How I take off my Color Street glitter strips.

If you haven’t tried Color Street nail strips yet you need to! They are crazy easy to apply and look beautiful for up to two weeks!

If you have tried Color Street glitter nail strips you know that it can be a pain to remove. I have tried a couple different ways to remove mine that were a total bust.

Traditional nail polish remover and a cotton ball took me about an hour and somewhere near 25 cotton balls😬. Then I tried using a glass jar filled with sponges and nail polish remover, that didn’t take nearly as long as the traditional way but, I found the skin around my nails to be worn down and raw. I decided to try one that seemed a little less invasive and it is a WINNER!

First, take three cotton balls and tear them into 10 equalish chunks. Then, saturate 5 of the cotton chunks with nail polish remover and wrap them around the tip of your finger. Allow this to sit for 5-6 minutes (I read a book on my kindle to pass the time).

When time is up simply rub each finger nail with the cotton chunk and the polish will come off pretty easily. When you are finished with your first hand follow the same steps to take off the polish on your second hand. If you have any small pieces of glitter remaining simply buff off with a nail file.

The above picture is before I buffed off a couple tiny spots of glitter.

When you are finished file your nails and apply your next set of Color Street nail strips.

If you are interested in Color Street please visit my website.

Cheat sheet for menu making

This will be our first year homeschooling our twins and we are SUPER excited about it. I am not used to feeding them breakfast and lunch throughout the year because they have always eaten at school, so we sat down and came up with a cheat sheet for my menu making.

We started with the items they like to eat for breakfast and focused mostly on foods they can make themselves. Part of homeschooling for us is teaching them independence and self sufficiency. Instead of simply adding cereal I asked them for specific types, this way it will be easier when I do the grocery shopping and I will not need to guess what kinds they want.

We then added lunch items. Again, focusing on items they can make themselves. For lunch we will make a schedule and we will take turns making lunch for everyone. Doing it this way will cause less mess in the kitchen, teach them life long cooking skills, and show them how to be part of a giving family.

Last but not least we added snacks. My number 1 tip for snacks is to divide them up into snack baggies as soon as you get them home from the store. That way if someone (you included) needs a snack they can grab a bag instead of being tempted to mindlessly eat out of the box.

From this list I create a menu that is hung on the fridge each week so there are no surprises. The kids know what to expect and I am not having to stress each day about what to make.

At the end of the day when you are feeding an army the trick is to plan ahead and get input from the troops.

Here are pictures of our list and one of our menus. I would love to hear some of the items you add to your list.

Oregon Coast or Bust!

We are packed and ready to head off on our next adventure. You see, the Oregon Coast is our happy place! It is the place that reminds us that God’s mighty hand needs to be the guiding force in our lives. The ocean reminds us that we are so small and God is so great. Do you have a favorite vacation spot?

I’d love to share with you my most recent ah-ha discovery when it comes to packing for 8 people. Bins instead of luggage! It’s brilliant right?! Everything stacks nicely and I can fit 2 kids worth of clothing and shoes in one bin. As you can see some of the family has not bought into this idea yet but I bet they will by the next trip. I also packed all of our toiletries, curling irons, meds, etc into separate smaller bins that also stack great in the back. Add the stroller, a few odds and ends, and Monster’s metal detector and we are on our way.

Do you have a favorite packing tip? I’d love to hear from you.