Returning With A Giveaway!!

So I know I have not only dropped the ball on my 31 days of blogging, but I have not even gotten to update you on the fun things that October has brought us! We have had a school trip, special activities and fun for Thomas and Anna-Kate, we have celebrated Thomas' second birthday and now Halloween is this weekend! I am going to do some updating this coming week, so be on the look out!

When I got started on my 31 days of cleaning, Erin at Healthy Branscoms invited me to try the benefits of Shaklee and then I could let one reader share them as well! I have been wanting to see what Shaklee was all about and this was the perfect opportunity! You can go here to see the products available and learn more about it and if you haven't already, hop on over to Erin's blog to learn even more about the benefits of Shaklee, not just for cleaning your house but also for promoting a healthy lifestyle!

I have been using the Heavy Duty Scour Off Paste for anything I can think to use it on! Once I tested it on my oven to see how it cleaned the baked on spots, I knew we were going to have some fun! I tested it out in my bathroom on my sink and shower and then my floors. I even got some of the spots to go away that were here when we first moved in! Amazing!

Derek and I use a natural, all-purpose cleaner for everyday cleaning and even to clean our windows and mirrors. It's really simple for us to just have one bottle that pretty much does everything. I tried Shaklee's Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate to see how it would compare. I thought it did just as good of a job! It takes just a small amount to fill up 16 ounces so one bottle of the concentrate goes a really long way (one bottle makes 48 GALLONS of all purpose cleaner)! Plus if you are going to use it as glass cleaner, it only takes 1-2 drops per the 16 ounces of water!! I just think that's awesome! Derek tested out the cleaner and said that it left fewer streaks than what we were using, so he this one was his favorite too!

Today, I am giving away some special goodies from Shaklee!! If you have been wanting to find out what it's all about, now is your time! 5 readers will receive a sample of the H2 cleaner that will make 2 spray bottles of cleaner!

Here's how to get entered:

1. Follow my blog and then head over to Healthy Branscoms and follow Erin's blog- comment letting me know you do

2. Visit Shaklee's website and let me know what your favorite products are and what you'd like to try the most

3. Tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment with the link

4. Post on Facebook about the giveaway and comment with that link also

So, you have 4 ways to enter!!

(Please leave separate comments for each one you do!)

Hurry! This giveaway ends Tuesday, November 1 at 8:00 pm!

I'll post the winners Wednesday morning! Good luck!

31 Days... Household Notebook Part 3

Day 3

I promise, I am wrapping up the household notebook series today. 

I found two really great birthday party planners that were perfect for my over-thinking mind. One is a little more detailed than the other. 

So now we are getting to my absolute favorite part of this little enormous binder... I have created a holiday tab. Under this tab I have put all of the holidays for the year. To simplify things when I got started I just did the last three holidays of this year. As time goes on I will add the rest. 

So as you can imagine, for Halloween I have costume ideas, a halloween party planner, and decorating ideas that I love so much even Pinterest isn't working to hold that idea. 

And just to make your husbands roll their eyes proud, there is a printable for BLACK FRIDAY shopping! You read it correctly- you can actually write down a game plan for which stores you are going to and even the specific items on sale that caught your eye! I am still young enough in my family that I don't really get a say in what dishes we have at Thanksgiving, so that's the only printable I felt like I needed but you can see on that same page there are several other handy Thanksgiving lists! 

I am loving the Christmas section in my binder because each time I have gotten a catalog in the mail, I have circled things that I could give to people and initialed who it would be for and then just slipped that catalog into a clear sleeve so I have it to reference. In my mind even if that exact item is not available, I'll be able to use that as an idea source for when my brain was thinking clearly about what certain people would like. 

I can also write down sizes and preferences and even gift ideas on this printable. I have a page to list thank you cards that I need to send and a gift spending worksheet. When I finish a shopping trip, I can keep track of the gifts I've gotten, where it's from and the price. Okay- this is a huge deal for me- a page to list Christmas order tracking! I tend to do a lot of online shopping and I always lose track of tracking information! I am planning to get my bake on this Christmas and it'll be easy with a baking planner and then I can just copy these adorable gift tags onto card stock to send with my baked good! When I'm putting away our decorations, I will fill out this inventory of my Christmas decor and who knows- maybe get some discount Christmas decorations at the first of the year!

 I had a section for our finances, but since we are working with Dave Ramsey right now, I took it out and I might just keep our finances separate. 

My family lives 6 hours away and we travel to see them about every 2-3 months. I thought it would be handy to keep a packing list in my binder for those longer trips! It's an awesome, detailed packing list that will probably make Derek jump for joy because of all the things I'm going to remember to bring! Ha- or it will drive him crazy because I'm over thinking our trips and adding like 10 bags! :) 

Past this, I keep anything that goes with extra things I am involved with. I am about to start co-teaching a girls class at church on Sunday nights, so I've got information with that here. 

I am also a room mom for Anna-Kate, so I put her class roster and any important information in the back of my binder for easy reference. I had planned on putting ideas for her parties in my binder... but then I discovered pinterest and I really don't have too much of a need for that yet. I keep a couple of weeks worth of her school work she brings home in the back, so I can file that in her preschool notebook. It forces me to go on and weed-out the things that I won't be keeping and then I can write down any special detail that goes with it while I'm thinking about it. I know it's a hassle to put this here and then move it to a different binder, but I keep the household binder with me always so it makes it easier for me to put things here first that I want to save. 

I have a separate binder for teaching my little 2-year olds, so I don't use this binder for that. I also do the same thing "pre-filing" Thomas' things in that binder and then moving them when I get a chance to his day school/ 2yr binder. 

I know that this is way in depth, but I kept finding posts about people's notebooks but I had trouble getting details on what they actually put in theirs. I also spent too much time trying to pick which template to use. 

Also, this is a "living" binder. It's going to update and rotate through as time goes on. I am sure that I will be using it differently from time to time and I may not even need to have as much information in here. I created this out of a necessity I had now to get us organized and into a great routine. 

If you made it through these first 3 days, thank you! I hope you stick around to see more of my fall cleaning!

31 Days... Household Notebook Part 2

Okay, I hope I have not lost you yet! I promise not all of my posts will be as overwhelming and long! I'm a little embarrassed about how wordy my posts are getting! 

So the first part of my binder has a tab for important information, scheduling/ daily planning, and menus. If you missed out on this post, you can read about it here. 

I've got a tab for my cleaning too. 

I decided to organize my focus each day, so I wrote that down and it's at the front of my cleaning section. I tried to get a good picture so you can make it larger and see what those days are. Feel free to ask though if you can't! 

I printed a page that has "recipes' for homemade cleaning solutions. I have planned on making my own laundry detergent and even dish washing detergent, but for right now I like to have this page for the quick substitutions. For example, I used baking soda to clean my shower and it worked great!

I found a checklist for deep cleaning each room of the house here. I will be going through those checklists this month for our fall cleaning! 

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One page I really liked was a home maintenance checklist. It has a place to check off things that need to be done each month, like cleaning and inspecting the basement, and inspecting the hoses on washing machines and dishwasher. Things I would probably not think about!

I have been wanting to get in a better habit of letting Anna-Kate do chores. Even Thomas is at an age where he can do some of the basic things. I have had trouble finding a chore chart that worked with our personalities. I found one at Simple Mom that lets you cut out a picture of their chores. They are simple things that Anna-Kate can definitely do. Once we find the chores that are working for her, I will just laminate one copy to save the the trouble of cutting out and arranging each chore chart. For now, I keep my extras in this section.

I have a tab for goal setting and Bible reading and Inspirations that I have not made the time to use yet, so I'm going to exclude the links to those pages to simplify. Again, if you need the links to the ones I'm using please ask.

Okay, one of my very favorite things to do is plan. I like to plan for all of the holidays and events in our lives. Like a year early. ha. I'm not that bad yet, but with this binder I could be! :) I have an awesome tab for birthday parties and a wonderful tab for all of the holidays! So you can look forward to me sharing the links to some pretty neat templates tomorrow!

Oh and you can look forward to me wrapping up my household notebook details tomorrow too! :) 

Happy Friday!!

It's an absolutely beautiful day here! I'm excited to be feeling better and up to some fun things! 

First, I have to share two recipes that we tried this week. I got them off of pinterest of course! 

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Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

It was delicious! My only complaint was that ours turned out pretty thick, so I added about a cup or more of extra broth, just until I got it to the right consistency. 

Pinkies

How cute are these? I whipped these up last night to take to Anna-Kate's class for their snack. They've been having color days and today's color is pink. It's a really simple recipe (similar to cake mix cookies) and super fast to whip up! Oh and I did have to try one- so good! 

I've been meaning to share a few pictures of my class at school. I don't know all of the parents well, so I will only share Thomas and his friend Jackson right now. We have lots of fun at school and Thomas is doing really well with everything! He loves to play with the other kids.

Sorry for the poor quality- these are all from my phone!

I had planned to coordinating themed Halloween costumes for the kids this year. I've gone back and forth on this because I can't completely decide on what I want Anna-Kate to be! Plus, Thomas is very interested in mickey mouse and monkeys and even buzz lightyear right now! I love to see him get excited when he sees something he likes! Right now he'll say "loooook!!! looooook!!!" It's super cute. So, I don't want to share what he is just yet, but it is one of those three! I got his costume in the mail this week and it's adorable! Now all I have to do is decide on what Anna-Kate should be! I'm probably going to make her costume, but I'm a little worried about how that's going to go. October is going to be a busy month for us! 

We are kicking October off by going to Lepanto for their "festival," Terapin Derby. This is our first time going back (as a family) to Lepanto since last December! I'm looking forward to seeing some of our friends. We've missed them so much. 

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Tomorrow night I am going to a Busy Bag Swap with several other moms. We are getting together and putting together an activity for our children to do. Each activity helps develop skills and keeps the little ones occupied. By the time we leave, we will each have 13 little activities to take home for our children! It's a really neat idea and a great opportunity to get together with other moms! I'm making this color matching game. 

Oh and just in case you didn't see it, I'm participating in a 31 days challenge this month! I'll be sharing 31 days of fall cleaning. Look for posts about our organizing projects, cleaning tricks and even some simple fall decor! Not to overload you with posts, but I'm still planning on doing a few of my regular posts too, so I've created a 31 Days of Fall Cleaning tab at the top of my blog (under the header) next to my Menu Monday tab! If you'd like to participate, go here and get all the info!

Happy Friday Y'all!!