Homemade organic window cleaner

This is the "recipe" I used to refill my windex container. I used it yesterday, works great, no streaks, and the faint vinegar smell (which hubby hates) dissipates within two mins. 

• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 TBS white vinegar
• 1/4 tsp liquid dish detergent

I also use this solution to shine up my hardware on my sinks every once in a while. It really is no different from windex minus the harmful chemicals. Windex even released a new product "with vinegar" which you can pay $3-4 for, or you can make it for free with things you already have laying around at home.... I pick free and safe, but thats just me. 

Blissfully Aware

Yesterday marks the second time in my life that I cried from overwhelming happiness. The first time was when my daughter was born, and this time was when I got to wrap my arms around my husband after seven months of deployment. And as I was walking down the terminal, hand in hand with my husband... the stupidest smile on my face with tears streaming down my eyes, I thought "this is why I do it." All of the hardships of this past year are sooo worth it, and make me realize how much I cherish my husband and how I could never replace him.
I am convinced it is the same reason pregnancies are so long and painful. Because when that baby finally arrives, you realize how wonderful and special that baby is and how everything you went through is now completely worth it.  It makes us hold onto our children and love them even more.
 I don't think I could be this happy or this aware of how lucky I am if I hadn't gone through the past seven months. I can  now pinpoint everything about my husband that makes life with him so much easier and more enjoyable. I can see how incredibly good-willed and family oriented he is. I can feel amazed when he remembers things that seem insignificant. I can forget all of the things that I just couldn't let go of before.

 I would love to have this feeling WITHOUT the hardships of course, but that isn't the point. The purpose of life isn't to live it in comfort and normalcy.
 I feel like through this year, I have really gotten the point of life. I have gotten why I do this. I am not afraid of going through the next 5 months alone.
Instead I feel blissfully aware of how lucky I am.
I have THE most wonderful husband in the world, and my kids have THE best dad in the world. End of story. I pay a price to be able to say that, to be able to KNOW that. Nothing in life is free I suppose, but I got the bargain of a life time.

This is why we do it. To be blissfully aware.

R&R is almost here!

Tomorrow will rank among with top 5 best days of my life ever! Okay... so I'm only 21 and maybe I haven't lived enough days to make that sound impressive. But my daughter's birth day would be on the list and so will the birth of our next daughter who should be arriving..... about now. I know our wedding say SHOULD make the list... but going to a courthouse to sign some papers a few weeks after giving birth isn't exactly magical.

ANYWAYS, I am feeling so odd about it. I mean, my husband is coming home! HOME! Why does that sounds so strange to me? Like it is some magical thing that I don't deserve? Like it is so strange for wives to be able to see their husbands? I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that in a day, my husband will be sitting on our couch snuggling with me and eating cheeze-its. It's been 7 months since I have seen him.  And oddly, those 7 months have now become my sense of "normal". It is normal for me to do everything myself. It's normal for Emma to kiss a picture goodnight. It's normal to sleep alone and to schedule "cry time". Somehow after 7 months of "normal" I feel like I don't deserve for him to really and truly be home. I can't wrap my mind around how I ever could have deserved to be lucky enough to be able to spend time with my husband. And then I remember, being with your husband all the time is everyone else's normal. How easy it is to take someone for granted when you get to see them all the time. I don't have that problem. I know my time with Jacob is precious Not only is he constantly on a deployment schedule, but his job is such that, I never really know if he is coming home at all. It makes things like dirty socks and snoring seem silly and childish.
I wonder how people would treat their spouses if EVERYONE lived in fear that their significant other wasn't coming home. If EVERYONE dreaded hearing those ominous three sharp knocks on the door. Would our divorce rates be so deplorable?  I digress...

The point is, I am very grateful for the time I get to spend with my husband. I am not letting a moment pass me by. So needless to say, this will be my last post for a while (depending on how much hubby sleeps when he gets here that is). I have a feeling he is going to be more exhausted than words could possibly describe.

Date night

I was watching the movie "Date Night" with a friend of mine the other day (yes, day. not night) and there was something with Steve Carell's character (Phil) said that I was hoping lots of women were listening to.
In the scene, he and his wife are having a very normal married couple argument. It starts when Phil asks Claire (his wife) why she doesn't "light up" for him anymore. She goes into a rant about how much she does all day and how overworked she is and finishes with "So I'm SORRY if I don't wanna light up for you when you come home. I'm TIRED!"
And this is when Phil says (not a direct quote) "you know, I could help you with a lot of that. I know I don't do it the 'right' way, and you think I will just mess everything up, but I can HELP you. I want to help you and I think if you just gave me a chance, I might surprise you. I really think I could surprise you."

(And then of course during the course of the movie he DOES surprise her with how capable and intelligent he really is)Wow. What really struck me was the sincerity, hurt and longing that this line was delivered with. He just wanted to please his wife! He just wanted to help! He just wanted to make things easier for her! What a well meaning and caring guy. It was perfect and I think many MANY husbands feel this exact same way. They try to help out or do something special, and its looked at by his wife as "wrong".  or they say "it would just be easier to do it myself" OUCH. Think about what that little phrase means. It would be easier for him to sit on his butt and watch TV, than for him to put in effort into doing something nice for you....... ya..... I know. It sounds pretty bad doesn't it?

  My heart goes out to all the women who feel so overworked, and to their men who want to help, but aren't allowed to.  I have been there and I know how horribly "normal" it is. It is a real spirit killer when something is going on that just ISNT working, and all anyone can say about it is that it's normal. Who wants to be married if mundane frustration, lack of appreciation, along with a loss of "lighting up" is all that you can expect? EWW!
I confess, that was us a few years ago. Luckily, we found a way to combat it which is working SOOOOOO well for us I wanna shout it from the mountain tops. I could preach about it.... but I will just drop the name of my favorite book that I believe single handedly not only saved my marriage, but made it incredibly enjoyable instead of mundane.

Love and Respect
by Emerson Eggeriches

It is all about how two well meaning people who care about each other deeply can still have a hectic and what feels like very unloving relationship and it goes on to show you how to fix it! The key.... respect! It was such a simple concept yet so foreign to me and this book made it all make sense and put everything in perspective.

WARNING: this book IS written by a christian and IS a christian book. I am not a christian and have read it several times. It's not a book that is trying to convert you. What he is saying is true. He just chooses to back it up with scripture instead of studies (which he also mentions).

Step by Step: Rocking Chair Monogram

 If you would like to make something that looks like this, read on friends. This is my step by step guide to making a see through wood monogram.

Materials needed:
Painter's tape
Exacto Knife
Cutting surface (mine is a glass one made for scrap booking)
Paint
        I used a white gloss spray paint, but I actually recommend using flat paint and finishing with a gloss topcoat because it has better wear for kids furniture and also, you don't need as many coats of paint since flat paint "sticks" better.


First I put some painters tape sort of haphazardly on my glass cutting surface. Since my design was so simple and required only straight lines and right angles, I just used the lines on the glass mat and made my cuts with that instead of printing out a picture (which I would usually do and will show you how to do in a later post)

When using lines on a cutting glass, the easiest way to make sure you are following the lines exactly is by first folding the tape to the line you would like to cut at creating a visible crease that you can then follow with your knife

This is the finished letter

Next, I carefully peeled the tape off the matt and placed it on the furniture that was to be painted. I made sure to press the edges flush to the wood with no gaps that any paint could accidentally slip into.

I sprayed the whole thing with three coats of the white gloss spray paint

I waited for the paint to dry and carefully peeled off the painters tape at a 45 degree angle as instructed. and TADA, Emma's Monogram chair is complete. All in less than an hour.... Although if I am being honest, I will probably go back and finish the chair in a few coats of polyurethane for some extra durability and ease in cleaning up the messes that are inevitable.

Inspired!

FINALLY I am inspired to do Molly's room. The chair was what did it for me! I love it so much, and I finally feel like the room needs to be a NEW room, not just Emma's old room with all her old stuff. The chair set the color palate (which is one I have secretly dreamed of doing) which is brightly colored and whimsical with lots of contrasting patterns for baby to be fascinated by. The repurposed fabric is working out perfectly. All I need to do is actually sew it, or rather, let my mom sew it. And I need to bring some of my furniture into this century. I had a few pieces that I had been saving that just didn't work in any of the other rooms. Well, they will work in THIS room, because I am allowed to be daring and whimsical in a baby's room. Who knows, maybe if hubby likes the room, he will trust me to brach out more in other areas of our home. I had a mirror that went ontop of the dresser that we gave away. The mirror itself was in good shape, and I know mirrors that large are expensive, so I didn't wanna give that up. Also the frame it was in, was beautiful.... just not for the mirror. I disassembled it and realized that the frame goes exactly with the baby furniture! I am painting it.... guess what color... WHITE! I am so predictable. I'm putting the frame up and making a 3D art piece out of it. It should be pretty cool when it's done. I'm also taking the old drawers that came out of the dresser and taking the fronts off to make a "Molly" plaque. I'm painting Emmas rocking chair with a more modern monogram E AND Im making strings of silhouette birds in different colors to tie the color palate together.

ALL that from one chair. I just love inspiration pieces! And the best part is... My hubby cant be mad at me for spending money because I don't need to spend a dime. Although I do need a lamp shade for the lamp that landed in that room and also I don't have any baskets to put under the changing table, so it looks very messy and cluttered right now... UGH cluttered is a four letter word. I hate looking at STUFF. Anyways that's my plan. I'll put up pictures showing the steps in all the DIY projects so if you like them, you can do them too!

Chair re-do reveal!

This is the Goodwill chair. You can see why it was only $5.00. It was in terrible shape and super dirty when I got it. But I had it reupholstered and got new cushions put in. Altogether I spent about $235.00 for it. I picked out a funky fabric in a thick zigzag pattern and left it to the pros to make it beautiful. 

TADA! This is what the chair looks like now. Clean, bold, modern yet a bit old school... I love it! And the best part? I can nurse in it, and read books to the girls until they get older, and after that, it still looks good enough to move it into the master bedroom or the living room. 

I will take more pictures when Molly's room is complete. Right now it's still done in light green and monkeys... which was adorable for Emma, but is very uninspiring and seems sort of dull now so I'm repurposing the conformer that a friend gave me and my dog promptly ripped up... There is still enough fabric to make a bedskirt and a changing pad cover. And the best part is my mom is coming up to stay with us soon and can sew it for me. No work on my part and re-cycled materials which cost $0. I kind of love how this room is coming together.