Using what I've got! Crafts are fun!

I mentioned on a previous post about how I've been doing yardwork and such using the things I have already.  Well, one such thing was that I really wanted to get brick to put around the house to separate my dirt 'garden' area from the grass.  I found rocks in the area near the field and used them as a border instead!  Free!

 

And yesterday I finished up another little project.  I wanted to build little fairy 'houses' in the circle of trees we have.  I took some of the dead branches from the stuff I pulled out of the tree circle area and chopped them into discs and made this!

 there is a cute little path and some stools and table.

 I used twigs to make a 'doorframe' with 'steps' leading up to it.

 M wanted a firepit too, so we made one with some little stones.

 This one tree has lots of steps up into three areas.

 A different angle.

 And this is on a tree completely separate from that area... by our swings, actually.

 

Then, today I also made some cute pendants of sorts with some #6 recyclable plastic (mine is from the top of those containers you get already cooked rotisserie chicken in).  It works like shrinky dink plastic!  Did some with the kiddos, and made myself a set of earrings for later.  Need some jump rings of sorts though.

I think they turned out rather cute!  The kids had fun doing this, and I have lots left for doing more projects later on.  I look forward to it!

I got information for this project here at Rust and Sunshine, and here on Instructibles..

If you want to make stuff with this plastic, what I found worked was to draw on the plastic with black sharpie, then color on the other side so it didn't smudge the black.  Punch a hole and cut the pieces the way you want them because it will get thick as it shrinks.  It won't shrink uniformly either (the Mario charm did pretty good, but the others not so much).  These started off as 3-4inches high, and ended up about a third of the size.  Any bumps or text disappears as well with shrinking. 

To shrink, bake in a 250-350F oven.  Watch it as it shrinks and curls, settling flat after a minute or so.  It doesn't take long at all.

Have fun!

Savings Sunday - The importance of Tithing

I know it is late again.  I really need to try to blog on Saturdays so I get on this on time... ah well.  A belated Sunday post, haha.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about tithing.

Often when I think about 'saving money' I don't think about giving money away.  But the Bible tells us that we will be blessed by giving our money through tithes and offerings.

Proverbs 11:24 ESV         
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

Malachi 3:10 ESV        
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Now, I am not trying to 'preach' the prosperity gospel.  Not at all.  I am just saying that the Bible teaches we need to give the tithe.  The money we have is not ours.  It is God's.  The same goes with everything we have.  So, we need to give of the gifts we've been given.

And God says he will bless us.

I can attest to the blessings.  I am not sure how it is even possible for us to have as much as we do, but God has made it possible!  We have been faithfully tithing since we got married, and God has given us blessing after blessing.  Many would say they don't know how we afford to live off what we make, but we have enough.  We are satisfied with what we have, too!  I think that perhaps that is something we need to have more of... satisfaction with what we have!  It is amazing how many blessings we will see when we are satisfied with what we have!  And God will provide all we need.

And when we need things we cannot get for ourselves, the blessings we receive from our heavenly father are even more incredible when we get them!

Savings Sunday - Use What You've Got

I know this is a day late (plus a week late!  I had this idea on Saturday but I never got to it).  Ah well, you'll forgive me, right?

Yeah yeah... I've been blogging a lot today.  I'm task oriented, so I had blogging on my to do list, ok?  ;) 

Yeah... I am not kidding!

Anyway, the big 'aha' I had on Saturday for a Savings Sunday post is this... use what you've got!

I've recently started working on the yard.  Trying to beautify it before my daughter's birthday party in September.  I don't want to spend a bunch of money on it, but it needs a LOT of work.  So... I found out that there are a bunch of rocks that need to be removed from my inlaws yard, and my MIL was only happy for me and the kids to pull a bunch out for her.  We brought them over to our yard and are using them as edging around my house.  I've also been pulling down dead branches, and clearing out many weeds.  You can make mulch from dead tree branches if you wish.  I actually want to take some of them and chop them into discs, then use those discs to make little 'fairy homes'... doors and stairs and such on the trees on our yard.  I'll post pics when done.

We also have some pallets that we cannot return to the feed company.  I will be using those to make outdoor furniture for around the fire pit and what not.  Free!!!  Yay!

You can probably find someone who has perennial plants that they need to have thinned out anyway, or saplings growing by lilac bushes or other shrubs.  I've been saving seeds from the apples we've been buying to see if I can't start my own apple trees.  They may not grow apples, but they would still grow into trees, and I love the flower blossoms on fruit trees!  You can also find all sorts of uses for old items, not just in your gardens, but for organizing in the house, or even up-cycling into something fabulous!  This is where pinterest can really come in handy!  ;)

Seriously... before you go out to buy something, try to see if you can't take something you may already have and just adjust it a bit to make it work for what you need!  Like, cereal boxes to organize scrapbook paper.  Or shoe boxes decorated with paper to organize cards!  Perhaps those old ice cube trays you don't use for ice cubes anymore could be upcycled into sorting earrings.  Or that tin can!  Just punch a bunch of holes in it in fun patterns and hang your earrings on that!  We recently took an old pail, a sour cream container, cardboard, and tape and hot glue, and we made a little dollhouse (my daughter says it's Twilight Sparkle's treehouse... Twilight Sparkle is a pony who lives in a tree which is a library in case you were wondering).  It is a lot of fun, and you don't have to worry about messing it up, cause it cost nothing!  :)

Have fun saving money and creating your own fun items!

52 weeks of Healing - Weeks 33 and 34

Yeah, I know I know... I skipped last week.  Well, week 32 was to turn off electric gadgets...

I wish I could say that was the reason I wasn't on here, but it isn't.  I was on facebook by Thursday of that week, and a little too much computer time as well, I hate to admit.

However, I do know that I need to reduce my internet time.  A lot.  I've been praying for help on that, and I've been doing my best to keep it down, spend time drawing or reading to my kids instead, tickling my baby's toes and watching her smile at me... little things.  I think it is helping, and I WANT to spend less time on the computer.  And the computer really is the only electronic gadget that has me hooked.  I don't own a pda, a cell phone, or a ipod.  I have a DS and 3DS but use it for the step counter.  I don't watch much tv and limit it to 20 minutes a day for the kids.  Our evenings however... we could do much better by turning it off and going to bed once the kids are down for the night.  So... the internet is my addiction, and it needs to be reduced... badly... I don't need pinterest THAT much, after all.  ;)

Anyway, weeks 33 and 34...

Week 33 is to create a toxin free environment.

This is easy.  I already make all my own cleaners except for the toilet bowl cleaner.  I use no air fresheners, our shampoo/conditioner I make myself, and the soap we use... well... I have to use fragrance free stuffs.  I buy Norwex cleaner for my shower.  I use baking soda and vinegar for practically everything.  The only thing I need to change is how I clean my toilet... and I don't really want to change that yet, haha.  Oh, and I suppose if there was something in my dish soap... I can start making my own dishwasher detergent, too!  I have a recipe for that (I think it was pretty much just borax, washing soda, baking soda, and a lemon powder/citrus of sorts).  So, I guess I was doing this without realizing it! Yay!

Week 34 is to identify your stressors.

Sometimes we may think one thing is stressing us out, when it really is the result of our actual stressor.  I'm not exactly sure what my real stressor is, but I know I easily feel overwhelmed when I see a messy kitchen, or toys all over the floor, or feel dirt underfoot (especially when I cleaned the floor only minutes ago).  I get super stressed whenever I need to work on the farm paperwork... but our personal bookwork doesn't stress me in the least.  I also feel stressed about making meals.  Always.  The kitchen is a stress magnet.  I think the main cause of my stress is actually unfinished projects... this is something that has always gotten under my skin (if I start it, I need to finish it in short order before I can move onto something else or else I will go insane!).  However, I need to learn how to deal with this either way because with three kids under 5 it is virtually impossible for me to focus on one task until it is finished anymore.  Not to mention that the 'project' that needs work will often need to have an area redone before it is finished either way (take 'having a clean house' for example...).  Lately I've been trying to avoid the stress by not starting anything I cannot feasibly finish within one hour... however that means I'm not doing much and I'm avoiding tasks instead, which is causing me to feel useless, and I begin to get depressed about it.  I am rather task oriented it seems... but I'm afraid to start anything new.  What a problem!

So, I'm hoping that God will reveal to me what my main stressor is, and that He will help me weed it out properly.  I need His help in this area, because I know I have a problem, and I don't know how to solve it!

Tour the World - North America

The last week of our tour was North America, where we learned about Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

 

I spent two days on Mexico instead of just the one.  We ate outside as they often do there.  We had Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, lunch was refried beans, guacamole, tortillas, and red peppers, and supper was tacos.  I had fun using my Personal Trainer Cooking game for most of those.  We also did a 3D puzzle of a Mayan temple which we found at the dollar store.

Our puzzle 

 Coloring the flags.

 Huevos Rancheros for breakfast.

 Lunch...

 And supper.

 

Setting up the fire pit to eat outside... the kids were thrilled! 

Wednesday we learned a little about the USA.  We figured out what our favorite summer activity was (ice cream and swimming) and learned that there are many different groups of people who all have different favorite things to do, and different summer traditions, etc.  I decided to make two American recipes from my game... mac n cheese and meatloaf with mashed potatoes. 

 Homemade mac n cheese... not the stuff from the box.

Our mashed potatoes also contain sweet potatoes... because I can, haha.  And that is bacon around that meatloaf!  Mmmm.

Thursday we learned about Canada... which is where we live.  We played broom hockey (because, well, you know... hockey is a Canadian sport and all that) and we ate pancakes with maple syrup and Canadian bacon for breakfast.

And that wraps up our tour of the world from in our own home.  I kinda wish the tour would have had more stuff to learn about each country... but I wouldn't expect our kids to remember any of that stuff.  I added a lot of my own bits to this (all the flags, trying different foods, sometimes watching youtube videos about the area of the national anthem or maybe a tour video) which I think added to it somewhat.  I enjoyed this 60 day tour and I think it was a great way for me to do some fun little activities with the kiddos each week.  I highly recommend doing this for anyone who wants some extra learning over the summer... I hope they have something like this again next year!

Thank you, Focus on the Family, for the fun summer 'trip' around the world!