We have a winner!

The winner of the Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter is Tracy who blogs at Girls to Grow. Congratulations Tracy! I hope you enjoy it.
I sent you an e-mail but if you don't recieve it will you please e-mail me with your contact information?

Being a doer!

 "This you know, my beloved brethren.But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls, But prove yourselves doers of the word,  and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man 's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this; to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:19-27

 I am so enjoying reading through the book of James right now. This section of verses is so inspiring and encouraging. I love the balance that it has in it. It reminds me that I want to dig down deep in God's word and learn everything that I can but then I want to do what it says! And part of what it says is to help those that need help (and this is truly on my heart!) and then to strive for purity- to not be stained by the sin that is in this world.

These verses challenged me. I hope you are encouraged and challenged by them as well!

Warm Winter Days

 We have had a lot of below zero temperatures around here lately and so it was quite a treat when it got up to around 30 degrees yesterday. The boys spent hours outside playing and shoveling off our deck. They decided that coats weren't even needed for the warm weather we were having!

 The decided to turn our deck stairs into a sledding/ skiing hill. We don't have much in the way of hills so this has been fun for them. They also decided to try to make a half pipe for skiing on. They didn't quite get it done so they decided they had a quarter pipe.

 Mara had started to make a family of snowmen a couple of months ago. She didn't get heads on them though and then the next day we didn't have sticky snow anymore as it had gotten too cold. Yesterday we finally had sticky snow again so Mara and I quickly put heads on the snowman family. I think they appreciated it!

 How is your winter going? It seems like much of the nation is getting cold and snow. I hope you are having fun with it too!

From Messy to Neat in the Laundry Room

 Our laundry room is in our downstairs, In the same room with the furnace, water heater and softener and other things like that. We also have an air hockey table in there, a fridge for my flower business, it is a storage area for my flower business and for craft stuff and ski stuff and all the other stuff that we don't know what else to do with. It is unfinished and it was extremely cluttered and messy! (Check out the horrible before pictures!)

 The unfinished part doesn't really bother me thought it isn't all that attractive like that but someday we hope to add on and things would be torn up in there and so it seems a bit silly to waste money on finishing it right now. That may not have bothered me but the messy clutter was really getting to me! Something needed to be done!

  I talked to Ken about it and loving husband that he is he agreed to help me make shelves. So last Saturday we went in and measured and figured and then he and his helper Aaron headed off to Home Depot to get supplies while I went to work at clearing the room out.

It looks so much better now and I am so excited to have some organization again! It still isn't perfect but I am loving what I do have!

 We even put a shelf above the door (which leads to my office) to hold floral supplies. I can see the top of my dryer again! I cleaned up the appliances and I am enjoying just looking at them. :-)

 The recycling got tucked neatly back in this corner now that there is some space for it since other things are up on shelves.

Stuff neatly on shelves is so much easier to access than in piles!

That is some of the fixing up that we have been doing at our house this week!

Spending less on Personal Care products

This week I thought I would get back to the discussion on ways we do spend less or are thinking about spending less in different budget categories.

Today I will cover Personal Care Products. Things like Shampoo, Soap, Deodorant, etc.  One of the big ways I save money in this area is by simple not using some things. An example of things that I do not use or buy are: Make-up (I prefer going natural and that helps me to save both time and money), Hair spray, mousse or styling gel (I do have a tube of gel that I bought around 5 years ago- it is pretty much full), Hair coloring or perms (again I prefer being natural) and more. I guess I am very basic when it comes to personal care.

  Here is what we do use and how we do or we want to save money on that item:

• Shampoo- Traditionally I would have bought on sale and got cheap brands. I do still look for sales and use coupons to get Ken's shampoo. For the rest of us however we are now normally using my own homemade shampoo. To make it I heat up about 10 cups of water, I shred one bar of soap into it and let it dissolve. Then I remove from heat and put in around 3/4 cup of baking soda. I stir that well and then I pour it into bottles that I have saved and cleaned from other things (like ketchup, shampoo, honey, etc.). Let it sit overnight and it will thicken. I have started experimenting with using herbs in this but need to test it more. Use it like regular shampoo.
• Conditioner- I am using Apple Cider Vinegar as a rinse a few times a week and it is working well. I don't seem to need conditioner anymore with the use of the homemade shampoo and vinegar. I have been doing this for around a year. Currently I have just been buying Vinegar by the gallon but it is my dream to make it someday (soon I hope!) instead of buying it. Here is a site I found that has what seems to be fairly easy instructions.
• Soap- I have stopped using soft soap in my attempt to have as little exposure to Sodium Laurel Sulfate as possible. So I just buy bar soap which can be found very cheaply. However I would love to learn how to make my own soap (Maybe Goat's milk soap since we get goat's milk from my parents).
• Toothpaste- In my attempt to not use SLS I stopped using regular toothpaste and have been using baking soda instead. This is obviously way cheaper! The rest of the family is still using purchased toothpaste and I often buy more natural stuff for the kids. Currently I don't have any great money saving tips on that. I also haven't come up with any great ways to save on floss.
• Deodorant. This doesn't seem to be a huge expense as it seems to last forever however I do have all the stuff and have been wanting to try making my own. A fellow blogger e-mailed me a recipe. This recipe seems quite similar.
• Shaving- Ken uses an electric razor which doesn't require shaving cream and lasts a long time. I use disposable razors with bar soap. I rinse them carefully and I don't consider them disposable- one will last me a long time! The cost here for us is quite small.
• Chapstick/ Lip balm- We don't use this much and so far have just bought stuff on sale for what we do need. I do think it might be interesting to try making it.
• Lotion- Again we use this very rarely and I have usually been given it as gifts so it is not really a cost issue.
• Menstruation- I use a Diva Cup (which I purchased here) which has worked quite well and saved me a bunch. I also really like that it eliminates a lot of trash. I do also use light pads some of the time which I generally buy with a coupon and get almost free. I do think I might look into making cloth pads instead at some point.

I think that pretty much covers what we need. It's pretty basic but I like to be that we in this area. Do you have any tips for saving money in this area?

I am linking this to Life As Mom.

Warm hands on cold days.

   When you live in the cold (currently -9 degrees and dropping) northland like we do having good mittens or gloves is pretty essential.

  I have been wanting to have a mitten making spree here at our house using some of the old wool clothes that were given to me. Last night I went searching for the kind of pattern that I wanted- I wanted one with a set in thumb. I finally found one here with a pattern, instructions and a video. I tried the pattern out today and made a pair for Mara. I think I want to do some adjusting of the pattern as they turned out a bit smaller that I had anticipated (they barely fit Mara and don't fit me- they are better sized for the boys) and there are some other improvements that I would like to make but overall I like the pattern.

  Mittens are very satisfactory to make as they are so quick and pretty easy. I am hoping to whip out some more pairs tomorrow!
 

What have you been making lately?