I've been really crappy about keeping the blog up. We have tons of projects going on and none of them ever seem to be finished. I feel like my house is in a constant state of not done! Right now we have a kitchen floor that is half done, a entry way that is 3/4 done, and three bedrooms that are 3/4 done....not to mention the fact that we have new projects on the list of to-do's. It's frustrating to live in the chaos but it is rewarding to finally make our house more "us" and less of the prior owners (family that I still love!).  We've learned that those cheap makeovers don't last and the satisfaction is only temporary. It's hard when the end result isn't what you REALLY want just a little patch to make it a tad bit better...ah the joys of old houses

Walk away the pounds!

I'm sick of myself. I'm not healthy. This is not the role model I want to be for my kids. I am walking away the pounds. The other day I ordered two work out video's walk away the pounds and the biggest losers yoga. In the past I went full bore and tired to do Jillian's 30 day shred. I did it on day but was so sore the next I couldn't get though the workout, I felt like a failure. I gave up. I'm done giving up now! I decided to start at a slower pace, I've given up the illusion that I'm still somewhat in shape, I'm not! I did Leslie Sansone Walk away the pounds today and I really loved it. I can see it getting easy fast but I LOVE that I was able to keep up and do it I got warm, my muscles (mainly arms and hips) felt the burn. I cannot wait to master this one mile and move on to mile #2 then #3 then even more! This is the first time I've ever been excited to keep going! I also ordered Bob Harpers Yoga I haven't tired it yet but I love that the description says "everyday" people do this workout. Hopefully tonight I will get to it!

Two projects just aren't enough!

We are on the east coast. We got hit with hurricane Sandy. We didn't think much of the storm until this happened

The Shed and garage got smashed by not one but three trees..yes major suckage (though not as bad as others are dealing with). So now we are dealing with the insurance, contractors, tree people  storage issues, and dumpster peeps....never a dull moment right?

Of course we still had the repairs that we were doing in baby steps with our entryway. It is coming along however! Tongue and groove on the walls and ceilings, still trying to think of idea's for the floor..the funny twist in this project is the free flooring we got (cork) for this floor is one sheet too short so a free project turned into much more...oh well

Now we've added project #3...it really was supposed to be simple.  Put a light fixture up in bedroom #3 so our biggest little could have his own room.

....yeah the sheet rock came down in the process. Which I guess is okay since I'm not a fan of popcorn ceilings, but it makes the project a tad bit bigger! now the room is more of a blank slate. I have big plans for this little room!!

Can't wait to see his room come along! (and all our other projects too!)

The never ending laundry drama!

I'm a sort of crunchy mom. I like organic and and chemical free stuff I like cloth diapers and homemade baby food and I love to wear my babies. I try to avoid putting my kids in contact with as much *junk* as I can but it isn't always financially doable for me. As a family of five and one income sometimes we just can't have *the best*. 

 Throughout our cloth diapering years I used detergents or rather soaps that were safe for cloth diapers, it had always been a struggle finding just the right way to wash since we have hard well water and a HE machine. I found Charlies soap worked well for us (with Borax) but I never really used it on our clothes, yes this is a big no-no when it comes to charlies..but I just felt that it was too expensive to use on all our clothing.... Here I am almost two years past cloth diapering ordering charlies soap again. Why you ask? because my washer stinks, it smells and my clothing is smelly too.

 I do a monthly tub clean cycle with bleach I wash at least once a week a HOT/COLD cycle, always wipe the door and gasket down and leave the door open when not in use...I spend more time caring for my washer than I do actually using it (or so it feels). I'm sick of it! Doing research I found that traditional detergents like Tide (which is what I primarily use) along with fabric softeners (Which I often use but do cut with vinegar) leave a build up in the washer drum and this leads to bacteria and or fungal build up, which can transfer to your clothing! GROSS

I did several BLEACH tub clean cycles and then two cycles with my charlies soap (and a few rags) and the smell is gone and so is a bunch of gunk that I could see. I will say the bleach alone did not remove the gunk it was only after the cycles with Charlies that my gunk was gone!... Going forward I'm going to be using charlies soap with the wash booster. Hopefully this curbs any washer smell and will get my clothing smelling good again! I'll keep you updated!

For more info on Charlies check out their website and Facebook page! they have always been great answering all my questions
http://www.charliesoap.com/

Little projects turned BIG

So my sister in law had some fantastic cork flooring left over from one of their installs and she gracioulsy gave it to me since she knows how much I want cork floor...I really didn't care where I used it I just WANTED to use it!!

The cork was slated to go into our entryway. There was *just* enough if we didn't screw up to do it. The peel and stick tiles we had were looking pretty shabby so why not? lets just do this right? WRONG!!

We went from this

To this!

Um Hi! basment! 

Turns out the support beams were all rotted and the floor was massively un-level. This simple little relativity free project turned massive!

Since the floor all had to come and so did all the beadboad and stairs we figured lets pull the sheet rock and popcorn ceilings out too.

So My biggest little has been diagnosed with ADHD, while the diagnosis is fitting I'm not sure I'm up for following the medication route, I'm looking at more homeopathic remedies first, well not actually first since we have tried meds and the outcome has not been good...anywho, I've done some research and it seems omega's and Magnesium supplements help ADHD kids and I'm sure he isn't getting enough of those anyway. I ordered some Omega supplements since they overall had good taste reviews and high amounts of Omegas and DHA's. The brand was called Coromega. It comes in two flavors (I choose orange) and is an easy squeeze packet. The packaging is easy to open, and it dispenses nicely. The flavor has been another issue all together. Out of my three little's only my middle liked the flavor and will take it willingly straight from the packet. You can mix this with yogurt or smoothies but I didn't have either of those options available. My middle has no issues with ADHD or anything else so I didn't notice any change at all in him but I figure the nutrients don't hurt, so he continues to take it. Still on the search for supplements I happened upon L'il critters Omega-3 gummy fish. I will say I'm not a fan of gummy medications, kids associate them with candy and if my little could open it he would devour the whole bottle in one sitting. I'm not thrilled with the low dose of DHA in these, however all three little's like them and would eat them. I still however was not sold so I moved on. Next was Natural vitality's Kid's calm. I read tons of reviews some great some not so great so I decided before spending mucho money on a bottle I would contact them for samples or to see if I could buy a smaller size bottle. They were kind enough to send me a few packets of kids calm and a few brochures about it and a book about kids health (which was very interesting!). Packing was simple to open, the smell was very strong of vitamins and my big would not drink it from the packet, I tried to mask it by mixing with juice and still it was a no go. I tried it and didn't find the flavor to be that bad, it tasted like a liquid vitamin with the slight aftertaste. It wasn't bad but not something I want to drink a ton of. I'm still going to attempt to get the other packets into him somehow as this seems to have everything I want to give him in one vitamin. However if this doesn't work it's back to the drawing board.

I used to blog all the time, I had some good posts. I need to get back into the swing of it! This is the second day of school vacation and I want to keep a log/journal of what we do, the good the bad and the ugly....Today my three go away for four days with my parents. It's bittersweet I love the time to myself, but It makes me sad to see how fast they grow up. The little is 3 now and he is SO excited to go, it's going to be his first trip without me

Diapers don't wash well

I guess it was bound to happen, I mean it happens to everyone at least once right? Well today it happened to me. I washed my first disposable diaper, well not really a diaper it's one of those night-time pull up things. Yeah the little has been potty trained for over a year but hell I'm lazy and I don't dig waking up at 2 a.m to a crying kid who is in a wet bad, not my idea of a great night. I have gel beads and god knows what else floating around in my washer right now...yippee (sarcasm!) This reminds me why I used cloth