Project Patricia

Project Patricia was started by two women, in February 2008, who wanted to help women and girls in Africa in a practical way by hosting a sewing day. Realizing the possibilities that this practical need could meet as a way to spread the gospel and teach girls about purity. They have teamed up with several missionary groups and organizations that already work in these areas.
Since I already have all the tools and skills needed to make the pads, I have decided to host a sewing day locally later this summer. I am collecting new and used sheets and towels to re-purpose in menstrual pads for women and girls. As soon as I get enough material I will get started.

Small engine repair

This semester there was a small engine repair class at our co-op, Smee and Curly would have liked to have taken, we are still kind of new, we are still at the bottom of the list for class picking, they didn't get it. Well, they got their own mini class at home. When we moved we had to start the lawn mower that sat for the last six months, our old landlord did the lawn himself. Surprise, surprise it ran for about three passes on the lawn, then putt, putt, sputter...cough...nothing. Peter Pan and the boys gave it a tune up, then it didn't do anything. While I ran errands, I stopped at the library and picked up two small engine repair books. Curly starts tearing the engine down and our neighbor comes over to lend a hand, turns out he has done this a few times before and walks the boys through a few diagnostics and says it's the sheer pin, so we look it up in the book...it says nothing about sheer pins. So off to the hardware store. Nothing more fun than a thirty minute drive for a less than two dollar part. I bought sheer pins, and each flywheel key sold so now they can fix any small engine. They, with the help of another neighbor got the mower torn all the way down, got the flywheel key in and the mower going. Now they are trying to fix two weed eaters that have died on us.

Happy Birthday

Tootles turned 3 last week, time flies by so fast. He is daddy's little shadow. Every waking moment that Peter Pan is home, Tootles is only one (three year old) step behind.
He was so excited with his gifts: 4 loud Tonka trucks, a backpack and a pop-gun from Vision Forum. He is a bit younger than recommended but with so many older brothers, he is always watched.
While I am wishing Happy Birthday's I should say Happy Birthday to my Grandmother in CA, and our cousin in NJ who will also be 3.

Answered Prayer

Back in January I posted about our desire for a more permanent place to live, with an area for a garden and animals, well God blessed with this and more. We have almost twice as much space in the house, along with lots of built in cabinets and a fireplace. The house is in much better shape,too.
We have space for our garden and a couple of animals if we choose.
We were able to move in almost immediately, and had help from some friends to get us moved quickly, which allowed us to be settled in before Captain Hook's busy end of senior year, I will post more later.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the place is cheaper, and our old landlord allowed for our deposit to stand for our final rent payment. Thank you Lord for our miracle.
Captain Hook put pictures up on facebook, but I can't seem to get them at this time.

Major Score...

I think I found my new favorite store.The Sonshine shop, some moms from co-op had been talking about it so when passed it by accident, I figured I would check it out.The worst deal I got was saving about $2.00 on coconut oil over my food co-op’s price but I needed some. The best deal I got was some toothpowder that I love normally $4.29 through the food co-op but I paid $0.79. Everything else I know was at least half what I would have paid at the food co-op and if I compared it to Whole Foods, my savings would be even bigger. I completely filled a small buggy (shopping cart for those not in the south) till it was overflowing --things were falling off the top with all of the organic foods and herbal teas and tooth paste for $100.00 including our almost 10% sales tax on everything, even food.

Update

It has been quite some time since I last posted, we have been extremely busy so here is what we have been up to since I last posted. We got another big snow--they actually had to send out the snow plow, I didn’t even know they had one. We got a good four inches, it was so beautiful before the snow plow came as the snow was untouched over the yards and roads--just one big blanket of white for as far as we could see.
We replaced our old Suburban we had for several years in CA with a 12 passenger van – I love the van. I can get from the front seats to the back seats without getting out, comes in handy with little ones especially when it is FREEZING outside.
The washer stopped spinning so we had to replace it. I decided to get the front loader type, so far I am glad I spent a bit more to get them. Toodles can help with the laundry so much more now that he can reach the buttons.
Curly turned 16; I am getting old, I am thankful for the little ones to keep me young. We have entered the birthday season, Captain Hook starts us in January, Curly in March, Tootles in April, Smee & Tinker Belle in May, Me in June and Peter Pan finishes us up in July.
We took a trip to visit my dad – it was a great visit except for us all getting the flu. Most of us got it while at my dad’s, one was sick while we drove home and Captain waited until the day after we got home. I pray that my dad and step mom don’t get it. Even the weather was perfect ,70-80’s tucked in between the snow storm and return of the cold.
I have been having fun with my friend’s serger. In one afternoon, I made five wash cloths and one cloth diaper – well I sewed/serged them as they were already cut out. Some look great, others….well, let’s just say they work.
The big bathroom tub has become Smee’s green house for starting plants, he has tomatoes, bell peppers, and flowers which are already coming up. I think he is going to sell the started plants and take some to church for the community garden since we have too much shade here.

Snow days

Being from CA and able to drive to the snow and leaving when we have had enough, I do enjoy looking out my window and watching it snow. The dead trees look so pretty with their dusting of snow. When we first moved here we thought it funny to hear 6 inches of snow causes whole towns, even cities to shut down for at least a couple of days. After being here for several years now, we have seen it snow several times and when the snow actually sticks, it is unusual to accumulate more than an inch. We have seen the road covered but not the yards because the road didn’t get salted, but it is rare to see the snow actually cover the grass. As I sit here typing I wonder if today might be one of those times, when I got up this morning, our yard was white, the grass is still taller than the snow.If it keeps going, Peter Pan may not be going to work.Hard to believe it was almost 60 degrees here yesterday.I do wish for enough to play or sled in, but it seems silly to drive to snow when it is snowing at your house.

Diapers and diets

Tinkerbelle has been having diaper rash off and on since moving to this house, I was beginning to suspect something in the water as I haven’t changed my diet or washing of her cloth diapers. Shortly after she got healed up she had another rash, we tried all the variations of washing, stripping the diapers as well as different rash creams and even disposables would give mixed results. I recently replaced the diapers we had used for Toodles as 2 ½ yrs of washing had turned them to rags, so I really wanted to figure this out so I could use them. The new diapers are a newer size of the standard prefold, these are so much softer and fluffier than the ones we had been using and the size fits just perfectly into her Bummis snap cover. Well it seems she has a yeast rash, confirmed by the use of plain yogurt as diaper cream and she was noticeably improved after the first application, unfortunately I had used a friends salve that had made it worse over the course of a day, which means I get to change my diet. I have wanted/needed to make some more healthful changes anyway, so now I have a real motivation to cut all the bad stuff out and add in some good. Hopefully I will have some health benefits as well as weight loss for myself and a nice rash free bum for my little Tinkerbelle.

Catching Up

It seems I’ve been doing a lot of catching up these days, so why not here too. The week before Christmas, I took Captain Hook and Tinkerbelle to see my family. We stayed with one of my cousins. It was great to get to know her and her family since we never really spent much time together as we lived 3000 miles away. We were so blessed to be there, we were able to see all my family except one cousin, we missed you A! The best part of this trip was being able to see both of my grandmothers, and letting them meet Tinkerbelle. We then went to visit my Dad and step-mom for a long weekend trip. I only had two complaints about the trip: both children came home sick and we got stuck in the airport for a few hours due to a weather delay.

We got home a few days before Christmas and spent until just after New Years with colds and a stomach bug. I am very thankful that I never got sick, I took vit. c and a pro-biotic which seemed to work. The boys took some too, but they weren’t quite as diligent. We missed several celebrations during this time but everyone is healthy now.

We got healthy just in time to start back to school both at home and our co-op. Now that the spring semester has started back up, we have lots of planning and paper work to do. Graduation, proms, not-proms, college tours, and all the other stuff that goes with the senior year of high school and unfortunately it is all new to us, as we have to do all the work that the school would do. Thankfully we have those who have gone before us to help us along the way. Everything is in order so far for Captain Hook to start college this fall.

Tinkerbelle is now crawling and pulling herself up making nothing safe and creating the opportunity for the floor needing vacuumed hourly. She is no longer content to be held for any length of time, she just wants to go, go, go. She loves being held to walk.

Toodles loves helping--with everything--cooking, cleaning, Tinkerbelle, and whatever else dad is doing at the time.

We are considering allowing Smee to get back into gymnastics. We found a gym run by Christians just under 30 minutes that has older boys who enjoy gymnastic for the sport it is. Smee will be able to get back in shape and do what he loves and either do it for fun or begin competing again next year depending on what he wants to do. We are taking him next week to a practice to see if he likes it. He will be sore as it’s 2 1/2hrs long.

We have found a church; unfortunately it is over an hour away. They are like a large extended family (which some are) but they have welcomed us as if we have been a part of them for years.

I think that catches me up on one more thing. On to yet another.

Realizing...

This will be Captain Hook’s last year at home. I am glad that we didn’t officially start homeschooling until he was 6 as he would be done with school and probably moving out when he turns 18 in less than 3 weeks, but alas we hold his diploma over his head so he won’t be leaving until he starts school in August. He seems ready to make the adjustment from boy to independent man. He has a great plan for getting through school and I am sure as time passes his plans for after school will become more focused. It’s funny that two summers ago he was gone for almost the whole summer and this past summer he was gone for a few weeks and it didn’t really faze me, but this past weekend he was gone and it made it more real – who will help me put pictures on my blog after I tried for 30 minutes. Or what will happen when I want to take a picture of something but his camera is gone. I know these are just things he does for me, but I will miss him as well - even though I know he is ready and at times I am ready for him to go too, as he is just like me and my father. I guess I am also realizing that our life is now here in Tennessee since this is where Captain Hook plans to make his life. I will be Praying that the rest of the children decide to stay in here as well.

Praying for a miracle

As a family we are praying for a place to live I know it is small in the grand scheme of things when we know families that have very sick children or are dealing with cancer or job loss. But this is our need at the moment. Having moved 6 times in 4 years and another in the near future we are feeling the effects of the lack of permanence especially Curly and Smee. Our lease is not over for some time but they have hinted to letting us out early so they can find renters during the peak moving time, and we want to not leave it to the last minute. We are truly thankful for this place but there are some issues that make the place not right for us that we didn’t know until moving in, some small and some not so small. The miracle will be a place that we all fit comfortably in, close to DH’s job, along with room for the children to run, plant a garden, and have an animal or two, not too much further to church, affordable and somewhere we can stay for a long time, maybe forever.

Snow

I think we had the most snow last night since moving here, it is so pretty the ground, and trees and everything is covered in white. Usually the ground is to warm so it doesn’t stick. Tootles so wanted to play in it last night, but it was too cold and dark. He will get to go out with Smee and Curley just as soon as he wakes up and gets his snow suit on.

putting stuff on eBay... finally!

We have had a few piles of stuff to list on eBay but between trying to sell a house and a couple of moves we haven't made a point to get the stuff listed. The house we are in now dosen't have a garage and only a tiny storage shed that is already full as the screened in porch that I really want to use come spring. So Captain Hook is doing the listing and Mr. Smee is taking pictures. Hopefully some of it will sell otherwise we will be making a trip or two to Goodwill.

Being Thankful

It always amazes me when God nudges and encourages you to keep going in a direction by allowing a simple invitation to Thanksgiving dinner that turns out to be with new friends that share similar desires to work from home as a family. We were also blessed to be surrounded by good food and lots of fun and fellowship.

I was surprised as I looked out their kitchen window to see my 2 ½ yr old riding a horse. He had so much fun, is asking to go bye-bye to ride the horse. Of course, now he “needs” boots and a hat—yee-haw!

So much for that

Well, one week of training and a couple days of work showed me that I was not meant to be a working mom - even working from home. I guess I’m not used to having to be accountable to anyone other than my husband.

Rubber band wars & Bean bags

I now remember why I don’t keep rubber bands in the house… I came out of the bedroom to find all four of the boys running around the house jumping behind doors or furniture in order to either escape being shot or to get the perfect shot. Then in comes daddy and the war picks back up – It was so fun to watch dad and sons playing together. As the boys get older, we sometimes forget to just let loose and play; and sometimes finding things that a two year old and seventeen year old both enjoy is difficult. I will be finding rubber bands for months and with each one I will be glad for the memory.

As some of the parts of another Christmas gift we are making got high jacked as bean bags by the 2 ½ yr old to throw around the house we opted to make several smaller ones which now are being used to practice juggling. I again would have never thought that teen boys would enjoy bean bags over some of the more techie toys they have. I am all for free fun.

Lazy mom quilts…

With the realization that Christmas is really coming on top starting my new job, I spent last week figuring out our gifts for this year. I decided that I would make a lap quilt, specifically a rag quilt with the scraps of Christmas fabric from gifts I had made. Friday I picked up a little more fabric to add to my stash of Christmas scraps. I got a late start yesterday and figured there is no way I would be able to get it done before Christmas, but low and behold two of my sons stepped in to help and at one time both of them were quilting the squares for the rag quilt. Mr. Smee has been sewing squares together all morning and it looks like it will be done by tonight. That is my kind of quilting, it just comes together as I sit and take care of the little ones. I think it’s time to start teaching my up and coming quilter.

From Winks Musings

From Winks Musings

After being a stay at home for 15 years, I am entering the work force. Thankfully, I will be able to do all my work from home or at the park, really wherever my cell phone works. I am a bit nervous since I do tend to get overwhelmed easily. Because I will calling all over the USA my workday can be broken into chunks of time over a very long day. The older boys have agreed to be my helpers during times of working. They have been such great helpers to me in the past with the last two pregnancies, I feel confident that this won't be a significant change to the running of our household.