Empty Fridge, Oh Bliss! No Unnecessary Organizing Part 3

When you go to your fridge to have look, you open the door, see it packed with tons of jars and bags of something, a few tupperware containers with something in them, left overs, bit and bats, but there's nothing for you to eat, or you cannot see anything you can cook with? You know, your door is filled with small jars, quarter empty, bottles of dressings and what not, but you can't see the wood for the trees? Not only that, but you see pieces of dried up onion peel in nooks and crannies? a sticky spill?

Here me out! This is the time for you to start fresh! No need to plan your next week's meals according to the random ingredients which have lingered in your fridge for months, ( really would you want to cook with a food" which doesn't go bad? ) Get rid of it, toss it out, start fresh! I am going to give you a few rules of thumb of what to chuck out and a recipe for a non toxic fridge cleaner!

Rules of thumb:

• If you haven't used it for a few months, chuck it out. When and IF you really really need it, make fresh or spend the penny to buy "fresh"... you don't want to store jars of random pickles and salsas for months. You'll end up with a hall of fame jar-landia.
• read the ingredients, if there is more than 2 ingredients that you cannot pronounce or know what they are, toss it, just toss it! Go back to basics, to ingredients which won't "cause cancer". Natural.
• If the food product has it own TV commercial, toss it, just get rid of the devil! 

Recycle the jars and containers according to your local recycling instuctions. Empty the fridge, Categorize in the simplest way that you can really, in all honestly, follow through with. Keep the meat away from your fresh produce. Make sure your fridge looks more colourful than "beige", this way you know you're eating healthy(er). Store in glass containers, see this blog post for why you ought to! 

Fridge Cleaner Spray

•  warm water
• 1 tbsp bicarb (baking, washing soda)
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 drops of cinnamon oil (lovely scent, super bug killer, antifungal etc)

1. mix the oil and vinegar first in a spray bottle
2. add the bicarb
3. then fill up with water

Empty your fridge, spray scrub, wipe down. Fill up your fridge. Be picky, think twice. Cut a lemon in half and place it in the back of your fridge for freshness.

Enjoy!

Oh My Laundry! No Unnecessary Organizing (Part II)

I am so very happy to share this new "Ahaa!" experience with you! Finally, finally, after years of laundry torture, I got it!

Now picture this, some of you might deeply relate to what I am about to share with you:

You've done several loads of laundry, folded everything neatly and put them into dressers, wardobes and cupboards. After you have re-organized EVERYONES wardrobe. Finally, everything is perfectly organized and in it's place. Haa, not for long! As you walk into one of your kids' rooms, for one reason or another, you notice random CLEAN clothes pulled out of the wardrobe and on their floor. Hmmm... this is not new to you, oh no. It happens often. No worries, you "smell through them" sorting out the clean from the used clothes, and regardless clean or not, if they have been on the floor too long- they all need to go back into the washer. This is one vicous cycle!

But I got it! After reading Michelle Duggar's well put sentence in their book "20 and Counting"

..." all the trips made to carry our clean clothes from the laundry room back to the bedrooms and put them away neatly in the right closet or drawer. The "neatly" part would last until one of the children needed something out of that closet or drawer, then things got stirred up, moved around, and strewn all over the place. A lot of the time, clean, never-worn clothes ended up back int the laundry again..."... 


and walking into my childrens' rooms and witnessing this annoying habit, it solidified it for me! No more clothes in anyone's room! All of the clothes must be in one place. I figured out, if the clothes would be next to the washer and dryer, (they would not get moved from washer to floor, to being folded, onto chair to the wardrobes and back on to the floor- to the washer again,) they would stay put, hung and well, be tidy. What a liberating "Ahaa!" experience for me. Why did I not think of this sooner?!

 I know this looks like a horrid laundry room. Well, it is.

 idea + hubby + tools =

 half way there!

and 

finally done!

 realistic and complete!

yes, honest mess in a REAL home.

So,  my husband and I agreed on it,  I had it planned out and my husband made it happen! You gotta love him! Always trying to make my ideas come true.

Ruby Slippers - Book Review

Currently reading :  

Ruby Slippers

By Jonalyn Grace Fincher.

I wish I could read it in one go but, with 3 small kids to care for, I am taking small bits at a time. So far, this book is very liberating in many ways. 

This Book Review is written by the President of the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society.

I hope that you get to read the book for yourself!

Personalize Your Living Room - Mural

I have a "habit" of getting bored quick when it comes to the home. So I've been told (my my better half). One thing I have done in every home we have lived in, is paint a wall or two. I have a "thing" for bamboos. I love painting them; there is something elegant about them and they fit in every "era". (Lots of "" going on in this paragraph!?)

I used the gold paint to give our evenings shimmer! In indoor lighting, the gold really sticks out and gives the painting a whole new look. I am not a good enough photographer to capture that, sorry.

Paint your very own mural, which is personal and no one else has! Go on! Be creative!

Homeschool -Science Project

 The Solar System!

We used:

• crayons
• glue
• string
• scrapbook paper
• stick
• cardboard 

We improvized. 

 Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars...

This is a fun craft project with kids, try it out!

Sleep On It Curls Part 2

A few weeks ago we tried THIS. 

Last night, I tried it differently and got this look! Here is what I did. I used 5 rags instead of 20. First, I washed my hair, waited for it to feel "touch-dry" and seperated my hair into 5 sections. Then I curled up each section the same way and slept on it!

This is a simple-simple way of curling your hair and getting fab results!

Savour the Valentine's Day Season part 5

Savour the season by giving tulips for your sister, daughter, mother, friend or /and grandmothers...

 -Make their day!

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 4

  This morning, we savoured the season by making and eating heart shaped omelettes! yummy!

I don't have a heart shaped cookie cutter, so I had to improvize....

For my two oldest monkeys...

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 3

Savour the Season by making your own personalized valentine's cards! These fantastic cards however, were not made by me, but by a talented photographer and mother of two Christine Jordan. Here is her blog - ChristineJordanPhotography - 

Aren't they cute!?

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 2

 DIY  "I love you Day!" Shoe box gifts!

Have your kids decorate the boxes as they wish, encourage them to decorate with pink, red, hearts, you know... with all of those LoveLove colour and theme :)

 Fill the boxes up with rice paper, sweets and the gifts they have bought for each other. 

 Let them be creative! Finish it off with "I love you day!" self made cards.

You don't have to spend much money to fill up the boxes. For example, i found a jar of bubble gum in my pantry. I seperated the pink and red gum balls from the rest and put them in zip lock bags. Voilá. Be creative!

-Enjoy!

Savour the Valentine's Season Part 1

I'm trying something very new here. We don't normally celebrate Valentine's day, since we know it as 'Friends Day' back home. However, now we live in North America and it is a BIG thing here, - we'll embrace it! We'll welcome it into our home and we will call it "I love you Day!". (Thank you Bates Family for the title idea!)

How can we make this "I love you day" last? Here's an idea!

Write letters to your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you!

These letters ofcourse are given to them on the day. Hence, the last paragraph. Show your children how much you as parents love them by serving them for example, sweets/popcorn, dvd, their favourite blanky, and really go "all out" for them. Pretend your waiters and it's a V.I.P Movie Theatre ;) in your own home!

I'm declaring my love for him!

Sleep On It -Curlers!

I've been wanting a perm for so long. This desire goes against everything I thought- I thought about "good" hairdressing. I've never been a fan on perms! Since my 3rd child was 3 months old, my hair has been falling out. This isn't new, happens after each pregnancy and I am not very keen on my thin, droopy looking hair. I went to a "perm expert" for a consultation but I wasn't sold. I said "God, there has to be a cheaper and better way to get natural looking curls/body for my hair??" So I googled, and on my first try I came across this blog with this CLICK HERE method.

HOWEVER, as a hairdresser and the knowledge I have, I realised that there was a faster method to achieve curls. There is actually no need to wet your hair completely and then wait 18 hours for super sweet curls. You can do it that way if you find it easier, and really there is no RIGHT way to go about it, but there IS a more time-saving approach!

I'm glad I came across the blog, since it's a good one! Families with many kids or families wanting to have many kids can really get good advice from this blog.

Okay back to the curls, in the evening before bed time is the best time to curl your hair.

• Cut 1" x 8" cotton fabric strips (20-30 depending on the thickness of the hair)

• Wet the strips in warm water and squeeze the excess water out

• Optional! You can spritz each section of hair with a styling spray before rolling up your hair

           around the pencil which has the strip of fabric running along its length.. 

• after rolling all the way up, tie a not, pull pen out and complete the not.   

  **BETTER & PERFECT instructions for rolling your hair are on her blog!**

• cover the head with a shower cap/hair cover/ etc

• sleep on it! And voilá!

 I "combed" it through with my fingers...

...here is K's version below.

I first tried this on myself, then on my daughter K. We love them! They last and wave out eventually (after a few days). 

I am sold! Thanks Erika Shupe for this!