Goodbye June, Hello July!

TGIF!!! It's Friday but it's also the last day of June!! I can't believe it! Where did this month go?? I've seen some posts on Facebook and Instagram about people making Summer Bucket Lists and that is something I have yet to do! But this weekend, I'm going to throw one together. There's still plenty of summer left and I'm gonna do all sorts of fun things with my little ones!!

The start of a new month means that it's time to set some new goals with my Young Living business!! In the month of June I reached one of my goals that I've had since March!!! I ranked up to a new rank and now my new goal is to maintain that same rank for the next few months. In order to get to the next rank I need to double my sales from June and help my 2 business builders also grow their businesses! Doing that by October is my next long term goal. I think it's great to set both short-term and long-term goals. Having short-term goals allows us to achieve smaller things in a short amount of time. When we reach a short-term goal, it allows us to celebrate and pushes us even harder to reach those long-term goals. And I think we need long-term goals because it allows us to dream big and work towards something huge!

So whether or not you have your own business, what are your short-term and long-term goals? I wanna hear em so leave me a comment!! Have a great weekend everyone!

The never ending task of...

Laundry...everyone has to do it if they want clean clothes, right? Well, with a family of 4 it seems like wash is never ending!! Before we had kids and moved to the house we are in now, I used to do wash on 3 set days, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This way, it didn't have a chance to pile up too much. I think it's time I start doing that again because lately I've noticed that I've only been doing the wash when the loads are overflowing. And when I do this, it takes me days to get one load of wash from the washer, to the dryer, and put away! It's common sense that if I do smaller loads, I can have them washed, dried, and put away in the same day, right?

So starting this week, my wash days are going to be Monday and Thursday. I'll see how this goes and if I need to, I'll add an extra day in there. I'll just pick the laundry basket that has the most clothes in it and throw it in the wash!!

What will make wash a little easier is when the kiddos are old enough to start helping me with it!! Once I get the wash out of the dryer, I'll then be able to throw it on their beds and have them fold it and put it away!! But let's not get ahead of ourselves here...they are only 3 and 1 right now and time is going way too fast!!! Soon my little babies won't be babies anymore and will be more independent, but I'm gonna enjoy them being little for now!!

What are some tips and tricks you have to make doing laundry go a lot smoother? Leave me some comments!! Have a great Wednesday!!

Regrets....

We all have them, right? I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have regrets as long as you don't let them get in the way of your life and being happy. But I know there has to be at least a few things that we all wish we did or didn't do in our past. Recently I've been thinking of a few things that I wish I had done in my past.

One of the first ones that comes to my mind is that I wish I had joined a sorority in college. I participated in rush week and tried to get into one, but for some unknown reason, I never joined one. It's been about 4 and a half years since I graduated college and I don't really talk to anyone I graduated with anymore. There are a few that I will message on facebook here and there, but none that I keep in contact with on a regular basis. Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the friends I have now and that I have met through the moms club I'm in, but I kinda wish I had some friends from college as well. And I think that if I had joined a sorority, I would have made some friendships that I maybe could have had still today. But oh well...it didn't happen so it is what it is.

Another regret that comes to mind is that I wish while I was in middle school and/or high school I had tried to play some kind of sport. My parents never put me in any organized sport or anything so the only way I got exposed to organized sports was through gym class. Actually let me back up there..I just remembered that I did a little bit of field hockey and tennis in middle school, but I didn't really care for either of those sports too much.

In high school I remember when we did soccer one year that I was kinda getting into it and wished I had started playing it sooner. I also felt the same way when we started playing volleyball! But I guess at that point it was too late for me to get involved in any teams and instead I stuck to playing the violin and singing in the choir. I eventually gave up the violin and just stuck with choir, and that's definitely something I don't regret. I liked singing a lot more than playing the violin.

Those are the only 2 regrets I can think of right now that I want to share with my readers. Do you have anything that you regret not doing? Leave me some comments!

Things I'm loving right now...

Once a week I'm going to start doing a post about things I'm currently loving! I'll do this post every Monday! I love a TON of different things, but I'll write about a few things that I want to share with you and that I think you should be loving as well!!

The book "Talking As Fast As I Can" by Lauren Graham:

If you've ever seen Gilmore Girls or Parenthood (or anything else that Lauren Graham has stared in), you definitely need to read this book!! This has been on my "To Read" list for a while now and I've actually had it in ebook form from my library a few times, but it has always expired before I got the chance to start reading it!! This time, I got about 40% into the book and it expired yet again. I couldn't check it out again because there was a waiting list so I put myself on the waiting list to get a physical copy instead. I finally went and got the book on Friday and have been reading a little bit of it every day since then! I'm really enjoying it so far and think you should definitely add it to your "To Read" list!!

My new diffuser bracelet:

As I mentioned in a previous post, my mom and I went to make these at one of my friends' essential oil 101 classes. We ended up being the only 2 there, besides her mother-in-law, but we still had a great time and I finally own my first piece of diffuser jewelry! I put 2 drops of Stress Away on it and it smells wonderful!!

The Moana Soundtrack:

I also mentioned in a previous post that we watched Moana for the first time this past weekend. I had heard the songs before on a Disney music channel on the Google Play Music app, but never really paid attention to them or knew what they were about. And now, I completely understand!! Kinda obsessed with "How Far I'll Go" and "Your Welcome" right now, not gonna lie!!

Online grocery shopping: This is a definite must if you are a mom!! Stay-at-home mom, work-at-home mom, working mom...no matter what type of mom you are, we're all busy and we need online grocery shopping in our life!!! Last Friday I did an online order at my local Weis Markets and this week I plan on trying out Walmart's online grocery pick up! I was going to do it at Walmart on Friday, but there weren't any slots open to pick up until Saturday and I needed my groceries on Friday.

What are some things that you are loving right now? Leave me a comment and let me know! Have a great Monday!!!

Weekend Recap- 6/25/17

It's been a while since I did a weekend recap post so I figured I'd start doing them again!! Saturday morning, my mom came over because she was going to be watching the kiddos while my hubby and I went to a brewfest in our town. Before that though, my mom and I went to our local Hobby Lobby where a friend of mine was teaching a class and making diffuser bracelets!

We left for the brewfest a little after lunch while the kiddos were napping. It was their first year for this event and was pretty cool!! Hopefully next year we can find a group of people to go with and it will be even more fun! We got a small glass that we took around to the different breweries and wineries and got to sample some stuff out. I'm not a huge beer drinker but there were a few that I liked, including a lemon and blueberry flavored beer! I'm definitely going to have to try and find that one sometime!

After that we went to the mall to sit in the massage chairs for 15 minutes. If we could afford one (or 2) of those chairs, we totally would!! They are so nice!!! A few years ago we got one of those things that you put on a chair that has some massage rollers for your back. But recently I've used it a few times and it really hurts my back! So we love going to the mall and sitting in the chairs there!

Then we went back home and relaxed a bit before making dinner. After dinner we had movie night and watched Moana for the very first time!! I had heard some of the songs before and now that I saw the movie, the songs make a whole lot more sense!! I'm obsessed with the song "How Far I'll Go" now.

It's been a while since we've went for a bike ride so my hubby decided we would do that today. We got one of those bicycle trailers about 2 years ago and only used it once with Big E. So we had to go to Walmart to get her a new helmet and then we're giving Little E her old helmet. We also got her knee pads and shoulder pads so she can try riding her own bike!!

After lunch and naptime, my hubby mowed the lawn and then we went for our bike ride!! And Big E also tried riding her bike some. She is big enough to sit on it but doesn't get the concept of peddling yet. She did a little better on her tricycle though.

Oh and starting now, I'm getting serious about getting back into the swing of blogging more often! Today I got 2 blog posts written and scheduled to get posted within the next 2 days!! So stay tuned for more!! Have a great night everyone!!

What I'm watching

So for about 6 years or so we haven't had cable and just use Netflix and Hulu. We also have Amazon Prime so we have access to movies and TV shows on there. With it being Summer, pretty much all of my shows that I watch are on hiatus until the fall. I especially can't wait until This Is Us comes back and I just saw yesterday that it comes back September 26th!! Grey's Anatomy comes back September 21st!! My sister-in-law got me hooked on that show years ago and I caught up one summer before the next season started. It isn't the same since you-know-who died, but I can't stop watching it.

My husband and I started watching Designated Survivor but we only got through the first 7 episodes. So somehow (and someday) we will have to figure out how we're gonna catch up with that show. I doubt it will be anytime during the summer because we're busy watching Shameless and the latest season of Orange is the New Black. Oh, and we also have to finish watching Breaking Bad sometime. We got into that, but then we had a bunch of other shows that we got into and didn't have time to watch Breaking Bad.

Right now the only show I watch that has new episodes is Born This Way on A&E. It follows a group of young adults that have down syndrome. This is a show that my step-mom got me hooked on and it's pretty good!!

June 28th is the premiere of season 19 (19!!) of Big Brother. I may or may not watch it, I haven't decided yet. My hubby and I used to watch it together but now he doesn't like watching it because it's on too many times during the week (3).

On Netflix, I've been watching Gilmore Girls, The Fosters, and Parenthood, all for the second time. Hubby and I watched Parenthood together and we absolutely loved it so I just had to start watching it again!

What shows are you watching? And what are some shows on Netflix that I should start watching? What about Amazon Prime? I really haven't been taking advantage of the shows and movies on there. It mostly just gets used by my daughter to watch Daniel Tiger.

He's no longer a baby...

Little E turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago!! I can't believe it!! Where did my little baby go?? Time really does go by way too fast!!

I wanted to talk about my breastfeeding journey with Little E. But first, let me talk a little bit about my experience with Big E. As I may have mentioned before, she was born 8 weeks early. While she was in the NICU for the first 16 days of her life, we eventually started breastfeeding and she was doing great. Then she did alright once we got home but eventually, she was taking an hour to eat. Then when she was finished, she would be ready to start eating again in about an hour. That's when I decided to start pumping and giving her bottles. I did this from about 2 months until she was close to a year. When she was almost 1 year old, I slowly stopped pumping until I was dried up and gave her frozen milk until she could have regular milk.

So when I got pregnant with Little E, I was determined to make breastfeeding work. But I also decided from the very beginning that I wasn't going to pump because I knew that would be rough with a toddler and newborn. I am happy to say that we made it to a year!! There were a few times in the early months that I thought of quitting, but I didn't. I'm so glad I was able to able to make it work this time around and still can't believe what the human body can do!! But at the same time, it feels really good to not be attached to Little E 24/7!

So my advice for anyone who is expecting, if you want to try breastfeeding and it doesn't work, don't beat yourself up about it. Just do the best you can and get help when needed. Just know that even if you do have to use formula, it isn't poison. As long as your baby is getting fed, that's all that matters!

I'm back!

I really am bad at this. I keep saying and writing about how I want to write more posts and it happens for a little bit but then I stop writing again. But I really am going to try harder now. And I thought I would start off by writing a post all about me so my readers can get to know me a little better. 

So my name is Nicole. I graduated from college in December of 2012 with a degree in special education and elementary education. Then in May of 2013, I married the love of my life. We've been together for a little over 8 years now and couldn't be happier!! We now have an almost 3 year old girl and a 1 year old boy. Before my oldest was born, I was a substitute teacher for about a year and a half. I plan on going back to doing that and looking for a full time teaching job once one or both of my kids start school. For now, I'm enjoying staying home with both of them full-time while also running my Young Living business. I've been using oils for a little over a year now and doing the business side of it for about 5 months. It's great because I love what the oils have done for me and my family and I want others to get the same benefits that I'm getting! Right now I'm only putting in a few hours a week and it doesn't really take away any time from my kids because I do my work activities while they are napping and teach online 101 classes at night once they are in bed. 

So starting this week, you'll be seeing more posts from me! I've definitely got a lot to write about so now I just need to type out those thoughts and get them out to you, my readers!! I hope everyone had a great Monday and a great rest of your week!!