The green room

Isaac has been wanting to paint his room green for as long as I can remember. We finally agreed to to it. We took him to Home Depot and Matt very patiently waited for an hour while Isaac chose his color. It was lot's of samples and narrowing down but in the end he chose "dusty olive." It was really not what I expected him to choose. I thought for sure he would go for bright Kermit the frog green. It is a very earthy natural color and turned out really nice. Matt did almost all the work with puttying ALL the dents and dings at least three times and washing the walls at least three times and taping and laying of the plastic, and the painting. I did help a little bit with the painting but mostly I just made an idiot of myself. I was standing on Isaac's window seat after all the tape and plastic had come off. There was a small spot that was missed inside his window seat so I stood up there to get it. However, when I went to get down I realized that Matt had taken all the heater vents off to wash and paint them. Just as I stepped down I realized I was going in a hole! I tried overcompensating and fell in the opposite direction landing on my knee. It hurt really bad for a few days but hey, I saved the brush from hitting the carpet. Go me!

Leave it to Isaac

The other night everyone was downstairs except Isaac. All the sudden we heard a noise that sounded like the camera. I called him down and asked what he was doing. He asked me if he could PLEASE take a picture so I said ok. Later, Matt was downloading some pictures taken that same day at my aunts funeral and we found not one, but several photo's he had taken. Some of them are actually pretty good. Some are not. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Ten things I'm grateful for this week

1. Spring rain showers.
2. A home to keep us dry during the rain.
3. My tulips and daffodils starting to bloom.
4. My awesome husband being able to do so many things.
5. Finishing Isaac's room.
6. Frozen coke.
7. Paramedics, EMT's, police officers, and firemen.
8. Having a family that is there for each other in times of need.
9. Going to dinner with friends and family.
10. Technology.

Thought for the week

Without suffering, there would be no compassion.

Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to post a couple of homemade recipes for at home beauty treatments. I found one in a magazine years ago and one on the internet a while back. You could make these fun gifts for someone without spending a ton of money or you could just treat yourself. Hope you enjoy! By the way, in the magazine it said that the sugar scrub can cost $80.00 at a salon for a treatment and it's stuff you already have at home!

Sugar scrub
1 cup of sugar
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
ground citrus peel (orange, lemon, etc.)

mix sugar and oil in a bowl. Take the fine side of a cheese grater and rub your citrus fruit on it to get your ground citrus peel. Mix into sugar and oil. Use as much as you want, it just depends how much scent you want. Get in the shower and rub this in a circular motion over DRY skin. Do your arms, legs, feet, everywhere except your face. Then wash it off with the shower and PAT dry with your towel. Be careful because this will make the bottom of your shower very slippery. Wipe out excess scrub so the next person doesn't slip!

Bath salts
1 cup of epsom salt
1 cup of baking soda
2 tablespoons of vegetable glycerin
3 or 4 drops of food coloring
10-20 drops of essential oil

Mix epsom salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Make sure you mix them very good before adding any liquid ingredients. The liquid will make clumps so make sure this is mixed finely. Once you are mixed, add the glycerin, food coloring, and essential oils and stir well. Start with just a few drops of food coloring - if you add too much it can stain skin or the tub. You should have enough when the color is consistent throughout. Best if stored in glass jars but I've used different containers or even cute cellophane bags. Make sure your essential oils are safe for bath products. Don't use anything that is made for candles or other products. If you are looking for aromatherapy, here are some suggestions. Lavender is for calming anxiety, reducing stress and also helps with depression. Rose is also great for stress reduction and can even help eliminate panic attacks. Sandalwood is calming and helps with irritability. Peppermint helps with fatigue and also helps with blood circulation. Chamomile is great for calming.

Notice a pattern here? Everything I've listed is for stress and calming. Maybe I need to make some of this for myself! These are fun and simple ideas so I hope someone can use them. We made both of these for a young women activity and the girls loved it. Enjoy.

Daddy Daycare

Last Monday I came home from work to find Matt asleep on the upstairs couch. He does not work on Monday's so he is home with Isaac. I woke him up to ask where Isaac was because it was eerily quiet. He woke up shocked that he had fallen asleep and acted like it just barely happened and that Isaac was watching a show downstairs. I went down to say hi to him and found him asleep as well. He had climbed under the blanket and went to sleep. It's a good thing that he went to sleep and wasn't trying to paint by himself or something crazy like that. Unfortunately I had to wake him up because it was way too late in the day for him to be napping if he was still going to go to bed at 8:30 that night. I made daddy wake up too. Don't think he should make a career of babysitting.

It's been 10 whole years!

On January 19th, Caden turned 10 years old! I cannot believe how fast those years went by. I can still remember shortly after delivering him and being so emotional trying to figure our how to be a mom for the first time. I actually remember thinking "I am stuck taking care of this kid for the next 18 plus years" I was freaking out. Maybe at the time all I could think about was the crying and the neediness and not knowing how I was going to be able to do it. And then the maternity leave was over and I was crying again only this time thinking "how am I ever going to be able to leave this sweet baby with someone else to care for?" It's amazing how quickly you are able to adapt. I only wish that I could remember every little detail of these last ten years. So much has happened and all I want now is for my kids to stay little. Ironically it scares the crap out of me to think that they are growing up and I WON'T be able to take care of them forever. Right now I don't want any more kids, but I don't want mine to grow up either. I want to keep them just how they are right now and protect them and love them and always have them in my home and in my care. Isaac start's school this fall and I am DREADING that first day of kindergarten already. I don't know how I am ever going to handle it when they leave home. Let's not think about right now...