Top 5 Things to do While Your Kids are Back to School

Well, it's that time of year again! Some of your kids have already started school. My Johnny starts his first day of Preschool today! Do you ever find yourself wondering what to do or catch up on while you have all this time to YOURSELF??? It's time to get yourself in a "Back to School" routine. Need some ideas? Here are my Top 5 ideas to get you by while they are out of sight during the day!

1.)  Start a good book or series. I highly recommend 50 Shades of Grey. Or, if you are like just about every other woman out there who has most likely already read 50 Shades of Grey, I highly recommend The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series(it's another yummy one!), or the Sookie Stackhouse Series if you're into true blood! If none of those books sound good to you browse here for Amazon's best books of the month!

2.)  The newest trend this year is bold nails. Try out some new nail polishes or nail ideas. I'm a big fan of the OPI Pure Nail Laquer Apps. There are so many cute designs, they're simple to put on and last awhile too! For more ideas either visit Pinterest or OPI!

3.)  As a Parent, you basically cater to your kids and do everything to make sure they are all set up and happy everyday. Don't you deserve that too??? How about booking a Spa Day at a salon? A nice relaxing hot stone or deep tissue massage sounds just perfect! Talking about this actually makes me want to book a prenatal massage for myself haha!

4.)  Start a new workout, or go to a Pilates or Yoga class. Mowing the lawn during the warm season and shoveling the snow off the driveway in the winter are great workouts( I'm sure Hubby would like that right?!).

5.)  If you are simply not feeling productive and feel like just doing nothing that involves any energy, you can simply just grab a snack or a nice lunch and a cup of tea, sit on the couch and catch up on some T.V. shows that you've been missing out on. You can even rent an entire series that you've never seen before! I recommend starting Dexter or even True Blood ! Need more ideas? Here's the Top Ten TV Shows of 2012.

These are just my Top 5 back to school ideas. What are some of yours?

~Leah

28 weeks!

So, I am 28 weeks as of yesterday and I just wanted to update on how the pregnancy is going. Time is definitely flying by! I'm actually feeling pretty well considering I'm chasing after my two crazy kids all day and trying to get my new business selling Shaklee on the road. I've noticed my hair is even more curly than it was before I got pregnant! It seems so short when I wear it curly! It's so crazy how pregnancy can change things like that! The baby is very active, there is never a moment where I feel like I haven't felt the baby kick in awhile. It's going to be a kick boxer some day! I'm definitely feeling achy and by the end of the night my hips are so sore. On the plus side, my ankles are still nice and skinny and I have no stretch marks, woohoo! Hope everyone has had a nice weekend, I will post again soon!

My product is here!!!

So, here's my first Shaklee post! I got my Gold Ambassador Distributor kit yesterday. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning I was so excited and couldn't wait to start "Shaklee-izing" my home! Look at all the products I recieved!

As you can see my kids also had fun too with the boxes haha!

The first product I immediately started using was the Get Clean Fresh Laundry Concentrate and the Get Clean Fabric Sheets. I grew up using only Tide, so I was a little skeptical about the switch. Well, I'm really glad I tried it because, not only does my laundry smell great, it feels clean and soft as well! I am very impressed! The great thing about the Fabric Sheets too is that when you take your load of laundry out of the dryer you can recycle the sheet so no harm is done to the earth, love it!

Then, I have been so excited to see what Get Clean Basic H2 is all about. It came in a 16oz. bottle and is Super Concentrated so you get a lot of product while saving money! So, I followed the mixing directions(which are very simple) on the water bottle I also received in my kit:

For Window Cleaning

-Fill bottle with water (16 oz.)

-Add 1-2 DROPS of basic H2

For All-Purpose Cleaning

-Fill bottle with water(16 oz.)

-Add 1/4 tsp. of Basic H2

Wow! That is really going to last a long time! Now let's see if it works...

So, as you can see, sharing a house between 3 men, 2 women and 2(almost 3) kids can get kind of hard to keep up with cleaning. As you can see, our microwave has definitely seen better days, haha!

Let's just say I am loving cleaning now! Lol! The microwave looks brand new and shiny! Did you know that Basic H2 is also said to get gum out of the carpet and crayon off the wall too?! Anyone that has kids will appreciate that ;)

I can't wait to use more of my products that I've received around the house! I'm running around the house with my bottle of Basic H2 cleaning EVERYTHING like a crazy lady!Lol! Being a Cosmetologist I am especially excited to use the skin care too!

Talk Soon!

~Leah

My first post! A Little bit about myself :)

Hello! I just want to say thank you to everyone for following my blog! I want to tell you a little bit about myself and the reason why I am starting this blog.


Well, let’s begin.  I am a full-time stay at home mom to two amazing boys and a part-time cosmetologist working from home.   Johnny is three and a half and starting preschool.  Joey will be two in September and is completely fearless.  Not only that, but my husband John and I are expecting baby #3 sometime in November.

My family currently lives with my parents, so you can tell that things are not going exactly as planned.  Let me tell you how I got here:

It all started after my wonderful husband, who I had been dating for 6 years prior, graduated college and got a well-paying job.  We got married and immediately bought a house and we thought we were set.  We had Johnny a couple of years later and brought him home to our lovely house.  Life was good and we thought we were on our way to the American Dream.  What we didn’t know was that our mortgage was on the rise and our debt was building because of it.  We weren’t able to stay at the house long.  Long story short we paid too much $$$ for a house that was the wrong size for our growing family.

The next thing we knew we were renting a house from a family member.  We had a lot going on at the time then too.  Three weeks after we moved in we were blessed with our second child, Joey.  Our family was getting bigger but our wallets were getting tighter.  We survived for a couple of years there.  Late winter of 2011 we noticed the kids continually getting sick and having coughs that wouldn’t go away.  Our doctor thought it was most likely due to allergies and recommended that the kids be put on allergy medication.  So, Johnny was given allergy medication and Joey was put on a nebulizer and inhaler because he had developed bronchitis from allergies.  It seemed as though our kids were sick every other week.  We knew we needed to get our kids healthy and start saving money so we decided to move out. 

We were fortunate that my parents had the extra space and they invited us to move in with them to save money and work on resolving the boys’ health issues. Within one week of moving in, we were able to take Johnny off of his allergy medication and joey has not had to use his nebulizer since!  So this got me thinking:  If their allergies were so bad, what could I do to make my household as healthy as possible?  What kind of chemicals are we all breathing in just from the everyday products we use?

We had a friend that was using all Shaklee products and making money selling them.  It also struck a chord with me when she said that none of her kids had ever been on an antibiotic.  That was amazing and I wish I could have that for my children.  We saw a great opportunity to live a healthier, wealthier lifestyle for our family.  Selling and using Shaklee products is the way to go!

At this point in my life, I am 7 months pregnant.  If I chose to wait after the baby was born to start this program, I don’t know when or if I would ever do it.  There is never a good time to wait if you want to be successful starting your own home business.  There was no time to waste.  We saw what was possible through other testimonies and decided to take the leap of faith. 

Follow my journey towards a healthy home and life as I write about my continued experiences and how they will make a better tomorrow for my family and yours on this blog.  I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say about their Shaklee products. You can e-mail me at simpleserenitybyleah@gmail.com or browse the amazing products at http://simpleserenity.myshaklee.com/

Live Happy!
Leah