Lemon, Sage & Ginger Soap

This past weekend, I was able to set some time aside especially for more soap making. YYAAYY My dear hubby actually volunteered to "watch" the girls so I can make soap. We are down to our last bar and he is "desperate". He loves my soap. aaawww.. :) This batch is made with coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil. I added a blend of Lemon, Sage and Ginger essential oils. It makes a great combination. I also added calendula petals, not only for the visual affect but for their healing properties they hold within. The first picture is the soap inside the mold just before cutting. It has been in this mold since Saturday evening. After adding all ingredients together and stirring to "trace" I poured in this mold and let it set underneath a blanket to keep as warm as possible for 24 hours. I then uncovered it and let it sit for another 3 days. Then came the cutting part. As you can see, I still need practice at making that "straight" cut. It will be around 4 weeks before we can start using this soap. Until then, it will make my laundry room smell "lemony" fresh, and will continue to harden as it is still quite soft. My next batch, I hope to make a "shampoo bar". I plan on adding Nettle leaf and Rosemary, as they are very good for the hair. I can't wait until the sun gets warm enough to where I can make infused oils with different herbs before making them into soaps. Now, that will be "as good as it gets"! :)

FINALLY - some good results

Wow - I took Sharon's suggestion on letting my "bread machine do the work" and it worked like a charm! My bread actually didn't go flat! It always tasted good, just didn't look as good. *grin But now I can have both! :) Always feels more rewarding when something looks as good as it taste. I added a cup of soft wheat as I ran out of the hard wheat - and didn't want to add white flour. My hard wheat is in a bucket out in my sunroom, and I would have had to wait til tomorrow to bring it down to room temperture. It's FREEZING out there. bbrrrrr I am not sure if the "soft" wheat had anything to do with it not going flat or not. I will have to wait and see the next time, which just may be in a couple of days. My girls eat this wheat bread like there is no tomorrow. :)

Daddy made a mess!

WOW - it's Monday again already! Even though Jonathan and I had a lazy relaxing weekend, (something we don't get too often) time still went by way too fast. Yesterday was a very COLD, snowy, & BLUSTERY day outside. It was so nice to watch it all from the inside. :)

Abigail has now increased her vocabulary to some 5 and 6 word sentences. For example: Our bathroom sink was rather clogged, so this weekend Jonathan decided to take care of it once and for all. He got underneath the sink, took the piping apart, (thankfully he didn't need my help or I would have lost it *MAJOR GAG*)and made quite a mess. Abigail was in there only for a few seconds to observe what he was doing and came running to me:

Abbi: Ohh nooo.. Mommy! (hands go up in the air) Daddy made a mess!!

Mommy: he did??

Abbi: YESSSHHH

Her favorite sentence lately is- "no, I don't like it" - as in.. when I give her something to eat, have cloths in my hand to change her into.. and so on. She has figured out how to "disagree" with me, and is implementing it a bit too often for my taste. :) Her vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds on a daily bases. She has become quite the little parrot and repeats everything. My baby is growing up. *sniff

I made Wheat Bread today and so far it is rising rather quickly. YYAAYYY My sister Doina tipped my off by telling me I should knead my bread for about 15 minutes. ( vs. the 5 to 7 minutes I have been doing) It got pretty tiresome, so I let my Kicthen aid mixture share the chore. And wow.. the results seem WONDERFUL! The bread has been rising for less than an hour and it has nearly doubled, if not doubled. So - now I must do some baking.

A penny saved..

These days, with gas prices so high every penny saved is truly a penny earned! Here is a link that my sister Daniela shared with me... you enter your zipcode and it shows you all the gas stations within a so many mile radius of your zipcode, with live gas prices!

Arrowroot saves the day!

I went to the grocery store last week and quickly picked up what I thought was "canned pumpkin" to make pumpkin bread for my dear hubby. So today, I get all my ingredients out and ready -- was going to surprise him as he LOVES Pumpkin Bread. I open the can and in doing so I got some pumpkin on my finger and when I licked it off I noticed it was sweet. HUH?!?! I took a closer look at the can and it was READY MADE PIE FILLING! NOT just Canned Pumpkin .. OH NO!! For a moment I went into panic mode .. then I thought, "wait a minute.. I will just make him Pumpkin Pie! After all he has been asking me to make him some for quite sometime now. I checked the back of the can and for my convenience they had a simple Pumpkin Pie recipe, which only required the Pie Filling, Evaporated Milk, and a couple of eggs. As I went for the pantry I prayed I had an evaporated milk in there somewhere. Low and behold he was sitting nice and sweet in the corner, just waiting on me. :) Shew.. I was off the hook and on my way to making a pie for my sweetheart. All will go smooth for hench forth ... OR so I thought. I gathered my little troop (Emma; Abbi was still napping or she would of had her little fingers in it too) and we start making the pie crust. As she was stirring the flour and salt for me she goes "Mommy.. this is going to make a goooodd pie!!" I said.. that's right sweetie! *kiss - so after getting the crust mixed, and into the pie plate, edges all nice and neat, I left to "poking with the fork" part to Emma and I moved on to throwing the filling together.

I read:

Pumpkin Pie

1 Can Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 Can Evaporated Milk

2 Eggs (beaten)

Mix all together and pour into a 9 in. pie plate.. ect.

Little did I realize, until it was too late, that it only asked for 5 of the 12 ozs. of evaporated milk - ONLY 5 oz. and NOT ALL 12. But anyhow.. I poured it all in before realizing what I was doing. When I seen it was too "runny" I realized I just made a BIG OOOPPSSS! I thought it was JUST meant to be ONE BIG FLOP! But, I didn't give up THAT easy. :) So I reached for my arrowroot powder, threw in a couple of heaping tablespoons stirred it up and into the oven it went. I wasn't sure how it would turn out... but after baking it an extra 20 minutes, it was screaming at me to let it out the oven already! My hubby said it was EXCELLENT!! He loved it! As you can see from the picture that he and the girls already feasted! :)

So I can safely say that "Arrowroot saved the day"!!!! *SMILE*

** I also made gravy using arrowroot powder... and it was YUMMY! A wonderful alternative to the highly processed cornstarch or flour, plus it adds nutrition to your food.

Congratulations to Bob & Monica!

A BIG DOUBLE congratulations to my sister Monica and bro-in-law Bob! They are the proud parents of Kailey Hope and Zoie Faith, born this morning about 7:00 EST time! God has truly blessed them with 2 beautiful healthy girls! I haven't seen them yet, but I take thier word for it and hope to get pictures SOON! :) My arms ache to hold them, but unfortunately I am 10 hours way. I can't wait to get more "details". :) I talked to Bob.. but you know how guys are. hehe J/K ... he did a pretty good job but I am sure Monica will have LOTS more details. :)

And oh yes... congratulations to me TOO! I am an auntie AGAIN! :) I think these two little bundles have made number 22 and 23? :)

*********SPECIAL UPDATE*************

Sharon has pictures of the cuties on her blog! THANKS SHARON!

Five Little Snowmen

Yesterday and today I have been teaching the girls "Five Little Snowmen", which goes like this:

Five little snowmen fat
each with a funny hat
out came the sun and melt one
what a sad thing was that!
boo hooo --

Four little snowmen fat... ect ect.. you count down til you get to 1.

In the picture the girls are acting out the words - they had so much fun! It is the cutest little song. :)

****NEWS FLASH: Bird watcher in the making!

Today, the girls and I also did some bird watching thru our binoculars. I managed to take a few pictures of Abbi. She said she seen a "bue bird" (blue) and a "bak bird" (black) :)

Spring Fever

Well.. today is ONLY January 23 - and I have Spring fever so bad it's making me sick. BBAAHHH It was a rather cold day today which the girls and I spent indoors for the most part. Our day started off with taking Emma to school, which I surely would have rather stayed home. I crawled out of bed anyways, peeked out the window only to see snow covered grounds. Trust me, it didn't look very inviting. After bringing Emma home from school we stayed indoors for the rest of the day. All I could do was look out the window and stare at the snow covering the ground where my herb garden will be and invisioning the big healthy herbs in the nice warm summer sunlight... which was rather hard to do .. but some way, some how - I managed. One of the herbs I would like to grow is the Pineapple Sage. I am not quite sure what I would use this particular herb for, but I mainly want it to attract more hummingbirds. Of course my dear hubby would say "what do you need more hummingbirds for? You already attract enough." But in my eyes.. I can never attract enough. :) Someone on ebay had the seeds at a very fair price and I "put off" buying them, only to be kicking myself now, because they ran out. *sigh Now, I am having trouble locating more seeds; at a reasonable price that is.

Sometime next month I will start growing my seeds insoors. Until then, I will keep taking Emma to school, babysitting and endulging myself in bird/gardening books/magazines. :) AND watching the birds that are currently visiting my feeders, which are the American Gold Finch, Black Caped Chickadee, Dark Eyed Junco, White Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wren, House Finches and a few others. :)

MORE Snow!

Wow - it is finally starting to look and feel like Winter. This morning Emma came into our room excitedly shouting "mommy! it's snowing outside.. come and see". Since I was too tired to get up I pretended to be asleep (hehe) and she went over to Jonathan's side of the bed "daddy! it's snowing outside.. come and see! Come on Daddy!" Jonathan said "we will come see later.. not now" Emma: "But daddy.. it's snowing.. come see!" When she realized she wasn't getting either one of us out of bed she went over and pulled up the blind in our room.. and WOW - it was snowing hard! So I had to get up.. get them breakfast and then out they went to play in the snow.. something Emma and Abbi have BOTH been waiting for. :) Above you see some of the many pictures I took and I have more on our Picasa Photo Site.

Abigail and Cody

Abigail LOVES this baby! I can always count on her to comfort him when he is crying, give him his pacifier when he doesn't need it and feed him when he is hungry. :)

Baby Cody & Girls

Most of you know I babysit, during the week. I occasionally take pictures of all the kids as they are having fun. Last week I had the baby laying on the floor and all the girls came to join him. I thought this picture turned out SWEET and here it is! Clockwise starting with Emma (3) Cody
(4 mons) Bri aka Abrianna (4) Hailey (2) and Abigail Hope (2)

Recent picture of the girls

YAYY - my picasa is working again... Here is a recent picture of the girls, doing what they love best.. painting~! :)

A lil' bit of white stuff

This morning, the girls and I awoke to some white stuff falling out of the sky. Oh my! Could it be?!?!?! Could it possibly be??? ..... SNOW? YES! YES! It was SNOW!

This Winter has been very unsual for us. We have had only 2 snowfalls where we actually had a bit of accumilation on the ground. Only once did Emma and Abbi get to go play in it. They have been waiting for more snow all Winter. They were both so excited to see the snow this morning. Abbi had to drag a chair to stand on so she could see the snow and Emma was standing on her tip toes. They were both shouting ... YYYAAYYY.... snow!! Emma said... Mommy.. can I go play in it .. and of course since Abbi is such a parrot she said... "pay in it mommy?" :)

Last night after supper- Abbi said.. "mommy... potty!" I was thinking.. she is just saying that..and then she said, louder... "mmooommmmyyy... potty!" "Do you really have to go potty?" I asked. Abbi said "YESSH!" So..I rush her to the big potty and she went teeetteee! I am so proud of her. No need for potty training.. looks like she is doing it herself. :) I just need to remember to start encouraging her more!

I will be posting some updated pictures soon.... once I figure out how to post them. I used to upload them thru picasa, but for some odd reason that's not working anymore.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone, even though it is 3 days late. :) Things have been very busy here as usual. We all had a wonderful Christmas. My brother Dorel, and Jonathan's sister Kathy, which is my brothers wife and their 4 children came up to spend Christmas with us. We had much tasteful food, played games, sang Carols and just sat around and talked! I went overboard on buying the kids gifts again - but they got what they wanted. :) It was so much fun watching them open their gifts and gasp in excitement with each little gift they opened. I can't believe Christmas has come and gone.... same with the New Year. 2007 ; WOW! Emma is already talking about "next" Christmas.

Today, Emma said:

Emma: Mommy.. I want a baby like that. (pointing to 3 month old Cody; a baby I watch)

Mommy: You do?

Emma: Yes.... where do we find one like that.. hhummm mommy?

LOL

I am babysitting at the moment so I will have to blog more later. :)

Wonders of Garlic!

I am happy to announce that Abbi is over her latest sickness. This year has been something terrible. 90% of the people I keep contact with are sick or were sick! Jonathan isn't feeling the greatest right now. He and I both seem to have an ear infection, something Abbi had as well when she was sick. Jonathan went to the Doc. Saturday and he is now on antibiotics. I on the other hand refuse to do so. Last night, my ear was hurting so bad I was almost is tears. I went a grabbed a garlic clove, cleaned it and stuffed it in my ear. (not real deep; just enough so it doesn't fall out:)) My girls thought it to be quite hilarious. I must say I did look pretty funny. *grin I also crushed another garlic and down the hatch with water it went. Within 15 minutes I was up and about sweeping my livingroom & familyroom floors. Within an hour the pain was almost completely gone. This afternoon it started hurting again, so I swallowed a couple teaspoons of crushed garlic and it amazes me how quickly this God given herb gets to work. I learned about it's wonderful properties at www.bulkherbstore.com under the "garlic" section. I have now made a believer out of Jonathan; he is sitting here with a garlic clove sticking out his ear- hehe - since the antibiotics he is on right now if not giving him too much relief after taking them for 4 days. I also stuffed 3 capsules with the fresh garlic for him, since he won't take garlic any other way. :)

Well, Abbi is sitting here "mmmoooommiieee... mooommmiieee.... mommiiieee!!!!" needing my attention so I must go. :)

Don't play with your Gum!

Do you ever tell your kids "Don't play with your gum"?! I do. AND what goes around.. comes around. The other day I am sitting on the couch looking out the window.. thinking and out of bad habit I start stretching my gum, twirling it around my finger...back in my mouth.. thinking some more... back and forth I go with my gum; something I catch myself doing when I am in deep thought. And so I was playing with my gum, and all of a sudden I realize Emma is talking to me.. so I focus in on her- with her left hand on her hip, her right hand pointing a finger at me, she was saying "don't play with your gum mommy!" *grin - uh oh - I was busted!

I said.. "that's right.. that is very bad.. your right.. mommy shouldn't play with her gum. I won't do that anymore". :)

Abbi's Dilemma

Well, today is Sunday - this afternoon at 3:30 we were supposed to celebrate Abbi's 2 yr. birthday. Jonathan and I had to call everyone this morning to inform them that the party was off. Abbi awoke about 2:00 this morning and started to cry. Jonathan went in to check on her only to come back and tell me; "Abbi threw up .. what did she have for supper"? Being so tired, my mind was still in a fog I had to sit there a minute to let everything register and think.. "uummm.. I think she had sphagetti.. and umm.. apple sauce.. and chips.. milk.. oh my .. she ate alot. That must be it. I drug myself out of bed, thinking I would change her bed sheet.. all would be well and we will all go right back to bed. I turned the hall light on, walked in her room only to get hit by a strong smell of puke. It was everywhere! A BIG puddle in her bed.. on her blankets, puppy, snuggle bug, her pajamas.. her hair.. the floor. My first thought was.. "Lord help me". I used to have a pretty strong stomach, until I had kids. I got real sick with both of them in the beginning of my pregancies, so it seems as though my gag reflex kicks in quite easy these days. I had Jonathan bring her to the bathroom as I started running the bath water, and then gagged over the toilet as I undressed her. After getting her bathed, dried and into fresh clean cloths - I brought her into our bed.. only to have her puke again. Thankfully most of it was on her cloths. It was now 2:30 in the morning and I didn't feel like jumping in the shower myself. I once again changed her cloths and laid a towel under us, where a bit of the mess managed to slide off her cloths and onto my bed. After all of that I laid down beside her thinking it was all over. Morning would soon come and all would be well. She kept throwing up throughout the morning -- we ended up going through about 3 bath towels .. we all slept in til about 10:00 - and Abbi was acting like she was just fine. So I thought perhaps it was her supper after-all, not setting right with her. After breakfast that came up too. Shortly afterward she started to run a lowgrade fever. She went down for a nap about 1:00 and slept for about 3 hours. After eating a couple of bites of food, I could tell her fever had gone up and I gave her some motrin. Shortly after that she fell asleep on Jonathan and they both dozed off on the couch for about an hour. Her fever has gone down and she seems to be perfectly fine. We have been praying for her and trusting God for her healing. She is now at the kitchen table, with Daddy and Emma playing with some homemade playdough that Emma and Daddy made about a week ago. They are making pancakes, cookies and pizza. :)

I can also tell she is ready to start "bossing" again. Her cousin Noah is in Columbus at the moment and as of this evening, she keeps asking me about his whereabouts.

Abbi: Where Noah at mommy?

Mommy: He is at Auntie Lisa's right now

Abbi: Wisas'? (Lisas')

Mommy: Yes.. at Aunt Lisas House

Abbi: Ohhhh... awight ... (alright)

And of course... 5 minutes later we go through the same conversation all over again. :)

Back to normal

I am now feeling back to normal but under the same token, busier than ever. We went on a 10 day vacation, and things have not been "normal" since. The same day we were coming back from vacation Emma came down with the flu. She threw up in the van on the way home and only a few days later, Abigail came down with the same thing. Her body didn't take the flu as well as Emma's did. After a few days of runny nose, coughing, fever, and Abbi clinging to me ..... we had to take Abigail to the ER where they told me her fever was 105.5! After catherizing her, poking her twice, doing a couple of x-rays and running a bunch of tests they told me she had RSV.. was dehydrated and to MAKE her drink. They put her on a IV which she hated. Everytime a nurse would come in the door, she would throw her lil' arms around me start crying and held on tight. I felt so bad for her. My poor husband was trying to comfort us both as we were both bawling. She didn't eat for 2 and 1/2 days and would barely drink. She wouldn't even take popsicles. What was I to do? I got to praying... the very next day she started eating AND drinking! Within 2 days she was back to normal and roaming about the house, singing her ABC's and "twinkle twinkle little star". :) BOTH girls are now doing much better. Emma is back at school now, after a 3 week absence. She is happy to be back at school and I am even HAPPIER to have both my girls back! Abigail has quickly become her little bossy self again. Her little cousin in staying with us for a while and she hears me tell him "no" alot so she has taken it upon her self to boss him around.. she she goes around saying...

Abigail: TOOPPP (stop) Noahh... TOOOPPP...

Noah: NO! I'm not gonna stop!

Agigail: TOOPPP

Noah: No! I'm not gonna stop ...

and back and forth they argue until I can't take it anymore and ask them BOTH to STOP! :)

My BABY will be 2 years old in 6 hours and 8 minutes. I think I am going to just go to bed and cry myself to sleep. I can't believe my baby is 2! *sniff* We will be celebrating her birthday this coming weekend.

As usual I have lots to write but not enough time. I think I will just go cry.. because my BABY is TWO... yeah..I know..I've got issue's!

Until next time... God Bless!

We're home!

Well.. Jonathan and I, and the girls of course :) made it home Tues. night. We had a wonderful time down South and am already looking forward to going back down again. I am hoping it won't be another full year. I managed to unpack and do laudry all the very next day. Usually it would take me about a week. eekk. It was such a good feeling to get everything tucked away so quickly. Since we arrived home at 10:00 at night Emma and Abbi went straight to bed not even realizing we were home. When Emma awoke the next morning she started running around the house singing "we're home" - a song she made up. :) She was so good while we were on vacation, I didn't even think she missed home. But - apparently she did and was happy to be home. The only thing - or rather person I should say, that she missed was her Auntie Lisa. Daily, she would say.. "Mommie.. I miss Wisa" (Lisa) :) Lord willing, Emma will get to see her Aunt Lisa this coming weekend.

Ever since we arrived home, the weather has been rather mild. Quite unusual. I expected to come home to snow on the ground and freezing cold weather, as usual. But, this year it was different. It's been in the 50's and 60's - until today. We had rain all night last night, and the temperature has changed dramatically. We awoke this morning, to find the creek overflowed into our back yard. Emma was excited to see it. I said.. "Emma - look out the window".. With her sweet eyes all big.. she goes "wow.. mommie - that's neat.. we need a boat!! haha I took a picture this afternoon, and will be posting it in the next blog. We are supposed to get up to 1 inch of snow, but so far, it keep snowing off and on with nothing sticking. It has been extremely windy - and part of our gutter on the back of the house fell down. Well - I must ski-daddle for now. I haev alot of accomplish while the girls are napping. :)

The Big day!

Well .. today is the big day! When my honey gets off work, we are headed down South! I can't wait to see everyone! It's been a whole year since I have been home and it feels much longer than that. Jonathan and I loaded all the wheat, corn and all the other stuff last night. We were worried about not having enough room. Once we get the luggage in there, we will be cramped but we will survive. :) Emma helped me pack her suitcase last night so she is all ready to go. She said she was bringing her little lamb along. She loves "Mary had a little lamb" and when she pretend plays she say's "I'm Mary" and off she goes and plays with "little lamb". :) Abigail is sure to try and take her host of stuffed animals and blankets. I am going to have to keep things at a minimum because the more you take, the more you have to keep up with and God forbid we should leave "puppy" or "snugbug" behind.

We have had alot of rain in the last few days and the creek is up. WAYYY up. We are supposed to be getting some snow today - needless to say I am glad I'm leaving. I am sooo ready to see SUNSHINE; something we don't see often enough up here during the cold months.

I better get going. I still have Abbi, Jonathan and myself to pack.