Squids will be Squids

I hate the book Squids will be Squids. The first story in this tale goes something like this...

Fox says, "Lets play in the park!!!"
"Yeah!" said mouse and (some other animal I can't remember at the moment.)
But squid says, "No my legs are too tired."

Fox says, "Let go to the movies!!"
"Yeah!" says, mouse and (anonymous animal).
Squids says, "There's nothing good playing right now."

Fox says, "Lets go shopping!"
"Yeah!" says mouse and (stupid animal I can't remember).
Squid says, "No, shopping is boring, I'm going home."

"Yeah!" say's Fox, Mouse and (?animal?).
And the three go play in the park, watch a movie and finish the day shopping.

Moral of the story, Squids will be Squids....

I hate this story because, I'm the stupid Squid! Every time I read this dumb book to my kids I say to myself,
"Yep, I'm still a Squid."

I was invited to go camping with my family, I say
"No, I would have anxiety attacks about my kids getting hurt in the middle of nowhere."

I was invited to go to dollar day at Goodwill with all my siblings and I say,
"No, I don't have any money to spend."

I was invited to go to the Zoo and I say,
"No, I don't like going to the Zoo it's no fun at all."

Stupid Squid!

The book was quietly put in the recycling bin and pushed out to the curb.

Halloween Pictures

Here's my kiddos for Halloween. We had fun!

Charity the evil witch, Grace the real fairy and Jonathan Robert the cowboy.
Our friend Cielo is a cheer leader full of spirit, Yes she is!

Is it ok that for one day a year, my daughter wants to be an ugly witch, with a cat as a companion?

Grace says she's a real fairy princess. "Real fairies grow flowers on their backs and only Princess' wear flower crowns."
Her fairy version comes from the book Wings.

"Put em there cowboy!"
I love his hat! Thanks Uncle Brian it's perfect for him.

There ya have it. Our Halloween costumes for 2009.

Charity turns 8!

We've been a little busy this month with two parties and a baptism to plan for Charity. I'm so glad it all turned out!

Charity's baptism was so wonderful.

She was so excited for her baptism. She just glowed with happiness.

The spirit was strong the whole meeting.

I am so disappointed!!!!
We left in such a hurry to get to our house for the brunch we were holding afterwars, that we didn't take any pictures of Charity in her baptism dress!!!
Charity looked so beautiful!
I can't believe that I didn't think to get a picture of her in her dress!!!!
Ugh, Enough of my complaining,

Charity did do a great job singing. Our little family sang
"I know that my Savior loves me"
We practiced for weeks, and my little ones didn't sing. Grace knew the song so well. She said she was too scared to sing in front of everyone. Jonathan Robert sings the chorus so cutely! but, he didn't sing either. :(

Here's the link to the song. It's such a beautiful song.
We can hardly sing it without crying.
http://www.jollyjenn.com/IKnowThatwords.mp3

You can find this song in the 2010 sharing time outline.

Charity also, had some wonderful Twilight birthday parties!!
See what an awesome mom I am?
I make Twilight cupcakes with bite marks and everything!
Before the party, we listened to the Twilight sound track.
(I really know how to Rock out too!)
I'm so awesome!

Charity's parties were killer!

She got some great gifts by the family.

The second party was for my hubby's side of the family.
Well, our cake didn't turn out. I didn't even bother taking a picture.

Daddy had a great idea and took Charity to the store to buy red velvet cakes. Well, I guess red velvet is a very soft cake cause it fell apart, after my wonderful hubby layered it. It broke so badly I couldn't make it Twilight themed at all. It did taste good though. (I really mean it when I say he is wonderful.) No sarcasm intended.

Happy Eighth Birthday Charity!
I hope we made some great memories for you.

Pete and Repeat

My sister-in-law was published in the Glendale Community Collage magazine

The Traveler

with honorable mention in the non fiction category. I am so glad I get to share her story here on my blog! She has agreed to let me post it here and asked that, I let you know how she wishes she would have been a little more respectful/reverent towards our mother-in-law in this story. When she wrote this, she was rushed to submit it without getting to use a fine tooth comb over it. Her teacher wanted her to submit it, at the last minute, to get the experience of it. She never thought she'd get published or get Honorable mention.

This is our family in my Mother-In-Law's Hospice room about a week after she was admitted. She ended up staying in hospice an entire month before she died of colon cancer. She was a determined woman and held out as long as she could.

'Pete and Repeat' was her favorite Joke. My husband 'Jonathan' in the story thought it was appropriate that moment to share it as a family. I remember her laugh. Her joy was infectious.

We love Danica, and we're glad that she fell right into our puzzle like a charm.

Once you click on the link, On the top bar is a zoom button, click it.
You will need to zoom the page to 100% or 125% to be able to read it.

Her Story is Pete and Repeat on page 14.

Thanks Danica for capturing this special moment for us.

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/english/trav09/TravelerFinal2.pdf

Saving money with homemade laundry soap

I have been looking for new ways to save money.
I found this recipe for
Homemade Laundry Soap
I love it. It is a mild soap which is great for all those with sensitive skin. This soap is easy to make and really cheap!!!! It is going to cost about 2 dollars to make the equivalent of 10 gallons of laundry soap! It smells nice at first but does not leave a scent on my clothes, they come out clean with no residue. I had lots of fun making this liquid version of homemade laundry soap. Next time, I will try a dry powder version.
I researched recipes online before I decided on this recipe my sister-in-law gave me, which is like most of the recipes online.

First, I got a Fels-Naptha bar of soap. They cost about one dollar per bar. You will need to find a store that sells them or order it online. It's worth the effort you spend to find this. Think of all the money you will be saving.

Grate the entire bar of Fels-Naptha on the fine side of your grater. The finer the soap shavings the better because you are going to dissolve it on the stove in some water.

Put the grated Fels-Naptha soap into a pot with 4 cups of water. Put on Medium heat, don't walk away!! Keep stirring with a whisk until dissolved.

Once that is done put one cup of Washing Soda into a 5 gallon bucket.

Add 1/2 cup of Borax to the five gallon bucket too. 20 Mule Team is the brand you want for this.

The Washing Soda and Borax comes in a large box for about five dollars each. You will only use one cup of Washing Soda and a half cup of Borax for this recipe.
So, Put the rest in your storage for the next time you make laundry soap.


Add warm water to the 5 gallon bucket filling it to about 1/3 full. Stir with a tall spoon, until your Borax and Washing Soda are dissolved.




Add, your dissolved Fels-Naptha soap into your 5 gallon bucket as well. Stir than add water to fill the 5 gallon bucket.
Soap will thicken to a gel when set.
Mine didn't turn out like a typical gel. It was more like water with clumps of gel in it.

My soap turned out to be something like this, except
mine is yellow not white.


After letting set over night, fill empty Laundry bottles half way with your
homemade laundry soap and half way with water.
Shake before each use.
Put about 1/4 cup in your washer with each load.


Experiment for what works best for your washer. You may want to up the amount of Borax to 1 cup or use baking soda instead of washing soda. What ever works best for your washer.
*You can also use 1 cup of white vinegar in your rinse cycle as a fabric softener.
** I fill my laundry bottle with the soap without adding the water than use the full 1/4 cup in the wash. I always wash super loads and have hard water. I felt like I needed more soap in my load.
I love that I no longer need to spend the big bucks on laundry detergent.



My next try, I am going to make this.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

• 4 Bars Laundry Soap (to yield 12 cups of soap shavings)
• 6 Cups Borax (this is roughly one box)
  
• 6 Cups Washing powders (this is roughly one box)

Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container and measure out two tablespoons for each load.

Pictures were copied from the internet.