Living In The Moment

Inspired by a post from http://www.littlemissmomma.com/2013/09/taking-stock.html She often inspires me and I truly enjoy her blog and amazing photography. 

We just got our Sailors home and that is both amazing and sometimes frustrating. We have our own routine as we hit our stride during deployment and having them home means a new routine all together. So what are we up to? Check it out and leave your answers in the comments. We'd love to hear from you!

Melanie

Making : Plans for the Khaki ball.
Cooking : Breakfast for dinner.
Drinking : An iced vanilla  half-caf latte with only 5 ice cubes.
Reading: The newest Dean Koontz Book in the Odd Thomas series.
Wanting: Another Coffee.
Looking: Forward to a night out with my husband.
Playing: Candy Crush level 122.
Wasting: Time on candy crush....that is for sure.
Sewing: Wired headbands. I'll show you how one day soon.
Wishing: I had a new sewing machine.
Enjoying: Listening to my kids goof around with each other.
Waiting: For inspiration: To clean and organize my ........life.
Liking: That fall is in the air!
Wondering: If it will snow this year.
Loving: My family. Madly and deeply.

Hoping: My back heals quickly.

Marveling: At Lil Man's four new teeth.
Needing: This one's tough. We don't actually need anything. Want is a whole other thing.
Smelling: Yankee candle's autumn wreath.
Wearing: VS pink Sweats......Always.
Following: My son N Dog's Blog!
Noticing: Smalls trying to sneak outside.
Thinking: When will my husband be home from work?
Knowing: It won't be soon enough.
Focusing: On this weekends date night!
Bookmarking: Other blogs for inspiration.
Opening: A package from Pick your plum.....no clue what's inside. it's like a mini Christmas!
Giggling: Kitten trying to walk in heels.
Feeling: Comfortable. 

Tiffany

Making : Crafts out of old sweaters
Cooking : Pot roast in the slow cooker
Drinking : Dr. Pepper of course
Reading: Yesterday's Gone by David Wright and Sean Platt.  Love everything by them!
Wanting: Because of these sweater crafts, definitely wanting a serger.
Looking: At Melanie's beautiful girls coloring.
Playing: Deadpool the game!
Wasting: Thread.
Sewing: Sweater crafts and broken pillow pets
Wishing: For mental health. :)
Enjoying: My hubby being on leave!
Waiting: For my kids to get out of school.
Liking: The minions on TV
Wondering: If Ben Affleck is going to be a good Batman. I think he might.
Loving: My family with everything I am.
Hoping: Melanie will let me keep Smalls. (She never does).
Marveling: At the fact that Smalls is wearing a shirt that Dancer actually used to wear. They grow too fast.
Needing: Sleep. 
Smelling: My VS Sweet Tease lotion, and pot roast. 
Wearing: VS sweats, usually
Following: People that make me laugh, and people that give me inspiration.
Noticing: That this sweater is very stretchy, therefore, a pain to sew.
Thinking: That I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life.
Knowing: That I couldn't survive without them.
Focusing: On nothing, my mind is too chaotic to focus on one thing.
Bookmarking: Too many online shops.
Opening: Another window to see the new boots on Shoedazzle
Giggling: At my hubby being tortured by Smalls.
Feeling: A bit bad about my puppy having to wear the Cone of Shame.  He cries the whole time.

Home Again

I feel bad for being a couple days late with our post, but I swear there is a good reason for it.  Something fantastic!  The Two Crazy Navy Wives have gotten our sailors home!  For the past four years, and for a few more months, our husbands have been stationed together, so they've been gone at the same time.  Which means they get home at the same time!

Before this squadron, I had only done ship homecomings before.  They are a huge affair!  You get to watch the aircraft carrier pull in, with all those sailors in their dress uniforms, "manning the rails".  Our last ship deployment, our son was born, so I got to be right up front, and he was one of the first off the ship!  Very exciting.  Our current squadron, doesn't go on a ship, so we have our Homecoming at the squadron's hanger.  Not as exciting, but we are getting our sailors home, so who cares! 

This deployment was delayed several times.  Now this might sound a little mean, but it's very irritating when you get into the "he's leaving" mindset, then they get delayed.  He will be gone the same amount of time, so you just want it to start already, so he can come home already!  Once they finally left, we had no idea when they would return.  This is completely normal.  We're used to it.  It's annoying, but this is the life of a Navy Wife.  When we got word they were coming home, it was fairly little notice.  You should see the Two Crazy Navy Wives, when we have little notice.  Chaos!  So worth it though.  They're home!  I thought you might enjoy some pictures of our families enjoying homecoming.  A new post soon, I swear! (My fingers were not crossed).

Entertainment for the kids, while we wait.

Nice spread!  Huge flag!

Someone spent some time on this.

Melanie waiting in her amazing sweater!

I hate having my picture taken!

My kiddos, Bug and Dancer.  Check out those shoes!

Melanie's fam; Cubby, Lil' Man, Smalls, N-Dog, Mikey, and Kitten.
(Don't you just love our nicknames?)

Our heroes getting off the plane!  Which one is mine?  Which one is mine?

The pink skirt is Dancer launching herself at Daddy!

He's home!  Daddy's home!

That is one big group hug!  We missed you Daddy!

She's Smalls for a reason!  Daddy you look so much better off the computer screen!

Hey Daddy!  Haven't I gotten HUGE!!  And I have teeth!

After the kids, Mel finally gets to give her hero a kiss.

And I get mine!  Although Bug can't help but sneak into the picture, lol.

We're sooo happy to have our families whole again!  Thank you to all of our service members!  You are our heroes!  Home of the Free, Because of the Brave!

Rubber Balls

Remember when I admitted to being a Pinterest addict?  http://twocrazynavywives.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-one-with-pinterest-addiction.html  We asked for Pinterest crafts that you wanted to try, but wanted to see if they worked first.  We were given this bouncy ball link to try.  http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/super-bouncy-balls/

The good thing about this craft, is we had all the supplies lying around the house.  So off to make balls we went!

We had visions of those Super bouncy balls the kids get out of the quarter machines.  That is soooo not what we got.

First of all let me say, I am never allowed to do this craft again.  Never.  I somehow managed to ruin every batch I tried.  Secondly, the recipes on Pinterest only make one ball at a time.  So if you wanted to make one ball for say... eight kids (our combined number of kids), you need to do the recipe eight times.

Here are the ingredients needed.

 Cornstarch, school glue, borax, water, and food coloring (optional).  See those cute little plastic balls?  I got those at Walmart with cute little superheroes in them. I thought I was going to need to put the ingredients into those to form the bouncy balls, and wait for them to dry.  Boy was I wrong.

First you put 1tbsp glue into a dish.

 Next you mix 1tbsp cornstarch, 1/4 tsp borax, and 4 tbsp water in a separate dish.  This is where we added the food coloring the first time.  Then mix them together.

As you are mixing them together, a mushy ball type thing starts forming.

 You take this out, roll it, and form it in your hands.  Yes, it feels slimy and gross.  Kids love that kind of thing.  This is what the final product looks like. (If you're Melanie, and do it right.  Not if you're me, and somehow manage to mess it up every time).

It is fairly bouncy, but it stays mushy, and doesn't hold a shape for long.  I had visions of this mashed into my carpet. I figured at least I could do another blog post titled, The One Where I Get Bouncy Balls Out of My Carpet.

If you are like me, you will somehow ruin every recipe you try, and will end up with lots of different results.  Such as:

Flubber!  The kids loved this, and Mikey ended up getting it all over Melanie's keyboard.  Sorry Melanie.

I added food coloring to the glue, thinking it would make balls more colorful.

Somehow ending up with the aforementioned flubber, and...

Whatever you would call these little clumpy, slimy things.

I attempted to salvage these by squeezing extra moisture out of them with a paper towel.  It kind of saved them, but they still are a mess.  So these are our completed bouncy balls.

Notice the two fairly decent ones are Melanie's. The other two are a couple of my lovely attempts

I did not enjoy this project (except for laughing at my failures).  I would not recommend doing it.  Save yourself the hassle, and run to the nearest Dollar Tree, and get a package of real ones for a dollar.  If you enjoy making flubber (these balls are slightly firmer versions), then this project is for you!  Or if you're like me, you could end up with flubber itself.  If not, I hope we saved you the trouble.

Au Naturale

And you thought we was gonna get nakie.......lol. Nope. Not yet anyway. Outta the gutter people. 

Okay. For real we both started getting interested in natural products awhile back. I think for me it was a steal on soap nuts. They are the fruit of the Chinese Soap Berry Tree.You put a few soap nuts in a mesh bag and toss them in the washer.They are HE safe.  I like them for some things but not everything. I still use them to wash cloth diapers.  For everyday laundry I need scent! So I started investigating other ways to make laundry soap. My favorite Recipe was found on one of my favorite blogs.  http://www.howdoesshe.com/cheaper-and-better-diy-laundry-detergent/

I had never really thought about the products I was using till I met Melanie.  She explained the Soap Nuts to me, and the homemade laundry soap she had been making, and then made me some.  I then began looking into other ways I could eliminate chemicals from my life.  Sometimes I feel like one of those hippies that live in communes (I promise I still shave), but it makes me feel good, as a mom, to eliminate as many chemicals from my kids' lives as possible.


And then there was coconut oil. I've used it to wash my face, make sugar scrub and Tiffany found that coconut oil and cocoa butter whipped together makes the best lotion ever. Kitten (middle girl) and Bug (Tiffany's youngest) both have Keratosis Pilaris. That's the little bumps you get on the backs of your arms. Kitten and Bug seem to get  it up and down their sides and it disappears almost completely when they use the coconut oil regularly. 

OMG!  I love coconut oil!  I use it for everything.  I whip it in my food processor with some vanilla extract, and use it as a lotion, a face cleanser, a hair mask, and I just started making my own deodorant with it.  I'm actually surprised at how well it is working.  Coconut oil is antibacterial, so that kills the stinky bacteria, add some baking soda, and cornstarch, and you even stay dry!  I know, I know, sounds silly, but it really works, so far.  I even exercised with it on today (no, Hell didn't freeze over, just trying to get in shape), and no sweaty, stinky pits!  

Oh, Melanie, don't forget to tell them about vinegar. (I sound like a game show host).


I read that vinegar could clean windows, streak free. I was really worried about the I just dyed Easter eggs smell. I gave it a try using coffee filters cause, hey, lint free and cheap, and it was awesome. I wondered what else it could clean, and found there wasn't much it can't clean. We use it in the bathrooms and kitchen.  It also kills grass and weeds, 

I use Dr. Bronner's castile soap on my floors which are laminate. I like the peppermint flavor, and read it might deter spiders. Anything that might limit the eight-legged freaks is a-okay by me. 

I'm sure I use other natural products I'm forgetting, but the last thing I can think of is diatomaceous earth.  Diatomaceous Earth is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton.  It looks a lot like flour, or baby powder.  It is a safe, natural way to get rid of fleas.  It is food grade, therefore safe to be around kids and pets.  I read a fantastic, in-depth article here:  http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

If you have any all natural product that you use, let us know.  We love being au naturale!