Thieves Cleaner: All Purpose Cleaning Spray

Next up in my Thieves Cleaner series: All Purpose Cleaner.

Be sure to check out my other Thieves Cleaner posts here:
Oven Cleaner - Degreaser and Deep Cleaning Scrub
Glass / Mirror spray

Once again, I referenced the Young Living Blog for dilution ratios. The infographic from their blog is included below for reference. 

Photo Cred: Young Living Blog

I picked up an industrial strength spray bottle from my local hardware store and mixed up the cleaner according to the dilution ratio for the All Purpose Spray on the YL infographic.

Once it was mixed up, I set to work on our bathroom. Just like with the glass cleaner, I was interested to see how well this would actually work. I tested it out on our bathroom sinks first. I sprayed everything down and cleaned the sink using a rag and a small scrub brush to get into the hard to reach spots - the drain and behind the faucet. The sink looked great! The water spots, liquid soap drips and toothpaste marks all came up with ease.
Next up: the tubs. Our bathroom doesn't get a lot of natural ventilation and we have hard water. I had recently started noticing some spots on our tile and build up on our shower head. I sprayed down the tile and shower head, and since I wasn't sure how much elbow grease I was going to have to put into this, I let it set a minute while I cleaned the toilet. I came back to the shower with a scrub brush and rag and set to work. It did take a little more scrubbing than on the sinks, but I was able to get the spots off and the build up off the shower head.

So far, I'm happy with this all purpose cleaner. It did take a little extra scrubbing on the super dirty spots, so I'm wondering if I should try a different dilution ratio for those situations, but I was definitely able to get everything cleaned with this version.

Plus, I'm very excited that my cleaning bucket has gone from this:

to this: 

I'm so happy to be getting rid of cleaners that are full of chemicals and to have natural cleaning solutions. Plus, my bucket is lighter to carry around :)

If you are interested in learning more about why I joined Young Living, check out this post. If you are interested in joining for yourself you can sign up here. As always feel free to message me with any questions. 

Disclaimer - The information contained in this post and on my blog are for entertainment purposes only. This information is my own opinion based on my experiences and resources. Any information is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, ailment or situation. Please do your own research and make your own informed decisions when you are considering lifestyle and health changes. Always consult a doctor and seek the advice of your qualified health professional when making your health decisions or before starting any new protocol, particularly if you are pregnant, taking medication, or have a medical condition. Any links leaving this site are the opinion of the author of those sites and should be treated with the same caution as what you read here. This post may contain affiliate links. In the instance of household items / cleaning, please use caution when using any product, keep out of reach of children and pets. Always test products on an inconspicuous area for color fastness and to ensure there is no adverse reaction with the surface in which you are cleaning. 

7 months

My dearest little girl,

I say it every month, but my goodness, time slow down, you are growing up so quickly. At your 6 month check up the pediatrician said most babies start to crawl around 7-8 months and around 9 months start pulling up on things. Well, just a few days after that check up you were on the move! A week after that check up, July 3rd, you pulled up on our couch for the first time! I could hardly believe my eyes. Every time you do something new like this you look to me and to dad with this big grin. It is so precious. I can tell you are checking in with us for our approval and you are so proud of yourself and your new found talents.

You are now totally mobile. You love crawling everywhere and seeing what new things you can pull up on. You are cautious not to let go of things, but you are slowly starting to find your balance. You've had a few spills while holding onto the chairs or couch, but you are getting even better at maintaining your balance and landing on your bottom gracefully. Everyone comments how they can't believe how petite and strong you are and that we'll have a walking baby on our hands in no time at all.
One of your favorite things to do is play hide and seek. All I have to do is step out of your line of sight (behind a wall or into the next room) and go "lala, where are you?", you come crawling out and when you see me you stop and sit in the hall and get the biggest smile on your face and hold your hands together under your chin. It is the most adorable thing.

You love when I'm in the kitchen doing dishes or cooking. If the dishwasher is open, you make your way over so fast and pull yourself right up to "help". You do the same thing if the refrigerator door is open, you love checking out the lower shelves inside the fridge and also pulling any papers that are hanging on the door. You love mirrors and seeing your reflection in the glass on the oven door.

You've discovered where we keep the dogs' water bowls and you love "helping" them at mealtime. You climb right into Niah's bowl or spill Ellie's food on the floor. They mostly ignore you and keep on eating. They especially love our mealtime now that you are having solid foods. They always stick close to your side when you are in your high chair since that means treats will be coming their way. You love trying new foods, but I think you love sharing your food with the puppies even more. You are always leaning over your tray with a hand full of food and Niah is right there ready to lick your cheeks and hands hoping for a treat. Some of your favorite foods are watermelon, green beans, pancakes, peaches, scrambled eggs and avocado. You love trying new flavors and textures. We haven't been giving you traditional rice cereal or purees, just steamed veggies or whatever we are eating that is soft enough for you to gum. You love sitting at the table with us. You don't have any teeth yet, but the pediatrician thinks they could come this month. We'll see, only time will tell.

We will go on our very first family vacation soon to dad's favorite place in the world, his uncle's lake house in Michigan. We are so excited to spend time with daddy's extended family and to watch you play with all your cousins for days on end. You love the when we swim in the pool, so I'm sure you will love the lake too! Your cousins just adore you. This past weekend Miles and Sophie were amazed at how you were standing on your own. Miles kept putting his hands on your cheeks and looking you in the eye saying "Charlotte I'm so pwoud of you for standing. You're so big. I'm so pwoud of you". It was the most precious thing.

I love you sweet baby girl. You are the happiest baby, always smiling and waving to us. I can't wait to see what the next month has in store for you.

Love,
Momma


Weight: 15.2lbs
Wearing: 6 month clothing, and still some 3 month separates.
Size 2 diapers

Loves:
waving to us, to the dogs, to anything really
feeding the dogs from your high chair and getting into their dog bowls at their mealtime
pulling up on furniture
mirrors or glass to see your reflection
being mobile and crawling everywhere
swimming
blowing raspberries

Thieves Cleaner: Glass and Mirrors

I'm absolutely loving how versatile this Thieves Cleaner solution is. I am continuing our efforts to remove traditional cleaning and cosmetic products that are full of chemicals from our home. Next on my list of products to switch over are all purpose cleaner and glass/mirror spray. Today I'll discuss the glass and mirror spray. I'll share the all purpose cleaner and results later on.

Please excuse the dirty window, this was after I mixed up the cleaner but before I had a chance to test it out :)

To make the glass and mirror spray I first gathered my supplies. I already had Lemon Essential Oil and white vinegar on hand and ordered a glass spray bottle online. Since this "recipe" calls for Lemon essential oil, I mixed the cleaner in an amber glass bottle. Citrus oils can eat away at plastic, so I opted for glass. Check out this post on the YL Blog for more essential oil storage suggestions. Just like when I cleaned my oven, I referenced the Young Living Blog for dilution ratios.

Photo Cred: Young Living Blog

Once I had everything all mixed up, I was anxious to test it out to see how well this would actually work. I tested it out on our bathroom mirror first. I started out using paper towels to clean the mirror. The spray worked great and the mirror got cleaned, but I had to go back over it several times to get the paper towel lint off. After cleaning the first bathroom, I remembered that the YL blog suggested using a lint free cloth and aha! I remembered that my mom had given me a couple a few months back and they ended up buried under our dish towels. So I dug one out and set to work on the second bathroom. The lint free cloth worked great! I didn't have to go back over the mirror several times like I did with the paper towels. Double bonus is that the lint free cloths are washable and re-usable. Less cleaning effort and less waste. I'd call that a win-win. 

So far, I'm happy with this glass / mirror spray. I'm interested to see how it works out on all our windows, I haven't tried it out yet since I like cleaning windows on cooler days when I can open them up and do the insides and outsides at the same time. It is way too hot around here to be opening up windows and allowing precious air conditioning to escape. 

If you are interested in learning more about why I joined Young Living, check out this post. If you are interested in joining for yourself you can sign up here. As always feel free to message me with any questions. 

Disclaimer - The information contained in this post and on my blog are for entertainment purposes only. This information is my own opinion based on my experiences and resources. Any information is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, ailment or situation. Please do your own research and make your own informed decisions when you are considering lifestyle and health changes. Always consult a doctor and seek the advice of your qualified health professional when making your health decisions or before starting any new protocol, particularly if you are pregnant, taking medication, or have a medical condition. Any links leaving this site are the opinion of the author of those sites and should be treated with the same caution as what you read here. This post may contain affiliate links. In the instance of household items / cleaning, please use caution when using any product, keep out of reach of children and pets. Always test products on an inconspicuous area for color fastness and to ensure there is no adverse reaction with the surface in which you are cleaning. 

Thieves Cleaner: Oven Edition

This is a judgment free zone right? I hope so, cause I'm about to share some dirty details about my kitchen, specifically my oven. I like to think I run a pretty tight ship around here. We always have clean clothes and sheets, the floor is vacuumed, bathrooms scrubbed, dishes are put away and the kitchen is cleaned up after meals. Our oven is another story.

Here it is, in all it's glory. I forgot to take photos before removing the racks and before spraying down the door. Here the door is shown already soaking in cleaning spray.

I can't remember the last time I deep cleaned this bad boy. I mean, I've wiped out major spills or overflows, but haven't given it a good deep clean in far too long. Almost every time I pre-heat the oven or bake anything our smoke detectors go off. And the way our house is wired, when one goes off, EVERY detector in the house goes off. Which is incredibly annoying for obvious reasons, but it also sends the dogs into a frenzy which adds an extra element of craziness. So anyway, it was time for a good scrubbing to get all that baked on nastiness outta there.

This is where my new favorite cleaner comes in.

I've been using Young Living essential oils for over a year now and have been so pleased with how much they have helped me and my family. I had been wanting to try their line of Thieves products for awhile but just hadn't ordered them yet. I figured, I use semi-natural cleaning products so why switch? Well, I came across this video which totally opened my eyes to all the chemicals and lack of regulations on cosmetics and cleaning products. And since I was running low on a few cleaners I decided to go ahead and order the Thieves Essential Rewards Kit on my next order. There were several products I wanted in the Thieves line and it was less expensive for me to order them all together in the Essential Rewards kit than separately. If you are a Young Living member and haven't checked out their Essential Rewards program,  you definitely should. This is different than being a wholesale member. The ER program does have a 50pv minimum each month but you also accumulate pv each time you order and you can redeem the pv you earned for products. It is basically free money.

Back to my oven, I whipped up a mixture of 1 capful of Thieves cleaner with 1 cup of water and some baking soda.  I also mixed up some of the Thieves all purpose cleaner in a spray bottle. I followed these dilution ratios found on the YL blog. I sprayed down the dirty parts of the oven with the all purpose cleaner, then loaded up the really greasy / baked on stains with the baking soda mixture.

I let it all set for 10-15 minutes then came back with a rag and bristled cleaning brush. I'd scrub a little, then wipe it up, scrub some more, wipe. You get the picture.

Here are the results:

So much better right? I mean, look at it shine! There are still some spots that I couldn't get off, but the baby was waking from her nap and was hungry. I'm sure if I had more time I could have gotten this thing totally spotless, but when you have a screaming, hungry baby, the oven can wait. It looks a million times better than it did before. Plus, the Thieves cleaner is full of all natural ingredients, which means no terrible chemicals in my oven or our food.

I'm slowly swapping out our chemical laden products for natural solutions. I love having cleaning product options that are safe to use around children and pets.

If you are interested in learning more about why I joined Young Living, check out this post. If you are interested in joining for yourself you can sign up here. As always feel free to message me with any questions. For now, I'm going to go bake some peach cobbler in my freshly cleaned oven.



Disclaimer - The information contained in this post and on my blog are for entertainment purposes only. This information is my own opinion based on my experiences and resources. Any information is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, ailment or situation. Please do your own research and make your own informed decisions when you are considering lifestyle and health changes. Always consult a doctor and seek the advice of your qualified health professional when making your health decisions or before starting any new protocol, particularly if you are pregnant, taking medication, or have a medical condition. Any links leaving this site are the opinion of the author of those sites and should be treated with the same caution as what you read here. This post may contain affiliate links. In the instance of household items / cleaning, please use caution when using any product, keep out of reach of children and pets. Always test products on an inconspicuous area for color fastness and to ensure there is no adverse reaction with the surface in which you are cleaning. 

Light the Fire Promotion

Essential oils seem to be everywhere these days. You can hardly take a peek at your Pinterest feed without seeing someone pinning something about essential oils. Naturally, after seeing several friends pinning this information and hearing them talk about oils and how they have helped them, I became very intrigued as to what these things were all about. I started hearing a lot more about oils about the same time we found out we were expecting our first baby. I became very aware of what products I was using as I didn't want to expose our unborn babe to any unnecessary chemicals or toxins. I began researching natural health remedies, DIY cleaning and laundry products, alternative cosmetics products. You name it, I was on a mission to rid our home of chemicals. I guess you could say the "nesting" stage they say pregnant women go through hit me good. haha. Now, keep in mind, this was all research, I didn't go totally granola and off the grid and live in a hut in the middle of no where making all my own clothes and living without electricity. I still wear deodorant, eat the occasional junk food, wear store brand makeup and enjoy watching cable tv in my air conditioned home.

So anyway, on top of all that research, I started doing a TON of research on the different brands and types of essential oils, and I mean a TON. I think I read every blog, research site, testimonial site, essential oil comparison article out there. This was my "summer reading" for 2014. I became very fascinated by them and started trying out a few that summer from Young Living that I ordered through a friend. I loved the results I was seeing and how they were helping me with my overall wellness. This same friend gifted me a diffuser and starter oil set from Young Living for our baby shower. After that, I was hooked. I was diffusing different oils almost daily and loved having natural remedies to help with our family's overall wellness.

I've now been using Young Living essential oils for over a year and I'm still in love with them. I'm so thankful to have a resource for natural products to help our family. I had been ordering through a friend and this spring I decided to sign up as a wholesale member. This works like a Kroger Plus card or Costco card. If you join as a wholesale member you get 24% off retail pricing on your favorite products, you have the opportunity to join the Essential Rewards program where you earn points and free products. The Essential Rewards program requires a minimum monthly order, but the wholesale membership does not! The membership lasts for a year and all you have to do to renew the membership is place a 50PV order at some point during that year. 50PV is equivalent to roughly $50.

Premium Starter Kit with Dewdrop Diffuser

The Premium Starter Kits are am amazing deal. Depending on which diffuser you select, this is a savings of at least $80 by ordering as a kit rather than ordering everything separately. 

The Premium Starter Kit Includes:

Diffuser of your choosing! (Home, Dew Drop, Bamboo or Aria)

Premium Essential Oils Collection;Lavender 5-ml

• Peppermint 5-ml
• Lemon 5-ml
• Copaiba 5-ml
• Frankincense 5-ml
• Thieves® 5-ml
• Purification® 5-ml
• R.C.™ 5-ml
• DiGize™ 5-ml
• PanAway® 5-ml
• Stress Away™ 5-ml
• AromaGlide™ Roller Fitment
• 10 Sample Packets
• 10 Love It? Share It! Sample Business Cards
• 10 Love It? Share It! Sample Oil Bottles
• 2 NingXia Red® 2-oz. samples
• Product Guide and Product Price List
• Essential Oil Magazine
• Essential EdgeMember Resources

Interested in learning more about Young Living? Check out their website here:
Young Living Homepage. Be sure to check out the information on their Seed to Seal process too.

If you are ready to take the plunge into essential oils and taking the next step towards wellness, I'd love to have you on my team! You can sign up here.

Essential oils are useless unless you know how to use them. If you want to take a step towards wellness by joining my team, I want to help you know how to use these oils and get the most out of them that you can. If you sign up as a wholesale member and purchase one of the Premium Starter Kits using my referral link, I'll send you this awesome welcome kit.

This welcome kit paired with a Premium Starter Kit (PSK) will provide you with an abundance of resources to help you get started using essential oils. The reference book is AWESOME and the Everyday Oils collection that comes with the PSK has 11 of the most commonly used essential oils Young Living offers. This is the perfect starter set to begin using essentail oils. Plus, Young Living recently re-vamped the PSK, so now you have your choice as to which diffuser you want!

As if all this wasn't enough Young Living has decided to offer an amazing deal on these Premium Starter Kits now through August 14th. They are offering a major discount of 10% off Premium Starter kits for existing members and $10 off for all new members! If you are an existing member, there is no limit on how many you can order. Please do take note that this does not include the Aria or NingXia Red versions of the Premium Starter Kits.

What better time to take a step towards wellness than now? $10 off a Premium Starter Kit PLUS the welcome kit I mentioned above. It doesn't get much better than this!




Disclaimer - The information contained in this post and on my blog are for entertainment purposes only. This information is my own opinion based on my experiences and resources. Any information is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or ailment. Please do your own research and make your own informed decisions when you are considering lifestyle and health changes. Always consult a doctor and seek the advice of your qualified health professional when making your health decisions or before starting any new protocol, particularly if you are pregnant, taking medication, or have a medical condition. Any links leaving this site are the opinion of the author of those sites and should be treated with the same caution as what you read here. This post may contain affiliate links. 

One step closer...

This weekend I took one step closer towards reaching one of my 30 before 30 goals - completing a race. I went out and purchased new running shoes. Now, to some this may not seem like a big deal, however for those that know me well, you know I don't run. At all. Ever. So, this feels like a really lofty goal for me, which is why I wanted to start now, while I still have a couple years before my 30th birthday. So for now, I'll take things one step at a time and for me, the first step was new shoes. You see, I haven't had new running shoes in nine years. That's right, I have not purchased a pair of tennies in almost a decade. I'm almost embarrassed to even admit that. But, you have to start somewhere right? First step, shoes. Next step, use the shoes! I've signed up for an online bootcamp that starts next week. The bootcamp is more of an overall exercise plan, not specific to running, I think it will be just the boost I need to start working out again and get things headed in the right direction. Plus the leader has already told me she'll help me with some running tips to get started. Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted on the progress.

4th of July, 2015

The 4th of July looked a little different for us this year. We were supposed to be on vacation at the lake this past week, but after a string of illness in the family and unforeseen events we decided to postpone vacation until later in the summer. So we stayed home and had a great weekend with friends and family. Todd and I both had Friday off work, which was so nice to have a bonus weekend day. We spent a lot of the weekend tackling items on our to-do list. We did some errands to pick up items to help baby-proof the house. Todd took care of some little projects around the house. Saturday we made a trip to Ikea searching for some dressers and patio furniture. We got some great ideas but only came home with some storage tubs to pack things away in our basement while we begin the waterproofing project.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to a friend's house for a pool party and cookout. It was so much fun to visit with friends we hadn't seen in awhile. We mostly stayed inside and in the shade to keep our sweet girl from getting too much sun. She had a great time showing everyone her new found skills of crawling and pulling up to stand. She was all smiles and just happy as could be. We headed home before any fireworks started to keep the pups company. Ellie is terrified of them and we didn't want her home alone. The neighbors came over for a quick visit and to capture our 4th photos. The bugs started coming out so we headed inside, tuned into the fireworks on tv. The kids played for a bit and once they left we headed to bed. It was a noisy night since our town does a big fireworks display just 5 minutes from our house but luckily the baby slept right through it, Niah ignored them and Ellie just clung to our sides until they were over.

All in all, a nice weekend with the perfect balance of work and fun with friends.

#13 - thirty before thirty

Yesterday we checked #13 off my 30 before 30 list. We have been waiting and waiting to close on these rental properties for months and yesterday we finally closed. There were times we weren't sure this day would ever come and the Lord definitely provided. Todd and I are just sitting here in awe at the Lord's abundance of blessings upon us right now, even in the midst of some pretty serious health issues in our family, we are choosing not to complain and instead see the blessings and joy and the Lord's provision for us. What a great way to start our long holiday weekend! Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend?