Spring Cleaning- Cleaning Tips

Okay, I guess there is something other then allergies that I hate about Spring, Spring Cleaning. I love how clean my house is {or feels} when I Spring Clean but I hate the actual act of having to deep clean. Along with my Spring Series I figured I should add a little Spring Cleaning into it. We all have different homes and different things that may need to be "deep cleaned", and then there are those places you tend to miss. In this round-up you will have everything you need to get started on your home and maybe even learn a new cleaning tip to help you keep the work part of Spring Cleaning minimal. Feel free to share any tips you have that could help us out! Add your tip or link to your post in a comment! We would love to share with our readers! 

Spring Activities to keep the Kids Busy!

With Spring here, Spring Break is coming too {if your kids haven't already went on theirs, ours is coming in a few weeks}. While the kids are running around acting like hooligans because that's what mine like to do in their free time {just kidding - their great kids} here are some fun activities that will give them a little structure and hopefully keep them busy during the upcoming Spring Break week.

As always in our Round-Ups please share any and all of your favorite Spring Activities and what you do to keep the kids busy on Spring Break!

Spring Drinks

     Beautiful Weather, Crafts, Desserts & of course you have to have Drinks! Here are some yummy ones everyone is going to enjoy! I love doing these round-ups for all of you because it not only gets ideas together for y'all in one spot but I also discover some new recipes to add to my recipe box. As always on our Round-ups please share your very own Spring Drink posts in a comment so we can further share them with our readers. I love to write and that use to be my first and favorite thing about blogging but the longer and longer that I blog the more I find the best part about blogging is connecting with all of you! Enjoy these yummy Spring Drinks!

Spring Desserts & Treats

      Besides great weather, beautiful plants and flowers there are delicious Spring desserts and treats. We tend to eat different foods during different seasons, not just cause it's whats fresh and in season but its also what goes with the season like Apples & Cinnamon during the fall and Strawberries and Lemon during Spring, oh and peaches you can not forget peaches{even though it's a spring and summer food}. I love to cook and have already started meal planning a few dishes I would like to make, but first I wanted to share some desserts with y'all. The ones with the * next to them are also on my meal planning list. Hope you all enjoy and please come back and share with us your dessert.
     I always like to put my favorite or one I want to try out first on top so here it is, these beautiful cupcakes.

Spring Gardening

     Every Spring since we have bought our house I have wanted a garden, a huge garden! My grand father built a beautiful green house for when they lived here and the house set for about 5-6 years before we purchased it. Sadly, the green house is "run down" and we need to do a lot of work to it. I always say, every year, that I am going to have a garden but this year we have one, and are going to put the few veggies, melons, and flowers in the beds we already have and then next year hopeful the green house will be ready and the back yard will be prepared for planting. I'm very excited about the plans we have for that and living healthier and being more natural. This is such a change for our family but I think it is a great change. I wanted to share with you some beautiful ideas for your Spring Garden and also some great tips for gardening this Spring.

Spring Crafts - Round-Up

     I love every season except WINTER, so when Spring comes around things get back to "normal" around here! I always start feeling more crafty, colorful, outdoorsy, and all about DIY'n. I have a long list of things that I want to get done around here this Spring & Summer, but one thing as always that has to be done .... Crafts!

     As I said about ^ I have a long list of things I want to do.. I have a Pinterest Board for everything. I started going through my boards to find some Spring activities for the kids and I of course found more then I could do myself so I decided I would do a little Spring Craft Round-Up and give y'all a place where you can get ideas for you and your family and also please feel free to share any of your Spring Crafts with us. I would love to see what you're getting crafty with so leave a comment with all of your Spring Crafts.

     I'm going to share crafts for all ages from toddler to adult because if you don't love to craft in some way, shape, or form... I'm sorry we can no longer be friends :) {Just Kidding} Hope you all enjoy!

Weekly Inspiration

     This series has changed so many times but I finally think I have found exactly what it should it be. It's always been the same "topic" Inspiration for the week, starting with Amish Proverbs because I love there lifestyle, I live simply but they really understand simple living. This series has always been quotes inspiring to me and things to inspire y'all and I want to keep it that way. There is going to be minor change.

     I have been wanting to be more personal with my blog, more me. I always think a lot about what someone will think if they see a sarcastic comment, or something that I find funny, others may not, etc. When I originally started Raised Southern  I started it for me and it evolved into more and I started becoming more and more censored and not sticking to what I wanted when I started my blog. I think everyone should ALWAYS be themselves and here I am censoring and only writing general posts and only sometimes touching on personal issues but the truth is I need to share more of me, my family, and our life and of course continue the fun "general" blog posts. So I decided to change the series name {once again} and made a new series logo for it {How do you like it?} This is now going to be where I share my inspiration that is currently inspiring, encouraging, and motivating me. Hope y'all have a great week!

#JadoreDessange - The only brand of hair products you will ever need!

    


   See all this hair? Yes, it is all mine, all real, and thick! My sister-in-law while taking this picture informed me it's as thick as a horse's mane. Not only is my hair thick but it is also dyed, several different colors, while it's healthy it's not as healthy as it should be and I noticed this winter that it was really brittle and frizzy. I can literally brush my hair, look left, look right, and its back to being very tangled. I have to switch hair care products up a lot because I can't find something that I can use regularly and my hair will continue to work. Most of the time I find something I like and use it for a week, it helps my hair the first few days and we're back to tangled hair.

Not with DESSANGE Paris #JadoreDessange

When Spring Comes, Allergies come with it...

YAY - Spring is here, I'm so excited. Some days when the door is open wide, the sun is shining, and flowers are blooming I can't even work, I have to get outside. Here on the Gulf Coast all the snowbirds come here for Winter and all of us locals become hermit crabs that don't emerge until the weather warms up. Well the warm weather is here and us hermits have come out of our shell and while I did absolutely enjoy our first beach day of the 2015, these allergies have been kicking my families hiney.

{The Scott Life}

Making : Working on T-shirts with Heat Transfer vinyl! This is my first time using it so if you can remember your first time using it then you should understand my excitement. 

Cooking : I have been sick all week so I'm kinda excited to cook tonight - not go clean the kitchen first - but cooking yes. We're going to have Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, & Biscuits. Homemade, Yes, of course! 

Drinking : Gatorade, I want to keep feeling good so I can get back on track working out and being healthy!

Reading: Blogs, trying to get caught up on the week for everything. 

Wanting: - still a magical wand that will allow me to wave it and it will do the laundry, bathrooms, kitchen , & floors- I'll take care of everything else. 

Looking: Looking for a good price on a bulk buy of tumblers.

Playing: No games, no time for games currently. Maybe a family board game tonight will be played.

Wasting: time currently, I'm not ready to start cleaning so I figured I would knock a few things off my blog to do list from earlier this week. 

Sewing/Cutting: I added cutting to this because I have a Silhouette and currently I'm cutting vinyl for projects more then I am sewing.. I need more of me. 

St. Patrick's Day Homeschool Fun

     This first year of Homeschooling I can say has been rough. Well not rough as far as teaching, getting work done etc. but as far as finding what works best for us and how our home school schedule was going to run. It really took a lot of work and learning on my part of what would be best for us, my work schedule, or normal home schedule, and all our extra curricular activities. Now that things have fallen into a great routine, we are able to enjoy the fun activities and so much more. I wanted to share a few St. Patrick's Day Activities and Experiments that you can try with your class or your kids at home.
     

Just because it looks fun! Yes, it is messy but that's the definition of children, if you haven't already learned that :) and not to mention children love messy so this is a fun one for the kids. 

St. Patrick's Day Lunch Ideas

Whether you home school or your child goes to public school I have some great ideas for both for their lunches on St. Patrick's Day since it is a Tuesday. There is also some great ideas to use for the week before St. Patrick's Day. 

My daughter sometimes takes her lunch and sometimes she eats lunch at school it just all depends on what they are having. I'm going to start using these this next week for her. St. Patrick's Day Jokes

St. Patricks Day Drinks for Kids & Adults

To us adults, St. Patricks Day is all about those tasty yummy green cocktails and green beer and they sure are fun to drink. Our kids love specialty drinks too, so I had to not only share some for us adults but some fun ones for the kids also. Who doesn't love fun specialty drinks? Lets start with Breakfast!

I'm not a big avocado person but this smoothie doesn't sound too bad! Here is the Green Monster, St. Patricks Day Smoothie.

St. Patricks Day Smoothie by BeautyBlondie.com

This is also a healthy yummy shake that would be great to try out for a healthy snack.  Just looking at it makes me want to try it, the shake being healthy is just a plus! 

http://www.peanutbutterandpeppers.com/2014/03/12/yum-yum-wednesday-st-patricks-day/

YUM- Lime Sherbet Floats! - St. Patrick's Day is close to the first day of spring for us southerners so these ice cream floats will be great to keep you cool cause it's starting to warm up :) If you're up North and reading this, please enjoy cozy and warm inside your home. I hope Spring comes soon for y'all! 

How to Catch a Leprechaun...

This is a great project that can be for any class, homeschool, Sunday school, or just a fun project to do with your kids. You can find great instructions here:  http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/leprechauns/a/030501a.htm

that you can alter to fit your own specifications for your class or for your family. Then if you need additional ideas you can of course head over to one of my top favorite sites - Pinterest, and see what they have to spark your creative or your kids creativity. Here are two of my favorites. I can't wait to see what my two kids come up with. I think this will be a lot of fun for them.

http://eastcoastmommyblog.blogspot.ca/2013/03/leprechaun-trap.html

St.Patricks Day Snacks to Share at School

My children love taken gifts and treats to all their friends at school. Even though we home school this is a great treat to take to co-op or even just to make for friends and family. Plus kids love giving things to people and these are great yummy treats. 

Can't forget to let your teacher know how lucky you are have him/her. You can really make any treat you like for this one and just make a fun little tag to show your appreciation. 

http://zitzmanfam.blogspot.com/2014/03/lucky-to-have-teachers-like-you.html

Everyone wants a rainbow with gold at the end, right? I think so but since that hasn't happened to me yet, these will do. These are the cutest and everyone would be excited to have these sweet treats. Plus they are really simple to make. The kids could make these with minimal help and we all know as parents, our kids love doing anything they can do all by themselves. 

 http://lifewiththedepews.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-day-treats.html?m=1

Wanna know my favorite cereal? You guessed it Lucky Charms, and St. Patricks Day is a fun day to share these with this cute little bag topper. {Which I love to design these, they are so much fun} 

http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2012/03/teacher-feature-cupcake-for-teacher_04.html

Looking for a different rainbow with a pot of gold at the end? Here are skittles with the delicious Hersheys Chocolate at the end, instead of the fruit slices, marshmallows, and Rolos as above. I think these are both cute ways to share St. Patricks Day with all your classmates, friends, and family.

http://www.littlebitfunky.com/2013/02/give-rainbow-free-stpatricks-day.html

Here is a rainbow that is a little different but just as adorable as the other treats to share at school. 

- http://www.icanteachmychild.com/rainbow-and-pot-of-gold-treat/

     It is always fun to make and do things for others, and St. Patricks Day gives you a reason to make a special treat for your son or daughters class or if you home school, for your co-op or family and friends. Just a nice little treat to brighten up someones day. 

Hope you have a great week! 

St. Patricks Day Treats

As I've said before, my favorite part of any holiday, even little ole St. Patricks Day is baking & cooking the special holiday desserts and meals. Here are some treats that I look forward to making in the future. Many of these would even be great to have over the Summer or if you are having a rainbow themed birthday. Here are some of my favorites, especially the sandwich bread. Which one are you looking forward to making?

These are fun and great for the kids to help make. They will love adding all the colors and enjoy this tasty treat. Head over to Crazy for Crust for the full recipe.

http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2014/03/rainbow-palmiers/

     These will be such a special surprise breakfast. Maybe if you're trying to catch a Leprechaun and you don't succeed these can be a little gift they leave for breakfast. How Delicious!