Heather's bug {bomb}.

Alright, it's no secret I live in the south where ants find their way into EVERYTHING!  I've been lucky thus far with keeping ants out of my pantry (I really do think it's been luck) until yesterday morning!  Those little black blasted creatures were crawling all over my top shelf.  Yes, the TOP shelf!  I realized that they were up there due to opened boxes of cereals my girls eat (the bag is open but I always close the flap).  Well, I had such success getting rid of the ants in my 4yo's bathroom a few weeks ago I decided to try my method again and BOO-YA, it didn't fail me!  So let me share....

Your Supplies: EVOO, White Vinegar, *GLASS 4oz. spray bottle, Paper Towels, Epsom Salt, Filtered Water (not pictured) and Young Living Essential Oils- Thieves, Peppermint, Lavender, Purification & Lemon.

In your glass spray bottle mix the following: 

22 drops Peppermint

15 drops Lemon

15 drops Purification

15 drops Lavender

15 drops Thieves

1 tsp Epsom Salt

1 tsp EVOO

Fill the bottle up to the neck with filtered water.

Now shake.  Not you!  The bottle.

THE METHOD

1: Clear away whatever it is the ants are after (in this case, it was opened cereal boxes)

2: Sweep up debris and with plain white vinegar (undiluted) either spray or wipe down the space invaded.

3: Take your EO spray and spray all the edges and wherever your heart wants to take you.  Just spray. 

A lot.

4: Now, saturate paper towels with the white undiluted vinegar and place in random places that can not be damaged (I have a cheap tile floor so I slapped those puppies on the ground but if you have surfaces that the acidity of the vinegar may ruin, place your paper towels in bowls or in a plastic garbage can).

5: Now close the door (if you have one to the area).  

The idea is to get ants off their own scent trails.  The stronger and more potent the smell, the more confused and offended they get.  I sprayed my pantry down earlier in the day when I discovered them but I was in and out all day (duh, I'm a mom, I cook) so before I went to bed last night I really went strong on the spray and vinegar paper towel bombs so it could work for hours overnight, undisturbed.

This morning when I went in there, NOT ONE SINGLE ANT!

*Why the glass spray bottle for the Essential Oils?  Whenever you are working with citrus oils, they will leach through plastic bottles and you end up spraying toxic plastic all over your counter tops which defeats the purpose of removing toxins from your home:)  

PS:  The EO spray is also PERFECT for bug spray on yourself if you plan on being outside:)  How is that for a 'double-duty' product??

My first food {storage}.

My hubby bought me a Food Saver for Christmas to be able to properly store all those fruits and veggies coming out of my dehydrator.  I have been horrible at dehydrating the last while so my Food Saver didn't come out to play until yesterday. 

Look, I made my first bag!  Let's fill'er up! 

Dang, it totally sucked out ALL air, my dried red peppers are hard as a rock!  I had to take a photo to text to my hubby to show him how close we are to a "real" food storage;)

And by the way, if you have never dehydrated plain, good ol' red bell peppers for a snack, you are missing out!  I dehydrated them so they still had a slightly chewy texture and they were awesome!   Too bad my kids all looked at me like I was a freak of nature when I was making odd 'mmmm' noises and licking my lips.  They were tasty, I couldn't help myself!  I'm thinking they won't eat these if I put them in their lunchbox.....challenge excepted, by the end of the school year all my kids will be asking for dehydrated peppers.  Game on!

My {Everything}.

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but we had to make an ugly decision (once again) on behalf of G's development.  Because of how school is taught (to the masses), kids with comprehension issues get left behind to fend for themselves.  G has been brilliant at hiding his comprehension issue up until about 18 months ago.  He had discovered that by memorizing and then regurgitating what was read/said was working for him. 

 

It really wasn't.  We caught on.

 

So, after a year at a reading clinic and not really getting to the root of the issue we went hardcore and decided it was going to be necessary to take G's summer away and fill it with one-on-one tutors for several hours a day, M-F.

 

This has been difficult not only on him but for me and his sisters.  His first tutor shows up bright and early at 8am (no sleeping in for me) and I am not allowed to leave the house unless I have someone 21 or older who knows G (um, my babysitter is only 16 so she can't help me).

 

We sit home all day.

 

So while you are out with your kids, playing at the park, going on family vacations, hitting local hot spots.

 

We sit home all day.

We've been at this for exactly 6 weeks as of today now.  The past week G's work has been ramping up and getting harder and harder for him because his crutch of memorizing has become useless, he has to face his handicap head on.  And by 'head on', I mean he literally has been banging and crashing his head on the floor, wall, couch, doors etc...

 

The screams that have been coming out of him and the fact that he gave himself a black eye brought me to tears.  My hubby seems to always be thinking when I'm at my lowest with G.  He asked me such a stupid yet profound question... "why not put your EO diffuser in the media room and put oils on him before he goes up?"

 

DUH!!!

 

I've mentioned the use of my EO's before but I had to blog about my new everything oil.  I started using Young Living's Stress Away roll-on on his wrists and at the base of his brain stem.  The 2 days I forgot to put the oil on him before he went upstairs to work with his tutors was HELL!

 

Today was one of those days I forgot (I'm a bit sleep deprived today) and G just couldn't pull it together.  Finally he was given a 3 minute break to take a breather.  I snagged him and really oiled my child up!  His tutor also asked if she could turn the EO diffuser on, UM, YES!!!

 

I wasn't sure since I forgot if the oils were going to help him out, in my head I felt we were past the point of no return, but we weren't!!  Within 5 Minutes of me putting the oil on him and him smelling in the aromatherapy of another Young Living oil called Grounding, he was cool as a cucumber!

 

After the first 2 hours his tutor finally came down and asked me what I was using on him, we had a good chat and she was amazed at the difference the oils could make in his mood.  She even informed me that she had shut the diffuser off after about 10 minutes and about 30 minutes later he asked to have it back on:)

 

I love my oily boy:)  And I am in love with my new everything oil, Stress Away:)

 

If you are curious as to what is in Stress Away, it is a proprietary blend of Lime, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Ocotea, Copaiba and Lavender and it smells divine!

My first {pedi}.

I was feeling a bit cooped up this past Saturday and since I knew Mr. D had no plans to go anywhere I asked Little R if she wanted to go get her toes done with me.  She had a lot of questions since she's never done a professional pedi before but I think the girl found her new love;)

She's watching the lady prepping my toes:)

Girlfriend sunk down in her chair, even took them up on a drink offer:)  She realized quickly that you can get your fingernails done at the salon too as she started asking (aka, hinting) a lot of questions about getting fingers done too:) 

She asked if she could take a photo of her feet so I handed her my phone, this is her photo:) 

When we got home I got a more up close one for her.  Unfortunately, the orientals at the salon have a hard time understanding some directions.  I told them to put a 'jewel' on her toes and some how she ended up with them painting a flower.  I had to explain to Little R that they don't speak a lot of English but next time I will show them what I mean by 'jewel' so she can have even more pizazz and sparkle:)

Thanks for going with me Little R, that was a lot of fun!

Piano {Recital}.

I'm actually a couple of weeks late posting about this but Little R had her second official piano recital:)

For this recital she was required to memorize her piece.  The piece chosen for her by her piano teacher (who is awesome by the way!) was 'Happy Birthday To You'.   Little R is super cute, whenever she practiced her piece, she'd always sing along and insert her own name, maybe Baby R here and there, but it was a good piece for her first memorization recital.  Her teacher gave her the fun piece knowing it would give her confidence in knowing how to play a very well known song.  It totally worked:)

Let's not lie, SHE NAILED IT!

Way to go Little R!  We are so proud of you for wanting to learn how to play the piano, it will be a skill you will never regret!

My own personal {Smithsonian}.

My little family had the COOLEST opportunity last night!  As some of you know, I married a guy who has a passion for everything religion and history.  He has often told me he would have loved to have been a religion professor or a librarian except neither pay as much as what he is doing today.  But in his side of passion, he has met many amazing people in his life, one of them being a local rare books and artifacts dealer.  This gentleman texted my hubby yesterday and informed him he was a courier for some extremely rare findings that the shipping company wouldn't insure so he had to bring them home on the plane himself due to how valuable they all were and wanted to know if our family would like to come see them.  So, without further ado, come on my personal Smithsonian experience...

First up we were shown Abraham Lincoln's draft for the Emancipation Proclamation.  You can see where he crossed things out and and re-wrote things.  This is what abolished slavery people, how cool is that?!?!?  The final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation sits in the actual Smithsonian today.

Next up is another awesome item, this as you can see is John Wilkes Booth....

And this is his Manifesto written in his own handwriting!  It is written out why he felt things needed to be the way they were. 

Another rare item, this is Wilford Woodruff's ticket to the Salt Lake Mormon Temple Dedication Service.  Wilford Woodruff was the 4th president of the LDS faith.  He passed in 1898. 

This beauty is CRAZY rare!  This is Common Sense by Thomas Paine.  This book was how he asked for America to gain it's Independence from Great Britain back in 1776.  If it wasn't for this, we'd all be British;)

This shows the the printings that came through the other side, it was all hand pressed back in those days. 

Any Charles Dickens fans in the house?  This book was gifted to Charles Dickens by his mentor before he was famous. 

The inscription of his mentor inside the cover. "TN Talfourd" which stood for Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd. 

TN Talfourd himself. 

This is a set of 14 letters written to friends by Charles Dickens while he was in London before he was famous.  In these letters he expresses that he doesn't know if anyone will like his writings.  The book he was working on at that time was David Copperfield.  The rest is history for Charles Dickens:) 

Another rare religious artifact, this little itty bitty Bible I'm holding is Joseph Smith's "Thumb Bible".  Joseph Smith is the founder who restored the Latter Day Saint movement back in the 1800's (or what is more commonly known as 'Mormon' today).

His inscription in the front cover.

A little more of what it looks like inside.  It wasn't verses written out, rather it was small descriptions if you will.  These were all the rage back in those times, this rare book dealer had a couple of other Thumb Bible's that belonged to other dignitaries.

This was a fun item to see.  After Prince Albert passed away, Queen Victoria was so distraught she only wore black up until her own passing.  Whenever she wrote anything, she'd sign her name, "Broken Hearted, Victoria".  So sad but so interesting.  

A crown jewel for sure!  This is another Joseph Smith (Prophet of the Mormon faith) artifact.  This is his actual pocket watch.  That is G's legs under my hand, the dealer made anyone who wanted to hold this item SIT ON THE COUCH;)  It was so fun being able to bring our kids to see these things even though a lot of the history was over their head.

Joseph Smith's initials close up on his pocket watch.  This item is actually only on loan from a family who possesses this item in their personal collection.  They are leaving for a year long religious mission to Guatemala but when they return home, the pocket watch goes back to their collection.  

A Mormon Scripture book called the Doctrine & Covenants which belonged to....

None other than Brigham Young.  I don't think you have to be Mormon to have heard this name. 

And lastly, an old Book of Mormon scripture book that belonged to.... 

Heber J. Grant, the 7th president of the LDS (Mormon) faith.

So, raise your hand if you are wondering where all these awesome, rare items are headed to?  These items were either purchased or on loan to none other than.................. 

    Glenn Beck:) 

 (for the slow ones, google him, you'll recognize him)

It's {NEW}!

I started a new blog for what started out as an idea to just more or less keep myself organized.  But, in the end I decided to share it with the world:)  You see, I have this old school yellow folder that is falling apart because it is so stuffed with loose recipes and meal ideas that Mr. D has told me more than once to put them all in a book so I don't lose them.  Well, we all know how much I suck at finding time to make crap these days but seeing as I live with an iPhone hooked to my hip that has Internet access it only made sense I just blog all my recipes.  And you know what, it is the best thing ever!  I realized when I sit down to make my grocery list now, I don't have to fumble through my yellow folder where nothing is organized!  If I was being interviewed by Oprah, she'd say this was an "Ah-hah" moment.  Now, when I'm at the grocery store trying to figure out dinner, I just whip out my phone and my recipes are now with me, always!  Go me!!  If you try anything from my recipes, let me know what you think:)

My newest foodie blog http://gfcfeatery.blogspot.com/