Healthy Again

Oh the joy of feeling healthy again. I've been carefully following all of my naturopath's suggestions, and I feel totally better except for an occasional cough.  Also, the baby has been sleeping better since I am being more intentional about getting solids into him. Extra sleep is always good.

 

So this week has been one of getting back on track with getting the house clean and organized. I'm slowly going through the various areas of our home and purging. Right now I have two huge bags waiting to go to the thrift store and at the beginning of the week I sent out four boxes and two bags. It is such a good feeling. I appreciate opening up the closet in our washroom and seeing empty spaces on the shelves. Empty is good. It's peaceful.

 

I've also been able to get back to sewing. On Monday I took our two youngest daughters fabric shopping. They picked out fabric for a skirt and dress each. I was a little apprehensive going into the store because my middle daughter is notorious for taking forever to shop. However, both girls immediately knew what they wanted. I still made them look around a little, but they stayed with their initial choices. Their skirts are finished already, and I will do a post soon explaining how I did them. It is a simple no-pattern skirt.

 

I also made a new recipe tonight. Not just a new-to-me-I-found-this-on-the-internet-let's-try-it recipe. I mean, I made the recipe, AND my family loved it. My husband is fairly particular about how food should taste, and he loved it. So I'll be sharing that soon too.

 

It was a great week. We're back on track with school, a clean house, sewing and fixing meals/baking again.

The Bad and the Good

 

This has been an interesting week to say the least. It started out with all of us slowly one by one succumbing to an achy flu bug complete with sore throats and headaches. I am so finished with this winter, but I have hope that spring is really just around the corner.

 

After suffering with a sore throat for about half a day, I finally got out my essential oil book to see if there was anything I could take. They suggested rubbing two to three drops of lemon oil on the outside of my throat. Since I have lemon oil I decided I had nothing to lose by trying. I kid you not - within one minute of rubbing three drops on my throat the soreness had been reduced by about 90%. Later in the day I read that rubbing a drop of lemon oil on the side of the nose it would take care of a runny nose. Since I'd been blowing my nose every five minutes I decided to try this as well. Again the result was dramatic. I simply did not need to blow my nose anymore. These things have cemented in my mind the effectiveness of essential oils and my need to learn more about how to use them for my family's health. So - some good has come from this sickness we all had.

 

Today I had real hopes of Spring. It was bright, sunny and warm. While the older children rode their bikes and scooter at the front of the house, my three little guys and I enjoyed our backyard. The baby especially enjoyed his first taste of freely running all over the yard, and the toddler enjoyed the swing.

 

always a ball in hand

 

 

Finally, we've increased our family by a count of one. Last year we had to give up our dog. Ever since then our youngest daughter (who was very attached to her) has really missed her. My husband and I talked it over and offered her a hamster. She was delighted. So tonight we took her to the pet store where she picked out her very own pet. She's been named "Chiquita" ("little girl" in Spanish) and has charmed everyone in the family.

 

 

I would like to know if anyone has any uses for essential oil that would be useful for the mother of a large family.

Hard Tack and an Award

This has been a hard week for me in the sense that I feel like I haven't accomplished much. I don't know why, but for some reason I felt like I was fighting every day to accomplish anything outside of school. At least school happened.

 

I did try making some hard tack this week. My husband thought this would be a good thing to have for backpacking with the boys. It seems like it turned out, but I kind of messed it up when I shaped it so it's not pretty. My husband was impressed though, and I'll probably make more. I know how to fix my mistake so I'll take some pictures for you then.

 

I made some rolls for a company meal this week. It was a new recipe that only takes 35 minutes from the first ingredient to being put in the oven. It only takes ten minutes to bake so these are super fast. And let me tell you, they are so delicious. You can find the recipe on my Pinterest board under "Food-Bread" or "Completed Projects". They are actually called "30 Minute Rolls", but they really are 35 minutes.

 

At the beginning of this week we actually had some weather that was nice enough that we went for a walk as a family. It felt so good after the long winter we've had (are still having) to get out as a family and take a walk in the neighbourhood. I love walking. I had the baby on my back in the mai tei carrier, and it felt good to have him cuddled up against my back.

 

I am very pleased that this week saw the launch of a semi-regular post from my youngest sister on the subject of dressing modestly AND fashionably. The two are mutually exclusive. I look forward to more posts from her. If you missed it you can find her first post here.

 

The biggest news this week was my oldest daughter winning the short story writing contest at our library. We went to the awards ceremony tonight. We are so proud of her. In case you didn't read her story check out my post here where I put it at the end of the post. It is such a joy to watch our children growing up and beginning to develop their talents and skills. I know someday my daughter will be a published author - she is that good.

Cupcakes and a Camera

This has been an uneventful, quiet week. We all need weeks like that, right? So there's not much to tell you about.

 

I will say that last Sunday we needed to take some cupcakes to church, and my ten-year-old daughter did them about 98% by herself! She's becoming quite the baker. She chose a chocolate cake recipe and baked it as cupcakes. Then I helped her with proportions for making peanut butter frosting, and she mixed it up to the right texture - it's really something you have to get a feel for, and she's doing great in that department. Then she frosted the cupcakes. She used a large star tip and went around the tops in a spiral. They looked great. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures. They tasted wonderful too. It's wonderful to watch your children grow and develop talents.

 

I've been working on planning a week of posts all about breakfast so watch for that coming in about a month. I'll have a guest post, a poll and a giveaway as well.

 

We have a wedding coming up in our church in May. I'm planning a bridal shower and have come up with a unique idea for what we are going to do - no clichéd, embarrassing games. The bride is very ladylike and I want the shower to reflect that. I'll take pictures and let you see how it turns out.

I've also been working on lining someone up to do a series on dressing modestly on a budget and stylishly. What do you think? Something you would be interested in?
 

My husband bought me a new camera. He loves a deal, and has waited years for a deal on this camera. So when it came up he was at the store bright and early. Good thing because there was only one camera plus the floor model, and another women there to buy a camera as well. It was a spectacular sale. Anyway, I've been having fun learning how to use. Of course, I have beautiful subjects.

 

pleased with himself for getting the forbidden cream cheese

 

Snow Cream and Pictures

We are all starting to get back to normal health-wise. It feels so good and is a great reminder to me to never take my health for granted. Last night my three littlest guys slept all night without coughing - wonderful. We were able to start school again on Tuesday. We were off most of last week because everyone was so sick. This week we did about 50% of our normal work, and hopefully next week we'll be able to be back at school 100%. I love routine and have sorely missed it.

 

 
Today we had a treat - snow cream. I've seen a couple of blogs talking about this here and here so decided to try it today. The children loved it. I did a diet version for myself which totally underwhelmed me so I turned it into a protein shake. The children topped theirs with some homemade chocolate sauce and pronounced it wonderful.

 

Speaking of diet, after several months of playing around with the Trim Healthy Mama diet I decided to get serious with it again. I lost 22 pounds last year using it, and I would like to lose another 8. So on Monday I started up again and I've already lost two pounds...and this with very tempting foods being brought into the house by others - waffles, ice cream, muffins. My husband did take me out and I didn't follow the plan. One night I was up in the middle of the night with insomnia and ate off plan, but still I managed to lose two pounds in five days. I'm happy. I truly do enjoy this diet.

 

I've also been doing some organizing and purging this week. That feels good too. For a year now I've had some of the children's artwork on the wall in our entryway. The problem is that sooner or later one of the pieces would fall down. Then I would have to figure out what to do this time to make it stay up. The end of this story is that I took them all down, scanned them, and now I'll print them up and scrapbook them.

See what I mean? One down. I'm ready for this wall to be empty.



 

Please indulge me for a minute as a mother - the artwork I am so proud of...

 

Finally, I am gearing up for my husband's 50th birthday party next week. My mom has always taught me to see it big but keep it  simple. My decorations are going to be very simple but I think the winners are going to be 8x10 photos from various stages of my husband's life. I formatted them in my digital scrapbook program. Then when I had them printed someone made a mistake and I ended up paying only fifteen cents a print - bonus. I then bought frames at the dollar store so they can sit on the tables. Here's a sample...

 

 

It feels good to be productive again. How was your week? Have you ever eaten snow as a dessert? ☺

 

 

 

 

Celebrating Family

This has been a busy week, but I don't have a lot to show for it. First of all, my husband has his 50th birthday coming up next month, and I've started plans for a big party.

 

Secondly, I installed a new digital scrapbooking program on my computer, and I've been busy setting it up and getting all of my digital pictures organized. I have/had the Creative Memories StoryBook program. However, when my old laptop was replaced I couldn't transfer the StoryBook program to my new laptop. I did a lot of research of what program to go with for making photobooks and decided to get one from the company who designed the Creative Memories program. I'm glad I did. The screens look exactly like the CM StoryBook program. As an added bonus I was able to transfer all my digital kits from CM into Panstoria's Artisan and use them.

 

I love, love, love digital scrapbooking and was so glad to find a simple solution for what I need. I use my digital scrapbooking to make a book everywhere that has all of our birthday and other celebrations in it. I also make a book about our family vacation every year. Last year I made one for my brother-in-law about his time in basic training. Recently I made a book for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday celebrating her life. I also make gifts and Facebook cover photos using this program. I enjoy scrapbooking with paper, but I enjoy the digital scrapbooking because there is no mess. I see value in the paper and digital which is why I do both.

My children love reading books that star themselves and their siblings.

Random bits - We had our first normal week of school since the New Year started. Everyone is finally feeling better. Routine feels so good. My baby turned thirteen months this week - I can hardly believe it. My sister just found out she's expecting baby #6 after six years of no babies. We're all excited to say the least. I read a really great post this week about freezer cooking that made it seem doable. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but couldn't wrap my head around the organization needed. Now I think I can.

 

So how was your week - busy and feeling productive or busy but not feeling like there was much to show for it?

Simplifying Through Sewing

After what seems like forever I think we're finally all healthy again. Just as we were recovering from the flu my oldest son started breaking out in hives. We have no idea what he's reacting to. Personally, I'm wondering if his body is still working its way through getting rid of the flu and it took this form. Anyway, I suggested coconut oil to soothe the itchiness. He wasn't thrilled because of the smell but did it anyway. He was sold. Now he does it as a matter of course when the itching starts. It does seem to be getting less every day so hopefully we'll be past all of this.

Coconut oil is so wonderful - it's antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, as well as being a superior moisturizer. You get the picture. I figured it couldn't hurt. In fact, my toddler has a stubborn diaper rash that I've started putting coconut oil on. From diaper change to diaper change you can see his skin clearing up. To read more about this amazing product check out this post.

Before things got really bad around here I managed to get some sewing projects in. First of all I made a pair of overalls for my baby. I made them with fleece. I love fleece. It is super easy to work with, and when you pick up a fleece-dressed baby they are so soft and squishy - just saying. I wasn't super crazy about the buttons but then I realized that if I turned them upside down I liked much better. I've also learned a way of sewing buttons on with my sewing machine which saves a nice little bit of time.

I also made a cover for my sewing machine. I've had a charm pack of squares for several years now waiting for the right project - this was it. I lined the cover with some pink and white striped fabric. I had a little issues with making the hole for the handle but managed at last. This project I made up as I went along and overall I'm very happy with it. My sewing machine sits out all the time so it's nice to have a pretty cover for it.

Finally, I was tired of my cords for my sewing machine, serger and my glue gun looking a mess and getting tangled. This picture is actually neat compared to how they normally look.

I made individual pouches for each piece - no more tangles, no more mess, no more trying to figure out which cord it is exactly that I need. I used three unique material so I can easily grab just what I need. This makes my life a little simpler and only took about 45 minutes in total to make all three.

 

I hope everyone is healthy where you live. What have you done recently to simplify your life?

Staying Healthy and Warm

Most of my children have been taking turns being sick this week. Between that and a special project I'm working on for someone's birthday I haven't had much time for anything else this week. Therefore I don't have much to say about this week.

I can say I'm thankful for the excellent supplements we take. They are from a company called Youngevity. We've taken them for over eight years now, and I'm convinced that they are the reason we don't get sick more often. When we do get sick it doesn't seem to be as bad as though around us. We've also started buying our essential oils from them. The more I learn about using essential oils the more I want to use them. We're not opposed to doctors because there is a time and place for them, but the more often we can heal ourselves by natural measures the stronger our bodies will be.

Yesterday I had to walk to the mall and it was quite cold out. We had a good test run of the leg warmers I made for the baby and the shawl to wrap around us. I meant to get a picture when we were all bundled up but forgot. I'm sure we'll do it again this winter, and I'll get a picture up so you can see how toasty warm he looks. ☺

Next week we should get back into the full swing of things. My husband's vacation will be over. Everyone will hopefully be healthy. I have lots of things my children want me to do with them this winter like teaching my youngest daughter how to bake muffins, my middle daughter to sew clothes for her doll, play a really awesome World War II game with my older boys and a Lego game with my younger boys.

Tomorrow we have a birthday - actually two. My son will be six and my niece will be six. How cool is that? My sister and I had babies - totally unplanned - on the same day. We also each have a daughter who share a birthday in November although separated by six years - again unplanned of course. Then my other sister didn't want to be left out of the fun so her last baby was born on the same day (different year) as my toddler. Do you have anything like that in your family? My middle daughter missed her dad's 40th birthday by an hour and a half. ☺

How has your week been this first full week of the new year?

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Simple Giving

This post is longer than normal. It doesn't happen often so I hope you don't mind. ☺

It's that time of year when a lot of gifts are given and received. Our family even has three birthdays between the end of December and beginning of January. I really encourage our children to make as many of their gifts as possible. There really is nothing that can beat a handmade gift. I thought I would put together a list with a bit of instructions of some of our gifts this year. 

We'll start with my soon-to-be-six year old. He made notebooks for all of his siblings. Well, I made the notebooks and he decorated them. First I cut paper in half and then trimmed off a quarter inch from the length and height. I sewed the pages together on my sewing machine. He could have helped with that part, but I was rushing. Then I cut a piece of cardstock in half for the cover and with a sharp needle and then cotton yarn sewed the cover to the pages. Now my little guy picked fabrics and decorations according to the tastes of each of his siblings and sewed them on.

My younger daughters made fleece pouches for each other. The idea came from here. We sewed ours on the sewing machine and made them more "finished".

My youngest daughter made laundry bags for her two oldest brothers. She sewed a casing into the top of a pillowcase and we threaded cord through - easy peasy.

My middle daughter made a French cockade for her oldest sister which was the piece de resistance. When she first told me this is what she wanted to make for her sister I went online to research patterns. Nothing I found appealed to me so for weeks I pondered how to do it. Finally with one day to go I came up with a plan. Thankfully I had bought the ribbon in faith that I would figure something out. I overlapped the white ribbon onto the blue and using white thread sewed them together. Then I overlapped the red ribbon onto the white and using red thread sewed it. We then ran a basting stitch through the red ribbon and pulled it into a circle, tucked the ends under and sewed them down. Then my daughter sewed the circle onto a piece of felt and sewed a button onto the middle of the circle to hide the felt and stitching. I attached  a clip to the back and we were done. My oldest daughter was beyond thrilled. I think I can safely say that this was her favourite gift. Well, it could also have been the dvd about the French Revolution that her grandpa gave her. She's our resident expert on all things Les Mis and the various revolutions the French have lived through.

My two oldest boys with some help from their dad made a lego table for their little brothers. They painted an old smallish end table black. Then they glued a couple of base plates on top. Simple and useful.

My oldest son made a fleece ear warmer for his sister. The idea came from here and is super easy to make. I'm thinking about making one for myself.

My oldest daughter made clothes peg dolls for her sisters which they love already. We found the idea here.

For our toddler his sisters made him a fishing game. We used old ties. We cut off a four to five inch length of tie (the skinny end) and turned it inside out and took out the lining. We sewed one end shut and serged the other end. They then turned the "fish" right side out and dropped a magnet in. They stuffed it about 80% and tied the end shut with string letting the fabric fan out like a tail. Then they glued eyes and felt fins on the outside. They made three of these. For the rod their oldest brother cut the sharp end off a bamboo skewer. We attached a piece of yarn for the line which had a knitted worm tied to it. The worm had a magnet glued to it, and now their little brother can go fishing. He loves this game and wants me to take his picture every time he catches a fish. ☺

We also did a set of "Sharpie" dishes for their grandparents. There are a lot of great tips here for doing this kind of craft. My five-year-old (with a lot of help because he didn't like the mess) made a puzzle piece bracelet for his grandma. I saw the picture on Pinterest but no instructions. We cut a toilet paper tube lengthwise. Then we cut off a width and glued the pieces on. If I did another one I would modge podge the width before gluing the pieces on to give the base more stability. All in all it turned out quite nicely.

The two gifts that I'm most pleased with that I made were a mai tei carrier for her doll with a matching diaper bag for my youngest daughter and an embellished notebook cover for my slightly-notebook-obsessed oldest daughter. I thought a long time about the design for the mai tei carrier. I knew it didn't need as many ties as mine. I finally made the back a shrunk-down version of mine and added straps to the waist that cross her chest and button to the shoulders. The diaper bag pattern came from here and was super easy to make. She was so happy and has been carrying her baby everywhere on her back.

For my oldest daughter I followed the pattern I did for sewing a cover for a binder but did it for a notebook instead. She's not a frou-frou kind of girl so I just added some simple embellishments. She loves wearing denim so I used that for the fabric - it's actually from a skirt that she wore out. I also added a button and elastic to close it.

Finally, I made something for myself - a shawl to wear over my coat and baby when we go for walks. I worry about him being warm enough because he's not exercising (believe me, I am with him on my back). That's one reason I made leg warmers for him. I wanted something more though and found this pattern. I made mine in red with a black serged edge. It was so simple to make and works great.

So we managed to get everything done and have fun at the same time. Check out my Pinterest boards where I store a lot of ideas of things I want to make.

What have you made lately that you're pleased with?