I just received my August (2019) Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box and wanted to reveal the goodies inside! As a member of their Squad ambassador team Simply Earth sent me the box for free AND they have provided me with a coupon code for you! If you use coupon code BACKTOCALLEYFREE you’ll get a bonus $40 gift certificate when you subscribe to their monthly subscription box. To learn more: http://bit.ly/2XfM77e (referral link) I'm learning more and more about Essential Oils and how to safely use them thanks to their fun subscription box and website. They even have a FREE ebook; Essential Oils for Beginners, that is packed full of useful information, dilution guides, and tips for using essential oils with children and pets. It's such a great resource. Want to see what's in the August Essential Oil Recipe Box by Simply Earth?? Inside the August Recipe Box you'll find: -Clear Skin Essential Oils Blend-Frankincense Essential Oils-Rosemary Essential Oils-Clove ... [ Read More ]
Natural Slime Recipe with Psyllium Husk Powder
Post contains affiliate links. A few weeks ago I received a new essential oil subscription box from Simply Earth AND their bonus box. They asked me to join their #squad and share my experiences with you about their program. I've owned several different essential oils over the years but I've never gotten into all the brand oil clubs. Honestly, I'm just now starting to learn how to safely use these oils and incorporate them into some fun DIY recipes around the house. If you'd like to see what's included in the Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box (and big bonus box) click over using this referral link: http://bit.ly/2XfM77e. If you use coupon code BACKTOCALLEYFREE you'll get a bonus $20 gift certificate! If your kids love making slime like my kids do, they will LOVE this recipe! This recipe does require heating the ingredients so make sure a parent helps and make sure you let this cool down for at least 20 minutes before letting your kids play with it. It gets very hot!! ... [ Read More ]
Give the Gift of Awesome Photos
I am a "Picture Play" affiliate and earn a commission when you order through my links in this post. Have you ever wanted to take better pictures with your iPhone or Android? Did you know that there are a few free or low cost (like less than $5) apps that can make your regular iPhone pictures 10X better? It's possible with some of the tips that Jill Krause (and Happy Loud Life) shares in her new Picture Play ebook. I have a fancy DSLR that I bought a few years ago and kinda learned how to use, but it's so big and bulky that I never take it with me. I'm really happy with the overall quality of photos from my iPhone 8+ but it doesn't always take perfect photos. Sometimes they are too dark, or too light, or there are things in the background that are distracting. This is one of the photos I took a few years ago with my DSLR. It showed up in my memories this week so I thought I'd try to edit it again using the tricks in Picture Play. Look closely behind her head, in the new version I ... [ Read More ]
What Are You Thankful For?
How is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week? This year is flying by so quickly that I can hardly keep up. My kids just keep growing, life keeps moving, and our schedules keep getting crazier and crazier! If you don't follow me on Instagram you may have missed a few of the recent things going on our in our lives. Like.... My daughter is a Junior Girl Scout this year and is really blossoming into a wonderful leader. My son is 15, learning to drive, got his first job, and opened his first bank account. My latest doodles and designs; like the one shown above!! It's hard for me to get excited about Thanksgiving; which really isn't any different from any other year. This is the most hectic time of year for our family and for my job. We host a huge Black Friday weekend sale and it's very time consuming and exhausting to plan; however it's a great reward when the weekend arrives and our customers flock to our store looking for deals!! My "work day" on Black Friday actually starts ... [ Read More ]
Sprouts Grocery Haul | Organic & Natural Farmers Market
This post is a paid sponsorship with Sprouts Farmers Market. If you follow me on Instagram (@BackToCalley) you may have noticed that we toured our local Sprouts grocery store last week for a blogger/influencer event. We were guided by a dietitian, Abigail Dougherty, who talked about some of the plant-based options that are offered at Sprouts. My daughter tagged along on the tour and we both got to sample a variety of plant-based foods, drinks and desserts. As part of the campaign we received a gift card to come back and shop with so I thought it would be fun to show you what we brought home. With this weeks meal plan I am trying to incorporate some more fall veggies with a little more variety than our boring broccoli and green beans! Link to YouTube video embedded above: https://youtu.be/fmaJ9MXTiDU Funny side story, after I filmed the video I realized that I was missing an entire bag of groceries. Of course it was the bag with the receipt in it so I didn't even ... [ Read More ]
FREE Cloth Diapering Coloring Page
Hello cloth diapering friends, thanks so much for visiting! While my own kids have graduate from cloth diapers, it's still my passion to educate and share our love of cloth diapering with others. During the day I spend my time working for Kelly's Closet managing their social media and marketing department. It may sound like a huge company; but in reality there are just 3 employees including myself! I colored this earlier today while waiting to take the kids to school using Tombow Dual Brush Pens. In the evenings when I'm not helping my kids with homework, leading my daughter's Girl Scout troop, watching soccer practice, or shuttling kids to and from.....I enjoy all things creative! I've recently started designing cloth diaper designs for walls and apparel. I have a big creative to-do list for design projects that are cloth diaper related; like this fun coloring page! All designs are created by me; original work!! You can visit my Etsy and TeeSpring shops anytime; I have more ... [ Read More ]
Easy (and Wholesome) Last Minute Family Meals for Back to School
A special thank you to Coca-Cola Florida for sponsoring this post and helping make our busy week a little more manageable. For a limited time you can save $2 off ready to serve meals with a Coca-Cola product at Publix, Wal-Mart, and Target stores in Florida. #CokeAmbassador #BackToSchool #Whatsfordinner Our kids started back to school last week. I love everything about summer and the laid back routines; so getting back into a routine is much harder on me than it is for the kids. They thrive off routine and have been ready for school to start again. With school starting back that also means my schedule gets flipped upside down again and the juggling begins. PTA meetings, Open Houses, curriculum nights, Girl Scouts, and homework take up our afternoon and evening hours. I try to be organized and plan meals for the week; but some nights are just too chaotic to try and cook a wholesome meal while juggling all the things! These are the nights that I'm thankful for ready to serve ... [ Read More ]
Sweet Tomatoes’ Picnic Delights for July
Sweet Tomatoes' was kind enough to host our family for dinner this month to sample some of their Stars, Stripes and Picnic Delights recipes. This is one of my favorite places to take my family for dinner because everyone can pick what they want to eat without arguing. When we typically go out to eat there is always the argument about what the kids are going to order and what they are actually going to eat. When was the last time your tween decided they wanted an adult meal only to leave half of it behind because they didn't like it?? At Sweet Tomatoes' the kids plate their own food buffet style and I don't feel bad if they try something that they don't care for. They can go back for seconds if they are really hungry. I'm always impressed that my kids plate things that we don't typically prepare at home like beets, cauliflower, and assorted veggies. My daughter loves all of the Sweet Tomatoes salad recipes; especially the ones featuring fruit! She is so excited to try the new ... [ Read More ]
Joys of Non-Rev Travel
When traveling as a non-rev airline employee (non-rev means we fly free...on standby) there are ups and downs....usually with a lot of uncertainty and stress. Thankfully we've been doing this for over 20 years and we've learned to "roll with it" when it comes to our travel days. A typical travel day may look a lot like this.... Constantly checking the flight standby lists the day before and day of and placing bets of which flight looks the best. There are never any guarantees that we’ll get a seat. This makes it interesting to make travel plans and you must always have a backup plan. Rain and ground holds can throw off your whole schedule! Instead of ending up in Buffalo last night, we sat on the tarmac in Tampa for 45 minutes and slept in Detroit...for a whole 5 hours...before starting all over again. Can I just say that Sheraton’s beds were so dreamy!! Larger flights are usually less complicated then smaller regional flights. This mornings adventure ... [ Read More ]
Ideas for End of Year & Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony Gifts
It's the end of the school year and we're completing another year of Girl Scouts. This year our troop expanded to a multi-level troop with girls ranging from 2nd grade (Brownies) to 4th grade (Juniors). The majority of our girls are bridging over to Junior Girl Scouts this year so we're planning our big end of year Bridging Ceremony. We have so much to celebrate with these girls for all of their hard work this year. Our troop sold over 5,500 boxes of cookies during cookie season and had a lot of money to spend on the girls and our community. We had a great outing at an aerial ropes and zip line course near us with some of the profits from cookie sales. Another large portion will go to their end of year Take Action project. They are making care packages for the families and patients at a local hospice center and delivering those in about a week (or two). Whatever funds are left after they add to their saving account for next year are being used for their end of year party and ... [ Read More ]