{Spring Fever VoxBox Coutesy of Influenster}

About a week ago I received my first VoxBox from Infulenster, the Spring Fever Vox Box.  I was so excited to be chosen for the box.  I just love trying new products.  Here is the short video of me opening the box.




My son already stole the TastyKake:



I will let you all know how the other items work out.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

Can I Just Not Be A Grownup Anymore?

This is SO how I feel right now.  I have been struggling with my 3 1/2 yr old son's behavior.  I finally decided to talk to his doctor, who referred him to a behavioral health clinic.  We had an intake with a therapist who said he is probably ADHD/ODD, but she wouldn't be his therapist.  He was assigned to someone else.  What the what?! He's only 3!  She asked if we wanted medication and we said that would be a last resort and we really wanted behavioral/family therapy.  She told us our next an appointment would be with a psychiatrist.

Fast forward to the appointment.  It was by tele-med.  Which means he wasn't on-site, but was using a video system to meet with us.  I figured he was at another clinic in the state.  Nope.  He was in Thailand.  Yes, you read that right.  He asked us a few questions about Jaxon's behavior and then told us that Tenex would be what he would prescribe.  What?  Medication?  I asked him how that would help and he said it would slow him down, it also slows down the heart.  It's a blood pressure medicine. No one has even had therapy sessions with him to see if behavioral therapy would work.  We told him we were not interested in medication at this time and he them proceeded to treat us like we wasted his time.  THEN, at the front desk they said if we didn't have a follow-up with the psychiatrist, we would need to call for an appointment.  Uhm, I thought we had been assigned a therapist at the initial consultation.  SO UPSET.

Anyway, just needed to vent.  If you need me, look in the fort.  Bring your own crayons.

Thanks for stopping by (and listening to my rant),
Natosha

P.S.   Don't get me wrong.  I am not anti-medicine.  I just want to try everything else there might be to help my son before I put him on a medicine designed for adults.  If that includes therapy, diet, a new school.  Whatever it takes.  If that doesn't work, and he is older with the same behaviors, then I would consider medication.  Any suggestions?

{Hair Ecstasy - Argan Oil Hair Polisher} - A Review

I have a great product that I want to introduce you to.  It is Hair Ecstasy's Argan Oil Hair Polish.  If you are familiar with or follow the latest beauty news then you have heard of Argan Oil.  It has been nicknamed "Miracle Oil" or "liquid gold."  Why?

Argan oil hydrates hair in a natural way.  It helps to restore elasticity.  It restores smoothness to unmanageable and uncontrollable hair.  It has vitamin E which helps renew and restore hair damaged by using tools such as a flat iron or blow dryer.  It cures brittle hair and helps extend the life of your colored hair.

Hair Ecstasy offers the Argan Oil Shine Polisher for $3.49 (2 oz size).

My hair is fine and thick.  I am growing out a perm and I colored it myself a couple of months ago.  I also started using a flat iron.  So, it has some damage.  It tends to want to stick up where it shouldn't.  Here's what my hair looks like after I have washed it and it has air dried.  There are no products in my hair.

See how it looks kind of bushy.  Not cool.  I placed about a dime-sized amount of the Polisher into the palm of my hair and rubbed my hands together to heat the oil and spread it evenly on my hands.  Next I smoothed it lightly on the top part of my hair.  Then I flipped my head upside down and worked the oil through my hair and spent a little extra time working it into the ends of my hair.  It has a pleasant musky scent.

See how smooth and shiny my hair is after using the polisher?  I was impressed and it didn't leave my hair feeling oily.  I then proceeded to flat iron my hair and the product worked great.

I definitely recommend Hair Ecstasy's Argan Oil Hair Polisher. Hair Ecstasy offers a full line of hair products including additional hair polishers, flat irons, hair conditioners, pomades, skin care and more.  To order the Argan Oil Hair Polisher or another product, go to their website:  hairecstasy.com.

The nice people over at Hair Ecstasy have generously offered my readers $10 off a $50 purchase.  Just use this code:  Sgirl10.  The special code is good through June 30th.  If you order a product and love it, let me know.

If you would like to follow Hair Ecstasy, here is the information:

Facebook and Twitter

*I received free product in order to do this review.  All opinions are 100% mine and honest.*

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

I'm Afraid of Not Leaving A Legacy

Hello friends!  Today is my birthday!  Yay!  I am 42 today.  I wish you were here at the office because I brought donuts to celebrate.  Ok, enough of that.

Today is day 7 of the Blog Every Day in May Challenge.


Day 7:  The thing(s) you are most afraid of:

I am deathly afraid of spiders.



I am also afraid I will not leave behind a legacy of goodness.  This world is full of darkness, pain and suffering.  My biggest fear is not being a big enough light.  Of not raising my son to do the same.  I don't care if I am personally remembered.  I just want to do enough, listen enough, love enough to change peoples lives and hopefully change the world.  Even just a little.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

{Life Is Not Fair} & {A Moment}

May 8:  A piece of advice.
Life is not fair and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can get on with it.

May 9:  A Moment.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

{What Do You Do?}

May 6:  Today's prompt is:  If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'what do you do?'



* I cook pretty good meals (most of the time).

* I watch Disney Jr with my son (a little too much).

* I garden, can, craft, sing and journal.

* I mother.

* I pamper animals.

* I befriend who I am able.

* I listen.

* I love.

* I spend as much time as possible with my family.

* I mess up (a lot).

* I see most things in a positive, 1/2 full kind of way.

* I give grace, not because I am good or perfect, but because it was given to me.

* I lose my temper and yell (rarely, but watch out).

* I laugh every day and sometimes I cry.

So, what do you do?


Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

Menu Plan Monday

I am doing the Prevention 28-Day Challenge.  (Menu is HERE.)  Here is their dinner menu:

Monday:  Asian Tuna (I'll use tilapia because I can't get my hands of good fresh tuna.) You broil your fish then top with a dressing made of ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil.  Serve with soba noodles tossed with cooked bok choy and sprinkled with cashews.

Tuesday:  Pepper steak served with baby red potatoes and grilled asparagus.

Wednesday:  Store-bought vegetarian lasagna served with a green salad.

Thursday:  Spicy Shrimp and Rice.  Grilled shrimp tossed with rice and black beans.  Served with steamed broccoli.

Friday:  Chicken kabob, quinoa and salad.  Chicken, tomato, onion and mushroom kebobs served with quinoa and a romaine and avocado salad.

Saturday:  Broiled Filet-Mignon served with a baked potato and brussels sprouts.

Sunday:  Lemon Chicken.  Chicken cooked with shredded cabbage, olive oil and lemon juice.  Add chicken stock and serve over whole wheat pasta.

If there is a particular dinner you are interested in, let me know in the comments and I will post the directions.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

Linking up here:

My Favorite Quote and a Profession of Love

Eeek, behind again.  It looks like I may do 2 posts at a time.  Lol.

Blog Every (other) Day in May

May 4th:  My favorite Quote

That's hard because I have several I love.  

Two of my favorite are from Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician born around 1623.

"The heart has it's reasons of which reason knows nothing."  A lot of times what you feel doesn't make since.  That's just the way it is.

"There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled with any created thing but only by God, the creator, made known through Jesus."  We search for things or people to make us happy and to fill us, but we are never filled.

Two of my favorite from Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger.  He was a Roman Stoic philosopher born around 4 BC.

"Anger:  an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."  So many times we stay angry for wrongs done to us, while the person or thing that caused the anger or wrong is oblivious and unaffected by our anger.

"Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart."  I have this one hanging in my office at work to remind me to be grateful for what I have.

May 5th: A Profession of Love

She not a bloggy friend, but a writer of one of the first blogs I started reading.  She has a blog dedicated to cake mis-haps, Cake Wrecks.  Sundays are dedicated to beautiful cakes, "Sweets."  But the rest of the week, well, just follow my advice and DO NOT drink coffee as you glimpse these wrecks because you will spill, spurt and burn.  Through Cake Wrecks I found her personal blog, EPBOT.  In her words it all about "Geekery, Girliness and Goofing Off."

Her name is Jen and I love her.  She is honest, vulnerable, funny, crafty, witty.  I wish I could meet her and her lovely hubby John.  When I first discovered EPBOT, I read for hours.  She's a proud geek.  She loves to read.  She makes awesomely beautiful jewelry out of smashed pennies!!  You should check out her blogs.  Really.  Go.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

Asian Chicken Soup with Soba Noodles {Prevention 28-Day Challenge Recipe}

I am doing the Prevention 28-Day Challenge and this soup was on the meal plan for lunch today.  It was SUPER easy to whip up.  I made it this morning before breakfast. (I had baked an extra chicken breast last night.)  You can see the complete meal plan HERE.

Asian Chicken Soup

(1 serving)

2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

1/2 sup cooked soba (buckwheat) noodles (these are my favorite)

3 oz diced cooked chicken

1 Tbs thinly sliced green onions

1/2 tsp minced garlic

Cook soba noodles as directed on package.  While noodles are cooking, add everything else to a pot and warm on medium heat.  Add soba noodles and heat for another minute or until noodles are warm.  I know the recipe calls for low-sodium broth, but I needed some salt.  So season to taste with salt and pepper.  

This soup was so yummy and light.  I had half and apple for desert and some hot green tea with it.  We are having another cold snap of weather (from 80 down to 50) so this warm soup was just what I needed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

Day 2 and 3 {Yep, I'm Already Behind}

Blog Every Day In May Challenge

Day 2:  Educate us on something you know a lot about.

Since I'm a day behind, I'm not gonna educate you, but inform you of something that I am an expert at.  I am an expert at installing ankle monitors on juvenile delinquents.  I absolutely hate the monitors, but probably not as much as the kids who are wearing them.   : P

Day 3:  Thing that make you uncomfortable.

1.  I get really uncomfortable when my mom or an aunt or uncle (someone really close to me and older) starts to tell me intimately personal things about themselves or their spouse or the two of them together.  I don't know if any of you have experienced this.  It's like you are their best friend instead of the child.  I know I am almost 42, but I'm still my momma's little girl and I DO NOT want or need to hear certain details about her life.  Uncomfortable and awkward. 

2.  Seeing a homeless person with a sign asking for food or money.  I want to help them, but I don't have a lot of money and their are no shelters in our county.  I usually buy some food and give it to them.  Why does that make me feel uncomfortable and a little guilty?  Maybe because I am blessed.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

Day 1: The Story of My Life In 250 Words or Less {Blog Every Day in May Challenge}

Day 1:  The Story of My Life In 250 Words or Less

So, while reading through the list of blogs I follow, I stumbled upon Jenni at Story of My Life.  She issued a challenge to bloggers to blog every day in May.  If you want to participate, go HERE for a complete list of daily prompts.

So, I was born in Searcy, Arkansas in 1971.  (Yeah, I'll be 42 on the 7th.)  I went to elementary and high school in a tiny community outside of Searcy.  There were 8 kids in my graduating class.  I was the only girl. That's a whole other story.

I went to college at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.  I received my B.S. in Psychology with an emphasis in counseling.  I moved to Abilene Texas where I began graduate school at Hardin-Simmons University.  I didn't finish.  Wish I had.

Moved back to Arkansas, got married to my college sweetheart.  Got divorced.  Very sad time.  

I have worked at Wal-Mart, an office and school supply store, 2 battered women's shelters, a foster family agency, 2 hospitals, a dialysis clinic, and a non-profit community services clinic.

I met Mike and we moved to California where we I lived in Kelseyville for five years.  I was a social worker for a foster family agency.  I worked with foster children and certified foster homes.   I got pregnant in 2009 and had our son Jaxon on 11/24/09.

We moved back to Arkansas to take care of my parents.  I worked at my uncle's wholesale florist until I got my job as a caseworker for juvenile delinquents.  So now I work with kids involved with the court.  I manage community service, install ankle monitors and help kids getting out of youth prison.  

My son is 3 1/2, we live out in the country.  When I have time I love to craft, DIY and cook.  I'm pretty sure I went over 250 words!

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha