Oh my goodness!! Summer is flying by and I really need it to slow down!! What a busy and fun summer we have had though! We have been camping, took our first official "family vacation", survived t-ball and our gardens are the best they have ever been!
First our camping trip. What fun we had! We took our 4 kids, my sister-n-law, her husband their 3 kids, my other sister-n-law and my husband's cousin and his wife and 2 kids and we went to Sycamore Springs. If you have not had the chance to go you should! It is in English. So not a far trip and it is completely FREE!!!!! They have primitive camping and camper hook ups. They provide all the electricity, water & fire wood. They have the nicest shower houses and bathrooms that I have ever been in!! They come around twice a day and empty all the trash cans. They have several shelter houses where you can reserve them for birthday parties, reunions etc. They also have very, very nice playgrounds! They have bike trails for the kids and adults. My kids' favorite was a great big tunnel you could ride bikes through. The whole campground has a creek winding through it. We spent a lot of time in the creek. We all spent one afternoon wading through it catching crawdads. Which we had later that night for supper. They were really good to eat and really easy to fix!! I am sure that will be something we do again! They also had a really neat little hike. You pulled yourself up the side of a hill about 100 yards with a rope, then you walk across a grated bridge overlooking rock cliffs and come back down a spiral staircase! This chic kept her feet planted safely at the bottom but the rest loved it!!
Next we went on our family vacation. My mother and father-in-law are going to be celebrating their 35th Wedding Anniversary in November. So they wanted all of us to go down to Gatlinburg and stay in a cabin for 4 nights. It was fun but with 20 people staying in the same cabin it was hectic!!! Anywhere we all go is a little chaotic to say the least. There are 7 grandkids that are 5 and under, 1 10 year old and 1 15 year old. On this particular trip the 10 and 15 year olds each had a friend along too!! We left our house on a Wednesday morning at 5:30 am and by the time all the bathroom stops and lunch stops and let me out of this car before someone gets hurt stops we finally made it to our cabin at a little after 5:00 pm! We made supper and settled in and called it a night!
The next morning we did breakfast got 20 people ready and headed to the aquarium. It is a very neat attraction and we did enjoy it. They had penguins and they were a lot of fun to watch. The tunnel you go through was probably our favorite. You ride a conveyor belt through a tunnel where every kind of marine life you can think of swims all around you. It was fun and the kids enjoyed seeing all of the animals but for a mom with four kids who is really never in a crowd (except every other week when I contain all 4 kids to a shopping cart and brave Wal-Mart) it was nerve racking!!!! After we were done we went to Cooters to race go carts and play miniature golf. The kids loved racing go carts. It was worth it just to see their faces! As for the miniature golf if you have a 5, 4, 3 &1 year old you should just bypass this and save your money!!!
Friday we all went to the Rocky Mountain Knife Works. My kids had a ball here. My 5 year old son had been looking forward to this for months!! He had told everyone that he was getting a knife and there were really only 2 things he was looking for in a good pocket knife...it needed to have 2 blades and a pair of scissors to cut his popsicles open!! What a mess! So he found himself a Swiss Army Knife and declared to the store that "this is the one!" After the Knife Works Store we headed down the strip in search of Cowboy Boots. We ended up at a store where you bought one pair and got 2 free!!! Jackpot!! We left with my son and oldest 2 daughters all a brand new pair of boots for school!!! We headed back to the cabin and took the kids swimming.
Saturday we all did different things. Several went White Water Rafting and Ziplining. I cannot wait to be able to take our crew White Water Rafting! I don't know if any Rafting Company will be ready for that :) We decided to take our kids over the mountains into North Carolina to a Cherokee Indian Reservation! We all had a great time! They demonstrate all their dances and have a little village set up. They take you through a tour and tell you all about their day to day lives!! The most intelligent thing I have heard in a long time came from a young male Indian who was describing how long it took to make a canoe (which was anywhere from 6 months to a year!) "It's only time and that's all we got" How much more peaceful would life be if we could only incorporate that way of thinking in to our everyday lives!!
Sunday was spent driving home to our sweet, sweet dead end road in Dexter!!!
Some of the things that could only happen to our chaotic crew on vacation:
First we rented a cabin where the 11 kids could not go outside and play! We had a cabin that set right on a 300 foot drop!
Second the power was out for about 4 hours Friday afternoon! What do you do with that many kids in a hot dark cabin when they can't go outside? Take them to the basement and have a haunted house!! What else?
Third, the cabin was suppose to have a theater room in it. Ours simply just did not work. We jumped through several hoops to try but it just never panned out. Really it worked out for the best because we could not have fit everyone in the theater and the living room worked great!
And lastly on our way home about 1/4 of us came down with the stomach bug and puked all the way home! MEMORIES!!!!
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
I'm Back!
I was looking through my past posts and realized that I have not written anything for about 3 months! My goodness time flies!!! But really we have had so much going on! I will start with the biggest news: We have been blessed yet again and will be having our 5th child in November!! This came as a bit of a surprise for all of us but we really could not be happier! As you can imagine it has been very hectic here. I usually stay pretty sick during my pregnancies and having 4 children who need you on top of that pretty much has taken all of my time and energy! But now that I am 12 weeks along I am starting to feel a little better and have a little more energy!
For those that don't know we live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Needless to say we are running out of room!! And with another on the way we have been feverishly trying to decide how to add on to our existing home. I would say that we have ironed out about 80% of the details and are well on our way to set of blueprints :) Oh happy day!! We are now saving and hoping to add on as we go in the next 2-3 years!
We have also been working on getting the gardens ready. Our back garden has been tilled and planted with 65 lbs of seed potatoes and 3 lbs of onion sets. We still have to make some raised beds for our carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I am also wanting to start a few herbal beds. We have been unable to really do anything to our front garden as of yet due to the rain. But within the next two weeks we are hoping that everything cooperates. My husband and I are both itching to get our tomatoes, peppers, green beans, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and gourds in the ground!
We have added a few more animals to the farm as well. The first week of April we bought 5 baby ducks (one for each child). They are so cute but boy can they make a STINKY mess!! That week we also traveled way down into Kentucky to pick up two saanen nannies who each had a set of twins. They are amazing and we are once again getting close to a gallon of milk a day!!! Of course with new babies the kids had to stake claim. We had 3 nanny kids and a billy. Our son chose the frailest nanny baby and named her Sweet Pea. The two oldest girls chose the other two nanny babies naming them Princess Fiona and Dora. Sadly two days after we got the goats Sweet Pea passed away. We have always had animals on the farm and many of them have came and gone. My son must just be at the age where he is just understanding the process of life because he took this so hard. It is one of the hardest and yet most important lessons you have to teach a kid on a farm! However, we had a small funeral in which I hand painted a marker for his Sweet Pea. He is still picking her flowers and taking to her! Such a sweet heart he has :) He has now staked claim to the billy baby naming him Shrek. Only after a long talk though. It had to be explained to him that we are unable to keep the billies. So he understands that Shrek will either be sold or eaten. Another hard but important lesson for a farm kid! We have also discovered 5 new baby kittens in the horse barn. The kids are as always ecstatic about this! Luckily for us they have not ventured from the loft!
We are also busily reading the farm for hopefully 7 or 8 sheep within the next month or two! Not only are the kids excited about this but so are my husband and I! They will cut our mowing in half!!! We have also decided to buy a sow. We have figured that it will take us approximately 2 pigs to get our family through the year and once the 5 of them become very hungry teenagers that will probably become 4 or 5 pigs a year. Plus what an experience for our children to raise, sell, show and butcher two litters of pigs every year that came from their house!!
That about catches my up for now! Hope to get to write again soon!!
For those that don't know we live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Needless to say we are running out of room!! And with another on the way we have been feverishly trying to decide how to add on to our existing home. I would say that we have ironed out about 80% of the details and are well on our way to set of blueprints :) Oh happy day!! We are now saving and hoping to add on as we go in the next 2-3 years!
We have also been working on getting the gardens ready. Our back garden has been tilled and planted with 65 lbs of seed potatoes and 3 lbs of onion sets. We still have to make some raised beds for our carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I am also wanting to start a few herbal beds. We have been unable to really do anything to our front garden as of yet due to the rain. But within the next two weeks we are hoping that everything cooperates. My husband and I are both itching to get our tomatoes, peppers, green beans, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and gourds in the ground!
We have added a few more animals to the farm as well. The first week of April we bought 5 baby ducks (one for each child). They are so cute but boy can they make a STINKY mess!! That week we also traveled way down into Kentucky to pick up two saanen nannies who each had a set of twins. They are amazing and we are once again getting close to a gallon of milk a day!!! Of course with new babies the kids had to stake claim. We had 3 nanny kids and a billy. Our son chose the frailest nanny baby and named her Sweet Pea. The two oldest girls chose the other two nanny babies naming them Princess Fiona and Dora. Sadly two days after we got the goats Sweet Pea passed away. We have always had animals on the farm and many of them have came and gone. My son must just be at the age where he is just understanding the process of life because he took this so hard. It is one of the hardest and yet most important lessons you have to teach a kid on a farm! However, we had a small funeral in which I hand painted a marker for his Sweet Pea. He is still picking her flowers and taking to her! Such a sweet heart he has :) He has now staked claim to the billy baby naming him Shrek. Only after a long talk though. It had to be explained to him that we are unable to keep the billies. So he understands that Shrek will either be sold or eaten. Another hard but important lesson for a farm kid! We have also discovered 5 new baby kittens in the horse barn. The kids are as always ecstatic about this! Luckily for us they have not ventured from the loft!
We are also busily reading the farm for hopefully 7 or 8 sheep within the next month or two! Not only are the kids excited about this but so are my husband and I! They will cut our mowing in half!!! We have also decided to buy a sow. We have figured that it will take us approximately 2 pigs to get our family through the year and once the 5 of them become very hungry teenagers that will probably become 4 or 5 pigs a year. Plus what an experience for our children to raise, sell, show and butcher two litters of pigs every year that came from their house!!
That about catches my up for now! Hope to get to write again soon!!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
My baby girl did it...she went and turned the BIG one year old on me!!! I am torn as to how I feel about this! On one hand I am oh so close to no diapers and getting to go outside for as long as I want!!! Yay!!! Bare feet and dirt for everyone! But on the other hand my baby is growing up...all of my baby cuddles, the baby giggles and the need for me are all too soon lost! It seems like yesterday that my son was born and now he is five and I am filling out kindergarten round up paperwork :( My oldest daughter is going to be going into her second year of preschool :( And my Tater Bug is going to be going to preschool :( Where does the time go? Just another reminder for us all to slow down and cherish what we have. To quit rushing through our days and quieting and calming our childrens' curiosities. They will all too soon move on to bigger and better things. They will have their own friends and their own hobbies and I will be wishing for all these chaotic days back!!
For my baby girl, most likely my last baby, how I wish I could slow time and spend every minute of the day holding, playing and cuddling with you, your sisters and your brother! You all have no idea how badly you were wanted and what we went through to get you here....and everything that I would do tenfold to get you again!! You four are our everything!! Because of you all I am a better person. I am more patient, more understanding I have learned to learn all over again. It is the most amazing gift to watch each one of you learn something new everyday!! To each of you I wish the world! Always know that nothing is out of your reach and you can do anything!! With all the love in the world forever and always ~ Momma
Sorry for all the sappiness....Disclaimer this may happen up to four times a year :)
On a happier note. I am so proud of my husband!! He teaches Building Trades at a local high school. In this class they build a home from top to bottom. They dig the footers, set the block, frame it, do all the electrical work, plumbing, drywall, roofing....you get the picture. They are soon to finish this year's house. It is a habitat home and will soon be turned over to a deserving family. It is a very nice house on 12th street across from the high school. You should check it out!
Along with finishing up the house, two of his students recently competed in a carpentry competition at Vincennes University. His two students finished first and second out of their region! Earning them a trip to the state competition. The student who finished first also received a one semester scholarship!
What a teriffic program to ready these students for the workforce but also give them the oppertunity to earn college credit and scholarships!!
For my baby girl, most likely my last baby, how I wish I could slow time and spend every minute of the day holding, playing and cuddling with you, your sisters and your brother! You all have no idea how badly you were wanted and what we went through to get you here....and everything that I would do tenfold to get you again!! You four are our everything!! Because of you all I am a better person. I am more patient, more understanding I have learned to learn all over again. It is the most amazing gift to watch each one of you learn something new everyday!! To each of you I wish the world! Always know that nothing is out of your reach and you can do anything!! With all the love in the world forever and always ~ Momma
Sorry for all the sappiness....Disclaimer this may happen up to four times a year :)
On a happier note. I am so proud of my husband!! He teaches Building Trades at a local high school. In this class they build a home from top to bottom. They dig the footers, set the block, frame it, do all the electrical work, plumbing, drywall, roofing....you get the picture. They are soon to finish this year's house. It is a habitat home and will soon be turned over to a deserving family. It is a very nice house on 12th street across from the high school. You should check it out!
Along with finishing up the house, two of his students recently competed in a carpentry competition at Vincennes University. His two students finished first and second out of their region! Earning them a trip to the state competition. The student who finished first also received a one semester scholarship!
What a teriffic program to ready these students for the workforce but also give them the oppertunity to earn college credit and scholarships!!
Friday, February 8, 2013
Babies, Babies, Babies
Having 4 kids that are five and under you can imagine the amount of diaper wipes and diapers I have gone through and the money that has been spent on them!! For about the past 9 months I have been making my own diaper wipes. They are so simple to make and are very cost effective! I take a roll of paper towels (I generally buy the Great Value brand from Wal Mart or the Member's Mark Brand from Sam's Club) and cut it in half. Then I remove the cardboard from the center. I pour 1 1/12 to 2 cups of water into a plastic container that has an air tight seal and add 2 tablespoons baby wash and 2 tablespoons baby oil. I put the paper towels into the mixture and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Pull from the center and you have homemade baby wipes!! There are a few things to keep in mind when making the wipes. First you do have to choose a good quality paper towel. I use to buy the cheapest ones that I could find. However, when I put them into the liquid they would fall apart and not hold up very well. So I upgraded to the store brands and have been very pleased!! For the Great Value rolls I only need a cup and a half of water but for the Member's Mark rolls I need the full 2 cups. This is something that you will just have to judge for yourself depending on the absorbency and thickness of your paper towels. The most important thing is your container. I went to Wal Mart and bought a $4 container from the clearance aisle. I think that it is suppose to be a canister. It is a rectangular plastic container with a removable lid. It has a latch on top that suctions to the container itself. Although, I have made and carried the wipes in just a plain ziploc bag. You know those times when your kids have played with the wipes and mysteriously lost them in only a place that you will find 2 weeks from now!! :) For times like that the Ziploc bag always works!
As my youngest is right at a year old now we will begin potty training within the next couple of months so my days of diapers may be dwindling! Thanks goodness!!! Five years of changing diapers is a long time :) However, if we were to have another baby...NOT saying that we will or that we will not have another but if we do, I will so do cloth diapers! I wish that I would have done them with all of them! You can buy them new or used or you can make your own. I think that I will try to make my own. There are so many websites that offer free patterns and many blogs that coach you through the dos and dont's of cloth diapering! The initial cost may be pricey but I think that it would definitly save you money in the long run. The Parents Choice size 4 diapers come in a case of 124 for $19.77 and you can buy a case of 700 wipes for $11.97. Let's just say that you would go through a case of each every month (in reality you would go through more!). That is $237.24 a year for diapers and $143.64 a year for wipes. I would have saved $1904.40 (probably more than that...I had 2 in diapers at once for about 5 months) over the past five years if only I would have been making my own diapers and wipes!
As my youngest is right at a year old now we will begin potty training within the next couple of months so my days of diapers may be dwindling! Thanks goodness!!! Five years of changing diapers is a long time :) However, if we were to have another baby...NOT saying that we will or that we will not have another but if we do, I will so do cloth diapers! I wish that I would have done them with all of them! You can buy them new or used or you can make your own. I think that I will try to make my own. There are so many websites that offer free patterns and many blogs that coach you through the dos and dont's of cloth diapering! The initial cost may be pricey but I think that it would definitly save you money in the long run. The Parents Choice size 4 diapers come in a case of 124 for $19.77 and you can buy a case of 700 wipes for $11.97. Let's just say that you would go through a case of each every month (in reality you would go through more!). That is $237.24 a year for diapers and $143.64 a year for wipes. I would have saved $1904.40 (probably more than that...I had 2 in diapers at once for about 5 months) over the past five years if only I would have been making my own diapers and wipes!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Pinterest & PJs
Once a year all the women on my husband's side of the family try to get together for some fun. Last year we all went to his cousin's house and did crafts with our little girls. We had a lot of fun but the moms really ended up doing all of the work. So this year we thought we would get together and do some crafts with the girls but we were going to focus on crafts for us!! Yay!! I LOVE doing anything crafty...this was right up my ally!!!
This past weekend was our "Pinterest and PJs" night! Those of us that could went to my husband's youngest sister's house. We all brought food, pjs and all the craftiness we could muster up and had a great time! We started at 3:00 in the afternoon and I am not sure what time we finally quit but sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning :) Although we got to her house at 3:00 we did not stop eating and gabbing until around 5:30...the hazards of that many women together at once!
We knew that the little girls would tire quickly of the crafts and want to go back to the basement to play so we started with their stuff. They painted sun catchers, did their fingernails, made door knob hangers and we made "stained glass" hearts for the windows. This was a super easy and cheap craft that they all seemed to like. We took wax paper and cut out hearts. Then shaved a whole box of 24 crayons. I found the best was to shave these was by using a potato peeler. Although I think if you had a pencil sharpener that would be the easiest with the least amount of waste. We then laid a newspaper on the counter, put down one wax heart and let the girls sprinkle the crayon shavings onto it. Then we put the second heart down and covered it with another newspaper. I ironed it on a low heat setting for maybe one minute. You will know when to quit because your crayon shavings will become smooth. You have to let them dry probably 2-3 minutes. We brought ours home and hung them in front of the window. Very pretty! I wish I would have taken a picture of it earlier. It became an easy target for a 5 year old boy with an arsenal of Nerf guns!!
Everyone did something different. Some were helping to make bridesmaid bouquets for one of the cousin's wedding. They turned out beautiful as I am sure the entire wedding will! Some made their own grocery bags from old t-shirts. I am in love with this idea!!! I shop alot at Aldis and as you all know you have to provide your own grocery bags or be forced to buy theirs, plastic, paper or canvas. They were so easy to make too. You cut out the sleeves and neck and sew the bottom together. How easy is that?? And so much cheaper than the bags you can buy!! Some were also making very fashionable scarfs from old t-shirts. While I never really got to see how these were made they were whipping them out pretty quickly so I am sure it was pretty easy! One made a really cute headband holder. She wrapped a cardboard tube with binder twine until she got it the size she wanted it and then covered it with the leg off of a pair of blue jeans. She cut out and painted flowers for each end and hot glued them on. Easy and she had everything that she needed so NO cost! She also bought the first letters of her girl's names and painted them. She hot glued two ribbons coming off the bottom of each one so that she could hang all their barretts! It was all simple and super cute!! Another made a basket from newspaper. It looked easy enough but was also tedious. She took some red ribbon and wove around the center of the basket and hot glued a silver ribbon around the top. It turned out really cute as well. I think it would be cute to do for a bridal or baby shower to use as your basket. Several also made chalkboards for their kitchens. Someone had went to a St. Vincents and bought all their platter dishes. Then they primed them with a white coat and painted them with chalkboard paint. Very easy. One thing I seen while they were doing this was to use very thin coats of the chalkboard paint. If you put a thick coat on once or twice it left ridges on the platter. But if you did several thin coats it seemed to leave a smoother surface.
So what does a mom of four do on a night like this (side note I only had one kid with me as my two youngest daughters went to stay with Papaw)?? I catch up and try to get ahead. I filled out all their Valentine's Day cards, filled out the paperwork for my son's kindergarten round up and picked out paint colors for my kitchen and bathroom :) But I did find time to squeeze in some crafts as well!
First I followed the others lead on their chalkboards. My mother-in-law had brought a cute kind of rutic looking board with her that she thought she had gotten from one of our barns. So I primed it with the white and painted it with the chalkboard paint. I plan on adding some binder twine to use as the hanger and maybe some of the small screw in hooks at the bottom to hang keys on.
I pretty much did the same thing for my next project. I made a stand to sit beside my kitchen sink for all of my dish soap, rag, hand soap and whatever other pilfer I can find. I took a slightly taller candle stick and glued a salad plate to the top and "voila" my sink stand!
The rest of the night was spent crocheting one of my son's Easter gifts. This is a very simple stitch. For anyone who has been wanting to learn to crochet I highly recomend www.craftyminx.com. She has a crocheting school that teaches you step by step every stitch. I was able to watch her and learn this in about ten minutes!
It was a very fun night for all who could attend! We had alot of laughs, a really good laugh of which was provided by a certain video clip of a Just Dance 4 competition that may have ended up on Facebook for a few short hours!
This past weekend was our "Pinterest and PJs" night! Those of us that could went to my husband's youngest sister's house. We all brought food, pjs and all the craftiness we could muster up and had a great time! We started at 3:00 in the afternoon and I am not sure what time we finally quit but sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning :) Although we got to her house at 3:00 we did not stop eating and gabbing until around 5:30...the hazards of that many women together at once!
We knew that the little girls would tire quickly of the crafts and want to go back to the basement to play so we started with their stuff. They painted sun catchers, did their fingernails, made door knob hangers and we made "stained glass" hearts for the windows. This was a super easy and cheap craft that they all seemed to like. We took wax paper and cut out hearts. Then shaved a whole box of 24 crayons. I found the best was to shave these was by using a potato peeler. Although I think if you had a pencil sharpener that would be the easiest with the least amount of waste. We then laid a newspaper on the counter, put down one wax heart and let the girls sprinkle the crayon shavings onto it. Then we put the second heart down and covered it with another newspaper. I ironed it on a low heat setting for maybe one minute. You will know when to quit because your crayon shavings will become smooth. You have to let them dry probably 2-3 minutes. We brought ours home and hung them in front of the window. Very pretty! I wish I would have taken a picture of it earlier. It became an easy target for a 5 year old boy with an arsenal of Nerf guns!!
Everyone did something different. Some were helping to make bridesmaid bouquets for one of the cousin's wedding. They turned out beautiful as I am sure the entire wedding will! Some made their own grocery bags from old t-shirts. I am in love with this idea!!! I shop alot at Aldis and as you all know you have to provide your own grocery bags or be forced to buy theirs, plastic, paper or canvas. They were so easy to make too. You cut out the sleeves and neck and sew the bottom together. How easy is that?? And so much cheaper than the bags you can buy!! Some were also making very fashionable scarfs from old t-shirts. While I never really got to see how these were made they were whipping them out pretty quickly so I am sure it was pretty easy! One made a really cute headband holder. She wrapped a cardboard tube with binder twine until she got it the size she wanted it and then covered it with the leg off of a pair of blue jeans. She cut out and painted flowers for each end and hot glued them on. Easy and she had everything that she needed so NO cost! She also bought the first letters of her girl's names and painted them. She hot glued two ribbons coming off the bottom of each one so that she could hang all their barretts! It was all simple and super cute!! Another made a basket from newspaper. It looked easy enough but was also tedious. She took some red ribbon and wove around the center of the basket and hot glued a silver ribbon around the top. It turned out really cute as well. I think it would be cute to do for a bridal or baby shower to use as your basket. Several also made chalkboards for their kitchens. Someone had went to a St. Vincents and bought all their platter dishes. Then they primed them with a white coat and painted them with chalkboard paint. Very easy. One thing I seen while they were doing this was to use very thin coats of the chalkboard paint. If you put a thick coat on once or twice it left ridges on the platter. But if you did several thin coats it seemed to leave a smoother surface.
So what does a mom of four do on a night like this (side note I only had one kid with me as my two youngest daughters went to stay with Papaw)?? I catch up and try to get ahead. I filled out all their Valentine's Day cards, filled out the paperwork for my son's kindergarten round up and picked out paint colors for my kitchen and bathroom :) But I did find time to squeeze in some crafts as well!
First I followed the others lead on their chalkboards. My mother-in-law had brought a cute kind of rutic looking board with her that she thought she had gotten from one of our barns. So I primed it with the white and painted it with the chalkboard paint. I plan on adding some binder twine to use as the hanger and maybe some of the small screw in hooks at the bottom to hang keys on.
Next I made a fruit stand. My kids would rather eat fruit than any kind of junk food, thank goodness!! So I always have fruit laying all over my kitchen. I don't even remember where I got the idea but I found it and decided to make one. I used a dinner plate at the bottom and then glued a candle stick to the top. Next I glued a salad plate to the top of the candle stick, then glued another candle stick to the top of that. Then I finished by glueing a bowl on top of the second candlestick. It turned out great and only took about 5 minutes to make. However, it takes along time for the glue to dry! I made mine on Saturday and it is Tuesday and they are still not all the way dry.
I pretty much did the same thing for my next project. I made a stand to sit beside my kitchen sink for all of my dish soap, rag, hand soap and whatever other pilfer I can find. I took a slightly taller candle stick and glued a salad plate to the top and "voila" my sink stand!
The rest of the night was spent crocheting one of my son's Easter gifts. This is a very simple stitch. For anyone who has been wanting to learn to crochet I highly recomend www.craftyminx.com. She has a crocheting school that teaches you step by step every stitch. I was able to watch her and learn this in about ten minutes!
It was a very fun night for all who could attend! We had alot of laughs, a really good laugh of which was provided by a certain video clip of a Just Dance 4 competition that may have ended up on Facebook for a few short hours!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Sorry I haven't been able to post lately! We have been super busy! We are in the process of taking down, moving and putting up my new....GREENHOUSE!!!! As you can tell I am so excited :) We hope to have it up and the wood stove in by the end of the weekend (expect a post all about this soon!)
I said in the last post that I would be posting about our BIG process of rendering lard soon and to everyone's delight today is the day!!! Try to contain your excitement! Alot of people don't understand the purpose behind this but I find it to be very rewarding! I will mainly use it to make my goat's milk soap. But I also use it for curing my cast iron pots and skillets. The only skillet I use is my cast iron one so I keep a tub of lard in my refridgerator just for that. Although I have not cooked with lard as of yet, I have been told and have read that you can use it in anything that calls for shortening. I use shortening in all of my pie crusts and biscuits so I am anxious to try this. Alot of people frown upon the use of cooking with lard because they say it is bad for you...however have you looked at all the chemically processing that goes on in a tub of shortening or a jug of oil??? There is nothing hydrogenated in my lard :)
Now for the process of rendering the lard...hopefully with pictures...go ahead and poke fun but I really do not understand computers, just know that I am trying! We started with two tubs of this size of pig fat and skin from 12 hogs. We had to cut all of this up into smaller more manageable pieces as shown above.
We then put them in a 25 gallon cast iron kettle. The kettle set on top of a 55 gallon barrel with a propane burner under it. We probably put enough fat in it to fill it a quarter of the way full. Then you just have to stir and stir and probably stir some more until it cooks down and all rinds and cracklins are golden brown and float to the top. As shown.
Next we covered a metal collander with a Merkley Hot Dog sack, cheesecloth would work as well. The hot dog sack was just the perfect size to slip the collander into and not have to worry about it slipping. We used a metal quart size pot to dip all the cracklins and lard out of the kettle to run through the collander. Next we put the the cracklins into a lard press/sausage stuffer and squeezed all the lard we could from them. This step is not necessary. As the night wore on and we became more tired we skipped this step. After we had strained the cracklins from the lard we put the lard in large stock pots to cool. We did the same for the cracklins.
We then waited for the lard to cool a bit. This probably took about an hour to an hour and a half to cool to the point when we could transfer it to plastic containers. Once it was transferred to the plastic containers we let it sit overnight and harden. The lard will turn white and any of the small bits of cracklins that made it past the hot dog sack and collander will settle to the bottom. We then froze all the containers. As for the cracklins, once they have cooled enough to handle we bagged them in gallon size freezer bags. From there you can do whatever you like. My husband's uncle helped us that day and he loved the cracklins. We sent him home with 2 bags!! As for our family we are not big fans of them but our dogs sure love them!!!
We had to repeat this process several times and it took us about 4 1/2 to 5 hours to get all of our lard rendered. Well worth the time and effort considering I was able to freeze 110 pounds of fresh lard!!
I said in the last post that I would be posting about our BIG process of rendering lard soon and to everyone's delight today is the day!!! Try to contain your excitement! Alot of people don't understand the purpose behind this but I find it to be very rewarding! I will mainly use it to make my goat's milk soap. But I also use it for curing my cast iron pots and skillets. The only skillet I use is my cast iron one so I keep a tub of lard in my refridgerator just for that. Although I have not cooked with lard as of yet, I have been told and have read that you can use it in anything that calls for shortening. I use shortening in all of my pie crusts and biscuits so I am anxious to try this. Alot of people frown upon the use of cooking with lard because they say it is bad for you...however have you looked at all the chemically processing that goes on in a tub of shortening or a jug of oil??? There is nothing hydrogenated in my lard :)
We then put them in a 25 gallon cast iron kettle. The kettle set on top of a 55 gallon barrel with a propane burner under it. We probably put enough fat in it to fill it a quarter of the way full. Then you just have to stir and stir and probably stir some more until it cooks down and all rinds and cracklins are golden brown and float to the top. As shown.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The Flu times 6
What a week! Everyone has been so very sick...not necessarily the flu but definitely a very bad stomach bug :( I was so excited about last weekend, Friday I was going to a friend's house for a "Mom" card night. So much fun! And Saturday night I was going out with my best friend from high school. Sunday was my future sister-in-law's bridal shower! What a weekend for me...two nights in a row with no kids, doing what I want, when I want, with NO KIDS! Go Me!
Five minutes before I was ready to walk out the door Friday night, my son starts puking, my heart dropped I had been looking so forward to this night! So I unpacked the cooler and helped my husband clean everything up and get everything and everyone situated. I got out the nasty puke buckets, got him all tucked in on the couch and was ready to spend the evening "on duty". But my WONDERFUL husband told me to go ahead that he could handle it. If it got worse or someone else got sick he would call...I SO love my husband! My Friday night with the "Moms" was saved!! We had an awesome time, playing cards and gossiping! Eventually I did get a text, my son had gotten sick 12 times and my baby was sick too! It was a late night. As I got home my third child took into puking as well :( So I was back on duty! I got to bed about 5:00 am.
Saturday morning went about the same way! It is amazing how dirty your house can get when you have 3 kids that are sick. Saturday afternoon went a little better. The vomiting had subdued to one child and the other two were just clingy and very achy. So I was ready to give up my evening out again. But, my WONDERFUL husband came to the rescue once again! So I did get to catch up with my friend over an evening of Mexican Food and grocery shopping (love it when two moms get together with no kids). We really know how to tear it up on a Saturday night :) I received a good report when I got home of no one puking and everyone asleep!
We got a good night's sleep but awoke to my oldest daughter running a 101 fever...the only one who had not seemed to be getting it, seemed to be getting it! Good news is she never did vomit but was just achy and super tired. So we had to miss the Bridal Shower regretfully. My WONDEFUL husband had already covered for me two nights and we had the fat from 12 hogs that were butchered on Friday and Saturday to render into lard (sounds yummy and fun I know). I will post about this another time.
Turns out rendering 110 pounds of lard is quite a process and will dirty every dish in your house! So Sunday was spent cleaning and disinfecting EVERYTHING! This had been the first day that no one had puked at our house. We thought we had beat this...turns out we were wrong! Monday night it hit me. It was a horrible night to say the least! By morning I was no better so once again that WONDERFUL husband I keep mentioning took off work and stayed home with the kids!!! I was so greatful! I was done with the vomiting early but OH MY did I hurt all over! By Tuesday evening I was feeling well enough to drink and move around a little. Which is a good thing because it soon hit my husband too! I hated it for him he had been so good to us through the whole thing and he was the last one to get it :( So once again he had to miss work on Wednesday!
I guess it takes a while to move through a family of 6 but oh my!! This has been a long, long week! Today was a regular day for us, my husband went back to work and I was able to take and pick up our son from preschool. But now I have to start washing all those clothes!!
Which leads me to my DIY. I was washing all the blankets, sheets and towels we went through plus trying to catch up on our daily laundry, when I ran out of my Resolve Stain Remover. I had found a sweatshirt that my son got for Christmas in the sand box! It was full of stains that were now sure to be set in from sitting in the weather for a month! To say the least I was a little upset! I thought the brand new bright yellow sweatshirt was sure to become a rag! But I went to my "go to" place for anything DIY...PINTERST!! I found the easiest and best stain remover ever! And it was stuff that I already had at home. It was two ingredients...peroxide and blue Dawn dish soap!! To check out the recipe visit http://moderndaymoms.com/homemade-miracle-cleaner/. I rarely buy anything name brand so I had Great Value brand blue Dawn dish detergent and was still very impressed with how well it worked!
I sprayed practically the whole sweathshirt with this and washed it. All but a few of the stubborn stains came out. I sprayed them again and scrubbed them. I let it sit out a load and washed it again only to have it come out looking brand new! One happy Mama!!!!
Five minutes before I was ready to walk out the door Friday night, my son starts puking, my heart dropped I had been looking so forward to this night! So I unpacked the cooler and helped my husband clean everything up and get everything and everyone situated. I got out the nasty puke buckets, got him all tucked in on the couch and was ready to spend the evening "on duty". But my WONDERFUL husband told me to go ahead that he could handle it. If it got worse or someone else got sick he would call...I SO love my husband! My Friday night with the "Moms" was saved!! We had an awesome time, playing cards and gossiping! Eventually I did get a text, my son had gotten sick 12 times and my baby was sick too! It was a late night. As I got home my third child took into puking as well :( So I was back on duty! I got to bed about 5:00 am.
Saturday morning went about the same way! It is amazing how dirty your house can get when you have 3 kids that are sick. Saturday afternoon went a little better. The vomiting had subdued to one child and the other two were just clingy and very achy. So I was ready to give up my evening out again. But, my WONDERFUL husband came to the rescue once again! So I did get to catch up with my friend over an evening of Mexican Food and grocery shopping (love it when two moms get together with no kids). We really know how to tear it up on a Saturday night :) I received a good report when I got home of no one puking and everyone asleep!
We got a good night's sleep but awoke to my oldest daughter running a 101 fever...the only one who had not seemed to be getting it, seemed to be getting it! Good news is she never did vomit but was just achy and super tired. So we had to miss the Bridal Shower regretfully. My WONDEFUL husband had already covered for me two nights and we had the fat from 12 hogs that were butchered on Friday and Saturday to render into lard (sounds yummy and fun I know). I will post about this another time.
Turns out rendering 110 pounds of lard is quite a process and will dirty every dish in your house! So Sunday was spent cleaning and disinfecting EVERYTHING! This had been the first day that no one had puked at our house. We thought we had beat this...turns out we were wrong! Monday night it hit me. It was a horrible night to say the least! By morning I was no better so once again that WONDERFUL husband I keep mentioning took off work and stayed home with the kids!!! I was so greatful! I was done with the vomiting early but OH MY did I hurt all over! By Tuesday evening I was feeling well enough to drink and move around a little. Which is a good thing because it soon hit my husband too! I hated it for him he had been so good to us through the whole thing and he was the last one to get it :( So once again he had to miss work on Wednesday!
I guess it takes a while to move through a family of 6 but oh my!! This has been a long, long week! Today was a regular day for us, my husband went back to work and I was able to take and pick up our son from preschool. But now I have to start washing all those clothes!!
Which leads me to my DIY. I was washing all the blankets, sheets and towels we went through plus trying to catch up on our daily laundry, when I ran out of my Resolve Stain Remover. I had found a sweatshirt that my son got for Christmas in the sand box! It was full of stains that were now sure to be set in from sitting in the weather for a month! To say the least I was a little upset! I thought the brand new bright yellow sweatshirt was sure to become a rag! But I went to my "go to" place for anything DIY...PINTERST!! I found the easiest and best stain remover ever! And it was stuff that I already had at home. It was two ingredients...peroxide and blue Dawn dish soap!! To check out the recipe visit http://moderndaymoms.com/homemade-miracle-cleaner/. I rarely buy anything name brand so I had Great Value brand blue Dawn dish detergent and was still very impressed with how well it worked!
I sprayed practically the whole sweathshirt with this and washed it. All but a few of the stubborn stains came out. I sprayed them again and scrubbed them. I let it sit out a load and washed it again only to have it come out looking brand new! One happy Mama!!!!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Am I Really Doing A Blog??
Am I really doing a blog? What in the world am I going to "blog" about? Who is going to want to read about anything I do? Just a few of the questions that I have been running over and over in my mind the past couple of weeks, trying to decide if I should take the advice of others to do this. This is a very big step for me as I am usually a pretty private person who is not technologically savy and who has a hard time putting my thoughts into words. I am a stay at home mom who really never leaves the house...at the end of my dead end road...in the middle of nowhere. Except for the 3 days a week that I take my 2 oldest children to and from their preschool. I really have no special talents and I do not think that I do anything "extraodinary" persay.
What I am is a devoted wife to my high school sweetheart. We have been together since I was a freshman in high school which will be 13 years next week!! He is a wonderful man who teaches Building Trades at a local high school. He lets me stay home and be a mom to our 4 beautiful children; Wick who is 5, Rory who is 4, Jeri Beth who is 3 and Kali Belle who will be 1 in three short weeks. And I am lucky enough to also get my 15 month old neice everyday of the work week! So to say the least I am a VERY blessed person!
Besides my family there is only one other thing that I feel I may have enough knowledge of to really talk about on a day to day basis, and that is how we are raising our family. As you can imagine money gets very tight at our house with only one income and 6 mouths to feed. So we "live off the land" if you will. My husband and son are HUGE into hunting and I cook and we eat everything that they bring home! I make everything that I can, we grow a huge garden and I can, freeze or preserve everything! We have also started a small orchard with peach, apple and plum trees. We have a grape arbor and this spring we hope to add strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and rasberries. We raise and butcher all of our own meat including beef, pork and chicken. And we try to raise enough of our own corn to make the feed for our meat. In addition to the cows & chickens we also have some horses, dairy goats and if our 3 daughters have anything to do with it some sheep and rabbits come spring!!
As I am starting this blog tonight there are now a thousand ideas of things to blog about. All of which will be somehow tied to my crazy, simple life!
What I am is a devoted wife to my high school sweetheart. We have been together since I was a freshman in high school which will be 13 years next week!! He is a wonderful man who teaches Building Trades at a local high school. He lets me stay home and be a mom to our 4 beautiful children; Wick who is 5, Rory who is 4, Jeri Beth who is 3 and Kali Belle who will be 1 in three short weeks. And I am lucky enough to also get my 15 month old neice everyday of the work week! So to say the least I am a VERY blessed person!
Besides my family there is only one other thing that I feel I may have enough knowledge of to really talk about on a day to day basis, and that is how we are raising our family. As you can imagine money gets very tight at our house with only one income and 6 mouths to feed. So we "live off the land" if you will. My husband and son are HUGE into hunting and I cook and we eat everything that they bring home! I make everything that I can, we grow a huge garden and I can, freeze or preserve everything! We have also started a small orchard with peach, apple and plum trees. We have a grape arbor and this spring we hope to add strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and rasberries. We raise and butcher all of our own meat including beef, pork and chicken. And we try to raise enough of our own corn to make the feed for our meat. In addition to the cows & chickens we also have some horses, dairy goats and if our 3 daughters have anything to do with it some sheep and rabbits come spring!!
As I am starting this blog tonight there are now a thousand ideas of things to blog about. All of which will be somehow tied to my crazy, simple life!
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