Going Homemade Crazy....

After reviewing our budget recently we discovered that we are consistently going over our grocery/household items (cleaners, etc.) budget. It's not like we are getting a bunch of stuff we don't need, there just isn't enough money in that category but there is no other place to take it from. So....we decided that the only option is to find ways to cut our costs in that area. We have researched tons of options for groceries....grocery game, angel food, etc. and just haven't figured out yet the best one for us. That is still a work in process. However, we have had some great success with cleaners. A dear friend of mine started sending me e-mails with all kinds of suggestions on how to save money and one suggested a homemade laundry detergent. I was familiar with this mostly because I love 18 Kids and Counting and knew that the Duggars make their own laundry soap. Come to find out many of my friends do as well. As I shared this, someone else told me how to make homemade dish detergent, and just today I learned how to make a homemade toilet bowl cleaner! I haven't tried the laundry detergent yet but plan to soon, the dish detergent and the toilet bowl cleaner worked great! I've also used homemade window cleaner in the past and will be starting to do that again as well. I'll put the recipes at the bottom for anyone interested.

Another thing that I have done recently is purchase a package of kitchen cloths. We use tons of paper towels and the cloths were $5 for about 8 of them. We are hoping that this will greatly reduce the amount of paper towels we use. I never liked using cloths because it seemed germy to me but with 8 of them I can replace the cloth daily and still reduce my paper towel use and save money. Any other great suggestions out there? I'm listening....


Laundry Detergent
½ c. washing soda (sodium carbonate)

½ c. borax

1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, grated

Heat 3 pts of water and add grated soap. Stir until melted then add soda and borax. Stir until dissolved and remove from heat. In a 2 gal. pail, pour 1 qt. hot water, then soap mixture. Top off the pail with cold water. Use ½ cup per load. Stir before using.


Dish detergent
1 Tbsp Borax (I use a heaping T)
1 Tbsp washing soda (again, heaping)
vinegar in the rinse thingy where the jet dry goes

Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Open up the bowl, sprinkle baking soda all around the inside, pour vinegar in and it will all start bubbling like crazy. Scrub, scrub, scrub and it's all clean!

Window Cleaner
I used this recipe:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water

But I'm going to try this recipe next:
2 cups water
3 TBS vinegar
1/2 tsp dish detergent (liquid)

Moving on....

OK on goes the blog.....Today is Friday and Monday we start school! It has been such a fun summer. We have spent day after day hanging out at the pool, celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, etc., took a 2 1/2 week trip home, had friends and family visit us here, and overall just relaxed and made the most of our summer!
Here are the boys at their birthday party with some of their buddies

My family at my cousin's wedding

The kids and their friends on top of Pinnacle Mountain

The Tull family during their visit to Little Rock!


This year the boys will be using the same curriclum that we used last year. Clayton will be in 5th grade and Evan will be in 2nd grade. They will take art classes and science classes outside of our home. Evan also began violin and loves it, and Larry is teaching Clayton to play bass.

Larry and I aren't missing out on our chance to learn more this year either. Larry will begin a year of classes offered by FamilyLife called the Institute of Biblical Studies. His first class will be Principles of Inductive Bible Study. This will be the first time since high school that Larry has taken a class that involves actual study and testing! I think he is nervous but this is a wonderful opportunity that FamilyLife offers us to take classes from seminary professors that we can use to earn a certificate in Biblical studies.

In mid September I will start BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) again and will be leading a small group. I'm nervous and excited. We will study John, and if it is 1/2 as good as the study of the life of Moses that we did last year, I am in for a great year.

So off I go to the last weekend of freedom which will start with a date night tonight :)!

To blog or not to blog....

So....here is my question of the day. Is it worth continuing with this blog? I feel lately like I post something on here and then just go to facebook and post the same exact thing. I also know that most of the people who comment on here are also on Facebook. I'm not opposed to posting on both if it is a useful way to spend my time. I'm wondering if there is anyone out there reading this, whether on facebook or not, who can give me a reason to keep blogging.

Evan's 7th birthday!

We just got back from St. Louis so it's time for some blog updates! We had a wonderful time visiting with famiy and friends as well as attending my couisn's wedding. A highlight of our visit was getting to celebrate Evan's birthday "back home"! His morning started with presents and then we headed to the zoo which was his choice for his birthday, mainly because they have a new exhibit that allows you to pet stingrays! We had tons of fun at the zoo visiting our favorite exhibits that we haven't seen in a couple of years. Evan got to pick a restaurant for dinner (O'Charley's) and a treat for dessert (Fritz's). Then to top off the day Larry's dad, who has his pilot's license, took me, Evan, and Clayton up for a sunset flight in his plane. Evan got the front seat since he was the birthday boy! Here are some pictures from his special day!

CELEBRATE!

Yesterday was Clayton's 10th birthday! Double digits! Just a few days before his birthday we found out that his best buddy Devin and his family would be staying at our house for 2 nights and then leaving for Omaha on the morning of his birthday. About the same time I found out that Larry's whole family was considering coming to Little Rock to surprise Clayton on his birthday. I told them it would be a great encouragement to him since he would probably be sad.
My mother in law came up a day early. When she rang the doorbell we sent Clayton to answer it. He opened the door and saw presents and balloons sitting on the porch. When he walked outside to get them my mother in law jumped out and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He was very surprised! The next morning Devin left and it was quick so he seemed to handle it OK. The rest of us set about to clean the house and prepare for 4 more visitors without Clayton knowing. Around lunch time Larry said he needed to run an errand and ran to pick up his dad, sister (Val), her fiance (Philip), and Philip's daughter (Val's step daughter) Kennedie at the airport. When they all came through the door Clayton was shocked! When the shock wore off we all had a great time catching up, playing out side, and making a big dinner. After dinner we went to Clayton's choice for his birthday treat, Maggie Moos! Then we all headed back home and decided to go swimming. My boys were thrilled to get to swim until the sun went down and the lights came on at the pool! That night Clayton said that it was one of his best birthdays ever and that at the beginning of the day he thought it would be just another normal day. Boy did we change that!


Clayton's new shirt!

Maggie Moos!

Val, Philip and Kennedie

SWIMMING! A great way to end a birthday!

Today we shift from celebrating our sweet 10 year old to celebrating Larry. What a blessing he is to me and the boys. We all absolutely adore him! He is an amazing father and husband and it is a joy to honor him today!

A Great Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. For 4 months I've been able to say I was married to an older man but now we are the same age again :). My family did a great job of making me feel special on my birthday. After church, which is always a great way to start a birthday, the boys were very excited to give me my present. Larry and I are not big into gifts and normally don't buy each other anything but our mentors recently suggested that we at least do something small to model gift giving to our boys in case they marry a woman whose love language is gifts. Great advice. So a few weeks ago I was thinking to myself that what I really wanted Larry to get me for my birthday was dried blueberries.

Right about now you are saying "What?!" Seriously, my sister in law introduced me to them when we were back home last and I LOVE them! They are such a yummy treat but they are way too expensive. A small container will set you back about $6 and I can eat one of those containers in just a couple of days. So...back to my story....they hand me my gift and I could not believe it when it was 2 containers of dried blueberries!

It's seriously scary how Larry and I think alike! The boys also gave me coupons for a "personal chef". I despise cooking so when I turn in these coupons dad and the boys get to make me dinner!

After my excitement over my blueberries we went to see Night at the Museum 2. The boys have been so excited about this movie and have been saving their money for awhile to see it. It was a great movie! I think it was just as good as the first one which is pretty rare in sequels.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and hanging out together as a family. The boys watched America's Funniest Home Videos, their favorite show and a Sunday night ritual, while I talked to my dad and other family members wishing me a Happy Birthday. It doesn't get better than that!

Kids RAP

We have the coolest opportunity here for our kids to be involved in a monthly service project with other homeschooled kids. We meet at the Arkansas Rice Depot which takes donations of food, mostly from large companies like Allen Foods or Tyson but also from individuals, and uses it to stock faith and community based food pantries in our area. They also provide food to hungry children in schools. Kids RAP is the name of our group and it stands for Kids Reaching All People. Here are some pictures of our latest project with descriptions of what we did.

Our first job was to label cans. The cans come without labels and the Rice Depot prints up labels that we tape on the cans and then we box the cans.



Karman, who organizes Kids RAP, gave our kids a lesson on what the Bible says about loving and serving others and a staff member from the Arkansas Rice Depot talked to us about the Rice Depot and what they do. The kids got to ask lots of questions. The picture shows Karman teaching the kids 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

Our last project was to decorate place mats for an upcoming dinner for homeless families. Clayton was very excited about this since his heart is for the homeless.



Here is a picture of all the kids involved. The 2 kids in the front are holding a piece of paper that shows that we labeled 2,767 cans in 45 minutes!