My Influenster Jolly VoxBox

Now that I've had a week to play with my goodies from Influenster, I'll share my thoughts with you.  

Up first, Puffs To Go.  

Brianna made me a knitted tissue pouch for Christmas, and I'm carrying these in my purse.  They're soft and strong, and they've handled everything we've thrown at them so far.  I'm pleased with these and would happily purchase them.  

Next, we have TWO items from the makeup aisle!  Rimmel's London Show Off Lip Lacquer, and NYC HD Color Trio.  

The Rimmel Lip Lacquer is a hybrid of gloss and lipstick.  The convenience of gloss with all the color of a lipstick.  I like the tube, the applicator, the glossy feel...  but can't get past the color.  I raised an eyebrow at it when I opened the box, but I know sometimes things look different when they're on, so I gave it a shot.  Nope.  It's orange.  I'll be passing this on to one of my girls, and I'll buy my own in a color I like.  Fortunately, Rimmel does offer this product in some great shades.  I'll be watching for a coupon or taking advantage the next time I see a sale.  

NYC's HD Color Trio came in a pleasing set of neutrals.  I love their tagline:  Uptown Style at Down-to-Earth Prices.  As you can see, I go for subtle when it comes to eye shadow, and this works well for me.  Of course, these trios are offered in other fun shades, as well, and I could easily see myself trying another set next time I get the urge to change things up.  

The Ducklings sized duct tape totally makes me grin!  As soon as I saw it, I knew I'd have to fight to keep it for myself, and sure enough, both Brianna and Eli asked if they could have it.  I used a strip to spice up my current notebook.  

These come in several adorable prints, and I've gotten all sorts of ideas from Pinterest for things I can do with the rest of the roll.  

I made cute little duct tape bows from my Duck Brand tape, too.  I put them on these clothespins.  I think I'll stick a command strip on the back of one and put it up on the frame of my bulletin board to hold Hannah's weekly homework packet.  It would be nice to know where it is every week when we start searching for it the night before it's due.  Yeah, we're those parents.  Maybe if I make duct tape flowers on top of my favorite pens, the kids won't walk off with them?  And this print will make cute summer hair clips for Katie and Hannah!  

The final product in my box was the Skinny Cow Candy.  The only Skinny Cow product I'd tried before was the ice cream sandwiches.  I was expecting something more bar like, for some reason (the box, maybe?) and maybe crisped rice or other "filler" when I thought of diet candy, so I was pleasantly surprised by Skinny Cow's Devine Filled Chocolates.  

When I opened the wrapper, before I even *saw* the candy, the smell of peanut butter hit me.  While I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, this tasted like chocolate, not "diet food."  And the peanut butter filling is smooth, not gritty like the peanut butter cups I'm used to.  These were tasty!  

I just love getting mail, and this was a fun box to review!  If you are interested in Influenster, please click below.

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

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How I Store My Essential Oils

Many of you will remember that I recently did a review for DoTERRA consultant Corinne Sullivan of Arctic Essentials, and purchased some oils from her.  I also had the incredible privilege of winning a giveaway for a generous gift certificate from A Mama's Story for Young Living essential oils.  So my oil collection has blossomed and I needed a system for keeping track of them.

Originally, I had all my oils laying in a little tray similar to this and it just wasn't working for me.  They were rolling around, and I couldn't see what the labels said without messing with every bottle every time I wanted one.  On one of my trips to Hobby Lobby while kids were at the dentist (almost next door), I roamed the aisles looking for the perfect essential oil storage solution.

I wanted one of the Really Useful Boxes to work, because we've used some of those for other things, and I like them, but none of them was quite right for this application.  There was a flat, paperboard, pretty box in the clearance section that I carried around in the cart for a while.  I liked that it was pretty, but I was trying to think of a way to modify it to keep the oils from rolling around, since it was too shallow for them to stand up.

I eventually settled on this box.  Practical AND cheap.  My favorite.

After using it for a few weeks, I really like that it's lid is attached (clam shell style). Countless times, I've grabbed the box, which lives in my sewing room, and trotted into my bathroom to tend to the latest "patient."

You'll notice the stickers on the bottle lids?  I was pining for a set of the pricey, official, authorized Oil Bottle Labels, when I realized it would be cheaper for me to make my own using blank garage sale stickers instead.  This actually ended up being a brilliant stroke of genius on my part, because Brianna used some instead of these...

...to go on the keyboard.  If I had it to do over again, I might have picked the colored labels instead of plain white and color coded them by whether they could be used neat or should be diluted.  It would be nice to be able to tell that at a glance, but I suppose I could accomplish the same thing by writing in different colors.

While the box is "home base" for all my oils, they do tend to wander.

Sometimes they turn up near my diffuser.  Bergamot & cinnamon is my latest favorite smell recipe, and Lemon/Eucalyptus is an old favorite.  

Sometimes they turn up in my bathroom drawer.  I often put a drop or two of lemon, lime, or orange into my Glasstic water bottle with some watermelon vitamin powder to sip at while homeschooling.  

Paul recently put a shelf up over the changing table for me.  

Peace & Calming has greatly reduced Lukey's teeth grinding, cedarwood is good for the brain, and I used lemon last week when he was feverish at bedtime.  So you can see how some of my oils would migrate into the panda room, as well.  

While this is what works for me, I realize not every system works for every person, and I'd like to send you to check out the artistic and functional oil holders sold by fellow homeschool mama Jennifer Lambert.  

Another idea I've seen is to use a spice rack.  I could see myself putting up one of these or or these.  If you're getting into oils, or you need a new storage solution for yours, you might keep an eye out at garage sales for a spice rack to repurpose.  I haven't tried it, but I'm wondering if a K-Cup Carousel might work to hold essential oils?  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!  One final option might be this tilted rack inside a drawer.  

However you store them, the important thing is keeping them accessible so that it's easy for you to use them, and out of little hands, so there are no unfortunate mishaps.  How do you store your essential oils?  

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A Special Way To Teach Giving During Christmastime

I'd like to share one of our special traditions with you.  It wasn't my idea, originally.  My friend Sarah shared it several years ago, and I loved the idea, so I copied her.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  

It's about a nativity set.

We have this one, but you can use any set.  Back when they were easier to come by (and cheaper!) I bought two of them and gave one to my dad's family.

Each year, we select a new animal to add to the stable scene.  

We purchase 2 of the toy animals (one for us, and one for my dad's family), and we also make a donation to World Vision to purchase the same animals for needy families overseas.  

It's very special to me, each year as we set up this particular nativity (confession?  I have several) to see the animals we've given as gifts to Jesus crowd 'round the baby Jesus.  

I wonder if there is a sweater knit from the wool of the lamb we donated the first year keeping someone warm right now.  Or what sort of load the donkey we helped provide carries for it's owner.  I hope the chickens have become good egg layers.  

But more than that, I want my kids to see us giving to Jesus and giving to others in a tangible way.  My hope is that someday the back of the box will have many, many years and animals listed, and that even after I'm gone, my children will chose to have a similar tradition of giving in their own homes.  

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Homeschool Week 16

This week, we escaped from the Cradle of Civilization and spent some time on Western Hemisphere early cultures, mainly the Olmecs and the Chavin.  This year is really heavy on the Middle East, and I look forward to Week 21 when we get to Early Russians and Week 26 when we learn about India.  Otherwise, it's almost all countries/people groups that border the Mediterranean.

Oh, look, it's a map of the Middle East.  (sigh)  Eli is filling in the route the Hebrews took from Egypt to the Promised Land.  

Brianna finished her Egyptian Temple this week.  

The detail on this thing was great.  I wonder if I could convince Brianna to make the Greek Temple, too?  We'll be learning about Ancient Greek culture soon.  Actually, I think she would enjoy this Parthenon 3D Puzzle, too.  Maybe I'll have to poke around a bit more and see what sort of Greek enrichments I can come up with.  We'll be doing another Art In History project for Greece, and we're looking forward to that.  

We finished our color wheel this week.  We learned about tertiary colors, analogous colors and complimentary colors.  I love that we're learning about art and music, but I'm surprised that the year is half over and we haven't gotten into the paint & marker cards yet.  Something to look forward to, I guess.  

In music, we're listening to Bach.  

Eli worked on our Tabernacle.  

This is the perfect time of year to pick up metallic colored Sharpies.  I found Bronze and Gold (and Silver, not pictured) in the Christmas wrap section of Target last time I was out, and remembered that he had been trying to mix paints to come up with gold, so I got these as a treat.  He loved the way they worked, and you can see the bronze shine on the tabernacle photo above.   

Hannah and Sam both had half days at school on Friday, and are now OFF for Christmas break.  We will be breaking from our usual work, but I still plan to have some directed activities.  Art projects, science experiments, writing assignments, etc.  So I should have some fun things to share with you next weekend, too.  

Linking up with Great Peace Academy and:  

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