High Five for Friday

Linking up with Lauren for HF4F!

1. Instead of taking a nap earlier this week I took my kids to the park and played with my daughter while my son took his nap. We walked a good ways the park which helped me get some work out time in and then played. We also came home and played with "indoor snow." I will explain more on that in a blog post a few weeks from now.

2. As I mentioned above, I'm working on a few new blog posts that I think will be really helpful to all the moms out there. I'm excited because I wrote a post about toddler meals and it's getting some good feedback on Pinterest so I hope the next few posts will help as well.

3. I know by saying this it will change after the weekend but I am 3-0 in our family's fantasy football league! I'm not projected to do very well this week because most of my good players are out but I'm hoping my back ups help! We will see...being 3-1 won't be too bad though. I have to lose at some point...I've enjoyed being in first for a week though...maybe it will stay that way! Oh and yes...my team name is Twilights Out...I had to.

4. I went to a moms day Wednesday with some friends. The kids get to play with each other and the moms get to talk and eat, which is always fun! I made jalapeño popper dip and it was delicious! I found it on Pinterest so I'm sure it would be easy to find. If you find it, make it...you won't regret it!

5. I've been going to a Bible study with my sister-in-law and I'm loving it. We are talking about the end times and even though I've grown up in church my whole life it's nice to read more into the subject. A Bible study is always refreshing as well.

Quick, Effective Workout

I mentioned a few posts ago about a workout called Blogilates and how great they are. I mainly do Turbo Fire but if I'm in need of a quick, effective work out then I turn to Blogilates. The other night I wanted to work out but was unable to because the TV was being used so I broke out my iPad and turned YouTube on and found this great video. I'm putting it on my blog today because even if you don't have a lot of time to work out you can try this 9 minute long video and you will be sore! I promise!

Please give this video a try and let me know what you think! Cassie has a ton of great videos so keep going if you want to work on abs, arms, etc.! She just came out with a great "getting rid of your muffintop" work out that I can't wait to try! So go on...take 9 minutes out of your day! You won't regret it!

 

 

Flavored Water

Plain and simple: I need to drink more water. I've never been really good at drinking it. I will get on a kick and drink about four glasses for a couple of days and then fall off that for awhile. I always reach for pop or tea...I'm just bad about drinking water. I decided to try adding some Mio or Crystal Light but those have artificial sweeteners that aren't exactly good for you so I needed to find something I could add to make my water tasty. Enter fruit! I tried a "recipe" if you will of an orange, a lime and a lemon. It tasted good but since I wanted to get more than a few glasses out of a pitcher I would keep adding water to the pitcher and continue to use the same fruit. After awhile the limes made the water bitter so I got rid of that and made just orange and lemon. So yummy! But I think I found my favorite so far:

one orange, one lemon and five strawberries cut into quarters.

 

It tastes so refreshing and had the right amount of citrus taste! I keep the same fruit in the pitcher for a few days and just fill the pitcher with water as it gets low. Obviously, the longer the fruit is in the pitcher the stronger the flavor will get.

 

This is definitely going to help me drink more water. Give it a try!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Bathtub Cleaner

I was looking on Pinterest one day for an upholstery cleaner that would clean some stains I had on the seats in my car. I came across this DIY recipe and used it. Well, it didn't really work. It worked OK on superficial stains but the set in stains were still there, plus my car had a wonderful vinegar smell for a week. I wasn't impressed. I put the stuff aside and decided to look for something else thinking I had just wasted my money but with some more looking I found the same recipe was used for cleaning the bathtub. I thought, why not give it a try...and let me tell you, it's amazing!! I've tried to get on a cleaning schedule through out the week and clean the bathroom at least once...and I mean give it a really good cleaning. I sprayed the cleaner all over the stains, if you will, and let it sit for a few minutes and took a scrub brush to it. I wish I had taken before and after pictures because it works really well. Here is the recipe...

1 cup Dawn blue dish soap

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup club soda

That's it! Shake it a little so everything mixes together and start using it! Don't forget to get something to scrub with because that's what will help lift the stains and dirt off and unless you clean your bathtub a couple times a day this will last a pretty long time. I've had this bottle since April.

**Here is a before and after picture I just took yesterday (2/11/14) of the corner of the tub. 

This is what I call a Pinterest win! Just not for upholstery...(and I'm still looking for a cleaner for that).

Space Saving Trick

Our bedroom isn't the biggest so I've been trying to find a few things to make use of what we have and save space. I had been putting all my hair products, make up, perfume, all my girly things on a shelf that wasn't working out too well. One wrong move and it would have been on the floor so I decided I needed to find a shelf that could be hung up and out of the way to store everything. I love that you can find any kind of shelf you want and then you can pretty much do what you want to it. I found a shelf at goodwill and had my mom paint it for me. Here is what we came up with.

I like it a lot! It's been great. Goodwill and some paint...perfect solution!

I also started to get more necklaces and didn't have any place to hang them. We found a pretty board and painted that then found some cute knobs and came up with this great place for my necklaces to be.

This is so easy to make! I'm going to work on something to hang my earrings on because as you can see they are on the side of my mirror but I am loving these space saving items and I love the fact that we did them ourselves and they weren't expensive! I can't wait to do more DIY projects!

High Five for Friday

It's Friday!!

1. I mentioned my fantasy football team not doing so well last HF4F but it looks like I ended up winning! I'm 1-0! It's still very early but I was happy to actually win a matchup. It's funny because there are three girls in the league and we are all 1, 2 and 3. Sorry guys. :-) Really all I care about is beating my husband in week 5!

2. My son is rolling over and rolled over in the middle of the night the other night. It really scared me but I checked on him and he was just fine. He's growing up. We finally put the bumper pad up on his crib (I like to use the one that is made out of breathable material...it may not be pretty but it eases my mind) so he can roll around all he wants.

3. It finally feels like Fall around here. I've mentioned, probably too many times, that I love Fall so this is an exciting time. I know a lot of people look forward to Fall around here...again...apple cider slushies! I don't need to say anymore. :-)

4. I started "jogging" a few days ago. It's a little late in the season but better late than never! I walk/jog around the block in our neighborhood and it's not quite a mile but I can jog about half of it. I did it one day and felt great, went again a day later and it seemed harder...not sure why but I want to keep doing it. I like it!

5. I'm excited for the weekend. I don't think we have much planned which means I can relax and watch football! We may do a little shopping on Saturday and my husband is off this weekend so it will be nice to have family time.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Love & Respect

I wanted to do a devotional with my husband and wanted to spend some time talking with him about it and praying so I asked my Facebook friends what they recommended and at the time I said I didn't want to do Love Dares or Love & Respect because those are very popular. I got some great recommendations but I think we are actually going to read Love & Respect. I already own it and with us working on our Dave Ramsey budget I didn't think we should go out and buy something when we already have a good book at home.

I've actually read about half of Love & Respect and as I was reading it I kept thinking this is so true! The main point the writers want to get across is that there is a crazy cycle couples go through. The woman wants love and doesn't feel she is getting it so she reacts by not respecting her husband and the man wants respect and isn't getting it so he reacts by not being loving; it's this whole cycle that just keeps going.

I usually recommend this book to couples who are newly married or engaged. It helps you see how a man thinks and how a woman thinks and how we have different needs and how to meet those needs.

I can't wait to start reading this with my husband. I know I got a lot out of what little I started reading and know he will like it too. It will be good to spend some time together, not only will we work on learning things about ourselves but we will be working on ways to strengthen our marriage.