Smalls went to spend time with Chicago up in Heaven today. The poor baby didn't have a long life, but I like to think he had a happy life for the time he was with us.
When we brought him home, we noticed a large laceration on the back of his head. We treated him for that issue and it did have to be lanced and drained a few times as well during the process. While dealing with that, we noticed he was also losing fur in weird patches.
We are still not sure what was causing all the issues, just that his little body couldn't handle it. We miss him dearly every day. I miss my catot (cat parrot).
Who ever said dogs don't have personalities has never met my dog Jerry Lee. He is a German Shepherd coon dog mix and weighs in at about 80 pounds roughly.
He is named after the dog in the movie K9 with Jim Belushi and boy does he have a similar personality.
Monster, one of our newest arrivals, has taken a shine to Athos. Never you mind that Athos is the wrong gender and even the wrong species for that matter.
So I enjoy sharing the stupid stuff that I do. Sometimes just because it may help someone else's day a little better. Give someone a laugh, a giggle, something to just brighten someone's day.
The community here in Tennessee really takes care of the children. Many of the churches in the area have what they call Trunk or Treats. Local people set up their vehicles and kids trick or treat from one vehicle trunk to the next.
This local church also set up bounce houses, food, and a magic show.
My mom arrived in Nashville for a girls weekend with her sisters-in-law. While she was close by, Skye and I took a trip into Nashville to spend some time with her.
While we were there, my mom gave Skye her birthday gift and enjoyed spending a bit of time with her.
Jelly is always a good yummy thing to have on hand. Its even better when you can decide on the specialty flavors you want for yourself. This video will show you how to make your own jelly, in what ever flavors you want, using bottled juice.
Remember that DIY enzyme cleaner that I made a bit ago?
I took the rinds of the fruit and turned that into an enzyme cleaning scrub. If you have a high powered blender, this will be so much easier of a project for you than it was for me.
Have you ever had one of those crazy funny moments that will keep you laughing for hours? Then again later down the road when you think back on that moment and it makes you laugh all over again. Today was one of those moments.
I wish I knew how the fridge in my place go so dirty. I get that I have a kid, a partner, animals, but the animals can't get in the fridge to mess it and the kid and partner claim it isn't them either.
It must be ghosts that come in during the night (or day) and dirty the apartment including the fridge. That is the only explanation I can come up with.
I do know what some of the yuck in the fridge is this time, the kid confessed, but still how it gets where it gets always amazes me.
Of all my appliances, I think my microwave is used the most often and given the least amount of cleaning love.
I did a video a while back on how to quickly clean your microwave and I revisit that information in this video.
Put your WET sponge into the microwave. I stress wet because a dry sponge could catch fire. Fire equals bad thing. Set the cook time for at least 2 minutes. I have done up to 5 but the sponge needs to be able to stay wet during the entire time, but not dripping. Once done, use sponge to wipe down the insides of the microwave. Use caution, the sponge will the HOT as all get out. Learn from my errors.
I don't know about you, but it happens for me every morning. There is usually at least 1 corner, sometimes more, that have come up off the bed. I get so frustrated with it that I just had to figure out a solution.
Pinterest here I come for some ideas.
Ideas I did find too. I show you how I do it in the video but first just a note. I have a king size bed with a deep mattress. I found that not all sheets worked for the measurements I had from the post I found. Some of my sheets, the ones with elastic all the way around, it worked fine as long as I didn't sew on the elastic of the sheet. Others with only small spots of elastic around the corners, I had to redo. I put the sheet on the bed and then marked the best spot on each side with a pin, then sewed the elastic on.
I don't know about you, but I swear my cabinets get dirty and cluttered during the night while I am sleeping.
This one is partially my fault though, as I was the goof ball who thought the molasses wasn't going to leak out of the upside down bottle...oy. What was I thinking there?
Anyway, I took everything out of the cabinet, wiped up the mess, and then put everything back a little bit more organized.
Locally, we have a little place where kids can go to see different science things. There are little blurb areas on the brain, different fish, magnets, building blocks, and all different areas involving science.
Recently, they celebrated a birthday and had a "party" for the community. The invitation made it sound like very thing was free: entrance fee, food, activities, and crafts. The reality was that only the entrance fee was free. They charged for everything else, $2.75 for a slice of pizza, $5 for the bouncy house....who knows what the rest was because we didn't even check at that point.
We were all disappointed and a bit frustrated. I can understand wanting to raise funds for the center itself and would have had no problem with knowing that before hand instead of finding out when we arrived at the center. Overall, we thought the science center was geared more toward younger children with multiple building areas with legos, blocks, and a few other type of building toys, but not really much for our older kids.
We did discuss this with one of the ladies who worked there, I can't remember the chicks name but she was pretty nice and listened to our ideas on what the older kids might like to see there.
While there, Skye did take a few photos so I thought I would share them.
There is nothing better than a nice cool drink of yellow sunshine. Yellow sunshine being lemonade of course. But why use the powdered kind when you can make a homemade concentrate and know exactly what your family is drinking.
I had a whole bunch of lemons that I was needing for my DIY Enzyme cleaner, but I certainly wasn't going to waste the yummy juice they produced so I made this concentrate.
It was so good my family drank the entire amount of concentrate in 2 days.
DIY Lemonade Concentrate
2 cups fresh lemon juice
2 2/3 cups sugar
2 2/3 cups water
Combine the water and sugar in a sauce pan on your stove and bring to a boil You can stir it if you wish, but once it comes to a boil, don't stir it anymore as it may create sugar crystals.
Boil the syrup mixture for 10 to 15 minutes until it comes to a light amber color. Let this cool to room temperature.
Once your simple syrup is cooled to room temperature, combine it with your lemon juice and stir to combine. This is your concentrate mixture. We stored it in the fridge and added it as needed, but you could also freeze it in ice cube trays and add a few cubes to water as needed and to taste.
The original recipe that I found called for 2 to 3 tables of concentrate for a glass of lemonade. I found this was not lemonadey enough. Yes that is a technical term. The flavor was weak and watery, so we did end up doubling the amount we put into each cup, but go with what works for your taste.
Enzyme cleaners are used to remove organic stains like blood, urine, and feces. It is also good to remove stubborn food stains like grease, cooking oil, and wine. Clogged drains are another use for enzyme cleaner.
So why not make your own.
DIY Enzyme Cleaner
2 cups citrus scraps (lemons, grapefruit, oranges, limes, pineapple, or a combination)
I used a combination of lemons and pineapple
1/2 cup brown sugar
I used my homemade brown sugar
1 tsp yeast
I used instant yeast
4 cups water
I used filtered water but tap would work just fine
Container to hold items
I used half gallon wide mouth mason jars, but 2 litter plastic pop bottle works too
Combine all ingredients in a container with a lid (I used a half gallon mason jar).
The enzyme cleaner will take about 2 weeks to ferment completely before it is ready to be used.
You can make this cleaner without the yeast, but it will take about 3 months of fermenting before it will be ready to use.
Make sure to shake the contents every day and release the gas build up to prevent your container from exploding from the pressure. I used 2 mason jars with fermenting lids (the kind for pickles or sauerkraut) and 2 with regular lids that I tighten to shake, then loosen til they just hold the lid in place after wards.
I'm not sure about your house, but this house seems accident prone at times. That could be things being knocked off counters, shelves, or tables. Or simply where we just aren't thinking clearly when we do something.
Kinda like the day when we set a plastic bowl on a hot stove grate. Yeah, thankfully, I can't take credit for that accident but I can for getting it off the grate.
Using any kind of dye, be it for your hair, clothes, or anything else, is fun, but very messy. Heaven forbid it splash anywhere too. Then its just a nightmare.
After dyeing the scrubs, I found red dye residue on my tongs, sink and pot. Pretty common and while I hoped it wouldn't stain, I wasn't really surprised when it did. But removing it, I wasn't looking forward to that at all.
Then I tried this trick and got the majority of the dye off in a single application.
Mr J is wanting to go back to being a CNA. He has signed up for the next class available to be re-certified. He was a CNA previously both in Illinois and in Wisconsin, when he lived in those previous states, but his certification has expired and did not transfer from Illinois here to Tennessee.
He is pretty excited about getting back into medical. For class, he would need a set of red scrubs plus a few other items. Well, we couldn't find red scrubs locally and weren't sure if we had time to wait for an order (and hoped we got the right size without being able to actually see it). So I got a set of white scrubs and I'm dying them red.
Come along on the journey with me and enjoy some of Mr J's weird humor here:
We all have days when we just really forget that we are suppose to be adults. Really, its more like that we forget we aren't in our twenties anymore.
Well Mr J certainly was reminded of that on this day. He was joking around with a neighbor kid and got an elbow to the eye for his trouble. Now, by joking around I mean they were showing each other different MMA moves. And by neighbor kid, I mean the 18 year boy next door.
Its funny when real life reminds you of things you used to be able to do. Mr J was pretty good at martial arts back in the day....and I do mean BACK IN THE DAY. Some many days ago before grey hair and teenage kids. Don't get me wrong, he is still pretty good at it, but at 40 we are just not as quick as we were in our 20's and he couldn't get out of the way quick enough when he realized he was too close for the move to NOT make contact.
I just shook my head then took him to the ER for what I was sure was going to be like 5 or 6 stitches.
The scenery around where we live is absolutely gorgeous. It is rolling hills, open fields, and beautiful blue skies. The mountains in the background at times are another beautiful bonus.
Not everyone likes country settings, but to me they are relaxing, calming, and soothing.
It is that time of year, the time for school. All the mom's out there are probably shouting with joy, I know I was.
This year Skye is in 6th grade. Back when I was in elementary school, in the city of Chicago, the school covered grades kindergarten to 8th and then we graduated from 8th grade before entering high school.
Here in Tennessee, the elementary schools in our area go to 5th grade, where they then graduate to middle school. Middle school covers grades 6th through 8th grades. Then they graduate again from 8th grade before entering high school.
I'm not sure if it is just me, but I get some serious entertainment from watching people get their hair cut. The faces they make, especially kids, just cracks me up.
I caught a few of the faces Skye made during her last haircut on video and thought I would say those to spread the laughs.
Skye was very excited to finally learn how to sew that she wanted to jump in feet first into the sewing pool.
She had made scrunchies before using fabric glue, so she was very excited to try them out on the sewing machine.
She quickly learned that sewing things together isn't always as straight forward as gluing the fabric together. I was glad she had the patience to listen to the things she would need to know. Hopefully, she will increase her skills again soon for you all.
As Skye gets older, I want to make sure that she has basic skills that will make her adult life a little easier. We started with basic cooking when she was about 9 or so.
Now I am starting her on the basic sewing journey. This way, as she gets older, she can increase her skills. Those skills could be used just for her own personal pleasure, helping her family down the road, or even as a job skill.
Watch the first lesson in the sewing journey here:
I know its only been a few days since you watched those cute kittens come into this work, but its really been 5 days since they were born in this next video.
Life is unpredictable, but that isn't always a bad thing. My life was certainly unpredictable. Miscarriage, grandma died, starter went out on my car on the way home from funeral. It was one bad moment after the next, it seemed.
Then my family surprised me with a blessing. My grandmother's car. They gave it to me for helping my grandmother stay in her own home for 2 years, then she spent the last year of her life living with relatives in Kentucky and visiting family she hadn't seen in a while.
The catch was getting to Indiana to get the car. So, me & Skye took the Greyhound Bus to Indianapolis where we stayed the night with an amazing friend that might as well be my sister. She took us the rest of the way to Monon, where the car and my gram's house was, and stayed with us a few days to help me clean out the rest of my stuff from my gram's house back to the place I was living in before that.
This was the first time we had ever taken a Greyhound Bus on a trip like this. I had ridden one before back in 8th grade on a field trip, but that was the extent of my own experience on a bus trip. The trip was crazy.
I was asked to make a couple room signs for Skye and my partner's son. While I didn't record the entire process, trust me it was noisy as all get out even with only 2 of the 4 kids here at the time. When you factor in the animals, it was a mad house.
I will be making the other 2 kids room signs as well, so if you want me to record those just let me know. Check out the two that I made already by watching the video here:
Cricut is a favorite crafting item in my house, rivals my sewing machine for sure. It is amazing what can be cut with the and what items you can decorate with them.
In this video, I share a project that I did for some friends of my partner. Their little private inside jokes, so to speak.
Storms are a part of life. Every area has storms that they are known for. Indiana it was tornadoes in the summer and blizzard blowing snow come winter. Here in Tennessee the mountains are a beautiful backdrop to lightening and thunder.
My camera didn't pick up as well as I was hoping, but I still think you will enjoy the show.
I love cleaning the cat box, said NOONE ever. Let's face it, cat boxes are gross. They stink. That is where the kitties in our lives do their business. And boy, can their business fill your house with such an unpleasant perfume.
That is the most dreaded chore in my house, or it was until I found a little thing at our local tractor supply store that has been cleaning the cat box a little more pleasant and the house less stinky.
When Skye "graduated" from 5th grade, she was given a draw string bag with the logo from her new middle school. Within a few days, that bag just shredded and she was very upset about it.
So we went to Joanne's Fabric store and found a fabric she like and I created a new draw string bag for her, that was washable and personalized with her name on it.
She loved it and is still using it now.
Watch the video here:
Let me know if you want me to do a tutorial video on the steps I went through to make the bag.
We don't eat a lot of pinto beans in our house. Well, the humans don't anyway. Our 4 legged friends eat a lot of them and love them....though the wind they produce isn't always the most pleasant afterward.
Pinto Beans are one item that we use to supplement our animals diets because of the added protein in gives them. We do purse a dog food that has 21% protein in it, (if I am remembering correctly), but its not always enough. Our dogs are very active animals and we found that some of the other dog food we were buying just didn't have enough in it and they were actually loosing weight. This was alarming for me so we started looking into other dog foods.
The one we get now is not an expensive brand or even a name brand food, but it has a good amount of protein and meat in it and we add things, like pinto beans, to give them additional nutrients to help keep them healthy.
Today's project was canning pinto beans for use in the dogs food. Pressure canning them instead of having to soak and then cook them. I do also cook the beans in a slow cooker all day. Choose which ever method suits your needs and schedule.
Life can be crazy for all of us at times. For me, the summer has been extremely crazy, busy, and just plain emotional. In the last 5 months or so, I have had a miscarriage, my grandmother passed away, Skye finished 5th grade and is now going into 6th grade, and my fibromyalgia has been acting up like crazy.
Any one of those things can cause life to be a bit hectic, but for me the combination was a lot to handle. I still have rough days, especially with my fibro still acting up, but I'm starting to heal from all of it. I know the bad days aren't over, but they are coming less and less often now, so I am ready to get back to something that resembles normal.
Skye started back to school now, I still can't believe I have a middle schooler, and that frees up small blocks of time. Starting next Monday, August 12, 2019, I start publishing videos again on a regular basis. Initially, I will post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, though I would love to go back to 5 days a week. Right now, my life is pretty boring and there just isn't much to see on a daily basis.
Let me know what you would like to see and I will do my best to include those in upcoming videos.
It sounds weird to say the I am spending the moment cleaning my broom. You want to stop and say, wait isn't the broom FOR cleaning. The answer is yes, it is for cleaning, but and here is the big BUT if your broom is dirty, are you really cleaning anything.
I know when you look around, the last thing you think of is having to clean yet one more thing, but trust me its an important thing to think about.
I for one, know that my broom is used to sweep up all kinds of nastiness. Including dirt, garbage, cat litter, and probably a lot more junk and grossness than I am even considering. So, if my broom has been used to sweep that yuck up and I don't clean my broom, doesn't that mean I am basically spreading that yuck across my floor? Now isn't that a nasty thought.
I promise it doesn't take long to clean your broom. The longest part is the broom drying. If this is a problem, clean your broom at night after you have finished your nighttime cleaning. By morning, your broom will be clean, dry, and ready to battle the dirty floor battle again.
Relaxing in a tub full of bubbles is one of the best feelings in the world. The hot water helping to relax tight muscles and relieve stiffness. The next best thing is to make that bubble bath yourself.
Bubble Bath Bars
7 oz glycerin
1.8 oz caster oil (I used avocado oil in this video)
0.7 oz fragrance
Mix these together and separate into how ever many colors you are wanting for your bubble bars. Trust me, coloring this liquid will make coloring the bubble bars later so much easier than waiting like I did in the video.
10.1 oz baking soda
7.4 oz cream of tarter
2.7 oz corn starch
0.6 oz tapioca starch
5.8 oz SLSA (make sure its SLSA and not SLS)
Combine the dry ingredients and again separate evenly based on the number of colors you are doing. Once you have that, combine one color of liquid with one part of your separated dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
After all your colors are mixed, you can roll them out, stack them, roll them like a cookie and cut into slices....or you can scoop them out like I did.
Bath truffle seem to be all the rage lately. They fizz in your tub, smell amazing, and help soften your skin. What's not to love! The price tag on the fancy ones, in my book, so here's a DIY for you to do yourself.
One of the things I learned with having an abandoned kitten is how to feed them properly. What they eat and when they eat it. Thankfully I found a wonderful site that showed me the way. Fortunately, the site gave me plenty of information on how to handle raising an orphaned kitten.
When Skye found a young kitten in the woods, we knew it would be a lot of work, but we also knew that we needed to find something to feed the kitten.
Don't get me wrong, we have 4 other cats so we knew we could feed them, but feeding an abandoned kitten that was still nursing is a bit different.
So I turned to the internet of course. Thankfully, I found a wonderful site, based out of Los Angeles, that helped save the day. They had a couple of different recipe options on their site and you can find them here.
Well, it has certainly been quite a while since I wrote a separate blog post but I felt this was an important thing to do and I am going to try to do this more often.
So I have created a video on YouTube on how I made these lovely things, but I also wanted to get you a copy of the template I used.
A few tips on making the template for yourself, should you so chose. I taped two pieces of paper together to get the long width I needed. The overall dimensions are 10 inches by 13 3/8 inches. If you don't want to do that, you can create just one half of the template and cut the fabric on a fold.
Check out the video on YouTube to watch the step by step making of these wonderful items. Or contact me through Facebook if you wish to order them.
