Dream House Goals

So this week and well every other week I have been dreaming about my dream house. I seriously cannot stop thinking about it! So I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my favorite ideas for my dream house that I have found on Pinterest. I love dreaming about my dream house like I just cannot stop. It is so fun and exciting. So I will post a picture and tell you what I love about it and how I plan to make it my own. All credits for the photos are given below with the link from Pinterest.

The first thing that I ever knew I wanted in my house was a drink bar/station. At first I had planned on it being for alcohol since I had dreams of being a bar tender and even got trained in it. But as I got healthier and then go married; my husband and I don't want alcohol to have such a huge place in our house. So I want a tea and coffee bar! I will also have room for my workout drinks and Shakeology. I love in this picture how they have fresh muffins out. That is my goal to be the wife and mom that always has fresh treats. Of course all organic and super good for you. I also love the chalkboard; it will be so fun to write Bible verses, quotes, or the food I have laid out. I hate the cabinets though but everything else I love.

Another thing that I have always wanted is window boxes! I want them to look just like this. I want the ones on my kitchen windows to have herbs in them so I can just open my window and pick my herbs. I want the rest to be a mixture of flowers or pretty greens. I love nature but I hate the Texas heat so bringing the nature closer to me is perfect!

I absolutely love this! I want something like this for David. Of course we will have both DC and Marvel super hero's because I like both. But we will have a bigger poster of Superman because Daniel absolutely loves him. I think having this in my house and right next to it a reading chair with all the comic books in a bookshelf next to it. I want my house to be such a fun place for my kids to play and for imagination to be a huge focus in our house. This is a great way to do it! I also have to add mine will say, "Hero Up" it seriously makes me so annoyed that it doesn't have capitals.

My dream house will be on a lot of land. One of my goals is to be able to live off the land. Now of course I will buy stuff and I am not about to make my own clothes or give up Shakeology. But I want to be in control of as much as I can and be able to save money. I love this system for saving and storing rain water. Why waste! This would be perfect for watering the gardens.

This is like my dream pantry. I want all of the raw ingredient to be in jars like that and labeled with the chalk. I love it. It looks so clean and so natural. One thing that I would change is the cleaning products of course they will be Young Living!

Another goal of mine is to have tons of outdoor space for my kids to play on. I love this! I love how big it is and how much stuff you can do on it. I also have ones saved of teepees, cafes, and mud kitchens. The outdoor living spaces I want to create for the kids will be so much fun! (Your kid is going to want to come over to my house!)

I have absolutely no idea how you do this but I want it! How unique and special is that! I have a video recording of our wedding and I would love to be able to create this. It will be a very special piece of artwork in our home.

I of course want a home gym. I love how this one is set up! I love the weights and the towels. I will make it bigger and have a bigger TV though. But it is surprisingly hard to find pictures of home gyms that aren't like microscopic. So when I get mine set up I will for sure be making a blog about it and adding it to Pinterest. Your Welcome!

This is such a fun idea! It is a solar panel porch cover! It lets a little light through but works for you all day! I want tons of solar panels. I would love to be one of those people that collects enough solar energy that  I can then sell it to the power plants. My home is going to be a green home.

I feel like this is just a little bit like an old fashioned medicine set up. This will be my herb station. I want everything fresh. I love how this is set up. I love the raw look to it and how they use mason jars. I would want to change the labels though. I will want chalk board labels; I love how those look on mason jars. I am so excited to have this. My food is going to taste so fresh and mind blowing.

I love the romantic aspect of this. I want ton of outdoor living. I love the lights and candles in this one. I also love the curtains. The table being white with a stained top is my favorite part. The benches I feel give it such an opening and inviting feeling. I feel that chairs can feel confining in the outdoors; but a bench it means you can come and go as you please without scooting out your chair. It feels a big magical the whole set up. I love it.

Without a doubt I want my table bigger! I hate the end chairs but I LOVE the white table and stained top. I love the bench on one side. I love the vase of flowers. I feel fresh flowers in the house make it feel homey and welcoming. I am all about bring nature indoors! This is such a happy, bright kitchen table.

Well that was a tiny little peak into my big dreams. I know you may think I am crazy and I dream too big. But I don't. I know it is going to take a lot of work to get this and I know with wanting to live on a farm it forever will be work. But this is my dream. I grew up wanting to be a prairie girl and I will be one: one with a toilet, AC, and a car. But I will live out that prairie girl dream! I would love to know what you think!






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My Easy to Follow Cleaning Schedule

I have always been a total slacker when it comes to cleaning. Don't get me wrong I love a clean house and I can NOT focus in messiness. I just would rather do something other than cleaning. It is very hard for me and I tend to put it off. As a mom you cannot do that. The second you gave birth you signed up for being a life long maid. You gave birth to a little mess maker. So needless to say I have had to step up my game. I tried cleaning every other weekend but that just ruined my family time. My husband works 12 hour days and we honestly only get quality time on the weekends. I do not want to spend that precious time on cleaning.

So what did I do? I sat down and made a plan. I worked it and worked it until I got something I could live with. A schedule that wasn't too hard but got all the needs done. I have waited a couple weeks to share this with you because I needed to test it out. I needed to know it worked and was not overwhelming. I admit I have never had a perfect week where I got everything done. It happens life is hard. But man my house has never been cleaner. I have never been so consistent with trying to clean daily. I feel more accomplished and I feel empowered. I am no longer a slave to the mess. I control it. I am in charge. I can clean! I really can handle it.

With all that said I would love to know your ideas about my schedule and would be thrilled if you tried it out! It is the perfect size to print out on paper. I have it hanging above my desk. Be sure to let me know what you think! Also if you want to see it all in action be sure to follow me on Snapchat. I share my daily life on there including my cleaning habits. My Snapchat user name is daradventures

We All Have a Drug of Choice

We all have our own drug of choice. You know something to kill the pain or make us forget. Something to make the hard parts of life a little less hard. I know YOU obviously don't have one because you are a good person. But I am here today to admit I have one. I'm not proud of it, but when life gets tough it sometimes helps me get through. It helps me cope. It gives me short term happiness. It helps me forget, but not without consequences.

Let me explain. So we all know the consequences of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, sex, and self harm. But even the small tiny things we do to numb pain come with consequences. Maybe it wont kill you or maybe its just a little bad. But do not turn a blind eye to those habits. If we all want to live good full lives we need to watch out for them when life gets so bad we need them. That's when we need to work hard at getting better. I can tell you with all honesty I do not want to admit what mine is. Why? Because then my family will know. They will then judge me next time I do it. It is not fun and I honestly could never stop. But maybe if I admit it and throw it out to the world something will change.

My drug of choice is TV. No not all the time. I could go weeks with out watching TV. But when life gets really hard and I become depressed; I turn to the TV. It helps me forget my pain and focus on others. It helps me forget. It helps me pretend. It numbs me. When life gets so hard and I just want to forget the TV brings me a false reality. How sad is that? And my goodness it is so addicting.

When hard times come in life it always seems that we do the wrong thing. In a time when we should turn to family, the Lord, and healthy habits; we so often turn to destructive things. Why is that? We know better. I will be sitting some days watching TV knowing I should be doing Bible study or working out but for some reason I just cannot get up. I cannot stop doing my drug.

In a dream world during the hard times I would only use natural remedies. I use my oils, I drink Shakeology, I workout, I do Bible study, I eat healthy, and I try to stay positive. But even still I turn towards the TV and neglect house work or personal goals for myself. It drives me crazy. I guess that's why it is hard to find change in your life at times. It is so hard to give up that drug and do what you truly need to do.

I am list girl. I love to make lists. I run out of paper so quickly it is ridiculous! So if you ever want to give me a gift give me paper! I make to do lists. I make lists of dreams. I always seem to make them right before life gets tough. Once life gets tough I start to give up on those list. Nothing gets cross off. Not because I no longer want them but because that TV has all my extra attention. It is so sad really.

I do not have a solution. I have no answers. I am trying to get better and I guess this is the first step by writing this blog. You see I have been working on getting the right words out for 3 days and that has given me some time away from the computer. It has given me a piece of freedom. I just want to encourage you to notice and figure out your drug of choice. Be mindful of it and try to say no to it every once in a while. It feels so freeing.

Book Review: Beauty A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast

This is one of my all time favorite books. I have read this book maybe four or more times. This last time I read it in less than three days thanks to my new glasses. I cannot tell you how excited I am at my new reading ability. I have not finished a book in over a year I hate to say. So I decided with my new talent I wanted to start doing book reviews of all the adventures I take. I love reading and I feel like it is such a gift we have to be able to learn and go on adventures just by reading. Maybe I am old fashioned but I would rather curl up with a good book than binge watch Netflix any day.

Beauty A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley will capture the hearts of those who love Beauty and the Beast. It does not follow the typical Disney plot line. I love that about it though. I always loved the Disney version but felt it just was not believable and felt to much like a fairy tale. Robin make it real and tangible. Instead of being an only child Beauty has 2 sisters. Her mother passed away when she was a child. Her father is the owner of a ship company in the city. They are very wealthy and the typical city girls of that time. Beauty is different though she is plainer and loves to read. She was not into courting and looking for guys but into books and horses. The fathers ship company takes a turn for the worst and he is forced to sell and move his family to the country where living is affordable. That is how they end up on the edge of the Beasts forest.

They end up moving their with one of the daughters fiancé who got a blacksmith job in the town of Blue Hill. The girls and their father are forced into a new life of labor and poverty. You get to follow the details of their life in the new land. They learn that enchantments and magic are believed in this new place and are not something to laugh about. They are told never to enter the forest for it is not safe because of this magic. The father eventually hears word that he has one ship that returned in the city that needs him to attend to. The father travels back and takes care of it. He returns weeks later on a blizzard night to come home. He has a rose in his hand and give it to Beauty. She is so pleased and the father mentions to what a huge price that rose came at. He doesn't leak the story till morning. When he tells the family of the castle and how he was welcome and fed and taken care. Then he tells of the lovely gardens and how he took a rose for Beauty but then a terrible Beast appeared and told him he must bring one of his daughters back in return for his life. He has one month to return alone to his death or bring one of his daughters that would willingly give her freedom for his life.

Beauty volunteers and after arguing the family complies. They mystery and adventure that awaits Beauty is so what I had dreamed. It is not like the Disney version at all. She doesn't try and tame the Beast. Instead the Beast truly tries to win her love. It is so romantic because in a gentle way the Beast tries to woo and pursue her. He makes her feel safe over time. He loves her more than his own life it self. It is a true story of love. Not the falling in lust and fairy tale dreams love, but a love that lasts. A love that is so pure and so true it is not based on outward appearances but of genuine care and love.

I cannot tell you how many little girl moments I have when reading this book. I giggle and blush! A part of me has always wanted a love like that. I had always wanted that pure deep devotion. Not to mention I would have loved the castle. Yes please I want personal maids and a kitchen staff. This book is not sexual at all. It is clean with no cursing. It is not scary for you never hear about the details of the Beasts temper. It is an amazing love story. I highly recommend it. If you are anything like me you won't be able to put it down till you are too tired to read any more.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! You can pick it up a Amazon or I got my copy at a local Half Priced Books. I seriously hope you will give it a try. This book has brought me such joy over the years and has taught me to dream again.

15 Minute Mom DIY: Baby Toy

We are making a baby toy today!

I have created a new super easy and useful craft for you moms to do! You should be able to do this in under 15 minutes. I wanted to make something for my son. Nothing to hard because lets get real I don't have time for that right now. He loves this one toy that has ribbons on it and he LOVES to chew on them. Not to mention it is easy to hook to a cart with his rings; so it is a good traveling toy. I wanted to make my own version of this toy but better.

What do you need?

-Material

-Ribbon

-Thread

-Sewing Machine

-Pins

-Pencil

-Kitchen Bowl

-Stuffing

What do you need to do?

• First you need to set your bowl on your material and draw around it to make your pattern. Do this twice so you get 2 circles. Make the lines really dark you have to go over it a couple times. Then cut out the 2 circles.
• Next you want to cut your ribbons (I had 8) into  2 1/2 inch strips.
• You will want to put your 2 circles together pretty sides facing each other. Pinch the ribbon in half like in my picture. Insert the ribbon into the circle and pin it in place. I have no idea what words to use to describe what I did, but in my pictures below you can see what I did.
• Do that all the way around. I would do a green ribbon on one side and switch sides and add another green one opposite to it.
• Once all of your ribbons are pinned in place start sewing around the edges by one of the ribbons. Make sure to leave a whole between 2 ribbons when you are done to turn it right side out. I had to go reinforce where my ribbons were attached so I suggest going back over it and sewing on top of the ribbon a second time to make sure it is sturdy; remember this will be played with a lot.
• Now turn it inside out and fill it with stuffing. Once it is full, I got a needle and thread and hand stitched the opening shut. It is a lot prettier to close this with hand stitching. Then give to you favorite baby!

I hope you enjoyed this 15 Minute Mom DIY! Let me know what you think!

Bringing New Life Back Into my Hair

I have always been able to curl my hair and have beautiful ringlets for about 6 hours before they fall. I love curls. I could sleep in braids or rollers and my hair with look beautiful the next day or two. But then I got pregnant and had baby David. After that I wanted to feel beautiful again and bought new hair rollers and a new curling iron but it did not work! I literally curled my hair and it was flawless used hairspray, but 15 minutes later it was flat as a board. I bought one of the BEST curling irons you can buy on Amazon. I was lost and honestly felt like I was going to be ugly forever.

I am sure many of you have the same problem! I even googled it and found tons of people with the same problem yet no solutions. This killed me. I have never had a problem I couldn't find a solution for. I always search and search and search till I can fix something. That is just my nature and who I am. But if you know me you know I know nothing about hair. I survive in the hair world and I want to thrive. So I followed tons of YouTube Channels, I learned to curl my hair from a girl on Facebook. I became really good at doing hair for me; yet my hair still would not hold a curl.

I finally decided that maybe my hair was too long or too damaged. I had not cut my hair in about 16 months at the point. I know I know that is horrible. But like I said I am not the hair girl. Hair had always been easy for me. So I found myself a brand new stylist and she cut my hair and saved my life from doing this crazy short haircut! Praise God! But she also gave me 2 new products to use. She used them on me that day and I had volume and curls like I hadn't seen in years! I felt so amazing. Better than I even did in high school. So I have to share these two products with you!

The first one is to help your hair hold it's curl: Aquage Working Spray. You put it in before you start curling. Spray all over your head and let it sit a bit. This seriously works! Like I said my curls has started falling flat in about 15 minutes and not just falling down. I mean flat as a board. I was going to do a whole blog on the new rollers I bought and took the before pics and how to roll your hair pics. The next morning took them out and NOTHING. So this product has seriously changed the game for me! My curls stay!

The second product is for giving your hair volume: Joico Hair Shake. I have never had volume. Teasing my hair doesn't work it just creates a rats nest. But this product gave it about a 1/6 of an inch poof! I loved it. I felt like I could actually see my hair rise off my head. I loved feeling beautiful again. This product you spray in before you curl too. Great thing is it lasts all day you just have to keep messing with your hair to push it up again.

Well I hope this helps my fellow flat haired ladies! I want all of you to feel like the beautiful queen you want to be! This has helped me so much gain my confidence. Not to mention these are like the only chemical filled products I have in my bathroom. Let me know if you use these too!

Natural Deodorant that SAVED My Life

I am going to be 110% honest with you right now, I stink! I have a sweating problem and I have always smelt bad since probably fifth grade. It has been embarrassing and exhausting. I have tried ALL deodorants and all the clinical strength ones. I even started trying natural ones, nothing worked till I found the one. Now, I know everyone claims natural deodorants work but for those of us with BAD body odor nothing works. It got so bad my clothes only lasted a few months before they started stinking too.

I got to where if I switched deodorant brands all the time I could manage it but that was exhausting always trying to find a new one that worked. Then I learned about the aluminum in deodorants. They have found it in cancer cells and it is linked to breast cancer. Once I heard that I knew I had to go to natural. I mean it did not matter, I was going to stink anyways. I might as well prevent cancer and stink than have cancer and stink.

So a little bit about deodorant and cancer. It has never been proven that deodorant or antiperspirants cause cancer. But they have found traces of parabens and aluminum in breast tumor tissue. So it is a bit concerning. I want to be safe. I do not want cancer and if I find something that works to replace a questionable item I will do! Everything you put on your skin soaks in and has an effect on the body. That is why I try to be so very careful with the products I use.

Back on the topic of this amazing natural deodorant. My sister found it just as I was in the market for a new deodorant. I had been stinking for a few weeks and the 2 natural deodorants I was trying were not cutting it. She has started stinking with pregnancy and nothing worked so she tried this deodorant and it worked! Once my mom found out about it she immediately ordered it for me. If that doesn't show you how bad I naturally stink, I don't know what will.

In 2 days time my Amazon package arrived and I opened it up to my new Primal Pit Paste. It works! I apply it once a day if I stay indoors at home. I apply it again if I leave to house. I also apply it before I go outside or workout. If I do that I rarely stink anymore. I am so happy and thrilled. I am not terrified of lifting my arms up or scared to death that I will be judged for the way I smell. I smell good or at least not nasty. I highly recommend it. It is super inexpensive for natural deodorant.

I hope this helps you and I hope you give it a try. If you do let me know what you think!!!