Random Five on Friday~ 1/23

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1. I can't believe that we are already near the end of the first month of 2015. Seriously. We are at the 23rd day of this month! February will be here in the blink of an eye. Our January was so busy and we had things going almost every single week! I was hoping for a more calm February...but with a last minute purchasing of airplane tickets to fly back to Washington State to visit my family the beginning of the month, a peaceful uneventful February appears to be slipping away.

2. My class last week on essential oils was a big success! We ended up with a guest list of about 55 people and had a great amount of interaction as we shared ideas and information on essential oils and other products. If you are interested in diving into the essential oil world, I can recommend two companies that I enjoy using: Mountain Rose Herbs and doTERRA. I have been given a few Young Living oils and really enjoy them, though I am not as familiar with the company. 

3. Mmm. Dinner was so good tonight. I tried a new marinade. No recipe. Just something I threw together. I had picked up a new seasoning rub at Costco...I think it's called a Smokey Mesquite. We love mesquite here so I have a few different ones. I did some red wine vinegar, worchestshire sauce, olive oil, water, tobasco sauce and a couple tablespoons of the seasoning. I mixed it up good and then poured it over some boneless chicken breasts in a ziplock bag. I find the marinade really seeps into the chicken this way as I can moosh the chicken into the marinade with my hands. I let it sit for about 15 minutes before grilling. Yes, it was SNOWING but I was grilling. That's just how I roll. LOL!

4. Some of you know that we've had some issues dealing with my 4 year old (aka Baby Britches) and chronic constipation. It's been a 2 year battle, but we are finally (I think) past the worst of it. He's been doing so much better and...has actually willing sat on the toilet and been successful with bowel movements! This is massive and huge. He hast hated the toilet up until last week. For some reasons someone finally said the right thing to make it click and he is willing and able and actually goes. The pediatrician told us last year that she believed he would out grow his troubles. That it was 80% personality causing the problems...ie. he was stubborn. LOL. It looks like she was right because he's night and day different. I am just beyond thankful that something finally reached him. I also started him some pure organic aloe vera juice every other day. I have read so many things on how excellent this is for maintaining a healthy digestive system and for overall health. It was also so much better for him than the nastiness of Miralax. Between the aloe vera juice and the essential oils I've been using, I think we are finally making GREAT strides to have this be something in our past.

5. I can't wait to share with you how we finished out our Lightning Literature unit on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have been enjoying being beta testers for the third grade program and Little Britches has enjoyed every single book that we've done so far. But I can safely say that this book has been his favorite...hands down. We took pictures of our Wonka party that I will share when I put it all together in a blog post--hopefully next week. I highly recommend the Lightning Literature units by Hewitt Homeschooling. Right now they have programs for 1st and 2nd grade with a 3rd grade one in the works (which we are on the beta team for). They also have junior high and high school level Lightning Lit packets too. Seriously. If you are looking for a complete language arts curriculum, consider Hewitt Homeschoolin's Lightning Literature.

I am sorry that I haven't been as chatty this month, but it's been kind of crazy. Next week I should have a couple posts besides my normal weekly Friday post, so stay tuned!