New Blogger

My dear husband put off joining Facebook for months after I joined. He finally joined and is having fun connecting with people and reconnecting with old friends. He is of the few people who grew up in the same small town from the time he was 1 year old until he left for college, so he has a lot of people that he really grew up with.
He also put off for months the whole blogging thing. I LOVE blogging and I do it mainly for friends and family to keep up with what we are doing. I am one of the many people who moved around quite a bit as a kid and I have friends and relatives in lots of states.
Anyway, he is now blogging and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what he has to say. Whereas my blog is more about our daily activities, his site is "deeper" and is on a different level than mine. He has a lot of incite to share.

I encourage you to head on over to Common Threads and A Golden Needle and check it out!

The Garden - Part 2

Everyone said not to plant before April 15. Did I listen? Of course not! The weather had been so beautiful so we planted our tender little seedlings early. Yes, all of those people were right, sort of. There came a few days of frosty weather causing us to tarp or otherwise cover our little plants. And yes, it was a hassle. But we are now reaping (pun intended) the benefits of planting an early garden! It amazes me that God can pack the whole plant and all of that food into a tiny little seed!

Here is our first little harvest of zucchini, parsley, basil, mint, and one little carrot - and the resulting dinner! This time we had to add store-bought squash and red bell pepper, hopefully in a few more weeks our peppers will be ready.


We have about 5-10 little zucchinis, 10 squash, 15 peppers, a couple of cucumbers, and countless tomatoes ripening out there right now and I can hardly wait to start making freezer spaghetti sauce and dill pickles!

I am also planning now for a garden to be harvested in the fall and winter. If you are considering a fall or spring garden you need to plan now, seeds will not be as readily available after the summer! Hopefully, I will post soon on what I am planning to plant. As I have never planted a fall garden it will be completely experimental!

Field Day

Last week the girls attended the area wide homeschool Field Day. There were a couple hundred kids and lots of family and friends there. The girls had so much fun and always look forward to it.
The things I love about it are:
FRIENDS! (Mine and the girls')
Kids who did not know each other were pairing up for team competitions
I heard NO bad language at all
Kids were cheering for each other
I did not see anyone making fun of anyone else
Lots of good sportsmanship
Lots of fun and good exercise!

Casey won 1st place in the 3-legged race with her friend Addison,
she won second place in the back-to-back with her friend Alyssa,
she won third place in the girls team relay with Addison and a girl she did not know, and she ran a mile.

Cody won a first place ribbon for participation,
second place ribbons in the 1/4 mile run,
backwards run, girls team relay with her friends Camille and Prairie, the frisbee throw, the hula hoop, and a third place ribbon for the short yard dash.

Good Friends!

It was fun and exhausting and we need an entire year to recover and be ready for it again next year!

Laundry Soap...Again

I have used my homemade, super frugal, laundry detergent since November 1 and still have about 1/4 of the bucket left! Apparently, in our household, we will only need to make it twice a year which means we are spending less than $6 PER YEAR on laundry detergent! None of us have been able to tell a difference in the cleanliness of the clothes so we are sold on this recipe!

Here it is again:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Bar Ivory soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax 20 Mule Team Powder (laundry aisle at Publix next to the previous item)
A 5 gallon bucket with lid
Saucepan
Empty laundry detergent container

- Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add soapy water, washing soda and Borax. Stir until dissolved.
Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight.
-Stir it up well (it will be "gloppy") and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Even though you use a 5 gallon bucket, it makes 10 gallons because you fill the empty container half full of detergent and fill the rest of the way with water.
The washing soda and borax cost about $5 and I used only a fraction of each. Buckets are about $5 as well from Lowes and can be reused each time. I love homemaking!

Missing Moms on TV & in Movies

A friend of mine recently brought to my attention that many of the "princesses" in Disney movies do not have a mom. I then started thinking about missing moms in other movies and on tv. I do not know what the significance is, but it sure is interesting! Please comment and add any you think of!

Cinderella
Snow White
Ariel (Little Mermaid)
Jasmine (Aladdin)
Bambie
Pinocchio
Ella Enchanted
Kung Fu Panda
Nemo
Belle (Beauty & the Beast)
Opie Taylor (Andy Griffith)
Jonny Quest
Full House (one father plus one uncle and one other single guy)
Punky Brewster (Technically no mom OR dad, but lives with single father figure)
Buffy & Jody (Family Affair - again no parents, but live with Uncle Bill)
Dukes of Hazzard (3 cousins with no parents? Living with Uncle Jesse, who I assume is a great-uncle)
Diff'rent Strokes (raised by single father figure)
Nancy Drew
Main character in Herbie Fully Loaded
Land of the Lost (Was there a mom? I only remember a dad)
Sound of Music
And these, which are more recent and on Disney Channel
Cory in the House (there is a mom, I guess, but she lives in another country?)
Naked Brothers Band
Hannah Montana

I am sure there are more! Would love to keep adding to the list and let me know what reasons you see for so many shows and movies without mothers!

Guest Writer

My husband posted a funny story on Facebook and I thought I would share it here as well.
Enjoy.

Starlings and the Dryer Vent Love Shack - or - Bye, Bye, Birdies... (Your choice, but personally I like the first one.)

Yesterday upon arriving home from my dungeon of a dead end job my girls said, "there's something making weird noises in the laundry room." The Dad Man (that's me) springs into action. I walked into the laundry room expecting nothing and thinking that they were hearing things. To my surprise I did hear a faint scratching in the vent. I left Casey in the laundry room with instructions to turn on the dryer on my command. I went outside and raised up the little door on the dryer exhaust vent to told her to turn on the dryer. Immediately I was plastered in the face with a wad of freshly cut grass. Beautiful... at least I have learned to keep my mouth closed while looking up! After wiping all the grass off my face, blowing the dirt of my glasses, and reminding myself to control my tongue I stomped back inside to the laundry room. After a brief moment of dragging all the laundry room stuff into the hall I wrestled with the dryer. It lost, and inside of five minutes I was headed back out the door with the dryer vent hose in hand. Back inside two little girls were pouting and saying, "what about the baby birds Dad?" I stomped my way across the back yard and out the back gate all the while muttering to myself, "no darn Starling nest is gonna cause my house to catch on fire no matter what!" (Before everyone gets fired up about baby birds... Starlings were not native to North American and were imported by an European immigrant. I'm not a fan of non-native avian species.) (OK, everyone breath now and stop looking up the number to PETA.) I proceeded to dump the rest of the grass, that did not land smack in my face, out of the vent hose. To my girls delight, no babies and no eggs. Apparently my sacred dryer vent was just a tunnel of love at that point. Well, one thing lead to another and I ended up getting everything back together. All was well and the Love Shack was closed.

Yea, right... My dear wife of almost 17 years calls me at 7:15am. She had been bounced out of bed at 6:15am to a horrendous noise. Needless to say no one at my house was singing "Kum-ba-Ya" early this morning. The Love Shack was open and the band was rockin'. Apparently this one went up to 11! (Shameless Spinal Tap reference.) She ran Mr. and Mrs. Starling out of the vent pipe and then proceeded to tape the little flappy door shut with electrical tape. (Yup, that's my girl. She sure showed those amorous avians.)

Yet, The Dad Man's job is never done... So again, I spring into action. With 1/2" expanded metal, a plasma cutter, two vise grip clamps, a piece of angle iron, two different hammers, a wire feed welder, and a little galvanizing spray paint the permanent closure sign was posted on the front door of the Love Shack.

Now we can sing "Kum-ba-Ya". Mr. & Mrs. Starling were pretty torqued, but I'm sure that found someone else's dryer vent. I'm feeling good that my drier vent hose won't be catching on fire anytime soon. The girls were glad that, "no animals were harmed in the making of this story". And hopefully my Mrs. will get to sleep a little longer in the morning.

Chicklets

This is for those of you old enough to remember Chicklets. We used to get them when my parents would go through the Drive Through at the bank.

Joe: "Cody, we have GOT to pull that tooth, it looks like a Chicklet hanging there!

Me: "Joe, they don't even know what Chicklets are!"

Cody: "Yes I do!"

Me: "No you don't, you've never even had one."

Cody: "So, I know what it is!"

Me: "No you don't!" (beginning to laugh)

Cody: "Yes I do.....it's a baby chicken!"

All: HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER