Praying for Colorado

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If you have been watching the news lately than you probably know that Colorado has been under attack by fire. More than 32,00 people have been evacuated form their homes in the Colorado Springs area, 347 homes destroyed and according to the news there is an untold amount of homes that are damaged. There are over 1,100 firefighters that are fighting those fires along with Hundreds of police officers and other emergency responders.

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I'm from A small town outside Colorado Springs,and have a lot of family and friends still there, so this is a very sad time for me. My prayers go out to all the people who have lost their home, or who have had to be evacuated. I pray for all the firefighters, and their families, along with all the other emergency responders and their families as well.

It's so difficult to see those beautiful mountains up in flames, places I remember going as a child with my family are being affected by these fires. It's all very heartbreaking. Please, please pray for relief, and keep all those people in your prayers.

Mirror Lake Ct. Subdivision before

Mirror Lake Court Subdivision after the fires

Texas Heat = Reading Indoors...

This week I have been pretty busy helping out each night with VBS, and working on trying to pass my algebra class.  Yes I'm one of those people who for the life of me can't get algebra to stick.  I just don't understand why in the world I need to factor a letter with a number, makes no sense at all. .... Anyhoo moving on.

As I was saying I have had a lot on my mind this week and it has been so nice to just step away and take a little break.  One of my favorite ways to do this is to read.  I read everything, I LOVE reading and have ever since I was a little kid.  My kids on the other hand would rather not.  They just want to go out and play, or stay in and play.  I don't blame them I totally understand this is summer, and they need to get their play on.  But its been a bit hot here lately 107 degrees to be exact, and in my opinion it is way too hot for them to be outside any longer than it takes to walk up to the church.

So last night while waiting for VBS to officially start I made my way to the only room in the church that felt cool, the library.  I have decided that if my children did not want to sit down and read to themselves than I was going to read to them.  And because I would like them to also learn something I figured the church library was the perfect place to check out a few books.  I love how our library has all these vintage children s books that come with a very good moral at the end.  One of the books I checked out is called "Bird Life in Wington" by J. Calvin Reid which was originally released in 1948. Its about a town full of different birds living christian, and not so christian lives in the town of Wington.  There are 30 stories each with a different moral, and each story is biblicaly based.  I read the first six stories to my oldest son today and he really enjoyed them.  I defiantly think this one may be a keeper if I can find it on Amazon :)  

YAY!! Amazon did have it

Right now I'm in the process of trying to find a good family devotional to read each night before bed, but I have no idea what I should choose.  I would love if someone could give me a few ideas.  

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Scoring BIG at Kid to Kid

Yesterday my husband and I were planning on going shopping at Academy for some summer clothes for the kids.  On the way there I spotted our local Kid to Kid store and sweetly asked my hubby if he wouldn't mind going in with me.  He never gets too excited about shopping at thrift stores, (he can't get over the smells or the lack of cleanliness) Anyhoo he agreed reluctantly, and boy am I so glad that he did.  

We walked out spending $60 on 5 pairs of shorts and 4 shirts for Russ, two dresses, 1 pair of shorts, and six tops for Heavenly, and one pair of shorts for Ross. 

*Warning Bad Photo Alert* 

A pair of GAP shorts for Heavenly only $4.50

Usually I spend close to $300 on summer clothes.  I did get lucky this year though, because Ross our youngest already had a lot of summer clothes that he received from older cousins, and Heavenly had some clothes that people bought her for her birthday.  The best part of the trip was that I totally turned My Hubby into a Kid to Kid shopper he was very impressed with how little it cost to buy what would have been a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes from Target, or Walmart. He was also very excited (in that he kept telling me over and over in the car ride on the way home) about their stamp savings plan.  for ever $10 you spend you get a stamp on your card, once its filled up you get like 30% off on your next purchase.

Hollister polo for Russ only $3.50

  If you’re not familiar with Kid to Kid you defiantly need to look into it, they will buy old clothes that don't fit your kids for cash, or you can get a store credit plus an extra 20% to spend on your purchase there.  Not only do they sell clothes from 0 months to kid’s size 16, but they also sell toys, shoes, baby gear, and furniture.  It's a great place to buy gently used stuff for growing kiddos. 

Another place I like to go to is Once Upon a child, they basically sell all the same stuff. 

So what have you been shopping for lately?  Do you have a favorite thrift store that you buy kids clothes at?? 

Well I have a lot to do today we're getting ready for a very busy week of VBS and the house will be full of kids. 

Have a blessed wonderful weekend, Happy Friday!!!

Summer Citrus Home Deodorizer

How many of you are just like me and love the scent of citrus during the summer months? 

My husband and I both have always been huge scented candle fans, but because of the dangers of having a three year old boy who apparently is a pyro, (he thinks he's a firefighter nuff said) we can't keep candles around Hardly ever.

Fortunately a while back I experimented with just boiling some of our favoring scents over the stove in a small melting pot.  Turns out it puts those scented candles to shame, and saves us a lot of mullah. It is so easy to come up with your own favorite scents. 

Our favorite blend

Two tablespoons of vanilla

1 cinnamon stick

3 key limes or just one regular lime

1 large lemon or orange, (this usually depends on what we have on hand at the time)

Fill the pot up with ingredients and  water then let simmer all day adding water whenever it gets too low.   After the day ends I just cover the pot up and put it in the fridge and use it the next day as well.  Another great blend I found was the one they use at Williams Sonoma, the tutorial for that can be found on Pinterest .

All they add is lemon, vanilla, and rosemary.  I love this one as well.  I really like how vanilla and citrus smells together, it brings a little warm indulgence to the summery scent.

So what are some of your favorite summer scents??  Do you enjoy making your own, or are candles more your thing??  

Strawberry Teeth Whitening Treatment

Strawberries are one of my most favorite fruits to eat.  Their juicy delicious yumminess is stock full of antioxidants, vitamin C and B-6.  This is why I decided to dedicate a few of my posts to them.  While skimming the Internet a few weeks ago I came across many uses for strawberries and I wanted to share a few with all you beautiful people. 

 Not only are strawberries so yummy and healthy to eat they are also good for other things as well.  One very refreshing face mask is made using strawberries (stay tuned for that post another time). But something I learned from Dr. Oz is that strawberries are also used as a homemade healthy teeth whitening treatment. 

Who knew?? Certainly not me. 

I have to admit whitening teeth with anything acidic sounds a bit risky, but according to Dr. Oz the chemicals in the strawberries will help strip the yellow from your teeth. 

Who am I to question Dr. Oz???

So if you are a cheapy like me and don’t  want to fork over the amount of money it costs to buy Crest Strips, or have your teeth whitened professionally, and if you're a bit crazy for homemade remedies like I am, than you should defiantly give this method a try. 

  

All you do is take a couple strawberries and puree them, add a little to your tooth brush and apply to the teeth, let sit for 1 min then rinse.  Make sure to brush afterwards with a fluoride tooth paste and then floss. 

I have only been doing this once a week for the last couple of weeks and I have to say they do feel and look a little more polished.

Another good teeth whitening treatment that I always did was just plain baking soda and peroxide.  However I must say the taste of the strawberries is a much more pleasant taste.  

                                           hmm what do you think, to good to be true??

So I wonder how many other people knew about using strawberries as a teeth whitener??  

If at First You Don't Succeed.......(Baking Bread)

I have been trying like a mad women to teach myself how to bake bread.  I knew going in that since I didn't have a bread machine it was going to be a bit more challenging, but because I  do LOVE a good challenge I went ahead and gave it the ol' college try.

For my first batch I wanted to make a good whole wheat and whole grain vegan bread.  I guess I added too much "good stuff" to the dough because it came out solid like a rock.  It looked good, smelled great but couldn't cut it with a knife.

Once again I decided that I really wanted this bread, I really wanted to learn how to make bread and I wasn't going to give it a rest until I did.  

So this time I decided that I was going to follow a simple recipe that I found here, and I wasn't going to add anything extra to it.  I did everything to the exact, and guess what?

It worked!!!!

YAY for me, I'm so excited about it that now I cant wait to try and make others.  I love how my whole house smells so yummy while I'm baking bread, it makes my mouth water.  

I'm still working on a few other bread recipes but would love some tips from anyone who makes bread more frequently than me.