Sweet, simple moments {and a bit more on budgeting}

Bangs! She requested hair like her dear friend's. I think it makes her look so much older. Not sure how I feel about that!

My K and I have been spending days studying our seed catalogs and sipping on some tea. (Tazo Organic Peach Cobbler to be specific. It's like drinking your dessert. I can't get enough of it!) I savor these sweet, simple moments with my children. We think we have this year's garden planned and ordered seeds accordingly. Now we wait for the seeds to arrive and the ground to thaw. It is only January after all, but this unseasonably warm weather has been playing with our minds. We just want to dig our hands into the earth now!

I made some Indian lentil-cauliflower soup from the Oh She Glows  cookbook earlier this week (yes, I know I have been talking about this book for over a year now but it really is my go-to cookbook.) I doubled the recipe, because it said it only serves four, served it over rice and it ended up feeding our family of five for two dinners, one lunch (just Kevin) and I have about 3-4 more cups stored in the freezer for a last minute meal. That is a very budget friendly recipe, indeed! Of course not all the recipes in that cookbook are this budget friendly but many of them can be made so.

Speaking of the budget, my shampoo making was a big fail. I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest that involved castile soap, distilled water and some essential oils. I so wanted it to work but it made my long, fine hair limp, and flat and made my scalp super greasy yet itchy and dry. That was quite an experience. I kept thinking maybe there is a transition period but after two weeks I just couldn't take it any longer. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I had been stressing myself out and falling into the comparison trap with homeschooling, basically rendering myself useless. Thankfully some wonderful friends helped me back on track. Organizing and rearranging always seem to help when I get down and out. I hung a guardian angel image over our kitchen/homeschooling table and it makes the room feel more like our beloved school now. I look up at that painting whenever I am having a rough moment in the day and it brings such a sense of peace over me. I also reorganized our front entryway closet. The children's things end up all over the place in there. Since this is a rental, I can't screw branch hooks into the doors. Instead, I used some of those removable plastic hooks to hold my sunhat, the children's backpacks and a little bag I made to store sunglasses (We are forever misplacing sunglasses around here.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention - I finished my Downton Abbey mitts. I love them. They have been keeping my hands warm on our nature walks. I'll have to get some pics of them on me eventually. And that cute little St. Valentine heart Little L made? It was made using this tutorial but we used bakers twine this time around. I like how it looks with it.

Sweet, simple moments {and a bit more on budgeting}