Simple Living Archives - Simple Living Mama

Friday Favorites #2

June 14, 2013 by Joanie Leave a Comment

Welcome to the second edition of Friday Favorites! I love highlighting some of my favorite things that I have discovered around the blogosphere and introducing you to new blogs! Let’s get started!

how to make an herbal infusion

I’m fascinated with herbs right now, so I love this post from A Joyful Mother on how to make an herbal infusion! I will definitely have to try this out!

I loved reading about homeschooling in a small house from Upside Down Homeschooling! We are stuck in a small house until God opens up another door and I need all the help I can get to organize our materials!

Before Five in a Row {B4FIAR}

Other moms’ homeschool plans are so interesting to me. Leigh Ann from Intentional Homeschool shares her plans to do Before Five in a Row with her son!

I love this post about keeping healthy chickens from The Chicken Chick. My Dad has been taking care of our chickens since the deployment and the birth of our third child happened at about the same time. I really need to get out there and start caring for them myself again! Although, we had a snake in the coop a few weeks ago and I sure don’t want to be the one to find the next one! Ahhh!

compost bin

Oh, remember how I said I want to learn more about composting this summer in my eight sustainable summer goals? I found an awesome resource at Linda’s Lunacy about composting! Woohoo!

So those are a few of my favorite things from around the web this week! What are some of your favorites?

Filed Under: Gardening, Homeschooling, kids & Natural Parenting, Real Food and Health, Simple Living

My Natural Skin Care Routine

May 2, 2013 by Joanie 11 Comments

I love simplifying my life. The fewer things I own the freer I feel. When I figured out I could use products that I already used in my kitchen for my skin care, I was ecstatic. To my surprise, these products work wonderfully, too!

Mason jars are all the rage right now, and for good reason. They’re attractive and reusable and just plain awesome! I keep my new, natural skin care products in two small glass jars right on my bathroom counter top. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Coconut Oil Moisturizer

Coconut oil is a powerhouse. I use it in my baking, for frying, to give my hair a moisturizing treatment, for my baby’s bottom, and now I use it to moisturize my face.

I scoop a little out to keep in my glass jar on my counter top and whenever I have some dry patches on my face I dab a tiny, pea-sized amount on and rub it in. The cool thing? It doesn’t leave a greasy feeling. It seeps right into the skin leaving it soft and dewy.

Baking Soda Face Scrub

We all know how important it is to exfoliate. Exfoliation removes old, dead skin cells and leaves fresh, smooth skin in its place. Well, exfoliants in the store are super expensive. I just didn’t buy them. Then I learned about using baking soda. I use it to scrub my bath tub, why not my face?

All I do is pour a small amount of baking soda into the palm of my hand and add a few drops of water. I rub the wet baking soda all over my face and let it sit for a minute or two. Then I rinse.

Make sure you try to avoid your hair because if you don’t rinse it out it will dry hard and leave white specks in your hair. Don’t ask me how I know. Oh, and I only do this once or twice a week. Exfoliating too much will leave you with red, raw skin.

I do still cleanse my skin with a bar soap and use an acne medication for breakouts. If you know a natural solution that really works, please let me know!

What does your skin care routine look like?

This post may be linked to:

Natural Living Link-Up,Hearts for Home, Thrive at Home, Thriving Thursdays,Fellowship Fridays, Frugally Sustainable

Filed Under: Real Food and Health, Simple Living

Growing Herbs in Containers – Part 2

April 24, 2013 by Joanie Leave a Comment

In Part 1 of this little miniseries I showed you the herbs that I had already planted. Well, the kids and I bought a few more herbs to plant in our containers and you get to take a look at them today!

Basil

Basil is one of my favorite herbs. I love cooking Italian food, so it goes wonderfully with my pastas and pizzas. Pair it with a slice of tomato and mozzarella and be in heaven. It’s delicious. I have to plant this one new every year because it can’t survive the cold. It loves the hot summers.

Thyme

This is my first year growing thyme, but I use the dried version I get from the store in a lot of my soups and paired with pork or chicken. I figured I would try growing it this year and see how well I like it fresh.

Chives

You can’t see them in the above picture, but we planted some chive seeds. I love chives. I sprinkle them on baked potatoes and egg drop soup. The fresh herbs and way better than the dried. Chives are so easy to grow and they come back year after year. It’s hard to kill them off!

Cilantro

That little girl above is holding our cilantro. Cilantro is such a short-lived annual plant I debated on whether or not to grow it this year. Once the heat picks up this plant will be done. That said, nothing compares to fresh cilantro. It’s delicious in homemade salsa or atop a pan of enchiladas. I love this stuff. So, I’ll cut the plant down probably 3-4 times and use it up while I have it!

So, now you’ve seen my little herb garden. I’m excited to have fresh herbs for food and I’m planning to also preserve what I can. I want to dry the mint, basil, thyme, and rosemary. I want to make delicious basil pesto and cilantro sauce. I want fresh lavender blooms in a vase in the middle of my kitchen table! Ahh, I can almost smell the delicious herb scents now!

Are you growing herbs this year? What are you growing?

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Filed Under: Gardening, Simple Living

Growing Herbs in Containers – Part 1

April 23, 2013 by Joanie 2 Comments

There’s nothing like walking outside to your porch and snipping fresh basil for your homemade lasagna. I love growing herbs. Naturally, I am not a green thumb. My hubby is the plant man. I can help maintain, but it’s hard for me to keep plants alive. Take for instance my garden last year, I was newly pregnant and sick and the unfortunately the whole thing went to waste!

Herbs are different, though! They are incredibly easy to grow. I have already started with a couple of herbs in my little porch container garden. I’m going to show you what I’ve already planted. The kids and I will be planting new herbs later today, so come back tomorrow to see our updated herb garden!

Mint

This is my favorite plant. You can see from this container that it has completely taken over the container. That’s the thing with mint. Plant it separately from other plants. I had chives and parsley in this pot with the mint and the mint completely destroyed them. I’ve had this mint plant for about two years now. I don’t do anything with it except give it some water. It grows back every year and it smells heavenly!

Rosemary

Rosemary is another favorite. The smell is wonderful. Rosemary likes a drier soil, but be careful with it when it’s in a container to make sure it doesn’t get too dry. With our 100+ degree summers it can easily burn up. I found that out last year, so this is a new plant. I will likely move this plant to a larger container as it grows.

Lavender

Who doesn’t love lavender? This is a new plant that is growing in what will be our fairy garden I’ll be posting about that next week so stay tuned! I can’t wait for it ti grow and bloom!

As a bonus I’m going to show you the fruit we grow in containers. These are Luke’s babies.

Strawberries

I planted this strawberry plant two years ago. It hasn’t been taken care of very well, but it keeps growing back! We got a few berries last year and I’m hoping for a few more this year!

Blueberries

Ah, our blueberry bush! It’s three years old now! We got several berries last year and I’m hoping for more. My kids love blueberries. My husband has always babied this bush and it hasn’t let us down!

Do you want to grow your own garden this year?

You can read Part 2 here.

Please note this post may contain affiliate links.

This post may be linked to:

Homestead Barn Hop, Encourage One Another, Wise Woman, Teach Me Tuesday, Homemaking Link Up, Monday Musings, Mama Moments, Marital Oneness, Motivation Monday, Natural Living Link-Up, Thrive at Home, Thriving Thursdays, Weekend Whatever, Fellowship Fridays

Filed Under: Gardening, Simple Living

How To Use Lavender In Your Home

April 18, 2013 by Joanie 2 Comments

Photo Credit: Mrs. Magic on Flickr CC

There is nothing like walking into your home and inhaling a pleasant scent. One of my favorite scents of all-time is lavender. It has a slightly sweet, strong and relaxing fragrance. I will explain how to use lavender essential oil and lavender flowers in your home.

Lavender Essential Oil

I recently started dabbling in essential oils. So far, my favorite essential oil is lavender. The smell is just so completely calming and relaxing that I absolutely love to use it. I strictly use my lavender essential oil for aromatherapy purposes. Apparently you can also use essential oils topically and internally, but that is a whole can of worms that I have yet to open! You have to be careful about what brands you use internally. I just like the way it smells.

Lavender essential oil is known for soothing and relieving stress. Here are the ways that I use my lavender essential oil.

Bath Soak

I add a cup of Epsom salts and about 4 drops of lavender essential oil to the bath for a relaxing soak.

Foot Soak

I use a Conair foot bath and add 1/2 cup of Epsom salts and a couple of drops of lavender essential oil and soak my feet before doing an at-home pedicure.

Carpet Refresher

Add 1 cup of baking soda and 10-15 drops of lavender essential oil to a jar. (I use an old applesauce jar. An old parmesan cheese shaker would work well, too). Shake jar to combine. Generously sprinkle the mixture on your carpet and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. Vaccum up.

Linen Spray

I fill a 2 oz. spray bottle with distilled water and add around 10 drops of lavender essential oil. I like to mist my sheets for a heavenly, relaxing bed.

Your Thriving Family has a great post with other ideas for using lavender essential oil.

Natural Fabric Softener

Add a drop or two to the white vinegar you use during the rinse cycle as a fabric softener.

Lavender Flowers

I am growing a lavender plant this year! The aroma from the little plant is just wonderful. I plan to harvest its flowers when it is time.

Lavender Floral Arrangements

My husband and I enjoy growing flowers. We plan to use our lavender flowers in some floral arrangements in our home. The natural scent of the flowers will be lovely.

Lavender Potpourri

I will use the dried flowers of lavender to make a homemade potpourri. Just add the dried leaves to a bowl in your home or mix them with other dried herbs.

Lavender Satchets

Place the dried flowers of lavender in small satchet bags and store in your dresser drawers to keep your clothes fresh.

Do you like the smell of lavender? How do you use it in your home?

This post may be linked to:

The Better Mom, Raising Arrows, Mama Moments Monday, Teach Me Tuesday, Homemaking Link Up, Monday Musings, Mama Moments, Marital Oneness, Motivation Monday, Natural Living Link-Up,Titus2sday, Artful Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Encourage One Another, Wisdom Wednesdays, Hearts for Home, Thrive at Home,Thriving Thursdays, Weekend Whatever, Fellowship Fridays

Filed Under: Cleaning and Organizing, Gardening, Homemaking, Simple Living

Finding the Christmas Spirit

December 4, 2012 by Joanie 1 Comment

This is currently the only piece of Christmas decor in my house. I have no Christmas Spirit this year. Whatever that is anyway. I just haven’t been in the mood for Christmas. It’s so sad!

Last year I wrote about making an Advent calendar and I talked about our Christmas traditions. I guess since my hubby isn’t home to hang Christmas lights on the house and I’m super busy with a new baby that I’m just not excited for Christmas.

We have a special surprise planned for the 23rd this year, and that I am excited about. That is the day we will put up our tree and really get into the Christmas spirit, I suppose. I’m just so used to doing everything right after Thanksgiving. It doesn’t feel like Christmas at all to me!

I do have a new tradition planned this year, though. I’m going to make up a Christmas Eve box for the kids to open. It’s going to have new Christmas pj’s inside with hot chocolate mix and either a fun movie or book for us to enjoy. This year I’m also including a gingerbread house for us to decorate and cookies for us to leave for Santa. I can’t wait to see their faces and relish the excitement.

We are going to start talking about the true meaning of Christmas this week. I’m planning to read them the Christmas story from the Bible and get them their very own nativity set to play with.

I am a little bummed about not doing Advent or having activities planned out every day this month. It’s just not feasible or manageable without my hubby to help with the kids. We have a few things planned. We are going to visit Santa at the library, drive around looking at Christmas lights, and read some Christmas books that I have hidden away. We will probably try to watch some movies, too. I don’t know about right now, though. Our living room TV is not working because my daughter pulled a cord and flipped the surge protector and I can’t get to it!

So, Christmas isn’t going to necessarily be what I imagined this year. I’m really hoping that changes for the better next year and we can get back to our normal traditions and celebrating throughout the month as a whole family! Fingers crossed anyway that my husband is home in time!

Filed Under: Deployment, Simple Living Tagged With: christmas

Healthy Living eBook Bundle Sale!

October 29, 2012 by Joanie Leave a Comment

I want to let you know about an amazing sale that is going on right now. You can get 34 eBooks from some of my favorite bloggers for only $29! This bundle is worth over $300, so this deal is extremely rare and you probably won’t see it again! I personally own several of these eBooks and have loved every one of them. They are full of practical advice for those of us who wish to pursue living a healthier lifestyle! Check it out!

What’s Included in the Sale?

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Please note: This collection is only available from 8 a.m. EST on October 29th to 8 a.m. EST on November 2nd. There will be no late sales offered.

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Saving Money on Real Food

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Food on Your Face for Acne and Oily Skin by Leslie @ Crunchy Betty ($7.99)

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9-Tray Excalibur Dehydrator with Timer
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Omega Vert VRT350 Masticating Juicer
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Royal Berkey Water Filtration System from LPC Survival
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This collection is only available from 8 a.m. EST on October 29th to 8 a.m. EST on November 2nd. There will be no late sales offered.

Haven’t purchased an eBook Bundle, but still want to be entered into the draw? No problem. You can enter here.

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of the sale which means if you purchase a bundle through my site I will receive a small commission. I would not promote this sale if I didn’t think it was awesome and worth the money!

Filed Under: kids & Natural Parenting, Motherhood, Real Food and Health, Simple Living

The Best Freezer Containers

September 10, 2012 by Joanie Leave a Comment

I remember the first time I tried freezer cooking. I felt completely lost when it came to storing my food in the freezer and avoiding freezer burn. There have been so many times that I have pulled some frozen food out of my freezer only to find that it is freezer burnt! Do not cook freezer burnt meat. Yuck!

Since then, I’ve pretty much learned what the best freezer containers are. After you prepare your freezer meals, you have disposable and non-disposable options for storing your food.

Join me over at Intentional By Grace so we can talk freezer storage options. How do you store your freezer meals?

Filed Under: Homemaking, Real Food and Health, Simple Living Tagged With: freezer meals

What I’ve Been Up To…

April 2, 2012 by Joanie Leave a Comment

Ahhh. Can I just take a moment to sigh? I haven’t blogged nearly as much this past month as I would have liked. My life has been crazy busy and I am ready for a little bit of a slow down!

So, we have been moved into our new home for a little over a month now and I’m so sad to admit that we are still not fully settled in! We also have not been able to get our other house completely ready to be rented out yet. It’s taking us a lot longer to get things done than we planned. My poor husband has a very busy work schedule and he’s a full-time student, so that explains why progress has been so slow. It’s aggravating to me to have boxes still unpacked in our new house and even a few items at our old house that still need to be moved. I still feel confident that God led us here and we made the right decision. Things may not be happening in my time, but God knows what he’s doing and it will all be okay in the end.

Since we have been here we have also dealt with a little bit of sickness. Both my daughter and I have been ill at some point and we were even ill at the same time. I’m battling a cold as I type. That has definitely set us back, too. My poor baby girl had her first fever virus and it lasted about three days. I spent three nights sitting and “sleeping” in our living room recliner with her because she just could not get comfortable in bed. Luckily, she is back to her old self now!

I have so much to blog about. We have added some ducks to our small backyard farm and I’d love to introduce them to y’all. I also really want to chronicle my gardening journey. (It’s not going so well right now)! Plus I have done a few little projects around the house that I’d love to show you! Hopefully this week starts the week of me getting back to blogging. It is my therapy after all!

Oh, we did take a little bit of a break and take the kids to the zoo last week during a rare free day. We (ok mostly I) desperately needed to get out of the house. Here’s a pic of me with my little man. We have a zoo membership and I figured we better start using it before it gets horribly hot. It’s only April and it feels like it’s June here in Arkansas! Summers are miserable no matter what, so I’m really afraid of how hot it’s going to be this year!

God Bless and love to you all!

Filed Under: Simple Living Tagged With: life

We Moved to the Country!

February 27, 2012 by Joanie 3 Comments

I just realized that it’s been a while since I blogged. In the last week or so we moved! We are now out in the country. There’s around 4 acres out here and my kids are having a blast playing outside every day. Life has been busy. We are still moving stuff, still painting, and just generally trying to get settled. Both the kids and I have been sick in the middle of all of this, too!

We also have our old house that we need to prepare to put up for rent. I’m hoping it rents quickly to good people.

Mr. Simple and I have done a lot of plant shopping since we now have more space and more sunlight to grow things. I have some little herb pots growing in a windowsill. We picked up vegetable seeds that I will be starting soon and transplanting to raised beds. Mr. Simple is going to plant some rose bushes, some blueberries, and we are going to try our hands at growing grapes.

We have some fruit trees on this property. This peach tree is already blooming! There are also some apple trees.

It’s nice to be out in the country. We have a lot of work to do to this place, but we have a lot more space. There was even a big wooden swing set left in the yard for the kids to play on. For the first time in my adult life I have a dishwasher and a “grown up” bathtub. The kids love having their own bathroom.

This is what we see in our backyard. No more crazy cat lady’s house!