I made my own yogurt!!

Following the directions found HERE I made my own yogurt last night. It was surprisingly easy.  Put the milk in my 6qt crock pot, turned it on low and walked away for 2 1/2 hours.  Off for 3 hours and then mixed 1/2 cup of store bought yogurt in.  10:45 at night by this time so I covered the pot with towels to keep it insulated and went to bed! Got up in the morning and it was nice and thick on my kitchen counter . . . tasted it, but lukewarm yogurt isn't my favorite so I stuck it in the fridge and we'll have some as a snack today!  I am planning on making "Go-gurts" with some of it and will definitely do this again!

Oh . . . have I mentioned that we've been making our own kefir? It is surprisingly easy to care for and every two days or so we have yummy kefir to drink, mix into smoothies, etc!

The routine wins!

I have my children on a pretty tight routine ... at least when it comes to sleeping ... actually, that may be the ONLY thing that is tight around this house :)  We put them to bed around 9 every night and they are up around 8:30ish in the morning.  We do our thing during the morning and early afternoon and then around 3pm every day I put them down for a rest/nap and then they are up again by 4:30 to make this house of mine a home again!

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL Southern California day - in the mid 80's - and both Elizabeth and Josiah were having a blast playing outside in their "fort".  It was getting closer to rest time and I decided to let them stay awake and play.  Tick, tock, tick, tock ... the minutes went by and at 3:30 both children come running inside because they are finished playing!  I changed my plan again and put them down for their rest time.  Usually Elizabeth plays quietly in her room the whole time and Josiah goes to sleep.  I figured that I wouldn't put Josiah to sleep this time, maybe I could get him to bed earlier at night?!  He brought toys in his room and proceeded to play ... aaaah ... I went out to get some filing done for Chris.  30 minutes later Josiah comes out and tells me that he would like his humidifier on, the lights off and for me to tuck him into bed.  Zzzzzzzzzzz ... he slept through his alarm and I had to wake him up at 5ish.  So much for me trying to take away the routine for a day ... he went and took it back!

Bike Bucket Tutorial

I fell in LOVE with this tutorial a few months back when I saw the picture on pinterest (check it out... it's an amazing and fun site) and decided to make one for each child.  So last week, using up scraps of fabric I put it together and here they are!

Our Autumn decorations

     In the middle of October we were driving around seeing all the many decorations up for Halloween.  It made me want to decorate my own house, but with the Harvest/Autumn in mind instead.  We found this tutorial HERE and I proceeded to cut out my tissue paper leaves.  Next time I would make a variety of sizes like she did because I felt like I had made a bunch of colored "football" leaves when I stood back and took it all in!

After gluing them on to the window Elizabeth is painting with black tempura paint

 Josiah's turn, notice the rather "football looking" leaves on the left

 Elle got ahold of my camera

The finished product!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!!

Fun b-day card to make

Found this  cool card HERE and made it back in October for my Mother-in-law.  It was fun to make and super easy!

Cut out two sets of slightly enlarged hands, traced Elizabeth and Josiah's hands on one side, added the words "We love you"

 

THIS MUCH

This one is definitely a keeper ... don't be surprised if it shows up in your mail box!

Getting my house (LIFE) back in order

My house has been a mess ...

 kitchen

 Dining room/School room

 Other side of dining/school room

I couldn't take it anymore ... I had allowed the mess to rule my life and I couldn't get anything else done!  I found I was avoiding the kitchen and dining rooms but I couldn't any longer!  So yesterday afternoon during the kids naps and while Chris took them to gymnastics I put a good book in my ears (A room with a view) and went to work!

This is how it should look at ALL times ... amazing!!

 No more clutter!!  I think I need to put something on that wall, tho.

What a difference putting the ironing board up makes!

I'm ready to tackle some sewing projects now!

My goal is to keep my house looking this way from now on.  Follow through and self discipline ... which is something I lack and yet it is gift that I wish to give to my children.  How can I  give something to them which I am not myself practicing?  Today is a new day!!

making rags

I saw a cool blog POST about taking the husbands old socks and making rags out of them.  I already use our old socks for dusting but I thought that opening them up could possibly get more use out of them.  I wasn't 100% sold on the idea tho ... seemed like a lot of work for something you were just going to clean with ... UNTIL I remembered the Bridal Shower I was going to this weekend and that I had no present for the bride to be!  I made her a handful of rags that I dyed in blue dye first and then sewed some extra fabric on the back to make them a bit more sturdy.  But you can't just give someone rags for a present .... enter the lavender vinegar that I had just finished making!  I poured some into a bottle and then grabbed the book, "Organic Housekeeping" and put it all together in a basket I had around the house.  It was cute and I felt good about my accomplishments ...

of course today I still had a bunch of old socks lying around that I needed to do something with!  So I grabbed some more old fabric and made over a dozen rags for cleaning around my house.  and I STILL have leftover socks!! 

Here is the pile of old socks

Here are the fabric scraps

Here is my finished product!

Glimpse into a pretty typical Saturday

What a day I had today! The kids and I were out of the door by 8:15 ... we had a coupon for Buy One Get One for Jamba Juice and the same for Noah's bagels (right next door to each other). It was so fun to give them a special treat! They have so much joy and it must be contagious because a very nice lady who met us in Jamba Juice and then again at Noah's bagels handed me two cookies that she bought for the kids because she just thought they were so adorable and sweet. Aaah!! How nice is that?!

We headed over to the "Pantry", where a group of Christians hands out recently expired food from local grocery stores, and waited in line until it was our turn for food. I had just "weaned" them off of needing to watch a movie while mommy goes into the kitchen to get the food ... now it has moved from being a time of me socializing w/ friends to being a time of me spending quality time w/ them ... I read them 3 books while we waited and then sent them (along w/ my phone for distraction) to the stairs to wait. On our way home we stopped at Trader Joes (the small one, as Ellie calls it) tried the sample, got a few items and found the "panther" hiding in the store. Always an adventure w/ my kids!

Home. An our later we were out the door again on a bike ride to the library. It's a little over a mile to the bike path and then another 1.2 miles to the library from there. It took me twice as long this time! I felt like I was pulling an elephant ... it wasn't until I was on my way back that I finally took a look at the tires on the trailer ... yep, it wasn't on right and had been "rubbing" on the trailer the whole time. Yikes ...

After dinner the kids and I watched "Homeward Bound". I'm such a sap ... cried at the end ... and now I'm waiting for Chris to come home so we can watch a free movie together. Yes, free! Blockbuster is doing this cool thing right now where all the movies that are not new releases are FREE for the month of June! He took back the kids movie and got the Soloist for us to watch ... looking forward to having some Madelaine's and Rooibos tea while watching a movie w/ my hus!

homemade refried beans

I made crockpot burritos tonight ... but before I could make them I needed to make refried beans - so at 7 this morning I rinsed my beans, boiled them and then turned off and let them soak for 4 hours. At 11am I rinsed them and set them back on the stove to boil for about an hour. Around 3 this afternoon, using the recipe my mom gave to me from a good friend of hers, I finely chopped strips of corn tortilla, chopped some onion and 2 garlic cloves and sauteed them until soft in some olive oil on the stove ...

added the beans w/ some of the reserved water from the beans, mashed them and then added a lot of salt until they no longer tasted bland and still I could have added a little more!

When I was finished I had enough to put in my crockpot burritos (which were cooked for 2 hours on high each wrapped in foil (note to self: tortillas are soggy when cooked this way ... must put in oven and/or broiler for a few minutes before serving). They were very tasty - kids LOVED them! I ALSO had enough to put aside for lunch tomorrow or Sunday AND I froze some too!

Sleep training

In the last month it FINALLY clicked! Both kids now stay in their rooms until 8am every day! Woo-hoo! We have these monkeys, see ... they are amazing. You set them at night by putting their eyes closed and they "wake up" at the time set for them in the morning. Genius! There was many a morning when I had to send them back to their rooms after asking them, "is your monkey awake?" Now when Josiah wakes up he grabs his rocking horse out of the hall and goes back inside until his monkey wakes up. He sometimes wakes up as early as 7am ... but he stays in there until he's allowed out! Elizabeth sometimes wakes up @ 7:30/45 and she uses the bathroom and climbs back into her bed. I feel like I can finally enjoy my mornings!!

I would say that the monkey works best with children who are closer to 3 ... they just don't seem to "get it" before then. There are other sleep training clocks out there and they probably work just as well. We just happened to settle on this one! As a parent you aren't off the hook once you purchase something like this ... you have to do the work of training them to stay in their room ... pointing them back to the clock every time. Also, if your child currently wakes up @ 6am every day you can't expect for them to stay in their room until 8am just because the clock says they should. You must start with reasonable goals with your child and work toward a time that gives you and your child peace!

You can check out all of them HERE at Amazon.com. Our monkey clocks are about half way down the page - and remember the clock is NOT a toy, do not be fooled into allowing your child to carry his/her monkey all around the house - it WILL break!!

Feeling Productive

Today is exactly how I would like to see my Monday's go ... not that it was a perfect day but I was able to accomplish a lot and enjoy myself in the process!

Alarm went off @ 5am ... finally pulled myself out of bed and 5:45. Clothes on, out the door and on a mile run. I think my eyes finally opened about 3 minutes into the run :) Back home to do some push-ups, stretch and wash my floor. Shower. Drank a nice cup of tea while I read the Word - those Proverbs can really hit home! 8am kids started to stir ... my day is here and I am ready!

This was the first 3 loads of laundry ... I ended up doing 6 loads - yikes!

I even hung extra line to accomodate for all the clothes I was drying ... this was the first round

While I was waiting on clothes to wash and dry I decided to make some pillowcases out of an old sheet.

Aaaah! Finally made it to the last load! (I think it was around 3 pm or so)

I was finished making 5 pillowcases and a handful of napkins shortly after dinner ... in the background is the remainder of the sheet not yet used.

It's 9pm ... I have a load of jeans in the dryer and these clothes on my couch ... I'm going to spend some time w/ my husband and then take care of these in the morning!!

Oh - and I dusted and vacuumed the whole house (minus the livingroom). It was a very productive day!!

I'll get my exercise any way I can!

Needed to go to Trader Joes today ... so I packed the kids in the Burley trailer and headed out on my bike. 3.8 miles on the way there ... 28 minutes pulling 70 lbs and going up and down hills the whole way! 3.3 miles on the way home (found a shorter route) and I don't know how long it took because I couldn't make it up the 2nd to last hill. Kids had to get out and walk for a couple of blocks. We had one more hill after that and the kids got out again to walk another block. Finally made it home. I'm exhausted but I feel so good! My goal is to keep it up!! Tomorrow I'm going to ride the bike w/ the trailer to the library/park (2.2 miles) and then walk a couple miles around the park with a friend. Yaay!!