, you can create your own envelope system by using plain envelopes!
Each envelope is also a little ledger so you keep track of what you took out of that particular envelope. As I said, you can do this with any envelope! I do like being able to carry this around with me.
In August there are huge changes coming to the credit card industry. Many of them are sneaky. If you have a credit card please keep an eye on your credit cards and get rid of the ones you can.
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:7 (NKJV)
Owe no one anything except to love one another
Romans 13:8 (NKJV)
Cutting up our credit cards and using a cash envelope system works for me!
What are your thoughts on credit cards? Were any of these facts eye opening to you?
Do you struggle with credit card debt?
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
New Use For A Toilet Paper Tube
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Do you have young daughters? Do you like to fix your daughter’s hair with cute barrettes, bows, clips and hair ties? If so, I’m guessing your house {like mine!} looks like Claire’s Boutique exploded all over it. I’m constantly finding hair elastics all over my house and when I really need them I can’t find one in the right color. And matching ones? Forget it. I was having trouble keeping all those stretchy little circles in one organized spot. Notice how my girls’ hair is unkempt in the pictures below? It’s because I couldn’t find hair elastics!!! Or… maybe it was because I was feeling too lazy to fix their hair that day… or…… whatever.
Enter the toilet paper tube.
I collected a bunch and let my girls paint them. They really enjoyed that.
Then we let them dry and used them to corral those pesky hair elastics.
I have a couple of these upstairs and a couple of them down stairs and in each room. When I see a stray hair elastic I pop it on one of our hair elastic tubes. And then, every now and then, I’ll go through and put all the tubes together in the bin I keep their hair stuff in. I won’t claim to know how to keep their hair clips and bows organized other than throwing them in another plastic container.
But, my toilet paper tube turned hair elastic holder?
It works for me!
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer
The Early Bird Gets The Clock
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Do you have some little early birds in your life? I do. I try to get up between 6:00 and 6:30 every morning to have coffee, read my Bible, pray and try to get some blogging and computer time in. For the longest time this plan wasn’t working. The girls were getting up at the same time I was. No matter what! I tip-toed, I tried to step around creaky floor boards, I used a white noise machine etc etc. My girls were still getting up at the same time I was or a few minutes into my quiet time. I was starting to get really frustrated. I got tired of yelling upstairs for them to go back to their room. Then I would hear giggling and pitter patter of little feet coming down. I couldn’t get mad at that! Ideally, I want them to stay in their room until 7:30 am. So I decided to try something I’ve heard and read about.
I bought them an alarm clock. I went to Target and bought a cute, pink, digital one.
As you can see, I wrote “7:30″ on a bright pink piece of paper in BIG numbers. I told Katelyn that they could not come out of their room in the morning until the numbers on the clock match the numbers on the paper. We also set the alarm to go off then too. So far it’s working! They may get up at 6:30 or 6:45 but they don’t call me or come out of their room until that alarm goes off. They’re allowed to play until their heart’s content but they may not interrupt me until 7:30 am. (Unless there’s an emergency, of course)
Works for me!
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer.
Works For Me Wednesday-Handbag Headaches
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
I don’t know about you but I carry around way too much stuff. I feel like a bag lady sometimes. Not only do I have a large purse that I carry way too much stuff in, I usually also carry some sort of small back pack to hold wipes, pull ups, drink cups, snacks, emergency undies, small toys etc etc. Oh, have I mentioned that I LOVE purses? I have probably 15 bags large and small stored securely in totes in my attic. I also tend to like…ahem…expensive purses. Coach, Kate Spade etc. They also tend to not be kid friendly. *Sigh*
I originally bought the back pack style purse (shown below) in order to try to use it as an all in one kid bag and purse. So far it’s not working well. It’s not big enough! The other problem I have is that my bags never stay on my shoulders. So I also thought buying the back pack style bag would help that. And it did somewhat. The only problem was that when I carry it on my back it’s not easily accessible for putting things in and taking them out. After using this bag for several months I found out that I need to get in and out of my purse a lot! And if I didn’t have it snapped completely shut everything would fall out in the process of swinging it over my shoulder. Another irritation. This bag was also not easy to clean. I can’t tell you how many times juice and coffee and have spilled on it in the car.
And don’t even get me started on Sundays! We have a church bag too! The church bag contains our Bibles, Sunday school materials, notebooks and coloring stuff for the girls to keep themselves quiet during the song service before they’re dismissed for Children’s Church. So, that makes THREE bags I usually carry around on Sundays. Talk about a drag!! I’ve been thinking that there has got to be a way to streamline and simplify this process! Imagine if I was trying to carry around a full fledged diaper bag!! So, yesterday while at Target, I bought yet 2 new bags/purses bag (I know, I know..) with a plan this time! Work with me here..
In the two pictures below you will see the mess of stuff I’m usually carrying around in my purse. With my new purse system I’m hoping to clear out some of that.
Notice there’s little pieces of trash that pile up? Ya, I apparently don’t clean my purse out often enough. I’m also one of those women that carry stuff around “in case I need it”. That’s why I have contact lens solution and eye drops. I’m always afraid I”m going to be out in public and have a contact lens emergency. It hasn’t happened yet but it could happen!! Also, how many lipsticks/glosses does one girl need? Nine if you’re me!!
So, my goal is to carry around one bag, and one bag only, that I call a “mom bag”. I’m going to consolidate my stuff and my girls stuff into one mom bag. It’s needs to be practical,easy to carry and easy to clean.(Inside and out) It also needs to be pretty, stylish and roomy.
Enter this lovely, red-ish-orange bag I bought at Target yesterday. (pardon the slouch!) I have never been so in love with something 100% polyester(inside and out!) as I am with this purse. This picture doesn’t do it justice. It also has a longer strap that clips on so I can carry this bag over one shoulder and across my front thereby keeping it from sliding off my shoulders.
Everything will go into this purse for day to day errands. But then on the rare day when I’m going somewhere by myself and I need something much smaller but still practical I can use this cutie on the right:
The inside of this purse is also a wallet so I can throw in essentials for a day at the mall or whatever. I’m keeping it hanging on the same hook as my larger bag for easy access.
What I’ve done and/or will be doing is throwing away all of my lipsticks that I’ve had for ages and kept my nice Mary Kay ones that are newer. I’m also getting hand lotion and hand sanitizer that is travel sized to keep in my purse rather than the big ones I have now. Not sure what to do about my coupon organizer yet….it certainly takes up a lot of space! Everything from the dirty, old, Strawberry short cake bag also fits nicely in with my stuff too.
This works for me!!
This post is linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
