Love.

In my ever growing quest of trying to live more organically I've been introduced to a company called Chartreuse. It's a company that strives to be chemical-free & organic and is succeeding! For this cheap mama the cost is just as great as the products!

I was invited to an informational get-together where I learned some sad truths about the chemicals in our cleaning products (both for our homes and our bodies). It's shocking what the US allows in our homes.

I've cleaned my counters and glass-top stove 3 times today and my hands still feel like hands. Normally when I clean them (with your average Clorox cleaner) they are cracky, dry and feel almost sticky. Not with this awesome stuff:


It is *so* worth the tiny extra you spend on it. And if you have a 'party' (like any other direct sales company) you get a TON of stuff for free! I'm planning on having one soon. I need more stuff! :)

At this meeting I heard about something called 'Soap Nuts'. Yea.. I had never heard of them before. I read the description and thought it was something I should try out:

Soap Nuts are completely natural, extremely effective, and remarkably affordable. These little “nuts” are actually berries which grow on trees and compost naturally back to the earth. Soap Nuts will clean and deodorize the toughest laundry. And they’re cheaper then traditional laundry detergent. What more could you ask for?

So I bought them. I used them for the first time today.. I won't lie, it was weird putting some 'nuts' in a linen bag and throwing them in the washer with the clothes. After they were done washing I pulled some clothes out to sniff them. I wanted to see if these nuts worked. I didn't smell anything funky, so I threw the clothes in the dryer. Guess what?



Not only are my clothes CLEAN, they smell like NOTHING. Which is perfect for me. And with NO chemicals!! Yay!!! I am so excited to not have to pay for gross chemical-ly detergent.

Um. So.. yea.

This is one of those very rare occasions that I have nothing to say.

Nothing.

I could make this a post about what I did today. It would go a little like this.. Breakfast, School Drop off, Home, Sew, School pick up, Park, School pick up, Ice Cream, Park, Home, Clean, Dinner (Rachel Ray's Italian Chicken and Dumplings.. YUMMO), Starbucks with Friend, Home, Bed.

Yea. Not so exciting.

I could go on about dinner.. that was fantastic. And so easy to make. Truly a 30-minute meal.

Hmm. That wasn't exciting either.

I see a trend here..

I do want to say thanks to those of you who leave comments.. it's a treat to come read them!

Welp. Looks like I'm out of small talk, folks.

Until next time...

Starstruck!

I'm not one to get starstruck. In fact the celebrity status and the hullabaloo that goes with it causes me rage (I know.. that's not great). Pay the police officers, fire folks, etc the big bucks and let the 'celebrities' fall a couple of notches on the rung of "success". You'll understand why I'm saying all of this in a moment.

Ok off of my soapbox. For now.

A few weeks ago my husband was able to get 2 fabulous (FABULOUS) seats to the Charlotte Bobcats vs. Boston Celtics game. An old co-worker gave him his season tickets for the night because he ended up getting better seats in a box. Since we are from RI we were so ecstatic to see the Celtics. Hubby is a HUUUUGE Celtics (and Shaq) fan. Me? Not so much. I'm a Lakers girl. I know.. I know. It's wrong. But I fell in love with them in 2000 when I was bed-bound during my pregnancy with my first-born.

Then the other night he tells me we needed to talk. That's never good. This time it was. :)

He was having trouble sleeping and ended up praying for a few hours last week during the wee hours of the night. After that 'conversation' with God he came to a couple of realizations. One of them was to attend a meeting the men were having at our church. God made it very clear that hubby HAD to be at that meeting. Well.. you guessed it. The meeting was on the same night as the Celtics game. He then told me that he was going to skip the game and go to the meeting. I'll tell you something.. if I've ever doubted my husbands relationship with the Lord I stopped right there. For him to pass up not only seeing the Celtics 5 rows from the court, but to pass up seeing his FAVORITE basketball player of all time (Shaq) was amazing. Some people are called to sacrifice their lives for God. He was told to just give up a game. And he did.

Hearing him share about what happened last night was mind-blowing. God has some big plans for the husband of mine. All to glorify Him. And it's great. :)

So.. did I go to the game alone? No way! I posted on Facebook since I didn't want to play favorites with my friends and the lucky winner was a good friend of mine, Marsha. She was hilarious because at first she didn't know who to root for. She lives in Charlotte, yet her kids are BIG Celtics fans. She chose Charlotte.. and she chose right. I still cannot believe the Celtics lost. I mean.. come on. It's the CELTICS. And the BOBCATS?? Good for Charlotte, I say.

Some of you may or may not know that Michael Jordan is a majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. So I was curious to see if he'd be there. Well.. not only was he there, but he was within camera distance. Of course I was kicking myself for not buying a telephoto lens for this one specific moment, considering I'd never use it again. ;) This was the best photo I could get of Mr. Jordan. He had his hand on his face 99% of the times I looked at him. But yes.. I was a little starstruck. I'm not sure why. I'm not a basketball obsessed fan. Just a normal chick who likes to watch basketball live and was a basketball cheerleader in high school. I had a fabulous time and the game ended up being super close.. so that made it exciting as well. I do wish I could go to next weeks game.. Lakers vs. Bobcats. ;)

Oh and to show how close I was to the court.. here are a couple of shots I got:




Uptown (or Downtown.. whatever they are calling it) Charlotte was BANANAS after the game. DANG. And the rain made it extra fun to walk back to the car. Thankfully hubby insisted I parked right across the street from the arena, so we didn't have to walk too far.

All in all it was a great night for both hubby and I. For totally different reasons. :)

Private? Or not?

I just realized why I haven't really updated the good ole blog this week. I've been going through something rather fabulous.. but didn't want to 'air my laundry' everywhere. But I guess someone in my place should air this particular laundry.

Right?

I'll preface this post by saying I'm no where near perfect (do I really have to say that? haha..) and I mess up on a hourly basis. I've done and said things in my past that I'd love to forget. Good thing God has. I've sought forgiveness for the big and small things in my past. Therefore God has forgiven and forgotten them. All. Can I go back in time and change these things? Nope.. so why bother stewing on them, you know?

Anyway. I have one main goal in my life: to live in God's Will. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard.. but since I'm a sinning human it is hard. Because *I* make it hard. I've found that every single time I've chosen to just give myself over to Him my life is easier. Happier. More joyful. Tribulations? Of course. Trials? Daily. Because I live IN the world. That is what this world is made of.

This week I've chosen to actively have a close relationship with my Lord. What does that mean exactly? Well to me (and what His word says..) it is spending time reading about Him (the bible), talking to Him (praying), showing my thankfulness to Him (worshiping) and putting Him first as much as I humanly can. I've learned a few things this week because of it. I've learned that when I do these things I make better choices. For myself and my family. I spend my time more wisely. Not stuck on the computer all day or in front of the television. I find myself talking to Him during the day, when otherwise I'd be lonely in an empty home.

I stop myself from doing things that my sinful nature is accustom to doing such as gossiping. That's one of those things that most people think they don't do.. but almost all of us do it. And to hear that gossiping (or in the biblical sense, 'backbiting') is one of those sins that really grieves God. Knowing that I was doing something that was actually hurtful to my Lord struck me as just simply disgusting. Never mind those that I've hurt in the past because of my words.. but my Lord was being hurt as well. So He has really (really!!) been working on my heart regarding that aspect.

Another thing He's been working on me this week is learning how to pray for those that my human side would rather forget about. I have multiple people in my life that I'd rather just sweep under the memory rug and never think of them again. But He reminds me that I am no different than each of those people. I need His forgiveness just like they do. I won't mention anyone here because my blog isn't a place to talk about things of that nature. But God knows my heart and He knows my struggles. Thankfully, he loves me anyway. ;)

So there it is.. why I've been quiet here on the blog-front. I'm not afraid to stand up and shout my faith, but I'm also not one to shove it in someones face. I guess it's all about finding that happy balance between the two.

I'll get there, someday.

Tired doesn't even describe.

Note to self:

Do not let 4 months go by without running. Once you start back up you feel like dying after only .7 miles.

That is all.