Spring Time!!!

So I can not believe we are in APRIL!!! I am so ready for Spring and Summer! (And all things hot! -Olaf from FROZEN) The girls and I made our rows in the garden today. It was so nice outside. We also planted a bunch of annual flower seeds around the garden to help draw in the bees! We bought many seed packets, hummingbird mix, wildflower mix, zinnias, cosmos, etc. I am so excited. The girls actually had fun planting. My ONLY problem with gardening in Tennessee is the CLAY they have for dirt. That is probably the only thing I miss (besides my family of course)  from my home state of Washington is good black dirt!!!!


GARDENING-
Since I learned my lesson last year, I can not grow veggies inside then transfer them outside. The roots are not strong enough to dig into the clay. So we lost most of them last year. Some also got flooded out. Others killed off others. I tried a "sister" planting last year (corn, beans, squash) together the idea is the corn grows tall, the beans use the corn stalks and the squash keeps away the other critters. Well The beans choked the corn, and the squash took over!

So this year we are just plating a few seeds right in to the ground and buying some plants too! I love planning my gardens and researching plants and soil, etc.

So last January I planted some African Violet leaves does anyone remember? May 2013 I showed you that some of them had sprouted new leaves. Well here it is 14 months after planting, I must say I did loose 2 of the 6 I planted. The 4 that lived are ready to be transplanted to bigger pots!

(The 4th one was already transplanted)

UPDATES---

Goals for 2014 There are a few I need to improve on. I need to get in the habit of working out!! This is a hard one for me! I really need to focus and get in a routine.

My Half- Homemade Beauties  Its been that long since I made my beauty recipes. So it was time to make everything again. I think this time I will splurge and find another perfume oil I like and make a batch of soap.
Here is how I made melt & pour soap.

Adyson's Chart update- Adyson has been responding to her chart very well. I still have a few challenges but life is not perfect! The rewards at the end of the week are simple things such as a candy bar, match box car, staying up 1 hour passed bed time, rent 1 movie, etc. Nothing cost more the $3. She is thrilled at the end of the week.

Saving Money-  This has been working out great! Every week I put money in the bank by the chart! Its very easy to save for Christmas this way. I love knowing I have Christmas almost paid for already, because I did my savings in reverse from the chart.
Example week 1- deposit $52, week 2 $51, week 3 $50, etc... So I am on track for Christmas this year, are you?


                               WHAT DID YOU GET ACCOMPLISHED THIS WEEK?

A year in review

                       I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great year this year. We took a different approach to Christmas this year and I think it worked out beautifully. Instead of buying a bunch of little gifts the kids were asked what "big/most important" gift they would like. We were tired of buying the little stuff that always gets broke, lost, or never used. So this year the kids  picked out a "big" gift and that was it! It was simple, the kids were over joyed!!! 


                     I'm proud of all of my accomplishments this year! I'm glad I had the support of family and friends. My biggest accomplishment this year was QUITTING SMOKING!!! July 17 was the last real cigarette I had. I had an electric cigarette for a bit, but I don't remember when I gave it up! During week 1 I listed all my goals for 2013. 

GOALS 2013....

1- quit smoking----DONE- I feel great since I quit smoking! Everything tastes better since I quit smoking!

2- Family Time- DONE- every Sunday is family day!  This is how we spent this last Sunday. Teaching the youngest to IMessage! She was so excited that she could text her daddy, sissy and mommy.... Oh and did I mention she has figured out how to video chat too? She can call her grandmother now! 

3- Get Organized- DONE- operation-kitchen-reorganization, Adysons Room I would like to organize my room and closet in 2014!

4- Eating Healthier- DONE- I no longer buy the boxed/frozen meals. I read labels of the products I buy. I'm cooking healthy! Buying healthier cuts of meats. Buying more veggies and fruits! 

5- Exercise- I have been a little sporadic with this. I plan on improving this in 2014. I have gone through Pinterest and found 100's of pins for exercise and pinned them to my board. 

6- Read More (52 book in 2013)- My last count was 13 pleasure books and 17 educational/informational... not too far off!! 

7- Brain games- I loved this challenge. I did use up all the crossword puzzles, Sudoku books I had. Now I have them on my phone and ereader! So I can play them all the time and be more Earth friendly! 

8- Blogging- Considering this is my 1st year of blogging I think I did alright. I have lots of ideas for next year to improve! If you have any suggestions let me know! 

9- Be More Positive- This was a tough one. Everyone has moments of frustrations, anger, its just a part of life. However I really tried to keep good spirits through it all this year! I am going to focus on only positive in 2014. 

10- Crafts- I may not have done 1 craft a month (which was the goal) I did more then I had done in 2012 (which was NONE) my favorite craft was the Halloween Village, Halloween Soaps, Laundry Soap, bath soaps, Christmas Ornaments. OK so I had fun doing them all!!!! 

11- Music- FAILED-  I am going to start over in 2014! 

12- No Chemicals- I tried lots of things this year. Most of them worked. I had a few fail. The biggest disappointment was dish soap I was really hoping to make my own stuff. After tons of research and several recipes everything failed. It failed because my water is too hard! So I found commercial stuff by 7th generation that is more natural and Earth friendly. 

13- Gardening- This went OK. Not as prosperous as I thought! But I am gaining experience and thats what matters! But I did have great luck with African Violets I'm very proud of that! I plan on starting more in February!  This is what they look like now almost 6 months later! I am so proud!! I am going to do many more in 2014

I had a wonderful year. I am blessed! I learned a lot about myself and my family in 2013. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us! 

See you all in 2014!! 

Week 17, 18 19..

I know its been 3 weeks!!! I'm so sorry!!! Its been a busy couple of weeks. (Well except for the RELAXING weekend I had after week 16) Adyson has finally opened her mouth for the dentist, after going every 6 months for 3 years she finally opened her mouth! I am so proud of her!

FARM HAPPENINGS- The vet came out and checked the cows over again and dehorned them. Both of my girls are doing wonderful and finally have all their shots


UPDATE-----
From week 15 & 16  when I had the issue with my dryer, I am happy to say that my dryer is still running fine and I was able to save myself about $200! 

CRAFTS- I found at Hobby Lobby what is called a "Melt & Pour" soap. This means the soap has already been made & cured. It also means its a softer soap so you can melt it and pour it into your own molds and make cute little soaps. I bought a Goat's Milk soap ($ 8.50 for 2 pounds) and Glycerin (the clear soap, $17.50 for 5 pounds) a 3 pack of soap coloring ( $4 for 3 pack red, blue, yellow) and 2 different fragrances( $2 each). The kids and I came home and had a BLAST melting the soap chunks in the microwave and adding dye, fragrance and pouring them into the different molds. For the molds I went to the Dollar Tree and bought the "travel" soap holders, and small/snack size tupperware. Now that Adyson has her own soap it takes her FOREVER to wash her hands, or take a bath. Not to mention the soap at Hobby Lobby has less ingredients in them!

I added a few sharks to the mix! 

 

I bought the rubber duck at the dollar store, and melted goat's milk soap and stuck the duck on top of the soap. This is my nephews birthday present! 

 



FAMILY TIME-  has been going great! Even simple things bring a family closer together. Dad decided to bust it out "old school" with the coloring books!

 

Then Dad figured out to hook Adyson's powerwheels Jeep to her wagon & had a "tractor & jeep" race through the front yard! 

 


HOMEMADE- When I got the bright idea to make my own laundry soap see week 6 I never thought it would work out so well. I paid about $10 for all the stuff and it makes 10 gallons! And after some TOUGH testing I will never buy commercial stuff again. As you can see from the pictures I let Adyson put it to the test! I must admit I did rinse off the big mud clumps with the hose, then threw them in the washer right away. There was NO "pre-treatment" used.

 

After the HOMEMADE laundry soap! 

NO CHEMICALS- I am very proud to say that since JANUARY, I have NOT BOUGHT STORE BREAD!! I love the way my house smells when my bread is cooking! I'm not trying to take all the credit, I do use a bread maker, but all the different types of bread you can make. I have a dough setting on my bread maker, so I can make pretzel bites, pizza dough and many other things. For Mother's Day my husband and kids got me a KITCHENAID stand mixer! I was so excited, I 'll let you know what I create as I go along. 

GARDENING- remember the African violets that I planted in January.How I grew African Violet shoots I was DETERMINED to grow more African violets and succeeded!!! It took longer then the 6-8 weeks to get the shoots to come up BUT they still came up. I planted the leaf cuttings in African Violet soil, then put the little planter in a gallon size ziplock bag to create a "greenhouse" effect. I planted 6 leaves. 2 have rotted away, 2 are still green, 1 looks like its trying and the final 1 SPROUTED!!! ( top middle plant, see the little leaves?)

My African Violet shoots!! about 12 weeks after planting!

We have 1/2 of our little garden planted. I already see the squash coming up. The tomato & green pepper plants have survived all the rain we have gotten the last couple weeks! Still waiting for corn to pop up! My strawberries have started blooming! I can't wait for my strawberries, so I can make jam.

I started a bunch of herbs inside, tarragon, rosemary,parsley, sage, basil, oregano, thyme. All have sprouted & transplanted into bigger pots. Now I have lavender, dill, & mint.

MOVIES-

Argo- it's a great movie, a little slow but based on a true story!
Hope Springs- funny, loved all the characters!

Did I miss anything? It always feels like I am forgetting to tell you guys something. Leave me a comment and let me know. In the meantime have a great weekend

HAPPY GARDENING!

Week 7

The weather still doesn't know what it wants to do. I'm hoping spring is coming soon. Getting very impatient for spring to get here. 

Adyson & Snowflake

Rella

FARM HAPPENINGS-

Tessa

We had exciting times on the farm this last week, it was time for everyone to get their wormer and bug treatments. It was fun mixing up solutions for the bug treatments, that was easy. Now getting the treatment sprayed/poured on animals, now thats a different story. The big girls (cows) did well. The goats, no way. Had to trap them in the stall and pray for the best. In the end I won, so I consider this a success! I only spilled 1 dose!!!!  This week I have been researching heavily on ORGANIC/NATURAL ways to treat my animals instead of using antibiotics and chemicals. Not having much luck. I know there HAS to be a way because I was reading the guidelines for USDA Organic and it said you can not give antibiotics, chemical treatments, etc to any animal. So how do farmers treat their animals for sickness, bugs (lice, fleas, ticks) etc? I don't know either.... Working on this. So if you have any information, send it my way PLEASE!


FAMILY TIME- This week Brittany helped me get the animals treated. We laughed, slipped in mud, got a dose of bug stuff on us. We have been relaxing together in the living room a lot this week. I made dinner 2 times this week and we have been eating left overs for the rest! that was kind of nice. 

HEALTHY EATING- I know these 2 recipes have "seasoning packets" in them. I'm looking for recipes to make my own taco, ranch and cream of soup mixes. I will be putting some of them to the test in the next couple weeks. 

Ranch Pork Chops

4 pork chops, ranch seasoning packet, cream of chicken soup, 1 can water) ~ 

Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.  You can easily double the recipe if needed. I made rice one night and noodles the next night to go with the gravy/sauce. 

Crockpot  Mexican Chicken

couple chicken breast, can of black beans, can of rotel, can of corn (or mexi--corn), 1 packet of taco seasoning, (YOU CAN add 1 hr before serving 1 -8oz cream cheese)
Cook on low 6-8 hrs. You can serve this over rice, tortilla chips, for tacos, burritos.

EXERCISE- gotten plenty of that this week. Mucking stalls, hay, chasing animals for treatments. Oh did I mention that I helped CHASE my neighbors cow through 2 pastures. This past week has been all about the animals finding holes in the fence. My neighbors dog got out. 
My goats got out once (crawled UNDER the fence in the creek bed, BUT all I did was shake a feed bucket and they came running back :) So fast walking, running has 

ORGANIZING- I found a trick in a book to organize all my cards. (I can't remember what book.) yes I know cards seem "old fashion" but I still send cards to many people throughout the year. I find them on sale after a holiday( valentines day, Easter, Christmas, etc) and save them until the next holiday. I used to put them all in a shoe box and dig for them when I needed them until now! I repurposed an accordion file. I labeled the tabs -address labels, envelope stickers, Birthday, thinking of you, sympathy, missing you, holiday,etc. So now they are all organized by category and protected from being bent/thrown in a box. I was also able to paper clip a set if stamps & clip 2 pens to the first tab so everything to write a card is in one place.

READING- lots of internet time. researching how to treat my animals naturally. Looking for ORGANIC ways to prevent/deter fleas, ticks, lice, etc. Since summer is coming. I have found Tee Tree oil is a GREAT oil to dilute in your shampoos and conditioners, lotions, soaps etc for skin problems and insect deterrent/repellent. Also Lavender oil. 
Also found great uses for olive oil. Olive oil is WONDERFUL for cooking and using as part of your beauty routine. 

CRAFTS- Adyson and I chose to make our Valentine cards this year. We took construction paper and folded it in 1/2. I cut out the heart shape. Then I took about 10 sheets of different colored tissue paper and folded them in 1/2 and cut a heart shape. I let Adyson glue the tissue hearts to the construction paper heart. She had a blast.

NO CHEMICALS- I found a "recipe" for homemade furniture polish. I was impressed with the POLISHING aspect BUT it doesn't CLEAN. So if you have any dried on spots from drink spills or food you will have to clean them up first BEFORE using polish. I HAVE NOT USED THIS ON RAW WOOD only furniture that has a clear coat/protected.  Best of all I love how my hands feel after using this polish, since its ALL NATURAL there was no need to wash my hands after using it. You can only make small batches of this because it will go bad (I haven't tried to refrigerate it, I made a small batch & used what I made), since I dust my house once a week I can take 30 seconds to make the polish as I need it. Best of all this is SAFE FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO BE AROUND.

Furniture Polish

2 tbl olive oil - (GOOD FOR YOUR SKIN TOO!)

1 tbl lemon juice (GOES BAD IF NOT REFRIGERATED)

small spray bottle- labeled (small 3 oz SPRAY bottle, found in the "travel" isle of the store)

Pour ingredients together in spray bottle. Put lid on and shake! For me a little went along way. Spray a little on a small space and TEST just to make sure it is safe for your furniture! Polish/buff with a clean dry cloth!

All of my furniture (coffee table, entertainment center, bookshelf, end tables passed) they all have a clear coat! I have NOT used this on my raw wood YET!

GARDENING- I have found that the Lavender plant has TONS of good things to provide us, insect repellent, wonderful smell/perfume to add to soaps, room deodorizers, etc. So I have decided to plant some from seed. Most say its a little difficult to grow from seed, so wish me luck! 
Going to make a "fertilizer tea" organic farmers use it instead of commercial stuff. Supposed to be really good for tomatoes, peppers and any other plants that need a little kick. When you do your own research about this process you will find MANY versions. This to ME is the simplest way to start getting into the "teas". 

Fertilizer Tea
a scoop/shovel of livestock poop (cow,horse (chicken poop use 1/2 scoop) & outside garbage can filled with water. Stir it up a little and let it steep for 3-5 days. Use to water your plants. 


My African Violets still have sent any shoots out yet. Its been 3 weeks.
My tomato, cucumber plants are about 6-8 inches tall!!! 
Green peppers are about 4 inches tall
kohlrabi is stumped. It hasn't done a lot in a couple weeks. 

Week 6

I'm trying to figure out if the weather knows what its doing. Cold & windy, tornadoes, rain now today its 55 outside, during the middle of February! I can't wait for spring. I am trying to wait patiently but I'm running out. 

I just realized that the last "update" Apple did screwed my phone up. It erased my icloud back up, erased all my notes, so far. Trying to restore from computer now. ughhhh So if this week's review gets a little weird you know why :) ok 11 minutes later & still no notes!!! Now on the phone with Apple tech, the update didn't "update" like it was supposed to. I have lost my all of my Notes!

Smoking- DONE! 

Family time- Has been going better this week. Eating meals together, chores together. Still need to come up with something fun for all of us to do. If anyone has any ideas put them in the comments! 

Organizing- Well Adyson's room is coming along. I got her involved in the process of her room. She wants it painted purple. She wants to get rid of all her babies & "junk" (she calls it) that go along with the babies. "I don't play with babies" is what she tells me. So this makes it easier to get stuff out of her room that she doesn't play with anymore. Her and I have this discussion all the time, if you don't play with it let's give it to someone who will. Adyson seems ok with this, she actually packed the garbage sack full with her babies & baby stuff, might I add she is very proud of herself!

Healthy eating- haven't bought anything junky from the store yet!!! still trying to eat up what we have here. I haven't bought a boxed dinner this year! (I did buy a few boxes of mac & cheese BUT I looking for a homemade recipe) I have found some great recipes on Pinterest ( I comment on the recipes I have tried).

Exercise- haven't done any yoga or stretching this week, BUT I have been active in the yard.  I have weeded/dead headed my strawberry plants, weeded the front walk way & made a compost pile this week! 

Reading- still reading lots of gardening books this week. I have ordered Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (turned into a movie, it just came out) from the library, waiting for it to come in.


Tips for Container Gardening from Fine Gardening- This was great for flowers, not too much info about vegetables

The New Self Sufficient Gardener by John Seymore- This book was GREAT! Great tips!

The Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess- This gives you  month by month steps on how to prep everything. It was OK. A few tips and some good kid activities.

The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Edward C Smith- AWESOME book, I bought it! Explains in detail the soil types for your veggies, depth of pots, what plants you can grow together  and the plants you should keep separate!

Cleaning by Real Simple & Kathleen Squires - this didn't give me the information I was looking for. I thought this book would give me homemade cleaning solutions to the commercial brands. All this book gave me was a "schedule" (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) of what to clean in my house. 

Brain games- Haven't found anything new this week. Still having fun with the ones from last week. check them out here

STILL BLOGGING-

Positive thinking- its still a challenge to remain positive about everything BUT I am getting better. 

Craft- Adyson doesn't seem to want to help with Valentine cards. I think I need to show her the "finished" product, maybe she will want to help then!

Music- Only got in 30 mintues last week. I really need to buckle down and schedule myself music time everyday. 

No chemicals- I made my own DISH soap & LAUNDRY soap. It was not as bad to make as I thought. I did have to go and buy a 6 gallon pail/trash can. I have kept all my milk jugs, my soap did make 8 gallons & 3 laundry soap bottles. So approx 9.5 gallons & it cost me about $10!!! Cleans just as well as store bought. No perfumes. No dyes. 


 Adyson LOVED helping me stir everything. 

I had to buy Fels-Naptha soap, Borax and WASHING soda (not baking soda) I found all the items in the laundry isle of my grocery store. Then I used this video from YouTube for the PROCESS on how to make soap! 

For Dish soap I found Frugally Sustainable on You Tube,watch her make  dish soap
My ingredients were Kirks Castile Soap grated, WASHING soda, white vinegar & HOT water. VERY simple to make. Just remember- this IS NOT like store bought! It does not bubble much, and yes, it will make the water cloudy. . . Bubbles do Not make your dishes clean! The cloudy water shows there is soap in there-- Soap is what cleans, not bubbles.

Gardening- My African Violets haven't sprouted new shoots yet takes 4-6 weeks its only been 2 weeks. I planted a cut leaf in soil, and put a clear plastic bag over them to create a green house effect. The veggies I planted inside are doing great, my tomatoes are 4-5 inches tall. My cucumbers are 8-10 inches tall. I will have strong plants to plant this year! 

This year has been wonderful so far! I love being able to blog, and share my stories and adventures with you guys! 

Week 3

This week has been a little busy. It has been another successful week! I'm VERY proud to say my #1 goal for 2013 has been accomplished, I QUIT SMOKING!!!! It wasn't easy, but I did it. I haven't had a cigarette since January 12th!!! So here we go for what goals have been accomplished this week...

1- Quit smoking- DONE- It was easier then I thought. I kept my mind and hands occupied. I also left my cigarettes in the car! That way they were not so easy to get to. Living in Tennessee, its a little cold here right now, so to me it wasn't worth going to the car to get a cigarette, when the temp outside is 28 degrees!

2- Family time- This has been working out well. I tried an idea this week (and I will continue with this because it worked out so well) when I start cooking dinner about 4:30-5, I call all the kids in the kitchen with me. My oldest (who is 14) and my youngest (who will be 4 next month) both come in the kitchen with me. My oldest sits at the table with her books to study for school. We TALK about what she learned in school that day. She will open her books to the lessons and read the "study questions" from the lesson that day, and I engage her in discussions about her lessons. The more she repeats and studies the better she does on her tests!!
For the youngest she tries to help me with cooking dinner. She made Parmesan biscuits the other night! I opened the store bought biscuits, but she took over from there! She dipped the biscuits in melted butter, then  patted them into the Parmesan cheese, and put them on the cookie sheet! She had a wonderful time. When I do not have anything she can help with, she sits at the counter and colors in her color books! She hears me and Sissy talk about history and science, etc. She will actually stop and ask questions too! So Sissy will stop and answer her. So everyone is learning and talking to each other.

3- Get Organized- The kitchen is complete! See my previous post Operation Kitchen Reorganization to see what I did. I am getting ideas for doing my youngest's room.

4- Eat Healthy- We are doing great with this! I made homemade banana bread, and sourdough bread this week in my bread maker! I haven't used my bread maker in years! I found it at the back of the cupboard when I was organizing the kitchen. So I am not putting it to GOOD use! Since I quit smoking I have a better appetite!

5- Get in shape- still working on my stretching and yoga. I can't wait until it gets warmer outside so I can go for walks! Last weekend we had unusually warm weather( in the 70's) so all of us got out in the yard and played! We also started weeding the front flower beds.

6- Read More- I have read 6 books this week on gardening in containers! Finding out what flowers do well in pots, and what plants prefer to be free. I also learned about herbs! I found two books that I really liked, it gives you "recipes" for planting beautiful flowering containers/pots. One is called Container Garden by P Allen Smith and Gardening without a garden by Gay Search. I was able to find both books at my local library. So this puts my book count week to date +3. (I was -1 last week) So I have read a total of 7 books.See all the books I have read

7- Brain games- loving my crosswords and  word searches. I sit in the morning with my coffee and try to do one before I start my day. I saw an advertisement for an app on my phone for Lumosity, I did download the app, but haven't tried it yet. When I downloaded the app it shows up as Brain Trainer. I also found a cool app from the NRA  called Practice Range in the app store. The app is free, it gives you a "shooting" range and different weapons to shoot. What I like about this app is you can look up local gun laws, discussions, etc for your area from the app!

8- Still Blogging-

9-Positive thinking- this is awesome. When thinking in a more positive light everything is possible!

10-Crafts- I'm looking for ideas to make the plant labels, and decorating pots for garden.

11-Music- I did a few sessions this week, not as many as I would have liked. But something is better then nothing.

12- No Chemicals- I have done well with this. I'm still making my own coffee creamer, fabric softener, Air freshener (Febreeze), and made my own bread!

13- Gardening- read all those books about gardening, weeded front flower beds Created a little shelf from shoe rack the seedlings are just now coming through. See week 2 about show rack.


HAPPY 2013 EVERYONE!!!

Books I have Read in 2013- update week 45/46

These are the books I have read so far this year. As the year progresses there will be several different types of books. I will label out in categories as the list gets longer. I will update the list throughout the year!

So far I'm up to 27 books I'm a little behind but I have the confidence that I will make by goal for the year! 

You can look at my 2013 goals on my first week's Blog. 26 educational, 26 pleasure books. 

I've got 17 educational/informational book done! 

I've got 10 pleasure books done! 


In September....

27- One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. This was fabulous!!! Loved the book and movie!! 

24,25,26-  I've read the Fifty Shades of Grey series- I LOVED IT! (Besides the obvious sexual content which is not a big deal to me) I loved how the story had a real purpose. 2 people who have issues and learn to work through them. I just had to see what all the hype was about. I really liked the actual story throughout the series! Which leads me to my next question of HOW are they going to turn this into a movie? Cause 75% of the first book Fifty Shades of Grey is sexual content. So it will be interesting. Oh & after reading the books I can NOT picture the cast they have hired for the roles in the movie.


23-Breakfast at Tiffany's by James Patterson.  This is not your typical James Patterson book. This is a book about an imaginary friend and how they become real. It was a slow but enjoyable book. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROMANCE- 

22- "Perfect Fling" by Carly Phillips - It was funny & romantic(a few exotic parts), I loved it!!! Great plot, and characters were life like! Ups and downs great book & would read it again!



---------------------------------------------------------------------

MURDER/MYSTERY-

21- Malice by Lisa Jackson, AWESOME

20-Suspicions by Christine Kersey- this was OK, written for ALL reading levels (in my opinion) little too simple for me.

19-Swim by Jennifer Weiner VERY SHORT e-book, not worth the time, only 40 pages

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOAPMAKING-

18-Soapmaking for the first time by Linda Ortin- This is a simple starter book for those looking to make your own soap. Its for "first time" soap makers and a great book! Its on my "buy list" but I can't find it anywhere.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD-

17-The best of Top Secrets Recipes by Todd Wilbur- Who doesn't like to make their own McDonalds Big Mac, Taco Bell Nachos, KFC Fried Chicken, at least this way you KNOW whats in your food! Love this book and BOUGHT IT!




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OILS-

16-Aromatherapy Massage by Clare Maxwell Hudson- This is a wonderful book for your basic oils and massage techniques. 

15-Aromatherapy Handbook by Erich Keller -This book is a little older (1990's) gave some great  recipes for homemade beauty products. 

14-The Complete book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy by Valerie Ann Worwood- BOUGHT THIS BOOK! This is a "natural" book of 600 + "recipes" for most health issues, common cold, upset stomach etc.

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MISC-

13-Best of Instructables vol 1


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GARDENING-

12-Tips for Container Gardening from Fine Gardening- This was great for flowers, not too much info about vegetables

11-The New Self Sufficient Gardener by John Seymore- This book was GREAT! Great tips!

10-The Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess- This gives you  month by month steps on how to prep everything. It was OK. A few tips and some good kid activities.

9-The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Edward C Smith- AWESOME book, I bought it! Explains in detail the soil types for your veggies, depth of pots, what plants you can grow together  and the plants you should keep separate!

8-Container Gardening by P. Allen Smith 

7-Gardening with out a Garden by Gay Search

6-Container Gardener Rupert Golby

5-Homemade by Ken Braren

4-The No Garden Gardener Jane courtier

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLEANING-

3-Cleaning by Real Simple & Kathleen Squires - this didn't give me the information I was looking for. I thought this book would give me homemade cleaning solutions to the commercial brands. All this book gave me was a "schedule" (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) of what to clean in my house. 

2-Homemade by Readers Digest- GREAT & BOUGHT IT- lots of "homemade solutions" for your everyday life. 

1-The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegal-Maier This is an awesome book, I went out and BOUGHT it! Lots of homemade "recipes" for all the cleaning supplies needed to clean your home.