Work In Progress, 12/31/08

I've been making things for the baby. Can you tell we're hoping for a girl?


I'm posting this under "work in progress" because I still have to make one more sockie to complete the set.



These are made from the same skein of yarn, so they really are the same color!!

Christmas and a Birthday

*L* turned 2!!


Nana (my mom) is there on the phone singing Happy Birthday with us.



This is Christmas Eve. My Aunt sent 2 huge boxes with lots and lots of stuff!!







Christmas Day they opened their boxes from Nana.



Nana is with us in phone again! :)

Christmas Traditions

Last year (our first Christmas in TN) we established 2 traditions that we plan to continue.

On Christmas Eve we took the kids to Bristol to see the Speedway in Lights. I didn't take my camera this year but here is a link to our trip last year. The van overheated, so I probably wouldn't have taken many pictures anyway. It was still pretty fun.

On Christmas Day we saw Bedtime Stories. It was such a cute movie. Skeeter (Adam Sandler) tells bedtime stories to his niece and nephew. Only the parts that the kids add in come true!! Excellent!!

Coming soon...

August 2009

Christmas Program

We had our Christmas Program at church last night. They all did a wonderful job! *L* did everything that he was supposed to do. Made me proud.

Ready for Christmas

What will you hear?

Homemade Knitting Needles

I am knitting every day now. I have a long list of requests.

This is the hat that I am making for *B*. It calls for sz 13 dpn, but I had read somewhere that you can make a hat with circular needles instead. So I ordered a circular needle (from eKnittingNeedles.com). I got from the ruffles to the ribbon and realized that I HAD TO HAVE double pointed needles to finish it.

SO... I went to Lowe's (with my needle gauge) and bought a 48" dowel rod. I divided it into 5 sections and used a pencil sharpener to get my points. Then I sanded them. The finest I had was 220 grit, I still need one smaller to get the last little "kinks" out.

It only took about an hour, and the hardest part was the sharpening. If I had a "hand-cranking" pencil sharpener (or an electric one, for that matter), it would've been a piece of cake.

Here they are in use. The 2nd picture shows my mistake. When I transferred from the circular to the dpn, I kept knitting. I don't know why but I have to purl the rest of it for it to come out right. Not a big deal, just weird.

Final Cost (tax included): 94 cents.

His First Loss

Breakfast Casserole

Assignment #113: "Although I am not able to produce miracles, it sometimes feels like I need to when it comes to meal time. There are times when money is tight, groceries are few and I have to feed my family. During the holiday season, you might have so much going on that you need to make a meal quickly with as few ingredients as possible. This week post your favorite recipes that require six (6) ingredients or less. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!"

Frozen Hashbrowns (shredded or about 8 patties)
8 - 10 eggs
1/4 C. milk (just enough to make the eggs fluffy)
meat (cubed ham, sausage, ground beef, shredded turkey/chicken, etc)
Shredded Cheese



1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Spray 13x9 baking dish. Put hashbrowns on the bottom. (You can use more if shredded.) Next, add a layer of meat (this is optional, I've made it plenty of times with no meat.)
Then, cover the top with shredded cheese.

3. Beat eggs and add milk. Pour over casserole.

4. Bake for 30 minutes and check. If eggs are done, ENJOY! :)

TN, Spiritual Revival, and New Inventions

This would be Adventures in MFW week 18. If you read my earlier post, you saw that I'm not exactly sticking with Adventures. I'm still following the TOC for US History, but I'm using A Child's Story of America as our main text.

History:
This week our state was TN. Since we live in TN we added quite a few coloring pages from The Terriffic Tennessee Coloring Book. We discussed the Second Great Awakening and new inventions, such as the Cotton Gin and the Steam Boat.

Math:
*B* did lessons 44 & 45 plus the corresponding review sheets. She's learning/reviewing place value to 100,000.
*C* did lessons 24 & 25.

Language Arts:
*B* finished PLL Lesson 32 - copywork for "their" and "there" & Lesson 33 - dictation for "their" and "there"
*C* PLL Lesson 32.
*T* started Plaid Phonics Level K. This week he did Ss. We're still planning to continue with Reading Reflex, but I noticed that it would move along much easier if he knew the letter sounds first.

Poetry:

We are reading a 2-page spread from The Random House Book of Poetry for Children each day. We were doing Ambleside Online's schedule for *B* & *C* individually, but it was becoming too much on me. So I'm combining a lot of our Literature. I'll write more about that later.

We read a Biography on Bach and practiced our Hymn. I Sing The Mighty Power of God

Mike is starting first shift on Monday, hopefully that will help us to gain some regularity in our schooling. All of this "here and there" stuff is killing me!!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This whole thing got started Monday night when I watched 17 Kids and Counting on TLC. The Duggar Family makes their own Laundry Soap. I had toyed with the idea of trying it for a while, but after she said that the batch they make costs about $2 I made my decision. Also, I had no idea how EASY it actually is. The only problem is that their recipe is WAY TOO BIG. :) So I did a little research and found quite a few sites. Tip Nut has 10 different variations on one  page, but this is the one that I actually followed.

Here's what you need. Washing Soda, Borax, and soap. 



Fels Naptha is the most highly recommended, but I couldn't find it and I already had Ivory. After all was said and done, I found some Octagon. I'm going to try it the next time.

Ingredients:
1/3 bar soap
1/2 C. Washing Soda
1/2 C. Borax

On the website she said to use a full bar if using Ivory. I didn't read that until AFTER I had made mine. It came out just fine and washes better than the commercial stuff! So, 1/3 of a bar of Ivory soap is the same as 1/2 C. after it has been shredded.

Then just follow the instructions and voila!!



... enough soap to last a LONG TIME!! I've already washed 3 loads (at 1/2 C. per load), and I'm loving the results.

The first load was my husbands work clothes. (He is a welder, they get very very very dirty.) I wanted a true test. I have never gotten his clothes that clean with any commercial detergent that I have ever used.

Let me know if you usually make your own. Or if you made some after you read my post! :)