Recently I mentioned that we wash dishes with BAR soap and you had questions, so here you go!!🤪🧼🍽️

First, let me say that I am not anti liquid dish soap. You do you friend. 😉 Do not come for me. Continue to live your best life and use liquid dishwashing liquid if that makes you happy.🤪

Second, we do not have a dishwasher. Well, that’s not exactly true. I have THREE dishwashers…just none of them are electric.🤣🤣🤣 Ethan and Roo rotate days Monday through Saturday and sometime when you have a spare minute, ask Ellie how she ended up doing ALL the Sunday dishes.😉🤪🤦🏻‍♀️

In case you didn’t know, teenagers waste A LOT of liquid detergent. Like A LOT. My wallet could not keep up. 🤑 Also, just about every detergent on the market is straight up toxic. Again, don’t come for me. Don’t leave a snarky comment. Do your own research. There are some pretty nasty ingredients in most household cleaning products. I do have a couple that I liked but again, we were going through it way too fast.

The use of the bar of soap was born out of necessity. It’s not hard I promise.

Wet cloth and soap.
Rub soap on cloth.
Wash dish.
Rinse and repeat.

I prefer the Kirkland’s Castile Soap. I get the fragrance free. Again…”fragrance” as an ingredient is toxic crap. Read your labels. Toss that mess in the garbage. 🗑️

I added the links below to what we use. The dish cloth linked below is the BOMB. 💣 It’s not the kind of cloth for wiping your countertops…it’s not absorbent. But it is amazing for washing dishes and cleaning up flour from your surfaces if you’re a baker! 👩🏻‍🍳

Also, on a random side note…while we are talking about all things kitchen…have you tried those Swedish dishcloths to replace your paper towels?!?!?

We haven’t used paper towels in years in the kitchen. We get them as sparingly as we need to for ”pet emergencies”. 🤪😭🤦🏻‍♀️ These things are amazing and so much better than the waste from paper products. You can wash them and they can usually last up to a year if taken care of well!

Let me know if you’ve tried them!!

Also, the soap bags below are great for the bar of soap once it gets down to a little sliver!!😉

One more thing b cause you might ask….

How is the soap for grease cutting?

Hot water, lots of soap, no issues. We don’t eat lots of “greasy” things but we haven’t had any issues if done correctly. Don’t ask me if said teenagers above always “do it correctly”.🍽️🤪

•••••••••••••

AMAZON LINKS:❤️❤️❤️

📌KIRKLAND’S CASTILE SOAP

📌FAVORITE DISH CLOTHS

📌SWEDISH DISH CLOTHS (think “reusable paper towels”

📌SOAP BAG

One of my favorite things that people often ask me about is homeschooling. I’m definitely not an expert but I’ve learned a lot these last twelve years.

Sometimes when asked about homeschooling I want to issue a WARNING. I want to tell them that I might not be the mom they want to talk to. Ha!

There are different kinds of homeschooling moms.

There are some moms that want to recreate public school at home. They want to do school 8am to 3pm. They hang posters and alphabet charts all over the walls. They probably have a designated school room or area in their house. Public school is what they know and they might subconsciously believe that if it’s not just like the public they attended, then it’s not REAL school.

That mom is definitely not me.

There are also moms that desire to get their child into Harvard or Yale. 😉 They develop a rigorous homeschool curriculum that rivals the finest private school education. Their children are masters of all the advanced courses. They probably speak Latin fluently.

That mom is definitely not me.

There are also moms that are creative geniuses. They develop entire units around Valentine’s Day. Their children work on amazing projects the entire year. They probably make a working telescope out of marshmallows and pipe cleaners.

That mom is definitely not me either.

I’m the mom who backs up and punts A LOT. I’m the mom that’s willing to change when something isn’t working. I’m the mom that’s willing to do what works best for each CHILD, not what works best for me.

I’m the mom who wants my kids to have TIME to just be KIDS. I want them to have time to participate in the arts. I want them to have time to be involved in our church activities. I want them to have time to pursue what interests them, even if it isn’t “school” related.

I’m the mom that knew what my ultimate homeschooling goal was a long time ago and I’ve chased after that.

RELATIONSHIP

I want to have a solid relationship with each of my kids. I want to really KNOW them. I want them to be able to talk to me about anything. I want to have the kind of relationship where we can discuss hard things.

The relationship that I have with my kids is different from the relationship I had with my parents growing up. That was my goal.

At the end of the day, the relationship is more important to me than an A+ in calculus. Period.

KINGDOM IMPACT

My strongest prayer for my children is that they grow to know, love and serve Jesus. Out of that love I want them to want to serve him faithfully in whatever path they choose for themselves.

I want to see them grow in their faith and be strong in their convictions. I want them to be a part of changing their world without being OF the world.

I want to know that they have 12+ years of solid nurturing and guidance under their belts before we send them out into the world. I want them to step out into adulthood confident in WHO they are and WHOSE they are.

At the end of the day, I don’t panic about homeschooling. I want my kids to know HOW to learn. I want them to LOVE to learn. I want them to know that we are cheering them on no matter where God calls them. If He calls them to be a rocket scientist then yay for them! If he calls them to be a stay at home parent and raise their babies then yay for them!

I want them to know that we don’t judge their worth by whether or not they attend college. I want them to know that we love them the same whether they grow up to be a lawyer, a doctor or a hair stylist.

When my kids are done with their official homeschooling journey, I want them to have fond memories. I want them to treasure the time they spent at home truly getting to know their siblings and their parents. I want them to have a broad range of experiences that they hold close.

Pursue what you love. Love and serve Jesus.

Everything else comes out in the wash.

This is a book that I’ve been wanting to pick up. It came highly recommended for anyone with children…whether you homeschool or not. I downloaded it today on Audible and I’m excited to get started.

Wanted to share for those of you who homeschool or who’ve had it on your heart to pursue something different.

Love You All,

Jenifer

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!! 💙💛 Today on 3/21 we celebrate. See these three cuties below? While you have TWO copies of your 21st chromosome, they have THREE!

Want to know what comes in that third copy?

A lot of extra sweetness (most days) 😉

A lot of extra stubborn (every day) 🤣

A lot of extra love ❤️

That’s what I see.

Want to know what the world sees?

They see the r-word. 😔

They see a burden. 😔

They see incompetence. 😔

Today I love to see you wearing your crazy socks and yellow & blue to celebrate my babies. #rockyoursocks 💙💛

But even more, I’d love for you to stand with my babies.

When someone uses the r-word around you, SPEAK UP. Tell them it’s hurtful. Ask them to choose a different word.

When you look at my babies, see them for the blessing they are. Do we have hard days? Yes. But doesn’t every one?

When you interact with my babies, ASSUME COMPETENCE. They can do the things! Sometimes it just takes them a little longer or they have to do it in a different way.

Today we celebrate.

But we also want to advocate and educate.

We want you to see our babies as we see them.

You are creating the world my babies live in.

Do them proud.💙💛

Gosh, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been here.

Remember when blogs were all the rage? I used to check many of them faithfully every day. I followed the lives of families I didn’t even know. Ha!

Then along came Facebook. I remember being at lunch with a group of local moms who were chatting about being on Facebook. I chimed in that I was on Facebook too! One of the moms said, “You’re on Facebook but you’re not ON Facebook!” Touché…I had an account but didn’t actively post or even interact much.

Obviously I took that as a challenge and stepped up my game. She might have created a monster. Ha!

I went on to use Facebook to connect with current friends, old friends and even to make new friends. Facebook helped me share my love of oils with you and helped us through the hardest seasons during our adoptions, job loss and so much more.

It has been a blessing in many ways.

But it’s also been a curse and a distraction.

At times it has drawn me in and wasted my time. It’s made friends enemies when I shared an unpopular opinion. It has raised my blood pressure. It’s trapped me into comparison and made me feel less than.

I’ve taken breaks throughout the years and sometimes I’ve just wanted to walk away completely. But ugghhhhhh….it’s so hard. It feels like an addiction. Knowing what’s going on in your friends’ lives, seeing cute pictures of their kids and reading funny stories. It feels like Facebook has become such a source of education for me too. So many great groups I belong to where I have learned so much. When I took breaks from FB, I missed those groups so much.

I see so many friends jumping ship for other apps.

I’ve tried a few of them but it all feels the same. Like I’m feeding an addiction….an addiction for information maybe? It’s just a weird feeling to try and unpack my relationship with social media.

I hardly remember not having it.

How did I interact with friends before social media?

Wonder if Yahoo groups are still a thing?🤔🤣🤣🤣

Anyway, I’m rambling at this point. Not sure what the future holds for the way we connect.

I do know that I love the connection I have with all of you on social media and I’m not sure how to foster that without it.

I don’t think there’s a perfect answer.

I think for now, I’m going to evaluate the ways I really want to connect with friends, businesses and educational groups online.

I want to spend more time writing here even if it’s only for me. (Maybe my mom reads it too. Ha!)

Blogs can feel so one sided….if you hopped over and read this post, I’d love for you to comment and say hi.

I think if you scroll up above my picture, you can click “Leave a Comment”. Maybe one of these days I’ll master all of this! Ha!

How do you really connect with friends near and far? Is social media overwhelming for you too right now? I’d love to hear.❤️

Love You friend.

Jenifer