Where to start?

Yikes! Has it really been so many months since our last post?! 

Honestly, life has been hitting us full throttle. When it comes to where my time is going…..it's been enjoying rocking babies, cooking meals, teaching school lessons, single parenting while the hubby is working 50-60 hours per week, working on our little business, teaching classes on living a life of wellness and somewhere in the mix trying to keep our family centered and growing towards God. 

Lots of changes are going on around here. Some I will reveal in the coming weeks. ;) Ha! 

First, thing I need to address is our sweet new addition to our family! Our laid back, happy sweet girl, Kyndall Jade! She has been a delight to our family and so easy going. She adores her siblings and laughs the most at her silly older siblings! 

Our family has adjusted well to the newest member. We were expecting some acting out and a bit of jealousy issues from Jude. Thankfully, God had mercy on this momma, and this has been the smoothest birth to new baby addition yet! All of the kids have taken to baby Kyndall so well! They love her to pieces and are great helpers! Jude especially has a soft spot for his baby. He lays next to her and talks and plays. He is always asking to hold her or help me. Super sweetness, I tell you! Makes this momma's heart swell! 

Watch for Kyndall's home birth story! I'll be posting that soon! Also, I have some fun fall make and take projects we did last month and working on a Christmas themed one now. 

There is some exciting stuff happening in our little family right now! It's too soon to let it all out, but you'll find out soon enough! 

Blessings to you my friends! 

Name Reveal!

It has taken us a long time to finalize this sweet girl's name. We are excited to share that our new arrival will be named…..

What is in my Home Birth Kit!

I've been pretty consumed with the end of this pregnancy the last 6 weeks or so. As I have entered the 3rd trimester, I have had more discomfort and contractions. This was all anticipated and normal. But honestly it has taken all my energy to just get through the days.

I've had to scale back on what I have been able to accomplish.

I am a huge planner and like my lists. I literally started buying my birth supplies around 30 weeks! I ordered my midwife required birth kit from the medical supplier and had it at my house by 32 weeks! All along I have been feeling like she is going to come early. That sent me into prepare for baby mode! 

(35 week picture)

I am 36 weeks along right now and so glad I am ready!

Last week we had a bad storm front come through and I started having contractions. Not the Braxton Hicks tightening, they were the real deal! Started low and in my back, then wrapped up my tummy. They literally took my breath away. When I was in tears through one and it had been the 6th in an hour I texted my midwife.

We tracked the symptoms all that evening and thankfully nothing came of them. It was a scare for us as I was only 35 weeks and 2 days. By Arkansas law I have to be 36 weeks to deliver at home. 

I did my best to lay still on my left side, drink tons of water and rubbed Lavender and Geranium essential oil all over my belly. 

The next morning I was still having irregular contractions when I was up and walking. The pressure was the worst when I tried to walk or stand. Since we were only 4 days out from being allowed to have a legal home birth, we decided it was best of me to go on bed rest until the 36 week mark.

Goodness, bedrest is not for the faint of heart! I have a lot of respect for the ones that have to do it for weeks or months.

Scott was great and fixed meals after long days at work. Took the oldest to soccer practice and a game. Grocery shopped late one night after he put the kids to bed. He was a rock star! A very tired rock star, but he was amazing! 

So blessed to do life with him! 

Now that we are in the clear to have this baby she has settled down a bit. I am still having occasional contractions and have needed to slow down. Talking with my midwife, I think I have relaxed as I'm not stressed about having a hospital birth anymore. Therefore, everything has slowed down.

Well, moving along….I thought I'd share what I have gathered for our little one's home birth! Maybe this might be helpful if you are planning a home birth in the future. 

Here are the check lists I was given to collect before the birth. This was just a starting point for me. Since we have done a home birth before I knew there were a few things I wanted in addition and a few things I wanted to change up.

We aren't doing a water birth. Last time we attempted it, but Jude came too fast. Not to mention it took up most of our little space we do have. Since we are expecting a short labor, we didn't think we'd have time to set up the pool and use it. 

I added a few items to the medical kit order. A baby shirt that says "Born at Home", raspberry tea, and Arnica 200cc.

The day my box arrived I posted this on Instagram!  It's exciting to start to get the baby necessities.

Moving Forward Update 2

It's been a several weeks since my first update on how it's going with my new year goals. I thought I'd share a little how it's been, what is working and what I still am working on. 

First, I've had to keep reminding myself that these goals are in addition to my normal goals and responsibilities in life. Being a homeschool, stay-at-home mom with 3 little ones and pregnant with our 4th, I am busy. I know I am just preaching to the choir, but it is challenging just to do all the normal homeschooling, house work, cooking, taxi driving, and child raising. 

Oh yeah! And I am kinda growing a small human. 

This small human doesn't let mommy sleep much and has an ever growing list of symptoms that are letting me know she is getting bigger! Of course, I love pregnancy, but you have to admit there are a handful of not so pleasant factors. ;) 

Challenging as it is, I am still working towards my goals!

If you remember the quote from my Moving Forward new year goals post….

"If you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."
~Martin Luther King Jr.

I feel like some days I am flying and then there are days I am barely crawling by. Some days can start out really awesome! I'm running along and then, WAM, something happens and I get nothing else done. 

I am learning that is okay. My controlling type A personality, is learning to let it go and just keep pressing forward at whatever speed I need to.

With all that said….I feel like God is revealing to me, my ever desperate need, to draw my strength from him. I simply cannot do it all. What I can do, I still need him to keep me focused and my heart in the right place.

So on to my goals for this year and how it is going!

Get Moving!

I think this is the one area I haven't done as well on. I am doing more then I was in December, so I still think that is progress. :) I have managed to get 1-3 days of yoga in each week. I'd like that number to be 5-7. However, some days we are very physically active! Like the day we went to the zoo, or when we run a million errands in one day! haha

I have had to slow down some here and there. Baby girl has grown quite a bit this month and I'm starting to feel it when I am on my feet too much. Thankfully, I have Young Living's Lavender and Gentle Baby essential oils to rub all over my tight tummy during those days. (If you'd like more info on what oils I use go here. Get your own oils here.)

 Braxton Hicks are not fun. They say they aren't painful….yet when I have them, I am left on the heating pad.

Easy DIY Valentine's Day Wreath!

This was a fun and super easy diy wreath I made in about 15 minutes! 

Keep reading to see just how simple and adorable this is.

I started out with the grey yarn wrapped foam wreath from this Easter wreath project. 

If you are starting by scratch, you'll need a foam wreath wrapped in grey yarn.

I had picked up a few goodies from the Target $1 bins last week and thought they would work nicely for this project. The circle punched paper is left over from a decor project we did for my sister's wedding. I literally have a hundred or so of these to use up. Of course, I will eventually use them! :) 

Send Ants Marching with Cinnamon EO!

As usual in Arkansas, this winter has been wet and muddy. Just when the yard starts to dry up, we get more rain. An unfortunate side effect is a line of marching ants along our window sills, walls, doors, floors and even kitchen cabinets!! 

Yuck! 

These little guys can multiply fast! Give them a teeny tiny crumb and suddenly a hundred of their buddies have joined the party! With the three little mess makers we have living here, there is no lack of crumbs! 

This is my go to concoction I use to rid the house of these little marching lines!

Cinnamon Bark essential oil (you can buy them here), water and a used Thieves Spray bottle.

Simply fill the Thieves Spray bottle with water and add 10 drops of Young Living Cinnamon Bark EO.

Shake and spray on location. It usually takes a few times to complete the job. 

You can literally see the ants start to die as you spray them. Not only does it take care of the current residents, but keeps more from joining the party.

How awesome is that!?!

I love that this is a non-toxic alternative to use in my home! I also love that I can successfully avoid nasty chemicals that have negative side effects on my family and pets! 

Not to mention, my house now has the delicious aroma of cinnamon throughout! Yummy!

To learn more about Young Living essential oils you can go here or here.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you! 

Easy DIY Accent Picture Frame

My sweet momma's birthday is on December 28th. Since we were visiting her the weekend after I brought her a little something special!

My mom's colors are greens and cream colors. I wanted to find her a frame that would match either her colors or go well in her office at work. Of course, the frame would be the home to a fun photo of the grandkids!

Here is what I picked up at Hobby Lobby. A green and cream stripped frame and some burlap flowers. The flowers were actually in the hair accessory area! Hey, whatever works right! 

Moving Forward- Update 1

So we are 9 days into the new year… and thought I'd give a quick update on how I've started working on my goals for this year.

If you missed it, here is the post with my goals and plans for 2016. 

Of course, I know it will take a bit to get into a routine. We started back to school, homeschool co-op and therapy this week. We had multiple showings (or almost showings) on our house sprinkled among these activities.

Somehow, I managed to keep up with my YL business, follow the daily bible reading, and make some plans for some projects I'll share here.

I am giving myself some grace as I work up to incorporating all my goals into my daily and weekly routines. Honestly, it has been challenging!
I feel like my life is being consumed with cleaning and making sure the house is perfect. I want to be ready the second someone wants to see the house. Having three small children is like having 3 tornadoes in the house! They have done surprisingly well with helping for their ages.
Eli and Brooklyn understand that a clean house equals a better chance of selling the house. They both are looking forward to moving so that helps.
Toddlers are a different story! Haha! It takes Jude one second to draw all over the bathroom sink and counter!
I have to remind myself daily, "He is only two, he is only two"!
Here he was sitting on his poor kitty! Oh boy…

We did get to the Zoo yesterday with some friends! It's nice to take advantage of the 50 and 60 degree January Days!




I have been really excited to get more into the scripture! I love using the YouVersion Bible app on my phone. It has The One Year Bible plan. All I have to do is select the day and start reading through the passages for that day. If you get behind…cough...like me…it is easy to catch up. Since Scott and I are both doing the plan, we are enjoying bouncing thoughts off each other. Scott has a bible degree and has more knowledge on the context and history of each book. It's nice to have him around to ask historical and cultural related questions! ;)





Looking forward to next week, I want to add my yoga workouts, do more YL class planning and work on my vision board.


How has this first full week of the new year treated you? Are you working on some new personal goals?

A Joyful Heart

One of my favorite words is  joy. I even gave my first daughter the middle name Joy.

My Brooklyn Joy!

Studying what it looks like to have joy, I have discovered there is much more to this little word then we first give it credit for.

What is Joy really and what does it look like?

According to merriam-webster.com, the definition of joy is:

-a feeling of great happiness.

-a source or cause of great happiness: something or someone that gives joy to someone.

-success in doing, finding, or getting something

All these definitions are great and even believable. I agree joy can be a feeling of happiness and I sure feel happy when things are going well! I use the word when I am feeling happy, elated and joyful. But is that all? Is there more to this little three letter word?

Everyone loves to have joy in their life. But how do we get joy in our lives? 

Do we find it, earn it, buy it or are given it? 
The world would like you to think this is how you get joy. 

Small House Hacks- Playroom Equals Sanity

I have posted how we live in a small house and have wanted to sell for a couple years now. Our house is currently on the market and we are waiting for it to sell! Woohoo!

Our very first home! 

As we wait, we are raising our 3 children (with one on the way) and have figured out a few hacks to make our small home function better.

I am sure we are not the only family out there with several kiddos in 1000 square feet! Maybe this posts will get your creative juices flowing for your home.

The first 'hack' was our Playroom. 

Every parent can understand how toys multiply! Somehow you start out with a small basket in the corner, you blink, and the whole house is over run with them!    

Moving Forward

New Year Personal Goals for 2016!

Photo credit- K-Love Morning Show

Each year around this time, most people start thinking of goals and aspirations for the new year. 

Some want to accomplish, let go, learn, do or move towards or away from something.

I want to Move Forward.


"If you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."
~Martin Luther King Jr.

We have lots of goals as a family like raising our little humans in the ways of the Lord, being an example we want our children to follow, developing them scholastically, spiritually, creatively, through personal character, in experiences and activities and so much more. 

Those are and will always be goals for our family.

We have a few exciting changes coming this year like having baby #4 and moving (Lord willing!) into a new house!

With family goals and happenings, it's easy for me to put my personal goals on the back burner. This year I have some big goals for myself. It's always scary to make big goals. I have learned so much about myself in the last year and a half and have grown into someone I never thought I could be.

While learning about leadership and personal development, I have realized there is a whole world open to me. A world I always told myself I wasn't good enough for.

Well…I am not believing those whispers of failure anymore. I will believe, trust and have faith that my God is bigger then any of my fears and HE alone has the power to grow and mold me into the person He wants me to become. I want to be used by God and have the ability to abundantly help others.

In order to be used by God, I know I need to Move Forward. Release the lies and trust God. 

Here are a few of my personal goals for this upcoming year…

Get Moving and Active 

- Exercise, walk more, play more, dance more.

I'm pregnant, having a baby this year and need to keep up with all these little ones...this one is a must! 

Keep Moving Spiritually 

- Read the bible in a year, memorize the word more, be in prayer and write more.

I have never stuck with reading the whole bible in one year. Praying I will be determined to stick with it this year. 

Keep The Creativity Moving!
-Craft more, create more with the kiddos, blog more, use my fancy camera more and improve my photography skills.

Creativity is my passion! This is my place to recharge and express myself. It is 100% crucial for my sanity.

Keep Moving Toward my YL Business Goals 

- Continue to educate myself while educating others and stay connected to my team to help them move forward in their health goals.

I LOVE helping others find natural wellness and health! Praying I keep my momentum and reach my personal goals for my business as we work toward bringing my husband home from his job.

Keep Moving Toward More Ways to Serve and Support Others

-Support ministries we are passionate about, seek out more serving opportunities, and serve more at our church. 

We'd love to have the ability to support more ministries and those in need this year! Get more involved in our church.

Move Into a New House! 

-Sell our current house and find our next home.

Please, please, please….pretty please!!!!!!! Yeess, I am desperate!

Keep Focused on Moving Forward 

- Stay focused and make a vision board for goals.

This is still in the works…I'll keep you up to date on how I manage staying focused! ;)

~~~~~~

"Trust in Him at all times, you people: pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge." -Psalm 62:8

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  -Isaiah 40:29-31

"So do not fear, for I am with you: do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you: I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10

~~~~~~

What are some of your goals for the New Year?

Serving Others with Elf On The Shelf

Yes, I know Christmas has passed, but wanted to share a cute idea we did with Elf on the Shelf this year!
 This was our first season with Elf on the Shelf. I watched others play the game with their kids for several years and this year we kind of joined in. 

While shopping with my mom, (the kid's call her "Nana") she bought the kids an Elf. 

To be honest...I am not a very good Elf mover and he didn't move very often.  

We have never played Santa with our children. They know about Santa and we watch the movies and read the books, they just know that it is a game that some people play. Our kids view Santa how they view a Disney Princess or the magic of Peter Pan. It is still fun, but they know he is not real.

We chose to focus on Christ's birth during Christmas. We exchange gifts as a reminder of the gift that God gave us sending Jesus to earth to give us life.

SO…..that said, our Elf Freddie, gets stuck in the same spot and my kids don't blink an eye why. Lol

Eli even asks me why I keep forgetting to move it. Opps!

We were at Chick-fil-a a few weeks ago and got these awesome Shuffle it Forward cards in the kids meals! Each card has a challenge to do something nice or an act of service for someone else.

I loved the idea! Chick-fil-a has impressed once again! 

As the hubby and I were marveling at such a wonderful concept, we had a fun idea! 

We thought these Shuffle cards would be great to do a spin off for a 30 day challenge of service. (I plan to do after the new year!) 

Then we thought why not use Freddie the elf??

He can bring a new Shuffle card each morning for the kids to do that day. 

Instead of having them focus on being good so they get what they want for Christmas, they are focused on a new way to serve others each day.

It would be easy to make your own service cards too. Either print off or hand make some colorful cards with acts of service on them.

As a family we try to find ways daily to serve others and put others before ourselves. Even with us reminding our children daily, we still struggle with self serving attitudes. We do live in a fallen world and these little hearts need much direction!

With the Shuffle it Forward service card idea (however it is incorporated), I feel gives the kids an idea of what serving others looks like. We can tell them all day long, "serve others before yourself", but what does that look like?
Now they can have fun with the Elf tradition while learning ways to serve others!


Do you have Chick-fil-a's Shuffle it Forward cards? How are you using them in your home?   

10 Tips to Host an Oily Make & Take!

Soon after we found Young Living essential oils, I was finding ways to make my own nontoxic alternative products with the oils. After experimenting a little a friend and I thought we'd plan a Christmas Make and Take oil style! We did have a blast and the event was fun and successful. However, we quickly discovered the event was a lot of work and we decided to not do another for awhile.

Fast forward to last summer. My team was asking for another Make and Take and I hesitantly did a summer themed event. This event was larger (28 people showed up!) and had more take homes. 

I was overwhelmed to say the least, but everyone had a blast and the event was a success. 

Pretty last minute, my friend and I started planning another Christmas event. Our mission was to keep it simple, fun, educational, and easy. We made a few changes and we both agreed we managed to perfect the experience.

I wanted to share a few things we have learned and maybe help someone else looking into hosting their own oily event! 

1) Keep it simple! Avoid projects with lots of ingredients or steps. I found if there is one I'd like to share, but it will be pricey or time consuming, I'll make one at the event and then give it away as a door prize.

Framed Christmas Wreath

I love the Christmas season! The colors, smells, festive atmosphere, baking, music and cheer!

When I was a child my mom used to give us craft supplies and have us make homemade gifts for our relatives and friends. 

Those are fond memories of my childhood. I am extremely thankful my mom took the time to show us that a little creativity and a bit of time, can make a meaningful gift.

Now I enjoy passing down those creative Christmas gift giving skills with my children. 

This beauty isn't a Christmas gift, but very well could be!

I have been itching to try a burlap wreath for some time now and wanted to add some holiday fun to it. 

Recently, I was introduced to BloomNation and was inspired to share my ideas on floral decor. If you haven't heard of them, they are a flower delivery service that supports local florists through their online marketplace. It is a pretty neat set up. 

Walking through the Dollar Tree the other day, I saw a bunch of pretty flowers there. Snatching them up, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them!

Ugly Chairs…

Recently, we decided to start going through all the furniture in our garage. We had been keeping nice pieces for "when we move to a bigger house". HA! Since it has been so long and we are still in our cozy first home, we figured we should part with the stuff that is crowding our limited space. 

I thought, "Goodness, I would get more for this furniture if I fix them up and paint them!". Lovely idea that has morphed into a little side business. 

I am fixing up the furniture we already had (and have sold some), but I have scored a few great deals and added to my list to redo! I have decided to try my hand at selling my projects and restored furniture at a flea market booth.

I am a little scared, but mostly excited to see how it goes! After all I love creating and refurbishing!
I started a little Facebook page to sell my pieces. You can find what I have available here at Sweet Things Furniture and Decor!   

These two chairs came from a local Facebook yard sale page. I got both of these for $12! 

A GREAT deal!!   

These chairs were disgusting! I took them apart and threw away the cushion and board. They had lived all the life they could.

I gave them a light sanding and good wipe down to get all the gunk off of them. 

Then I painted them with two coats of Americana chalky finish paint in Vintage. I bought this one at Home Depot, but found Hobby Lobby sells the same brand. At Hobby Lobby you can use the 40% off coupon on it and makes its much cheaper! 

My Oil Story and Goals For 2015

Last year I made a giant leap and bought my first essential oil kit from Young Living Essential Oils!

We had a sickness go through the house and the baby ended up catching a bad head cold. He was miserable and we were up all night and he couldn't breath with all the yucky congestion. I reached out to my friends on Facebook to find a natural remedy to help him get some relief. My dear friends brought me essential oils. I followed the careful instructions of my friend and used diluted Peppermint and Thieves on my little one. Literally within minutes his congestion was clearing up and he was able to sleep! I was amazed! Why had I never heard of these wonderful drops of God's medicine? We survived that illness and also found essential oils!

I saved some money up for a couple months and was able to purchase our first set of oils with the Premium Starter kit. We chose the Premium Starter kit because it came with 11 oils, a diffuser and a wholesale membership.

House Update and a Heart Share

So this post isn't about diy and not easy for me to write. Frankly, I have been putting it off for way to long.  If you follow this blog you know we have been updating our house as we prepared to list it for sale.

Crazy Paper Wig

The other day my 5 year old asked what a wig was when he came across the word in his phonics book. As I was explaining it he got excited and asked if we could make one!
My heart swelled...YES child, lets get creative and make a wig!
I love how he is interested in something and thinks, "lets make one!".  Just a proud craft momma moment!

Here is what we created with a few supplies we had on hand.

3 Easy Ways to Decorate Kitchen Towels

I had this idea to add some crafty fun to these plain dish towels I picked up for cheap. You know that point when your very used and tired dish towels finally throw in the towel…  (cheesy or not pun intended!)
So I picked up some inexpensive dish towels and came up with a few ideas.

The terry towels came from Walmart for around $1.50 each. The white towels are flour sack towels, also found at Walmart, and come in packs of 5 for $5.


1. The Easy No Sew Stamped Dish Towel- This one was by far the easiest and fasted project of the three. I was quite impressed with how good the flour sack towels turned out. I use fabric paint to stamp on the pattern. My stamps consisted of a toilet paper roll and a mini cookie cutter. Here is what I started with…

I didn't end up using the bottle cap that is pictured, but other then that this was really all I needed for this fun towel!

Before stamping the towel, I prewashed and ironed the dish clothes. The pictures have some folded marks which were from folding the towels after I ironed them.

I simply spread out some teal and silver fabric paint on a paper plate. Although, I wasn't going for a shinny look the metallic silver fabric paint was all I had. Usually I will try to make what I have on hand work and this time it worked out great! The metallic paint really didn't even look metallic-y when it was dry.
Next, I pressed the toilet paper roll into the paint. I made sure it was lightly coated since I was trying to avoid globs of fabric paint.
Starting at the bottom right corner I started a row of silver circles. Then worked my way across and up the dish cloth alternating silver and teal paint.

This was unbelievably easy and fast! If you only have 15-20 minutes, you can do this!

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome- Crib Assembly

This past weekend we took advantage of Scott's 3 day weekend and drove up to Branson to spend a couple days. This is the second year we have taken the kiddos to Silver Dollar City and it was so much fun! Brooklyn was finally tall enough to be able to ride a lot of the little kid rides. She even rode her first roller coaster! Proud roller coaster loving momma over here!

That's my brave 3 year old and myself in the third car back! You can barely see her head sticking up out of the car. But she did it!

We also took the kids to play mini golf for the first time. It was actually my first time at mini golf too. I was pretty surprised to find I wasn't to shabby either! The kids loved golfing with their own kid sized clubs, but we figured out we were a bit adventurous when we prepaid for 36 holes… At 5 and 3, they would have been good with only doing the first 9 holes. 

Ah well, live and learn!

During our weekend away we had a very small queen bed for myself, my 6 foot 4 inch husband, and our small 7 month old adorable baby. At home we still co-sleep with him, but we have a king so it hasn't been much of an issue. 

I know there are probably a lot of you who share a queen bed with a kid (or maybe even two!), I seriously don't know how you all do it! 

I hardly slept both nights we were out and vowed when we got home we were going to figure out the crib situation.

So yesterday we got out the crib that a friend of ours so graciously gave us! The crib was missing all the screws to attach the panels together. I had called Delta the crib company and inquired about replacement screws. I was told that they no longer carried that crib model and didn't make that particular screw size anymore.

Back to the drawing board I went and called a crib building company I found online that sold crib parts.

This route I actually found the correct screws we needed, but they were going to cost $67 for the screws and an additional $11 for shipping. 

Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I was pretty sure I could figure something else out for a lot cheaper then $78! 

We still needed a crib mattress too, which was going to be $40 for one at Walmart. So I was pretty determined we could improvise and use different screws for quite a bit less.