My Way to Unwind

Sometimes you need a little pick me up. For me it is when I get to view or use some of my favourite things. Nothing spells out bless to me like drinking a caf-lib or herbal tea in one of my favourite mugs. These aren't the fanciest of mugs. There is no interesting story to go along with them. I bought the blue one at a grocery store in university and the other one at Target. But, despite their seeming ordinariness they make me smile and I feel content.

It is nice to have things in your life that help you feel grounded and remind you of how content your life is. I am a natural complainer. If I can claim it as one of my talents then it would be near the top of the list. Because of this it is natural to think life is dismal and that it will never be quite right. But, give me one of those mugs and I realize life is not as bad as I am making out to be. I just need to chill out and smell the roses.

What I love to do is put the kettle on right before I tuck the kinds into bed, or put them down for a nap. When that task is done the water is ready for me to start making my drink. I then take my book and sit on my comfy loveseat and voila. A peace flows over me. Warmth from the warm drink floods through me. How can you not be content.

Sometimes, if I need a break from the barrage that can sometimes be my children, I make hot chocolate for my own kids in their favourite mugs. Sometimes I even jazz it up. They are happy and I get a few minutes of me time where I can just sit and let my mind be.

I was feeling very generous. Whipping cream and caramel sauce. Yummy!

What are some of your ways to unwind?

How to Refill Foam Soap Dispensers Inexpensively

I don't know why but bars of soap just wig me out. They look beautiful (well they do until they are on their last legs), but the thought of using the same one others use to wash their hands just bothers me. I know that it is irrational. I am not a big germophobe so I don't get it. But there you have it. We all have our interesting quirks. Because of this liquid soap is for me.

Liquid soap is great. You just have to pump a little on your hands and a way you go. You don't have to worry about the bar slip sliding around and landing on the floor. I love how easily it lathers. To me it is amazing. But the thing with regular liquid soap is that you go through it like crazy. Or at least we seem to in my family. I think I was refilling the container once sometimes twice a week. That is with the older two at school for most of the day. The kids would use a full pump when only a half pump would do. And the refill jugs were pricey. I think the last one I bought was $6.99 and that lasted only only a few weeks.

Enter the foaming soap. I love this stuff. It is already lathery straight from the bottle and it uses way less soap. The container usually lasts two weeks with my family, so that's great. But once again, what to do about the refills?

Well lucky for me I have brilliant friends who show me all their nifty tricks of the domestic engineer trade. The following tip is brought to you by my friend Sherri. She truly is incredible!

All you need to refill your foaming soap dispenser is an empty soap container with foaming pump and your favourite kind of gel body wash. It has to be the gel kind. It cannot be the white creamy kind. That will not work.

Add about 1/2 an inch to an inch of the gel body wash to the container. (I am usually under an inch.)

Fill the rest with water. Make sure you leave space at the top for the pump and for the water and soap to move around.

Secure the lid tightly and gently rock the bottle back and forth to thoroughly mix the body wash and water. (You don't want to see any of body wash chunks.)

That's it. It takes a couple of pumps to get the foam at the beginning but then it is perfect!

The gel body wash I used I got for $2.99. I have refilled my soap dispenser six times and I still have gel left for probably 2 or 3 refills. (The body wash that I have in the pictures is bigger then the one I have been using so it will probably refill a lot more. I used it because the colour contrast is greater and thus easier for you to see.)

So if I get a full 9 refills from this bottle it will cost me $0.33 per refill. Not too bad. Even if I only get 8 it is still only $0.37.

I found another recipe online that makes it a bit more eco/people friendly. You can get that recipe here. I am going to try it out someday, I just don't have the materials on hand. So for now I will stick to the body wash.

What kind of inexpensive domestic tricks do you have that you get excited about?

Happy to Live a Green Tinged Life

I really try to live a green life. I make my own cleaners. I cook and bake from scratch to avoid too much packaging. I recycle and compost everything I can. I am really trying to do my part.

But, like everything, I am not perfect at it. Which is why I claim to be green tinged and not just green. There are times I have let my car idle in a bank drive-thru so I wouldn't have to get the kids out of the car while I got money out of the machine. There are times when I use disposable plates and cups, though I do try to make sure they are paper (they can then go in my city's greenbin program then). Sometimes when I clean my fridge and come upon a yogurt container that has been forgotten and turned gross, I just toss it instead of dealing with it. See my imperfections! These things are not common occurrences, but they happen enough that I do not feel correct in calling myself green. And, there is a lot more I could be doing.

picture from lds media files

Despite my greenness foibles I am so happy to be living my green tinged life. It is amazing how much safer my home is because of the green choices I make. This was brought home to me a few weeks ago when Miss V. brought home a science worksheet. The worksheet was all about liquids and the last activity was about dangerous liquids. She had to (with an adults help of course) find a liquid in the house that had a hazard symbol on it.

Now, thank goodness for this assignment because I don't think I ever sat down and discussed hazard symbols before. I vaguely remember pointing them out, but that's about it. This was a great reminder to me that I really need to educate my children about this.

Anyways, Miss V. and I looked and looked and looked for a container with a hazard symbol and it wasn't until I reached into the back of a really out of the way cupboard that I found some oven cleaner. (This was either from the previous owner of the house or before I started making my own cleaners. )

It was an eye opener to me about how living a more green life helps us keep our families safe. I don't have to worry about my children drinking windex or some other harmful chemical. The worst thing that would happen to them is that they would drink vinegar, and I think one sip would cure them of that. I guess this is one reason why I might not have gone over the safety symbols as rigurously as I probably should have. There wasn't a huge pressing need for it as we don't use those kind of products. Also, it is nice that hazard symbols are pretty self explanitory. I showed Miss G. a poison symbol and she said, "don't eat it or you will die." All right! I think she's got it!

Living a green tinged life isn't just for the planets benefit. It is for ours as well. By doing so, we have less chemicals in our life and less chance for horrendous mistaken liquid identity to happen. Doing little things does add up to a safe and happy existence. So while I am probably more a pale seafoam on the greenness scale, I am hoping to, at some point, be a dark shade of green. As I keep on doing little by little I know I will get there.

What makes you happy to be living a green tinged life?

Who's the Best Bonhomme?

Being a stay-at-home mom, I am involved in quite a lot of our girls' life. We live a 5 minute walk from their school so I meet their friends and many of their friends parents. I am able to get to know their teachers a bit. I am lucky to be able to have that kind of relationship with people that my kids are with for a lot of their day.

My husband on the other hand doesn't have that. He hears about people and friends from our stories but quite often isn't able to have a face with the name. He is very involved with the girls too, wanting to know what is going on at school etc., but the connected feeling isn't always as strong. That is why it is so great when Matt goes on field trips with the kids or is able to help out at special events. The girls aren't stuck with Mom there, again. They feel excited when their Dad is taking time from his work to be with them.

Today the girls school was having Carnaval. It is their tribute to the huge winter Carnaval that happens in Quebec City. To learn more about Carnaval click here. What would Carnaval be with out Bonhomme? Well for the past two years Matt has volunteered (he will say he was voluntold) to be Bonhomme. And despite his reluctantness and a bit of complaining (very minor), he has been super stoked to do it. He is so good too. Waving, giving high fives, hugging. And the kids. They just love it! From the kindies to the grade 6 students. They all get excited when they see Bonhomme walk in.

Matt as Bonhomme

It doesn't take much to make our children's world a magical place full of wonder and love. While we don't always have to dress up like a fuzzy snowman, there are little things we can do everyday that make our kids feel special and full of worth. Many of these things take little effort or time on our part. We don't have to be scouring Pinterest to come up with some over the top display of affection. It can be as simple as giving them a hug and letting them know you think of them and you think they are great. It could be getting them a chocolate bar or other special treat. It could be going on a bike ride.

Our kids are only kids for so long. Already I can't believe that Miss V. is going to be 8 next month. Next thing I know she will be moving out... which I'm not too adverse to, but I know I will miss her sweet self. We need to do what we can to make sure our kids voices are heard and understood. Children want to be heard and want to know that their parents are actually listening to them. That message was really brought home as we watched the movie Box Trolls with my kids tonight. We also need to make their childhood have a magical quality about it. That doesn't mean that we shield them from the ugliness of the world. What it does mean is that we show them the wonder of the world more. The world is a magical place. We are so blessed to have a planet that gives us so much beauty. Let's share that wonder more, even if that means dressing up as Bonhomme.