Proverbs 31 Living

Being Prepared

2012-01-28T23:47:00.000-06:00

I have always liked to be prepared. I guess I would make a good boy scout... well, if I were a boy. I guess I can tie it back to the way I was raised. First my parents taught me to be prepared in the most important way- that is having a relationship with Jesus Christ, the only One that can truly help us through each and every situation. We can try to be prepared for every possible situation here on earth but the truth is that there simply is no way that we can be prepared for every earthly problem but if we are right with God it doesn't really truly matter.

With that said, my parents did teach me a lot about being prepared to the best of our abilities for all sorts of circumstances. My parents have learned how to make much of what they need and live to a large degree a self-sustainable lifestyle. They are not off the grid but if that happened they would still have heat, food and would be fairly comfortable. This is something that I would really like as well but we are not quite to that point yet. We have been discussing it however and this year I hope to make some steps to being better prepared for possible emergencies. Here are some of the things I am thinking about:

In the area of Food Storage:

Having plenty of food on hand is something that I really like to do. A lot of it happens naturally as I buy whole foods in bulk since it is cheaper and more convenient- whether it be driving to a nearby town once or twice a year to get several hundred pounds of grain (My parents and I tend to kind of take turns with this trip), buying 1/2 a beef once a year or just buying 25- 50 lb bags of things from Azure Standard.

I also do a lot of stocking up by getting large quantities when things go on sale. This makes it so we may not have everything we like stocked up at a time but we do have a lot of food of some sort anyway.

With growing a garden, raising bees, collecting wild berries and herbs and helping my parents with butchering those things also help us to stock up on food.

Lately I have been trying to live of pretty much only what we have stocked up and it has been interesting to see what things we run out of, what from the store we seem to deem essential. With this little exercise I am learning that I want to have a larger supply of oil, butter, salt and cheese on hand at all times, I think it would make sense to buy it in larger quantities. So when I go to the store again I will stock up on those things. Meanwhile it has been a very interesting exercise to see how little of them we can use and still have a diet that we enjoy.

This area is probably one of my strong points in being prepared but I still hope to work to improve on it this year.

In the area of Emergency Preparedness:

This is an area that has been the focus of my thoughts lately. We are blessed to live in an area that doesn't have a lot of natural disasters (no hurricanes, no earthquakes, tornadoes are rare, we don't live in a flood area, etc.) but we do have cold weather. My biggest concern is that we are very dependant on electricity. Our house is heated primarily by a propane furnace which requires electricity to run, we also have electric baseboards as an alternative heat source- either way we have to have electricity. We don't have any other back up.

Ken and I were discussing this and the idea that he prefers is getting a generator preferably a propane generator as then it could use the fuel that we would already have on hand. I found this article with some information on Propane generators. These aren't cheap, I saw prices from around $400 up but I don't know if the smaller ones would work for what we need or not, so this is something we need to think on and work towards. I did also find a little stove that you can safely use indoors to heat the area and cook but it is a one time use that lasts for 4-6 hours and costs $20. That is obviously not cheap but I wonder if it might be a good idea to have for just in case. Here is an article that I found with more information on heating your home during a power outage. Do you have any suggestions or ideas?

Another idea that I had is just having a very small wood stove (like the type that they use for ice houses) and stovepipe handy so in the case of emergency we could install it with a pipe going out a window. I don't know if that would work very well or not but I know even a little stove can give off a fair amount of heat and we do have wood available on our property. Of course our other solution is going over to my parents to enjoy the heat of their wood stove during a power outage. But what if it was a blizzard and we couldn't drive 7 miles? Another thought is to just install a small stove permanently. That isn't the way we currently prefer to heat our home but if there was an emergency it sure would be nice! We would eventually like to put in a fireplace but that is not at all top priority right now.

Some things that we have been doing to prepare for emergencies are:

Storing water. I have been doing some of this but I want to do more and I also want to check about the possibility of getting a hand pump that could be put on our well. I did also buy water purification tablets to keep on hand but would like to get a filter too.
Learning! This past year the kids and I read through books on wilderness survival and identifying and eating wild plants. Lately we have been learning about first aid/ CPR and have also been reading about how people made it through the great depression.

In the Area of Sustainable Living:
I love this area. As time goes on we are learning more and more about how to use what we have and buy less from other places.

Somethings I have been doing lately in this area are:

Getting my seed order figured out for this summer's garden.
Signing Mara and I up for a beekeeping class next week.
Working to figure out more ways to use things that I have on hand (like old jeans) to make something useful.

There are so many things that I want to work on in all of these areas. I will try to join Homestead Revival's Preparedness Challenge every month and keep you updated on what I am doing in these areas.

I don't buy.... refried beans

2012-01-26T22:40:00.000-06:00

I really enjoy Mexican food and have long loved refried beans. When I was in college I often purchased refried beans to make burritos with, eat with corn chips, etc. While that was pretty cheap fair for a college student I have worked hard to make our food budget for our family even cheaper and healthier. This has caused me to make my own refried beans.

To make refried beans the first step is to cook the dry beans (you could use canned beans but that would add to your cost and make it less healthy). For refried beans I generally use pinto beans or dried field peas (not green split peas- these are brown). I think you could probably use about any bean you have on hand.

To cook the beans I wash them and then cover them with plenty of water and I usually do the quick soak method where I bring them to a boil and then turn them off and let them sit for an hour. Otherwise you could soak them overnight (without the bringing to a boil). After soaking I drain off the water and put fresh water on and then cook on a medium heat until the beans are soft.

To make the refried beans I like to fry a bit of chopped garlic (and onion sometimes) in a little oil (bacon grease or any cooking oil) and meanwhile I use my hand held blender to puree the cooked beans with some of the water still in it. If you don't have a handheld blender then you could also mash them by hand with a potato masher or stick them in your regular blender. Add your mashed beans (with some liquid and possibly some taco sauce) in the pan with the garlic. Also add salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and any other seasoning that you would like and cook and stir.

That's all it takes! You can make a big batch and freeze it for later if you like. Adjust it to suit your tastes however you like. Here are a bunch of different recipes you can look at for ideas. This is extremely cheap food and yummy too.

We enjoyed it in burritos yesterday, they are also good in tacos and many casseroles and just served plain with cheese and salsa and rice.

Enjoy!

I would love to hear if you make refried beans! Please share your tips and ideas.
I am linking this to Frugal Friday at Life as MOM.

Learning about teeth

2012-01-26T06:57:00.000-06:00

This month for our homeschool get-together our topic was Our bodies. When we learn more about our bodies I always find it so amazing the detail that God put into them! I had asked our chiropractor to come and speak for part of the morning which we all really enjoyed as he told about our spine and the nervous system and introduced us to an easy stretching routine which he called your spinal hygiene which is promoted by "Straighten up America". Here is a link to the instructions which he gave us. The kids and I have been doing it on school morning ever sense then and I like it.

Each of the kids were also supposed to present something about a body part that they had studied. In our family Mara studied the Spleen, Jonathan the Ears, Aaron the Nose and Megan wanted to do the teeth. I decided I would tell you about Megan's presentation as I had fun helping her with it.

We decided to make a puppet with teeth to help us with the presentation and then after we made a little puppet with baby teeth then Megan thought we had better have a big puppet with adult teeth too. We printed off this teeth diagram to help us make the puppets correctly and to learn more about the teeth.

We made sock puppets so the supplies we needed were: A sock, a couple of thin cardboard pieces cut in an oval to give shape to the mouth (basically the jaws). I used an old cereal or cracker box for this. Red paper to coat the mouth with and make the tongue from. Some stuffing (I used some old bits of a sweater) for the top of the head, "spit" balls made from white paper to use for teeth. (Lay them on the diagram to make sure you have them correct.) Yarn for hair, buttons for eyes, red yarn for lips and a glue gun with glue.

The head of the puppet will be at the toe of the sock. You put one piece of cardboard inside and the other work to squish the mouth in at the right place on the outside and then glue them together (with the sock in between). Glue the red paper in and the tongue and then start gluing in the teeth. I felt like quite a dentist at this point!

Add the hair and eyes and strips of red yarn for lips. Gluing everything in place. Add any more details that you desire. Have fun with your toothy puppets!

Megan and I told about the layers of the teeth, the fact that they had roots, when you got teeth and then when you lost them again and how many teeth people generally have.

She also brought quite a few items such as a toothbrush, floss, candy, pop, water, etc which she asked the audience whether it was good for your teeth or not.

We had fun working together on this.

Do you have any fun ideas to share about teaching your kids about the body? Something you have done either as a child or an adult? I always love to hear your ideas!

A frayed edge quilt

2012-01-25T17:34:00.001-06:00

Today I finally completed my big denim project for the month- a Frayed edge "quilt" (pieced but not quilted).

I cut squares (8 rows of 12 squares each) out of old jeans and then again the same amount of squares from old flannel shirts and putting their wrong sides together (the flannel and the denim) I sewed pieces into strips and then the strips together.

Above is how it looked before I washed it and below is after I washed it and after I cut of some of the really long strings.

I was having trouble getting good pictures but I do like the finished product. I am not sure if the frayed edges are my favorite as sometimes I don't think it looks truly done but it is different and fun.

This is what the flannel side looks like.

Yeah for projects that use up things that I had stashed. This will be another very usable blanket for our beds of for camping or whatever.

Adventures in Avoiding Stores

2012-01-24T18:41:00.000-06:00

I had planned to update you yesterday on how my avoiding stores and pretending like I'm stuck in a blizzard and can't get anything project was going but life got busy so here I am today instead. :-)

Life is going good here at our house! I am having fun with this challenge. I will tell you first that I did actually go to a store this past week. In my post last week I had mentioned that going without milk was vetoed and so I did need to go get that. It was a blessing because one of our local stores had a sale with 1/2 gallons buy one get one free so that total cost was $2.45 a gallon which is 80 cents less than normal. I got enough to last until (and perhaps beyond- I am thinking about trying to freeze it) they expire. I did also buy dry milk as that is the cheapest place for that as well and that will help us stretch it out even further. So now hopefully I can truly avoid the store for a while. My parents did also give us eggs from their chickens otherwise we would have had to buy those.

I have actually really been enjoying cooking lately. Something about have a challenge makes me enjoy it more. I think my enjoyment has been showing in the food to as my family seems to be complimenting me on the food more than usual. So everybody is pretty happy with the food situation (though Ken did make his own grocery trip to get his own personal ice cream for nighttime snacking which he had run out of) and meanwhile we are eating some things that had been hanging around here to long. I have been working hard to use up all the zucchini that I grated and froze as well as frozen chopped up dark celery which is good for you but we don't like so much. So we have been eating healthy but the stuff has been yummy too. (Though the tomato soup wasn't a favorite here- but it never is.)

I did have one situation where I figured I might need to go shopping after all but then I didn't so I was pretty pleased about that. Last Saturday was my little brother's birthday. He and his wife's apartment is tiny so I thought it would be fun to have them and the rest of my family over here to celebrate. I talked to Mom about it and she thought it sounded fun and said we should ask Luke what he wanted to eat. I had thought maybe I would just make something that I knew he liked and I also had on hand but then I thought oh who cares- this is just a silly challenge lets go ahead and let him make the choice. Well he choose Chicken Alfredo (Not pork like I thought he might- and I didn't have) so I was able to make it with food that we had on hand. Yeah! I did end up making homemade noodles for it as I didn't have enough linguine and would have had to use spaghetti too. It was enjoyed by all.

I also remembered that I didn't have a gift purchased for him yet and so again figured that I might need to go shopping but after some discussing with Mom about things he needs/uses I remembered that I had some thick socks in my gift cupboard and then we thought about how he likes to cook but since he got married he didn't have the apron that he used at my parents so I decided to make him an apron. He seemed quite pleased with both things even though they were very simple. I also gave him some hummus and snack crackers that I had made as a healthy snack.

Luke trying out the apron

I was trying it out after I made it (and it shows a more complete view).

We have had cooking challenges- but where's the fun if there isn't anything to challenge?
Our cooking oil is running rather low as is our butter. I have been working hard to use as little as possible and make them stretch. I also carefully boiled my chicken bones and skin that I had cut the chicken breast off of and saved the fat that came to the surface which I then used for frying other things. I also got some of the fat off of the ham that we ate and used that for frying and I have also been using some of the beef tallow (which stinks when you are using it, but works) that I had in my freezer for some of my cooking. I also discovered a jar of coconut oil that I had forgotten about in my cupboard so things will stretch further with that.

Another thing that we are running low on is salt. I have been trying to use more herbs and seasonings that we have in place of it as much as possible but when it runs out I am afraid I will break down and buy more. I am a fairly low salt user but I still like it. It has been good to try and use up more of my herbs and spices. They go bad after a time and they need to get used up- also they tend to be pretty healthy for you. I have been experimenting with using kelp powder and nutritional yeast for more flavor as well.

We are out of onions but have been using garlic and celery for flavoring instead. I am also growing these cute little bunching onions. I am excited about having green onion tops before long! Sprouts have also been adding some healthy fresh stuff to our diet.

Here is the meals planned for this week:

Breakfasts:
~Eggs and Blueberry Muffins
~French Toast
~Eggs and Potato chunks and homemade yogurt with raspberries
~Oatmeal
~Crepes and Fruit
~Blueberry Cornbread
~Omelet and Toast

Main Meals:
~Tomato Soup, Pesto and Cornbread
~Baked Fish, Potatoes and Cabbage
~Ham and Bean Soup
~Bean Enchiladas
~Wild Rice Soup
~Tuna Noodle Casserole
~Homemade Rice-a-roni with hamburger

One thing I have realized was important for keeping everybody enjoying this shopping from the pantry challenge was the need to keep snacks easily available. We like to snack around here and if we don't have things available to eat then we all get frustrated. So I have worked hard to always have snack food at the ready. Here are some of the snacks we have enjoyed lately:

~Chocolate cake (made with lots of zucchini in it and no oil)
~Cookies
~Homemade Snack Crackers (I tried this recipe) with homemade hummus
~Popcorn
~Oranges (I had stocked up a bunch earlier when they were on sale)
~Nuts
~Cornbread

Anyway that what is going on in our kitchen (home) thanks for stopping by! I love to hear what is going on with you too!

http://goodcheapeats.com/

Loving my role as a Homemaker {Looking for some feedback from you!}

2012-01-22T22:32:00.001-06:00

I feel so very blessed with the role in life that God has called me to. The role as a keeper of the home is the best job that I can ever imagine! This verse is one that encourages me in this role:

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." Titus 2:3-5

I have been very blessed in my life to have women around me (Such as my Mother, Mother-in-law, Grandmothers and many other Christian women young and old) who emulate these verses. What a huge help that has been for me as I try to follow this verse as well! Even if you weren't blessed with a Mother who lives this way or other role model like this- I encourage you to work hard and be one yourself! You can do it!

Our world tends to turn the way things should be upside down but let's not let this be one of them in our lives. Life is so much better when we do things God's way!

I love homemaking because for one thing it is what I feel that God has called me to do but there are other reasons as well. Here are some of the great "perks of this job" in my opinion: Getting to spend the majority of my time with and serving those that I love most, Flexibility - I love to be able to make my own schedule and do the things that I like best and Variety- in what other job do you get to cook, craft, decorate, provide transport, story tell, teach, organize, sew, clean, shop, love, plan and go on vacations, garden, keep bees and so very, very much more!

My love for homemaking and desire to share the fun of it with others caused my to think of an idea that I have been praying about lately. I am going to share that idea with you because I would really love to have your feedback and advice! My idea is this: To start a Homemakers group/club that would meet once a week during the summer. I feel so very blessed to have been taught how to do things like make bread, garden and can the produce, sew, live frugally and other things I would love to be able to share that knowledge with others in a face to face situation. I also think that a group like that could be a wonderful time of each person sharing what they know and so each of us (me certainly included!) would benefit from it.

I had figured that each week would have a theme such as bread baking, rag rug making, menu planning, inexpensive fun for kids and families, saving money on your groceries, canning, laundry tips and so forth. I thought it would be fun to start with a short devotion (so many verses apply to these topics!) and then go into our discussion or hands on learning.

Why I particularly want your feedback is because I am trying to decide if this is an idea that others are actually interested in. I put up a couple of polls in my sidebar concerning this and I would love it if you would vote on them (even though you may live a 1,000 miles away- I am just trying to get an idea!) and then I would really love to hear your comments on this idea too!

Have you ever been involved with something like this? Do you think it sounds fun? What topics would you want to discuss?

Thanks ever so much!

I am linking this to Homestead Revival's Barn Hop.

Our kids and politics

2012-01-21T23:41:00.000-06:00

Ready to walk in a parade in 2010

Last night at supper we got started visiting about politics (which isn't uncommon in our family as we enjoy our politics) when Aaron decided maybe we should conduct or own little presidential straw poll right then at supper. The rest of us thought that sounded fun so I told everybody to think of who they wanted and then we would say.

Meanwhile Megan starts chanting "Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul!" The rest of us were saying "Shh!" (as everybody was supposed to make a decision before anybody said anything) but she wasn't to be deterred. I figured she was a pretty typical Ron Paul supporter - young (I think 5 years old qualifies as young), passionate and not to concerned about following the normal actions/rules.

Later Megan explained "I don't have to think, I just say Ron Paul!"

When everybody had voted and the votes were tallied every candidate had gotten at least one vote but there was a winner. Any guesses on who it was?

Some times it can rather humorous to hear a kids' take on politics!
We do think Megan has made progress with her political position- a couple of years ago she gave a little speech (Ken had asked for the kids to give speeches - just in case they would be asked to you know- as we were headed to an event) and it was on how she liked Obama because he gave us money for roads and stuff. Her opinion of Obama has changed now however and she seems to be an ardent Ron Paul supporter.

I don't buy..... Canned Cream Soups

2012-01-20T16:46:00.001-06:00

Cream soups are a staple of modern American cooking. Whenever I look in recent cookbooks it seems like many of the main dishes call for Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Celery or Cream of Chicken Soup.

When we were first married we lived near Aldis stores and things weren't that expensive and I would just buy it. Then when we moved up here it wasn't that cheap and I got frustrated that it was in nearly everything and then thanks to The Tightwad Gazette I learned how to make it myself. It has been a long time now since I have bought any. Not only is that easier on my wallet but better for our health too.

Here is the process:

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 tablespoon butter or oil

1 tablespoon flour (I do prefer to use white flour for this as whole wheat is not so smooth)

1-2 tablespoon chopped up mushrooms. For this I have used the normal canned mushrooms (and if so then I will use the water the are in as part of the liquid), Dried Shitaki Mushrooms that have been rehydrated or mushrooms that we have gathered from our woods (Don't do this unless you know what you are doing!).

1 1/2 cups milk (Dry milk and water work well too, you can also use the mushroom water as part of this).

Salt and Pepper

To make: In a pan on medium heat saute mushrooms lightly in butter or oil. Add flour and carefully brown a bit (or don't worry about browning it- not that important). Add liquid and salt and pepper to taste and cook and stir (with a whisk) until thick. This is basically like making gravy. Than use as desired.

I recently made Hamburger Rolls with homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup.

To make Cream of Celery or Cream of Onion Soup simply use celery or onions in place of the mushrooms.

To make Cream of Chicken Soup skip the mushrooms and then use Chicken broth (with some small meat chunks if you want) instead of milk and then add in a couple of tablespoons of dry milk.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I love to hear what you do and just love hearing from you in general!

I am linking this to Frugal Friday at Life as MOM.

Making Sandwich Supplies Last Longer....without going bad

2012-01-17T22:49:00.001-06:00

I guess I am into talking about food lately! Oh well, here we go again.....

Ken likes to have a sandwich in the packed lunch that he takes to work. When we first got married he explained that he liked a sandwich and some leftovers in his lunch and I have been packing it that way ever since. For his sandwich he specifically likes a certain type of store bought bread (whole wheat but not just any whole wheat), with thin sliced lunch meat (no bologna or salami!) , cheese slices and mayo.

The deal is Ken only needs lunches 3 days a week or sometimes less as he has at least two lunch meetings every week. So when I buy the stuff for his sandwiches the stuff doesn't get used up for him before it goes bad. That hasn't been a problem in the past as the kids and I would gladly eat it up but in my continual process of trying to have our family eat healthier and cheaper (which I can enforce best with the kids and I) I would rather not have the kids and I eat this so I decided to try to figure out a way to make it last longer. Here is my solution:

Lunch meat
When I buy the packages of meat (usually they are around a pound) and bring them home I then divide them up into bags in portions that can be used up before going bad and then I stick them all in a larger bag (to protect against freezer burn) and stick them in the freezer. This has worked very well!

Bread
I buy this in large amounts at the day old bread store and then freeze them until needed. I used to take a loaf out at a time and thaw it but now I just take it out and get two slices whenever I need them and stick the loaf back in the freezer. It works great. Just for your info we use my homemade bread for the rest of our bread needs.

Cheese
This one we do use more of as a family so it isn't as much of an issue but if I am trying to stretch it then I will take the pound or so of cheese and slice it up and then divide it up in a few well sealed containers and freeze it. When it is sliced prior to freezing it will still work well for sandwiches after thawing. Many cheeses will fall apart easily after freezing should you try to slice them at that time though mozzarella and Colby jack work well.

This method of dealing with sandwich supplies works well for me!

A Ruffled Denim Bag {Tutorial for Denim Days}

2012-01-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

I have been having fun working at turning the old jeans at our house into something new and useful. Yesterday's project was a new bag for me.

Lately since I have been working on small knitting projects (socks) I have been taking my knitting with me nearly everywhere. Having a bag that can fit my purse stuff plus my knitting was what I wanted. I had one that worked but I was ready for a new one.

I thought it would be fun to make something unique and funky so I chose a ruffled bag. I didn't follow any instructions just made it up as I went along. I did take pictures of the process in case anybody else wanted to try and make one too. If I were to do it again I might do a few things differently (for example I think it ended up a little to long and narrow) but you can look at what I did and adjust it to what suits you.

Here are the steps I took to make it:

1. I cut strips from some old jeans to serve as the base of the bag. I didn't worry to much about what they looked like as they were going to be for the most part covered up by the ruffles. You could also use a solid piece of fabric (which would actually be easier) for the base.

2. I sewed the strips together. I didn't measure this and if you make it just figure out what size you want your bag to be and then cut out fabric as tall as you want your bag by twice as wide as you want your bag plus a seam allowance.

3. Cut out a lining material that is taller than the bag fabric.

4. Now to make the ruffles for the bag. I found denim scraps that I then cut into spirals about 1 1/2 inches wide strips. On the outside edges of the strips I zig-zagged the edges to keep them from fraying very much.

5. Starting at the bottom I pinned the ruffles on adding in some pleats if they didn't seem ruffly enough. I overlapped the ruffles just a little. I didn't worry to much about everything looking completely perfect- the idea was that this bag would have character.

6. I wanted pockets inside my bag so I cut out another strip of lining fabric to use for pockets. I hemmed one side of it and then pinned it in place (turning under raw edges) and sewed it as shown above. I sewed lines to divide it into 4 sections.

7. Next I took the denim bag and carefully putting the ruffle out of the way so it didn't get caught I sewed the bottom edges together.

8. Then I sewed the side edges of the denim part (carefully catching the ends of the ruffle in the seam as I sewed) and the sides and bottom of the lining.

9. I flipped the outside denim part so that the right side was on the outside and then I slipped the lining inside so that the wrong sides of the two parts were touching.

10. I folded over the top edge, turned under the raw edges and pinned and then sewed it in place.

11. I added a button and buttonhole to the top so that I can close it up.
12. I sewed on a handle which I had made from a strip (that I folded up so that all raw edges were hidden and sewed) of lining fabric.
13. I added a fabric flower that I made. There are oodles of types of fabric flowers to choose from. Here is my page devoted to tutorials of them on Pinterest.

Let me know if you have any questions about my tutorial. I will try to help if I can.

Also- If you have made anything out of denim I would love to here about it. Feel free to leave links to your blog if you have one. Thanks!

I am linking this to Fiber Arts Monday

Do you ever wonder?

2012-01-16T11:46:00.000-06:00

One of our yummy meals from last week using what we had.

Currently I am reading "The Long Winter: by Laura Ingalls Wilder out loud to the kids. I have read this book (the whole series) many many times (as a child I practically had them memorized and I also read them out loud to the kids a few years ago as well) but I love them and learn from them each time I read them. In case you haven't read them the summary of "The Long Winter" is this: The Ingalls family was living in a brand new town in South Dakota. They had some things set aside for their winter's food from what they had been able to grow the first year on their farm but they didn't have enough and they were counting on the trains to supply what else they needed. Well they started having blizzards early and often and the trains weren't able to come through and didn't come until May. But with ingenuity and the community working together they all survived.

We have also been hearing about communities in Alaska this year that are shut off and yesterday in church we discussed how the city of Samaria lasted through a siege for 3 years (2 Kings 17:5).

All of this very much makes me wonder- "If we were in any of those situations how well would we do?" Ken thinks I am a little strange and supposes that I am the only one who reads "The Long Winter" and gets inspired rather than thinking I am glad that doesn't happen to us but I do enjoy imagining how we could make do with what we have if we were faced with the circumstances of not being able to get out and buy anything more for a period of time.

So... I proposed to my family that we try and see if we could make it through the winter better than the Ingalls did and not go shopping until May. They didn't go for it though they did find the idea interesting and would support me in it a bit but not all the way. I don't know if I would have been able to stick out or not either (I may have gotten quite thirsty for milk and hungry for cheese) but I do think it would be fun to try (all while knowing I COULD go shopping if I needed too- that makes a huge difference!).

So I was out voted on the idea of no shopping (an consequently not drinking milk and running out of other things we like) but I still intend to see just how little shopping I can do this winter (Shopping for food and everything else). We have been blessed with so very much we really don't have much need of buying anything. I am going to see if I can keep our meals so yummy and interesting that they won't even notice that we have run low on something that they particularly like. Since cooking is not my favorite thing in the world to do, something like this helps to keep it interesting and henceforth more enjoyable.

I also will try to make sure we have a good balanced diet even with less shopping. I do still think we need plenty of fruits and veggies- we have quite a bit canned and frozen and my parents have been sharing cabbage and garlic with us that they still have from their garden but I also have sprouts growing and I tried planting some bunching onions inside which if that works out we will be able to eat their green tops in a couple of weeks. Mara and I were also discussing the idea of planting lettuce and radishes inside which would be a nice addition to our diet.

I need to do more research concerning calcium needs. I know there are some people who don't think milk is good for you (or who have dairy allergies) that don't drink much milk but I need to check to see what is actually healthy for our family. We won't be cutting out all milk by any means as that was vetoed but I am thinking about taking a break from it myself and also trying to drink less as a family and drink more of our herbal teas instead. Also I have found that we really don't need it in baking and in things like pancakes. The pancakes I made this morning I made with water instead of milk, no oil in the batter and less eggs and they turned out just fine.

Another project that I want to try for this is rendering down beef fat for using for some of our oil/grease cooking and baking needs. I have some from our grass fed natural beef but I have not tried rendering it yet.

By the way- for any of you that actually know us and might get the idea that we are not able to go shopping or something and might think you need to help us out- please don't! That is not at all the case! Ken has a good job and we are extremely blessed. It is only for the fun of it (both in entertainment value, and the fun of saving money and just that curiosity to see how well we can meet the challenge) that makes me want to do it. I will NOT cause my family to go hungry nor feed them an unhealthy diet.

It is fun to experiment and see all the different types of food you can make from what you already have on hand. For instance this past week the kids were ready for their afternoon snack (Ken jokes that we have 6 meals a day since the kids and I tend to usually have a morning snack, a snack after naps and a snack in the evening too) and the boys wanted to have popped wild rice since they had enjoyed it once before at a class they went to. So we popped a bit of wild rice which is easy to do- simply put 1/2 cup or so in a greased iron skillet that is on about medium heat and then shake or stir until it all pops. It doesn't pop real big or violently like popcorn but the insides do pop out of the shell. Just salt it and enjoy. I didn't make a lot as wild rice is rather expensive even here in wild rice country so I decided to make some parched grains as well. I repeated the same process with both field corn and wheat berries (they don't pop but they do swell up and grow somewhat soft) and then we salted and ate them too. It was a yummy and pretty easy snack using things that we had on hand.

Another recipe that I made lately that used things that for the most part we have plenty of was:

Rise and Shine Cookies these are great for breakfasts, desert and snacks.
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 nutmeg
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients together then mix in the honey, eggs and oil. Next mix in the oatmeal and sunflower seeds. Drop dough by tablespoons about 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly with your hand or the bottom of a glass. Bake 10 minutes or until light brown.

Anyway- this last week I had fun eating out of our pantry (though we did buy butter and milk and were blessed to receive eggs, garlic,onions, cabbage and squash from my parents farm) and am game to do it for a lot longer! I imagine we will have to buy milk again this week unless I really figure out how to stretch it but I don't know that we will have to buy anything else.

Here is what we are planning for our menu for this week:

Breakfasts:
Scrambled Eggs and Toast
Pancakes (2 times- I make extra and then reheat another day)
Eggs and Hash browns
Golden Egg sauce on toast
Muffins and Homemade Beef Sausage Patties
Oatmeal

Main Meals:
Teriyaki steak chunks with pasta and cauliflower with cheese.
Chimichangas and corn
Tuna turnovers and cabbage salad
Cheese and Ham potato patties and green beans
Spaghetti and broccoli
Chicken Rice Burritos and salad.
Biscuits and chicken gravy and applesauce.

I am linking up to
- Menu Plan Monday
-Pantry Challenge
and - Homestead Barn Hop.

Consider it Joy!

2012-01-14T23:36:00.000-06:00

I have long wanted to memorize a book of the Bible both because I think Bible memory is very important and because it sounded like a fun challenge to see if I could do a whole book. Last Sunday at church some friends and I were discussing Bible memory (they are both really good at doing it!) and when we discussed memorizing a book all of us had been thinking (already) about doing the book of James. So knowing that we would be able to encourage each other I decided to actually go ahead and get started!

James is a great book of practical advice for living. If you haven't read it before or lately I would recommend it- it doesn't take very long as there are only 5 short chapters.

The second verse in James 1 says:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,"

Have you ever found that to be a bit (or a lot!) challenging? I have!

But this scripture goes onto say that testing of your faith will develop perseverance, which will help you mature and be complete not lacking anything. Trials will help us to grow!

This made my think about how Children love their birthdays. That is a milestone of the growing that they are doing and they are excited about growing. Growing isn't always easy either physically or spiritually but it is worth it. I am hoping that I can learn to rejoice in trials with the realization that God is helping me to grow.

I don't buy..... Laundry Soap

2012-01-13T08:27:00.000-06:00

Laundry soap was one of my big breakthroughs with not buying. I have not bought laundry soap for years now. This was one of those things that you figure (at least I did) that you would always buy- you needed it, it was too complicated make (I thought), and what else could you do?

When I discovered that there were other options in this area then I started wondering about other areas as well. I started doing research and I have been able to cut out quite a few things from my shopping list that previously I had thought were essentials. It is rather exciting.

So, if I don't buy laundry soap than what do I do instead?

I make it from 4 simple ingredients. The first place that I saw how to do this was on the blog The Simple Dollar. Since then I have seen this basic method promoted by the Duggars and others.

An old picture of Megan helping me make laundry soap.

Here is the recipe:
-One bar of Soap (I have found that you can use a wide variety of soaps though I think fairly strong ones might work best. Try out whatever you can find cheap.)
-1 cup of Washing Soda (Find this in the laundry aisle and don't confuse it with baking soda- though very similar they have an important difference which will make it turn out differently)
-1/2 cup of Borax (I have heard this can be eliminated but I always use it.)
-Water

To make it you put 4 cups of water in a pot on the stove and then shave the bar of soap into it. The soap shaves better in my opinion if you have let it dry out first. I use a little paring knife to do it but you can also use a vegetable peeler. Heat this mixture up until the soap dissolves. Stir it every so often during that process.

Meanwhile in a large bucket (I use a 5 gallon one) put 3 gallons of hot tap water. When the soap has dissolved pour that mixture into the bucket of water and stir. Then add the Washing Soda and stir until dissolved. Next add the Borax and stir until dissolved. That's it- You are done! Isn't that simple?

As it sits the mixture will gel up. I use about 3/4 cup in each of my extra large laundry loads. When I put it in I do try to kind of squish any of the big gel chunks to help with the dissolving in my laundry as sometimes they haven't completely dissolved and then a few of the clothes might have a bit of residue on them and I have to rewash them.

I think this laundry soap is quite satisfactory (I must since I have been using it for several years!). I won't say it works better than store bought but I do think it works as well and it is ever so much cheaper as well as I love the fact that the only trash I have from it are soap wrappers (one every couple of months) and the washing soda and borax boxes (only every year or so) which I can recycle.

Thanks to a friend (who gave me some) I did also recently try Soap Nuts for my laundry. I was quite favorably impressed. I would be glad to use them all of the time if I were able to find them at a comparable price to my homemade laundry soap. I haven't looked for deals on them yet so I am not sure the prices. But I do like the product.

Learning about the Charlotte Mason Style of Homeschooling

2012-01-12T22:31:00.000-06:00

This fall I got a book I had long seen in the CBD Catalog and thought looked interesting but had never purchased. I decided to get it this fall however and I am very thankful I did. I really enjoyed it. The book is "A Charlotte Mason Companion- Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola. (I just found Karen's blog and here is the link in case you also would like to check it out.)

Much of the book I enjoyed because it reinforced the way I had been homeschooled and the way I am homeschooling my own children. It encourages things like reading what she calls "living books". Living books are defined as ones that are written by a single author who shares personally his/her favorite subject with us. Generally a textbook would NOT be a living book. This is the sort of book we have long enjoyed and sought out for our home. Reading this book however made me renew my desire to make sure all the books we have are really good books. Some of the other ideas that I read about in this book that fit in already with the philosophy that I already had are:

Having God as the focus and center of the homeschool.
No Homework (meaning schoolwork is all finished in good time and not drug out into the evenings.)
Free afternoons for young children (I believe my kids basically fall into that category).
Few Lectures
Enjoying nature and seeking to learn more about it.
Appreciating ideas and culture

Some of the things that she talked about that made me get some new ideas were:
Using narration. Narration in the Charlotte Mason method is used after a child has read (or been read too and somehow heard about) something and then they tell you (or write down) what they remember and understand. We have done some of this spontaneously, Our kids often want to tell us about what they have learned just for the fun of it, then we also often will discuss what we learn at the supper table- either Ken will ask or I will encourage them to tell. However after reading this book I have started to try to gradually work more narration into our days. I have started with the book that I have been reading to the kids about the constitution as I wanted to make sure that they were learning from the book as it is a little deep.

Other ideas that I gleaned from this book are:

Doing more in the area of nature study.
Learning about and appreciating art.
Reading, learning about and writing poetry.

On the poetry line I found a series of books called "Poetry for Young People" at the library. We checked out the book on Emily Dickinson (because I knew I liked some of her poetry even though I am not always found of poetry) and we have been enjoying it. It had a very neat introduction to Emily Dickinson herself and then quite a number of poems that have been fun to read. I am looking forward to checking out other books in the series. We have added in the reading of poems to our afternoon reading time.

That has been a little of what has been going on in our homeschool lately. I feel very blessed to have gotten this book and am looking forward to sharing it with other young moms that I find sometimes getting stressed out about this job of homeschooling. This book is a great one to help people realize that homeschooling doesn't need to be anything like public school. It can be so much better and so very much more fun!

Stop Procrastinating Day

2012-01-11T08:19:00.000-06:00

Hello, I'm Abbi and I am a procrastinator.

Okay, to clarify that a little- I don't always procrastinate- not with everything. There are certain areas that I struggle with it more than others. I tend to procrastinate doing things I don't like doing so much like calling to schedule appointments, certain cleaning jobs, doing paperwork for my business, etc. But I also find it easy to procrastinate in some areas of things that I really enjoy doing like making things (for birthdays or the fair or something that has a deadline), writing letters and organizing messy areas in our home.

Yesterday I hit on a solution that worked really well to get some of the things I had procrastinated on done. I enjoyed it so much that I decided I would share it with you. (As it is super fun to cross something off your list that you have procrastinated on for months!)

What I did was declare yesterday "Stop Procrastinating Day" for me. I knew yesterday was a busy day as I had 6 music students scheduled besides needing to homeschool my kids and do the normal household things like cook and sweep. But I also knew that there would be bits of time here and there that I could get something done. So I decided in all those little bits of time I was going to try to do things that I had been procrastinating about.

So in the morning I wrote a list of some of the things I had thought of like: Schedule dentist appts., iron, order some supplements, etc. As the day went on and I had any extra moments I would simply do something on my list and I was amazed at how fast I was able to work my way through it and how really not hard all those things I had been putting off were. I also decided that when I noticed something that needed done (like a dirty toilet that needed some cleaning) I would not put it off for later- I would do it right now if at all possible.

So after yesterday I have dentist, orthodontic and chiropractor appointments made, a cleaner house, odds and ends of chores done, the ironing done, I sat down and did some things with the kids that we had been wanting to get done and I feel very happy and satisfied! In fact I think I want to do another stop procrastinating day today! I have an office that has been needing to be cleaned and some mending that needs to be done.

Here are some tips if you want to have a "Stop Procrastinating Day" sometime:

Write a list of the things you can think of that you have been putting off. Have fun doing them and checking them off the list.
If you see something that day that needs done- do it now if at all possible.
If you have a project that is really big and you don't have time to do it all then either 1. Get started on it- like in the case of a cluttered room that really needs cleaning or 2. Schedule it on your calendar so that you will be sure to get it done later- like in the case of painting your house.

I hope some of you will find this idea as helpful as I have. Have fun!

Denim Crocheted Rag Rug

2012-01-10T22:26:00.002-06:00

This evening (while watching the New Hampshire Returns as we enjoy our politics!) I finished up a denim rug which I planned on telling you about today. It is my first rug of the year (I am hoping to tell about a different kind each month). It is fitting that a crocheted rug would be the first rug of the year for my blog as that has definitely been the type of rug that I have made the most of. I find them easy and fun to make and I love the fact that I can use only recycled materials in them so they are free!

I make either oval (though sometimes they are very nearly rectangular) or round rugs.

I looked all around the Internet hoping to find a great tutorial that I could link to but did not find one at least not one that did it the way that I do. I didn't take pictures of every step but I will try to explain the process quickly and then if there is interest I will try to do a detailed tutorial later.

To make a denim rag rug you will need a lot of pairs of old jeans. I love that for this project you can use stained ones, the stain might at times show a bit but I don't find it very noticeable in a rug.

Start cutting all your jeans in strips about 1 inch wide. Then to attach them together I cut a one inch long slit (lengthwise) in the each end of the strips. Then you lay the end of one strip over the top of the end of another strip with the holes aligned. Then take the other end of the strip that is laying on top and from the bottom pull that strip through the slits. Carefully pull it tight and it will make a very strong and not very noticeable joint.

You can get a lot attached together before you start crocheting (and wind the strip in a ball) or you can join the strips together as you need them.

Now you are ready to start crocheting.

First make a chain of around 15 stitches (you can do more or less, a long chain will make a longer narrower rug and a shorter chain will be opposite of that.). Next make a single crochet in the 3rd stitch from the end. Continue to crochet in all the stitches down that side. At the end crochet several stitches in the end of the chain. Then crochet down the other side of the chain and around that end. That is the beginning of your rug.

To make the rug just continue to go around and around that middle section. On the ends you will need to add in stitches as needed so that you can always keep the rug laying flat. On the sides you can just make one stitch in each stitch. If you want you can change colors every so often to make stripes.

When you get it as big as you desire then simple finish off and secure your ends.

The biggest things you need to watch for when making these rugs is that you do add enough extra stitches in the ends so that it doesn't turn into a bowl but that you also don't add in to many stitches and make it wavy.

If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments!

Here is a link I found with directions for a very similar rug to mine. (Which if you can't understand my instructions maybe these will help.)

Now is the time for enjoying the food you put up for the winter

2012-01-09T09:33:00.000-06:00

Runzas or Cabbage Pockets

Were you busy like us this past fall- harvesting and preserving food from your garden? We were blessed to be able to get produce from our garden, honey from our bees, pick berries in the woods, buy 1/2 of a local grass fed beef, freeze some fish and chicken which we helped to butcher, glean a bunch of potatoes and buy a lot of local grain economically. Obviously we are pretty well stocked up with food!

Even with our good amount of stocking up I can still struggle with the "What to make for supper?". I can have trouble thinking of anything to make that sounds good. It can sound very appealing to go to the grocery store and just buy something easy to fix. Something that is maybe a bit processed and partly made already.

It can also be quite easy to get stuck in a rut in my cooking style. For example- I tend to use a lot of hamburger and cheese in my dishes. The hamburger we have quite a bit of right now but I realize now that I need to be careful with how much I use of it as we ran out over a month early (before the next beef was ready) last year. As far as the cheese is concerned- we don't raise it nor do we have an economical place to purchase it so I think it would be wise for me to use a little less. My goal is to cook with a little more variety.

One of the very important tools for use what we have (before heading of to the store to purchase anything) is to menu plan. Before I menu plan I try to take stock of what we do have in our freezer, pantry and cupboards and as much as possible I try to create a menu using those items. When you plan ahead it is not nearly so hard to work with the unprocessed ingredients.

My tips (besides Menu planning, which is the biggest help in my opinion) for using what you have on hand are:

Browse cookbooks for ideas. I recommend looking at cookbooks that focus on whole foods (like Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living) or look at Ethnic Cookbooks. The normal modern American cookbook uses a lot of already processed foods so that doesn't help me a lot in using up the bounty from my garden.
Don't be afraid to create your own recipes. If you have cooked for a while just think back to things you like and then don't be afraid to make adjust the idea according to what you have on hand. We have had some pretty yummy meals using these principles.
Don't be afraid to substitute things in recipes. If you don't have what is asked for see if you can either do without it or use something that you do have.
Adjust your ideas of what you like and need. We enjoy having a variety of fresh fruit but this winter we have been trying to focus more on using the apples, applesauce and berries that we have on hand.

Here is our menu for this week:

Breakfasts:
~Apple Coffee Cake and Yogurt
~Raspberry Pancakes
~Scrambled Eggs and Toast
~Granola
~Hash browns and Eggs
~French Toast
~Pumpkin Muffins

Main Meal (For lunch we generally eat leftovers and I try to make enough so that we have them):
~Ham and Bean Soup and Cornbread
~Tacos
~Tandoori Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Fruit Salad
~Creole Cheese Potato Puffs, Little Hamburgers and Salad
~Chicken Jambalaya and Broccoli
~Hamburger Rolls and Corn
~Teriyaki Steak, Green Beans and Fried Potatoes

I do need to buy butter this week as well as maybe some milk and eggs but otherwise I think we won't need to do any shopping. Our normal food budget is $360 a month but I am hoping I can keep it down to $250 this month. Shopping under budget for much of the year allows us to be able to buy beef at the end of the year.

Do you have any tips for using the stuff that you put up for winter rather than going out and buying other food?

I am linking up to:
Good Cheap Eats' Pantry Challenge
Homestead Revival's Homestead Barn Hop
and
Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday

"By my God I can leap over a wall!"

2012-01-08T06:38:00.000-06:00

The other morning when I got up I was still feeling tired (because I think I had been grinding my teeth in the night) and my head and neck were aching. I was also feeling overwhelmed with some of the responsibilities I have with some organizations I am a part of. Over all the day didn't look like it was starting very well as I knew I had a rather messy house that needed some work as well as laundry that needed to be done and children that needed to be taught and I simply didn't feel up to it.

I am so thankful that I have the habit of spending time with God first thing in the morning. My time with Him totally changed my day.

I spent time praying- turning my problems over to God, asking for His help, asking for His forgiveness for some bad attitudes that I had been having and seeking His wisdom. Then I read Psalms chapter 18 as part of my devotion and these verses really jumped out at me:

"For You light my lamp;

The Lord my God illumines my darkness.

For by You I can run upon a troop;

And by my God I can leap over a wall."

Psalms 18:28 & 29

I was thankful that God wasn't asking me to fight any physical battles or go out and jump over walls but David's words in that chapter still totally apply to me- I have a God that can help me do anything that He wants me to do. I cannot do things on my own but with His strength I can do what He wants me to do.

After that I spend much of my day praying to God asking for His strength and wisdom and thanking Him for the strength that He provides.

And do you know what?

I had a really good day!

Reflecting Him {Book Review}

2012-01-07T23:56:00.000-06:00

    I was sent the book "Reflecting Him, Living for Jesus and Loving it" by Carla McDougal months ago for purposes of reviewing. This summer and fall I just didn't manage to get book reviews done and so here I am finally doing that.

   This book is a study guide. It has 10 sections for 10 weeks with daily lessons in each of those weeks. She touches on various topics such as "Created for God, by God: Like clay in the hands of the Potter", The Power Source: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" and "Fit for Jesus: Get Up! Get Out! Get Going!". In each section she writes some information, reflections and thoughts, she also has scriptures for you to look up and then questions with lots of room for writing your answers in the book.

   Okay, I will make a confession- Bible study books are not my style. I like to read inspirational books and I love to read the Bible and study it and I enjoy writing my own notes on what I have learned but I don't care to answer questions that other people have come up with in a Bible study book. That was true with this one too. So I didn't do that part- I simply enjoyed reading through what she had written and enjoying what I got out of it that way.

   Here are a couple of quotes that I enjoyed:

"God's gentle way of dealing with Jeremiah is similar to the way the potter works with his of her clay. The potter has to knead or wedge the clay gently to remove all of the air bubbles so that the vessel will be solid and without flaws. Any potter knows that the air bubbles or pockets of emptiness left in a pot will cause it to be brittle and easily broken when it is placed in the kiln. God wanted Jeremiah to stay focused on Him rather than the people.

God works in the same way today. Are you feeling frustration because, although you are serving the Lord, you aren't seeing any visible results: Maybe you're a young mom, and day after day you discipline your child without seeing any changes in his or her behavior. You may become discouraged and think you might as well give up. Stop right there! Run to God, and ask Him to be your encouraged. Look for ways He spurs you forward in motherhood. Let Him guide every step of your life. God designed your life before conception. Believe it!"

"God has a purpose for your life, designed by Him for Him. Why do we strive for perfection when God is all the while calling imperfect people to be His vessels" Do you find yourself looking horizontally at others and coveting their exceptional qualities? Instead, focus upward to the Lord in gratitude for the gifts (and imperfections) He has given you.    ..... You are one of a kind and designed exactly in God's image."

This was definitely an encouraging book to read. There was a place or two that I didn't agree with her interpretation of scripture but overall I thought it was a good book.

Carla McDougal is founder of an author/speaker for Reflective Life Ministries.

I don't buy.... Canned Soup

2012-01-06T15:52:00.001-06:00

Thanks for joining for my first post in the series of "I don't buy..." . I am hoping this will be a fun and informative series as well as a challenging one for me. I am hoping to report on several things that I no longer buy before I finish this series. There are somethings I am testing out (or hope to test out) that would replace things that I do buy and I am excited about that.

Meanwhile I will share many things that I used to buy but have now found quite suitable substitutes for (or perhaps decided that they weren't really necessary and adjusted our lifestyle). There are some things in our life that I have gotten to the place that I rarely buy but I do still very occasionally buy and in those cases I probably will still post about it but I will be sure to disclose the fact that I still like to have it (or my family likes to have it) occasionally. I may also sometime post about things that I never did buy (like cake or cookie mixes or pie crusts) but if I do that I will also be sure to disclose that.

For today however I am going to talk about soup. At the beginning of our marriage and during my college years I did indeed once and a while buy canned soup. That was not something my mother did so when I started to really work at reducing our food budget as well as feeding my family healthier food turning my back on canned soup and making my own instead wasn't very difficult.

Even if canned soup is all you have ever known- changing to homemade soup does not have to be difficult. I think soup is often (depending of course on the type you make) one of the easiest meals that you can make. It is also quite forgiving- unlike cake where if you forget an essential like the baking powder or soda or the sweetener it turns out pretty nasty and there isn't much you can do about it- with soup you can taste as you go along and you don't have to be concerned about things like whether it will rise or not.

The reasons for changing from canned soup to homemade soup are simple- It costs a lot less (unless of course you can find a steal of a deal on canned soup AND you insist on really expensive ingredients for your homemade soup) and you can make it much healthier. You can put in only ingredients that you can actually pronounce the names of. Isn't that nice?

Soups are great for people like me who prefer not to really follow recipes. It is pretty easy to put together a soup without ever pulling out a cookbook. You simply need some liquid, some seasonings and meat, veggies, noodles or beans or whatever you want to put in it. It can be as simple as combining a ham bone, white beans, onion and water and letting them simmer (which is what I have on the stove as I write and am very much looking forward to eating!). Of course if you like following recipes there are plenty of them out there, You can see my potato soup recipe here or you can look on a site like Allrecipes and find a bunch.

Here is my mom's recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup:

Take a piece or more of chicken (this is great use for backs and necks but legs or thighs or other parts will work great too.) and put it in a pot and cover with water and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Boil it and then take the meat off of the bone. Then combine in a pot:

Broth and Chicken
Chopped Onions
Chopped Celery
Chopped Carrots
Chopped Potatoes
Chopped Garlic
Sage (a pinch or two)
Salt (to taste)

Bring to a boil. Add Noodles and cook for 20 minutes to 1/2 hour. We use homemade noodles and here is how to make them:
NOODLES- Combine 2 cups flour, 2 or 3 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 - 1/3 cup milk or water. Mix and then roll out and cut into strips. You can let them dry before using them or put them in fresh. Any extras that are dry can be frozen for future use.

Soups are an easy thing to make a lot of so if you are feeding a crowd or if you want to freeze some to have as a convenient meal later (some creamy soups don't freeze that well but many others will) homemade soup will fill the bill. Soups are also an excellent way to use up little bits of leftovers like meat, gravy or veggies. You will surprised at how yummy a soup made from leftovers can be. Soup is of course always yummy paired with homemade bread or cornbread.

If you are looking to save some money and live healthier and more sustainably and you currently buy canned soup- I encourage you to give Homemade Soup making a try!

I am linking this up to Frugal Friday at Life as MOM and More Bang for your Bucks

January is Denim Days here at Proverbs 31 Living

2012-01-05T22:59:00.000-06:00

We wear a lot of denim here at our house. We enjoy wearing other things as well but denim is always a reliable standby that we like. Wearing a lot of jeans causes us to wear out a lot of jeans! That means I do quite a bit of patching. In November I patched over a dozen pairs. I finally figured out a pretty sturdy method that also looks pretty decent. It is a bit time consuming but I have decided it is worth it. The picture of Jonathan below shows him wearing some of the patched jeans. Here is my post explaining how I did it.

Not all of our jeans get mended however- sometimes they are stained or just don't fit right or otherwise don't work so then I try to make something else out of them instead. Here is my stash of jeans that I am wanting to make into something else:

I have some ideas and I hope to work on them this month! I hope you will join me as I blog about this project. Here are a couple of things we have made so far:

A tote bag...

A book mark....

I would love to hear your ideas for using denim too! I would love to hear your ideas in the comments and if you have a post about it feel free to leave a link. I can always use more ideas!

Thoughts on the New Year and Blogging

2012-01-03T15:55:00.000-06:00

For me whenever I start a new year (and at the end of the old one) it is a time to think about my life- what I am doing, what is working and what I would like to change or work harder at. It is a time that I use for evaluation. It is my desire to always live with the purpose of serving God and bringing Him glory and I want to make sure that is what I am doing. In my walk with Jesus I want to be walking forward - not backwards!

I strongly believe that everything I do whether it be washing dishes, gardening, playing games with my family, etc. can be done to bring glory to my King. It is not just in my times of singing, prayer and bible study that I can worship and glorify Him. So I have been considering all aspects of my life (including blogging) in my thinking about the old year and the new year.

I have been thinking lately about my reasons for blogging. Some of my reasons are because of what I get out of it and some of the reasons I blog is because I hope to be able to minister to others. Here are some of reasons that I blog:

I like to visit/talk/share. I have always been one who likes to express myself. I think growing up I was probably the child that talked the most in our home. I don't know if that is really a good thing but it is the truth. I do think God made each of us with different needs in that way (some people it is rather like pulling teeth to get them to talk- while others are more like me) and I seem to need to be able to talk with others. As a stay at home Mom my visiting opportunities are more limited than for some others and I enjoy using this blog as a way to visit with you all! :-)
When I write in my blog it helps me to think and evaluate my life (and hopefully learn from that!).
By blogging I can journal and record what is going on in our life which we have found to be enjoyable and sometimes useful.
Through blogging I often challenge myself and then feel more accountable to do things (whether it be living more frugally, finishing projects or studying the Bible more) that I want to do but may struggle with the self-discipline to accomplish.
I can share with others things that I have learned or project ideas.
I hope to be able to encourage others in their walk with God and their relationship with their families.
I hope to encourage others in the journey of homeschooling.
I hope to be of some help and encouragement to others that are trying to live well within the means that they have.
I hope to encourage others to look optimistically at life- realizing that God has blessed them abundantly.
I can keep connected with old friends and meet new ones.

With the reasons I blog stated- here is some of what I hope to blog about this year:

On Sundays I plan to continue having my weekly "Speaks to me Sunday" feature.

This is where I share a verse that has spoken to me during the previous week or where I share some verses from a topic that I have been studying on. In this feature it is my goal to encourage you in your own study of the Bible (which is the only true guidebook for life!) and I also like doing this feature because it makes me really pay attention to what I am reading to find something that I want to share with you.

I will also continue to write regularly about our journey in living more naturally on our little "homestead". I will plan on joining in on the Homestead Barn Hop as often as I can on Mondays and I will be telling about my gardening, beekeeping, preserving food, wholesome recipes, making things for our family and more. We continue in our journey towards more sustainable living and I hope you will join us!

On Tuesdays I will try to have my "Project time Tuesday" as much as possible. I am really thankful that God placed in me the desire to make things and I look forward to doing "show and tell" on here. :-) I do have some plans this year for having themed weeks, for example: Once a month (on the second Tuesday I am planning, Lord willing) I will share a rag rug that I have made with hopefully a tutorial (or a link to a tutorial that I have found). I have been working on quite a few rag rugs lately and I thought I would be rather fun to feature one each month.

Also in conjunction with this- though I would blog about it more than just on Tuesdays- I am planning on devoting each month to a specific type of item that I plan on using for "do-it-yourself-recycling". For example in November I challenged myself to see how much I could make using old t-shirts and sweatshirts my next plan was to work on the old jeans around my place but that project got rather held up as my sewing machine broke down and then I got busy with holidays and such. So I still have a bunch of denim that I am hoping to turn into something useful. I have made a few things such as the little denim basket below, but I want to make a lot more. So I am officially declaring the month of January as "Denim Days" here on my blog. :-)

I will try to announce the project of the month at the beginning of each month and then on the last Tuesday of the month I will plan on having an overview of the projects of the month.

Other "Project time Tuesday" projects that I am thinking about are featuring a strip a month of a quilt that I have been wanting to work on for Mara (I thought perhaps it would be good for me to have a deadline each month.) and sharing homemade gift ideas one Tuesday a month.

On Fridays I am hoping to start a new series where I will talk about what "I don't buy...." In my journey to live more frugally and sustainably I have learned how to do without buying many things. Some I have talked on here before but some will be new. I plan on telling how we have learned to get along without them and what we use instead. I hope you will find it interesting and helpful.

Other things that I hope to blog about are:

~Homeschooling- things we are learning, ideas I have found that work well and books that we like. I am really enjoying learning as much as we possibly can through the reading (together and separately) or good and interesting books and by hands on learning. We still use some workbooks but I am seeking to keep that as minimal as possible.

~Organization, cleaning and such. This is a constant work in progress at my house and in my effort to improve I will probably be blogging about it too.

~Loving my husband and children. This is a calling that I have from God and I want to do the best I can for Him. This is something I pray about often and strive towards. I hope to encourage you in this high calling as well!

I am sure I have missed things- you probably well know that I have a very eclectic blog. Well I guess that is just me- so please bear with me and please share your ideas and the things that you enjoy and are learning about. I really really love to hear from you!

2012-01-01T17:38:00.000-06:00

"The Lord's Lovingkindnessess indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." The Lord is my portion." says my soul, Therefore I have hope in Him." Lamentations 3:22-24

A Happy New Year to all of you! May you see the hand of God in this year.

Freedom to make Choices

2011-12-29T22:50:00.000-06:00

     Over a month ago now Ken made the startling decision to give up Mountain Dew and drink Coffee instead (with plenty of cream but no sugar). This has been strange to me because ever since I have known him he has had a Mountain Dew addiction (When we were in college together he would come in the mornings with his Mt Dew and a Honey Bun for his very unhealthy breakfast) and neither of us have ever drank or even liked coffee. That said I was and am pleased as can be over his decision! Mt Dew is not good for you nor is it cheap (even though I would try to buy it when on sale)- Coffee, thought not at all what I would consider a health food/drink, is better on both accounts.

   This got me thinking again on the choices that all of us make in life. It is interesting to think about all the choices we make financially. Whether they are thoughtful or thoughtless choices- we do make choices.

   In our lives we have chosen to stay away from Tobacco and Alcohol (easy choices for us as that was the way we were raised) which are expensive and contribute to health problems which are also expensive. We also have chosen to generally avoid pop/soda (a new decision on Ken's part! ) which is not good for you and costs a lot. On the other hand we have chosen to enjoy Downhill skiing each winter which is also somewhat expensive and some would argue that it also could be hazardous to our health (though as long as we don't have an accident the fresh air would be good for our health!). This is a choice we have made- one made thoughtfully and together.

Another choice I have made is to spend very little on clothing for our family. Instead I find ways to cloth my family by using what we have or are giving, buying second hand or on sale for the most part. On the other hand I made a choice to buy a quality sewing machine this year when my old one bit the dust. Those choices fit our lifestyle and where in harmony with what is important to me.

   I think being thoughtful in what choices you make is a huge part of managing your finances. It is fun when you realize that you have the freedom to choose. That when I choose to not spend in some area that will free up money in another area. We have the freedom to look at the amount of money coming in and prioritize the use of it in a way that works best for our family.

I am very thankful for the country that we live in, a God that so bountifully provides for us and all the fun choices that we can make!

I pray that we all will make wise choices!

Slippers for Megan

2011-12-27T22:39:00.000-06:00

I made slippers for Megan for Christmas and they have been well worn since. It is always fun when you know for sure that the recipient of a gift you have made really likes the gift! The slippers are the ones pictures above. They were quite fast and easy to make. I was inspired by this post at Zoom Yummy. I didn't follow the directions exactly but I did look them over and then did it on my own from there.

Do you have any homemade gifts that you have given or received that have been well loved?

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T21:57:00.000-06:00

From our family to yours....... Merry Christmas!
We had a great day- I hope you did as well.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
Luke 2:8-15

Gingerbread Creations on the First Day of Winter

2011-12-23T11:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon my sister Keren came over and we had fun making a gingerbread house and church building. It was the first time that we done it and we were quite happy with the success. I don't have a lot of time to write today so I will just show you plenty of pictures instead.....

Yesterday was the first day of winter and we were bemoaning a bit or lack of snow- it did start coming down a little during the day and then through the night about an inch came down and it looks lovely and white outside! What a fun surprise!

A Holiday Week

2011-12-21T09:06:00.000-06:00

Well I had thought I would do a handmade Christmas post yesterday (even though I officially ended the series last week) but it didn't end up happening. We were working on this instead:

-Getting our Christmas letters and pictures out in the mail. I am sure these will be late for quite a few of our friends but oh well. I had run into trouble trying to get pictures, I ordered 60 and they sent me one- and thankfully we have more than one friend so that wasn't going to work, and then I was so busy I almost decided not to send a letter at all but then I had a little more time and found a good deal on pictures so we decided to put one together after all. We worked hard yesterday morning and got about all of them out the door before the mail man arrived around noon.

It is a fun family project with lots of jobs available. We create our own fancy paper by stamping on it, then they have to be folded. We also use our envelopes made out of calendars so they need labels attached and stamps and then the letter and picture inserted and then they have to be taped closed. As we would get a few done somebody would run them out to the mailbox so that as many as possible would go in that days mail. Most of them we sent with just the typed letter and the picture but to some we spent the time to write personal letters as well.

We decided to take this whole week off from school (even though the public school around here doesn't get off until Friday) so that we could work on projects and other fun things. We do still have been doing school like activities though with all the letter writing and then we are still doing all our educational reading, we have been concentrating harder on music (as the kids are going to help play for Sunday church service) and lots of sewing and stuff which is also educational.

Yesterday afternoon we were busy working on various projects. Aaron finished up a rag doll that he was making for Megan (with my help), Jonathan made some leather luggage tags for Ken (with some assistance from me), Mara worked on a book of stories and poems that she has written and Megan had fun making ~~a mess~~ various projects from pipe cleaners and foam sheets. Meanwhile I was working on making some photo books. Looking back I am not quite sure why I chose that activity as it has nothing to do with getting ready for Christmas- so if later in the week I am feeling frazzled (I hope not!) please feel free to remind me that I chose to work on photo books on Tuesday. :-)

Here are some other things that we have worked on lately:

Mara made a bracelet making kit to give to Megan (she has really admired and loved to use one that Mara was given earlier.

I made little Candy Cane mice to give to my music students.

This project was inspired by my friend Emily who made some last year.

I have also been working on some knitting and crocheting- socks for the boys (I learned how to make heels- no thanks to the pattern- and I am rather excited about it!) and slippers for Megan.

The kids have been busily into decorating still. Paper chains being their decoration of choice. They had made some in class at church and Megan (and sometimes the boys) have been busily making them ever since. She made a really long one and started to string it across the dining room at about 2 feet off of the ground. I thought maybe it would work better in a little different spot so I helped her to string it across the hallway ceiling.

Since then she and the boys have busily added many paper decorations (chains, paper lanterns, etc) to the hallway and some in the bedrooms too. It has become a little interesting to navigate but it is certainly festive!

Anyway- that is some of what has been going on around here. We have also been playing lots of games when Ken is home. We love our family time together and this sort of weather gets us in the mood for games. We are also hoping that we might get more snow- it has been pretty minimal so far this year.

I may not post much more this week- but then again maybe I will a bunch- you never can tell! :-)

13 years of marriage- To God be the Glory!

2011-12-18T22:59:00.000-06:00

" Jesus replied, "Have you not read that in the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and he said: Man has now to leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body? So they are no longer two but one body; let no one separate what God has joined." Matthew19:4-6

Ken and I are blessed to be celebrating 13 years of marriage today. I am so thankful that God designed marriage!

We had fun celebrating our Anniversary by going skiing yesterday.

Enjoying Children's Artwork without it being Clutter

2011-12-15T17:18:00.000-06:00

This display was during our Alphabet Adventures.
(I didn't have any recent pictures and couldn't take any just now as we just emptied it.)

Clutter is something we have to constantly deal with around here. With a family of 6 it seems to be able to multiply quite quickly. Whenever I can find a good system for dealing with a source of clutter that is a big blessing!

For most all families with young children one source of potential mess is artwork and crafts. It might be from Classes at Church, Pre-school or school or even if your children are homeschooled like ours you might like us have some prolific artists like we do. Whatever the case with your family it is likely that you also have or need a way to deal with lots of artwork.

Here is a system that we came up with that works quite well for us:

We created a display area in our hallway by nailing up some ribbon and adding some painted clothespins. In this area we can hang a lot of artwork. It can be admired and appreciated and then when it gets full we can do one of the following......

Take really special items write the name and approximate date on them and put them in my folder that I have for each child in my file cabinet. Or you might want to frame a few and give them a permanent location.
Send pictures off in letters to Grandpas and Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins and anybody else you might be writing. People love letters and if you include a bit of news too- this will surely brighten somebody's day. They can then discard or save them as they please.
Use big artwork for wrapping paper or turn it into some other sort of craft.
RECYCLE the rest.

It is a pretty easy system that works well. The kid's are happy to have their pictures appreciated but yet we don't have to keep them around forever unless we really want to.

I have been enjoying reading through some of the posts on 31 Day's to an Organized Home over at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. You might enjoy them too.

What do you do with kid's artwork or anything else that seems to pile up fast? I would love to hear your thoughts!

A Handmade Christmas Week 11 {Crafts for Children}

2011-12-13T09:59:00.004-06:00

I think one of my favorite things about Christmas is the fun times that I have crafting with my children. We craft throughout the year but we do more of it at this time and we do have fun making special surprises for others and that is always fun.

Even while Mega was sick (and wearing PJ's) we had fun doing some crafting.
We were working on a snowflake inspired by this blog.

Here are some of the kid friendly things we have been making lately, maybe you would enjoy doing them with your kids too.

Bird Feeder Pine Cones

These are quite easy, inexpensive, fun and fairly practical. So several things are going for this project. It can also be a bit messy- so I will warn you on that account- but messy is often pretty fun!

Around here it is pretty easy to gather pine cones from the woods. If that is not the case for you then this might not work as well.

After you gather the pine cones then attach something to hang them with (we used yarn or ribbon- you could also use wire). Then take your pine cone and spread peanut butter all over it. (This is the messy part!) Then roll them in birdseed. That is all it takes. They are then done and ready to hang. If you want to give them away then you will want to wrap them in something to keep the stickiness from going everywhere! I used some cellophane wrappers that my flowers come in and cut them up and then wrapped the pine cones up in them.

Frosty Pine Cone Ornaments/Decorations

These are really simple to make- you simply brush some glue on your pine cones and then roll them in Epsom salts. Then you can display them just like that or add something to hang them with (we used wire ornament hangers or ribbon) and then if you want you can also glue on a pretty little bow as we did.

Nativity Scene from Recycled Products

On the day Megan was sick and we were crafting- she had fun making part of the Nativity Scene. We were inspired by the picture here. She only got one wiseman done (and afterwards- I was kind of kicking myself for encouraging the crown on him- It bugs me to have biblical incorrectness but I encouraged it in this case.) and then of course the main characters- Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The adults were made using toilet paper tubes and baby Jesus was made with a spool all wrapped up in fabric. Maybe later we will make more of the scene.

That is a few of the things we have been having fun working on. What are you doing at your house?

PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my button (grab it from my sidebar) either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

Check out these fun ideas that others have shared....

Christmas Tea Towels at Sage Endeavors
Recycled Nativity for the Kids at Going Green Mama
Christmas Crafts for Kids and Moms at Roots of Simplicity
Candy Cane Bath Salts at Growing up Gabel
Sock Monkeys (Check for tutorial links in the sidebar) at Monkey Business

Sorry I am late getting this up- I was working on my decorating post instead and this one got put off. I will be linking this post up to The Inspired Room's Christmas party post. Also- this is the last official week of A Handmade Christmas. I may post something on it next week but I might decided to take the week off instead.

Welcome to our home....{2011 Christmas tour}

2011-12-12T22:49:00.002-06:00

Hello! I am so glad you came to visit!

I decided it would be fun to join in The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tours. I am joining not because our home is anything spectacular or grand (it's not) but rather because our family has fun doing a little bit of simple decorating using things that we have and it is fun to have company (even online company) over to share our home and festivities with.

So come on in and I will give you a tour of our simple home.

This weekend was the weekend of decorating the inside- I don't like to do it to early because I am still enjoying Thanksgiving decorations and so we will probably leave some (or maybe a lot) of these decorations up into January. On Saturday night Ken and Aaron went to a Hockey game and the rest of us had fun doing some decorating to surprise them when they got home.

We hung a swag that I had made from some greenery we picked from my parents woods up above the coat closet which you see first thing when you walk in the entryway. I also pulled out some old ice skates to decorate with.

The white skates with jingle bell toes are old ones of mine but they are to uncomfortable to wear anymore. The others I think may have been my Dad's when he was young. I love the way they look on the closet door.

After you hang up your coat why don't you come on upstairs....

You can join these crazy and fun children for a cup of peppermint hot chocolate (a special gift from my sister) and some Sesame-Honey Candy (Pasteli) that Aaron and I just made.

Aaron hard at work cutting the candy. He loves to help make snacks.

When we were decorating on Saturday night Jonathan's big project was to run a long string of white lights across the tops of all the cupboards and around the kitchen and then also around the top of the windows in the dining room. We don't usually put lights in the house (instead we have them all over outside) so the kids think ( and I am enjoying it too) it is pretty neat to have some inside.

On the cupboard tops we also added some evergreen boughs and pine cones and some splashes of red. I am really enjoying the red this year. Some years I have tried to avoid it but I like it a lot this year.

Closer detail of the cupboard tops.

Lights, greenery, grapevine and frosty pine cones (which we frosted) above the kitchen sink.

The lights in the dining room at night. Snowflakes on the window were made by Jonathan.

Here is closer detail of the cross stitch picture on our Kitchen wall. This is one of the many cross stitch pictures that Mara made this year.

Now lets walk over to the living room and chat for a bit.

On the wall is one of my favorite decorating places. The shelf underneath our family picture. We also hung another swag up above it.

Here are some details of the shelf. I have fun adding all sorts of odds and ends to it that I think go with the theme. If you haven't noticed already, I love pine cones and evergreens. I love the outdoors and enjoy bringing the outdoors in for my decorating.

The kids were quite excited about getting the stockings hung up. Our family rule is that all gifts have to fit in the stocking. Someday I think it would be very fun to have a fireplace mantle to hang them from but for now they hang from the half wall by our stairs.

The other side of the living room is our music area. I enjoyed having poinsettias and fresh flowers (along with evergreen, pine cones and candles) available to decorate the piano top with.

Here are a couple of more wreaths that we are displaying. The grapevine/evergreen one is a combination of the kid's efforts (I am tempted to place the Reindeer a little differently but currently am working to appreciate the uniqueness of it) I do love that they like to help decorate. The other wreath was one that some friends and I made from some old music. It fits in well in my entry way where I have a variety of music pictures.

Now to head downstairs....

We don't have a ton of decorations here but it looks very changed to us because we did some major rearranging and really open up this room which had been before split in half with some big bookshelves. We are really loving it! I have had fun adding some evergreen and pine cones and other rustic touches as well as some snowmen decorations.

This snowman wreath got to be inside out of the weather this year.

Here is where the bookshelves went...

In our bookworms room. We added some garland and sparkly jewels to the top of the shelves and then our homemade nativity from a couple of years ago got put in here as well and also some new nativity stuff that Megan just made.

Thanks so much for visiting!

We hope you enjoy seeing our outside lights as you go. I wasn't able to get a picture of them all (as I didn't feel like running that far down the road to take the picture) and this picture is rather blurry but it gives you an idea. :-)

How do you like to decorate for Christmas? I would love to hear from you!

2011-12-11T17:17:00.000-06:00

"A joyful heart makes a cheerful face,

But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken."

Proverbs 15:13

I have had a very fun joyful day. We had a good morning at church and then this afternoon it has been just Megan and I here at home. The plan today had been to go downhill skiing and Megan was going to spend the afternoon with my brother Luke and his lovely wife Molly Bea but Megan got sick yesterday and still isn't feeling to good today (Ken was home with her when the rest of us went to church) so that plan wasn't going to work. I told Ken to go ahead and take the older kids skiing so Megan and I have been home by ourselves.

Though it was little disappointing not to be able to go skiing we have really had a fun afternoon. We have done a little reading, a nap, a little crafting and a little decorating. We have had fun just being together. It was a good remember that even when things don't go as planned God provides reasons for us to be joyful.

I had been struggling a bit lately with feeling joyful. I had been feeling a little discouraged now and then (maybe the grey days- or maybe just being too busy, or maybe being focused on the wrong things) and I appreciate verses that encourage me to live in a better way- to be joyful!

"A Joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22

Odds and ends

2011-12-10T23:56:00.000-06:00

I have been rather quiet on here lately- I am not quite sure why except I know that I have been busy doing other things (including having a birthday, which was rather fun!) and blogging just took a back burner.

This weekend I had flowers to do for a wedding. The bride choose to have a rustic Christmas theme and so working on them got me in the mood for decorating for Christmas (We put up outside lights the day after Thanksgiving but I like to wait until December for the inside decorating). This evening Megan was sick in bed and Ken and Aaron had gone to a hockey game and while they gone Mara, Jonathan and I got busy and decorated. We aren't quite done yet but it is looking pretty!

Are you wanting to do any shopping? Vision Forum a place that has a lot of neat stuff for a Christian and/or a homeschooler sent me an e-mail telling about a few fun sales they have going on so I thought I would pass the information along

I am an affiliate so I would earn something should you make a purchase using this link.

I just used Random number generator to figure out the winner for My Memories Suite (Scrapbooking Software) Giveaway and the winner is Kristina who blogs at Army of Virtues. Congratulations Kristina!

And now it is rather late and I think it might be time to get ready for bed! I am hoping my sick little one sleeps well!

Always working on my marriage!

2011-12-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

Some conversations I have had recently made me think once again on the importance of always working on your marriage. I think it is highly dangerous to get that mind set of "We're doing great, nothing could ever happen to our marriage, I can just relax, etc." I do hope that you can say your marriage is great but what scares me is when someone gets complacent and has the idea that nothing could ever happen to destroy what you have.

Unfortunately Satan is real, and I think he works overtime to attack marriages. When a marriage gets torn apart it is a domino effect that changes the lives of many more than just 2 people.

Today I just wanted to encourage all of you to always work on your marriage and I thought I would share some of the ways that I have found important in my life for protecting and strengthening our marriage.

Obviously everybody is different but these are important to me:

Pray about it. God is the one who has all wisdom- He is there to help you make your marriage great.
Do things together! Obviously for most couples they will have different day jobs but as much as possible do things together. Volunteer together, have social activities together, do fun things together.
Try to avoid situations as much as possible that cause you to be separated for any extended period of time. Travel is what mainly comes to mind here. We will travel separately once in a while (Ken will sometimes go on business trips without me and I have gone a few times while he is busy working) but as much as possible we avoid it. When we do travel separately we try to stay connected by phone calls.
Physical intimacy. Not something I like to talk about but very important never-the-less. If you don't feel like it then work on your attitude. :-)
Try to have the same friends. If he makes friends that you don't know- try to get to know them. For instance you might invite the whole family of the friend over to get to know your whole family.
Always remember that you are a team- first you and your husband and then also any kids you have. Act as a team.
When your husband is interested in something- try to learn about it too. Work to always have things in common.
Set aside times that you always spend together. For instance at our house we eat breakfast and supper together as a family, Thursday nights are set aside to do things as a family and Ken and I work to always go to bed at the same time. We spend quite a lot of other time together as well but those are some "rules" that we have made of times that we need to be together.
Figure out ways to please him- maybe how you dress, what you cook, how you care for the house or.....You fill in the blank. Work to keep romance alive.

How are you careful to guard your marriage? Is it something you thoughtfully work at?

A Handmade Christmas Week 10 {Snowmen gift tags}

2011-12-06T03:57:00.002-06:00

This past week was a very busy one of Christmas Crafting. I was helping out with a Craft Bazaar on Saturday (it was a fundraiser) and so I was making things to donate. It was fairly fun working on all the projects but I am happy to be slowing down and getting to work on just a few simple gifts in the next couple of weeks instead of trying to mass produce a bunch of things.

Our Bazaar ended up looking very nice and we had way more stuff for sale than I thought we would. Here is a picture that shows a portion of the room:

Hosting a bazaar was something I had never done before and it was a learning experience. I am not sure if we will do it again but if we do- I will have some ideas for improving it. :-)

Here was a fun and easy project that we put together for the bazaar:

Snowmen gift tags.

I really like snowmen- they are so cute and make me think of good memories of sticky snow and making snowmen.

To make this gift tags you simply cut snowmen shapes out of white card stock, glue on some black paper punch circles (for coal buttons and eyes), glue on a orange triangle nose, stamp (or print) on a "To" and "From", glue on a hat and tie on a ribbon scarf. They are fast and will make a gift look very cute!

Now, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

Check out these fun ideas.....

Very Cool Gift Boxes at Those Northern Skies
Candyland Christmas Trees at Those Northern Skies

2011-12-04T22:21:00.000-06:00

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

I have certainly seen God doing abundantly and beyond what I ask. I hope and pray and that I will always give him the glory! May we all do that.

A Handmade Christmas Week 9 {Easy Scarves!}

2011-11-28T22:35:00.002-06:00

Good morning! Would you like some ideas for easy, economical and trendy gifts? These scarves are so easy and fun to make. I have had fun finding ideas online and then doing my own thing a little too. Here is what we have been making:

Ruffle Scarf

Another Ruffle Scarf

Infinity Strand Scarf

Here is the the video that I watched to learn how to make these two scarves:

Here is another type of ruffle scarf:

And a simple scarf:

I think this one would be cute with some added embroidery but I haven't done that yet.

The two scarves above I made out of the same old t-shirt. It was pretty simple- here is what you do:

Cut the hem off and then cut as shown above (cutting through both layers at once) to make the simple scarf. No hemming or anything else is necessary. I found this idea in a Family Fun magazine.

With the remainder of the fabric cut out five circles as shown above. Cut each "doughnut" open on one side and then sew all those circles/ "C's" together so that it makes one long ruffly strip. Then you can sew a decorative stitch along the edge if you desire.

I had fun making these scarves- I hope you do too!

Now, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

Check these ideas out!!....

Thank you!

P.S. I am going sewing machine shopping today- do any of you have any recommendations? I will be looking at Janome, Brother, Elna, Nicchi and Babylock and maybe Viking machines.

Turning old t-shirts into something usable

2011-11-28T11:24:00.001-06:00

In my opinion part of being a "homesteader" is that desire to use what you have, be resourceful and not be wasteful. It is trying to have a sustainable lifestyle. This is something that I really enjoy working on and because of this I have a tendency to save all sorts of things that I know will be useful someday when I want to make something.

Saving stuff to use later is all very nice until your crafting area just seems to almost explode because of everything that is being stored there. In my effort to get my home as organized as possible before the end of the year I have felt there was a need to do something about all these things that I have collected, so.... Last week I decided to tackle the old t-shirts and sweatshirts and see what I could turn them into.

This is the stash that I first pulled out: (and then later I found even more!)

Here is a portion of some of the things we made out of them:

-Jump ropes (instructions here)

-Flower barrettes and pins (using this method)

-Headbands

-Woven Rugs (using this method)

- Hot pack (stuffed with corn though sometimes I do rice)

I have several cut out but only one sewn up as my sewing machine broke. :-(

-Dishcloths (instructions here)

-Underwear

-Napkins (cut out but not hemmed yet because of my sewing machine)

- balls of t-shirt yarn or strips to use in future projects.

-Quite a few types of scarves which I will show photos of and instructions for tomorrow at my Handmade Christmas Carnival. I hope you come join me!

It has been a fun time to make things. I love the challenge of using something old to make something useful. I do still have a box of t-shirts left but I made considerable progress! I have some ideas of things to make with what I have left as well. Some of my plans are: Baby bibs, Doggy chew toys, more rugs and headbands and using some of the sweatshirts as mittens liners. I did also attempt making a pair of socks from some old sweatpants. That was not very successful but I will try again!

This week I am working on my stash of denim. Hopefully next week I will be able to have a report on some of the things I have made. However I am feeling a bit hampered by not having a working sewing machine. I am considering buying a new one at the moment.....

Have great week!

I am linking this to the Homestead Barn Hop at Homestead Revival.

A Watchman

2011-11-27T22:38:00.000-06:00

I have been reading in the book of Ezekiel lately for my early morning Bible reading. The other day while reading chapter 33 I was really struck by the lesson I could learn from it to apply to my own life. In it God is speaking to Ezekiel about watchmen and their duty and He says to Ezekiel:

"Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you will surely die, " and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from you hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life." Ezekiel 33:7-9

Now I do realize that we are living in a time different from Ezekiel- we have the blood of Jesus to cover our sins and in no way are we able to pay for our own sins. However I do think that God does want us to be watchmen just as He gave that job to Ezekiel. In Mark 16:15 &16 it says: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel (that means good news) to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved: but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." God wants everybody to know about the Salvation that He offers through Jesus Christ. He desires that all people would be saved. I am feeling convicted even more that I need to tell others about this salvation. How about you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T15:40:00.000-06:00

I love this holiday because of the reminder to us of how we should live everyday: Overflowing with Gratitude!

This quote came to my attention recently and so I will share it with you:

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." ~H.U. Westermayer

I love the perspective of that. No matter what condition we are in- we need to give thanks to God.
As for us, I feel overabundantly blessed! God is so good! I hope you are seeing that in your lives as well!

Psalm 100

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Pies and other things

2011-11-23T23:18:00.000-06:00

Today was one of those fun holiday sort of days. We decided to take a break from school (even though the public school students still had to go in our area) and we had fun getting ready for Thanksgiving day and doing other fun things. In the morning I did have a piano lesson to teach and then we needed to run to town to do a barter, buy whipping cream and hang up some posters for an upcoming fundraiser but in the afternoon we had fun working around here.

On a side note- while we were at the grocery store Mara complimented another shopper on her really cool wool coat and hat (which looked felted and had felted applique on it) which she had made. We ended up visiting a bit and she told us about her blog- in it she shares about some of the neat things she makes. I thought you might like to visit there too.

Our baking plans for today were to make butterhorns and a few pies. My Mom was also making pies for tomorrow but you can never have to many pies can you?r

This pies on my list to make were a pecan pie and some peanut butter pies. Ken told me that peanut butter pie is his favorite (I was surprised as I had thought he went for the fruit or berry pies more) and since the rest of us love it too I decided that I should make two. I tried a Honey Pecan Pie recipe this year. It looks good- I am looking forward to tasting it as well. I did also make Pumpkin pie- that is a traditional necessity for Thanksgiving, I think. Mom was making them so I didn't need to but since I had extra crust and some cooked squash handy I made one anyway. We will probably eat it for breakfast later on this week. I still had more crust so I also made an apple braid.

Would you like to try Peanut Butter Pie? Here is the recipe that we really love:
Filling:
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar (except I use less and this year I used mostly honey- it is yummy.)
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Beat everything but the whipped cream together and then fold in whipped cream. Gently spoon into a baked crust (I use a regular one but you could also use a graham cracker crust or a chocolate crust). Store in the fridge.

Here are some other photos of our day.....

Aaron wanted to knead the butterhorns. Megan licked the spoon after being in charge of cracking eggs.

While the bread was rising....

Aaron dreamed about and made plans for quilt making

Megan laid hers out and even tried it out.

Mara made a Thank-ful tree.

Jonathan added more details to his new wonderful Popsicle plane.

Back to the bread making.....

Aaron helped to roll them up (we took some of the dough and made sweet rolls for breakfast).

Jonathan buttered their tops.

Tonight was another fun evening of fellowship and learning at church. The kids talked about thankfulness and ate a bunch of sweets while we adults had a good discussion on walking with God.

I am curious.... Do you always have pie for thanksgiving? What type is traditional for you and your family? Do you make your own or buy them?

A Handmade Christmas Week 8 {Easy Skirts and a Shirt}

2011-11-22T07:50:00.006-06:00

How are you doing this morning! I am doing good. After a couple of days of not feeling so hot I feel so much better and that is always a great feeling. I am a little late getting this up (and I will come back even later to add the tutorial to this post) but I will blame that on not feeling good, playing games with my family last night and working on centerpieces for Thanksgiving instead. Someday I will be better organized and pre-post all my posts but so far that hasn't happened very often.

Anyway, here is something that I have been making:

Elastic Waist Skirts and a reversible applique t-shirt. The outfit that Megan is modeling we sent in her Operation Christmas Child box and the skirt below is a gift for a friend. Mara also made a skirt like this for her OCC box but we failed to get a picture of it.

These skirts are so quick and easy to make and you can use whatever fabric you have on hand or can find for a good deal and they are a fun and practical gift.

Here is the Tutorial. I hope it works well for me to do it this way. Let me know if you have any problems reading it or understanding it. Thanks!

To make the skirt you will need to first choose fabric (you can make it all one color or have a couple types of fabric- I did it both way.)

To cut it out: I am going to give quidelines for you to follow so you can make it fit any size person and have it the fullness and length that you desire.

For the top layer: Measure the recipent of the skirt's hips. You need a strip of fabric (this can be one long piece or you can sew a few pieces together to make the strip long enough) that is the length of the hips plus at least 5 inches or up to doubling the hip measurement. Example Hips: 36 inches plus 5 inches = 41 inches. OR 36"=36"= 72" or anything in between. This strip of fabric should be as long (wide?) as the length you want your top layer plus 2 inches for making the elastic casing and seam allowance. 16 inches or around there would probably work well.

For the bottom layer: This strip should be about 1.5 or 2 times as long as the top strip to allow for good gathering. It could be a little less if you don't want it that full. You can work with what you have for fabric. The length of it again depends on how long you want the skirt to be. Have an inch of so extra for the seam and the hem.

Click on the pictures in order to see them larger.

Here is how I decorated the raglan sleeve t-shirt that I made:

I had fun making these tutorials using My Memories Suite which I am hosting a giveaway of right now. Feel free to go sign up!

Now, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

Check this out....

Beautiful Batik Coasters made from Upcycled fabrics at Those Northern Skies.

If you missed my earlier Handmade Christmas weeks here they are:

Week 1-A Fairy Princess Crown
Week 2-Headbands
Week 3-Carved Gifts
Week 4- Fabric Flowers (and sign up for the giveaway!)
Week 5- Knitted Mittens and Cross stitch.
Week 6 - Kitchen Gifts (making scrubbies, dishcloths, hotpads and aprons)
Week 7 - Mittens

Serve one another

2011-11-20T05:47:00.000-06:00

"The end of all things is near; therefore be of sound judgement and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. AMEN." 1 Peter 4:7-11

This is one of the passages of scripture that I hope will truly sink in and be part of my heart. I so badly want to follow this with everything that I am. I have so much growing to do. I want to have my eyes open to ways that I can better serve others. I want to serve so that God can get the glory. I want to always have the right attitude when I am serving. I want to get rid of the pride that creeps into my heart. I want to do what is right.

What do you think about after reading this passage?

My Memories Software {Review and Giveaway}

2011-11-18T16:41:00.000-06:00

A while back I was contacted to see if I would like to review and host a giveaway for "My Memories Suite" a digital scrapbooking software. I was a bit hesitant to do it at first. I love artsy crafty sorts of things and I love photos so scrapbooking is up my alley but I also know from experience that I am not very technically savvy and software and me don't always get along.

I am pretty happy to report that it wasn't to hard to get something made. I am sure that I will continue to find many more neat ways to use it and understand more of what the software has to offer but with just a limited amount of time and my very limited abilities in this area I was able to have fun making things.

Here are a couple of scrapbook pages that I put together: (They are also super easy to transfer from the scrapbook software over here to my blog. Yeah!)

When you use the software you can choose from layouts that are all ready for you or you can design your own. Both of these were ones that I designed. They have a bunch of "papers" that you can choose from as backgrounds and then there are a bunch of fun tools (which I just got started using) for fixing up your photos. You can crop, shape, shadow, turn them different colors, adjust the lighting, make them look like water color paintings (like the bouquet in the center below) and much more.

Then you can add things like "ribbons", "stickers", "brads", "flowers" and much more to make it look more interesting. Everything I used was part of the basic scrapbook software but I noticed that you can also buy many additional scrapbooking kits that will really allow you to add a lot of stuff to what you make.

You can also add as much text as you like and there are all sorts of ways to make your text pretty and interesting. I am sure you will have fun working with it!

Scrapbooking pages are an obvious use of this software (which after you get them done you can print them into one of those very cool photo books!) but use of the software is by no means limited to just scrapbook pages. Here are some of the other ways that I hope to use it:

Make really nice tutorials for my blog. This is something I have dreamed about and have never done but I think using this software that I might be able to do that.
Design Christmas Cards.
Make a digital (burn it on a CD) photo album complete with music, video and audio. I haven't looked in to exactly how this works but I saw that it was available. I think I know some relatives that live at a distance that would really enjoy something like this. A fun gift to make that everybody in the family could be a part of.

Calendar pages. Something that we like to make often for Ken's parents (and they enjoy receiving it!) is a calendar with pictures of the family in it. This is a very simple way to design those pages and make them look really neat. In about 5 seconds I made this page for the month of December using a pre-made scrapbooking page so I only needed to pop in a picture and title it.

Here is a video that explains My Memories Suite better than I can and helps me to see even more of the possibilities that it has:

If you would like to Buy My Memories Suite~

All Proverbs 31 Living readers can receive $10 off their purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store by using this code: STMMMS71963 (copy and paste it for accuracy). My Memories Suite just costs $39.97 so with $10 off it is quite reasonable.

If you would like to try to Win My Memories Suite~

One reader will get to win My Memories Suite Software.

To enter to win please visit My Memories and then come back and leave a comment here telling me what digital paper pack or layout you like best. Make sure to leave some way for me to contact you in your comment. If I can't tell you that you won then I will pick someone else.

If you would like additional entries you can do any of the following and then leave another comment telling me that you did that.

Follow My Memories Blog with Google Friend Connect.
Like My Memories on Facebook.
Follow Proverbs 31 Living with Google Friend Connect.

This giveaway is open to anybody and it will remain open until: December 9th. So enter and then tell your friends about it! I think you will enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I received the software free for purposes of reviewing. All opinions are my own. If you should choose to buy the software and use the coupon code I will also be rewarded. Thank you!

Doing my own Recycling

2011-11-16T13:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was "America Recycles" day. I am an avid recycler- not so much the taking it to the recycling station (though I do that quite a bit as well) but more the taking something old and junky and recycling it by myself into something new and usable. That is one of my very favorite hobbies. Before throwing anything away I usually think- could is reuse this in some way instead? And often I find that I can.

Yesterday in honor of the holiday I finally made a wreath that I have been thinking about making for some time ever since I started seeing them all over the Internet- a book page wreath. I made it out of a tree/shrub catalog that we had received in the mail as well as a circle of cardboard from an old box. It isn't my favorite wreath ever but it was fun to make and I am glad to have tried it. Now I am hoping to find an old songbook to tear up as I think this would be very cute made with sheets of music. Making all the paper cones takes a while but I was able to make them all while watching the movie "Facing the Giants" so that worked out well.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the other projects that I have recycled things to make. So here we go......

Mittens from old wool clothes.

Leggings from an old turtleneck.

A baby dress from a onesie and a turtleneck.

An Apron from an old pair of overalls.

Socks from an old sleeper.

A dress from a t-shirt and a sundress.

Two skirts from a dress.

A Revolutionary War Costume from old clothes.

Wool pants from bigger wool pants.

Skirt, leggings and scarf from t-shirts.

A raincoat from a bigger short sleeved jacket.

Underwear from old t-shirts.

A skirt from T-shirts.

Cards decorated with flowers made from junk mail and scrap papers.

A berry picking bucket from an old milk jug.

Fabric flowers made from old wool clothes and other fabric scraps.

Dish rag made from old t-shirts and scrubbies made from onion/orange bags and other recycled tulle.

Hot pads made from old jeans and other recycled fabrics.

Jump rope made from old t-shirts.

Flower barrette made from used lining fabric.

Art bag made from recycled clothes.

A soft doll made from old t-shirts dyed with tea.

Cards made from Catalog pictures.

A display board made from old shutters.

Crocheted rugs from old clothing.

A bible case made from an old wool coat.

A crocheted rug made from old curtains and slipcovers.

Hankies made from old pajama pants.

A basket made from paper grocery bags.

A plane made from Popsicle sticks.

A baby quilt made from old clothes.

A bag made from old jeans.

Candles made from old candles. (molded in salt cartons, butter boxes and toilet paper tubes.

Doll clothes made from recycled clothes.

Gift container made from an old butter box.

Flower petal basket made from a milk carton.

Valentines cards made from junk mail/ flyers.

Candle Centerpiece using old books.

Quilt using recycled fabrics.

Basket made from an old ice cream tub.

Planters made from milk cartons.

Rag rug made from old clothes and fabrics.

A bag from old wool clothes.

Slippers made using recycled cardboard.

An organizer made using tin cans.

Gifts tags made by repurposing brown paper and fabric scraps.

Napkins made from old t-shirts.

A barbie house made from recycled items to numerous to mention (basically everything is repurposed).

A quilt made from old clothes.

Hat and Mitten set made using an old t-shirt, and other repurposed fabrics.

I hope if you haven't ever repurposed things before that you might be inspired to try it out. It really is lots of fun! If you do like to repurpose things then I would love to hear about what you have done!

Repurposing things works for me!

I have blogged about all the projects I told about above and I had hoped to link to the posts- for now I ran out of time but I hope to do it later. Meanwhile feel free to search through my old posts to find them.

A Handmade Christmas Week 7 {Mittens!}

2011-11-15T07:33:00.003-06:00

We have been doing a lot of making things lately!

Have you been making things as well?

Lately we haven't been doing so much making of Christmas gifts for us to give ourselves but rather to donate and sell at a fundraiser that we are helping out with. We have some other things we want to make too but that has been the project lately.

Mittens have been the biggest of those projects. I have written about making this style of mittens before but since that is what we have been doing lately I thought I would mention them again. I have several reasons that I like making these mittens as gifts.....

They are a practical and useful gift (especially in our climate!)
I can make them using things that I repurpose (and already have on hand). I use old felted mittens, old wool clothes (those that have shrunk are especially good) and sometimes pajamas for the lining.
They are pretty quick and easy to make.
I think they are cute and have fun making each one different and cute (I still have some decorating to do on the mittens above - though some I will leave as is).

Here is a video that shows how to make them:

Here is the link to the pattern.

Now, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

Please check this out.....

Etched Drinking Glasses at Zimm's Zoo

If you missed my earlier Handmade Christmas weeks here they are:

Week 1-A Fairy Princess Crown
Week 2-Headbands
Week 3-Carved Gifts
Week 4- Fabric Flowers (and sign up for the giveaway!)
Week 5- Knitted Mittens and Cross stitch.
Week 6 - Kitchen Gifts (making scrubbies, dishcloths, hotpads and aprons)

Butterfly Patches

2011-11-11T22:46:00.001-06:00

I have been really working at getting ALL the mending done in our house before the new year. I think I have patched at least 15 pairs of pants! My kids aren't quite sure what to do with all these fixed up clothes. {smile} In truth they do seem to be managing okay and I am really enjoying seeing them look all neat and tidy even if they are wearing everyday clothes. Most of them I patched using this method. But a few with skinny legs I used Iron- on patches on.

With a pair of Megan's jeans I decided it would be fun to make them look special not "just patched". I ironed on the patches (that certianly is a nice and FAST -but more expensive- way to patch!) and then on the outside I used embroidery floss and sewed fleece butterflys over the patches and then another little one up by the pocket just for decoration. Now they look special not like everyday pants and we are quite pleased!

Do you have any special ways of fixing up clothes that have gotten ruined in some way?

The Imagination Station Book Series Review and giveaway!

2011-11-11T22:25:00.002-06:00

What fun it was for us to be asked to review the next two books in the Imagination Station Series! We had so enjoyed the first four books (Jonathan especially- I am not quite sure just how many times he has read them) and we quite excited about there being two more.

Here is what the two new books are about:

In Showdown with the Shepherd, Patrick and Beth go to the Holy Land in the tenth century BC. Their goal is to get back the ring Hugh stole and return him to 1450s

England

where he belongs. But troubles await them as soon as they step out of the Imagination Station. First they meet an angry bear and later an angry giant. Set against the backdrop of the David and Goliath story, the cousins learn that having a giant faith is more important than having a giant on your side.

Patrick and Beth’s next adventure leads them to Plymouth Plantation in 1621. There they meet William Bradford, Miles Standish, and Squanto who are trying to establish peace between the Pilgrims and the Indians. Things are anything but peaceful, however, when a musket is stolen and the Pilgrims conclude the Indians are planning war. Only Patrick and Beth know who the real thief is—the traitor Hugh—and it’s up to the cousins to find him and stop him from causing trouble. When the cousins hear a gunshot during the first Thanksgiving feast, their worst fears are realized.

Jonathan (age 10) again really enjoyed reading these books. As soon as they were available to him he took them and read them. When he was telling me about them I realized that the highlight as far as he is concerned is the whole mystery and action associated with the time travel and the Imagination Station. That is fine with me since I find the content quite wholesome and God centered. Obviously while enjoying the adventure he also reads about history as well. The history presented isn't that deep or complicated but still it is there and it will help to either introduce a child or reinforce something that they have already learned.

Besides Jonathan reading them, Mara also quickly read through them one afternoon and enjoyed them. They are pretty nice and easy reading. Which makes it nice for reading aloud for bedtime or nap time or just for fun. I have been doing a combination of reading aloud and having Aaron read to me for the younger kids.

I do very much recommend these books. If you want to find out more about them visit the Focus on the Family Website. You will notice on the website that they have a 7th book coming out soon (and there is a 8th one soon to follow in 2012), the boys will be excited!

One of you can also enjoy these books (Showdown with the Shepherd and Problems in Plymouth) with your family as I have been allowed to host a giveaway too!

If you would like to try to win please leave a comment (make it interesting- not just I would like to win!) on this post and be sure to leave an e-mail address or some way in which I can contact you. This giveaway will run through November 19th. It is open to those in the US and Canada.
Contest is now closed and the winner is: Patriots of the Republic Academy. Congratulations!

Disclaimer:

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with complimentary copies of these books.

We are enjoying snow

2011-11-09T22:17:00.000-06:00

Snow falling is always exciting at our house. Today it is coming down here. Mara wrote a poem about it that I thought you might enjoy......

Snow

The snow is falling down

In ones and couples and clumps

It is beautiful.

I am working in the garden

Digging bulbs. I do not notice

The snow come down.

The boy on the road

Cries it first

“It is snowing!” And I listen.

I tell Mama

The news

And she smiles.

I grab a hat and

A scarf

I run to the marsh.

I sit on a log

Fallen over the water-ice

And I watch.

They are slender-pointed

Some are fat

They are all wonder-full.

My soul thrills and

I thank the One

Who did such work.

Does He sit above

Making and sending them

Down?

I wonder what the muskrat in

His den thinks

Of the snow.

The last snowfall melted

All away. I hope this

Will not.

But early next spring will I

Wonder why

I ever wished for snow?

I go inside and

I sit

And watch the snow fall.

The snow comes down

It nose-dives

Then falls up again.

My heart almost breaks

It swells so far

God’s snow is beautiful.

by Mara

A Handmade Christmas {Week 6}

2011-11-07T22:54:00.002-06:00

Hello Everybody!
Have you all been having gray days like we are? They are perfect days for projects (at least I think so!) and I have been having fun doing some sewing, kntiting and crocheting. As well as combing the internet looking for other lovely project ideas!

Today the ideas that I have to share with you are quick, practical and they are made out of things that I recycled. That is the sort of projecst that I really like!

May I present to you.....

Scrubbies (made from old orange or onion bags or some old tulle that came out of a wedding dress that I redid) and a knitted dishcloth (made from an old cotton t-shirt). That is I hope it works well for a dishcloth. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but I have been seeing this idea other places online. If it doesn't work for a dishcloth it will work for a hot pad.

To make the scrubbies you cut strips of your mesh material (the scratchier the stuff is, the better) that is about 1 1/2 inches wide. If you are recyling you will probably need to sew your somewhat short strips together. I did that quickly on my sewing machine. Then crochet (using a somewhat large hook) a chain of 5. Attach that chain together in a ring and then crochet 2. Then double crochet 2-3 times in each of the 5 chains in the loop. Then hook together at the outside, tuck in any loose ends and you are all done! This is so easy to sit down and make in just a few minutes. Also, with this project it really doesn't matter if you do it perfectly or not. Mainly you just want to get a nice lump of tulle hooked together so that it will scrub some pots!

To make the dishcloth you cut your t-shirt in strips about 1/2 inch wide and stretch a little so that it curls up and looks more like yarn. The dish cloth pictures above is 6 1/2 inches square. I cast on 18 stitches for it but since I think a bit bigger would be nice I will recommend casting on 24 stitches. Just knit back and forth until it is square and then cast off. A very simple knitting project! I just made this one while sitting in a meeting. A great way to keep your hands busy when you have to sit still for something.

If you are giving kitchen oriented gifts here are a few more ideas:

~ Hot pads. They are easy to make. For these I simply made a pinwheel quilt square for one side, a solid denim square for the back and then a couple of layers of denim or wool inside. Then I pinned some ribbon around as binding with a loop on the end so they could be hung up and then I sewed them up. Quick and easy and fun!

~Aprons. Read more about the one on the left here and the one on the right here.

Other ideas of things that could be made for those that like to cook are: Wooden Spoons, Pottery Bowls, mugs or pitchers (I would love to know how to make those!), Grocery bag holders, A holder for serving/stirring spoons, napkings, placemats and more. I would love to hear your ideas!

Now, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!

If you have a blog I would love it if you would share the link of your post, And for everybody I would love it if you would leave ideas in the comments. I am especially feeling in need of ideas of things to make for men and boys!

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating.

I have decided not to use the linky tool but rather if you would include your link in a comment or send it to me in an e-mail, I will then put the link to your blog post in this post. Thank you!

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

Please check this out.....

A Pouf (a very cute 3 foot across pillow!) made by Theresa at "A change to Frugal and Simplistic Living"

A Homestead Notebook

2011-11-07T09:50:00.000-06:00

Record keeping is not one of my strong points. I do have a prayer journal and this blog and I write on our calendar some so I have some records of what is going on but as far as keeping track of homestead things like the Garden, Fruit trees,bees and such, I haven't done very well with that.

I decided that I might do better if I had one notebook just set aside for that purpose. Then whenever I plant a new fruit tree or bush I could simply go to the section that I have for that and record the name of it, where I got it from and the date planted. Then when Dad wants to know what it is so that he can take a branch to graft onto one of his trees- then I can just look in my notebook and tell him.

It will also be fun to record what sort of bees I got and when, when I harvested the honey and how much they produced. By keeping records it should help me learn more from year to year rather than just haphazardly doing things.

It will be good to record what types of tomatoes I planted so that when they do well and I save seeds- I will know what I am saving.

So.....

I took a plain old notebook (and then decided to make it pretty since I like pretty things!) and put in tabs for sections on the Garden, Fruit (trees, bushes and plants), Bees, Herbs and Flowers (decorative perennials). I thought about adding a special section on preserving food but haven't yet anyway.

In them I will keep track of things like:

What I buy and plant.
Costs- it will be interesting to compare costs with production.
Contact information of things like seed companies, Bee keeping mentors, Fruit Tree supply places, etc.
The Harvest that we get.
Seeds that I save.
What is planted where and when.

Do you have any other suggestions of things that I should keep track of?

I am kind of excited about this new record keeping venture!

Last week concerning gardening I tried to get some of those end of the year chores done. To be totally honest with you, after Harvest is done and I have all the food preserved, I usually am ready to be done with the garden for the year and start working on some fun inside projects like sewing, knitting or crocheting. Cleaning out the garden often doesn't sound to exciting. Last week I did manage to get all the bee stuff neatly put away, the trunks of the fruit trees wrapped with screen (so the mice don't nibble again like they did last year) and some of the garden cleaned up. I do still have more work to do but the essentials are done and that feels very good!

Ascribe Greatness to our God!

2011-11-06T06:18:00.001-06:00

Some wise words for today.....

"For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God!

The Rock!

His work is perfect, for all His ways are just:

A God of faithfulness and without injustice,

Righteous and upright is He."

Deuteronomy 32:3 and 4

This is something that I want to always remember and keep in mind. I want to praise Him at all times! How about you?

Doughnut Day!

2011-11-05T23:57:00.000-05:00

Today's holiday is Doughnut day (at least according to the book "Every day a Holiday") and that just didn't seem like a holiday that we could pass by without celebrating appropriately.

I decided to try a baking powder recipe which you baked in the oven. I had some willing helpers- both in the making and the eating!

It wasn't the greatest recipe ever but we found them pretty yummy. We really aren't that picky when it comes to baked goods.

I hope you didn't miss out on Doughnut Day, but if you did maybe you can celebrate a day late!

History Day for our Homeschool Group

2011-11-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had a lot of fun learning more about history at our homeschool group. Each child (or family, as some like to work together) was supposed to research a person (or time period- we did have buffalo and a WW2 plane also represented) from history and then present them in someway. Many of the children dressed up and then they all told about them as well. Our family loves dressing up so that was something we did as well as bringing food along to share that each of the characters liked.

Yesterday when everybody got together another mother had made a timeline which we wrote our people on where they belonged. Then we went through them starting with the oldest one and proceeding to the most recent.

Aaron had decided be Leif Erikkson and so since he was born in 980, he was the first.

We got quite a few library books on Vikings and Leif Erikkson and had fun reading them together. We learned quite a lot. Aaron did a short presentation, but he did a good job, so I was quite pleased.

Making his costume went pretty well though sometimes I find it a little challenging to deal with Aaron's perfectionism. He gets certain ideas of how things should look and when they don't turn out just the way he thought they would he can get pretty disappointed. Aaron had found several pictures of outfits that he thought looked nice. At first he wanted to try a helmet but our metal bowels didn't look quite right and we didn't come up with anything else to use. Then there were a lot of pictures of a somewhat pointed hat with lots of fur around the edges so he choose that instead. That wasn't hard to make using some "fur" that we had taken off of the edge of a coat hood. He thought it turned out really good at first (and it does look pretty like the pictures) but then after looking in the mirror was afraid that he looked like a monk. There were a few tears over that but I think his siblings finally convinced him that he did NOT look like a monk. The cape we made from some felt that we had on hand and the brown outfit I had made a while back for him to use as a horse costume. We cut out some leather straps to wrap around his legs.

Jonathan choose to be Abraham Lincoln.

He did quite a bit of reading up on him but then didn't end up telling any of the interesting stories but just told some facts. The experience of researching, writing a paper and then presenting it was a good one for him. He enjoyed doing it too.

We had fun putting his costume together from things that we had around here. He was able to use his shirt and pants but then I had a suit coat that he was able to borrow. He wasn't real sure about the buttons being on the wrong side but was a good sport about it. Somewhere I have a bunch of dress-up bow ties that I had made for another occasion but I couldn't find them this week so I had to dig out Ken's bow tie from our wedding for him to wear. I could have made another one but one less project is always good. For his beard I had a piece of black furry fabric which we cut to shape and attached to elastic. He looked rather cute with it on.

The hat was the "big", but fun project. Jonathan cut a cardboard tube we had down to size and then also cut out a brim. It would have been better if the tube had been a little bigger around so that the hat didn't perch on his head quite so much but oh well- It got the right idea presented.

After the hat was taped together, I covered it with some black fabric from an old t-shirt. Then I put some black ribbon around it just above the brim. We did end up having to add an elastic strap just to keep it on too.

Megan chose to be Laura Ingalls. We have been reading through those books lately and she loves them so it was a fun choice.

She had fun drawing pictures to show everybody and then started copying down a bunch of the book (which she can't read but she can copy) onto papers. She brought those papers along so she would know what to say. It was pretty cute. At home she was incredibly dramatic with her presentation but once we got there she did have a bit of stage fright and wanted me to be beside her and didn't remember everything that she had planned on saying. It was still cute though and another mother thought she may have been the best at speaking loud and clear.

We had everything we needed for Megan's outfit from her closet and the dress up bin so it was nice and easy!

Mara chose to be Rivka, a Russian Jew the immigrated to America. She had wanted to be a Russian Immigrant but we were having trouble finding a real story. The one she used was a real story but the name had been changed so we do not know her real name.

Mara drew a map to show the travels that Rivka had to make to get to America. She summarized the story as well.

Mara's costume was pretty easily put together from things that we had one hand though she did make up a head scarf using some fabric that I had. She also borrowed an apron from her grandma but then accidentally untied it and left it at home so we found a new one for her to wear at the church building.

We and another family brought food to share (everybody was encouraged to present their character in the way that best worked for them and if they wanted to bring food that would be fine and fun). We did a bit of research and decided to bring a "Viking Stew" made with yellow peas and cabbage, (to go with Leif Erikkson), Apples slices for Abraham Lincoln as we had read that they were a favorite of his and often for summer lunches he would eat just fruit (In winter he had a biscuit and a glass of milk), Cornbread and Honey for Laura Ingalls and Blini (a pancake made with lots of eggs, kind of like a crepe) with Chocolate inside for Rivka. Rivka had gone to Belgium on her way to America and fallen in love with Chocolate there but the Blinis are traditional Russian fare.

We are enjoying this year of homeschool get-togethers.
If you also are homeschooling- how is your year going?

Around here....

2011-11-03T22:57:00.000-05:00

...We have fun doing simple things like polishing shoes together. (It was a shoe party one evening not long ago.)

...I have not been taking very many pictures lately except of things that I am trying to barter away.

...We are really trying to get rid of things that either we don't believe to be beautiful or know to be useful.

... We momentarily got in the Christmas Spirit while watching the High school production of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" tonight. They did a very nice job. Pretty impressive for highschoolers.

...I am trying to finish up my clothing organization. I am making progress on the mending and going through but not quite as fast as I would like but that is due to have a fairly busy week.

...I am dreaming of getting all the loose gardening projects taken care of (like wrapping the trunks of the fruit trees so the mice don't nibble on them this year!) before the snow flies and preferably within the week! I did get the bee hives all stacked neatly in the garage so that feels good.

... I have discovered the fun and the organizing potential of Pinterest. I haven't had time to go on it much yet but I am looking forward to getting all the cool projects I have found online organized on there.

... A name was drawn for a Winner of my Tropical Traditions Dishwasher Detergent Giveaway- Congratulations Beth!

...I was "missing in action" and instead having fun guest posting over on Kelli's blog: "More bang for your buck".

....We had tons of fun at our homeschool day today. I will post more about that tomorrow, Lord willing.

Have a good night!

A Handmade Christmas {Week 5}

2011-10-31T22:53:00.002-05:00

Hello! Welcome to week 5 of a Handmade Christmas!
Have you started working on gifts yet? If you are I would really love to see or hear about your ideas!

Here are some of the gifts that we have completed recently:

Mara recently finished this cute cross stitch picture. She was given the kit as a gift and now is planning on giving the completed picture away as a gift. She totally enjoyed the process of working on it and now is busily doing another one.

The gift that I completed most recently is a pair of mittens for Mara. I was able to get the pair pretty much finished up while enjoying a few homeschool workshops on Saturday. I made the mittens using some leftover yarn from a ski hat that Mara had made for herself. I tried to creatively use the yarn so I would have enough and I just barely made it! It is always fun to be able to make something from scraps though.

When I make mittens I don't really follow a pattern, instead I have a guideline and then I make it to fit whomever I am making it for. Here are my basic guides:

Cast on stitches in a multiple of 4. For these mittens (to go on a thin hand) I cast on 24 (divided between 3 needles), for a larger adult hand I would use 28 or 32.
On those stitches I knit 2, pearl 2 around and around until I get the cuff as long as I want it.
Then I switch to plain knitting (and on these mittens I also added in 2 stitches) and go for an inch or so until I get to the place I need to make the thumb.
To make the thumb I put 4 stitches on a stitch holder. I then cast on 4 stitches to replace those and continue to knit the rest of the mitten.
When it is nearly long enough I start reducing stitches until I am down to just 3 stitches and then I pull the string through and knot it up.
Next I put the 4 stitches I had saved for the thumb onto a needle and then pick up 8 more stitches (4 stitches on each of 3 needles) and tie yarn on and knit around until your thumb is long enough and then reduce stitches and finish it off like the top.
Finish off all the yarn ends.
Make a second one so you have two!

I like to use double yarn as it makes it much thicker and warmer. Wool is always good too. To make stripes you just change your yarn whenever you want to change colors. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

So what have you been making? I am really looking forward to seeing what you link up! I so enjoy getting ideas from all of you.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up (by leaving a comment with your link in it and then I will add the link to the post by myself) a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating. :-)

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

I am not using the linky this week as it hasn't been working very well for me anyway but I would really love to see what you are making. Please leave the link in the comments and then I will put it in the post for everyone to see!

Please visit.....

Zimm's Zoo where she tells about making cute fancy gloves for little girls and slider headbands.

The World was not Worthy of Them

2011-10-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

This fall the kids and I have been working on memorizing Hebrews chapter 11. That chapter is such a great reminder of the importance of faith and just how what is really important is not what happens now but rather what happens for all eternity.

There is one section that makes me rather choke up with emotion nearly every time we go over it. I think part of the reason it has been affecting me so deeply is because of our daily reading from The Voice of the Martyrs. There have been people since nearly the world began who endured suffering for Christ's sake (That was something we found very interesting in Hebrews 11:26- Moses endured disgrace for Christ's sake even though in human terms he lived before Him) and there are many people still doing it today. We are very blessed in the country we live in to be able to worship freely and without persecution but reading about the experiences of others and memorizing God's word on the issue is very strengthening to our faith and to our resolve to live for God no matter what!

Here is God's Word:
Hebrews 11:32-40
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

May you be blessed as well as you think about the examples we have to look up to!

A hodge podge of happenings

2011-10-29T00:15:00.000-05:00

I have not been posting very often this week- I dont' know why that sometimes happens, I just get busy doing other things I guess.

Anyway in my goal of getting organized before the new year this week I was working on going through clothes here at our house as well as trying to keep my newly cleaned inbox, clean. I haven't been perfectly successful but it is still much better than before.

As far as working on clothes, first we did laundry on Sunday and Monday (Monday is my normal day for laundry but I also had a meeting, cleaning, homeschooling and piano lessons that day so I decided to get a head start) to get everything ready for sorting.

Tuesday was Aaron's birthday and since we were focusing on that and doing other things I didn't get much done on that day. Wednesday was the day I really went to work. We pulled out all the clothes from all the kids' dressers as well as the ones in boxes in their closets. We went through them all, getting rid of things that were to small or not liked (We ended up with a bunch of boxes of these!), putting those that needed mending in a pile, putting those that needed to be treated with oxygen bleach in another pile and separating some to be made into rags or rag rugs.

I am always amazed when I go through our clothes at how very blessed we are. We do so very, very little clothes shopping- and we don't spend much money on them but we always have an abundance! God is so very good!

On Thursday I besides homeschooling and household duties in the morning I worked on listing a bunch of clothes and other things on the barter site and then answered all the questions that came up there. I was amazed at how quickly Megan's old clothes were snatched up. I still have to meet people but I have arranged to get things like peanut butter, butter, nuts, soap, a hula hoop (for rug making) and tennis shoes for Aaron and Mara in exchange. I am pretty happy about that!

some of the stuff I bartered.

On Thursday afternoon we went out to my parents for a while as my older sister and family had come up to visit. We were back out there again today for the whole day. Fun times with family! I feel so blessed that both of us homeschool and are able to have a flexible schedule.

Today while out there visiting I brought along some things to work on. First I cut out patches for about a dozen pairs of jeans (I haven't mended in a while!) and pinned them on. Hopefully I can sew them soon. Then Anna (my sister) and I cut out a dozen pairs of mittens which I will sew up later. I am making them for a fundraiser. Then a bunch of us (My sisters, sister in law, my mom, my daughters, nieces and I had fun making some of the flowers that I told you about on earlier this week.

Here is some of what we made. I wish I would have taken pictures of some of the others that were made. They were pretty cute! This picture doesn't allow you to see the neat detail on the dark ones- sorry!

Tomorrow (actually today now- I guess it is getting late!) I am going to do something I think will be fun- I am going to a Homeschool Mom's day. It is in a small town nearby and there is a Homeschool Mom and Speaker coming who will present 3 interesting sounding seminars, we will have lunch and have opportunities to spend visiting. I am planning on bringing my knitting along to keep my hands busy and am really looking forward to this fun day of spending time with other homeschooling moms.

If I have any extra time tomorrow I would love to accomplish a bit more on my project of organizing our clothes. On my list of things I would still like to do are:

Go through winter gear (coats, snow pants, boots, ice skates, mittens, hats and scarves). Get rid of things that don't fit or we don't use.
Go through shoes and polish and care for the ones that we keep.
Go through my clothes - I go through these more continually than the kids but the drawers could still use arranging and I think there might be some things I should just get rid of.
Mend!

If has been a fun week of going through things and trying to get things fixed up around here. I hope your week has gone well too! Do you have any tips for keeping clothes organized?

A Handmade Christmas {Week 4 and a giveaway!}

2011-10-24T22:47:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week 4 of A Handmade Christmas! I had fun creating this week and I am hoping that you may have been creating too! If you have please tell me about it in the comments or link it up below!

My creating this week involved the mess of things above- some scraps of wool, beads, buttons, glue and other odds and ends. Resulting in some fairly quick prettiness! I had fun and then the girls came and joined me and had fun too.

I was making little wool flower pins (or barrettes). These have become pretty popular, I see them stuck on purses and bags, clipped in the hair, attached to a hat and then also in the normal spot where a pin is supposed to go- the a lapel or shirt. They can look rustic or elegant and they are a lot of fun to make! Not long ago we had been out shopping and Mara and I admired some that we had seen at a store in town, we thought they were pretty but found their $12 price tag to be a little steep and I wondered to myself if they actually sold. The clerk wandered by and I didn't tell him that I thought they were expensive but just admired them and he said they sell like hot cakes! I guess others don't think $12 is too much.

There are many different types you can make and since I have been keeping a little idea gallery going in my brain from all the different ideas I have seen online I just enjoyed being creative and using a bit of all the ideas I have seen.

To make a pretty and simple rose without any sewing needed (I used hot glue though you could use needle and thread if you wanted.) you simply cut a circle (5-5 inches in diameter) and then cut it in a spiral. This does not need to be perfect. I also cut out a leaf shape.

Then started with the outside edge of the circle strip, roll it up (the outside of the circle becomes the middle of the rose), gluing as you go along.

Then you take the little piece from the middle of the circle and glue it over the raw edges on the bottom.

For this pin I decided to use an old Home Depot pin and so I then glued the flower and the leaf to that pin. Sometimes it comes in very handy to be a hoarder! :-)

After it was all glued together I decided to glue a few little "pearls" to the middle of the rose just for an extra special touch.

I also just cut out some flower shapes (I designed them using a compass, Mara's recent use of it in her math reminded me of it's usefulness) and sewed three of them together with a wooden button in the middle.

This one I decided to make into a barrette so my next step was to glue and then also sew it on (I am hoping it stays!).

To make another multi layer wool flower but with a different look, I just cut out circles (not worrying about whether they were perfect or not) and then I snipped their edges to give them a raggedy look. I sewed them tightly together with a button in the middle, added a leaf on the underneath and attached it to a pin.

We decided to make Megan something special while she was down helping me. We covered a plastic hoop that comes in the middle of my florist tape with ribbon and then put a one layer wool flower with leaves and beads in the middle. She is quite happy with her new bracelet.

And then I strayed from my wool usage and pulled out some scraps of brocade. I also pulled out an old campaign button- I have quite a few of those and was looking for something to do with them!

The flower below was made by a strip of cloth, an old button, a bit of ribbon and a little bling in the middle. You make a knot at the end of the cloth, glue it in the middle of the button and then while twisting the fabric you glue and wind the fabric around from the middle to the outside. I followed a video tutorial which I found at Wonder How To.

Fabric flowers are each so unique and fun when you made them out of odds and ends of scraps.

Here was what I made in an hour or so:

I am going to give one of these flower pins (or the barrette), pictured above, away to one of you! Just leave a comment telling me which one you would like. You may have additional entries (leave a comment for each one) if you link up a Handmade Christmas post and/or if you follow my blog using google friend connect.

More flower making fun:

At Jo's Country Junction- wool flower headbands.
Ruffled flowers from old wool sweaters. (Video)
Video on using old sweaters to make felted flowers.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating. :-)

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

If the linky tool doesn't work (there have been issues in the past) just leave me a comment with the link to your post in it and then I will put it up in the post myself. Thanks!
And it doesn't seem to be working..... Anyway, check out this post which is full of ideas:
~Kristin @ Gypsy Junk

Vinegar

2011-10-24T12:45:00.002-05:00

I had mentioned a while back that I was trying my hand at making vinegar. When I did someone commented and asked if I could share more information on that. Well I still don't know if I am a successful vinegar maker or not as the vinegar making process takes months but I thought I could at least share a little more about what I am doing and also share some links that I have found.

I believe it was the book "Preserving with Honey" that really made me think that I might actually be able to make vinegar. The book (if I am remembering the right title- it was from the library and I no longer have it) made vinegar making sound pretty simple. Then I read in Carla Emery's book "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" about it as well. Reading there also made the process sound pretty simple but then Carla said that she had never actually been able to successfully make it. So... maybe it will work, maybe it won't. I don't know yet.

Here is what I did so far:

I took some crab apples and apple cores and covered them with water and heated them on the stove.
I then strained out the juice and placed it in a glass bottle. I used dark ones if possible but then I also used clear ones when I ran out of the other.
Then I covered them with some cotton fabric to allow the air in but to keep the bugs out (and I will add that the fruit flies are quite attracted to this process!).
I then put them in a cool and fairly dark place (a shelf in my pantry) where they will get to sit for the next 4-6 months.

During that time the are supposed to turn to wine and then on into vinegar. I will say that they are getting a nice (?) winey smell going in there. It was a pretty simple process- now just to see if it really works!

Here is some more information that I have found on vinegar:

How to make it by Nature Moms
Vinegar making from TLC
Another How-to from Hub pages
Interesting instructions on making many types of vinegar from Countryside.
Using Vinegar for your health at Web MD.
131 uses for Vinegar.

Have you ever made vinegar? I would love to hear about your experience!

Baptism

2011-10-23T22:07:00.000-05:00

Some of the beauty I have been enjoying.

Baptism has long been an argued over subject. I am not quite sure why. As with any spiritual subject I think our best solution for finding an answer is to go straight to the Bible and see what it has to say on the subject. So I am not going to talk about what I think today but I will share some verses from the Bible that I do think are important:

Mark 16:16 NIV “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. “

Acts 2:37-39 NIV “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Acts 22:16 NASB “Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”

Romans 6:3-5 NASB ³ “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for he who has died is freed from sin.”

1 Peter 3:21NASB “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

Galatians 3:27 “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

May you be blessed as you study His word!

Very easy leggings upcycled from knit shirts

2011-10-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

My Meggie girl loves to wear skirts. I don't mind as she looks cute and feminine and I like making skirts too. However, when our weather starts to get cold (which it has been- though today is beautiful!) her legs can get cold so easily just wearing skirts. She doesn't always seem to notice a coldness but it bothers me. :-)

Tights are nice to wear with skirts but they get wrecked fairly easily (the thin ones get ruined really easily) and we don't get them as hand-me-downs usually so they are something we have to go out and buy. I don't mind doing that some but for everyday wear it is nice to find a cheaper alternative. Thankfully leggings are pretty trendy right now AND they are easy to make! I found some ideas on line for re purposing knit long sleeve shirts for that purpose and we tried it this week and found it to be quite easy.

First we cut the sleeves off of an old shirt. These would work for the legs. Then using another old t-shirt I got the area needed for her bottom.

We sewed them all together, added elastic to the waist and elastic lace to the ankle area and they were done. They look rather funny just plain but sticking out under a skirt they look rather cute- I think anyway.

They would look even cuter if we had a skirt that they matched- I guess we weren't thinking that far. Maybe I shall have to make one or maybe I will just enjoy the eclectic look. At least her legs are staying warm!

I would have made them all out of one fabric except the problem was that I had already used part of that skirt for an upcycling project. Earlier this year I used it to make a cute onesie dress. I didn't really matter though as the top part of the leggings aren't supposed to show anyway.

I have seen this shirt to legging idea a couple of places on line but most recently I saw it at Make it and Love it and she does a great job of showing you how to do it if you want to try it too.

A more organized life and home

2011-10-20T23:02:00.000-05:00

This week my friend Jackie over at Blessings Overflowing started a series called "Countdown to A New Year- 11 weeks to a more organized life and home." Jackie invited everybody to join her in this goal of getting organized before the new year. That idea definitely appealed to me as I am feeling the need for some more organization in my life and I love having a goal to shoot for.

Jackie is posting at the beginning of every week telling us what she is working on for the week and then she has been updating on her facebook page with the goal of encouraging others and staying accountable. This week she is working on doing 15 minutes of Bible reading every day. I think this is a wonderful goal! More scripture reading has been a huge goal of mine this year as well and I am feeling very blessed because we have been able to up our amount of reading this year and it does seem to have become a habit. Yeah! Since this is a habit for us already, I am seeking to keep it going but this week I decided to choose something else to work at getting organized in my life.

This week I am working at cleaning out and organizing my e-mail inbox. This is often a cluttered area of my life and one that needed work. I have made a lot of progress and hope to get it all cleaned out by the end of the week and then I will try to keep it that way!

Here are some other things I hope to work on before 2012:

Getting our clothes all sorted, organized and weeded through. Right now it feels a bit out of control in the kids rooms.
Food organization- more menu planning and freezing ahead.
Picture organization both on the computer and in albums.
Birthday card and present organization.
Homesteading journal.
Homeschooling record keeping/ organization.
Redoing the kids chore lists and responsibilities.
Craft supplies organization.

Those are some of the areas that I have thought of that I know need working on. Lord willing I will be able to make some progress! I will try to share anything that might be interesting as I go along!

A Handmade Christmas Carnival {Week 3}

2011-10-18T07:09:00.003-05:00

We have been having some fun times with creative pursuits lately. Harvesting has slowed down dramatically and we have a little more time to work on projects. That is pretty nice since we are wanting to make gifts and things. I hope you are finding some time for project making as well! I can't wait to hear about or see your ideas!

I tend to do a lot of sewing when I make gifts,since for me that is a fairly fast and easy way to make a nice gift, However I know not everyone sews and also it is fun to have a little variety so my project today has nothing to do with needle and thread.

Carving has been something we have really been having fun with this fall. We are a very long way from experts but improvement is being made. Jonathan has now made several gifts and I have not so subtly hinted to the boys that I would be very open to receiving wooden spoons (hand carved!) or a pestle for Christmas or my birthday (which is also in December).

Here are a few of the things that have been made around our house so far:

A wooden knife that Jonathan made for Aaron's upcoming birthday.

The boy's arsenal of knives! Their Uncle Luke made the one in the middle,
it is quite treasured and it has been the inspiration for many more knives.
Jonathan made the ones on top and Aaron the ones (including a little spoon)
on bottom.

My project- A Spoon. It is so far from perfect but I am enjoying using something that I made myself.

It does really work too!

If you would like to try out carving you might find someone around you that can give you some tips or you might check out the library for some books to show you how. Our library had a large collection of books on carving- though the majority of them where showing how to make intricate and beautiful birds.

Here are some links that you might find useful if you are interested in carving:

How to carve a flute.
Chip carving a box top.
How to carve a wooden spoon.

That is what we have been doing- now how about you? I would love to have you share either by commenting or linking up a post you have written.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating. :-)

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

You might enjoy seeing the ideas from the other weeks:

Week One

Week Two

We are having some issues with the Linky working very well. I am not sure what is going on. Anyway- go ahead and try linking up using it but if it doesn't seem to work just leave a comment with a link to your post and I will try to add all the links to this post manually. Thanks!

Here are the links:

Zimm's Zoo (Pretty pens, hair bows, ruffled onsies and build-a-fort kits)