Gold Stars

To follow up from my last post, when I was overwhelmed with house work my sister reccomended an app that she uses as well to help her with housework.  The app is called Home Routines and as simple as it is I am finding it so effective.  It breaks your day in to two segments; Morning Chores and Evening Chores, and then it breaks your home into Zones.  There are suggested things for chores and zones but everything can be customized.  As you complete each task you give yourself  a gold star and you can see how much you have accomplished for the day.
 I am really loving this and I am finding that this is just what I need to help keep my home in order.  My Morning Chores conisist of this:

• Start Washing Machine
• Check Calendar
• Breakfast Dishes
• Wipe Highchair and Table
• 15 minutes in Focus Zone

My Evening Chores are:

• Dinner dishes
• Wipe highchair and table
• Pick up toys
• Make coffee

Because I am not overwhelming my self on a daily basis of trying to clean the whole house at once, I find that since beginning to do this on Saturday my kitchen and dining room have stayed cleaned and yes my sink is still shiny!  So along with the help of the little fairy, Fly Lady and the home routines app I am confident by month end my whole house will have a deep clean that will be easily manigable for me to upkeep.  Which is a huge relief on my mind, body and spirit!

Macaroni Kid

I found the Macaroni Kid newsletter in December and I must say it has been a lifesaver.  This is the National Link but you can select the city that you live in/near and subscribe to the newsletter via e-mail.  It is awesome, they send out a weekly e-mail listing all of the kid friendly events in the area in the upcoming week.  It really is a great resource for kids of all ages, she also has other tips and tricks.  I was very fortunate to get in contact with Bree the organizer of the Northwest Columbus Newsletter and she featured a little article that I wrote, link to my article.. It's the first time I have ever written something that has been included in something other than my trusty blog!!

Make sure to check it out!

Zoku

So I'm officially in love with my Zoku!  I'm not quite sure why I didn't use it before but we now use it daily.  We haven't made anything exciting yet other than apple juice pops and mango/guava pops but it is one of the best part of our days.  I know it might sound silly because you may be thinking "just freeze some juice in the freexer"  But there is something about having only a 10 min wait time that makes it really exciting for a toddler, plus they are perfectly shaped popcicles!

Check back soon for a video of us using our Zoku.

Aveda's Best Kept Secret

I was going through my medicine cabinet the other day and I thought I would share with you my all time favorite Aveda product ever!!!

Beautifying Composition

It's a versatile oil that everyone should keep in their medicine cabinet.  Some of my favorite things are:

• It moisturizes extremely dry skin, I used it daily when I was on accutane and it did wonders.
• If you get sunburned or a little pink apply before bed and you will wake up the next morning not burnt and you won't ever peel.
• Put it in your bath for moisture and a light airy scent.
• Use it to give yourself a scalp massage before your shower or bath.  It will moisurize a dry scalp plus scalp massages help promote hair growth.

Do you have any products that you can't live without and you use multiple ways?

Photography

As I mentioned earlier I took an amateur photography class on Saturday.  I have a middle of the line camera, it gets the job done but doesn't deliver like DSLR's.  I hope to one day buy a DSLR but it will be awhile so for now I will make do.  Anyways, I went to this class confident and left realizing that I know nothing about actual "photography."  My head is still spinning and I'm still trying to make heads and tails of my notes, I think I need to read the owners manual again and then start practicing.  I did sit next to a very nice girl who has a 9 mos old and 2 year old and we talked alot, so hopefully I made a new friend, I'm always looking to make new ones!

I'm really fortunate because Jason and I decided early on the photography would be our splurge on the kids.  We knew we wanted to do maternity pictures, well I knew I wanted to do them and given I was waddling around with his almost 10lb baby, he wanted them too.  So I found a photographer and since have become slightly obsessed with her.  Erin Johnson some how captures every emotion that I feel in her pictures.  I sometimes think that I will never be able to put into words how much I love Augie and Addie but when I look at the pictures that she has taken I feel like she has frozen my love for them in each photograph. 

So I have ended my weekend realizing that photography will just be something that I enjoy but definitely never my career.  Going to the workshop inspired me to find some more classes to take, I think next up will be a sewing class!

PS: make sure to check out Erin's Website, she really is fantastic both as a person and a photographer!

Cloth Diapers

My super talented friend is making these awesome cloth diapers, Tangerine Baby Cloth Diapers.  I would have loved to CD but daycare doesn't allow it and I still am actively looking for a job.  Her online shop Tangerine Baby is one of my faves!  She makes the cutest dresses and PJ's. I'm going to do another post about her with some of the custom things she has done for me, but I wanted to share the diaper link separately!

Reusable Snack Bags

For awhile now I have been hating all of the zip lock baggies I throw away a week.  I wouldn't say I'm total granola but I do try to be earth friendly.  I try to reduce what we throw away for two reasons, 1) I like to recycle when I can and 2) we have to pay for trash and recycling is free.  So being less wasteful does really save money for us.   In the community that we live in our trash is not rolled into our water bill or taxes, we have to buy trash stickers.  Each sticker costs $2.90 (I think they just went up) and 1 sticker is good for one 50 gallon trash can.  So we try to only fill one large outside trash can per week.  On a side note when they last reported our area had 30-40% less waste then other area's so it is a pretty good idea, except for when it's 10pm and you realize you are out of trash stickers and you have to run to the grocery to buy some!

Anyways back on track, so I was thinking of buying some reusable snack bags when fate stepped in and my friend blogged that she was going to start making some.  I call that divine intervention!! The day I was looking (I kid you not) this was her blog post Pictures for my new adventure.  So I ordered myself 6 and absolutely love them.  I have been using them for dry snacks, the kids nebulizer attachments,and hide the toy for Addie (a game we play and we put different toys in them for Addie to try to get out).  I can honestly say that I have probably cut our baggie usage in half already and I haven't even had them for a whole week.

So I definitely recommend checking out her blog, it's kind of funny because we have never actually met in real life but she is a dear friend of my sister and we kind of live this bizarre parallel life and have a lot in common.  Her blog  is Make A Silk Purse.

I'm Not Crafty...

so I have friends that are!  I wish I could say I was craft, now don't get me wrong, I do think that I am creative but I am not naturally crafty.  Yes I could probably take a class and learn how to sew or make bows, I don't know how to but I still like to gift things.  I am very fortunate to have crafty friends though which makes me look like an amazing creative friend!!!  Throughout my blog I will be sharing their information with you.  They are all mommas and I love supporting them in the things that they are so talented and passionate about.

I love sending gifts to people that are original and are out of the box.  My friend Amanda has a fabulous business called Lady Bird Designs and she has the handsomest model ever.  She makes custom baby apparel and she was my go to girl this spring when all of my friends were having babies.  She is super fast and packages them up like little cup cakes. 

Our friends just had their third baby, so I had her make shirts for all 3 kiddo's with their first name initial plus headbands for the girls.  I'm so excited to give this gift I can hardly wait!!!



Shortly after we had Addie our good friends had a little girl, well their last name is Jester so I wanted to send them something special, so Amanda made this awesome onsie for them.  The dad actually called to thank me because he thought it was so cool! How can you resist ruffly butts!!

She made this cute set for our friends who we met in birthing class and both of our babies are less than a week apart!

So if you are ever looking for a unique gift that is reasonably priced,she is your girl!!