For Pete's Sake

http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/technology/communication-etiquette/facebook-etiquette-00100000072701/page4.html

Above is a link to an article in Real Simple.  There are some good points within the article about facebook etiquette.  But I have to say, that after I read it, it bugged me!  I thought about all my facebook friends.  I thought about each individual personality.  I thought about how much a part of my day the changing landscape of facebook statuses kept the day hopping along.

One friend has a new baby.  According to Real Simple's author, Ms. Appenbrink, the multiple updates and photos and short videos WHICH I LOVE shouldn't be included on Facebook.  They're irritating.  They're excessive. They're bothersome.  They're (gasp) against 'social media etiquette.'  Who died and made her the Social Media Etiquette Police?  Or more accurately, Ms. Appenbrink gets to the write the manual that we all must agree on for social media etiquette?  (I know I'm making Ms. Appenbrink the bad guy in this, but just humor me. She compiled all the opinions and published the article.)

We have a friend or three who are very politically active and involved.  God bless them!!  I don't have to search for the latest news article; it's there if I want to read it.  IF I want to read it. No one is forcing me to click on it.  That's the beauty of freedom- their freedom and mine.

What about my daughters' friend who posts updates a few times a day that literally make me laugh out loud? (I've refrained from typing LOL on her status, since I want to try to remain a mature adult in her eyes.)  Her status updates, her take on life, especially through the summer when she had a job where she met with the public pretty constantly, kept us in stitches! According to Ms. Appenbrink, my daughters' friend really should stop. If anybody tells her to stop they're going to have to deal with me. She's funny, and I'm glad she shares her sense of humor with us on FB.

Another status post has been shared a million times of late. It's below.  But it's incomplete. There are so many other personalities at work on that site.

If someone doesn't like the fact that Facebook is a melting pot of personalities all FREE to post and express to one's heart's content, then maybe don't join, or don't 'friend' those who will annoy you. Sounds to me like some folks just ought not to partake.  Sounds to me like those who are of a critical, controlling nature ought not to seek out Friends on Facebook and lurk.  But maybe that's why they're on FB in the first place.  The real deal friends don't want to hang with them because they can't please Mr. or Mrs. Persnickety.  Enjoying people for how they are and for how they react to or enjoy life in their little Facebook way is a lot more fun than policing the site for the grave errors in "Etiquette" (said with a rich, English accent and a sniff).

A disclaimer to my rant about the article:  the suggestions about photos are relevant. It's mean to post pictures without someone's permission.  But the second and third from the last on the photo list are fine, in my opinion.  I guess with the whole Facebook thing, do like the doctors are supposed to do:  First, do no harm.  And secondly, how about getting and keeping a sense of humor? Third, and final:  Post and let post, don't post and let post, or don't post and let not post....you get my meaning.  And shoot the High Horse after dismounting.

Homeschool Perks

Seventeen years ago, when we began to homeschool, I saw it as a day job.  And while it is a lot of work, I have watched our kids experience what, when growing up in my family, we'd call "The Life of Reilly."  Who Reilly is or was I never did find out.  But he or she had a wonderful life, I inferred, due to the times and places my parents exclaimed the phrase.  

I loved school as a child.  Almost all parts of it.  So choosing to homeschool was not to slam  the public school system. There are many wonderful teachers devoting their lives to educating America's young people.  I know I was blessed to be a part of a good school system for 13 years - no moving around - and my parents were involved somewhat and pretty solid, until the messy divorce, but I digress.  

As a homeschool mom being of the 'driver' personality, motivating the masses has not been too difficult. Road blocks are a problem, though, until the 'driver' learns how to drive around them, stop, inspect & take it down, or just call the cops and wait. I prefer to call the cops, because Phil is extra handsome in a uniform.  But again, I digress.  

Since my kids haven't experienced 'real' school, they don't really appreciate the perks of homeschooling. But you can bet I remind them. Kind of like the Grandpa who trudged through snow 12 feet deep up hill both ways to get to school, my memories of the pitfalls of school can rear up. Especially when I see my daughter curled up in a recliner in front of the pellet stove with a minky soft throw across her legs, a steaming hot chocolate within reach, and a purring kitten on a shoulder while she watches her Geometry lesson explained on her laptop - and this is her 'normal'??! I have to control myself or I'd yell, "Do you even realize how good you've got it???? May I just take 30 minutes of your time and bore you to death with an in depth description of the discomfort of school desks??"  

Nope, they don't realize how good they've got it, not fully.  But as they've left for college, each of our two daughters has said and written how grateful they are for comfy chairs in our homeschool - oh, yeah, and they were grateful for other things, too, which makes it all worth while.

Reading assignment in supreme comfort!

Kitten helping with daily work.

Students' best friend keeping vigil
until break-time.

Cozy kitchen computer work -
while in one's bathrobe.

More Tebow Twitterpation

This book, with affectionate sticky note, was on the breakfast nook this morning.

Hmm.

I have a little free time today - 

maybe I need to look through my four daughters' makeup

and try to match the shade.  

Or pick up a DNA test at the local Walgreen's.  

They've got them over the counter

 by now, I'm sure.

I guess I underestimated the appreciation for the man, 

the mission, and the morals.  

 

Tasty and Quick Meal

10 Chops, Worcestershire sauce,

parsley, salt, onion powder, thyme

Yummy recipe

Braise in butter and OO

Cover and simmer 20 or so minutes -

remove chops from skillets

Add milk & flour for the gravy

Hungry crowd

Add brown rice and a salad -
Yum!  And Quick!

Sign of the Time

For years above the stove hung a plaque that said

"Never trust a skinny cook".

Recently, I changed it out for my new theme of nearly always needing to be cooking

 for this family and the entire family's love of chocolate.

Now if my favorite comfy couch or chair would fit into the kitchen,

it really would be a Chocolate Lounge.

The sign was easy enough to make:

scavenge a board from Phil's shop

pick a font on computer and print out the words

find the carbon paper and trace words onto board

use a sharpie to go over the carbon words

a little brown and copper metallic paint on the chocolate bar wrapper

a little left-over trim with warm fuzzies hot glued on the edges

We have a wonderful snow day today - 

no snow days from school work for homeschoolers,

but we do usually bake and enjoy some sledding to punctuate

the arrival of tons of the white stuff. 

Be assured, chocolate will be involved...

Creative Cheapness

What do you get when you put these things together?
     A really inexpensive light refractor for photography!!

Laney donated her outgrown frog umbrella - silly enough to bring a smile from the person being photographed - plus the inside, once spray painted,
would refract some light to our subjects!

50 cent umbrella from Walmart
donated to the cause of better
lighting for photos.

I sprayed the two umbrellas and let them dry in the shop.  Then I snuck one of Phil's older halogen lamps mounted on a stand out of the shop, and a couple clamps. After clamping the larger umbrella backwards onto the lamp, the light refracted back onto the posing subjects!  I'm saving the frog umbrella to be used as a portable refractor - adding a powerful flashlight shining up into it and moving it around where more light is needed.

This is one of the finished products - we'll see if it'll still fold up for easy
carrying, but even if it doesn't, we're happy.



Below are some of the results!

Molly - the dear, sweet kitten

Laney - the dear, sweet child

Georgie - the dear, slobbery best friend

That's My Boy

Please don't judge the lattice work - too much frittering for me :)

After a long day toiling at his job and then on his snowmobile, our son Anthony ate a huge roast beef dinner.  I did not think he'd even have any room for the cherry pie I baked.

Very funny.  When I offered him a piece, this is how he solved the question of how small or large of a piece to slice.....

The rest of us had ice cream instead. And we still love him.

DIY Cleansers

A number of posts back I wrote Michelle Duggar's laundry detergent recipe with changes that I have made to it for our family's use.  Now I'd like to share some recipes for household cleansers.

I love these!  I really did not think I would.  I made four in just a few moments and with a minimal expense.  I should note that I had the ingredients on hand - and each bottle only took a few drops or teaspoons.  A couple of the ingredients are not the norm, so might need to be found at a health food store, but that's what makes these so great of products!  (check Grain Train and Oleson's)

The favorite of the bunch is the sink and tub cleanser.  Mix in a pourable bowl, unless you have a funnel, because it's thicker and will bubble and foam up some.  Plus, this should be in a squirt bottle, not a spray bottle due to the thickness.
Recipe:- 2/3 Cup baking soda
- 1/2 Cup castile soap
- 2 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Cup water
- A few drops of Tea Tree oil

This stuff did not seem all that impressive, but once I tried it on our 2nd sink in the kitchen - the one I fondly call the "Garbage Sink", holding the cuttings from the salad, the spilled coffee grounds, etc. - the sink just shown like the moon!  (And lately that's saying a lot!  Anyone venture outside at night with that full moon?  Oh, I digress...)  And the smell - if you like Tea Tree and its super clean scent - is great!  So this one gets an A+ from me.

The second cleanser is a grease cutter, for in a spray bottle.  I have a glass top stove so this one will do nicely for the top.  

Recipe:  - 2 Cups water

- 1/4 Cup castile soap
- 10 drops lavender oil

The scent is wonderful and it does the job nicely!  I felt I needed to dry the top with a lint free towel and then it really gleamed.  I am still working through the baggage of having a Dutch mom :)  She was and is the best cleaner around.  So cleansers, cloths and towels, even buckets, all have to perform properly because in the back of my mind I am thinking, "Would this pass mom's tests?"  This stuff is good.  We don't fry much - except for eggs in the morning - so grease is not a really big issue, but now I have this on hand just in case.

The third one is an anti-bacterial spray and freshener.  Great smelling and easy to make!

Recipe: 

- 1 Cup water
- 20 drops lavender essential oil 

I could see spritzing this on some door handles and backs of chairs, where hands have been, and also freshening the house in a natural way.  The beauty of these cleansers is that they are so natural - and easy on my hands and head!  The strong chemical cleansers leave me dizzy and needing air.  When I was younger not so much - but now that my brain cells are at a premium, need every ONE of those babies, these sprays are seeming so mild and yet hard workers.

The final cleanser is an all purpose cleanser - for counters and such.  This goes in a spray bottle, but mix it up in a large bowl, maybe even inside the sink, since it will suds and bubble.  I usually use a "hot soapy" cloth on our counters which works well, but this spray even improved upon that!  

Recipe: - 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Teaspoon washing soda - not baking soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon castile soap
- 2 Cups hot water 

The spray bottles I filled were from Family Dollar.  For $1.50 they are large, around 16 ounces, and the sprayer will do a mist to a stream.  There's even a spot to write the recipe on the bottle for the next fill up!  Somebody was thinkin'.  The cleanser above worked great on mist, with a damp cloth.  

The real test will be when my mom comes over and wants to clean something.  (There's never been a time when there wasn't something to clean, sadly.)  If these babies pass her inspection, then I say everyone on the planet should try them.  Again, the bonuses besides cost are that as I type this my kitchen smells great, looks great, is probably more germ free, and my hands are still soft - not all dry and stiff from chemicals like Comet or Lysol, and I can think (pretty) clearly, too, from the fresh scent vs. the chemical smells.  

Enjoy!  And please let me know if you like them!  Special thanks to the Pinterest posts  - many of them - for DIY household cleansers!!! 

Fun with the Singer

We stalked Goodwill today.  I am blessed with a husband that actually likes to check out what treasures might be found there!  Since we have a horde of children, we've saved a lot of money finding sports equipment, desks, clothes, replacement coffee carafes and drinking glasses, of course, and I could go on and on.

Tucked within the ladies clothes I found some girls' sized clothing that Laney would love - and at half price - so just a dollar or so.  I also found a Gap cable knit sweater, ladies medium, that I hoped to turn into a tunic for Laney.  And Laney found an appalling velour sparkly dress in some sort of browns and blues - oh, my, it was hard to bring it home - but I am softening in my old age, and she IS the baby....

Once home, Laney tried on a horsey sweatshirt/tunic thing that was a girls' 14/16.  Due to being shrunken in the dryer, I believe, it fit well as a tunic, except for really long arms.  So I lopped those off and knit stitched the hem, since the collar and skirt were finished that way.  She loves it, since she loves all things horsey.

The cable knit sweater was so fun - turned it inside out, took it in 1.5" on each side and narrowed the arms, plus raising/narrowing the armholes in the process.  Cute and easy, and around $1.80.


Then, with her sweet face, she asked if I'd make the ghastly dress fit.  Size 14, it would need some help for her size 7 frame.  Thankfully, it ties in the back, so I just worked on taking it in at the shoulders, which would raise the bodice, minimize the arm holes, and shorten the whole dress.  But by taking it in at the shoulders the tops of the sleeves would pucker funny, so I made a seam on the inside (which on THIS dress is fine to do) from the shoulder that runs out just below the elbow.  The sleeves are flowy, which Laney loves, and this kept them flowy, but more narrow on the top part of her arm.

Before

After - probably won't be worn
outside the house, though!

I had help sewing.  She is Molly Millington, as Anders calls her, our most darling of kittens.  She loves the sewing machine's needle, which scares me.  Will she finally be overcome with curiosity and I sew her little paw to Laney's dress?  Actually, that might help that dress...oh, no, that wouldn't be good.  And a free plug for Singer:  I have had this machine for over 19 years and it's been only cleaned for maintenance.  It's one of my favorite things.  I love it so much that I don't let my girls use it. Does that mean that I love my machine more than I love them?  Um.  It just means I am trying to practice stewardship, yeah, that's it!  Stewardship! I have two other machines that run that they may use if they want to.  And once they are proficient on those, yes, I'll share then.

And breaking news from the kitchen - I made the cheesecake chocolate chip cookies AGAIN and added two tablespoons of peanut butter, plus this time I used a 1/4 c. of regular sugar and 3/4 c. stevia.  And I used my homemade vanilla.  That's the best they've turned out.  (The cream cheese was the 1/3 less fat version, too.)  With a cup of coffee, oh, my, so yummy.  Great texture, and just sweet enough, with the hint of peanut butter.

Yummy Minus the Guilt!

Tonight we settled in to watch Probition, a series we're working through, as a family.  Snacks are a must.  So I made the cookies from the last blog post, but this time I substituted the white sugar with Stevia, and used a 1/3 less fat cream cheese.  The cookies are still very good!!  Oh, I used even fewer chocolate chunks this time, too.  My dear brilliant husband suggested adding a little peanut butter next time.  I think he's absolutely right, but we love peanut butter around here, so there is a bias.

Less sugar, less fat, but still good texture and flavor!  I hope you give them a try!

Yummy!

We girls in the family are enjoying Pinterest.  Even Laney, who is seven, has a board on my account.  That will explain the many, many lions, tigers, kitties, dogs and other cute things clogging up the boards!  I enjoy the recipes the most and found a winner recently.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies...as if chocolate chip cookies need any improvement!  The addition of the cream cheese makes them moist and even more cake-like.  I used chocolate chunks, instead of chips, and not the12 ounces called for in the recipe, since I spilled fully one-third of the bag onto the floor.  Our dogs are not allergic to chocolate.  We know for sure now.

Try these and you will not be disappointed!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies
2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
10 T. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
3 oz. cream cheese
1 t. vanilla
12 ounces (or less!) chocolate chips

Oven 375 degrees.  Combine first four ingredients and set aside.  In mixer, blend butter, sugar, egg, cream cheese and vanilla.  Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing with each addition, until all incorporated.  Stir in chips.
Grease the cookie sheet lightly.  Drop by spoonfuls onto sheet.  Bake 10-11 minutes or til tinged with golden brown.