5 Simple Ways to Green your Clean

Come find my guest post article over at iDream of Clean!
Plus, a few printable labels for all your cleaning and organizing needs!


Happy Wednesday!! :)

10 Yummy Rhubarb Recipes

{image via Country Living}

Rhubarb is ripe and ready for cooking!  It grows here like crazy, but I know not all areas of the country are so lucky! :)  Here are some yummy recipes I'm trying this year:

Cinnamon-Sugar Rhubarb Cake - Taste of HomeRhubarb Fool - bon appetitRhubarb Crisp - Country LivingRhubarb Ginger Galette - Simply RecipesStrawberry-Rhubarb Crisp - Ezra Pound CakeRhubarb Razz Crunch - BabbleBig Crumb Rhubarb Coffee Cake - The Naptime ChefRhubarb Syrup - The KitchnStrawberry Rhubarb Jam - The Perfect PantryRhubarb Hazelnut Oatmeal Squares - The Naptime Chef

What are you cookin' up this week?  What are your favorite rhubarb recipes?

3 Summer Beauty Favorites

Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://www.discoverbeautywithin.com/.




With the signs of summer in full swing, I'm switching up my mornings to be a little faster, a little lighter, and the perfect mix of the hot trends and classic hot weather looks!  We tend to spend the summers outside enjoying the nice weather, working in our garden and flower beds, at the local pool, or having picnics at the park with friends and family.

Here are my top 3 favorite summer beauty trends:

1.  Sunscreen!  It's always in season, right?  My moisturizer (I like Aveeno's Positively Radiant) has SPF in it, and I always apply in the mornings.  And for the rest of the body, we usually use a spray lotion like Banana Boat to quickly apply.  It makes it easy to remember to reapply in the afternoon, too!
2.  Playful nails.  A quick search on Pinterest will generate thousands of fun and easy manicure ideas.  We love to play beauty shop and experiment with different colors and combinations.  My favorite colors this summer are mint green and a light purple.  (I like Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet and Lacey Lilac.)
3.  A good mascara.  In keeping the beauty routine pretty simple, I like to sweep a coat of mascara on to kind of "finish my look."  I tend to choose mascaras that are waterproof, not clumpy, and feel light on application.  I've tried tons of mascaras, ranging in all sorts of prices, and my very favorite has to be Neutrogena's Healthy Lengths.

What are your beauty must haves for summer?

6 Tips for Gardening

Anyone else have gardening on their mind?  I'm so blessed with a huge yard, all the landscaping rock I could possibly want {Montana sandstone!}, readily available compost and well, manure, and lots of "gardening mentors" who offer me all sorts of plants to try.  Here are 6 great ways to get inspired to start gardening, or garden more!
{my very weedy flower bed last year...}
1.  Ask friends and family.  Spring is a great time to spilt plants and transplant perennials. I've filled my flower beds with tons of freebies from friends and family who would probably otherwise be tossing them out. Plus, you get a bonus of using plant varieties that are highly likely to be zone hardy and grow well! You would be surprised at what you may receive; I wondered aloud about a strawberry that would work well in the mountains, and a week later I had over 50 strawberry plants from a friends' patch.
2.  Know Your Zone.  In a recent Better Homes and Gardens article, it explains the importance of understanding your planting zone and a handy zone calculator to help you build your gardens based on the correct zone.  I'm currently in between zones 3-4, which means we get pretty cold, but not a ton of moisture.  In fact, my last frost date for this summer is June 9th!
3.  Try, try again. This is my gardening mantra, because I have found that lots of plants will work in a protected bed with nice soil, but they aren't quite ready for the rocky, windy area by my vegetable garden. And I still have yet to find a hydrangea that will winter. For me, that's part of the thrill of gardening that I learned from my grandfather.
4. Go local! I am lucky to have a fabulous nursery about 30 miles from our ranch, and a couple of really great greenhouses too. A local, zone-specific nursery is going to be a wonderful source of gardening information, and lots of people willing to help get you beautiful plants to your home. Check out websites, get on a newsletter list, and follow through social media; my very favorite nursery often offers great specials throughout the growing season!
5.  Check online nurseries too. I tried this last year, just to say I tried it. I first ordered through Spring Hill Nursery, which has some mixed reviews online, but I was actually really happy with them.  I am waiting a couple weeks to see if everything I ordered actually comes back, but for the most part, my early perennials look great! My favorite purchase was the Hardy Mum Collection!  I also ordered from Direct Gardening, which was average.  Everything was really cheap, but also came as bareroot as you can get. I would heartily suggest checking local first, but online is always worth a try if you can't find what you are looking for.
6.  Involve the kids. My kids love to help in the garden, even if it is just digging for worms. There are lots of jobs that even toddlers can do, like watering the plants with a hose or watering can, that also can help with you with the load of gardening chores. Our very favorite is harvesting from our vegetable garden, as my girls would just eat peas off the vine, and my youngest even chomped on raw zucchini for a little treat.

How about some tips from you? I know there are some fabulous gardeners out there!!

Just keep running...

These days I've taken up a new hobby.  I wouldn't say I'm a great runner, not even a good one, but I'm running.  I've got a lot of things motivating me right now:

1.  My pup.  He just recently had eye surgery, hence the halo.  He loves to go exploring and is always so excited to see me with my sneaks on.

2.  My girls.  They are constantly asking to run with me, and if I can be a good healthy example to them, I will take it!  I am blessed with a mama who really works hard, is busy, and still squeezes in time to work out, and she has been such a great motivation for me to do the same.

3.  A few races.  They always tell beginning runners to sign up for your first race so that you'll be encouraged to keep with it.  Well, I decided to do one a month, starting in May.  July's race has a different twist:  it's an 81 mile relay with my sisters, cousins, and an uncle.  Talk about incentive.

4.  Me.  I am starting to use running as my "me time", and it's been very good for the soul.  I feel so blessed to have miles and miles of quiet, beautiful country to run.  I marvel at the mountains, watch herds of elk and deer as they graze on our meadows, and take in the cool breeze as I go.  I'm sleeping better, have more energy, and way more patience.  And it's good for me!

What do you do to keep in shape?  What's your motivation?

Happy Thursday!!

7 Ways to Play with Water Beads

We've been having so much fun experimenting with Water Beads, I thought I would share!

Water beads are these neat little water absorbing polymers, and we decided to "grow" more and bring them to our preschool co-op this week.  They were a hit!  The water beads (sometimes called crystal soil) are used for floral arrangements and are non-toxic and biodegradable, however they do pose a choking hazard so supervision is needed.

I found mine in the floral section at Walmart for $2 a package, but I think you can find them at some dollar stores, and I just ordered some  Water Beads on Amazon too! (5 packages for $2.60)

They're super simple to use, too.  I just use a big bucket (I like to use ice cream buckets) and fill with the tiny beads and water.  I did one color per bucket, and noticed some colors really faded (like red) but others didn't at all.  We let them sit overnight (or about 4-6 hours) to fully expand, and then they're ready to play!

After each time we play with them, I run them under water in a strainer to get any dirt, grass, crumbs, and whatever else out, and then put them back in a bucket for the next day.

(this is about 7 packets worth of beads, all clean and ready for next week's preschool!)

They have given us hours upon hours of play, are pretty easy to clean up, (any beads that drop dry up and shrink again) and are all around a fantastic way to use some imagination and just play!  We love them!


7 Ways to Play with Water Beads:


1.  Use with a Sand/Water Table and take it outside.  (We use a Step 2 sand box with cover to store our beads for preschool.)


2.  Place in a storage tub with measuring cups, funnels, and bowls to measure and fill.


3.  Paint with them to make pretty paint swirl pictures.


4.  Create an underwater adventure with toy fish and other sea creatures and boats.  (My girls' princesses actually love the water beads too, along with horses, blocks, and anything that happens to be around when we're playing with them)


5.  Stick in a few glow sticks for fun glow in the dark experience.


6.  Use them with a light table. (you can make your own light table!)


7. Sort by colors, numbers, weights, sizes... options are endless!  




Or, make a super cute birthday gift basket for a little one in your life complete with beads, stacking cups, and little toy animals! So much fun!