Friday Favorites - the middle of March

I can't believe that we are at another Friday already!! This month is just flying by and my birthday is in just TWO days!! how did that happen???

Let's get on to some of my Favorite things so far this month.

ONE

My favorite story by far has got to be that I was at the park last week and one of the mom's there asked me if I was a Grandma!! Not sure if it was my grey hairs, my seasoned parenting skills 😂, or if she was doing a Social Experiment to see how women react to that question!  All that I can do is laugh about it and know that between the two of us during the, let's call it an "altercation" she is the one who looked a fool.  Thankfully there was another mom, who I was chatting with, that got to witness the whole thing.  So at least we both got a laugh out of it!!

TWO

This story brings me to my next favorite: Wolfberry Eye Cream from Young Living.  I already had this in my order when I got called a Grandma, but now I will be sure to use it even more diligently in my nighttime routine.  It arrived over the weekend and I cannot tell you how much I love it.  It's super creamy and luxurious feeling and I can feel it tightening my skin! LOVE that!!

THREE

I'm practically all caught up with my Minimalist Podcasts that have been rocking my world and life view lately.  This made me a little sad, so I searched for more and found a NEW to me one!!  It's called "The Sustainable Minimalist" and while I've only listened to one episode so far I can tell you that I am going to love it.  Now that I feel educated about Minimalism and have been putting lots of the tips into practice, I've decided to start a "Becoming Minimalist" series here on the blog!! wahoo!!! I'm hoping to get that launched in April and if you would like to submit a guest post, I would love to collaborate with you.

  

FOUR

I was perusing Amazon, and while I want to be more minimal with our belongings I also want to have items that have a great purpose.  I remember seeing these Pocket Chairs when we were in Europe and I thought they were fantastic.  We are a family on the go and not every restaurant has a high chair, or in our experience enough high chairs, so having one small enough to bring along with you sounds perfect.  We are heading back to Ireland and England this year (with all three kids in tow) and to my recollection lots of the high chairs we used for Ellie were large, cumbersome, and dirty.  When I spotted this cute little Pocket Chair, I knew it would be perfect.  It's small, will fit in our carry-on luggage (the only way we travel), and I know that we will get lots of use out of it!!  It just arrived yesterday so I haven't gotten the chance to test it out, I will be sure to review again once I have.

FIVE

I finally went into my salon and got my hair trimmed/cut! I haven't been in since I was confirmed pregnant with Séamus, so that was back in the beginning of November...a solid 16 months.  Which unfortunately means that I had a lot of split ends and damaged hair that needed to go...goodbye Rapunzel dreams.  I told my dear stylist, Rachel, to do whatever she needed to make my hair look good.  She took off over 8 inches, while I am so sad that my long locks are gone I have to admit that my hair looks so much healthier!! I am still planning on growing it back out but will be better about going in and keeping my ends trimmed and healthy.  I'm also obsessed with my Shampoo/Conditioner from Young Living.  I have both the Lavender and the Copaiba Vanilla options and love both of them.  Since they are plant based and void of any synthetics the shampoo doesn't suds up as much, so it was a bit of learning curve but the conditioner is legit.  I love these products so much and am passionate about reducing the amount of toxins that I'm exposed to, that I actually brought my own shampoo and conditioner to the salon with me!! Yep I'm that girl!

SIX

I really didn't mean for this post to be so Young Living heavy, but I am sharing my favorites and they just happen to be YL!!  Thieves Household Cleaner is my absolute favorite. I have tried all sorts of cleaning products over the past 10 years, most of them I have tried to get "environmentally friendly" options, which turns out there is a whole heck of a lot of greenwashing on the market, I have also tried to go the convenience route and used clorox wipes...then I started to do my research and learned how terrible those things are to your health.  Not to mention I was using these on our countertops and we ate off of them, my kids ate directly off of the counters (which means they were consuming the bleach 😱).  Enter in Thieves, not only is it incredibly effective but it also supports our immune systems and is SAFE not just for us but for our planet as well...additionally it's super concentrated which means that you can dilute it so your contributing to the Zero Waste movement too 🙌 AND you get to toot your Minimalist horn because this one bottle cleans ALL the surfaces!! I mean what's not to love??  I used it this morning to clean off Séamus high chair tray and I am so so grateful to have this product in our lives.

Happy Weekend my Friends!! Thanks so much for stopping by!  I would love to connect with you on IG (@lifewithkidsblog and @lifekidsandoils)

♥ Ashley