Those Days

You know those days when you just can't seem to get anything done?

When you want to put some chicken in the crockpot for dinner but you have to keep running to the other end of the house to referee the kids and keep them from putting twist ties in each other's hair and wrecking each other's lego creations, then you just get back into the kitchen and remember that you need to switch the laundry, then another fight breaks out and you try for two hours to get that darn chicken into the crockpot but are STILL unsuccessful because you keep getting interrupted??
Oh, and there are no clean dishes so you have to start washing those just to clean a place on the counter so you can put the crockpot where it will reach the electrical outlet?

I am having one of those days today.
I sure can't do this mom thing on my own!

I am so thankful that I read this verse in my quiet time with the Lord this morning, because I desperately do need HIM:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:5,6

I need God's direction today so I don't go crazy with stress and impatience! My path today has been erratic and twisty and full of stress, just trying to get through the day. Nothing super important has happened, yet the day has just been really hard!
It's amazing how when we take our eyes off of our problems (however big or small they may seem or actually be) and put our eyes on Jesus, what a peace He gives us and our paths just seem to straighten out and slow down. When we rest in God, everything falls into place because we let Him do His job, instead of us trying to do it for him.

If you're having a bad day, or overwhelmed with problems, just take a few minutes to fix your eyes on Jesus, and remember that He died on the cross for your sins and rose again for YOU, and that if you let Him, he will make your paths straight, no matter how crooked they may be. It kinda puts things in perspective.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted."
Hebrews 12: 3,4

I feel so much more peaceful after taking some time to ponder and surrender my day to God.
Oh, and I did finally get my chicken in the crockpot. :)

Our Living Room + Pallet TV Stand

Hi!
I hinted on Facebook a couple of days ago that we had made something else with pallets besides our headboard. Really we didn't make something with a pallet...we just kind of used the pallet how it was to make a television stand.

So here is a tour of our living room, with our pallet TV stand.

This is looking from the laundry room into the living room. The door with the purse on it is a closet and the front door is right to the left of it, on the wall that the couch is on.
The white rocking chair we got from a thrift store for $10 and it's one of the best buys we've ever made. It's just the right height and rocks really nicely.
We also got the side table at a thrift store, and repainted it white. It was a dark fake wood before we spray painted it with appliance epoxy.
That thing in the floor is our heater, an old gas floor furnace that works great for heating the front of the house in the winter.
The hanging chandelier is from Ikea.

A closer view of our coffee table, made from the inside back of an old piano that we found on the side of the road. The kids eat snacks at it while watching movies, and they love jumping off of it onto the floor. :)
That basket is full of library books.

So here is the pallet TV stand. This view is from right by the front door. The wooden door leads to the laundry room, which used to be a covered porch years ago before we moved in. The bookcase used to be a window.
The chair next to the bookcase we found on the side of the road, and I recovered and repainted it. (it took me a year to get around to doing it, but I finally did!)
Our couch we got from Salvation army. I love it!
The yellow pillow I made, the blue one I made a cover for and the one at the far end of the couch we bought at Garden Ridge.
I made the curtains out of an old sheet from the thrift store, and the beautiful blue hanging Moroccan lamps (candle holders) are from my dear friend Laura, who got them for us as an anniversary gift.

This view is from the far corner of the living room, near our heater and the rocking chair that you can see in the first picture.

Finally, our pallet TV stand. Tim secured it to the wall using industrial magnet strips that he got at Harbor Freight, and we screwed the tv into the top of the pallet.

Our dvd player fits just right into one of the slots on the pallet, which we love. We plan to make the cords look a bit nicer, when we get around to it. ;)

So there is our little living room!
I'm sure it'll change in a few months, because we are always moving stuff around and re-decorating, but for now, that is what it looks like. :)

Natural Body Care Series: Baking Soda Face Scrub

It's been a few days since our last installment of Natural Body Care Products-
I've been slowly replacing our store-bought toiletries with homemade ones and am having fun sharing them with you!

First, I made Homemade Body Wash out of bar soap, castile soap and water. It works great!

Then, I made Avocado Lemon Hair Conditioner last week and am enjoying it thoroughly.

The first time I used it, I used WAY too much and my hair ended up being super oily. Like, 'hair that just came from a photo shoot at the beach, messy, wet look even though it's dry' oily. Ick. Not what I was goin' for at all. ;)
I figured out that if you just use a small scoop, it works much better. And if I use it before I shampoo, it seems to work better for my hair because my shampoo gets out any extra oil that would weigh down my hair.

On to my next natural body care experiment:

Baking Soda Face Scrub

I've been having problems lately with clogged pores on my forehead- I made the mistake of using body lotion on my face while we were on vacation instead of facial lotion.
(Don't EVER do that! You will break out and get bumpy clogged pores. Trust me. I should've just went and gotten some facial lotion.)

Anyway, I was asking a friend what she does for clogged pores, and she told me about just using baking soda as an exfoliator. (Is exfoliator a word? My computer doesn't think it is. If not, it is now!)

I tried using baking soda and it's really nice!
My pores are looking a little bit better too, although they're not totally clear. But they look overall a bit smoother and my face feels so much cleaner!

Here's what you do:
(it's so easy I almost feel silly writing a whole post about it!)

~Start with a make-up free face.

~Get some baking soda out of your cabinet.

~Open up your pores by splashing your face with really warm/hot water or by holding your face over a pot full of steaming water.

~Then, pour a bit of baking soda into your hand and scrub it around on your wet face for about 30-45 seconds.
Make sure you really concentrate on your problem areas- for me, that's my forehead, chin and nose.

~Rinse with slightly warm water, then follow with your regular moisturizer.

That's it.

Try it!
It feels so nice; the baking soda is a gentle yet effective exfoliant because the little particles just rub away dead skin and get the dirt out of your pores without any of the synthetic additives that you'd get in a store bought exfoliating scrub.
If you wanted, you could add a bit of essential oil to your baking soda for an aromatherapy-like scrub. (I'm imagining lavender, mint or eucalyptus, or whatever your favorite herbal scent is.)
I just used plain baking soda because that's what I have, but I'm looking forward to playing around with it and seeing if there are any combinations that I like.

Have you ever used baking soda as an face scrub? How did it work for you? I'd love to hear about it! :)

If you want to know some more uses for baking soda, check back soon because I'm in the process of writing a post about all the ways I can think of that baking soda can be used for. There are so many!


I'm also linking up to The Prairie Homestead's Homestead Barn Hop and Like a Mustard Seed's
Living Green Link-Up.  There are SO many other talented people out there sharing a wealth of knowledge about all things frugal, homesteading and natural; go check them out!