What's For Breakfast Mom?

   I am probably the world's worst at eating like a normal person should. Sometimes I will go all day with out eating and then gorge on dinner or a late night snack.  I forget to eat,sounds bad but it is true. I get wrapped up in what I am doing for my businesses, for fun, for my family and just forget to feed myself during the day. Then come dinner time I am ravished with hunger. This is not good for my uh "bottom" line if you know what I mean. Lately being in my mid 30's and from a family that has weight issues has really made me take note of my over all physical health.  Which is one reason I dance. As you age your ability to balance yourself deteriorates and Irish Dancing is all about balancing on your toes. It also is a fun way to get myself moving for an hour +. By the time dance class is over I am usually dripping with sweat and this over a year later. On Dance days I always try to make sure to remember to eat at least an hour before class. Simply because I know I will be needing those calories to be able to even enjoy myself. Also now me and a few of my friends are running 100 miles in 1 year. Another great way to get myself moving and sweating. Also to help build up my cardio system and muscles, because running inside doesn't count. So lots more calories needed on running days. Which brings me to making sure I eat on other days.
  Here lately to be a better influence to my kids and to be better to myself I have been making sure that I have been at least having breakfast. I know that it is important that my first meal be healthy and contain all the good things to jump start my self for the day. I also know that breakfast can help set the rate of your metabolism. Not eating when you get up can make it sluggish and at my age I don't need to help it on that front. So my have to meal has been breakfast.
  Since I have been eating breakfast I have noticed I don't gorge at night even if I forget to eat the rest of the day. I can turn down sugary snacks way easier than before. My portions on the days I do eat are getting smaller. I have felt more alert. SO YA YOUR BODY NEEDS YOU TO EAT BREAKFAST!  Something I have always preached to my kids becasue well that is what mom's do. We worry about our family before ourselves. Which my kids have always made sure mom provides breakfast for them in so form or another.....even if it was cereal and milk put out for them.
   Now though my kids have jumped on board with what I have been having for breakfast, to the point of nagging at me to go make it even on days I have made them something special to eat. I have been making breakfast shakes every morning. My kids love the flavor and so do I. Since this flavor is a hit with me and my kids I thought I would share with you what  I put in it. I can't give exact measurements on all of the ingredients because honestly I just toss most of them in the blender and go.

So here it is.Now remember these measurement are approximates and not exact.
1-1 1/2 cups of frozen fruit I use a mix w/ strawberries,peaches and pineapple
 6-9 spoonfuls of Carnation Breakfast Essentials mix.  We are currently using Chocolate flavor
1/2 - 1 cup of naked green machine juice
about 10 cherries  cut and pitted
1-2 tbs spoons of honey
2 tbls spoons of greek yougurt
1-2 bananas
Then I just pour in Almond milk until it over the top of the rest of the ingredients
Then Blend pour and drink

Yes it has sugar in but most of the sugars are natural sugars besides have you looked at the amount of sugar in cereal lately.  No it is not made of with an organic all natural mix but my budget is small and the breakfast mix is working for us right now and has lots of good vitamins and minerals in it. The naked juice has lots of green goodies  in it that we might not get in our day. The honey is a sweetener but also good for allergies and other health benefits. The greek yogurt has a lots of good bacteria in it plus protein and calcium. The fruit is in there for all of the vitamin C,potassium,fiber etc etc. Plus it gives us a least one good serving of fruit. for the day. I use the almond in place of milk for taste and it's health benefits.

Like I said my kids love it and beg for it. They say it tastes smooth and chocolatey, like a treat instead of a healthy breakfast meal. So I think this will be sticking around for awhile. Hey I'm not going to pass up getting in a little extra fruits and veggies and vitamins and minerals and now not just for my kids but for myself too. Frankly we need more as we age and often as adults we just don't bother do make sure we have them in our diet because we get to busy and forget. Another plus very little mess and it is quick. So on rushed mornings this has been a real help get us out the door.

 Well Thank you for reading and if you make shakes/smoothies for meals I would love to see your recipes.

Going Green in More Fun New ways

I have blogged before about the fact that I try to be homemade and green where I can be. I have shared my homemade laundry soap recipe before on a previous post. I have been making some little changes with it along the way. This has led to me starting to make body soap. Which I am very excited about. It is like playing mad scientist and beautician all in one. All the lovely bases, smells and colors. I also love making homemade body scrubs and soaks. Like a detoxify soak....I have even made a cute little things I can put the soak in and hang it from my faucet and let the water run through it as it fills up my tub. I have also started to try my hand at bath bombs  and solid bubble bath like the ones from lush. My kids love that stuff. Added bonus if the world falls apart I will be able to still clean myself, my family and our clothes!
 
      I love the company Brambleberry. I actually had bought a small little book about soap making and some of the items for making soap from them a long time ago and just didn't have the time to really put much into it back then. Now though I am moving forward with it full steam. I love Brambleberry's selection and prices. Going through their website has actually led to other new obsessions. Making my own lotion and make up.

  I have been one to do the whole homemade face masks, cleansers etc for awhile now.  I even shared a few I tried that I found on Pinterest before. Now though the whole make your own make up thing has really grabbed my attention for three awesome reasons. First  I can never find the right shade of blush, eyshadow, base etc that I have in mind, by making my own I can dink with things until I get the color I want. Secondly hate not knowing what I am putting on my face even if it looks fab on me, by making my own I will know exactly what is in it and why. Thirdly make up is to darn expensive especially for the good stuff, by making my own I can actually make a lot for the price of the other stuff. Plus I can put lots of good stuff for my skin in it. Now this leads me to the other fun new project....LOTION.

  Lotion....ahhh lotion. How I love this stuff. Again though the chemicals and crap in it that really are not good for your skin makes my shy away from using it to much.  A lot of times I just get a little bit of coconut oil and put it on. It makes my skin soft and smooth. Plus it has lots of goodness for my skin built in to it with out me adding anything. After looking at Brambleberry, Pinterest and a few blogs I have been trying some new recipes out because if I could get the benefits of other great things like lavender,primrose oil,tea tree oil as well then bring it on. Plus I am always looking for something to help my kids sensitive skin during the winter and my husbands skin which suffers due to his RA.

 I have been looking into making my own deodorant. I already like deodorant over Antiperspirant. First of all you are supposed to sweat. It is a natural function that helps cool your body and helps dump toxins. Secondly antiperspirant contains aluminum on top of other chemicals. Now whether or not believe the reports of antiperspirant being linked to breast cancer , Alzhiemr's or other conditions . You have to admit that even when places like WebMD ( which is owned by big Pharma now) tries to explain why it is ok and safe they put things like this in

 "The aluminum salts do not work as antiperspirants by being absorbed in the body. They work by forming a chemical reaction with the water in the sweat to form a physical plug... which is deposited in the sweat duct, producing a blockage in the areas that it's applied," says David Pariser, MD, professor of dermatology at Eastern Virginia Medical School and past president of the American Academy of Dermatology. "Even [with] nicks from shaving, the amount is so negligible that it doesn't make a whole lot of scientific sense."   Web Md article link
  That doesn't even remotely sound appealing to me, but hey it's safe to use every single day. It makes me wonder what happens if you don't wash it off but just put more on over the previous application? What if you don't get all washed off. How do you even know if the" plug" is even getting washed out. How often have you gotten a clogged pore on your face or any other area? Does it appear to be something your body likes? Now how about a clogged gland? ( Those of you who have breastfed can answer this) Does your body like that?

 OK I will get off my "soap box" now. Well  I don't have any pictures of my soaps or other items right now. At least none that I think are even remotely good enough to put up on the web. So I am working on some pictures and I will share some in another blog post further along down the road.

Well thank you for reading. I hope you find something to dream big about and try for yourself. Here is a last light thought to carry with you in your pocket during your day! Don't be a duplicate be an original...they are the ones that are truly priceless!

Zoo Trip Fun

My family loves going to the zoo, but being a homeschooling parent I like to tie in something a little educational during our visit. Sometimes I gear it more towards the older kids, sometimes towards the younger and sometimes try to make spread the gap.
   This last time we went to the zoo we only had our younger kiddos so that easily narrowed the range of who I planning for. I wanted to capitalize on Sunny Bunnies current love for taking pictures and on Coyote's desire to see a bunch of animals. So we did a Zoo Animal Picture Scavenger hunt.  I was initially going to just print one from online, but decided to just write down a few on own and not use my printer's ink that seems to always be running out.  Though I did recently find some great ones on Pinterest that looked like a lot of fun if you are looking for one to just print out and go.

I wrote out one with these animals to look for like
something Hairy

Something with Scales

Something with Stripes

Something Big

Something Small

Something that lives in the dark

Something black

              

Something sleeping

Something awake

something with feathers

These are just a few of the ones off of my camera. Sunny Bunny has some on her camera as well and we are making a scrapbook with the scavenger hunt out of the pictures this month so the girl not only have another fun memento for our trip but also another fun and special  book to teach them things like big and small. Our trip was a lot of fun and the girls are already planning our next trip back with another fun scavenger hunt.  If only they knew they were actually reenforcing lessons they have been taught....nah let learning be fun and natural when you can right!?! Well thank you for reading and I hope your next trip to your local zoo is as much fun as ours was.

What have I been doing lately?

So last week was crazy busy for me and my family. As a matter of fact this whole summer has been and it has been hurting my blog,Sorry guys. This whole summer has been full of vendor shows, camps for the kids, family reunions and more. Plus you have to add in the normal chaos of being a family.
 This last week Lizard and Brother Bear were off to mission camp with their churches youth group in Texas. I love that my kids get to go on such awesome trips that not only full of biblical instruction but also gives them an opportunity to help others out in acts of service. Both of them love their time at this particular camp. It is World Changers if you are wondering. The camp was on the news this year and my kids thought the lead in line for the story was amusing....Kids pay their own money to come to camp to help others. It is so just apart of life here that the thought that others would find that neat, cool or inspiring seemed funny.  Which gave me one of those rare parent moments where you get to feel like ya they really are getting the idea.
    
  While they were gone it gave us an opportunity to spend some more direct time with Sunny Bunny and Coyote. Which they ate up like super frosted cupcakes. Yes we spoiled the crud out of them for a whole week, but we did it frugally. The first day was full of Dr. appointments and other not so super fun things, but we made up for the rest for the week.
 The next day..We too them to see a $1 movie at the $1movie theater which is a big treat for them because going to the theater is expensive with 6 people in your family. We went to see the Croods. Which was a really a cute little movie. The girls loved belt and the cat the most I think. Lots of smiles and giggles.


   Then the next day was FREE day at the zoo, which was super packed and hotter than expected. They had a ton of fun there.  I took my camera of course and we played a fun game with the girls. That I am going to share on Monday. We stopped by all of the girls fave animals and even took in an Elephant show.  We had lunch there because it was also Way Back Wednesdays that day and hot dogs were a $1....which weren't to bad especially for a $1. I will post more pictures from our adventure that day but here are a few.

Coyote and Sunny Bunny being super sweet sisters together

Sunny Bunny and Bos waiting for the Elephant show to start.

Coyote got a little tired and hot which made us glad we brought the stroller.

They take picture here almost every time we go to the zoo

Sunny Bunny brought her own camera. She really loves taking pictures.

This goose statue looked liked it need to be sat on in Coyote's opinion

Love that not only did I get to with my little ones but my best friend too. Can you tell we love to take pictures and video in this family

The girls also had dance that night. I have no idea where they got the energy because mom was exhausted. We had allowed them to each pick out one cheap item from the zoo. Coyote got a giraffe head thing ( she loves giraffes) and Sunny Bunny picked out a cup that was on sale. She took the cup with her to dance class that night. She was very excited about and proud of her choice.

  The following day we went to the mall to go window shop and look at the girls favorite shops. Then we went to Walmart and let them pick out dinner for the night. Alfredo and tortellini......it was very good choice I must say. Then we picked up things Banana Sundaes. I had dance class to go to so Bos took the girls to the book store to browse for awhile and then we all met back up at home. That night we watched the original Wizard of Oz and ate sundaes.

 The next day was a rest day. Well sort of...I had a show the following day so I had to get everything together for that and we needed to catch up on some housework. We spent that evening playing and hanging out together.

  The next morning I took off for my show. Bos brought the girls out to be with me during part of it while he went to pick up their siblings who had come back into town. They loved it. One last bit of fun because their MiMi was there and they ate up the time with her.
 
That brings us to Sunday ( the kids had a special service in the morning...We really enjoyed getting to go to the morning service. We don't usually get to attend it at that church and it was very filling to get to. Plus it was a lot of fun hearing about all the work and fun the youth had on their trip)and then this last week was full of a much need date night and day of getting somethings done with out the kids as they went to sleep over at their MiMi's ( Coyote's first time to go all night). and then sleep overs over here, internet issues,work and more. PHEW....and this weekend is full too. So glad to have full blessed life.  Well Thank you for reading and I promise I will be back on my regular posting schedule.

Pintrest I Tried It

I haven't done my post on things I have tried on Pinterest in awhile, but that certainly doesn't mean I haven't been trying some of the awesome Pins I have found on there.  Here are a few of the things I have tried lately
 I tried the Popsicle stick craft. I took multiply tries to get the sticks to actually bend and not crack. The size of stick that I had was not big enough so I plan on buying some bigger sticks and making some more.

 

I  also have tried and have been doing for a little while different shrinky dink crafts. I like the jewelry ones. I have tried making the rings.  You have to be super careful not to burn yourself shaping the ring. I found using fabric was helpful but sometimes just got in the way to getting the plastic to shape. You also have to be quick to shape it because it cools very quickly. 

I have also tried some of the hairstyles on Pinterest. The latest two are a short style and an entirely new color. I love the short funky cut and the new color.

OK Now lastly  a Pinterest Recipe
I tried the cobbler that is cake mix, sprite and berries. It was really good. My kids really loved it. Though it was decided it needs a little bit of sugar sprinkled on top before baking to give it more of a cobbler taste. It is best warm out of the oven.

Well thank you for reading. I hope this inspires you to try some of your fave pins on Pinterest and to share ones that work or don't work for you.

Being a better parent takes work....A book review

  As a Wife and Mom I am constantly trying to improve myself to be the best spouse or parent that I can be for them. Sometimes that drive gets lost in the day to day of life, but I always end up returning to it. They and our lives are in a constant state of change so what they need from me evolves. Thus meaning that I need to grow and evolve along with them as well.  I do not feel that just because it's not broken doesn't mean you can do a little up keep. Anything you value you do up keep and take care of. Your relationships should be no different. As a woman who wants and strives to be that ideal Proverb 31 woman I find the need to grow and strengthen my relationships through biblical means.

  As of recently I have been reading and doing the Love Dare For Parents. I have really enjoyed this book and devotional. I has you try to accomplish something small everyday. I have been adding each new dare to the ones already gone over. Which I think is the point. Being a Christian parent, I love that it is all based on scripture and building a closer relationship with your children through God.
  The whole book so far has been focused on showing Christian love towards your children and what that means. It has also covered that your children are not your own but a grand gift and responsibility. Which I find a very good point and thought to remember as a parent trudging through the day to day.

    Each dare builds you up and the ability that you can do it. You can do the dare and be a better parent. Each night it has a place for you reflect on the topic of the day and a place to write down your thoughts. Each section gives you scripture to look at. I have been using these to study and to reflect on through out the day. I also have been adding in complimentary things like The 5love languages of Children. I feel this helps to build up my ability to better show my kids love and affection in a way that will really reach them.

I would absolutely recommend this book to others. Not as a this will completely save your relationship with your children but definitely as a good step towards taking care of that relationship and an excellent way to mend areas that may be broken or just need some work.

 Thank you for reading.

A 4th of July Tradition

My July 4th was spent working and spending time with my family. It is a tradition. Every year I do a festival that lasts all day. It is a lot a fun, very hot but a lot of fun. My sister Country comes and works the show with me.

Our Booth set up

Country helping set up the booth

   I also bring my entire family with me,which I do not usually do. It makes the day stressful at points but also very special. There is always plenty for my kiddos to do. The whole event is set up in a park with lots of other vendors and a carnival. We bring a big cooler of ice and pack it full of water and other drinks. We also allow the kids to bring along a snacks for the day.

Lizard entertained us and some of the crowd with her contact juggling

Little Coyote was not happy that she was being made to sit still and cool down a little bit

Bos and Lizard playing with some spinning toys we had at the show. Also in the background you can see the crew that made our day a little more difficult. They shut down the bathroom which meant having to go across the park to use a hot stinky porta potty

One of the churches we attend is very close to the park this event was at and our kids Drama Team from the church came out and hung out with them. Which meant we had lots of teens coming and going from our space.

This was lunch and actually only lasted a few minutes. The crowd was very good that day.

 I love that I get to spend the day with my sister. She is very funny.

Country was letting Coyote take pictures of her

This near the end of the day.

  As the day went on the whole gang got in one the act of running the booth and making sales.

Lizard caught me helping a customer. Our booth was very busy

Having a fan in our booth made it a cool spot for people to stop and spend a minute.

Yes that is Brother Bear wearing a cape. He still got a girls number while he wearing it and selling glow sticks. I also caught teen girls running over to buy from him even though he had customers already.

Sunny Bunny loves selling glow sticks. She is really good at it. Plus as a homeschooling mom I find it is a good way to encourage her math skills

Lizard had her own cape and it turned into a competition between her and Brother Bear to see who could sale the most glow sticks the fastest

I love that I got to spend all day with my bet friend doing something that I love

     We did have one thing that made things interesting and fun.  We had live fish in one of my mom's macrame bowl holders.  They had to be moved around to avoid cooking them in the heat of the sun. Also people would come and stick their fingers in the water trying to touch the fish to see if they were real fish. I was surprised they were still alive at the end of the day, but they were and still are.

All in all a long day but as you can see it was a good one. Full of lots of activity,friends,family and fans.  I even had a twitter friend come out to find and a blogging friend come out to meet me. I was super excited to see them both. That night we turned off the lights to our booth and sat down and watched the firework show together.  I think I have gone on long enough about my 4th. I hope you had a day as blessed as mine was. Thank you for reading.

One Busy Lady

   I have been so swamped lately with customs, setting up new websites and social media and getting ready for my next show. I have recently started doing shows with Mom M and Syrup, I was already doing shows with Country. We now needed a way to centralize things for customers since there were now 4 of us sharing our booth spaces. So we opened up Ali-Kat's and Friends Wonder Market  . I am still working on this website and one other one that is a client so I am not going to share that I am working on their website ( especially since it is not done).  The website still has a lot of kinks to work out of it, like the social media buttons not working. Oh,I also have started social media pages for us FB, Pinterest , and Google + page. So now I have 5 companies I am doing partial full Social Media for. That gets a bit overwhelming some days. I do love the work though.

   I also had a custom order come in last minute this week. I love custom orders but they do cause me to stress out a bit. Especially if I am trying to match colors to something I have not seen in person or have on me. Computer screens in the same home can large to slight variations in colors. Then you add in the crunch time of this order and I was a nervous wreck. I got it knocked out and the customer said she loved it so I am now a happy customer.

It was for a little one and the shirt it was to match had a lot of different colors in it, but I do like the way it all came together.

    Also I am getting ready for the 4th of July. I am doing a show that day. I have done this show for 3 years now and I love it. I am really excited that this year it is actually supposed to be a comfortable temperature. I just hope that the rain stays away.  Every year is so much fun. I stay all day with my booth and then my family comes up and watches fireworks with me from my booth. This year Syrup and Country will be with me. That will make it a ton of fun too. We have all been making our usual products but have been working on some new ones too. I don't have pictures of the new items yet but I do have pictures of some of the tutus I will have there.  If you are local you should come to the 4th of July Freedom Fest that I will be at. The address is on the Wonder Market front page.

  We also had family stuff this week. The normal things but also unexpected things like Sunny Bunny's eyes swelling shut. We flushed them and gave her benadryl, but they continued to swell so off to see the doctor we ran. They think her allergies have gotten worse and put her on a steroid for this reaction. She had a smaller but similar reaction about two weeks ago but the benadryl was able to control it. Now we are looking at having her allergies tested again and possibly a special cocktail shot made up for her. We have to control her allergies because they tend to set off her asthma and if they are getting worse then that could make both harder to control. I hope they are not worse and this just some kind of fluke. We will take care of it if they are though.
 So as you can see I have been a very busy lady and I see no signs of it slowing down, but I am feeling very blessed. Thank you for reading.