A single photo – no words – capturing a single moment in the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see. And to see where this all started, visit Soulemama.
Ecover was kind enough to send me a bottle of their All Purpose Cleaner to try out and review. I loved it! It is completely safe to use, non-toxic, biodegradable, safe for septics, and all that other good stuff. A capful goes a long way too. It has a yummy lemony scent that makes my house smell like a citrus farm…I love it! The girls love cleaning things, and I felt safe with letting them use this product. Usually I mix up a vinegar and water solution for them, but they enjoyed feeling like grown-ups while cleaning with “real cleaner” as my oldest puts it. Haha!
From the company’s site:
|
Personal benefits:
Environmental benefits:
|
As an added bonus, Ecover would like to giveaway a full size bottle of their cleaner to one of my readers! All you have to do is enter a comment below. If you are a follower, enter a second comment for a second entry. Comments will close on Sunday 11:59 PM CDT and the winner will be announced Monday morning. Good luck to everyone!
Peace and happy cleaning!!
My extraordinarily talented friend, Michelle, wrote the cutest dress pattern and asked if I would help by test knitting it in a size 4. I was thrilled to help out of course! One of the best things about this pattern, was Michelle wanted us to use a certain weight and fiber content of yarn, cotton! Yay! Xi can’t stand anything with even the slightest amount of wool in it, so knitting for her has been challenging as she just won’t wear any of it. I figured this was do or die with her, so when the yarn came I asked her to feel it and see what she thought. She smiled gleefully, announcing, “It’s so soft!” Whew! First hurdle down. So I knit up the dress and finished it this morning. She was eager to try it on and I have to say it is a huge success as she now refuses to take it off. She has declared it the perfect princess dress and wants to wear it everyday..haha! Hats off to you Michelle for a beautiful pattern and the perfect yarn requirements!
As the heat, and humidity, rages on there are a couple plants in my front garden that are completely satisfied with it all. It’s giving the yard a tropical feel, giving us a little bit of being back in the islands.
After being spoiled with kind temps so far, we are being reminded of what summer in Texas means at this time of year. HOT! I just am thankful it hasn’t been a summer like last year; dry lake bed, 100+ degrees for days on end, dead garden, wilted children and parents. At least right now I know that we are already into August and these temps won’t last. This seems to be the normal time it’s suppose to get this hot, and we’ve really enjoyed summertime this year with the lake being up, membership to the community pool thriving and lots of activities and friends.
I’d love a little rain sometime again soon though…Peace!
k-)
omelays.blogspot.com
I have had the privilege of being asked to review an amazing water bottle line, EcoUsable. If you are anything like me, the whole plastic thing and BPA can drive one mad when stressing over it. I had yet to find a water bottle that I felt 100% comfortable with until now. EcoUsable is a great water bottle that comes in many different colors, sizes and with several different features. In their own words:
“EcoUsable provides consumers with affordable planet-friendly, reusable products that are recyclable, health conscious and designed to improve the lives of people worldwide. EcoUsable pioneered the world’s first stainless filtered water bottle, the ECH20, which includes its own portable filtration system and provides instantly filtered water from almost any fresh water source. It removes harmful contaminants as you drink through the flip top straw.
EcoUsable stainless steel water bottles are:
• Available in an assortment of graphic prints and solid colors.
• Made from 304 food grade stainless steel (18/8).
• BPA free and Aluminum free.
• Non-leaching and liner free. Since our bottles are stainless steel we don’t have to line them like aluminum bottles. The consumer doesn’t have to worry about scratching the liner, which could potentially leach aluminum into their water.
• 100% recyclable.
• Half turn loop top; fewer threads mean less chance of bacterial growth. (Most other bottles require 3-8 turns to open.)
• Easy to clean and fits ice cubes.
• Exclusive skid-proof mat bottom.“
They sent a generous amount of bottles with different tops to try out along with colorful grips called Water Wrapz that fit around every size bottle sent. The girls immediately latched on to the purple 16 oz. size each and added the sport top lid. They have been by their side everyday since. The grips are super cute too, making for individualized bottles. Along with the 16 oz. sizes, we were sent an 25 oz. ECH20 Filtered Water Bottle which works great! I put regular tap water in and noticed a huge difference in taste. The additional carrying strap makes it great when working out in the garden too, I always have my water at my side. Notably, with the 2009 Launch of their “ECH2O” filtered water bottles, it immediately caused quite the stir in the industry as EcoUsable founder (Joey Mendelsohn) was awarded “The 2009 Manhattan Beach Environmental Entrepreneur of The Year Award”. This is a company that has grown successfully while still keeping their focus intact.
We are a one car family at the moment. Jason’s 1965 Chevy Truck is still out of commission and we have been trying to save every nickel, dime and penny to get it fixed. We also knew that we’d need work on the van in the next few months, so the “Car Fund” was born. Not easy for us to save much as we don’t make alot to begin with, but we can become super frugal when the time calls for it, so that’s what we’ve been doing. Well, yesterday the van decided it was tired and done…yep, with 4 kids in the car going uphill, the transmission decided to commit suicide and all of a sudden I wasn’t moving anywhere except to coast to the shoulder. I remained calm, called J and then a friend who was close by. She came to rescue us while I waited for AAA to send a tow-truck. Two hours later, the car was hooked up to the tow truck and hauled off to the mechanic by our house (who is a great guy btw – Guaranteed Automotive is the name of his business if you live out here by the lake and want a fair mechanic). J and I started scrambling. We didn’t have enough saved up yet for the massive cost of rebuilding our transmission and unfortunately we do not have the normal avenues available to us in being able to borrow from family or credit cards. But we do have the most amazing friends. And once again they all showed their true colors. Knowing our predicament, all of them banded together and without being asked (none of it was even a thought in our heads beyond asking for rides for J to get to work) got us a loaner car (one of two extremely generous offers) and the balance of what we need (again, no hesitation just blew my mind with the offers we got) to have the van back on the road in a few days. I was in tears most of yesterday because they all just have been so amazingly generous. The unconditional love we feel from the people we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with is just overwhelming.
So this post is for my friends. You all are truly appreciated by our family. Community is a truth amongst all of you and you have all proved it time and time again. We are so grateful to be amongst this group and would not hesitate to return the love in anyway we possibly can. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It is so good to know that we are “home”. Love you all….
Peace!
Here are the blooms that are decorating our garden today. We have had an amazing summer so far. Temps have been great, lots of rain even into this month. Everything is growing and happy. After last year’s death ray heat, everything and everybody here are breathing little grateful sighs to the weather gods for being kind to us this year. I have alot more flowering plants than I photographed, but since there are alot of photos to begin with I thought I’d better not push it. Hah!
After you are done here, go check out Carol’s blog at May Dream Gardens and see where all this began! Enjoy!
Peace!
A single photo – no words – capturing a single moment. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see. And to see where this all started, visit Soulemama.
Peace!
