RE:veal

I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't posted anything for awhile because I'm working on a very special big reveal for you! This project would not have taken so long had I not been so busy the last few weeks...end of school year projects, end of year recitals and programs, swimming lessons, birthday parties, graduations, and then I decided to throw a rummage sale in the mix too! My month of June looks far busier, but I'm hoping to finish up this project this weekend and I'll be able to show it to you. My children are VERY excited, but maybe not as excited as their momma! :) Here's a little sneak peek... Check back for the big RE:veal!

RE:furbished

I am horrible about taking "before" pictures. I wish I had a before of this project because this was an extremely dated light fixture. I have people in my life who donate items to my family. I'm not sure if it's because they feel sorry for me, or if it's because they know I might turn it into something beautiful. I don't mean to boast...not at all, but I am really thrilled with this one! So, my mom's boss gave me this light fixture. Well, this is a similar one that I found online, so picture this in shiny brass:

So, what to do with this. I had a perfect place for this in my entry way. My house turned 104 this year so I have amazing high ceilings! That is one huge benefit of living in an old fixer-upper. But, to be honest, shiny brass is not.my.style at all. At the same time, when people give me things, I love to use them if possible. What I love to do more is to fix them up so much that they wish they had thought of it before they junked it. I came up with this:

I wish I could get a picture of it when it is dark because the colors shine so prettily on the ceiling. So, ready for the step by step? 1. Take the fixture all apart and spray paint the inside parts. (The steel tubing, the part that holds the bulbs, etc.) 2. You could tape off the glass and spray the outside globe if you wanted, but I think it's less work to buy a silver paint pen and just hand paint it. It didn't take long at all. 3. Use glass paint (I got mine in the children's craft section at Wal-Mart, but any craft store sells this in various colors) to paint the glass. Be sure to use actual glass paint because that's how you get the "stained-glass" effect. 4. I used the "dab" method. I just dipped my brush in the pain and dabbed it on to give it more of a frosted look. Play around with it and see what you prefer. You might also notice that I left the beveled part of the glass clear so more of the light can actually come through. 5. Let dry. 6. Put the light back together and hang! Your kids will love the colors on the ceiling!

RE:ad

Okay, I'm just going to prepare you...this post is going to be a bit of a rant. Today I got book orders from the local school. I am so thankful that I have friends who let me order books through their book orders since we homeschool (and no, that's not against the rules). Ever since I was a kid, I loved book order day. I think I loved paging through those thin, newspaper-like pages (only in color!) as much as I loved the day in school when the books came in! Oh! I'm getting excited just thinking of it. In fact, my friend just delivered the books I ordered for my son the other day and I could not wait to open them and start reading...I mean, who could resist Gary Paulsen's Hatchet? And for only $4! But today, I got new book orders and do you know what I found? This.

A "Book" order dedicated almost solely to electronic devices and video games! I mean, I guess I didn't realize that Click!, with its "Interactive Learning" branding, actually means plop down in front of a Nintendo DS and play a video game by yourself. What exactly is "interactive" about that? What is this? I mean, with so many things that are wrong about the education system, why is Scholastic supporting this "screen time" epidemic? There are a few theories about this, but here's mine: I think that the company is trying to help children whose parents do not encourage any "interactive" learning by at least marketing some age-appropriate, learning and fitness oriented video games. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's not to make an easy buck off negligent parents and their children who reap the consequences. On the other hand, however, I wish that the Scholastic company would instead take a stand that says, "Books are enough! Books are valuable! Books are every bit as cool as Angry Birds and Wii games!" And I know there are a million people out there who would argue that the world is changing and that it's not true anymore, but I know that I have a 7 year-old kid who enjoys a good book every bit as much as playing a video game. Maybe part of it is that we don't have video games. I understand that not every parent is going to encourage reading or interactive learning--you know, the kind that requires you to actually interact with your child, but by Scholastic putting their name on this, don't they just say to those parents, "It's okay. Just make sure they're 'learning' while they're gaming." UGH!

RE:cipe

So, this is a project that we've been working on for awhile. About 6 weeks to be exact. The first recipe said to use 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. Thankfully, I read enough reviews of that recipe before I wasted my time even though reading those reviews practically took me a week! The second recipe said to use 2 cups of hot water and 4 cups of sugar and then let the sticks sit in the solution for two weeks. So, my patient boys waited. And nothing. I was pretty sure it didn't work because the sugar had not completely dissolved into the solution and had settled to the bottom of the jar. So, back to the drawing board. We used the same recipe, but this time, boiled the water first so that the sugar completely dissolved. We put the sticks in and loosely covered them. And then, my patient boys waited some more. And nothing...again! So, we waited an extra week just in case. And nothing. SIGH. Back to Google. I found a comment that said if nothing has happened after 24 hours, that the solution needs to be re-boiled and to add one more cup of sugar to it. Too bad I hadn't read that, oh, say three weeks ago! In any case though, I tried that. And we waited. This time we saw some definite progress right away. HOORAY! After only one week this time, we finally had our rock candy! In fact, the blue/green variety progressed so quickly, it mostly just created a geode in the jar, which was also cool!

Here is the final recipe we ended up using: 3 parts sugar 1 part water food coloring bamboo skewers Boil water. Lower heat and stir in sugar slowly. Continue stirring until COMPLETELY dissolved! :) Pour into mason jar and stir in food coloring. Let cool. Meanwhile, dip bamboo skewers (we used 2 per pint jar) into solution and roll in sugar. This "seeds" the skewer giving the solution something to grab onto to crystalize. Let solution cool completely in jar before placing skewers in jar. Lightly cover with foil or cheesecloth. Allow skewers to sit undisturbed in a place out of direct sunlight. So, after all that work, my boys were SO EXCITED to try their rock candy! I sent them outside with the sticks and after about 3 full minutes, they came back inside. My youngest son said, "Mommy, I don't "wike" dis. It's too sweet!" Gotta love it! After all that work, the candy is too sweet! That was actually music to my ears, knowing how much sugar went into this! Regardless, it was a cool science experiment and a good patience builder!

RE:think

Hey! I completed this project a few years ago, but it is actually clean enough to photograph it and post it right now thanks to the Spring cleaning bug. There's no reason that you can't make your space work for you. When we first moved into our house, we had this tall pantry cupboard, which was nice, but not a good use of space for us, as one whole side was reserved just for aprons. None of my kitchen experiments are that "gourmet" if you will to require me to use a whole lot of aprons and none of my clothing is that "runway" either. Usually, when I'm cooking or baking it's because my family is hungry and I'm sporting jeans and a tee. One thing that I am adamant about is having our computer in a public area. Our children are small right now and in the rare occasion that they are on the computer, they need our help. When they get old enough to be on the computer by themselves, they will need our supervision, so now where to put that computer...

So, here's how to do it: First, you need to use a jigsaw and cut the divider out. Be sure to do this at an angle to support the weight of the overhead cupboard. In my case, the dividers above the computer were already there for storing cookie sheets, but they are great for storing phone books, incoming mail, outgoing mail, and whatever else you might want to store there. Then, I used the remainder of the divider (the part that I cut out of the cupboard) to cut a desk to the dimensions I wanted. There's no real reason you couldn't make it the entire width of the cupboard, but I have folding bar stools that I store in the other side so I wanted a long space for those. I used a keyboard slide attached to a small piece of shelving as my sliding keyboard tray. Then, on the left side, I used regular shelf brackets to place a shelf under my computer for all my electronic devices. I also put a power strip inside my cupboard, drilled a small hole in the bottom of the cupboard so that the the cord could come out the side and be plugged into a nearby outlet. I am most likely going to wire an outlet right into the cupboard, but it hasn't happened yet. On the right side, I used regular shelf brackets to hang a shelf for filing boxes and a CD box to hold CD roms and other media. I hung a basket underneath for mail that needs to be sorted and I have a garbage can for the right side for office garbage. Because desk space is limited, which I love because there is less room for junk all over the place, I hung these containers up on the cupboard wall. A paper cup for pencils. An envelope box to store my envelopes and a Ziploc bag for notepads. Eventually, these will be covered in coordinating scrapbook paper to make it a little prettier.

Remember that all it takes is a little bit of Re-thinking to make your space work for you!

RE:ally?

This is Captain Chaos's derby car for the Cub Scout derby this weekend. Actually, The Hurricane, our oldest son, is the one in Cub Scouts, but siblings can participate in the derby too. So, The Hurricane competed against his peers and won third place this weekend (and his first trophy ever) in the Cub Scout derby race.

Captain Chaos designed his car and sanded it after I cut it. He originally wanted it to be a mouse, which is part of the reason it's shaped as it is, but then when he saw his older brother's paint job, he, in true younger brother form, wanted his to be exactly like The Hurricane's. So, we painted it together and finished it. He was so proud and extremely excited for the race!

So, after the scouts raced their cars, the "Outlaw" class racers geared up...if you will. We thought the "Outlaw" class was for younger siblings of the scouts and scouts whose cars did not pass inspection on the day of the race. Nope. "Outlaw" class is for anyone who wants to race...including scout leaders and parents.

Really? Did my five year-old really need to compete against grown men? Does this seem a little odd? That the Cub Scout organization, which I speak very highly of in terms of their goals overall, would think that grown men really need a chance to race their little wooden cars down a track and compete against 5 year-olds for a trophy? Seriously? A HONKIN' BIG trophy.

I asked my husband, "Do you think that Scout leader really feels good to have won that huge trophy competing against five year-olds? Do you think he took it home to his mommy and said, "Look Mommy! Are you proud of me?" What on Earth would his wife say?

If my husband came home with a big trophy that he won competing against pre-schoolers, I might have a few choice words beginning with GROW UP! Isn't that a little bit like stealing candy from a baby? Sigh...what is up with this world?

RE:think

I have always been one to think outside the box. I've been told that I'm kind of like a square peg in a round hole...I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not, but who cares? It's who I am!

But I have to say that being a stay-at-home mom and living on what this country calls a "poverty-level" income (which is indicative of how blessed we are in this country), has made me much more creative in my use of anything. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong generation. I've always been a pack-rat and my mom, who is much more like me than she sometimes thinks, used to tell me "The Great Depression is over!" I call it "vision." It sounds funny maybe, but a little vision goes a long way.

Our neighbor lives alone, is a little bit mentally handicapped, and really likes our kids. He brought over 5 pounds of candy yesterday...literally. 5 pounds of candy! So today I was cleaning out the "candy cupboard" and found a whole Ziploc bag of hard tootsie rolls...from the 5 pound bag our neighbor brought over 2 years ago that didn't get eaten. So, obviously, I thought I would just throw them out...but I wanted to make sure I didn't have a different use for them. But I did...

Sprinkled on it is a little bit of glitter from my branches in the vase, (which I got for $1 for the entire bunch two and a half weeks after Christmas) which I thought would be a deterrent from my kids trying to eat them, but Captain Chaos did try to take a bite out of one of them before he took his nap. My husband laughs at my crazy thinking, but this is far cuter than any "filler" you can buy in the store for a vase. It's also more creative and an original! AND he doesn't have to put the money up for it so he's happy! So, instead of letting that bag of candy in your cupboard tempt you to eat it...decorate with it! It has enough preservatives to last forever and it's way better for you if you put it in a vase instead of your body...so think outside the box! The possibilities are endless...old coffee beans, NERDS, hard gumdrops, Mike and Ikes (in many different color schemes), Hot Tamales, what fun! Happy decorating!