hey again + productivity + essential oils!

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I feel like a holistic goddess of home goodness. Which is a feeling I feel like I chase often. Who doesn't want to feel like a holistic home goddess? It's basically the premise of Pinterest.

The reason I feel so accomplish and productive and house-wifey today is because I cleaned my whole house with apple cider vinegar and essential oils.


(Like my succulents in the background? They are fake. Sooooo fake. My holistic goddess-ness has not yet extended to keeping houseplants alive. I will keep you posted).

So I got an essential oil starter kit + diffuser for Christmas, and as I am wont to do, I dove in headfirst with finding different ways to use them and how to replace some of our more chemical-y house substances. Since Baby Whitten will be making an appearance in about 5 months (!!!!), I really wanted to get a head start on making our home more baby-friendly and getting rid of harmful ingredients like bleach. Especially since those things aren't great for me to be around while baby is cooking, either!

I didn't take any before and after photos, since honestly our before was pretty embarrassing. But trust me, this worked.

I used straight apple cider vinegar on the bathroom counters and in the bathtub - just soaked a paper towel in the stuff and laid it on the counter, over the fun soap scum and that yummy, scummy stuff that inevitably ends up on all countertop surfaces. After leaving it there for a few minutes, I wiped it up and all that nasty came with, minimum scrubbing required.

After the vinegar got up the tough stuff, I went behind with a mix of water, grapefruit oil, lemon oil, and thieves. This mostly just made it smell good, but thieves is also helpful with decontaminating and disinfecting surfaces. In fact, that was all I used on my kitchen counters (in much better shape than the bathrooms, so they didn't need the ACV deep clean).


Another plus about cleaning with essential oils - they smell AMAZING. I love having a clean house, but I was not a fan of the bleach-y smell that seemed to linger for days afterwards. Cleaning with the oils makes everything smell wonderful and not at all like a school cafeteria (anyone else think they smell like cleaning products? Cleaning products and weird cheese). 

I've loved finding ways to feel healthier (and like I'm doing some good for our little bean) with essential oils. I'm looking forward to exploring them more!


capsule wardrobe research

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The idea of a capsule wardrobe is becoming more and more tempting.

Hanna started me thinking about it, because she is a huge style inspiration, and looking over more and more blogs that do this kind of thing makes me really want to try it. Despite being kind of a hoarder and emotional shopper, I crave simplicity.  Limiting my clothing choices might even help me have a more sound mind and less anxiety, which would be stellar, you know? Especially since I feel like for all the clothes I have, I probably wear the same 10 outfits most of the time.

For some reason before I started really reading about it I assumed that to have a capsule wardrobe of 40 pieces (a pretty good average of what most people seem to be doing), you had to get rid of all your clothes except for those pieces. Well, that was dumb of me to think. You choose 40 pieces per season and store the rest, which made the whole thing seem much more accessible!


Since you generally have one capsule per season, the ideal time for me to start would be June, with a summer capsule to last me through July and August.  Which gives me plenty of time to plan, prepare, and hopefully pare down.  I would love to have a yardsale, but early morning + planning + all those things make it seem like a headache. The thought of an Instagram sale has also crossed my mind, but the shipping! Gah, the shipping would suck.

I think the capsule thing would help me out in a lot of ways. I'm excited to keep learning more and choosing my own! 



'yakin

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Caleb has been kayaking for years, so when we found an awesome deal on a second boat, we grabbed it so I could start too!

It's pretty easy, but a great arm and ab workout. We're excited to start taking these camping!

For now, we just took them to City Lake. And saw like a zillion turtles, I'm not kidding. And they were the little cute kind, not the scary snapping kind.





breezy days

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This maxi dress feels like pjs.



dress // vest: thrifted // hat

I've been thinking more and more about a capsule wardrobe, but I'm having a hard time taking the plunge - I simultaneously want to simplify everything and continue buying clothes. I've also noticed something with myself - basically that I buy clothes as an emotional thing. Which I guess is better than emotional eating? I don't know. But it's basically the same concept.

Knowing that, I also know that a capsule wardrobe and limiting myself and making myself do with less is probably a good idea for me. I'm praying about it (is it ridiculous to pray about clothes? Probably.) 

Meet Ghost!

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Our newest family edition arrived on Tuesday night!

Ghost (yes, he's named after the direwolf on Game of Thrones) is a 6 week old husky and we love him.


Ghost loves to snuggle and chew hair (we're working on it), loves his Ewok chew toy, and is getting much better about sleeping through the night.

We tried the kennel the first night, and it did not go well - he likes to be able to see our faces. He sleeps in his puppy bed next to ours now, and things go much smoother.



He's a smart little baby and is starting to get the hang of potty training (thank the Lord!) We' re very excited to be puppy parents, and I think we're doing a pretty good job.

oh hey, this is a book.

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... that I wrote.

My first novel is available for purchase on Amazon, and free for Kindle Unlimited customers!

Like, whoa.

I've been working on this one for YEARS, and it feels so good to finally have it finished, edited, and out there. I self-published it, so not too fancy, but I'm really proud of it!

If you happen to read it, first of all know I love you, and secondly I would love to know what you think! Feel free to email me your thoughts!

You can purchase it for your Kindle (or Kindle app! Which is what I use) here!



hints of summer

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It was SO NICE on Sunday. And SO WARM (mostly. Enough for me to not feel like I'm dying in this dress, which is WARM ENOUGH.)

This dress has pockets and is nice and swingy and breezy and I really love it.


summer style


dress // sandals (similar)

I spent most of the weekend in Alabama, because my bff Savannah got engaged! Finally, y'all. Finally.

Then on Sunday I got back fairly early, and we went to lunch, watched The Lazarus Effect (which I'm still not sure how I feel about but that is another post), and went to a cookout at a friend's house.

Hope you had a happy weekend!