Fall Visitors

Usually we catch up with family and friends in the summer time for BBQs, park playdates, and fun! However, we have had the privilege this year of welcoming lots of visitors in the fall. Here is just a few of the people and a little bit of the fun that has been happening around here!

Uncle Jeff, Aunt Sheri, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Jo were all in town for Grandma's big move!

Uncle Jeff and MoMo

Daddy was in town the next weekend to visit!

Pops having a very serious conversation with Boss (these conversations usually consist of Pops telling Boston how he will get a lot more in life if he obeys rather than continuing to yell and demand things. :)

Pops and Mo having fun!

L.O.V.E. this picture

Aunt El was in town this past weekend.  She had so much fun she actually cancelled her first flight and stayed an extra day.  As all of us older Hafey girls would say to that...Baby Ellen gets what Baby Ellen wants.

Auntie El and Boston

The oldest and the youngest

Ellen is turning 23 next month!  We celebrated a little early.

The hair stylings of Auntie El

Auntie El and Mo

Boston helping Aunt El get all of those clothes back into the suitcase

Did I mention how excited I am that Andma is back?!

Just for fun I will add these embarassing pictures!  Ellen set about to teach us how to do PX90 ab workouts.  I had already done my Zumba ab workout for the day so I was dead (that's really just my excuse, her and mom totally showed me up!)

We laughed so hard we cried!

You can't tell but this is me laughing so hard I am crying!

Homemade Cleaning Products

When I started staying at home, needless to say there was a big lifestyle change financially.  So I began to make a lot more things at home.  You already know that I bake and freeze A.L.O.T.  I also began to make homemade cleaning products to save money.  I love that I can give them to the boys to clean something and know that they will be fine using them.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Surface Spray (this is pretty much my favorite cleaner of all time; I use lavender Castile soap so it smells really good too!)

• 16 oz spray bottle
• 2 tsp. borax
• ¼ tsp. liquid castile soap (like Dr. Bronner’s)
• hot water    

Oven Cleaner

• Dampen with water
• Sprinkle liberally with baking sodaLeave 20 minutes, then scrub until clean.  
  
  Microwave Cleaner

• • ½ c. vinegar
  • 2 c. water
  Combine in microwave safe bowl, heat on high for 3-4 minutes, remove bowl and wipe down inside of microwave.
  
  
  

  Tub And Tile Cleaner:

  
  

  • Apply vinegar full-strength to a sponge and wipe
  • Scour with baking soda  

Wood Floor Cleaner: 

• ¼ c. vinegar
• 1 gallon warm water
  Mop or rag should be slightly damp for cleaning. 
  
  
  Furniture Polish:

• ½ tsp. olive oil 
• ¼ c. vinegar or lemon juice
  Mix in a glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the solution and wipe onto wood surfaces.
   
  Basic Wood Cleaning Formula
  ¼ cup white distilled vinegar
  ¼ cup water
  ½ tsp liquid saop or detergent
  Few drops of jojoba or olive oil
  3-5 drops fragrant essential oil (optional)
  
  

  Combine in 16 oz spray bottle.
  
  
  
  
  **Note about vinegar:Vinegar, throughout history, has been reputed to have strong antibacterial properties. One test by Good Housekeeping's microbiologist found that 5% vinegar is 90% effective against mold and 99.9% effective against bacteria.
  

  --From Wikipedia

Boston loves to help me clean so I usually make him a little solution of vinegar and water to clean things with.
These are my most used ones around the house!  I wish I had all the places I have gathered them from, they are not original ideas.  They have come from different blogs or books from the library.  Just thought I would share them with you!  Happy Cleaning!

Homemade Playdough

Our awesome Cars molds from Auntie Suzie, they are our favorite!

So, so fun and easy!  Here is the recipe.  It takes like 10 minutes and it's totally edible.  Now I wouldn't recommend eating it but if your kiddos did, it wouldn't hurt them!  And it doesn't have that yucky playdough smell, I hate that smell! 
This reminds me that I have never put our homemade cleaning products on here that I had meant to!  I will do that next...
Happy Wednesday girls!

Humble

Do you have girlfriends that keep you humble?  I think all of my best ones do a good job of it.  This week, Suzanne was that lady.

Suzanne told me that she had been praying for me daily and that I even ended up in her dreams last week.  My response was "thank you so much...and I hope that I looked fabulous and was wearing a super cute pair of heels in the dream".  Here was her response...

"Sorry, but you weren't wearing heels and looking cute in the dream. You were in a hazmat suit with a gas mask and I was carrying you through a living room and down the stairs. You were light as a feather and completely at rest. I woke up praying for you and thinking, "Wow she's light." and "What's up with that hazmat suit? How weird is that?"

Gotta be grateful for the Lord keeping me humble.