Binkies and Briefcases

You guys know I have five kids, right? And I will be the first person to admit that through the years there have been plenty of frozen chicken nugget nights around here. But lately, at the encouragement of several of Nick’s doctors, we have been really focusing on easy changes we can make to eat healthier. Unfortunately, children with special needs are often put on medications that do amazing things to help them, but can also cause weight gain and affect things like triglycerides. The easiest and most effective way to fight against that is to eat healthy foods as much as possible.  [Read more…]

You might remember from last month when I started sharing about our journey to declutter and live with less. At the time I was inspired by Marie Kondo, although we have actually been working towards small changes for a more minimalist lifestyle for about a year. 

In February and the beginning of March our journey continued. I would say, if anything, it intensified. Minimalism is addictive! The more stuff we cleared, the more we realized we could live without. I also started watching videos from The Minimal Mom on YouTube and I checked out Joshua Becker’s book The More of Less from the library. Both were eye-opening and life changing! 

This month we focused on toys, books, our office, the kids’ rooms, the kitchen, and living room. We are not really done in any specific area, and I don’t know that we ever will be, but we are making LOTS of progress. 

Since my last post on this topic, we have managed to get rid of an additional…. [Read more…]

First, let me say that I LOVE essential oils. I do believe they work. They have known healing and disinfecting properties. Johns Hopkins research even found that certain essential oils work better at killing Lyme disease bacteria than antibiotics. I use them in diffusers in our home, I use them to make homemade cleaners and soap, I put them on our dryer balls, and I use them topically for headache relief. I put them in my floor steamer. I own a diffuser necklace. You get it. I use them all the time. I love them and I’ll be happy to talk to you all day about my favorite oils and how I use them. However…. [Read more…]