What is Borax?

I was given a box of Borax by Purex Insiders in exchange for a blog review. Of course, all of the opinions that I express are my own!

So What is Borax? According to 20 Mule Team, Borax is 100% natural mineral from the earth. Once removed from the ground it is washed, dried and boxed for consumers. Borax is the common name for sodium tetraborate: a naturally occurring substance produced by the perpetual evaporation of seasonal lakes. They add nothing to Borax, no phosphates, chlorine or other chemicals. One of the main things that Borax does is helps detergent work better by softening the water. We don't have extremely hard water like some parts of the country, but we do have minerals and tannins in our water. Anything that helps keep my clothes and removes stains is great!

So what did my precious child want to do with the box of Borax that we received in the mail? Did she want to scrub our kitchen and bath? Did she pull out all of her stained clothes and start doing laundry? Nope! She insisted that the first thing we do with the Borax was to make slime!

How do you make Borax Slime you ask? Mix 1 teaspoon of Borax with 1 cup of water. In a separate plastic bowl, mix 1 bottle of school glue with your favorite food coloring. Add the Borax solution to the glue and mix. Immediately, the glue will become slimy and fun to play with!

While I don't recommend giving it to small children, I feel better knowing that Borax is natural if I am going to let my child play with it. And it will get the stains out of her clothes!

Wanna try Borax? I have coupons for my loyal blog readers! Shoot me a comment below and we will pick the winners in a week! 

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Hmmm...let's see what have I not been up to this week. I was awaken early Sunday morning by a phone call from my mother saying that Dad was unable to urinate and they were taking him to the ER. I did not listen to my mother and decide to take my 3 year old with me to the hospital instead of sending her with her daddy to church. I mean what kind of crazy woman takes a healthy 3 year old to a hospital waiting room. I did not pull one of her Christmas gifts out of the closet and stash it in my purse for when she got bored. As expected, she loved the Hello Kitty art set. Furthermore,  I did not explain to my 3 year old on the way over that Poppa "was having trouble tinkling" and needed to go to the doctor to get help. She, of course, did not announce loudly and repeatedly in the waiting room, much to the amusement of the other folks, that her Poppa was having "tinkle troubles."

I think that is enough confessions for this week! How was your week?

My June Habit Focus - Dishes

I'm borrowing this and making it my own from Simplemom - This month, I’m going to focus on cleaning the kitchen after every meal. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? You’d think.

Lately in my vain attempt to get my husband to help around the house, we’ve been letting the dishes just sit there. This week was very busy and I wasn't home most of the time. I suggested that the girls cook, so the boys, my husband and his son, do the dishes on Monday. They didn't, so I ended up cleaning up a stinking mess on several days later. It’s so discouraging, and it’s not how I want to end my day.

So starting today through the end of June, I’m going to clean up after every meal right after we’re done, so that after dinner, all I have left are dinner’s dishes. I’ll clear off the dining room table, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and clean off the kitchen countertops from cooking.

What about you? What are your plans for the month? Remember, vocalizing your goals helps you stay accountable to your word, and it provides encouragement from everyone around you.
Please share your plans in the comments, or if you’re brave, post your habit focus on your own blog and share the link.

For more good reading, check out Steve Pavlina’s 30 Days to Success.

Another one of my weird ideas!

Well, that is the way that I presented it to my husband. He said something to the effect of aren't they all!

I decided to turn gardening upside down, but after looking at the $20---75 planters that they sell on the internet, I decided to make my own. I came across this site that shows how to make one out of store bought objects but that just didn't do it for my frugal side....so.....I decided to use those wonderful plastic buckets that I get with the kitty litter and food. Yes, I try to buy things in paper bags that can be composted, but the TidyCats Small Spaces litter comes in either a bucket or a jug. I have tried other litters, but that Small Spaces litter is the best! It is even better than regular TidyCats...I don't know what the difference is, but I digress.....

Here are some photos of my upside down cherry tomato plants. I should have painted the buckets before planting them, but I will get around to that later...


This is the bucket laying on the side with the tomato plant fed through the hole in the bottom of the bucket. The news paper is used to prevent the soil from fallling out the hole.


My Bonnie tomato plants say to bury 80% of the plant which I have never done before, but am doing it this year. This is supposed to help the tomato have a deeper, stronger root system since the stem will put out roots if it is planted. That is why you see green in the bucket there.


The twine was used to replace the handle which would have made the bucket hang crooked on the hook that we had.



This one shows the plant sticking out of the hole!

Here they are hanging up! I planted oregano seeds in one and basil seeds in the other. I'm hoping that this will serve as "living mulch" to prevent moisture loss.

Seems like yesterday....random thoughs...

Well, my baby is a little girl! Today is her second birthday! Happy Birthday Ellie!

It does seem like yesterday that I was bringing her home from the hospital, that I was waking up several times a night to feed her. She has grown from this helpless creature that required hours of care a day into a little tornado that can destroy a clean room in a moment's notice.

I have a quote from a very wise woman, Elizabeth Stone, that says, "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." This is so true! As I watch my little one become more independent each day, I wonder how I will survive when she wants to borrow the car or walks across the stage in her cap and gown. Thankfully those days are far ahead of us! One day, she will be holding a child of her own and wonder those same things.

As I was passing David's Bridal the other day, is struck me that as young, single woman, I used to imagine myself in those beautiful gowns. Now I'm a mom and it isn't me in the window anymore...it is my daughter's future self looking back at me in the mannequins.

Happy Birthday, Ellie! We love you more than you can ever imagine!

"Butter! I want butter!"

Well it is official! Ellie is speaking in complete sentences. This was one of her first. We were eating supper when my little one exclaimed, "Butter! I want butter!" She is definately my child. I love butter too, although I have stopped sticking my finger in the butter dish.

The other day, I caught Ellie, Cali and Snowball on the table taking turns at the stick of butter in the dish. We now keep the butter dish on the kitchen cabinet where she can't get it and closed where the cats can't get into it. Life is grand!!!

Martha Stewart's Handmade Christmas

About ten years ago, I bought several books on Christmas. Martha Stewart's Handmade Christmas was one of them. It is a lovely book with tons of entertaining and decorating ideas done up as only Martha and her team of little elves can do.

Today as I was laying in bed cuddling with my daughter, I looked over at the bookshelf and saw this book. I realized that this was the first year in 10 years that I didn't pull it out and search the pages for decorating ideas or recipes.

In the past, I felt like I was always trying to measure up to someone else's standard. I was always trying to make my family as perfect as my best friend's, whose mother is the real Betty Crocker. I was trying to be as artistic and creative as our favorite domestic goddess, Martha Stewart, or better yet, my friend, Liz Pope, who so desparately needs to write a cookbook, get noticed by the Food Network and start her own TV show. I can see it now....Entertaining with the Pope....although she went and got married, so she isn't a Pope anymore. Hmmmmm

Oh well, I guess I'm content with my life, my husband, my bonus sons and my daughter. I'm content with my little house in south Louisiana and my situation. Sure I get frustrated with my job, how dirty the house gets and relationships, but overall, I have a great life. I am truly blessed! No need to be Martha Stewart after all.

A look at our Christmas

A look at our Christmas 2007

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Merry Christmas! Time to Diet!

Well, Christmas has come. The gifts have all been opened and my little bugaboo is snug in her bed now. It is amazing how Christmas used to be about what I was getting and now it is about what I'm giving!

We opened gifts at the grandparents house last night. Bugaboo opened the Mega Bloks first and was pretty much done at that point. She was so excited about the blocks that she didn't want to open anything else. We were on a time deadline, so we encouraged her to keep going so everyone would get to see her open the gifts that they bought her. This morning, we took a different approach. We allowed her to open them at her own pace. She would open a gift, play with it and then go open another. I like this approach. It spread the gifts out and she enjoyed them more.

It seems to me that we could all learn a lesson from Bugaboo. Often in life, we want all the gifts that God has for us at one time. Gimme, gimme, gimme! We stuff our faces with not just enough food to fill us, but enough to feed 3 people; we stuff our houses with every imaginable item of technology, every type of kitchen gadget, every possible piece of junk. Our closets overflow with clothes, fat clothes, skinny clothes, warm weather clothes, cold weather clothes, work clothes, workout clothes, play clothes, dressy clothes and casual clothes. We continue to want more and can't even find all that we already have.

When we pray, we look for instant answers instead of being still and knowing that God will meet all our needs.

As we enjoy this Christmas season, let's take time to slow down and enjoy the gifts that God is giving us one at a time. By slowing down, we can truly savor the blessings we have today.

Merry Christmas!

Advice to Your Younger Self: What Would You Say?

Dear Lori,
1. Don't worry about the funny looks people give you when you act weird. Most of the time they just wish they could act weird too.
2. Follow your dreams more often.
3. Take pottery classes in college, then save money for your own wheel. It is something you love, so do it!
4. Don't limit yourself by what you think everyone else thinks you should do with your life. It is your life, and while you should see wise council, it is your life and ultimately, you are the one who has to live it.
5. Credit cards are evil! Listen to your sister's advice on this one.
6. Just because you went to college for one thing, doesn't mean that you are stuck in a career that you hate.
7. Dance! Who cares if you look funny!
8. Most of all, slow down and look where you are going! You won't end up laying in the ditch with a sprained ankle so often.

Living the life of a Princess

It is what we all dream about right? From the time little girls are about two years old, their heads are filled with dreams of castles and tiaras. Prince Charming stealing a dance with us in the forrest as the animals look on and we sing "Some Day My Prince Will Come." (Big Sigh!)

As time passes, we grow up. Life comes at us and we start to realize that people look at you funny when you wear your tiara to Wal-Mart; your castle is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a toilet that clogs everytime someone puts more than one sheet of tissue in it; sometimes Prince Charming is late coming and when he does show up...he burps, farts, gets upset when you disturb him during a football game and has really bad breath in the morning.

So, where did the fairytale go? I'm still living it. Prince Charming, woodland creatures (worms live in the woods, don't they?) and my own little princess. No, it isn't what I dreamed of as a child, but it is what God gave me and I love it!