Here is a picture of mine. I bought some seeds and gathered some from my plants in the yard. Since I have never gathered seeds I wasn’t sure if I was actually getting the seeds so I ended up just crumbling the flower buds up in the dirt. I know I have amazing talent!

Seeds I bought: Red Hot Poker (Tritoma), Blue Fescue, Echinacea

Seeds(?) I’m experimenting with from my garden: Purple Phlox, Black Eyed Susan, Marigold, and Mini Pink Roses (can you get seeds from the roses?)

Most of the seed packets said they take a few weeks to sprout, but since it is still winter I didn’t expect to see any for a bit. One of the flowers that I tried from buds were my marigolds. I had no idea if they would grow since I used my awesome skills of obtaining my seeds. To my surprise I went outside today and guess what I saw??? I have baby marigolds!!! I’m so excited! One less thing that I have to buy this year!

Here are my babies…

Aren’t they cute!

I am still collecting milk jugs since I have more flower buds to experiment with. If you have any send them my way!

Paint craft room… CHECK

Separate meat from Sam’s and put it in freezer bags… CHECK

That was the extent of my goal list for today. I’m glad it wasn’t longer. I may have fallen asleep in the middle of something.

Here are a few pics of the paint color and the one floor tile that I have.

Now I just need to get the flooring in and the cabinets and decorate! I can’t wait to finish it!

I have been doing things between naps. A few weeks ago I saw a great idea on Pinterest. Putting your cut green onions in water. I love finding new ideas!

I got this idea from Homemade Serenity.

Basically after you have cut the green off of your green onions DON’T throw away the white part! Take it and put it in a glass or jar of water. These were cut down to the white about 2 weeks ago and look at how big they are already! I love this idea. I use green onion a lot and hate it when I realize I don’t have any. Now I have them all the time!

Many of us can’t do that. I’m not talking about hiding them. I’m talking about crying. We may have those feelings but no matter how hard we try we just can’t cry. You may wonder what is so bad about that… Those if us with Sjogrens wish that we could cry.

When my grandma passed away I couldn’t cry. I felt the same sadness, but the tears wouldn’t come. At the time I didn’t know about Sjogrens. I thought that something was terribly wrong with me that I couldn’t cry.

Yesterday was not the best day for me. No matter how positive I am about my illnesses and my life I still have my bad days. Yes, I was crying lsat night… It was only out of one eye. The one that still produces some tears. It’s things like that that make you step back and realize that you are different. This is my life and the only one I know.

The first one that I made was the Liquid Laundry Soap from The Duggar Family! So far it I love it! It works great. I’m not sure if I did something wrong since it set kind of clumped up into think solid balls of gel with liquid. I smashed them up and put them in my old laundry bottle and I just shake it well before use. It still works great!

The next thing I tried out was the toilet bowl cleaner from Everything Homemade. This product works really good also! It got my toilets really clean. I didn’t have liquid castille soap so I took a bar and dissolved it in a gallon of water and added some tea tree oil.

I really like the herbal infused all-purpose cleaner from Crunchy Betty. I spray it on my counters and stove or what ever else. stuck on stuff comes right off! I also use it in the bathroom and anywhere else that I need to clean.

The Best Homemade Bathroom Cleaner Ever is also from Crunchy Betty. I love love love this stuff!!! When I moved in to our house a few years ago there were some stains in the bumps of the shower floor. I have tried everything… I mean everything to get them out! None of them worked so I figured I was stuck with them for the rest of my life or we’d have to buy a new shower. My husband has enter us in the DIY drawings many times for new bathrooms or for your house and as of yet we haven’t won. I took this clean to the bathroom and decided it was time see if it worked and guess what happened??? Did you guess? HUH? HUH? It got those nasty stains out! I was so excited with how it worked! I haven’t tried the 2nd best yet so I don’t know how well it works.

Now at this point I have to tell you I really love Crunchy Betty! She has great ideas! Next on the list is the Daily Sparkly Shower Spray. Now it is daily and I just cleaned the bathroom, but so far it seems to be working great. I need a little bit longer to be sure, but since it’s from her site I’m sure it will work great!

One more from Crunchy Betty! Her Alvin Corn Glass Cleaner. Now I will say that I have always been a Windex snob. I have tried others and they steak and I just feel like the mirror is not clean. Saying that I have to tell you that I didn’t go into this one feeling hopeful. To my surprise it worked great! I was amazed! It may be better than Windex! It was clear that I felt a little strange looking at my reflection. It was so freaking clear!!! I felt like I could just step through to the other side. Hehe!

After making and trying out all of these homemade cleaners I can say that I truly recommend all of them. All of the items were easy to find and pretty cheap. When you think of how little you use for each recipe it’s wonderful! Think of how long it will last you for CHEAP!!!

Many of the sites said to spray vinegar in the dryer to prevent static. I started doing it and I haven’t had any static! I think vinegar is one of my favorite things. It can do soooooo much!

Speaking of vinegar there is one thing that I’m not happy with… I started cleaning my floor with it awhile back and it leaves a film on the floor. I don’t get it. It’s vinegar!!! I have tried it straight. I have tried it mixed with water. I have tried heating it up! No matter what I do it leaves a film. When we walk on it you can see all of out foot prints. If we slide something you can see the tracks for it. Many others swear by using vinegar to clean their floor, but for some reason my floor seems to not like it. I have a darker laminate floor. If you all have an idea for what I should do please let me know. I’m about to go buy a floor cleaner. My brother has one and his floors always look great. I hate the idea of buying commercial cleaner! Ugh! I may have to turn to the dark side…

I am almost out of my dishwasher detergent so if you have one for me to try leave the link!

Happy Christmas Eve all!!!

As the past year has gone by I have been trying to find ways to save money. I’m all about saving the earth and what not, but that was not my original concern. I know… I’m a bad person. I haven’t had a job and after my husband retired from the Air Force he didn’t either for about 8 months. It started out with us doing a garden and coupons and has snowballed from there.

~I try to grow most of our own vegetables. My winter garden failed miserably. The deer came and ate all my new baby plants! ***reminder to put something around/over my garden next year***

~I coupon, but it really does take up so much time that I’m not into it as much as I was at the beginning.

~I taught myself to crochet and made my Christmas presents last year and am working on them this year.

~I am teaching myself to sew.

~I started using vinegar and baking soda for much of my cleaning.

~I bake my own bread… with a bread machine of course! I make my own bagels and cook a week worth of pancakes to last the kids so I don’t have to buy poptarts any more.

~I started composting this year. We will see in the spring how I did on it…

~My recycle bin is overflowing and my trash can is not.

~I always try to reuse things or re-purpose them.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. While looking for recipes I found a new blog that I just love!!! It’s called Crunchy Betty and she has the best info and links all in one place! Here is the link to The Best of Crunchy Betty!

After my research today I went out to purchase all my ingredients and found them all at Walmart! I was very surprised since I haven’t seen the items at regular grocery stores. I am getting my oils online. I got my 5 gallon bucket at Firehouse Subs! Score! We got to eat lunch there also. I hope my laundry doesn’t smell like pickles…

I’m excited to start making my cleaning products and testing them out! I know many have been tried and tested over and over again, but there are always positive and negative comments so I’m starting on my journey to find the ones that work best for me. I will post them when I make them and try them out with the links to where I found them of course!

Now the question is… am I turning into a hippie? Where do I buy hippie clothes? Oh and that green stuff that they smoke too!!! J/K… Nah, I’m not a hippie, just a chick that wants to know what is in her products and save money at the same time!

Well, that’s it for now! I hope you all have a wonderful night!

I borrowed this from Kate.

Winter is the worst time of year for me. It’s not just the weather. It’s also the kids in school and the holidays. There is so much stress. I’m in pain most of the time. I was falling asleep last night and I had to write something… this is what I came up with…

I know who I am but what am I becoming?

Year by year, month by month, day by day I change.

The pain gets worse but my mind… it’s still strong!

I joke. I laugh. I cry.

I try to fill my days so I can forget, but it only reminds more that I can’t.

I pay for everything that I do.

It pulls apart my inner being.

I try to stay strong!

My mind is whittling away bit by bit.

My memory is receding, but my mind still wants to be strong!

I feel guilt. I feel sorrow. I feel emptiness.

My mind is trying to remember to stay strong!

I may wither when things are bad, but my mind will be stronger in the end!

+++++++EDIT++++++

Sorry for any grammatical errors or it not being in the right form. That was what I got from my husband and his daughter… I’m glad they understand me.

++++++++EDIT+++++++

I’m sorry, I know my husband understands or tries to. He is really wonderful and I am truly lucky to have him. He just doesn’t know how to deal with it sometimes. I usually joke about it and he tried to joke with me about my post and I got upset. It hurt my feelings. I’m not always easy to read so I understand. I love you Sweetie and I’m sorry I got upset. I’m just in pain and having a hard time dealing with things lately.