Vinegar and Baking soda tackle the carpet stains

 So, today is the day I decided to tackle those creepy "mystery" stains on my homestead carpet. I heard a hot tip that baking soda and vinegar would do the job, so I decided to put these two superheroes to the test against prefab carpet cleaner. I like to call it:

Baking soda vs. Resolve
To start out, I made a rough mixture of baking soda and water and rubbed it all over the mystery stain. (I didn't use exact measurements.) Then I let the baking soda dry overnight. Then I planned on making a 2:1 vinegar to water mixture to finish the cleaning process. This is what it looked like with dried baking soda:
Resolve was a bit simpler: spray, wait 3 minutes, and scrub with towel. This is the mystery stain I treated with Resolve (it is freshly sprayed in this picture, so the carpet looks clean. It's really not)
After I put the prefab on, I finished the baking soda treated carpet by pouring the vinegar/water mixture on the dry baking soda, which, yes, is like the exploding volcano experiment that everyone does in elementary school. I kept pouring vinegar on the spot until the baking soda stopped reacting. (You may think that this would make your house smell like vinegar: surprisingly, it doesn't smell at all once it is done reacting). This is what I ended up with:
Spot GONE! Resolve (below) also did an admirable job (you can see the clean part of the spot at the bottom right of the stain), but it make the room smell funny.

So, is the Deadly Duet (baking soda & vinegar) worth the extra effort? I will rank them in these areas:

1. Time: Resolve was quicker, it took about 6 minutes max start to finish.

2. Effectiveness: Decide what you will, but Baking soda & vinegar did a better job.

3. Cost:

Bottle of Resolve: $4.00 on amazon (32 oz.)

Baking soda: $1.00 (16oz box)

Vinegar: $2.00 (24 oz bottle)

SO: baking soda and vinegar are definitely cheaper (they also multitask!)

4. Other: Smell. Baking soda definitely wins in this category.

Overall: Baking soda & vinegar kicked Resolve's butt. Definitely worth the effort. 

Microfiber Miracle!

So, this isn't really a new discovery for me, and it's not really "homestead", but I LOVE microfiber cleaning cloths! They can literally do anything and everything, and the best part is, for most of the jobs you can eliminate cleaning products! (Sounds weird, but I will explain).

These are my weapon of choice. You can buy them at Lowe's for a little less than $3, or on Amazon for even less than that.

To give you just a little taste of what they are capable of, I will clean my filthy sliding glass door with nothing more than water and 2 microfiber cloths. Here is what I am up against: 
Technique: I wet one cloth and rung it out, and left one dry. I wiped the whole window down with the wet cloth, then dried it with the dry cloth, and... voila! A masterpiece! 
Here is another shot of the masterpiece: 
I hate to admit it, but I was extremely surprised at how clean my doors were! The best parts:

1. it was quick. No buckets to fill and lug around, no juggling clean and dirty towels.
2. it was cheap. Since I already had the cloths, it was free.

3. it was healthy for me. NO chemicals, fragrances, fumes, etc.

4. it was healthy for the environment. No chemicals touch me, no chemicals touch the environment. WIN, WIN, WIN situation.

Note: they also clean mirrors with excellent results.

Other Note: I also use them to clean my counters. I am pro-germs, so I just wet them down and scrub. (I do still use Clorox on them when I need to disinfect something, like if raw chicken juice gets on the counter.) But for the most part, it cuts down on the number of chemicals you use, gives your immune system a boost (if you want to know the science, Google "Getting the Dirt on Germs", an article by USC's health magazine), and saves you money!

soap free face care

Here is a gross confession... I haven't used soap to wash my face in 2 months!! Ok, so maybe it's not as gross as it sounds. But here's the deal. I don't know who's idea it was to wash faces with soap in the first place. We are trying to clean mostly oil off our skin when we wash it. In chemistry, we learn that like dissolves like, so it would make sense that the best thing to use to dissolve facial oil is another oil, not an oil-stripping cleanser that actually stimulates skin to produce more oil. Think about it, your skin feels tight and itchy after washing, and you can't wait to get your moisturizer on it. By the end of the day, we are battling that oily-slick look, which leads us to wash our face to get the oil off. It's a vicious cycle. I have always had terrible skin, I had acne in high school which morphed into combination skin in college. (I'm talking schizophrenic combination, as in my cheeks were severely dry and flaky, the rest of my face continued to break out.)

So there's a lot more science about this, but I'll just get to the good part. I wanted to try making my own cleansing oil with equal parts of castor and olive oils, but I'm in my 3rd trimester and I'm constantly exhausted (lazy). So I just used what I had in my house, which happened to be this:

Before I get my face wet in the shower, I pour a nickel-sized amount in my hands and massage it onto my dry face for about a minute, sometimes more because it feels so good. :) When I am done massaging, I turn the shower water to hot and wet a washcloth with the hot water. I rest the washcloth on my face as long as I can, then I wipe the oil off my face. It will feel like your face is super oily the first few times you get out of the shower, but you will get used to it! 

I wish I had before and after pics to show how amazingly this works, but I honestly didn't think it would work so I didn't document my skin before. Now, it is even-toned and I rarely ever have breakouts or clogged pores, AND I don't have to use moisturizer or face wash any more! Just one step and my skin care is done! Give it a try, I dare you!

Apple Cider Vinegar.... ACV

Apple cider vinegar seems to be one of the hot new crazes of the health-DIY circle, so I thought I would look into it a little bit. According to WebMd, Apple cider vinegar is used alone or with honey for weak bones (osteoporosis),weight loss, leg cramps and pain, upset stomach, sore throats, sinus problems,high blood pressure, arthritis, to help rid the body of toxins, stimulate thinking, slow the aging process, regulate blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and fight infection. Anyone else sold yet?? I am!!!

Yesterday, I tried to drink some with water, I think my ratio was 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, but I could barely gag it down. So today I decided I needed some way to make it more bearable. (I didn't expect myself to enjoy any beverage with vinegar as the main focus, that's asking a lot.) I did find one online that was bearable. I sort of tasted like lemonade, I guess because it had a bit of a bite but was still sweet. It uses  3 cups of water, 4 tablespoons ACV, 4 tablespoons of apple juice, 4 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix them all together, and drink it with some ice. The first sip is a bit shocking, but it mellows out when you get used to it! 

birthday smirthday

Well, actually, just hubs. I made him a delicious dinner of PF Chang's lettuce wraps (recipe here). Yep, I asked him what he wanted, and this was it! I also made him an ice cream cake, which I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of!!! It was truly a masterpiece. It was Funfetti cake with Oreo ice cream. Sounds weird, but again, it was what he wanted. And it was delicious! Basically I just baked the cake in a springform pan, put it in the freezer for an hour, put a layer of fudge on it so the ice cream didn't make the cake all soppy, and then topped it with softened ice cream and refroze the whole thing. I will definitely be doing it again. Everyone was amazed that I made it, and in reality it was one of the easiest cakes I've made.

I also threw him an over-the-top party with ideas all plagerized from Pinterest.

Great ideas, except no one understood that they were supposed to make a fruit pizza out of this stuff. I should have made a video tutorial and had it playing on the table instead of a measly little label. 

I loved these so much I left them up! They are looking like permanent decor now.

Good (Or Bad) Parenting Advice: Schedules

There are many lines of thought about how to properly parent infants. Do you schedule them or let them have control? Naps? Pacis? People comment all the time "Wow, does she usually sleep this much?" "Is she hungry?" "Doesn't she take a pacifier?" "Does she sleep through the night? You're so lucky!" So now, I will answer all those questions, and add some of my opinions.

Scheduling
(NOTE: everything in this section only applies to older babies, I would never try to schedule a newborn. If you are thinking about scheduling, your baby will let you know when she's ready. And that might be never.)

When M was about 2 1/2 months, she became pretty miserable. She cried a lot, and would try to take her paci, but was too miserable to even enjoy that. In desperation, I googled. I decided that I would try a schedule with her. Both of our lives changed.

Her schedule is based off the Baby Wise principles, even though I've never read the book. She wakes up, nurses, then plays for as long as she can until she get tired, which is usually 1.5 hours after she wakes up. (This time will increase naturally the older she gets.) During her playtime, she rarely ever cries. (This is crazy, coming from the queen of tears.) When she does start crying, I know it's naptime, so I lay her down, give her a kiss, and walk away. No paci, no rocking to sleep. Yes, she cries during this process, but normally it's 2 minutes or less. She sleeps 1.5 to 2 hours (I usually have to wake her up), then we start the process over.

There are several reasons why this works for us.
1. She doesn't need to nurse to fall asleep. In fact, the only thing she needs to fall asleep is herself. This is great because that means anyone can put her down: daddy, grandparents, babysitters... more freedom for us!
2. She NEEDS the consistency. When she wakes up she knows exactly what will happen. I feel like this gives her confidence in me and in her little world. When her schedule gets off, she's not a happy camper. I don't think the schedule created this, I think this is just naturally the way she is.
3. It helps me understand her needs better. By looking at where she is in her cycle, I can tell if she's crying because she didn't get enough to eat, if she's bored, or if she's tired. It makes me feel more confident as a mother, and, once again, I think it makes her more confident in me.
4. She sleeps through the night. And by that I mean 8+ hours. I try not to let her go more than 9 because I don't want my milk supply to drop. But the very day we started her schedule, she slept through the night. Coincidence? I think not.

Now, I am not saying that this would work for everyone. This is just what works for us. I've heard that scheduling babies can lead to them not thriving because they don't get enough food, but I actually think she's thriving a lot more on a schedule than she did when we fed on demand, both weight-wise and cognitively. Once again, this is just what works for us.

Pacis
Yes, M loved her binkie. Binkies are great for newborns, since they have such a huge need to suck. But they are able to learn how to soothe themselves sometime around 3 months. I finally did away with the binkie because I got sick of her waking up every time it fell out and having to go put it back in every 15 minutes. Yes, it was a struggle for about 2 days while she figured it out, but I'd much rather struggle a little now than a lot when she's a toddler and can remember that she used to have a paci but now she doesn't. I also realized later that I had been using it as a crutch. Every time she cried, I would automatically go for the binkie instead of trying to fix the problem that was making her cry. Enter the schedule to help us out. Maizie, and binkie-addicted newborn, has been binkie-free for a whole month now, and much happier for it. My mom even noticed the difference.

So, that's that. My limited parenting experience.

Gifts New Moms Really Need

There are a ton of "Baby Shower Gift Basket Ideas" going around on Pinterest right now, and honestly, I am not impressed with any of the ones I have seen. They are either impractically expensive to put together (honestly, I can't afford a package of diapers, wipes, several outfits and several toys for my own kid, much less for someone else's) or just downright not what a new mother really needs. Yes, everyone's needs are different, but I can think of some pretty universal new mom needs.

The New Mom Beauty Basket
I would have rolled my eyes if someone gave this to me at a shower, but I would have called crying in gratitude a few days after I got home from the hospital. You really have no time to even comprehend how to find time to shower, let alone get back to your old beauty routine.
Items:

Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo- $5.99 at Target

COS BAR Cooling Eye Mask- $6.00 at Target- even if it doesn't make the inevitable under eye circles disappear, it just feels good.

Yes to Carrots Brightening Facial Towelettes- $7.99 at Target- a wash and moisturizer in one step that help tired skin look glowing and vibrant again. Great at the hospital!

Goody Quikstyle Microfiber Brush- $11.99 at Target- it dries your hair as you brush! Not all the way, but it definitely cuts styling time, by like 50%.

North American Healthcare Hot/Cold Comfort Wrap-$14 on Amazon- new moms get weird backaches, and no one seems to tell moms-to-be about this. I called my friend the week after my baby came and begged her to make me a rice pack, my back and shoulders were so sore I could hardly hold my baby!

Add to the basket some fancy elastic headbands and you have a functional gift basket for around $50. It might not be as fun to shop for as baby outfits, but if you REALLY want to get a mom something she can use, this will be it. In order to make it less awkward to open, label the basket "Just For Mom" or something like that. Or better yet, just give it privately. 

Baby Gifts

Our baby gym saved my tired nerves on many occasions. You don't feel guilty putting them down because, hey! It's educational! Pick a musical model to keep baby's attention even longer, giving mom a few extra minutes!

Fisher Price Open Top Musical Discovery Gym- $60ish

Fisher Price Discover N'Grow Kick and Play Piano Gym- $55ish (this is the one we have!)

Burp Cloths- again, not so much fun to give, but everyone I've talked too didn't have enough of these for their first baby. 

You can get a super simple tutorial for the above cloths here.

If you don't sew, store bought cloths work just fine.