Personalized Back to School Supplies with Duck Tape®
This post brought to you by Walmart. All opinions are 100% mine.
I think I've been more excited about school starting than my kids have. I have made school supply lists about a million times. We finally had the chance to get out to Walmart this week and actually buy the stuff on the list!
One of the things I needed was binders for the kids to keep their seatwork assignments in. But I'm cheap. It kills me to pay 4 or 5 dollars for a binder when the one for 92 cents does the same thing. The only problem is that the cheap ones are boring and drab.
It was so easy to fix that with Duck Tape®!
First we accented the pockets of J's binder with the camouflage he had picked out and added his initials to the front. So quick and easy, but he couldn't have been more thrilled!
For miss K, we used the polka dot tape she had picked out and made a pocket to hold all the itty bitty pieces from her various preschool activities. This will go in her notebook, which of course we had to personalize with her initial too.
I'm sure these projects aren't the only thing they'll be using their Duck Tape® for! They have been cutting pieces off and sticking them everywhere! I guess since their dad uses it as bandages, they figure they can use it for pretty much anything too!
Have you made your inevitable trip to Walmart for school supplies yet? You might want to consider grabbing a couple rolls of Duck Tape® too! It's an easy way to make a happy kid! buy Duck Tape at Walmart
Need more ideas for using your Duck Tape® (besides having your kids stick it in random places all over the house)? Follow @TheDuckBrand for tons of creative inspiration!
Healthy Eating 101: Where Do I Start?
Are you trying to make healthier changes to your eating habits, but just aren't sure where to start? I know how you feel. I've been there.
It's honestly been quite a long road since I started making changes. And that's okay. It may take a while for you too. Don't sweat it. Progress is still progress, and I'm happy for any that you make.
So…the big question:Â “Where do I start???”
Many times when you begin reading information on food – what's good for you, what's bad for you, what will outright poison you – it can become overwhelming very quickly and you may want to quit before you even begin. It's easy to say “This is too hard. What's the use?”
You need to start out small. Just choose one thing to research and come to your own conclusion. This is one aspect you shouldn't skip. If you haven't come to a certain conclusion on your own about eating/not eating a particular thing, you will quit eventually. When you start feeling the pinch in your wallet, or when you start spending extra time in the kitchen making things from scratch, you will ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? Oh yeah, because some crazy lady on a blog somewhere said it's good for me.” That's not going to keep you going when things get tough.
Here's my recommendation for a good starting place:
Change one thing that you consume the most.Â
Do you eat fast food a lot? You probably already know that eating that kind of food is not good for your body, but if you need some more motivation to stop, start doing some research on that particular topic. Before long you will be easily making the decision not to swing by for that hamburger.
Maybe you eat breakfast cereal like it's going out of style. Did you know that even the “healthy” kinds are chock full of food additives (many of which are not even legal in other countries because of their detrimental effects on the human body)? Start your research there.
Are PB&J's the normal lunch in your family? Take a look at the ingredients in the bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Research them.
Whatever it is that you find yourself feeding yourself and your family on a very regular basis is what you should focus on changing first.
What if I don't like what I find in my research and I know I need to change a particular area? How do I change it?
First, you may be able to completely throw out a food from your diet altogether. If you get rid of the packaged cookies and chips, you'll be forced to find something else to snack on. Fruits and veggies, cheese or yogurt, or nuts can do the trick.
If a particular food is something you feel you can't live without, you can almost always replace it with a whole-food version of the same thing.
Fast-food burgers can be replaced with homemade.
Breakfast cereal can be replaced with homemade granola.
Peanut butter sandwiches can be made healthier with homemade bread, homemade peanut butter, and homemade jelly. If that's just too much of the word homemade, and you're overwhelmed at the thought of doing all that, then see if you can search out a store-bought compromise. (In our house, I buy a natural peanut butter without added ingredients, we do honey instead of jelly, and that only leaves me with the bread to make. If I'm still feeling too overwhelmed to make the bread, we use apples to dip in the peanut butter, and *gasp!* sometimes I still buy store-bought bread as long as it contains no HFCS. It's still not a perfectly healthy solution, but it's better than the alternative, and remember, this is all about finding a balance. Don't overwhelm yourself. Do what you can and don't get gray hair over what you can't do.
So, here's the recap from today:
1. Figure out the one thing that you and your family consume the most.
2. Research its effects on your health to solidify your decision to make changes.
3. Get rid of the offending food or find a whole-foods replacement.
That doesn't seem so hard, does it? Now go get busy!
Homemade Insect Repellent Recipes
I wish I would have begun searching for homemade insect repellent recipes a little earlier in the summer, but at least we'll have these on hand for the rest of the year and for every subsequent year as well.
Up until now we've just been using the “slap the skeeters” method. 🙂 When my husband had to do some major yard work last night, he realized he really needed something for the bugs, so he came inside and asked me to find a homemade insect repellent recipe. I was impressed. I'm usually the instigator of all the crazy natural stuff around here. 🙂
As I searched, I realized there were several options one can use for a homemade insect repellent, and different ones will work better for different people due to your preferences and the ingredients that are easily accessible to you. I decided that instead of posting just one recipe, I would post lots of different options so you can quickly browse for a solution that works for you.
1. Rub the juice of a freshly sliced lemon over your arms and legs. (Lauren at Little House in the Big City advises not to do this if you have just shaved your legs! 🙂 )
2. Another insect repellant idea from Lauren is to lightly wet a bar of soap and rub it over you. Store-bought soap isn't a completely all-natural solution since it still contains some chemicals, but it's better than toxic bug sprays and is definitely one of the easiest solutions on this list.
3. Smithspirations has a recipe using a variety of essential oils along with coconut oil, cocoa butter, castor oil, and beeswax.
4. Here's a really nifty recipe for a beeswax insect repellent candle at Design Sponge.
5. Use a lavender and vinegar blend in this recipe from wikihow.
6. Wellness Mama has several recipes using fresh or dried herbs.
7. Your Thriving Family has a recipe using witch hazel and essential oils that can be sprayed around the home or on your clothes or body.
8. Keep spiders and mice away with this very easy-to-make peppermint spray from Scratch Mommy.
9. If you get some bites, read up on some natural remedies for treating them at Day 2 Day Joys.
What's your favorite way to keep bugs at bay?
Independence Day Reflections
As we celebrate Independence Day, I thought it would be fitting to share this video with you all. Not because I want to lift up a man, but because I want to lift up what he stood for – Americans living their lives according to the Bible.
Take a few minutes to watch and be amazed at how far we have come since his days in office. Then spend time in prayer for our nation.
After this past election day, I posted some thoughts about our nation and what we need to be doing when things are looking so dismal. You may want to read it and be encouraged on this Independence Day.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! Stay safe, have fun, and enjoy celebrating the freedom that others have paid so dearly for us to possess.
Healthy July 4th Menu
I love holidays! Getting together with extended family, eating, relaxing, eating some more. It's great fun!
What I don't love is figuring out what exactly we're going to eat.
For once in my life I thought ahead! July 4th is next week, and I thought it would be lovely to put together a menu that is healthy, easy, and most importantly, delicious!
Here's what I came up with for a healthy July 4th menu. Click on the photos to be taken to the recipes.
Hamburgers made with grass-fed beef on homemade whole wheat buns. If you have the delight of being gluten-free you can try this recipe for gluten-free hamburger buns.
You can't have a 4th of July celebration without watermelon!
Homemade ice cream! I love the recipes in the Just Making Ice Cream ebook.
What would you add? Do you have any special July 4th menu traditions?
Ladies! Get Free Clothes (Available Again!)
Ladies, I get excited for you every time I see this offer come around. Even though this offer is only for customers who have not yet placed an order there, I love Thredup, and I shop there frequently even though I can't use the coupon.
Thredup is like an online Goodwill, and all of their stuff is very, very nice and priced very reasonably.
Through midnight on Friday, you can use the coupon code JUNE15 to get $15 off. You should easily be able to get 3 or 4 pieces of clothing completely free!
Shipping is very reasonable too.
I actually received my most recent order just this morning, and I was impressed all over again with the quality of the clothes.
Also, if they get ready to ship your order and notice any flaw (no matter how minor), they will mark it on your invoice and refund you the price of that item (but they still send the item anyway!) I had a refund on the order I just received, but I can't even find the flaw on the item so I'll wear it anyway!
If you have kids, you can also find tons of kids clothes on there as well.
Seriously, there is no reason for you not to use this coupon. Who couldn't use free clothes?!
Let me give you one little tip, though. It's very easy to get overwhelmed on there because of the sheer volume of clothes available. You'll want to look through every single page (and there are hundreds!). Not a good idea. What ends up happening is that it takes too long, and you realize you don't have time, so you just end up closing it down without getting your free stuff.
What I've found works a whole lot better is just to pick the first thing(s) I find that I like, put it in my cart, and go right to checkout. Then I still get something, but I don't spend forever browsing only to end up with nothing. Also, if your order is a little less than $15, you don't have to have the full $15 in your cart to use the coupon. So if you have $12 worth of stuff in your cart, you can use the coupon to take off $12 instead of trying to search around for something to bring you up to $15.
What are you waiting for?! Go shopping!
And remember, this offer only lasts through midnight on Friday!