Fun for Five Cents!

I do some of our family's grocery shopping at a no-frills place called Aldi. They really do have some good prices for some of the things we use all the time. I really need to save money on groceries because of the astronomical figure that showed up on my calculator as I added up the receipts for groceries in the last month. It was a lot larger than our mortgage, and these kids continue to grow. There are several reasons why I don't like to shop there, though.

1) Doing my own bagging! The shopping trip takes twice as long.

2) It's supposed to be a stock-up store and how do you stock up for a family of seven with one cart?

3) It's organized so that if you forget something you have to go against the crowd to retrieve the item.

4) You have to get your stuff on the conveyor belt QUICK! And the cashier checks people out QUICK, literally throwing things into the empty cart sometimes.

5) You have to buy your own bags. I usually use the 5 cent paper ones (Hey, we do try to plant one tree per year!).

But, for just five cents, Brigham had a whole lot of fun and it just washed away the pain from last night's shopping trip ($223.89! ACKKK!!).

A Super Saturday--Bunches of Stuff

Lots of good things happening here today.

Last night, my super-hero husband made me my new laundry shelves. This will revolutionize laundry in our house:


So that we can reclaim this:


For it's true purpose!

I never, ever, ever thought this would happen to me, but I now have a library in my house! I've kind-of always mused about having a library and how nice it would be. When I was decluttering, I decided to pull all of the books out of the kids rooms so that I could see what books we had, which ones to get rid of and then reorganize them. They all ended up in the basement. As I rearranged the kiddos' rooms, I realized that they don't really have room for so many books in their rooms and we settled on letting them have book baskets in their rooms where they can keep the books that they check out from the local library and a small selection of our household books. That means that most of the books in the house are now in the basement and I spent a few hours organizing them tolerably onto the shelves (hated every minute of that!!). We are awaiting some bean bag type chairs so that we'll have comfy seating. I'm so happy about it!

The first peony of the season:


And some columbines:


There are either a lot of bugs in my house to support the spiders, or just a lot of emaciated spiders. I vacuumed up a whole lot of old, dust-filled spider webs today. Whenever I do that I live in mortal fear that the spiders will come and get me in my sleep!

And then there's this ant. I call this photo, "Ant's Last Drink" and I'm sure It'll make me famous some day! Ha!:



Either way, he was on his way out. He had almost reached the ant "hotel" filled with ant poison, when he drowned in a puddle. Did you know that my kitchen counter ALWAYS has puddles on it!!?

I still have one more room in which I need to wash the walls. I only wash the walls once in a blue moon, so this is quite an accomplishment and I'm going to insist on having a gold star for this one.

Speaking of gold stars, May is quite an adored young lady. Her teachers always pay the highest compliments to her. Her choir teacher gave her excellent marks and left the comment, "Can we clone her?"

Elijah and Brigham got summer haircuts yesterday, but not the usual quarter-inch or eighth-inch type that we used to give. Nathan has asked to grow his hair out like some of the kids at school. I told him yes and he's already practicing the bang flipping technique that he so admires in others.

Sariah went to a birthday party today. She's just ecstatic whenever she gets invited to a party. She has been going around this week telling me that she can't believe she's going to a party, which has shifted this afternoon to, "I can't believe that I got to go to the party." That's gratitude for ya!

That about sums it up for my day.

Joseph and Nathan are off buying lumber for the next exciting project for the summer!

Yard Sale

I will clear the suspense, first off, by saying that I DID make enough money to buy the wheat grinder. My neighbor can't even fathom that I would spend my money that way. "You're buying a WHAT?" I have also located a generous sponsor who is willing to support me in the purchase of a mixer so I don't have to knead my bread by hand any more. I can hardly believe it! And having recently cleared a bunch of counter space, it only makes sense to fill it again, doesn't it? Thanks, J!

This year I had a yard sale, not a garage sale. I don't know how it works for most people, but for me, it's a garage sale if I park myself in the garage and a yard sale if I sit in the yard to help the customers. It was such a beautiful day, how could I not sit in the yard and have a Yard Sale? For some of the day, I sat in the shade of this tree:


And worked on my current afghan project which I'm making for our living/family room.

The publicity department did an excellent job this year. Signs were posted on busy intersections and just forget about the lousy newspaper ad which not only costs too much, but doesn't bring around any more customers than the signs do.

My brother wanted to know just how often we do garage sales and are they popular in our neck of the woods. Well, yes, they are pretty popular. There are people around here who have an annual yard sale. My first sale was about 3-4 years ago. The next one was last August coinciding with my basement flooding. And finally, the current sale which started and ended on Saturday. I'm kind-of hoping it will be my last, but I forgot how interesting it can be to talk to lots of people of all walks of life. I have promised myself that I will go through all of my possessions again in 6-12 months to make sure that I'm really done getting rid of things. It's easier to let go of things with each sweep through the house, but it takes a lot of self-discipline for me to carry out this grand scale de-cluttering project. Ideally, I would do it this November though so that I can really accomplish my one New Year's Resolution which was to declutter, organize and start living a simpler life.

Here's a run down on some of the interesting folks I met yesterday:

--one guy told me that he can do five yard sales in thirty minutes, but has to wait for his wife to go through each object. He talked politics to me in a very quick fashion speaking of oil prices and presidential assassination.

--one lady asked me if she could use my bathroom. Ummmm, I'm not very comfortable with that!

--one little boy drove a hard bargain and bought a little car set that had been marked fifty cents, for five cents.

--one man came and started cleaning out my videos and books and was talking about cutting a deal, even though my videos were only 25 cents and my books 10 cents. I felt I should go and ask him why he wanted so many. It was a great lesson on why humans need to communicate. I had felt a little annoyed with him at first, but then I found out that he owns a book/collectibles store and does free book day once a year. He told me that he always runs out of children's books. Of course, I cut him a huge deal after that so that he can give books to kids. What a great cause! And in some small way, I'm now part of it!

--a lady showed up near the very end and we started talking a lot as she was the last customer and wanted to go through all the clothes. We got talking about religion. How I love it when people will talk about religion with me! I learned that she was a Baptist and I had a long held fear of mine dispelled...that all Baptists are anti-Mormon (too bad I was so stereotypical, eh?). By the end of talking with her, I felt that we should see each other again and she mentioned that maybe she'd stop by. I hope she will.

--one neighbor from down the way talked to me about when things were better for him. He's got a major disability and I marveled at how he keeps his spirits lifted and keeps moving forward.

--one woman was so genuinely thankful for the deals we gave her and asked her grand-kids to say thank-you as well. I like that feeling. Even though my prices were already very low, I tried to be even more generous with people and like to think about them taking things home and using them.

--a lady bought May's puppet theater (which she and I were sad to let go of) to donate to her church. I thought that was so nice of her and told her so.

--our neighbor friend (age 8) came and bought our toy kitchen and play food to give to his little nephew with his mom's money. With his own money, he bought a car racing speedway for that same little nephew. How thoughtful and sweet!

Here's a funny story. Sometimes I put things out in my sales that I don't really think will be purchased. Such was the case with the cloth diapers I put out. Nathan used cloth diapers briefly and I had kept them as part of our storage, just in case we needed them again. Brigham will potty train in the next year or so, so I decided to let them go. I figured that just the right person would need to come along. I offered them for 25 cents per dozen. I was shocked when an older man asked about them. It made more sense when he told me that he was buying them for rags in his garage! Not at all what I had pictured when I set them out!

I price things so that no bargaining is needed (dirt cheap), but still people want to bargain and so I let them. I held on to the price of $15 for our futon, though. Sometimes people don't know when to stop!

I was so tired by the end of the day that I hardly wanted to clean up. I was sad at how full the garage still is with stuff. But thankful that my Sunday is a day of rest!

A Love-Hate Relationship with my Bathroom

But, first, a couple of thoughts.

The sky is a lovely cerulean blue today and it's about 60 degrees and breezy. I simply have to share this information with someone.

Me: The sky is cerulean blue today.

Joseph: What color is that?

Me: Well, it's the color of the City trash bins, but a little more sky-ey. Know what I mean?

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Sariah was playing around with the gummy worms I bought her (another shopping bribe) and was breaking them in to pieces to make a family.

Sariah (playing with her worm family): What? The baby has come?!! I can't believe the baby is already here. (Dad voice) Oh, look, the baby, I think I'm going to eat her. (Mom voice) NO! You can't eat her, she's our baby!!!

---

I am a ball of anger bouncing around the world. This is probably due to my coming off my medication. Joseph very kindly asked me if it was worth it to come off of the medication. I can't answer him. It's not time yet. I need more time.

---

Did you know that ants protect the peony blossoms until they are ready to bloom? I think they protect them from wasps laying their eggs, but I could be wrong. The ants benefit because there is some kind of sweet stuff they eat on the peonies. It's been a long time since I read about it and I don't have time to research it now. Still, every year when I see this it amazes me. Luckily I read about this before the first time I ever saw it because I'm definitely someone who would have set out to eradicate the ants if I didn't know better.

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Nathan took the camera outside yesterday because he wanted to try to photograph some birds. He got a great shot here of a male and female cardinal. Can you find them both?

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Now, for my bathroom.

When we were searching for houses, there were really only three or four in our price range contrasting to the hundreds of similar houses for sale like ours now. Limited choices can be a good thing. This house was the best of the three, but we still had some concerns because the inspector told us that there had been standing water in the basement, despite the owner insisting otherwise. I'm a worrier. Joseph was probably pestered to death during that time because I really wanted this house, but I also really didn't want problems.


On our second time through the house, I noticed something. The bathroom walls had a pattern on them. The then-owner had sponge painted this pattern onto the wall with a sea sponge. She had used three colors. Cornflower blue, moss green and a dark mauve color. While I'm really not very fond of the walls in my bathroom, something hit me about those colors. Those were the exact colors of the towels we have. I'm not kidding. We had at least two or three of each of those color towels including hand towels, rugs, and wash cloths.

To me, this qualified as a sign. It meant that things would be o.k. if we bought this new house. You know what? Looking back over nine years, we've had some problems, even some water in the basement, but I don't regret buying this house. I think it was a good decision.

---

P.S. It's really hard to redecorate a bathroom when there's only one in the house. I'll be waiting until we have more than one bathroom to paint over the sponge painting. Until then, it's a good reminder that God is watching out for me. He always has and He always will.

Luxury Bed Sheets

This morning on the way to dropping the kids off for school, Sariah asked me, "What are bed bugs?" I managed to thoroughly confuse her on the matter as she kept correcting my descriptions by saying things like, "No, those are mosquitos." "No, those are moths." Thankfully, my bed does not harbor any of those little public health concerns. Which leads me to my topic ... bed sheets.

Back when I was going off to college, my mom gave me a primer in buying bed sheets. Never buy anything less than 180 thread count (TC). Less than 180 TC will pill up and be uncomfortable. Any of you parents ever bought the character sheets for your kids? Don't we know it! I think those sheets usually run about 130 TC. I'm obviously quite naive when it comes to sheets though, because I never put much more thought than that to buying them. I knew that there were "luxury" sheets selling for exorbitant prices. I thought maybe it was just the labeling?

Joseph and I have had our same sheets for a long time. I'm sure both sets are around 200 TC and 8-9 years old. One is a forest green color and the other a maroon color. I hate them. I must sound very fickle with my qualms about bed sheets when there are typhoons and earthquakes destroying everything in sight around the world. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself. It hasn't worked so far as you will see.

I bought a set of sage green 200 TC sheets last week from Walmart. I walked around until I found the least expensive sheets and then made sure the thread count was acceptable. I was surprised to find that they even sell 130 TC sheets and they were more expensive than the ones I picked up! Then this weekend, I did a Google search for bed sheets, I can't remember why exactly, and ended up at Overstock.com. Wow! I never realized that there were 300, 400, 500, 600, 1000, even 1200 thread count sheets. A whole world has opened up to me that I never knew existed. I believe this is one of the reasons we are cautioned against too much web-surfing!

I looked around on there for a while and read some reviews. I learned that some people like sateen sheets rather than satin because with sateen, they don't fall out of bed. A hilarious mind-picture. I learned that high thread count sheets in cotton are a mess of wrinkles coming out of the drier. Some people iron, some people throw them on the bed, some people just live with the wrinkles because of the luxurious feel of their sheets, some people leave poor reviews that say, "DO NOT BUY THESE SHEETS!"

Well suddenly, my sage green 200 count bed sheets were not good enough for me. I picked them up and ran my hand over them. What? Is that a scratchy feeling? I can't sleep in that! I simply must have luxury sheets!! Plus Overstock.com is telling me that the retail price of these sheets is $199.99, but they are selling them for $46.99. My Walmart sheets were $11.00 for the flat, $11.00 for the fitted, and $5.50 for the pillowcases. About half of what I'd be paying for my luxury sheets. With shipping only $2.95, I decided to go for it. I chose ivory sheets with a 500 TC. They are on the way as I type...

P.S. From what I can tell, overstock.com's prices are really quite good if you are looking for high count bed sheets. It was a little tricky finding the size and color I wanted which is why I settle on ivory. Plus you can't beat their shipping. We are also considering buying some memory foam to get some more life out of our mattress. Those things are heavy and shipping is still only $2.95.

Decorating

For Mother's Day this year, I asked Joseph if we could redecorate the living room. We're not getting rid of our 15 year old furniture, even though by the end of the day, the cushions have slid almost to the floor! Instead we're pulling down some of the wall hangings, repainting and trying to make the room tidier looking in general.

On Saturday evening some friends of ours watched our kids and for our date, we went shopping. We went to four different stores. I wanted some yarn (I'm going to crochet a new afghan), a small lamp, a new print for the wall, some baskets and a few other things. We found something in each store we visited and made mental notes of things we were interested in, but unsure of.

I know that I want more of a nautical theme and the walls are going to be painted a very pale blue. We found and bought some baskets to make the computer desk more organized. Like it or not, the computer desk is staying in the living room. We found and bought some wall hangings (sea star and scallop) for a grouping with the new print I'm going to get (Monet). We found and bought some jars to put shells into for display. We looked at a couple of yarns but didn't buy. We saw a really cool tree wall hanging, but didn't buy because it seemed too breakable. We saw some decorative pillows for the couch, but we weren't sure they'd match the blinds we have. We couldn't find a lamp that would work.

After we got home, I immediately regretted not buying the tree, but I also remembered that I had a 40% off coupon that we could use. I asked Joseph to pick that up. After I got the kids off to school I went to look at the yarn again thinking I had chosen, only to realize that the soft yarn I wanted had too much turquoise. Our couches are forest green and I just don't think those colors can mix well. I also walked through more of the Michael's store than we had on Saturday and found a lamp for half off that matches the wall hangings and tree perfectly in style and color. I tried again on the pillows and still didn't buy because of the colors. I found some silk flowers and rocks so that I could make a simple floral arrangement (see picture above).

As I was doing all of this shopping, I realized that my decorating life could be much easier. I could just go to Jo-Ann or Michael's or (fill in the blank store) and buy a bunch of things out of their nautical section and just be done. It was at this point that I realized that the searching and the mix and match are my style. I love it. I love getting things that work together from many locations. It gives me a thrill. I like doing this with birthday party supplies and other projects as well (the best example would probably be May's doll house). Though I usually like the end results of my searches, I have no idea if my versions of these fashions would be "socially" acceptable. That's not really what matters anyway!

I asked Joseph if he liked this as much as me. He said he'd rather just find it all in one place and be done with it. But he was happy to do it this way if I wanted.

It made me wonder what other people's styles/strategies are like, too. I wanted to make a poll, but I didn't know how to word it. How do you do these kinds of things? I know some people do the mix and match version to save money. Sometimes I fall into this category. I've been very pleased with thrift store finds, like an outfit that comes from three different stores and works perfectly together. Other times I probably spend more than if I were to just pick up all the items from one store and be done with it. It's these times when it's purely for the creative feeling I get.

Our Dilapidated Shed

The first spring we moved to this house, the neighbor girl dropped by to give us some mail that had accidentally gotten delivered to their house. We were working the back yard and she came back and sat down and proceeded to say, "What are you gonna do with that shed. It is UG-ly." We lived with it for a while and then one year Joseph painted it, but it has become more leaky and rodent filled so today is the day we say good-bye. He's also breaking up the picnic table that has rotted out underneath.


We rented this lovely sight (above). I'm sure the neighbors love it, one especially, is probably waiting on pins and needles hoping this means we'll be moving.


That sledge hammer is the best purchase we ever made! Man, that husband of mine can do anything! Good luck with the big cement pad, honey!

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Getting Rid of Clutter

In our family Christmas letter that we sent out, we announced that we would be putting our house on the market this Spring and moving to a bigger house. As unexpected things have come up, we've begun to realize that we are in this house to stay. There are some big challenges associated with that decision.

1. We don't have enough room for all of us to sit down at the table for dinner.
2. We only have one bathroom, which translates to one toilet. We have five young kids. Take a moment to imagine the chaos.
3. We are "bulging at the seams," as I like to say.

A couple of years ago, I went through our possessions and weeded a ton of stuff out and had a yard sale. Then, last August before we went to Utah, our basement flooded. I decided that since I had to move everything anyway, I might as well sort through and have another yard sale. Plus, we rented a huge garbage bin and the whole thing was hauled away full.

Here I am again, already needing to de-clutter. We have so much "stuff" that I feel like I can hardly clean my house. The goal this time is to really strip away many of our possessions. It's really painful. I have kept a lot of things over the years. For instance, though I got rid of most of my college notes, I still have the ones for my favorite classes (Advanced Invertebrates, Marine Biology, Parasitology). Things like these are going to have to go.

I can see the benefit of having gone through these things several times. It makes it easier. I saw things in August that I thought I couldn't or shouldn't part with that just make sense to get rid of this time around. In fact, this time, I plan to go through everything twice. I'm working on the first time through right now and for the past week since we got home.

My vacation really prepped me for this. The house we stayed in wasn't cluttered, of course. I want to live like that. I think our house will always be a bit crowded, but it doesn't have to be cluttered. The time off also cleared my mind and helped me get rested in preparation.

My kids aren't going to like it. I've already had some discussions with them, telling them that we're going to get rid of most of the toys. I've told them that it's going to be difficult, but that we are going to do it. I've already had some run-ins with one of the girls over some of her toys. I might not be very popular for a while.

We're also going to put some work into the cosmetics of our home. I'm excited about that part. We've lived here for nine years and little has changed. We painted the whole house white and have left it that way. We'll shake things up a little bit. We still want to keep it light because of the winter months here, but it will feel good to have some change.

Trying New Household Tricks

I've been reading a great blog fairly regularly. It's called "The Lazy Organizer" and it's got lots of ideas for...well, organizing (home, time, etc.)...but also it's a place where people share ideas about lots of other things. I like it a lot and I've been gleaning some ideas that I'm trying to put into practice.

One idea came from the blog writer herself, Lara Gallagher. She said something to the effect of "If Momma's working, then everyone is working." I liked that idea and started watching what was going on in my home. I realized that even though my kids do chores, there are lots of times when I'm the only one working. Many times I'm working and still being pulled in several directions at once and it's very draining.

Lately, I've tried to be aware of times when I'm working that one of the kids could be helping me or doing a job in the close vicinity. One of those times was this past Saturday. My husband had just finished sanding the wall so that he could prime it and had vacuumed up a lot of the dust. I turned around and there was the vacuum, all dusty-dirty, and there was also a son in need of something to do. I immediately enlisted him to start wiping down the vacuum (isn't it funny when we have to clean the things that clean our house?? I've always thought it an oxymoron). I also grabbed a cloth and started working. It was great! My son didn't mind helping at all and we got to accomplish something while having extra time to interact on a more personal level.


We also took Lara's idea of a Mom's bank (I think she calls hers a credit union.) You can read more about that here. So, we've separated out the kid's allowance from their jobs. They have to do jobs simply because they live here. They get their allowance with some stipulations. 20 percent to savings, 10 percent to tithing, 10 percent to their charity of choice, and the rest stays in their "checking account." For now, they are all responsible for buying their shoes and socks plus whatever toys or extras that they want. This is all done on paper and makes things so much easier than having all the cash around. We're just in the first month and I'm sure we'll have some kinks to iron out, but I'm glad for the new system.

To read more from Lara, click here!

A Bushel of Beans

A few years ago when I volunteered for the nursery at church every week, a lady brought in a plastic storage container about a quarter full of rice and beans (dry) and some cups so that the kids could dig through the beans. It was a great idea for a tactile activity for kids. I took the idea home and bought this large under-the-bed box and filled it about a third full of beans, lentils, and rice. We have a whole range of different size containers and scoops as well as a funnel. We use it mostly for a Family Home Evening activity. The kids (all ages, Nathan is 11 and still gets into it!) just love to get it out for digging, dumping and burying. It really just takes a broom and dustpan afterward to clean up. Occasionally we've put treats in there for them to dig through and find.

This was Brigham's first time and it took him about five minutes to warm up to the idea. By the time I had come back with the ice cream, wild horses couldn't drag him away!

See what other people are talking about today at Talk about Tuesday!

It Was Bound to Happen

The builder of this house did not put 2" x 4"s behind this wall. With all of the crashing, smashing, and hurling that goes on in this house (despite my efforts to stop it), this wall was bound to get broken.

The kid responsible (who shall remain nameless), said something to the effect of, "Why now? That wall has been hit into many times, why does it have to break now?" This same kid is missing a window pane from when s/he was just hitting at the window to see what would happen. Duh!

Doesn't this add character to my house. We've got your customary bumps and paint chips. We've got your colorful streaks on the walls. We've got a double layer of plastic instead of a window, but now we can brag of a lovely ripped wall. I'm hoping this increases the selling price!

Check In

Joseph: Well, but tired from traveling to and from Ann Arbor two days in a row and getting up early to work on presentations

Cindi: Well, but teetering on sickness

Nathan: Fever, Dizziness, Headache. This is his fourth sick day. Three days of school missed.

May: Dizziness, Lung congestion. This is her fourth sick day. Three days of school missed.

Elijah: Ear ache. One day of school missed.

Sariah: Been sick six days. Is mostly better today, except for the left-over respiratory yuckies.

Brigham: Well.

This is after we diligently got our flu shots this year. I know that this is "The flu." After so many days of people home sick, I'm getting very tired. How many times have I heard the word "mom" in a semi-whiney voice? I'm trying to forcefully tell my psyche that "I will be well!" We shall see.

Family Corner

copyright Amanda Welch Photography

We finally got a family picture this past fall with all the members of our family and got it up on the wall in the living room. Underneath that is a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." In addition, my sister gave us a Family Home Evening board for Christmas this year and today Joseph helped me put it together and hang it on the wall. Despite an outrageously contentious morning, we're really family centered around here.

Soy Milk

Speaking of allergies, over half my family is allergic to milk. Those of us who can't have "cow milk" or "boy milk" as Sariah calls it, drink "soy milk" or "girl milk." At it's cheapest, soy milk costs a whopping $5 per gallon. The more expensive brands like Silk can be up to $7 per gallon. For this reason, a couple of years back, Joseph gave me some information about a soy milk maker. We bought it and I used it for a good while and then stopped. Recently, I started making soy milk again. It takes approximately 25 minutes per batch and I have to make 6 batches every 5 days. It's quite a bit of work, but while the machine is doing it's work, like right now, I can:

1) Catch up on my Book of Mormon reading. I'm in the Isaiah chapters of 2nd Nephi right now. Loving those chapters more and more!

2) Observe several phases of the lunar eclipse. Right now, the moon is half-way covered by the earth's shadow. Supposedly near the end of the eclipse, I may see some turquoise color! May really wanted to see it, so I got her up and we viewed it together for a while. She was really grateful that I got her up. Nathan, on the other hand, wouldn't wake up. I kept asking him over and over if he wanted to see the lunar eclipse and he kept telling me "yes" and then wrapping the blanket back over himself and zonking!

3) Write a post about 'soy milk.'

4) Eat chocolate!

I got started late tonight, so I'm wildly tired. We read Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett in it's entirety before I sent the kids off to bed. I can't wait to get the final book in that series (Book #1 is My Father's Dragon and Book #3 is The Dragons of Blueland). This book had enough pictures that even Sariah could sit through it and enjoy it.

To fill the time until I can go off to dreamland, here's how soy milk is made, in case you've ever wondered.

First, I soak a mixture of soybeans, flax seeds, and oats over night or from morning until night depending on when I'm going to make the milk. They soak for 10-14 hours. I drain the beans etc. in a basket which attaches onto the soy milk maker (I use SoyaPower brand). I fill the soy milk maker with filtered water and add brown sugar, vanilla, and salt to the containers that will eventually hold the soy milk.


Then, I screw the basket onto the 'blender' part of the soy milk maker. The machine heats up the water and then blends the bean mixture. The basket has a very fine sieve effect so that the tiniest particles go out into the water, making the milk.


When the milk is finished the machine beeps at me. This is what I see when I take the machine apart:


I spoon all of that froth off the top and then using a fine mesh sieve, pour the milk into the container.

Finally, stir and refrigerate. Ready to go. Brigham and Sariah don't really mind the taste of the homemade milk. It grows on me over time. May and Joseph try to avoid it. I probably save $30-$40 dollars a month making this soy milk. Brigham still drinks about three 8 oz. bottles a day, which reminds me, I need to wean him off those bottles...still.

Bed Sheets

I became curious about bed sheets when I was talking to my sister (Jodi) on the phone. We were actually discussing laundry and how much more you have when you change the sheets every week.

I'm supposed to change the sheets at least weekly and wash them in hot water due to allergies in our household. The hot water is the only thing that will get rid of dust mites. I don't really do that. I hardly ever remember to switch the water over to hot. Lately I've been doing o.k. at getting the sheets changed on a weekly basis though, but only because I love the feel of fresh sheets.

After I posted last week's poll, my sister told me that she had watched an Oprah show during which they discussed washing sheets. The expert that day said that sheets should be changed and washed at minimum, once per week. Can you imagine changing the sheets more than once a week? Not me!

Check out my new poll!

P.S. I know it's late, but there a lunar eclipse tonight from 10 pm to 10:50 pm EST. If the cloud cover clears away, I'll be out there. I love a good lunar eclipse. We're supposed to be able to see Saturn too. Times like these when I really wish I had a telescope!

Home/Work Life Balance

This home/work life balance thing has been very difficult recently. I work for the Michigan Department of Education in an office that is responsible for carrying out all of Michigan's statewide testing programs for K-12 students. The office is also responsible for creating school report cards for federal- and state-required reports.

Starting in July 2004, I had been the psychometrician for our office (psychometrics is a specialized branch of statistics that focuses on taking the many answers students give to test questions and creating the best possible overall scores for those students). In that position, I was responsible for safeguarding the quality of the test scores that our contractors produce. I had no one to supervise but myself and an occasional graduate student to conduct special studies for the office. I felt that my work/life balance was in pretty good shape at that time. Of course, Cindi may feel differently.

Then, the manager of our two largest tests took another job within the department. Several months later, I interviewed for that position, and was asked to fill it in December 2006. In that position, I became ultimately responsible for planning and carrying out all aspects of our two largest tests. I then had sixteen staff members in my unit. Taking on managerial responsibilities has been a steep learning curve, but I have enjoyed it. As I stepped into the new position, I had to function in my old position as well for several months until we could hire someone to replace me. For a few months there, I struggled considerably with leaving work and work and being present at home. But, as I see it, I finally began to regain that balance. Of course, Cindi may feel differently!

Then in September of 2007 the director of my office resigned and took a job at the nearby university. I was asked to head up half of the office, as it was informally split into two pieces. In that capacity, my additional responsibilities include supervising school report card, psychometric, IT, and financial management staff. I then had an additional thirteen people on my staff. The new responsibilities have also presented a significant learning curve, and significant difficulties in leaving work at work when I come home.

Finally, in January 2008, the office was reunited and I was asked to head up the reunited office. In that capacity, my additional responsibilities include supervising the planning and carrying out of our smaller volume tests for students with disabilities and limited English proficiency. I have had an additional eight people added to my staff. The pain of reorganization has not yet subsided, and Cindi has said to her friends that at home I am a basket case because I am as of right now unable to leave work at work. I have also been working late many days to keep up on issues that have arisen.

It is clear to me that I need to work more on my home/work life balance. Cindi and the kids are suffering under this, especially as I have had a hard time leaving work at work; and since I have have been ill three times since this all started (probably stress related). I also need to work on my perfectionism, as there is so much to get done, and only so much time in which to do it.

One thing I have done is to start surrendering my Blackberry to Cindi when I come home so that I can't tell when work-related emails and phone calls come in. A small thing, but I think it is helpful. Delegation has also been helpful, but I already have a very small staff relative to the amount of responsibility and work with which they are charged.

There are, of course, times when the workload is heavier than others, and this is one of those times. We have just issued or are about to issue bids for all of our testing programs at the same time as office reorganization. I see things letting up within the next couple of months, but of course, I am going to need to continue to work on the home/work life balance. Especially the presence and irritability issues at home.

Instead of Bed

Elijah with his Webkinz attached to his robe

A couple of nights ago, Elijah flitted through the living room looking a little strange (see picture above). Instead of sleeping, he had been tying his Webkinz to his bathrobe and then paraded down to show us what he had done.

My kids are masters of the night. They find extra imaginative activities to do rather than sleep. Sometimes I go up to Sariah's room in the morning to find it littered with books. She has a lamp, but it isn't much more than a night light. It has a duck's head and feet, the shade is yellow and stands in as the duck's body with lots of little holes for light to escape, and there's a night light bulb inside. Somehow, in that much faded light she enters the magical world of silent book viewing.

Nathan, I am sure, was reading a new comic book last night that we discovered by reading "The Read-Aloud Handbook." It's called "The Adventures of Tintin"by Herge. I haven't read it myself, but from the blibs Nathan has shared, it seems highly imaginative. Sometimes he sneaks into the kitchen and helps himself to what's in the cupboards, pretending he's getting a glass of milk.

May sits in the dark of her room and slathers lotion on her feet. I can tell from the lavender scent wafting through the house afterward. But, if Brigham is still awake when she goes to bed, they play their little girl and little boy games together.

What do your kids do at night when they should be sleeping?

Reading List for Children

My friend Marni has inspired me with a post she wrote called:

Books We Have Read With the Kids

We have been sporadic over the years with reading and so I can't remember all the titles we have read. One thing we have been doing lately is to pick a topic and research it. Recently we've looked at snowflakes (see Snowflake Bentley--we found out that there is a Field Guide for Snowflakes, how cool is that?). I might read a picture book and then check out more books for their perusal. Another idea we are working on this year is religion. That one will be more detailed and more discussion oriented. We did a little study of "The Pied Piper" due to a reference to it in one of the "Anne of Green Gables" series. We read the actual poem, watched a couple of movies and studied the origins of it.

Recently, I've started being more consistent with nightly reading, so we have a small list of titles that we've gotten through. I try to read a picture book for Sariah so that if she can't sit through the chapters, she can give a kiss and a hug and head up to bed.

Here's our list:

Read Aloud:

James and the Giant Peach

The Endless Steppe

The Little Princess

The Fledgling

1-4 of the Narnia series

My Father’s Dragon

Elmer and the Dragon

The Dragons of Blueland

Tom's Midnight Garden

Mandy

The 100 Dresses

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Fablehaven

Listened to:

Harry Potter 1, 3

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of the Island

Anne of Windy Poplars

Rainbow Valley

Rilla of Ingleside

Room One: A Mystery or Two

Several Junie B. Jones books

Our current list of hopefuls:

The Candy Shop War
Our two missing "Anne" titles
Way to Be! (Gordon B. Hinckley)
Princess Academy


Oprah has a reading list for kids that you can check out here. Looks pretty good from what I can see. I haven't used it before, but I will go back.

Kind of as a side note, but not less important, is our family scripture study which we hold nearly nightly. To date we have read the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of St Matthew; currently we are in St. Mark.

I also think that picture books are really important; even Nathan still likes to read them. For Nathan and May it's still nice to sit down for a quick read and these are often the type that send us into a research spin. Sariah loves to go to the library and pick up several of the new books that are sitting out. A fun one that we recently is "When a Monster is Born." I would probably never have found it on the shelf, I love that the library sets out books. Elijah is in that tricky stage between picture books and chapter books. Any recommendations for him?

I used this list for picture books about a year ago. 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know. We read some aloud and others were just available for the kids to read. It comes from the New York Public Library. They have a wonderful site and lots of lists.

What are your favorites?

My Street in the Fall

Year after year I have wanted a picture of the trees on my street in the fall. It is such a beautiful sight and I want to remember it when I don't live here anymore! I finally got it this year. It's even better when no cars have driven through and the whole road is yellow.

Half of a Pair

This post rightly fits in with either my post on laundry or with the missing glove. I have this whole collection of socks that do not have a match. Given my experience growing up, this seems like it is normal. I don't think I've discussed it with others though, so I'd like to hear your experience!

Here's the funny thing, though. My mom told me that my Grandma insists that in all her years of doing laundry (She's turning 90 in a few days), she's never lost a sock!!! All I can say is that I'm impressed!