Little Okie Homestead

Its official! We have a new 'he' in our house and his name is Binky. Goose is attached to Binky and no matter what I do we haven't been able to break him of it. I have decided that I will give him until his 2nd birthday in July until I hit the habit breaking hard. Until then I will continue my consistent reminders of putting Binky away in his bed. Any tips on how to break him of Binky? He just doesn't want to leave Goose's mouth. He just sticks around and the only thing that comforts Goose when he's sad. I've never had this problem before so please help!

I have been suffering with seasonal threats lately with spring here and the warmer weather and I have been miserable. I'm not sleeping because I'm so stuffed up and blowing my nose all night. Then during the day I'm sneezing like crazy and I have a hard time getting through the day doing anything productive. Yesterday during Easter I finally had enough! I don't take medication for these spring times because I try to use only natural remedies so I was just suffering through it. I decided I had enough so I thought it was time to figure out a natural way to help. So this is what I found that works the best and the an added benefit is that you can buy the  Introductory Kit with CD   or  Beginner's Trio from   doTerra with these three oils. (You have to scroll down the page to find them on the kit page). Here's how I use it. I put one drop lemon, one drop lavender, and one drop peppermint on the palm of my hand. Then I rub my hands together and cup it over

We've gone through different times where Monkey helps me more around the house than other times. It normally depends on the season of life we are in. Being pregnant and exhausted all the time with Goose made my rely on Monkey to do more himself even though he was young. Well now he's 5 years old and I think it's time that he has his everyday responsibilities to help out around the house. We had a good system a few months back with a morning, lunch and evening routine but it fizzled out because our routine changed and I never got the booklets updated. I headed over to pinterest to look up some ideas and as always there were plenty to chose from. Of course some won't work because of age and reading level. Others won't work because I'm not going to put that much effort into making something for chores, at least not until I know it works for our family. First some of the contenders if I ever feel like I want to be an overachiever. I love this char

Have you heard of No Poo? Well if you have been searching for more natural, less chemical ways of life then you probably have. I heard about it probably close to 2 months ago but I have been working on emptying all the bottles of shampoo and conditioner that I had around the house before I switched. I just couldn't see wasting the money and throwing what I already had away. So now all my hair cleaning products have been emptied and it's time to make the switch. I have already made my own toothpaste and deodorant and I'm loving them and my hubby is actually on board too, surprisingly! (I will share with you my recipes when I have ones that I love, still experimenting) I learned about the No Poo method from  Ashley's Green Life . She explains the "transition period" with some science information behind it. I will share my personal experience with this time after I'm through it. I'm excited to try more styles up with my hair from  The Small Things Blo

It's Monday and I don't know about other mom's but these are my cleaning days! Over the weekend we enjoy every moment we can with Daddy since he's home which normally means that the cleaning gets put off. By Monday morning my kitchen looks like this! Awful! Now imagine the rest of the house! Yep Monday's are a big day of cleaning for the kids and I. Of course a full day of cleaning sounds like no fun to myself or to the kids so I have been battling with them to get the house cleaned and it normally is an all day battle. So here is my new strategy getting help with all the work without the constant arguing. Setting a time with a 10 minute power clean and then a 20 minute play break . During our power clean we all have to have a happy heart about cleaning and clean with a purpose. For myself that means not getting angry with the boys as they play as they clean. I need to set an example and remain calm and enjoy cleaning. It also means that I clean for t