So I'm feeling better! Yay! :) I was stuck on the couch for longer than I can remember being in the past. Adam took care of most things and made me rest....at least for the first 24 hours. After that, he pretty much just let the natives roam free. :) I'm still dealing with some discomfort but it's so much better than it was.

School has been going well this week. We're rowing The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Adisson's really interested in it. We purchased the Fold-N-Learn from Five in a Row as well and he's had a ball today "speaking British"! In the FNL it gives some examples of British words and what we call the same thing (i.e., loo means bathroom, etc.). The fun part is that Adam's got a few cousins that live in England so he remembers some of the things he's heard them say and I managed to remember some words from their last visit (six years ago, that's been too long!). Adisson's been chuckling about it all day. I was trying to get more than one math worksheet done each day, because we had fallen behind, but I'm actually grateful that we'll be able to continue working on his math through the summer...so as not to lose the foundation of facts we've been building on. So now that we're back to one math worksheet and doing only FIAR, 3 R's, and Bible study, our days are so nice and relaxed. :)

I keep wanting to work on some Tot School goodies for Zander but haven't got my act together yet. He does a lot of neat stuff, but I want to do more things on purpose. We'll be doing Before Five in a Row next year with Zander (he's really not ready for it yet) and I'm excited to purchase all the B4 FNL's and then other lapbooking goodies from Homeschool Share. I'd love to have it all ready to go by August.

Tomorrow's April Fool's Day and I have some neat ideas in mind for my boys. I'll hopefully be able to post pictures of my little tricks. :)

Can't blog. Got pneumonia. :( Gotta rest. Be back later.

"He took my case-of-dee-uhs!!"

God has answered some prayers for us this week and I'm just pretty excited about it! First of all is the good news I mentioned earlier this week but can't talk about yet. Then we realized that there is something hinky going on with the van and it's got the potential to cost a lot of money. I thought we were inching close to our warranty expiration, and while we are, we are nearly 6,000 miles away from it expiring. Praise the Lord for that! And Adam's been worried about the tires on the van in need of replacing and the only thing I can think of is dollar signs in front of my eyes....tires aren't cheap. Then we found someone today that is selling the brand new tires off of their vehicle (they are getting bigger wheels) and they are just the size we need! For the cost of ONE TIRE!! :)

Tomorrow night we have an FRG meeting to go to. It was announced today. For future reference, if you want a lot of people to show up to meet the incoming commander and his wife, you should give them more than one day's notice. But of course I'm going. I'm hoping Adam gets finished up with school early tomorrow afternoon so we can all go at the same time and take his car. I'm worried about driving the van. I once blew up the engine in a vehicle (uh, I will tell you now that I ABSOLUTELY did NOT blow up the engine, it was a mechanical failure. A replacement engine cost me 2k. If I wanted them to take apart the blown engine to determine the exact cause, and then contact GM regarding the issue, it would have cost nearly 5k. I had to go the cheaper route and thus have to tell everyone that I blew up the engine.) and refuse to do that again so I'd rather not drive it until it's repaired. We were supposed to go in today to have it looked at, but Zander was up VERY VERY late last night. He woke up early today and ending up falling asleep just a half an hour before we were supposed to leave. I wasn't about to stay up so late again due to a nap interuption, so I rescheduled the appointment. Unfortunately, they can't get us in until Monday.

This weekend I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I want to get done around the house, but I have to get a bunch of stuff done inside before we can do outside stuff. It should be a busy few days. In the meantime, I've got to clean up a little and get to bed. :)

I cooked. A lot. He ate. Enough. The kids hate lasagna. Ugh. Of course they do. And it's nearly midnight and I have to clean the kitchen. Party time!! :) So not really.

And tonight, Tiffy made her kids some mexican food. Tiff's got four kids, EJ is 9, E is 5, F is nearly 3 and Little L is just five months old. (Not my kids, so I won't put their names on here.) The big kids (9 and 5) are boys and the little ones are girls. One of the things she made was quesadillas. And while we were on the phone for a few minutes tonight, Cute Patootie F walked up to her and said "Mom, E ate my Case-of-Dee-Uh's!" And it made us laugh harder than the other day when she called the Smurfs, the Smorfs.

And that pretty much was our day. Tomorrow I have to take the van to get looked at. I think it's going to need a lot more work than I really want to think about. The good news would be if Adam got done with school in time tomorrow that he could take the van up to the dealership and the kids and I didn't have to go. Oh, that would make me super happy. I'll be putting that on my prayer list tonight. In the meantime, I've gotta clean this kitchen and go to bed. :)

Well, after some exciting news last night, we all went out to dinner. I'll share the exciting news next week after it's official. But anyway, we're sitting down to eat and I mentioned to Adam that we don't go out to eat often. We do have fast food about once a week, but does that count as "going out to eat"? Then the food comes and we kinda realize why. :) It was fine and all, but it wasn't great.

What was great were my boys. My sweet boys who sat still, didn't get out of their seats, didn't yell or cry, didn't fight or fuss, but were just absolutely good boys. It further impressed me when we were seated near other families who allowed their children to run around the restaurant, lay on the floor, yell, and race each other from one end to another, literally.

So tonight I want to make up for our lackluster meal with a great dinner at home. Adam loves lasagna so I'm hoping to get that made as well as some rolls and dessert. However, time is rapidly ticking away and I've got many other things to get done today as well. :) So I'm off to cook like crazy and clean like mad. :)

My homeschooling head is heavy tonight. I often feel like I don't do enough with the boys. Part of me wants to just enjoy having little kids right now and not be so strict and regimented with learning. Adisson's only in Kindergarten and I feel he exceeds expectations of public schooled kids so part of me just wants to let him enjoy these last few months of being silly and having a good time more often than not. I know, life is still fun in the first grade! and that it won't be too much different than it is now. I'm just hoping that next year we can have more of a schedule, a plan, a routine, and expectations of what needs to be accomplished each day for school.

And my little 2 year old. Some Mama's do some amazing activities with their toddlers and we don't do enough I don't think. I know I shouldn't compare but I am now wondering, am I not pushing my kids enough? Are they not learning enough? Am I not using all the brain power in their little heads? Am I just too easy going when it comes to schooling?

I guess another reason I'm not more scheduled is that I'm often ill. I've been sick since Christmas. Some days are good, some days are not so good, and other days, it takes all that I have to get up. I know I should see a doctor and discuss possible issues (though I have a pretty good idea of what's going on), but I'm not sure how to approach my Care Manager (I don't see a doctor on post, but a nurse) with my concerns without sounding like a flake that spends too much time online.

I want to provide my children with the best education possible, and let me tell you, right now, I don't feel like I'm offering it. I am not even a little bit considering public school, but I am wondering how I can make this better....how I can be the homeschooling Mama I wanna be. I'm praying about it, pretty often, but I'll be praying even harder.

In the meantime, it's bedtime.

So a topic around here lately has been babies. One baby in particular. After Zander was born I thought for sure our family was complete that two was enough. After all, when Adam is deployed, I'm quickly outnumbered and stretched even farther. I know lots of Mommies do the deployment thing with a lot more kids, and I give them the enormous credit they deserve. I know how difficult it is with two, so I can't imagine how hard it would be with even more.

Enter Cooper Thomas.

This is my absolutely precious nephew. He's my newest nephew, born in January. I have two others, Boden is going to be one next month and Landen is three. I'm the world's most blessed Aunt. But until Cooper got here, I was done with having kids, I felt at peace with our family size.

Then I saw him. And my resolve started melting. Maybe we needed one more baby. Maybe just try one more time.

Then I held him. And that was it for me. I felt like we just needed another baby. But more than that, I want a daughter. I want to play with dolls and have tea parties. I want to bake cakes and go to ballet class. I want to paint a room lavendar and decorate it with butterflies and rainbows. But, to my dismay, Adam absolutely does not. Not even a little. Not even a teeny tiny bit.

So that's my answer. And while in my heart, I'm elated at the blessings that God has given us because it was a struggle to have the two children we do have, part of me wonders if the desire to have a little girl will ever leave.

In the meantime, the goofy, silly, precious little boys that live here want to watch a movie in Mommy and Daddy's bed....and I am more than willing to do that. :)

Here's an email I sent out to my family, I wanted to share it here so I don't have to repeat myself. :)

Right after Zander was born I had a column in the weekly newspaper on post. It was fun to write but after Adam deployed, it got to be too much for me to keep up with, so I had to stop. In any case, the name of my column was Mom's Good Cents. I like the title, so that's what this newsletter (aka, a weekly email I send out to my family on how to save some cold hard cash!) is going to be called.

Here goes!

Mom's Good Cents

Welcome to this week's edition of Mom's Good Cents. I'm not quite the money saving Guru that my grandmother is, but I'm on the path. Last week, I gave y'all some recipes for homemade cleaners. I had tried all of them and use them exclusively except for the fabric softener. I have come across some more info. in regards to the fabric softener situation. Tiffany has become my guinea pig for this expirement. She has now tried adding 1/2 cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle of her wash and then put some hair conditioner directly on a washcloth to toss in the dryer. She said it seems to be working as well as the recipe she previously tried but the upside is that it leaves her clothes smelling like the hair conditioner, which she loves! But here is another quirky tip I've found online. I hear that a ball of foil, the size of a tennis ball, will also act as a fabric softener. I've heard from several online sources that it does indeed work. I'm still waiting to give it a shot! Tiffany is using it and says it seems to be working!

My next good tip is about magazines. Did y'all know that you can sometimes get a free magazine subscription? I know it sounds crazy, but it is inded true. I recently received a free 2 year subscription to Parents Magazine from Value Mags and I signed up today to receive a free subscription to Woman's Day from Free Biz Mags. I haven't received my issues from FreeBizMags yet, because, well, I just signed up for them. I heard about these two sites from other sites...I'll talk about them now.

I visit Freebie sites. The one I visit most often is Sweet Free Stuff and one that I just found this week is Free Product Samples. I also use Start Sampling. It is at sweetfreestuff that I found the free 2 year subscription to Parents and then after signing up, I received an update from FreeBizMags regarding the Woman's Day subscription. Also, WalMart has samples listed on their website as well and I receive samples from them often.

Ok, there are my tips for this week!

Love and vinegar,
Nicole

So the bathroom makeover continues. It's coming along, but I seem to be doing more work than the Handyman that lives here so I'm wondering if this is a good idea after all. :)

It's late as I type this, just past midnight. For whatever reason, my big boy couldn't fall asleep tonight. He tried sleeping in his bed, went and snuggled with Daddy, went back to his bed, and finally out to the couch. He was very frustrated that he couldn't sleep. He tried laying very still, he tried reading, he tried thinking (that never works, btw), he just couldn't get to sleep. So he came out to the couch, where I'm sitting working on the computer (working on some school stuff). He laid down with a pillow, then with a blanket. He asked me (again!) for all my ideas on how to go to sleep. To which I said, "Honey, it's ok if you can't fall asleep. Sometimes it's hard to do. But the good thing is that I don't have to wake you up for anything tomorrow. You don't catch the bus at 6:20 in the morning (like his friend who goes to public school), you don't have to be up for school and we don't have anything going on tomorrow, and if it takes you a long time to fall asleep tonight and you have to sleep in longer tomorrow, that's really ok." I kid you not, less than two minutes later and he's fast asleep.

Not that I needed another reason, but it does make it nice to be a homeschooling family. :)

Ok, I have to get to bed now too!

Love and vinegar!

Today started out normal. We got up, got ready, went to church (Zander had such a goooood time with the other little kids!! :) It's so heartwarming to see him willingly go to his class after so many months of screaming terror when I dropped him off!), ran a few errands, came home, had lunch. I sat down to check my mail and the message boards at Five in a Row. Another homeschooling mama posted pictures of some work she had done at her house (ie. painting) and Adam was leaning over my shoulder while I was reading. He was so excited about the transformation pictures that he jumped up and said "Honey, I wanna do something...is there something that we need done?" I said, "Well, always, yes, but you can prime the cabinet in the bathroom to be painted." He said "OK!" and rushed off. I went in to check on his progress a little later. He complained that the brush he was using wasn't very effective. I said, "I can run to WalMart and pick up some brushes."

Fast forward 8 hours.....

The bathroom is a whole new color, the cabinet is primed, the quarter round in front of the baseboard has been pulled up so the floor can be prepped for new tile that we already purchased, and Mama is tired. :)

Adam's ideas always end up with more work for me!! :D

School was fun today! :) Adisson worked on a few different graphs that I found at Homeschool Share for When I Was Young in the Mountains. He really enjoyed them and had a good time gathering information to use. We still have a few pictures I'd look to put in his notebook, but the printer is a little crazy right now so I couldn't get any printed out. The Big Guy that lives here is going to take it apart and make sure it's clean and get some new cartridges as well. I'm pretty excited about that. Adi's reading is going really well and this week we also worked on some reading comprehension activities to help him understand what he's reading a little better. This weekend, I'd like to work on a few more school projects, but we'll see what I can find. :)



Zander is being quite the little two year old today! He displaced an entire shelf of books and when I said "Zander!! You pulled a lot of books down honey!!" He said, "Yeah, I did!!! I help!!!" It's hard to be annoyed with that. :) Last night, I carried laundry from the dryer to my bedroom and along the way dropped a pair of my pajama shorts in the hallway. Zander picked them up and started carrying them around. I walked down the hall and back to find him walking out of the dark bathroom wiping his hand his shirt. And I knew what happened. Mother's intuition, I guess. :) "Zander, where are Mommy's shorts?" "Ummmm, I ....... I poop!!" (Don't try to sidetrack me, sweet pea....I'm on the hunt!) "Zaaaaaaannnnnder.....where are the s...... (I open the toilet)......ZAAAAAANNNNNDDDDEEEERRRR!!!! YOU CANNOT PUT CLOTHES IN THE POTTY!!!!" :D I tried hard not to laugh as I'm explaining to him that clothes don't go in the toilet. I found it a little more than amusing. I'm a sucker for his sweet little face, and the fact that he's my last little baby makes it hard to get angry about much. I called in his Dad, who was less amused and way more annoyed and told him that clothes certainly don't go in the potty. Then Adam stood there and half squealed while I fished the shorts out. He's very weirded out by potty water. I was just very grateful that the toilet wasn't "in use" and that I had just scrubbed it clean less than 2 hours before. :) But still....yuck!

Tonight's dinner menu was Tuna Noodle Casserole, that my son calls Tuny Runy Casserole. :) I made some bread and cooked some peas to go along with it and we're waiting on the Apple pie to cool down to have some dessert. I wanted to go to Once Upon a Child this evening, I'm on the hunt for a few things, but Adam didn't feel well and he's tired so I didn't want to leave the kids here and go shopping since he needed to rest and not Baby Wrangle.

Tomorrow I have to get to the grocery store and I'll also try to get to OUAC while I'm out. I'd also like to make it to the fabric store downtown because I've come up with a new project. :) Then, in the evening, I'm hoping to catch a movie on post (the theater only shows one movie on Friday night and one on Saturday night....second run movies, too, so it's only a few dollars to get in!) with my friend. We'll see how that goes.

Until then, Love and Vinegar!

It's been awhile and I'm really hoping I will start posting more often. I don't have a lot if IRL friends so I'd love some online friends!! :)

This week in school we are rowing "When I Was Young in the Mountains" and it's been a wonderful story! Adisson is really enjoying it as well. I love it when he remembers something from the story and later tells me about it, or when he hears something that reminds him of part of the story. Math is going well, too. He is working on learning halves, telling time, measuring and more. He started a book at the beginning of the week on the Pony Express. It has four chapters. He loves it and will finish it today. He's also been working on memorizing a Bible verse and handwriting as well. It's been a good busy week.

Zander is just being Zander. He found some flashcards that he loves playing with. He's also been working on sorting by color, learning his numbers and letters, and playing with lacing cards. He's so much fun to be around and play with. We're so grateful for him and his precious big brother.

On the homefront, things are about the same as always. :) I sent out an email today to my family members about my wonderful money saving homemade cleaner recipes. I know my Grandma is interested in them but I don't know about my mom and one of my aunts. :) I think they are more on the fence about it! But I sent them anyway. And because there might be some of you that don't have some of these recipes, I'll post them here as well.


Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner
(this will fill an 18 ounce bottle and costs approximately 13 cents to make)

4 T. vinegar (white distilled)
2 t. Borax (20 Mule Team Borax)
2 T. dish soap
2 c. hot water

Pour water in bottle. Add Borax to hot water to dissolve. Add remaining ingredients to bottle. Shake to mix. Spray and enjoy!


Homemade Window Cleaner
(Also will nearly fill an 18 ounce bottle and costs approximately 5 cents to make)

3 T. vinegar (white distilled)
1/2 t. dish soap
2 c. water

Add ingredients to bottle, shake to mix.


Homemade Laundry Detergent
(this costs approximately 2-3 cents per load)

You will need:
2 1/2 gallon bucket or larger
Spoon (long, to stir with)
Containers with lids to store your detergent (I use 2 ice cream buckets, you can use whatever you have that works!)
*Optional* Empty detergent bottle

Ingredients
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap, grated
1/2 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT BAKING SODA!)
1/2 c. Borax
Water

Mix Fels Naptha soap in a saucepan with 6 cups of hot water. Heat on low until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until thickened and remove from heat. Add four cups of hot water to your 2+ gallon bucket. Add soap mixture and mix well. Fill bucket with enough water to reach 2 gallons. Mix well. Set aside for 24 hours.

Once mixture is thickened (after 24 hours) stir it. It's very gross looking and the soap is thick, but mix it as well as you can with a spoon. If this bucket doesn't have a lid, you'll need to transfer it to container(s) that do have one. If you have an empty detergent bottle, you could use it for this detergent as well!

Mix well before each use* and use 1/2 cup per load.

*If you have an empty detergent bottle, this is where it comes in handy. It's much easier to shake the detergent when it's in the detergent bottle. And most detergent bottles (except the ones that are concentrated) have lids that are 1/2 cup.

The laundry recipe is much easier than you think or than it reads. It takes about thirty minutes total on the first day (if that!) and just a few minutes the next day to stir and transfer to containers. :)


Homemade Fabric Softener
Disclaimer: As of today (March 12, 2009), I have not tried this fabric softener. I did locate this recipe and pass it on to my wonderful best friend and she has tried and used it and likes it! :) She's a hardcore softener sheet lover, so I figured if she can be swayed to the Cheap Side for fabric softener, it must be good. And when I run out of sheets, I'll be making my own as well.

You will need:
Rags (old washclothes, a cut up shirt you no longer like, preferably flannel, etc.)
Scissors (if your rags need cut)
1 c. Vinegar
12 c. water
Hair Conditioner (Note: don't go buy something fancy and expensive. Buy Suave or VO5 in scent that you love. However, be warned that your clothes will not smell like this scent, they won't smell like anything after they've been washed and dried in homemade cleaners, but they won't stink!!)
A bowl/bucket/container big enough for 12 cups of liquid and also has a lid.

Directions:
Dump the entire bottle of conditioner in a bowl or bucket, whatever you're using.
Add a cup of white vinegar and 12 cups of water.
Mix it all together.
Add rags.
When it's time to use, wring one out and toss it in the dryer.

I've also heard this is some good cuticle cream!! I've read this costs approximately 1-2 cents per load.


Homemade Floor Cleaner (cost is approximately 8 cents per gallon of cleaner)
I don't know what floors this is or isn't meant for (meaning, I don't know if it will work on laminate, wood, or stone...I'll look into that), but I use it on my vinyl linoleum.

1 c. vinegar
1 gallon water

Mop. :)


Homemade Dishwashing Detergent
1 part store bought powdered dishwasher detergent
1 part Borax
1 part Washing Soda
Vingar

Combine dry ingredients. Use 2 T. per load. Use vinegar as a rinse agent.

**Some people use 1 part of Borax and 1 part Washing Soda, but I've heard some complaints that it doesn't clean the dishes as well. I've not personally tried that. My first expirement with dishwashing detergent was as I described above. I also keep my detergent in a recycled parmesan cheese container so when it's time to be used, I just sprinkle the right amount into the compartment. This mixture doesn't save as much money, as you are still using store bought cleaner, but it definitely prolongs the life of the cleaner.


Homemade toilet bowl cleaner
After I mop, I dump my mop water in the toilet. The excess water causes my toilet to flush and causes the water level in the toilet to be low until it's flushed again. I take that opportunity to sprinkle Borax in the toilet bowl. The low water level leaves a larger portion of the bowl out of water, making a larger surface area to clean. The Borax mixed with just a little bit of water creates a nice paste. Scrub it all around with a toilet brush, let it sit for a few minutes, flush and enjoy and nice shiny bowl!! :D


I confess, I added the word homemade in front of all my cleaners to hopefully generate some traffic. :) I'd love some readers. I know right now I'm just typing into cyberspace, reaching no one. :) But maybe that will change sometime soon.

That's about all that we're working on here. Adam's been busy at working, actually working for a change of pace. We don't have much planned for this weekend. I do have to place my order for Angel Food by the end of this weekend. Yummy! I'd also like to get away with some local mom friends of mine as they are moving away in a few weeks. :(

Love and vinegar!!