30 Days of Thanks: Day 21

Connie, over at From the Heart of My "Haus" is celebrating 30 days of Thanks during the month of November. Be sure to visit her blog and link up with us as we celebrate God's goodness.

I am thankful for . . .

1. I actually sewed two slings today, thanks to the Hottie Hubby letting me seclude myself in my Happy Place. I just need to get listed on my etsy site.



2. I am thankful that God knows perfect timing.

3. It feels good to allow God to direct my time instead of being selfish with the time that He has given me.

4. It was fun to see the Hottie Hubby have all of his cycling gear on to go on a bike ride with our Pastor. I love seeing the Hottie REALLY enjoy something. Reminds me of the movie, Chariots of Fire.

5. We listed 4 things on Craig's List, sold one, and have a bite on another!

6. Another date night tonight . . . Pride and Prejudice. Don't tell anyone that I haven't finished the book yet.

7. It was a beautiful day.

8. The Hottie Hubby hung this cool wire up so that I in turn can hang up the kids' schoolwork.

9. Our garage is signifigantly organized and clean from some work in it today.

10. The boys spent a lot of time outdoors today. That is soooooo good for them!


Have you entered the Tropical Traditions Arnica Massage Oil giveaway? Even my friends can enter!

Please leave a thankful comment at these lovely ladies who are also blogging about thankfulness.

• Mozi Esme
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• Train up a Child
• Rebecca Writes
• Lisa Writes
• It is Well With My Soul
• Has Anyone Seen My Purse?
  

Technorati Tags: 30 Days of Thanks

30 Days of Thanks: Day 20

Connie, over at From the Heart of My "Haus" is celebrating 30 days of Thanks during the month of November. Be sure to visit her blog and link up with us as we celebrate God's goodness.

I am thankful for . . .

1. Mr. Smiley's delight over his first time joining us for our Starbucks party with Nana.



2. Mr. Smackdown told me that there are little people living in our TV and they have megaphones. I always wondered how pictures showed up on the TV screen.

3. MCL Day! This is the one day a year that my mom, sister and I meet at MCL (with all of our children) to honor my grandma's life. We just have a chaotic lunch enjoying the meal my grandma always got. The only difference is that she always ate her cherry pie first.


4. The highlight of the lunch was when Mr. Smiley burped and sent everyone into giggles!

5. A clean refrigerator. Thanks, Mom!



6. Forget tradition. I want to listen to Christmas music and I am.

7. I have some coconut oil. I missed it so much.

8. I am having fun having my neighbor over to play. They are doing crafts.

9. I am going to meet Baby N this weekend!

10. Even though I broke the Loser Curiser's taillight and scratched the Hottie's car (that is normally gone during the day, but wasn't because he biked) . . . it isn't eternal. I still have salvation even though I screwed up!

11. I took a shower before lunch.


Have you entered the Tropical Traditions Arnica Massage Oil giveaway? Even my friends can enter!

Please leave a thankful comment at these lovely ladies who are also blogging about thankfulness.

• Mozi Esme
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• Train up a Child
• Rebecca Writes
• Lisa Writes
• It is Well With My Soul

Technorati Tags: 30 Days of Thanks

The Ultimate Cloth -- A Review

Many of you know that I make my own cleaning products, some of the time. Though my homemade aromatic cleansing creations work, they do require a little bit of elbow grease. But my elbow doesn't have much grease these days, as most of the elbow grease goes to controlling my tongue and practicing the fruits of the spirit--you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.

So, when a little MamaBuzz email landed on my computer to review The Ultimate Cloth. . . I thought, "Self you might actually have a clean house without needing any extra elbow grease. If you don't have to make your own cleaning product and cleaning became somewhat of a novel experience . . . you just might clean."


The Ultimate Cloth must have been a sign from God . . . it's time to dust. Let me help you find an easier way.

I quickly replied and wanted to beg for a quantity appropriate for each room of the house, but I refrained my passion. However, if you no longer purchase the various household cleaning products, at $6.00 a cloth you could almost justify having an Ultimate Cloth for each room of your house. (I said almost . . . OK?)

What is it?

The Ultimate Cloth is eco-friendly solution for homes as well as a money and time saver. The Ultimate Cloth is a brand new technology – in fact, it is the only cloth to receive a new patent in the last 25 years. The Ultimate Cloth is a simple, green and effective one-step cleaning process. The Ultimate Cloth cleans any hard surface – glass, wood, granite, stainless steel and many more – with just water! No longer do you have to use harsh chemicals in your home, nor do you need spend hundreds of dollars per year buying them. The Ultimate Cloth has been lab tested to remove 96% of bacteria, without the use of chemicals. And, can cut 50% off your cleaning time. The Ultimate Cloth is truly the ultimate in green cleaning.

Does it work? Well, I want to be honest in that it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. My cleaning goal is to keep the kitchen picked up and free of dishes, clean the downstairs and boys' bathroom on Wednesday evening, and keep the washer and dryer active at all times. The majority of the rest of my time is spent concocting some homemade fermented eatable, chatting with Hottie Hubby, homeschooling, blogging, or drinking chai. I soooooo wanted the Ultimate Cloth to lure me into the sea of dust and dirt like Sirens lured the sailors into captivity, except capture the dust for a positive outcome.

Here is what I learned. For starters, no matter what--to clean something . . .

You. Have. To. Actually. Clean. It.

You know, move something around. Setting a cloth out won't magically clean a dirty item. Thus, I came to realize that to get me to clean requires more than just a gimmick or a quick fix of fast results.

• I need to care.
• I need to make it a habit.
• I need to actually do it.

Fortunately, I did muster some motivation and cleaned a little bit Wednesday night. I can't remember the last time I actually put some Windex on our bathroom mirror. I can't stand to use chemicals and I get annoyed with the leftover gray film Windex leaves behind. With an "I'll show you" grin directed at The Ultimate Cloth,

I wet it down,
wrung it out
and wiped my very dusty mirror.

May I share with you that I do not wear glasses. Thus far, my vision has remained good. But I tell you that when I completed the inaugural use of The Ultimate Cloth, all of the sudden my vision felt like it had improved and was no longer blurry. Seriously! Our mirror was that clean!

I plan on tackling my white shower next. Will you join me in a challenge?

Would you like to receive a FREE Ultimate Cloth? All of my readers can receive an Ultimate Cloth by doing one or both of the following actions:

• follow Ultimate Cloth America on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Ultimate_Cloth)

and/or

• become a fan on Facebook by clicking here.

Read their tweets and/or updates and they will reveal how to get a free Ultimate Cloth.

Disclosure: This is a review by me for Mama Buzz. I received a complimentary Ultimate Cloth to use and share my opinion of with you. I do not have to return the Ultimate Cloth, nor do I have to pay them any money to keep it and continue using it. Maybe my house will get clean.

If You Give a Mom a Book -- Pinocchio

Our Sustaining Book:

Pinocchio

Originally, the book I was going to feature was about . . . poop. It was hilarious, though not very sustaining, I suppose. When I asked the boys what their favorite book was this week, the answer was all things Pinocchio.

We took an interest in Pinocchio due to my sister dropping off a goody bag for the boys yesterday. The bag housed various videos with their corresponding story book.

Hottie Hubby was late in coming home last night, and I was feeling quite tired . . . so the moment I sat down on the couch after dinner to relax last night and imaginary alert went off in the some youngster's hearts.

They saw me sit.

They stopped mid-play and teleported over to me judging by how fast they were on the couch.

"Let's read a book!"

OK.

You know, I just don't like Pinocchio. It just doesn't seem like he ever learns his lesson. He is naively trusting and foolish. The fear of his nose growing doesn't seem to curb his felicity (my new word from Pride and Prejudice) towards lying. But then again, I am like this and so are my children. We find ourselves disciplined after we have sinned or disobeyed, yet we do it again 5 minutes later. And maybe that is why I don't like Pinocchio. He reminds me too much of myself.

Pinocchio's nose provides a great visual picture to remind our child of the next time they fib. Better tell the truth--or else woodpeckers are going to land on your nose and peck at your buggers to shrink your nostrils! If you don't start telling the truth, I'm going to give you some bitter water. No sugar cubes for you to sweeten the lesson you must learn! Or better yet, why don't you just ask God to forgive you!

And so . . . the story hits home. I am like Pinocchio sometimes. My sons . . . simply liked Pinocchio. They thought he seemed nice. From our brown couch, I suppose he does. But he annoys me. I like the cricket.

What did you read this week?

If you don't know what a Sustaining Book is check out my first blog post on this topic, If You Give a Mom a Book.

Some things that you could discuss in your blog post would be:

• What is one book that stood out to you this week?
• What was the title of the book, and who were the author(s) and illustrator(s)?
• What conversations did it spark between you and your child?
• Did the book come up randomly in conversation at some point causing your child to create an application on their own?
• Set the scene—where did you sit?
• Did you have anything yummy to eat or drink while reading?
• Was music playing?
• How did reading together help your day?
• What was the story about?
• Did you like the illustrations?
• What was your favorite part about snuggling?
• Why was your book a Sustaining Book?

Guidelines

• Link up 1x a week. My goal is to post every Friday.
• Pick one book—your favorite book from that week.
• Use any one of the suggestions I listed above to include in your post.
• Grab my button on the sidebar to compliment your blog post.
• Enter the exact blog post address in Mr. MckLinky!
• Leave me a comment that you linked up!

I can’t wait to read about your Sustaining Book!

Technorati Tags: Sustaining Books,if you give a mom a book,classic children's stories

GyMathtics -- A Review

My kids think that exercise videos are the cats meow. Initially, I didn't let my children watch child-directed shows on the electronic monster. Mr. Smackdown especially didn't watch any TV until he was close to 3 years old. It is only this year that our TV watching has increased, but a large part of their viewing is of exercise videos!



So when we received the kid friendly exercise video titled GyMathtics by Exploramania, the boys were excited to watch something other than a video from The Biggest Loser.




The video is perky, happy, and educational. Throughout the exercise segment, math facts from 2nd-5th grade are incorporated while moving your body, providing a multi-sensory learning experience. Though some of the math concepts are ahead of our learning, it is preparing their brain to accept the facts when they are officially introduced. The kids are happy to watch TV and move around, and I am happy they are learning while purposefully moving around during a TV program.


Your $24.99 purchase contains 30 minutes of:

• Shape Stretches Warm Up: Stretch your mind and body with line, circle, and polygon stretches.
  
• Counting Calisthenics: Aerobic movements work your heart as fun counting concepts work your brain.
  
• Pattern Power: Growing and repeating pattern exercise combinations challenge minds and strengthen muscles.
  
• Well-Being Wind Down: Relaxing stretches cool down the body and open the mind to think about healthy lifestyle choices including the Nice Wave Stretch and Big Dream Stretch.

The highlight of Mr. Smackdown's workout is when he gets to High Five Miss Carrie, the instructor and founder of Exploramania.

All in all, we have really enjoyed this perky (did I already say that?) DVD. I would most definitely ask for it as a gift, or rent it from the library or Netflix. But because my children are very active, I am not worried about a sedentary lifestyle that leads to obesity. However, if I know of such a child or had said child, I would DEFINITELY purchase this video with my own money.

Thanks so much, Exploramania! My kids love your video!

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews on this product

As a member of the Homeschool Crew, I was given this product to review, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are delightfully mine.