Cheerio Fine Motor Skills

I stumbled upon this activity one winter day a few years ago on Pinterest and I love busting it out on days when it is cold and no fun and the kids are going crazy.

Today, life is happening.  We have work being done on the house, my husband is on conference calls non-stop, the bus didn’t pick up the kids, and there isn’t enough coffee to keep me sane.  And the girl is pulling everything out and climbing on me and clinging.

So, desperate times over here.  This activity never fails to give me 5-20 minutes of non-cling time.  Time that can be spent emptying the dishwasher, quietly drinking coffee, or blogging.

And you probably have the materials.

Here is what you need.

~Playdough
~ A stick of dried spaghetti
~ Cheerios

Take the play dough and make a base.  Stick the stick of spaghetti in.  Show your toddler how to put Cheerios on it.  Then show them how to take them off.  Break the stick in half.  Now you have two towers.

All of my kiddos love this activity!!  Enjoy!!!

DIY Fall and Winter Mobile

It is getting nice and chilly here in Connecticut, so I get all nesty and need to do some homey things.  Crafting makes me crazy, so I always try to do something relatively uncomplicated and quick.  My little lady is home with me most days, so I also need something to keep her busy!  This incorporates scavenging for items outside and some fine motor skills like cutting, wrapping, etc…

Ok, so here we go.  Step one:  get yourself a toddler.  Laugh as she attempts to pluck pinecones.  Then do it yourself and discover, it really is hard.  Those suckers are sticky too.

We walked around my backyard and found a stick and some acorns and pinecones along with some pretty grasses.  Then we came inside and got to crafting.  I honestly just tied some jute and wound it around things while Carys played with the acorns and helped me cut the strings.  A bug popped out of a pinecone, so FYI on that situation.  Also, I don’t like to decorate with acorns because one year I tried and there was a maggot situation.  So I just use the tops.  I am sure there is some sort of Martha Stewart solution to this problem, but I am a bit scarred.  So no acorns, just tops.

Then I hung it up and admired my awesome pinterest craftiness.

And because I need to have everything smell yummy, I added some cinnamon bark essential oil to the pinecones and the jute.  Because yum and fall and stuff.  I will probably refresh this every few days or so!  Some others you could add:  nutmeg, pine, balsam fir, or Christmas Spirit.  Or even Black Spruce.  Go crazy!

I love decor that is multi-seasonal, so I will probably keep one up all winter!  Super easy!

Spring Cleaning | Kitchen

I have a love/hate relationship with cleaning.  I hate the idea of doing it and procrastinate until there is no other option left.  Usually it is when I am all caught up on my Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest feeds and there are a million things on the counter.  And when the kids are home it is nearly impossible and redundant.  I realized that in the past, part of it had to do with all of the chemicals in the products.  I HATED washing my floors and seeing my babies walk or crawl over them and then eat the random food items off of the floors.  Sometimes, I would have preferred my floors stay dirty versus washing them with chemical laden products.

There had to be a better way.  So I researched and found out there are all kinds of different natural products that work just as well, if not better, and gave me peace of mind about my kiddos touching them.  All of them are chemical free, which means that they can actually HELP me clean.  Not that that ever happens, but a girl can dream.  And, I sometimes look forward to cleaning because then I get to use my products and when they work as well as these do, I feel like a magical cleaning fairy.

Supplies:
Baking soda
Vinegar
Olive Oil
Liquid Castille Soap
16oz glass bottles
Essential Oils

Here we go.  A nice full list of recipes that will enable you to clean your entire kitchen top to bottom and not fill it with toxic chemicals and will make everything sparkle, if only for 5 minutes until your kids spill random stuff on your floor or open your refrigerator or pour themselves a bowl of cereal.  But, for those 5 minutes, you will be at peace.  Pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy it.

All Purpose Cleaner
I make this one using either citrus essential oils or thieves essential oil, depending on my mood and the level of cleanliness my kitchen has achieved.  If super crazy dirty because the kids have been home for more than three consecutive days and all that I have managed is to make sure everyone survived, I bust out the thieves.  If I have somehow turned into supermom and was able to clean on a daily basis, I use my citrus.  I have blogged about this cleaner in the past, but I thought I would give the info out again because I like when things are all in one place.  This will clean pretty much everything.  Countertops, floors, appliances, tile, glass.  I haven’t met a surface that I haven’t been able to successfully clean with this.

Ingredients:
16oz Glass spray bottle (like this)
White Vinegar
Water
10 drops each of your chosen oils (I love orange, grapefruit, and lemon together or thieves and lemon)

Directions:
Fill bottle 2/3 of the way with water.
Top off with vinegar.
Add 10 drops each of your oils.
Shake and spray.

Cooktop Cleaner
I need to discuss this because I have anger issues with my stove manufacturer.  When we got our lovely sparkly new stove, the only instructions on how to clean it told us to use this chemical laden cooktop cleaner.  And included a TINY sample of it.  And that stuff did NOT work well.  So we tried other “cooktop cleaners” and none of them worked well.  This one.  This homemade one.  Works so well.  And I am so angry because, hey oven manufacturer – in the cleaning instructions, just say use baking soda and vinegar. Stop pushing your toxic chemical crappy product on us.  Ugh.  Anyway, this homemade version – it rocks.

Ingredients:
Baking soda
White vinegar
Glass spray bottle
Grapefruit (or any citrus) essential oil

Directions:
In the glass spray bottle, combine about 1/2c of vinegar and 5 drops of grapefruit essential oil.
Take baking soda and sprinkle it all over the cooktop.
Spray that down with your vinegar mixture and watch it bubble up, because science is fun.
Wait 20 minutes.  You can check your Facebook if you want and catch up on all the stuff you missed by being productive.
Take paper towels and start to wipe it up.  Concentrate on scrubbing the crusty parts.  If you need to, add more spray and really scrub.  This may take some elbow grease.  Think of it as exercise.
Wipe up and as it dries you should see a film covering the cooktop, which is good.  Wipe that off.
If film still remains, spray down with your all purpose spray and watch it sparkle.

*I store my baking soda for this in a shaker jar and have a separate glass spray bottle with the vinegar mixture ready to go


Stainless Steel Cleaner
I posted a picture of this on my Instagram and so many were amazed (@lauraelysephotography is my name if you feel like seeing natural living, my photography, and my kids – I just combo everything, filter out the stuff you don’t want to see).  This is crazy easy.  And it sounds crazy.  But oil dissolves oil, so trust me on this.  I promise it is awesome.
Ingredients:
All purpose spray
Microfiber cloth
Olive oil

Directions:
Spray the surfaces down and wipe off crusty parts.
Take olive oil and pour a bit on the cloth.
Wipe with the grain of the stainless steel.
Buff off if you have time or if it looks oily.
Stand back and call your spouse over to admire the awesomeness that is your appliances.

Sink cleaner
So easy.  You just need water and baking soda.  I am not even going to give you an ingredients list for this one.  Take water and spray your sink down.  Take baking soda and sprinkle it all over the water.  Grab some paper towels and scrub away.  Rinse.  I always dry it off afterwards because it feels satisfying.

Garbage Disposal Cleaner
Another two ingredients one.  Grab some ice and put in the your disposal and then add 2 drops of grapefruit essential oil.  Alternatively, you can also add some citrus peels. Grind everything up.  Enjoy the happy fragrance.

Floor Cleaner
Ok, so you can do this a few ways.  I recently purchased some thieves concentrate cleaner and adore it to pieces.  But if you don’t have that, it is ok.  You can still have the most amazing clean floor without chemicals.

Ingredients:
1 gallon of hot water
3/4 cup vinegar
1 tbs castille soap
15 drops total of essential oils (so if you are using lemon and orange, do 7 drops lemon and 8 drops orange)

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a bucket and mop.  So simple.  Maybe mix them a bit prior to use….yeah, definitely stir them up.

Alternatively, you can use thieves cleaner, which can be purchased from Young Living and that is amazing.  Thieves for all of the cleaning is amazing.

I haven’t yet attempted dish soap or hand soap or dishwasher detergent, but I have plans to do so very soon!

A note about the essential oils I use:  I only use Young Living because they work the best for our family and they are so super pure that I feel very comfortable using them.  So comfortable that I can recommend them to everyone!  If you are interested in purchasing these oils and joining me in some amazing groups with fabulous resources, here is how you would do that:

1. Click over to the sign-up page: https://www.youngliving.com/signup/?site=US&sponsorid=1842761&enrollerid=1842761

2. Select “Sign Up As: Young Living Wholesale Member” (this secures you the 24% off discount on all future orders)

3. The “Enroller ID” and “Sponsor ID” boxes should already be filled in for you. If they aren’t, fill in 1842761 in both spots.

4. Fill out your name, billing address, shipping address, and contact info. (The reason you are asked for your SSN is for tax purposes; if you make over $600/year selling Young Living products, you will receive a 1099 form in the mail, as is required by law. Young Living never shares this info with anyone, and you’re not obligated to sell anything if you do not want to. I promise I wouldn’t lead you astray here!)

5. Create your password and pin which you will use to log in to your account and order your oils.

6. Select your enrollment order. This is where you can specify which starter kit you would like. I recommend the Premium Kit with the Aroma Diffuser.

7. It will ask if you want to sign up for the Essential Rewards program. I recommend saying no to this for now.

8. Agree to Terms & Conditions

9. CONFIRM YOUR ORDER. Some folks miss this step and end up not fully checking out. To confirm, the tool will log you in and it will show you your order again and it will make you enter in your payment information again.

10. Wait for the mailman to arrive! This step is will be agonizing.

Oh, and

11. Please friend me on Facebook so that I can add you to some fun oily Facebook groups! : )

Start

I randomly fell into wanting to live a more natural lifestyle.  It wasn’t intentional, but I am grateful that it happened because I genuinely feel that our family is in a much better place, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

How did I start?  Three years ago, I was watching Good Morning America and Jessica Alba was promoting her book about natural living.  The discussion about laundry detergent and fabric softener really got to me.  I mean, here I was with three kids thinking, “gosh, their clothing does smell amazing, but what IS in that fragrance and how is it affecting them?”  I downloaded the book and began reading.  About chemicals.  About food dyes.  About all of the artificial stuff our bodies, our children’s bodies are bombarded with on a daily basis.  And I never actually thought twice about it.

Well, now I was thinking.  And determined to really limit their exposure to chemicals and toxins, that are really, just completely unnecessary.  I figured I could start simple by making a non-toxic cleaner and some laundry detergent.  When both of those were relatively easy, our conversion to leading a more natural life had begun and I was more than thrilled with how actually easy it is.  I think that is where a lot of us get stuck, but taking that first step and finding out how relatively painless it was made it worth the change.

Some of these changes included making as many household cleaners as I could – my #1 go-to is my non-toxic all purpose cleanser, which not only works great, but works better than all of the others and works on pretty much every surface, including glass.  I will post the recipe for it below and I promise, once you have made it, you won’t go back.  Oven cleaners, cooktop cleaners, stainless steel cleaners, granite cleaners, floor cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, fabric softener, laundry detergent.  All of those commercial products were tossed away and replaced with my own homemade chemical free alternatives.

To start making your products, here is what you should have on hand:
Baking Soda (I buy the largest bag I can find from BJs)
White Vinegar (Again, the largest bottle I can find from BJs)
Olive oil for the stainless steel cleaner
Castille Soap for the laundry detergent
Washing Soda (you can make your own with baking soda – super easy)
Borax (a bit controversial, but it works for us)
Essential Oils (I buy mine from Young Living – to order yours, I recommend the starter kit which can be purchased here)
Various glass containers (I purchase in bulk, but if you only want one for making a cleaning spray, here is a great place to buy it)

Once you have all of these items, you can pretty much make any cleaner you want.  My next replacements are going to be dishwasher detergent, hand soap, and dish soap.

So now for the fun stuff!  The recipes – these are the first three things I made and how I started to move to a more natural lifestyle!!!

All Purpose Awesome Cleaner

• 1 16oz glass bottle 
• White Vinegar
• Essential Oils
  • Some great combos are lavender and rosemary, lemon and lavender, thieves and lemon, purification, orange and lemon, thieves and purification.  I really love using thieves because of the powerful oils in the blend that work to kill all the germs and switch to that cleaner as soon as sickness hits our home.  So far, so good.
• WaterDirections:  Fill the bottle about 2/3 of the way with water,  then fill the rest with vinegar and leave some space at the top.  Add 10 drops each of your chosen essential oils.  Shake and spray!  Spray it everywhere!!!  Your kids can even spray it and you won’t have to worry about chemicals on their hands!

Laundry Detergent

• Big glass container (like these)
• One bar of castille soap (I love Dr. Bonners – can be purchased at a bunch of places, but amazon has these)
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup washing soda (to make washing soda, simply take baking soda and spread it out on a cookie sheet.  Preheat oven to 400 and let it cook in there for an hour or so, mixing it up once at around the 30 minute mark.  Boom.  Washing soda.  Easy)Directions:  Grate the soap.  This is literally the worst part of it.  Ask your husband or work on your arm strength.  I personally ask my husband since I usually have a child or two in my arms and it would be dangerous.  At least that is what I tell him.  Once soap is grated mix the borax and the washing soda into the soap and that is all.  To use, take a tablespoon and sprinkle it all over that laundry.  This is safe for front loaders as well.  So enjoy!

  Alternatively, I keep soap nuts around, just in case I procrastinate the soap grating task.  I love them and they are amazing and even easier than making your own detergent.  I bought mine from here.

  Fabric Softener

• Glass container – mason jars work for this!
• 3 c white vinegar
• 1/4c rubbing alcohol
• 20 drops of Essential oils – Purification is amazing.  Lavender is amazing.  Thieves if there is sickness.

Directions:  put everything in glass jar and shake.  Shake prior to use and add some to your washer’s fabric softener dispenser.

Alternative:  Wool dryer balls – you can make your own or you can buy them.  I bought mine because craft stores intimidate me.  Again, amazon has these.  I add 4 drops of essential oils to them – usually lavender or purification.

***A note about essential oils.  I didn’t know this when I started.  I thought essential oils were all the same and the ones you purchase at natural foods stores are the same as Young Living.  Wrong.  So much wrong.  I was basically replacing my chemicals with unlabeled chemicals unknowingly.  So when you purchase oils, please make sure they are as pure as you can get.  I researched for 2 years and found that Young Living was the very best choice for my family.  If you want to purchase your very own awesome oils, which have so many more uses than just making cleaning products (another thing I didn’t figure out until last year), click on over to my sign-up page and go crazy.  Which is very easy.  I am fully on the essential oil train and no end is in sight.

I will definitely be discussing the other household cleaners I make in another post, but I figured upwards of 1000 words is enough for now.  Enjoy and please don’t hesitate to ask questions!!!