Survival Week 2022

Survival Week 2022

October 28, 2022

Also known as... the life of a youth pastor's wife. 

 Now that we have passed the "week Jeremy abandoned me during the school year for an entire week to got o Brazil" I can come out from hiding and discuss. 

1. This was easier than expected. 

Turns out I really don't want to talk to people in the evenings, and I was worried I would be lonely. 

2. The boys turned the trampoline into an MMA ring and are now banned from every witnessing wrestling. They don't need the encouragement. The natural drive to wrestle as a boy is unreal. 

3. When living alone dinner is insanely easy. I have no qualms about making one protein and eating it all week with minor tweaks. 

In other news, Harrison love to read, watch, and draw comic themed books. The child is obsessed with Dog Man. He was so proud of his little drawing... then his brother appeared. 

If this wasn't clear before, Elliot is the reason wrestling even occurs in our home. 

Once he shooed Harry off he wanted to take a pic with "my stuffy". 234

And because y'all know I love a good meme. 

Go ahead and call me Teddy, because I'm about to quit having thoughts just to improve my quality of life. 

This one was too funny! 

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A Balloon Race Weekend Where We Saw Zero Balloons

A Balloon Race Weekend Where We Saw Zero Balloons

October 20, 2022

 It occurred to me this morning that I have been in such a mental spin this month that not a single blog post has been posted for twenty days. 

Not on purposed, I promise. 

This past weekend we headed to my hometown of Vidalia, LA for the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race. On the docket was the new community pumpkin patch downtown, fireworks, Merry Markey, hopefully seeing a balloon, and eating out around town. 

I love these little people, but a cute photo of them posed as if they are normal functioning members of society and not wild little feral cats isn't possible. 

The feral cats were wrangled, and half fussed at to achieve this photo of them not smiling but instead making faces like the crazy people they are. 

It would actually be a lie to look back on photos from this time and have posed adorable children in matching outfits who didn't both destroy what they were wearing before we walked out of the house. 

I've honestly hit the "openly carries a wooden spoon" part of raising boys. 

This is our crew leaving Merry Market, mom and I not pictured. Elliot thought he was too cool with Jeremy's sunglasses on. 

I also got to run into a few high school friends and really enjoyed it. Quiet often I miss the simplicity of living in Vidalia, so hugging necks and catching up at events just does my heart good. 

This is up waiting on some really great PoBoys and not seeing a single hot air balloon. 

Saturday afternoon we tried again for balloons. 

We left an hour early to track the crews down. No luck. 

Checked every internet group we could find even though the local news paper was supposed to be putting up the updates. No luck. 

Sat on the River Walk with half the town of Vidalia waiting or the race that should have crossed over the river... again no luck. 

Turned out they took off from the Vidalia air port and only two went up, and those two went towards the lake. Thank you wind for a busted year. 

The upside of everything running so behind and awful was that Laura was able to make it into town after work. The boys got to play with their cousin and we all were able to go to dinner afterwards. 

Next year I'm taking off work on Friday to make sure we see the 7:30am race so if Saturday is a bust we at least got to see one nice lift off! 

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Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box || October

Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box || October

October 1, 2022

This month's Simply Earth theme is Home Remedies! 

In the height of football season (as a fan or player) the recipes included in this box are spot on. 

As a teacher who's been wandering all over creation for pep rallies and traipsing up and down the classroom teaching, all of these "relief" themed recipes are right in line with what I've been needing. 

This month's oils include: 

Bergamot | single oil. calms, soothes, and skincare. (kid safe 2+, pregnancy, & dog safe) 

Cajeput | single oil. soothes, supports respiration. (kid safe 10+, dog, & cat safe) 

Copaiba | single oil. soothes, supports immunity. (kid safe 2+, pregnancy, dog, and cat safe) 

Relief | oil blend. soothes. (kid safe 10+, pregnancy safe)  

    

If you haven't been around long, you might not know what got me started on using essential oils. 

As someone with awful allergies, cleaning products and candles are quick to give me a headache or stuffy nose. I immediately start sneezing when I go into someone's home who burns a lot of candles. 

To combat this in my own home I started cleaning with essential oils (before natural products had gotten popular (hello 2011). Later on when diffusers became a thing, I started diffusing oils to make the house smell lovely without the allergy issues sprays and candles caused me. 

At times I still need to be careful what oils I use. For instance, my mother is bothered by products with pine/tree oils. Pinesol is her worst nightmare. Turns out I can't use anything in the pine/fir tree realm of oils when she is around because it irritates those same allergies. 

The new recipe card design is still just so pretty to look at. 

Speaking of recipes. 

This month you will have the ingredients to make a cold or hot compress, relief lotion, foot soak, soother roll-on, massage oil bar, and diffuser blend. 

The extras included are a reusable compress pad, lotion base, and massage bar soap mold. 

I love the molds that Simply Earth sends, they're reusable and all made of silicone. So they're very easy to unmold. 

The lotion base though, this is another great item. I keep a jar of it mixed with lavender by my bed. 

A few things before I wrap this up - 

Every month Simply Earth donates 13% of their profits to end human trafficking. With an estimated 4 million victims globally, human trafficking is among one of the worst atrocities. No one deserves to be exploited, which is why Simply Earth donates to organization on the front lines. This month Simply Earth is donating to Rescue Freedom.  They are focused on preventing and end human trafficking through community awareness, anti-trafficking policies, law enforcement, culture change, rescue, aftercare, and more! 

As always head over to Simply Earth to order your SEPTEBMER box and use the code LABRIDEFREE to get a $40 gift card/credit towards your next order when you get your Bonus Box! 

Also -- here are a few things you can do with your box every month! 

1. Add items to your box to get free shipping. 
2. Exchange oils. 
3. Gift a month to a friend. 
4. Get 50% off your next box by sharing your unique voucher code with friends, they'll also get $10 off their first 5 months -  you'll get 50% off for every friend that subscribes! 

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