Going on a few min-vacations!

Hey everyone! This will probably be my last post of the week, because I will be out of town here and there until next week. Tomorrow, my little Short Stack and I will be going back to Indiana to see a very good friend of mine, whom I haven't had a chance to actually talk to in FOREVER! So, I am very excited. We should get back in town long enough to pack up again to head an hour south of us to see my hubby's brother and his wife for the rest of the weekend.

Yes, I am buying disposable diapers today. Uh oh!! :-) Although, I guess I could technically do it with cloth if I washed them quickly when we got back home on Thursday before leaving again. But then I'd have to wash them again over the weekend at the in-law's because I don't have enough to last. So, I think I am going to be lazy this one time and buy a pack of sposies. It's been so long since I've bought a package of diapers, that I haven't the slightest clue as to what size Short Stack is in. That, at least, makes me feel less guilty about it!

Now, if only my daughter can keep up with all the traveling. She's a very cautious and sensitive child. Only time will tell!

Meal Planning

I realize that I am very different than many Americans when it comes to my food, so I thought I would write about it!

Once I began my GF diet, I decided that not only was I going to change my food content, I would also change my entire view of eating and working out. Of course, it really helped that I stopped my job at about the same time. I have time to exercise now! Working out is now becoming one of my priorities, although I must admit that I am still not as committed as I want to be. But so far, I have had a full month of exercising 5 days a week (pats herself on back).

Anyway, once I began my gluten free diet, I decided that I was going to make my meals smaller and eat 5-6 meals a day now. My breakfast has always been the biggest, and that is still the same. A bowl of 100 calorie cereal plus milk just doesn't do it for me. Today I had about 1/3 cup of Red Mill's Might Tasty Hot Cereal with 2 eggs and some cheese sprinkled on top with a glass of soy milk. Like I said, I like my breakfast!! But often, I run errands during the morning, so I sometimes don't get a small meal/snack before lunch. If I do have a morning snack, it will almost always be some type of fruit.

For lunch, I only eat a sandwich or maybe some carrots and peanut butter, or something similar. Nothing big, because I get really tired right around 1 o'clock, and if I eat a lot, it just makes it worse. Then, around 2 or 3, I will have another meal/snack that usually consists of rice cake and hummus, yogurt with gluten free granola (I love Enjoy Life's Very Berry Crunch granola!), or string cheese, etc...

Dinner is most of the time something with meat, as my husband prefers. :-) I can get him to eat vegetarian if it involves spaghetti, but that's about it, ha ha! I am not a vegetarian, but personally, I think I would be if I didn't have other digestion problems. Anway, for dinner, we usually will have a meat and a vegetable, and sometimes a carb (usually potato or corn).

Now, I'm not very good about eating healthy for my last meal/snack. I will usually break open a bag of chips or scoop up a bowl of ice cream (with a lactose enzyme pill, as I am lactose intolerent) after little Short Stack goes to bed. But everyone needs a vice, right?

This diet really helps me eat healthy, as long as I plan it and have the foods available. I have to go in with the mindset that these snacks are really small meals, because if I don't, I'm reaching for the cookies or the chips. Plus, these small meals help my daughter stay happy during the day too. She snacks along with me, so if she doesn't eat as much at dinner as I want her to, I won't have a battle on my hands because I know she is getting the right foods during snack times as well.

I highly recommend small and more frequent meals rather than 3 large meals a day. It may take a little more planning, especially if you work, but I think it is worth it!

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!