The Mama Mama

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2014-01-10T11:47:00.000-05:00

Last Summer I decided to venture into the world of homemade laundry soap. With two young kids we do a lot of laundry and I hated spending so much money on such little amount of laundry soap. I made my way to google and found that pretty much all homemade powder detergents consist of the same ingredients. Not only did I do it to save on cost (Even with buying the $4.99 Purex I was spending more on that than making homemade) but working towards more homemade in our lives :)

Above is what I used back last summer. It worked well but in my most recent batch I skipped the oxyclean and haven't noticed a difference in how well it cleans so I suppose it just depends on how dirty your clothes are.

I've linked to the products on Amazon so you can see the product, but I've found it to be quite a bit cheaper at the grocery store.

Here is what you need:

2 bars of Fels Naptha or an alike product (These are only 98 cents each at my Walmart, so that goes to show you that it is cheaper to buy these items locally)

1 large box each of: Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, Borax Laundry Booster, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 tub of Oxiclean

Grater

Large container to store it in

Large spoon to mix it with

Optional: Downy Unstopables In Wash Fresh Scent Booster

*I did find this combo pack on Amazon that brings down the cost if you need to purchase it on Amazon -Laundry Soap Kit - Fels Naptha, Borax & Washing Soda

I know it looks a bit like cheese but I'd advise against eating it ;)

Mix all of it together. I hear it is easiest to do it in a 5 gallon bucket, but I just do it right in my glass container. The most time consuming part for me was grating the Fels-Naptha. Each load I put in two scoops with my scooper which I think is a total of around 3-4 tablespoons. You can of course easily adjust the amount to fit your needs. A batch of this lasts me 6-8 months depending on how much laundry we happen to go through.

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Snowed In?!

2014-01-09T20:22:00.002-05:00

So if you live in the continental US you know that as a whole we've been having an arctic blast. If you haven't been, consider yourself lucky! This last week we've gotten 12-13 inches of snow and had wind chills as low as -40. That's cold people! Thankfully we had a brief period of time when it had snowed but had not gotten cold yet, and we took full advantage of it. We went out while Wes was napping because we knew he wouldn't be a fan of being bundled up in the snow.

After that though temps dropped drastically and the winds picked up and we were stuck inside for 3 days. We made the best of it with games and coloring and who knew bath time could be so fun?!
Schools are still closed tomorrow and the kids haven't been back from Christmas break yet, I imagine there are some parents ready for the snow to melt ;)
Have you been snowed in? What are your tips and tricks to keeping the kids entertained when you can't get out of the house for a few days?
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New Years Resolutions

2014-01-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

I try to keep away from the traditional resolutions of - eat better, lose weight, exercise more. Those are all things I hope to always be doing, but I typically don't make them resolutions. I tend to do 3, though I'm not sure why.
In any case, here they are: 1. Lose my phone more. Typically I have my phone on my being constantly. There is never a chase to "lose" it. Not very often do I have to look for my phone. I want to find myself looking for my phone more in 2014 when I need to use it.
2. Be more patient with my children. This might be a resolution every year...
3. Live by the "William Morris" quote that I posted before.

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Christmas Card

2013-12-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Growing up we always sent out Christmas cards, and always had what seemed like an endless amount that we had received tacked up on the door frame to our living room. It was always fun seeing the card people had picked. We went the ~~cheap~~ environmentally friendly route this year and didn't get them printed and instead just used social media to "send" our card. I decided to make our own this year and went to work in photoshop.
I am by no means a photoshop expert, and in fact wouldn't even say that I've very good at it at all! But thankfully I was able to come up with something that I was satisfied with and actually had it done before I even took the picture to go with it.
From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Did you do Christmas cards this year? Blog about it? Feel free to leave a link in the comments so I can come see!
Contact me (link at the top of the blog) and I will send you the photoshop file that you are free to use if you'd like. ____________________________________________________________________ If you like my blog please click the image below. There is nothing to sign up for, just click and you are done. Thanks!

Christmas Pictures

2013-12-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

My kids' mood can change in an instant. Really, they quite possibly are 13 year olds disguised as small children. Knowing this, on the day that I wanted to take their Christmas pictures I knew I had to be quick. We set up our backdrop and got all of that ready before we even clued them in to the fact that we were going to take some pictures. I even had my camera completely ready before we got them dressed. Basically I knew we wouldn't get much time haha

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out though. Of course I wish I could have gotten more and I wish my lighting would have been better etc, but I feel like it captures them pretty well and so I'm happy.
Here are a few of my favorites:

Did you have Christmas pictures taken? Did you take them yourself or have someone else do them?

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Teacher Christmas Gift

2013-12-18T09:59:00.002-05:00

When my daughter first started at her preschool I started to take note of teacher gifts that would pop up in my Pinterest feed. I knew I wanted to do something fun, budget friendly and not another teacher gift that they would just toss or stick in a cabinet to collect dust.

What's the answer to that? Food... always food. Or more specifically candy. I know they will get plenty of candy, but at least if they have an over abundance they can pass it on. It's a little tough to give your Aunt Sally who is an accountant a mug that says, "World's Best Teacher". She might catch on to the "regift" ;)
So this is what I ended up with and while I wish I would have gotten the card printed vs my 3rd grade-ish handwriting (hey, maybe she'll think I had and older sibling do it and find it endearing...) I'm pretty happy with the simple gift. The tag reads, "A teacher can't live on apples alone. She needs "hugs" too!"

I paid $1.98 at Walmart for the bags, which included the bag, a decorative piece that goes at the bottom of the bag and the ribbon. It came with 6, so I'll use the rest to give cookies in as gifts. .75 each for the cookie cutters and the "Hugs" were $2.98 also at Walmart.
It took me all of 10 minutes. Not too bad if I do say so myself. Oh and I may have eaten a piece or two myself... ____________________________________________________________________ If you like my blog please click the image below. There is nothing to sign up for, just click and you are done. Thanks!

Snow!!

2013-12-16T10:14:00.001-05:00

I'm not a cold weather person. I'm fine with fall and sweatshirt weather, but when that temp drops, I'm not thrilled. With that said, I DO like snow! (well you know, if I don't have to drive in it) So when it snowed the passed weekend my girl and I had to get out into it.
Last year she wasn't such a fan but this year she is all about it. I asked her something like 20 times if her hands were cold and she just kept saying no. They HAD to have been cold... we had gloves on but mine were cold, so I think she was too excited to be cold. We had a blast making a snowman and she woke up yesterday morning wanting to make another one :)

I had the husband take pictures of us from inside while he held Wes, so Norah was slightly confused as to where she should be looking :)

Have you gotten any snow yet this year? Love it? Hate it? Don't care?
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Oh the Lights

2013-12-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

We've found that Christopher is a fan of Christmas lights! We can't blame him, we love them too!

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Kitchen

2013-12-14T10:04:00.000-05:00

We found Christopher in Norah's room early this morning. We think he was whipping up a breakfast smoothie. ____________________________________________________________________ If you like my blog please click the image below. There is nothing to sign up for, just click and you are done. Thanks!

Helping Decorate

2013-12-13T10:01:00.000-05:00

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Message from Christopher

2013-12-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

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Countdown

2013-12-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

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The Reason

2013-12-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

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View From Above

2013-12-09T09:57:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast Helper

2013-12-08T09:56:00.000-05:00

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Ice Cream Anyone?

2013-12-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

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Stocking Fun

2013-12-06T09:54:00.000-05:00

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Helping With the Coffee

2013-12-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

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Brrr!

2013-12-04T16:01:00.001-05:00

Apparently we keep our home a little too warm for an Elf. I should have known that an Elf is probably use to cooler temps!

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Tick Tock

2013-12-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

In the short time that Christopher has been here he has already found out that we are a timely family! He made his way up to the top of our wall clock, probably because he knew we'd see him several times today as we are often looking at the clock :)

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Giving Tuesday 2013

2013-12-03T09:53:00.003-05:00

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You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but do you know there is a Giving Tuesday? Today is the 2nd annual "Giving Tuesday" What better time to give back than now? With our tummies full and our trees going up, I hope that we remember to think of those that may need a little help before we empty our wallets on one too many candy canes.

Giving Tuesday was started last year and here is what I found on what it is:

Question: What is #GivingTuesday™?

Answer: #GivingTuesday™ (#GT) is a movement to create a national day of giving to kick off the giving season added to the calendar on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The second annual GivingTuesday is on December 3, 2013. In the same way that retail stores take part in Black Friday, we want the giving community to come together for #GivingTuesday. We ask that partners create and commit to a project for/on #GivingTuesday and then help spread the word to their networks.

Are you participating in Giving Tuesday? Maybe you are donating to a global cause? Or maybe you are keeping it local. It can be something as simple as buying that guy that you always pass on the way home from work that sits there with the sign a quick meal or maybe dropping a few coins into the Salvation Army bucket on your way in the door to get groceries. Maybe you have a neighbor who has been out of a job for weeks/months/years and can't seem to find work, do you have a handyman job that he'd be perfect for around the house? A $50 job could help his family out. If you have kids there are plenty of ways to get them involved! It doesn't have to be monetary. Here are a few child friendly Giving Tuesday ideas:

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-Have them go through their toys and pick a few to donate. -Encourage them to donate their allowance this week (if they have one) to a cause/charity. -Have them help a neighbor. -Go shopping for an Angel Tree kid (or your local program). -Write a solider a letter or color a picture to mail to them. -Have them go with you while you donate blood. They can't yet donate but seeing your example will encourage them. -Raid your panty for canned goods you could donate to your local food bank.

Comment and let me know if you are participating in Giving Tuesday!
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Just Hanging Around

2013-12-02T11:36:00.001-05:00

For those of you who may have missed my post introducing our elf, Christopher, you can find that post here.
This morning Wes woke up around 5am and didn't want to go back to sleep, so I went to the couch with him and we eventually fell asleep there. Suddenly I woke up and it was light outside (this is a rare thing around here), I looked over and saw the clock said 8:10. Norah has to be at preschool on Monday's at 8:30. Sweet.
So I ran up stairs, got Norah up and dressed and she managed to be out the door by 8:25. We even managed see that Christopher was no longer where he was yesterday! Where could he be?! Finally we found him, he was just hanging out. I love that she thinks he is so funny :)

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Meet Christopher

2013-12-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

You've all heard of the Elf on the Shelf right? Sure you have, if not you either don't have children or don't have any sort of social media presence. If you haven't here he is:

But this post isn't about him, though about something very similar. This is about the original. Meet Christopher Pop-in-kins:

I will be posting our adventures with our elf on my blog vs my Facebook as I know not everyone enjoys this sort of thing :) You can find Christopher here. The Christopher Pop-In-Kins book was released in 1985 and the story is about an elf that is sad because he wants to see the kids that get the presents they make. So Santa allows Christopher to "pop-in" to check on the kids. The rules are that no child must touch him or he will lose his magic and have to come back to the North Pole to get it, so he needs to be careful. Another rule is that he return by Christmas Eve so he can report back to Santa before he has to pack his bag with gifts.

The book is colorful and while it is a tad long, Norah, who is almost 2 1/2 sat through the whole thing without a problem. Christopher himself is cute. I love his oversize shoes! I also love that he is bendable/positionable. He looks very friendly to me.

There is also a "Christina" elf and we may add her next year so they can hide together. You can find her here. You can purchase the elves as well as the books separately as well.

From now until Christmas Eve I will post where we find Christopher each day. Christopher will sometimes be found simply hanging out and other days he will have suggestions for us (such as coloring a color sheet, doing something together such as baking or finding a way to do something nice for our community).

Last night before bed we read the book for the first time and let Norah know we'd be looking for him in the morning. Wes is of course a tad young for it so he'll be more in to it next year :) This morning we went from room to room asking if she saw him yet and when she did she was pretty excited and all day she kept going to where he was saying, "There he is!!" I'm hoping tomorrow when she wakes up it'll take less prompting and when she sees him she'll realize he moved.

So here is where we found Mr. Pop-In-Kins this morning. He wanted to remind us just how to spread Christmas cheer this holiday season :)

I'll update this post with each day's new adventure with Christopher:
Day 2

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Hold Me Mimi!

2013-11-25T09:01:00.000-05:00

Does every parent spend entirely too much time sad/fearful/amazed at the fact that their kids get older? I know they do, and if you look back through my posts, I talk about it a lot so obviously I'm in that place in life. There are moments every single day that I stop for a second just to soak in that moment, knowing that it is fleeting and evolving. Last night it was when I was cuddling with Norah before bed and she demanded I hold her, "Hold me mimi!" (she calls me Mimi)
It's kind of a strange feeling for me. In those moments that I soak up I'm both sad and incredibly excited. I'm of course sad in the way of thinking how she won't always still be a ~~baby~~ toddler and she won't always ask me to hold her, I expected to feel that way.

What I didn't realize is that even in those moments I'd be incredibly excited for the things to come. I'm SO excited to see her grow up. Every day she does things that amaze me and I love seeing her grow into a fun, excited, creative, drum to her own beat little girl. Sometimes it is little things that others probably would give me a strange look about. You know, tilt their head to the side, scrunch their eye brows and shake their head in confusion (and maybe ask Siri for the number to some sort of helpline). Those little things that unless you are Norah's Mimi you probably won't care about - such as her being able to tell me what she had for snack at preschool, amaze me. Watching her grow mentally is so fun for me. Other times it is the big things, such as when she formulates a complex sentence that I've never heard her say before. Well... at least that is big to me :)
So I think my excitement for the future outweighs the sadness about her baby days fading. So I choose to soak in those fleeting moments and embrace the fun that is happening and the fun to come :)
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Learning To Not Rush To Bedtime

2013-11-14T13:37:00.000-05:00

Many days bedtime seems to be the prize. If I can get to bedtime I've accomplished something. If the kids and I are still in one piece and they are asleep, I've made it. Sound familiar at all?

Sometimes I get so busy, so self consumed that I forget my children are to be enjoyed. After I've reached that "prize" of the end of the day I often feel guilty. How much of me did the kids get today? Did I enjoy them? Did I simply rush them through the day hoping for the least amount of hiccups until The clock finally said 7:30? Did I love on them... did I enjoy them?
I'm challenging my husband and I (and you!) to make sure we are enjoying our kids. That we don't make parenting a burden. That we fully experience the joy that our children are. Sure, it isn't jump up and down fun all of the time, and that's okay. It's okay if some days bedtime can't come a moment too soon. Days like that are bound to happen. But I have felt convicted lately about not being fully engaged enough to appreciate the kids.
Maybe I would be less tired if I played on the floor a little more with them. Maybe I would be less stressed if I laughed at them when they splashed in the tub. Maybe I would feel more happiness if I embraced being asked for yet another story at bedtime. Maybe, just maybe, I won't look back on this time, sad that they have grown up, if I take the time to appreciate them being this age, while they are this age.
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