Make-It-Do

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

2011-05-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

Shabby Apple Amalfi Coast Swimsuit Giveaway

2011-05-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Shabby Apple Amalfi Coast Swimsuit Giveaway

Planet Gear $50 Giveaway

2011-05-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Planet Gear $50 Giveaway

Poppin' In

2011-04-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Thought I'd just pop in to say that I haven't completely abandoned this blog (again)! I just don't think I've been doing anything all that interesting lately. It seems that I tend to go into unproductive phases every now and then which last longer than I'd like. But now I've got plans, and lots of 'em! Here's some things I'm thinking of doing (not necessarily in order):

1. Sew a couple flannel robes for family members that I promised them at Christmas. Now that the weather is warming up they'll be quite useful ;)
2. Make a couple Kindle cozies that I had also promised at Christmas. I think I'm going to use felt and do a reverse applique/embroidery design and line the inside with a material that won't scratch up the screen.
3. I've promised the girls that we'd paint and redecorate their bedrooms this summer. I don't know whether to do it all at once or spread out the work and do it over a period of time. I'm inclined to just bust it out over a weekend though. We'll see...
4. I really want a vegetable garden this year as well. It's high time I've gotten onto that!
5. Make Easter dresses for the girls. Five dresses in 3 weeks? We'll see about that too...
6. Work on my scrap granny square afghan.
7. Learn Tai Chi. Random, I know. But it is so fun!

Well, there is a lot more I'd like to do. But I need to start small, take baby steps, and quit watching so much Netflix! (I'm not a little addicted to British dramas ;) I'll post my progress and pictures as I tackle this list.

How about you all? What kind of projects do you have going or are planning to do? I'd like to know what you're up to. It's always fun to get new ideas. Ta-ta for now!

R.I.P.

2010-08-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Poor thing, not even a day old. The little guy was hanging out by the fence and our neighbor's Doberman tunneled underneath two fences to get to him. Grabbed him by the tail and drug him under kicking and screaming. Lily witnessed the whole thing and is pretty traumatized. She's upset because she couldn't do anything about it and had to stand helplessly by. She was very scared of the dog. Our neighbors came by when they got off of work and found him in their yard. They were so sorry and embarrassed, I felt bad for them and told them not to worry about it. They're going to fix the fence, but I have it blocked with large rocks for now.

*Sigh* At least my children are learning how to deal with sad things. That's important for when they grow up and learn that life isn't fair and never will be, that is, until Jesus comes to take us home. Then all things will be made right. God is good and He has a plan and a purpose in everything that He allows to happen to us. We may never know His reasoning until we see Him face to face, but we can trust Him to see us through the trials He gives us.

Busyness

2010-08-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been keeping busy around here! Hope had her 5th birthday. She told Ginger that she was 15, and on our way to church she informed us that she doesn't do bad things like interrupt conversations anymore. I have no more babies in the house! :( If I had kept on at the rate I was going at in this past decade I should have had three more babies by now. I miss them a lot, but I am starting to enjoy my big kids more. I also like having a little more freedom to be able to sew, which is a good thing since I forgot to get Hope a birthday present. When we got home from church I raided my pink fabric stash and busted out a sparkly dress in record time. She loved it! Thank goodness little girls are so easy to please.

Sorry it's fuzzy, she couldn't stand still!

Let's see... oh yes, last week Faith and I had an opportunity to volunteer to help train Chico and Sacramento police horses not to freak out when confronted with a noisy crowd. It was a lot of standing around but was also pretty fun. The riot police even trained with us. Faith was so ecstatic!

Earlier that same day Abi and Lily got a chance to attend a free cooking class for kids put on my the Galley, a local kitchen supply store. The instructor had the genius idea of giving the kids plastic lettuce knives to cut the soft veggies with. They're sharp enough to cut soft things with, but not sharp enough to cut little fingers. He gave us one ;) They loved it so much they want to sign up for the next class.

Last but not least, Violet finally birthed her babies! Sadly though I'm pretty sure they're both boys. We'll have to sell them. Violet and Daisy are different as night and day. Daisy is a loud, pushy pig who will eat herself sick; and Violet is a timid, gentle sweetheart who will scrounge for Daisy's leftovers. Daisy moaned and yelled LOUDLY all night during the birth of her babies; Violet was so quiet we didn't know she had her babies till the next morning. I had to separate Daisy into a different pen because she was jealous of all the attention Violet was getting and kept on ramming her and trampling her babies. The good news about daisy is that her milk isn't sour anymore and we can drink it now without getting sick. I think she just ate something that disagreed with her last time we let her out to graze in the yard.

Well, I guess that's all I'll post for now. Things are happening all the time around here so that I can hardly keep up! Now this is what home schooling is all about! I love it!

This Chick Rocks!

2010-08-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Poor Lily

2010-08-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, today we learned that a big rock (yes, the one on the left) dropped on a little foot doesn't feel so good. This is the same child who I had to take to the hospital when she was 3 because she had stuck a blueberry up her nose. (Seriously, it was in so deep that they had to sedate her.) I'm thinking she might need to learn how to make wise decisions ;)

None of my kids have had a broken bone (yet, though I'm an expert on scratched corneas) so I wasn't exactly sure what to look for. I pretty much made the decision to go to the hospital based on the fact she was screaming bloody murder. When she was going through triage the nurse tried to put a thermometer in her mouth. You can tell that my kids don't get sick very often by the fact that my 8 year old didn't know what a thermometer was and wouldn't let the nurse use it till I reassured her that it wouldn't hurt. By now she was much better, especially after the male nurse (she was shocked that a man would be a nurse) pampered her with an ice pack, warm blanket, and stickers. Can you tell she's suffering?

After waiting for a couple hours in the hallway reading Little Pilgrim's Progress (a wonderful book! every parent must read this to their children),

the lady doctor (which really confused Lily, a male nurse and a female doctor? The world is full of wonders!) finally came to see us and pronounced Lily's toe perfectly fine without even having to take an X-ray! There was no swelling or pain anymore. I still can't figure it out. Did you see the size of that rock?! Maybe she was just more scared than hurt. I don't know. The only thing that Lily cared about was that I'd take her out to ice cream afterward, which of course, I was more than happy to do.

The End.

My Baby's Sewing!

2010-08-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

This has got to be the easiest pattern ever! It's just one pattern piece that you use to cut 2 pieces out of the fabric with. Cut on the bias (diagonally, see pic below) so the bottom end flares a bit when finished. To find how big to make it just measure your hips and add a couple more inches. It's better if you make it a little loose rather than too tight, you can always take it in, but it's harder to let out. As for length, measure from your waist to your knees and add 3 inches, (one for bottom hem, two for waistband). So really, you don't need a pattern for this at all. It's just a slightly shaped rectangle/square.

Then you sew up both side seams, front of fabric pieces facing each other (pic1). For the bottom hem fold up 1/2 inch and iron. Then fold up 1/2 inch again iron and sew (pic2).

You do the same for the waistband except that you fold up 1 inch to make a wide enough casing for the elastic to slip through, iron and fold up another inch so you have a finished edge (pic 3). When you sew the waistband leave a 2 inch opening so you can thread the elastic in (pic4). Here's a tip: clip a large safety pin onto the end of the elastic before you thread it through. That gives your fingers something easier to handle and it goes more quickly. After you thread the elastic through cut it to a comfortable length for your waistline, not too loose and not too tight. Sew the ends of the elastic together and tuck it into the waistband casing (pic5).

Lastly, sew up the 2 inch gap, turn right side out and voila! You have yourself a snappy new skirt! I think this will work with just about any fabric, but probably something that's not very stiff. You'll need about a yard and a half. (Since you're cutting on the bias you'll need a little more room.) You can always use the scraps to make a headband! Happy sewing!

Potluck Sunday for August!

2010-08-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

This week I think I'm going to make Chinese Beef and Broccoli. I don't really have a recipe for this. For the beef I usually use leftover pot roast chopped up. But the kids broke my crock pot a while back so I bought pre-chopped carne asada meat which I'll fry up with onions in a pan. Then I have beef and broccoli seasoning packets that I'll add with water and soy sauce. When that's thick and bubbly I'll add chopped broccoli, simmer till it's soft, then serve over cooked brown rice. Actually, since it's for potluck I'll make it up the night before, mix the rice in and refrigerate in a casserole dish. Sunday morning before church I'll pop it in the oven to warm, and voila! A yummy potluck dish!

What about you ladies of Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship? What are you bringing?

Rock Creek

2010-08-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

We love free stuff. We also love getting out and doing things together. How often do these two things mesh? Not often enough. But we have stumbled upon an awesome place for a fun day trip with the kids, Rock Creek! I don't know how Patrick found it, but it's a fairly secluded creek off of the Feather River only about 40 minutes from our house. It's a beautiful place full of giant boulders, waterfalls, frigid swimming holes, and hidden nooks filled with mossy coolness. The best part? It's free! We take a picnic lunch and spend the whole day there, the kids and the dogs love it. Here are some pics from our most recent trip.

Shabby Apple Boysenberry Pie Apron Guest Giveaway

2010-07-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Shabby Apple Boysenberry Pie Apron Guest Giveaway

Super duper cute aprons, I can't resist!

Potluck Sunday for July!

2010-07-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

I wish I could enlarge this image so you all could read it more clearly, but I can't without fuzzing it up too much. :( But the good news is POTLUCK IS ON for this month! We had a bit of a scare though, when I went to reserve the kitchen I was told it was being used by someone else. But then they called back a little bit later and said they had made a mistake and we could use it. WooHoo! Here's what I'm thinking of bringing:

This recipe was taken from http://www.mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes_greek_salad.htm

Greek salad, or horiatiki salata, is a rough country salad of juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumber, sliced red onion, green pepper, crumbly feta cheese and plump kalamata olives. Serve this delightful combination as a side dish or as a light meal with some crusty bread.


3 tablespoons olive oil
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic—minced
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and extra for garnish
3 tomatoes—cut into wedges
¼ red onion—sliced into rings
½ cucumber—sliced into thick half-moons
½ green pepper (capsicum)—julienned
4 oz (120g) feta cheese—cut into small cubes
16 kalamata olives

PLACE the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano in a small jar with a screw-top lid and shake to combine. PLACE the salad ingredients in a large bowl. POUR the dressing over the salad and toss gently to combine just before serving. GARNISH the Greek salad with a little freshly ground black pepper.

Ladies of Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship, what are you bringing? Ginger is out of town this week so she won't be able to come. Denise told me she's making meatballs, yea! We'll also bring some sort of dessert, Moriah hasn't decided what she wants to make yet, I'll let you know.

If you happen to read this post leave a comment with what you'll be bringing so we don't double up on dishes anymore! ;)

We're Home!

2010-07-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

We went on trip last week to visit Patrick's parents down in Southern California. We had a blast! Patrick was unable to go since he had to work, so I just took the three older girls while my mom helped watch the younger two when Patrick was at work. It was so bizarre to have only three kids! And now that they're 13, 11, and 9 they are able to take care of themselves, well, with a little reminding that is!

We helped Grammie with some projects, visited a yummy bakery which has a show on TLC called The Bakery Bunch, went to a thrift store and bought some dresses, went to see the new movie Sorcerers Apprentice, spent an afternoon at the beach, and visited Patrick's grandmother Mammy. Of course we also sat around watching a lot of T.V. and eating way too much junk food! On the whole we had a wonderful time!

There was a sad, sad, tragedy here at home while we were gone though. One day when Patrick went to work one of the baby goats, Flora, got out and the dogs got to her. They must have played with her to death because there was no open wounds or blood. They probably shook her like they do when they catch a chicken. I don't blame the dogs, they were following their instincts, unfortunately.

That said, here are some pics of our trip:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

It's Hot

2010-07-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to sit under the air conditioner until the sun goes away.

Coupons

2010-07-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.crazyaboutdeals.blogspot.com/

Here's a blog I found that gives coupons for all kinds of businesses. I found one for Michaels, printed it out and it worked great at the store!

Fun Fun Fun!

2010-06-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Can I just say how much I love church rummage sales? They have the absolute COOLEST things because they are mostly run by old ladies who donate sweet vintagy stuff. Here's what I got:

Colorful scarves, costume jewelry, 3 melmac plates, Tupperware lunchbox, metal measuring cups (which you can never have too many of!), and a little Osterizer mini-blend lidded container.

Lots and lots of sundress patterns from the '70's and '80's, so cute! 2 1/2 balls of finely handspun wool, 12 cloth napkins and several books (not all pictured). I'm going to start buying the Sat. paper so I can make sure I hit all of the rummage sales this summer!

Parenting with Grace

2010-06-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is a great article from Amy's Humble Musings, I had to share it!

Dishwasher Conqueror!

2010-06-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Makin' Do without a handyman!
When we bought our washer and dryer, we decided to splurge on a new dishwasher as well since the rebates we'd be getting back would more than cover the cost. And, well, Moriah needed some help since she does all the dishes for the family. Angela's handy husband did a great job helping us install the last one (which was a piece of crap and only lasted a couple of months. We bought the cheapest one available, you get what you pay for!) We haven't had much luck with dishwashers in this house, we're on our 4th in the seven years we've lived here. We've gone without one for a long time, but once you've gotten used to perfectly clean dishes it's hard to go back to hand washed, no matter how good your daughter is at it!

Needless to say I wasn't all that keen on paying someone to install a machine which most likely wouldn't work for very long, although, it is a new Maytag which should be pretty good. So since I didn't want to bother Keven again, and Patrick has no time, or really any desire to do it, and given the fact that I like to learn to do new things, I decided that I would try my hand at it. It couldn't be too difficult, right?

First I pulled out the old washer and laid it on it's back next to the opening in the cabinet, leaving all hoses and wires attached. Then I unboxed and laid the new washer on its back adjacent to the old one so I could see how the old was hooked up and how the new needed to be attached. Then I pulled out the installation instructions and read it through, discovering in the process that the new washer did not come with two essential parts. So off I went to Lowes to get the parts. When I came home I discovered that both the instructions and the sales associate were wrong, so I went back to Lowes to get the right parts. I really dislike leaving the house at all anymore, so having to go out to the same place twice in one day made me kinda grouchy. But if you've read this post on my other blog, you'll see how I am learning to fight those bad, bad feelings!

Now that I had the right parts, and read the directions, I turned off the water and the electrical power to the kitchen. So important! That was the only thing that really scared me, getting electrocuted. Anyway, there were really only 3 things that needed to be attached to the new machine; the drainage hose, the water hose, and the electrical wires. The first thing I attached was the drainage hose which seemed fairly easy, just pop it off the old machine onto the new and screw the clamp tight.

Then I attached the new fitting for the water hose onto the new machine, laid a towel on the floor, and unhooked the water hose from the old machine and screwed it onto the new one, soaking myself, the floor, and the machines in the process. I'm not sure how that happened, I'm positive I shut the water off, but maybe there was residual water in the hose that I should have drained out first. I'm not that smart!

After I dried everything really well with a towel I proceeded onto the next, most scariest part, electrical. First I carefully removed the wires from the old machine and inserted them up through the hole in the new.

Then I carefully grounded the wires onto the screw provided.

Once I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to burn to a crisp in front of my children I became more confident and screwing the wires together was a breeze! Black together and white together. Tug on each one gently to make sure they're secure, and voila! The electrical was done!

Woo hoo! Next I turned the machine upright, careful not to pinch the hoses, and taped down the insulation because it would be a tight fit under the counter.

Next I shoved it in and adjusted the feet to raise it snugly under the counter.

Now that was a job and a half! It was actually the hardest part of the whole installation because I had to lay on my belly on a filthy floor while holding the machine up with one arm to take the weight off the foot screws so they would turn easy. Somehow I managed to jam one of the screws so it wouldn't adjust properly and ended up shoving balsa wood shims from my dollhouse (which I'll be blogging about soon Lord willing!) underneath it for stability. Stability is important!

Once the height was adjusted properly I was able to anchor the top of the machine under the top of the counter.

After that I took all the packaging out from the inside and turned it on for a test run.

And miracle of miracles! It ran perfectly with no obvious leaks!!! This morning Moriah filled it up and ran the first full load and it still ran great! I'm pretty excited about it, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Although it took me an entire afternoon, what with running back and forth to Lowe's and all, it was still worth it in order to save $100. And I now have sweet new dishwasher installing skills!

Fashion to Figure Guest Giveaway

2010-06-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Fashion to Figure Guest Giveaway

Woo hoo! Pretty dresses for big girls! I love the blue one, but I'd like the orange one more if it wasn't orange. Maybe green, I like green.

New Blog

2010-06-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it, instead of just elaborating on depression on this blog I started a new one wholly devoted to the topic. With that blog I wrote some pages to help others understand what depression is, and I also intend it to be sort of a journal where I can record some of the things that I am encouraged by and maybe others can be encouraged as well. If you are a follower of this blog or if you know me personally, please please don't feel obligated at all to follow my new one! But if you do know someone who might benefit from it please pass it on.

A Week of Clothes

2010-06-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got our new machines I've been washing clothes like a mad woman. We've had dirty clothes knee-deep in our hallway for many more months than I'd like to admit. But we've finally got it all done! The next logical step for me was to go through every article of the kids' clothing, sort out the winter stuff, and give away as much as possible. I try to do this every spring and fall, but I didn't do a very good job last time and it got outrageously out of hand fast.

Well, you see that pic above? (My 9 year old Abi is there to give perspective.) In case you can't tell from the pic that's about 5 cubic square feet of clothes. And that's JUST winter stuff! I had already sorted out the summer items into 5 separate bins, one for each girl. And that pic was taken after I had sorted out 8 garbage bags full to give to the thrift store and 4 bags to give away to friends. I'm exhausted to say the least but so happy to have it done.

Before you think I spend a fortune on clothes let me direct you here where I wrote about how I keep our clothing cost to a minimum. I decided early on that I don't want my girls to get used to over-priced mall shopping or think that they are somehow entitled to have the trendiest outfits. There's no way we could ever afford that! I do have a couple bins of clothes that need to be mended or altered, (mostly small repairs like missing buttons or pin holes), and I have a few ideas on things I can do to "cute" them up a bit as well. Like strategically placed cloth flowers over ketchup stains! I'll post about it when and if I actually get around to doing it. But for now, I'm going to beg Patrick for a back rub!

HUNBABA Mei Tai Baby Carrier Guest Giveawayy

2010-06-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

HUNBABA Mei Tai Baby Carrier Guest Giveawayy

So cute! If I win this it goes to Rachel!

Laundry Room Renovation, pt. 2

2010-06-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

They're here! I'm so stinking excited! My new washer and dryer are WONDERFUL! Our old dryer died months ago, of course during the rainiest season of the year. I had to wash 8-10 loads each week (minimum!), bag them up, then take them down to the laundromat to dry them. At $1-$1.25 per load I was spending at least $10 a week, which frankly I can't afford. And then my washer started making funny noises, like I was washing a load of rocks or something. Both the washer and dryer had been repaired several times in the last couple of years, and since we were hoarding our tax return for some other vague purpose, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase new machines. I'm so happy I did! I'm coming to realize that our old washer sucked at getting the clothes clean. I didn't know what clean clothes were till I used my front-loader for the first time! And it uses less detergent than before.

Moving on... here's the before pic of one side of the old laundry room. Gross! I had no shelves so everything collected on the floor long enough to mildew so that I had to throw it away. (There's one way to get rid of laundry! ;) I didn't take a pic of the other side of the room, because frankly, I'm too embarrassed at the nastiness of it. Try not to use your imagination.

And here are the painted, shelved, new machine after pics! TA-DA!

Anniversary Honey Love

2010-06-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart! I love you so much more now, 14 years into the marriage, then I ever have. And you're still the handsomest man I know! I'm so grateful to the Lord for giving you to me to spend my whole life with. I love you Honey :)

Baby Goats!

2010-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Our goat Daisy had babies! Well, she did a couple weeks ago. But I couldn't let the chance to blog about them slip away. They are just SO darn cute with their long airplane ears! I spared you the gory pics ;)


1st baby- Flora

Kinda wobbly.

2nd baby- Fauna

I found it!


Two pretty little girls.

Piggy back.

Patient momma.

Laundry Room Renovation, pt. 1

2010-06-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here are 8 things I've learned during the past couple of days as I've been renovating my laundry room:


1. Old duct tape on a scary looking outlet is there for a reason. Leave well enough alone or you will be shocked. Really.


2. Rats can chew through thick stucco. Apparently they love to line their holes with old dishcloths as well, (mystery solved.)


3. Sometimes it's better to leave rotting drywall alone as well. Otherwise you will keep making the hole bigger in an attempt to patch it.


4. Spackle covers a multitude of sins. It's pretty much my best friend.


5. Measure 2-3 times, cut 5-6 times. (See #4)


6. New paint makes a HUGE difference.


7. Unattended orphans gravitate towards water, especially the muddy kind underneath the trampoline.

8. I didn't need that pig off of Freecycle after all.

8th Grade Graduation

2010-06-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yep, my baby is now in High School. I'm not sure that it's sunk in yet. Yes I feel older, but somehow disconnected from it at the same time. Sometime in the next couple of weeks we need to sit down and chart out what classes she wants to take over the next four years to make sure she gets all her credits done, then order the curriculum. I'm not too worried about it, the teaching and all. She is very independent that way and can pretty much teach herself without me hanging over her shoulder the whole time. What a blessing to have an oldest child like this! If she needed a lot of hand-holding I don't know what I'd do, I'm just not that kind of mom (sorry girls! ;) After she graduates she wants to go to culinary school which suits me just fine! She can live at home for as long as she likes!
I love my daughter, she is so extremely helpful around the house and with her sisters. It's like having a live-in cook and nanny, for free! (Well, as long as I throw some book money her way now and then ;) Congratulations Moriah, you're one special girl!

I'm an Auntie! Again!

2010-05-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

Introducing.... Baxter! Yes I'm a week late, but better late than never ;) Isn't he adorable? I think I have the cutest nephew in the world!

Lookie What I Found!

2010-05-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Now this is a sweet vintag-ey ride! We were driving home the other day and saw this baby sitting on the corner of the road with a "For Sale" sign on it. I am SO not above getting free stuff off the street, but to pay for it? It had to be a good price for me to even consider it.

Well, the sign said $50. Gulp... maybe I didn't need it after all. But then a wonderful thing happened. A scroungy looking college kid walked out of the nearest house. Yes! I knew I would probably be able to talk him down. I asked him if he was willing to go any lower, he said that was fine.

Now if he had been a real adult I probably would have asked if he would go for $40, but he looked in desperate need of some beer money, so I offered $30. His face lit up with approval. The bike was mine!

Well, actually I got it for Moriah, seein' as how I love her and all!
(And now she can ride to the grocery store for me!)

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway

2010-05-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway
These are so cute! I can't resist!

Explanation

2010-05-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been almost a year since I've been on this thing. The truth is that I seriously struggle with depression. Those who see me on a regular basis might not recognize this, but that's because I hide it VERY well. I'm so good at hiding it that I can slap a smile on my face when I am nearly dead inside.
The reason I'm sharing this is because I think that it is more common in young mothers (well, not that young ;) than anyone will admit. Depression can affect every aspect of your life because it twists your way of thinking into beliefs and actions that are just not rational, and it also affects our bodies in that it causes lethargy and sometimes aches and pains.
My goal is that sometime soon I'd like to expand on this idea further, sharing my experience with it and hopefully throwing some medical studies in there as well. Depression is a tremendously painful mental condition that can hurt everyone that comes into contact with it. If it wasn't for the grace of God, and some very helpful medication, I wouldn't be able to share this with anyone.
This isn't exactly a very fun topic to come back with I know! But hopefully it might be a little helpful for someone out there. :)

Thunderstorm

2009-06-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I like You Tube. :) Here's some great free entertainment. This group is amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw

The Oil Cleansing Method, pt. 1

2009-06-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

I've always had acne, badly. When I was a teenager my mother took me to the dermatologist who put me on Retin-A. I honestly don't remember if it worked well or not, actually I don't think I was on it long enough to see the results. You see, when I went to my dad's house one summer for our yearly visitation, my younger brothers took the Retin-A cream out of my suitcase and smeared it all over the carpet. My mother was none too happy about that one! We couldn't afford any more since it was so expensive, so I just faithfully used whatever face soap my mom bought me (I think it was usually Oxy-something.)
After I graduated high school it finally started clearing up a bit. Then I got married and starting having many babies (6 in 8 years!). Let's just say my hormones went wild. I had enormous cystic acne most of the time, and since I was either pregnant or nursing medication was out of the question. I did try Proactive for several weeks too, I broke out so bad my face ached all the time, even when I wasn't touching it. The directions told me to give it 3 weeks for my face to adjust, but after 6 weeks of pain it just became too unbearable, so I quit.
When I finally weaned my last baby I went to the dermatologist again to see if I could get on Acutane. A couple adults in my family had used it with great results so I thought it would help me too. I nearly passed out when I found out it would be A COUPLE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!
The doctor did suggest that I use Clean and Clear face wash, the one that has both sayalic acid and benzoil peroxide in it, followed by a light moisturizer. Well, I've been faithful to use it for a couple years now, and I must say it has done it's job very well.
But lately I've been leaning towards more natural products. My friend Angela told me about something she's been doing, the Oil Method. I liked it because there's nothing gimmicky about it. It's not a product sold by some company trying to make money off of me. I was really put off at first when she was trying to explain it to me, putting MORE oil on an already oily face?!?! Just the idea made me feel like one giant zit! She finally just told me to google it if I wanted to know more. So I did, and it makes a whole lot of sense. Another good thing? It's cheap!
I've been doing it off and on for about 3 weeks now. I use a ratio of 1/3 castor oil and 2/3 olive oil, (it was what I have on hand, I might try sunflower oil later), rubbing it in for about 5 min. every other evening. It's so cool, I can actually feel the little grainy plugs come out of my pores! I am breaking out a bit now as my face is adjusting, but nothing like it did with Proactive. I'll give it a few more weeks to see what'll happen, I'll let you know, but so far it's looking pretty good.

For My Little Filly

2009-06-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here ya go Faith!

In the Middle

2009-06-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

My sweet middle daughter Abigail now has her very own blog. She's been watching her big sisters have so much fun with theirs that she wanted in on the action too! Check it out! http://abi-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/

Freecycle is Rad

2009-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

I like free stuff and I like to do needlework. A lot. So do my girls. So when there was a freecycle post offering needlepoint kits we jumped on them! They were oldish, like from the 70's, with the orangeish, brownish, greenish colored thick acrylic yarns. But ya know, they are perfect for beginners! Fat yarn, fat needles, thick cloth... Beggars can't be choosers, and if we're content with what we have then we'll realize that God really does give us good things even though they might not be as bright shiny new as we would like. We are learning to be happy with whatever we're given and to do the best we can with it. And who know? We might even come to appreciate the not so polished things in life!

The Fair is NOT Cheap!

2009-05-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late with this post, as with everything! But I had to share some of these cute pics of my kids at the fair. First though, let me elaborate on the title if you please. I was going to make a list of all the things that we put money out for, but that is a little too tedious for lazy ol' me. Let's just say that for 3 adults and 5 kids, admission, food and rides (a couple dollars per ride per kid!), it was easily a couple hundred dollars. Again, NOT cheap! We haven't gone to the fair for a couple years, but my dad loves to take the kids and he loves to spoil them, rotten. He can't say no. But if it floats his boat I'm willing to let him. The only bad part of the day was that I didn't get a pic of Grandpa with the kids. Bummer.
Oh! Our friends Chuck and Elizabeth with their 3 cuties stayed the weekend with us and went to the fair with us too, fun!

Giveaway!

2009-05-29T13:35:00.001-07:00

Tomato Soup Cake is having a giveaway, have a look!

Pea Trellis

2009-05-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put this in the last post, but here's a pea trellis you can make if all you have is a couple long poles and some twine. I don't think it would hold anything too heavy, but at least it gets the peas up off the ground.

It's Hot Already

2009-05-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

May's mostly over and I haven't gotten much done around here. It's been getting hot here already and I really don't do well in hot weather, so I have to try to get work done in the mornings. I finished the raised beds in my vegetable garden. Originally I had planned to do an H pattern in the middle, but decided to go with a C instead. Now I have to work on the sprinkler system, the old hose is cracked and some of the heads are missing.

I don't have the money to buy mulch, so I'm using grass clippings in the pathways instead. I hope it works. I figure if you pile it deep enough it'll keep anything from growing.

I'm still trying to fine tune the watering system in my greenhouse. When I first set it up in March there was so much water that the seedlings molded. Now all my rhubarb seedlings died from lack of water. I think the battery in the timer died so it wasn't turning on. This is what happens when I get lazy and don't check on them for 2 days. Grrrrrr!

Here's a little advice for those of you who have goats: make sure your children latch the gate of their pen properly, goats really like roses and strawberries. This bush had big beautiful clusters of roses on it, and the strawberries were lush and overflowing the top of the barrell. Another grrrrrr!

At least my peas, lettuce, and artichokes are doing well. I don't know how long they'll last though in this heat. I almost lost all 20 of my Roma tomato seedlings because I forgot to water them during the same 2 days I lost the rhubarb. They popped back up after a good soaking, but some of the leaves didn't make it. I still need to get those in the ground.

The goats are enjoying their new sun shade. Unfortunately the flies are too.

I've lost almost half of our 30 meat chicks that I got a few weeks ago. Some died from lack of water, some escaped their cage and were caught by Augie the dog to be shaken to death. Now I only have 17. Bummer. But seeing as how this is my first year raising meat chickens, I figured it would be a learning experience, and it has been.

Well, let's not end with too much disappointing news. Here's Hopie and her new clothespin hairdo. She could start a new trend with this.

And here she is preparing for her new show "Cooking With Chicken Feed."

Homemaking, pt. 2

2009-05-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

The second part to Why Modern Motherhood Is So Much Harder Than It Ought To Be has been posted At The Well and it does have some good, practical help.

First she says that we need to recognize the two lies that homemakers live under: 1) that homemaking is easy, and 2) it's boring. I would add, 3) the lie that homemaking is of little value. But I think she nailed it on the head here, homemaking is NOT easy or boring in the least. If anything, there is so much stuff to be done that you could work 24 hrs a day and still not do everything on your list! And boring? The variety of things to do is overwhelming. Every job has repetitive work of course, so repetitive that we can do it in our sleep if need be, and we do! But really, the challenge comes in being able to organize and balance all of these tasks, some of which take an amazing amount of creative genius to conquer. (Like being told you are having guests stopping by in 1/2 an hour, a very messy house, 5 kids to direct, and dinner to cook when there's nothing in the pantry!) Yes, this is a common occurrence in our home.

For step 2 she would have you "Renew Your Mind" by reading good homemaking books. I am a little discouraged here. Reading Christian homemaking books are a great thing to do, very helpful, I've read a few myself. But she doesn't even once mention Scripture. Yes, homemaking really isn't mentioned in Scripture a whole lot, but there are many verses pertaining to how we ought to live in general as people of God, no matter our vocation.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim. 3:16

For step 2 I would probably call it "Changing Your Attitude," having a Godly perspective of homemaking. Seeing it as an invaluable God-given duty for women. If our home isn't peaceful and joyful, (notice I didn't write perfectly clean and organized!) then it reflects poorly on the glory of the God we claim to serve.

Thirdly, she encourages us to find fellowship whether in real life or on the internet. This I do believe is very needful, but I would look for a real life friend first. Internet friends are very helpful, but they don't have warm, strong arms to wrap around you. And when you are alone at home it's easy to feel even more isolated sitting in front of the computer. Find an older woman in your church who's been where you are and who is willing to listen and encourage you in the Word of God. This can mean the difference between a joyful life, or a bitterly hard heart. Avoid someone who gripes about her husband and children. You want someone to help pull you out of the pit of discontentment, not drag you down.

Lastly she tells you to tackle your problem areas with a ton of research. Whether it is cleaning, organizing, cooking, teaching your children, etc. Read up on everything you can, pull ideas and tips from every source possible. This is good advice as well. How can we cook a meal if we don't know how? This comes easy to me as I love to read and learn about things. I have many books telling me how to do this or that. The problem for me is actually getting around to doing them, I would rather read!

So all in all this was a helpful article, even if I think she missed the main point of why we're doing this homemaking thing at all. For the glory of God, not for our own personal fulfillment. If we are only doing this because we're told it's supposed to be the right thing to do, because it's better for the children if a mother stays home, then we're missing out on the peace and contentment that God has for us. We're doing this because it's what God has created us for. To be helpers to our husbands so they can do what God has called them to do. To raise up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that the next generation knows and loves Him.

Does this mean we can't do the things which we find pleasure in? God forbid! If God has put a desire in your heart to sing, then sing! If He gave you the ability to paint, then paint for goodness' sake! Just remember your priorities. Yes we may have to sacrifice our wants for a season. Did Christ want to be beaten and die? I use that strong analogy because sometimes we do feel as if we're being beaten by the demands that we face. But you know what? It's worth it knowing that we're allowing God to fulfill His purpose in our lives. Not that we have any righteousness of our own mind you, we must daily come to Him for the strength we need to meet our days. It's only by His grace that we can do what He's called us to. That's why we need the right perspective and attitude about our jobs as homemakers. Because without Him we can't do it, it's too hard.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." James 1:5

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?' For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." Rom. 11:33-36

Homemaking, pt. 1

2009-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

When I first saw today's post on At the Well titled "Why Modern Motherhood Is So Much Harder Than It Ought To Be," I thought "Oh come on, women just need to quit their whining and do their job!" Now, I whine about my job too (although I'm trying to quit, it's an awful habit), but come on here, women have had very tough jobs all throughout history! What makes us so different? We have washing machines for goodness sakes! But the author brought up some very interesting points that I had never considered.

1. Pre-Industrial Revolution, throughout history, families worked together. Dad either farmed or had a shop close to home. He took the boys with him to work alongside him and learn a trade. Mothers worked in the home and taught their daughters how to cook and care for babies. Home was the center of their lives. This isn't to say life wasn't hard, sure it was. But they lived and worked, celebrated and grieved together.

2. Modern women grow up in a 2.1 child household with mom at work while the kids are plunked in school all day working with peers. After school you go to activities or day care. No one is teaching girls how to be home makers. Home is just an in-between landing place to eat meals, sleep, and watch T.V. Same thing when they enter college. Apart from the mindset that women staying at home is a waste of their life they are also taught how to conform to whichever work culture they choose. After college they jump into careers with bosses and deadlines and nasty co-workers. But that's just what you're supposed to do to feel fulfilled in life.

3. So when she does get married and have a baby all of a sudden she's home. Alone. All day. With a crying baby. She doesn't know how to cook or clean or do laundry or go grocery shopping or change a diaper. Her mother did it all for her out of working mother's guilt and didn't have the time to teach her. Now she's counting the days till her kid turns 3 and can go to preschool. She was never taught how to love her husband, her kids, or her home. In fact, she'd rather be working than be stuck at home all day changing poopy diapers and listening to her kids scream at her.

4. Does her husband help? No. He works all day, that's a woman's job, that's what a stay at home mom does after all. They're exhausted after working 60 hrs. a week and are a little jealous that they're wives get to stay home all day. While their wives are a little jealous that they're husbands don't have to listen to screaming babies all day and actually get to come home from work at the end of the day. There is no end of the day for mothers, they're on call 24 hrs.

5. Who can she turn to for help? Her own mother? No. She's busy back at work, she put in her time raising a family and never enjoyed it herself. Besides, she can't take the time off because she's going on vacation with some girl friends next week while father is gone camping with his buddies and she needs the overtime. Get a babysitter so you can have some alone time, she's told. Can she turn to her friends for help? Nope. They're in the same boat.

We do have some difficult challenges to face. If we deny that then we begin to think that we're worthless, just no good at this stay-at-home thing. The problem is that we were never taught properly and now we're hopelessly miserable. No we can't do it on our own, we must have help, someone to teach us what in the world to do. This Modern Motherhood post was just the first part outlining or problem. The second part will hopefully give us some kind of solution. I can think of a few things already, but I'd like to hear what she has to say before I post any more. So stay tuned and maybe we can figure this out together!

Easter Dress Challenge, Pt. 2

2009-04-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

I did it! Five dresses in one week! It really wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be. One dress a day for three days, then two dresses on the fourth day. I would have had time to make myself one too, but I got a little stomach bug and didn't feel up to it. (I wasn't really relishing the thought of measuring myself either ;) The coolest thing about this project was that I made all of these dresses ENTIRELY out of what I had on hand here at home, with the one exception of having to buy one spool of thread since I didn't have any that matched Faith's corral colored fabric. Here they are!

Moriah's was made out of satin, which made it a little slippery to sew, but it wasn't too bad. I did have to add a little ruffle around the neckline for modesty since it was a little too low cut, but the style of the dress suits her figure very well. I think this dress turned out the best.

Faith's dress was a lot easier being made out of cotton seersucker. I love the dropped waist on her so we accented it with a white satin ribbon. It turned out a little too short in my opinion, when she grows this summer she'll have to wear white tight pants underneath, she's always running around and playing hard with her friends at church.

Abi's dress was fun to make because I had never done a bodice like this before with rouching vertically on the top center and horizontally on the waist. I also liked the fact that it needed neither zipper nor buttons, but used elastic in the back instead, much easier! I had to make the bodice small and add a couple inches of ruffle at the bottom as she is tall and thin.

Lily's and Hope's dresses were very simple. I had used this pattern several times already to make all of their flower girl dresses. Lily is very small so the pattern turned out to be too big for her. I didn't want to waste the fabric, so I put two pleats in the middle front of the bodice to take it in a bit and covered it with two cute buttons. The wide sash helps to reign in the rest of the looseness. She'll be able to wear it for a long time, I can take out the pleats and loosen the sash as she grows.

Hope's was the easiest by far. It's a yellow striped seersucker. I had just barely enough fabric for this one so I had to measure twice, cut once! Fortunately it fits her perfectly. For both Lily's and Hope's dresses the pattern called for a zipper, but I didn't have any more after Moriah's and Faith's dresses so I extended the backs an inch on each side and put in buttons instead. You can't see it so well, but I found a little daisy button in my stash and put it just under Hope's strap. So cute!

Here's a pretty pic of all the girls together with cousin Ava. She looks like a little baby doll!

Easter Dress Challenge, Pt. 1

2009-04-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

My girls need new Easter dresses, their old ones are falling apart. The problem is I don't have the cold hard cash necessary to buy 5 new dresses from the store. What I do have though is a craft room full of miscellaneous fabric, a few old patterns, and a week to work on them. Let's see what happens shall we?

At the Well, Older Woman

2009-04-06T08:55:00.001-07:00

So here's the questions for this week:

How are you doing as an older woman?
Do you live in a way that is appropriate for someone serving the Lord?
How is your speech, your attitude?
Are you producing the fruits of the Spirit in your life?

Well, I guess I am an older woman to some, but I know others who'd slap me silly for considering myself in that category as I'm only..... shoot!.....help me out here.....anyone?..... 31? 32? Let's go with 31. Wait, I have guilt now. I was born in Sept. of '77, you can do the math if you care, I was never good at it (math and/or caring). But I am in the position of an older woman. I am a pastors wife, and mother of 5 girls. So here's my answers to the best of my limited abilities.

How am I doing as an older woman?
Um... I taught a Bible study once or twice. Does that count? I try to be nice and gracious when people come to me with issues, and give them Scripture. That's the important part, directing women to the Word, that's the only thing we have to direct us as believers. (Of course we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us as well. But some people can't tell the difference between the Spirit leading them to do something and the pizza they had the other night for dinner that's not agreeing with them. So I'd rather stick with Scripture for most people. The Holy Spirit isn't going to direct us against God's Word anyway.)

Do you live in a way that is appropriate for someone serving the Lord?
For the most part. I love and serve my husband, care for and teach my children (I must admit there is some yelling involved though). I don't watch T.V. more than say, 2 hrs. a week. I don't smoke, or drink. Well, only when things get a little crazy around here... kidding! (mostly). I do listen to ABBA, but hey, they're good. And I've even taken our churches' resident elderly woman to the grocery store. Can't beat that!

How is your speech, your attitude?
Dang! You got me there! I might as well quit now. Especially after yesterday. Let's just say that I shot daggers at my husband while he was preaching. NOT GOOD! But hey, we're keeping it real here. The only thing about my speech is that sometimes things pop out of my mouth before I have time to consider them. That can be pretty embarrassing at times, more for my husband than me. As for the attitude, well, I'm not a very nice person. I don't like to go outside of my comfort zone much. I will if I don't have a choice, but it's not a pretty sight, Patrick is the only one who has to deal with that side though, (God forgive me!) For everyone else I can smile my way through pretty much everything, but I know the Lord isn't pleased with that. I'm working on it.

Are you producing the fruits of the Spirit in your life?
As for the fruits, well, self-control is probably the only one I can manage at this point having come from a church where only the outside matters. But it only works with other people, not myself (as my extra 80 lbs. can testify to). The rest of the fruits either don't exist for me, or are hard, shriveled up little things. And no, I'm not making myself sound worse than I really am. Remember my bad attitude about everything? Yeah, let's leave it at that shall we?

So all in all, God really could have picked a more qualified person for my position. I don't understand why He did what He did. The only thing I can do at this point is to keep on trucking and trust that He will will enable me to do all He's called me to do. All He needs is a willing heart, but though I don't even have that most of the time, I can pray that He'll supply me with one and know without a doubt that He'll accomplish His will in my life regardless of all I do to sabotage it. Isn't He good? I am oftentimes completely overwhelmed to the point of tears over His grace towards me.

"Guilty, vile, and helpless, we;
spotless Lamb of God was he;
full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!"
Man of Sorrows! What a Name
-Philip P. Bliss

I Knew It!

2009-04-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Your score: C

O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. – Proverbs 8:5

Dangit all!

Gardening Frenzy

2009-03-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Every spring I get the gardening bug, but it seems this year is different, I want to do EVERYTHING! From starting the seeds in my greenhouse, to raised beds, to canning, I'm going all out.
The plan:

It's roughly a 600 sq. ft. garden (Well, maybe. I'm really bad at math). I used to have about 18- 4' squares with old fence boards for 1' wide walkways. It was nice at first, but by mid summer the garden would be so overgrown I couldn't get into it anymore (thus the new 3' walkways). And the fence boards were rotting out with weeds growing in the cracks, not to mention the snakes, lizards, slugs and bugs which lived under them, **shiver**. That's why I like the NEW Square Foot Gardening book (see my bookshelf to the right). It's very much streamlined having been written about 20 years after the first book. I just got the outer perimeter beds done yesterday (yay!).

Then I transplanted my asparagus to a new, cooler place in the garden. I'm hardening off my peas now so I can plant them too, and I'm going to have to mercilessly prune back my monster rosemary if it wants to stay.

In other news, my strawberries are blooming,

my hen is setting on a batch of eggs,

the grapevine is coming to life,

the roses are blooming,

the goat is in heat,

the massive compost pile needs to be tamed,

and I found a tulip blooming at church that looks exactly like my tattoo!

All in all, lots of work to be done, but lots to look forward to and enjoy in the mean time. But today, I'm taking the day off!

Hil-ar-i-ous!!!!!!!!!

Marmalade Madness

2009-03-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Rachel has two enormous grapefruit trees in her backyard but she doesn't fancy grapefruits. When Angela (no, she hasn't posted anything new since the New Year!), and I heard this we had the same thought, grapefruit marmalade!
We said to each other, "Let's get all 10 of our children together and make marmalade!" So I sent my kids across the street to Rachel's house with the red wagon and a ladder to pick all the grapefruits they could reach. We only got a laundry basket full since it was the end of grapefruit season and most had fallen off the tree and rotted. I was a little worried at first that we wouldn't have enough to justify the work of canning, though I was to find out later that we had PLENTY.

Well, Marmalade Day arrived and we loaded up the car with grapefruits, canning supplies, and lunch and headed to Angela's house. She has 7 acres for the kids to run wild in while I live in the middle of town.
Then we settled down to compare recipes. Angela pulled a recipe from a book she has, Ball Blue Book of Preserving,

and I found one on the internet, (sorry, I don't remember where). We compared notes and found the recipes very similar, except hers actually gave the measurements for the pulp, water, sugar mixture, (which I don't have on me at the moment) mine is:
2 large grapefruits,
1 large lemon, (Angela's didn't call for lemons)
2 cups water
4 cups granulated sugar

First we scrubbed all the dirt off the grapefruits since you use the peel for marmalade.

Then we peeled the rind off and cut off as much of the pith as we could. This took like 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

Then we shredded the peel in the food processor, chopped the pulp, and combined the two.

Then came time to combine the rind/pulp mixture and the water together. I let Angela do the math, she's good at it.

Then we set it to boil for 10 minutes.

After that Angela removed it from the heat and set it aside to cool overnight. Do you see that my fears that we wouldn't have enough grapefruits were totally unfounded? I think we actually used only one of these bowls and froze the rest since we were running out of enthuasiasm for the whole project.

By then it was time to make dinner for our families and have our church prayer meeting. Angela and Kevin graciously invited us to do it at their house since my house was disgustingly dirty and I hadn't had time to clean it that day. Also, their baby Sammy wasn't feeling well and Angela wanted to hear Kevin do his devotion on prayer (awesome!), which she wouldn't have been able to do if prayer meeting was at my house since she'd have to stay home with Sammy.

So the next day we decended on their house again to finish the whole marmalade process. It was time to add the sugar and boil it till it reached 118 degrees, which took several hours and lots of stirring to accomplish (Thank you Jacob!).

Then it was FINALLY time to ladle the marmalade into the jars. Angela's good at that too.

I set my jars upside down to heat seal since I'm lazy and would like to skip the water bath process if I could, I think they sealed fine. Angela wanted to be on the safe side and procees hers. She's thinks things through better than I do. At this point we left all the kids at home and went out to dinner with our husbands. (Thank you so much Ashley for watching all the kids!)
So here's my portion of the finished product, I think it'll last a while.

But do you see something odd at the bottom of the jars? Here's a close-up:

the marmalade set a little too well, as in the consistency of like, maybe, cement? I'ts still like this 2 days later!

But mmmmm..... it is pretty yummy, though a little bitter despite all the sugar we added! I like it on Moriah's cornbread with butter and a little sugar sprinkled over the top!

I Just Can't Stop

2009-03-26T09:50:00.001-07:00

I

CAN'T

STOP

SNEEZING

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better Late Than Never

2009-03-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

I know ya'll have been on the edge of your seats since we've gotten back, waiting to hear about all the excitement. So here's some pics of our vacation to Southern California, (Orange County). We try to go every year to visit Grammie and Grumpy, and so Patrick can go to the Shepherd's conference. It's about a 9 hour drive normally, 10 if we have to stop frequently for the kids to go potty, or 8 if we drive at night and drug the kids with Dramamine (our preferred method).

First we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. It was a lot of fun and we got to see some of the bones they recently found.

Tar

Prehistoric Horse (see happy Faith?)

Mammoth

Dire Wolves (lots of them)

Trying to sit on the Giant Sloth

Success!

Cute Pic

Then we went to the beach.

It was a little nippy, but still swimable.

We had a couple birthdays (Moriah's now 12, and Lily's now 7), visited with Mammy, and did some shopping too.

On our way back home we stopped to visit our friends the Carrells for a couple days.

We had so much fun but were completely exhausted when we got home!

At the Well, My Husband

2009-03-23T10:09:00.001-07:00

"And here is your assignment. Use your blog as a place to thank God publicly for your husband (make sure you are sensitive and do not share things that might embarrass him inadvertently). It should be fun to read all of the great lists!"-Sherry, At the Well

I found this awesome blog and want to participate in their weekly assignments. This one seemed like a great place to start seeing as how I don't take the time to appreciate my husband enough.

1. He's the handsomest man I've ever seen! (It's an old pic, but my favorite :))
2. He LOVES God more than anything.
3. He LOVES his family.
4. He cheerfully gets up every morning to go to work to provide for us.
5. He'd take a 3rd or 4th job before he'd let me work outside of the home, (that's a GOOD thing!)
6. He lives for playing and having fun.

7. He's a great preacher, I learn a lot from him.
8. He's always going out of his way to make sure I'm happy.
9. We have the best marriage EVER, (almost 13 years!)
10. He doesn't nag me to keep the house or the kids clean.

I know there's more, but that list encompasses pretty much everything, and I don't want to make anyone jealous!

Coffee With Daisy

2009-03-23T09:52:00.001-07:00

Good morning!

I love my new goat Daisy. I really enjoy getting up early to milk her and have my coffee in the mornings. I never thought in a thousand years I would ever be saying those words. Milk a goat? Getting up early? I must be insane.

She likes me :)

Grrrrrrr!!!

2009-03-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

I really just have myself to blame. I knew the kids were playing in my greenhouse yesterday. Right after I crawled into bed last night, all warm and cozy, I thought to myself, "Andi, it's cold tonight. You really should check to see if the kids left the greenhouse door open or not."

Did I? No.

Do you see all those pretty, sparkley drops of water on my baby peas? They're frozen! I don't know if they will survive or not.

Exciting Soil Experiment

2009-03-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Before we left for vacation a few weeks ago I wanted to get my seeds planted so I wouldn't have to sit at home staring at them all day waiting for them to sprout. I do that. I also try to watch water boil. I want things done NOW and a few minutes, or a few days is too long to wait.
Anyhoo, I have a lot of beautiful black compost in my backyard. I've heard that compost is too rich for starting seedlings and will fry them. But I hate buying dirt. It seems stupid to me to spend money on something of inferior quality to what I can make at home which is of superior quality. Especially dirt of all things.

So this is what I did:
1. Put finely sifted compost in one tray, planted seeds.
2. Put store bought potting soil in another tray, planted identical seeds.
3. Put both trays next to each other in the greenhouse so they both get the same sun and water coverage.
4. Went on vacation.
5. Came home and checked on the seedlings, this is what I found...

The difference is amazing! All the healthy, tall seedlings on the left are started in compost. The weak, stumpy ones on the right are in store bought potting soil. Time will tell if the seedlings in the compost will continue to do well or not. I have a feeling they'll be fine.
I have a dilemma though, I didn't expect there to be so great a difference in maturity and I had expected to plant them in the garden at the same time for a good canning harvest. Now the harvests will have to be staggered and I won't be able to can much. Oh well, I did learn a great lesson though!

Oh Yeah...

2009-03-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

My plant labels and row dividers are old plastic mini-blinds. :)

Finally, My Greenhouse!

2009-03-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

About 2 years ago my sweet mother-in-law Dixie bought me a greenhouse kit for my birthday. I was so excited! I've always wanted one. But, with homeschooling 5 kids, babysitting 2 more, and being immobilized by anemia, (not to mention, again, my inability to follow through with things), I didn't get around to setting it up till last month.
I picked a spot to the right of my little garden and ran a waterline from the garden spigot to the front left corner of where I wanted the greenhouse to be. I pulled weeds and dug up the big clumps of grass so that the greenhouse would be level and weed-free. Then I took a pic. My lovely daughter Abi is in there to give an idea of the size of things.

Then I opened the box and got a little overwhelmed. This thing was going to be bigger than I thought. Luckily I like building things and can read directions. Normally I don't read directions when I build things, then halfway through I'll wish I had, but I wasn't going to take any chances with this baby!

So up it went! It took me half a day to get the entire frame set up (for the love of God and the well being of your wrists, use a drill if you have one!). But then it started to rain, so I abandoned the thing for a week until the rain stopped. Then it took me another half of a day to get the polyethylene (?) sheet in place and secure it down.

Then I set up the misting system. This didn't come wit the greenhouse kit, I had to go buy all the parts at Lowe's and figure out how to put it all together myself. Before you start thinking I'm really smart, you must know that this was SUPER easy! Not a lot of brain power was involved. First I screwed the timer onto the spigot, then screwed the hose onto the timer.

Then I ran the hose up the left corner then horizontally along the 3 sides of the frame, and down again at the front right corner to lay in a coil under the shelf. I secured the hose to the frame with plastic zip ties. Again, easy.

The only hard part about this was to figure out what nozzle heads I wanted to use. A drip head would just run down the walls, so I found a mister head that would spray outwards to cover an area of about 2 feet and used the handy little hole puncher to punch holes where I wanted them, allowing for a few inches of spray overlap to make sure all the soil would get coverage. (This was all trial and error, it's a good thing the hole puncher came with plugs to plug up mistake holes!)

Then I popped the mister heads into the holes, set the timer to spray every once in a while, and voila! I don't have to worry about my seedlings drying out!

The last part of this whole process was laying some sort of flooring. I wanted something that would drain water well and suppress weeds. Most of all though it had to be cheap. My ideal would have been putting the whole greenhouse on a brick foundation, but I didn't have the money for that kind of thing. My next idea was throwing down a layer of those pretty white round pebbles, but that would have been too expensive as well. So my last resort was using the box our new T.V. came in (thank you Grammie and Grumpy!), which worked great because I really didn't want our neighborhood tweakers to know we have a nice new T.V. So I put down a layer of cardboard, then a couple inches of bark mulch on top which was about $5 a bag, I used about 4 or 5 bags. I could have used homemade mulch with my chipper/shredder, but I didn't have it up and running yet, and I didn't have the time with our vacation decending upon us quickly and a wedding dress to finish! Eventually the cardboard will rot away, then I'll put down more mulch. I'll use the chipper then.

So after a giant exhausted sigh, and warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, I was finally able to plant my seeds secure in the thought that they would stay warm and moist while I was away from them. The End! (Tune in next time for my exciting soil experiment! Well, exciting to me anyway!)

The Dress

2009-03-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Before

Ok, so this one was a long time in coming! I had wanted to post the before pic as soon as we got the dress, then post updates on the makeover. But, well, you know how it goes. I'm not that good on following through on things.

Well, we got the dress at a thrift store soon after Bryan and Rachel were engaged and took the before pic. You can see that Augie the dog and Hope (Rachel's pet monkey) had to get in on the action. It's a two piece dress, a bustier-type bodice and ball gown skirt.

First I had to take in the bodice, Rachel being like a size 2 and all, then covered it in a champagne colored satin. Over that I put the $70/yard smokey green lace and ruched it up a bit. It nearly broke my heart to have to cut the stuff it was so beautiful! I had a difficult time adding the corset back to it. I couldn't find anything at JoAnn's to use for the loops and didn't know how to make them. So I used this black leather-like strip with grommet holes and sewed that onto the inside of each side of the opening, then threaded the ribbon through. It wasn't meant to be functional as in closing the back of the bodice tightly, hooks and snaps did that job, but it was just for decoration to give it the "corset" look. Then I added the off-the-shoulder sleeves.

For the skirt I again had to take in the waist several inches. Then I made 4 large panels out of the same champagne satin that was used on the bodice, making them several inches longer than the skirt so we could bunch it up all over. I laid these over the origional white skirt, and attached them to a waistband that hooked onto the waist of the white skirt. We bunched up the panels and tacked them into place.

Then I took 2 panels of the same beautiful lace that we had used for the bodice and put a panel on the front of the dress peeking out of the satin, and on the train in the back.

I think the whole thing turned out pretty well. The leather grommet strip in the back pulled off a bit and had to be held on with safety pins because someone pulled on it too tight. So I need to figure out a better way to do corset backs in the future. Rachel was a patient angel during the fittings, I couldn't have asked for a more good-natured bride! She turned out absolutely stunning at the wedding and actually could have pulled off the whole thing wearing a paper sack for as pretty as she was. All in all it was a good experience and I'm looking forward to making over some more wedding dresses! (Most of these pics I stole from Ginger, thank you!)

After

(Yes, that handsome pastor is my Beloved!)

Homemade Therapy Sessions

2009-01-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when cabin fever starts to set in for me. Yes, I live in California, but in the Northern part of it. It gets cold and wet here. I can spend days, weeks, even entire months nestled deep in my big green recliner next to the wood stove (our only source of heat), with a heating pad on my back, a blanket on my legs, and children piled on me as we read good books together. Which, in my opinion is one of the best parts of being a mother.

But occasionally, (like right at this moment, no kidding) the kids get kinda frisky. Jumping from couch to couch, screaming like banshees, and laughing hysterically because they put a purple wig on Augie the dog. Times like this are when I put on my boots and coat and try to sneak out of the house unnoticed. I rake up the compost pile, pull weeds, I sometimes even consider picking up dog poop (not that I actually do it, that's a kids job of course!). Anything so long as I'm out of the house for a while.

Inevitably the kids find me, because you know, someone needs to be tattled on every 5.7 minutes. Depending on the mood I'm in, I'll either send them back into the house so I can have a little more quiet time, or I'll give them plastic baggies and put them to work. And they're not allowed to give me any crap about it! (Yes that was intended.)

This actually works quite well for us. I'll come back in feeling much calmer, a little work and fresh air does a brain good. At this point I realize just how exercise depraved we are and I'll have the kids pick up all the garbage and shoes left out in the rain as well. When they're finished with the job they are always quite happy to settle down with me again in my big green recliner, warm chilly toes, and listen to a story.

Blood, Sweat, and...well...Curses

2009-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

No power tools for this baby! Well, I intended to use them, but when I opened the garage door I was heartbroken to find that they were laying there lifeless and cold. **sniff** I'll be ok... someday.
In the meantime I'll have to build things manually, like this nesting box. The upside is that my arms will be perfectly toned from all the sawing and hammering! I am obviously not a carpenter, but I think I did a pretty darn good job on this thing, despite the fact that it has my blood streaked on it in several places.
You know what else is super cool? I didn't put out a penny to make it either! At Hubby's work they use a lot of wooden pallets. The nice man whose job it is to repair them gives Patrick huge boxes of the busted up, unusable ones for us to use as kindling in our wood stove. But occasionally there comes a board that is still intact, I've been saving them knowing they will be useful at some point. So when I realized that my chickens were laying their eggs in the mud, I decided to use the good boards to make a nesting box.
Voila! Happy chickens!

I'm An Auntie!!!

2009-01-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

Isn't she beautiful!?!? Ava Marie Lord, daughter of Christina (my little sis) and Aaron. I've never been an Auntie before but I couldn't have picked a sweeter niece if I had tried!

Economical Wash?

2009-01-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

You probably can't read the sign under the laundromat's name, but it's about 6 minutes of drying for a quarter. Just about long enough for the machine to get warmed up, and if you're not quick with the quarters, to cool off also. But alas, I had no choice. My dryer broke and the laundry was piling up. So I bit the bullet, called my sister for a ride (since my car had decided to die at the same time as the dryer), washed 5 loads of laundry at home (which didn't even make a dent in Mt. Washmore), then hauled it off to the laundromat to dry. Before leaving I gave the girls strict instructions to have the dishes done by time I got home, which, of course they had to do by hand since our dishwasher gave up the ghost, from which there is no coming back.
A couple days later the dryer repairman came, $180 to make our dryer functional. I tried to do the mental gymnastics to figure out how many loads I'd have to take to the Econo-Wash in order to equal the price to repair the dryer, but I hate math and I'm too lazy to waste brain power on the problem. I just figured that with 5 kids, and having to do 3 loads a day to keep up, I'd rather stay home to do laundry. Which was a good decision in the long run. It's now a couple weeks later and my car is still incapacitated, my sister just had her baby, and I'm stuck in my recliner with a back injury!
The cool thing is- I'm really not complaining! I don't mind all this at all. I could do without the pain, but I was able to see my niece (before I got hurt), I have daughters who are able to help do the housework and cook, and I have no choice but to sit still and catch up on schoolwork with the kids. So really, there's not much to gripe about. Even before I hurt my back I didn't really miss my car since I try to avoid going anywhere anyway. I think the older I get, the more I want to just stay home.

Imagination

2008-12-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Every year we usually do Santa Claus pics at the mall. But when Santa sees a flock of girls coming at him all at once he usually gets the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on his face, so we thought we'd spare him this year! We found this Santa throne in the gym where our church meets, so I convinced Daddy he needed to play Santa this year.

These girls crack me up! They love to play "office" or "school." I had to take a pic of their imaginations at work creating offices out of what they have available to them. Notice the old coffee cups, and later they even added a bowl of candy. Because you know, no secretary's desk is complete without coffee and candy!

This last one is my baby Hope. She has the greatest imagination of them all. Usually she's Shirley Temple, or Curly the Cowboy from Oklahoma. Lately she likes to be a baby named Chocolate Bar. Yep, she's my kid alright! In this pic she's doing what all kids have done at some point or other, turning a cardboard box into something useful. In this case it's a magical barn. (Please ignore the finger nail polish mural in the background!)
When my sister and I were kids we actually built an entire Barbie town in the front room made completely out of boxes. Even though we were desperately longing for the four story Barbie penthouse, I believe we actually had more fun designing a whole town on our own.
So this year for Christmas how about reducing the number of toys and increasing the number of plain old boxes? Sounds good to me!

Woo Hoo!!!

2008-12-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

I won the November giveaway at shipfullofpirates .com! Thank you Mother Hen!

Thrift Store Decorations

2008-12-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here's some pretty Christmas ornaments I found at a thrift store a couple years ago. When I found these red and green satiny balls they were stuffed into a couple of gallon sized zip lock bags, but they were in great condition. So I bought them, attached thin wires to the top, strung silver beads onto the wires, then hung them on a long red ribbon. Mahvelous dahling!

Picture Time

2008-12-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hello there! It's been a while, again. After several calls to AT&T, and a repairman coming out to our house, we finally learned that it was our modem which was bad. Of course it was too old to be covered by warranty so we had to buy a new one. I'm not complaining though, we are actually able to get on the internet whenever we want now and it works fast! :))

What I've been wanting to share was our Christmas pictures I took of the kids in the park. I've never been a fan of professional picture taking places. #1- We could never afford them, they're too expensive! #2- They don't always come out great. And #3- I try to avoid dressing, polishing, then dragging my five kids through crowded stores, not just during holiday time, but ever!

Now, I've always used a 35mm which I LOVE. For years I steered clear of the digital cameras. Whenever my friends would give us pics of their families using a digital camera, the quality was never good and the picture would fade quickly. The problem with my 35mm though was that it was too big and bulky to carry around with me, you couldn't see the picture after it was taken to determine if you needed to redo the shot or not, the film is $5 a pop and to develop it was another $5. And when you have to develop the whole roll, you end up developing unwanted pictures which end up in the garbage. I take alot of pictures so it was getting way too costly.

So I finally broke down and bought a digital camera. I figured technology is better now than it was 10 years ago. I'm happy! I can throw it in my purse to always have on hand, don't have a drawer full of film that needs to be developed anymore, and I get to pick and choose the best pics that I want developed. I can store the pics on my computer and can e-mail them to family (as soon as I figure out how to do it!). But the best thing of all is that a photo editing program came with our computer that lets me crop and enhance the pictures I take, for free! Then I can e-mail the pics to a photo developing place and they'll send me the prints in the mail. I only have the good ones printed. This new way of doing pictures is WAY more time and money efficient than before! I have yet to get the prints in the mail, so we'll have to wait and see about quality, but the pics do look great on the computer (but NOT when on the yellow blog background, sorry). Have a look!

My New Best Friend

2008-11-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds gross, and it is, if you drink it straight. The stuff is NASTY! But boy, oh, boy it's wonderful to cook with! I grew up on the stuff as a welfare child since we got it for free, and I only gagged it down to make my mother happy. Needless to say that as an adult I had a strong aversion to it. But one day a question popped into my head, I wonder if it tastes bad if you cook with it? We go through milk fast in our house, my daughter bakes a lot, I make sauces of different kinds for dinners (instead of buying those cute/expensive little seasoning packets!), my husband would love to drink a gallon a day if I let him, and I have five kids.

So, on my next trip to the store I found it in the bulk bin section, it is awesomely cheap! When I got home I mixed up a pitcher of it, cooked with it, and voila! Non-nasty tasting food! Now we keep a pitcher of it in the fridge at all times, and whatever we need milk for (besides drinking plain :p), we use the powdered milk. If you buy it in the bulk bins without instructions for mixing, use 1/3 c. of powder to 8 oz. of water. I add a bit more water when mixing up a pitcher to stretch it a little more, it's just fine.

Oh, it also works, mixed with goat's milk, for feeding rescued kittens found in your wall!

One Thousand Gifts

2008-11-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

"No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things." -George MacDonald

My thanks to Angela for telling me about this! I am so excited to begin this with the kids.

Ann Voskamp writes, "I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber....from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen---the world is new and full of His gifts."

Sweet, Sweet, Magic Pills

2008-11-19T10:38:00.001-08:00

Who woulda thought that IRON was so necessary for a body to function properly? I sure didn't, until I couldn't peel myself out of my computer chair to get another cup of coffee! (After all what are kids good for other than tireless coffee makers and blanket fetchers?)
I'm just SO excited to realize that I'm not nearly the lazy bum that I thought I was! Now I can actually do housework rather than sit and dream of a clean house! Yea!!!

Clothing Issues

2008-11-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, since this is supposed to be a blog about making do with what you have, (although I haven't been so faithful to that!), I thought I'd throw this in here.
Having five daughters, I routinely get comments about how I'm going to be sent to the poor house trying to clothe them all when they're teenagers. But I figure that if I can set a few precedents now while they're young, then we'll have fewer issues when they get older. I may be deluding myself on this one, but hey, it's worth a shot! So here's how we do things on one not-so-large-but-perfectly-adequate income:

We home school. Sounds like it doesn't relate to the topic? Well, we don't have anyone to impress on a daily basis do we? Without all that outward pressure to conform we are able to be more content with what God has given us.
We love hand-me-downs. Whether it be from older sisters, or friends of the family, anything new to us is exciting!
We shop at yard sales and thrift stores. This is so fun! The girls love finding treasures amongst what other people have labeled as trash. We're always amazed at what perfectly good things people get rid of, some things still have the original store tags on them! We only buy clothes at Target if we need something specific that we don't already have for a special occasion. But really, we haven't had to do this for a while.
We save outgrown items for the next girl in line even if it's not perfectly "in style" anymore. Oh, and baby dresses make cute blouses for 3-4 year olds!
We mend torn items. This sounds simple enough, but I have a feeling that not many people actually take the time to do this. You can add a couple years of wearable-ness to an item by simply taking a needle and thread to it. Along this same line, you can also sew a cute little patch or embroider a flower over small stains.
We have grandparents who like to take the kids shopping. For some reason they think our kids "deserve" new clothes. Well, if it floats their boat I'm not going to stop them! ;)
We save seasonal clothes. If it doesn't fit one child this winter, it'll probably fit the next child next winter. Time flies by faster the more kids you have, you'll be thankful to be able to pull out that box next winter and be able to find what you need! We go through seasonal clothes twice a year, in the spring and fall. All summer clothes get put away, including flip-flops and bathing suits in the fall. All winter clothes get put away when it's warm enough for shorts (excepting a sweatshirt for chilly evenings). This is cause for great excitement in our house, the kids LOVE doing this so much that they don't mind hauling out ten large totes from the storage shed into the front room!

So there you have it! Take it or leave it as you will, but it works great for our family and trains the kids to be thankful and creative rather than materialistic.

I've Been Tagged!

2008-11-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

Yay! My sister-in-law Laurie tagged me for a meme! I've haven't been tagged for anything yet, and I can't think of a better one to do.
"Here's how it works: I am supposed to pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages, turn to the 123rd page, find the 5th sentence, and then post the three sentences immediately after that."
I have a dilemma though. Patrick (my sweet man!) is studying for his Sunday morning service, so he has books piled all over my desk. I have several GREAT choices, but I'll go with the one that I actually had to push away for elbow room.

"Fourth, don't fear to speak the truth, but be courageous and speak clearly and openly because God is giving close and intimate attention to all you do. Matthew 10:30 means at least that much. Jesus says, 'Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.' In other words, the suffering you may undergo in speaking the truth is not because God is disinterested in you or unfamiliar with your plight. He is close enough to separate one hair from another and give each one a number. Fear not; he is close. He is interested; he cares. Be of good courage, and speak the truth whatever the cost."

Ok, that's a little more than three sentences, but I couldn't help myself! Here's who I tag:
Patrick
Christina
Aaron
Dixie
Ashley

I'm All About the Free Stuff!

2008-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool giveaway I found out about on Ashley's blog from the Old Red Barn Co. Check it out!
Andi

One Life

2008-11-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

I found this on Ann Voskamp's blog Holy Experience. I've heard it before, but it just sunk in for me.

“Only one life, will soon be past, only what’s done for Jesus will last.”

2008-11-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty nifty link I've come across. It's advice shared by more experienced moms for those who are just starting their families. They have some great things to say, I love the sock advice! I don't have nearly as many kiddos as some of these ladies do, but I have learned a thing or two with my little flock of chicks! Be warned though, this is a soapbox of mine! ;)

The first thing I thought of was to teach children to do things for themselves. I don't want my kids to think they can whine at me if they are thirsty and I will immediately stop everything that I'm doing, jump up, run to the kitchen, and get out a cup to pour them a drink! It sounds kind of silly to have to mention this at all, but sadly I see it happening all the time. I believe that's just teaching them to be self-centered and demanding. But I know that with multiple children in the family kids learn to fend for themselves quickly, since mommy is usually occupied with the babies. The older ones learn that if they want something bad enough they better darn well figure out how to do it on their own!

This extends though to nearly every other areas of their lives as well. We need to teach them how to do household chores without having to hover to make sure they do it properly. It's either done or it's not. A couple of weeks ago a friend who has two small kids asked me what I thought a 3 year old was capable of doing around the house. My response was "More than you think!" Putting away their folded laundry, clearing off the breakfast table, picking up after themselves, they really can do many things. It's actually more difficult to teach them how to do some things rather that just doing it yourself, but in the long run you're not just teaching them how to do a task, you're also teaching them to be faithful in the little things.

Schoolwork also goes more smoothly if the kids can read the directions on the page and follow them on their own. I shouldn't have to read a math lesson to my 11 year old if she is perfectly able to read it herself. Most often the case is that she understands it much easier than I do anyway and I'm just hindering her from getting it done quickly! I believe that as soon as a child can read words and comprehend their meaning, they can follow written directions, even my 1st grader can do it.

I strongly believe we are doing our children a great disservice in allowing them to be completely dependent on us, by not giving them the tools they need to run a home of their own. I know many girls who move out of their parent's homes, go to college, or get married, and still don't know how to make a casserole, or wash their white clothes! I was one of them! What good is knowing how to diagram a sentence if they don't know how to balance a checkbook for goodness sakes? Our job as mothers is to train them to be able to live on their own without our help. I think we forget sometimes that there will be a day when they are going to move out and have families of their own. Will they be able to survive without us doing everything for them?

*Deep breath* Yes, that was ranting a bit. This is obviously a daily battle in our home. I barely know what I'm doing as a mother and homemaker as it is, so I'm trying to learn for myself and teach my daughters at the same time. Not an easy thing to do! Children really are very intelligent creatures, able to learn things much quicker than we think. Encourage them to use the brains that God gave them. Teach them how to reason out a problem. Make them untie their own knots! They'll have to learn sometime in their lives as it is, the sooner the better for everyone's sakes!

2008-10-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Er... Reformation Day!
Isn't this cute? You can get free pictures to download from http://www.doverpublications.com/sampler4/ . Sign up for the free newsletter and you'll get lots of cute stuff. I've been getting them for about a year now and have several folders full of cute pictures whenever I need them. This isn't an ad or anything, I just like free stuff and thought you all might too!
Andi

Pony Girl!

2008-10-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

My second daughter has a blog now too. Yep, you guessed it, it's all about horses!

Oh dear...

2008-10-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe teaching my eldest daughter to bake wasn't such a great idea after all.

Surprise!

2008-10-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Actually I never went anywhere, well, physically that is. I tend to be very irregular and unreliable, so please don't give up on me when I don't post for a while. I've probably jumped to another project, or another, or another...

I've actually been doing a lot of knitting lately. A friend in our home fellowship asked if I'd make her a knitted vest/bolero with cap sleeves with this gorgeous chocolate brown wool. Sorry I don't have a picture of it, but it surprisingly turned out to be kinda cute seeing as how I've only crocheted a baby sweater, once! Here's how dumb I am though. She offered to pay me, which I flatly refused (no, I'm not tooting my own horn here, bear with me a moment!) So she insistently offered to buy me some yarn. Ok, I agreed only if it would make her feel better. I assumed it would be standard craft-store yarn. But no! She had to go to a specialty yarn store and bought me 4 skeins of fancy, scarlet, Peruvian wool! I was so ashamed of myself. Patrick says I'm being unreasonable. But to my way of thinking, she ended up spending more money on the yarn than she would have if I wouldn't have been so stubborn to refuse the cash. I just don't think the work I did on her vest was worth it. Oh well.

A Preacher's Daughter

2008-09-24T23:46:00.001-07:00

My sweet little baby has her own blog now. After so much pleading on her part that I couldn't take it any longer, I finally gave in. Have a look see :) apreachersdaughter.blogspot.com

Andi

Ziggy First

2008-09-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl I attended Christian schools until the 7th grade. Usually during chapel we would sing "Seek ye first the kingdom of God...." It was such a reverent and quiet song, I loved it! The only problem was, I thought the song went "Ziggy first the kingdom of God...." I enjoyed the Ziggy comic strips, but couldn't for the life of me figure out why there was a song about him! I laugh every time I think about it, and wonder what kinds of things my own children misunderstand!

But lately the message of that verse has been coming home to me. I don't naturally seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Instead I fight to obtain all the things that I think should be added unto me. Then I wonder why I struggle so horrendously with my sin. So, if you're wondering why I don't post on here as often as I would like, it's because I'm trying to seek first the kingdom of God.

Andi

Etsy Shop!

2008-09-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it! I set up an Etsy shop where I can sell my crafts. http://www.chicksrus.etsy.com/.

I haven't actually posted anything for sale yet, but I'm all set to go when I do. I wasn't too sure if I should or not, but after reading Proverbs 31 I realized that it was a good thing for a virtuous woman to do (providing she was still able to take care of her household and maidens!).

Proverbs 31:13- "She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." V. 16- "She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vinyard." V. 18-19- "She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle." V. 24- "She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant." V. 31- "Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." V. 27- "She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."

I've been way too idle lately and I'm hoping this will be incentive to get up and get things done!

The cool thing about this is that it doesn't require alot of time or attention. I can do as much or as little as I want at any given time. Yea!

John Piper and the Prosperity Gospel

2008-09-04T15:04:00.001-07:00

Old Comforter- New Pillow

2008-08-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself for this one even though it seems so simple. I have and old down comforter which is about 10 years old. The stitching came out and feathers would fly everywhere if you even touched it. We just bought a new one, but I didn't know what to do with the old one. It seemed a shame to throw it away, I don't know why but it did. So I folded the thing up and noticed it would fit into a pillow case. So I pulled out a pillow protector (the kind with a zipper so the pillow won't fall out), and shoved the comforter inside. Then I put it into a pillowcase and voila! We now have a new down pillow that would have cost $40 had we bought it new at the store, it's very comfortable too!

Viva Pinata!

2008-08-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun thing I did with the kiddos. But, personally, I think it is NOT a kid friendly project! Faith had a horse themed birthday party a couple weeks ago, so we were thinking up all the possible horsey things we could do. Pinatas are not that expensive, but when you are throwing a big party every penny saved helps. Plus I had never done paper mache before and wanted to give it a try.

I don't have pictures of the whole process of making it, there was paste goop all over the place and I didn't want to get my camera messy!

Materials:

cardboard or posterboard, you can use paper towel rolls for the legs

balloons

masking tape

wire hanger

newspaper- (I had a giant roll of paper from our local newspaper that my mom had given me, so I didn't need to buy any.)

paste- 6 cups water to 3 cups white flour

poster paints

crepe paper

How to:

1. Build the shape you want out of the cardboard, balloons, and tape. Cut the newspaper into 3" wide strips x 10" (whatever is easy for you to work with).

2. Using wire cutters, cut the hanger and bend into a doubled up U shape. Bend the ends out into 90 degree angles in opposite directions from each other. Tape the ends to the form. (If this doesn't make sense, use your imagination!) Our horsey was too fat and heavy for a wire hanger, so we had to wrap rope around it's belly, (see pic.).

3. Mix up your paste, (you don't want it too goopy), and dip the strips of paper one at a time into the paste. Hold the paper over the paste bowl with your left hand, place the top of the strip between the index and middle fingers of your right hand, and run your fingers down the strip wiping off all the excess paste. This is important! If you don't get the excess paste off the paper, the cardboard on your form will get soggy and fall apart. We learned this from experience!

4. Lay the wet strips on your form, overlapping each other and smoothing out all the bubbles and folds. Put about 3-5 layers on your form depending on how hard you want it to be. Add more layers if the pinata is for older, more violent kids.

5. Let dry for 24-48 hours. Cut open slit at top for the candy and pop the balloon. Paint with poster paints and let dry for another day. Tape or glue on crepe paper for hair.

6. Fill with yummy goodness (NOT with chocolate on a hot August day!) And have the kids beat the crap out of it. Take pictures first though, it won't last very long.

7. The kids can use the mangled portions for cute party hats afterwards!

Hankerchief Curtains

2008-08-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

I had a dilema. The window in my kitchen gets full morning sunlight that I really don't want to hinder from shining into the kitchen. So blinds or heavy curtains were out of the question. But the window needed something...

What I did have was a bunch of old handkerchiefs from grandmothers passed on. So I got me some wire, a couple of nails, and a handful of clothes pins. And Voila! A very pretty window dressing!

Laundry Detergent

2008-08-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post this too since it saves us a TON of money. About a year ago I searched online for a good homemade laundry detergent recipe. I can't remember exactly where I found this (or else I'd give them credit for it), but it works great!

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of laundry bar soap (I use Lirio.)
1/2 cup washing soda (Not baking. It is a big yellow box, Arm & Hammer brand.)
1/2 cup borax powder (20 Mule Team is what I use, I don't know of any other brand.)

A 2 gal. container to store the mixture in. I had a 2 ga. Coleman ice chest with a lid and handle in my storage shed that wasn't in use which works great.

Directions:
1. Grate up the bar soap and add to 6 cups water in a sauce pan. Heat and stir till the soap melts. 2. Add washing soda and borax and stir till dissolved, remove from heat.
3. Pour 4 cups hot water into your 2 gal. container, add soap mixture, stir.
4. Add 1 gal. + 6 cups water, stir.

It's as easy as that! Takes about 15 minutes, and is worth the effort. If you let the soap sit for 24 hours it will gel, but you can use it right away too if you're in a pinch, like I usually am!
I use about 1/2 to 1 cup a load depending on the dirtiness of the clothes.

For fabric softener I simply use white vinegar. I always miss the rinse cycle, so I use a Downey Ball. Just fill the ball with vinegar to the line, close it up, and toss it into the washer when you start the load. The clothes don't smell like vinegar when they come out, but they don't have that artificial perfumey-fresh smell either. They're simply clean. It cuts down the static too.

The added benefit of making your own detergent and softener is that it has no dyes or perfumes to irritate sensitive skin. I used to have to buy the expensive detergents because my husband and kids have exzema and broke out in rashes when I used regular detergents. That was expensive! I don't think I'll ever go back to store-bought detergents again.

Now if only I could get my 5 daughters to quit changing their clothes every 1/2 hour, then I wouldn't have so much laundry to do!

Water Fountain

2008-08-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

Ok! Here we go!

My first project that I'd like to share is the drinking fountain I built. It actually used to be a water spigot on top of a vertical pvc pipe sticking a foot and a half out of the ground, but of course I had to mow over it, twice! After much flooding and tears (both times), we were able to cap off the ends of both pipes until we could figure out what the heck to do with the thing. We really needed the spigot there to water the chickens and weeds with, and I had always really wanted a water fountain for the kids to drink out of when playing out back. (This was really selfish on my part because they kept leaving my cups outside to be lost and broken.)

The idea came to me to cement the whole thing in so it would be Andi-with-a-lawn-mower proof. But I wanted it to be somewhat decorative too. So I finally decided to just moartar rocks over the top of the pvc pipe.

Materials:

2 ft. pvc pipe- less than a dollar

misc. pvc fittings- a few cents each

pvc primer and cement- already had some in the garage from my little mishaps

water spigot-$5

fountain head- gift ($40. I never would have bought the thing myself, but when my dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told him, "a chain saw and fountain head!" After giving me a funny look he drove me to the store to get them.)

4 bags of moartar- $2 ea.

rocks- abundantly free in my yard

Time: All stinking and sweaty day long, but worth it!

WARNING!!! Always use gloves when working with moartar! I learned the hard way and rubbed some deep, painful sores into my fingers.

Before and after pictures:

Making Do...

2008-08-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome! I'm Andi, a 30 year old house wife with 5 daughters whom I homeschool, and a husband who is the pastor of Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship here in our town. Needless to say, like most folks, I have found that it behooves our family a great deal if I put some thought into how I run our home.

The Lord has seen fit to give us small means, therefore I believe that instead of pining for things that I don't have, I must strive to be a good steward of what I do have. Because of this, I am constantly seeking what things I can weed out of our lives, things that waste our time, energy, and money in their upkeep. Additionally, I am always looking for ways to cut back on our monthly spending. This has caused me to think more creatively when faced with a need.

I'm not talking about clipping coupons, and driving all over town to find the best deal on a jar of mayonaise. If you do this, more power to you! But I've tried that for a while, and it is extremely time and gas consuming, (not to mention I have to drag several small children around with me wherever I go!), and I've never been able to save more than $10 per trip to the store. Coupons are mainly for brand name items, I always buy store brand which is cheaper than brand name with a coupon. Also, the stores around here are not coupon friendly with double coupon days and such.

I'm also not talking about saving every plastic container, empty toilet paper roll, or twist tie that finds it's way into the house. I've tried that too, only to fill rooms with unused things that would be better suited for the recycle can. I do save some things that I use on a regular basis, like empty milk gallons that we fill with water and freeze for the rabbits so they don't perish in the heat of our 105 degree summers.

What I do is try to anticipate our family's needs and plan for them. Like our clothing issue. With 5 daughters, you can imagine that could quickly turn into a crisis! I've trained them from infants to be excited about hand-me-downs or thrift store clothing. That has gone a long way towards happiness here! I also go through their clothes when the seasons change (twice a year here, cold weather clothes, and hot weather clothes), and cull the stained and torn ones, then pack away the keepers for the next child to wear.

I also try to make gifts as opposed to buying them. I have to admit that I love needle arts! I enjoy embroidery, knitting, sewing and other such things. I am not terribly good at any one particular hobby because I tend to jump around from one thing to another, testing out what I can conceiveably do and what I can't. Some things work, and alas, many things don't! But at least I can say that I'm trying, and I do learn tremendously from my experiments.

So anyway, that is a long introduction to say that this blog really isn't about me, (thank Heavens!) it's just passing on what I learn from friends or experience, and hopefully with some encouragement to those who desperately need it!