God's Painting

I'm finally getting some pictures up from our wonderful afternoon adventure to explore the Texas wildflowers for the first time. It truly is amazing how God paints every little green patch with amazing colors every spring here! It's almost as if He has His paintbrush covered in all the colors of the rainbow and splatters the land from above, creating this wonderful masterpiece. Add in the rolling hills, cattle grazing, and ranching homesteads, and it's enough to make you really appreciate why Texans love their state. Enjoy God's Masterpiece with our Little Wildflowers mixed in...

Sweet, beautiful Isabella...

No, amazingly none of the kids picked a wildflower! Brigham a petal or two maybe, but not the whole flower! :)

Lincoln was happy pullingandpullingandpulling the wagon all around...

Bella had been waiting so patiently all spring to have her picture taken by bluebonnets. She was so excited!

Bella just loves being a big sister to her brothers, and surprisingly she wants this baby to be another boy!

A kind lady offered to take a family picture, and look, we're all looking in the same direction! :)

If You Have a Spare Second

If I could just ask for {a few} prayers and thoughts for our previous home situation... {Please!} It's been just shy of seven months since putting it on the market, and we're ready for something to start moving... We can't change the fact that it's on a busy road or that the bedrooms are too small, and we accept that. But... We have a proposal on the table for a couple to rent it for a year starting next month, who possibly want to buy if or when their other home sells many states away. We are happy with this, and it would work out well for us. Hopefully we hear back today or tomorrow... {Thanks! XOXO}

If It's Gotta Be Clean, It's Gotta Be.... Homemade!?

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting and hanging on the edge of your desk chairs for the outcome of my latest experiment with making my own laundry detergent, so here goes...

After cooling overnight, I'm proud to announce that yes, the mixture did indeed gel in the bucket as anticipated. I guess this shows that something went right up to this point. Great, but here's where I get a little embarrassed, though... Previously I had said that I made a half-batch due to only having two small containers to hold my new liquid gold in. Well, I obviously didn't do the math or even think of doing the math, because 5 gallons of liquid {remember I had to add water to it before bottling...} does not and will not fit into two wimpy containers totaling 175 ounces. Not even close... Nope.

Fortunately, I also keep my vinegar in the laundry room for mixing my favorite all-purpose cleaner and was running low in the larger bottle. Voila, another container! Still not even close, though... To the recycling bin I go. {Yes, I dug through my trash to get an orange juice container to put my detergent in, but hey, this is 128 ounces of pure detergent storage for nothing! It was Earth Day, remember...} Okay, still.not.close.though. Raiding the pantry brought forth a nice big frying oil jug that I didn't want anymore, but I didn't have any place to dispose of the oil. In the end, I ended up leaving the bucket about 1/3 full and sitting on my dryer, but the moral of this huge long rambling would be to measure twice, pour once. ;)

Moving on, since you all just really want to know if this stuff works... In one word, YES! I was very happy with the outcome of the lightly-soiled normal load that I did this morning. I inspected the clothes very closely while still warm from the dryer and this is what I found.

~ Very soft clothes with no need of softener. Springy and bouncy! {Wish my hair was like that...}
~ Wonderful fresh, clean scent with no heavy perfume. Pure clean that my nose had a hard time leaving. {Unfortunately, there is no trace of the wonderful scent of Fels Naptha after the dilution process, but that's what the other 6 1/2 bars on my shelf are for...}
~ No soapy residue on clothing. I think that even the expensive brand detergents leaves some residue behind...

I have yet to try it on any heavily-soiled clothing from the children's outdoor playtimes, but I'm confident it can stand against the expensive stuff. I've also read many good things about using Fels Naptha as a stain treatment by rubbing the bar into the stain before washing, so I'll keep that in mind for sure. All in all, I think it was a success other than the storage fiasco, and hope that I've encouraged at least one of you to change your laundry tagline for good! I mean just look above at all of the detergent half a bar of soap, less than a cup of dry ingredients, some water, and time will buy you! :)

I Boiled What On My Stove!?

The aroma of the house right now is clean and fresh thanks to the grated bar of soap that I was melting and boiling on my stove. Yes, you read right! :) I finally made a batch of the homemade laundry detergent that I've been wanting to try for months and months. I kept putting it off until the move, so I wouldn't have to waste any at the last house. Yesterday I was blissfully giddy when the UPS man brought my last ingredient of a whopping three items that this recipe calls for. I jumped around the house and tore the package open. Seven fresh yellow bars of Fels Naptha soap filled the house with its intoxicating scent as soon as the bars saw sunlight. I've heard that this soap smells yummy, but oh my! I found myself making many trips to the laundry room during the last day just to smell the air inside made sweet by the bars sitting wrapped on the counter inside. {Yes, it is the little things that make me happy...}

The kids were highly interested in the process, so I'm glad that I did it while the baby was napping. {It takes a while to melt the grated soap down on the stove, and you also don't want little fingers mixing ingredients behind your back!} I made a half batch, since I only have two smaller empty Tide containers saved to store the mixture in for now. The concentrate is now sitting in its 5-gallon bucket waiting to "gel" overnight. I'll see in the morning whether or not this new little project of mine was successful and report back! I decided to go with the tried and true recipe of the Duggar family that I found in my book The Duggars: 20 and Counting!

Please let me know if you've tried your own detergent or decide to try this recipe for yourself!

Ingredients:

1 Fels Naptha soap bar, grated
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax

Instructions:

Grate the soap bar into a small saucepan. Cover with hot water. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continually, until the soap completely dissolves.

Put Washing Soda and Borax in a 5-gallon bucket. Pour in the hot, melted soap mixture. Stir well, until all the powder is dissolved. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover securely, and let set overnight. The next morning, stir the mixture. Mix equal amounts of soap concentrate and water in a smaller laundry-detergent dispenser or container. Shake before using.

For top-loading machines: Use 1 cup of the soap mixture per load.
For front-loading machines: Use 1/2 cup per load.

Too Soon...

Too soon you won't be climbing up on the counter to steal your third banana of the day...

Too soon you won't have those tiny crooked teeth peeking out that Mama loves so much...

Too soon you won't have chocolate all over your precious dimpled face for me to wipe away...

Too soon you won't look at me with that twinkle in your eye & silly grin...

Too soon Daddy's hat won't be too big on you...

{Brigham Isaac ~ 20 months}

Blessings Overflowing

There are no words to describe the deep sense of contentment and peace I have now. Peace from a beautiful Easter weekend spent at church and home with our little family... Peace in our decision to walk through an open door into another chapter of life filled with opportunity and adventure as a military family... Peace from a big decision nearly made... Peace from a fourth Easter basket left on Sunday morning!

Our family is growing! We have been so blessed! Thank you, Lord for our

Blessings Overflowing...

Caution: Imaginations in Use

This is what's going on at our house right now... There's never a dull moment in this house. Nope. Especially for Lincoln, having an older sister to influence him and all... He's going to love this picture when he's older. Hee, hee.

Can You Guess...

Where

we

went

yesterday?

{No,

it

wasn't

the

dentist!}

If I Had a Dime...

... for every time that I've said this to my husband over the past few years.

"If it's not one child, it's always another. No fail."

You've said it too, right? If one child gets well, the next will be sick soon. If one child is happy and content finally, the next will need water, food, questions answered, tears wiped, and boo-boos kissed. If one child is finally sleeping all night, another will need tending to many times the next night. I think it's some sort of law like Murphy's Law, but I haven't come up with a name for it yet...

We moved Brigham to his big boy bed right away when we moved into this house a couple of weeks ago. {It just seemed logical to not have to put the crib back up for a few months and then disassemble that to assemble the new bed.} He's done amazing with the transition, sleeping well for naps and over night. The last week, though, he's been waking around 3-4 times a night for water or just an MIA binky. {or three!} I've been tired again in the morning, dragging for hours or even the whole day after waking many times at night again. He's finally slept through the night for months {thank you, Lord!}, but getting smart again with Mommy coming to his aid for little wails and grunts. I told Mark two nights ago before bed that I was getting behind on sleep again and dragging in the morning.

That night, sweet Brigham didn't make a peep! {If I don't count the one time before I went to bed that he was up...} But, alas, Bella of all children was up FIVE times that night! I can usually count on her to sleep like a rock for 11 hours or so. Thirsty, tummy hurt with childrens' Tums & thirsty again, potty {big surprise after the first two wakings...}, bloody nose and sheet stripping, and something else that I can't remember, since I'm pretty sure I was sleep-walking through that episode at that point. Hmmm, funny... Not so. At least there was some comic relief during the tummy hurting waking. After fetching Bella water and returning to her room, she candidly told me {don't tell her I told you!} that she had "a pooter as loud as Daddy's i-phone". Okay!? "Well, that should help your tummy feel better." The things children come up with in the middle of the night... *chuckle*

Fast forward to last night... Bella slept like a pro again, but Brigham wanted his turn again in grand fashion. I don't think I fell asleep until well after 2 or 3 A.M. I'm wondering now if his four canine teeth coming through had something to do with it. {Genius me didn't think of that last night!} Or maybe he was just being a little stinker... I'll never know.

Either way, it's all part of parenting. {This mysterious law that is...} Either way, I always like to think of it as some part of God's sense of humor to keep us parents on our toes. That makes me feel a bit better to think of nights like that in that sense. Now, if I could just come up with a name for this phenom to make me feel even better...

We've Arrived

I can't sleep, and for good reason. It's our fourth night in our new home, and I'm listening to our first Texas rain through the still quiet of our sleepy neighborhood. It's beautiful and so peaceful. It is only 9:45, but this is "late" for me to be awake lately. We've all been in bed so early, as there's really no reason to stay awake in an empty house. There's no television, no internet (until today), and not even a book to curl up with on a chair. We've set up camp in our master bedroom, with an air mattress flanked by two sleeping bags and a pack 'n play. It's cozy, and quickly became my favorite room of the house. {Not just because it has a master bath attached, warm carpet underfoot, and could easily fit three of our last bedrooms inside of it...}

Tomorrow our belongings get delivered. I'm a little excited and anxious both. Life has been so simple the last few days without all of the "stuff" surrounding us. I know there will be a trillion things that I don't want in our new home that didn't make the purge in Ohio. Time just ran out... It will be nice having furniture to sit on and eat on, instead of the staircase and its large landing as our resting place and dinner table. The kids could use some of their old toys back instead of the few that made the trip with us. I look forward to fluffing the kids' bedrooms with them, but will sorely miss all five of us in the same "family bed" at night.



Sickness (the good ol' fashioned flu) found its way into our home the last few days, so we've been knocked down a bit. {Again, I'm so thankful for the cozy, large bedroom where many of us at a time could rest and mend...} I'm praying that it's struck the last of us, but prepared for the worst for delivery day. Thank goodness Mommy went down last night overnight, and not during the day. Praise the Lord for a husband that completely took over not only the one million little things on his plate, but also the kids all night and morning, even when he wasn't 100%. I can't even remember the last time I was in bed still at 9:30 A.M. I admit, I liked it just a little bit even if it was to gain a few extra hours of strength after a night of my body being taken over by unpleasantries. Poor Lincoln got it the worst. His little body was surrendered to 10-minute-on-the-button bathroom runs for almost twelve hours. Bless his heart, he's feeling better finally.



I'm so thankful for all of the prayers and positive thoughts for our last home to sell, but keep them coming... After seven showings the week Mark was out of town one week before leaving, we've had just one cancelled showing the last two weeks. I was reminded that busy week that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle...



Though it seems that the road's been bumpy these last couple of weeks, it really doesn't feel that way to us. Things haven't gone completely as planned, but then again, I've heard the saying that "we make plans, and then God laughs". We love our new home already and look forward to all of the bumps this phase has to offer. I've been getting a lot of wishes for pictures, but until our camera is unpacked (whoops) or the i-phone cooperates with the computer, I can only leave you with this picture of our little side courtyard. I'll try to keep in touch more that we're "settled" now. I miss you all, family and friends.



Love, Kate