When Viruses Attack

Today with great sadness I have to announce  the passing of my dear laptop computer, Toshiba. She was a tough computer and lived a short life full of memory files. Our family is in mourning. She lost her battle to the SysWOW64 virus and had gotten SEO poisioning. We unfortunately had to put her down....

In the basement, so I am not compelled to turn her on. Our whole operating system is ruined so if I turn on the computer it might link to our wifi and really jack stuff up. At least thats what my husband says, I am computer illiterate. I just know computer's are good for facebook and looking up stuff. How did I get this nasty virus?

No it wasn't from looking at porn sites. Geesh who do you think I am?

It was for looking at corn.  Corn on the cob, to be specific.  I just needed a good recipie for corn on the cob. I went to my trusty friend (ex-friend, friends don't give each other's computer a virus) Google. I looked up corn on the cob recipies and after looking at a couple I saw one that said "3 ways to cook corn on the cob."

All the other websites were only giving me one way so I thought I really hit the jackpot with this one. I hit the virus jackpot and it ruined my life. Okay, okay, my life is intact.  I still have my kids and Hubby so its not all that bad. It is highly  inconvenienced though. Now I have to type up this blog post from the blogger app on my tablet. I am typing  this through a tiny keypad. No judgement on spelling or gramatical errors. This. Is. Hard. This is my second time typing this too because somehow the app deleted my first one.

How does this virus work? Well the makers of this horrible virus created it by making an infected URL and pushing it (by magic, probably) to the top of search results. You click on the link, thinking it is a search result, and your computer is toast.

We had a very assertive but polite lady start saying that our computer was infected by a virus. That was nice, at least they let us know. We also couldn't click out of the URL. Turning off our laptop did nothing. What type of evil genius thinks of this stuff. Seriously? If you are going to ruin my computer at least make it because I was being an idiot.  Like opening a spam email and clicking on the link in there, or getting click happy on porn sites. It is wrong to use Google against us.

Now, I never want to make corn on the cob again.

Or get on the computer.

Or use a search engine.

From now on I am just going to go to the library and look up things the old fashioned way. It might take me until 9 at night to make dinner and what was a minute to look up something little takes hours but I think it is worth it. Books are reliable and don't give your computer a virus.

Peace and Love,
Jessica ( look I can't even get my name to look cool anymore. What type of world is this?!)

How to Lead People Away From God

To work up the courage to write this post took a lot of time for me. It took a lot of prayer and a lot of faith that I would be led to say the right things. Self admittedly, I do not think I am the best person to write this. I do not know or understand the whole Bible. I have not grown up in a church atmosphere and have not went to seminary college. I say the wrong things all the time and a lot of times what I say gets chastised by the people who have a love for God.

Instead of worry about how incapable I was, I prayed about God leading me. I felt like this needed to be said and a lot of people are being led away from God by the people of God. The answer I got when I prayed was why not you? Do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind? Yes. Do you love people and wish for them to turn to God? Yes. Then that is what matters. If my past and my experiences could help somebody find God then what is stopping me? When I looked at the answer to that, it is other Christians were stopping me. I do not want to be seen differently by my friends that also love God. I do not want to be seen differently by my church which is becoming my safe haven, my family. Most importantly I do not want to be seen differently by my family.

When looking into that I decided writing this post was the best thing to do. If people see me differently but it leads somebody to God or helps another person lead someone to God, then its worth it. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and the fact that I was not born and raised in a church environment helps me relate to others that were not raised in that environment. I also have a lot of empathy for other people. If someone would ask me my spiritual gift, I guess my empathy would be it. When a person cries, I cry. I have to work very hard not to cry when someone else is. Even if I didn't know them, especially if I didn't know them. I feel all the sadness, anger, and love that others feel. I relate to others quite quickly and I feel emotions quite deeply. I try to understand the why and the emotion behind their actions. A lot of times my moods contour to those around me.

Let me tell you a little bit about me. I grew up with my mom saying that many churches were a cult. She believes in God but had had horrible church experiences that led her away from knowing him. One time when I was in preschool my mom was trying to get me into a church so I could learn about the Bible and God. She thought it was a good idea to attend a service at that church. So, she walks in and was immediately stopped and told to go home and change. They made her feel horrible just by the way she was dressed. My mother was not in rags walking into the church, she was not in hooker clothing walking into the church, she was wearing decent clothes. That church made her feel worthless just by walking in to it not in a Sunday dress. From then on we didn't really talk about God. I didn't know much about the Bible and we didn't go to church. I attended different churches by myself growing up because I have always felt the love and I knew I needed God, but always felt out of place.

The people of God turned my mother away from God. When my mother was turned away from God it had an impact on the way I grew up. I made a lot of mistakes growing up. I have done a lot of sins. I will self admit that have not been a perfect person. I was looking for love in all the wrong places and doing the wrong things to get that love. I saw my dad once a year growing up so when I got male attention, I loved it. I wanted to be loved and needed by a male figure and that led me to all the wrong choices. When I met people of God I couldn't really let them get to know my past. Once they did know my past I didn't feel welcome and they made me feel "dirty." I felt that God didn't love me and that his grace wasn't for people like me because of other Christians. I thought that maybe some sins are too much for God to handle. Again the people of God turned me away from God. You only have one chance at a first impression with people and if you make that first impression negative it will lead people away.

That is a little bit about my story. I didn't want to give in all the details but I wanted to share that with you. Knowing the why behind a person's actions and life is very important in knowing the person. Now let me give you 5 ways to lead people away from God, and how you can lead people towards him.

1. Judging Others
You hear about this one a lot. People claim to not judge while they are being extremely judgmental. The Bible talks a lot about judging others and how you should not do that. I came up with an example on judgement and the way it would lead people away. Lets say someone comes up to you and asks you about God. If the first things you do is go to the verse in the Bible and point out their sins and how wrong they are, then you are being judgmental. If the only thing a person see's from you is how wrong the world is today and how many people are sinning that negativity doesn't lead people to God. You can disagree with something and not judge it or the people that do it. A lot of time people already know the sins and even the verses so to keep throwing them in their face is a form of judgement. How do you stay true to your convictions and lead people to God? You show them love. You show them respect. You show them grace. You point them to the love and grace of God first and you let God and his words change them. You don't nitpick the Bible. If you tell the truth, you tell the whole truth, and don't do it to condemn anyone.

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew 7: 1-5

2. Being a Hypocrite

I feel like this one happens a lot more than it should. You speak out against some sins the Bible says, but then you go and sin yourself you act like the sins you do is okay. Well it isn't as bad as so and so's sin. At least I didn't murder anyone. You make any and every excuse to why their sins are worse than yours. You talk to people how sex before marriage or being a homosexual is bad, but you have been divorced three times. Get what I am saying? The fact is God hates all sin to the same degree. End of story. So, how do you use this to lead people to God? You be vulnerable. You tell them about your faults and sins wholeheartedly. You don't give excuses and you tell them wholeheartedly how they made you feel. My sins made me feel worse than I already felt. They didn't fix anything in my life. They made me feel dirty and unwanted. Then you tell people that you found grace and forgiveness in God. You give all the glory to Him. When I found God and I knew forgiveness and grace was open to EVERYONE it changed my life around. I felt free in that and I felt like a weight was taken off of my shoulders.

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. James 2: 10-11

3. Not Separating the Sin from the Sinner

A lot of people have a hard time separating the sin from the sinner. We think that since God hates the sins that a person commits (on a daily basis sometimes) that he must just absolutely hate that person. They think that the person is wicked and they don't take time to get to know them. They don't take time to try to understand who that person is because they are so focused on their sins they do not see the person underneath. Everyone has a story to tell to those who will listen. The fact is that God loves that person just as much as he loves you. Here is what you do, you separate the sins from the sinner. You take time to get to know these people and you always show them Gods love. You treat them just as you would any other person. Never show them hate. Never use God or what is written in the Bible to hurt them and beat them down.

To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21

4. Giving up on People

Sometimes as Christians we just give up. We think if we have told a person about God many times and they still are not going to him then we should just stop. Sometimes we harass people and push Jesus on them. We keep on pushing and we try to scare them into loving God. We tell the same friend daily about how good God is but it doesn't seem to make a difference. First of all we should never be harassing anyone. We bring up the good that God has done in our life, we invite them to church, we be there for them. You can never force what you believe on someone else. With that said a lot of times when we don't think someone is listening, they are. It might not show right away and they might not take your words to heart until the day of their death. Just keep on living in the ways of God and show them your fulfilled life.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

5. Letting Anger for Sin Turn Into Hate

This is one of the most important things you can do. I have actually had personal experience in this one and I wanted to share it with you. Anybody knows me, knows I am huge against abortions. I see them as morally wrong and absolutely hate them. Instead of being angry of the sin, I chose to hate the people that commit it. To me every person who had an abortion was a horrible person and deserved horrible things. I wished the worst for them in their life. This runs in with number 3 and I didn't separate the sin from the sinner and the anger from their actions led to hate. It wasn't until a person that was very close to me and I love dearly told me that she had an abortion. She told me that she struggled with it and was afraid to tell me for the longest time because she thought I would hate her and not want to be a part of her life. I don't want anyone to think that my anger and dislike towards sin means I hate them or God hates them. I don't ever want my anger to turn into something hateful. I learned that in everything you say, be loving and gentle. You can completely disagree with something a person does while giving them the choice to do it. You can love a person wholly but be angry with their choices. Do not let anger over things turn to hate. Hatred only leads to more hatred. The only thing that stops hatred is love. 

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. John 2:9

If you have God in your heart the most important thing you can be doing while still on this world is lead people to him. That is what I think our true purpose is in this life. It is not easy and it gets really frustrating. People that already believe in God and those that are not believers will make things really hard for you. Keep on pushing and keep on fighting. Be respectful and loving in all things that you do. Remember the path of Jesus is the only way to salvation, but some people's paths are a little bit bumpier than yours.

Peace and Love, 

I'm not Ashamed of my Faith, and you Shouldn't be Either

Yesterday night our church had a Worship Night. This is the second one that I have been to and it always pumps me up! It makes me focus on why I believe and what I believe in a world where there are so many that don't think like I do.

Faith to me is more than just believing in something. It is a feeling you have. Faith is something that fills you from the inside out and changes your life. It changes the way you do things and think. It is a whole body process. It makes you want to be a better person and live a more fulfilled life. It gives you a purpose.

I feel very strongly about my faith but that hasn't always been the case. I have faltered and had times where it was really hard for me to keep on believing in God. I will be honest when I said that most of those times that I have faltered was because of people who were Christians. The people who were supposed to lead more people to God almost led me away from him.

 Also my own personal thinking had made me falter. I love science so it was hard to believe in a world of science. It is okay to do research. God wants us to think and be wise. James 1:2-4 states " Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Knowing that when my faith is tested that it makes it stronger helped a lot. When I had questions, God led me to people that would help me.

I am a sinner. I will be the first to say that. I have done things that I am not proud of. I have been a person that did awful things and hurt people because I was hurt. I didn't save myself for marriage and had a child out of wedlock. I have had completely un-pure thoughts. I have wanted bad things to happen to those who have hurt me. I did not show love or forgiveness freely. I held on to things and it made me bitter.

I am saying that because I know that everyone has done things that were not by God. Sin is not exclusionary, in includes everyone. When you go into a church and they treat you like some sort of disease then your faith is really hard to hold on to. I get it. If these people are from God, then why are they not acting of God. Jesus spent time with thieves, prostitutes, and other unsavory people and showed them love, not hate. That is the type of Christians we need to be.

I am not ashamed to love God. Even if his people are not perfect. I am not ashamed to believe in something more than me. Even in my sin, God had shown me grace. He gave me a beautiful and smart little girl that means the world to me. If God can use people like David who not only got another man's wife pregnant but had that man killed, then he can use me. He can use you too.

Never be ashamed of what you believe in. If you don't believe in God, I know that doesn't mean your are a bad person. If you do believe, I know you are not naive or stupid. We all have a right to believe in what we chose for whatever reason we choose. Don't be ashamed in that. Keep searching and open yourself to everything this world has to offer. The most important thing we can do as people (not just Christian vs non-believer) is love one another. Show compassion and help as many people as possible.

Faith is very important to me. It forms who I am and who I want to be. It makes me more kind, more forgiving, and more loving. Even in my times of doubt I have always turned back to it. If you could see a timeline of my life you would be able to tell the times where I have had doubt. It always made me into the person who I knew I wasn't on the inside. God's love changed me and gave me peace in a world of darkness. It slowly filled up that pit I was in and turned it into something beautiful.

I love God. I will continue to love him for all eternity. I will keep on striving to be someone who would make him proud. I am not ashamed of my faith, and you shouldn't be either.

Peace and Love,

Why I give, even if I am being taken advantage of

If anyone knows me, they know that I love to give to others. I would give the shirt off of my back if it would help out someone. If I have money on me and it looks like someone needs it (even if I need it) I will give it to them. My husband likes to say "If you could, you would give others every dollar in our banking account." Honestly, I would. I love being able to help those that need it.

The sad thing is in this day and age, you don't know who really needs it. You cant distinguish them between who is just trying to make a quick buck. You see a lot of people recording "homeless" people that at the end of the day hop in their Mercedes. You see a lot of warnings for the GoFundMe and other fundraising sites of you have to really know the person. People see others making money and they want to make some too. There will always be someone that takes advantage of others. Its sad but true.

Today I was on a shopping trip with my kids and two very nice boys came up to me and asked if I would like to support them. They said their band has a chance to earn scholarships for college but they need the funds to be able to make it to the competition. I looked at them and immediately thought, what if they are scamming me? I have hardly ever thought that before but now a days I think that a lot. What if I am being played for a fool and they just take my money and run. Doesn't my family need that money?

I am actually saddened that I thought of that. It is in human nature to be selfish but I have always tried to be the least selfish person I can be. Does that mean I am never selfish? No, I have my moments where I can be very selfish but I try so hard not to be. These questions only took me a second to think about and after I asked myself them, I decided to give him money anyways. I only had $6 but I would gladly give him my "weekly allowance" for them to have a chance to go to college and better themselves. Oh, I should add I have a weekly allowance because my husband and I are trying to pay off debt and we have a very strict budget. Anyways, the fact is even after thinking all of that I gave them what I had.

I hear a lot of people say that they wont give to people who ask for money. I hear a lot of people say that they have heard stories about being ripped off and don't want to give their hard earned money to people who don't actually need it. My thought is this, yeah there are a lot of dishonest people out there. I mean a lot. There are also a lot of good honest people out there that have made bad decisions or have had life just happen to them that actually need the money. For some coming up to you and asking for money is the hardest thing that they would ever do. Just because some take advantage, doesn't mean all will.

Another thought I had is if a person is scamming you, that is on them. That is a problem in their heart. If you decide not to give to someone on the off chance that they may not be honest, well then that is on you. I personally would rather give to someone that maybe scamming me than not to give to someone that really needs it. If that makes sense. I am not dumb about it. I don't carry a lot of money on me so usually when someone asks me to give and  it will be around $5. That is an amount I feel comfortable with and honestly it really isn't a huge deal to my family. That is not a difference between eating and not eating for us.

There is a verse in the Bible that says "for where you treasure is, you heart will be also." To me, this verse says "what you spend your money on says a lot about you." You spend money on what is important to you. A lot of us spend it on just trying to keep up with one another. We have to have the newest things out or the nicest furniture. We have to spend all of our money (and even some we don't have) on keeping up with what the rest of the world has. For me, I want to spend my money on truly making a difference in others lives. I want to give to others because that is where my heart is. I want to teach my children to be charitable and giving. I want to teach them to be selfless and try to help out as many people as possible.

If you make a lot of money, then why wouldn't you spend time helping others. If you have it to give then why wouldn't you help out other people. Most people are just thankful for a couple bucks to help them out. A lot of people will refuse to give to others just because they see them as using it for drugs. If you don't know the person, then who are you to judge? I am not saying you have to give to every sally sob story, but if you have the money why wouldn't you try to help out as many people as possible? In this day and age I see a lot of people that make very good amounts of money and don't help out anyone. They just use it to buy themselves the newest stuff out there so they can show it off or just keep it. They make money the king of their lives. There is another Bible verse that says "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what shall man a man give in return for his soul?" What good is having all that money, but not using it to make a difference in other peoples lives? I know this verse has a ton of other meanings to it but that is one that I see.

I guess my big point is, don't let other people ruin you. Don't let someone being dishonest and taking advantage of you make it so you wont help out anyone. Yes you might get burned, but you might also really help out someone. I am not saying to go spend hundreds of dollars or not be able to feed your family by helping others, but if you have it then give it. Five dollars might not seem like a lot to you but it could make all the difference in the world to someone else.


Peace and Love,

Finding Hope In Our Finances

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my husband and I trying to get our finances on track. It is not an easy thing for us to do but with the help from Heritage Church and Dave Ramsey I think we might just be able to pull it off. We are still in the beginning stages of it but for the first time in a while we actually have hope.

I have always been poor. Growing up I had no money to do anything so when I got money I never wanted to spend it. I have always been the type to ask myself if I really need something and if I don't, then I don't buy it. Bradley was always really good at saving up his money too. When he was younger he was able to buy a Sega and a Nintendo all by himself because he saved up for them. For you younger people they were actually quite expensive when they first came out.

So how did we get into the mess that we are in? When Brad was working at Menards he worked around 60 or so hours a week for a while. We were pulling in around $500 more a week than now. Yes $500 more a WEEK! Plus he had received pretty substantial bonuses. Where did all that money go? Looking back we are just flabbergasted how we just pretty much blew through it. We would go out to eat all the time and just spend money on stupid things that we didn't need. It's easy to blow through money if you don't really have to think about it.

We decided to give up Menards for a banking job that would give him more time to spend with us. We are making quite a bit less than what he was making and instead of getting a lot of overtime he gets none. Now that we are in the place we are, we really realize how much we wasted money. It is important to us that I raise our children so I currently do not work. We tried to find a part time job for me but so far nothing has worked out. We also cannot afford to put our kids in daycare, we would be actually losing money that way. I have my oils business that I have been starting up but it has been hard for me to focus on that with all the medical things I have had to go through with Eli.

This past year has been great with Brad home but it has also been very stressful. We are just making ends meet and we are living paycheck to paycheck. We really haven't had much hope or even a clue to what we were going to do. Brad was very stressed out about our finances. I really didn't deal with them much so even though I would get stressed out too it wasn't to the point he was. It is really stressful to be in the point where your bills equal out to more than what you make. We didn't know how to fix it.

That's when our church introduced their Live Free series and our growth groups started to do Financial Peace University by Dave. The things that Dave Ramsey says makes a lot of sense. We are starting to do the steps needed and I think we have one or two weeks left of videos in our growth group to watch. It has given us hope where we had none. It hasn't been easy and now we are making some extremely hard decisions but we reallly feel like it will be worth it in the end.

Our progress has been slow but steady. We now have money in a savings account that is not connected in any way to any of our other bank accounts. That helps us be able to keep it in there and not want to spend it. We have also decided to cut up two of our credit cards. This is big for us because we really like our credit cards. We have been also able to pay off completely one of our credit cards and we are working on making a plan to pay off our other ones. We have decided to try to get Income Based Repayment for our student loans so we can work on paying off some of our higher interest things. We have been approved for that so we are pretty excited.

The hardest thing that we have decided to do is get rid of our Dodge Charger. We really love that car but we realize that it is not ideal for a 3 kid family. We also don't love the high interest rate they gave us for it and the $550 a month payment. We are not sure what happened when we got it at the dealership but we think we were kind of bamboozled on it. The interest rate is pretty high and we know we would have never gotten it if we knew how high it really was. We decided that we are going to get rid of it and get a less expensive vehicle with a lot less of a payment. This will make the most difference with our month to month budget.

Now that we are doing that we can actually put together a budget! We are also going to an all cash system and we are going to try to do the snowball system that Dave Ramsey advises us to do. I have been selling a lot of stuff in our house that I know we don't use anymore and have been able to come up with some money doing that. I am also going to do a garage sale sometime this summer.

Our goal is to get rid of our credit card debt completely in a year. We would like to do it by the end of this year, but we are unsure if that is a realistic goal. For the past year I have been making 95% of our meals at home instead of going out so we are saving a lot of money there. We don't do joy rides in our car like we used to and we don't spend money like crazy people anymore. We are hoping with all the changes that we make we can accomplish our goals.

We have faith with all of the steps that we are taking that we can really do this and be debt free. My husband and my relationship has really turned around too. We were arguing a lot about our money situation so it is nice that we have a plan and it is not a huge stress on us anymore. For the first time we have a huge amount of hope and I cannot wait to keep on updating you guys with our progress!

Peace and Love,

DIY Natural Shower Cleaner!

A couple posts ago I talked about why I choose to live naturally. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet you can read it HERE. I thought I would start giving you some recipes that I have been using and love so that you can start making them at home. I am in the process of moving some recipes from my old blog to this one. I want them all in one place. Honestly, I also don't want to have to run two blogs. I am lazy and its exhausting lol.

This was one of my first recipes that I started using and I was amazed by how well it worked and how easy it was to clean. Plus I didn't have to use my inhaler immediately after so that is a plus. I have been using this recipe for a little over a year (give or take) and have been constantly tweaking it. I have never gotten sick while cleaning my shower with it and to me it actually cleans BETTER than any other shower cleaner I have used. 

The ingredients that I started using are simple. You use water, dish soap, and vinegar. That is really all you need to use. I started out using Dawn dish soap but now I use Seventh Generation because its an all natural dish soap. Yes, I am very serious about going as natural as possible. I don't like to think of myself as "crunchy" but I guess I am going down the crunchy/hippie path. You can use Dawn if you wish but if you want to be 100% chemical free use an all natural dish soap. Anyways, I wanted to show you what my tub looked like before. This is my old apartments tub that was really hard for me to clean, don't judge. 

I will admit it is nasty. See all those shadows? Those aren't shadows they are scum and grossness. Well, most of them aren't shadows. I would be lying if I said my tub now is always spotless, because it is not. I will show you a picture of our current tub later. It is so much easier to keep clean though. I don't feel like death has come over me after cleaning the shower. I also don't have to close the door, refuse to let my kids in, and have it "air" out. 

Lets talk about how I make my shower cleaner. I grab a dollar store cleaning bottle. I then fill it 1/4 of the way with dish soap. After the dish soap is in I add vinegar until it is about halfway full. 

After you do that you gently swirl it to mix. Also while doing the vinegar you do not want to add it quickly. It can make a bubbly mess. Trust me on this one. After they are well mixed I filled it the rest of the way with water. I also added around a half cap-full of thieves cleaner. A little bit goes a long way! For my all surface everyday cleaner I do a cap-full of thieves per whole cleaning bottle of water so if you even wanted to do less then you can. I love the way it makes it smell and it really gives it an extra kick. Plus thieves helps keep the germs away. Winning! You can also add some essential oils to it to help with cleaning. There is a thieves essential oil, lavender, peppermint, pretty much whatever you want. Citrus oils are great cleaners. I am just afraid to try them in a plastic bottle since they can eat through plastic. For me I just add the thieves cleaner. 

Once it is all mixed you just spray it in your shower and let it sit. I let it sit for around an hour, give or take. It depends on how busy I get with the kids. Another thing I do is when I know I am going to take a shower I spray it in there around an hour before I take a shower then I clean while I shower. BE CAREFUL though, it can get super slippery. I am a woman so I love to multitask so my showers are not just showers anymore. I even take the spray bottle in there with me sometimes and spray it on my shower curtain and clean it when I am in there. I have a little scrubber brush right in the shower. It only takes a couple minutes and I love how clean my shower is after it. 

I wanted to show you what my old apartments shower looked like after I cleaned it with my homemade cleaner. After I let it sit I just took the brush and wiped it off. NO SCRUBBING! I have had multiple people tell me that this is the best shower cleaner they have ever used. Okay here it is. 

TA-DA! Doesn't that look amazing compared to the first picture! So easy too! I clean my shower a bit more than that now that I have this recipe. I will show you how clean my tub looks on a mostly daily basis since it is easier to clean now.

Remember, I just spray it on. Let it sit. Then I wipe it off. When I clean (and every day) I keep the bath toys in the tub and I don't even feel bad about it. There is nothing in this that will hurt my children and their bath toys get clean too. Win-win! Can you say that about your shower cleaner? This is super easy to make, it is super cheap to make, it makes cleaning super easy to do, and it isn't going to harm you like other cleaners. What is stopping you from trying it? 

Peace and Love,

Some Motherly Advice

The high of Mother's Day is coming down and now I wanted to talk to all of you moms about how to parent your kids. I am going to get real with you and you might not like it. Some of you might get offended. Ready? Okay.

You see it all the time. Other peoples opinions on how YOU should parent your child. You probably opened this up thinking I am going to tell you some great advice how to parent your child. Well, I am not sure if its going to be great advice or even the advice you were looking for but here is my opinion; stop reading other peoples opinions. Start raising your child the way you know you should. In all honestly nobody's opinion matters when it comes to your children except yours and your partners.

I see it all the time on Facebook, people post opinions that relate to their parenting. Sadly, a lot of people think that their opinion is the only one that matters. That if you are not parenting in the way that they think is right then you are not a good parent. Okay, okay, they might not go that far but they think their way is the best way to go. They think if you try any other method you are just wasting your time and could potentially be hurting your kids. The thing about kids is, no two kids are a like. One way of parenting a child might work for one but not work for another.

There is no right or wrong way to parent your children. In the end all that matters is we have children that care about others, that obey laws and are obedient but know when some things need to be pushed, and that are passionate. There are other things we want for our children too but at least for me these ones are very important. I want well rounded kids that are grow up to be kind and caring people. To lead my kids down this path I know that it is going to take more than one parenting style. I need to cater to each child as an individual and not treat them like they are all the same.

Let me give you an example. Bridgette my oldest likes to push hard. She is the type that knows what she wants and will figure out how to get it. She is very bright. Putting her in time out doesn't work. Actually, not a lot of parenting styles work on her. What has the best impact on her is to sit down and talk things out and be patient. Also if she pushes too hard she needs to be pushed back so when she does sometimes she just needs a quick spank on the butt to understand she is not in charge. Yes I spank my kids! I know *GASP* all these online perfect parents say that's a no-no but I am doing what I feel is right for my kids. I truly believe that there is a time for spanking and while there is a chance to over push it, sometimes it is needed. My families rules for spanking is we never do it out of anger, we only do it when we have tried multiple attempts to correct the behavior with no avail, and we only do a quick spank right on the butt. We never spank anywhere else or do it multiple times. This is what we feel comfortable with but like I said, there is no one right way.

Now with Emelia, we just have to give her a look and she usually stops immediately. Sometimes she pushes back (now that we are in the terrible twos and going into the even more terrible threes) we have been been trying out different things for when she does. What we do for Bridgette does not work for Emelia, and what we do for Emelia does not work for Bridgette. We all live under the same household and we are all family but that does not mean we are the same person. Even as adults different things annoy my husband but don't bother me at all. We are all individuals so that needs to be catered too.

The whole point of this blog is to tell you to not get frustrated when you read all these blogs about perfect parenting and how it does not work for your kids. Don't think that your kids are the only ones that none of these helpful parenting tips (from people who don't know you our your kids) works on. It gets frustrating reading things on how we need to parent from online, reading magazines, and even seeing it on tv. The thing is nobody is going to parent your kid how you parent them and that is NOT a bad thing. I believe God gave us each the ability to cater to our own kid needs. God blessed us as the parent of our kids for a reason. I truly believe that nobody can parent and know whats right for our kids besides us.

We have the innate ability to know what our kids need. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating and we really have to try different things out to see what works best. Parenting is not a straight line, there are many bumps a long the way. There is no straight way and no one path leads to the same result. The truth is that even all these bloggers and writers on the internet don't even know what they are doing. They just tell you what has worked for them, but it isn't guaranteed to work for you. They are just as lost and have their bad moments just like you do. I know without a doubt I do. Sometimes I feel like I have no clue what I am doing and sometimes I am so full of love and pride for my kids I know I am just where I need to be.

If you are one of these bloggers one people that post on Facebook saying their way is the only way, you need to stop. It is great to post about what has worked for you and try to help out others. The problem is what that turns into a shame on you for not parenting how I parent. You have no right to judge anyone. You don't know other peoples kids or how to parent them. Like I said before, there is no right path. When you judge other parents you are not helping them, you are hurting them and possibly hurting their kids. We need to stop butting into each others lives and start living our own. We need to be compassionate and caring towards one another. We need to stop the shaming process and start the support for one another.

We all make mistakes. What I choose for my kids might not be what another person chooses. I might make a quick decision that another person would never do. That is okay. We all need to do what we feel comfortable with. So, now that you made it through this post give yourself a big hug, a big pat on the shoulders, and say "I am a great mom" because you are. You truly are. P.S. this goes for dads too, but you don't have to hug yourself or anything to keep your manliness in tact. ;-)

Peace and Love,