Welcome

playing catch up

I wanted to post quickly to just let you know I’m still here. Classes ending, work being, well w o r k, and catching up from vacation has taken it’s toll! I am now class free for the summer and feeling some what caught up. I want to share a few moments from vacation that we loved.

The lobby of our resort. It was breath-taking! All of the rough drafts of our favorite Disney characters larger than life. Couldn’t take our eyes off of it!

The pool, where everyone kept asking to go back to. (I’m not sure why. It doesn’t look fun at all. )*tee hee*

Our very first princess encounter.

>He got to be the Beast at Belle’s Enchanted something or other. He did a mighty fine R O A R R R if I do say so myself!

This huge awesome wall art was in the airport, but we did go to Universal Island’s of Adventure specifically to visit this. It was quite possibly the highlight of the trip.

Everything at Disney was extensive, exquisite, expensive, entertaining, exhausting, and at times even educational! It was a high cost, high stress, big fun vacation. Every smile was worth every penny saved (and spent).

balm

Hello, again! Just a short post to show off my lip balms. I really like the labels. I had to cut them (of course, they couldn’t just go on easily! lol.) I was concerned they aren’t really plain or simple. But they remind me of vintage labels, so I went for it. Take a look! Pretty and cheap and natural. What a perfect combo!

love

I came across an ad today that was about “I am loved.” It’s from a jewelry store, Helzberg Diamonds. It got me to thinking today how much love surrounds me. Love that is mine for the taking. And what it all came down to was that love. I chose the kind of love that was all in. The one that allows me to be completely comfortable. That encourages that comfort. It makes me smile! It makes me grateful. Even after a few years of being together without more commitment than just being together. That we are still in that kind of love.

So today, I wanted to share some of that, in as few words as possible. It’s not a flashy look at me kind of love, but a just you and me love that some people only catch glimpses of. Because it can also become so readily available that it’s taken for granted. Noone wants that! And I never want him to feel that way. Messages from the heart that are found in my lunchbox, making our breakfast for our early morning trip to the airport Friday morning. Extra blankets in the morning when he gets out of bed, suitcases packed while I’m working. Just from the heart.

The most important way I know he loves me (and my children) is his willingness to help disciple little hearts toward God. Every afternoon and night possible, without being asked, prodded, reminded (wow!) — we read devotionals about how we can get to know God and who He is and what faith looks like. I wonder if he realizes how important and how BIG this is to me sometimes. I need to find a way to do that. Or quite possibly I just did.

We have far to go to get where we need to be. Where we want to be. A test of patience is what we endure. And we know that it all comes from the greatest source of Love there has ever been!

laundry

This morning I started out my day with my muffin in a bowl from Trim Healthy Mama and a diet coke. YUM! I can’t believe this stuff is good for you! The spring cleaning bug bit me soon after that, and I found myself cleaning outdoors and planting in one of the flower beds around the house spontaneously. I can’t wait for our herb garden to start growing. I just hope I can keep all the tiny creatures out of it.

We had been out of laundry powder probably about a week. For a family of 6 this is a huge deal. I probably don’t even have to tell you. We do laundry every day (when I’m on the ball, which is, uhm. Slightly irregular these days.) I was quite proud of the fact that the last time I remember making our massive batch of laundry detergent was back around Christmas time. I remember specifically because manfriends son was with us. Hard to believe it’s been nearly four months since he was here. Anyways, we were well overdue. So, last week I ordered our laundry making necessities through my Shopathome.com link for drugstore.com They seemed to have the products cheapest this time around and I could get free shipping, cash back, and not stood in one single line to wait for checkout (unless you would like to account for the time I waited for our internet connection which invariably dies at checkout time. That’s a whole ‘nother story!)

Mix it

Dry it

You can BUY IT here!

race

Today as I was driving my Smartypants to school, we were reminiscing about a comedy skit we had heard while we were cruising along a back country road. You know the one where it looks like the road was thought up after all the good land was claimed. Sharp right turn, immediate sharp left turn. It was early morning, we had to get to band.

It really is a huge inconvenience to drive him into the school, but it was that or force him to get on the bus at nearly 2 hours before practice starts. Not cool. Not worth it. It leaves me with about 8 minutes at home before the rest of them get on the bus. It makes for a crazy morning! I don’t tell him this, I want him to go to band. Have his own thing to do. I can sacrifice a chunk of our morning time to get him there. That’s my job. I enjoy this rare time alone with him. He is almost 12 now, and I am very proud of the young man he is growing into. We have conversations I never thought I would have with my child. There is still a little bit of little boy in there, but we do have good conversation. I like it.

We talk about offroading with our van, I just laugh and tell him I tried that once and it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.(it actually was an accident and not funny at all, but I wanted to keep the mood light. ) We laugh. It’s kind of hard some topics because I know they come from his father, but I try anyways. It is a good start to the morning. Now, folks, I have to scoot off to work!

(in the voice of John Madden) You make a right turn here. You make a right turn here. Make a right turn here. And and and that’s what that’s all about.

Frank Caliendo

Plain and simple

This will be the new name of my Etsy store. I wanted something that reflected the products I make more accurately, but all of the things I came up with were already taken! This was close enough.

What do you think?

My girls and I are going to try our hand at making lip balm tonight, I believe. It will contain fresh bee’s wax (from Ohio farms!), pure cold pressed coconut oil, and vitamin E oil. That might just be it! I have not decided whether to include a tint or not. I do not have the supplies for that right now, anyways. So, we will start simply. I cannot wait to try it out! We will list it on Etsy for $3.99 a tube (maybe, still working on this part). I don’t think these little babies will need any flavoring, either! The coconut oil is very fragrant as are the beeswax bars. Look at that beeswax can’t you just smell the honey! I cannot wait to get these things put together and on our lips!

After we try them with vitamin E we may try our hand (after we’re experts!) with adding almond oil. I have many different oils to try out! So stay tuned!

Undone

When I opened my blog today, I did not know what I was going to write. I just stared at it wondering if any of the words I have typed (though the majority of them are now gone) have brought encouragement or inspiration. They have to me, and honestly when I started typing these things out, that is mostly what it was about. A visual way to provide encouragement for myself through dark times. Now, as I enter a new season, I wonder how I can bring that encouragement again. How can we as a new type of family encourage people as what we are? A single mother with a great significant other, but the perfect family home picture has been shattered. What does it look like to show other women in a similar position encouragement, how can I encourage myself? I know this sounds self-centered, but I am my own target audience and if you don’t know how to encourage others you must start somewhere. It seems that if I just continue to write what brings me up, maybe someone out there will find it encouraging as well.

counting down

Who knew planning the vacation of a families dreams could be so stressful? When you go on a vacation that you have never had before, or may not get to do again, you tend to want to squeeze all of the important stuff in. I don’t think we will get to this point. I have planned as much as I possibly can. Now, I am so anxious about it all. It has gotten to the point that I think I am going to be happy when it is over! We are all SO excited. But, It’s been about a year of saving and planning for this. It will be nice to have control over our finances again, and not have to worry about whether that will leave us with enough money for food and the occasional souvenir there.

Weight Watcher cheese DEAL!!

I had never used this cheese before starting on the Trim Healthy Mama plan. But we use it to spread on toast or a few crackers. We also make broccoli and cheese with it! It is kind of pricey, $1.98 for 6 small wedges. But with the deal I pulled off yesterday made them roughly half price.

So what is the big deal? Well, I found on The Krazy Coupon Lady website a plethora of weight watcher coupons. If you print out these:
$1.00 off Any weight watchers cheese or cream cheese product (will take you to the specific coupons.com coupon page) (print it twice!)
$0.75 off $5 weight watcher products (I tried to get you directly to the coupon but it wouldn’t let me) I only had printed one of these. Wish I’d thought to print this one twice!

I picked up three packages of the Weight Watcher cheese wedges at Walmart. At this particular walmart, the cheese is $1.98 per package. This brought the total to equal $5.94. Used my $0.75 off $5 coupon FIRST! (If you do it after the other coupons, the register will see that your total of weight watcher products is now below $5) This brings the total for all three to $5.19. Then, the $1 off any cheese for the two packages. Bringing your total to $3.19. Divide that by three, readers!! Yay! This makes them about $1.06 each. Super! I wish it would have let me print just one more $1 off coupon. they would’ve been under a buck then! haha! Enjoy!