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 15 & 16

This week has been a little crazy. We have had great weather this week in the 70's and 80's. We have been outside enjoying the weather a lot!

I decided last weekend would be MY LAZY WEEKEND. I didn't do anything but RELAX! I had my movie line up and snacks ready! I'm got my "chores" done early so I had nothing to do!

Since I decided to do all my chores early I wanted to make sure all the laundry was done. As I put the load in the dryer it started blinking "AF" on the screen. After some research online I found out it meant "air flow". So I pulled the dryer out cleaned the wall vent. Restarted the dryer. It still showed AF. So... I researched some more online and found out there could be dust clogging up the inside of the dryer . So I decided to take apart my dryer!!! Took off the top & front. And to my surprise it was filled with dust/lint everywhere. So I swept it out. Then took the back off ( I forgot to take a pic of this), same thing dust/lint everywhere. I put everything back together and IT WORKS!!! No more error code!!!!

Top of the dryer off

front of the dryer off! 

Putting the front back on! 

All the dust that was INSIDE my dryer! 

* UPDATE- The dryer is still running great no error codes!

MOVIES- all 10 of the Ma & Pa Kettle movies! All 5 twilight movies!

MORE READING- Read some GREAT books the last 2 weeks.

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.

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.

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.

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!

CRAFTS- Now that I have gotten Soapmaking for the first time by Linda Ortin from the library I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a few things I needed. So hopefully over the next week I will be making soap! I bought 1 soap mold and fragrance oil, goat milk soap, shea butter soap, glycerine. I would like to make Adsyon a fun soap.

GARDENING- I've been very lazy about this. I need to get myself up and going and get my plants and seeds in the ground! I have corn, beans, squash, tomato plants, green pepper plants. Oh and lettuce, spinach!

NO CHEMICALS-  This has been going great! I LOVE the make-up wipes and baby wipes I made a couple weeks ago! (Click Here for the wipes recipes) With all the family members I had "try" my homemade laundry soap it was already time to make more! If you need the recipe Click Here and read week 6. I also made what I thought was a small batch of DISH SOAP (the small 1/2 gallon) but after it sat overnight, it gelled up so I had to add some water and move it to a GALLON milk jug! So I made a gallon of dish soap for a $1.

DISH SOAP- to hand wash dishes.

 1 BAR GRATED Kirks Castile Soap
3 tbl WASHING soda (NOT baking soda)
4 cups water plus extra
3-4 drops Essential oil (for smell, this is optional)

Bring water to ALMOST boiling, add grated soap and mix until its dissolved. The smaller the soap pieces the faster it will melt/dissolve. Once the soap is melted/dissolved you can add washing soda. Stir until dissolved.
DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO BOIL. Once everything has dissolved allow to cool for about 1-2 hours. Fill your gallon jug about 1/2 full with water and add the soap mix. shake well. At this point you can add your essential oils. You can not add them in the beginning because the essential oil will evaporate in/with the steam.
I have noticed with this recipe my dishes are clean. Sometimes I do see a "cloudy" buildup on my glasses. To solve this use 1 sink for soaping up dishes, use your other sink as a rinse sink. Fill your rinse sink with water and add 1/2 cup vinegar. The vinegar acts as its own "rinse agent". Your soap still might gel up from time to time, all you have to do is shake it before you use it! Remember this is a homemade recipe, it will not bubble like the store bought stuff. It will also make your "wash" water a little cloudy, this is the soap WORKING!

Most of this week Adyson has had some coughing spells(nasal drainage due to allergies/season change), I tried the OTC crap and nothing worked. So I scoured the net. Looking for a homemade anything to help her coughing at night. I came across multiple websites that suggested putting Eucalyptus oil on your child's feet. You only use 2-3 drops per foot, massage it in. Put socks over their feet (so you don't get the oil all over the sheets) it WORKED!!!! I was so pleased that she had a peaceful night sleep! PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH ABOUT ESSENTIAL OILS, they are toxic if ingested just like the OTC stuff.

Oh did I mention that Adyson's eczema is doing wonderful! Its almost gone! The homemade stuff is working great! Click here for week 10!

I have found a replacement for my Swiffer pads for mopping the floor! I found some awesome dish clothes with a scrubber patch (for the muddy days) on them & I also bought the new Handi-Wipes (reusable/washable for the lighter days) at Walmart! Now I have the Swiffer Vacuum. So I can attach my own pad and mop and vacuum at the same time! Since mine is the vacuum my "pads" are smaller than the actual Swiffer wet jet and other similar products.So I was able to cut these in 1/2 and get 12 pads from them! I run these over my floors all the time!

Now for the solution to clean the floor. I wanted something that would CLEAN and not leave a film/sticky floor! I bought a rectangular container (cause like a dummy I threw away the Swiffer container) that fit the wipes/pads in it!
FLOOR SOLUTION

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
2-3 squirts dish soap
3-4 drops essential oil (for smell purposes)

Mix it all up and add to container, fold your pads and place in the container. Let it sit for 10 minutes, flip the container over( so the top pads get wet) and they are ready to use! If you don't use essential oils, the vinegar smell goes away once the floor are dry.

Well its off to cleaning I go! Let me know if you have any questions!  Have a great weekend!

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!