Potty Time

Our daughter turned two in July of this year, and we’ve been told by several people we need to get her potty trained. That’s easy for them to say, they aren’t the ones doing it. We have a 2 month old baby as well which can make everything more difficult.
We have the potty chair, the pull ups, and the big girl panties. We’ve actually had all those for a while just haven’t had the drive ( and neither had our daughter) to really push it. Well we decided it was time.
We’ve been hardcore potty training for about three days now. She has done really well. Gone all day with a dry pull up, wakes up with a dry one in the morning and after naps. She’s had very few accidents. Then today we get up and she has tummy troubles and isn’t making it to the toilet in time. So much for progress. We’ll just slack off for today and pick it back up tomorrow if she’s feeling better.

I’ve been told to get the cloth training pants and the plastic cover to go over them to help her feel like she’s not still wearing a diaper. Sometimes the pull ups can be confusing. So now we are on the hunt for some training pants. I will also be decorating her very own wipe container forger bathroom and get her some cute kids soap and towels for hand washing after potty time.

She seems to really have the desire to do it tho. Even started refusing her potty chair and started climbing up on the big toilet to go. She’s excited every time she goes, and upset if she has an accident. This is promising since she wants to learn and do it.

We will continue on in our potty training journey and hopefully it won’t take too long to have her completely trained. Pray for us.

Cloth Diapering

I've recently came to the realization that I am doing laundry every day. At least one load if not two. I've also realized diapers are expensive and we are buying for two babies right now. Putting these two thoughts together I came up with cloth diapering. 
Never thought I'd even be considering it because its always seemed so daunting to me and disposables are so much easier. But after my laundry epiphany I thought "what's one more load of laundry added?" 
I've began my research and quite frankly I'm overwhelmed. I reached out to a few friends that currently cloth diaper their babies and got some more direction in the options and what I should look for. I've narrowed down my choices a little but I'm still slightly overwhelmed by all the choices. Fitted? All in one? Pocket? Covers? Snaps? Velcro? Pre folded? 
And then there are several "systems" and brands in each of those choices as well. 
I have quite a bit more research to do before we decide what were gonna go with and then it'll be a matter of finding that set or system for a reasonable price. 

I know normally bloggers don't ask for advice from their readers but if anyone has and info that might help me I'd appreciate it. 

I will defiantly be updating our decisions on this on my blog and let you all know how it's going. 

Healthy Home

I’ve decided since my last two blog post were pretty depressing I would do a little more upbeat post.
I’m going to introduce you to the craziness of my housekeeping routine and tips and tricks.
As most of you housewives know keeping up with everything is a never ending job. And inevitably the moment you get the floor mopped one of the kids spills something sticky all over it. I do my best, considering my OCD tendencies, to not freak out at the slightest mess.
I’ve gotten myself down to a routine. Every day I get up and clean up our bedroom and bathroom. Move to the kitchen and unload the dishwasher and load whatever late night dishes were used. Spray down the countertops and any spills down the cabinet doors with my homemade all purpose cleaner.

32 oz. spray bottle
10 drops essential oil
3 cups water
1 cup distiller vinegar

Then I start a load of laundry (yes every day) with my homemade laundry detergent. We usually only have one load since I do it every day. But if I skip it for some reason it seems like there are 4 loads…lol

1 Box borax
1 Box washing soda
1 bar soap
10 drops essential oil

Grate bar soap, mix together in air tight container. 1 tablespoon per load. 2 for large loads.
Then straighten up the living room, vacuum floors using my home made carpet fresh.

2 cups borax
2cups baking soda
20 drops essential oil

Mix ingredients in a shaker jar. I change up the essential oils I use in different products just to add some new variety of clean to the house.

All this time the kids are eating breakfast then playing in their rooms. When the baby sleeps late I can get all this done before time to start lunch. Hubby usually makes breakfast or we do cereal so I don’t have to worry about that while cleaning.
Then it’s time to figure out lunch, get the kids fed, then nap times for them while I relax and spend some bonding time with the baby. The rest of the day is pretty much go with the flow, but since I got my things done in the morning I don’t mind doing whatever the kids want. I know a lot of people with OCD can’t go to bed with things dirty or out of place but that doesn’t bother me as long as I know I did them at some point during the day. So after I clean up the living room if toys get strewn out everywhere again I don’t mind, and we usually get the kids to clean up all their toys and blankets any anything else they got out in the living room, or their rooms before we go to bed.
In the evening It’s supper, bathtime, cleanup, stories, hugs, kisses, sleep. I start the dishwasher I’ve been slowly loading all day and start it with my homemade dishwasher detergent, and get the clothes out of the dryer, fold, hung, and put up.

15 packets lemon koolaide
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup kosher salt

Use 1 tablespoon per load. Vinegar as rinse agent.

That’s pretty much my daily routine to keep up. I do a more thorough cleaning every so often on different rooms but it doesn’t take that long either thanks to my daily routine.

So it might be a little crazy but it works for me and my family. I will have more green cleaning recipies on a future post.

 This is my cleaning closet and all my supplies to make my cleaners. 

Update: We've gone back to cascade gel packs for the dishwasher because since we are in an apartment the dishwasher is highly used before we moved in and it has some issues. In order to have those issues fixed the part net is making us use regular dishwasher detergent to determine the problem. Seems to be a rusty water coming from the rinse agent compartment. All other green cleaners are still in use in the home and I've added a few more that I'll post about in the future.