Introducing the Bluebonnet Yankee!

I am so excited that my friend has started to blog! She is such a great friend, and I am glad that her adventure lead her to Tx so we could meet and share the joys and struggles that life brings with raising kids and being moms in this huge state and state of mind. Hope you enjoy her journey!

 Bluebonnet Yankee: One Year Anniversary: One year ago today my husband and I, our 2 kids and one dog arrived in Texas to start our new adventure (or so we told our 4-year-old).  I t...

I have a Kindergartner!

This was a crazy week in our house. So many new thing going on, with the start of school for our oldest and the first week away from her sister for the little one. Challenging to say the least on this mom.

I was happy to ship her off! She was happy to go!

Kayla is a good kid, she has been to school before she had been in speech and pre-k for the past 2 years. To say the least she was excited to get back to school where she could play with her friends, color all day, read books and make crafts!

Everything was labeled and packed up, at least the stuff that would fit from the supply list. She was ready to go. She was even ready early! Shocking I know but some how the idea of getting out on her own all day got her ready to walk out of the door in 30 min. The week before it took her at least 30 min to get dressed let alone eat breakfast and do everything else. So the girls had time to stand for pictures and play!

So off we went to school to sit in car line! Oh car line how I have a love hate relationship with you... I do love that I don't have to walk her to school with her little sitter in tow in the odd weather of Tx but some of the people in car line shock me. More on that later.

After we got Kayla dropped off Jessica became sad, I felt bad for the little one. We had to do something fast to make the day better so we headed home and started "home pre pre-school" And she loved it!

She even got her very own first day picture! She told me that when she grew up she wanted to be "A big kid...I 2". My next step was to pack her little back pack that one of my friends that has lived the car line life with a little one insisted I have...good thing because it has been a life saver!

She just loved it! Coloring with her brand new colors! Packing it up for car line! And of course carrying it herself (mommy sure did her own little happy dance for the fact that the little one had a mood change for the better!)Off we went back to car line happy and quiet! Quiet enough I can work, read or even space out a bit well I wait the 30 min to an hour before school gets out and we can get her big sister back!

One week down and many more to go!

We will keep moving forward! See you next time!

As Seen On Pinterest: Carpet Powder

Ok so many of you know that I was a pinaholic...with that admitted I start my firs of many "As Seen On Pinterest" posts!

Lets start with the pin:

A pinner said:Homemade Carpet Powder. I think I'm going to try this! Some comments mentioned If you add a cup of borax to this mixture it will kill any bugs that may be in your carpet! (fleas, etc!)Another said:I use nutmeg or clove ground with baking soda, and everyone can't find why my house smells so inviting and homey.

So with a house full including dogs and cats I had to give this one a try!

Off to the kitchen I went, luck has it I was able to find an almost empty cheese shaker, and we even had baking soda in the cabinet! They say to add a scent...Scent! I went straight to my Scentsy collection and grabbed a Room Spray!

I started to mix them up in a mixing bowl and added about 10 sprays of my Vanilla Cream Room Spray. After I got the mix to smell like the spray I made sure that it was all mixed together with no chunks. I put it in the bottle and stuck it on a shelf. I knew it was there but I had family in town and I just didn't have the time with no one on the carpet for 15 min.

Fast Forward to today I put the girls in quiet time and grabbed my container that was half full of room spray and backing powder. I didn't think that it would still smell but to my surprise it did and it was still mostly powder. I added more baking soda to make it a full container and shook it up to mix in the scented powder with then non scented. Then I started to shake it onto my carpet in the living room, it was the perfect amount for the space we have that is most used. Not only did the powder spread easily but it started to make the room smell like Vanilla Cream!

After spreading it I let it sit on the carpet for 15 min. and then went to get my vacuum and cleaned it all off the carpet, this step was one that seems like it would be easy and it was for me. Others had said that it clogged the filters or had issues getting it off the carpet. I had no issue and it even made my vacuum smell better, BONUS! From the looks of it this really works! I even put it to the sniff test (don't laugh you would of done it too) and the dog smell is gone, all that's left is the scent from my Scentsy Room Spray!

I am sure many of you are thinking, "that's great and all I can get the same thing at the store and not have to mix it myself". You are right. But I look at it this way. I did this with products that I had in my house. I can make it smell like anything I want (including over 80 different of my favorite Scentsy Fragrances) and I looked up prices for the amount of the power I used it would cost me around $7 each time I do this. Here are some numbers:

Resolve Pet Deep Clean Carpet Powder(at wallie world): $7.17
Baking Soda: $2.12
Scentsy Room Spray: $7

The first time I do this I will spend the money to get the room spray of my choice, but any time after that I can use the same spray, there is a ton more in the bottle!

Over all for me this Pin was a WIN! I will be doing this again!

Visits with Family!

The last few weeks we have had family in and out of town. This summer it was my family I had my mom visit in late July and we had a blast doing DIY projects with the kids and together. We got out of the house most nights and played hard! I love when my mom comes she has a way to get my creative juices flowing, builds my confidence in many ways and we just have a blast getting the kids all over the place! This trip was no different I miss her when she is gone but I know that the kids will sleep well and have a calm few days to follow.

Photo by Kayla age 5: As you can see the Childrens Museum can bring out the kid in everyone!

My dad also made the trip out to see me but he drove here with my Aunt Marilyn they both have issues with flying...and stopping at every casino from home to here (5 to be exact) The trip was different for us then the one we had had a few weeks before with my mom. My dad and aunt came out to see the family and spend time with the girls. They took turns sopiling the girls with shopping trip and playing card games and bring toys from home, not to mention the junk food that came from the car all left over "road food" became "grandpa and auntie grandmas snacks" that they enjoyed sharing with the kiddos. We didnt get out much (unless you count the daily trip to wal mart) and we did a lot of sitting and talking. Every day was a new suprise for the girls and it was all kinds of little things. I think that between the home cooking and the time with the kids they both had a great trip.

I have had a great time getting time with family and seeing everyone! I love my mom and dad so very much and it was an added bonus to have my aunt tag along! We all had a blast on their vacations. But it is now time to get the house back in order and back to work! Back to being committed to running and working out. Back to our daily todo's.

Most of all getting ready for the next milestones in our house with both of our girls. The start of kindergarten and Potty Training.

1 mile down 30 to go. And 18 days to do it....this is going to be close!

My Big Fat Italian Dinner Table

Disclaimer: The pictures are real, the person cooking them (me) on the other hand is not Italian just married in and has had great teachers!

With that said lets get started. I have been asked many times by different friends to help them make home made ravioli. I have also been asked to make some for them, well here you go guys! This is as good as it gets till you set a date or come over when I do it again.

Lets start with spices. Here are the ones I use in the beef. I would love to give you how much but I just don't know, so the best I can say is to taste.

Here is the browned ground beef. Also the cheese that you mix in with the beef. This is a very simple filling and you can tweak it by adding or changing any thing that you would like to add. (i.e. spinach, shredded cheese of your choice) Mix all of the filling together and chill it in the fridge well you work on making the pasta.

Some people do this more the old fashion way but I tend to do it the fast and efficient way(after all I do this at "nap time"). Today I used 6 eggs and flour. Placed in my stand mixer with the mixing paddle until the mixture was firm enough to add the dough hook.(a note on the flour its another thing that I don't know the measurement on it is all texture. I put in about 1/3 cup at a time)

after the mixer has done all it can do it't time to get to work. If you have ever made bread this next step might be something you have done before, heck if you have mixed playdough colors together it comes close to that as well. Kneading the pasta dough until when the dough is cut in half with a sharp knife there are no packets of flour and the surface is smooth and silky not sticky.

Now onto the fun part! Making pasta!!! Once again you can see that I have taken the easy road, Kitchen Aid makes an attachment for the stand mixer that will roll past! How cool is that!!! I love mine and there is no way that I would crank out pasta so my family loves that I have one.

To use this pasta roller(and most others I have seen) you need to slice off and flour slices of dough and feed them through the roller to make them flat and the thickness you want.

There are many ways to put your filling in between 2 flats of pasta, I use 2 spoons so my hands don't get sticky. making a filling sandwich is the next step followed by cutting between the filling piles. Hint: I have been using a pizza cuter to do this on my floured wood surface and had very little to no scoring of my dinning room table. (Not to mention that it's a lot faster)

Forking! This next step is done by the kids, well in my mother in laws house, the first time I was witness to this process but my nieces and nephews were much older then my kids are now so I have a few years until I have help here.

Forking the edges of the pasta together will do the same thing as a press or egg wash but it gives the kids something to do to help and it also can be done with something you have in the house. Works great just don't fork to close to the filling if you pop a hole then it will pop in the water, more on that later.

Check out that cool tool!!! That is what my mother in law refers to as a spider, I am not sure what the cooking specialty store that I found it at 6 years into my marriage called it but I finally found one!!!

Ok enough about my random cooking tools...let's get to the water in the pot, you are going to need a big pot and hot hot water. A rolling boil if your pot's will get there. We make the ravioli mid day and they sit on a floured table under a clean dish cloth until it is time to cook. I place about 5 in the pot at a time they sink at first and you will know they are ready when they float to the top. I use my spider to fish them out dip them a few times to get the extra flour off of them and into the serving bowl they go! We layer our sauce with each set that goes in the water in a large mixing bowl.

Here is the part that everyone enjoys! The dinner table. This one is much more full then most on Ravioli Night but we have family in from out of town and I had to go all out! I will do my best to post more ...Italian Dinner Table another time if it would be of interest.

And yes, I have to admit I over went way over my carb limit with this meal and did not go running. Making the dish should of burned at least half of the calories that it was to eat right...or is that just girl math? Back to working out tomorrow. Back to Running next week.

Re Committed!

I know it't not the first of the month or the first of the year. But it is a Monday and today I made the choice after a slow start to re commit myself to my work out plan. I have been working for 10 months now on running and improving my eating habits. I have done a lot of things to make changes and to be a more healthy me.

I have been doing a lot around the house and taking on projects in place of my work outs. I need to stop doing that! I NEED to work on me to be able to work on anything else! With that said I have a plan.

If you know me you know that I need a plan. To go with my plan I need a set of alarms. I now have a bed time alarm and a wake up alarm and I am going to start slow with a 6:30 wake up to do a work out and get in a shower before the kids get up. Its going to be hard to get up that early for me but that is where the bed time alarm comes in, it will start at midnight. Might sound late but it is really early for me to sleep I tend to be a major night owl!

The first week of working out in the morning I will continue with the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I have done this work out in the past and it is a quick full body workout that I will be able to finish in the time I will be able to make in the mornings.

Crossing my fingers that this early start will help me keep up a workout plan and give me more time to get other things done during my day.

The next step will be setting that alarm earlier to go on a run and I hope to do that after about a week of Jillian Michales. I have a lot of miles to make up if I plan on making 31 for the month...an I am still planning on that, just need to get back to it!

Slacker!

Ok I admit it, I have been a slacker when it comes to running. I have been doing a lot of DIY work around the house and running after the kids in the house. I know it doesn't count but after last night I found that I need to stop being a Slacker!!

My run group girls got together last night and I walk/ran 1 mile. Its a start, a slow one at that. I was the only one that didn't run last month and we had decided that we will make a deal to run 31 miles by the 31st of Aug.I guess that means that I need to get on my game and make a plan, I sure don't want to be the slacker again this month.

1 mile down and 30 miles to go with 28 days to do it in.
~ till next time!

My Moms Visit

So many great thing to share about the last 10 days. We did home projects, craft projects, kid projects and a few great meals! I won't have enough time in this post to share them all but I will do my best to get back to expand on some of the photos you see here! I was so great full that my mom could make it out, we all love her and miss her so much but she had to go home to her puppies and work.

The toy area in the Cat in the Hat room.

Making fruit sticks with Grandma

Recycling Crayons into shapes...super fun!

'till next time, off to get some work done and cook dinner! Running tomorrow!

Took a break for Fun!

Yesterday we took the day off from our home DIY projects to head to the Children's Museum of Houston. My girls just love to explore and play there. I was happy to see that Lego Duplo was in for an event and the girls loved building for a bit before we headed into the other activities offered at the museum!

The girls loved getting out of the house to play! But today we will be starting to put all of the Cat in the Hat projects into the room. here is a small start to the room:

Its a small start but you have to start somewhere. More to come!

Sneak Peek!

It has been a busy last few days. I am excited to share this sneak peek into our Cat in the Hat bedroom project! This week my mom came in from San Diego and I am not only happy to spend time with her but I am also happy she is here to lend her talent to this bedroom make over!

I have not only been watching her work today I have been putting the brush to work as well! Check out my read letters to go over my Ikea spice rack book holder!! I know that the girls are getting excited about the room and I am happy to say its almost time to paint and put things in the room.

Stay posted for our choice on the Kitchen wall color, the room has already gained a lot of counter top with cleaning out cabinets and relocating the small appliances!

Starting new exciting things!

This week is going to be full of exciting things! We have already taken a trip to Ikea and to Home Depot to get the supplies for our many projects! The bathrooms are almost done being repainted and decorated. Kayla has had her room redone and Jessica's is well on its way! We have so many ideas just hope it all pans out to a good finish! Stay posted for pictures!

Work is about to get way more exciting tomorrow. I will know what the new brand that the Scentsy Family is and be ready to announce it to my team, customers, friends and family! I am missing the Convention in Las Vegas but I am happy to be home with my family getting my business together and reading all of the Back Stage Pass information that Scentsy is sharing online!

Well back to making things to decorate with!

Princess Project 2012

As you might be able to tell from the date stamp, I have rethought this every day blogging. I just don’t seem to have time. I think that a few each week will be a better quality for everyone as well. So with that said the last few days have been full of pink princess and art projects. Both of my girls are getting bedroom make over’s and I am glad to say that the princess project for Kayla age 5 is done… or at least as done as it can be before our trip to Ikea next week.

At the start of the summer we ended up getting a great deal on a loft bed, because Kayla had been asking to have bunk beds for months we did the next best thing and added the loft bed to her room! She was beyond excited and is still very happy with the new bed! We recently added a couch that we had in the living room to her room as well and have since re covered pillows with fabric of her choice, sigh, my little girl is turning into a tween!

Dress up has been on Kaylas mind for years, I have finally added a dress up area in her room with a mirror and everything. You can also see her art desk in this picture! More on that in another post!

I am almost sure that this is Kayla's favorite part, she helped me with each part of it. She has a keepsake shelf with a picture of her and her sister as a baby and a dress up stuff holder that she helped me make! We also made a sign together that reads "Sometimes being a sister is better then being a princess" I am not sure she fully believes it at this point but some day she might. For right now she likes that it is shinny and in princess writing!

Now that Kayla is happy with her bedroom I will be off to help a friend with planning her twins rooms tomorrow night, and my Mom will be around as well to help with Jessica's Cat in the Hat Room...Busy days ahead, more to come!

7/17/2012…missed:

Oh no!!! I feel like a slacker!! I missed my a post in the first week, well I was home after 1 am and could not bring myself to a recap of my not very productive day. Yesterday was filled with planning, list making and order following. I was happy to have my latest order go in for Scentsy and some of the order is already shipping! I just love working for a company that works so hard to give great customer service! On the home front there was no running as it was the 3rd day in a row that I stood in an ant pile to get a dog from a hole in a fence, you would think she would learn or I would give up but the dog seems to enjoy escaping. Which brings me to my list, fix the back yard fence, try to do something about the ants, play more with the dogs. My list is much more then dogs, its bedrooms and bathrooms and kitchens. I even have the everyday clean the house, read for enjoyment, run because its worth it! I guess that gives you an insight on how my day got away with me and I ended up getting to a meeting with a friend that is making lists of her own to redo her twins’ rooms, it will be a fun project for me to help with since it is not in my house, and not my budget. Enough of the rambling about how I missed a day and how I have a lot going on. I will be on top of it tonight, see you in about 12 hours!

From Finish to Start

This Monday was spent finishing up some projects started over the weekend. I was able to make a pillow “no-sew” cover for Kaylas couch in her room. Make a “Bathroom Rules” sign to hang in the kids bathroom with a few other little things to add some personality. I was able to also start on the blanket that I am doing for Jessica’s room to go with her “Cat in the Hat” makeover we will be doing when Grandma is here. I hope it all works out in the end but there is no way to tell with no pattern and a stack of fabric. I let Jess pick out the fabric so I think she will enjoy it. The Cat in the Hat project will sure be a fun one; we will not be painting anything crazy on the walls just adding frames with scrapbooked book pages on her walls with a few Dr. Seuss quotes to live by! But most of all a reading corner because a little girl cannot be without her books!

Kayla's Project Day

Kayla’s Day! She was so excited to find out that I put together a plan to do some cool stuff for her room. I made up a clipboard with pictures of her walls and small things that we could add:

We checked out the options and made a shopping list and hit the road on a solo trip to get the cool stuff we were adding!

Kayla loved to have mommy time and I was so happy to have her with me, we got to do a lot of talking and had a great shopping trip! We got a lot of things done in her room and she is so happy to have her own little space. When Grandma Linda comes later in the week we will get a lot more of it done and I will add more pictures! Stay tuned!

Christmas in July 2012

Today I hit a Milestone of my own! I hosted my first Christmas in July Scentsy party! It was so much fun to put together and I am already looking forward to next year’s party! Here are a few pictures

This is my table with a prize tree!

This is the Velata station!

And my loving husband even helped me put together some international stuffed pita's! Tomorrow my Big girl and I will be working on adding a reading area and a craft table to her room! She is beyond excited and I have to admit I made her a board on pinterest all her own so I am a bit excited too! More on that tomorrow, Warm Wishes.

First Post

So today is my first day doing this and sad to say I failed at running. On the other had we had a very productive day. Running group was able to get together for a spa day and lunch! I was so excited it was the first time that I had been away from my kids to do something like that in about 4 years. After lunch I was able to send out the July newsletter….just a little late, and stop by the bank. After getting the girls home I was able to send them to “quite time” (a wonderful break to give them and me so time to ourselves) I took a quick trip around the kitchen and then headed to my latest project, repainting the bathrooms. I was able to get both bathrooms painted and put back together for dinner and have been working on getting my Christmas in July Scentsy Open House up and going for the weekend. More on that tomorrow.

Welcome

Welcome, will you join me for a year of ups and down? My name is Beth Doolittle and I am a mommy of 2 and they are just getting to the fun ages in life. We live in Texas and have for the past 4 years, I am a Scentsy Independent Consultant and my job and my loving husband let me stay home for all of the wonderful milestones. I am a crafty DIY mommy and I have a todo list to go on for days from paper crafting to wood work. My newest project in 2012 is running, I have currently run two 5k’s and I have a wonderful supporting running group that help me with my ups and downs in running and life! So I ask you again will you stick around and follow me for the miles and milestones of the year to come with my little family and I. It’s sure to be a journey!