Happy 3rd Birthday, Cooper!!

We celebrated Cooper's third birthday on Saturday with a cowboy theme party! I can't believe he's 3 already!! Today is actually his birthday, so happy birthday, baby boy!

Home Ec

So, I have signed up for an online sewing class!! I have dusted off my machine, oiled it up, and got it all set up and ready. Yesterday, I made the first of 20 some odd projects that I will do before next August. So far, I have done two! I made the cloth napkins, 3 single layered and one double layered and a cute shopping bag. I am loving this so far...I have learned a lot!! I knew some basics, but this is really helping me and there are some cool things to make!

Summer time Stuff

Wow! The summer is flying by!! We had another camping trip a week or so ago with the Stotts family and had a blast! We are trying to get projects done around here, too. As you can tell, Coop has a few of his own. I found this cool vintage fry cutter during our last camp trip and used it tonight to make some yummy baked fries (thank you, Traci!). We're enjoying summer flowers, but not much luck with our garden this year, too much rain and the weeds took over! But, I think I may have finally convinced my dear husband that raised beds are the way to go and that flowers and veggies will work with minimal tilling...we will keep you posted on that! I plan to do a small fall garden bed if we can get caught up on things here and add a few beds at a time. And, speaking of beds....Cooper got his big boy bed (twin size) over the weekend! He was so excited, that he had to take a nap in it before I could even get his rails for him that day. He is much more comfortable in his upgrade from toddler bed- he's a big boy now!

Camping in Branson & Father's Day

We had a great time camping over Father's Day weekend! We left out on Thursday for Branson, Missouri and came home Sunday afternoon. We actually stayed in the little town of Hollister, which was great, we were away from all the traffic, but just a few minutes from anything we wanted to do. We did a lot while we were there...We checked out the fish hatchery, got the inside tour of College of the Ozarks (aka Hard Work U) from Sydni (who we were glad to visit and cook for while we were there!), rode the Ducks, did a little shopping at Branson Landing, and rode the train. We had a great time!! We did have a little trouble on the the way home with a tire blow out and a very long wait at Wal-mart "Express" (yeah, right), but we finally made it home safe and sound. Wish Dennis would have had a better Father's Day, but we had a great weekend! Happy Father's Day to all dads and especially my dad and my dear husband!

Green Stuff Update

Ok, so my homemade bug repellant tested great last night!! We were outside til 8:30 last night and didn't get one bite! The mosquitoes literally hovered over us and then ran away! Also, my furniture polish works wonderfully too!

I couldn't find the essential oils at Walgreen's, except for tea tree oil, but I did find all I needed at a health food store....remember that they are small, but VERY concentrated...I spent a total of $27 for lavender, lemon, and citronella, which will all last a very long time. I bought the lemon to add to my furniture polish, because I think it would enhance the smell of it and I can use the lemon oil in my all purpose cleaner, too. I added lavender and citronella oils along with my tea tree oil and witch hazel to make the bug spray. I wanted to add peppermint as well, but they were out.

On an entirely different note--I love living in the country and only here will you see the following picture (you may have to click on it to see it well)



Yes, there is a horse and buggy with four people just out for a drive with a truck following close behind which I had to crop so you could see the buggy....this on the road next to our house. Cooper just waved and waved as they passed.

What's Bakin'?

I've recently been a a baking spree! I had some blueberries to use up, a birthday cake to make, and tried my hand at some bread yesterday. The bread is what I am especially excited about! My friend, Traci, let me borrow a book called "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day"....I know, I was a skeptic, too, but I tried it out and it is awesome!! I am looking forward to getting my own copy and continuing to try the recipes. The idea is that you make dough once, refrigerate it, and take off what you need for up to two weeks AND you cut out a lot of steps, like kneading for one! We had some of my family over for lunch yesterday and they loved it! In fact, we are cooking out again tonight and I have two more made...yum! Anyway, wanted to share my finished product because it is possible to make interesting looking (and yummy) bread at home...can you smell it??? I love the smell of baking bread, and cookies, and muffins, and....well you get the picture, I really like to bake because it's a stress reliever and I like to share my creations! I would recommend this book to anyone who has a kitchen! Enjoy!

Green Stuff

Ok, so I am recently inspired to live simpler and greener...I just feel really called to simplify everything I do, beginning with small things.

I began with using the reusable bags when shopping (at least 95% of the time) and using a homemade multi-purpose cleaner made from--1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar in a spray bottle & 4-5 drops of tea tree oil (I found it at Walgreen's, it is the disinfectant part) mix all in, shake it up and you are ready to clean away. (Thank you, Morgan!)We also began recycling, which doesn't sound like a big deal to those who have curbside recycle bins, but in the country we have no such thing, so I sack it up til Wednesday and take it to the recycle center that is open at Unarco (the place where they make shopping carts here in Wagoner), which take about everything recyclable 1-4 every Wednesday.

So, this week, I am going to get a few things to make homemade bug repellant and also a homemade furniture polish. After much Googling, I found recipes I am willing to try. I actually have bought a natural bug repellant in the past that worked great, but it's pricey, so want to try my own.It was great for Cooper and it smelled nice, too, not to mention it had no scary chemicals in it. I found some very interesting sites by just searching "homemade bug repellant" and for the other, "homemade furniture polish". I just don't like the spray polishes that well and want to be cheap.

Here are the things I am going to try in the next week to see how they work for us:
#1 Bug Repellant (this is supposed to work for most pesky biting things!)
Witch hazel with a few drops of tea tree oil, lavender oil, peppermint oil- mixed in a spray bottle, shaken well before each use. You apparently don't have to use all of the oils, you can pick one, but these are the ones I thought would make the most pleasant smell since I'll be wearing it.

#2 Furniture Polish (for wood)
4 Tbsp. Lemon juice, 2 tsp. Olive oil, 3 Tbsp water- mixed all in a spray bottle, shake well before each use. I won't mix up a lot of this at one time, because I think a little will go a long way. I also found that you can use jojoba oil, but I have all of these ingredients already in my kitchen so want to test it out.

The essential oils seem a bit expensive (or at least tea tree oil was), but after using the tea tree oil cleaner already, I've found they last for a long time......stay tuned for my results and feel free to try it with me!!