Teacher Gift Idea: Brown Sugar Body Scrub

May 1, 2013 By 2 Comments

For the past two years, I’ve run across the BEST ideas for Teacher Appreciation Day . . . approximately two weeks AFTER Teacher Appreciation Day. Helpful, right?

Well, this year I was determined to plan ahead and be That Mom (the responsible, caring, on-top-of-it mom who gives her child’s teachers thoughtful gifts on the appropriate holidays) and not That Mom (the one who forgets everything, from permission slips and tuition checks to snack day and Teacher Appreciation Day). Annalyn adores her teachers this year, and I truly DO appreciate them. It’s only right to show them with a little gift!

It’s possible I still forgot quite a few things this school year, but NOT this one. Teacher Appreciation Day is next Tuesday, May 7. So come Monday (because her class is M/W/F), my daughter will march into preschool with the sweetest little packages for her teachers: a bar of dark chocolate, a little tube of cocoa butter lotion, and a homemade brown sugar body scrub.

I’ve seen recipes for body scrubs on Pinterest, and I always wondered how easy it was to make them. In her ebook, Simple Scrubs to Make and Give, Stacy from A Delightful Home breaks it down and makes it easy enough for anyone – even That Mom (or this one!). She explains why and how to use body scrubs, then defines the basic ingredients (sugar or salt, base oils and essential oils) and suggests places to find them.

And then she shares recipes for more than two dozen different scrubs, like Holiday Spice Sugar Rub, Rustic Lavendar Scrub, Chocolate Lover’s Scrub and Morning Coffee Scrub. She even ends the book with ideas for packaging, making these scrubs perfect for gifts.

It really is a great book, and I’m pretty sure this will the Year of Scrubs for me.

[That's right, real-life friends and family. A body scrub is coming to you soon, so just get ready. Or, even better, pretend like you didn't read this at all. And then when I give you a tiny jar of homemade body scrub, exclaim, "Oh, wonderful! I was SO HOPING you'd make one for me! Thank you so much, my very favorite friend/family member/neighbor/person I've only met once!" Yes, that'll do.]

One of my favorite things about Stacy’s book is the way she defines “simple” at the very beginning. She explains that she calls these products “simple scrubs” because they’re simple to make and made from simple ingredients. I’d agree with that definition. Here’s how I made this one:

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp sweet almond oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar and oils in a small bowl. Add vanilla and stir to distribute evenly. Optional: Add a tablespoon of grated cocoa butter and mix well.

That’s it.

See? Super simple.

Now, I will say that I did not have coconut oil or sweet almond oil on hand. I had to buy it, and it was both kind of hard to find (because I didn’t read that part of the book first) and a little pricey. However, now that I have them, I can fill a TON of jars with scrubs – and in the end, it’s a really frugal gift.

Do you like giving homemade gifts?
Are you giving your kids’ teachers anything for Teacher Appreciation Day?

This post includes affiliate links.

Filed Under: Home & Organization, Just for Fun

Desperately Seeking: Domestic Skills

April 26, 2013 By 11 Comments

It was a disaster. Her beloved Rainbow Unicorn Pillow Pet had lost her tail. And the only logical response to holding a rainbow unicorn in one hand and a fuzzy purple tail in the other? Crying like her life was over, of course.

Calm down, I told her. I’ll just sew it back on.

What? No way!

My little shadow, my mini-me – she didn’t really believe that I could do it. As a matter of fact, she suggested we ask my mom to do it. Well, you know I was going to whip out the needle and thread after that!

Granted, I did wait until Smitty was over to get a second opinion on the best approach to re-attaching a unicorn tail. But for the record, I was the one who threaded the needle and sewed up that unicorn’s backside. And you better believe that tail is staying put for good.

Some families pass jewelry or art or land down through the generations. My family passes down sewing machines.

And pound cake recipes and the proper way to set a table and a compulsion to write prompt thank you notes.

It’s true. Despite my dislike of a lot of domestic chores, I can do them. I know how to make biscuits from scratch, sew on a button, iron a dress shirt and – because I was a Camp Fire girl, too – start a fire, pitch a tent and roll a sleeping bag.

Based on conversations I’ve had recently with friends, though, it seems like these skills are becoming lost arts. I know, I know. Pinterest would say otherwise. But Pinterest also says you can get washboard abs in 8 minutes a day and that no home is complete without Mason jars, chalkboard paint and a Chevron stripe or two.

Last weekend I was talking with some friends about what we’re passionate about, what we feel called to do. One of my friends said she’d love to teach young moms the basic domestic skills needed for running a home and a family.

“Of course,” she said, “I’d have to learn all that crap first.”

We laughed, but obviously basic domestic skills aren’t crap. They’re the things we need to know in order to make a home, care for a family, feel like a grown-up.

How are YOUR domestic skills? Are you a pro baker, seamstress, candlestick maker? Or do you wish your mom or aunt (or dad or brother – we’re equal opportunity here) had taught you more about how to make a home?

Next week my ebook about planning parties is going to be part of an enormous ebook bundle that’s happening next week. For less than $30, you can buy 97 ebooks about all different aspects of homemaking and life development. If you’re looking for a Mother’s Day gift – or just want to polish your own domestic skills – this is a great deal. Here’s a short (less than a minute) video with more info:

I’ll share ALL the details with you on Monday.

For now, though, I want to know what domestic skill you wish you had. I’ll go first. I wish I could get the hang of couponing (without spending a million hours doing it or going to a dozen stores – is this even possible?!), and I’m hoping my mom will teach me to can this summer (although we’ve planned to do it the past two summers and have yet to get around to it!). How about you?

What domestic-type life skill have you never learned?

Photo sources

Filed Under: Home & Organization Tagged With:

The Never-Ending Battle of Piles & Stuff

April 22, 2013 By 12 Comments

Do you have piles of stuff in your house? Anywhere? Behind the door, maybe, or tucked away in that closet? My house has several places where piles accumulate and despite my efforts to declutter, those piles always seem to come back.

The worst – and most visible – offender is the desk in my dining room. I’m trying to be better about dealing with papers as soon as they enter the house – and only touching them once. So, in theory, Annalyn cleans out her backpack as soon as we get home from preschool, I read any notes or reports, and after admiring her artwork I put it in her preschool folder that I’ve been keeping all year.

(Don’t even ask me what I’m going to do with the bulging folder of preschool stuff when the year is over. I have visions of a lovely three-ring binder, but let’s be honest: I might be doing good to stick that folder in a place I can find it later. Like when I’m making her high school graduation posters and scrapbooks or something.)

Same goes for the mail. In theory, I open it and file, trash or recycle it right away. Every day. In theory.

But sometimes theory doesn’t go very far, and papers pile up. And then there’s the extra STUFF. The unicorn tail that fell off the Pillow Pet and needs to be sewn back on. The grocery store flyers that I swear I’m going to use this week when I plan our meals. The rice bowl that’s been collecting change for TWO YEARS and needs to just be dealt with and donated. THE STUFF.

As I’ve made various attempts to curb the chaos on my dining room desk, I’ve learned that while part of the problem is my own laziness, another (sometimes bigger) obstacle is a lack of systems. If I don’t have a PLACE for that STUFF, it’s never going to get put away. So over time, I’ve bought a box for greeting cards and a cup for pens and pencils, repurposed a box to hold printer paper, created folders for my budget and receipts for taxes and other paper-type stuff that I use on a regular basis.

And then I remind myself that done is better than perfect.

Look, is my stuffed-to-the-gills, dented and slightly disorganized filing cabinet ideal? No, of course not. But even if they’re not arranged chronologically and even if I keep them way too long, sticking all of our pay stubs in a folder that’s always stored in the same place is tons better than a stack of our financial information growing into a tower that inevitably falling on the floor or behind the desk.

See? Not perfect by a long shot but SO MUCH BETTER than all of that information, all of those papers taking up space on my desk.

The danger of leaving important papers jumbled up with the not-so-important papers is that things get lost or overlooked or forgotten. Invitations, bills, those dang grocery flyers? I’ve lost, overlooked and forgotten them all. Not to mention, the desk is in my direct line of sight no matter how I walk into my house (thank you, open house plan) – and it drives me crazy to see the mess.

But what’s even more important that all that irritation these days is my growing need for an office space. Now that I’m working from home, I’m finding that a TV tray in front of the couch is not necessarily the best place for me to work. And since I HAVE A DESK, I should probably use it. Right? Right.

The problem is – as it is with a lot of my home organization dilemmas – a lack of space. But as I was whining about this to my mom a couple weeks ago (as my way of saying, “Yes, I see the piles of stuff on my desk. Yes, it’s ridiculous. Yes, you raised me better.” without, you know, SAYING IT), she had a brilliant idea.

“This might sound weird,” she said, “but what if you got an over-the-toilet organizer to put over your filing cabinet and printer?”

What?! That’s not weird! That is genius!!

These are not words I often admit to my mom, but I did that day. And last weekend [AFTER I CLEANED UP MY PILES], we went to the store and bought an over-the-toilet organizer. Technically, the box calls it a “space saver,” but the picture shows a toilet. And you know what I’m talking about.

We haven’t quite figured out the best arrangement of the “space saver” yet. Because it’s top heavy, we’ve got to do something to make it more sturdy. And figuring out where to place the printer so it’s not impossible to put paper in it or use the scanner. (You know, while it’s nice to have it tucked away, being able to actually USE the thing would be nice, too.) But just having a little bit of extra storage space has opened up room for my laptop. So, should I want to sit in a chair like a real person (as opposed to lounging on the couch like a…fake?…person), I can.

And just look at all this beautiful open space!

Feel free to ignore the scratches and scars, although I like them. They give my old desk character (and me hope that someday I’ll find a secret compartment just like Nancy Drew).

My house is a work in progress, just like me. And figuring out the best way to keep it organized and working for my family is a never-ending project. So while I’ve got a few systems in place to prevent my PILES OF STUFF from getting so out of control that they require a bulldozer (or me dumping things into paper boxes and hiding them in the garage when guests visit), reality means that PILES HAPPEN.

I’m just thankful that when a pile happened this time, Project Simplify from Simple Mom and Genius Idea from My Mom were here to motivate me into taking care of the problem!

And because who doesn’t love a before-and-after, here’s mine:

What do you do when STUFF piles up in your house?
How do you prevent piles from happening in the first place?

This post will be linked up to Project Simplify at Simple Mom, where lots of us are tackling piles this week.

Filed Under: Home & Organization Tagged With:

Where have all the cleaning fairies gone?

April 8, 2013 By

This post is sponsored by Clorox and The Motherhood.

I just don’t understand. I wait and I wait. I leave food out. I even ask nicely. And still, the cleaning fairies don’t come to my house.

They don’t visit. They don’t call. And they certainly don’t empty my dishwasher or fold my laundry.

It doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen those commercials – the ones with the bubbles? The bubbles that talk AND CLEAN YOUR BATHTUB WHILE YOU’RE GONE? It turns out those animated bubbles aren’t real. Yeah. I know. The shock, it is unbearable.

I’ve tried some fancy cleaning products. You know what happens when I spray my bathtub and walk away? White streaks appear in my otherwise Not White tub. Granted, the bathroom briefly smells lovely, but my porcelain (and plastic) is certainly not sparkling.

So, in case you’re just now joining us, my house is being visited by neither cleaning fairies nor magical cartoon bubbles. And since that leaves the cleaning business to me, my house is kind of filthy.

Not messy. At least, not always. I can usually keep the clutter at least tamed, if not permanently eliminated. But actual cleaning? The kind that requires spray bottles and sponges and rags and brooms? Yeahhhh, I hate it. And so I haven’t been doing it.

Last fall, I thought I had a solution. A friend told me about the woman who cleaned her house, and I decided that I could scrape enough money out of our budget to have her clean my house, too.

Unfortunately, the woman who cleaned my friend’s house is allergic to cats. Which is kind of ironic – or annoying; I always question my use of the word “ironic,” thank you Alanis Morrissette – considering my cats create a solid majority of the dirt in my house.

Not to worry, she recommended another cleaning lady, who I promptly called and scheduled. She was super duper nice, but alas, didn’t clean my house the way I wanted.

Which is ironic – or ridiculous [side note: I really need to learn the proper usage of the word "ironic."] – considering I’M not cleaning my house the way I want, either.

So, now I’m back to cleaning my own house (or not cleaning it…).

I’m not happy about that, but I will tell you one thing: Cleaning products that actually do what they promise – especially if they make cleaning easier! – help me hate this situation a little bit less.

Enter: Clorox and SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY.

The new SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY is a built-in tube that reaches all the way to the bottom of the bottle, putting an end to the frustration of wasting the last little bit of cleaning product you paid good money for! Clorox also points out that this technology gives consumers the satisfaction of spraying every last drop.

Well, I cannot argue with that! If I ever get to the end of a bottle of cleaning product (especially one like Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner + Bleach or Formula 409 Cleaner that actually gets my house CLEAN), I will definitely feel satisfied. And, you know, like I finally conquered my aversion to cleaning!

The new Clorox spray bottles equipped with SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY also feature a new and improved trigger that makes it easier to spray to your heart’s content.

Here’s the real good news. [No, I'm not sending actual cleaning fairies your way. Sorry.] Clorox is giving away five bottles of cleaning product with this fancy, handy new technology to one lucky Giving Up on Perfect reader.

To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment telling me one thing that would make cleaning easier for you. And do it now, because this giveaway will close at midnight (CST) on Tuesday, April 9.

This post is brought to you by Clorox and The Motherhood, and I’ve been compensated for my time. However, all opinions [and aversions to cleaning] are my own.

Filed Under: Home & Organization Tagged With: ,

Time Keeps on Slippin’, Slippin’, Slippin’

March 6, 2013 By 3 Comments

Where does the time go? No, really, where DOES my time go?

I’m not asking that question in the another-month-has-come-and-gone, time-flies-when-you’re-having-fun, where-did-my-baby-girl-go sort of way.

[Although, SIDE NOTE, getting a Carter's catalog in the mail this week - and then realizing that my kiddo no longer fits in their adorable clothes - pretty much did me in. Mainly because I love Carter's clothes, though, not because I'm sad Annalyn is growing up. I love the age she is right now, but those clothes?! Yeah, that's what had me throwing the catalog on the table and wailing in despair. Or something like that.]

I’m on the verge of – once again – making some major changes, and I’m anxious. Not about the changes themselves (although, YES, but that’s another post altogether), but about whether or not I’ll make the most of a new schedule, a new list of priorities.

As stressful and difficult as change is, I don’t want it to be in vain. I don’t want to make some big, hard changes only to feel just as overwhelmed, chaotic and unproductive as I do now.

So I decided to do a time audit of my life – you know, examine how I use my time, how long it takes to do things, where I’m wasting time, and so on.

I’m kidding about that wasting time part. I can’t even face that.

But I did write down every single thing I do in a week and estimated how long each task should take. I tried to balance reality with the ideal, which is easier said than done when it comes to line items like “exercise” and “laundry.”

[Actually, SIDE NOTE, it's been so long since I maintained a good routine of doing laundry that I really have no idea how much time it would take me each day to stay caught up!]

If you assume eight hours of sleep each night (this is the ideal, not the realistic), that leaves 112 hours each week to fill. And it turns out it’s pretty easy to fill up that time.

At first, my time used added up to 110.5 hours – and that was without any time for writing (outside of blogging). THAT is simply not acceptable, so I recalculated a few things (i.e. Lowered the amount of time to spend on things like laundry. Again with the laundry!) and found room for six hours a week of writing.

I even found enough wiggle room to have 30 minutes of unassigned time each day.

Ummm . . . WAIT. Just 30 minutes? Wow. No wonder I’m not accomplishing much. Even without facing my large amounts of wasted time, I know I’m letting more than half an hour slip through my hands each day!

Of course, I have to keep in mind that some tasks take longer than I expect, while others take less time. And, most importantly when my heart starts racing at the thought of every minute being scheduled except 30 short ones, several things can – and do – happen simultaneously.

No, I can’t exercise WHILE I shower (I wish.) or answer emails while I eat dinner with my family (I could. But it would break my “no screens at dinner” rule. The one I made up. Yeah.). But some things can be done at the same time.

One thing that was interesting was tallying up how many hours I spend each week on myself versus on work or on my family. That meant I had to define “time spent on myself,” which was an interesting process in itself. And then, when faced with confirmation that yes, I DO spend a lot of time on my family and our home, I had to decide how to feel about that.

(I’m still working on that. I want to feel only gratitude – for the family, for the home, for the blessings of it all. But I’ll be honest. I still feel some resentment and general “I’m not your maid”-ness.)

I’m not finished evaluating my time, but I believe it’s a good way to start this new phase of my life. I think jumping into a transition blindly and assuming everything will just fall into place and work out would mean, for me, that plenty of bad habits or poor time management choices would fall into place and next to nothing at all would work out. Being intentional about what I do and when I do it is a better plan for me.

Oh, by the way, that “when I do it” part? I’m not quite ready to talk about that yet. Mainly because, as I mentioned on Twitter the other night, I’m coming to the realization that I can no longer write at night. Still a night owl, I’m not physically tired then, but my brain is DONE by the time I get Annalyn in bed.

Please, don’t tell me about so-and-so who got up in the middle of the night to write brilliant books. My poor, hates-mornings heart can’t take it just yet. I’m warming up to this idea, but I’m not there yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Have you ever done a time audit on your life? Where do you spend the most time?
{And how long do you spend on laundry each week??}

The gorgeous clock in my photos is from DaySpring. It’s part of the Redeemed collection, which I love, because part of my goal in this whole practice of time auditing is to make more of the time God has given me – to REDEEM THE TIME.

Filed Under: Faith & Other Deep Thoughts, Home & Organization
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