Ant Quest Day 4

Well, this is Day 4 of my homemade ant trap experiment. No ants have given my borax/sugar solution a taste lately. The first day was amazing. Ants were dropping like crazy! Now, nothing. No dead ants being kicked out of their homes, no line of ants near the traps. Ants are still in my house.

I'm not sure why the homemade traps didn't work. It's been so hot out that I thought for sure the solution would have dissolved and combined. But the water is at the top and the Borax is at the bottom. And, I am guessing the sugar is at the bottom with the Borax, because wouldn't the ants want it if the sugar was mixed in the water at the top?

Anyway, I am too tired to really examine it further. I'm going on 3 days of insomnia. Which is VERY much not like me. I am a fall-asleep-the second-my-head-hits-the-pillow type of girl, and I sleep 9 hours easily with no interruptions. So today I took my zombie self and my all-too-chipper Short Stack to the hardware store and bought as many ant traps as I could and ant spray.

Ok, ants...let's dance.

Kiss My Face Peace Soap Review

My good friends over at http://www.stockpilingmoms.com/ asked me to write a review for a new line of soaps by Kiss My Face. I was delighted to get this opportunity to try something new and organic!

Kiss My Face has introduced a new line of soaps called Peace Soap. Peace Soap is an all purpose Castile soap that is also 100% natural. The basic ingredients in this soap are simple: olive oil, coconut oil, hemp oil and jojoba oil. It comes in 4 amazing scents: Grassy Mint, Lavender Mandarin, Pomegranate Acai, and Lemongrass Clary Sage. The Grassy Mint makes me think of Doublemint gum, and when I use it, I always think, juicy!! Ha ha! The Lavender Mandarin has a nice citrus kick to it. The Pomegranate Acai is probably my favorite and smells fruity and sensational. The Lemongrass Clary Sage smells almost like a lemon lime drink.

I think the most important thing to tell you about the new Peace Soap line is why it is called Peace Soap in the first place. 10% of the profits support the Seeds of Peace Organization. The mission of Seeds of Peace is to help young people from regions of conflict throughout the world develop skills necessary to instill peace and coexistence in their region. This organization has been around for 17 years and has earned the recognition of the U.S. State Department as well as international recognition for their conflict resolution model. It has shown success among the youth of Pakistan, Israel, and Egypt, and now includes young people from many other nations as well.

But back to the soap! The label on the bottle says that you can use this Peace Soap "head to toe" and "ceiling to floor." So I thought I would first try it head to toe. I used it as a body wash for a couple days to get the feel of the soap. I found the soap to be very cleansing, but a bit drying for my taste. As a VERY amateur soap maker, I know that coconut oil can tend to dry out the skin, and as it is one of the main ingredients, I was not surprised. However, I did use it as a bubble bath for my 2-year-old daughter, and she had no skin problems with it at all. Kiss My Face is also coming out with a Peace Soap foaming hand cleanser line soon. I think that would be very nice!

I next tried it as an all purpose cleaner. I had no complaints with the way it cleaned. I cleaned out a very grimy baby pool with the Grassy Mint scent, and I loved the fact that the baby pool was clean and smelled amazing!! It made me want to refill it with water and jump back in! I also cleaned the entire bathroom with the Lavender Mandarin and Lemongrass Clary Sage. It cleaned just as well as the conventional products out there, in my opinion. And the best part is, you don't have to wear gloves or worry about what you or your family is inhaling while you clean. Here is a picture of my shower before using Peace Soap,

and after using Peace Soap.

I would also recommend Peace Soap for many other uses that I haven't tried. Their website has tons of ideas for how to use this soap, and most came from users themselves. I really like the idea of taking this soap camping. You can use it for everything while you camp, including washing your dishes, bathing, cleaning food; you name it, it can do it. It is also great to pack for other trips too, as that is the only soap you have to pack!

Whether you use Peace Soap or not, it is worth it to check out the Seeds of Peace organization and all they are doing. If you check out Kiss My Face's website, you will find a Pledge for Peace button. For every 10,000 people that pledge they will send one child to camp for free. I pledged just by liking it on Facebook!

In conclusion, I am very glad I have some Peace Soap on hand for anything that may come along. It is safe for everyone and everything! The cause it supports is amazing, and I urge you to check it out today. Thank you to http://www.stockpilingmoms.com/ for giving me this product to review!

Ant Quest Day 2

Well, I've had my homemade ant traps outside for 24 hours now, and I can't tell if it is working or not. The ants definitely love the stuff, but I'm a little concerned because they are all dead in the traps! Here is a picture of the fatal sugar/borax party.

So, I either didn't fill the jars enough, and the ants just got stuck in there and drowned, or the borax was too strong and they were poisoned before they could get out. I'm thinking they drowned in their own happiness. Either way, they obviously were unable to get the solution back to the nest, which was my goal for ultimate ant oblivion.

I still have some ants checking out the scene as seen in this picture, so I will wait a few more days to see if they are still sniffing around, and if there are other signs the ant traps are working.

In the meantime, my little Short Stack just got some ant stomping shoes from Grandma, and she sure can entertain herself! Ha ha!

My Quest to Get Rid of the Ants!!

If you stand in one spot for too long inside or outside my house, you will be taken away by the tiny 6 legged creatures that will eat anything. I'm sitting here at the kitchen table just watching the little creeps crawling into my house from under the baseboards near the back door. They are coming in at every entrance, despite the Terro traps we put out about a month ago. The traps actually are working, or at least they look like it because there are ants all over the traps and dead ones near them. But we just have soooo stinkin' many of 'em and not enough traps. They have officially eaten all but 2 of my potted containers on the deck. My beans are dead, my flowers, my strawberries, and soon, my peppers. My herb pot is really the only place I don't see them. Maybe they don't like basil?

So, I researched online last night, and I found out that Terro traps are nothing more than Borax and sugar water. Well, that should be easy to make, right? So today I'm in the process of trying it. I mixed Borax with sugar and water, and I am going to pour them into baby food jars with holes punched in the lid. I have 11 baby food jars to fill, so I'm hoping that will at least put a dent into the population. I still have to find a hammer and nail and punch holes into the lid, which is why this post is short so I can do it before Short Stack wakes up from her nap. Speaking of Short Stack, it's really cute watching her try to step on all the ants she sees. It's like a Native American dance!

No no no no no no, etc...

Terrible two's, what? It is a VERY good thing that Short Stack is so darn cute. My little Short Stack is like a tasty BBQ sauce. Sweet and spicy. Actually, I think right now she can be described more as a dry "whine."

How funny is it that toddlers can say no so many times, even when they mean yes? She woke up this morning, singing the two letter word, like it was her own sweet dessert that she was savoring on her tongue. "Nooooo, noooo."

As we start our usual morning routine, I asked her if she wanted her eggs and oatmeal. She smiles and says, "No." Of course, she means yes, as the smile indicates. During breakfast, she starts whining, "No" when her sippy lid is on the milk. She wants it off. When I tell her to keep it on for now, she screams, "No!" and the tears start.

After breakfast, she goes to the fridge Alphabet magnets and starts pointing out the letters she knows. I ask, "Can you find the Y?" She lets out a pondering, "Nnnoooo," slow and low as if she were really thinking about it, as she points to the correct letter.

Now, it is time for the dreaded combing of the hair (which has been much better since putting it in rag curls, fyi). This time, it is a forceful "NO!" Then, when she realizes she has lost, she whines, "No, no, no" as if her crocodile tears might work better on mommy than the screaming. They don't.

I ask her if she wants to go see Grandma, and her eyes light up. She asks, "Cinn?" Yes, Cinnamon the dog will be there. She yells, "Bye Bye!" I say, "are you ready to go bye bye?" She ponders again, "Nnnooo."

I know she has so many other words in her vocabulary right now. She can use them if she wants. But "No" is her teddy bear, her blankie, her fall-back plan on any question she may or may not understand. And I only pray there will be a yes coming soon! Ha ha!!!