A few thoughts.....

Reflections

  I've been reflecting on the changes we've been through this last year.  It is so numerous that I don't have time to write it all down, but I do have a few jotted down to share with you.

  Its almost been a whole year since we've come back to Magnolia. We have some chickens for eggs, but not nearly as many as we had before. The friend we gave our goats to gave us Princess back pregnant. Yay! That means milk, cheese and yogurt for us. We've had the joy of watching Princess kid and now watching the kid grow. Its always so fun watching the little frisky kid be a kid. We were given a dog to guard the chickens. Shortly after moving back, the children discovered a litter of newborn kittens under our trailer.  We kept a beautiful orange striped, male kitten that we named, Tiger. 

Tiger is stalking a bumblebee.

  I seriously need to update our cover photo on the top of this blog.  The children have grown by leaps & bounds in so many ways.  It is the last family photo we have and Rosie is roughly the age of Natalie now.  Rosie will soon be 3.  Yikes! I need to get a family photo asap. Natalie is a littler goer at 7 months next week. She's already eating, crawling, sitting up and pulling herself up to a standing position.  I hope to get a new family photo soon.
  

Here's little Natalie just last Sunday.

  We started our 2014-2015 school year this week.  We're looking forward to a great school year. 

Richard set his math book down for a minute and Natalie came racing to it.
As soon as she laid hand on it, she squealed with delight. 

Justin showed me how well he has learned the location of all the South American countries on an iPad app he has been playing on this summer. He surprised me by getting 100%. 

Grace Maciah Update

  Grace has grown stronger and bigger. She's at home now with her Mom & Dad where she belongs. It was such a joy & privilege to pray for her, her family and the medical staff. There was a wonderful baby shower to celebrate her homecoming.
  Here's her blog to see her photos and see how she grew.
http://gracemaciah.wordpress.com/2014/06/

Prayers Needed

A friend of ours had a micropremie little girl. She's been through a lot and is a little fighter. She's about two months old now and still in NICU. 

Here's a blog link to keep up to date on her progress. Please keep her in your prayers. 

Prayer update for baby Grace. http://gracemaciah.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/grace-update-12414/comment-page-1/#comment-68

Sewing Creativeness

  I

came across a thin, polyester shirt with a cool pattern. It has a tiger, cheetah, & giraffe pattern. I didn't like the style of the shirt, so......

  I made two headscarves. One has a predominantly tiger & cheetah pattern. The other has a predominantly giraffe with a touch of cheetah to it. It has an elastic band that goes under your hair & on top of your head it spreads slightly. 

 Here are a couple of photos. I couldn't seem to get a photo that would so justice of the headscarves.  Joannah is modeling one of them. 

  I got the idea of making the headscarves from the ones I saw at Whole Foods. They have some cool ones, but they are $8 a piece. Too much for me to get one of each I like. ; )

Homemade Cherry Cough Syrup

Well cherries are abundant in the store right now. So I was thinking of what use they can be to us other than being just delicious to eat. I heard someone in our family cough & it reminded me winter is on its way. So I took two bags of organic cherries and had Emily pit them. Then we made cherry cough syrup out of them. Here's an easy, yummy recipe to try it for yourself. Of course I'm not a medical professional so do your own research & decide for yourself if it will be good for you & your family or not. 

Homemade Cherry Cough Syrup

2 cups cherries

1 cup water or herbal tea

1 whole lemon, sliced

2 cups honey

Simmer this mixture on the stove on low heat for 30

minutes.  Strain to remove cherry pits, lemon slices and

seeds.  If you are using an herbal tea, I suggest one that

contains wild cherry bark, elder berries or flowers, or

licorice.

 Strain into a glass jar & store on the refrigerator. Use 1-2 teaspoons per child. 

NOTE: I was looking over this recipe & when I saw it said you can use herbal tea instead of water, I thought how if you didn't have any herbs on hand you could buy a box of throat coat tea at your local grocery store or health food store. You could make the amount of herbal tea needed with that & use that in place of water in this recipe. It would probably turn out great. I think I'll try that next time. 

Simple, Inexpensive Homemade Healthy Cleaning

Here's a link to a YouTube video to make super simple easy to make healthy, cleaning supplies.

http://youtu.be/6wl6P6VJp6o

Also here are some suggestions for alternative cleaners.

Dish washing Detergent

Ingredients:
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/4 Cup Epsom Salt
Lemon Juice

First I started by mixing all the powders together. I made sure they get mixed up good because I wanted it evenly spread through all the cubes I'm going to be making. If you're not sure about the Borax, just eliminate that from the recipe, it won't harm it at all.
When everything was mixed I put a cup of the powder into a separate bowl and then poured in a little bit of lemon juice. For one cup of powder I used 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. You don't want it to be dry but you don't want it soaking wet either. 4 tablespoons made it a little wet and sticky which is exactly what I wanted.

The lemon juice will foam when it hits the powder. I mixed it all in and got it a little sticky. When I was finished with that, I started to add it to the ice cube trays. I put in a little and patted it down, then when I ran out I did another cup to mix with the lemon juice.
Now when I was all done, I set the cubes up on the window sill in the kitchen so that it would get a lot of sun and therefore dry quicker. Letting it sit overnight made it nice and hard and when I woke up in the morning I was able to flip the trays over and knock the cubs out.
Note: We actually have VERY hard water here. That's one of the many things we've had to deal with. For us, this is working out great. I haven't had any of that white buildup like I would with commercial detergents.


Alternate Bleach

makes 1 quart
2 cups hydrogen peroxide (3% solution)
2 tablespoons lemon juice OR 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
2 cups water
10 drops lemon essential oil
Store in dark or covered bottles, as exposure to light will weaken the solution. Lasts up to 1 month in a clear bottle, 2-3 months in a dark bottle.

Alternate Bleach 2

12 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup hydrogen peroxide

Mix. Add 2 cups per wash load or put in spray bottle and use as a household cleaner.

Other Recipes

Hydrogen Peroxide & Vinegar: (for countertops) Spray surface with hydrogen peroxide then spray a layer of vinegar over top. Wipe clean.
Hydrogen Peroxide & Tea Tree Oil: 3 cups water, 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide, 2 TBS lemon juice (freshly squeezed), 10 drops tea tree oil.
Tea Tree Oil & Lavender: Fill a 16 oz spray bottle 1/4 full with equal parts tea tree oil and lavender essential oil. Fill the rest of the bottle with water. Shake before each use.
Lavender Spray: For every cup of water add 20 drops lavender essential oil.
Herbal Infusion: Lavender buds, mint, rosemary, sage, apple cider vinegar. Directions: Fill a large mason jar halfway with equal parts of the above herbs (can be fresh or dried). Fill to near the top with apple cider vinegar, seal jar and allow to infuse in a sunny window for 6 weeks before using (strain first).
Borax & Water: Mix 1/2 cup of Borax per gallon of water. Shake before each use.
Borax & Vinegar: Pour 2 tsp Borax and 4 TBS vinegar into bottle then top with water. Shake to mix.
Rosemary: Mix 1 teaspoon rosemary essential oil with 2 cups of water.
Pine: Mix 12 drops of pine essential oil with 1/2 teaspoon denatured alcohol and 2 cups water.
Grapefruit Seed Extract & Lemon: 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 5 drops grapefruit seed extract, liquid castile soap (just a drop will do), 10 drops lemon essential oil.
Citrus Vinegar Infusion: Fill a large, wide mouth jar with citrus peels (such as lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruits). Cover the peels with vinegar and allow to infuse for four weeks, shaking the jar occasionally. Strain then fill a spray bottle 1/4 full with the vinegar and top the rest with water.Source.
Thyme: 2 1/2 cups water, 1 handful thyme (fresh or dried), vinegar, liquid castile soap (squirt). Directions: Boil water, add thyme. Simmer for several hours over medium-low heat, covered. Cool, then strain. Pour the water into a spray bottle, top with white vinegar and squirt of soap. Use as needed. Source.
Vodka Mix: Liquid dish soap (just a quick squirt), 2 TBS vodka, 10 drops lavender essential oil, 5 drops oregano essential oil, water.
Vinegar: Mix equal parts water and vinegar (or straight vinegar), spray surface.
Tip: You can substitute the essential oils as you like, here are a few that have good disinfectant qualities: cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, lemon, lavender, peppermint, pine, rosemary, thyme.

A Bittersweet Month

This month has been bittersweet. My oldest daughter had her 15th birthday. On my birthday this month a friend's baby came at 23 weeks only to live for an hour and my father had a small heart attack. I'm kind of glad I didn't know about it that day. Years ago an uncle died on birthday & it was so sad. This has been an interesting month.