Sylvia Turns Seven!

I don't know how it happened, but my baby girl has turned seven! That big little girl you see signing the number '7' is Sylvia!!  So hard to believe that seven years ago, I gave birth to her in the bedroom, my one and only home-birthed baby. 

 As I do for all my babies, I let them plan out a birthday menu for the whole day and then we go shopping together to get what we don't have. Sylvia wanted waffles for breakfast, tacos for lunch, sloppy joes and onion potatoes for dinner. She wanted a cherry cake with vanilla frosting and cherries on top and neapolitan ice cream to go with it. 

 Since this is an odd-numbered year and all the kids turn odd-numbered ages, we won't have any birthday parties this year. Andrew and I have agreed that kids don't need a party for every birthday and this is how we can easily keep track of who had a party and who didn't. It's pure luck that we had all four kids on even numbered years.

We keep it simple with birthdays and besides the special birthday menu, I hang up the birthday banner for each kid. We give two gifts-- something to wear and something to play with. In this case, a pretty dress for a pretty girl and a baby doll to play with. Grandma gave pajamas and a Lego set. A phone call from Grandma and Grandaddy made her day, too!

Sylvia is such a sweetheart, always thinking of others and perfectly happy to play on her own.  She doesn't care much for movies and usually, while everyone else is watching a movie, she'll wander off and find something else to do. She's sensitive, easy to cry and gets upset when she does something wrong. We always say that she has an old soul, she seems so content with life and it's not often she'll complain about things, but just keeps going, life goes on.

We love that girl-- our one and only born in West Virginia baby. 

Happy Birthday Sylvia!

We love you so very much!!

xoxo

Post-Holiday Memories

I took the Christmas tree down today.  I'm happy to see it go, but I will miss the twinkly lights at night. We still watched movies by the lights of the tree and it made it feel all nice and cozy. I have some decorative lights I might have to put up somewhere so we can keep that cozy feeling. There is a string of lights with big bulbs (think outdoor party lights) up in the window, but they're pretty bright and not as cozy as I'd like it to be. I have some lights with tin shades, I'll try those out and see what those do.

All the Christmas stuff is put away, except for the collection of Santas and snowmen on top of the cabinet in the dining room. They go in a locked cabinet separate from all the other holiday decorations that go in the attic. Many of these were carved and painted by my Dad and Step-Mom and I love looking at them. I just want to look at them a little longer before it's time to put them away again for another year.

It was hard to decorate the tree when I first set it up. Last year was a banner year for broken ornaments and they all went into a box to be repaired, but I never found the time and put them away with the other ornaments. This year, opening the ornament box, the first thing I saw was the box of broken ornaments sitting on top and it just broke my heart. I pulled a few out-- the broken 'starfish' which was a fish dressed as Marilyn Monroe ("star" fish, get it?) and we got her before we had the kids; the cute turtle with dangly legs that had the felt flowers ripped out of the flower pot in its' arms; the roly-poly paper mache' cat that got squished... I shoved the box back into the big box and closed the lid, I couldn't bear to look at it anymore. It reminded me too much of how upset I was and how mad I got when they broke.

For a week, the tree stood there, only the lights kept it from being bare. After much pestering from the kids, I finally brought out the box of ornaments again, this time pulling out the box of broken ones and not looking at it, putting it out of sight. I was picky with decorating the tree with only certain ornaments this time... none of the old and fragile ones; none of the precious hand-made ones; none of the cheap gaudy ones that I never liked but the kids loved. Slowly, the tree started to look pretty, simple and light. I have no pictures of the tree, I'm sad to say, but you can take my word for it that it turned out mighty nice.

When I took down the ornaments, I finally went through the box of broken ones.  I discovered my heart was healing and it wasn't so hard to pick out the lost causes and throw them away. I didn't fix any of them, but put them back into the box, much lighter now and, honestly, I'll probably throw away the rest of them next Christmas. Just not ready to say good-bye.

2012 was a very good Christmas, our memories tucked away and put into the mental attic, just as I put away the Christmas decorations. Next Christmas, I will remember 2012 as the year zero ornaments broke. But more importantly, I'll remember that my children are more precious than a broken ornament.

Handy-Woman: Replacing The Faucet

As with any home, especially older ones, there's always something the previous owners did that isn't liked by the current owners.  In our case, it's the bathrooms and the kitchen. They're functional, so we aren't in any hurry to do anything, but we are hoping to re-do the hall bathroom little by little this year.

The hall bath had one of those pull-on, push-off faucets. This one was real stiff so the kids usually had to use all their strength to try and pull it on. When they were younger, their Dad and I had to do it for them. Eventually, all that pulling cracked the seal under the faucet and broke the clamp underneath the sink that holds the faucet tight against the sink. Children that like to use the sink as a bathtub for toys proved no match for a cracked seal and broken clamp and a leak developed. Now here's my chance to replace the faucet with something prettier and easier for little hands to turn off and on.

 Here's the old sink. I never did like those kinds of faucets, did you? After shutting off the water and struggling with rusted bolts and getting beaned in the head with a falling clamp, I finally got the old faucet out. Dropping in the new faucet was nice and easy, clamped it in, then started to attach the old water supply line only to discover it's about 2 inches too short, because the new faucet has a shorter pipe compared to the old one. The very basic hardware store inside the General Store down the road from us didn't carry what I needed, so I had to wait 4 days until the next time one of us went into the big town before I could get longer supply lines. 

Now that the water supply line is installed, it's time to connect the drainpipe. Arggggh!!  The new drainpipe is  too short! It barely sits inside the old J-bend pipe. If you turn on the water it slightly bubbles out. Can't have that. So Andrew goes to the big hardware store after work and finds a J-bend with a higher inlet, and as soon as he comes home, I snatch it out of his hands so I can install it. Ugh, the opening is too big!! Perfect higher inlet, but too big!! Oh the joys of trying to make new parts fit on old parts!!  Enough is enough! I grab the old J-bend and bring it to the small hardware store in the small town and find an extension pipe that will fit perfectly, but I might have to cut it down a little bit... It works!!  *happy dance*

Here's the pretty new faucet, all shiny and easy to turn off and on.

Leak-free, too!!  

I love that the kids are seeing Mama do handy-man stuff around the house and that Andrew doesn't mind that I'm doing it, either.  Someday, when they grow up, I hope they'll think they can do it themselves without having to rely on a man to do it for them, and Peter, if he finds a wife that wants to do things, he won't mind letting her! 

Saving Money At The Grocery Store

I fell off the coupon wagon a few months ago, somewhere in the middle of the garden harvest when we were enjoying meals of fresh fruits and vegetables and had no desire for anything store-bought.  Then I kind of got sick of couponing, the weekly sit-down of cutting out coupons and organizing them and pulling out expired ones. Going online to check for deals and sales and printing online coupons were starting to annoy me. I was experiencing coupon burn-out!

Of course, falling off the coupon wagon means money isn't being saved.  Not that I stopped shopping the sales, but I wasn't searching out the best deals and my coupon inserts were piling up, waiting to be cut. Couponing is a lot of work, equivalent to a part-time job, at least, when you factor in all the time it takes to cut, sort, organize, search, find, and match up deals to coupons.

After awhile, I got tired of my grocery budget not going as far as it could be and sometime around November, I hopped back on the wagon. A break was just what I needed, to come back refreshed and eager to start making my dollars stretch again! Just in time, too, because I found a lot of deals for Christmas gifts and other items, and I'm pretty pleased to say that the majority of the gifts under the tree this year were bargains. I think there were only a few things we paid full price for and I'm happy with what we were able to give to others and not feel like we came out broke at the end of it all.

Now that a new year has begun, I've started off on the right foot and really stretched the food budget today while I was out shopping.  I try not to buy too much processed foods, but sometimes, and especially with a big family, buying a box or two of macaroni and cheese really helps stretch the budget and the meals. In this case, I bought 18 boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese!!  Here's why: The local store advertised it as being on sale 3 for $1.25.  That's a cheap price for a brand name!  An added bonus is that I have 6 coupons for $1 off 3, which combined with the sale makes it 25 cents for 3 boxes!! No doubt, that's a stock-up price!! After sales, coupons, and taxes, I paid $1.75 for 18 boxes of macaroni and cheese!!

I can now take a box and then add to it to make a meal-- I might add a pound of ground beef, a jar of my home-canned tomatoes, a chopped onion and green pepper, some spices, and I've just made a home version of hamburger helper.  Add a side of vegetables and a salad and it's enough for the seven of us to get filled up on. It's a little bit processed, but in general, it's a healthy meal, I'm not complaining.

Here's where going online helps to make a sale become a better deal: Target's ad states that when you buy 2 boxes of Digiorno pizza for $5 each, you get a free box of Edy's fruit bars. Pretty good.  But going online to coupon websites, I discover there's an online coupon you can print to get 1 Digiorno pizza free when you buy 2.  Even better!  Now here's the best deal, print -2- of those coupons, buy 6 pizzas for $5 each, get 3 free boxes of fruit bars for $30 total before coupons. The coupon states it will give you a free pizza up to $7.01 and some stores will let you get the full value of the coupon, even if the pizza only cost $5.  I was able to get the full value of the coupon twice, which means, after coupons, I paid $16 for 6 pizzas and 3 boxes of fruit bars!

Frozen pizza is not as good as eating out, but with this large family of mine, eating out often is not an option. Not as good as home made pizza, but that requires planning ahead and I usually come up with dinner ideas on the fly, meaning something gets whipped up at the last minute. I'll be saving those pizzas for those really crazy days, when we're all frazzled and tired and hungry and too pooped to cook.

I keep telling myself to keep track of how much I spent versus how much I should have spent, but after a week or two, I lose stamina and receipts get scattered. The easier way for me to know I'm saving money is when we continually stay under the grocery budget.  I've been running out before the end of the month and that's a truly awful feeling to know I've spent the entire budget already. It's nice to get back on track again and I'm looking forward to seeing our budget carry over to the next month!

Handmade Christmas 2012

Before it's too late and while I still remember, 

I wanted to share what I made for Christmas 2012.

I found some new flour sack dish towels and I knew they'd be fun to embroider something on them and give as gifts. I went back and forth as to what I wanted to embroider but considering how much time I had left, simplicity won out. I made two kinds of snowflakes modifying different designs I found online. The nice thing about these is that the back is exactly the same as the front, and except for the knot, you'd probably not be able to tell which side was which. I made just enough to give away, working on the last couple of dishtowels on Christmas Eve!  Now I need to make a couple for me!

My yearly handmade ornament was these spirograph designs I mentioned back in December. I made somewhere around 30 of these, and they were really quick to come together. The back is colored felt that matches the color of the stitching and a nice blanket-stitch to keep it all together. Coordinating ribbon for hanging and then I made a holly leaf and the year I made it on shrinky-dink paper and a little red bell to represent a holly berry. These were well-received and I even made extra to sell. 

That's it! I already have ideas for next Christmas, and hopefully I won't wait until Christmas Eve to finish it!!

First Day!

I'm going to get the New Year started on the right foot and post on the very first day!

Whether or not I'll be able to post daily is a whole 'nother question!

It was a quiet day, the last day of 2012. No plans to go anywhere, no wild and crazy celebration, just a another day at home with the family. Andrew heard some meowing, thought it was one of our cats locked in the office next to the dining room. Looked in, no cat. Maybe it's the basement. Open the door, no cat. He listened and pinpointed a cat meowing outside the sliding door in the dining room. Oh, maybe one of our cats accidentally got out? Slide open the door and a cat starts to come in. Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's not one of ours! He got the cat back outside and all the kids immediately run to the door to check out the "new" cat.

Friendly little thing! All full of loud meows and bumps and leg rubs. I go out and check it over, doesn't seem sick. Just real hungry. Thick coat, which tells me it's been outdoors for awhile, but you could feel bony ribs and spine and hip bones underneath that fur. Brought out a bowl of food and it was all over it. Not going to do anything now, at this late hour, and we left the cat outside with a bowl of food and a bowl of water.

From my experience, most cats are wary of new people. Most is the key word here. There are exceptions to the rule and some cats are absolute pushovers. This cat here, is just so friendly, even with the dog sniffing at her and the other cats outside eating right next to her. And yes, she let me check "down there" and it's a female cat. I pick her up and she just sits in my arms, content to be there. The kids have each picked her up and she stays there. Looks like a 'lap' cat has come to adopt us!

The kids have begged and pleaded to keep her. Names are being thrown out. Promises are being made to take care of her and feed her. Sure reminds me of myself when I'd bring home a stray cat and beg to keep it. 

I've let them bring her in, after I gave her a thorough look over this morning and made sure she visited the litter box first thing. She promptly peed in it. So far so good. It's been a few hours since she's been in the house and nearly the entire time, it has been in the arms or a lap of a child. I'm betting she'll be resting a lot, catching up on all the energy she spent trying to survive in the cold and snow with no food and shivering herself to sleep. Let's see what happens when she is warmed up, food in her belly and she starts getting comfortable.

I don't know what we'll call her, names from Camilla to Sugar, Britney to Socks have been tossed out, but I'm trying not to settle on a name just yet, in case we decide not to keep her after all. We already have 7 cats, 1 dog and 15 chickens, and we'll have to get her spayed if we keep her... but she sure is a sweetheart, and I've been looking for a lap cat... oh dear. It's looking like we're leaning pretty heavy in the 'keep her' direction, doesn't it?

What a start to the New Year! :o)

Here's hoping 2013 brings out the best in us all!

The Last November Day

I don't know how it happened!

I have heard all my life about how time goes faster when one gets older.

It's true, but I can't figure out how!

One minute it's still early November and we're talking with the Roof Guys and setting a date mid-month.

Then we get a call and the roof replacement is postponed to the end of the month and it's time to plan Thanksgiving dinner.

Now here it is, the last day of November, we still have the same old roof, and time is just zipping by!

Well, rather than focus on the negative (and flying time is a negative, right?), let's show you what I've been up to these days...

My sister gave me these vintage printed dish towels to embroider years ago. I love turtles and she saw these and thought of me (Thanks, sis!).  There's supposed to be a towel for every day of the week, but I only have two of them- Sunday and Friday. They've been sitting in a box for awhile, and I came across them and decided it was time to work on them.  The washable ink is starting to fade in some places, so better get to it before I'll have to start making it up as I go! I must say, I really like the detail I came up with on the stomach and the hat. Almost done with this one, and then I can start on the next.  The real question here is: Can I use them as what they were intended for when I'm done with them? We shall see!

Every year I do hand made ornaments to give as gifts. I try to keep it different and not too difficult since I have to make mass quantities of them. I get inspiration from other people, magazines, stuff I see in the stores, but this time, inspiration struck at home! Remember those spirograph drawing sets we had as kids?? Evelyn was drawing one night with the spirograph and I noticed how they could be snowflakes... ornament snowflakes!! Evelyn and I drew a bunch more onto tissue paper, then I embroidered right through the paper onto felt. Still a work in progress, but thought I'd share in case anyone wanted to try this.

We set the tree up two days ago. Only lights on it right now because I like to wait until kids and cats are used to having the tree around before adding ornaments. You can just see the curiosity getting ready to kill this cat, can't you??  I'm glad I don't have ornaments on this yet, because yesterday morning I found Peter somehow tangled up inside the tree, lights all wrapped up around him!!  Wha...?!?  A firm warning that the tree will get put up if he does it again and so far, no more mishaps. I'm thinking the ornaments will go up tonight after dinner.

Christmas shopping is just about done with, a few more items and I can call it good! Soon I'll be able to focus solely on crafting and baking and wrap presents little by little. I don't yet know what our Christmas plans are, but whatever they will be, as long as it's with family and friends, it's perfect! 

Let's just hope December doesn't fly by as fast as November did, hmm?