Messy Monday: Clean Shower Edition

If you’ve been on Pinterest for any length of time then you’ve seen all those recipes for homemade cleaning recipes.  I’ve seen them over and over again and finally thought that I would give one a try. 

The most popular recipe I’ve found is made by mixing equal parts white vinegar (heat vinegar in microwave for 1 minute) and Dawn dish soap into a spray bottle.  Shake a little and you get a nice aqua blue bathroom cleaner. Warning:  It stinks like you think vinegar and soap would.  Some recipes say that you have to mix up a new batch every time and that it’s the heating of the vinegar that makes this all work.

The above “before” picture is the tub my children use.  Yes, I’m showing you how we they live, and I’m not ashamed.  I used to always clean the tubs on a tight every 2 weeks schedule.  Then one day, I just stopped doing that and the world didn’t come to an end.  So now I make the kids clean it whenever I think the health department might just shut us down.  What bothers me more are the amount of almost empty shampoo bottles sitting on every surface of this tub…the world just might come to an end over that but the occupants of this shower don’t seem to mind!

The “after” picture.  It looks a little streaky but it was really clean.  This cleaner is made to combat (I love it when household products use “war words” like combat and destroy in their commercials) soap scum and it did do that and it got most of the gray yuck that gets stuck in the bottom of the non-slip pebbly type surface that all fiberglass tubs seem to have.  I would use it again so give it a try! 

HIJACKED!!!

Big Nanny has been HIJACKED!!! Her "girls" wanted to take over while she was out of the country.  Enjoy the next few days as we give you some insight into our world with Big Nanny. 

We don’t need you! You need us!

 I need teachers! I pretty much always need teachers. We have a lot of preschoolers and it takes a lot of volunteers to provide good, quality care for them each week. Plus, its promotion time and teachers are moving to other departments and the “holes” are piling up.

Yes, it is true that I need to fill these holes. A huge part of my job is to staff Sunday School. But God gave me a different perspective for this year’s recruitment.

Future teachers need us.

Not me or the preschool staff, or even the precious children.

I realized that each “hole” represents an invaluable opportunity, a true gift. See, I remembered how much I grew in my faith when I started teaching two year olds. We went from church members who attended regularly to leaders who couldn’t miss. People were counting on me. I had made a commitment and I didn’t want to let those two year olds down.

However, what started as a commitment grew. It grew and grew! God took my act of obedience and He changed my heart. I started doing more Bible Studies and the people who were serving around me influenced my walk tremendously. You see, it wasn’t me that the church or even the kids needed. I needed this. I needed the opportunity to serve God on a weekly basis.

Then one day, they offered me a job. Now I can’t tell you that your service will end up in employment, but I can tell you that it will change your life!

The biggest perk – you get to work with Big Nanny!!! She is not only a really cool girl, she is one of the wisest people I have ever known! Come work with her and she will bless you!

 

Tuesday Tutorial: T-Scarf

I didn’t have enough scarves so I thought I would start tearing up shirts so that I could add some pizazz to my wardrobe. 

So the first thing you need is a t-shirt. This is a ladies size large.

And you’ll need to cut straight across right under the armpit.

(Random thought: Why do little boys make noises with their hands and armpits.  I’m quite certain that’s the reason that God didn’t give me a son.  He knew I couldn’t handle the armpit noises.)

Now you have a rectangle that should look like this.

Now you will need to start cutting one inch strips.

Now it should look like this. At any point during this tutorial, you can stop what you’re doing and turn this into a dust rag.

Don’t forget to cut off the tag.

Now you’re going to hold the top of the fabric and pull on the bottom of each strip.  You’ll need to make it “spring” a little so that the strips don’t look so straight.

And then you just wrap it around until you have something that slightly resembles a scarf.  There’s a good possibility that someone is going to ask you if you have a cut up t-shirt around your neck. And then you just say…

I saw it on the Pin-Interest.

Messy Monday: Labels

Labels. I love them. You'll see evidence of them whenever I'm around. Some people like to make fun of this fact. I’m not sure why.  If everyone labeled everything; I would know where everything is and where everything goes. It’s a public service that I like to offer people so they will put items back in their correct spot. 

I label my kitchen.

 

I label my bathroom

 

I label my children.

Okay, well maybe that’s taking it a little too far.  But my Dad always calls me Misty and that’s not my name.  It’s my sister’s name.  So obviously we should label our children to make it easier on parents.

 

Label makers make the world a better place. You should have one.

 

And fancy labels make the world a prettier place.

You can get these free label templates here.

Happy Monday!

Puddles and Glitter

I’m sitting in a puddle of sadness. It’s not a pit, or an ocean, or even a pond. It’s just a puddle. I step into it daily, and I get splashed by my own tears. The funeral is over, the nice words were said, the flowers are dead, but my heart aches over a loss that is so significant to me. After all, I’m grieving the loss of the first person that ever held me.

I’ve lost a family member before so I knew that this would hurt, but no one could prepare, not even me, the obsessive planner could prepare for this kind of pain. Those who have already been there have told me, you won’t get over it. You’ll get used to it; you’ll even accept it…eventually. But you won’t get over it. And I guess that’s the way it should be. No one should really ever get over the loss of their mother. But I really like to get on with things and cross things off my list, so I thought I would get through this grief thing a little quicker than the average bear. Depending on who you ask, there are 5-7 stages to grief, and I was ready to get it done because sitting in sadness is not my thing.  But there are some things in life you just can’t check off your list, and I’m thinking grief just might be one of them. 

I tell my Savior daily that I needed more time to prepare and 39 days was not enough to find out my mom has cancer and take her from this earth. I prefer to know things in advance so I can plan out my coping skills for such life changing events. And in the same breath, I thank Him for the blessing of “it happened so fast” and a life that was fully lived until the end. But my heart is exhausting my body with its tiresome ache. This ache can’t be relieved with aspirin or Advil, but sometimes the Father sends a song or two at just the right time to sooth my cracked up heart and remind me of the healing that happened on January 12^th.

And in those moments, I sit in the glitter…

In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright; I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.