New Addition....

Now don't get too excited the new addition is my worst nightmare....a new dog. My husband knows a guy who is being deployed so we are going to take his hunting dog. Within the last two weeks I have finally accepted that Tootsie isn't going anywhere and I have grown to even like her a bit. There have been a few stories in the news about dogs being eaten by coyotes. After reading those stories I imagined that happening to Tootsie and wondered how I would feel. I realized that I liked Tootsie more than I realized and would not wish her harm. There was a time that I would not have minded so much, as sad as it sounds. Now don't get me wrong, Tootsie is a sweet dog. But the timing was all wrong. We got her as a puppy just a month or two before I had a new baby. So she has always just been an extra burden. If I didn't have little kids at home to take care of I think I would have enjoyed her company more.

The new dog is named Jedda. She is a 2 year old German short hair pointer. The dog that my husband originally wanted to get but got Tootsie instead. The owner said she is super sweet and a pretty good bird dog. I just hope she is potty trained really well. Tootsie would rather die than pee in my house so I hope that Jedda will feel the same way.

I have no idea how things are going to go and how in the world we are all going to fit in our small car to go anywhere. We are hoping that the dogs click well and become best friends. Tootsie gets along with everything, cats, sheep and all the dogs she meets. My Father-in-law was watching her around his sheep's pen. Tootsie crawled in and laid on her back so the sheep could smell her belly. Then they both started jumping around the pen and playing. He said he has never seen a dog act like a sheep before. So I am hoping this new dog is just as friendly. I think Tootsie is going to like having a buddy and someone to play with. The guy who is bringing the dog over said that another family will take her if she doesn't click with our family. Maybe I could squeeze Tootsie in there too.....Just kidding!

Up All Night

Last night I was having a weird dream. I was holding my daughters bottle and I put it down to do something else. This person walks up and they had the worlds dirtiest hands. The person kept touching the very tip of my daughters bottle. I kept asking them not to touch it but they wouldn't stop. So I leaned forward and started tapping their hand off as hard as I could. Then I heard and "Ouch!What the heck!" I woke up and my husband was sitting up glaring at me. I guess when I started hitting that person's hand in the dream I was hitting my husbands face in real life. He was so mad. I can't imagine being woken up that way!

I used to sleep soundly and I would wake up in the same position that I fell asleep in. The last couple months I have been moving a lot. I woke up the other night and I had turned completely sideways with my feel hanging off the bed and my head buried in my husbands back. I guess I stole his pillow the other night too. I have no idea why I am all of a sudden moving so much. My poor husband!

Vinegar

I could never say enough about vinegar. You can use vinegar for so many different things. I use it for cleaning all the time. For an all purpose cleaner I mix in a stray bottle one part vinegar and three parts water. It works really well for mirrors. For my shower I combined one cup of Dawn dish soap and one cup of vinegar. Spray on tub and let it sit for a little bit. It is one of the best soap scum cleaners I have ever tried, and the bonus is you can make it yourself and can actually breathe when you clean. :)

I read on pinterest that you can use vinegar as a fabric softener. They suggested adding 1/2 cup to a cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle. I have a liquid fabric softener in my machine so I added it there at the beginning of the cycle. I was a little worried my clothes would smell like vinegar. When I pulled them out to put them in the dryer I noticed they were super soft and just smelled like the laundry soap I use, no vinegar. I guess the vinegar balances the PH of the clothes and makes them soft. It also can kill any bacteria that your clothes might have on them.

I also use vinegar to rinse off my produce when I bring it home. Produce can have bacteria on it from shipping/handling in the store. You mix 3 Tbsp of vinegar for every quart of water then let them soak in a bowl for 5 minutes, then rinse. Once it is rinsed you can't taste any of the vinegar, just the food. It can also help with pesticides on the food. I notice that the produce taste fresher if it is rinsed off in the vinegar rinse. You can actually taste the fruit and not the garbage they spray stray on it. It also kills the mold spours on the food, so your berries will last longer.

I could go on for days about vinegar but I will share just one more thing....today. :) If you mix a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and a cup of water it makes an excellent hair rinse. I use it twice a week. It can help improve the health of your scalp (something about the circulation to the head, can't remember what I read). Yesterday I read online that it can help you if you have dandruff. It also removed the build up that people get on their hair from shampoos, pollution, hard water, all those fun things. So you will have shiny healthy hair and a healthy scalp afterwards. Its worth a shot. :)

Aztec Healing Clay

I like to read reviews online (weird I know). I was playing on Amazon after my kids went to bed one night and ran across Aztec Healing Clay with a five star review. I was reading the reviews and people were saying it is Amazon's best kept skin secret. So I thought I better give it a try.

So the Aztec Healing Clay comes in a bottle with a fine powder inside. To make a face mask out of it you mix apple cider vinegar with it until you get a good paste. Then you put it on your face for about 10 to 15 minutes (don't go any longer than that!). The first time I did it I left it on for about 30 minutes and my face was super red after.

As the mask dries on your face it tightens. After I rinsed it off my skin felt baby soft. It deep cleans pores and can help draw out blackheads. I do the mask once a week. It really is cool stuff. :)

Essential Oils

Lately I have been studying and using essential oils. So far I have learned a lot and have loved using them. There is one in particular that I absolutely love, its called On Guard. It helps boost immunity so you don't get sick. I used it on my two girls and myself and we haven't been sick yet this winter. We had a family dinner over at our house with over 45 people. I used the On Guard on my girls and none of us got sick. I was super excited since my daughter was a newborn and I was worried about her getting sick. I like to diffuse the oils in to the air. We put lavender in on nights when everyone is wound up. Its amazing how fast everyone calms down. I get pretty bad anxiety so it has been wonderful to use the oils to help with that.

This weekend my husband got sick (he doesn't remember to put on the On Guard on himself) and I started filling like I was getting a stuffy nose. I heated up some water in a cup and added two Tbsp. of apple cider vinegar, two drops of lemon essential oil and two spoonfuls of raw honey. A couple hours later I felt better and never got the cold like my husband did. I know that lemon oil and honey help but I tired apple cider vinegar (after reading about it on pin interest) and it worked great. The lady said on pin interest they drink it all the time if they feel an illness coming on. I am not going to lie, it is not easy to drink the vinegar. But if you sweeten it with honey and add the lemon it isn't as bad.

I became interested in essential oils after reading a book a couple years ago. It was a weird book about a lady that uses them and she has some romantic fling. She used the oils to heal people and she used them to help elevate her mood when the fling wasn't going well. I started researching it after that. Its amazing what you can heal when you get down to the natural basics. Anyways, that has been my new hobby, learning and using the oils. It has been fun so far.

Popcorn

I ordered a popcorn popper from Amazon about a month ago. We have been making popcorn a couple times a week. Our favorite is kettle corn. The recipe is....

1/3 cup of popcorn seeds

3 T of oil (I use canola)

3 T of sugar

salt to taste

We always double it because we like to pig out. But you can use a stock pot to make this, you don't have to have a special popper. But you heat the oil on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the seeds and sugar and stir it real fast so the sugar doesn't burn. Then put a lid on and shake the pot about every 20 seconds or so. When the it is all popped then you salt the popcorn and enjoy.

Tom Papa

The other night we were watching some stand up comedy from a guy named Tom Papa. He is the guy that hosts The Marriage Ref. He likes to talk a lot about being married and children. We were amazed at how similar our lives were. I am totally obsessed with washing hands. I am always asking my husband if his hands are washed. I guess this Tom Papa guy has the same problem with his wife. Tom is also in a family with all girls, even their pets. Hearing this guys routine made me feel a little more normal. :)

I'm not sure if I am really cut out for this whole Blog thing. I don't really have any fun stories to write about. It would have been fun to blog back in my dating days. I had a lot of fun adventures. Now I just stay home and do the same thing everyday. I haven't had anything interesting happen to me in a long time. Not that I am complaining. I like things to be calm, it just makes writing a blog kind of boring.