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

Purex crystals...do they live up to the hype?

Let me preface this by saying I do lots of laundry, like enough laundry that I won a years worth of laundry soap because my laundry pile was so big laundry....

We've been a downey fabric softener family for a long time. I've tried all the other brands but eh they never did it for me I like scent on my clothing, not so much that I want to gag but I want to smell them. I typically use Downey simple pleasures the bottles last me a while since I use vinegar with a scented rinse oil for towels and my cloth diapers (when the littlest was still in diapers).

Recently I got a few samples of the Downey unstoppable...wow the fragrance was unstoppable, a bit strong if I used the full amount but it had a nice long lasting scent I liked it, I went to buy it, I saw the price and decided not to. I saw the Purex crystals right below and they were half the price! SCORE yeah not so much while even using the full amount in a medium load in my he machine I still don't have any fragrance, and my clothes aren't really that static free. If you want long lasting scent skip the Purex

CJ's sewing room

So as you may or may not know we cloth diaper the little. I've been VERY happy with this choice, but cloth diapers do have a set of "rules" one of them being you can't use any old diaper cream, typically this isn't an issue as my kids don't tend to get rashes or need any barrier cream but a few weeks ago the little had an ear infection and the antibiotic's reeked havoc on him...I needed some cream and quick I ordered some CJ’s BUTTer™:Spritz o’ BUTTer in the Monkey farts scent...while it didn't clear up his rash overnight it sure did help the healing and it smelled pretty good too. I liked that it had so many different functions I could spritz some on my hands in place of lotion, I could spritz some on my hair it really is quite a versatile product.


I liked it so much I ordered some CJ’s BUTTer™ Carcass Cleaner (body wash & wipe solution) While I like the quality of this product the scent just isn't one I would get again. I opted to try Lullaby baby lotion scent and it just smells chemically to me not clean and fresh at all. This product I bought mainly as a wash for the baby and a face wash for me. I like it I didn't break out in a rash when I used it so that is a good thing! I can't use it on my face every day as it is too drying but it works great as a wash for the kids. It doesn't lather which is a bit hard to get used to but it does work and the scent it leaves behind is much better than how it smells straight out of the bottle.



This furthered my addiction to CJ's products and I broke down and ordered CJ's BUTTer lotion in the Mango, sugar & mint and I am just in LOVE this goes everywhere with me. It isn't too greasy but my hands feel wonderful after I use it and the scent is so wonderful. This is a product I can use on anyone of the boys without having to worry about a reaction or them smelling like a *girl* and I love that it is all natural. Once I run out I WILL be buying more

Rainy days

Today is a rainy day. Some people hate rainy days I tend to love them. I know I'm sick huh? I just find the rain so refreshing and life inspiring. It makes the world seem clean to me. I love the smell of the air when it rains, I love the sound of pounding rain and crackling thunder, I love to see the lighting lighting up the sky. But I love these the best.




I cannot take credit for that image but it is beautiful. I hope you all have rainbows today.

I'm doing a project!!

SO you know how putting you Kid's name on the wall with those wooden letters is all the rage? Well I love it but I so don't want wooden letters on the walls in the boys room...I can just see the craziness that will come about from that.

One day while flipping though the Land of Nod catalog I came across Boys Vintage Wallpaper letters I thought this was a nifty idea. I could put them on the wall or across the top of the window! how fun!! Well I did the math and it came to about $30 BEFORE shipping...and if you know me you know I'm cheap. I just couldn't do that.

So while at Michaels craft store yesterday I was looking at scrapbook paper to do THIS project I saw over on the NESTERS site...okay okay I'll post a pic it is so worth it!

BTW I found some paper that is PERFECT for our house but MR.Erin isn't down with the idea.

Anyway back to MY project! I found some paper that was so darling and thought HUH I bet I could make those cool wall letters for the boys room! I bought the paper and I'm almost done with one of the names I'll post as soon as it is done! I hope they come out cute. So far the total is around $11 give or take a few cents.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.

For some odd reason that is the rhyme is stuck in my head. Perhaps it is due to the wonderful vegetation we have growing out in our garden or maybe it is the nursery rhyme book I read to the boys last night?

This is our FIRST year of doing a garden. Mr.Erin wanted to try it he wanted fresh tomatoes and fresh summer squash so I said "have at it...just be sure to grow me some cukes, green beans and I HAVE to have a pumpkin" he said sure and went a bit crazy...IMHO anyway.

The garden is a small area overall but he got a tray (not sure how many plants are in a tray) of tomatoes both cherry and the big boy ones. Half a tray of peppers...which sadly all seem to be dying and we hit the Christmas tree shop for the rest of our seeds which included cukes (two different variety's) summer squash, zucchini, pumpkins and green beans.



Well the Squash is growing nice

As is the zucchini

and a little action on the green beans


and even less action on the cukes and pumkins so no pictures of those!

but my oh my are the tomatoes growing like crazy! you need salmonella free tomatoes give me a call in the next few weeks okay!!

Now that you have seen Mr. Erin's garden you MUST see my pretty flowers. See in the 3.5 years here never had flowers but not this year we had a flowers! I wanted them...granted they aren't just right but they are pretty nonetheless! Mr. Erin did pick out the flowers and I have NO clue what they are or how they needed to be planted next year I have grand plans!