I made it myself!

Well I'm finally back with some more updates to my "Things I Going to Try" post.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've had some really great success, and some epic failures.

Here's the list:
Quilt- Complete!

Homemade poptarts- Not yet

Homemade hand lotion  Complete- This was a WILD success!!  I am absolutely in love with this lotion!  I honestly don't think that I've ever bought lotion that I've like any more than this.  I'm in LOVE with it!  I followed the directions exactly as they're written on this website, and it turned out perfectly.  It's thick, rich, moisturizes beautifully, and it smells GREAT!  I used eucalyptus and spearmint essential oils, and the lotion has a wonderfully refreshing scent. I would definitely recommend this recipe!

Homemade Vaporub  Complete! This turned out really nicely.  I used the basic idea from this website, but I turned it into a salve using a combination of beeswax and coconut oil.  I also used a lot, A LOT of eucalyptus oil to give the strong scent that we're accustomed to with Vick's.  Obviously there's no menthol in this- so the scent isn't quite the same, but it's still a very nice rub.

Homemade beeswax chapstick Complete! I've already posted about this, but I'm still loving, LOVING, loving this.  It works perfectly, it's cheap, and I can make 10 tubes in 10 minutes or less.  The only thing that I've changed since I posted about this is that I now use a medicine dropper to fill my tubes and it works WAY better! 

Homemade all-natural bodywash Complete! Mediocre success.  I really do like this bodywash.  It lathers nicely, it's moisturizing, it smells nice, and it's all natural.  Big time bonus- it's been great on Owen's sensitive skin!  So what makes this an only mediocre success? It's the consistency.  I wish that I had a nicer way to describe this, but the only accurate description that I can come up with is, snot.  I have to shake the bottle before trying to use it because the stuff sort of solidifies in the bottle and becomes impossible to squeeze.  After shaking, it comes out nicely-- just snot-like.  I'm confident that we'll continue to use it, but I'll probably go back and mess with the formula a bit-- maybe add a little more water??

Artisan Bread in Five minutes per day - Not yet.
Make Homemade marshmallows- Not yet

Make liquid hand soap Complete!  Mediocre success.  This has the exact same problem as the body wash.  It's snotty.  It is all-natural, liquid soap though- so we'll continue to use it.

No-Poo shampoo method -  Complete/On-going! Wild success!  I've been no-pooing for 4 months now and it's going great.  I do use a pea sized amount of tea tree conditioner after I use the baking soda to "wash" my hair.  This seems to be a good combo for my hair.  I will definitely continue this unless I find some reason not to.

Homemade deodorant Complete!  EPIC FAIL!   Unfortunately, this didn't go so well.  I tried a couple of different formulas but with very limited success.  The main issue that I was having was with the scent.  I used cocoa butter in my original formula, but I couldn't stand having my armpits smell like chocolate.  It was just too weird.  Then I tried adding in lemongrass and sweet orange oil and I came up with a concoction that smelled exactly like Pledge furniture polish.  While I love the clean smell of Pledge on my woodwork, I couldn't tolerate in my pits.    I also had some sensitivity issues from the baking soda.  I have found a couple of other recipes that I would like to try, so stay tuned. 

DIY tank top/tshirt dress  Not yet-  Sara and I will be attempting this as soon as school is out. 

Two BONUS things I've attempted are:

Scented bath salts-  I read a couple of tutorials on how to do this, but basically it involves pouring some essential oils in epsom salt, shaking it up, and storing it in an airtight container.  I used eucalyptus and spearmint oils trying to replicate my favorite bath salts from Bath and Body Works, but the scent really isn't the same. It's nice and a gazillion times cheaper though, so I will continue to use these.

Mary's Magic Mouthwash:  If you know me, you'll know that I frequently bite the inside of lips and cheeks.  I get angry sores in my mouth that don't heal up FOREVER.  If I let them go untreated, I'll even end up getting fevers from them. Fortunately, my awesome dentist has been kind enough to call in scripts for a little gem called, Mary's Magic Mouthwash for me every time I bite my cheek.  Well, while we were in NC, I bit my cheek and I was worried about it getting bad so I called Dr. S who graciously agreed to call in a script to the CVS on the island.  Unfortunately, when I went to pick it up, I discovered that apparently in NC, pharmacists have no real training (?!?!) and cannot make compounds without the doctors telling them how to do it.  My dentist does not know the formula seeing as he is not a pharmacist, so I was unable to get the mouthwash.  I was worried and in a pinch, so I consulted two dear friends, Todd (a pharmacist with actual training) & Google.  Between the two of them, we worked out a formula of over-the-counter stuff to try to heal my mouth.  Miracles of all miracles, this stuff WORKED!  So now, I can concoct this at home without having to fork over $48 every time I bite my mouth. 
This is the combo that I used:
-Baking soda & salt dissolved in water- swish and cleanse the area.  Spit
-Rinse with a 50% hydrogen peroxide 50% water solution. Spit.
-Mix 1/2 T of Milk of Magnesia and 1/2 T of children's liquid benadryl. Swish over the area and allow to coat the sore. 

That's it!  I bought all of the required ingredients (Actually had most of them on hand, even on vacation) for under $10.  This actually healed the sore in 2-3 days.  I couldn't be happier with this excellence by accident.

North Carolina

In typical Stephanie style, this post is coming about a month after the trip was made, but at least I'm getting it posted...

For Owen's spring break, the boys and I headed to North Carolina with my mom and her best friend.  It was such a fun, relaxing trip and I really enjoyed the Carolina shore.  I've been to several beaches along the Atlantic coast, but this was my first time in North Carolina, and we really loved it.  The weather was fairly nice for being so early in the year.  It was a little cool somedays, but really, I can't complain. 

The boys also did an amazing job riding in the car for such a long period of time.  Eli slept quite a bit, but I was really proud of how well behaved they were being strapped in for so long!

View from our condo's balcony

Even with the cooler temps, the boys still got into the ocean almost every day.  I don't know how they could stand it, but they seemed to have a blast!  Playing on the beach and at the resort pool were their favorite parts of the trip.

We named this seagull, "Grandpa Larry". 

We also were lucky to meet lots of super nice people.  There were tons of fishermen out on the beach every day and it was fun to see what kinds of interesting things they would pull in.  They were always gracious about showing the boys their catch.  We especially enjoyed seeing the puffer fish; they were such cute, funny little creatures. 

We also saw lots of sharks and stingrays caught.  The boys loved getting to touch these critters before they were thrown back.

 We spent one day out at Fort Macon state park.  The boys enjoyed seeing all of the canons and running around through the beautifully maintained fort.

 We did have one rainy day, and we made the most of it by going to the North Carolina State Aquarium.  It was very cool aquarium with several interactive exhibits.  Eli particularly enjoyed seeing the young sea turtles that are being rehabiltated to release.  Owen liked petting the sting rays and picking up the crabs in the touch tank. 

As per usual for Eli, he played hard every day and by dinner time, he was completely pooped out.  We would carry him into the restaurant each night and would do everything we could to wake him before his dinner came.  Some nights it worked. Some nights, not so much...

 Some of the other highlights of our trip were watching dolphins from our condo, catching mole crabs in the surf, and eating at some wonderful restaurants.  Our favorite was a place called, Amos Mosquitos.  The boys got to make s'mores on a table top fire, and scored awesome tattoos.  It was big hit!

Our last morning in NC was the Saturday before Easter.  Our resort hosted a big Easter egg hunt, and the boys loved being able to participate before being packed back into the car. 

Eli after enjoying some Easter chocolate

 Boys in the living room before we took left.

 It was a wonderful trip and I really hope to return with Matthew some day. 

Brain Dump

I'm bummed that it's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged- but it's just because the weather (for the most part) has been so glorious!  We've been playing outside all day- every day and hitting the hay exhausted every night!  I'm loving the fact that there were bare feet running in the back yard on February 29th!  Bare feet in February is unheard of around here!

The other reason that I've not been around much to blog is because I was a work widow for a couple of weeks.  We decided a few weekends ago that we wanted more chickens and therefore needed to build a new, more predator-proof coop.  Matthew jumped right into action designing and building my new coop, but it's come at the cost of him working on it until late every night, so I've been on dinner/dishes/bath/bedtime detail alone.  Which is fine, and I totally realize that lots of ladies do these things by themselves all of the time, but it makes me appreciate how much my husband does to help me around here. He's pretty amazing folks!

The coop is turned out beautifully!  It's actually a chicken tractor so it's portable, and we'll be able to move it around so the girls always have access to fresh grass.   We have four hens, two of which are already laying.  I'm so excited to have chickens again, and boys are thrilled!  It's wonderful to have fresh eggs again!

In other news, I fell down our stairs {again} last week and completely shattered my phone! It was in my back pocket when I fell and it did not survive.  I survived with a little bruising and soreness.

As for the boys...

Owen

Owen has been great these past couple of weeks.  He's surprising all of the time with the things that he knows and can do.  I feel like his confidence to try new things and figure things out is improving as well.  He's been cracking us up with his lengthy explanations and marathon stories.  One windy evening as we were sitting  at dinner we were commenting oh how loudly the wind was whistling through the house since we had had some windows cracked.   Out of nowhere, Owen says, "It sounds like a Whistle Pig Wednesday to me!".  Whaaa?  We all cracked up and he simply said that groundhogs are called whistle pigs and it was Wednesday, so it's a Whistle Pig Wednesday.

All righty then.

Then a couple of days later, I was cleaning up a couple of our old strollers to sell.  Eli couldn't understand what I was doing, and I heard Owen "explaining" it to him in their room. 
Owen:   "Eli, Mommy is going to sell those strollers to someone else."
Eli: "What's 'sell' mean?"
Owen: "It's when someone gives Mommy money to buy something.  Like if she wanted to sell you, she'd put you on Craigslist and someone would email her and then she'd take you somewhere to meet them so they wouldn't know where we live and they'd give her money for you.  That's selling."
Eli: (sobbing) "I don't want to get selled"

I probably should have broken in sooner, but I just had to hear what he was going to come up with.  I assured Eli that we weren't selling him or his brother-- only strollers, and all was right with the world again. 

Last Sunday, we got another special surprise from Owen when he shouted from the stairs, "Hey! I didn't know we were getting a swimming pool in the basement!"  Yep, we had quite the flood down there. Our sump pump had gone out {again} and we had a basement full of water.  So we spent all of Sunday carrying stuff out of there, replacing a sump pump and drying everything out again.  Fun stuff! 

At the beginning of March Madness,  I helped Owen fill out an NCAA bracket so that he could participate in March Madness with us.  It was hilarious to listen to his reasoning for choosing each team.  All teams in or with proximity to Indiana got precedence.  Teams in states where he has been, is going to, or has "heard of" also received special treatment.  Finally, teams "with Jesus" also received priority status.  St. Mary's was the only team to receive this distinction.  Notre Dame did not receive "Jesus points", but did get points for proximity :)  After night one of the tournament, he was 13/16!  He actually picked the Lehigh and Norfolk State upsets!

Last Tuesday, we lucked out by getting some sweet Pacer's tickets.  We were going to take both boys to the game, but Eli ended up not feeling well that day and asked to stay home with our neighbors.

 It worked out wonderfully because it's a rare occasion that we get to take either boy out without the other.  It's a special treat to have mom and dad to themselves.
Owen was so sweet and had such a great time!  He also got to have cotton candy for the very first time and it was a BIG deal! 

Eli

Eli has been his usual goofy self.  He has been playing outside everyday, and even on the warmest of days the child does NOT want to take off his fleece Mickey jammies. His uniform of choice is Fleece Mickey jammies and rain boots.  If you're wondering why he would choose this, he cleared it up for Grandma Dee the other day when she asked why he was wearing his boots.

"Me wearing my boots cuz me wook awesome in my wainboots."

So there you go.  Wouldn't you want to wear the same thing every day if you *knew* you looked awesome?  

The child has finally reached his "terrible twos" at three and a half.  He's still very good for the most part but he's become more argumentative and always has a reason for why he shouldn't have to listen to us.  It doesn't matter what we say, his response is, "But me just_____________" 

For example, we could say, "Eli please close the door." 

"But me just wooking outside."  will be his response.

He hasn't figured out that we aren't looking for an explanation, and cannot figure out why his "explanations" are getting him sent to his room.

One of my favorite things about this kid is his ability to fall asleep in the oddest of places.  I really do not understand how he can do this, but I have so many pictures of him sleeping in odd ways/places.  These two pics are from these past two weeks.



I swear I need to make a book of pictures of the odd ways that he sleeps.  It just cracks me up! 


Also, just a few days ago he stopped saying "me".   I'm so sad, because now his language seems so much more grown up.  Now he would say, "I wearing my boots cuz I wook awesome in my wainboots."  I guess that it's good that he corrected that before starting preschool this fall, but it's still sad.  It was a trademark Eli thing.

In other news, I've been working on some of my other "to dos"  and we've had some great successes and some epic fails.  I'll update on those soon.  

Well there's our last few weeks in a nutshell.  It's been fun, crazy and busy.  The chicken coop is done, so I hope to be back to blogging more frequently soon. 

Four Little Loves

The best part of my weekend!!

I love these little dudes!