Sunday Drive

I found this song on Tangle and had to post it . . . we LOVE our Sunday drives - really any day drives. We have been known to jump in the car and let the kids pick right or left for a few hours before heading back home. It is amazing how little we know of where we live and God's beauty all around us. I hope you take the time to enjoy what God has put all around you.



Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

Just another wonderful reminder . . .

Just another wonderful reminder from the Lord of why I am where He has me at this moment in my life. Little girl decided to pack a lunch for her and Bubby. She laid out the tablecloth, packed a wonderful lunch complete with apples, baby carrots, left over pizza, and Doritos. Of course she also brought out the books so Bubby could do a little reading to her as well. It is moments like this - on days like these that I take a deep breath and say, "Thank you God for allowing me to be right here - right now."
What an amazing God we serve!

I pray each of us will enjoy the gentle reminders God gives us throughout our days. Have a blessed day everyone - Lisa

Laundry Soap Recipe

For those of you who might be interested in making your own laundry soap here is the recipe that I use. Now before you totally think I have lost it - it is really not that hard and it works GREAT. A 5 GALLON bucket of laundry soap cost me around $3.50 to make and it usually lasts about 6 MONTHS and we do A LOT of laundry around here. So here is the recipe. This recipe is off of the Duggar Family website.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap (can also use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars)
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax (this can be bought at most Wal-Marts)

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons for scent. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

Just a few of my own personal notes. . . . Super Washing Soda is toxic - so be sure to keep it any place other than the kitchen and make sure kids cannot reach it. It is not the same as Arm and Hammer baking soda - completely different thing. If you try to substitute baking soda for washing soda the laundry soap with not thicken and will not work properly. Also I thought I could make my soap smell really nice as I am spoiled and like my laundry smelling like anything other than clothes :-) so I tried to use Caress soap - don't waste your money the smell will not be there. It still cleans fine, but no heavenly scent.

I am now use ZOTE laundry soap - you can order it online as well, we have a Mexican Market that I can get it from here, but like stated above there are other soaps that will work just fine.

To grate the soap I use my food processor - it does a great job and since it is just soap you are grating it will not be dangerous for food after.

I hope you all give this a try. I think you will really enjoy the results and the savings.

Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

Moments Like These

It is in moments like these that I am reminded how incredibly BLESSED I am. I am so thankful that Avery has a "Big Bubby" to take care of her and to help her grow into the young lady that God wants her to be. It is truly humbling when you walk in the living room and your 9 year old boy is on his knees by the couch praying for his sister because she is getting in trouble for disobeying and if that wasn't enough for the tears to start flowing, he goes to bed and prays that her heart with turn to God and she will get saved "because she is going to learn the hard way Mom if she doesn't give her heart to God". I have no other words to say other than I LOVE being these two kids' Mommy !!!!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5)

Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

Just Because . . . .

Just because . . . for no other reason than the fact that I love these pictures of our "little princess" doing her handwriting. They have desks, they have a table, but somehow they always chose to do their work at ANY spot other than these two places.



Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

Astronomy and our Amazing God. . . .

I think one of the best things about homeshooling is how much you learn along with the kiddos. I am so thankful that everything our children our being taught can be backed up with the WORD of GOD ! ! ! It is so refreshing when you look at the world through God's eyes and not man's textbooks/theories. God's word is FULL of truth and promises and amazing facts - we just need to be willing to open it up and teach from it. I thank God that even through the difficult days (and yes we really do have difficult days around here) that God is faithful to take my selfish eyes off of myself and place them back on the greater picture-HIS GLORY!!!

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Pictures at the Park

It is working . . . well sort of , but hey I will take what I can get. I really wanted to get some nice pictures of the kids at the park, but with two very goofy kiddos that is almost impossible. Still the last one isn't too bad - so I will consider the adventure a success.

Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

A little sad . . .

Well just to let you all know - I really want to blog. I do . . . honestly, but our computer will not cooperate. At this point I can't upload pictures so all I can do is just type. Well where is the fun in that. So I guess I will have to wait until I am able to go to the library and try their wireless. When ? ? ? Not sure on that one. But we will see.

Until then - I pray that you all have a wonderful day and maybe soon we will be back up and running with our regularly scheduled program. - Lisa

Vacation Week . . . Moscow Circus

We had a wonderful vacation and I wanted to share just a bit of our fun. . . Our vacation started with going down Monday to see the Moscow Circus at Yakov's theater. It was a fantastic show. I loved the fact that it wasn't just a circus, but it was actually a story that played out in the circus. Andrei the Clown falls in love with Marina the Ballerina but her sister, who runs the circus, does not want them to be together. They struggle to find their way to be together in America . . .

While we were waiting to go inside . . . we spied someone we knew - Noah's best buddy from Scouts and his family. They have a daughter that is also Avery's age, so it worked out perfect. It was so fun to watch the kids enjoy the acts in the lobby together. When we went in for seating they were actually just one row behind us . . . what are the chances. The kids LOVED it and I'm so thankful for shows that we can take the kids to and not be worried about what "previews" they might see or what language they might slip in.




This was Avery's favorite thing - the human slinky . . . amazing. Mine was the bubbles - I cannot even describe how fantastic it was. . . .


I will post more later . . . but right now we are off to do visitation for SBBM.

Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa

Stop taking my picture . . .

Little miss got the camera again and this time Noah was her victim. . . and he was not too happy about that either. They truly do love each other . . . sometimes they just forget how much.


Peaceful little boy sitting and playing . . . Enter Sister . . .

Not so peaceful little boy saying "Stop taking my picture!"

Little sister pleased to have accomplished yet another day of pestering . . . . hmmmm wonder where she gets that from?

Lisa

The Alvarez Boys

A few weeks ago we had the Alvarez boys here with us and I was able to actually get all of them in the same photo . . . how ? ? ? ? simple - pull out 1 mattress - turn on 1 tv - put in 1 Homeward Bound (the original) movie - and snap away. Not one of them even looked at me. I think this is the first photo I have where little miss is the only girl and little guy is surrounded by boys ! ! !

Lisa

Top 10 things I love about going up North . . .

We actually got to go back up to Unionville, where Bob is from, a few months ago and I thought it would be fun to do a top 10 of the things I love about this place. . . so here you go.

#10 The ol' red barn. The kids and I start looking for this barn about two miles away. Who ever spots it first usually get to drive up the gravel road to Grandpa & Grandma's house. I love everything about this old barn. It sits perfectly on top of the hill and has weathered many a storms - it truly is beautiful.

#9 Green - What a marvelous color it is. This picture captures everything I love about green - trees, grass, and a garden.
#8 My mother-in-law "just planted" these wildflowers and this is what she gets. Me I "just plant" wildflowers and I get weeds. . . Maybe some day I will be able to "just plant" something and actually have it grow.
#7 Now don't get me wrong . . . it's not that I don't like Buddy the mule, but lets just say we have a distant relationship - the farther I am away from him - the better I like it. Avery on the other hand would spend every second chasing him around and feeding him treats. She loves Buddy and even named her stick horse after him. She also informed me that Grandpa said she could have Buddy when he dies. . . . how sad is that - thankfully our little cubical of a backyard just wont be enough room for him. (Mommy cheering happily in the background)#6 - Fishing with little guy. It's not because I don't like fishing with little guy, but because I absolutely despise taking a picture of EVERY single fish he catches (my dear mother-in-law will COMPLETELY agree with me on this one). However, there are very cool moments to this as you can see by this picture. Noah decided to start talking to the fish and shaking them around a bit and when he did out popped a little fish from this guy . . . gross, but cool and I don't know if I love the fish or Noah's face more. (click on photo to enlarge)
#5 - Little Tree Monkey. I love the fact that my kids get to be kids when we go up north. Avery is free to roam and explore and this trip was no different. She found that she could climb the apple tree and it soon became her favorite place to be.

#4 The views . . . It is a wonderful reminder of how amazing God is. I love looking out over the hills and seeing this . . . and this. . . . and this . . . . and this. . . . it is a wonderful reminder of how GREAT God is and how small I am. #3 & 2 OK I know she is going to kill me for this one, but I had to . . . REALLY ! ! ! ! I love my mother-in-law because she is such an amazing woman. She always encourages us and gives 110% to her family. She is an INCREDIBLE grandma. . . . I mean how many grandmas do you know that play softball with their grandkids . . . I mean come on she is AMAZING ! ! ! ! ! ! and WE LOVE HER ! ! ! !

#3 & 2 I couldn't exactly put one of these guys over the other so they both just fit in together under #3 and #2. I didn't have a picture of Mr. Picks-a-lot, but here he is from a photo I snatched off facebook. I must say that it fits him so well. I love the fact that he cares so much about all of us. Who else would get up at 5:30 and take little guy fishing, oh wait . . . maybe it is his fault that this whole fishing thing got started . . . well aside from that - he also pesters little girl to no end and she loves it - and he patiently leads her around on Buddy. That has won him a HUGE GOLD STAR in our book ! ! ! !
#1 And the NUMBER 1 thing I love about up north . . . you guessed it. The love of my life was born and raised in a wonderful family in a wonderful place and is a WONDERFUL man ! ! ! I hope you take the time to think about a top 10 of yours - I have many and I think they are good reminders to show how blessed we really are.

Have a wonderful night everyone - Lisa