Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Oil + Planting Trees and a Giveaway

Posted by becky on May 15, 2013 in Current Giveaways, Giveaways, Housewifery | 39 comments

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. No money was offered nor accepted.
I did receive a bottle of Eucalyptus Oil and some gardening supplies.

I adore the smell of Eucalyptus Oil. If it’s in the house, I go mad using it anyway I can. I find the scent so soothing when the cooler months are upon us and now that Autumn has finally arrived in our little town I have been using it daily.

It’s one of those things you can use so many ways, so I thought today I would share my three current favourite ways to use Eucalyptus Oil.

Give my dishwasher a clean and rinse.

This is really simple and effective. Fill the soap dispenser with about 2 tablespoons of bi-carb, add a teaspoon of Eucalyptus Oil to that and fill the rinse aid with white vinegar. Run your empty dishwasher on it’s hottest cycle and you’re done. Your dishwasher will now smell fresh and clean (if it doesn’t you might need to do a more thorough clean).

Help snuffly children sleep.

We now have two children diagnosed with Asthma and seem to have one or the other, if not both, snuffly and struggling to breathe every other week. To promote better sleep and help relieve their stuffy noses, I rub a small amount of Eucalyptus Oil onto their back and chest as well as popping a little on the underside of their pillow.

Freshen laundry.

The only redeeming thing about having to use my father-in-law’s twin tub while my washing machine was out of commission was the cap full of Eucalyptus Oil I would add to the wash, filling my home with it’s delicious scent. Now, I am back using my front loader and still adding the oil for lovely fresh clothes while keeping dust mites at bay.

Bosisto’s is my go to brand for Eucalyptus Oil and now, with their aim to plant a million trees in 2013, there is more reason to purchase their products.

 Bosisto’s new plantations will help support local farms and farmers while benefiting the environment – reducing salinity and lowering harmful CO2 emissions. Plus, it means more premium quality Australian grown oil, at a price everyone can afford.

Want to be involved? Simply purchase any specially marked Bosisto’s 100% pure Oil or Solution and Bosisto’s will plant a tree for you.

I love that Eucalyptus harvesting is a naturally renewable and sustainable process which is beneficial to the environment. This is the kind of project I want my family and I to support, which is a good thing as we’re almost out!

Bosisto’s have kindly offered me two of these amazing prize packs, each valued at $225, to giveaway. They’re absolutely choc full of goodies. I wish I could enter!

The packs contain;

• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Spray
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Oil 200mL
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Oil 100mL
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Oil 50mL
• Bosisto’s EucoSteam Inhalant 200mL
• Bosisto’s EucoSteam Inhaler combo
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Rub 35g
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Rub 250g
• Bosisto’s Antiseptic Spray 55mL
• Bosisto’s Nasal Spray 50mL
• Bosisto’s Nasal Inhaler 1g
• Bosisto’s Eucalyptus sugar-free drops
• Bosisto’s Tea Tree Spray 100g
• Bosisto’s Lavender Spray 100g
• Bosisto’s Foot Powder 100g
• Bosisto’s Cough Syrup 200mL
• Eucalyptus Oil – Australia’s Natural Wonder book
• Bosisto’s environmentally friendly carry bag
• Bosisto’s Parrot soft toy

To enter, simply use the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find out more about Bosisto’s and their plantation project on their site or like them on Facebook to keep up to date.

Hosted by Three Lil Princesses

Wordless Wednesday: Down by the River

Posted by becky on May 15, 2013 in Photography | 5 comments

A quiet moment in my childhood town

Linking with Trish for Wordless Wednesday

The Perfect Age Gap

Posted by becky on May 14, 2013 in Musings, Parenting | 18 comments

Once you have your first child and decide you will, in fact, have another little squishy, adorable non-sleeping, colic-having bringer of exhaustion you start to think about that ‘perfect age gap’ between siblings and when to bring a new baby into your family.

As the first of four children with age gaps of 2, 10 and 12 years I have always been adamant that I wanted my kids close together. It’s not that I don’t love my brothers and the family dynamic but I did spend a lot of time feeling like I was missing out on things because I was looking after my younger brothers.

Once I had Ellie, I was determined not to have a big age gap. Just thinking about getting to a stage where your babies have grown up enough to be independent, at school and sleeping through the night, not to mention being on the cusp of the terrible teenage years (I was horrible) only to be thrown back into the exhaustion of newborn days sent shivers down my spine. That does not sound fun.

There is also a large gap between James and his younger sister, so he was on the same page as me in terms of having our children close. And, once Ellie was here, he was so completely enthralled with her that he was ready to have a new baby almost immediately.

Fifteen and a half months after Ellie, Kahlei arrived and 23 months after that Jasper came along. Within 3 years and 3 months we had completed our family (because James says so).

We wanted them to be close, to be friends and to get the ‘harder’ bits out of the way (although, in hind sight, having to deal with two three year olds one after the other didn’t thrill me) and, for us, our choice seems to be perfect. It’s hard and exhausting and, often times relentless but it’s also wonderful and amazing and beautiful.

They are good friends and, when they’re not fighting (which is happening a whole lot since school began), it’s something that fills my heart. Look at them, all cute and stuff.

But.

I didn’t think about some pretty serious repercussions of having them so close together. My biggest one at this time is the fact that Ellie only just started school this year and next year I will have to send Kahlei. Right now, I wish I could go back and make them all at least two years apart. I’m not ready. Jasper is not ready. He is going to be crushed when he realises his beloved Rora is going to be leaving him daily just as his beloved Ellie did.

And in 3 and a half years they will all have started. This is not what I signed up for and I am finding it quite difficult.

At the end of last week I washed, ironed and put away Ellie’s first ever school uniform for Kahlei. She’s already grown out of it and it’s been a little tartan reminder that in about 8 months my baby girl will be going off to school, that things will again be changing dramatically, that things will never be as they once were.

It’s now that you realise that there’s really no such thing as the perfect age gap. You just make what you have work. There are times when it’s harder physically, emotionally, mentally. There are times when it’s exactly as you had dreamed it would be, smiles and giggles and warm moments.

I predict I will again be revisiting this mopey feeling just after Ellie hits her teens and then, again (again) just after Ellie gets her L’s. And so it goes.

What is the age gap between your children? Do you ever feel like it’s too much/not enough?

Wordless Wednesday: The Weekend

Posted by becky on May 8, 2013 in Photography | 10 comments

I switched off for some of the weekend and even put my DSLR away to enjoy my family but here are two from Sunday afternoon.

All ready for her first school friend birthday party

Hanging with Nanna

Linking with Trish for Wordless Wednesday

Smile File: April

Posted by becky on May 7, 2013 in Life Stuff, Smile File | 12 comments

We all know that, sometimes, life can be tough. It can be dark. It can be sad and the news is always geared toward the bad, the sensational. I have started ‘collecting smiles’ and filing them away. I strongly believe these moments that I file away to help on the harder days should be shared.

So, I wanted to start a monthly feature here highlighting the good, the fun, the smiles because I know they’re out there. It might be personal good news, it might be something I’ve seen on Facebook or anything else I find during the month.

I was inspired to document the month differently as I was putting together my March in Review post where I was reviewing Ruby Who and in my research I came upon The 30 Day Filming Project created by Hailey Bartholomew and Sue Bryce and it got me excited to try a new way of sharing my smiles.

So, this month, I have taken to capturing and sharing my smiles by using the video on my phone to record moments and then I have edited them all together into a little ‘snippet of April’. I kind of love how it turned out. It’s not great quality and it’s not award winning work (in fact, most of the time I am not watching what I am shooting on screen as I want to be ‘in’ the moment and just capture what I can from random angles) but it does what it’s meant it, makes me smile.

But, first, I did find two gems online which literally had me ROLFing;

Source

Actors without teeth. Creepy yet hilarious.

Via Pinterest

This. Oh. My. Gosh. It still cracks me up, every time.

I don’t know if this is how I will continue with these posts but I feel like I will keep it up for a few months. It’s fun!

And, now, I want to ask you to join me in documenting your smiles for June (since May’s practically halfway through). June is my birthday month, I will be 30 and I will need as many of you sharing smiles as possible, because THIRTY, people. I will be doing my normal Smile File post on the 2nd of July but will be sharing other moments via Instagram and facebook with the #JuneSmileFile hash tag. Please feel free to join in however you like. Video, photos, daily/weekly posts… Join me in finding the good.