Pre-makeup tips for sensitive skin.

I have hyper sensitivity. Which in short means my body overreacts to everything. However, I like wearing makeup sometimes and I've found a few tricks that make it much easier on my sensitive eyes and skin.

- Use a toner and moisturizer before you apply face makeup. This cleans out and reduces the size of your pores and the more moist your skin is the better base it gives you. If you have oily skin use an oil free moisturizer and this will prevent the makeup from clogging your pores.

-Eye drops. I have so many issues with eye makeup making my eyes itch. So now every time I go to put eye makeup on I apply my allergy relief eye drops. I keep eye drops in my makeup drawer so I won't forget this step.

-If you have very sensitive eyes skip the waterlining and tightlining. But if you really don't want to skip this step make sure to use waterproof and let it dry well before letting it touch your eye.

-For my lips I always exfoliate them and then apply a nourishing lip cream. This keeps your lips from drying out as badly with other lip products and if you do this at the beginning of your makeup routine this will absorb into you're lips before you apply your lip products.

-My last tip is to keep your under eye area from creasing make sure to use an eye cream to keep them moisturized before applying concealer.

I hope this helps!

The good and the bad

So this is going to be a post about my health and weight. I had always been a very active person. I was even told I was to addicted to working out and needed to limit myself. This was when I was doing over 1000 sit ups a day. Then one day I got in a car accident and had what they called sideways whiplash. basically I sprained most of the muscles on one side of my back. I had to stop working out. I could barely move and I started gaining weight. I was then in 5 car accidents in 3 years (I was a passenger in all 5 I'm not a horrid driver Lol) but this made it so that I would just start to get healed and I would re injure it. This was what started my weight gain, made me lose my motivation because why should I keep trying if I just get told I'm overdoing it everytime. I then started eating more junk which I think it what most 19-20 year olds do. and I've had trouble getting the weight off since. Today was one of my lazy days but I still made an effort to drink more water and get on the treadmill. I'm talking to my doctor about going into the program for weight loss surgery. we've tried monitoring what I eat and I tend to eat about 750 calories most days. My doctor say's that my body is storing everything I eat so I am taking a long time to digest because my body thinks I'm starving it. So hopefully we can move towards a healthy solution for me. I know it will be a lot of work and I'll happily put in the work if I get to see results because right now diet and exercise just isn't working. This isn't to say that I will have surgery. I'm just starting in to the program to see if it will be a good fit for me and fix some of my health issues. because I'm in a bit of a cycle right now. My health issues make it more difficult to loose weight which then causes more health issues. I have been slacking on my food diary and need to still be drinking more water but I'll try! Here's hoping I can get healthier!

Fostering and why it's important.

There are so many kinds of fostering. You can foster dogs, cats, livestock, kids, elderly people, etc. I have seen all of these in my life. I am currently fostering 3 of the most adorable quirky little cats ever. It's not something I set out to do. I had a friend who was in a situation where she required medical attention for many months. I was able to take her cats and my giant cat is the brother of these guys so it was a no brainer. My husband is luckily very understanding and let me take them in even though he does the more unpleasant cat care. See I'm allergic to cats. so they can't get too close to my face and I have constantly wash my hands after loving on them so I don't rub my eye or nose and have a reaction. I have never been able to live without a cat even though I'm allergic. I love animals. The thing about fostering is it's hard. No matter what kind of fostering there is an adjustment period. There's times when you think, "Will they ever feel at home here?" but most of the time they do. There can be issues. I've fostered dogs that had issues with other dogs. luckily they were fine with our dogs but we had to be careful to keep them away from others. One of the kitties I'm fostering I thought he'd never quit hiding from us but after almost 2 weeks of hiding he came out to eat and saw me petting one of the other cats. He slowly made his way to me and since then we've been pretty inseparable. Yes it will be hard to take them back to their mommy. But I just focus on the joy they will give to her while she is healing. We're friends so I can visit them. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that but it helps me. Either way sometimes people or animals need an in between place. Those who offer to be that place, to love them like they're family until they can return to their actual family, they have to be a special kind of person. It's so hard to let go. I think the most difficult would be adult foster care. My grandmother was in adult foster care before she passed. My mom went everyday and helped them get grandma put to bed but these people loved my grandma and cared for her like she was family. They invited us to visit anytime and we came to love these people like family. But they love these people and care for them knowing that usually they won't leave until they leave to be with Jesus. That has got to be so hard. It's such a blessing to be able to love animals and people whenever you can and I hope that one day everyone who fosters does it for all the right reasons. I hope that every animal and child and grandparent that needs to be fostered finds someone who is willing to give them all the love they need and deserve!

Since You've Been Gone.

It has been about 3 months since we lost Grandpa. Everyday something different surprises me. I'll see a car stop outside and miss him yelling and trying to figure out who it is. I'll watch football and miss him sitting there laughing at how invested I get. I'll have garden questions and have to look the answers up online because he's not here. I feel guilty anytime that I think about enjoying living with just my husband for the first time in years. I can't leave his door open or I cry when I look in. The one thing that helps is knowing that he's up there with his love again. He used to walk out on the back porch every night that it was warm enough and talk to his wife in heaven. They had such a sweet love story and I wish I could have met her but I'm so thankful to have gotten to spend time with him. Yes housework is easier now and I don't have to work my works schedule around getting home to feed grandpa. But I would trade all of the good things for even one more day with him. If I had one more day with him I think we'd go fishing. I'd let him teach me how to fly fish. I'd cook him his favorite meals. I'd ask him to tell me all his stories again. I hate that he's not here. I wish he could see all the hard work Luke has been doing on the farm. I wish he were here to tell me I look purdy. I wish I could hear him tell Sasha our dog that he was gonna ear mark and brand her and bob of her tail. While she hugs him and wags her tail. I just miss him. I know that it will get less painful with time but I still wish he was here.. :(

How to do everything wrong at Self Checkout.

I have some tips if you want to drive your self checkout person bananas.

1. bring your own bags but don't push the I brought my own bags button and then sigh loudly when the scale alarms. (we love that)

2. With every single item push skip bagging and then immediately bag the item and again sigh loudly and stare when the scale alarm goes off.

3. If you have a question wait until they help another customer and then stand there saying excuse me I need help. Mam Hello? and pretend that you are the only one there and they aren't monitoring 6-7 transactions at once.

4. If you make a mistake act like it's the machine's fault or even better somehow the self checkout person's fault. because they just call it self checkout so you can blame anyone but yourself for all mistakes.

5. Ask the self checkout person for every single produce code because you're clearly to important to look it up like everyone else.

7. Walk up and say "I don't know how to use these but the lines are long can you just do it for me?" because again you are the most important person in the world and the self checkout person is clearly an octopus with the ability to just ring everyone up at once. Just ignore the "self" part of self checkout.

And when all else fails act like as big of a jerk as possible. be loud and selfish. OR if you want to be a good human being and don't want your self checkout person secretly daydreaming about an anvil dropping on you like in cartoons. Then maybe don't do any of these things. Keep in mind that they are dealing with several people at once and usually running the front end breaks and organizing who needs to be where on the front end. Please be nice. We have all been in a hurry before but no need to ruin someone else's day! Also if you make a mistake don't worry we are all aware the machines are nuts sometimes and nobody is judging you unless your rude and then we'll judge you  A LOT, Lol :)

Tea hard candy.

I recently decided to try my hand at making hard candies. I looked up several recipes and decided to make my own recipe based off one I found. The main variation is the flavor I chose was my favorite tea flavor. Tazo's Refresh tea is by far my favorite tea. I am caffiene intolerent and the combination of mints and tarragon is amazing. So I made my first batch this flavor tomorrow however my husband will get his favorite blackberry and black tea! The wonderful thing is that you can make this candy any flavor. Don't like tea swap out juice or water with your favorite extract in it. Give it a try!

Here's what you'll need.

A large pot
A cookied sheet lined with parchment papaer
3 3/4 c sugar 
1 1/4 c light corn syrup 
1 c strongly brewed tea (I put 2 tea bags in with a cup and a half of water to allow for evaporation and boiled for about 3 min.)
powdered sugar

Directions

Sprinkle cookie sheet with powdered sugar and set aside. Combine sugar syrup and tea in a saucepan and continuously stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook without stirring until a candy thermometer reaches 290 degrees. (Between 34 and 45 minutes) Pour mixture onto prepared cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Once completely cooled lay a clean towel over top of sheet and break candy into pieces by taping with a hammer. Sprinkle candy again with powdered sugar. This candy is addictive and delicious. My hubby and I like it because we can make any flavor! You can also add food coloring before pouring onto the cookie sheet if you choose! Good luck and happy candy making!

Accountability

I have decided to make some small changes in my life. I want to feel better. I have never been a person who's self esteem is tied to her weight. I have been thin and chunky and I'm still the same me. The only difference is my health. I have also been thin and unhealthy and chunky and healthy. But currently my weight is not helping my health problems so I'm changing some stuff. Now I have never believed in diets I think they make you feel deprived and fail most of the time. In the past when I've lost weight it has happened just from increasing my water intake and working out. I currently have some health issues that make hard workouts pretty painful and dangerous so until I can begin a workout regime I am making other changes while I heal.from this health problem. My changes so far are. 
-I have a veggie filled salad with grilled chicken as one of my meals almost everyday. I adore salad and naturally gravitate towards a vegetarian diet but hubby helps me keep protien in my diet. So this was an easy step.

-I downloaded an app called my fitness pal. Which allows me to have a food diary right in my phone. It tells me when I'm not eating enough to loose weight and warns me that not consuming enough can slow my metabolism.

-I record everything in my food diary. It takes just a minute and there is no reason to lie because it's just for my own benefit.

-I make sure to start off with a healthy breakfast. Usually a yogurt and some fruit. But sometimes I splurge and have frosted flakes or waffles.

-I also downloaded an app that will allow me to track my water intake and it tells me how much I need to consume a day to keep hydrated and healthy. This is also helpful for keeping my kidney stones and migraines at bay. Also it alerts me when it's time to drink more water.

-Once I am done healing I have 3 different apps with workout videos on them. There is tons of variety so I won't get bored.

-I've decided that on days I don't feel like working out I will still walk on my treadmill for as long as possible.

-And finally I'm taking accountability. I am the only one who can make me healthier and I can do it. I've lost a lot of weight before and I can do it again.

Now I'm off to try to get hubby on board. Everything is better when your love and best friend joins in. Think about what small changes you can make to feel better and try it out! It's slower but usually drastic changes don't last as long. Hopefully I can stick with this and keep you all updated! Wish me luck!