Friday Favorites September 4 Edition

Ahhhhh, welcome September! It's still 100++ here and doesn't remotely feel like fall, but it should be down into the upper 80's before October hits, so fall will come eventually. Eventually... Right? It has to at some point - right?! I digress with the weather. Let's get right into those Friday Favorites for September 4, shall we?

1) Bloggers talk all the time about their goals, but I've never set any and mentioned them here - either personal or blog-wise. I decided to hit some milestones this September so I can continue to grow and learn new bloggy things! Here they are, so I'm held accountable for them:

• Reach 1k followers on Pinterest
• Optimize my AdSense account. Last month I made a whopping $3.89 with it - I KNOW it can do better, because my BlogHer and click-links do far, far better! (Any tips here are welcome)
• Get my Young Living essential oils distributor/order info added to the sidebar of my blog and publish my first informative post

2) It's finally September, so we can finally start to watch horror movies on Friday nights (I know, we're crazy with the social life right?) I LOVE scary movies. Love them. Countdown is on to when I decorate the house for fall/Halloween. Is that the most basic thing I've written on this blog? Perhaps.

3) I'm now 6 months pregnant and stuck sleeping on my side. I'm NOT a side sleeper. I am decidedly a back sleeper. So this transition is tough - with Henry, I would wake up with intense shoulder and ear cartilage pain. When we moved, we bought a fancy Tempurpedic mattress, and the sales guy threw in some pillows for us. This Tempurpedic pillow is saving my pregnant life! It's amazing. No earaches. No shoulder pain. Pregnancy pillows are for the birds y'all, get yourself a Tempurpedic pillow when you're pregnant!

Amazing pregnancy Tempurpedic pillow

4) Facebook algorithms have changed again, y'all! This is definitely not a "favorite" for me this week, but if I can prevent any of you from making the same mistake, it will be worth it. If you're a member of blogging groups, beware of how many links you "like" from one post. I was doing a reciprocation thread, and was on my third day of spreading it out to avoid "Facebook jail" (you know, when they strip your ability to "like" fan pages). I STILL got hit and got my privileges taken away for 30 days! Facebook thinks I'm a robot. Jerks. They've adjusted things so that if all your likes come from one URL (for example, a follow-all thread) it will take note no matter how much you spread it out. It happened to 10 other blogging friends this week too! So bloggers and promoters of other blogs/content, beware.

Makes it a real good time to focus on Pinterest instead though, doesn't it?! Are you following me yet? Let's be friends! I follow back :)

5) I've started my education courses on Young Living essential oils! I can't wait to share with y'all how to use them, blend them, wear them, diffuse them and clean with them for better health. I'll turn y'all into some crunchy hippies yet! Or, you'll sit there and laugh at me. Whatevs. If you give them a try I know you'll be a convert, too!

What's everyone up to this weekend? I hope there are fun things in store for you! We go on our babymoon to Cape Cod next weekend and I'm SO excited to get away with hubs for a bit (and leave the toddler, home and contractor management to our folks who are coming to stay with us. Thanks mom!)

Linking up with Amanda, Karli, April and H54F!

How I Get My Toddler To Sleep By 7pm Every Night

Recently, I've seen many friends on social media complain about how they can't get their young children to go to sleep. Repeatedly. One of my sweet yogi friends even sat down with me last week and asked, "Ok Paige, HOW do you get Henry to bed so early every night?" That's it, I thought! Time to tell all the struggling parents how I get my toddler to sleep by 7pm. Every. Single. Night. No. Struggle.

Yes, this post contains parenting advice. Yes, I have some really strong, strong opinions about this - some that span beyond a simplistic bedtime. Consider yourself warned.

First things first: After your child is out of the "4th trimester" (aka s/he is older than three to four months old), why in the heck are you reading, rocking, nursing, bottle feeding, bouncing, singing or otherwise "entertaining" your baby to sleep?! Do you want to be bounced to sleep? Do you want people talking/cooing to you as you attempt to drift off? Oh, you don't? Me either. So why would your child?

Bet you didn't think about it like that before, did you?

Here's the thing: Yes, when a baby is brand new, they cry when they need you, and as much as it stinks, you gotta get your butt out of bed and see what they need. But as I mentioned, starting around the three to four month mark, they've learned (because I'm telling you, babies are SMART) that you come when they make noise. So by this point, if you're STILL going to them every. single. time. he or she cries, you're teaching that baby that s/he runs the show - that you'll drop what you're doing and tend to him or her, even when that baby needs NOTHING.

If that doesn't sound like a big deal to you, allow me to explain. A baby that thinks the world revolves around them turns into a toddler that thinks the world revolves around them. Toddlers throw tantrums. So whenever that toddler doesn't get EXACTLY what s/he wants, it will turn into a scream fest because hey! It's worked his entire life. Then that toddler will turn into a child who still thinks the world revolves around her. You'll be extremely frustrated wondering why your daughter is "that child" who can't be brought anywhere because if she's not content, NOBODY is content. Fast forward a few years, and there is no alcohol strong enough to save you from that a-hole teenager! And as an adult? There is simply nothing worse than an adult who still thinks the world revolves around him! Trust me, I've dated a few. Past tense intentional there.

The world does, in fact, revolve around the sun. So when and how do you gently and slowly teach your baby/toddler/child this? You start with bedtime!

Remember this: YOU are the parent. You make the rules. You decide when bedtime is. And once you've made those decisions, you're the one responsible for sticking with it and being consistent.

How I get Henry to sleep every night by 7pm is extremely easy. In fact, it's the easiest thing yet about parenting! It's also (sometimes) the biggest pain in the a$$.

Here's how I did it: Starting when Henry was four months old (he was a month premature, so that's an age-adjusted three month old) I started putting him in his bassinet AWAKE at 7pm. The room would be cool, dark and a noise machine would be gently going in the background. Every night, without fail, I did this. I'd look at the clock, and give him 20 minutes of crying time. If he hadn't fallen asleep in those 20 minutes, I'd go back and check on him.

Important! I would NOT rock, sing, bounce, or feed him. I would simply peek in on him, make sure he wasn't stuck in an awkward position, make sure he was the right temperature, and make sure that he hadn't spit up on himself. Then I'd leave and shut the door behind me. I'd "set the clock" again for another 20 minutes and repeat if necessary. I can't for the life of me remember any time it took him longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep - not because he is a good sleeper (he's terrible, in fact) but because he had zero stimulus and quickly learned that even if he fussed, I would not go back and provide him any. I'd simply check to make sure he was ok and his situation was good, and leave. That's it.

Babies need over 16 hours of sleep a day. What is YOUR child's bedtime, and is he getting enough sleep?

As a final note, I mentioned consistency. This is the MOST important part! You have to keep the time consistent, every single night, and you have to keep what you do consistent, every single night. Where this method becomes a pain in the a$$ is on the weekends, when you want to go out and do things! We approach it one of two ways: either we go out early and get home in time for that 7pm bedtime, or we have the sitter come at 7pm and push back our own dinner/plans. Either way, Henry's routine is the same, every night. I would also note that when my husband travels, or comes home from work late, I don't keep Henry up for him. Even if his flight will get him home at 7:15pm and he hasn't seen Henry for a few days, Lil' H is out by 7pm. Period. It's tough to put our own wants as parents aside for our little ones, but if you want a well behaved, well rested child, that's exactly what you do: You create a consistent routine for them.

As you can see, getting my toddler to bed by 7pm every night is both the most simple thing in the world and can also be the biggest pain. It's not about me or my plans. It's about delivering consistency for Henry. When there's no bedtime surprises FOR him, there's no bedtime surprises FROM him.

Shaklee Nontoxic Cleaning Products and Promo Code

We all know I'm a tad crunchy. But time and again, something even my noncrunchy friends and I can agree on is that we don't want chemical cleaners littering our home - for various reasons. Some don't see the harm in them yet don't want their children or pets to get into them, some (myself included) don't want the chemicals lining the surfaces of everything my family and I touch, everyday. Jessica reached out to me to try Shaklee nontoxic cleaning products AND wanted to give my readers the hookup with free shipping, so I was happy to oblige her and give these products a try!

First, the starter kit from Shaklee includes EVERYTHING you'll need to clean any and all parts of your home. They left nothing out, including awesome quality sponges, rags, scrub brushes and measuring tools and a carry-all to make going from room to room easier.

You get a bottle of concentrated general cleaner, and instructions on how to mix it with water to make a general surface cleaner, window/glass cleaner and a more powerful degreaser. Like I mentioned, the measuring tools are provided for you and the spray bottles are labeled, so you just mix it up! I think it took me all of about two minutes.

I was immediately intrigued by how powerful the degreaser could be, so I got to cleaning my microwave. While I'm crunchy, I'm also realistic and accept that many times organic/nontoxic cleaners don't hold up to conventional products. Not so with these! Cut through the grease like a charm. Up next is my stove top!

I really like how they also included laundry products. I'm SUPER allergic to Downy/scented conventional laundry products, so we're a "scent free" home. Did you know that the fragrance conventional brands add to laundry products is toxic?! It contains formaldehyde. That's why you're not supposed to use it for baby's clothes and if you break out in a sudden rash, your doctor asks if you've recently switched up detergents. Why would you want that on the biggest organ in your body (your skin) or to be breathing that in all day long?! Gross.

There's also "dupe" type products included. My hubs really loves easy to use disinfectant wipes for quick counter top wipe downs, so I was thrilled when they included a nontoxic alternative for him to use.

I was impressed with everything Shaklee offered in their cleaning starter kit. While sometimes (and, honestly, sometimes it's more than just sometimes!) nontoxic cleaning supplies don't hold their weight to conventional, chemical laden brands, Shaklee's products were great! No harsh smells, no chemicals pregnant women or children shouldn't be touching (even if it is just residue on the surface of what you've cleaned!) and products that work.

Interested in checking these out for yourself and ditching that cabinet full of toxic crap? Jessica is offering FREE SHIPPING when you order through her Shaklee shop site! If you have any questions about a certain product you see here, feel free to reach out to her directly via email or her Facebook page. She's a lovely person and responds quickly!

Guys, I know I'm in my peace circle over here singing songs after I practice yoga (not really, but I totally would if anyone wants to hang out like that) but I can't stress this enough: Get rid of those harmful chemicals in your cleaning cabinet. Get on the nontoxic bandwagon for your sake, your children's sake, your pet's sake and the environment's sake!

DON'T LET THIS BE YOU!

*I was provided these products complimentary in exchange for this blog post. All opinions are my own, the products were reviewed by me personally and all text and images are copyrighted to An Uncomplicated Life Blog.