Simply...

Blog moving...

I haven't been missing, I've just been busy making some changes, some big changes. Well, at least it feels that way. I've been pondering a move for a couple months, but didn't have the time to do it. But I've spent the last week moving all my posts over. So here's what's happening...

I'm spliting my blog in two-creating one blog that's for my immediate family posts, and one that covers everything else (recipes, crafts, emergency preparedness, etc).

So, if you're family or close friends that live out-of-town, and you want to keep up with our little family's "happenings", email me at fourinohio@att.net and I'll give you the new address. Please don't give the address out-I'd like to keep a little privacy, but I don't want to put passwords and such up if I don't have to.

Then, if you want to follow along on the other site, I'll post that address below. It took me forever to come up with an address, and I'm still not crazy about it, but I'm not changing it. I figure I can always change the title on the main page. (Can't believe how many names I tried and they all were taken!) Please excuse the header and everything, I'm still working on the design and layout-but all my previous posts should be there.

So here's the new blog address for the "other" site (recipes, crafts, emergency preparedness, etc)

http://rantsfromacrazedwoman.blogspot.com/

Thanks for keeping up with me! I look forward to reading your comments on future posts of the new blogs!

 

 

I need 13 months in a year...

Ever feel that way? I really need a month after December, before the first of the year. Something to give me time to decompress, unwind, clean up all the decorations, and figure out my plans for the new year! Sounds fabulous just thinking about it. But sadly, it cannot be. So January ends up flying by in the wink of an eye and Valentine's day gets here so quickly that I just blow through it.

It would be nice to say that my year didn't start out this way, this time, but look, it's already the last week in January and I haven't even blogged about Christmas!! And to make matters worse, it was our best Christmas ever, I think!

For the last 4-6 weeks we dealt with the normal sicknesses, winter breaks, snow days, migraines, etc. etc. We've seen more doctors in the last 6 weeks than we probably did all year last year. And if I have to collect one more specimen from my children, I'm going to gag! Joys of parenting, I know!!! Don't read into this and think that anyone is on their death beds-no, we aren't. But Jarrett had undiagnosed strep and he hasn't bounced back, and everything just seems to hurt in his body. Also had to do some testing yesterday-EEG, EKG etc as he's had some "spells" this last year which I guess could be "silent seizures". Jarrett was fabulous through all of it-and I took a picture with all the electrodes on his head-she's showing it to everyone! Kaden, he's having GI issues (to put it nicely). We're looking into possible food intolerances, malabsorption, incontinence issues.

Gordon is back to work after taking a couple weeks off for the holidays. And his TDY schedule is starting to pick up already! He's been working late hours due to work problems and coming home grumpy! lol It's ok, love him anyway. He did help me plan the garden, and we already have the seeds and started a tomato plant to see how it does-we love to experiment!

Me, I still feel like I'm in that January blur...I have happy to announce to my family that I have plunged forward and I'm making progress on compiling a family history. Probably most of my family didn't even know I was doing this. But it's been eating away at me for quite some time. I think what sent me over the edge was when mom called to tell me that dad couldn't remember his childhood or teens anymore (don't feel guilty mom-it's set into motion something wonderful on the horizon). So, I've plunged in the deep, with both feet, set on gathering as much family history as I can, on both sides of my family and Gordon's as well. I've started a group on Facebook for my "Spencer-Allred" side and it's already doing great-just a couple days since it's conception. It's led me to find one that's already started on Orson Spencer, so we've now built other connections. Pictures are being uploaded, family histories and journals are being sent, the stone is rolling and the hearts are being turned.

It's amazing-since I started working on FH, the feeling is almost palpable. It makes me cry just trying to describe it. I grew up thinking, "well, our family history is done (as far as temple work goes), so there's no need to do it." Boy was I wrong. Yes, temple work is done for most of the relatives that we know. But there's so much more to FH. Our ancestors took time to write down their lives, so that we might have it and learn from it. Their testimonies just pour through their journals. I truly believe that it's our responsibility to get to know our ancestors. How are you going to feel when you get to the other side and a woman walks up to you and says, "Hello ______-we've been waiting" and starts talking to you and you don't know who she is. Yes, maybe there is a possibility that you'll know a name. But I want to "know" them, to be able to see them on the other side and converse with them, and possibly say, "what were thinking when you ______?" lol Oh, the conversations and questions that I've already got in my mind for when I meet some of them.

I am so grateful for the family that I have (the good and the bad!). I've been richly blessed that most of my main lines all ran through Nauvoo-it's so cool-it pick up a book of an ancestor and read about their lives with Joseph Smith. One of my ancestors lived across the street from him! Just AMAZING! It's a true testimony builder to hear it from family-it really is. I worry, sometimes, that my kids see the scriptures as "stories"-just "old stories" and maybe not even real stories. I want them to know that the blood running through their veins is full of toil, and strife, but also of joys and accomplishments. Too many times in the church we focus on the "trials" of the pioneers, the bloodshed, misery, etc. But after reading many of their journals, you feel their sense of accomplishment, and the joy that they felt (even living in Nauvoo). They were so industrious-it's baffling to me how they accomplished so much, in such a short amount of time, with what circumstances they were placed in.

Who knew that the Civil War hadn't even begun when they were baptized! I know, shows my ignorance, but I hate History-or at least in school. Dreaded it like the plague. However, now that I'm able to parallel my family history, with the history of America-WOW! That's all I can say, WOW! Kaden got so excited when I told him about the "Battle at Bunker Hill"-why, because Gordon's ancestors, Edward and Simeon Bunker, lived there and it was named after them! That's just one of the many stories I can now tell my kids, and they love it. I can see Kaden sitting in History class one day and they are learning about "Bunker Hill" and he's going to blurt out-"my great grandpa owned that hill" and then he'll start crying, because he always does when he talks about his ancestors-because he's so proud of them and to know that he's a descendant of them. The pride he takes in his lineage, for as young as he is, is a testimony to me.

Probably more information that any of you wanted to know, but I decided that I wanted my blog to be my journal-as I'm not too good at keeping on right now. And with that said, I think I am going to attempt to break my blog into two-one that's just for my "family happenings" and then one that will be for crafting, cooking and food storage. Not sure when i'll make the switch as it's a lot of work and I still can't come up with a name for the other blog-I've tried everything I can think of, but it's all taken on blogspot. If you think of a name to encompass all of that stuff, let me know!

I'm excited for my trips out West this summer, to research my ancestors. I'm grateful for my family that has joined me in the adventure of linking our pasts, to our future generations...what a thrill!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Well, it really didn't snow all that much-at least not in Ohio! Amby and I joked all week about taking the kids sledding, here in Ohio, on 2-3 inches of snow while her house in NJ had gotten 20 inches!

But the kids enjoyed it anyways, along with the adults...

 

 
Jarrett and his new snowboard! (As a mom, I wasn't ready for this, but he REALLY, REALLY wanted one-and when one of his Christmas presents didn't work, we gave in and returned it and purchased this for him.) I was sooooo nervous. Figured he'd break his neck or something and get so upset that he'd try it once and be done with it....boy was I wrong....

 

 This was his first attempt-and down the steepest hill! When he got to the longer, smoother hill, he was able to go down the whole way-he had a ball! I thought he made it look so easy so I jumped on his board and made a fool out of myself! I couldn't stand up on it, let alone go more than 2 feet without toppling over. Lucklily there weren't too many people around to see my lack of grace. I'll leave the boarding to him!

 
 
 
 

Good times had by all! (And no broken bones!)

Deck the Halls...ornament and village tradition

 
Last year I told you all about our traditions-at least the ones that I could remember at the time I was blogging (short memory!) Anyways, "Day 4" was about ornaments. For some reason it seems that I usually busy with something on the day that we decide to purchase ornaments-so it becomes a "father, son" thing. That's ok with me...as I don't buy ornaments, just my three boys!

Here's Kaden's this year:

 
It was nice to see him branching out and adding a little variety to his tree-this one sings to you, in a "Scooby Doo" voice.

Jarrett, well, as you can see, his interest hasn't changed:

 
This one has been off the tree more than it's been on. The cars link together by magnets so Jarrett has fun playing with it on the coffee table.

What I forgot to mention last year was that we have a tradition of getting a new piece for our Christmas village. We started our Christmas village probably the first or second year that we were married. It was pretty well complete within a couple years and we had to stop expanding because we didn't have any room to set it up. Then, in one of our moves, the entire collection was stolen. Yah, not cool. However, it did give us a chance to redo it, and this time, start slow and make it a tradition of adding to it each year. I have to say that this year is definitely the most memorable as the boys picked it out all by themselves, and they were so proud of themselves!!

Check it out:

This is our village this year....

 
Last year we added the Highway Patrol....

 
This year the boys picked out a wagon ride....

 
 
and a JoAnn store!! LOVE IT!!! They saw it and thought it was the PERFECT gift for mom-they were just beaming when they showed it to me.

 

It even has sky lights and front glass windows with people inside cutting fabric!! When I kissed Kaden goodnight and told him "thank you", again, for the store, he had the biggest smile on his face-totally PRICELESS-my heart melted....

Holiday Baking....

Shhhh....don't tell Gordon I'm on here. I'm suppose to be cleaning the house! lol But frankly, I'm not in the mood. So, let's talk "holiday baking", though, technically I didn't "bake" anything!

I'm still in the process of trying new recipes to find the "ultimate" Christmas favorites. I was talkin with G last night, telling him of my quest, and I said, "hopefully by the time we're old, I'll have my list." Then I quickly said, "Wait, we're already old!" I do feel that way somedays!

I do have two recipes that have made the list-they are Oreo Balls (thanks Leigh!) and Fantasy Fudge (thanks to the Jiffy Marshmallow jar!). They are Gordon's favorites. To supplement these, I tried a couple others this year: Gourmet Bird Food (my grandma's recipe), Christmas Delight (my Aunt Danene's recipe), "My Mom's Famous Caramels" from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com, and pretzel turtles (my friend Beckie's recipe).

I have the recipes already posted for the Oreo Balls and the Fudge. You can find those here:

http://fourinohio.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/day-7baking-for-our-friends.html

As for the Caramel, well, I'm not sure that I'm a candy making person! But I tried! I'm guessing  had the heat up too high because I totally burned the bottom of my pan and, two days later, it's still soaking, trying to get this off of it! (And I have nice, heavy duty, expensive pans). The recipe says that you don't stir it at all, once it starts boiling, and that's how I burned my pan. The caramel tastes all right, but has some spots in it (not sure if it's part of the burn or if it's the vanilla that had a hard time incorporating in it). I cooked it between soft ball and firm ball, but it's still, frankly, a mess. I managed to get them rolled up (using a lot of butter), but I just went to unwrap one and it's a sticky, gooey mess. So unless someone wants to show me how to make caramel, it's off my list!

Gourmet Bird Food-this tastes ok. It wasn't a huge "wow" to me, but I'll eat it. But my kids and hubby won't so it's getting scratched off my list. In case you like it, or want to try it, here's the recipe-it's SUPER easy!

Gourmet Bird Food

1/2 bag colored miniature marshmallows

1/2 bag pretzel sticks (mine were really long so I actually broke them in half)

1/2 15oz. box of Fruit Loops cereal

1 small jar dry roasted peanuts

1 pound white chocolate

Mix all the ingredients except the chocolate in a LARGE bowl. Put chocolate in microwave and melt according to package directions. Pour chocolate over mix and stir well. Spread on wax paper to cool. After it has cooled, breat up into small pieces and place in an airtight container.

If there is one thing that I did learn this year, I don't have a big enough bowl for some of these recipes! I'll have to add it to my "to get" list for next year's baking.

Gordon likes the Pretzel turtles and I like how easy they are so they will be back next year too. I'm just not sure, though, if I like the Butter snaps for these, or if I'd prefer just regular pretzels. I may just try both next year and compare them side-by-side-that's the rational way, right?!?!

EASY Pretzel Turtles

 

1 bag Rolos

1 bag Butter Snap pretzels (or regular pretzels if you prefer)

1 bag Pecan halves

 
Place pretzels on baking sheet. Unwrap Rolos and place one on top of each pretzel. Then bake at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes. The Rolos will get shiny but still need to hold their shape.

 
Then remove from oven and place a pecan half on each one, and press down slightly.

 
Then I took some of my left over white chocolate (from the Oreo Balls) and put the melted chocolate in a small ziploc bag-snipped a very small hole in one corner of the bag, and squeezed it over the top of these puppies-delicious!

And I saved the best for last-the "Christmas Delight"-oh baby, this is sooooo good. There is a funny story that goes with it, though, that I'll tell first. My aunt emailed me this recipe several months ago, and told me that it's one food, that when she takes it places, that she gets asked for the recipe. In fact, she keeps laminated copies of the recipe in her purse, so when she takes it, she can say, "Here's the recipe". Wow! Ok, in my dreams I'd be that organized. She puts me to shame!!! Ok, but that's not the story-so I called her up the day I was making this because the recipe calls for Karo sugar, and I only know Karo syrup. When I talked to her and got it clarified that it is Karo syrup, she tells me, "If you don't just LOVE this when you eat it, something must be wrong with you." So I get cooking and it's suppose to cook for 15 minutes (according to her recipe). I'm at it for 30 minutes and FINALLY, after making me late for an appointment, it gets done. I throw it together and run out the door. When I get back, I taste some, and call my aunt back. I'm like, "It's ok, but it didn't 'wow' me". I think I crushed her feelings! Well, as soon as I'm off the phone, I start feeling sick. I end up sick in bed for two days. When I do get out of bed, I find myself in the kitchen, munching on this stuff (as it's sitting under a cloth on the counter). By the time I'm feeling better, I can't stop eating the stuff. Oh, man, it's THAT good! I took 1/2 a recipe into the school for the staff, and the other 1/2, well, my hubby and kids don't care for it, so frankly, I've finished it! That's so bad!!! And then I go and make another batch for all the neighbors! Aghhhhh!! Ok, so here's the adapted recipe:

Christmas Delight (Adapted from my Aunt Danene's)

1 cup butter

2 cups cream

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup karo syrup

 

4 cups Wheat Chex cereal

4 cups Rice Chex cereal

4 cups Corn Chex cereal

13 oz. Golden Grahams cereal

2 cups mixed peanuts (your choice)

1/2 package shredded coconut

Melt butter, add sugars, cream and karo syrup in large pot. Cook to soft ball (cook on medium-high heat, wait for it to boil. Let it boil for about 15 minutes-stirring every couple minutes, and check to see if it is at a soft ball stage. Test with water or use candy thermometer)

Mix last 6 ingredients in a big bowl and pour the liquid mixture over it. Mix up well and place on a cookie sheet to cool. Do not store in a sealed container (I left mine on the cookie sheet and just draped a towel over it or place in a container that's not air tight)

What I learned is that stoves vary GREATLY. She cooks on a gas stove-so 15 minutes gets it to the softball stage. I'm on a glass, flat top electric. It took 30 minutes to reach soft ball stage. So if you're using electric too, expect it to take a lot longer and just be patient-but it's worth it!!

And I don't care if the hubby or kids won't eat this one-I'm still adding it to my "ultimate" list and I'll just have to share it with all of you!

  Here's pictures if you need them:

 
Here's it cooking on the stove. (Make sure you use a pretty big pan as it really bubbles up while cooking-the first time I made it my pan was a little small and it just about flowed over the rim)

  
Here are the dry ingredients mixed-note, I had to do it in two large bowls as I don't have a HUGE bowl. Don't fill the bowls full or you'll have no room to mix it up.

 
I poured the hot mixture over the "cereal mix"

 
Final product, cooling on my jelly roll pans (note it fills up 2 pans)

It's that easy!

 

 

What do you do?!?!

Ok, you're probably saying, "enough posts for the week"! lol But ever since my friend Karen was here, something's been on my mind....

She brought her "Christmas" book with her-I should have looked at it because I'm sure it's fabulous, but I didn't get a chance to. It has all of her Christmas lists, etc. in it. She uses it to jot down gift ideas throughout the year for family members, organizes addresses for cards and such. She told me,  I believe, that if she doesn't receive a card from a family that she's mailed them to, for two years in a row, that she "deletes" them from her card list.

I know that with some of my friends, times are tough and they don't send out cards. And I know with others, they are just plain lazy (you know who you are!)

Do you think Christmas baking is old fashioned and out-dated? Do you only do it for your family or do you give to friends and neighbors? If you give, but don't get, do you "redo" your list for next year?

If you give a gift, but don't receive one, do you change your plans for next year?

I have to say that I'm pretty "socially inept". I try my best, but sometimes I feel that what I think are my "good deeds" of giving, end up hurting feelings.

So I'm looking for advice...seriously...for my family-are you sending cards to all the Aunts and Uncles, Greats, and such or picking and choosing? Spill the beans and tell me your philosophy on things because I'm thinking of changing it up for next year!

 

Christmas decorating...I think I found my style!

Boy, it's taken me awhile to decide exactly what "style" of Christmas I wanted! If you know my house, it's anything but "country". However, I've decided that I love that rustic, country style when it comes to Christmas decorating. And thanks to Target this year, I was able to add some great pieces. (I may just be shopping there after Christmas to snag more for next year!)

This is what we started with:

 

Our stockings I made several years ago-I love how they look-they are just too small to fit much of anything-guess that could be a good thing, or a bad thing! lol

 
Our ornaments are very rustic looking, like this sled

 
Or this bell...

 

I use the candles a lot in decorating-I got these tins from Hobby Lobby-I still need a third thing, I believe, to sit in front of the tins-maybe an old lantern or something-I'll still looking for the perfect thing....

This is what I've added:

 
Pillows and throws add the "warmth" to the room. (Target)

 
Metal Christmas trees (Target)

 
The boys picked out the reindeer. I've decided that I love displaying holiday photos. I know, I know, there are no photos in these, yet. I'm trying to decide on my favorite "snow" photos-but rest assured they will make it in the frames for next year! (All Target)

 
A basket to hold our "Christmas" books that we unwrap each night. I love the liner as it looks like a sock! (Target)

Berry/pine trees and snow globe on our mantel (Target)

 

I changed my holder for the wood-the other one was open and it got bark everywhere. I like the basket look (though this one isn't my favorite) and it keeps the bark contained.

So if you're into the "rustic, country" look, stop by Target after Christmas and see what deals you can find-you might just see me there!

 

The cutest pencils on the block...

Well, today was the last day of school before break. Not sure that I'm ready to have the boys home yet, but that's ok. I actually was ahead of schedule until I got sick earlier this week-it put me a couple days behind. However, one thing I did manage to get out "on time" was the teacher's gifts this year. Usually I'm the mother that is still working on them at 1:00pm on the last day of school. So I told myself, "never again", and was busy working earlier in the week to get them out on Wednesday.

One thing I hate is coming up with new ideas for gifts. See, here's the thing....my kids don't only have a classroom teacher or two, but they have a Special Ed teacher, aides, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, APE teacher, bus driver and aide, etc. And what about the Art teacher, Science lab teacher, Music and PE teachers, nurses that help Jarrett each day, or Kaden's GRR teacher or counselor that works with him weekly? AGHHHH!!! And this is elementary school! What's middle school going to be like?!?!? Not only are there a ton of staff helping my kids, but the real issue comes in that we have the same therapists year after year, along with the Special ed teachers that rotate among my boys each year and aides that we've had since Kindergarten. So coming up with an inexpensive gift, that's new and exciting each year, is frankly difficult. That's why I've resulted to gift cards for the "major" players, and just try to present it in a new way! We've done "Movie Night" buckets, jars of cookies, boxes of gourmet cookies, etc, with gift cards.

I'm totally not bragging (because these aren't my creations), but I've never had so many comments on a gift before-(though the lemon cookies from last year are still talked about-thank for the recipe Karen!).

 Gordon and I helped at Jarrett's class party today so we were at school for a couple hours. I must have had at least 10 staff stop me and tell me "thank you" for the pencils-they said "they were the talk of the school!" That makes me feel so good to know that just a little token can go a long ways.

Ok, I'll stop talking about them and just get to the point-here are the pencils!

 

Do I hear OOoohhhhhs and AAaaahhhhhhhs??!?! Ok, before you go crazy, NO, I did not come up with the idea. You know me, I'm a copier! I saw these several months ago and figured they would make great gifts for the teachers, with a gift card attached.

I googled "rolo pencil" (yes, I said, "Rolo"-they are made from a package of rolos and then a hersey kiss) earlier in the week and found a website that showed a picture of them (but didn't really explain how to make them). I got the basic dimensions from the website, but quickly decided that I needed to do this my own way-the Cricut way!!!

Well, and I needed to change it up a little. Doesn't everyone know that pencils only have 6 sides?!?! The other websites said to score the paper every 1/8th inch-no way, that makes the pencil 12 sided, at least. And I don't have scallop scissors the perfect size to match my score lines-they have to match, right!??! lol

Some quick designing and I managed to make a template for the yellow, and both pinks (the band around and the circle for the end of the "eraser")

So, if you want to be the "talk" of school, here are step-by-step directions, with photos (well, almost-I'm always great at taking pictures for the first half and then just want to get them done and forget about snapping pics). Just so you know how long it takes, I think it took me probably 4 hours-but I made a whole box (36-0k, that's a lie-I only did 34-I had to eat one pack of rolos each day I worked on these!) I had some trial and error with glue and such so I'm sure it would go faster next time. I just sat in front of the tv and worked on them-kept me from feeding my face with potato chips and other late night snackies (besides the rolos, I mean!)

Supplies:

Rolos (Sam's Club carries a box of 36 for about $10-I think)

1 bag of Hersey's kisses (gold ones-they are almond)

yellow cardstock (I used 9 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11)

pink cardstock  (I used 1 1/2 sheets of 12 x 12)

red cardstock ( I used 2-8 1/2 x 11 sheets)

green cardstock (I used 2- 8 1/2 x 11 sheets)

aluminum foil (less than a 1 ft. length)

Glue of choice-terrifically tacky tape, glue gun, etc

Scotch tape

Ribbon (1-2 rolls depending on how much is on your roll)

Scoring pad-love my Martha one!!

Small hole punch

Rotary cutter, mat, and straight edge

Optional: cuddlebug to dry emboss gift tags, or stamps/ink or printer

I was honestly trying to use what supplies I had-so I didn't even go buy paper!! So proud of myself for resisting the urge to run out to HL and shop for paper! lol I had all of the supplies on-hand except for the chocolate-we know that's never on-hand-well, maybe in-hand, then in-mouth!

  

#1-cut out the yellow. I could fit 4 on each 8 1/2 x 11 page. (Yes, I know the one in the picture is scored-I forgot to take a picture of this step before I scored them all) If you have a Cricut, email me and I'll send you an SVG file so you don't have to cut any of it out by hand. Otherwise, you need to make them 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" and use something like scallop scissors to make the bottom edge (make sure you scallop one of the short ends!!)

 

#2-Add the score lines. I flipped my paper over and scored the back of it, every 1/4". So you should have 6 score lines (for a total of 7 little sections). I scored each line twice as I don't press very heavy each time, and this seemed to give it the perfect depth.

 

#3-I tried several different methods for getting the pink band on the rolo-this way seemed the easiest. I took a strip of scotch tape, and ran it along the back side of the yellow (on the short side opposite the scallop). I was able to do this in groups of three. The tape needs to hang off the yellow less than 3/8" (as that's as wide as the pink strip and you don't want the tape showing).

 

#4-Take your pink strips and place them on the tape, right side up. The pink strips are 3 1/2" long x 3/8" wide. (If you're not using a Cricut, and you are doing this tape step in sets of three, you could cut the pink 10 1/2" long x 3/8" wide, and then cut it when you separate these) I didn't overlap the yellow and pink, but butted them right up to each other to make a cleaner edge for the foil.

 

#5-I took my adhesive and rolled it along the edge where the pink and yellow met-I liked it better when I just barely ran it over the pink, and most of the adhesive was on the yellow side.
 

#6-The website I saw these on used something called foil tape. As I didn't have any of that around, I had to cut aluminum foil and adhere it to the paper-worked just fine and didn't cost me anything as I had plenty in the kitchen! I didn't take a picture of how I cut the aluminum foil, so I'll just explain. I tried using my paper cutter-it just tore the foil. I happened to have my sewing rotary cutter out (I've been very busy making baby blankets, but that's a whole other post!) so I  decided to use it. I switched out the blade as I have a "paper only" blade (a duller one that I no longer  use for fabric). I used my cutting mat, and straight edge to cut strips that were 3/8" wide-doesn't matter the length as long as they are at least 3 1/2" Once you have your strips cut, just place them on top of the adhesive-just make sure that the end of the foil strip lines up with an edge of the yellow, or hangs over in excess  (you don't want a foil seam in the middle of the yellow!-that's tacky) When placing the foil on your adhesive, go slow and make sure you get it on straight. If you don't cover all the adhesive, your pencils will be tacky to the touch. So cover your adhesive!!

 

#7-Once the foil is on, cut the sections apart

 

#8-Ok, here's where you might want to do something different, but consider the two options. If you've ever tried gluing cardstock around something round (for instance, water bottles-ohhhh, the nightmares are coming back to me!), you know it's not the easiest thing. I decided to use the terrifically tacky tape "red tape" and not mess around with cheaper adhesives. I lined it up, just along the outer edge of the last score line. The closer you can get to the score line, the better your seam will be.  When I ran out of tape, I opted for the glue gun, which I had to use anyways, on these with red tape-read on and I'll explain. Just keep in mind you have at least two glue options. If you want to use the glue gun instead of the red tape, skip this step and go on.

 

#9-Most of the rolos have two different shaped ends-the top of the rolo is slightly tapered (or smaller than ) the bottom. It worked best to glue the hersey kiss (don't go overboard on the glue or you may melt your chocolate) to the "top", or smaller end of the rolo.

 

#10-Ok, I took my yellow sheets and bent them along the score lines, but DIDN'T bend them all the way up the paper-I stopped about 1/4" below the foil line. If you bend them past the foil and through the pink, your eraser will have a hexagon top, not a nice round one to match your circles.

#11-Take your yellow sheet and wrap it around the rolo, with the kiss hanging out the scalloped edge. If you did tape, just pull the backing off and overlap one section of the yellow with the section that has the tape on it-it should fit exactly so that one section covers another and you are left with six sections. Now, I did these one day, and stopped here. Came back the next day and the pink section was pulling up because the scotch tape couldn't handle the roundness of the rolo. So, if you are using red tape, you'll want to place a small dab of glue up under the pink band to hold it down where the scotch tape is. If you're not going to use the red tape, you can put three dabs of hot glue on one section of the yellow-up on the pink section, in the middle of the yellow, and down at the bottom of the yellow by the scallop, and fold it over and secure. Move quickly as the glue dries fast, but don't burn your hands. If you use the glue gun, you don't have to tack it any further-three small dabs should hold-no more tacking necessary.

 

#12-Then a little dab on top of the other end of the rolo and you can place your 1" circle. ( I cut these with the Cricut but you could use a 1" circle punch). They fit really well on the "bottom" of the rolo pack as it's a little wider and gives more support to the larger circle.

 

#13-Add a tag and pack them up. Be creative with the tags. I had a dry embossing folder for my Cuddlebug that was a Christmas tree. So I used that on the green paper and then punched it out with a circle punch. I then typed up a little tag on the computer that said, "Happy Holidays-from Jarrett & Kaden". I think I fit 20 of them on a page. I printed it out, and then took my next larger circle punch and punched them out and then adhered them to the green circles. Punched a hole in the top of them for the ribbon-tied a bow and I was done.

 
Here's a picture of the ones that had gift cards. Just punched a hole in the corner of the envelope. Oh, one other thing-I took a black thin Sharpie and wrote on one section of the yellow, up by the eraser, and put the name of the school and then No. 1. Most pencils have a label of the maker and then No. 2 for the lead. But I think our staff are the best and No. 1!! Or you could write the teacher's name there too. 

You could put each one in a cellophane bag, with a cute label on it. I decided to make enough for all the support staff at school so I just put all of them in the box above, except for the ones that had gift cards on them. Or place one in a mug and wrap with cello, or place on top of a cute notepad or with a box of blank "thank you" cards-so many ways to give them.  

Whew...sounds like a lot of steps, but they really aren't hard. And they are SOOOO CUTE!!! I just googled "rolo pencil" again and found some really ugly ones, and even one site that is selling the labels for $3 each-yes, just the label-no candy! What a rip off!!

I think these are perfect for "back to school" gifts, "teacher appreciation" gifts-and not just for school, but maybe Primary teachers too---so many possibilities.....

If you make these and find a better way, please comment. I'm sure that I'll be making them again-and maybe adding the edible crayons with them next time---ohhHHH yahhHHHH!!!! I know where you'll be tomorrow-buying your rolos!!!

 

 

Black Friday Confessions....

I was a bad girl this year....and I admit it! I have repented though!!

The only thing I shop for on Black Friday is usually fabric at JoAnn's. Not sure how or when I started this tradition, but it's one of those few things that  share with my mom, sister, and occasionally a sister-in-law.

Well, seeing how none of my family was with me this year, I made Karen come along with me. I know, cruel, as she's pregnant, but I couldn't do it alone.

We went Wednesday night to pick and match our fabrics. As usual, I met the "Linus" lady. I don't know her name, but each year she's there at the same time I am, picking her fabrics. She does it for charity too-the Linus Project. We had to coordinate more this year as it seemed like we were picking some of the same fabrics and had to coordinate where we were each going to hide our stashes.

Friday morning I dropped Karen off at JoAnns, as the line was already forming, and I ran over to McDonald's for some Hot Cocoa. When I jumped in line, Linus lady came up to me and told me that as soon as I had left on Wed. evening, another lady had showed up and had started messing with "my" stash. Linus Lady told the other woman that she couldn't touch my fabric!! lol The lady, needless to say, was very rude back. So LL told me that my stash might be messed up. Oh well, right?!? There is only so much you can do.  Then the store manager came out and told us what a great group of shoppers we had been in years past, and that they hadn't had any complaints.

So the doors opened and I grab my cart and went heading for the fabric. Karen grabbed a cart and dropped it off by me, and then she headed to the cutting counter to grab a number. All the other ladies, except one, headed down the aisle to where the flannel normally is. Well, one lady knew that there was flannel up by the fleece (where I had stashed mine), and she headed directly for my stash. Well, Karen had only picked out one fabric the night before and it was robots, and we stashed it with mine. I hurried over to the fabric just as the other lady was bending down, appearing to go for Karen's robots. I quickly knelt down and picked up at least 5 bolts in one swoop, including the robots! The other lady glared, but didn't say anything. So I just ignored her and went about my business grabbing everything else. In probably two minutes I had my two carts overflowing-in fact, as I was attempting to drive to overfilled carts, I kept dumping the bolts along the route to the cutting table. People just stared. I called out to Karen to come rescue me. She quickly finds me and what does she do-takes a picture of me!! ( I haven't asked her to email it yet but I'll post it when I get it).  I think it took about 1/2 hour to get everything cut, but we did it!

As I was going to check out, I heard the manager say that there had only been one complaint so far-I'm SURE it was ME!! Was I rude?! Maybe, but I prefer to call it "Aggressive shopping"!!

As for the Cricut that was on sale, we learned that it was going to be online for the same price. So I stayed up till 12:45am just to find out that the website was down. But luckily, just before I headed to the store, I was able to purchase on-line. So jot that down for next year-they do their sales online too. The flannel was a little more, at $1.79, but that's still not bad.

 

The funny thing is, my mom's in Utah and my sister is in NJ. After stashing our fabrics and then purchasing them, we compared what we had purchased, and of course, we basically had gotten the same thing!! I can't believe that out of the hundreds of flannels that JoAnn's stocks, all three of us would grab the same ones. Guess we all just have good taste!

Here's just a few of what was out there:

 
 
 

Busy Thanksgiving

We had the Bradley family come visit us for the week of Thanksgiving. It was a blast hanging with them for the week. I got to make Thanksgiving dinner and try out some new recipes. Here are just a few of the pictures:

 

 

After blogging on here, I noticed that I didn't take very many pictures-well, I was busy playing, and working and everything in between. But it was a fabulous Thanksgiving and we are grateful that we had the opportunity to share it with friends.

Throw in a baby shower too....

With Karen in town, I couldn't resist the temptation to throw her a baby shower. Yes, this is her 3rd boy, but I found out a couple weeks ago that she's never had a baby shower with any of her pregnancies. So I rounded up some of her friends and had a party!

A big thanks goes out to my sister-in-law, Leigh, who had the theme and all the stuff to go with it (as she did it for my nephew's 1st birthday). It really saved me a ton of time!! Thanks Leigh!!

 

One thing Karen learned about me is that I'm a procrastinator! Well, that's not entirely true. But my time management on this shower wasn't my best. I was busy the week before, and I couldn't figure out how to work on all the shower stuff with Karen living with me (I didn't want to be working on it in front of her). I ended up running short on time the day of the shower, so I know everything isn't hung perfectly, but it's the thought that counts, right!?!?!

 

 

We had Chicken salad croissants, fruit salad, craisin spinach salad and pasta salad. I had flashcards that labeled each salad (that's what the "Ff" card is beside the fruit bowl).

 

This was dessert/party favor. I baked up a batch of cupcakes and froze them so Karen wouldn't see them. I had thought about freezing them with the frosting on, but wasn't sure how it would turn out (and I ran out of time the day I baked them) so I just made up the frosting early and kept in the fridge. Then I quickly frosted them before the party. Originally I had wanted to use gum paste/fondant letters to top them. However, for the sake of time, I used the Cricut and cut out cardstock ones and attached them to toothpicks for the "personalized" cupcakes (first initial of each lady that attended)

Then I placed each cupcake in a clear cup, wrapped with cello and tied with a bow. Oh, and on each cup was this label: "This party was brought to you by the letter Bb (Karen's last name is Bradley")

 

 

Doesn't she look good?!?!

 

She received some adorable outfits (super cute outfit Dena!)!!

 

Last but not least, I did the water bottle labels again. This time it went a lot smoother using regular paper and tacky tape! They actually held together!!

Good luck Karen-we're excited for Evan's arrival in January (I know, the bottle says February but she's have a C-section and is scheduling it early)

 

Keeping busy with Kaden

November has been a busy month. Kaden turned 9, and we were able to help him get his Wolf badge, just before his birthday. Talk about procrastination! He was sooo excited to earn it. He's been working hard in Scouts and has been able to earn several of the belt loops too. This shows you how much I paid attention when I was younger-I grew up with 4 brothers, all Eagle Scouts, but I have no recollection of belt loops and such. Even after being a Den mother for several months, I still don't have the program figured out-religious knots, arrows of light, activity badges, pins, belt loops-ARGH!!! But the boys are having fun, if nothing else!

Kaden was also selected to be in a couple different groups at school. He's in the chess club, social group, and GRR (Gifted program though I'm not sure what "RR" stands for). I find it really interesting that a kid on an IEP with a disability can be in the gifted program, but I guess you only have to qualify in one area-and his of course is Math. They have a pilot program this year for the gifted program and I'm not sure that I'm understanding it, but Kaden loves it. He has to design and build a gerbil (make believe creature), build a house for it, and determine it's special abilities.

 
His name is "Super Sonic Color"

 

His special abilities include: upgrading himself (whatever the heck that means!), turn into a spike ball, a rocket and a drill. He jumps really high because he has springs on the bottom of his feet, and he can fly with his "Super" cape.

It will be interesting to go to the school district art show and see what the other kids made for their Gerbils....

This was one of the first art projects that Kaden and I have done together-in the past he really hasn't been interested in crafty things. I was so glad to help him, but really had to control myself as it was "his" project and he had it all figured out as to what he was going to make and how to do it. I was just the labor and finance person! lol

 

Gratitude Tree

I've been pondering a lot of things lately and I've decided that we all could use a little more gratitude in our lives. It makes us humble, and I know that's something I need to work on.

So I saw a post online somewhere about making a gratitude tree. I've done a little craft in the past with our kids on Thanksgiving, letting them make their own trees. However, I decided that one day of gratitude just isn't enough.

I grabbed a dead branch from outside and used my Cricut to cut some leaves out of cardstock. Each day, as we are sitting around the dinner table, each member of our family is going to express their gratitude for one thing. I'll write that down on a leaf, and we'll slowly build our gratitude tree. By Thanksgiving, it should be full!

 I was hoping to start this Nov. 1st, but as always, I'm a little slow....but we have it started.

 

Kaden: "I'm thankful for my family"

Jarrett: "I'm thankful for my cousins"

Dad: "I'm thankful for a job that provides for the family"

Mom: "I'm thankful for a husband that knows my faults and still loves me unconditionally"

 

 The first ones are always easy. We'll see how difficult it gets as the days go by.

What are you thankful for?

 

Halloween-Let them eat Cake!!!

I know, you're probably saying, "How can you post when it's not even Halloween yet?" Well, you've got a point. However, most of our Halloween activities are before the 31st. So I thought I'd go ahead and post the pictures while I've got a little free time.

This year it seems that we have a "Cake" thing going on at our home. Or maybe it's an obsession...I learn a new talent, and then it seems to just take over my life. Then I get burned out....and move on. Well, that obsession is anything to do with cake-at least for now.

I asked the boys about a month ago what they were going to be for Halloween. They couldn't come up with any ideas, but we were going through a phase of watching every "Cake Boss" on TLC, so I came up with the idea-Cake Designers! They thought the idea was awesome and I figured I could get the outfits pretty cheap and not have to sew-music to my ears!

So I went online and actually ordered the coats and hats (Jarrett insisted on hats) from Sam's Club. They are adult smalls, so they are big, but I figured a little rolling of the sleeves and such and they would fit fine. Here are my Cake Designers....

Aren't they adorable?!? But you know me, I thought-what else could we do to "play up" the "Cake" idea? So I thought about having the boys make cupcakes, and while they are trick-or-treating, to actually give out their cupcakes to each house they visit. Cute huh? (Or maybe crazy!) Well, transporting that many cupcakes, when you don't have a wagon, isn't very easy. So I scrapped that idea. Finally I found the perfect idea and I could "kill two birds with one stone"....Cake POPS!

I signed up to bring a "baked good" for Jarrett's Fall party at school that was yesterday. When I was at RS last year, they did a class on cupcakes and Mindy told me about www.Bakerella.com. Well, I finally got up the nerve to give the cake pops a try. While they aren't perfect, they are delicious! It's basically a crumbled cake, mixed with frosting, then dipped in chocolate-how can you go wrong with that?!?! I went ahead and ordered the book because I heard it had a lot of secrets in it, that aren't on the website. So many possibilities! I narrowed my list down and ended up making three for the party: jack-o-lanterns, mummies, and ghosts! And to throw in something healthy (or maybe not so healthy!), I did bite size strawberry muffins around the base-presentation does count you know..

 

 

 
I never knew they sold edible markers. It was so funny when I was working on these and Kaden saw me using a marker to draw the faces-he freaked! I had to inform him that it was all edible and not to try it with his own markers!

 
Just drizzle a little extra white and add some easy-really easy!

One cake makes at least 48 pops. I used a small scoop and I think I got at least 54. Jarrett's class only needed 26 so I have plenty left for the boys to take around and hand out!! I think I'm probably more excited about it than they are-but heh, it's ok...

Now my insanity took over...what else could we do!?!? Well, we always have an annual Trunk-or-treat at church. There's a chili cookoff, car decorating contest, etc. Last year we won for the best car decorations (even though we didn't try as we've won it 3 years running), best pumpkins, and hottest chili. The boys kept asking what chili we were making this time and what we were going to do to the car so we could win? I sat down with them and told them that its nice if we let others win. So, as a family, we decided that we wouldn't try to win anything this year, so that others could. Gordon still took chili and a couple props for the car, but that was it. I thought the boys were "ok" with it, but last night coming home, Jarrett said, "I'm sad we didn't win the chili cookoff." Oh, well...I tried to teach them...

Ok, well, usually there isn't any dessert at the Trunk-or-Treat because of all the candy the kids get. So I asked the committee if it was ok if the boys made a cake. We got the ok, so the boys and I got started on the design. And then what quickly was one cake soon became two-a real cake and a lego cake.

The boys worked really hard on the Legos cake-as a team. It was great to seem them design and build it. It's a "Garden" cake-with flowers in the middle, a waterfall on the left-a barn on the right with a tractor for hay rides.

 

They were so proud of it that they wanted everyone at church to see it. What could I say!?!? I don't think others would appreciate it as much as I did, but I went ahead and let them take it...

 
They very carefully got it in the car-on the way into church, it fell apart, but they quickly rebuilt it. I made them put it on our table because I knew if they put it by the other cake, a kid would think they could play with the Legos. At the end of the party, I moved it to the stage so I could clean the tables and it didn't take two minutes for a child to come over and start ripping it apart to play. The boys weren't too happy, but I had warned them that if they didn't look after it, that's what would happen. With it in pieces, they are now pondering what to build next-a bigger and better cake idea is stirring in their minds!

So that was cake #1. Cake #2 ended up being more of my project, but the boys did help. They weighed ingredients, and mixed and baked the cakes. They helped make frosting and helped frost the cake. Unfortunately, our nights are full of activities so I had to work on the cake mostly while they were at school-wasn't my first choice as Jarrett wanted to help more, but it wasn't going to get done.  Here's what we did...

 

It's our version of a haunted house and graveyard. This is the second fondant cake I've done-didn't work as well this time. Not sure if it was due to the size, or the different brand of fondant that I used. I much preferred Duff's brand (Michael's) over this Satin Ice brand. It stuck like crazy and the powdered sugar that you roll it out on, wouldn't come off the surface of the cake.

 

 

This is the graveyard. I used gum paste to make the arms and legs of a mummy, that appears to be digging himself out of his grave-finding a cat's tail to pull on. The tombstones were candy molds. They were the biggest headache of it all. I had to tint chocolate to get the grayish color and it kept ruining my chocolate. Then, I didn't have any chocolate wafers, and Wal-Mart was out, so I opted to use chocolate chips that I melted down. Well, they don't harden like the other stuff. So every time I went to touch the tombstone, my fingers melted the chocolate and left my fingerprint. Next time I'll make sure to have the chocolate candy melts on hand. The dirt is ground up oreos (minus the cookie filling). The fence is color flow. Piped them all by hand, filled them in and let them sit a couple days. Make sure you do plenty because they are SUPER FRAGILE. I learned that color flow doesn't like buttercream frosting (even though I have a fondant cake I was taking precautions). So I added these last, using toothpicks "glued" to the inside of the fence, to stick them onto the cake. The brown rock is fondant.

 

To make the tree, I took a plastic cake dowel and lined the outside of it with licorice. Originally I was just going to make a licorice tree, but the branches drooped so I opted to scrap that idea add wiring for support. After I got the licorice on, I wrapped it with wire, and then took larger gauge wire pieces, bent them in half, and stuck them through the other wire that was wrapped around the truck, to make the branches. Once I got them all on, I cut strips of fondant and wrapped each branch, and then wrapped the trunk. The bats are fondant with a little gum paste mixed in.

The house is a kit-figured I didn't want to make my own pattern this year. But it was a pain to get together because the roof pieces didn't fit, and the frosting that came with it didn't have a good consistency. But it worked in the end...

 

I think I had the most fun with the characters. They are made from gum paste. I did learn a couple things with them. I found that gum paste is really hard to work with-I bought the Wilton mix and it was so stiff, but still sticky. I was so much easier to shape fondant. I looked online and a lot of people just add tylose powder to their fondant and use that instead of gum paste. For some of the pieces I used a 50/50 gum paste/fondant mixture to make it easier. Originally I used a toothpick to stand up the characters. Worked fine for the ghost girl (love the striped socks!!) The pumpkin girl was too heavy because of the pumpkin that she toppled over and I ended up using a lollipop stick to get her to stand.

 

Pumpkins are gum paste. Leaves are fondant that I cut, veined, and rolled some to make vines. Fence is pretzel stick. Here again, should have used candy coating as the glue to stick them together-the chocolate chips took forever to dry and didn't hold up well.

 

All in all, I think it turned out great. And we got a lot of compliments on it.

 

The actual cake is a Duncan Hine's cake mix that you add pudding and sour cream to. I thought I'd try to make it look like a candy corn so I did a yellow layer, orange layer, and white layer. I don't think many people noticed that because the colors were subtle. I'll probably buy a yellow cake mix and orange (if they make it) next time to try that. I used real buttercream on this cake too, unlike what I did on the baby shower one. I had heard that buttercream doesn't hold up as well under fondant, but I had no problems with it. The only issue was that I made my layers on this cake slimmer-about 1" each. When you add three layers, and all the frosting inbetween, it was really sweet. Next time I'd make my layers thicker to help balance out the buttercream frosting better. But it stayed REALLY moist-we baked it on Monday and the party was on Thursday. Kept it in the fridge one assembled.

 

This is all that was left at the end of the party.

Go ahead, say, "you've got way too much time on your hands"! lol I prefer to say, "I'm developing my talents" and if people ask me now what I'm doing since I'm not working, I guess my answer will be, "I'm doing cake"....at least until I find something else that catches my attention!!!

 

Technology free week...

...If I'm dead by the end of the week, at least you'll know why. You can write on my tomb that I was the big, bad mother that pulled the plug on the t.v., DS, and non-educational computer games!

I attended a Relief Society Stake Women's Conference on Saturday and we learned about addictions, and how technology addiction is becoming more and more prevelant. Furthermore, 1 in 6 members of the church have an addiction of some kind, and the result of how the addictions affect people are all the same. So an addiction to Facebook and your blackberry can bring about the same results as being addicted to cocaine. Wow, that's a tough thing to hear!! I realized that I was creating an atmosphere where my kids were becoming addicted to technology, and that the results could be harmful to them, including developing attention disorders (not that they don't already have them!).

So I decided it was time to pull the plug...it's only been an hour and the whining has already begun..."Mom, what are we suppose to do then?", "Mom, I'm so bored." To make matters worse, I thought I could help fill in the down time in the morning by starting scripture study!! Needless to say I didn't even get through verse 1, of Chapter 1, of Nephi, but if nothing else, they know he's the first one to write in the BOM! I definitely can see that this woman is going to need a stock of Pepsi and some good sleep to pull this week off! (No, I'm not addicted to Pepsi-or if I am, we'll tackle that addiction another day-can't go cold turkey on everything at once!!!)

If you've done this before, or have ideas on how to get the kids more excited about scripture study, I'd love to hear. Otherwise, if you call and I'm in a horrible mood, just know I'm dealing with a house full of people going through withdraw symptoms!!

Some of my favorite things...

Do you find yourself something using things that you wish someone had told you about sooner, because you love them so much?!? That's what I've been finding lately....I definitely have some things that I've been using quite a lot lately and wished I had discovered earlier. Here are just a few (in random order):

1. Cricut machine

I really am LOVING this machine. I swore it off for so long because I already had a vinyl cutter. But this has been great at all my paper crafting. I'm actually going to try cutting fabric on it next week, and also gum paste for cakes. I'll let you know how it goes. But I definitely think it's worth the money if you're a crafter like me and can find a deal on one. Just make sure you buy the Sure Cuts A Lot software-that way you don't have to buy cartridges and you can design your own things, use all your computer fonts, etc.

 

2. Martha Stewart Score Pad

This is a great crafting too, and works so much better than the scoring blade for my cutter-I'll never go back to using my cutter for scoring again. If you want to read a great review on the difference between this one, and the Scor-Pal, read this...http://craftingwithsue.blogspot.com/2009/11/scor-pal-vs-martha-stewart-scoring.html  I've used it to make envelopes, gift boxes, and to do the embossing on cards.

Michael's craft store sells this Pad, and with the 40% off coupon, it's very reasonable. The only issue is that, at least at my two stores, it's always sold out!

 

3.Lysol No Touch Soap Dispenser

Have you seen these? I bought a couple several months ago and my kids LOVE them. In fact, Kaden asked me why we don't have one in every bathroom. I bought my first one for less than $1. Yep, that's right, less than $1. Wal-Mart had them for $5.97 and I had a $5 off coupon. Now I see the price is $9.97 (but I still think it's worth it).

The only issue I had with it was the cost of the refills-I think they averaged between $2.50-3.50 each. Ouch! So I brainstormed with my friend Alisa and we solved the issue.

 
Run down to Lowes and in the drawers for the specialty hardware, you'll find a pack of 2 of these stoppers. I think they are about 1/2" and were about $1 for the 2. I just drilled a hole in the top of the "refill" and inserted one of these. Now I can use my bulk soap to refill the "refill" and save tons of money!!!

 

 

4.Silpat

This is a silcone baking mat. You can purchase them here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008T960/ref=oss_product It would make a great stocking stuffer! By using this, you don't have to grease your pans, or flour your counter to knead dough. I use it when I'm rolling out my dough for baking bread, or baking everything from cookies, to biscuits or bread. Fits my large baking sheets perfectly and I just roll it up and store it in a drawer.

5. 4-in-1 Glass Serving Set

How many of us have a cake plate, veggie tray, punch bowl, and serving platter clogging up our kitchen? I know I do. I love the versatility of this. It's everything in one. And I love the clean look to the edge of it. I saw a similar one at Sam's but it was pretty ugly, and more expensive. I purchased this one from Target for less than $15. I just looked online to get this picture and now it's selling for $24.99. Not sure if I got it on sale, or if the price has gone up in the last two weeks!

But here's the link to it: https://www.target.com/Luigi-Bormioli-Glass-4-In-1-Serving/dp/B000CMF2XG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&searchView=grid5&keywords=glass%204-in-1%20serving%20set&fromGsearch=true&sr=1-1&qid=1287968712&rh=&searchRank=target104545&id=Luigi%20Bormioli%20Glass%204-In-1%20Serving&node=1038576%7C1287991011&searchSize=30&searchPage=1&searchNodeID=1038576%7C1287991011&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&frombrowse=0

6. Kitchen Scale

I don't have too many scales around my home as I don't like the idea of weighing things-well, I guess I should be more specific. I don't like the idea of weighing myself!! But I bought this scale and it has really come in handy around the kitchen. Got this one in my local Target store, but it's also here: http://www.target.com/Taylor-Digital-Food-Scale/dp/B001GD3EB2/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&searchView=grid5&keywords=kitchen%20scale&fromGsearch=true&sr=1-11&qid=1287968975&rh=&searchRank=target104545&id=Taylor%20Digital%20Food%20Scale&node=1038576%7C1287991011&searchSize=30&searchPage=1&searchNodeID=1038576%7C1287991011&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&frombrowse=0

I can't say that this one is the best, but it's useful. Many of the recipes I'm finding for baking breads, cakes, etc use weight measures. It also helps if you're into portion control by weight. I also used it when I had a large amount of ground beef that I browned and then wanted to divide into 1 lb. bags for freezing. So many uses!!

 7. Freeze Dried Products from Emergency Essentials

The last several months I have been placing monthly group orders from EE. We've tried several different products and try to buy what's on sale, or what's the group specials for the month. We've purchased everything from dehydrated sour cream, butter, to freeze dried chicken. At first I thought it was a little pricy, but after I figured out the price of what I'm currently paying for some things (and the waste involved with purchasing fresh foods),  I think the prices (when on sale) are pretty reasonable. And they have come in very handy. It seems lately that I'll be in the middle of cooking, and realize that I'm out of one of the ingredients. Luckily, I've had it in freeze dried or dehydrated form. So I'm using my powdered milk, dehydrated eggs and butter, freeze dried cheese and chicken. Love the convenience!!!

Ok, that's just a few of the things that I've fallen in love with. What are your favorites right now?

Scouting Day

Gordon and I volunteered to help the Webelos with their October Field Trip. We traveled out to Miamisburg and set up camp. Because we are not able to have overnight campouts at this age, we had to get everything done in one day-so it was a very long day!

Kaden got to come along since both Gordon and I were there to help out. It was so fun to see the boys interact with other kids and to enjoy the outdoors. Here are some of the highlights of the day:

 

Kaden's first real fishing experience...

 

And he caught 4 fish!!! It melted my heart to see him come running down the path carrying his first fish.  I went down to get the boys and somehow ended up with a rod in my hand. It didn't have a button to cast like I had used before so I had no idea how to use it. Kaden came up and said, "Mom, you do it like this" and he proceeded to show me. Then he sat down and said, "Now, you just have to wait!" And he was wonderful at being patient, watching his bobber.

 

Jarrett tried fishing too, but patience isn't his thing. When Brother Kline caught a fish and tried to get Jarrett to reel it in, Jarrett screamed and ran the other way, saying he was "scared of the fish". Kaden quickly stepped in and reeled the fish in....

 

The boys learned how to build a fire, fire safety, make fire starters, cook over fires, put out fires, etc.

 
Jarrett wanted to pose by the fire! He was a great helper in cooking the hotdogs, hamburgers, and marshmallows for the smores!

The boys also built birdhouses, learned to set up tents, perform an outdoor flag ceremony, and first aid.

 

All the boys had a great time, and us adults too. I applaud Brother and Sister Kline who are the leaders of the den. They put a lot of time and effort into each meeting, with  field trip each month. And Sister Kline is so organized. She had "kits" for each activity, and each boy. And if you look closely in this picture, you'll see that the boys have something around their necks. She had a list of all the activities for the day printed on a cardstock piece of paper, with a neck thing hooked on. In front of each task was a hole punched. When the boys completed the task, we tied a small piece of craft floss through each hole so we could keep track of what each boy did (as some came late and others had to leave early). So organized! And a lot of the stuff we used was donated. This picture was taken so we could send it to the people at Lowe's because they donated the hats, and I think bags also.

It's a Baby Shower!!

Ok, so many of you know that I've been planning a baby shower for a friend, Ruby. It seems like forever ago that I got started on the preparation, and it finally paid off on Friday night! I thoroughly enjoyed myself with planning and creating everything. I have to shout out a huge "thank you" to Kari who helped me with it all. I couldn't have done it without her help, as we sent out 50 invitations!!

If you know me, I'm not big into cutsey themes, or games, when it comes to showers. So if you're looking for something "babyish", don't even bother reading! lol I wanted something classy yet comfortable. If I had a "theme" at all, I guess you could say "polka dots".

When I learned that we were inviting 50 friends and family, it threw me for a loop. How was I going to accomodate that many?!?! We talked about the options of renting a place, going to a restaurant, or even doing it at church. I didn't like any of them. After talking to my mom, and another friend, I learned that "open house" baby showers are quite popular. So I decided to go that route, and do it at my home, hoping that everyone wouldn't come at the same time!

Colors: lighter blue, medium blue (that had a tinge of green), dark red, burnt orange, grayish-tan, dark brown, white, green (totally NOT baby colors! lol)

As for invites, I saw some scrapbook paper that I liked (but wasn't the right colors) and that gave me inspiration to design my own invite.

 
This one isn't trimmed yet, but you get the picture. One thing I learned was that colors on my monitor are very deceiving. What was on my screen and what printed out were totally different. I finally said it was "good enough" and just went with it!

Decorations-I kept these clean and simple:

 

 
 

 
I hung polka dots (in 4 different sizes) on fishing line. Over the food, the polka dots are on 2 hoops. And I used layed squares of cardstock to add color to the tables (the squares on this table should have been bigger but I originally wasn't going to put one here so it's a little small. You'll see bigger ones under the food) For flowers, I didn't think we could get hydrangeas around here this late in the year, so we did fake hydrangeas in square vases, and then added limes to the vases.

 

I love the look of the limes, but I should have "googled" how to do it before the day of the shower!Then I would have known all the tricks and saved us some time and frustration. I guess when most people do it, they cut their limes pretty thick, like 3/8"-1/2". And they use two vases, one smaller one inside the outer one. Then you place the slices inbetween the vases to hold them in place. For some reason, I was thinking that the lime slices would "stick" to the glass, but no such luck, they all floated!!

We thought of putting another container inside the vase, like a bag of rice, or another cup, but you could see them all. I tried my small juice cups, but nothing seemed to be the right size. So I got the idea to dehydrate the lime slices and "glue" them to the inside of the vase. We quickly threw our sliced limes into a dehydrator and started them drying while we worked on the rest of the food.

Well, then I decided that I didn't want to be cleaning the glue off the inside of my vases after we were done. So, after a little thought, I ran into my craft room and grabbed some old transparency sheets. I thought I could "build" my own "inner vase". I cut the 8 1/2 x 11" transparencies horizontally, 4" tall, and scored them every 3" (my vase is 4" wide but the inside tapers). I then hot glued 4-5 dehydrated lime slices onto each section of my transparency. I folded it on the scored edges and popped it into the vase-perfect!

 

Food:

We had some delicious stuff! Several of the ladies in the ward helped bring food. We plated it all beforehand on white square plates. I loved the simple, clean look of it.

We had bruschetta (from Sam's Club-I had never had it before-delicious!!! Top with a little fresh mozzeralla and it's as good as fresh!)

Veggie tray-love the dip in the red pepper, and the snap peas-mmmm....

Fruit kabobs-displayed in a watermelon-strawberries, cantelope, fresh pineapple, grapes, raspberries and kiwi-the fruit dip was fabulous too-a box of cream cheese pudding mix combined with fat free cool whip

Meatballs

Hot Cheese Bread Fondue-served in the sourdough bowl, with crackers and the leftover sourdough

Cake (we'll get back to this)

Chicken salad in toasted wonton cups

Homemade mints (chocolate, almond, mint)

 
 

 

Cake:

 
This was my baby!! I'm sure I spent way too much time on the computer trying to figure out how to do fondant. Even bought myself some DVD's that walk me through baking a cake, from start to finish. I learned a lot though-tips and tricks to baking cakes, doing fondant and gum paste, etc. I took the first two Wilton cake decorating classes back before I had kids, but I've never done fondant before. I was going to sign up the the Wilton class, but I missed the sign up. So I decided to learn it myself. I saw a cake similar to this online and decided that I had enough guts to try it. Even though the blue color was a little bright for my color scheme, I loved the look. It's a 9" round white cake (I doctored up a cake mix), 4 layers with a cookies n' cream frosting inbetween (just removed the innerds of oreos and ground up the cookies and added to my frosting). I purchased two fondants, a white and a chocolate (40% off because they are expensive)-just FYI-on my DVDs I learned how to make my own fondant which will greatly save me money in the future! I had heard that fondant tasted horrible, especially the Wilton brand. So I went to Michael's and go the Duff brand for the chocolate and I think the white was Satin ice. They tasted fine for being straight sugar! lol

So I just colored the white fondant with some blue gel coloring, rolled it out and put it on the cake. Then rolled out the chocolate fondant thinner, and used a set of three circle cookie cutters to cut each circle. Applied them to the cake, added some ribbon, and it was done!!

It was funny because everyone commented on the cake, and how awesome it looked, but no one wanted to cut it. I was even scared because I hadn't tried the fondant yet so I wasn't sure how it was going to taste. But I grabbed the knife and cut into it and removed a couple pieces so people would start cutting into it....I got rave reviews!

I opted to keep the drinks simple (ha, they were such a pain!) and do water bottles. I made up this label with the baby's name and due date, and printed them on cardstock. If you do these, don't use cardstock! The labels kept popping off when Kari tried to glue them. She used 4 different types of tape/glue and nothing held them. I finally bought the red tacky tape and it held-but such a pain. Loved the look-learned a lesson or two doing them.

Activities-

I don't like games, but I did have a couple things for the ladies to do. In the first basket I had 8x8 scrapbook pages. I designed 6 layouts and just printed multiple copies of each. The ladies were to take a page and write something to the parents, whether it be parenting advice, a funny parenting story, or best wishes, etc. Also, on each page I had a rectangle that said "photo here". We took a picture of each lady, and we are printing, cutting and gluing them to that rectangle to finish off he pages. Then we have an album we'll be adding them all to, and giving to the mom-to-be.

 

The second basket is full of blank envelopes. To help the mom-to-be with "thank you's", I had everyone address an envelop to themselves. This way the mom-t0-be won't have to spend time finding everyone's address. I also made thank-you cards to go with the envelopes.

 

I have a pretty standard "thank you" design that I love-the baby feet with "thank you" running through it. I did the foot prints in the various coloors and I dressed the card up by scoring a double border around the edge of the card. Simple and clean-loved it!

 

 

One last thing that we we're trying to do, but it didn't work out, was to do a book for the mom. I saw a cute idea where you collect pictures of the family and make a little book. I was going to digitally design it and have it printed by a company like Shutterfly so it was an actual book. On one page it would have a picture of, say, "Mom" and then on the opposite page it would say "Mom loves you". Flip the page and it would be Dad and say, "Dad loves you" and so forth. My friend is adopting the baby and the birth mom is going to be involved (it's an open adoption) so I thought it would be a great idea to include a picture of the birth mom, and her family and such. The last page would have said, "you are so loved!" Unfortunately, some of the family wasn't cooperative with sending photos so I wasn't able to do the book. But I'm blogging the idea for future reference.


For party favors, I designed a small gift box (about 2 1/2" x 2 1/2") and used my Cricut to cut them out of brown cardstock. Then I designed a ribbon like thing out of cardstock to dress it up and keep the lid closed. In the center of the paper ribbon, I designed a monogram sticker with the baby's first name initial in the middle, and then around the initial it said, "Thanks for helping us celebrate! We're so excited for Preston's arrival!" We then filled the boxes with M&Ms (candy closest to our colors). We had them on a little table right next to the door so they could grab them on their way out.

Ok, I think that's it. Whew!!! It was a lot of work, but totally worth it. I did learn a couple things through it all. I think next time I'll pick one or two things that I REALLY want to make, instead of making everything (one of the big drivers for custom making everything was to save costs because of the large numbers we had invited).  I learned that people really suck at RSVPing!! I had set a deadline but continued to get calls even up until the night before! We did a group gift and there were a lot of ladies that wanted to do that-unfortunately, I didn't set a date for the money to get to me. So I ended up with one lady saying that she'd "go in" on the gift, but she hadn't paid yet, but I went ahead and added her name to the card, expecting to get the money, and she ended up bringing her own gift. So I learned to set a deadline for the money too!

What have you done for baby showers or baby gifts lately? I'm always on the lookout for cute gifts. I have several friends that are pregnant (all due around the same time) and I'm doing another shower next month (though it's going to be very small and I decided to just foot the bill and take everyone out for lunch because T-day is already crazy and we're doing it the Sat. after). I'd tell you what I'm working on for shower gifts, but I know some of the expectant mothers read my blog so you'll just have to wait until I give them away!

Family Night Phantom...

Love the holidays...love, love, love them! It's the perfect time to do a little service, and the kids love it.

Thought we'd try the Ward Phantom this year...I believe we've done it in this ward before, possibly the first year we were here, and in previous wards.

I went to go ole' Walmart and picked up the supplies-treat boxes, sprinkles, cake mix, cupcake decorations, toole, etc.

The boys helped frost the cupcakes, and I finished them off with bows and copies of the "We've been Boo-ed!" poem.

 

I loved the boxes because they came with little inserts that hold 4 cupcakes so they aren't sliding around in the box-looked real classy I think. Too bad I botched up the frosting and it didn't look quite the way I wanted it too...

I downloaded the ghost picture from www.beenbooed.com. And I found a poem I liked somewhere out there in cyberspace, and tweeked it to fit our church "family". Here's a Word document of it: Download You've been boo'd

The poems says:

Since this is the time for goblins and bats

Halloween spirits and ghosts and cats

Happenings are weird and witches make brew

The following are the things we wish for you.

May the only spirit you chance to meet

Be the spirit of love and friends that are sweet.

May the only goblin that comes your way

Be the ____________Ward phantom, the breeze takes away.

So by tomorrow, pick a friend down the street

And give to them a Halloween treat.

Make a plate with goodies galore,

Then place it at their front door.

You only have two days to do this, so hurry

Leave treats on their door and run in a flurry

As this ghost moves along from friend to friend,

All good wishes go on and never end

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

I printed these off (with the ghost picture on the back of the poem), rolled several up, and put under the bow, and we were off.

I'm not sure whether I'm getting old, and slower, or if people are getting better at "catching" me. Jarrett wanted to ring the doors, but a couple of them scared him, so I went with him on a couple. He really did a great job hiding! The first one was pretty easy-parked down the road-Jarrett waited till she went back inside before he bolted for the car. (It was still a little light out so I could see)

The next house, there were a lot of trees around so it made it hard to see. I hid in the bushes and Jarrett rang the bell and came hiding with me. Once we heard the door closed, we took off for the car. Because the street deadended, we sat and waited for a couple minutes before turning the car around and driving off (with the headlights off). But we didn't wait long enough! As we were driving by, **** was standing outside at the end of the driveway and spotted us! DARN!!!

At the third house, Jarrett did it by himself and I honestly don't know if they were home or not. It was so dark by then that I couldn't see if they had answered the door and taken the treat. But we left it anyway as I thought the treat being in a nice box might survive a little while.

At the fourth house, Jarrett didn't want to do it alone. The garage was open and the lights were all on. So I went with him, and he dropped it, rang, and came back to me at our hideout-behind the neighbors garbage cans, in the driveway. Oh boy, we thought we were doomed. We later found out the hubby was outside watering the grass!!! We heard him, saw his shadows and even heard him breathing as he was standing just on the other side of the garbage cans!!! My heart just thumped and thumped-I was sure he had seen us! We waited there for what seemed like an hour-my legs had gone numb sitting the crouched position with Jarrett. But finally we saw his shadow leave and we bolted for the car down the street...

We got "Boo-ed!" a couple days later...the boys totally wanted to run out into the front yard, but I explained to them that I didn't like being "hunted" down when we dropped off gifts, so we weren't going to do that to whomever had left gifts for us. It just so happened that a minute after getting the treat, a friend of mine showed up to return something of mine. She told me that she saw a women with shoulder length blonde hair, wearing a blue shirt, running from our house. I had seen a light tanish van parked down the street and figured that was the "getaway" vehicle.

Well, on Sunday as we approached church, Kaden said, "Now, we need to find a lady with blonde hair, wearing a blue shirt, who drives a tan van." So they looked through the whole parking lot locating each tan van!! I busted up laughing....I eventually figured out who it was because she confessed so she could explain some of the contents in the treat bucket that we had received.

Now, some may ask, why didn't you put a ghost in your window when you started it? And you might ask, why 4? Well, in all the years past, we have put a ghost up that first night. That way we don't have to do it again. But then our kids would ask, "Why didn't anyone leave treats at our door?" So this year I decided that even if it meant doing it twice, I'd gladly do it so my kids could be on the end of receiving, instead of always giving. And they loved it! Why did we do 4 families? Well, we figured that 1/2 probably wouldn't continue it going so we'd have a greater possibility of keeping it going if we started with 4 instead of 2. I'm really hoping that the ward will participate and have a little fun!

I dropped off our last two goodies last night! Man, people need to light up the numbers on their homes. I had an awful time finding houses. And make sure you have backup addresses with you in case you can't find the home, or they aren't there and you don't want to leave it.

Does your Ward or neighborhood do this?  I bet a lot don't because people say they are just "too busy". But we had a great FHE doing it and it got us back into the "service" frame of mind, and broke us out of our busy mundane lives.....so "BOo" on, "BOo" on....

Fall is in the air....

 
Well, fall was here for at least a week, and now it's suddenly left again! I've been itchin' to break out my fall decorations for several weeks now. But how can one justify decorating when it's 85 degrees out?!?! We had one week where the temp. dropped into the 60's, and the boys were asking about decorations, so I busted out the boxes and got to work.

In the past I've basically decorated for "fall", hoping to cover both Halloween and Thanksgiving. But after seeing some cute ideas online for Halloween, I decided to mix things up a little bit.

A cute idea I found for our entry was to use past photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

 

The kids got a kick out of seeing themselves from past years!

 

In the kitchen, I decided to put my ghosts this year. A couple years ago I found a set of mega size blocks at Hallmark that said "Trick or Treat", but they wanted $80 for them! I figured I could do it for less than $10. So I cut the wood out, routed the edge, and then got too busy so I stashed them in the closet. Well, they sat there for two years....This year I decided it was either time to finish the project or trash the blocks. It just happened to be that I was crafting the next day with a friend so I get out my painting supplies and got to work. I love how they turned out....

 
 

Why it's taken me so long to get them done was I couldn't decide how to do the letters. I didn't want to do vinyl because I wanted a slightly off white letter that wasn't "perfect". So I broke out my trusty Cricut and cut the letters out of my transparency sheets, and made myself a stencil to paint with. Worked great!! Added some splatter painting to finish out the blocks-easy!!

 

 

As for above the ghosts, well, I didn't want to leave that area blank. I had two sticks that I had left after cutting the branches for my mantel (see below). Figured, why waste?!? So I suspended them from the ceiling using fishing line and tape. Added some of the batting spider web stuff, and some bats. I saw the bat idea online too, and it was super easy and cheap!! Got out the Cricut, downloaded the bat file online-had my program quickly trace the bats and then I let the Cricut cut the bats out of black cardstock I had laying around. In less than 5 minutes, I had bats galore-more of them are flying in the other room! Next year, I think I'm going to make the bigger bat pattern that I have, but for this year, this will work...

 

If you know my fireplace mantel in the family room, you know it's huge! I think over 6 feet to be exact, with a large flatscreen smack dad in the middle. Normally I slap up a garland, and call it good. This year, though, I really wanted to do a Halloween themed mantel. Here's what I ended up with...on the right side I took one of my vases and filled with black branches (the tops of the other ones in the kitchen). Found some cute tin boxes at HL, and added some black crows. Finished it off with some black organza and spider webbing (and a little mouse at the base of the vase-you'll see them later)

 

On the left side I have two black candlesticks and some dead roses. I think the candles need some black vinyl letters on them, but I couldn't decide what I wanted it to say. It happens that my anniversary was in late September so I had roses sitting around. I filled a round vase with some of the black organza, and then put the dried roses in it. If you can see on the top of the shorter candlestick, I have a mouse....

 

Well, I was surfing the Martha Stewart site and found this picture of a staircase decorated with mice sillouhettes...

 
I love the idea of having them on the stairs, but I thought it might be a little scary for my kids. And my husband had been TDY all week and I figured he probaby wouldn't like coming home late to find "mice" running up our stairs. So I settled for the fireplace...they are running all over the bookcases, floor, fireplace, wood, etc. The Cricut came to the rescue again-downloaded the pattern from Martha Stewart, and cut them out with the Cricut-again out of black cardstock.

I really thought the boys would have a fit when they came home from school to find crows and mice all over the family room. The boys got off the bus, and as always, headed straight for the tv! They didn't say a word about the decorations at first! Then, about 30 minutes later, Kaden was standing right next to one of the mice, while he was playing with Legos on the bookcases. Kaden asked, "Mom, why is there a mouse here?!?" He wasn't scared, just inquisitive...I said, he wanted to come join his friends and play. Kaden gave me that look like, "What are you talking about mom?!" I said, "Don't you see his friends?" It was like the "lightbulb" came on, and Kaden scanned the area where he had been playing and suddenly "saw" all the mice. I just busted up laughing. The boys had been so into watching tv that they had completely tuned out all the decorations. Kaden finally exclaimed, "Mom, that's so awesome!" Guess I have gotten his seal of approval.

 

Another new addition to our Halloween decorations are these wooden cutouts from Total Class Creations. Real simple, clean looking decorations. The boys helped me make the little ornaments for the tree-everything comes cut out, and painted. The little ornaments even have adhesive on them to add the glitter. So the boys had fun dipping them in glitter. I decided that I didn't want glitter all over my decorations when I put them away for the year, so I got out the modge podge and tested one, MP over the glitter. Nope, doesn't work-the glitter lost all it's sparkle...so we'll see how these hold up in storage!

A couple other ideas I found while surfing the web:

 

 

I love this look with the candy jars. Didn't do it this year, for two reasons: first, if you know me, I can't resist sweets. As I'm trying to lose the weight, I didn't want to sabotage myself my setting out jars of sweets, in plain sight. Also, I went to HL to look at jars and they are expensive, even at 50% off! Decided that I needed to watch "Goodwill" this year to pick up some when you can get them for a couple bucks each...but I love the idea!

 

Thought this setup was cute for a children's party. I love the whole setup-balloons and all.

 

Love the lanterns as decorations here.

 

Candy corn wreath! My friend Karen worked on this for our craft day. She ran out of candy corns so she couldn't hang it up-took it home and had it sitting on the table. Her little boy came home from school and said, "Oh, chocolate cake" and gave it a big lick!!! 

Here are the instructions if you want to make it:

http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Family-Lifestyle/Holidays/Halloween-Craft-Candy-Corn-Wreath.html

One warning: Karen's wreath is now in pieces!!! Guess this is suppose to be an indoor wreath, and you're suppose to let the candy corn harden a couple days before making-I believe. I'm sure you can google and find out more info. She also MP her foam first, let dry, and then spray painted black instead of using the duct tape.

 

I made the lima bean wreath-which is still sitting in my craft room because I keep forgetting to buy the ribbon to hang it. But here's a picture of them:

 
You can find the instructions on www.allthingsthrifty.com. I only had a green wreath so I MP it first, and then glued on the beans, and spray painted. One thing I learned was that you really need to pick away all those awful glue strands from the glue gun. For some reason I was thinking the paint would hide them, but it actually accentuated them. ARGH! So much time spent on this, and you see my glue-stand back if admiring my wreath-if I ever get it hung!!!!

And last but not least, a friend sent me this idea:

 
Chalkboard rocks-idea is from Pottery Barn but they are way expensive. Buy a little chalkboard paint, find some rocks, and you have some fun decorations the kids can help with. I'll be doing this one next year!!

Have you made any cute decorations or found some links online?!?! Please share-I'm already making a file for next year!!

First day of school...

I can't believe it's already that time again!! The boys we so happy to go back to school, which makes it easier on me. Not sure what I'd do if they didn't want to go back. We had the chance to meet the new teachers on Monday-Jarrett has a male teacher so that will be something new. And Jarrett's class has a pet snake and pet toad so that's going to be new for Jarrett too.

In an attempt to prove to myself that I wasn't a "lazy mom", I fixed them a special breakfast: alphabet pancakes and fruit salad. Jarrett looked at his plate and was like, "what's the "JW" for mom"? But then he figured it out. I learned in the process that if you want the pancakes to look good, you actually need to pour the batter in the shape of the "mirror image" of the letters, so they will be golden on the right side.

 

Now....what to do with my time?!?....movie....pedicure...good book...oh wait, it will probably be laundry, dishes, pulling weed, errands-just a little quieter than usual!!

Good luck, boys, Mom loves you-you'll be fabulous!!!

End of summer...

Today we had our "End of summer" party (though I think we've actually had a couple parties!). The boys invited their friends, Shawn and Chris, over for a slip-n-slide, water ball, Rollandia afternoon. They sure had fun!

 

 

I have to admit, I totally was not looking forward to the "water balloon" part of the day. Why? If you've ever had to fill and tie water balloons, you know exactly why! We've always purchased the bag of solid color water balloons that are so small that you literally pull of skin every time you try to tie the darn things. Know what I'm talking about?!?! Well, Kaden picked out the balloons this time, and boy, what a difference it was. We went to go ole' Wally world and they had the granade type, and then some groovy tie-dyed ones. Kaden purchased both. They are fantastic! Plenty of room for water, and tons of balloon left to tie. I was having so much fun filling them because they are so easy that I did an entire bag. So next time you have a water balloon party, fork out the extra change and get the nice ones-it will totally save your fingers!! 

My little karate dudes...

I was just uploading my photos and noticed that I forgot to upload the boys' karate pictures. Last month both of them got their yellow belts. They were soooooo excited! I'm hoping that the next belt, orange, will be easier to get as it's taken many months to earn the yellow.

It's been a wonderful program for both boys. We attend the therapeutic program at CCA. It's a therapy-based martial arts program, and insurance covers it! Yeah!!! It's one night a week, for 45 minutes and the boys spend about 1/3 of the time working on the therapy part and 2/3 on the martial arts. In the therapy part, they learn all about playing fair, honesty, respect, discipline, etc. They also have homework each week based on the concept they are learning. The other part of the therapy side is the child's behavior at home/school. Each week the child tries to earn a "stripe" for their belt. If they are bad at home or school, they will not receive the stripe. At first I thought, "my kids aren't going to care if they get a little sticker stripe on their belt or not." But I can tell you, it works!! When my boys start to misbehave, all I have to say is "if you keep it up, you'll lose your stripe" and they start begging me to let them keep it. It's funny to watch. If you look closely on the belt around Jarrett's neck, you'll see all the stripes on his right side. The stripes, along with the color of your belt, determine your "rank" in the class, so it's a big deal for all the kids.

The best part about it is that it's helped Kaden's self esteem, and his temper tantrums. I'm sure the program isn't for every child, but for mine, it's been a huge blessing, and it's something we can enjoy as a family. We support each child together and I get to help them practice at home so we have fun trying to do all the rolls, kicks, punches, etc.

  

Sum Sum Summertime...

Where's it going?!?! I can't believe that school supplies are already on sale and August is just around the corner!

I see that I still haven't posted pictures of our NJ/NY trip on here. Maybe after the kids are back in school I'll get around to it. My excuse is that I don't have Corel on this computer to do a collage of pictures! (It's a pretty good excuse I think!)

One of my boys will probably be in here in two minutes to kick me off the computer, so I'll type fast. We're just enjoying a nice, quiet, summer....how's that?!

Jarrett is in summer school till mid-August and we still have Karate, Scouts, Therapy and now a Reading Tutor twice a week. So that's keeping us pretty busy as it is. We are trying to get together with some friends for "play dates" before the boys are back in school.

Kaden was really cute the other day. We have three families leaving in the next couple weeks, from church. We decided to do a playgroup and have a potluck as a "goodbye". So I told the boys that we were going over the Miss Lindsey's house to play with our friends and say our "goodbyes". Kaden exclaimed, "This is the best day ever...I get to go to one home and see three of my friends...it's like going to the park!" Well, actually there were probably at least 12 kids roaming around but you get the point-they had a fabulous time.

Kaden seems to use that line a lot these days, "This is the best day ever", or "you're the best mom ever". Well, the other day he wanted to be tickled, and I think I had just had one of those days and I wanted a couple minutes to myself. I was trying to watch some evening tv and he came and climbed in bed and asked me to tickle him. I either didn't do it, or did it just for a second, and he got upset and said, "you're not the best mom ever." I just about busted a gut, but tried not to let him see me trying to keep my composure. Jokingly, I said, "What did you just say?" He thought about it for a second, and then with the biggest grin he repeated it, "you're not the best mom ever because you won't tickle me." Well, by then I could hold it in, and so I tackled him and tickled him till he couldn't breathe. I'm just afraid now that he's going to use that line whenever he wants something....

Jarrett is my helper for the summer. He's great at checking the garden each morning to see what we need to pick. And he'll help out with anything around the house that I'm needing help with. He's my right-hand man. Every chance he gets, he's trying to gain more and more independence and I struggle each time, trying to let go just a little. Didn't realize it would be so hard to give them more freedom.

And in case you've been living in a cave, and haven't heard, I am finally closing up shop. Yep, I'm making the leap and will have my business closed by the end of August, if not sooner. I get asked all the time, "Why?". Well, it started as just a hobby, and then was meant to pay for school. Well, I'm done with school and hobbies are suppose to be fun. It's been five years and I've decided that it's just not that fun anymore. And I'd like to give "Being JUST a Mommy" a try for awhile. It may only last two weeks, but  can't even remember the last time that I wasn't working or going to school. I need the break and I'm looking forward to it. I think everyone else is crying that I'm closing up, but you won't find me shedding tears-I'm totally great about it. So I've been really busy trying to sell off all my extra inventory.

That's our summer in a nutshell...hope you're all doing fabulous and enjoying your summer!

One on one with Kaden

Jarrett started summer school this week, so I have 6 hours a week, just with Kaden. We spent our first day running errands! (Bet Kaden wishes he was in school instead of running around with mom!) I needed to get the oil changed on my car so we went to good ole' Walmart. While we were waiting for the work to be done, we ate breakfast at McDonalds, and then leisurely strolled through the aisles, just looking.

Two things really made me laugh...first, while we were walking, Kaden decided to figure out how much "allowance" (we don't call it that, but it's money they earn) he'd have if he saved it for 10 weeks. Once he figured out how much he'd have, he was sooo excited. Each item we saw, he'd tell me if he could buy it or not. So we'd see a lawn chair, and he'd say, "I can buy that lawn chair in 10 weeks", or "I could buy 6 of those flowers in 10 weeks". I was busting up laughing. He totally didn't care what he bought, he just thought it would be cool to spend that much money at once!

Kaden decided that he wanted to go down the board game aisle. So we ventured down there, and he found a Magic 8 Ball. Remember these?!?! Our neighbor had one when we were growing up and I remember asking it all those tough questions, like "Will _______ like me?", etc. Kaden had never seen one before so I explained (the best way I could) what it was. So he started shaking it and asking it questions. His first question totally floored me, "Am I ever going to get married?". (He's always said that he doesn't like girls and has no interest in marriage). The Magic 8 ball told him, "yes". Then his second question was, "When I turn 10, will Jarrett start being nice to me?". I did all I could to keep myself composed at this point. The Magic 8 Ball replied with something like, "cannot tell right now". Oh, to be a child again....

Square foot gardening

I'll start off by saying, I'm not an expert. I just started this year, but it's going fabulous so far. Just google the term and you'll find website after website about the subject. I even purchased two books on it (from the guy who came up with the idea)

This is the start of our square foot garden. First off, I do not have the grids on the boxes (you're suppose to) because I purchased these boxes from Sam's and they are a weird size (3.5' x 7'). Most square foot boxes are 4'x4' or 4'x8', etc. Then you make grids that are 1'x1'.

So you might ask, what's the difference between this and regular gardening? The premise behind it is that you can grow the plants in a lot less space, use less water, no fertilizer, and not have to "fix" the dirt you have.  

You can build the boxes out of most anything-old wood, new wood, recycled wood, etc. Then you fill the box with a special formula-1/3 peat moss, 1/3 organic material, 1/3 vermiculite. Notice, no dirt! No tilling up your ground and trying to make it workable. We have clay soil and for years, we've added organic material to try and get it suitable for gardens-hasn't work. This way, we start with the right mix. And the "mix" is so light that you don't need a tiller to work with it, and it's so easy to weed (we get a lot less weeds in the boxes than in the dirt where we have planted the squash). Supposedly, the organic material provides everything the plants need, so you don't have to fertilize, and the peat moss and vermiculite help retain the moisture.

If you do true square foot gardening, then you have a grid which marks off each square foot, and you use guidelines as to how many plants to put in the one square foot. For instance, some plants are big so you only grow 1 in each square foot. Others are smaller so you can get either 4, 8, or 16 in one foot.

I seriously don't explain this well, so please, read up on it. The other thing I like about it, is that it's teaching me how to have three growing seasons, and not just 1. Come August, when most everyone is pulling out there garden and getting ready for frost, I'm going to be planting another harvest (cool season crops like lettuce, broccoli, peas, etc). I should have something growing in my garden 10 months out of the year and I live in OHIO!

I know most of you are thinking that gardens take too much time. I haven't spent more than 5 minutes in my garden, every other day. I water, pull a couple weeds, and help the cucumbers and watermelon climb the trellis.  And we leveled the ground, built the boxes, added the soil mixture and planted in less than 1 hour.

Why am I gardening when I can afford produce?

First, there's nothing that compares to a homegrown tomato! Oh, I can't wait! Additionally, I know EXACTLY what's going into my food and where it's coming from.

Second, I'm really enjoying it as it's getting me outdoors!

Third, the prophet has told us to. This one I really have come to learn a deeper meaning to, I guess you could say. Do I really think that there will come a time when we have to grow our own produce? Maybe, but probably not. Yes, prices could soar and growing at home would cut costsThere might be a natural disaster that wipes out the orange crop, or something, but I can't see all produce being destroyed. I believe that gardening teaches us something more useful-PATIENCE! When I look back at my life four months ago, it was so fast-paced and chaotic. As I've started to landscape, work in the yard, and grow a garden, I can feel my "speed" changing. Not sure how to describe it, but I'm learning to enjoy the slower pace, the quiet time digging in the dirt. I'm learning to appreciate each flower, plant and bush for it's own beauty and uniqueness. 

Life gets so "busy" these days and I was really lacking in quiet time. I get "me" time now, while I'm outdoors working and I LOVE IT! It's also giving us quality family time. The boys love watching the vegetables grow, and helping to pull weeds and plant seeds. It's teaching them that some things take patience, and they are really learning about where food comes from.

Gardening may or may not be something you enjoy. But I know that if you put a little time and effort into it, you'll reap blessings beyond what you put into it. It really is a rewarding hobby, for the entire family.

If you have bad soil, or want to grow veggies in a smaller space, look into square foot gardening. We're so happy with our two boxes that I grabbed two more that I'll add this fall. I'll try to post pictures as it grows.

Mel's Website is www.squarefootgardening.com

If you're in the IN, OH area, I'm following Tim's website, http://timssquarefootgarden.com/. He's an expert gardener in zone 5 (my growing zone), so I can grow what he does. He has his planting calendar posted, along with pictures and tips, to help gardeners.

If you live by me, and want to start one of these gardens, talk to me before you go purchase your supplies. It took me awhile to find vermiculite and I finally found a place close where I purchased mine in 4cf bags. But Gordon can get the stuff for FREE, from work!! YEAH!! So don't buy it!!

New favorite place...

Ok, who knows when the painters are coming back and going to be done. So I'm just going to post these pics before I forget. We're having the house repainted (same color) and the fence will be stained a color similar to new cedar so I hope it makes for a great background for the plants, instead of looking like a drab gray curtain.

This is 1/2 the patio right off the family room. Had a new sliding door put in so I could arrange my furniture inside, the way I wanted it. Then we had the pergola built. I painted it-took way too long but I like the look now. We have roller shades (can slightly see on the right side) that we can roll down on two sides of the pergola to block the sun,and I'm making a shade that will cover the top (when needed), to block the high noon sun.

This is the other half of the patio (my favorite side). Who knew that Lay-Z-Boy made outdoor furniture!?! The chairs rock and swivel so we can turn around and watch the kids in the yard. Excuse the large hose reel in the picture-I've found a decorative pot that holds hoses so I'm going to order it and switch it out.Back there in the upper left corner is the shade garden pictured here:

The kids love the fountain-along with the birds. We decided that we needed a bird bath down by the cutting garden because the birds keep leaving us "gifts" on this fountain. We put a bird feeder out in our large tree and it brings the most beautiful colored birds-red ones, yellow ones, blue ones. Just beautiful! 

 

Between the chairs is the hibiscus. It's a cool shape, three twisted trunks with a topiary style top. (Sam's Club purchase!)

Off the other side of the patio are some hydrangeas and impatiens. I think one hydrangea is pink and the other will hopefully be blue (depends on the acidity of the soil). They should get 4' when full grown.

I'm moving in a counter clockwise position around the yard. So ths is a vibirnum in the corner (they get 6' or so). Then there are the red daylilies and the stargazer lilies (they are about to bloom and I'm so excited because they are my favorites-the white ones with pink middles). We also have several boxwoods as foundation bushes that will get at least 3' and I can shape them nicely-and they are evergreen! (Yeah!)

This is the right fence. It has three trellises, for grapes. One year we had a ton of grapes, but they were all seeded (even though the plants said seedless). So we dug them up and replanted. The plants got damaged early this Spring, but are slowly coming back so next year they should be up the trellises and bountiful. In between the trellises are the raspberry bushes. They are new this year. I'm hoping that we will have raspberries this time next year. FYI-if you're going to do berries, it's worth the extra money to buy the larger plants, then ordering from a catalog. Not sure if you can see it or not, but there is a twig sticking out of the ground, bottom right corner, where that white glare is-that's the raspberry "Bush" (bare twig in my book!) that Gordon ordered. I just went to Wal-mart and bought 5 "bushes" on clearance ahd they are doing fantastic. Lesson learned!

This is suppose to be the "cutting" garden, but nothing is growing! ll We have the rose bushes down here, just in front of the culvert. The culvert was quite an eye-sore. So I'm trying to make it blend in with the landscaping by adding the bushes and flowers on both sides, and putting a bridge over it. (If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't paint the bridge white because it really sticks out now, but maybe when we have all the colorful flowers growing, it won't be so bad).

There is a service berry bush, right there to the right of the bridge. It should get at least 15' tall, if I let it and have beautiful colors in the fall. I'll keep it trimmed so everything else will still grow nicely. I'm thinking that when all the perennials come on sale soon, I'll just go grab some and make this another little garden, and forget about the "cutting" flowers.

Then moving along the back fence, we have our nectarine tree on the right, there. (Check out the picture below) Along the back fence we have 4 boxwoods, then 5 liliacs and then another 4 boxwoods. In between the liliacs are the orange lilies. The lilacs should grow about 5-6' and have beautiful purple blossoms-I'm excited that soon it wouldn't be "fence" back there, but a nice row of plants.

 

This is the nectarine tree. Never had fruit until this year, and look at it! It's covered! I had to actually "thin" out the fruit because they were too close. And I've had to use some ropes to help support a couple branches as the weight of the fruit is making them sag. The boys are SOOOO EXCITED! They LOVE nectarines. Jarrett goes out everyday to see if they are ripe. (I think it will be a couple more months). I've talked to all my friends here and they had no idea that we could grow nectarines in this part of the country. We have an apple tree too, but for some reason it didn't blossom this year. One thing I've learned about fruit trees is that you HAVE TO PRUNE them, for fruit to grow. The first couple years after we planted our trees, they looked so small that I didn't want to cut off their two or three branches. But that's what delayed the fruit from growing. You have to prune heavily, and correctly. If you're going to plant fruit trees, do the research beforehand. Each kind of tree grows fruit on different wood. Some grow on last year's wood, or two years ago.

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the year as I showed the part shade garden yesterday. It's in the back left corner of the yard, next to the shed.

Then up the left fence, I have a row of burning bushes. They are gorgeous in the fall!

Here's the front yard we've been working on too:

I keep changing the foundation bushes in the back there. I've settled on boxwoods as they are always green, and can be shaped nicely. I added the pot of flowers this year-really breaks up the space and adds interest. Then I have some euonymus in there on each side of the pot (they are yellow and green evergreen bushes) and the liriopes as the border plants (they have purple flowers in the summer).

Other half of the front. Changed up what I did under the tree, adding happy returns daylilies and a couple different types of hostas. Then mingled in some annual white flowers. One thing really tried hard to do, was to plant perennials. I didn't want to fork out hundreds of dollars each year for annuals. I have specific areas where I plant annuals, to bring in color, or fill my pots, but the bulk of the yard are perennials.

So here's the walk way, from the drive. We put in new lighting, to light the path at night. It's so much better than the solar powered ones we had before (we don't get enough sun to make them bright). And of course, my fake ferns hanging from the porch.

You can't see the flowers in this one very well, but this is the "island" around the light post in the front yard. The large bush was already there (and turns a beautiful red in the autumn). I keep playing around with what we have planted. Right now we have three small bushes that have beautiful pink blossoms, and then some white annuals. I really think front yards look better, if they have at least one island-it just adds character.

Ok, that's a look at my new "favorite" place in my home (or outside I guess). It's so much fun, now, to entertain guests, and watch the kids play out back. I can just sit on the couch and read a good book while they are digging in the gravel!

  

A stroll through my garden...

Who can look at a beautiful flower in bloom, and not smile?! It's amazing what a little color does for my mood these days.

If you've been reading my blog, we undertook landscaping our yard this year. It's been quite the task (I'd recommend doing it in stages if you have the patience or you get burned out quickly!). Many of the flowers are starting to bloom and I'm so excited to watch the plants grow over the next couple of years. I keep telling G that we can't move because the yard isn't going to look really good for about 5 years!! Mother Nature still has to work some magic out there.

But here is a glimpse at some of the plants growing in my backyard...

This is a hibiscus plant that looks like an ornamental tree, on my patio. Love the large 4-5" blossoms!

Gerbera daisies! We planted red, yellow, orange and pink!

Here's what's growing in my shade garden:

 

The pink, green and white large leaves are Caladiums. I just love the rich texture of the large leaves. We started these indoors (bulbs) so they would be ready by the time it was warm enough to plant outside.

Coral bells. They come in different colors but I love the look of the purple ones.

These are Siberian Bugloss "Looking Glass". They have heart shaped pedals with a silvery sheen.

  
 
 I love the purple stem on these ferns, and the leaves almost have a silvery tint.

Here's part of my vegetable garden:

Gordon started container gardening this year. I learned about square foot gardening and convinced him to let me try my hand at gardening (in the past, he's always done it). So I planted my garden and he quickly decided to move his container plants into my boxes. We have tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, pumpkins, zuchinni, yellow squash, carrots, green onions and lettuce. I think I'll blog more about gardening later, because I've learned quite a bit about cold season crops, warm season crops, and getting three harvests in one year.

This is my part shade garden:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Hydrangeas-we have several in the yard, some pink, some blue, some white flowers

This is a Mandevilla and it's on my arbor. Problem is that it didn't have tag on it when I purchased it, to tell me that it's not hardy in our zone. So I'll have to plant something else next year.

I have several different hostas-love the large foliage.

This is ornamental grass. Adds a contrast to the large leaves of the hostas. I like that it's compact. Great for borders.

Lilies-quickly becoming my favorite flower. We have at least 4 different ones right now, and plan on adding more. Got the orange ones for free a couple years ago. They are situated between my lilac bushes.

This is the newest one. It's one of several daylily varieties that we have.

These are the Stella de Oro, the most popular daylily around here. You'll see them everywhere. I love the thinner leaves that grow from spring till a hard frost. They constantly bloom and I like the fact that the stem f the flower isn't 3 feet above the plant. That's what bugs me about most lilies-like the orange ones we have-the green leaves of the plant stand about 2' tall, but the lily stem grows more than 2 feet above that. The stems on the Stellas are only as tall as the leaves.

Two years ago I attempted to grow roses-and I mean, attempted. They blossomed the first year and then got black rot and died. Money wasted. With some research, I found out that they don't grow well out here. The nursery suggested that if I wanted roses, to grow "knockout" roses. I chose the double knockouts. I have 5 bushes and they are doing fabulous! They are more wild looking, but anything to me is better than nothing.

Well, that's some of the plants. We have geraniums, impatiens, petunias, shasta daisies, cosmos, and star gazer lilies too. I tried my hand at a cutting garden, but the birds keep eating the seeds and I can't get the flowers I want, as plants. So I may just have to change plans and do something else with that corner of the yard. Once the painter is done and out of the way, I'll take pictures of the different sections so you can actually see the plants grouped with each other. Just remember, everything was planted this year so they are very small, and some may not flower this year because I got them in a little late. But next year should be even better!
 
 
 
 
  

 
 
   
  

"I'm not a little kid anymore"...

Last night Kaden proudly exclaimed, "I'm not a little kid anymore!" The look on his face, and the excitement just penetrated my heart!

Jarrett came running in the house and said that Kaden was riding his bike. Normally, if one child was using the property of the other, a fight would break out. But not last night! Jarrett was proudly cheering Kaden on as Kaden took off on Jarrett's bike.

Many of you might say, "He's 8 1/2 years old, it's ABOUT TIME!". But for me, the mom, it was a priceless moment. I can't tell you the number of times I've taken off training wheels, just to put them back on within minutes as Kaden's frustration got too much for him, and for me! After frustrating ourselves over the issue, G and I decided that if Kaden didn't have an issue with riding a bike with training wheels, he could do it as long as he wanted. As we are slowly learning over the years, confidence isn't something that comes quickly with Kaden. And you cannot push him to do something he doesn't want to-it just doesn't work.

Jarrett's been wanting a new bike, as he's grown to big for his, so this was the perfect chance for Kaden. He didn't even fumble...just jumped on "his new bike" (Jarrett's hand-me-down) and took off with lightning speed. As he said, "Kenzie (his cousin) said that the faster I go, the easier it is to balance."

Jarrett was so cute about the whole thing-he grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of Kaden. Well, and then some of himself-a couple are so adorable! I guess I've forgotten how to upload video so we'll just do pics...

 

This is Jarrett taking a picture of himself! Totally adorable! Think I'll have to make it B/W and post in my bedroom!

  

 

 

Helping My Brother Win a Phone-check it out! (You'll get a great laugh, if nothing else)

Hey Windows Phone, I Need This App! Sponsored by Windows Phone

BYU TV-Education at your fingertips

Do you have BYU TV? We've only had it for less than a year, but I already love it! I'm learning so much.

There are two programs that I have DVR'd and then marked so they are never erased: "Living Essentials" and "Home Grown".

"Living Essentials" covers a miriad of topics that we deal with in every day life. I've watched them on everything from home organization, budgeting, depression later in life, communicating in marriage, canning meat, solar ovens, food storage basics, family dinnertime, a sick child, infertility, retirement planning, investing, etc, etc. So much information!! And it's all explained in "down to earth" terms so that even I can understand it! I think Gordon is getting tired of me watching and then quizing him on it. After the retirement planning one, I asked him all about our 401, annunities, IRA, etc and tried to see if we were diversified enough and on track for his retirement. And I love the fact they they are only 30 minutes, and many have demonstrations. I feel like I could go buy my pressure canner today and do chicken without reservations,after watching the show.

"Home Grown" is another program, with the same host as "Living Essentials", and she walks you through everything about gardening. We started with "how to plan a garden", "soil", etc and have now watched ones on "bulb vegetables", "container gardening", "Square foot gardening", "Irrigation", etc. The one on soil was very informative and helped me to know what I needed to mix in my clay soil to get it workable for landscaping. The one on square foot gardening has really inspired me to try that method because you save so much space and I like the fact that I don't have to try and make my clay soil "workable".

As far as food storage goes, I even learned some things there that I didn't know before. They said that commerically canned foods will last indefinitely if the can is not bulging or dented (and if stored in a cool, dry, place). Same with "Crisco" (this brand is the only one that guarantees this). The experts on the show also don't worry about rotating spices. If they start gettin old and weak, they say just to add more-don't worry about rotating it. They also talked about powdered milk and how the recommended amount for one year is 50# per person. They said that you can decrease this to 16# per person if you increase the grains to 400# per person. But you won't get all the necessary calcium you need so storage a vitamin. One thing they mentioned on water storage was that it is NOT RECOMMENDED to use 55 gallon barrels that had soda pop syrup in them. They said it's because the sugars in the syrup eventually leach into the plastic and become a breeding ground for bacteria. Makes sense to me! They also said that adding chlorine to municipal water DOES NOT extend the shelf life. That makes sense too because chlorine only has a shelf ife of 6 months. So they recommend changing water every 6 months and storing in new containers. I'm still keeping my pepsi barrel, but we've always said it's for our "non-potable" water anyways.

Supposedly, BYU TV has more information on their website for these shows, but I haven't been able to find it yet. If I ever find it, I'll post it so you might be able to get all this information without having BYU TV.

Spring Break 2010!

We had plans to travel to South Carolina for Spring Break, but because of other issues, we had to cancel. So we quickly changed our plans and decided to go to Cincinnati for the weekend. We stayed at the Coco Key Resort (indoor waterpark/hotel) and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

 

On our way home, we stopped in Lebanon and rode on the Easter Egg Express Train Ride. It was a 30 minute ride down the tracks to a park where the Easter bunny was, and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Of course, my boys were not going anywhere near the Easter bunny, and that's ok. Last year they found out that I am the Easter bunny and now they make sure to tell every kid they see that "your parents are really the Easter bunny!" The train ride was fun, but's it's really geared for smaller kids. My boys were kind of bored and wanted the train to go faster! I'm on the lookout for a real train ride-maybe a couple hours long. I'd love it if it went through the mountains or somewhere that had beautiful scenery. If you know of one, let me know!

They cracked out their eggs to see what their "stash" was. Of course, they wanted to hunt for more eggs than they were suppose to, so we came home and I filled the living room and kitchen with plenty of eggs-we'll be eating candy for the rest of the year!
  

TOFW Weekend

What an awesome weekend we had! It was TOFW (Time Out For Women) in Indianapolis a couple weeks ago so a group from our ward went down together. To make a long story short, I ended up staying with my old ward and they happened to be celebrating Donna's 50th birthday. Needless to say, we didn't get very much sleep at all. But it was a blast!

 

 
 

The ladies started a tradition of doing gag gifts for everyone's 50th, and recycling what you may have gotten on your 50th, but didn't need. There was everything from bejeweled glasses, to creams and enemas, etc. I haven't laughed that much in a long time.

The speakers were great! Last year it seemed like every talk was on cancer, and that was a sore subject as I had found out on my way down there last year that my friend's cancer had spread. This year was a lot more laughing and just learning to "finding joy in the simple things."

We had a chance to participate in a service project for the local women's shelter and we made close to 300 hygiene kits. You know, as members of the church, it seems like we contantly are doing service. I think it becomes second nature and I have to say that I really don't give it too much thought when I'm asked to do it. But it really touched me to listen to one of the speakers, Mariama Kallon, a sister from Africa. She was born and raised in Africa and she talked about seeing her family killed and watching them cut the arms and legs off her sister, with her turn coming soon. She was rescued by the United Nations and found the gospel. She brought a hygiene kit with her, her own personal one that she was given over 10 years ago, by the church. She talked about all the different components of the kit and how that one kit blessed 10+ women. We cried and we laughed and it really made me see what a difference we are making in the world. I am truly grateful to be a part of the Relief Society and to have opportunities to give service to people around the world. I know that it may seem almost inconsequential to go to the dollar store and buy a couple toothbrushes, but after listening to Mariama, I'll picture her and those other women, living in the bush of Africa, sharing those toothbrushes and trying to wash themselves as they ran to save their own lives.

If TOFW ever comes to a city close to you, I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of it. It's a great testimony builder and it definitely strengthens the  bond between sisters.

Thanks to all of my ward sisters that went with me, and thanks to the Beavercreek ladies for letting me join in the party! I'm already looking forward to next year in Cincy!!!

Jarrett hits double digits!

Anyone that came to our home during April was greeted by Jarrett-"Hi, come in-I'm turning 10 this month." He made sure that we were not going to miss his birthday! Because I was leaving town that weekend, we postponed his party, but we still celebrated his special day on the 15th too. Jarrett loves to eat so we had three special meals on his birthday!

Jarrett has been bugging me for months about his "special breakfast". He must know me all too well and thought that I needed reminding. I'm not a morning person at all and I don't "cook" breakfast that early. But I did for his birthday and he got to lay in my bed and watch tv while he ate it so he thought that was "awesome"!

 

I thought for once I'd go and get Jarrett from school and have lunch with him. He picked Pizza Hut as the place to go. Not sure if he enjoyed getting away from school or not-he was so worried about me getting him back on time...

 

And last, we ended up at Golden Corral for dinner. Boy, my gut was feeling it after all that food! Jarrett was sooooo excited because he's now old enough to go up and get his own food! Oh, the things that make our kids happy!

 

For Jarrett's party, we celebrated wth his friend, Daniel, who turned 12 this month too. We held it at the bowling alley and invited a couple friends from church. They all seemed to have a great time!

Happy 10th Birthday Jarrett!! 

Not MIA...

It's just been a really crazy month! Not sure where April is going, but it's almost gone and I feel like I haven't blinked an eye yet. Hopefully I can get on here and post some pictures this weekend. The boys had Spring Break and we headed to Cincy for the weekend, and had fun together. Then Gordon had yet another surgery...this one they cut him from his ear to the corner of his eye. I should have taken a picture as he got a black eye from it and I told everyone at church that I did it! lol He was home for the week, got the stitches out and then ended up with the stomach bug and has been home for another 3-4 days. Just when he started feeling better, I ended up with a severe allergy attack to the point that I couldn't see, and then came down with an Upper Respiratory Infection. So I feel like it's been a mini clinic in the house the past two weeks.

Jarrett turned the big 10. I'll try to post pictures of that this weekend as his party isn't until Saturday. Oh, and I managed to sneak off and do TOFW this past weekend too. So much to blog about. As soon as I can sit here and not have kleenex stuffed up my nose, or have the room spinning from blocked tubes, I'll catch ya up. In the mean time, I hope that someone is enjoying the beautiful Spring weather while I admire it from indoors (where there's no pollen!)

Emergency Preparedness class-water storage and sheltering-in-place-part 2

Ok, so I decided to break up this post into two separate ones. So the handouts that I used for water storage and sheltering at home without power, water, etc, are located at the beginning of the previous post.

Please see my notes for water storage information. Additional information that was asked last night was about where to buy the different storage options. Here's what I remember:

5-gallon plastic water containers with spigot-a lot of stores carry these in camping department. I think they are between $7-10. Might be able to get on clearance in Aug/Sept. Most of these won't stack, though. If you want the stackable kind, you'll need to look on a preparedness or camping website. Emergency Essentials has the Aqua-Pak brand for $13.95. Just Google "Aqua-Pak 5 gallon water container" and you might find it cheaper.

http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_WS%20B080_A_name_E_Aqua-Pak™%205%20Gallon%20Water%20Container

They have a 7 gallon one too, for a couple dollars more.

I also showed the 5 gallon mylar bag/box combination. They are stackable and I like the fact that when you're moving, they fold up real flat, so they don't make up much space. I'm sure there are many brands out there. Emergency Essentials has sells them in a kit of 5 boxes, for a total of 25 gallons of water. The kit sells for $34.00.

http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_KW%20S100_A_name_E_Basic%2025%20Gallon%20Boxed%20Water%20Kit

If you want a hose to fill your containers, that doesn't have lead in it, here is one to look at. I think Home Depot carries them too, but this will give you an idea. I know they come in shorter lengths too.

http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_WS%20H050_A_name_E_50-Foot%20Drinking%20Water%20Safe%20Hose

If you need a syphon to get water out of your 55 gallon barrels, you can use a small piece of hose, or a syphon like this:

http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_WS%20S105_A_name_E_Emergency%20Siphon

Or the pump that we have is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000638IB4/ref=oss_product

It's $16.14, free shipping, and it does come apart so you can store easily in smaller space.

If you're looking for the water filtration bottle we purchased, you can find the one filter here:

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=16613&langId=-1&sortId=3&sortOr=1&sTerm=water+filtration+&sNVPs=%26beginIndex%3D0%26pageSize%3D200%26searchTerm%3Dwater%2Bfiltration%2B%26searchType%3DALL%26sType%3DSimple%26pageId%3D1%26pageCt%3D15&retURLtext=Back to%20'water filtration '%20Search&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCatalogSearchResultView%3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26beginIndex%3D0%26pageSize%3D200%26searchTerm%3Dwater%2Bfiltration%2B%26searchType%3DALL%26sType%3DSimple%26pageId%3D1%26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1

It's usually out-of-stock, along with the two filter one. But just place to order and they will ship when it comes back in stock.

If you want a new 55 gallon barrel, I pick mine up at Dayton Industrial Drum Company for $50. They sell smaller ones too, but they are only $5-10 cheaper. I was a little intimidated going there first as it's not a typical store. If you want one from there, I'm happy to go with you  or pick it up with there are several that want them.

The used barrels I get from Pepsi. It's easier to get a group order and pick up all at once (well, I can fit 5 at a time in my truck). If you want used, let me know and we'll do a group order. (They are free)

Ok, I think that's all the water questions.

As for the shelter-in-place items, my husband did most the research on them. Here's what we have:

Portable Butane Stove-safe to use indoors

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E58GB6/ref=oss_product

The fuel for the stove (couldn't find it locally at the time)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1XYYA/ref=oss_product

Coleman 6-Day 82 Qt. Ultimate Xtreme Wheeled Cooler and 50 qt.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FAH8V4/ref=oss_product

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G64I0Q/ref=oss_product

Coleman 8D Square Pack-Away Lantern with Remote Control

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00168QWVQ/ref=oss_product

Coleman 4D Rugged Personal Size Rugged Lantern

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009PUQ6O/ref=oss_product

I love these-this is what I showed at the class-gives off a bright light, light weight. We keep one in the upstairs hall closet and one in the downstairs closet (batteries in a ziploc next to light)

Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack 600 Jump Starter & Emergency Power Source with Radio

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TKHMWK/ref=oss_product

This was the battery pack I showed you, which is constantly charging in our food storage room. Great to take on campouts, jump car batteries, etc.

Our generator we purchased at Home Depot-it's a 3500 watt. It kept our freezer, fridge, running and we also kooked up various other items to it at the same time (like the kids' dvd players, computer, sewing machine, cell phone chargers, the battery pack to charge it). Do your research on generators to make sure you get one that is large enough for what you want to run off of it. There are charts out there that will tell you how much energy your appliances use.

There may be cheaper places to buy these, and they may come on sale. I noticed that the battery we got for $40 cheaper than what it's currently listed for. We just like Amazon because they have competitive prices and we usually get free, 2nd day shipping. Most camping gear comes on clearance in the fall and generators and such in the early spring.

If I left something off, that you'd like more information on, please ask. My husband does the research for these products and I think he's pretty thorough. We've used them all and like them-haven't had any issues, and would thus recommend them, if they suite your needs.

 

Here are links for you to download the files I talked about:

Family Home Evening lessons on Preparedness-there are 22, but I lost my computer file last year of these. I found the index and the first 8 on line and have attached in this document. If it looks like something you want, you can make a copy of my hard copies. Just ask!

Download FHE 22 lessons on preparedness

The preparedness manual that is very comprehensive-kind of boring to read as is, but GREAT for future reference so you'd be wise to print and have-just in case!

Download Preparedness Manual - 215 pgs

If you want help to start organizing your important documents, let me know and I can help you there.

 

 

 

Emergency Preparedness class (including 72 hour kits)-part 1

We had our food storage group monthly meeting last night, here at my house and I was tasked with teaching 72 hour kits and water storage. I kind of expanded the subject to include "sheltering at home" in case you are able to stay in your home, but you may not have power, water or gas for several days-weeks. It's A LOT of information to try and pile into a couple hours (so we ran over, as always), but I had fun and learned from all of the sisters.

We had several sisters that couldn't make it, but they wanted information. And the sisters that were there, had other questions and wanted information that I didn't have on hand. So, with this post, I'm going to try and sum up the night, post all my information, and answer the questions that I couldn't last night. So it's going to be a long post, but read it in bits and you'll get through it.

We first took a preparedness quiz, then discussed what disasters can happen, what's most likely to happen in our area, and the most likely scenario (sheltering at home without power). Then I covered what you need to survive for three days-it really isn't much!

I figured I better cover the 72 hour kits and water storage first, since that's what the night was all about.

Here are my notes for the night (lengthy-but have great information).

Download Emergency Preparedness Seminar (my notes)

In addition to these notes, I did attach this document in case you really wanted a list to start from, for your kits:

Download DisasterSupplyKits

If you need more ideas and directions, the lady that does this blog has some great information on putting together 72 hours kits, etc.

http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/2010/03/food-storage-shelf-labels-how-to-make.html

I love that she has pictures and is very down-to-earth about it all. On the right hand side of her blog, she has links to her specific blog posts.

 

If you want to take the quiz, here it is...Download Emergency Preparedness Quiz to print (the answers are at the end of the quiz)

72 Hour Kit-

So if you read my notes, you'll see that you can die within 3 hours, if you don't have shelter (depending on the weather-too hot or too cold). The other three essentials are water, first aid, and sanitation. (No, food is not on here because you can last 3 weeks and we're discussing 3 days survival).

Here is a picture of my BARE NECESSITIES kit:

It consists of:

A bag to hold it all in

Water and water purification tablets (as 3 gallons of water is heavy!)

Emergency Blanket

Poncho

Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and garbage bag (sanitation needs)

First aid kit

Now, I don't know about you, but that's just not going to cut it for me and my family! ROFL  Here are some pictures of what's in our kits, along with a list of the items and where I got them.

These are our supplies for communication, light, tools, shelter, water. 

Starting at the top:

compass and map (probably Walmart)

Work gloves (Dollar Tree)

Multi-function tool (knives, screwdrivers, pliers, cutters, etc)-Emergency Essentials $4.95?

Tarp (I got a 2 mil one so it's a decent thickness)-Walmart around $2-3

50 foot rope (Dollar Tree)

Sewing kit (had for years-probably got free from a nicer hotel)

Emergency Blanket (Emergency Essentials) $1.25

Poncho (Dollar Tree-pack of 2)

Crank LED flash light (got online last year from a "Deal of the Day" store) Probably $1 on clearance but they sell for around $9+ I believe, elsewhere

Water Purifier (www.providentliving.org) I bought the one with the extra filter so it will do 100 gallons per filter-$16.50 for the bottle and one filter, or I believe $21.50 for the bottle, and two filters

Liquid Emergency 100 hour candle (I got mine free when a friend moved and the movers wouldn't take it)-Emergency Essentials $4.50

Whistle/Compass/Flint starter/waterproof match holder-Emergency Essentials $1.95

Duct tape (Dollar Tree)

Eton Hand Crank/Solar Weather Radio/flashlight/cell phone charger-American Red Cross $30 (other places sell these but I don't know the price off the top of my head so check out www.amazon.com or visit your local Red Cross)

Clothing: 1 sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt, sweat pants, underwear, socks, shoes (I only put shoes in for adults since my kids' feet grow too fast)-I plan on cutting of legs and sleeves if it's warm weather-place in ziplocs to keep dry

Kids' clothing is one size too big (in case they grow, but because of elastic, will still fit them) and I pick one color for all of them so I can pass down the clothes, no matter if boy or girl.

Personal Hygiene-

Wet Ones-Grocery Store

Comb-had in my drawer

Toothpaste and toothbrush-Free from the dentist at my cleaning (or Dollar Tree)

Bar of Soap-(double bag it so it doesn't make your food and clothes smell and taste like Irish Spring

Hand sanitizer (Dollar Tree-2 larger bottles for $1)

Toilet paper-can remove the carboard if you're running out of space

Garbage bags-(just grabbed a couple from my kitchen bag stash)

Kleenex packet (Dollar Tree-I think they are in a packet of 5 for $1)

I put all my personal hygiene products in one ziploc (one ziploc for each person)-My husband's bag does have a small kit with razor, shaving cream, deodorant and shampoo)

First Aid-

The kit is pictured in my picture of ESSENTIAL items. I keep the kit in my car, which is in a garage most of the time. We use it all the time for vacations, park visits, etc. It's constantly stocked with meds, etc. I purchased a premade kit and then added the meds and stuff to it. Think we got ours at Sam's Club years ago.

Food is probably the most individualized. I showed them different options-everything from your standard jerky, instant soup, granola bar, hot chocolate kit (very popular but not my choice because I have to rotate it every 6 months), to MREs (what we have-along with other stuff), Freeze Dried (have a couple of these), Energy Bars (we have a 3600 calorie one but it's not in the picture for some reason).

We used to have those small containers that have spaghetti, mac/cheese, lasagne-you know, those Chef BoyR Dee things-have a pop top, don't need to add water, etc. Well, when it came time to rotate them, my kids either didn't like the look if it and refused to eat it, or they took one bite and spit it out.

So, after talking to the hubby, we decided on MREs (he said he lived on them over in Qatar and said they aren't bad). So we hit the local commissary and picked up a variety-spaghetti, penne and veggies, beef stew, beef enchiladas, etc. The ones they sell (for $4.34) are the deluxe ones. They have something like this: Main Entree, peanut butter packet, crackers packet, fruit packet, snack (M&Ms!), tea, spork and napkin, salt and pepper, and the heating unit.

I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice so we're trying these MREs. Last night I actually opened the spaghetti one and warmed it up for the ladies, using the heating unit. I then rehydrated some Freeze dried scrambled eggs and bacon, and opened one of the Main Stay Energy bars, so they could sample it all. I thought it was all edible, and my son just finished off the spaghetti for his after-school snack!

Our Freeze-dried food I got from Emergency Essentials since I was already ordering from there. They have it in single servings, 2 person, and 4 person. Walmart also sells some in 1 person servings. Just remember, you do need to add a little hot water to reconstitute it-I just poured a cup of hot water in the bag, zipped it up for 5 minutes, and then drained the extra water and served!

So in our bags, we have several MREs (because of all the food that's in them, we plan on spliting one MRE between one adult and one child). Then we have a couple Freeze dried pouches for variety, and then some carnation instant breakfasts and granola bars.

The great thing about MREs and Freeze Dried is they are good for a long time. MREs say 5-10 years (I error on the 5 year side), freeze dried says "best if used in 5 years" but they say it will last 30 years. They do cost a little more than the smaller stuff, but if I have to rotate other foods every 6 months, I'll definitely pay a little more so I don't have to rotate them.

Misc. Items:

Hat, Gloves (clearance at K-mart) $2

Hard Candy and Gum (if your gum is spearmint or something, double bag or everything will smell like it)

N95 Mask (Walmart) Box of 2-less than $5

Glow light sticks (I got the ones on strings to wear around neck)-Dollar Tree

Hotties Hand Warmers (www.amazon.com) I bought a box of 40 to cut cost and use for a variety of things

Pen and post its-(pen from my junk drawer-post its-bought the cheap brand from Walmart) So I can leave notes on my front door, or whereever else to pass on information

Sudoku book, Playing cards, kids matching game- (Dollar Tree)

Binder-copies of all our important documents and information. You can put the papers in a ziploc bag instead of a binder with sheet protectors. I'm converting my binder right now to a thumb drive so that it's a lot smaller to store and I can carry it around my neck if I'm in a shelter where someone might try to steal my stuff.

The vacuum bag with pink things-this is my money stash. I have small bills ($1, $5s, $10s and some quarters) in an envelope, along with a credit card. I thought that by disguising it with feminine panty liners on both sides of the envelope, and vacuum sealing it, it's less likely to be stolen, and less likely that I will try to raid the cash!

You may ask, why cash and credit cards? Well, during our storm here, there was no power so the stores only took cash. During Hurricane Katrina, stores didn't want large stashes of cash in fear of being robbed, so they only took credit cards. So our bank doesn't cancel our credit card, I have the number stored so I can order something online, once a year, and use the card. That way, I don't have to open the package.

The last thing in the back are our emergency information tags (laminated). I have these for two reasons-first, most people now days don't memorize phone numbers because we store them in our phones. Well, in your emergency plan, you want an outside contact that you could call, to tell them that you're ok, along with any family you might be separated from. Second, I have our home address, drug allergies, dx, and prescription drug information on the other side. I made these when my kids couldn't communicate, or in case I was unconsious and couldn't give out the information. My family thinks I'm crazy, but when the tornado sirens sound, I make them wear their tags because if a tornado picks up my body and throws me in the next county, I want someone to be able to identify me-I know, gross, but things happen.

So that's what is in our backpacks. Now, each backpack doesn't have 1 of each of these! Each person has clothing, personal hygiene, poncho, emergency blanket, crank flashlight, N95 mask, light stick, hand warmers, whistle and water.  I have two of the filtration bottles (one in my pack and one in my husband's). Then I divide all the other supplies up between the packs.

Because I'm the one at home with the kids, I put the essential items in my pack, in case my husband isn't around and I couldn't carry both his and mine. The lighter stuff I put in my kids' packs. Then any duplicates and the extra food and such are in my husband's bag. I'm hoping that if I had to evacuate, I could take my husband's pack, in our car, so that when we met up with him, he would have it. If I can't take my car, I'm going to put his pack in a garbage can or wagon and pull it, along with some other items.

Here are our bags, with some extra water. I store them in a closet just around from a door. Then, on the wall, I have my list of "To Grab" in case I have an extra 5 or 10 minutes before I'm forced out. If I had to evacuate, my brain would freeze so the list includes:

First aid kit (in car)

cell phone and charger

wallet/purse

car keys

computer and backup harddrive

prescription meds (so I have more than 3 days worth)

air mattresses

outside gear

5-gallon water containers

extra clothes

glasses

lock box

kids' stuffed animals or blankets

I also listed the location of the items in case anyone was helping me to pack.  So if I had a little extra time, and could take my car, I have my additional supplies organized in the garage.

EXTRA Emergency Supplies:

In the event that I could take my car, I have tubs and a closet in my garage specifically for my extra supplies.

 

These tubs contain most of our camping gear. So I have everything from sleeping bags, tarps, lanterns, camping stove, fuel, soap, pans, 5 gallon bucket (for toilet), hammer, hatchet, large knife, cooking utencils and pots and pans, etc, etc. Each has a tag and I have marked what's in it so I know where to put the items when we use them for campouts.

The cabinet right next to the bins has additional items like fishing gear, dutch oven, camping chairs, etc. Above the cabinet we have ice chests, tents, and pump for 55 gallon barrels. I have my portable 5-gallon water containers filled and stored out in the garage too.

Whew! That's quite a list, now that I see it written out. But we felt like it was worth the investment because we don't just let the items sit on the shelf and never be touched. We use them for camping (and make sure to put them back), and for when we're sheltering at home (loss of power, water, etc). When the tornado sirens sound, we grab our 72 hour backpacks and take them into our bathroom with us. I have the flashlights, radio, etc in an outside pouch so we can get to them easily. I also have a water container, hard candy, and the games in an outside zippered pouch because the kids get bored while we're huddled on the floor. It's a great "practice run" and to double check that everything still works.

Before I forget, it's recommended to have car kits and work kits. I just finished updating our car kits.

This one is in our truck. It really doesn't take up much space. It has:

fold up shovel (Emergency Essentials) $8.95

light sticks (Dollar store)

Small first aid kit

Whistle/compass/match holder/mirror (see above)

Liquid Emergency Candle (see above)-it's wrapped in the green plastic bag in the picture

Fix-A-Flat (Walmart) Think it was 2 bottles for $7

Flash light (Dollar Tree)

Batteries (Stored in a ziploc)

Multifunction tool (see above)

Energy bar (See above)

Water (Dollar Tree)-I liked that it had a little handle to make it easy to carry

Rope (Dollar Tree)

Plastic Sheeting (Walmart) Bought the cheap stuff because I figured I would double it up and use to fix broken window, etc) Pack of 3 for something cleap

Duct Tape (Dollar Tree)

Post-its and pen (Walmart)

Hotties Hand Warmers (See above)

Emergency Blanket (See above)

Poncho (see above)

Fleece blanket (make when fleece comes on clearance)

Jumper cables (not pictured as they are under a seat in the truck)

Small Bag from American Red Cross-they gave it to me for free and I figured I'd put it in here in case I had to backpack away from the car-it was easier to haul things in than the plastic tub

 

Intelliscanner Mini Barcode Review

Ok, I guess I need to post this one as I keep getting asked about it.

I blogged about this scanner several weeks ago when I was discussing my food storage rotation and inventory system. At the time, I had only had the scanner about a month so I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not. Since that time, I've used it a lot more and it hasn't lived up to my expectations. So here is my review:

IntelliScanner Mini Barcode Scanner-"Not Worth the Money"

What I was looking for...

Before I give my "thumbs down" to this product, let me discuss what I was looking for, what it is good for, nd then I'll give my reasons why I wouldn't recommend it.

The idea of using a barcode scanner for my grocery shopping made perfect sense to me! Scan the product when I purchase it, store it, then scan when I use it and print a shopping list to go buy the item again. I shop at at least 3 different stores so I wanted to easily make shopping lists for those stores.

For my short term storage (stuff I purchase at the grocery store), I was hoping to use the scanner to help me keep track of my inventory, and see where the gaps where in my plan. I wanted to be able to input how many of that item I needed for my stash, and have a current inventory of what I had. Then when I went to print my shopping list, anything that I was short on, it would list it on a special place on my form so I could grab some extras if they were on sale.

I was also looking for something to help me keep track of my long term food storage. I was constantly writing down my "totals" on a sheet of paper (sometimes I made it to entering it into an Excel document) but when I used the can or bag of flour, I never deducted it from my inventory.

Something else I wanted was he ability to look back and see how many of ***** I had consumed in a month, or three months. I thought this feature would help me to know how many of each item I needed to stock for a year's supply.

I was also looking for a database that I could input my favorite recipes into and then I could ask the database, "which of my recipes can I make with what I have on in my storage?" Doesn't that sound like a fabulous feature? I really don't want to eat the same 7 meals 52 times in the same year. But if I had all of the ingredients for those 7 meals, and a database with recipes, I could probably make more than those 7 meals by mixing and matching the ingredients.

What this barcode scanner does...

Hands down, the best thing about this scanner is its size and portability. It's just a little bigger than your car remote, and it's got a cord that I put around my neck so it's hands free when I shop.

When I go shopping, I wear it around my neck and before I put anything into my cart, I scan the barcode. If you are buying 20 of the same item, it does come with a little card that you can scan, but I have found that it doesn't always work the way it's suppose to.

When I get home, I plug the scanner into my computer before I put my groceries away so I can make sure that it recognized all the barcodes. That way, it's much easier and I have less to go through (compared to looking through my entire pantry) to find the barcode that it doesn't know. Once the barcode is in the system, it will have it on record. But I don't always buy the same exact stuff so I usually have at least 5 products that I have to enter information in for, for each shopping trip. It doesn't recognize most of your store brand and sam's items. You'll have to input them each individually the first time.

Then I put my groceries away and start using them. I hang the scanner up at the entrance to our "Pantry room", which is also by the garbage. I scan items as I through their packaging away, or if I need the item in another room, like upstairs in the bathrooms (when I use these items I throw them away upstairs so it makes sense to me to scan when they leave my storage room).

When I'm ready to shop, I plug the scanner into my computer and tell it to "consume" these groceries and add to my shopping list. It then deducts them from the database and prints my shopping list.

And I start the process again....

It's many flaws and imperfections...

Where do I begin? Hmmm... Ok. When you start, you scan the item and if it's a common item, the software automatically drops it into a category. There are categories, and subcategories. So you might have one that says "Mexican", and then a subcategory would be "taco shells", "chiles" or "seasonings". I'm not sure if a man made up the categories, but it took me forever to find some items. Some just don't make sense to me. I would give up and make my own category after awhile. For instance, to me, adult shampoo, and even my kid's shampoo should be under "personal care"-at least in my mind. But no, the shampoo is found under "baby". I don't have a baby-I'd never even look under the category! To remedy it, I can manually enter each shampoo under "personal care" and then a subcategory of "shampoo" or "hair products". But I have to do this for every bottle that I'd ever buy, if they are different brands. It doesn't keep track that I want my "shampoos" under "personal care". It's really made me become "brand specific" and even "barcode" specific so I don't have to keep entering it! As long as I buy Suave Professional in the 32 oz bottle, it will recognize that barcode and just update my quantity so I don't have to manually enter it each time. This becomes an issue if I'm trying to buy what's on sale as it's rarely the same kind of shampoo as what I have. Along the same lines, I have manually entered different subcategories because I couldn't find what I was looking for, but it won't save those under the "subcategory" list. You have to enter them each time.

Next...when you enter an item into the database, you can put the price of the item, and where you purchased it. Found it a waste of time for the price thing because you never use that info with how it's set up. I thought maybe I could print a form and input the "best deal" so I didn't have to remember what a good price was, for each item. But I can't find any place where this price function is even used. When you go to "consume" the items and print a shopping list, you have to select a store. But it seems dump everything onto that list. It won't separate out my "Sam's" items from my "Commissary" items. I wanted it to print only the items that I purchased at each store. Another thing it doesn't do is give me a quantity to purchase. If I use one can of cream of chicken soup, it will show up on the list. But if I use two, it's not going to put a 2 on the list. So annoying!!! I think, initially, on the database screen it shows me how much of that item I have in my pantry, but doesn't tell me what my "goal" quantity is to keep on the shelf, or how many I scanned out since I last shopped.

In addition, it basically doesn't have a memory. I can't go back and say, "how many shampoos have I used in the last 3 months?" So it's not going to help you figure out how much you go through, or how much you need for a certain length of time.

As far as the Recipe feature, it's totally independent of the other software and is basically a blank document that you'd just type your recipes into, for the fun of it! Not! It's more useless than a recipe card!

The program does have a nutritional database function, but heck, just look on the side of the box or package. The program isn't going to total the nutritional content of a meal for you. All they have done is scanned in the side of the box and tagged it to the barcode.

I guess I'd have to say is that, if nothing else, it's given me a way to do my long term storage. But it took some time to figure this one out. I downloaded a barcode font (has to be a specific type) so I could print my own barcodes. Instead of making individual labels for each #10 can or mylar bag, I have  laminated cardstock sheets that have my barcodes printed on them. I have this hanging by the scanner. So if I'm going to use a mylar bag of flour, I have a barcode on the sheet that is just for mylar bags of flour. I have separate barcodes for my #10 cans. One other function that you can do, for your long term storage, is when you're entering your new purchases, you can tell it where you're storing it. So if I don't have everything in one room, I can put that I'm storing 10 cans in "bedroom". It DOES NOT do anything with expiration dates. I had originally thought about making separate barcodes for each year. So if I had #10 cans of wheat that I had purchased in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009, I'd have four different barcodes. I gave that up when I had problems printing my own barcodes. Some of them, for some reason, didn't work the first time. No idea why. But I have working barcodes now for each item. I did do it for my freezer too, but I'm not good at remembering to scan that. For all the meat I froze (that I purchased in bulk) I made a barcode for "#1 hamburger", "2 chicken breasts", etc. (All the fresh meats like this from the butcher don't have barcodes that are functional for this so you have to make your own). So, for long term storage, if you're not looking to make a "shopping list", it will keep track of how much you have in the database. So I can look on mine right now and see that I have 62 bags of white wheat. But it's not going to tell me how much to buy, how much I used lately, or how much I need to reach my goal of 82 bags ( or whatever it is).

So I'm on the hunt for something that better suits my needs. If you see something out there, send me a link. I think I'm going to look and see if Microsoft Access has something that will work, or if there is a business inventory software system that utilizes barcodes that may be better.

Yes, I will continue to use my scanner because it cost so much, and it does do a little better than nothing at all, but.......it's not worth the money!

(We could probably find a cheaper barcode scanner and a simple Excel form and do what this program does for so much more-I'll keep a look out for you!)

PS-I have contacted the company and told them that I cannot recommend their product, to see if they would take my suggestions and improve their software. If they contact me and say that they will, I'll let you know in the future.

Oh how my garden grows....

I've had a couple people ask me how we start our garden. So I thought I'd do a little tutorial for you.

We started our garden, from seed, several weeks ago. You'll have to look on the back of the packages of seeds to see when you need to start yours.

One misconception is that you can start them indoors, under normal light, and then transplant outdoors when it's warm. Been there, done that, doesn't work. The plants won't be strong enough. You need to grow them under plant lights, and the light needs to be adjustable because you want it just a could inches higher than your plants. As your plants grow, you adjust the height of the light higher and higher.

I'm sure there are plenty of websites out there that can give you more information. But here are a couple pictures of ours, in case you're interested.

We purchase these little pods. You could use dixie cups and a bag of soil, but I like these because I can just pour the water in the tray that these sit in, and the soil will soak up whatever it needs. If you use the dixie cups, you have to guess at how much water to put in.

So the first step is to put these pods in a tray and get them wet. They will soak up the water and grow tall.

Once they have expanded, we put them in the tray and poked holes in the soil (the depth of our hole was depending on what was being planted-read the back of the seed packet for guidance) The sharp end of a pencil works great for going down 1/4" or deeper. The eraser end worked well for those that were suppose to be shallow (less than 1/4" deep).

Plant your seeds according the the directions on the package and use the eraser side of the pencil to cover them with dirt.

Once you have them planted, get them under the light. This is ours. It's 2' long. G ordered it online somewhere. If you want to know, email me and I'll get the info. You can find the bulbs at Lowe's or Home Depot and they have ballisters too. I think he ordered this one because it holds 4, 2' long bulbs and the ones in the store only held 2.

 

The important thing is to have something adjustable. You can make a stand out of wood or PVC pipe, and attach the light using chains. G decided that he could put these hooks under the cabinets in our food storage room, and adjust it this way.

These are our tomato plants. See how close the light is. That's key. You want it just a couple inches higher than your plants.

Don't forget to make yourself a "key" if you're planting more than one thing. They all look alike in the beginning and you don't want to find yourself planting "flowers" in your "vegetable garden" in the sun when they were suppose to be in your shade flower garden.

Usually we just grow veggies, but I thought I'd try some flowers for all my flower gardens this year, as flowers can be expensive if you have a large yard. So far, they are doing great. We also have herbs started, like cilantro.

I know, I can hear some of you saying-"Why go through the hassle when you can buy the plants already grown?" You're right. You can buy them and skip this process. But I think my rationale is that, in the past, I have always taken things for granted. I've always expected there to be tomatoes in the store, that tasted good, and were a decent price. Or that the nurseries would have plants for me to purchase. I've taken the easy road and leaned too much, in my opinion, on others. But I'm now seeing that tomatoes aren't always in my stores (yes, remember the scare and they didn't even sale them). In fact, I saw a sign at Wendy's that said that I had to ask for a tomato on my hamburger, otherwise they weren't going to do it because of the cost as Florida's tomato crop has been wiped out this year (2010). And, the tomatoes in the store are expensive, $2.99/lb, and have no taste! Now, we're probably going to start seeing the plants show up in stores, but who knows, there may come a time that some insect or something wipes them out. So I want the knowledge, and experience, of how to do it from seed.

I asked G when we started this, if you could grow a tomato plant indoors, and never transplant it outside. I was worried about pollination and such. He said that most are self pollinating and that, theoretically, you could. So that's on my list for this winter-to grow a tomato plant indoors! Doesn't it sound like fun? Fresh, home grown tomatoes in Dec-Jan. Yah, I know all of you New Mexico, California and Florida people probably have tomatoes in Dec outdoors, but in Ohio, not a chance! Wish me luck!!

If you know nothing about gardening and want to learn, my DVR is filled with a new favorite, "Homegrown" on the BYU channel. They talk about everything, in a simple manner. I've learned about where to begin, how to test your soil, all about bulbs, fertilizers, square foot gardening, etc. Excellent resources!

Provident Living-Grocery price comparision 2010

For those of you in the Dayton area that are interested in which store has the better prices, I spent a couple weeks visiting the stores and writing down prices. Here's what I found:

Download Updated Price Comparision sheet 2010

I made a list of products that my family commonly uses. Having shopped predominantly at the Commissary the last 12 years, I wanted to compare their prices with that of other stores, to see if I could save a little money.

Some products I am very brand oriented. For instance, I only use Charmin toilet paper-tried all the rest-it's the best. So I’ve listed “Charmin” by the product category so you know that I ONLY compared this brand. IF there is NOT a product name by the category, then I picked the lowest price product I could find. For instance, on condensed soups, I believe that it’s Campbell’s at the Commissary, but Store Brand at the rest. If I were to only compare the same exact product-like Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, 99% of the time the Commissary wins out. That’s because they only charge us what they paid to get the food from the Manufacturer. But store brands, or generic brands, sometimes beat out the Commissary. Really just depends.

 

In addition to the brand of product, I also did NOT take into account size. So I may be comparing a 120 ct Fabric softener from Meijer to a 240 ct at Sam’s Club. I’m not lacking in where to store stuff, so I didn’t mind what size. But how I figured out the best deal was to calculate the “per oz”, or “per count” price.

 

The boxes highlighted in yellow are the lowest price (per oz/per ct/per sq. ft.). So if you look at Hand soap, you see that the Commissary is yellow/$.90. But if you look further in that row, you’ll see a red $.88 at Kroger. The red means that it will beat the yellow box, but it’s a SALE price! So that’s something I’d have to keep an eye out for. But for every day shopping, the yellow is what you go by.

 

Kroger’s was the hardest for me to get the prices for. They have very confusing tags. There may be a white tag, a yellow tag (some had what seemed to be “effective sale dates” while others didn’t) and some even had two yellow tags because of the March Madness sale. ARGH! Even if I got the prices a little mixed up, I believe Kroger is the most expensive-over all- unless you catch the $10 for $10 sales (get the 11^th free). Then, if you have coupons to add to that sale, you can get some dirt cheap groceries. Meijer is also running the 10 for 10 sale right now and I know that both of these stores have seasonal sales that beat the Commissary, like on canned soup. It’s in November so if you can store a year’s worth, and can wait, shop then.

 

Provident Living-Grocery Price Comparison

For those of you in the Dayton area, I made my own price comparision sheet. Thought I'd see if I was getting the best deal around town, or not. Here is the sheet in Excel. Download Updated Price Comparision sheet 2010

Here are a couple tips for understanding the sheet:

I made a list of products that my family commonly uses. Having shopped predominantly at the Commissary the last 12 years, I wanted to compare their prices with that of other stores, to see if I could save a little money.

Some products I am very brand oriented. For instance, I only use Charmin toilet paper-tried all the rest-this one’s the best. So I’ve listed “Charmin” by the product category so you know that I ONLY compared this brand. IF there is NOT a product name by the category, then I picked the lowest price product I could find. For instance, on condensed soups, I believe that it’s Campbell’s at the Commissary, but Store Brand at the rest. If I were to only compare the same exact product-like Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, 99% of the time the Commissary wins out. That’s because they only charge us what they paid to get the food from the Manufacturer. But store brands, or generic brands, sometimes beat out the Commissary. Really just depends.

In addition to the brand of product, I also did NOT take into account size. So I may be comparing a 120 ct Fabric softener from Meijer to a 240 ct at Sam’s Club. I’m not lacking in where to store stuff, so I didn’t mind what size. But how I figured out the best deal was the calculate the “per oz”, or “per count” price.

The boxes highlighted in yellow are the lowest price (per oz/per ct/per sq. ft.). So if you look at Hand soap, you see that the Commissary is yellow/$.90. But if you look further in that row, you’ll see a red $.88 at Kroger. The red means that it will beat the yellow box, but it’s a SALE price! So that’s something I’d have to keep an eye out for. But for every day shopping, the yellow is what you go by.

Kroger’s was the hardest for me to get the prices for. They have very confusing tags. There may be a white tag, a yellow tag (some had what seemed to be “effective sale dates” while others didn’t) and some even had two yellow tags because of the March Madness sale. ARGH! Even if I got the prices a little mixed up, I believe Kroger is the most expensive-over all- unless you catch the $10 for $10 sales (get the 11^th free). Then, if you have coupons to add to that sale, you can get some dirt cheap groceries. Meijer is also running the 10 for 10 sale right now and I know that both of these stores have seasonal sales that beat the Commissary, like on canned soup. It’s in November so if you can store a year’s worth, and can wait, shop then.

 

Provident Living-Store what you eat (Wendy DeWitt)

As I've been attending our food storage meetings, talking with friends about food storage, and surfing the web, I keep coming across people who are using Wendy's system for food storage. So I thought I'd go ahead and post a little segment on it, and then put a little note back on my 3 month supply post.

Wendy's philosophy is basically the same that I've been saying, "Store what you eat." So it's basically what I posted in the "Three month supply", but she's doing it for a year. So she doesn't have the "short term" and "long term". She tries not to store anything that doesn't have a shelf life of at least 3 years. At first when I heard her plan, she talked about 7 dinners and 7 breakfasts. I couldn't eat the same meal each week for 52 weeks! But like she said in her YouTube videos, she can't either! So she's doing 14 dinners and 7 breakfasts.

If you're interested in learning more about her method, She has a series of 9 short YouTube videos that talk about compiling your meal cards, shopping list, rotation, solar oven, canning meat, vacuum sealing, etc. I found them very informative and they are short so you can work them in to your schedule easily. She also has a blog http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/. During the seminars that she gives, she hands out booklets with all the information in them. You can find it on her blog, under the Nov 2008 post I believe. But I've copied it into a Word document and you can find it here (don't worry, she says we can post, copy, handout to whomever). Download EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN (click on this blue link).

For her videos, here is the first. Then you can access the next ones on the right hand bar on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGaTlwYs-s

There are a couple things that she points out that are great. First, she talks about how food storage costs about $1 a day, per person. She's quick to point out that we spend that much on our cell phones. So what's more important to you? A fancy phone/phone plan or food?

Second, she says that a year's supply for one person will store under a twin bed. So you really have no excuse for not storing it. Most people have one bed for each person in their home, or a larger bed for two. So clean out whatever is under beds, if you have no other space to store it, and do it!

Provident Living-Longer Term Storage-what is it and how to store it

We're moving on, from Short term storage, to Long term storage. Some of you might be asking, "What's the difference?" When I think about Long term storage, I think about the BARE MINIMUM food that you could eat to keep you alive. This isn't anything fancy, it's truely the bare basics. The church has been emphasizing this storage since the Great Depression. And it used to be that they said to store 2 years! They have even cut back on what is actually in this storage.

From "Safely Gathered In", we learn:

Longer-term Storage

 

Besides having a three-month supply of everyday food, you should also have a one-year supply of basics: oats, rice, wheat, and beans, for example.  Stored properly, each of these foods has a 20-30 year shelf life! (However, they will lose nutritional value of the years so you'll still want to rotate these, just not as frequently as your short term)


These basics can be stored in #10 cans, mylar bags, and/or 5 gallon buckets.  

Check out this food storage calculator

 

( http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7498-1-4070-1,00.html)

 

to determine how much food your family needs.

Besides these 4 basic foods, there are a few other things that the church suggests we  have a large supply of.  I'm not necessarily aiming for a year's worth (not until I have the basics done, anyway), but I certainly like to have more than three months' worth.  These "extras" include:


white sugar
yeast
powdered milk
bouillon cubes
pasta
white flour
honey
salt


Everything in the above list (except for the honey) can be stored in #10 cans, mylar bags, and/or buckets - the same way you store your basics. (Note: if you are canning up your own white sugar, do not include an oxygen packet.  If you do, your sugar will become rock hard!)  

How to store your Long Term Storage?

 

There are a couple different ways to store your Long Term Storage: #10 can, mylar bags and plastic buckets.

 

#10 cans are the very large cans that you can purchase from the cannery. They hold around 4-6 lbs. of food. Some of the pros to using these cans is that they are rodent proof, stack easily, and you can purchase a plastic lid so, once opened, you can keep the food in the can while you're using it, and just keep the plastic lid on it. The church sales boxes that fit these cans-6 cans to a box-makes it really easy to transport or stack and and store them. The cons to using the cans are: they are currently about $1 each (when you add in the metal lid), you cannot seal them more than once (unless you have a reflanger), and if you are canning at your home, it takes a lot of room to transport cans back to your home to can.

 

Mylar bags are relatively new to the cannery. They are made of a food grade foil and have a liner in them. They hold between 5-7 lbs of food. The pros to using these are: they are about 1/3 the cost of the cans, they are reusable (they will just be a little shorter each time you use them), they are easily transportable because they are flat, and they hold more food than the cans so you need less of them. The church also makes a box to fit these, though it's not too often that I can fit 5 pouches in a box (I fill my pouches quite a bit). I actually prefer to get the #10 can box, and use with my pouches. Because the #10 can box is shorter, I can store it easier under beds and such. The cons to the bags are that they are not rodent proof, so you need to store your bags off the ground on shelves, or in plastic buckets or bins to keep the mice out. Also, once you open a bag, you don't have an easy way to close the mylar bag so you need to transfer the food to another container, such as Tupperware or an equivalent. With that said, I still prefer Mylar over the cans.

 

Plastic buckets can also be used to store your long term food. You need to make sure that they are "food grade". They don't sell them out here, so I don't currently use any. I've been told that many bakeries sale their buckets for a couple bucks. You can also order them online. There are two different types of lids. One lid just snaps on, and the other is a gamma lid that has a seal and it twists for access. Once you have your buckets, it's easy to refill them, and they stack also. This is a great way to go, if you are constantly rotating your food. Many friends keep their rice, sugar, flour and wheat in buckets for easy access.

 

Next, I'll discuss ways to get rid of the oxygen, which is what spoils the food.

 

Kaden and his ancestors

It's so funny what kids pick up on these days, and what seems to just pass them by. The other day we were watching tv and there was a new show that I caught the last 5 minutes of. It's the one that has all the Hollywood stars that are finding out about their ancestors-not sure what it's called. Anyways, Kaden comes in and asks what the show is about. I tried to explain to him that the people were learning about their ancestors. So he asked me, "Do I have ancestors?" We talked a little more and he said, "Are my cousins like Shayne and Gracie my ancestors?" In my mind, ancestors are people that lived before my generation so I tried to tell him that his cousins were not. But I didn't get too far on that one. So I told him that his great grandfather Moore was his ancestor, and ask him if he remember him. He got all teary and said, " I have a great grandfather, and I've met him?" It was so precious. I said, "Yes, you have a great grandfather who's alive and you've met him before." He started to cry and exclaimed to the world, "I have an ancestor!!" It just melted my heart. I guess we haven't been out to Utah enough for him to know who is great grandfather is, and that's my fault. I'll have to make more of a point of introducing my kids to their "ancestors" when we see them next. We finished the conversation with talking about his ancestors, like his Grandma and Grandpa Walker who are dead and that we'd have a big party when we joined them in heaven. Kaden is really sensative and constantly talks about my brother Scotty, so everything is in relationship to Scotty. He sees the world as Jesus is with Scotty and now Grandma and Grandpa Walker are with Scotty, just waiting for us to join them. Little does Kaden know that he'll have more than enough ancestors on the other side that will be cheering for him, when he's eventually called home.

The other thing my kids were asking me about was a movie we watched, 2012. If you haven't seen it, it's about the core of the Earth heating up so much, due to solar flares, that it shifts the Earth's crust and causes earthquakes, tidal waves, etc. The boys decided to join G and I when we were watching it, and they were captivated by the whole thing. However, all they kept saying was, "Why doesn't Jesus stop the earthquakes, or tidal waves? Why doesn't Jesus save the people?" So we had the discussion again about what's real and what's not, and why, in reality, Jesus doesn't always save people (in the physical sense). But Jarrett just can't seem to drop the whole thing. He saw the paper the other day with the news about Chile's earthquake and so we discussed how that was real. I really have to watch what I say because it does scare them. But I'm also trying to include the boys in our "preparedness" so they see that we are doing everything we can to be ready if anything like a natural disaster happens. They help us fill the water barrels and I've let Jarrett dry pack with me. This weekend we put away a ton of chicken that was on sale. I'm hoping that eventually the boys will put two and two together to see what it all means, and that they do not need to fear.

You're catching the vision

I just went to a food storage group last night and it was so much fun to talk to women that have "caught the vision" too. Yeah!!! I'm so excited that I'm not the only one out there that is working on this. We can all learn from each other. I hope that, whereever you are, you can find a friend or group that's interested in food storage. Makes it so much easier! If you can't, our virtual group is here to help encourage you on, to your goals.

So, next month I've been tasked with covering 72 hour kits for our group. If you have any tips or ideas that you've used when compiling yours, please comment. We have ours, and I think I'm pretty organized with them. I just need to remember to rotate them a little more often. But I know that we each think differently and have different needs so I'd love to hear what's worked, or not worked, for your kits.

If you don't have yours yet, and you want information, please comment and let me know and I'll do a post or two on how to assemble them.

Provident Living...just a note

I've had a couple friends approach me and tell me that they are reading the blog, but they can't keep up. You don't have to!! And I'm not expecting you to! I'm trying to post as fast as I can because I have friends that are not working on a three month supply, or water supply. They want information on long term storage, and recipes on how to use their storage. But I believe that long term storage is for those that already have their water and short term, so that's why I've chosen to post these things first.

Don't get stressed out if you're way back! Believe me, I'm not even personally caught up to where my blog is!!! It's not something that you can rush out and do, nor should you. I'm really putting a lot of time and effort into my personal one because I want it to fit the needs of our family. And I'm working on it together with G and we are finding that we don't have a lot of time to sit down and discuss it. We're trying to use every minute we have, in the car, or at dinner (after the kids have eaten and left), to make the right decisions for our family. The object is to start, keep going, and growing. It doesn't matter how long it takes us to get to the end!

Got it?! I could blog once a week and give you an "assignment", but it would probably only work for one or two of you. Some have less time to spend, others want to get it all done today! Some are just learning about food storage, and others have it all stored and they just need to learn how to use it. It's going to be up to you, to set your goal, and your timeline. I firmly BELIEVE that you do need to set a goal and timeline.

G and I have a timeline for getting our short term storage done, and a goal/timeline for our long term. We sat down and figured out about how much it was going to cost, and what our budget was each month, and then figured out a realistic goal. I urge you to do the same!

I'm going to keep posting, as fast as my schedule will allow, so I can share as much as I can. Just know that I'm way back at the beginning, probably working on the same step as most of you!!!

Provident Living-Three Month Supply (Part 5)

Ok, this is the last post covering three month supply-at least for awhile.

I thought I'd share a couple more tips....

A three month supply is suppose to include more than just food. You will want to include all personal care products, cleaning products, paper products etc in your list. The easiest way to see how much you need to to write the date on a package that you open. For instance, if you pull out a new shampoo today, write today's date on that with a permanent marker. Then, when you go to throw it away in a month when it's empty, you'll know that your family uses about 1 shampoo each month. That means you need 3, for a 3 month supply.

For toilet paper, you can do it two ways. We have a cabinet above each toilet where I keep the extra rolls. I could either put "X" amount of rolls (6 rolls for example) in each cabinet, and then at the end of the month count how many I have left and subtract from 6. Or, you can save the cardboard rolls, every time you empty a roll, and total them up at the end of the month. This is the one I thought I would try because I figured if I did the first one, by the time I got to the end of the month, I would have forgotten how many we started with! ROFl Yes, my memory is THAT BAD! However, my husband was right when he told me that collecting a bunch of tubes wasn't the smartest way to do it. Let's just say that your bathroom begins to become a stock pile of cardboard tubes that seem to roll everywhere, or your kids think that they could recycle them and make something cool so they end up walking off with them. If I had to do it over again, I'll go for the first example, put a sticky note on the inside of the cabinet telling me how many I began with, and call it good!

Another thing, if you're working with TP. Maybe it's just me, but it totally bugs me that TP comes in at least 3 sizes-large, big, and mega, at least in my brand, Charmin. This is important to take note of if you just buy whatever size is on sale, ladies! For instance, if you purchased 6 mega rolls and stash them in your cabinet and track your consumption for the month, let's say you find that you use 4 a month. Well, that doesn't mean that you can then stock your food storage with 4 rolls of large, or big. You'd have to double that 4, for big rolls, and quadruple it for large. I think I'm going to eventually give up the battle and just purchase 1 size for the rest of my life because I don't have to have to double and quadruple rolls to figure out how many I need!

Last, I'll give one more tip if you're trying to save money. If you don't want to store the "good" TP (as it's not the cheapest thing out there), you can always stock up on the really cheap stuff, stash it away and don't worry about rotating it as it's not going to go bad (unless you get it wet). Then buy whatever brand you want for your daily use. Totally up to you!

Here's something for you to laugh about...Way back when, I having a conversation with my mom about this very thing, TP. We decided that in a time of crisis, we didn't want to be using the paper thin, sandpaper-esk toilet paper! We wanted something that brought a little comfort (seriously, was I really thinking that TP could be comforting!!!) Anyways, I decided to stock what I was used to using (and it's soft enough that it could double for kleenex!, or I could stuff my clothes with it, if I needed insulation, etc). Makes me wonder, could I use it as a strainer?!?! JUST KIDDING! If you go for the cheap stuff, stock some rash ointment too, in case you get a rug burn from it!!!

Project Thursday is changing....

Two things. First, I've decided to put this little project on hold till I get through the brunt of the Provident Living Information. I'm "accepting" the fact that I don't have enough time to do both. And, I'd really like to finish up the stack of crafts I have already half started, and my scrapbooks that are screaming at me.

Second, I do craft on Thursdays still, but I've realized that I don't have enough time to craft, and then blog it. So I'm going to change the title and day to "Free Craft Friday". This will allow me enough time to make the craft on Thursday, and then blog about it on Friday.

Here's what I worked on this week...more car litter bags (though I like the name "Blow and Throw" better! lol) I was at the fabric store last week and I just couldn't resist looking at the new stash of fabrics. Yep, I'm a sucker for fabric! Luckily, it was on sale! I went out on a limb with a couple of the prints, and I have to say that they ended up being my favs. Is it too much to attach one to each seat in my car?!?!

For all my friends that asked for one of these back in January, I FINALLY have them done. So I'm mailing them out next week! Hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I have to admit that my car has been the cleanest it's ever been, thanks to my car litter bag. And the kleenex packet is coming in handy during these winter months. I just need to buy more kleenex to fill it back up!

I was going to take pictures and post instructions on how to make them, but I've decided not to for right now. Why? They aren't the cheapest things to make, so I didn't want to temp you and then here your sweet husbands complaining about it! You need a tool to apply the snaps, the fabric is pretty expensive, along with the snaps, and you also need a heavy duty sewing machine to sew through 6 layers of fabric at once! I didn't want to ruin any of your machines!!!

I'm looking for a critique of the design of these, for those of you that have them. Can you tell me if you like the size, strap, kleenex pocket, etc? I always am looking to improve designs. Do you have yours hooked to a stick shift, or a seat back? Wondering if the extra snap is worth it or not? I'd love to hear from you!

Provident Living-Three Month Supply (Part 4)

Yeah! This is it ladies! We're ready to complete our lists for our Three Month Supply. Then we'll be ready to shop.

You'll need all your papers that we've been working on so pull them out and grab a pencil.

Yesterday we figured out how much of each ingredient we needed, for each meal. Now we need to take those numbers and multiply them by the number of times we're having that meal. Here's an example:

Dinner Menu A (make 7 times)

1. Spaghetti with veggies

• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 lb. noodles (LTS)
• 2 cans green beans

This is what I figured out yesterday. So I need to transfer these items to my shopping list and multiple them by 7 because I'm going to serve this meal 7 times during the 3 months. So my shopping list says:

Shopping List

7 jar shaghetti sauce

14 cans green beans

Cannery List

7 lbs noodles

I made a shopping list, both for the grocery store, and one for my cannery, to help we start planning what I need in my long term storage.

Continuing on, my shopping list would be:

Dinner Menu B (Make 6 Times)

4. Bean Burritos and Spanish Rice

• 1 can refried beans (or use LTS)
• dehydrated cheese (LTS)
• 1 cup dehdrated onion (LTS)
• 1 1/2 cups rice (LTS)
• 1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes

Breakfasts

1. Cereal and milk (making 18 times)

• 4 cups Smart Start Oatmeal Cereal
• 3/8 cup nonfat milk, dry (reconstituted it makes 2 cups milk) (LTS)

2. Cinnamon Oatmeal with milk (making 18 times)

• 4 cups Oatmeal, Instant (LTS)
• 3/8 cup nonfat milk, dry (reconstituted it makes 2 cups milk) (LTS)
• Cinnamon (LTS)

3. Pancakes (making 18 times)

• 2 cups Krusteaz Pancake Mix
• 1/2 cup syrup
• butter, dehydrated
• Non-stick spray

Shopping List  

-7 jar shaghetti sauce

-14 cans green beans

-9 boxes Smart Start Oatmeal Cereal  

(there are about 8 cups in one box)

-6 cans refried beans   

-6 cans Mexican stewed tomatoes  

-1 Sam's Bag Krusteaz pancake mix

(I need 36 cups and 1 bag has 40 cups)

-1 Sam's Maple Syrup

(I need 9 cups and a bottle has 16 so

I can use it for some of my waffles too)

-1 can Non-Stick spray

-1 Sam's Cinnamon (lasts me a year)

Cannery

7 lbs noodles

9 cups rice

27 cups nonfat milk, dry (this would cover 36 breakfasts-

18 cereal and 18 oatmeal)

6 cups dehydrated onion

Emergency Essentials

Dehydrated cheese

Dehydrated butter

Is it making sense? After you're done with all your meals, you should have a list of exactly what you need to purchase/store for your three month supply. Now, I'm not saying to buy this all at once. That's too expensive. However, if you'll carry around this shopping list in your purse, you'll be able to pick up the products when they are on sale, or you can grab a couple extra items each time you shop. If your budget is super tight right now, start small. Over the next month, gather all the groceries you'd need for 1 week. Then expand to 2. Baby steps!

Now, how are you going to make sure that you don't eat it all up?!?!! Here's a great way to rotate and store it. It's perfect for those of you that don't have one large area to store your food in, but it's also great for those that do!

What you're going to do separate your food into the 13 weeks. So in my first pile, I'd have all my food to make each dinner for Menu A, then 7 lunches and 7 breakfasts. I'm going to place all of these in one container (I'd use plastic container with lid), and label "January". I'd also include a copy of the week's menu (and shopping list) so I know what I was suppose to be making!

My next pile would be a week's worth of food, including the 7 dinners on Menu B, 7 lunches and 7 breakfasts. I'd label this "February" and include a copy of the week's Menu (and shopping list).

I'd continue this on with the rest of the food until I had 13 containers (You'll have to use one month twice).

Here's how to rotate. It's March right now. So I'd go find my "March" container and empty all the food out, and put in my current pantry so I can use it sometime this month. I can either make the spaghetti that it was intended for, or I can make meatball subs with the spaghetti sauce, and an alfredo with the noodles. Get it? You can use it however you want. Then, on my "current" shopping list, I'd add everything that was in the box (which would be listed on the "shopping list" that I printed and included in the container). Once I purchased these from the store, I'd put the new ones back in the container and go store the container away for a year.

It sounds like a brilliant plan to me, and I can say that because it wasn't mine! ROFL Now, you might be asking, "what about the Mayo? I can't use a whole jar of Mayo each month". For my lunches, I will need Mayo but I don't want, nor need 13 jars. If I needed 4 jars (just making that up) for my three month supply, I'd space them out over the year. So I'd put one in January, and one in April, July, and Oct.

Now I know you're going to be writing me saying, "But Karisa, Mayo takes refrigeration and aren't we suppose to be preparing for power outages?"

Here's my opinion-and ONLY my opinion. You can decide for yourself what you're going to do. This applies to the use of a freezer too. I don't see my 3 month storage as the "end of the world so use it". When I think of the things that would cause me to use it, this is what comes to mind:

-earthquake, tornado, flood (If power was out for more than 2 weeks, I'd take my family to go stay with other family that has power)

-Hubby loses job, becomes ill, or temp. disabled (I have enough financial savings to pay for my electricity so I'd still have power-I'd be able to shift my "grocery budget" to help cover these other costs like electricity)

-Quarantine (I had no idea that some years ago there was a 3 month quarantine-you were confined to your home due to the bird flu. If this is the case, I would hope that we'd still have power, but I'd have to have all my food at home as that's where we'd have to stay)

-Had to take in family members who needed assistance (I'd have power here too)

-You have to fork out a large sum of money for an unexpected expense (car, medical etc). (I'd have electricity-I'd be using my grocery budget to pay off this expense)

If this is what my short term storage is going to be used for, and I have a gas generator and financial reserves to pay my electric bill, I should be able to run my fridge and/or freezer and I can have my MAYO! lol

If I end up without power, then I still have a couple options. I can have my sandwiches without Mayo, or I can invite all my ward members over (unless we're quarantined) and we'd open up my jar of Mayo and make 100 sandwiches and feed everyone. And then the next day we'd all get together and open Karen's jar of Mayo! Thanks, Karen, for storing some Mayo for me in case I don't have power! ROFL

That's my rambling thoughts on my three month storage. Feel free to form your own opinion and type me a comment and let me know what you think. If I see a peace treaty signed in the near future, with Israel, I may change my plan. But for now, this is it.

As far as my LONG TERM storage goes, that's different. That's food that doesn't need refrigeration, and lasts 30 years. We'll talk about that in another post.

There are other ideas out there on how to make and store a 3 month supply. You can purchase already canned/packed meals, or buy 100 boxes of macaroni and live off of it for awhile!! The plans I've seen are far to many to discuss. But the one thing that I like about the above plan is that it's what you already like, and eat, and is easy to rotate.

We're moving onto Long Term Storage, tomorrow, unless you need me to clarify or explain the 3 month in more detail. Just let me know...

PS-It would be wise to make a couple copies of the papers you're making right now (Menu, Shopping list, etc). We all know how we put the list in our purses and it disappears. And even better yet, put a copy of each in a binder, label the spine "Food Storage" and start including all your notes and tips in the binder, for easy access. A 3 ring binder and some sheet protectors will get you started.

PSS-Once you have your three month supply, you might want to expand your dinner, lunch, breakfast menu to include snacks and an occasional dessert. If we had to live off this food, we know our life would probably be stressful. That means we'll all be craving some dessert! So throw in a cake mix (you could cook it over a fire if you had to!!) and a tub of frosting!

Provident Living-thanks

Thanks to all of you who have commented or emailed, to let me know that you're following. I'll continue to post ideas and tips, as long as you're interested. I have to say that the FUN stuff is coming up soon! I'm totally engrossed in how to use my LTS so I'm baking like crazy-pretzels, bagels, bread, etc. And I'm cooking up beans and trying them in everything. I'll blog about my "successes", and my "I'm still learning" (my nice way to say "the food was awful"!)

So keep checking back. I know there are several of you out there that are "experimenting" like I am. Once we make it through LTS, I'll start blogging about the different LTS foods (ie. wheat, beans, rice, etc). We can share recipes, storage tips, tricks to cooking to perfectly, etc. Karen is going to share all the information she's getting from her food storage group, and I'll share everything I get from the Beavercreek food storage group.

We've made good progress....let's keep the momentum going.....see ya tomorrow!