Happiness and Head Control

If you're a parent, friend of a parent, or anytime reader of this blog, you are probably well aware - babies grow fast.  Too fast.

Julia's Gap tunic - $1 at the kiddie consignment store.  (I'm jealous.)

I'm jealous of her moccasins too.

It seems like I just gave birth.  I keep having to remind myself she's not a newborn any longer, she's so 5 months ago.  She's "filling out", "coming into her looks", and all those other cliches that people say.  And holding up her head.  It's obvious she's enjoying the new vantage point.  Then again, Julia is happy all the time.  It's easy to win her smile ... unless I'm behind the camera.

Since she's doing so well with keeping her head from wobbling and has been sitting in the Bumbo for longer and longer, I decided this week would be a good time to test out the Jumper.  Actually, this had little to do with Julia and more to do with me desperate to find something to keep the boys entertained so I could make lunch.

Can you just imagine the scene?

And were they entertained!  Jude couldn't stop laughing, and slapping his thighs, and jumping, and laughing again.  And Jack was more than proud to perfect his "gentle" bounce.  And the little girl we did this all for?  Well, she didn't seem to care either way and just basked in the extra attention.

When simply bouncing and twirling was no longer enough Jack decided to bring out the puppets.  All 5 of them.  And then he proceeded to introduce Julia to each of them by name.

"Hi Jew-wee-uh, my name is Charlie the Horse!"

She withstood this "entertainment" just as well.

"Hi 'Little Sweeite' want a kiss?"

I often say Julia is a happy and content baby, but I think I'll be adding a new word to her repertoire: TOLERANT.

"Charlie gonna eat your hair!"

She takes an awful lot from these two fellas. 

Can you spy Jack's fat lip and Jude's fat nose?  Weekend casualties.

Speaking of the boys, Jack told Jude he was his best friend the other day.  It touched my heart. ... A few hours later he told his toy rhino that he was his best friend, and the giraffe, and the lion ...  But really, he does love his "little buddy" Jude. 

"Cheeee!"

While they're not so good at sharing toys or getting along inside the house, they seem to really hit it off once they're out of doors.  And we've had some great opportunities to spend time outside lately.  I'm all about snow and cozy winters, but I can't deny that I haven't appreciated these warmer temperatures.  I'll take huge winter storms a few years from now, when my boys can put on their own snowpants and keep their gloves on their hands.  For now, the less work it takes to get all three kids out the door the better! 


I took this video specifically to catpure, for all time, Jude's swagger.  I just love that swinging arm!

Lately, Jack's activity of choice is football.  He's actually quite good at catching the ball.  Much better than I was at his age, or any age really.  He also likes it when I chase after him and the ball.  But heaven forbid I actually catch him, or get the ball out of his hands.  He usually stamps his foot, screeches "You can't take the baaaaaallll, Mom!" and then is back to running again the moment he gets it back.

And then at some point the ball ends up in an area of our landscaping that Jack refers to as "the volcano" and suddenly it's my responsibility to retrieve it before the the volcano explodes.  So far, I've made it in time, every time. Phew, this mommy business is so much more extensive than I originally thought!

All this football and volcanic activity can wear a mama out. I may have put the little guys to bed 30 minutes early this evening... because I needed a break. But now that I've mastered covert pigskin rescues, it's time to move on to other dilemmas. Like how to remove a loaf of bread from the oven while holding a sleeping baby. Oh motherhood, thy challenges never cease to exist!

"Balentimes" Day

I had such a sweet and precious Valentine's Day (or Balentimes as Jack would say) this year.  It's funny, Jon's been traveling so much lately, we're approaching our 6 year anniversary, and with three little ones running around I'd hardly call these the "honeymoon" years.  I wasn't expecting this Valentine's to be anything special.  But I'm learning to see things through my kids' eyes.  And especially now that Jack is in preschool and seemingly facing a holiday party every other week, I don't want to miss out on any "teachable" opportunities.  No, we don't have a lot of romance going on around here.  But I don't think that's what St. Valentine had in mind anyway.  His story is fairly hazy, but love abounds in so many forms.  And it's safe to say we have a WHOLE LOT of love in this house.  And I don't mind celebrating that a bit.

Sadly, I didn't get to do much decorating this year.  I'm playing single mom many days, and Julia has finally hit her 4-month growth spurt.  I'm excited to see her flourishing and eager to eat, and after over 2 months of her sleeping through the night I can't really complain about our recent 3am trysts or eating-every-two-hours days.  It will be over soon, but for now it makes for an occupied, tired mama.  So we got one craft accomplished this year: crayon shaving hearts.

Hubby got me tulips a few weeks ago for no apparent reason (which are now no longer blooming) so I was curious to see what he'd be getting me for Valentine's this year...

I was reminded of these on Pinterest but I must give the real credit to my mom, who used to do something similiar with my brothers and I when we were little.  While not exactly a "toddler-friendly" craft, Jack was a little help with shaving the crayons.  And he was right there next to me as I ironed each piece together.  They're perfect hanging in our sunny kitchen window.  And while these are the only holiday decor in the house, it doesn't really matter because truth be told, we all like to wear our hearts on our sleeves these days.  I swear this little lady has had more kisses in her 4.5 months than most girls get in a lifetime.

In school, Valentine's Day was my favorite holiday.  I just loved getting my very own "mail" in that lovely foil-covered shoebox.  I guess I'm kinda a "words of affirmation" girl because I would proudly bring that box home each year, spread the Valentines out over a table, and read each of them over and over again.  More than likely over-analyzing each and every Hallmark cliche sentiment.  I thought really hard and long over the Valentines I handed out, and I was sure each of my fellow classmates did as well.  Surely, "be mine?" meant much more than one initially thought!  And then I carefully slid each Valentine into it's own baseball-card-sleeve that I stored in my awesome Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.  I'm not sure where that Trapper Keeper is today, but I'm quite certain I never threw it out.

So yes, I was looking forward to Jack's Valentines much, much more than he was.  No store-bought sentiments for my guy, I wanted to go all out this year.  I found this cute idea on Pinterest and knew it was perfect for my Monkey-lovin' boy.  Remember "Monkey"?  Well he has multiplied this past year.  We've now added "Mr. Chimp" and "Monchichi" to Jack's bed pals bunch. 

I'm not sure what you'd call this gang.  They're not exactly lovies.  Half the time we forget to put them in bed with Jack.  And while he sometimes uses a missing monkey as an excuse to not go to sleep right away, he'll also just as often refuse to have them in bed with him.  Regardless, we hold a special place in our hearts for monkeys.  We also try to keep things healthy when possible, so I decided to substitute banana runts for banana chips.  I dried them myself in our dehydrator.  Good thing we had plenty of leftovers after the project because they were a big hit with ALL my guys!

Surprisingly, this project turned into a great lesson for my preschooler.  The craft is composted entirely of shapes - a big circle, a heart, an oval, and two little circles.  Jack got to practice identifying his shapes and counting how many we had completed, how many were left, how many had fallen on the floor, etc. 

I would add a dab of glue and he would set the piece on top (and then I would discreetly adjust it when he wasn't looking).  Good times were had by all, and as most of Jack's school friends know, he really is BANANAS for them!

Jack loves stickers ... all kinds.

And we had to squeeze in a project for our favorite Daddy!  The kids and I have never been to his office, but I have no doubt it's a bit drab.  So we wanted to make him something to help brighten up and give him an excuse to show off his beauitful babies. 

I love daddy/office decor.  Up until his retirement this past summer my own dad still had, sitting on his desk at work, a construction paper Pirates baseball cap that I made for him in second grade.  After 15 years it was faded and close to crumbling, but he must have thought it was special!  We decided to make our daddy a handpainted picture frame that he can re-use for many more years to come.

This frame is resting on my Valentine's "bouquet" this year - a blackberry bush!  I'm so excited to plant it!

The beginning of this week was a little tough.  I can't always pinpoint the reason, but some days are just more difficult than others.  But we did manage to have heart pancakes for breakfast (leftover from Jon's batch over the weekend), heart-shaped grilled cheese for lunch, and heart-shaped brownies for dessert at dinner. 

The boys' plates...

... and my plate of scraps.

We even got to take a special meal to some church friends that day.  Which was perfect, because all the talk about hearts gave me ample opportunity to discuss what it means to show love and be kind to others.  And while it's often easy to act loving to our friends and neighbors, sometimes it's a little more difficult to do so at home with, oh let's say, our brothers!!  So that's another thing we've been practicing.  But not just showing love to brothers and sisters, saying it too.  Especially when we may have hurt or upset them. 

Cupcakes for our Small Group dessert.  I tried using a marble to make heart-shaped cupcakes but it didn't work out that well.

So yes, that was our Valentines holiday.  I'm a bit "hearted" out. The hubs is due back any minute and I am very relieved because this single parenting thing is no joke.  It will be nice to have someone else around to clean up the puddle of water on the floor when I forget to lock the refrigerator water dispenser, or another person to help keep food on plates at dinner time, or perhaps I'll even get a few quiet minutes to myself to start planning out the next holiday.  Any ideas on how to tie clovers and leprechauns into being kind to one another?  Because that's the theme we've kinda been stuck on these past few months.  Happy Belated Balentimes from our family to yours!

Cooking With Jude: Waffle Sandwiches

I've mentioned it a gazillion times - Jude's my big helper in the kitchen.  I mean, he's a HUGE help, can't you tell?

I can't wash one dish without him rushing to my side, pulling on my pants, asking for the "stool, stool, stooool?"

So Jude and I thought we'd share one of our favorite recipes: Waffle Sandwiches.  They're great for a healthy breakfast or lunch.  And quick too!  But of course, before you can make the waffle sandwich, you have to make the waffles.  I like to make up a big batch and then freeze the leftover to have on hand whenever I'm in a hurry.  In other words, all the time.

For Christmas, my man bought me a grain mill.  I've been wanting one for a while, even if they're not completely necessary.  So I was sweetly surprised when someone actually took me seriously.  I won't go into why I thought spurging on this appliance was important, there are plenty of other blogs out there to do that.  But if you want to learn more about the benefits of eating "whole grains" and grinding your own grains, you can check out one of my favorite blogs 100 Days of Real Food and the extremely helpful and wonderful Bread Beckers webpage. I didn't go with a top of the line mill, but I've been happy with the one I did get, even if it does tend to send a wheat berry flying across my kitchen every so often.  The boys like it too, probably because it's so loud.  Boys like anything louder than them.

So since having the mill, I've been experimenting with different whole grain recipes, doing lots of breadmaking, and learning about different kinds of grain.  One of our favorite experiments has been Ezekiel flour, based on Ezekiel 4:9, which includes: wheat, barley, spelt, millet, beans and lentils.  (And which, I might add, I do NOT cook over excrement.)  We don't make the exact Biblical recipe, but I do like to substitute the flour in other recipes for a fun, and super healthy, twist - bread, muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc.  I just use whatever grains I have on hand, grind them all up and use that in place of the regular flour.

ALL THAT to say, I've been looking for the perfect whole-wheat waffle recipe, and I think I finally found it.

Whole-Wheat Waffles
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)

Mix together the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and butter/oil.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients just until combined.  Cook on a waffle iron.
I was surprised at how "frothy" the batter was since this is the first time I've made waffles without beating the egg whites first.

Oh, and one other note.  Whenever I'm baking with Jude, I always add a little extra flour since a significant portion of it tends to end up on the floor.

It's a good thing we have our forewoman around to keep things in line.

But let's not stop with just waffles.

As I said, we like to keep these in the freezer to bust out whenever needed, like on Waffle Sandwich Day.  To make a Waffle Sandwich you take two slices of waffle, smother one (or both) with cream cheese, layer on some blueberries, raisins, or on this particular day we spread them with smooshed blackberries, and then top it with the other slice.

My boys eat several of these, so in reality there aren't much leftovers.

This recipe is Jude-approved.  Now if only I could teach him how to do the dishes...

31 Days of Prayer for Your Husband

Almost 6 years ago, I married Mr.-Impossible-To-Buy-A-Gift-For.  And then I got hit with his birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day and our anniversary all in 4 months time.  Let's face it, "gift giving" is just not my love language, or at least not the one I best know how to communicate in.  But the hubster is quite talented in this area (I think it runs in his family).  So I was giddy when he came home last week toting this antique wooden mirror from our favorite Virginia Beach consignment store, simply because I mentioned I wanted some sort of wooden wall art in the sad, empty space on our bedroom wall.  He said it was a "thanks for staying home with the kids while I enjoyed my ocean front hotel room at your favorite beach town" gift.  Ok, so maybe those weren't his exact words.  But the sentiment conveyed.

So anyway, what I'm trying to say is Valentine's Day is next week and I've got nothin' for my guy.  I thought I was going to be off the hook this year but his travel schedule changed and now he will be home that day.  So quick, what are your ideas?  What do I get the "manly man" on the most romantic day of the year?

I'll go first. 

I think one of the best gifts you can give your husband are your prayers.  Ok, so I didn't come up with that one myself, but it sounds good.  I've mentioned the book "The Power of a Praying Wife" before.  I've kept it in my bedstand drawer with plans to read a chapter every night for years now.  But let's face it, I'm just not in that season of life where I can spend a lot of time reading.  I need a different way to keep me on track.  Enter: a prayer calendar.

I pulled the text and scripture references from the Revive Our Hearts webpage, pasted them onto 4x6 cards in a Word document, added the actual scriptures (instead of just the references), and tweaked them a little to make sure the text fit.  Printed them off, laminated them, punched two holes in the top, added two binder rings, slapped on a folded piece of cardboard and wa-la, a daily reminder to lift my husband up in prayer.  And then I went and set it out in early January insteading of waiting until February 14 when I could have passed it off as a "gift."  Doh!

Anyway, it took a bit of time to copy all that text, look up the scriptures, format the font and spacing ... ya know.  And contrary to what my husband thinks, I did not bust this out the day we had a huge fight on purpose.  I had been working on it for a few weeks beforehand.  I just happened to finish it a few hours after the whole "biodegradable diaper flushing/toilet clogging/plunger incident."  Oh, I didn't tell you about that?  Hmm, nevermind then.

Anyway, if you're interested in making one for yourself, I'll save you half the trouble.  Here it is!  Just load your printer up with 31 4x6 index cards and print away. (Make sure you click "download original" in the upper right corner instead of printing right from Google Docs.)  You can make a flip calendar, stick 'em on your fridge, keep them in your purse, make them into a decorative garland ... I'm sure you could dress these up and make them real cute but honestly, I just wanted something that would be clear, concise, and easy to read while cleaning Cheerios out of the kitchen drain.

Now obviously, if your guy is anything like mine, he'll probably appreciate the prayers, but not be so crazy about a gift that's really for yourself.  Which brings us back to square one and back to me being stuck!  Since we're down to just 5 days it needs to be homemade, at Target, or available on Amazon with my Prime 2-day shipping.  Let me know what you come up with and we'll pray the hubs doesn't conduct his quarterly review of my blog for another week!

Overtaken

The Little Miss is 4 months old now.  So that means it was somewhere around a year ago that we found out some surprising news.

I like to use the word "surprise" instead of "unplanned," "unexpected", or "oops" ... I mean, we planned on having another baby, and we certainly hoped we'd have a daughter one day.  Some babies are born a few months early, Julia was just born about a year early. 

It's no secret, I wasn't exactly thrilled when I found out the news.  I could come up with all sorts of excuses to justify how I really felt.  But the truth is, I'm not proud of my initial reaction, and I hope my daughter never, ever thinks that she wasn't wanted or was an inconvenience.  Because, along with her brothers, Julia is one of the greatest joys of my life.  God has been dictating her steps since one unprecise moment in January 2011.  As she gets older, I hope she realizes that her little life was God-ordained from the start and will continue to be that way 'til the end. 

Adorable knit hat - $1.49 at the thrift store.

But something changed in me between the time I first found out we were "expecting" (ha!) again and the time we decided to start sharing our news.  Soon after that fateful day, the Lord brought a scripture to mind and it's the one I have repeated to myself most often over the past year, especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed and ill-equipped.  Deuteronomy 28:2 says, "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God." 

I remember the first time I heard this verse, really heard it.  I was a senior in high school and a visiting pastor prayed over me and somewhere in the middle of it I can still hear his heavily accented voice saying, "and ohhhhh the blessings shall overtake you!! ..."  And you can imagine what little old senior-in-high-school self thought of that.

"Hello, awesomeness!  Bring it on blessings!!  A house too big I have to hire a cleaning service?  So many cars I have to give them away?  More money than I know what to do with?  Here I am Lord, use me, overtake me with your BLESSINGSSSSS!!!"

Ahem.  Perhaps I should have read a little further in verse 4 where it say, "...Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb..."
Because, let me just tell you what being overtaken by blessings really means, at least in my current stage of life ...

It means being overtaken by diapers, and dirt, and baby-snot wiped on your pants.  It means overtaken by laundry, groceries, and all those little things that supposedly occupy and entertain our little ones.  It means being overtaken by sleepless nights, zombie-state days, and utter disorganization.

But it also means being overtaken by kisses, and hugs, and the soothing peace of a baby sleeping on your chest.  It means overtaken by laughter, tears of joy, and many, many moments I wish I could bottle up and save forever.  It means being overtaken by time, which is either always moving too slow or too fast. It means being overtaken by responsiblity, the sheer vastness of this task, and the smallness I feel at facing it. 

Because one year ago God had a very special, beautiful little girl on his mind.  And for reasons which I'll never know, He chose me to be her mama.  Despite all our flaws, inadequacies, and wrong desires, God gave Jon and I His greatest gift - LIFE.

And I must say, in the past four months since her birth, it is that thought which overtakes me the most. 

Pinspired

The best thing that's happened to me between my last two babies is ... my smartphone.  Love that thing.  Because while everyone else is downstairs laughing and having fun, and I'm upstairs nursing an easily distracted baby, I can still check with my friends on Facebook.  Or while my boys are running laps around the room or racing cars over the couch, and I'm sitting there holding a baby, I can keep up with my work email, or take a few turns in "Word With Friends."  And when I'm up feeding a baby in the wee hours of the morning, when all the rest of the world is sleeping and not updating Facebook or Twitter, or taking turns in Words With Friends, I have Pinterest.  Because Pinterest is the second best thing that's happened to me between my last two babies.

And so, since my hubby was out of town most of this week and the kids and I all had colds, and Jude has been getting me up at night for no apparent reason...  And because we were mostly in survival mode and just trying to make it through 'til bedtime, just letting dishes pile up in the sink, laundry pile up in the hampers and dirt pile up on the rugs... I don't have many pictures or stories from the week.  Instead, I'll share a few of my latest Pinterest inspired projects around the house.

Probably the most "pretty" of my projects, I made this felt rosette wreath for the winter months.  I wanted something to hang on my door after Christmas and before Valentine's day, that still exuded the feel of winter.  I love this wreath, but unfortunately it doesn't work on the front door since it's not weatherproof.  That's okay, I kinda like it in front of the mirror.  And that means I'll just have to find a new idea for the front door.

We're having some houseguests over this weekend so I'm trying to get the place all shaped up.  That includes following my husband around the house and nagging him to hang up that picture that's been sitting on the floor for weeks now.  Like this sweet Jane Austen quote my friend Megan crafted for Julia's room:

I also finally updated my kids photo shelf to include our third child.

Okay, who am I kidding?  I've got nothing to hide.  This is what's really going on beneath that lovely photo shelf.

And I spray painted this frame from our storage space to show off our little family.  It's not exactly from Pinterest, but the font I used for the captions is, along with the font I used on our Christmas card greeting.  I got them, along with a bunch of  of other fantastic, fun fonts from here.

And of course, the house needs to be clean for our guests.  That's been nearly impossible this week while my wingman was gone, but I have big plans to tackle it all tomorrow with lots of new ideas from Pinterest.  I'm starting to get into making my own cleaners, natural remedies, vintage concoctions, etc.  So I took some Christmas money and purchased a few essential oils to get my little practice started. 

He thinks he's painting, but really he's scrubbing the grody light switches.

Just a few days of sharing a bathroom with a potty-trained little boy will have you re-thinking your bathroom cleaning routine.  And by "potty-trained" I mean "3-foot-radius-around-the-potty-trained."  And then there's the toothpaste, spilled soap, water marks, etc. It's not like I actually enjoy cleaning my bathroom, and I certainly don't want to do it every day.  But I also don't need the regular reminder that I'm the only adult around for the majority of the time.  It's also nice to have a quick, easy way to spruce things up when you know someone is stopping by.  Enter: homemade ready wipes.  Thanks to my overwhelming supply of old hospital receiving blankets, I have plenty of reuseable "wipes" to store under the bathroom sink.  A quick swipe with one of these and the toilet or sink are fresh and clean again.

One of my favorite blogs for natural alternatives around the house is http://www.diynatural.com/.  A lot of homemade cleaner recipes call for essentail oils, and while not necessarily "essential" they certainly add a boost of cleaning power.  But if you don't want to invest in oils, I did find a great alternative - orange-infused vinegar!  All you do is stick your orange peelings in a jar (this time of year we always have oranges around!) and fill the jar with white vinegar.  Give it a few shakes every once in a while and in a few weeks - wa-la, a powerful cleanser!  I use this in place of regular white vinegar in any cleaning recipe.  I love it on my wood floors.  Yes, it smells a touch like vinegar, but it also has a little citrusy scent.  The combination just seems fresh to me!

The one on the left is in-process.  The one on the right is from last winter

I mentioned a while back that I was experimenting with homemade laundry detergent.  I'm still trying to tweak my formula.  It seems okay for me, but I like unscented detergent.  Jon hates it because he prefers to SMELL clean a mile away.  And it doesn't get the job done on the boys' really messy clothes.  I'm hoping a clothesline this spring will help with some of that but for now we're in laundry limbo.  My original attempt at homemade dishwasher detergent is still a smashing success and has been fabulously cleaning my dishes for months now!

One other fantastic cleaning tip I found on Pinterest was for my stove burners.  I didn't even realize they were dirty until I saw this blog and pictures of what they are supposed to be like.  Unfortunately, this task involves ammonia.  I've never cleaned with ammonia before, and went out and bought it special just for this chore.  Conclusion: It's nasty.  My husband was complaining about the fumes from the floor below!  Supposedly it works well on the oven too, maybe I'll try it the next time we go on vacation and no one is home to breathe it in! 

Left - before, right - after.  I was in too much of a hurry to scrub so mine aren't as clean as they could be.

I know what you're thinking.  Nice burners Janine, but your tile countertops could really use a good scrub too.  I know, I know.  It's next on the list.  Because fortunately I have the solution to that problem also on Pinterest, you can find it along with other cleaning ideas at http://pinterest.com/j9tillman/squeaky-clean/. 

One of my most successful experiments was homemade hair gel.  As a curly girl, I've been struggling to find an effective (and affordable) hair gel since Suave stopped making their spray gel while I was back in college.  Last week, I found it: 1 teaspoon gelatin, 1 cup water and a few drops of lavendar for a nice refreshing scent.  While this gel was okay as a "solid" I prefer spray gel.  So I just put it in an old bottle, filled the rest with water and shook it up.  And so, for less $.30, I have an entire bottle of spray gel.  And it works well too!

Speaking of hair, I don't use shampoo very often.  I read this blog article early last year and it's been baking soda and vinegar (and occasionally a deep conditioner) ever since.  I actually like my hair much better without shampoo. It's more compatible with my curls and easier on my wallet! 

Around the same time I stopped using shampoo I started the Oil Cleansing Method.  I like it, I think it's wonderful, but when I started doing it I only had two kids.  Sad, but true, I just don't have time to pamper my face.  So while I don't use it much currently, it's certainly on my list of lifelong practices.

And while we're on the subject of bathing, I can't leave out my little sweeties!  I made up this baby body and hair wash today and Julia has already tested it out and deemed it lovely!

I'm totally into foaming pumps now.  My sister-in-law mentioned something about them when she was visiting.  Even if you don't make your own soaps it's still a great way to stretch out what you do have because you can water it down.  Plus it's perfect for my kids who never have the patience to really work up a lather!

And I've fallen in love with coconut oil! Amazon was running a good deal on it the other week, and then I found this site that lists 160 uses for coconut oil and figured it was worth a try!  I use it on my face and hands.  I use it on my kids.  I use it on Julia's cradle cap.  Both Jack and I use it to treat keratosis.  I use it to remove make-up.  I use it in my cooking and baking or in smoothies.  And I've only just scratched the surface!

Anyway, if you're looking for more natural bath and beauty tips you can check out my board at http://pinterest.com/j9tillman/au-naturel/.

While Pinterest is full of great ideas for cleaning and organizing my mom, it's no replacement for my master cleaner and organizer - the hubs.  He's home now, just walked in the door.  All is right in the world.  I can sleep well knowing my life will be back on track tomorrow morning ... and that we'll have clean dishes to eat off of and washed clothes to wear by the afternoon.  It's clear, I can't do this parenting thing alone!  So glad I don't have to.