take control of your health

When another year rolls around {as in a year older}, I find myself striving for ways to age gracefully and want to continually improve my health. Not to mention after going through  a long period of time where I was dealing with several medical issues, I find I am drawn to detoxify to get off to a fresh start with my body & health.

So, here are a couple new books I got for my birthday that I am loving.


I just love Gwyneth’s previous cookbooks, so when I saw that she had this one out which is all about recipes dedicated to an elimination or vegan diet {as you can see I have a couple pages tagged for this week’s recipes}. Right where I want to be right now and of course Martha’s new book on living the good, long life.

Once we get settled after the move, my next project is finding a naturopathic doctor for our family. Our general practitioner we had in IL was a gem because even though he practiced traditional western medicine, his heart was in alternative, natural medicine so he treated his patients from both directions. Most doctors just want to treat symptoms with drugs, not get to the root cause. That’s not the lifestyle Jeff and I want for ourselves or the boys. There is a time and place for traditional medicine, but it’s not always the best course of treatment for some issues. I like that we now have choices to take control of our health and research other options, not just do what the doctor says as if they are the end all, be all. It’s great for a control-freak like myself, ha ha.

Here’s to healthy living. Have a great day!

dirt, mud or whatever it’s called…

Hope all of you mothers had a beautiful day, yesterday. I stayed in bed until almost 10am and was spoiled, as usual. Jeff doesn’t ever let me to lift a finger. :) I feel so recharged to be the best mom I can...

I thought I would share a fun idea for a treat for the kids, dirt, mud or something like that…. That is, what I am told they call, chocolate pudding, crushed chocolate cookies, and gummy worms layered in a cup. Sounds awful, but the kids LOVED it!

Reed has a July birthday, so his preschool teacher suggested sending in a treat before the end of school {which is next week…I can’t believe it} to celebrate his birthday early. I try to find fun desserts for the kids and when I came across these on one of my favorite blogs, Clover Lane I thought it would be perfect! {Plus, these 3 ingredients would allow me to substitute easily so I could make them all the same, even with Reed’s food allergies, and I cannot even tell you how refreshing that is.}

Super easy. I made the chocolate pudding from scratch using almond milk and just spooned into nine individual cups, crumbled one chocolate Lucy’s {allergy-free} cookies on top and added the two neon gummy worms!

Let me know if you would like the dairy-free pudding recipe {although you could probably use regular milk if you wanted}. It’s easy to make, and way more delicious and all natural than any store bought mix!

life, lately

{a hint on what we’ve been up to…}

I know it’s literally been a month since I was last here. When life gets crazy, it really gets crazy…is there any other way?

The last time I posted, we had just been asked that week by our landlord if we wanted to move out early since the Atlanta home market had really heated up (and they were itching to sell this house). I was sick about it. I just love our neighborhood, and even with the quirks of this house, it feels like home. And frankly I just wasn't in the mindset to leave or even think about packing up again still being in a fog with having a little one. Yes, it makes sense to buy now before the prices rise more, but I will tell you, my heart was not fully in it.

So, after I succumed to the pressure from the hubby to move, we did find a beautiful house in a town I just love {and where I practically live these days anyway…}. I know it will be great, it’s a home we can stay in forever (or until Luc is off to college and we can downsize to our little cottage we dream of in Buckhead). I really thought we were going to have to all out renovate any home we bought since we were looking at older homes, but this one has mostly been done to similar tastes of mine so mostly just tweaks and some improvements here and there will be needed. The best part about it is we do plan on being here a long, long time so I love the feeling of permanence I have when I think about this move. I so need that and really have always wanted that for the boys to grow up in. :)

Then to make things a bit crazier…I started having alot of health issues around the same time we started looking for a house, could it of been some stress-related? Undoubtedly. But, now that we have some resolution with those and most of the house stuff is behind us…all we have to do is move, things are looking a little more peaceful. It was just recently my birthday and I find every year that it always gives me a fresh perspective on another year older. So, now I am looking forward to a new start in our forever home.

BTW, the kitchen picture above is from he home we are buying, if you didn’t already guess that. :)

I hope you will bear with me as I sporadically pop in with updates, I hope to have some great posts lined up once we get settled.

I am off to start picking paint colors and dive into packing!

Have a great week.

homekeeping series-Fridays

TGIF! Hope you had a great week. It was spring break and I want a redo! We had a bit of sickness, crummy weather and lots of stress! Thank goodness it feels good to work out a little stress by cleaning like crazy. Do you do that?

This is the last day of the my weekly homekeeping series-Fridays. I hope you have enjoyed the series and maybe found some helpful ideas to arranging your homekeeping schedule.

On Fridays it’s really all about the kitchen. Every evening, the dishes get done, the counters wiped and floor vacuumed (I am a messy cook & have children afterall) but once a week, I REALLY clean it. I move everything on the counters and give it all a thorough wipe down {using my Basic H all-purpose cleaner} including anything on the counters. I scrub the sink {with scour off} and clean the appliance fronts {with Basic H all-purpose} . Since the floor would of been vacuumed the night before, I just steam mop it to get it really clean.
Then I move onto our little laundry room off the kitchen. We use it as our laundry, mudroom and extra storage so it can get real messy real fast. But if I pick it up every week, it stays fairly presentable, which is good because the door is always open into the kitchen. I wipe down the appliances {with Basic H all-purpose} and vacuum and steam the floor. Every other week, I wash the rug in front of the washer & dryer.

Also on Fridays I wash the bedding. Every week I do the sheets, every other the blanket and every few months the decorative bedding like the duvet cover and pillow shams.

So, if every day my tasks are accomplished, the house really does stay together and I can focus on a more enjoyable weekend. That’s my incentive to stay on top of things. :)

Wishing you a great weekend!
Our weekend weather is supposed to be 70’s and sunny and into next week. I hope it’s here to stay. I moved to Atlanta for warm weather for goodness sakes.

bunny cupcakes & homekeeping series-Thursdays

Hi there. Hope your week has been going good. I spent the last couple days doing assembly line bunny cupcake creating for the Easter party at school today. They turned out pretty cute, but something seems off to me…but I get an ‘A’ for effort. Have you ever had something be way cuter in your head than what it turned out as? Well, that was the case with these. Especially when I spent so much time on them. I made two different cookies (one allergy free, one regular sugar cookie), two different cupcakes (one allergy free, one regular vanilla cupcake), icing for cookies and icing for the cupcakes and then all the decorating and creating the grass ‘cups’ with fluffy cottontail.



So, needless to say it’s been that type of week where the homekeeping schedule has been brushed aside a bit to get these done.

However, I am here to share with you my homekeeping Thursdays.



Grocery Shop-
After I drop Reed off at school, I get all the grocery shopping done and put away with just Luc. Soooo much easier than with two kids in tow. :)
Bathrooms-
Every week I clean the counters, mirrors and the toilets and then alternate cleaning the tubs & shower with washing the floors.  I also give the towel bar & TP holders a wipe for any dust. Do you do that?  Maybe I am just weird like that???
I use Shaklee’s Basic G (germicide) concentrate on the counters and toilet and the Basic H Window & Mirror concentrate on the mirror, obviously… I like to add a few drops of essential oil to the germicide to give it a pretty scent (I have been using lavender but am really liking the rose hip lately). When I do the tubs & shower, I use Shaklee’s scour off scrub and it cleans everything beautifully! I still use my Haan floor steamer/sanitizer to wash the floors. I love knowing the floors are really clean and it dries almost instantly.
Again, all my cleaners are non-toxic & effective because I do like to make quick work of cleaning. Life is too short to spend forever cleaning your house. :)
Every other week I wash the bathroom rugs, too.
My laundry-
I get all my laundry done on Thursdays. I do one load of white/lights and one of dark. Since I do it every week, I really don’t have too much so I often grab some of Jeff’s to make a full load. Have I mentioned he normally takes care of his own laundry? He’s such a great hubby!!!
I air dry most of my clothes because I want to keep them looking good for as long as I can and because it’s an eco thing to do. :) We have two large drying racks and clothes are often hanging to dry in the hall bath, too. :) This is one of the reasons I chose Thursday and not Friday to do my laundry. It gives everything plenty of time to dry so I can put it away before Jeff does his laundry on Sundays and needs the drying racks for his clothes.

So, there you have what I do on Thursdays…next Friday is the last homekeeping day of the week!

Wishing you a Happy Easter weekend! What are your plans?


Sharing at:

Jennifer Rizzo Fabulously Creative Link Party

homekeeping series – Wednesdays

Wednesdays are my favorite days lately. No school or activities to have to get to so the boys and I have a little bit of a leisurely morning. The older I get, the more slower paced life I crave!
I am fortunate to have found a wonderful sitter that comes every Wednesday morning. I use this “free time” to schedule appointments, have some ‘me’ time, spend time with Reed just the two of us or work on getting an extra project done while she is here for the 4 hours. It has been working out great!
Later in the day, after the boys are down for their naps, I use the hour and a half to do an extra homekeeping task. These are tasks that aren’t needed to be done as often as regular cleaning, but do need to fit into a rotation whether it be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, etc.  I don’t know about you, but with two small children, I just don’t have a large window of extra time to do a full-fledged spring cleaning blitz so it’s easier for me to break it up throughout the year. This week it’s vacuum the upholstery and underneath the cushions. This is a more time consuming job but when I have some quicker tasks, I schedule two or three on the same day. I created a gmail calendar strictly for ‘homekeeping’ to schedule all my regular & extra tasks and have these added in as recurring at the appropriate schedule.  It’s hard to forget about something when your calendar reminds you…and I feel like I need all the reminding I can get lately. Do you feel that way too? 
While I am doing the extras, I throw in the bath towel laundry.
I also do meal planning on Wednesday nights after the boys are in bed so I can stop at the grocery store Thursday morning after I drop Reed off at school. I used to grocery shop to stock up for the weekend after sports class on Fridays, but it was becoming too hectic…I couldn’t concentrate as much with watching Reed while he tagged along while I pushed the cart, by the time we got home, both boys were starving for lunch, I had to put at least the cold groceries away and I was exhausted and cranky by this point…there had to be a better way. :) It works sooooo much better now! I encourage you to look at what works and what doesn’t with your schedule and see if you can’t find a solution to make it better.
I have been really happy with how this schedule is working out for me so far. As times change, I am sure it will change too, but the same foundation of having certain tasks on certain days will always remain.
Have you tried making your homekeeping schedule?

quite possibly the most important book{s} you can read…

“what you eat the first quarter of life has a close link to adult cancers and other diseases”

when I read that quote, it really emphasized that giving our kids great nutrition is imperative…and then I realized oh boy, I might be in trouble {my diet up until 37 yrs old, was terrible…} but at least I can get the boys off to a healthy start and for myself & Jeff,  continue to eat healthier going forward.
I have spoken about how we strive to eat a healthy, unprocessed diet but I know that we can still do better…I am looking to this book for more information to safeguarding our boys’ health as much as possible

and ‘Eat to Live’' and ‘Super Immunity’ for all of our health.

.
I will admit when I am sleep deprived and worn down, I just don’t make as good of choices as I should. I have really been craving baked goods, so these books are the pep-talk boost I need right now to get myself back on track. I know I will feel so much better.

Here’s to a weekend full of healthy food!