Tea time // a new tradition

One thing that Sally Clarkson mentions in her books and on the podcast is how she started Tea Time each day with her children when they were young and to this day when her grown children are home, they still take time each afternoon to do it. I was inspired by that, so we have been having our own Tea Time each day at 3pm. 

The kids LOVE it! They look forward to Tea Time all day long! I had them each pick out their own special mug from Target (on clearance!). Right now milk is what they like, but as they get older it will probably change to tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. We have a snack - cookies, fruit, cheese sticks, pretzels, etc - drink our milk, and snuggle, talk, and read (I read chapter books aloud to them). 

I love that it's become a special time during the day that we all enjoy and I hope that it will be a lasting tradition in our home!

Detox Your Home - DIY Dishwasher Detergent

Good Morning! A special welcome to those visiting from A Happy Healthnut! I'm excited to kick off the 4th day of the Detox Your Home series. Be sure to follow the links today and check out this post for all the links from the previous days.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical of trying this recipe because I have made 2 other homemade dishwasher detergent recipes in the past and they were both a big fat FAIL! My drinking glasses came out cloudy and my dishes had a weird film on them. 

But, I'm here to tell you that this recipe is amazing and it really does work! I've used it for about a week and my dishes have been clean and sparkling! The best part is that this recipe is quick and easy to make, and very inexpensive! I do recommend using Young Living essential oils as that is the only difference in this recipe and one of the recipes I made before. 

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

(from The Chemical Free Home by Melissa Poepping)

1 cup baking soda

1 cup borax

1/4 cup citric acid (found near canning supplies at Walmart)

15 drops lemon essential oil

10 drops orange essential oil

Mix together in a quart jar or a bowl. Add a sachet of white rice to absorb moisture. Add 2 Tablespoons of detergent per load.

I know this is not the greatest before and after picture because my glass has a bunch of scratches on it, but hopefully you can tell the difference! :)

I hope you are inspired to try the great non-toxic recipes for your home, personal care, and pets that we are sharing during this series!

Are you ready to jump in to this wonderful world of caring for yourself and your family naturally with essential oils?? Click here to learn more or contact the person who introduced you to the "Detox Your Home" Spring blog series! We are all offering a FREE copy of The Chemical Free Home to anyone {in the U.S.} who signs up with premium starter kit through April 7th!! 

To continue the series, head over to The Home Life {and Me} and learn how to make probiotic deodorant. 

Be sure to check out all the posts in the "Detox Your Home" Spring blogger series, click here.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I’m just a mom who has experienced amazing results with essential oils in our home.

Weekend Recap

We had a fabulous weekend {except for all the storms again this weekend! ugh!}. Check out this picture:

Super scary ominous-looking clouds! Thankfully most all the storms went north and south of where we live!

I got to keep the sweet little girl I took care of all the time before Lily was born! It was so fun. Taking care of two littles isn't too bad at all. I had such a good time with "my" two girls!

On Saturday morning we headed over to PawPaw's for breakfast. Some of Jacob's family was in town for the weekend, so a bunch of us got together for breakfast. I love this picture of Nanny's china and tablecloth. Such sweet memories of her!

PawPaw cooked the sausage for everyone. It was precious and I'm so glad to have captured it on camera.

On Saturday night Jacob and I made these stuffed jalepenos for the church fellowship Sunday night. We love cooking together! It's so fun to spend time together doing something we both enjoy! Btw, those stuffed jalepenos are Pioneer Woman's recipe, and they are to die for!!

We had a great Lord's Day. Some of the ladies at church are memorizing Psalm 61 together. It's been such a blessing to me {even though I forgot to say it yesterday. oops!}. My favorite verse is, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." That verse has been going through my mind almost constantly for the last week or so. It's a great verse to meditate on!

On Sunday afternoon one of Jacob's youth orchestras performed. They did such a great job! 

Lily and I were so proud Daddy {Jacob}!!! Lily did great at the concert. She got tons of attention- which I think she enjoyed! ha!

Today I'm working on getting my house back in shape. I let it slide over the weekend since we were gone so much. It's ok though, I kinda like to take the weekends "off" so I can spend more time with my family!

Hope ya'll are having a wonderful Monday!

Day At Home

Since Jacob was off for President's Day yesterday we had planned to go to Nashville for the day. Jacob needs to take a violin bow to be repaired at a store there and we were just going to make it a fun day trip. Unfortunately our plans were canceled due to the snow and icy roads. Although we were kind of disappointed at first, we ended up having a really good day!

Jacob got some long overdue projects done around the house, like replacing our back door. Seriously, our back door was horrible. It had no windows in it so we always had to open it to see what the dogs were barking at or whatever. It also didn't fit the door frame completely so there was about half an inch of space between it and the floor where spiders {and other bugs} made their way inside in the summer and the cold air blew in in the winter.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed when Jacob found a good deal on a new door! Now we have a beautiful new back door with 9 panes of glass which let soo much light into our kitchen and there is no cold air blowing in from underneath!

Lily had fun playing on her play mat. She started out like this but before too long she was like this...

Funny girl! She's getting to be an active little girl. The last few days she's been smiling at us when we make goofy faces and smile at her. I haven't gotten any pictures yet, but it's precious.

We went out to Ruby Tuesday for supper. I just love their salad bar...so fresh and delicious! We got there about 5 so they weren't busy at all. It was so funny because all the waiters and waitresses came by and ooed and awwed over Lily. After awhile the two managers came out to see her too because they said everyone was talking about her! ha!

Last night we watched a redbox movie and had a nice quiet evening at home. It was a great day even though our plans were changed!

I posted the recipe for the brownie bites on my recipe blog this morning. Hope ya'll enjoy them! Be sure to check out the other recipes, you might find something else you'd like to try!

My Wonderful Mom!

I just want to point out one reason why my Mom is so amazing! Of course there are many reasons, but she was just such a blessing to me yesterday and I want to share about it.

You see all these piles of clothes?! There were actually more piles but I couldn't get them in the picture. These are clothes that friends and family members have let us use for Lily! It's amazing, yet overwhelming at the same time. I finally got all of them washed, dried, and neatly piled so they wouldn't get too wrinkled. It was about 10-11 full washer loads of clothes, in case you were wondering!

Well, yesterday my dear Mom offered to come over and help me fold and sort by size all these clothes!

Believe it or not, it only took us about 1 hour to get it all done! Many hands make light work, I suppose. Such an overwhelmingly huge job (or so it seemed to me) was so easy with my Mom there helping.

Now the nursery looks like this...all the sizes in piles. I just have to fill the dresser drawers and totes now! It's such a relief to have this job nearly done. Thank you so much Mom for your help!! I love you.

By the way, Lily has plenty of clothes...from size preemie to size 4T!! Such a blessing!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I kind of took an unintentional blogging break over Thanksgiving because we were so so busy! I am so behind on reading everyone's blogs, but hopefully I'll get caught up in the next few days!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope ya'll did too! It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends. This year I've come to realize even more how fragile life is and how much we need to take advantage of the time we have with our loved ones.

Ok, so on to our Thanksgiving weekend festivities...

On Thursday morning, Jacob and I headed out to my parent's farm (only about 10 minutes from our house). I helped Mom with some cooking and Jacob, my brothers and brother-in-law, and several other guys from church went to the back of the farm to shoot skeets.

Jacob was excited, that's all. Ha!

The barn my Granddaddy built...I have so many childhood memories on this farm!

My parent's Great Pyrenees puppy.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at our church fellowship hall. There was so much yummy food!

I'm so glad my 94 year old Memaw was able to be with us!

After dinner, we all headed back to the farm. My sister and I had a little photo shoot.

Love her!

Then we took pictures of each other's families.

Jacob, me and Lily Grace

I love this picture!

After our photo shoot, Jacob and I headed home to prepare food to take to his family's Thanksgiving supper. We ate at Nanny & Papaw's house so everyone could be together (some eating and some sitting at Nanny's bedside). It was a special time. Before the meal Papaw read some Bible verses on giving thanks, then he prayed the most precious prayer. He is at peace with Nanny going to Heaven, and he prayed that the Lord would give that special peace to each family member.

On Friday we got up really early so Jacob could smoke my sister & brother-in-law's turkey and so we could keep our sweet nephew so his mommy and daddy could go Black Friday shopping!

He was so happy even early in the morning!

Jacob and I cleaned our house, and believe me, that took all morning! The Alabama/Auburn football game came on at 1:30pm and we had invited bunches of people over to watch it...but our house was a disaster. Thankfully we got it all cleaned by 12:30ish! ha. Oh, and it's still clean (amazingly!) so ya'll are welcome to stop by for a visit anytime!!

There were about 20 guys packed in this room watching the game! It was quite intense!

After the game, Myra and I headed to our favorite store...Hobby Lobby to get stuff to make Christmas wreaths. It was so fun! When you get the two of us together, you never know what will happen!

On Friday night Jacob's siblings and my three brothers came over to watch UP. It's such a sweet movie and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Well, that's our Thanksgiving weekend wrap-up! It was busy but so fun, with lots of memory making! I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father, my husband, my family and my friends (that includes all of ya'll wonderful bloggy friends!)

Overwhelmed

The last few days I have felt very overwhelmed. There are so many, many things that I need to get accomplished before the baby is born. I am about seven weeks from my due date, yes, SEVEN weeks! When I think about that, I think about all the stuff that is not done and ready for Lily's arrival.

The Lord has been speaking to my heart. He is teaching me that I don't need to focus on all the things that haven't been done. Instead I need to take one day at a time, focus on what I can do each day, and trust Him to give me the grace and strength to accomplish each task. And if something doesn't get done before Lily gets here, then it will be ok!

These are the verses I am claiming for the next few weeks. Psalm 61:2-3, 

"When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou has been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy." 

The enemy could be any number of things. For me, the enemy is stress. What precious promises are here: He will lead me, He is my rock, He is a shelter for me, He is my strong tower. There is no way I can be stressed out when I am meditating on these verses. I am going to write them on 3x5 cards and put them around the house where I will see them often.

So here is a list of some of the things I want/need to get done in the next 7 weeks:

• Buy and wrap Christmas presents for our immediate family (at least 14 people)
• Wash, sort, and fold baby clothes (my Mom has offered to help with this)
• Finish the nursery!
• Go through all our baby gifts and stuff we've been given and see what else we're going to need
• Finish the new church directory
• Prepare for and teach 2 coupon classes with my sister
• Clean my always cluttered kitchen counter and table
• Make jar mixes for extended family's Christmas gifts
• Finish making several Christmas gifts
• Clean the bathroom (it is seriously nasty!)
• Make Christmas cookies and labels for goody bags for Jacob's 3 youth orchestras and all his students
• Stock the freezer with about 20 meals to use after Lily is born
• Finish writing thank you notes
• Get Christmas photo cards printed and mailed

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there's plenty more, but this is a start.

Happy Friday Ya'll!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that we had to get up early to go eat breakfast with my in-laws to celebrate my bro-in-law's birthday...otherwise we would've missed this beautiful sunrise!

Today I am thankful that my living room is such a mess...

...because it shows how God has abundantly provided for our needs.

Today I am thankful for odorless garlic and Emergen-C...

...because they have helped keep us healthy (so far) this flu season. Even though we have been around many sick children in the public schools and in 3 different youth orchestras.

Today I am thankful for this verse...

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43:5

What are you thankful for today?

Work In Progress

This week Jacob has finally had some time to start working on the nursery! Here are some pictures of what he's done so far.

The room before...please excuse my crazy husband! ha.

Light green painted on top with pink stripes.

Monday was Columbus Day (also Jacob's birthday) so he was off work. We went to Lowes and got chair rail and crown molding.

Here's the room with the first piece of chair rail up!

I love the way it looks!! My interior design sister has been such a great help with her awesome ideas!

Oh, last week she hosted a baby shower for me with some other ladies. She posted a bunch of pictures on her blog, so be sure to check this post!

Blessed Beyond Measure

I feel so out of the blogging loop because I hardly got on the computer all weekend. It's good to be back!

Jacob and I babysat a sweet 9 year-old girl from Friday night to Sunday night. We had so much fun together! Life is so much busier with a child added to the mix (I'd better get used to that, huh?!). I felt like we were constantly running around and that we were incessantly late for everything all weekend!

I love this little girl!

Here are just a few things we did: soccer practice, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, swimming, cleaning the church, cooking, playing on the computer, watching a movie, going to church, going to my bro-in-law's birthday party after church last night, creating things with paper, tape, scissors, and highlighters. So much fun! The house seems a lot quieter today with her gone.

On Saturday, my Mom and Myra were traveling home from taking my brother to college and they stopped in Atlanta to pick up a ton, and I mean a ton, of baby things from my cousins. I don't know how they got all this stuff to fit in Mom's mini-van! They also had my nephew, his stroller, and pack 'n' play and all their luggage.

Some of the things they brought: a crib, mattress, changing table, changing pad, car seat, stroller, pack 'n play, shelf and mirror for the nursery, toys, lots and lots of baby clothes and some maternity clothes!

Right after Mom, Myra and Ridley left our house after unloading all this stuff, one of my aunt's called and she was on her way to drop off more baby clothes, maternity clothes and some other items that my cousin, Mandy wanted to share with us!

Wow! Jacob and I are so overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone! It's amazing how the Lord is providing for all of our needs. We knew from the start that we would have to trust God to take care of all the baby things we need. He has once again proven His faithfulness to us, and provided much more than we could have ever imagined!