True Confessions of Late Gestation Gretchen (T-8 Days Until Baby Day!)

So. Truth? I'm currently a crazy-go-nuts hormonal mess. I'm not sleeping super well (unmedicated, that is. Medicated is a different story entirely...), my back is killing me no matter what I'm doing and where, I have contractions pretty much all day and night, just nothing consistent and...oh the feels I feel. *sigh* I'm like a bipolar cobra, if that cobra could sob hysterically in pitches only dogs can hear after dealing you a fatal blow to your jugular (or wherever cobras bite. I'm not an expert.). And then make it your fault that it bit you. Delightful, right?!

That's me. I am the cobra sobbing on your shoulder about the unfairness of it all.

I mean, really, though. Who among us HASN'T had a Defcon-1 meltdown in any given aisle of Meijer during a sale week when something that was CLEARLY REPRESENTED in the sale flier ISN'T THERE and what do you MEAN YOU'RE NOT GIVING RAINCHECKS?!?! NO IT IS NOT OKAY, AND YES I AM GOING TO NEED TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER, PLEASE. *dissolves into incomprehensible sobbing mingled with what sounds like apology for all the insanity, but it's difficult to hear and understand through all the...well...insanity.*

I mean. That's everyone's Tuesday, right?

So, yeah.

There hasn't been a lot of blogging going on because really? Who needs to read that? Who WANTS to read that?! 

Plus, I reserve my Constitutional right against self-incrimination.

The real problem?

We have a week before Baby Wes gets here.

a week.

A WEEK.

And then baby is here and NOTHING is done!

Okay, trying not to go to that place.

Because that's an exaggeration! Our kitchen is painted, our living room is painted! We have clothes and bed and diapers and all kinds of things.

We even have this groovy baby monitor that actually clips to baby's diaper and monitors breath movements. Nifty!

But. 

But...

BUT...

I feel very unready.

And my hormonal brain takes that feeling and freaking runs a marathon of worry and public spectacle with it, which is making me NO FRIENDS right now, I can tell you.

I feel unprepared for nighttime feedings and colic and breastfeeding and by the way? The prospect of bathing a slippery-as-soap newborn with my HANDS sends me into a mild panic attack.

I'm not afraid for the birth because I've DONE that part. I KNOW that part. No problem. And I breastfed for...three days. So I have a TINY bit of experience with that. But that's it. I know NOTHING else. And focusing on the stuff that I feel like I NEED to know and SHOULD know keeps me from obsessing about how all of this is going to play out- if this is information that I'm really even going to need in the future, you know?

And I miss my mom. Desperately. Especially in times like this. I just want my mom to come over and kick my "rear in gear" (one of her favorite phrases) to get the house finally finished and then hold me and tell me that everything is going to be okay. Because no matter how old you get and what you go through, you mama is always your mama, and sometimes you just need her smell and her arms and the feel of her hair on your cheek.

And I miss my bestie and my sister, both of whom are far away and dealing with their OWN lives and things. Not that they wouldn't be willing, but it seems unfair for me to expect them to be on call 24 hours a day to talk me down off of whatever ledge I've gotten myself (or the produce manager at Meijer) onto that minute.

And I miss my daughter, who I would desperately be trying to get excited for the baby to come (since she'd only be a year and eight months old right now) and trying not to panic about the responsibility of raising TWO littles so close together. The longing for that path that my life could have gone in sometimes hurts so much that I can't breathe. 

So I'm in survival mode because...we have a week. A week with our boy before he makes his grand entrance and I get to be properly introduced to the little squirmer who's been giving me heartburn and cravings for cheeseburgers and spaghetti. And an obsessive need to eat ice cubes. His bag is all packed for the hospital, but I just can't bring myself to pack mine. Because that's very, VERY real.

So, instead, I cry sad tears about songs on the radio.

I cry happy tears at the rain that falls on the trees and our skylights and makes such beautiful, whispery music.

I cry frustrated tears at the grocery store because I wasn't able to get what I wanted because I wasn't feeling well enough to be up and about earlier in the week.

I cry confused tears over nothing that makes sense, and those tears feel the best because they seem to come from deep, secret place deep inside me that doesn't have a name that doesn't burden itself with a label but exists only to bring healing.

I cry.

A lot.

The other day, that first really rainy day that we had, I danced up on my tippy-toes in the rain on our deck, twirling and twirling and twirling around with my hands cupped to catch the drops so I could really feel as many of them as possible. Because it felt like the world just needed a good cry, too, and I wanted to be a part of that. So I cried along, and the sky's tears dripped off my nose and the leaves on the trees, and for a minute I didn't feel quite so alone. Being covered in tears, mine and the world's, was cathartic and beautiful, and made me feel less like a pariah in a world where everyone around me seems to be mostly happy. I shivered in the rain, but I accepted it the way I wanted my own tears to be accepted by someone- just unapologetic, and matter-of-fact, and with a hint of me-too.

So that's what I'll probably be doing with the rest of my week: 

Surviving.

Trying to do as little damage to innocent bystanders (and grocery store displays) as possible.

And crying so as not to think.

Simple Sabbaths - Maternity Photo Shoot

I've had a lot of time to consider my blessings in the last few months while growing this amazing little person inside of me. The Hubs and I have been through a lot in the last year and a half, as have those that we love. It seems like an entire lifetime of experiences, good and bad, have been crammed into the last few years, which makes it impossible not to take stock of yourself and your life. I've been given so very much to be grateful for and, while fear tells me that the next hills we have to face are impossible, hope tells me that brighter things are just around the corner for us. All of us. 

I wanted to have something to document this little slice of our lives right now, this part of being a mother that I love so much. I do so love being pregnant! It's my favorite thing, watching the changes in my body and feeling the first stirrings of life deep inside. It's incredible. Yes, there are the normal things that women complain of in pregnancy, and no it's not necessarily always dignified but OH! The things that are good as so incredible that they more than make up for the hard parts. I would gladly take heartburn and backache for the opportunity to feel little feet paddling against my belly and see the jumps and jives of a little person performing an acrobatic show simply for his own amusement. 

I felt the need to document the joy that goes along with making life so that someday our Little Man could see these pictures and sees what incredible love and happiness he brought to his parents simply by existing. We teamed up with an amazing photographer and dear friend in our area (Stephanie Lowe of Stephanie Lowe Photography) and scheduled a maternity photo shoot in February. I really wanted to do some snowy, poetic looking shots and thought that our property would be the perfect backdrop for our pictures! I'm SO in love with the land that our house is on, especially in the winter. The woods are just gorgeous. These are just some of the beautiful shots that she got but I have to say, I'm sorely tempted to just plaster these all over our house! I'm so in love with them!!!

The Hubs is in love with touching my tummy which I, of course, love.

See? Daddy and son, already inseparable!

This one is one of my Top 5 Favorites. Seriously, Stephanie is SO talented!

SO in love with this man...

This one might make this year's Christmas card...

MmmmmUAH!

Okay, this was actually surprisingly comfortable. The snow contoured to my body's position, making a sort of outside easy chair. I could've sat out there all day. lol.

My shoulder to lean on...

My rock and shelter from the storm...

And he always makes me laugh!

Seriously? Love.

Another Top 5 shot, mostly because of the look on his face. He looks so...protective.

*sigh* He still gives me butterflies.

Okay, please, please, PLEASE don't think that we're crazy animal people or anything but...I love this dog. There will be a blog post in the future going more into it, but we're very, very attached to each other. She was so excited about the goings on of having company over, so I thought it would be fun to try to get her in a couple of shots. The fact that she's not just a big blonde blur is a testament to Stephanie's talent because I don't think she held still for more than .5 seconds at a time. lol.

Giving kisses!

Snuggled up in a family heirloom quilt.

Booties that I crocheted for Little Man! In Detroit Lions colors, of course!

This one is definitely going to make it on a wall somewhere in our house. I love it!

Dreaming out of one of our living room windows. We came inside to warm up with some herbal tea (Tangerine Zinger!) and as luck would have it, I even had my favorite mug in hand for the picture!

Warming up in front of our fireplace. Love. Love, love, love.

It was such an incredible experience and I think we've found our official family photographer! She'll be doing a newborn shoot with us after Little Man arrives, as well, which I'm very excited for! It was such a beautiful day for it (albeit freezing cold! And REALLY snowy!) and the surroundings couldn't have been more perfect. I couldn't be happier!

We love all of you who have supported us and who have been praying us through this pregnancy. It means so much to feel the power of those prayers and to know that there are so many people who love us. We think of all of you daily and are so grateful for all of you. Please keep those prayers coming as we close in on my due date. We most assuredly need them. Until the day he makes his arrival, I'll continue to calm myself by remembering all of the blessings in my life, all of the love we feel on a daily basis, and all of the joy that having the Gospel in my life brings me.

Happy Sabbathing, everyone!

Wifey Wednesdays- Putting the Hurt on Dirt (not your loved ones!)

I'm on FIRE lately, folks! I have been troubled for quite some time by the products that we've been using to clean our house. It needed a lot of TLC when we moved in and needed a baseboards-deep clean which meant that I found myself dumping loads of chemicals on every surface I could get my hands on. I didn't feel great about that, but I tried really hard not to look at the ingredients labels while I was cleaning. I've had asthma since I was really young and I found myself not being able to clean for long stretches at a time because my lungs would feel like they were on fire and I'd start wheezing all over the place. I had to wear really thick gloves on my hands because after a session with cleaning solutions they'd be so red and raw that they'd actually be painful when I tried to flex them (did I mention that I have sensitive skin, too?).

'Member these Mr Yuk! stickers from elementary school? lol!

Then I got preggers and I swear, it's like this little baby was just begging me not to inundate my body with all of those nasty chemicals because this whole 8 months so far, I have been wiped. First I was on partial bed rest to help alleviate some problems early on and then, when that was all done with, I was still exhausted to the point that getting dressed was enough to make me feel like I needed a nap. I was really, really looking forward to that "honeymoon" period of pregnancy to start up in the second trimester like I'd had with Violet, but somehow the Feel Good Fairy missed me. Let's just say that cleaning has been revised to mean having clean dishes from one meal to the next and making sure that we had clean undies to wear. lol. We're at bare bones, folks. Thank Heaven for the Hubs because without him I'm pretty sure that our house would have been condemned sometime around mid-December.

It would seem, however, that Week 32 is the magic number for this baby! I think that reality is finally setting in that we're going to have a little person here in about 7 weeks (I'm 33 weeks now), give or take depending on if he got his sense of punctuality from his mother (who is perpetually 15 minutes+ late) or from his dad. lol. Whatever it is, I've gotten more done in the last few days than I have in the last few months combined.

Nesting like whoa!

But here's the conundrum: I'm still not crazy about all those nasty toxins and chemicals coating my house (*shudder*), organic or "green" cleaners cost an arm and a leg at stores (and I loathe paying through the nose for a bottle that's mostly filled with water), and I'm nesting like the birds that have suddenly reappeared in our woods. So what's a girl to do?

Lucky for me, there are a TON of helps out there for people like me (and maybe you, too?) who want a clean house without having to label it a toxic waste site, including recipes for making your OWN green cleaning products for literally PENNIES per use.

Today I bought the ingredients that I'll need to best clean my house in every area (laundry, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, etc) for the next six or seven months, at least. You would not BELIEVE how inexpensive it is to clean your house in a green way if you're willing to do a little of the heavy lifting yourself.

1. Laundry Detergent

First of all, a little note for those who don't know- when you read the ingredients listing on the back of ANYTHING, they're listed in order of greatest to least amount. So the first ingredient listed is the ingredient that is most prevalent in that product. I promise that the first ingredient listed on your liquid laundry detergent is WATER. Water. That means that the majority of what you're paying for there is available straight from your very own tap, and if you have city water then you're paying for water TWICE- once when you pay the city and again whenever you buy cleaning products with it in them. Hm. Add that, any time you add water to something you have to add something ELSE to keep the water from "blooming," or growing water born algae. That something else is a mild herbicide. Which you're putting on your clothes. And then putting on your skin. (Sidenote: that holds true for things like your shampoos, conditioners, liquid hand soaps, and lotions, too. More on that in another post.)

The good news is that it's VERY easy to make your very own detergent.

Now, I know that this isn't news since it seems to be the latest sensation that's sweeping the nation, but I figured it bore telling about here since I'm so stoked about it. lol. This is the recipe that I'm using and I like it because it has some Oxiclean powder in it for extra stain boosting. I also add some drops of Lavender Essential Oil to it to give it a little scent boost, especially on our sheets. It's SO relaxing!

This is the actual bottle that I have! Essential oils are a steal on Amazon.com, a little goes a long way, and they're so much better for you than artificial fragrances! Lavender is also offensive to mice, which makes it a no-brainer for us as far as a household fragrance goes.

Plus, doesn't it look pretty in its decorative glass jar?

2. Disinfecting

I'm like everyone else out there in that I want a clean, fresh house, but I also want a healthy house, especially during cold and flu season. Plus, with the Hubs being a nurse, he tends to bring home a certain amount of pestilence with him, so we have to be hyper-vigilant about disinfecting our surfaces. The good news is, you do NOT need BLEACH to disinfect the average house. You don't. Your house does NOT need to smell like a pool to be clean!!! All the typical homemaker needs in her arsenal is white vinegar, lemon juice, and water. That's IT. You can mix all three together in a spray bottle (I buy mine at the Dollar Tree) in equal parts and spray down all of the "touch" surfaces of your home- your counters, vanity top, door knobs, toilet surfaces, etc. If it gets touched a lot, spray it down with this and you're set. Most bacteria can't stand up to the combined acidity of the vinegar and lemon juice together. As an added bonus, the lemon juice will leave your house smelling so yummy and fresh!

This is 100% pure lemon juice, which is what you want. Nothing with sugar or other additives. I got four (4!!) 48oz bottles for $23.69 with free shipping on Amazon. AWESOME deal!

Okay, this is something that I will tell you NOT to buy on Amazon unless you're a gourmet chef and even then it looks like it's a giant rip off online. I get a gallon of this stuff at our local grocery store for a little over $2. 

3. DeGreasing

Dawn Dish Soap. End of story. And that's not just my opinion, Dawn is an industry standard in labs and oil spill recovery efforts all over. Those commercials where you see the adorable and pitiful-looking little ducks and penguins getting cleaned up in Dawn and water after an oil spill aren't just a marketing ploy, rescue workers actually do that! And if it's safe enough for that, it's safe enough for your house. My dad is a chemical engineer and  even he says that there's no better anti-surfactant on the market (that's the additive that works to cut oil and grease). ANYWHERE. It holds its own patent, which means that Dawn is the only product to have it, which means that in this case brand name matters.

One of the chores that I hate more than anything else is cleaning tubs and showers. It involves awkward angles and bending, leaning, reaching, ugh. It's like a really unrewarding yoga exercise. Not to mention, once you start seeing that soap scum and nastiness coming off of the walls...blech. I just want to run screaming. If you're like me, do yourself a favor and grab yourself some of these:

These ones are from the Dollar Tree!

Fill them with Dawn and white vinegar (seriously, that stuff is ridiculously useful) and keep them in your shower. At the end of each shower, get in the habit of scrubbing down the stall with it and you'll never have to dread that particular chore ever again. Same goes for the tub. Use the water that's there, scrub with this, rinse, and you're done. Boom. Game changer.

Dawn is also great for untold other things but for this post suffice it to say that you can safely use it (the original blue kind, not the other fancy kinds out there) on any and all greasy stains from laundry to furniture, to the bathroom. Hubs even uses it to wash his hands after working in the garage because it's the only thing that gets all the gunk off of his  hands effectively.

4. Debugging

You guys, bugs are gross. GROSS. I know. Few people hate spiders more than this girl, but I also know that bugs are useful and needful. Bugs and I have a tentative agreement: they stay out of my house and I won't kill them. lol. We are animal lovers here at Forget-Me-Not Farm, though, and I hate the idea of spraying deadly (literally) chemicals places where we live and eat. The problem? Wet places, warm places, and places with openings (like drains, for example) are bugs' favorite places. So, the kitchen and bathrooms are prime targets. GROSS.

So I do what our forebears did: REPEL them. Essential oils are step one. Spiders (and bugs in general) hate the smell of peppermint, lavender, and cloves, as do mice. Easy solution? I make little sachets with cotton balls doused in essential oils, covered in cute fabric, and tied off with bakers twine and then I stuff one in each of our kitchen drawers and cabinets. I focus especially on places with drains (like the under-sink area) and places with food (like our food storage and dried goods cabinets). They work like a charm and I feel better about repelling the creepy crawlies than I did about killing them off (and should a tenacious mouse slip past the barricade, our Lady Lucille does an excellent job as a second line of defense! Our ancestors kept cats less as pets and more as a defense of their hard-earned food stuffs). After a year in this house (which had a BAD mouse and bug problem when we moved in), we are almost entirely free of BOTH. Not bad. The only intruders we've had have been in the garage! I'll call that a victory, especially out here.

Ants can also be an issue, but the thing that I've found that works the best is cinnamon! It looks like dirt so they can't tell the difference, but it kills them if they eat it. If you have a problem with them coming in your house, put a line of cinnamon over the thresholds of your house and along the route that they follow getting where they're going and you'll solve the problem pretty quickly. I was dubious but I promise it really does work. It's not our dogs' favorite, but they learned pretty quickly not to lick it up off the floor (lol) and now they leave it alone.

5. Air Freshening

So I love a good air freshener just as much as the next girl (I'm a sucker for Bath and Body Works' Wall Flowers) but I also love fresh linens, cupboards, and closets. You just can't put plug ins and stick 'ems everywhere! Luckily, there are inexpensive and easy fixes!

For clothes closets, the killer of good clothes and smells is moisture! I take a bundle of plain old white school chalk, bundle four or five sticks together and secure with a rubber band. Cover the rubber band with ribbon leaving a long tail that you can tie a loop in and hang (clear of clothes!) from a hook in your closet! The chalk will absorb moisture and odor, just make sure to change it out every three or four months (I do mine with the seasons so it's easy to remember).

This is also a Martha Stewart tip, so you know it's legit! lol!

I also use my handy-dandy lavender essential oil mixed in a mason jar with baking soda as cupboard and closet fresheners!

Stinkin' cute and gets rid of smells better than anything else I've tried! The best part is that when you notice that it's not as "smelly" as it used to be, you just stir up the baking soda and add a few more drops of oil. Done!

Speaking of baking soda, I've never encountered anything better for deodorizing! Take a page out of your grandma's book and sprinkle some all over your carpet before you vacuum. Use a clean broom to spread it evenly and make sure it gets down into the carpet, then let it sit for twenty minutes or so. Vacuum it up and enjoy the freshness! Baking soda will soak up any odors and the vacuum will suck up the baking soda. Easy!

I love these little DIY deodorizing disks, too! They're made with three ingredients: baking soda, distilled water, and whatever essential oil you like (I use lavender!). You can pop them in the bottom of your trash can, diaper pail, sweater and lingerie drawers, whatever you can think of! You can make them in whatever cute silicone mold you can find that you like!

Here's the recipe!

I have a TON more ideas and tips, but these should get you started with your spring cleaning! I'm excited to share these and I hope you find them useful! Happy Wednesday!

Sunshine In Winter

If you know me, it's no secret: I love lemon. Any and all things lemony and citrusy. It calls to me. I love it. The smell, the scent, the taste, the way your jaw gives a sharp little satisfying ache when you bite into something deliciously sour...I love it all.

Especially in winter!

In the winter in Michigan, sunshine is at a premium which gives me a serious case of the blues. It got to the point in college where my doctor recommended that I hit the tanning bed 10-15 minutes a week to counteract the effects of gloom, darkness, cold, and damp. I just wasn't designed to live life in a cave, you know? Come the very first tiny whiff of spring in the air in late March and I'm like a colt- bounding outside looking for hints of green and the first flowers of the year, chasing sunshine, and convincing myself that I can totally start wearing skirts all the time without my legs turning blue (incidentally, I'm wrong about that last one every year). 

But one thing helps:

Ahhhhh...Just looking at those pictures lifts my spirits!!! The fruits' peels even look so sunny and inviting. I imagine walking through that grove of trees smelling the tart, citrusy leaves and for a moment I'm transported from snow and ice to sun and sweetness. It's a little vacation courtesy of my computer. 

To keep that feeling going no matter where I am or just how cold the slush is that just sloshed over the tops of my shoes, I become obsessive in my search for citrus anything in the winter!

First up is the bath or shower. I submit that there are few things more miserable than dragging yourself out of bed into the frosty air to go stand, shivering, in the bathroom waiting for the shower to heat up only to have the knowledge tapping at the back of your mind that as soon as you start to warm up in the warm spray, you're going to have step back out of the shower to shiver and freeze again. Blech. So I inundate my shower stall with all things citrusy in the months of December to March. Here are some suggestions:

First up is The Body Shop's Sweet Lemon line. Light, slightly sweet, and definitely lemon, this whole line is wonderful. The sugary background keeps it from just smelling like you sprayed yourself with Lemon Pledge (which is no joke in the game of lemon body fragrances) and it's so incredibly hydrating which is something that my poor winter-ravaged skin desperately needs in wintertime. I included my favorites from the line, but there are a ton of other items with this same scent that are equally wonderful. Ahhh...I feel myself warming up already!

The Body Shop Sweet Lemon Scrub- a good sugar scrub is indispensable in the winter for getting your skin glowing in the winter, especially on your legs, knees, and upper arms! The increased blood circulation generated by rubbing the scrub into your skin aids with cell turnover as well, which keeps skin healthy and hydrated.

Their Whip Body Lotion is...amazing. SO hydrating and layering your scent carriers (shower gel, perfume, lotion, etc) helps your skin hold onto the fragrance longer. It is such a lovely, fresh lift to catch a whiff of lemon on myself in the middle of the day. Aaaahhhh...

There are some fantastic options lurking no further than your neighborhood drugstore just waiting to take you on a little mini vacay via your shower, as well! I actually am loving the reforumlation frenzy that is happening over at Suave and their shower gels and lotions are getting the overall treatment right along with their hair care products. If it's been awhile since you've tried them out, you may way to consider giving them another look. They've put out a really nice rendition of The Body Shop's Mango Mandarin in a shower gel and lotion set. At about $2-$3 each, these are so very doable, so go ahead and throw them in your cart next time you're grabbing Q-Tips and mouthwash.

 I stumbled on this fun little limited edition product at our local Walmart the other day and I'm excited to see how it works long-term on my skin (I have really dry skin under great conditions, so I take a serious hit in the winter). What can I say, I'm a sucker for anything "limited edition." lol.

For real, this smells just like pink lemonade! Like...I want to drink it, it's so realistic. Mmmm...

Okay, now that we're all warmed up, let's work to stay that way! The best way that I've found to do that is with the help of my favorite beverage company (outside of my trusty Mountain Dew creator, Pepsico), Celestial Seasonings! I can think of few things cozier than a warm mug of steaming hot tea held up to my face, thawing out my hands and warming my throat.

Mmmm...warm tea with a generous slice of lemon and some honey. Perfection.

Completely addictive and is also wonderful as sun tea and/or iced tea. The whole Zinger line of herbal teas within the Celestial Seasonings company are faintly sour and definitely refreshing and uplifting in scent and flavor. This one is great first thing in the morning when you need to put a little pep in your step!

This one is delicious with a generous dollop of raw honey, especially around the holidays when clove-riddled orange pomanders are sitting out in bowls around the house. SO yummy. This one is worth brewing if only for the smell! Plus, I'm in love with the retro-looking box.

There are some little pocket-size ways to take the chill off as well, which are fun to use just because well...they're fun. lol. And they smell and taste good. Good enough for me!

Eos lip balm in Lemon Drop, spf 15. I know you all have heard me rave about Eos lip balms before, but seriously? They are worth raving about. These are the first balms that I've tried that don't make my lipstick slide off of my mouth and that also feel fantastic all by themselves. This particular flavor is also the only one that features an SPF which makes it a no-brainer for summer but also in the winter. Your lips don't have oil glands, which makes them especially susceptible to aging and sun damage. They really need babying!

Eos lip balm in Tangerine. This one feels like it was developed just for me- it's medicated for use on chapped lips and it has a delicious taste and scent. Ahhhhh...

This was introduced to me by a good friend back in college and I've been chomping away ever since. It has a yummy fruit punch flavor, is actually good for your teeth (I had a dental hygienist give me a mini-lecture in line at Meijer about only buying gum that contains xylitol and I kind of promised that I would so I sort of feel honor-bound to Trident now. And no, I didn't know her and no, there was no gum in my cart at the time and no, I have no idea what xylitol is. Apparently it's a make-or-break issue, though), and as a nice little bonus, it will make your whole purse smell all fruit punchy. lol.

Lemon drops, on this list if only because they've always been my fave. Mmmmm...and I'm in good company because they are also one Professor Albus Dumbledore's favorite so...there you go.

In order to keep the house smelling yummy, there are a few little tricks I know...okay, it's candles. Candles is the trick I know. BUT I'm really good at picking out yummy scents! These are my favorites for mid-to-late winter when you've had to hang up your Christmas ones (because really, I get sick of cinnamon immediately following Christmas) and around January I'm more interested in creating a fresh, clean smell in the house rather than the heavier, "warm" scents of fall and the holidays. 

This one actually isn't "in your face" citrusy. It's more herb-y than citrus, but it has an awesome light, sunny, airy fragrance that makes the house feel fresh and bright. 

There is no denying that this one is definitely LEMON, but in a nice, light way. Again, no Lemon Pledge here! This smells like...lemonade on a hot summer day, if you can imagine that as a smell. It's just delicious and light and summery. Perfect when you're craving sunshine!

I'm a fan of my Scentsy warmer because I'm ridiculously clumsy and am always terrified of setting myself, home, and loved ones on fire with traditional candles it's an awesome alternative to traditional air freshener methods, and this one smells like walking through a grove of grapefruit and orange trees in Florida. SO bright, cheerful, and zesty! I love.

So, now you know my secret. I'm addicted to citrus as opposed to downing an entire box of pasta followed by a box of Cheez-Its (Seasonal Affect Disorder can make you crave carbs, a fact to which I and my thighs are living testaments). It really does help me shake the winter blahs and keeps me from going stir crazy with cabin fever!

How do YOU get through the winter doldrums? Any little coping mechanisms or quirks that get you through it without hating the sight of the four walls of your house by the end of February?