Homemade BROWN Sugar Scrub

Well, like I said, I've got some posts to catch up on. 

My main reason in doing a blog is for myself. So I can remember what I do, how I do it. So I can always have documentation of the wonderful things I do with my family and my friends. I hope this is something the girls and I will have to always remember what we've done. And, I hope it never happens, but if something "happens" to me, they'll have something that I wrote. Something that showed them who their Mama was and also for me to look back on as they grow older!!!!! :D I suppose that's why I also update my Twitter account and Facebook page with what we do almost daily. Pictures, etc. 

ANYWAY. I did receive for Christmas (from my Mom) a container of sugar scrub that SHE made. Now, my Mom is pretty amazing but it wasn't something I'd expect her to make. I was thoroughly impressed. Also, I used it and I really enjoyed it. So, I thought I'd make some myself someday. 

It just so happens that last spring sometime (no joke, that long ago!) I purchased a box of jars w/lids. I knew they'd be perfect for SOMETHING. And there are many things I have planned for this box of jars. In fact, I whipped one out tonight to put my brown sugar scrub in. Not only was it cute, and functional, it was the PERFECT size!!!!! ;) 

Here's my FINISHED product.

• RECIPE for [Coconut] Brown Sugar Scrub

• 1C Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
• 2 tbsp honey 
• *splash of your choice "flavour" -I used coconut (it's what I had) extract

*brown suga ;)  --plus

*olive oil  +

*this little man

(+*coconut --- or any other "flavour" or NO flavour whichever)

+ put into a little jar of some sort, such as this! one

= wonderful scrub for your personal use or a cute, little gift for someone else! :)

  

*My not-so-awesome skills to make it "pretty"

Deviled Eggs?

I've been inspired to start cooking and baking more. I used to LOVE doing it. But, for most people now a days in this crazy, busy, hustle-bustle, sort of life...... it's HARD!!! And, I don't have someone at home to help me take these kids or occupy them while I do things. SO, even when I do try to do something that I think is "simple" I've got one or two kids either bickering or hanging on my leg or whatever!! Anyway, so I've decided to start ignoring those little hoodlums (jk, they "help" me or I find something AWESOME to occupy them, like a good book or a simple activity). Today, I dabbled in something I've always wanted to make.

DEVILED EGGS

See, my oldest Little Miss S, asked that I make some hard-boiled eggs (Robin's Eggs? She called them, until I corrected her ever so sweetly, and explained robins eggs are the little, blue eggs that robins lay in their nests..... these are, in fact, called "hard boiled eggs" because you boil them, and they get hard?)

So, I decided I'd take a stab at making some deviled eggs. I love them, never made them.

I pinterested some recipes. All are different, too. I don't get it. How can one thing have SOOOOO many recipes??!?!?

So, I gathered these ingredients (a combination of what I had seen in the posts- because, apparently, I can't stick with JUST one recipe). 

• salt
• pepper
• yellow mustard
• honey (my Grandpa's very own from his bees, at that!)
• and balsamic vinegar (??? IDK what it is and how I had some!!! bahaha)

I only did two eggs (and only took pics of one of them, after I scarfed the first one down). 

I just eye-balled it. I wish I could say that I very accurately measured everything out and could share the delish recipe. BUT I can't. SO there's a pic....

-up close

AND that's that! I got started. I did more, too! But I'll write about that later. :)

-A

Mom Shame of MY OWN!!!!

SO.... I just read this blog post about a bunch of Mom's "mom shaming" and writing down their "secrets" lol. It cracked me up!!!!! And, I was right in the middle of my VERY OWN "mom shame". So, I did one myself. :) 

ENJOY!!!!

Moms out there----- 
Let's hear your "Mom Shames". :P

In my defense, (is that OK to do???)--- We made Valentine's Today, baked brownies, played babies, watched "tangled", went to the grocery store, made dinner together, played Candyland- twice, Played a new "math" game (WHICH I will share later!), read stories, made and played in a tent (Which broke, at least 3 times, and we had to re-build), they did my hair FOR A LOOOOONG (and painful) half hour or more, etc. etc. etc.... I was SPENT!!!!

:) Well, LATER

-A

Bathtime FUN!!!!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. I don't know what made me love holidays so much. My favorite holiday???? I think I told my class this last Thursday/Friday. I love all holidays that end in "day". I got a few blank stares from little 4 and 5 year-olds. I explained.... "I like Valentine's DAY, Groundhog DAY, St. Patrick's DAY, Christmas DAY,  Easter DAY, President's DAY, and.... most of all... my birthDAY!!!" :) 

It's the truth, too.

I'm all about holidays. And this weekend, the subject came up again. I was in the kitchen with my Mom and I said "...because it's Valentine's WEEK!!!" She gave me a strange look. I'm not sure where I got my excitement for holidays, because it's APPARENTLY not from her. ;) She thought I was crazy. Or so said the look she gave me. 

But it's the truth! This girl LOVES her holidays. Any excuse to celebrate. And, if there's not a holiday, I'm just celebrating life with whatever I can find. No reason for being a stick-in-the-mud.

One thing that I found is really fun is making simple every-day tasks and activities exciting. Such as: BATHTIME. 

My youngest was the hardest to get into that bathtub. She would put up a FIGHT every.single.time. So, I saw on Pinterest, somewhere, all these bath activities. It worked, too! She didn't fight to go in!--- in FACT, she fought when it was time to get out. ;)And from there, I just continue to do all these spin-offs. 

We have "themed" baths from time-to-time.

• "Art Bath"
• "Princess Bath"
• "Math Bath"
• "Alphabet Bath"
• "Dinosaur Bath"
• "Cars Bath"
• "Paint Bath"
• "Fluffy Bath"
• "Christmas Bath"
• ...etc.

And last week, we made a "Valentine's Bath".

*Little Miss I and her heart!!!*

*Playing and moving around and organizing her little hearts*

*Swishing the bubbles around!!!!*

*"PURPLE heart!!!" she says*

*Little cheesy grin and her alfalfa shampoo hair!*

I made little foam hearts, which are self explanatory. I bought some foam pieces from the store, cut them in heart shapes, and they're wonderful. They stick to the walls of the bath, they float around the top of the water, and we even wrote words on them like "Isla", "Sienna", "Mom", "Love", "Heart", etc. You can do whatever you'd like! You could write site words, numbers, shapes, letters, whatever.... and make it a little "mini lesson" in the tub. We didn't do that with this one, we just used those love-y dove-y words. :)

One time, I put a pink color tab in the water. One time, we put suds in the water. And who knows what'll be next. :) 

But it sure is fun!!!!


---A

Valentine's In Our House!!!

We've hit the Valentine's madness here in our apartment. This crazy mama decided not to go with the "traditional" card and candy Valentine's this year. I'm wondering, right now, if I made the right decision!!!! JEEEEEPS!! This is time- CONSUMING. 

We are making Valentine's for all 3 of my classes at school that I teach, for Miss S's classroom, and we couldn't leave Miss I's daycare out of the picture!!!!! (that would be CRAZY talk)... We are talking..... approximately 75 Valentine's to get through.

*There's Miss S working in our big pile of VALENTINE'S*

So, here we are. Working LITTLE by LITTLE and making progress each hour that goes by. Also, my printer is out of black ink and I'm not sure if I have a place in town to buy the right ink, SO.... we're working with what we've got.

• Ribbon.
• Our little party supplies. (We got these from Target and Wal-Mart)
• *I'll explain/you'll be able to see what we used for what*
• *Bubbles, Magnifying glasses, Pencils, Stickers, Crazy Straws, Crayons*
• Markers.
• Crayons.
• Colored pencils.
• Colored Sharpee Markers.
• Hole Punch.
• Plain, white card stock (I thought I had colorful, fun card stock too!!!!! wrong).

Like I said, we are not finished. But here's what we've come up with SO FAR.

*sticker packs (a local "teacher" store), + home-made "Valentine, I'm "stuck" on you!" tags* - we just used double-sided tape to attach them on the back.

*Crazy straws + our little "Valentine, I'm 'crazy' about you!" tag*

These straws were found at Wal-Mart, I do believe.

cut slits in the top and bottom of tag to slip the straw through

*Mini Bubbles (Target) + round "Valentine, you BLOW me away..." tags.*

Attached to two bottles of bubbles with cute, Valentine's Day ribbon.

And, during this little fiasco so far this morning..... Miss I thought she'd go sit on my bed and play the iPad for a little. (A little squirt can only go for SO long, right?!)... and she ended up clonking it under her eye somehow. She was laying on her back holding the iPad above her head to use it.... So, I took this super cute picture of her while the band-aid she had asked for lasted. (Why is that, anyway, that they beg and beg and beg for a band-aid..... and it lasts no more than 30 seconds..??)

:)

That's all for NOW!!!!! More on our OTHER Valentine's LATER. :) Time to bake some Valentine's Day BROWNIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--A

I just want to show you all some amazing things you can do at home or in the classroom. This is something I do in the classroom periodically but I should probably do it at home because it is SOOOOOOOOOOO much FUN!!!!!!!!

You take baking soda (cheap!!!!$$$) and just dump the stuff in a container of some sort. Here I have it shown in some little baking tins provided by a parent in my classroom. I just poured some [baking soda] into the bottom.

Then, I put some water/vinegar (it calls for only vinegar, but I didn't have very much and so I did about 1/2 and 1/2 water to vinegar solution) and then, added a few drops of liquid water color. You could also add food coloring. I have done both, and they work the same way. 

I put little droppers into the colored vinegar solution. Here, I had some simple ones that I had ordered from Lakeshore. But, if you're at home you could also use medicine droppers. And we just go. to. town. :) 

They drop the colored vinegar solution into the tin of baking soda. It fizzes, it suds, it bubbles, and it does other fun things which the kids come up with on their own. I love hearing the words they use to describe it. 

And since it's different colors, it's even MORE fun. You can talk about mixing colors, you can draw pictures into the baking soda. You can do whatever you want! We even made teeny holds, and squirt our vinegar into the middle an watched it sneak up on us. 

It is also fun to play with. You can pick up the solution and play with it a little bit. Talk about the texture with the kids. But once it gets soupy due to playing with it so much, it's not so easy to pick up. BUT the kids still find it fun, so don't let that stop you. :)

Mmmmmm

Nothing like some gourmet cupcakes, right?!?!?!

Went to Cedar Falls (UNI) to visit the little sister for her 21st birthday. Found us a nice, little cupcakery. WONDERFUL!!!!!!

Ever in the Cedar Falls area or Waterloo, OR West Des Moines, hit up Scratch Cupcakery. :) DELISH. 

*me (front, white coat), sister (black coat), brother (back ;)), and Miss S (in the front trying to run ahead into the van.)*

*I got Wedding Day, then there is the red velvet, some dark chocolate one, Princess, another chocolate one, a chocolate mint, AND vodka red bull. I only had the Wedding Day and a bite (or two or three) of the Red Velvet.*

This MAMA got to spoil herself a little. Here's me the morning of Friday, February 1st. NOTE: The length of hair. :) 

Time to go get my first "real" haircut in 2-3 years. I'll admit it..... I cut my OWN hair. MY OWN HAIR! Yikes! I gave myself my own bangs, I cut my own hair all around. I gave myself any layers. And I am putting that all to rest. ForEVER. 

Why????

I forgot how WoNDERFUL it is to just go in and pamper myself  a little. I know it might not be considered "pampering" to many. But it totally is to me! I'm not one to generally get sitters, and I'm terrible at making appointments (for ANYthing). I just figured I'd do it myself as long as I can. :D ---WRONG. :D

NO MORE.

I loved it. I loved the hair cut. I loved the interaction. I loved the shampoo. I loved the "temple massage" and the smell of that stuff. I also loved the smell of the salon, in general. I loved it all. :) I even went and got myself a little bag of "product".... 

*my cute, little bag*

*Probably can't tell... BUT my new, shorter hair!* whoop!!!

:) love it.

going back soon!