Love It – Village Naturals Foaming Bath
Jake and the girls gave me Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash, Aches & Pains Relief with Eucalyptus, Rosehips, and Chamomile earlier this year for Mother’s Day. I love it! 🙂 I never thought I would get so excited over bath items, ha! It wasn’t long before the girls were begging to try it out.
Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash gives you a lot of great long lasting bubbles. The girls are always asking to use this whenever they have a “long” bath because they love all the bubbles. One time they stayed in the bathtub for over an hour splashing around.
Our family has had a round or two of sickness since I received it. The Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash works really well for when you have a cold and are congested. You can find it in a lot of stores, including Walmart, or online. The best part it is only a few dollars and it lasts a long time. You only need a couple drops to get a bath full of bubbles.
Even though the girls and I have used this many times we are still on our original bottle. If your looking for a great bubble bath or body wash that will be a big hit with the lady (or kids) in your life you should check this out. It is a great way to relax after a busy day!
“Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love! There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun. I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list. It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!
Teaching Our Children: How to Wrap Gifts
Letting the kids wrap their own gifts
As I sit in the middle of the floor with little scraps of Christmas wrapping paper around me I have to smile….. The girls LOVE going to the store to pick out the perfect gift(s) for each person. They also really like to wrap the gifts! While they have a tendency to make a mess, use more wrapping paper, put on too much tape, and take a long time wrapping they have a blast doing it. Although, I have noticed that every year they get a little better and more efficient.
Each girl starts the gift wrapping activity by picking out their own roll of wrapping paper to use for their gifts. They use that roll of wrapping paper on all the gifts they have to wrap until there are no more gifts to do or the wrapping paper is gone. They do the entire wrapping process on their own from cutting the paper to taping and even labeling the gift.
While we still have the occasional – “Mom, I didn’t cut the wrapping paper big enough” overall they are getting better at the whole process. At times, I’ve even had problems not cutting the paper big enough! Typically, we spend an evening or two (depending on the amount of time we have) doing a “wrapping party” while listening to Christmas music. As they wrap their gifts I will tackle some that I need to do as well. Everyone has fun and we get a lot accomplished at the same time.
I love that they take the extra time to not only wrap the gifts but label, add little notes, or draw pictures on the outside of the gifts. They started doing this on their own last Christmas. It was so cute reading their notes and talking about their drawings as we opened the gifts. They were so proud of the gift and the wrapping which they did from start to finish. Here are some of the sweet drawings and notes we found under our tree last year:
Silly notes written on the gifts…..made me smile
Brina even picked out turtle food at the store for the turtles and wrapped it for them.
Karlie drew a planet, specifically Saturn, on this gift
I Love You note on the gift
Brina drew little “heart” people on the outside of this Christmas gift.
Picture of the sweet sisters on the gift
While the gift wrap my not win a decorative prize the girls are proud of their work and are excited to share. They are learning many lessons during this too (hand-eye coordination, measuring, sharing, giving, etc….). Pretty soon I will have to start delegating more gift wrapping tasks to them! 🙂
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Packing up a lunch for the kids
The girls get out of school on today for Christmas Break! It is hard to believe that today is their last day of school of 2012. They will start back up shortly after New Years Day 2013! This year has flown by so quickly. I have so much to be thankful for this year. It has been a year packed full of amazing memories, while there were some tough moments and days, the blessings far outweigh the inconviences.
Lunch Box Meal
- Hotdog in a Bun
- Fresh Kiwi (fresh our friends Kiwi tree!)
- Fresh Carrots
- Guacamole Chips
- Small Bag Flavored Marshmallows
- Homemade Christmas Candy Pieces (with Sprinkles of course)
- Wild Cherry Juice Bag
Hot Dog in a bun
Gift Giving: Christmas Cookies in Decorative Tins
Christmas Cookies in a tin with Candy Canes on top
Our family loves baking Christmas goodies! In the past we have made large batches of goodies and delivered the items to our neighbors, family, and friends. Other years we do one or two tins whenever we are baking to give away to friends, family, or to who ever we think it may be a blessing to that week.
It is a simple gift that has been a big hit (and fun for the kids to help with too). All we have to do is bake our favorite cookie(s), put them into a decorative tin, add two candy canes on top, and deliver them. The girls love putting two candy canes on top of the tin in the shape of a heart. Making these treats bins are really easy and they always great reaction from those we have delivered the goodies to in our area.
Christmas Tins
- 1 Tin Container
- A batch of your favorite cookie(s) or candies to fill the tin (or you can do a variety of recipes)
- 2 Candy Canes
- 2 pieces of Tape
You can get any tin or plastic container in any size, shape, and color at your local dollar store this time of year. I used double-sided tape but regular tape would work too. If you are wanting to make up several tins this is a great gift to do because you can make a large batch of cookies to fill them and do an assembly line with your kids.
When we deliver items and Christmas cards to our neighbors we bundle up in our coats, put all the goodies in a big basket and walk from door to door (great exercise and fresh air for the whole family). By the time we walk door to door and spend a few minutes catching up with each neighbor an hour or two or more has gone by but we have had a blast and hopefully were a blessing to those living on our street too.
Here are some cookie recipes we have used in the past:
Peanut Butter & Candy Cane Cookie Cups
Introducing……the Newest Members of Our Family – “Coconut,” “Oreo,” & “Snowball”
The 3 newest family members of our family “Coconut,” Oreo,” and “Snowball”
If you had asked me even a year ago if I would ever have goats as pets I would have laughed. Goats, seriously! I don’t know how to raise goats, what would I do with them….. Guess what!? Life has a funny way of changing my perspective. We have GOATS! Three adorable, fluffy, social, fun loving, goats that have become such a sweet part of the family!
This one cracks me up……silly Oreo!
The girls immediately loved these little balls of fluff…..and as hard as it is to admit it didn’t take long before they had stolen a piece of my heart too. They are always thrilled to see you. I love driving into the driveway and seeing them come racing across the yard to greet us.
Our little “Oreo Sunday”! He is the smallest of the 3 but makes up for it with his colorful character!
The girls are overjoyed to have goats. They do a pretty good job of taking care of them too. The goats love it when the girls are outside playing. All three are very social and are great with kids. The only thing we are still training them not to do, they’ve gotten better, is to not jump up on people. We have already trained them with several things already. One of the best things we did for training was to teach them to head into the goat pen for their grain or a treat whenever we rang a bell rings so when we need to put them into the pen it is really easy.
Sweet baby “Snowball” coming to say hello! He is the most timid of the 3 goats and especially in the beginning he would bolt to the pen whenever he saw Skipper or if he was startled.
It has been over a year in preparation for these little guys. They are a neat addition to our family or as the girls call it “our small farm”! It all started with me reading an article on goats. Followed by months of researching, building a goat house and pen, and finding the perfect critters to adopt into our family.
Our “Toasted Coconut” chewing happily on some leaves. Coconut’s our adventurous eater, he’ll try anything before the other two goats (even your hair if you get it too close).
These little guys have been a fun addition to the family. Skipper was excited to have more friends in the yard as well. It didn’t take long to train her not to chase the goats and for the goats to not be scared of the big black lab charging through the yard. After researching how to train them to stay in certain parts of the yard we decided to get them collars similar to what we use with Skipper (they wear the collars and the wire for their boundary is underground). After a little trial and error it has worked like a charm. The goats have their boundaries and Skipper has hers. The goats are not allowed in the driveway because they would most likely climb on the vehicles or in the front yard (they would eat any of my flowers on the front porch or garden).
Our twin goats munching on something delicious!
The whole process has been an experience to say the least. There was moments of excitement and even some moments of tears…..I will share a little more of that part of the story a little later.
Curious Oreo, he just had to see what that silver shiny object was in my hands (my camera)!
The goats are always munching on something. They like anything from leaves, bushes, flowers, fruits, vegetables, peanuts, hay, grain, and more. We feed them grain once a day and in the cooler months make sure they have some hay to eat. Most days they will spend out in the yard eating or lounging in the sun. It has been a lot of fun learning what foods they goats love, for example, banana peels are a favorite as are peanuts (whole or just shells). One of their special grain treats smells like black licorice. Almost everyday after the girls get home from school they go immediately to see Skipper and the goats (usually bringing them treats).
Oreo looking over his shoulder to see what was taking Karlie and Brina so long!
All three goats Nigerian Dwarf Wethers and were born in February 2012 so they are not quite a year old. Oreo was born in the mountains of North Carolina. Our twin boys, Snowball and Coconut, were born in the foothills. When the goats only grow to be about the size of a black lab.
Buddies…..the girls love playing out in the yard and the goats love having the girls nearby.
The girls were excited to see meet family members and they have spent hours playing with them. It took us a few weeks before we came up with their names but everyone agreed on “Oreo Sunday”, “Snowball”, and “Toasted Coconut”. It has been quite entertaining to have these little guys around. They have a lot of personality and are always thrilled to see you.
The goats like to climb up onto things….such as fallen tree limbs! Karlie and Brina hanging out with the “billy-billies” as they call them
Snack time!
Save A Lot: Deals for the week of December 19 – 25, 2012
The Save A Lot weekly ad deals are listed below for your convenience. It is a great time to stock up on some Save A Lot deals. Sign up for the Smart Shopper Club, by doing so you will get a $5.00 off of $25.00 coupon!
Meat and Seafood
Family Pack Stew Meat – $2.99 lb
Hickory Springs Bacon (12 oz) – $1.99
Beef Round Roast – $2.49 lb
Hillshire Farms Sausage (12 oz) – $1.99
Use $0.75/2 coupon from insert 10/14 Red Plum (Expires 12/1/12)
$1.68 each after couponPork Sirloin Chops – $1.59 lb
Chicken Drums or Thighs – $0.99 lb
Pork Sirloin Roast – $1.39 lb
*Pick 5 for $19.99 promotion on going! Pick any 5 specially marked packages of your favorite cuts or types of meats, vegetables and more.
Fridge and Freezer
Coburn Farms Whipped Topping (8 oz) – $0.79
Pillsbury Grands! Jr Biscuits (12 oz) – $0.99
Use $0.30/2 coupon from insert 10/21 Smart Source (Expires 1/12/13)
Use $0.40/3 coupon from insert 11/11 Smart Source (Expires 2/2/13)
As low as $0.84 each after couponTropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice (54 oz) – $2.99
Ore-Ida Potatoes (30 – 32 oz) – $2.49
Brown ‘n Service Sausage Links and Patties (6.4 oz) – $0.99
Eggs (dozen) – $0.99
Mr. P’s Pizza, Pepperoni or Supreme (6.5 oz) – $0.79
Ginger Evans Crescent Rolls – $1.49
Mrs. Smith’s Pies, Cherry, Apple, or Pumpkin (27 oz) – $2.50
Use $1.00/1 coupon from insert 11/18 Smart Source (Expires 1/19/13)
Use $1.00/1 coupon from insert 12/2 Smart Source (Expires 2/2/13)
$1.50 each after couponHome Churned Butter Quarters (16 oz) – $1.99
Produce
Apples, Assorted Varieties – $0.99 lb
Carrots – $0.39 lb
Green Cabbage – $0.25 lb
Biggins Potatoes (15 pounds) – $3.99
Sweet Potatoes – $0.25 lb
Grocery
Red Gold Ketchup (36 oz) – $1.00
Frank’s Hot Sauce (12 oz) -$0.79
Kerr’s Potato Chips (3.75 oz) – $1.00
Betty Crocker Potatoes – $0.99
Hawaiian Punch, Assorted Varieties (128 oz) – $1.99
Ginger Evans Granulated Sugar (4 pounds) – $1.99
Ginger Evans Flour (5 pounds) – $1.69
Kaskey’s Condensed Cream Soups – $0.50
Colburn Farms Evaporated Milk (12 oz) – $0.69
Colburn Farms Sweetened Condensed Milk (14 oz) – $1.19
Ginger Evans Sweet Chocolate Chips (11.5 oz) – $1.79
Ginger Evans Light Brown Sugar (32 oz) – $1.49
Ginger Evans Powdered Sugar (32 oz) – $1.49
Grissom’s Brown & Serve Dinner Rolls (12 oz) – $0.99
Sunny Delight (48 oz) – $0.99
J Higgs Potato Chips (10 oz) – $1.49
Save A Lot Today Soda (2 liter) – $0.69
Remember you can use the $5/$25 printable coupon to sweeten these deals! Plus you can earn up to 5 additional $5 off $25 coupons for sharing the coupon with your friends. For more information about Save A Lot’s coupon policies go here. If you find additional deals or savings please let me know and I will add them to the list. Please make sure to check with your local Save A Lot store, the ads do vary per region.
Crepe Paper “Surprise” Barricade
A surprise barricade in the kids doorway on Christmas morningIt is a lot of fun doing something little to get the girls attention on special days. Last year on Christmas Eve after the kids were in their room and sound asleep we added this crepe paper surprise barricade across their doorway. On Christmas morning we woke up to GIGGLES and “MOM! DAD! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” They thought it was hilarious! 🙂
The first time they got out of the room by popping off the bottom row and crawling underneath (they wanted to see what it looked like from outside the room too I guess). Then they busted through it…..laughing as they ran.
The whole set up took about 5 minutes and the girls still talk about it! All you need is some crepe paper (we used three rolls we already had at the house) and tape or sticky tack. We crisscrossed the crepe paper in front of their closed door using tape to stick it to the door frame and went to bed!
Jake putting up the crepe paper “surprise” barrier on Christmas Eve
Adding the final color of crepe paper to the doorway
What Are They Building Now!?
Our family lives on a small quiet street. All our neighbors are retired so when we start a project, specifically one in the yard, everyone is all “curious” about what we are up to. One of our neighbors will sit on the other side of the fence in his lawn chair sipping sweet tea and watch us as we work in the yard. After 10 years of being the entertainment for the neighborhood seeing him pull up his chair just makes me laugh.
We live on what the kids call a “small farm”. The property is over 4 acres with a big yard, creek, and woods. The girls and pets love running and playing in our yard. We’ve even done camp-outs, paintball games, bonfires, target practicing, and a lot of other activities in our yard.
Okay…..so back to the neighbors question “what are they building now”? A little over a year ago I was reading an article about goats, don’t ask me why, just happened to catch my eye during that time. Now I am not a big fan of goat milk or cheese or meat so that wasn’t what caught my attention it was the part about what the goats ate.
While the goat’s digestive system is similar to that of cattle, horses, and sheep they tend to prefer brush and trees over grass (they are more like deer). The reason why that caught my attention was because with our 4 acres we have a lot of trees, leaves, and brush. My husband and I had been talking a week before about spending some more time cleaning the undergrowth in the wooded area of our property so the article intrigued me.
With all that being said our kids LOVE animals (dogs, turtles, horses, cats, you name it), it is one area they have in common. They have been asking for years for a horse (I don’t think that’s going to happen, at least any time soon). A couple months earlier I teased my husband that I was going to get chickens for the girls to raise and so we could have fresh eggs to eat. He vetoed the chicken idea mainly because we have too many wild animals that go through our property (turkeys, deer, racoons, possums, foxes, coyotes, etc….). So when I brought up the idea of getting goats (more as a joke) I figured he would just laugh at my suggestion…..well, he didn’t. He started researching it more and decided that if I was up for it we could consider the possibility in a few months.
Well, a few months went by and we started preparing for the newest members of our family. What began with a simple glance at an article turned into building a goat house. Jake designed and built the whole thing by himself (well, with the help of the girls). The girls were soooooooo excited! Here are some pictures of the process:
Brina hammering away
Brina and Karlie having fun “working” on the goat house
Daddy working with his two helpers!
Brina & Karlie helping Daddy on the roof of the goat house
Brina, Karlie, Mommy, and Skipper painting the goat house. The girls picked out the color “candy apple red”!
Gift Giving: 12 Days of Christmas Appreciation
12 Days of Christmas Appreciation for my Husband
Last year I did the 12 days of Christmas Appreciation for my husband so this year as I was putting together the 12 Days for the girls I decided to do one with Christmas gifts I had gotten for him. The one I did last year for him had to be small because he was traveling for work several days prior to Christmas, this year he finished most of his traveling in time to start the 12 days of Christmas. I debated back and forth about posting it this year because I know he reads my blog and didn’t want him to know in advance all the goodies I had picked up for him so instead I decided to post it a few days into the 12 days a Christmas and list the items that he has already opened. If you want more details on what I got him or ideas on what to do for your spouse shoot me an email and I can give that to you personally without him seeing it! 🙂
Here is what Jake’s 12 Days of Christmas includes (at least the first few days):
Day 1: Berry Blast & Vanilla Energy Strips (purchased using rewards from CVS & Walgreens)
Day 2: Table Topics – Road Trip To Go Card Game for Upcoming 2013 Family Trips (free after a coupon) 🙂
Day 3: Spinach & Artichoke Dip Mix (free after coupon)
The 12 Days of Christmas started on December 13th (the day he came back from one of his work trips). Every night after dinner he opens his gift for the day. I used a variety of boxes that the items came in or that I had already at the house. Once the boxes were wrapped I put a bow on top and waited for him to come home. He was surprised to see a stack waiting for him to open too.
If you don’t have time to put this together for Christmas consider doing it for Valentine’s Day (for your “sweetheart”), the month of your anniversary, your spouse’s birthday, or another special occasion. The point is to express your love and appreciation for your spouse.
Here’s a picture of the wrapped stacks:
12 Days of Christmas
I am grateful for a loving, caring and hard working man that loves me despite all my craziness. This is just one way to share my love with him during the Christmas Holiday. It was a lot of fun picking out the gifts, wrapping, and giving them to my man. It is my intention to show appreciation to my husband at least once a day. Thankful for an extra opportunity to say “I love you” to my best friend and life partner!
Born In Me by Francesca Battistelli
Everything inside me cries for order
Everything inside me wants to hide
Is this shadow an angel or a warrior?
If God is pleased with me, why am I so terrified?
Someone tell me I am only dreaming
Somehow help me see with Heaven’s eyes
And before my head agrees, my heart is on its knees
Holy is He. Blessed am I.Be born in me, be born in me
Trembling heart, somehow I believe that You chose me
I’ll hold you in the beginning, You will hold me in the end
Every moment in the middle, make my heart your Bethlehem
Be born in meAll this time we’ve waited for the promise
All this time You’ve waited for my arms
Did You wrap yourself inside the unexpected
So we might know that Love would go that far?
