Weekend Recap- 4/30/17

It's Sunday yet again! Saturday morning was a pretty lazy morning. My mom came over right before dinner time and after feeding Little E, my hubby and I were off to Baltimore for an overnight trip! It was supposed to be a celebration for my sister-in-law's 28th birthday, but about a week ago she decided that she wanted to do something a little more low key and less expensive. Well, I already had the hotel booked because I wanted to make sure we had something and at that point, we couldn't get a refund. So the hubby and I went anyway and just enjoyed a night out on our own! This was the first time that I left Little E overnight so I had to make sure I had plenty of milk in the fridge for him and I had to pump a few times while we were away.

We went to Baltimore for our honeymoon back in May of 2013. We're coming up on our 4th year anniversary!! So it was kinda cool being this close to our anniversary and getting to go back to where we spent our honeymoon! We definitely want to take the kids there someday and do the aquarium!! We went to the Georgia Aquarium in Georgia with Emma and she absolutely loved it!!

So anyway, there was one place that we went to on our honeymoon that I wanted to go to on this trip. There was a bar that we went to that had an old school Nintendo system hooked up to a TV that you could sit there, have a drink, and play some video games on!! It was awesome!! We played some Family Feud!!

Well, we went to The Cheesecake Factory and left with some leftovers and we're able to go into that bar with them. So back to the hotel we went and just watched some of Titanic before dozing off.

This morning we got up at 9:00 and missed the free breakfast at the hotel so we went to Dunkin Donuts instead! On the way home we went to a huge computer store and picked up some new wireless headsets for our computers!

Overall we both had a great time away, spending time just the 2 of us! We both missed our kiddos like crazy, but it's nice to recharge and enjoy some alone time every now and then! We've had a few date nights here and there but this was different because it was a whole night away!! And it was nice!! I feel refreshed and ready to take on the week!! I've said earlier this year and multiple times since then, that this is the year of "things happen for a reason", and that couldn't be more perfect for this situation. A night with just the 2 of us is just what we needed!! I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week!!!

Things I wish I had more time to do...

Anyone else feel like they have way too many hobbies? Too many things that they like to do in their free time? I definitely do! Most of my free time is spent cleaning the house because that can sometimes be difficult to do while the kids are awake. So I've made a list of things that I would do in my free time if I didn't have any other responsibilities to take care of.

1. Crochet: Now I am definitely not an advanced crocheter, but I like to dabble here and there. I actually have 3 blankets in the works right now, one for each of my kids and one for me. It has been months since I've actually touched any of them! I have a whole board on Pinterest of things I want to try and make and maybe eventually I'll get to them.

2. Blog: If I'm lucky, I've been blogging twice a week recently. I really want to change that. I've got a lot to say but just not enough time to type it out!! So I put a reminder on my phone for every Monday-Friday at 12:30 pm to sit down at my computer and work on a blog post or 2. If I'm able to do this, I can get a new post up every few days instead of just once or twice a week. So going forward, be on the lookout for more posts!!

3. Sew: About 3 years ago, before Big E was born I bought an old sewing machine from Craigslist. It's pretty sweet and came in a table with drawers and a spot under where the sewing machine is to put your legs while you're sewing. Here is a picture of my first project that I made!

A few months after I made that, I found an easier pattern for a tissue pouch and even made a bunch of them for Christmas gifts!

4. Reading: It seems like the only reading I'm doing these days is Dr. Seuss books or recipes for dinner meals! I love to read and currently have 36 books on my "To-read" list on my Goodreads app. If you don't have this app and you are an avid reader, I definitely recommend downloading it! It lets you keep track of books you want to read, are currently reading, and have read. I just checked out a book called The Beach House and have been reading that on my tablet or phone for a little bit before bed. So I'm going to start doing that every night so I can get my daily reading time in!

Sometimes I wish I could clone myself so I'd have more time to do the things I need to do and want to do! What things do you enjoy doing but just can't find the time to do? Any tips on how to work those things into your schedule? I'm thinking that maybe I need to start scheduling these things into my days so I can do them!

Oily Wednesday

Are you a stressed out Mama who feels like she's being pulled in a million directions? Do you feel like you need a nice long vacation by yourself? Well I've got just the oil for you...Stress Away! This is a blend with lime, vanilla, lavender, and cedarwood. I have a roller of this oil that I roll on my temples, behind my ears, and wrists. I also have a spray so I can spritz myself with it before heading out the door. 

This is also a great oil to add to Epsom salts and then add to a nice relaxing bath!! When adding any oil to a bath, you always want to add the oils to Epsom salts first so the oils don't just float on the top. 

Stress Away is wonderful to diffuse! When you add it to the diffuser with Panaway, it smells like a root beer float and adding it to orange makes it smell like an orange creamsicle!! 

Diffusing in the car in a car diffuser is also great! But you don't even need a car diffuser. Just take a clothespin, clip it to a vent in your car, add a drop of oil on the end, and breathe in the wonderful scent!

So if you need to unwind from a long, stressful day, Stress Away is the perfect oil for you! Or use it throughout the day to keep you calm and collected! Being a mom of 2, this oil definitely helps me out!!

Weekend Recap- 4/23/17

We had a pretty low key weekend this weekend. No plans at all and it was pretty nice! I feel like recently we have been busy, busy, busy, every single weekend!! So it's really nice when we have a weekend like this when we don't have anything to do or anywhere to go.

Saturday it was raining outside and a bit chilly so we didn't get to spend anytime outside. We did go to get our tire fixed on one of our cars. A few weeks ago my husband noticed the air pressure was low and then he found a small tack in it. Since then we were able to get by with just refilling it with air here and there. So we finally went to get it fixed and all it took was a simple $20 fix. Then we stopped at Five Below before going home. We didn't know what to do for dinner, so my hubby ended up getting a rotisserie chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was like a mini Thanksgiving feast, except we had chicken instead of turkey.

 Oh, so before dinner, while the kiddos were napping, I started going through Big E's clothes that I'm going to be selling at our yard sale this coming weekend. I saved a few of her premie outfits because I couldn't part with all of them, but I did find a few in a box that I'm going to sell. She'll be 3 very soon and it's still hard to believe that she was ever this small!! Then today I was looking through a box of clothes that my husband's grandmother gave us that she got from someone and most of the clothes were bigger than the size she is in now. Looking at the bigger clothes it's hard to believe that she will someday fit those and be that big! Kids definitely grow up way too fast!! My oldest cousin just turned 18 yesterday, so crazy!!

Today was a bit more lazy than Saturday. Well for me at least. The grass was still too wet in the morning for my hubby to mow, but it was fine by this afternoon. So then around 4:00 we went outside with the kiddos and they had a blast!

Then my hubby made burgers and hot dogs for dinner and we enjoyed a lovely meal outside! After putting the kids to bed we went out in the garage to get things ready for the yard sale! And now we're playing some video games before heading to bed! Tomorrow is Monday and starts a whole new week! Have a great week everyone!

Time Management

How many people out there wish that there were more hours in a day? I know I do! Well, reality is that we are all given the same 24 hours in a day and it is up to us to choose what we do with them. We have to choose wisely or we're going to tire ourselves out if we try to do too much or we will waste time if we choose not to do anything at all.

Back in January I was doing an online bootcamp with my Young Living leadership team called "Operation Silver Bootcamp" (Silver is one of the ranks you can hit within Young Living). There was a day all about time management and I wrote down that a plan is our what but a schedule is our when. I think most days I have a plan of what I want to get done, but I don't have a schedule of when I'm going to get those things done. Just the other night I put a reminder on my phone for every Monday-Friday at 12:30 pm to work on blog posts. This is a great time to do that because that's when both kiddos take their naps. I just need to start doing that task at the same time on weekdays so I can get it done.

Naptime is also a great time to get the dishes put away. Little E loves trying to get into the dishwasher and has even climbed up on it a few times! So it's so hard to get this task done while he is awake unless I put him in the playroom with the gates up or in his pack and play, both of which he doesn't care for that much. So by doing this while he's sleeping and not in the room, it will make it go a lot smoother for me because I won't have to hear him scream or keep moving him away.

My weekly cleaning schedule has definitely been helping me (for the most part). I will admit that there are weeks when I am a bit lazy and don't get everything done that I should. But for the most party, my house is pretty clean. I get the basics done such as the dishes, toilets, sinks, wash. But I don't always get to the vacuuming or changing of the bedsheets. I do those tasks at least every other week but I do try to get them done every week.

My Young Living business is another thing that I need to schedule time for. Right now the team beneath me isn't that large, but I'm working on making it grow and eventually hope to have a large team under me! But if I get in the habit of having set business hours now while my team is small, it will make it easier to stick to those hours once I have a bigger team to work with. Another thing that goes along with this is how I spend my time on social media. I just started using Instagram a lot more and find myself on there a lot more than I used to be. I have decided that I'm only going to get on 2 times per day, once around 1:30 when the kids are still sleeping and the other time right before bed.

I tried to schedule all my weekdays by printing out a schedule that had time blocks and then filling them in with things I needed to get done, but that didn't work for me. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time for me to get used to so I think I will try it again.

What are some good time management tips that you have that help you manage your time? And what is one thing you would do if you had an extra hour in the day? For me, it would be to do some reading or crocheting! Those are 2 things that I wish I could do more of!

It's storytime!!

We went to storytime at the library this morning and Big E actually did pretty good today! Recently I made an oil blend for her with lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver. It is supposed to help keep her focused and I think it kind of works. I think a big part of what determines how well she will sit at storytime is the atmosphere of the room and what the other kids are doing. Maybe I need to suggest to a librarian that they get a diffuser in the activity room and diffuse calming scents during storytime! But seriously, when other kids are sitting and listening, Big E will, too. But I think this blend did work. I apply it before leaving the house and then again when we get to the libary.

Little E was also really good today as well! Because we traveled to see family yesterday for Easter, we had to take the stroller out of the back of the car and I forgot to put it back in. A few weeks ago I left Little E in the stroller for storytime and he did great! But today without it, he still did alright. He just wants to crawl all over the place and doesn't wanna sit still!

At the end of stortyime, a lady from a local garden club was there and she had little cups of dirt and sunflower seeds for the kids to plant. Big E loved this! She was so excited to hold the cup with her seed all the way to the car and had a little fit when we got to the car and I had to take it away. When we got home, I put it on the windowsill where it can get some sun and will have Big E help me water it a few times a week! I'll be sure to post the progress of the flower on here so you can see how it grows! This will be the first time we've planed anything with Big E so I'm excited to see how she reacts! Now I am off to get some cleaning done before the kiddos wake up from their nap. Have a great day everyone!

Weekend Recap- 4/16/17

I'm getting so bad at this blogging thing! I need to set aside 30 minutes, maybe even just 15 minutes every day where I work on blog posts! That way I can be sure to post more regularly than I have been. 

Saturday from 9am-2pm I had a vender show with Young Living. The day started out by being very cold and windy but it did warm up as it got closer to noon. Due to it being cloudy out however, I didn't think I needed to put any sunscreen on. I took my hubby's car and found a sweatshirt in it so I wore that. So other than my legs from the knees down, the only other part of my body exposed to the sun was my face. Well, I got sunburn on my face and a little bit on my chest. This is the 2nd time that happened to me (the first being 2 weeks before my engagement pictures, or maybe it was a week, can't remember) and you would think that I would have learned my lesson the first time, but nope! Oh well, I'm just so glad I've got my lavender essential oil! I added 15 drops to a spray bottle filled with water and have been spraying my face with it! I don't think it's helping the redness at all but it sure feels good!!

Today we went to my husband's aunt's house for Easter and had a great meal there! She had an egg hunt for the kiddos and they had fun playing with their 2nd cousins. We just got home a little bit ago and put the kiddos to bed. Now I'm gonna grab something to eat since we had an early dinner and then relax for the rest of the evening! We've got a busy week coming up so I'm gonna need all the sleep I can get! I hope everyone had a great Easter!!

Oily Wednesday

Today's post is a little late but hey, better late than never, right? I decided to show you and tell you about what I got in my April Essential Rewards order. For those that don't know, when you are a wholesale member with Young Living, you get 24% off every order after your starter kit. There is also an awesome loyalty program called Essential Rewards. Each month you place an order for at least $50, which isn't hard to do at all, and then you earn points back on that purchase! The longer you are in the program, but higher the percentage you earn back. And you even get special gifts for being enrolled for so many months! It is honestly the best loyalty program I have seen. I'm using the oils on a daily basis and am always having to replace things I'm using. Plus I'm always wanting to try new things!

So here is my order for April.

Cedarwood- I diffuse this every night in my room. It helps promote restful sleep! I also made a detangler spray for Big E with Cedarwood, Lavender, and Rosemary that is awesome and smells great!

Stress Away- What mother doesn't need an oil called "Stress Away"? I have a roller bottle of this that I use on a daily basis and a spray so I can sprtiz myself before going out the door!

Thieves Laundry Soap- I'm never going back to other detergents filled with chemicals, this stuff is awesome! I also use a mixture of vinegar and oils in place of my fabric softener.

RC- This is a blend of 3 types of eucalyptus and goes out of stock often. You can only get one bottle per account per month so when it is in stock, I make sure I grab a bottle so that I don't run out when it goes out of stock! I now have 2 unopened bottles of this sitting on my shelf! It gets diffused in my room every night so we can't run out!

Orange- I love diffusing orange for an uplifting scent! I've also been putting a drop on my toothpaste and that is supposed to help whiten my teeth!

Tangerine Vitality- This was a free oil! When you place an order of 100 PV ($100) in April, you get this oil for free. This one is great to add to your water or you can even diffuse it!

So that's my April order! I'm already looking forward for my May order! Another great part of ER is that you can change your order each and every month! And the promos change every month so I look forward to seeing what they are the first of each month!!

Weekend Recap- 4/9/17

Big E went to her grandparents for the weekend so Little E got a sister free weekend. We started sending Big E to my dad and step-mom's once a month a few months ago and it's kind of nice when she goes there. I love her so much, don't get me wrong there. But as a stay-at-home mom, I need a bit of a break every now and then. And while it's not a complete break since we still have Little E with us for the weekend that Big E is gone, he is easier to take care of right now than she is. He's at the stage where he's easy, doesn't talk back, doesn't get time-outs. Plus, he is just an overall, easier kid to take care of. He's got a really calm personality right now and I hope it stays that way!

Friday night I went out and did some karaoke with my mom and her boyfriend. The place we go does karaoke there about once a month. It runs from 8pm-1am on Saturday, but I usually leave around 11:30 or so and only get to sing 2 songs because of how many people are there. It's a pretty hopping place on a Friday night!!

Saturday morning I took Little E to the child watch at the Y while I did Zumba. I didn't go on Thursday so I definitely needed to go on Saturday. After that we went home, had lunch, and Little E went down for a nap. While he was napping my hubby and I played some video games. We downloaded GTA V (Grand Theft Auto 5) and then started playing that Saturday night. He had found a live stream of the game on Twitch on Friday night and it looked like so much fun so we decided to try it out! I used to play GTA years ago on PS2. But now it is multiplayer so you can play with other people online. That's what is really cool and interesting about it! I'm actually thinking about getting on for like an hour each day during the week to stream it on Twitch. There's people out there that make money doing that and my husband always says that since I'm a girl, I would have more viewers. I'm not expecting much of anything from it, but we'll see.

This morning Little E woke up at 7:30. He's been pretty good all of last week with sleeping and hasn't gotten up at all in the middle of the night! I wanted a bit more sleep since I was tired from some late night gaming the night before, so after I fed him I put him back in his crib to see if he would go back to sleep and he did! He then slept till 9:00 which was awesome!! Then after lunch and naptime (and even more gaming), we went to my dad and step-mom's to pick up Big E!!

And now that both kids are in bed, it's time to...you guessed it...game some more!! I hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll leave you with some pictures of ours!

Lazy week

Ever have a lazy day? Well I'm having a lazy week!! Monday my sister-in-law was supposed to have a doctors appointment that is an hour away from where we live. I dropped her off and as I'm driving me and the kiddos to go meet up with her aunt, she calls me saying that her appointments weren't until the next day! Both her and I looked at the paper that had the dates and times on them and yet neither one of us realized that it said 1/3/17. We saw the 3rd on the paper and assumed the month was April. Oh well.

So then we were ready to go back the next afternoon but then my sister-in-law rescheduled the appointment because she wasn't feeling good. That turned out to be ok because my mom was then able to come over and hangout with me and the kiddos. She is working a job with different hours every week so we don't see her as much anymore.

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day outside so we got outside and enjoyed the sunshine!!

Today on the other hand...it's icky and rainy outside! This morning we had some TV on and when the kiddos get up from their nap any minute now, I think Big E and I are gonna do some coloring!

I haven't gotten to start that 30 day spring cleaning challenge yet (even though I have no excuses) and I haven't done a single thing from Pinterest this week (again, no excuses). I haven't even done any activities with Big E this week because I didn't plan any new ones this past weekend. But I'm definitely going to scour my Pinterest boards this weekend and come up with 5 days worth of brand new activities! She loves doing them so I can't let her down!! Have a great Thursday everyone!!

Spring Cleaning

A few weeks ago I found this from the Mother's Niche blog. I know that it is April 4th and we're already 4 days into it, but I'm gonna give it a go and start this!

I've already missed cleaning the fridge, stove & oven, and kitchen cupboards & drawers. And then today's task is cleaning the master bathroom. But I am determined to make it through this list! I may even try and finish it early. There are a few on here that won't take that long at all so I may double up (or triple up) some days so I can finish this sooner! The sooner my house is super clean, the better!! With my weekly cleaning schedule that I printed out from The Confident Mom, I definitely think I'm doing a better job keeping my house clean than I did in the past. It is a bit difficult at times with 2 little ones running (and crawling) around, but somehow I manage to get it done! And some days my house is a complete mess and I don't get any cleaning done, but I'm alright with that! The kiddos are only little for so long, so the cleaning can wait!!! As long as the kids are happy and fed, that's all that matters! I hope everyone is having a great week so far, catch you all later!

Weekend Recap- 4/2/17

So this weekend started out as a weekend with no plans, but then it ended up being super busy! My hubby was planning on going out  Friday night with some people from work to celebrate someone's retirement. Well he texted me Friday afternoon saying that if I could find someone to watch the kids, that I could go with. We don't get out much with just him and I, no kids, so I took him up on that! My wonderful sister-in-law/live in babysitter (just kidding on the last part, kinda) said she could watch them so my hubby and I got an impromptu date night! We started out at a local brewery where we had some beers and dinner. Then we walked over to another brewery and ended the night at a place with a bunch of old school arcade games! It was a great night and I'm glad that we got to go out together!

Saturday I planned to go to Zumba but I may have had a bit too much to drink the night before so I didn't feel like going. We ended up going to Walmart in the afternoon for a few things and grabbed a pizza for dinner. Then that night my hubby and I did what we do almost every night: video games! We just got back into World of Warcraft. He used to play it all the time back in the day! And then about 3 months after Big E was born, he got me into the world of computer gaming! We started with Minecraft and then a game called Archeage which is kind of similar to World of Warcraft.

Today was a much busier day. This morning by hubby did some work outside while me and the kiddos played inside. Then I started lunch and naptime a little earlier than usual because we had to leave around 1:20 for me to go to a Perfectly Posh party!! I got a face mask and lip gloss, so excited for them to arrive!! I got dropped off at the party while my other half took the kiddos to a bouncy place! They had a great time and definitely tired themselves out. Then we went home, had dinner, played outside a bit, and then watched Cinderella before it was time for bed. Now I'm getting ready to start playing some video games then I'm off to bed! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Pinterest Round Up

So I challenged myself last week when I wrote about Pinterest to try out 5 new things to do from my boards and delete 10 pins that I will never get to. Every Thursday I'm going to do a post with those 5 things I've done during the previous week. So here we go...

• Monday I made this edible cookie dough and it was delicious!! I will say though, it is definitely not the healthiest thing in the world! It doesn't make that much, but I wouldn't eat it all in one sitting if I were you. It has a whole stick of butter in it!! I definitely don't want to eat a whole stick of butter all at once! And I'm so thankful for the Young Living essential oil blend DiGize, because even eating a tiny bit of this cookie dough makes my tummy feel a little weird.

• Wednesday night I made layered slow cooker enchiladas. I found this recipe in Family Circle magazine and then found it on Pinterest so I could pin it for later.

Here is what it was supposed to look like...

And here is what mine looked like...

It was a bit more soupy than it should have been, but it still tasted good! I honestly don't know what went wrong here, but it was still edible and that's all that counts!

So this week I kinda slacked a bit and I only did 2 things from Pinterest. But hey, it was a good start. Tonight I'm making a new recipe from Pinterest for dinner so I will include that in my Pinterest Round Up for next week! Have a great night everyone!

Let's Learn

Here are the activities that Big E did this week. We had lots of fun!

Monday- So this past weekend I made my own play-doh. You can read this post here to read all about that. I am so happy with how this turned out and I think Big E enjoyed it as well! She played with the Stress Away green and Lemon yellow! They sure do smell yummy!

We also did a puddle jump activity. This didn't turn out how I thought it would, but I'm going to put this activity away for another time. I don't think she understand what she was supposed to do with it.

Tuesday- Last week I received an order from Amazon and this was one of the things I received. This is a great resource because I will be able to come up with a ton of different activities for Big E. She will be able to practice so many different concepts with this! And she seemed to enjoy playing with it!

Wednesday- Big E absolutely loves this activity! I took toilet paper rolls and painted them different colors. Then she takes pom poms and sorts them into the correct tube. When I first started this activity with her, she used her hands but now she is able to use the tongs (great fine motor practice!!)

The next activity she did on Wednesday was just a old Parmesan cheese container and pipe cleaners. This one also works with fine motor skills but at the same time I can ask her to find a certain color so we can work on that as well.

Thursday- This was a busy day for us. We had to take my sister-in-law to the dentist that morning and then we had a play date in the afternoon so we never got to our activities planned for the day.

Friday- We got back on track the next day with another color sorting activity, this time with cups and buttons. She's doing really good with her colors, so I think I may do less activities with colors and focus more on counting and ABC's.

I also let her play with her tablet for a little bit. We got this for her for Christmas and she used it a lot right after Christmas, but this was actually the first time she used it in a few months. When we got Big E's tablet, it came with a year subscription that gives her access to every single app possible for her tablet. That has been really nice so we are definitely enjoying it while it lasts!

It's awesome because every day a little after I got both kiddos from their nap, Big E would ask for her activities! And how she says "activities" is so cute! The first time she said it though, I had no idea what she was saying! I'm so glad that she enjoys learning! It's more of a game to her right now so I think that's why she enjoys it so much. She's learning and she doesn't even realize it!! But like I said before, now we have to focus more on counting and the ABC's. She can count to 10 (when she wants to) but now I want her to start being able to recognize the numbers. The same with the alphabet. I may have to order some more supplies on Amazon! The teacher side of me is definitely coming out!!!

Have a great Saturday everyone!!!