Oily Wednesday

It's been a while since I've written an Oily Wednesday post (you can find my last one here.) But I decided to bring this back and write just about oils every Wednesday. I love Young Living and my oils and you'll read about them in my posts here and there, but once a week I want to write a post all about oils.

This week I decided to write about Thieves Laundry Soap!

So even way before I got into using essential oils with Young Living, I had dabbled around in making my own laundry detergent. I mostly made the powdered kind because I didn't feel like dealing with making the liquid and having to melt stuff over the stove. I did however have to grate bars of soap which wasn't the easiest thing either.

Right before Young Living came into my life I actually did make a liquid detergent and that was working pretty good. But then I saw the Thieves Laundry Soap. I was already using the Thieves Household Cleaner as my all-purpose spray so I thought, let's give the laundry soap a try so I can ditch another chemical from my home!

So I got the laundry soap and I actually ditched 3 chemicals! I use the Thieves laundry soap, vinegar with oils for my fabric softener, and wool dryer balls sprayed with a mixture of water and oils instead of fabric sheets. Fabric sheets are the most toxic chemical in the American home, so if at first you can only get rid of one of those things, I highly recommend getting rid of those! I bought my wool dryer balls from Amazon. You can find the ones I bought here.

The Thieves Laundry Soap comes in a 32 ounce bottle and will provide about 64 loads! A little definitely goes a long way with essential oils and this product is no different! It can be used in all washers, even high-efficiency (he). I love that my clothes and towels don't have that chemical smell to them anymore!! There was a time since I started using the Thieves laundry soap that I ran out of it and had to go back to Tide. I could immediately tell that I was using detergent with chemicals again! But now I'm back to using my Thieves and I couldn't be happier!! Let me know if you want more information on how you can get your hands on this amazing product and kick those chemicals from your home!

It's Play-Doh time again!

So in my last post, I wrote about how Big E played with Play-Doh on Friday. Well...Saturday I decided to make my own using essential oils and it worked out amazingly! And it was quicker to make it than the instructions said. It said to stir continuously over the heat for 5 minutes and it took about half that time. It turned into a dough super fast. I may have had the heat on a little high, but oh well. It still turned out great! I used food coloring to color it and Young Living essential oils to make them smell wonderful! You can find the recipe I used here.

If you'd like more information about how you can get these wonderful oils for yourself, just comment below or send me a message!

Weekend Recap- 3/26/17

We had a pretty good weekend, so sad that it’s over. Friday night I was going to go out and do some karaoke with my mom but it was a rough afternoon so I decided to stay home. My sister-in-law’s friend (and now my friend) came over and we just hungout in the dining room just talking and drinking. We had a fun time and can’t wait to have another girls night with them soon!
Saturday afternoon we had some friends come over for a playdate. It was actually really nice out on Saturday so we got to enjoy some time outside!

Little E looking out at Dada who was cleaning up the yard a bit.

Big E playing in the sandbox and making a huge mess!

They both love going on wagon rides!!

Then today we went to McDonalds for breakfasts, which was pretty late because we didn’t wake up till 9:15! I can’t believe the kids let us sleep in that late! And I don’t wanna jinx it, but Little E woke up only once a night, two nights in a row now!!
After McDonalds we went to Walmart because my hubby wanted to get a haircut. So while he waited on that, I walked around the store with the kiddos. Big E told me 3 different times that she had to go potty, so 3 different times we went to the bathroom but she didn’t go any of those 3 times. But each time we went, we had to go to the handicapped stall and sit Little E in this seat attached to the wall. I’m pretty thankful it was there because it would have made it a lot more difficult if it wasn’t!

Then this afternoon I started planning out Big E’s learning activities for the week and I decided to go through my construction paper and sort it by color.

This will make it much easier when I go to create little activities for Big E, which is something I’m going to be doing more often now! I’ve got a bunch of activities for her for counting and colors, but now I need to work on alphabet activities!
Be on the lookout for my post on either Friday or Saturday about this weeks’ activities! I’m going to start making that a weekly post so you can see what Big E has been up to!
Well, that’s about it for our weekend. As I write this, Beauty and the Beast is on in the background so I’m going to go watch the rest of it with my hubby, Big E, and Little E before putting the kiddos to bed! Have a great rest of what’s left of your weekend!
Much love,

Nicole

Play-Doh fun!

Friday we went to a friends' house for a play date and Big E and her friend played with Play-doh. We have some Play-doh at home but we hardly ever play with it. And I'm not too sure why we don't because Big E loves playing with it! One thing that does drive me a little nuts though, is that she only plays with the same color for what seems like 30 seconds! I don't like her having more than one color at a time because I don't want her to mix them. It's a great activity for her to do at the kitchen table while I try to get some cleaning or cooking done.

We even turned it into a little learning activity by practicing cutting! I've never given her kid-safe scissors and she never played with the Play-doh ones so she didn't know how to use them. After showing her how to use them and placing them on her hand the right way, she was starting to get it!

She also had me make little snakes with the Play-doh and then I had her practice counting with them. I definitely think that Play-doh time needs to be added to our daily schedule because it can be very educational. Plus it lets her use her imagination and create things! I'm going to look into getting her a Play-doh activity set for her birthday, maybe a Frozen one since she loves that movie!

I also think I'm going to look into making my own Play-doh. I can't remember if it was on Facebook or Pinterest, but I recently found a recipe for Play-doh that uses cream of tarter and having just baked my rainbow cupcakes for the March cupcakes in my A Year of Cupcakes series, I now have that ingredient! I think I may try adding essential oils to my homemade Play-doh to add a lovely scent to them! Be tuned on a post about that in the future!! Have a great weekend!!

A Year of Cupcakes- March

So as I wrote in this post, I'm going to be making one batch of cupcakes each month from the article I found in the Food Network Magazine. This month it was Rainbow Cupcakes. And let me tell you, it was very time consuming!! But I will say, they turned out tasting very good! Luckily they didn't taste like they look. One thing that I think I was missing and was a big factor to how nice the frosting turned out: a hand mixer. I used to have one but then one day I plugged it in and it didn't work so I threw it out. If the other cupcake recipes say to use a hand mixer, I'm definitely going to have to go and buy one. The "frosting" on my cupcakes doesn't really look like frosting. It's more like icing. But oh well, it still tastes good.

So without further ado, here is how my cupcakes turned out. I took a few pictures while I was making them.

And here is what they were supposed to look like.

Also, the recipe called for lemon juice but instead, I used Young Living's Lemon Vitality essential oil! It was my very first time cooking with essential oils! It called for lemon juice in the cake mix so I used 3 drops. And for the frosting it called for lemon zest so I just did one drop of the oil.

I also don't know how they got their colors to be so bright. The lighting for my picture did kind of stink, but even in person it doesn't look as bright as Food Network's cupcake is. Oh well. I never said I was a professional baker!

So there you go, my first attempt at one of the cupcakes from A Year of Cupcakes!! Next month instead of just doing the one for April, I'm also going to make January's cupcake. I can't forget about January! Have a great evening everyone!!

School is now in session!

Last week I did really good at doing educational activities with Big E Monday-Thursday. We got behind on Tuesday so we doubled up on Wednesday and got back on track. But then we missed Friday and got a day behind again. Two weeks ago I was at the Dollar Tree and I found this. I knew it would be perfect to help me visually see what activities are planned for the day and then to cross them off when they get done.

The board hanging above it with the letters is something I made for my hubby as a gift for something one year. I think it may have been our anniversary but I can't remember. It's supposed to be so we can have an ongoing game of Scrabble but my hubby doesn't use it. My sister-in-law (who is currently living with us) and I have been using it though. When the kids are older, I'm sure they'll use it with me!

Last week we did a bunch of color activities. Big E has been doing really good with her colors! We need to focus more now on the alphabet and counting! She can count to 10 at times, but only when she wants to. She won't always do it on cue.

She also did a really good job using the tongs!! Working on those fine motor skills!!

I've been slacking and didn't plan any new activities for this week, so I think tomorrow and the rest of the week we may just repeat last weeks' activities. I need to have a set time each week that I switch out the bins with new activities so that each week will be something new and different. Or at least something we didn't do the week before. Now that Little E is older and not as dependent or clingy to me all the time, it's a lot easier to do these activities with Big E. I have so many ideas saved on Pinterest that I wanna do so again, I just gotta make the time to get them ready!!

A year of cupcakes!

Not sure if you ever heard of the app Texture, but if not, and you read a ton of magazines, you have to check it out! For just $9.99 a month you have unlimited access to a ton of monthly and weekly magazines!! When I first signed up I was paying $14.99 a month for the premium membership (standard was $9.99) and the only difference was that the premium membership got you access to the weekly magazines. Just recently I found out that you can get a free trial for 14 days, then after that you can get 3 months for $9.99. And that includes the weekly magazines, at no extra cost! So I emailed customer service and I was able to get this new pricing! They said after the 3 months it would be $9.99 per month, but their website doesn't say anything about that pricing, so I'm not 100% sure on that. But still, $9.99 a month for unlimited access to hundreds of magazines is a great deal! I currently read 21 magazines! I may not always be up to date with them, but I eventually read every issue of all those magazines!

Anyway, the whole point of telling you that (besides telling you about a great app) was to tell you that in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of The Food Network magazine, there was an article called A Year of Cupcakes. Yes I know, it's almost April, and I only got to read the Jan/Feb issue now. But hey, better late than never, right? I've decided that I'm going to make each months' cupcake and then post about it on here! I'm already 2 (almost 3) months behind but don't worry, I will make the cupcakes for January, February, and March! I'm sure my hubby won't complain about that! So be on the lookout for that post! I look forward to making the cupcakes and sharing how they turn out with my readers on here!

Disclaimer: All thoughts in this post are my own. I was not asked or compensated by Texture to write this post about their app or service.

Oh Pinterest, how I love thee!

I have to say that my favorite website (and app) is definitely Pinterest!! I've been a member since it was released back in 2010. And since then, I've created 65 boards and pinned 2,371 pins! I'd say that I'm pretty obsessed! But how many people out there, like me, have a ton of things pinned, that they've never tried to do or even looked at again? I am definitely guilty of this!!

A little glimpse of some of my boards. Click here to see more. 

So what I've decided I'm going to do is go through my boards weekly and pick 5 things that I want to do that week. I'm also going to try to delete up to 10 pins a week of things that I know I'm never going to do. I've pinned so many things that let's be honest, I'll never, ever go back to or consider doing.

Like this one. My youngest is going on 10 months and he's about 18 pounds, so unfortunately, he's too heavy for me to carry him in a carrier anymore. I really enjoyed the time that I got to carry him in my carrier though. There were plenty of times when it was just me and the kiddos and it was so nice to have Little E attached to me and have my hands free. So this just got deleted from my Pinterest account. I didn't make it before and I never will because I don't have the need for it anymore.

There's even some boards like my "Newborn Ideas" board that I can delete completely because I'm never going to have another newborn in my life. (Well, not until Big E and Little E have kids of their own, but we've got a LONG way to go for that!)

So are you as addicted to Pinterest as I am? What are some things from Pinterest that you've tried recently?

Bathroom makeover!!

Happy Monday everyone! In my post from yesterday, I mentioned that my hubby put in a new vanity and sink in our downstairs bathroom. After, let's see...4 trips I think it was, the sink is finally installed! And I am loving it! It allowed me to free up some space that was in the cabinet above the toilet so it isn't so cluttered in there. And I think it's going to be easier to clean! There was actually something around the drain that both my husband and I didn't think was going to come out. We were both like "Great, it's ruined before we even got to use it." We really thought that it wouldn't come off. My Thieves cleaner didn't even do anything to it! But I was determined to get it off! So I poured some baking soda on it, sprayed a mixture of vinegar and water on it, and let it sit for a minute or so before scrubbing it with a sponge. And guess what, it came off! See what natural cleaners can do? You don't need those harsh chemicals. Actually you can't see what it did because I forgot to take a before and after picture.

But I did take a before and after picture of the bathroom so that you can see what our bathroom looked like before and what it looks like now.

The first time we were at Lowes I asked my hubby "So what are we replacing next?" Our house was built in 2000, so it's only about 17 years old, not too bad. But there are a few things in it that I would like to replace sometime. We already replaced 3 appliances in the kitchen: the dishwasher when we moved in because it took forever to wash our dishes, the oven because we wanted a gas range, and the microwave, we weren't really looking to replace it but my mother-in-law found one at a thrift store that was new and cheap, so she got it for us.

I just love doing makeovers and organizational things so be on the lookout for future posts like this one! My New Year's resolution was to organize my house and keep it cleaner so I've been slowly going through the house to see what can be improved! And trust me, there are tons of things that need to be improved! That's all for now, have a great day!

Weekend recap- 3/19/17

Another weekend is quickly coming to an end. It seems like the week days drag on and then the weekend just flies by! Saturday I taught an essential oils 101 class at my local library. I couldn't advertise it at the library so it was hard getting people to attend. A bunch of my friends were interested but they just couldn't make it. I ended up having a total of 4 people, one of them being a complete stranger. It was a good class! It was actually my very first one in person! I've taught 2 Facebook live classes, but it's definitely different when your audience is sitting directly in front of you. But it was great to have gone through that first in-person class. I'm starting to fill up my calendar for April and already have 2 Facebook live classes, but I hope I can add some in-person classes as well!!

Let's rewind a bit to Saturday morning, we went to Lowes and picked out a new bathroom vanity and sink! We had a pedestal sink and I really didn't like it! There's a medicine cabinet above the toilet but it's super full! So I like the idea of having some space under the sink to put things. Plus, the old sink was a little messed up. I was cleaning it the other day and there was stuff that just wasn't coming off. So, I convinced the hubby to go get a new one! It's been causing him some issues installing it though and it still isn't done. I think he needs to make another trip back to Lowes to get some more supplies.

My hubby had poker night Saturday night with some guys he works with. So when the kids went to bed, I had a crazy night in...I did some was and watched Parenthood on Netflix! A few months ago my hubby and I finished watching Parenthood so now I'm just rewatching it. I can never seem to find something new and exciting to watch so I just rewatch things I've seen before.

This morning my hubby went to Lowes but the ended up getting the wrong thing so we all took another trip out there so he could make an exchange. The kiddos are just getting up from their naps now and who knows what's next. It's leftover night for dinner so that will make dinnertime easy!

What have you been up to this weekend? I hope it's been a good one! Leave me some comments!

It finally happened!!

So it has officially been a week that Big E has been going pee pee on the potty!! I am still amazed that it finally clicked for her. I was seriously beginning to think that she was never going to be potty trained. For months now when we asked her "Where do you go pee pee? Where do you go poo poo?", she would always say "On the potty." So I think the fact that she knew that for a while now, helped a lot when we started to potty train this time. Since the day we put underwear on her, she had 2 accidents a day, except for yesterday when she had one and today she had none!

We are still using diapers during naptime and bedtime. But when we leave the house, we'll have her wear underwear. We'll just make sure she goes potty before we leave and then first thing when we get where we're going.

She's peeing on the potty, but still pooping in her diaper. And I'm alright with that. It's still only 2 diapers a day that she's using instead of 5-7 like she used to use. And I'm only changing one kid's diapers now, yay for that!!!

Fingers crossed that Little E is easier to potty train that Big E was. I'm hoping he'll see his sister using the potty and want to be like her! Have a great Friday night everyone and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Snow, snow, go away...

Come again...next Winter!!! Seriously! Isn't the first day of Spring next week? And we're getting a huge snow storm here of about 2 feet of snow? Ridiculous!!! The hubby didn't go to work today but he works in IT so unfortunately for me, he still has to work because he can do all his work on his laptop. Oh well. At least when 5:00 rolls around, he'll already be home and he can help me by keeping an eye on the kids while I get dinner done! It will be nice to cook dinner in peace!

We've been having a relaxed day in, looking out at the snow. We watched the Curious George Christmas movie earlier just because it has snow in it! Then we watched Snow White! I love getting to rewatch my favorite childhood Disney movies with Big E and Little E! There are so many more that we haven't watched yet!

I've been diffusing summery scents in my diffuser all morning! Lemon, Lime, Stress Away...they all smell lovely and remind me of being at the beach!! I would so much rather be at the beach right now then surrounded by snow. But let's look on the bright side, this should be the last snowfall this winter and hopefully we don't get any more once it's officially spring next week!!!! Here are some pictures of the winter wonderland right outside my house, enjoy!! Have a great day everyone!!

I love the 90s!

I was born in 1990, so I remember a lot of things that were popular in the later half of the 90s. Here are a few of my favorite things...from the 90s. (Yes, I was singing the song from the Sound of Music as I wrote that!)

Backstreet Boys

BSB was where it was at!! I absolutely loved them!! And 2011, when they toured with New Kids on the Block, my childhood dream came true...I got to see them live in concert! It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to! Whenever I hear a Backstreet Boys song, it takes me back to the 90s! I love them and always will!!

Nsync

Yes, I was also an Nsync fan. I couldn't pick just one, I loved both! Sadly, my childhood dream of seeing them live never came true. But I have heard recently that they may be reuniting, we shall see!! Again, when I hear an Nsync song, I kinda feel like I'm in the 90s again!

Dunkaroos

These things were the best snack ever!!! I wish they still sold them! Apparently they are still made in Canada but not the US. I should make a friend that lives in Canada so they can ship me some!! But seriously, these were amazing! I would buy them if they still made them. For my kids, too. But mostly for me!

Giga Pets, Nano's, and Tamagotchi's

So I gotta say, I'm not too sure what the difference between these 3 toys is, maybe just the makers? But at some point, I had at least one of each! And actually, I even found one at a store years after I stopped playing with them and bought it just to relive the excitement! I think the Nano was my favorite, but yet again maybe I don't remember which was my favorite because again, I can't remember the difference between them. All I know is that they were cool and a lot of my friends had them!

Beanie Babies

Now I didn't have quite this many of them, but I had a lot. And I made sure that the tags stayed on! I even had some that had these plastic cases over the tags to protect them!! If you grew up in the 90s, I'm sure you had at least one Beanie Baby! And I loved when McDonalds had them in their Happy Meals as the toys!!!

Gel Pens

Gel pens and the black paper you drew with them on were awesome!! I had a ton and I used them all the time!! I'll definitely have to find some and introduce Big E to them someday!

Hit Clips

I loved these things!! It only played 30 seconds of music but they were still awesome!! And you know what's even more awesome, my mother-in-law actually found a Disney version of Hit Clips and got it for Big E about 2 years ago. I don't even think she knew what it was, but she found it at a thrift store and now Big E loves it because she has seen most of the movies that the songs are from. Here is the Disney one I'm talking about.

I'll end my list there, but it really could go on and on and on!! Oh, I'll add one more, one of my favorite shows that I still love to this day! My hubby needs to have TV on as he drifts off to sleep so we put on a series that we've seen before so that we won't want to watch it instead of sleep. We rotate between two shows: Scrubs and my favorite from the 90s, Friends!!!

What are some of your favorite things from the 90s? Leave me some comments! Have a wonderful day!