Heating Pads

This year Kevin and I decided to make all of our Christmas gifts in an effort to reduce our footprint on the environment, tap into our creative sides, save some money, and teach some very valuable lessons to our little ones. We've been working for a few months now and we're enjoying every minute of it! I'm sure I'll be posting some more of our creations, but today I'm focusing on heating pads.
While brainstorming gift ideas for some of the men in our lives, I stumbled upon heating pads. The more I thought about it and starting working on them, the more I realized what a wonderful gift idea this is! So I'm making several this year, including one for each of the kids. When gifting these, you can make them personal with different fabric and for kids you could even make them in the form of teddy bears and such. I know my kids are going to enjoy theirs very much. I can just see them on cold nights, curling up with their heating pads, or when they have belly aches, etc. And it's a very manly gift that will come in useful after a hard days work.
So here's how I made mine:
I cut a piece of fabric 8'x14". With right sides together, stitch along the long side and the bottom. Make sure you reinforce the seams! Then, turn it right side out. Cut 2 pieces of muslin 2"x4". No need to turn right sides together or worry about pretty seams. Just stitch the two sides and the bottom together. Then, funnel in about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon clove. Sew your muslin pouch closed. Now, fill your heating pad about 1/2 full of rice, drop in your muslin pouch, and fill another quarter way up with rice. Leave about 4" at the top empty. Fold your fabric at the opening under about 1/2" and stitched it closed. Again, reinforce seams. Then you're done! I will be adding a ribbon with instructions to heat for 1-2 minutes with mine, otherwise I fear my gift recipients may think I've made them a very large, oddly shaped hacky sack!

Halloween Popcorn Balls

This is a really versatile recipe. We used it for Halloween, but the colors can be adjusted for anything, and who doesn't love popcorn balls?



So, add a few tablespoons of oil in a nice size pot with a well fitting lid. When that gets hot, add your popcorn kernels, just enough to cover the bottom of the pot. Put your lid on and start shaking. Keep on shaking until pop corn starts to come out from under your lid. Set that aside and melt 1/4 cup margarine in another pot on low heat. Add 10 oz of large marshmallows and melt. Add a small splash of vanilla, mix around, then add 3 packages of flavored jello. Stir until the jello is dissolved, then pour the mixture over your popcorn. Gently stir to coat. Now, smear butter all over your hands and start making your balls. I made mine about 2 inches wide. This made about 20 balls. You'll have to re-smear your hands after every couple of balls because this is stick-y! When they've hardened a bit, wrap in cling wrap and tie some ribbon.

Mummified Hotdogs

We don't normally eat hot dogs... EVER, but in lieu of Halloween, I thought this would be fun. And the kids loved it! Plus, it lead into an informative discussion on ancient Egypt!

Okay, so just take a can of crescent rolls, open it, and divide it into 4 rectangles. Then seal the diagonal seams in each rectangle and cut them lengthwise into 10 strips each, for a total of 40 strips. Next, wrap about 4 strips around each hot dog. Make sure to leave a space for some spooky eyes! I didn't have ketchup or mustard for the eyes, so I tinted ranch dressing with some green food coloring, slipped it in a plastic baggie, and squeezed the eye balls on. Have fun!

My little prairie girl

We're on our second book in the Little House on the Prairie series. So with Ava's 5th birthday coming up, we thought it'd be nice to take her to the original homestead of the Ingalls. It's only about 5 1/2 hours away, so we're going to leave early in the morning the weekend before her birthday, stay over night ("In a hotel with a POOL!!" Ava says), and head home the next day. She is very excited! I thought it'd be a really cool early birthday present to make her a Little House on the Prairie dress so she could dress up on our trip. I finally got it done tonight and surprised her with it. She was so happy and she looks as cute as a button!

You know, now days there are few young ladies worthy of the admiration of little girls. I'm so thankful to have found these books and in doing so, found a role model for Ava. Reading this series has lead us into so many discussions on obedience, discipline, manners, and etiquette, to name a few. And Ava talks about Laura as if she's a good friend. We enjoy this series very much. Even Eli will sit and listen while I read. And, shhh!!, sometimes I even read ahead!

Fruit leathers

Well, I didn't get very far with my apple recipes. I got kind of hung up on the applesauce. It was sooo good! I froze most of it to save for this winter. I did, however, make some fruit leathers. This was really interesting. I cooked up and pureed the apples like I was making applesauce, then poured the apple puree about 1/8-1/4 inches thick into a few 8x8 inch pans lined with cling wrap. I popped the pans in the oven set on 140 for about 12 hours to dehydrate the puree. The end result was a super yummy and healthy alternative to Fruit Roll-Ups!

Homemade Applesauce

We're working on clearing out these apples we picked the other day. Today we made applesauce. It was sooooo yummy! Here's our recipe:

12 large apples, or 24 small
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 cups water

Peel, core, and chop your apples. Put them in one big pot or divide into two smaller pots. As this cooks it will shrink, so if your pot is pretty full it will be fine. Add the rest of the ingrediants to the pot and cook over medium heat for 20-30 minutes. Once your apples are nice and squishy, run them through a food mill or china cap, give them a swirl in your blender or food processor, or use your potato masher or submersion blender to puree the apples. Now you can either can or freeze your applesauce.
After we made this, I wished I would've thought to use honey instead of brown sugar. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Next time I'll try this and post the results. Regardless, there's not much sugar in this. It's recommended that children have no more than 4 teaspoons of added sugar a day. If you dish this out in half cup servings, that would be 2 teaspoons per serving. It's still healthier than what you'll find at the store and tastes way better, too!

Egg hunt

This weekend we dyed eggs and had an egg hunt. No, we don't have our holidays mixed up! We feel like Easter is a very important time to remember, give thanks, study, and meditate on the burden Christ bore for us. We feel that too often, this gets overshadowed by pretend bunnies and brightly colored eggs. Even in the actions of the most well meaning parents, the focus of Jesus and his resurrection can be limited to the church service on Sunday morning and prayer before a meal by their children. Many parents try to ride the fence and celebrate both because they don't want their little ones to miss out on all the fun. But looking at it from a child's perspective, they are given a choice on what will consume their thoughts for that day. What do you think will win? Unfortunately but naturally, the egg hunt will. Sure, this child may be able to recite to you just how everything unfolded and maybe even be able to throw out a few bible verses, too. And when asked what Easter is about, they will inevitably say, "Jesus!", and we think that's great. But to most of these children, the highlight and sole purpose for their day will be the fun and games surrounding an egg-laying bunny rabbit.
This has not been an easy concept for Kevin and me to swallow. My side of the family looks forward to a huge Easter celebration that includes the adults in the hunt for over 500 eggs. Besides, we have really fond memories of hunting eggs when we were kids. But we also have the realization that we didn't have a clue as to the severity of this day until the last couple of years. Through all of this we realized it's not the egg hunting we have a problem with, it's the fact that the egg hunt takes away from where our focus, even as adults, should be during that time. So, why not have an egg hunt later in the year? This way we're not depriving the kids of something that is so fun, but we're keeping our thoughts sincere in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter.
In the past few years, we've really been able to dodge the bullet because our kids we small enough that they didn't really miss anything. But this year, there was no getting around it with Ava. So, we gave her our explanation, and promised to dye and hunt eggs later in the year. This was their first egg hunt ever and they had so much fun! We had 18 eggs, but next time I might add a few dozen more! Eli so gently placed his eggs in the dye, his chubby little fingers making sure to balance the egg on his spoon. It was a definite success! We'll be sure to try it again soon.

Apple Picking

We had a great time picking apples today. I've got big plans, too. I'll post the recipes as I make the goodies.

We went up to Eckert's Orchard and they have a ton of little side shows and activities for the kids. We thought they'd really like it, but they weren't nearly as into it as we had hoped... Until we got out into the apple fields. Then, it was like they came to life. Sure, corn field mazes and pig races are fun, but they limit the imagination so much that I think it was actually boring Ava and Eli. After we got out in the fields and picked a few apples we just let the kids roam. It wasn't very crowded and the fields are huge, so it wasn't hard to find a quiet space. I was able to sit and nurse Serenity without feeling like I was offending half a dozen people, Kevin and Ava competed to see who could splatter the most rotten apples by throwing them, and Eli wandered into his own world, no shocker there. He's never been a people person anyway, so once he was free, he went off by himself and rolled apples, kicked dirt, and just lost himself in his own thoughts. It's so fun to watch him while he plays and wonder what funny things he's imagining.

So that was our day. Kids are finally asleep and I have to go help Kevin clean out the basement.

:(

Does buying school supplies from the Goodwill make me cheap?...

Or frugal? Whichever it is makes no difference to me because we made out like bandits today! The kids and I went to the Goodwill and they had some new school supplies from Target, so I stocked up. Crazy cheap, too. Rulers for, like $.09. I had to do a double take! Crayons, scissors, notebooks, I went a little wild. I love buying school supplies, anyway, and if they're that cheap, put me down for 4 of everything! I know, I know, our kids don't go to school, but as any homeschooling family knows, you still need school supplies! Actually, you probably need more than any school kid because at school, your supplies typically don't get flushed down the toilet by your baby brother or shoved down into the couch cushions. Anyway, Ava was so happy that she hid one of the new folders behind her back and said to Kevin, "Daddy, I have something to show you! I know you are going to think I am going to public school!"
I also found a new sweater that was 50% off to make Serenity a new pair of longies with. I was on the fence because the sweater is bright orange and robins egg blue striped and she has nothing to match it, but I LOVED IT, so I got it anyway. But then I walked up the street to a resale shop and found the cutest little shirt to go with it, so I was pretty happy. I tore it apart and made her longies tonight and they're super cute. Kevin has the camera, so I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Fall time organizing

Today was a nice day. The kids and I walked to the post office, my sister's, then to a couple resale shops on Main St. and got home just in time for lunch. It was perfect weather, about 62 degrees for the high. This means it's time to get out fall clothes.
This is something I love to do because I love to throw things away. So on days like today, my mood lifts a little bit more each time I throw something into the "Toss" pile. This year, I made the decision that I was seriously going to down-size everyone's wardrobes. You see, everyone in the house has an appointed day that their laundry gets washed. This means that everyone needs 7 outfits for the week with the exception of Eli and Serenity who change clothes frequently throughout the day. So my goal was to get rid of everything, keeping only 7 of the nicest outfits and pajamas. I know this sounds extreme, but I'm tired of trying to cram clothes into over-stuffed closets and drawers and it's just not necessary. For example, just Ava's fall clothes fill up a small cedar chest and 2 boxes. My mind feels cluttered just typing that. Anyway, I've been planning and awaiting this day for months and it went really well! I couldn't get Ava's closet dwindled down to 7 outfits, but I did get it down to 12. Mackenzie and Dallas have about 5 each, which works well since they're only here 3 days a week. And I paired up all of their clothes into outfits so they can just grab one and go. Ahh... the feeling of accomplishment!