Puzzles and Laundry

Joanna’s buddy Anna brought her a Winter the dolphin puzzle home from her trip, and she’s been inspired to try it!  It’s 100 pieces, so I told her we needed to work up to it a bit first.  :)

I remembered this puzzle I had in the closet that is 25+ years old that I did as a child.  It’s missing two pieces, but I’d say that’s pretty incredible. 

I was trying to teach Joanna how to do the edges of the puzzle first, but that way was frustrating for her.  Last night she and Natalie pulled it out and they just started putting the middle together first.  And they (well, pretty much Joanna I think) did the whole thing by themselves!  (It’s 48 pieces.)

I have one mediumish bin of Newborn clothes and one largeish bin of 0-3 month sized clothes to get ready for the boys.  I couldn’t help myself; I had to get started on the littlest ones yesterday!  I think I can hold off on the next bin for awhile.  I got my baby clothes fix.  Anyway, I went through everything and pulled stuff that I saw stains on.  I sprayed that stuff then let it all soak all night in oxyclean and detergent.  I washed and dried everything this morning – cutest laundry stack ever, right?!

It’s all folded and put away, for probably the very last time.  Ha!  I told Matt we probably wouldn’t fold most of it when it’s in use, just toss it in bins/baskets/drawers.  :)

Right now the plan is to use the cubbies as the boys’ “dresser.”  We’ll see how it works out!  At the very least, it gives me an instant visual on how much we have/need/want.  Baby boy clothes sure are cuuuuuuuute!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday afternoon we went outside to try out Joanna’s new scooter!

She’s got a lot of practicing to do, but she’s really getting the hang of it!

The little ones played too, of course.

I sent Natalie in for gloves, and she came out with an old pair of mine.  :)

Natalie’s getting the hang of her little bike too, at least when she remembers to look where she’s driving.  :)

I love watching this boy run!  And I loooove this little sweater!

He would park whatever he was driving across the cul-du-sac, then ruuuun back and get something new to drive.

It was in the 40’s, which is quite cold for us Houstoners!  I looooooooooooooved every minute of it (am still loving it, thank goodness!), but I do like to be cozy you know…hence the ear-flap hat.  :)  {Photo by the up-and-coming Joanna!}

I love Natalie’s grumpy faces.  :)

Oh, the drama!!!!

It was so nice to play outside in the lovely cold weather!  Everybody came in with little red noses, ready for some warm dinner!

I have been enjoying every minute of this hot tea, hot chocolate, warm fuzzy slippers kind of weather!

I did discover, in getting Joanna dressed yesterday, she’s a little lacking in her winter wardrobe.  It’s nothing terrible, but she’s really outgrown her size 5 shirts and dresses.  The dresses are okay as long as she’s got leggings or tights.  Most of the size 6 things we already have are pretty springy.  Much of her clothing is pretty year-round appropriate with the right layering, so she just needed a few pieces.  She likes wearing skirts and tops (and my mom is pretty good about making her some skirts that fit well!), and her jeans still fit fine, so I decided to look online for some deals on long-sleeved shirts.  Low and behold, Children’s place was having a sale with free shipping.  Wahoo!  And their “basic layering” long-sleeved T’s were $3.50 after the sale.  I like that price – I ordered a bunch of them!  Hopefully we’ll still have a few cold days after they get here.  :)  She can wear them with her jeans and skirts and probably even put short-sleeved shirts that may be too short over the top.  One of my major projects for the coming week is to go through the drawers and pull out the stuff that doesn’t fit.  Unfortunately, with our crazy weather, there’s very little I can pull out that’s “off-season.”  It’s too hot to wear winter clothes on our 80 degree days!  :)

{Wow, that was a long post about clothing.  Oh, I rant.}

Today was sort of “back to normal” since Ray and Laura came over!  The kids and I were pretty lazy yesterday, so today we got back to the grind and got some things done!  Even though they aren’t all put away now, we put away all the toys that had been roaming the house for a week or so.  Feels good!  I should probably try to find a few minutes alone in the house (maybe Matt can take ‘em out for bit) to cull and organize our goodies.  It’s just sooooo much easier to do without any “helpers!”

I did a big load of laundry (it does seem to accumulate all the time!), and hung it in the laundry room to dry.  I am sooooooo thankful for my pantry/laundry/storage room {it used to be part of the garage that the previous owners closed in}.  I hung string between the shelving on either side in a zig-zag.  It’s very humid in there when I’ve got a bunch of laundry drying (earlier this week I had both my racks underneath full as well!), but that’s probably good for our skin and what-not this time of year.  :)

We had a lovely day at home, just eating, playing, watching Cinderella. It was a good way to ease a little back into life.  I’m very glad we still have a little over a week off from school! 

Natalie’s lips get pretty bluish when she’s cold; I’m not sure if you can tell in this shot or not.  {The spot on her cheek is popcorn.}

Sometimes she actually seems cold, and I have to encourage her to go get some slippers or a jacket.  Other times, she’s prancing around in a leotard, as comfortable as can be!

James is Cute and Laundry Soap

Then end of our vacation has been rather anticlimactic, but still very nice.

This was from last night.  The girls are always dressing up that boy.

Though sometimes he does it to himself.

He pulled Natalie’s swim shorts off the drying rack today and wore them as a hat.

I’ve been pretty domestic today, thank goodness!  I have just not felt like baking or really doing anything more than the basics in the kitchen lately.  I’m sure the lack of desire to bake has something to do with it being August in Houston.  :)  But I had such an itch I had to bake a few things today, regardless of the heat.

Sadly, I have no pictures to prove it.  :)  I simply hate the light in my kitchen, and it’s too much work to haul stuff to a whole other room while I’m trying to wrangle kids and multitask in the the kitchen.  SO, that’s why no pictures.  :)

I made two loaves of banana bread, a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and a double batch of pancakes (then we ate some for dinner).  Everything is bagged and in the freezer for quick breakfasts and snacks.  Yay!!!

I also mixed up a batch of laundry soap.  I’m going to post my current “recipe” here since I keep looking it up every time I make a batch.

I yanked this picture off my blog from a couple of years ago because I’m just too tired from all this domesticity to go into the pantry and take another one.

Wow my DSLR takes such better pictures.  :)

Anyway – the ingredients:

• 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap
• 1 cup of Super Washing Soda
• 1 cup of Borax

The various recipes out there in cyberspace call for different ratios, but I’m pretty sure this is what I did last time.  Checking the blog though, I don’t think it’s what I did the time or two before.  I think the amounts of soda and borax were double what I used this time.  I think I’ll just see how I like my laundry and adjust if needed.  :)

Step 1 – Buy extra Fels Naptha and let it sit {wherever you keep cleaning products and such} until the next time to need it.  I have found it grates sooooo much easier and you can really get a powder from it if it isn’t fresh from the store.

Step 2 – Have your husband or some other willing strong person (it could even be you) grate the Fels Naptha on the fine side of the grater.

That is sadly the last picture due to all the multitasking and not wanting to leave the kitchen to take a decent picture and not wanting to settle for less than decent.  So the rest will just be words.

Step 3 – Pulse the grated soap in the food processor until it’s a powder.  {Probably the whole thing could be done in the food processor, but this seems to work the best for us; you could also skip the processing if you don’t have one.}

Step 4 – Mix the soap powder with the borax and washing soda in the container of your choice.

Step 5 – Do laundry!  Add 1T to regular, even full loads.  You can add a little more to very soiled loads or a little less to small loads.  I put the detergent in when I’m filling the washer so it has a chance to dissolve a bit before I add the clothes.  If I’m washing in cold water, I will sometimes close the lid and let the water agitate for a minute to help that process along.

Notes:

• I don’t use this detergent on kitchen towels, unless I’m out of anything else, simply because it will build up over time, and I wash those a lot.  I also don’t use this on diapers for the same reason. But it’s fabulous on regular clothes. 
• I wash the food processor parts and the cheese grater very very very well after I use them to make detergent.  Someday I will have dedicated laundry tools, but for now this makes me feel okay.

And now I’m off to eat cookies and lay on the couch.  I’m so thankful I have one more weekend before we get back to reality!

Outside

We had a bloom on the Joanna rose last week.

And here is a picture of what I believe is a yellow squash plant.  The thing that is so amazing about this plant is that I didn’t plant it.  It grew out of the compost!!!!

If I actually manage to accidentally grow a vegetable, it is going to totally make my day week month year.  :)

While I was outside taking pictures of plants, I took a shot of my laundry too.  I love hanging laundry outside.  I’m just getting back into the groove of it after my winter routine.  This is from last Saturday when I pretty much washed everything in one day.

I ran out of clothespins.

Monday Matt had to work, but he came home early – yay!!  I had been hankering for a snow cone, so we took everybody up to Jitters and brought them home to eat on the driveway.

The girls are pretty happy just to get a snow cone and aren’t too particular what flavor, so I pick things I think will be light colored.  :)

Joanna got pineapple; it’s yellow.

Around here, everybody has what everybody else has… or else they’ve built an immunity to it.  I can’t imagine why… ahem.

Oh, and FYI, the lemonade flavor at Jitters is CLEAR.  Everybody’s getting that one next time!!

On Tuesday we tried to go to the library in the morning, but somehow my dress (my almost new dress) ripped between my house and the parking lot, and I felt it would be inappropriate to go into the library with my… behind showing, so we came home.

My mother says it was the universe telling me to throw out the dress.  I say it was the universe telling me not to take three small children into the library.

So instead we changed into our walking shoes and walked to Sonic for lunch!

We took the double stroller, and mostly James and Natalie rode while Joanna and I walked.  Natalie and Joanna switched a bit so big sis could rest, but everybody did so well!

It helped that there was a reward built in to the exercise. 

I have trouble doing things like going outside or exercising, much less both at the same time, without some kind of incentive.  :)

We all indulged in yummy processed junk food and artificially flavored beverages before heading back home.

Joanna is so funny to make believe with.  She ran ahead of us and sat on this bench.  When we got to it, I pretended she was a little girl I didn’t know.  Joanna played along and made up a story about how her mother and father had died, (so sad!) but they said she could come sleep over with me and my children.  She asked us our names and if we had extra beds and everything.

I can’t wait until she starts writing.

Pizza and Laundry

These two topics may have nothing to do with each other, except that by the end of the post, you too will be convinced of my need for pretty aprons.  :)

Matt took these (and I didn’t even tell him to!) of me making pizza the other day (ahem… week).  I’m a whole lot wee bit behind on blogging.

I used what was in the house, so we topped our pizza with a simple homemade sauce, parmesan cheese, fresh spinach, cooked/diced chicken, cooked bacon, grilled then shredded cushaw squash, and some cheddar cheese.  I’d have used mozzarella if there was any in the house.  This combo was still very tasty though!  The squash was from my grandma’s garden.  I left the sauce off of a section on one of the pizzas, instead spreading on a little olive oil.  I’m not ready for James to ingest much tomato.

Just out of the oven:  YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the first time I’d made this particular sauce, and it was amazing!  The texture and taste were VERY restaurant/take-out pizza like.  Normally my sauce isn’t so thick I think.  It was especially a hit with the hubs.

Joanna took this picture for me.  I had to ask her though  (and of course hand her the camera).

I took an old apron I had lying around and filled the pockets with my clothespins.  I read the idea somewhere, but I can’t believe it never occurred to me!  I used to just have a little purse bag filled with them and take that out.  This keeps my hands free-er and I don’t keep dropping it.

But wouldn’t I look so much cuter with some ruffles or flowers…
like this one, or this, or some of these?

:)  I’ve been browsing.  I like window shopping online.  And it’s always good to be prepared for Santa Claus.

(Is that how you spell Santa’s last name?  I can’t remember, and it totally doesn’t look right.  I had an E at the end, but I know that’s not right.  Clearly I spend a lot of time thinking about the man.)

Today in My Kitchen

So about a year ago I made some laundry detergent, and it’s time to make more!  No, that 5 gallon bucket of detergent didn’t actually last the whole year.  For several months I used something else because the homemade stuff built up in our laundry (as in, the washcloths repelled water instead of absorbing them!).  I stopped using it in my diapers after a few months because of the build up problem and have switched to Rockin’ Green, which I LOVE for cloth diapers.  I also use it for my hand washing… ahem. 

Anyway, I started using my homemade stuff again after many months of not using it and I like it just fine.  If I have a problem with build up, I’ll just strip the towels (that’s really where the problems happen since I wash them a lot) and adjust how much detergent I use.  Wow this is a long rambling post about laundry.

Oh well.

So I opted to make the powdered version today simply because I like the idea of storing it better.  I only have room for so many five gallon buckets in my utility room.  Though it will be easier to store, I think it will be a little more difficult to use since I’ll have to make sure everything dissolves in every load.  I opted for a half batch to make sure it works for me.

That, and grating soap is hard work.  :)

Half a bar of Fels Naptha soap, grated finely.  This is one of those things where I think a food processor would be sooooo handy.

A cup each of super washing soda and Borax.

And mix it up!

I stored mine in a plastic container in the laundry room.  You use 1-2 Tablespoons per load.

In the middle of the day I washed a lot of dishes, cleaned out my fridge and freezer, washed some more dishes, tried to keep the kitchen cleanish, fed five people lunch and snack, then…

This evening we made pizza on the grill!

I used this recipe for the crust from Money Saving Mom.  The only adjustment was that I did it in the Kitchen Aid instead of by hand.  It’s sooooo easy.  Dump ingredients into the bowl, attach dough hook and go!

This was our first pizza on the grill experience, and I found these instructions to be helpful.  Man I love the internet.  And somewhere in all this searching about pizza and laundry soap, I earned myself enough Swagbucks for another $5 Amazon gift card.  Hmmmm… what Kindle book shall I buy with it?  Or maybe I should put it toward this giant set of blocks I was drooling over today?  It wouldn’t really make a dent in the camera I’m lusting over though.

I digress.  Where was I?

Ah yes.  I made the pizza dough and prepped the toppings.

Dr. Grill cooked it for us.

Oh yum.  I never claim to be good at rolling circles of dough.  I figure who cares what it looks like as long as it tastes good!

BBQ sauce, leftover rotisserie chicken, fresh spinach, and mozzarella cheese.

We were all fans!  I even left the sauce off a chunk of the pizza so James could enjoy it as well.  And he did.

Miscellaneous pictures that I want to blog but that don’t all go together.

The other night Matt and James snuggled for a long time.  That boy does love to be held!

I decided to try listening to my mp3 player in the car. 

It has lots of great music on it, but (as far as I know) there’s no way to hook it up to the speakers.

So I put batteries in this little set of speakers and put it in the car.  The sound is actually pretty good.  Poor Joanna way in the back has a little trouble hearing, but it’s not a perfect system.  :)

 

Sadly, it has an on/off switch, and you must turn it off.  It doesn’t automatically go into power save mode or anything.  So when you leave it on all night, it will absolutely use up the brand new batteries.  I need to be finding my rechargeables pretty soon.

I asked Natalie to help me get the laundry out of the dryer, and she did it all herself!

 

Friday the kids and I took the van to get it inspected.  The place was not busy, thankfully, and we all had fun!

The girls got to watch the men work;

And read magazines:

And play legos:

 

And James got to be held.  The reason I took this pictures is that his hair looked so red to me in that light!  What do you think?

Right now looking at him, his hair seems very brown, but you never know…