Pepper Paints

Cheap and Easy Homemade Cleaners

Spring is just around the corner (thank the heavens above)!!!! I love Spring cleaning. Strike that-I love my house when I am done Spring cleaning. I purge and scrub and always move things around for a fresh new look. I am not big on buying lots of cleaning supplies. They are super simple to make and I almost always have the ingredients on hand.

Here are two easy and cheap  homemade cleaners that contain no harmful chemicals and still smell good!

Homemade Soft Scrub

Mix together

1/4 cup borax

1 cup baking soda

1 T biodegradable liquid soap (I use citrus castille)

Add enough water to make a pasty consistency

add 10 drops essential oils ( I like the smell of lemon and orange for cleaning)

If the scrub gets dry add a few more drops of water.

Anti-Bacterial Spray

To 1 cup white vinegar add

3 cups water

10 drops grapefruit seed extract

10 drops tea tree oil

1 teaspoon castille soap

10 to 20 drops lemon, lavender and/or orange essential oils

I am hoping to find my blogging mojo again. We are still creating messes all over the place–I promise to share more soon!!

Make your own Stickers

We are still here in case you were wondering!! I have been in a blogging slump and a cleaning slump and an organizational slump and well, you get the picture! But we did make some stickers the other day!

We cut out pictures from magazines …. but you could totally color your own.

Then I mixed 4 Tablespoons of hot water with 2 Tablespoons of gelatin. I used unflavored (knox)… big mistake! They tasted too horrible to lick! So use flavored gelatin!! Stir until blended.

We brushed the gelatin mixture onto the back of our pictures.

Then let them dry for about a half an hour or more. Then we licked the backs and almost puked so we brushed some water on the backs and stuck them down.

Viola! Homemade stickers!

Saying Yes More Often Pays Off

I am blogging over at Ohio Moms Blog today

My post is about saying Yes to my kids more often. Below is a snipit from the post

……..As my kids and family size grew so did my impatience! “No” had become my knee jerk answer.  “Can I ……NO!”   “Will you….NO!” I started sounding much like a toddler with a new and powerful word and I imagine it was really irritating for my kids! Soon my predictable yet arbitrary NO had lost its power.

I think I am going to write more about this soon. Saying yes is just the begining, the start of so many possibilities.

I Am Somewhere Else Today

Today I am blogging at Ohio Moms Blog

Relating all of our adolescent antics and high school foolery in and around the Cleveland area made me a little sad that my kids were not going to experience some of these same stomping grounds. I love when our neighbors here in Clintonville tell tales of when they were kids; the local schools they attended; Whetstone, Watterson, IC. Or when they recreate our street into farmland and our house into “The Doctors” house.

Summer Fun

I am still here-really I am.  Just not much in the blogging mood this summer.

This is what we have been up to……………….

A play in the park, a visit to Innis Woods Park, an Easter egg hunt in July!, summer hair do’s, camping,

working on flips off the diving board,  a trip the The Ohio State Fair–to see the cutest baby pigs ever!,  seeing THE REAL LAMBCHOP!!, baseball  games. How is your summer going?  Too fast?

Funk

I am in a blogging funk if you haven’t noticed! Nothing seems worthy enough to send out in to the wide world. I think working on getting back into my routine and schedule wil help. With the weather finally warming up and the daylight coming earlier and lasting longer, I am feeling a new vigor coming over me!

Hard to believe that my middle child-who fully embraces that role-is 10 years old! We celebrated with laser tag, pizza and cake and her hom made ice cream cake. And lots of thoughtful presents. Really-each gift was so perfect for my complicated girl.

It’s also insane that last year her indoor swimming B’day party turned into a 20 inch sledding party. And this year it was 77 degrees out! Now if only we could keep those warm temperatures!

16 things you always wanted to know about me!!

Ok I was tagged twice for this so I guess I’ll play

16 random things about me:

1. I have to write everything down-or I will forget-I thought of  at least 12,000 things while driving around this morning-but now I forget!

2. My friends say that I am “special”-what they mean is that I could have rode the short bus to school.-Nice friends, I think I’ll get some new ones!

3.As for #2-I am special in that I am distracted by the pretty-while they disect every last trivial detail to its second coming. So there! But they’re keepers!! All 3 of you know who you are crazies!

4. I am fiercely non-competitive. That way I win-always. I have an inflated and skewed view of myself for some reason. Like anorexics look in the mirror and see themselves as fat-well I see photos of myself or my reflection and just don’t believe it’s me. I still see my self as young, thinner and young and thinner. I AM DAMN IT!

5. Joe and I have been together for 21 years-half a life time!! And we still like each other most of the time!

6. My favorite colors are turquoise and green and purple

7. I went to 12 years of catholic school- Today I consider myself very non-religious

8. I am afraid of heights.

9. I believe the sun is good for you and sunscreen is bad

10. If I didn’t have a Ginger I would have a Pepper.

11. I really prefer peace and quiet.

12. It is a dream of mine for Joe and I to build a house/cabin ourselves, in the middle of nowhere and live off the grid.  But preferably near the ocean!

13. It is also a dream that we buy a plot of land with our friends and we all build our own houses there and live like a commune. But preferably near the ocean!

14. I was once obsessed with  The Hare Krishnas. I even visited The Palace of Gold. Hmm more communal living!

15. I am a terrible speller-I am so bad spell check often dosen’t even know what I am trying to spell. It inhibits me from blogging and twittering things sometimes.

16. I am bringing back the term “Doy Foo” from the 4th grade.(I think that’s how you spell it)

Play along if you want!