New Laundry Detergent Recipe

I have been making my own laundry soap for a couple of years now, which I posted the recipe here awhile back. It is a liquid detergent and very easy to make; but I think I have found an even easier one that I like better.

It uses the same ingredients, but is a powder and might even clean better! My girlfriend tried it and said that she had forgotten to pre-treat her daughter's dress that had chocolate ice cream dripped on it. After she washed the dress with this detergent she saw that the ice cream came out. I had the same thing happen and had used my liquid version of the detergent, and it did NOT come out. So...I'm hoping that this one cleans better!

I have also noticed that my diapers no longer have a musty smell after washing them with this detergent. That is always nice!

1 Bar Ivory soap
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda

Grate the bar of soap and mix with borax and washing soda in a blender (or food processor) until well mixed.

Use 1 Tbsp per load of laundry. Though I usually use about 2 Tbsp just to be safe!

Delicious Cookies

I made these delicious whole wheat, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago and have been wanting to share the recipe (which I found here). I used my fresh ground wheat and there was also no white sugar in them! They were WONDERFUL!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Peanut Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. melted butter
1c. honey
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. oats
6 oz. chocolate chips or 3.53 oz. bar of dark chocolate, chopped


Mix all ingredients together and place them by spoonfuls onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Cookies will still be soft when done.

Presenting Ireland

Here is Ireland playing her most recent song she is learning. Great job honey!

The Cast is OFF!

Caleb was so brave getting his cast off! Considering how he abhors loud noises, especially the vacuum, he did so well while the nurses cut his cast off with a machine that sounds like a vacuum.Though we did prepare him from day one what it would be like and brought him great ear protection that Mark uses at the gun range. So that helped a lot with the noise control.

He did get a bit nervous once the cast was off and they began to cut away at the plastic underneath it. Then broke down a bit once we began to dress him, he wanted to get in his stroller immediately without clothes on. So we put him in that and he calmed down a bit.

For some reason I thought that he would be able to walk immediately, with a limp of course. But he was not interested at all in trying for the first few hours after we arrived home. He itched himself like crazy, letting us know about all the "mosquito" bites he had under his cast.

After a good cuddle time with my boy, I put him in the bathtub pretty quickly once we came home to which he loved. He stayed in it for a full hour and a half! It took all of his dry skin off and he came out smelling much much better!(Look how dirty the tub was after his bath! YUCK!)

He also became more confident to move his leg while in the tub, to which when he got out he was ready to try to walk. He cannot put much weight on his leg so we either hold him up while he is "walking", or he holds onto the couch, or he crawls around.

Either way, we are all so excited that he is out of it and cannot believe six weeks have already passed. The first night in his bed he looked so comfortable sleeping all curled up in his bed. It was precious to watch!

(I love seeing him in clothes now!)

It is so nice to be able to leave my home now with all my children to go grocery shopping, church, or even the park! I am so so so happy this trial is over!

(Everyone happy they can get close to brother now without a hard cast beating on them!)

The next few weeks we will have to be careful as his bone is not completely healed and if he fell wrong it could possibly re-break. So for now, no play ground equipment, or hills, or toys on the floor to which he might trip on. We will focus on healing and getting strength in his leg again!

Favorite Movie of the Year

If you have Netflix, you can rent this documentary. It is inspiring, encouraging and just plain wonderful! Even if you don't have Netflix, it is good enough to buy.

Only Two More Days!

Till I get to hold my sweet boy in my lap without this awful cast between us! Till he gets to stretch out and walk again! We are ever so excited! I am weary of hearing "what can I do mom?" every three minutes when he gets tired of whatever he was doing before. Not that I blame him, I mean, he's four! I don't think I would be much better.Through this all, I am very thankful that we live in a country where medical care is accessible. To know that my son will be able to walk again without a limp. Not saying these are necessities to life, but they sure are luxuries that many do not get to have. And I am very thankful.

I cannot believe that the six weeks is almost over. Thank you to all for your prayers...they were answered for sure!

I just had to throw in these two pics...too cute to pass up of True & Noble!

Look What Mark Came Home With!

I cannot believe it...though I guess I have to since it is sitting in my driveway! A 12 passenger van, 2008 with 24k miles on it with a good warranty as well! I always knew that we would eventually have one, but never realized it would be this soon.

After not being able to drive when it rains due to problems with our old mini-van. Plus the fact that we cannot go out of town with my mother, or anyone else for that matter due to the space of our old van. Mark found this awesome deal after looking for a long time from a great member of the Texas Fishing Forum (Monte Coon).

Now we truly can work on paying this one off for good and drive it till it dies, as there is no need to buy up in space again!

I am so excited and am feeling so blessed!

Sabbath Blessings

After reading an article on observing the Sabbath by Renee Ellison (which you can download for free!). It was so convicting (in a wonderful way!) that I asked Mark if the children and I could begin to keep the Sabbath on Saturday's. He was very supportive so we began a couple of months ago.

Just in time my grandmother gave me her china so we now have pretty dishes to use to celebrate the beginning of it on Friday night with our Shabbat dinner. It has been so much fun and so meaningful for us!

Please know that I am not telling you this so that you will think we are so holy and righteous. Just the opposite, this should show you how much help we need to become holy and righteous. We needed this day of rest that God made for us so that we can re-coup, re-focus our attention on the Lord and the things that are important. Faith, family, rest, to name a few.

I cannot express how wonderful these days of rest have been. Knowing that I can sit on the floor and play with the children, read to them, read my Bible or even take a nap and know that there is nothing waiting for me to do. No laundry waiting to be folded, no dishes waiting to be washed or put up, no floor waiting to be swept. It has been AMAZING! Once the sun sets Friday night, the sense of relief that settles over me is indescribable.

Usually I pre-make our breakfast and lunch for Saturday on Friday afternoon. Since Caleb's accident I have not done this, but I plan to once things go back to normal. We have all of our chores done by sundown and always look forward to the delicious meal that has been prepared, along with the beautiful table and each other to enjoy it with.

I would encourage everyone to do their best to have a day of rest each week, it is well worth it and remember...God created it for you!

Bearded Dragons 101

Did you know that bearded dragons brumate? It is like hibernating where they shut down during the winter not eating or moving for months.

The first year Vladimere did this (our pet dragon above), we thought he was dying or depressed. We finally pulled him out of his cave and forced him to eat as we were so worried about him.

This year when he began to do the same thing, I thought to look it up to see if there was a reason. Which is how we found out about reptiles brumating! This time around, we enjoyed having one less mouth to feed (or at least Ireland enjoyed that) and looked forward to when he began to wake up.

Once he did (about a month ago) he was very hungry and very active. He has gone back to trying to climb into the fake tree and rocks pictured behind him, which is pretty sad to me...and to hunting his crickets when we feed them to him.

We are all happy to have Vlad back, at least for the next 7 months!

Family and Picture Update

Caleb is doing well, only 2 more weeks to go! He has actually begun to crawl around on the floor as you will see in pictures below. He really enjoys his new found freedom on the floor!
Ireland and True are such a joy! They have been serving and loving their brother so well. True even got Caleb's bed pan and beat me to him when he needed to use it. She held it in the perfect place for him all by herself as well. I guess watching me do it so much made her understand how to. I was pretty surprised!Noble is sitting up on his own now for the past couple of weeks and crawling backwards. He even gets up on his bottom from his belly all by himself! I can't believe he is already 6 months old!Noble's ready for his first bite of table food (peas)...

As you can tell, he wasn't too impressed! I think momma's milk must taste much better!


Caleb & True playing lego's on the floor...and Caleb crawling.

Brother's loving on each other...Caleb LOVES to hold babies! Especially his baby brother.

Me with my sweet little ones.

Dehydrating Food

I have been on a trek to save money on our grocery bill for years now. After all, since Mark is the bread winner, I am the bread saver!

I have begun to use ads more since Wal-mart honors others sales and have been getting fabulous deals on my produce. For example, this week I can buy 10lb bags of potatoes for $1, or 4lbs of tomatoes for $1, etc.

The problem I am coming up against is not being able to use all of these wonderful deals after I buy and the produce going bad.

My goal is to only buy what is on sale, (with everything, not just produce) then make my meal plans based on what I have bought. So far it has been working well and my grocery bill has gone down a lot. But when I find a brocolli for sale for $.50, or a red bell pepper for $.39, and do not use it in any recipes, I do not want it to go bad!

So due to my dear friend Amy beginning to dehydrate foods, I am thinking that this may be my solution to saving fresh produce for the future. If I can dehydrate whatever I buy on sale, I can always have fresh produce available and not worry about those two ten pound bags of potatoes in my pantry going bad!

I am amazed at what I have found out so far about dehydrated food...like the fact that it does not take the nutrients out of the fruits or veggies. Also after you re-hydrate them they look as they did in the beginning. And that the food can be stored for a long time. I am looking forward to learning a lot more!

Here is a series of videos that explain all the how to's in dehydrating and storing. I've watched the first one so far and look forward to finishing them eventually!

I'd love to hear if anyone else dehydrates and your wisdom and advice you would like to share.