I wish..

I wish Dr Pepper had more of a water content...
I wish Doritos were nutritious ....
I wish skinny was easy.....
I wish bills were optional .....
I wish I trusted more.....
I wish for no heart breaks for my daughter.....
I wish true friends were easy to find....

Who am I?

Today the class from Kristen (Find Your Voice) and the blog challenge from Becky (52 weeks of purposefully blogging) goes hand in hand..

Week Two of Find Your Voice is titled.............Who Are You?
and in the 52 weeks blog challenge the theme is.......Who I am!

Great huh?
I posted a post similar to these themes back in December HERE...so that was a good start and I will just add on to it!



Please know that you are not to late to start either of these .. jump in where you are or start at week 1 and go at your own pace!!





I love a quote that Kristen inserted in to our Lesson Two Worksheets:

"Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there's no one left to tell those stories? To hear them? Who will ever know that I existed? What if we are the only ones left...who will know our stories then? Who will remember those?"
-Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth



I AM
Nikki.....named by my father (I think) ...also heard I was named after a Soap Opera star...either way..I own it and love it!
Faye is my middle name.. it was also my Dad's mom name.. She passed away when he was around three years old...I am proud to carry on her name.. which I also gave to my daughter

I AM
Nik to friends....Sis to my brother.... Mom to my daughter ......and Babe to my husband

I AM
a child of God. Redeemed. Forgiven. Bought with a serious price tag.

I AM
28 ..soon to be 29 in July...July 24th to be exact..almost three decades old! I have survived an ice storm with no electricity for a month and many tornado warnings in almost 30 years. My years of life have been fulfilling and exciting..I'm looking forward to many more!

I AM
and always will be a resident of the Mid-Land Valley at heart! It is just called Midland now..but us natives like to call it the Mid-Land Valley because we are in a valley.. a true valley.. in between two mountains.

I AM
a lover of pink. I admit it...relunctantly...but every since that pretty pink blanket was handed to me in August of 2008 that made me a momma.... I have loved pink ever since.

I AM
an ice cream eater. Mainly vanilla..throw in some cookie dough or some chocolate chips and that will be just fine

I AM
a reader. I love to read. I go through moods of reading. I used to love reading Law/Mystery books.. now I am more into Inspirational/NonFiction/Self Help books.

I AM
a scrapper. Scrapbooking that is. Which means there is paper everywhere, scissors, pens, glue, stickers, etc...all unorganized.. all crazy...and I love it!

I AM
a picture taker. I am NOT a photographer because I know nothing about light or shutter speed.. I just know how to capture memories.. so I am an avid picture taker

I AM
not a traveler..in a car. I am a flyer...not a rider!

I AM
a teacher. I love to see kids learning in any way possible.

I AM
a storyteller. The author of my life story. No one can tell my story to my children like I can.

Don't be afraid to tell your story..Don't be afraid to be YOU

YOU ...in reality
YOU..the author of your story

Something you have gone through ..someone else is going through now and may need to hear your imperfect story.
Every single story is worth telling. 

Homemade laundry detergent

Ok..I feel like the last person on earth that has done this!

I have seen a million on Pinterest doing it.. All my family does it..

so...

finally I jumped on board!

I made my own laundry detergent!

Yay! and I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

Like I really really love it!!
I can smell it every time I walk in my house through my laundry room..

I have wanted to do it for a while now because my cousin Brittany has told me over and over again how much money it saves her ....but my husband kept calling me a hippy for wanting to make it!

Now don't make judge my husband..poor thing..he doesn't have a facebook or pinterest account...He is a NON-social media person.. He hasn't caught up with all of us yet..but I'm working on it..

Give me time!!!

Moving on..Here is my homemade laundry detergent!

I started out with a simple recipe.. I've learned that you can put more in this to make it smell a certain way or even have more of a stain booster...but this is my first time..so I'm taking it slow and steady!

 1cup of detergent booster Borax (please be aware that there IS a difference between the Borax you get in the laundry aisle and the Borax you get in the gardening aisle..one is for killing ants..one is for laundry...be sure you get the right one!)

1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap  ..this is what smells amazing to me!

I just chopped my bar of soap up in little square.. like one inch squares.. (HINT: stick it in the microwave for about ten seconds before you chop it up and it makes it so much more easier! It isn't as crumbly and the knife slides through easier) Then I just put a few squares in my blender, closed my eyes..chose a setting and wa-lah!
I never use my blender...we strictly bought it for Gregg to make protein shakes.. so I have no idea what any setting is for or what it does.. but I made it work!

I got a big glass container at wal mart for $13 to hold my super cute laundry detergent...but when I made it.. it only filled up like an inch of the container..
so if you buy a big container ..grab you some more bars of soap and just make multiple batches.. I have been using mine now for a few months...still love it!

Usually by now I have probably already gone through two or three store bought laundry detergents.. which is at least $7 each.

Final thoughts:
Homemade laundry detergent rocks!
It smells good
It is WAY cheaper than buying store bought
and it isn't hard to make.

Go for it!

Do you make any of your household cleaners? Let me know your recipe...I might try it!

Summer classes

I'm so excited to be getting a schedule down this summer and get myself back into blogging. I love blogging.. keeping memories and randomly writing thoughts.

Well I guess summer time is the time of challenges and classes because I have found a couple that go hand in hand and I am over the moon about it!

I've been struggling with my blogging because I just want to post pictures and let them do the talking..but there is so much more than just a picture..there is a story behind it.

If you come to my house and look through my pictures I will tell you what happened while I was taking the picture..what happened after...yadda yadda.. you would probably get bored with me quick...
but..i don't do that on my blog.. why? I don't know!

I guess I feel like I can't get what I want to say from my brain to the keyboard and make it sound interesting enough for you all to want to read it.

I wrote a post earlier about a Free 8 week class that I am taking with Kristen called "Find your Voice" ...and now I have found a cute challenge by Becky at From Mrs to Mama called 52 weeks of blogging with a purpose.

Find Your Voice is about finding your storytelling voice. We are awesome people with amazing stories, so this summer we’re going to work together to find the most genuine and authentic way for you to tell those stories.
We’ll be telling stories through pictures, photographs, social media, prose, and more. The only thing you need is a willingness to become the author of your own story and the courage to step outside of your comfort zone.

52 Weeks of blogging with a purpose is more of a free blog challenge. Becky has made a list of 52 topics and every Monday she will post one. With that topic you can do what you want with it. Take pictures..write....go whichever direction you want to go..you can go...

So all in all both of these classes will help me tremendously with my writing.. and my storytelling!
I'm super excited to get started because both of them have link ups so you can see other's storytelling skills!

This summer is going to be exciting...for this mama...I am finally carving out time for me...to write!

Do you have any plans for YOU this summer?