Oil and Shine

In my first post I asked what kinds of things your family likes to do together. It might be playing games or shopping.  Some families like spending time outdoors fishing, hunting or camping.  Even if it is something that isn't a top priority to all of you, like say hiking, be open to give it a try. Remember you are creating memories. My family and I have tried to go on a few hikes.  They have been memorable for different reasons.  Two years ago I had an inspiration to go hiking.  My dear husband looked online and found a place about an hour away.  We all jumped in the car and headed to our destination.  On our way, I noticed we were getting low on gas.  I told my husband that we should get some gas and he said no we will be fine. We head to where this hike is supposed to be, driving on gravel roads and it went on and on-the whole time I am in the front passenger seat sweating it out, fearing that we were going to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. After what s

I love warm sunny weather.  Summer is one of my favorite times of the year, but one thing I don’t like about  summer is the increased bug activity. One time I even gave myself a minor concussion because I thought a wasp was flying at my head.  Since my kids were napping,  I decided to do some work in our backyard when we were living in California.  I had a large piece of ceramic tile in my hand that I was going to put in the ground, and a “wasp” (actually a box elder bug) flew at my head. I then tried to swish it away with the hand that held the tile.  A moment of fear caused me to forget what was in my hand and I ended up smacking myself in the head! I now have a way to keep some of those pesky bugs at bay. I love learning about the benefits of Young Living essential oils and how I can incorporate them into my everyday living.  One way I use them is to ward off insects.  I keep a small 4 oz spray bottle filled with 1/2 cup distilled water and 8-9 drops of peppermint oil handy to

It’s 5 o’clock and you find yourself standing in front of your pantry or refrigerator wondering what you are going to make for dinner. A glazed look comes over your face as you can't think of anything that will work and on top of that, you are very tired and you start feeling the stress of not knowing what to do. Does this sound familiar? That was very often me and many times, my family and I would end up eating out instead because that was easy.  There isn't anything wrong with eating out, but it can get expensive to go that route all the time. I wanted to have a solution which would reduce the stress in my life, was a healthier option than fast food, and would keep us from blowing our budget on eating out. What saved me? Putting together a meal plan every week so when dinner time rolled around I knew what I was going to do.  Here are a few strategies that has helped me stay sane at meal time: Once a week sit down and look at your cookbooks/recipes and choose what you want

Budgets!   That is a bad word to some people, but it doesn't have to be.  I am not perfect at keeping within our budget at times and this is an area I am trying to work on.   I know I am not alone. What are some tips to help with your budget? One tip I want to share is saving up for bigger items and paying for it all at once. We needed a new couch because our old one was wearing out.  So we decided to save up for a new one.  In the meantime, I tried to cover the stains and holes in our old one with blankets. While we were saving up the money, I did research so I knew what I wanted to buy beforehand and about how much money we would need to save.  We set money aside each month in our budget when we could. The day we went to purchase our new couch I had a good idea of what I wanted.  I was excited as I found what I was looking for.  My husband and I bought the couch in full-which felt great and then we went home and waited a couple weeks for it to arrive.  The day we were expecting t