FATHER’S DAY 2014

Robert is an amazing Daddy.  The kiddos, all of them even the “teenaged” one, can’t wait to spend time with him daily.  From early morning coffee to late at night snuggles, Robert is an amazing daddy that loves his children greatly and is loved in return.  They all meet him at the door or in the living room when he comes in.  They all either hug or stop to speak to him as soon as he walks into the door.  All the children are so excited he is home; they all love and adore their Daddy.  Very rare is it to hear Robert called “Dad”; more often than not he is “Daddy”, the perfect term of endearment for him.  Of course Father’s Day is the perfect day to remind him of this. (And yes, I know that this post is late, I’ve been hunting the camera chord to put up the pictures I’ve taken and can’t find it anywhere!!!!)

Father’s day started off as a typical Sunday, cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast.  I had let Father’s Day creep up on me this year (as in I had totally forgotten it was coming so soon), so I didn’t order his gift in on time.  We did manage to get some cards and I put his Glock handgun catalog next to his card, so he knew what we had ordered would be awesome.  Next we all headed for church, but Robert didn’t go to Sunday School with me; he had to go to the special Father’s Day breakfast Donut’s for Dad’s in the preschool department with Cole.  When I met him in the sanctuary, he was wearing the cutest M&M’s bowtie made by Cole for his Daddy.  To me, this personified the whole day.  Why?  Oh, I’m glad you asked…..

Robert is a reserved person by nature.  Don’t get me wrong, he does a lot of fun stuff with the kiddos (like watching their favorite cartoons with or without them or buying them a bad mitten game set to play with outside), but he is not outgoing or over demonstrative with his affection, except when it comes to his kiddos.  Robert always goes above and beyond for his kids.  So on Sunday morning, all through church, Robert wore his M&M’s bowtie, simply because it was made by his son.  He didn’t take it off until we left church. Cole was so proud.  The entire ride home he chattered from the backseat: “Colie and Daaawdy donuts. Daaawdy tie on.  My Daaawdy.  Love you too.”

Those last three words sum everything up perfectly.  Our children have an amazing relationship with their Daddy because he loves them so much that they can’t help but love him too.   He never demands that they change to make him happy or to meet his needs, he is the one that steps out of his comfort zone to make them happy and meet their needs.  It’s not easy for Robert to be super silly in public, in private yes, in public no.  BUT, he was willing to do something “silly” just for his son, just because he loved his child. 

Whether they realize it or not, Robert is showing our children how truly loving our God is.  God is the one who showcases His love for us daily, meeting us where we are, never demanding affection from us, but freely giving it to us simply because He loves us.   Because of Robert’s example complete with his imperfections, the children can see the love of Christ daily in action daily.  Father’s Day was a perfect day for us simply because Robert is the perfect imperfect father for our five children.  I thank God for my husband daily, but especially on Father’s Day.

MY SON

I am the proud mom of five kiddos here on earth, four of which are boys.  I am a good candidate for being a mom of boys; I don’t stress out over piles of dirt everywhere, I don’t worry about kiddos staying outside until dark-thirty, and I don’t mind that the boys come in completely covered in dirt / mud and I do mean covered in dirt!  I don’t mind washing the sand out of the bathtub nightly.  I don’t mind the cars, trucks, blocks, and toy guns scattered in every room of our house.  I don’t mind it when we have to watch John Wayne movies 100 times, or that opera has been replaced by George Strait, and the ballet has been replaced by football and trips into the woods.  I am proud to be the mom of all my children, and I am proud of being the mom of boys.

Lately I have noticed that my oldest son is changing.  It’s nothing major, a subtle change from boyhood into manhood, but I see the changes.  Part of me rejoices, the other part of me is ready to weep.  Take, for example this morning, while I was busy with the baby, Cole who is in the Terrific (AHEM) Two’s decided to totally take his dirty diaper off and try to clean himself up.  Poor Maggie is down with a torn rotator cuff, I was busy, and there was a mess.  No words were spoken, I literally didn’t say anything; but in his usual quiet manner, John Robert came in and totally handled the mess.  He cleaned everything up, bathed Cole, put a clean diaper on him, and got him dressed.  I sat back and I watched.  This is just one of many signs that my little boy, my first born son is growing up.  This is just one of the many little examples of him slowly becoming a man.

Preschool Graduation in 2009

Summer fun in 2011

This past January (January of 2014)

Yesterday (June of 2014)

I am not ready to have my son become a man.  I am not ready for him to grow up so fast.  I am not ready to see him leave my care.  I am not ready for him to not be here, not be with me daily.  Oh I know that all of those things have to happen.  I know that I still have eight years left with my amazing son.  I know that I have a lot to be proud of with him. Everyday in little ways I see him acting more like his Daddy a man that I WANT him to grow up and become.   I pray that John Robert will grow up to be a mighty man of God.  I pray that my son will be used mightily by Christ to do amazing things.  I also pray that he will always be my baby boy, even if he is 105!

GOING EVEN GREENER WITH CLEANING IN OUR HOUSE

I have been sharing about our journey to become healthier with our lifestyle.  From food choices, skin care, oral care, health with essential oils, and cleaning our home; I’ve been looking at way to change our lives and make an impact for my grandchildren’s children's lives in the not so distant future.  We have made a lot of changes in our home and we will continue to do so as we continue to learn and research what is best for our lives, the environment, and the overall health of everyone.

Not long ago I posted about changing the products that are used in our home to clean.  No longer was I using cleaning supplies, such as Scrubbing Bubbles, that did not list their ingredients or use natural products, I was purposing to clean in a healthier manner.  My family LOVED the lack of harsh chemical smell.  My kiddos were no longer gagging and asking to run to my bathroom when I cleaned their bathroom, a task that I usually did only with bleach.  It seemed as if I had found the best natural cleaners for our family.  Or so I thought!

If there is one thing that I have learned since we’ve started homeschooling it is that you never stop learning.  So, while the cleaners that I was using was more natural and presented less harsh fumes in our home, I decided that I needed to research and learn of methods that offer no fumes, no toxic chemicals, and were of the healthiest  products for my family.  I do believe that I have found them.  I have found Norwex and the Enviro Cloth.

Let me preface this by saying that when I was told I could remove up to 99% of bacteria with just water, I thought the person was completely nuts!  So, I did what any modern person would do, I called my sister, asked around on Facebook, and hit goggle like a crazed college kid researching his term paper.  What I found really shocked me. 

I was already starting to lose some faith in my recent cleaning supply purchase.  The Environmental Working Group  had recently updated their cleaning supply report cards and a lot of my products had dropped from B and C’s to a D.  I don’t accept D’s from my kiddos, why should I accept a D from my cleaning product?  So I started out on my quest to find what would be a better replacement.  Not only did I find the Norwex microfiber cloths, but I also found a report showcasing that Norwex does indeed clean better than all the cleaners that I had been using.   Not only that, I had to stop and admit that I would save money in the long run using Norwex, since they are reusable, and that would be a better thing for my family too. So, I bite the bullet and purchased some Norwex cloths.

When I took the plunge and ordered some Norwex cleaning cloths, I purchased the Household Cleaning kit.  This kit contains the Enviro Cloth, the Window Cloth, and the Dust Mitt.  I also ordered the kid’s version of the Enviro Cloth since my kiddos do have to help around the house.  Personally, I like the size of the kids cloth myself!

Let me say, that the Norwex cloths really do live up to their claim, THEY WORK!  My house is being cleaned with just water, and it is getting really clean!  My white old, stained, ugly, 19 year old linoleum floors look whiter since I wiped them up with the Enviro Cloth and water.  Seriously, not all the stains are gone, but WOW!  My bathroom mirrors shine and are totally streak free since I have used the Window Cloth and plain old water.  The bathroom sinks and counter tops are wiped off with the Enviro Cloth and left virtually germ free with no harsh chemical smells.  Today I’m going to try to clean my truck with the Enviro Cloth to see if it can get the dreaded Florida love bugs off!   Now I have a wish list started of all the products that I want!  The only major drawback with Norwex is that you do have to find a consultant, but to me, the chemical free cleaning leaving amazing results are totally worth it!

I am sure that I will forever be learning as I continue to look for products to make our lives healthier.  For now, I am happy to grab my Norwex cloths, use a little bit of water, save a lot of money by not buying a bunch of other cleaning products, and have a clean house.  

NATURAL SKIN CARE

It has been a while since I have done a post on our more organic, natural, and in general healthier lifestyle changes. This is not because we have stopped using any products.  Nope, this is because we wanted to wait and see if the products we chose were really good and what worked for us and what didn’t. Today I am going to discuss our recent change of skin care products.

When Robert and I got married, I was introduced to Mary Kay skin care and make up by his aunt and mom.  I fell in love, and the products were cheaper than the Clinique makeup and skin care I had been using.  I loved their products so much that when Maggie was little, I even tried my hand at selling them (that really didn’t last long), but that’s how much I LOVED them.  Once Maggie was old enough to start to deal with preteen issues, of course I grabbed my favorite skin care, Mary Kay and happily showed her how to use everything in the proper order.  Mary Kay was horrible for her.  Her face was red, itchy, splotchy, and burning.  It took us washing her face 4 times in cool water to get the burning to stop.  I was bummed since I loved Mary Kay.  So we started the hunt for skin care for Maggie.

Now, I must interject here and say that even though Robert and I both have oily skin, he has small pores and isn’t as prone to break outs as I am with my big ol’ honking humongous pores.  Maggie (thankfully) has her daddy’s skin.  While she does battle some break outs, (what teenager doesn’t?), for the most part her main issue is small black heads and not the HUGE ZITS that I got, (and still get occasionally if I am being honest)!  So we needed to find a skin care line that would work for her.  We tried Clearasil which did ok but not great.  Then I switched both of us to Neutrogena Natural skin care (see, I was going in that direction of better health before my sister gave me the nudge to jump in with both feet).  Maggie and I both liked the Neutrogena skin care, but we still battled break outs.

Upon talking to my sister (who makes her own skin care products), I decided that making my own skin care would be too time consuming for my life right now.  So, I did some research and decided to try Desert Essence skin care.  Checking with the Environmental Working Group website, the products that we chose were ranked 0-2 for toxins, so I knew we found a quality natural and healthy product.  Now we just needed to use them!

OH MY GOSH!!!  Can I just say how much Maggie and I both LOVE Desert Essence skin care!!!!  For Maggie I chose the Thoroughly Clean Face Wash Original Formula and the Thoroughly Clean Oil Control Lotion.  For me I chose the Thoroughly Clean Face Wash, Daily Essential Defense Lotion, and the Daily Essential De~Puffing Eye Cream.  Both of these skin care collections main ingredient is tea tree oil.  These products have done wonders for our skin. 

My skincare products.

Maggie's skincare products.

Maggie and I have both noticed less break outs.  Her blackheads area almost completely gone, while she does still battle some break outs, they are nowhere what they used to be.  I too battle some break outs, but they are few and far between and my pores are looking a lot smaller, which is a huge plus to me!    Maggie and I have both noticed that our skin is a lot softer too, another bonus!  Even Robert has commented that our skin is looking better. There were a few things about these products that did take some getting used to. One is that the smell isn’t as pleasant as the other skin care products that we have used.  Please don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad smell, just not as flowery as what we had been using.  The other is that the lotion that I use is a lot thicker than what I was used to.  I found this hard to get used to, but as soon as I figured out that I didn’t need as much lotion as before, this wasn’t a problem at all.

For us, the Desert Essence skin care line is a must keep.  We both enjoy using their products; they aren’t that expensive (the most expensive skin care line is half as costly as the Mary Kay), and they have left us looking great.  We are still on the search for a great natural makeup; we will keep you posted on that front!