A Nod To Thanksgiving Past

Don't Panic, the slide show only spans four years (the digital camera years).





Thanksgiving 'o7 post.
Thanksgiving '06 post.
"One Little, Two Little, No Little Indians." '06
Thanksgiving '05 pics.
Thanksgiving '05 post.
Thanksgiving '05 Numbers.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ummm. . . . It's Snowing!!!!

Just thought I would share that it is snowing!?!?!? Granted there is some rain in there too-- but big, white, chunky, fluffy flakes are coming down. And, randomly this is the second time this week-- in November-- in the Carolinas. Granted it's not the "stick to the grass and fun to play in kind." But, it's snow! Maybe we will have a white Christmas!

Cultivating A Thankful Heart

My favorite Thanksgiving project to date is an ongoing project which has a place of prominence in our home. After Hannah brought home a fall tree project (displaying a memory verse) from her Wednesday night church class, I came up with the idea for a large "Thankful Tree" where our family could thoughtfully share things we are thankful for in our lives. Desperate to change my own heart and hopeful about teaching my girls to have an attitude of thanksgiving, I decided that this tree would hang on the french doors in our dining room. It can be seen from our living room, dining room table, kitchen, and (even from the back) in the office. This construction paper tree has blessed me greatly! I am reminded daily of the many reasons to give thanks to our Heavenly Father-- our Provider and Sustainer. Unlike most trees in fall, our tree continues to grow, as we individually add our own construction paper hand with a reason to give thanks each day. I pray that God will be glorified through this "Thankful Tree" and that our hearts and minds will be transformed. As we look forward to Thanksgiving, may we look to the one who gives us everything from His own hand.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever."~Psalm 118:1

It's That Time Again!!!

I am shamelessly giddy come Christmas Card time, and with Thanksgiving only days away, you know what that means . . . . Christmas Cards!!! As you can see from my fridge, your cute little seasonal greetings do not go to waste around our house; rather, they bring us 365 days of enjoyment as we gaze at you or your adorable kiddos each time we open the refrigerator. Once Christmas has come and gone, I purchase a new role of magnetic tape and carefully crop each picture. Then, I thoughtfully organize your smiling faces into an eye pleasing collage that will remain on our refrigerator as kitchen decor until next Christmas. Now, thanks to photo editing, online photo services, and sparkly gel pens the sending part is fun too!!! So, bring on the Christmas cards-- my refrigerator is ready and waiting!

Friday Funny Photos

Here are some humorous pictures I came across (from a couple of months ago). They made me chuckle!

The girls doing Yoga . . . check out the mandatory athletic headbands.

Well, sometimes a picture says it all, but in case you need a closer look . . .

Happy Friday!!!!

Whitlock Moving Pictures

Here are some pictures from our weekend in Charlotte, helping Katie and Jimmy move into their new house:

2 Men & A Truck

We headed to Charlotte on Friday morning to help my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew move into their new house. Jonathan and Jimmy worked at impressive speeds to move everything out of their apartment and into the house. We had a nice time visiting in between unpacking. We are also excited to see our dear friend Kerry (who came by for a visit) and her cutie patootie, Brennan. Katie has already posted pictures ( I think she is playing on the computer so she can ignore the unpacking looming over her head--haha). You can visit her blog for a preview of the weekend and I will try to have my pictures up soon.

Laundering For Less Q & A

I have received several questions about the homemade laundry detergent and household cleaners, so I thought I would post some answers to those questions.


Q: Where did you find your ingredients?

A: I found everything (Zote soap bar, baking soda, distilled vinegar, Borax, Hydrogen Peroxide, Ammonia) at Wal-Mart with the exception of Arm & Hammer's Super Washing Soda. I had to go to Harris Teeter to purchase the Washing Soda. Zote is on the laundry aisle (next to the stain treatment) in our store, and Washing Soda is in a large yellow box (almost looks like baking soda) on the laundry aisle in grocery stores as well. My 5 Gallon bucket and lid came from Lowe's. You can get them at Wal-Mart, but ours was out of lids. As I stated in my original post, I re-used spray bottles and laundry detergent jugs, and I even store extra cleaner in milk jugs, etc.

Q: Did you use your 5 Gallons of laundry detergent yet?

A: NO!!!! This is 5 gallons of concentrate. When you scoop it out into the laundry detergent dispenser and add water to fill, you wind up with a normal amount of liquid laundry detergent in the bottle ( in my case 2 qt or 1/2 gallon) this results in 10 gallons of liquid laundry detergent. It will be months before I go through it (and it only totaled about $2.00 to make).

Q: Does it work?

A: Yes, this is how they used to do it. I have found our clothes feel cleaner. I also am enjoying my household cleaners. When you purchase the manufactured cleaners, not only are you paying for packaging and scents, but basically the same thing-- with a few added harmful chemicals.

Q: What do you use for liquid fabric softener?

A: There are a few options, I have been doing the easiest thing, which is adding 1/2 C of distilled vinegar to my rinse cycle (you can use your fabric softener dispenser or downey ball). This has made the clothes nice and soft, and it cleans your washer and cleans out the lines/hoses.

Q: Do you really save money?

A: Yes! Like all ventures, there is some upfront cost. I think I spent about $5.oo on my 5 Gallon bucket and lid, and of course purchased the Zote bar, washing soda, vinegar, Borax, Ammonia, etc. (each item between $0.99 - $3.00), but use a very small amount of each ingredient, so you have them for future batches, stain treatment, and household cleaners. From what I have figured and read, it cost me about $2.00 to make my 5 gallons of laundry detergent concentrate. I would spend $4.oo- $6.oo a month on liquid laundry detergent (and that was generic), $2.00-$4.00 on stain remover, $4.00-$6.00 on color safe bleach-- we are already up to over $10.00 just on laundering alone-- that doesn't account for household cleaners. So, even though I had to purchase some items up front, I will definitely be saving money-- lots of money!!!

Q: Where can I read more?

A: GOOGLE IT!!!! I am a googleholic! Here are a just a few of the sites I have referenced:

• Duggars laundry soap recipe
I use this recipe.
• Homemade Household cleaners: The Family Homestead
  
I use several of these recipes.
• Natural Cleaning Products You Have In Your Pantry
• Homemade stain removers
• Homemade Household cleaners; Green Guide
• Homemade Floor Cleaner; Creative Homemaking
  

A Couple Of Turkeys

I was referring to the craft turkeys of course! Haha.

Laundering For Less

I'm not crazy . . . just frugal and willing to try things that save us money and help me to stay within our grocery budget (or even come close). I'm also always happy to produce less waste, reuse things, and take care of God's creation. And, you know me and my love for days bygone. So, my most recent adventure in good steward/ earth mama/frontier woman homemaking includes making my own laundry soap, stain treatment, and cleaning supplies. Naturally this involved (to my delight) lots of research and over thinking. But, like cloth diapers . . . this was something Jonathan happily supported, literally only took me about 20 minutes one recent afternoon (to make 5 gallons of laundry soap concentrate, stain treatment, and several cleaning agents), and can be done with items most people already have in their pantry and a few cheap extras.

I first learned about making your own laundry soap from watching an episode of 17 Kids and Counting, a show on The Learning Channel about a large Christian family (The Duggars). One of the reasons I occasionally tune into this television program is for the very purpose of picking up organizational tips and learning some thrifty practices; so, I was very excited when I caught the episode where there family showed how they make their own laundry soap. I immediately began further inquiry into the practice via the internet . . . Oh Google how helpful you are!!!. There are a lot of blogging mommies, savvy consumers, green gurus, and even one chemistry professor out there making their own household cleaners and laundry soap from the very ingredients our Great Grandmas and Great Great Grandmas used.

So here is the basic list of inexpensive multipurpose and easy to find ingredients (keep in mind, you only use a small portion of these things to make large batches-- so you will have the ingredients for future batches, thus saving money):

• Baking Soda

• Washing Soda

• Distilled White Vinegar

• Zote (or Fels Naptha or Ivory) soap Ammonia Borax

• Occasionally Rubbing alcohol and peroxide

Even if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, these items are great to have on hand for tough stains. I have been very pleased with all of my concoctions and have even found them to work more efficiently as surfaces and laundry look cleaner. After researching various recipes for laundry soap, I decided to go with the 5 gallons worth of concentrate (you add water when you put your concentrate into an old detergent bottle-- hello, this means I will have laundry detergent for months . . . all for about $2.00!!!!) For this particular recipe, you will need:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (I used Zote)
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax
Additional tap water

First you grate (or use a food processor) to shred the entire bar of soap.






Then, you add the soap to a saucepan of water and stir continually over med-low heat until the soap is melted. Next, fill a 5 gallon bucket (make sure you purchase one with a lid) half full with hot tap water.




Add melted soap, washing soda, and borax. Stir the mixture well--until all of the powder is dissolved.





Then add more hot tap water to fill the bucket. Lastly stir and cover. Let it sit overnight to thicken. Once the soap has cooled, you can add 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil, but I preferred to just go with the fresh clean/soap smell. This will yield 5 gallons of concentrate, which equals 10 gallons of liquid soap. You use 1/2 C in a top load machine and 1/4 C in front load machines. Once your laundry soap has thickened it will be like a gel (almost like Jell-o). Scoop some out, stir it up, fill an old empty laundry detergent container half full of concentrate. Fill the rest of the way with water. Shake before use (it will gel when it sits).

Side note, I have also forgone using dryer sheets, which contain nasty chemicals, can be a fire hazard (in regards to the build up on your lent trap) and are costly. I purchased some generic dryer balls, which I had first learned about in a green magazine given to Jonathan by a professor at the local community college, but just today I have come to find out that "real" green people are not to keen on the dryer balls which are supposedly made from PVC. I will have to do more research on this, but they did cut the drying time and fluff up the clothes. As far as static goes-- this is usually caused by over drying, or synthetic clothing.

There are many recipes out there to choose from, and you can even whip up a batch of dry/granular laundry detergent if you prefer. Some of the other homemade cleaners I have made include stain treatment (for clothing), window cleaner, multi-purpose cleaner, and floor cleaner. I have reused spray bottles and store the leftovers in everything from gallon milk jugs to Sunny D jugs. I used a Sharpie to label everything (including ingredients for safety purposes), and I have all the ingredients in stock for when my cleaners run out. I have to say, it was so much fun to skip the cleaning aisle all together at the grocery store the other day!

Happy Homemaking!

Whirligig '08

This past weekend our city hosted the fourth annual Whirligig festival. Wondering what a whirligig is? A whirligig is simply an object that spins or whirls. A local artist created several whirligig/art/sculpture thing-a-ma-bobs, and they can be sighted throughout our downtown district-- there is even a new whirligig park . . . and so, naturally, a festival was born. Jonathan actually served on the committee this year, and the Imagination Station is located in the heart of downtown and offers shows (demonstrations) during the festival. Additionally, our church always has a booth, where we hand out literature, meet people, and get the word out about our church. So, as you can imagine-- it was a busy weekend for Jonathan. He was, however, able to meet up with us for a little while on Saturday. We checked out the various vendor booths, let the girls play on inflated toys, and shared our once-a-year obligatory funnel cake--yum!

Adventures in Art Class

The girls spent one afternoon last week on individual art projects. Madeline painted her first canvas, which is now hanging on the art wall in the girls' room; and, Hannah chose to paint a little heart shaped box. I think she is currently stowing her "most precious" play jewelry in the box.

Hard at work . . . you could hear a pin drop!

Madeline concentrating.

Hannah working on some polka-dots.

Hannah and her box.

Madeline and her Post Modern painting.