“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Life is getting really crazy in our household!  It seems that once Thanksgiving hits, life accelerates for busy families.  Getting ready for the Holiday's tends to put most households on edge.  The pressures to buy the right gifts, decorate, bake, attend holiday parties, and manage all the rest of our "normal" crazy lives tend to really stress us out!

For our family this time of year has been leading up to my daughter's performance in the Nutcracker!  Our ballerina has been working hard for months rehearsing with the cast to get ready for one weekend of Holiday Magic!  Just watching her first night of dress rehearsals last night got me teary!  It truly has become a holiday tradition for our family.

However, as rehearsals went on until 8:30, and I was driving home with my interior light on, and my daughter in the passenger seat trying to finish her math homework. I was regretting letting her attend our Girl Scout meeting where we worked on Christmas ornaments for the Christmas trees we are donating to needful families in our area.  This is our first year that she has 2 nights of ballet classes each week, and bigger roles in the Nutcracker.  Meaning she has 2 LATE nights of rehearsals this week also!

Needless to say, she is not going to get much sleep this week, which will put our whole family on edge.  Tweenage girls don't do well with lots of added stress, and less sleep than normal!

In my mailbox I came across this wonderful blog post  "Be the Change You Want to See In Your World" by Trent A. Hamm over at The Simple Dollar!  We have all seen the quote “Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi.  Trent does a great job of breaking it down and really hammering it home!

Never more relevant a post for me and my family right now for certain.  After I had dropped my children off at school this morning I was thinking to myself that this week is going to be rough for our family, and it would be up to me to hold it all together.  We all know as Mom's we are the ones who set the dynamics in our family. Read the blog, take it to heart.  Know that I am right there with you struggling to keep my cool during this busy holiday time!

Good Luck!

Cleaning With Vinegar!

I am all about healthier and easy products for taking care of our families.  For a couple of months now I have been using a vinegar water solution to clean everything from windows to my refrigerator.  Vinegar is a great all purpose cleaner and it is made from corn!  I never knew that!  No preservatives, no additives, all natural!  Love It!  Vinegar has been used for 10,000 years. It just might be the world's oldest ingredient!

So very easy to make, fill a re-purposed spray bottle with 50% water - 50% white vinegar.  That's it, and it cleans like a dream!

Another thing I just learned today about Vinegar:  An open dish of white distilled vinegar will help remove paint smells from a room. Bonus!

Due to it's high level of acidity it kills most mold, bacteria, and germs.  I would much rather spray my counter tops with vinegar than a bleach spray to kill bacteria after I have been slicing and dicing raw meats!  There are so many more ways to use vinegar in your cleaning routines, I could never list them all, so I suggest you explore them at 1001 uses for White Vinegar!  There are a ton of great ideas I could have never thought of!

I also wanted to share with you a way to improve upon an already great cleaner.  I came across this great idea to create Scented Vinegars Cleansers that a fellow blogger , Monica created at her site The Yummy Life!  I am so loving these ideas, I plan to pick up some fresh lemons today!

How Great is this?  All natural, non-toxic and you can make it smell any way you like!  And its easy!  Love It!