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!

RE:visited

So, I thought I should update the Resurrection cookie post...because we ran into some issues along the way.
First of all, I neglected to share some of the details of our cookie-making process. My boys did not totally understand the idea that the beating of the pecans represented the fact that Jesus was badly beaten and I have to say that my boys took a little too much pleasure in beating those pecans!

The recipe states that the salt is to represent the bitterness of our sins and the saltiness of the tears Jesus shed. It says to have the kids taste the salt and then put the rest into the bowl. This is how this went in our house:
Me: "Taste this salt. This is like the bitterness or the bad taste of our sin."
My 5 year-old boy: "yum, this tastes like snot Mom!"
hmmmmm....not exactly how I saw that one going.

We finished the recipe and put the cookies in the oven and turned it off as the recipe states and in the morning, they were not baked all the way through. Bummer. So we turned the oven back on and shut it off again and then left for the day. We got home late and forgot about the cookies and then my husband preheated the oven for lunch the next day and OOPS! Well, we had something to represent the "blackness" of sin.

Thankfully, only the cookies on the lowest rack were burned and the others were fine and baked all the way through finally. So, we finally got to taste our Resurrection cookies, which tasted exactly the way I would imagine a packing peanut to taste...yes, EXTREMELY styrofoam-y. Like, more than a rice cake!

But, my oldest son liked them and my 5 year-old said, "Those were just so fun to make! They taste disgusting, but they were so fun to make!"

Great idea in theory...perhaps we will revisit this next year with a little tweaking.

RE:purpose

My husband has learned that having a fit about all the salvaged "junk" I take home (or have delivered) to our garage is not going to help. He quit arguing about my salvaging when my friend delivered an old garage door to our garage and he was not happy about it, but the next day had to meet me with these words:
"So, do you have a use already for that or could I have some of it?"
I love it!

There has been a little sore spot in our relationship though...these doors that I love that were in our shed when we moved into this old house of ours. Actually, one of them was our entry door--can you believe it? A house so old that the entry door was wooden! So, we had to replace that door, but I love the old one and don't want to get rid of it! I think I already have the perfect place for it, but I'm not sure the hubs will go for it.
So in the meantime, I've been trying to convince him to store these old doors inside the garage and he refuses to part with garage space that is apparently worth its weight in gold to store dirty old doors.

Anyway, this is what I came up with for one of the old doors. I recently saw this idea on Pinterest, but I HONESTLY had already made this shelf before I saw it. Great minds think alike I guess! Here it is...



It is perfect for my laundry room, even though I haven't gotten close enough to finishing my laundry room re-do yet to add the finishing touches. It adds just enough "rustic" to a laundry room and my husband is thrilled to have that door out of the backyard! (Obviously, I didn't win the storage battle!)
Happy Wednesday everyone!

RE:ality check

Some days are so filled with negative news that they just bring me down. First, I must say that I am a realist. I'm not the type of person that sees the world through rose-colored glasses. I usually try to find the positive in a negative situation or keep a positive attitude, but I can SEE the reality of things...usually.

Lately, (and this goes in brief spurts) I hear so much about the economy and the recession and about how people are hurting so badly financially that sometimes it gets to me and I start to focus on my family's own financial situation. The truth is, I think it totally stinks that because I worked hard through high school, got good grades and held several jobs and saved money for college, I didn't qualify for any aid other than loans. I know there are so many others in the same boat. I think it totally stinks that if I had gotten pregnant while in high school, I could have gone to college for FREE! I'm all for helping people rectify a poor choice, but I think it's equally important to reward those who make wise choices too.

Anyway, on to the point of this little story. The bottom line is that, despite what the news says, we are not truly hurting. We are not "broken" financially. Yes, our country is financially broken and needs to get oh...I don't know...a budget like the rest of the responsible American citizens! But this "recession" that is the worst since the Great Depression really has no business being compared to the Great Depression! The reality check here is that we (as Americans in general) have no idea what it even means to hurt financially! Talk to someone who lived during the Great Depression and they'll tell you that all the whining we do these days is not only illegitimate, but it also minimizes the suffering people actually went through.

My children sometimes say, "Mom, I'm starving!" And I say, "No you're not and you have just minimized the suffering of the children around the world who really are starving." They are very careful about saying, "I'm hungry," instead.

I was visiting with my mom tonight about this and she told me something my great aunt said. "People now don't have any idea how to deal with life's circumstances because it is expected that life be easy." She went on to tell my mom about what life was like for her when her husband was in the army overseas. She said, "I know that life is difficult when your husband is in the service, but people now have Skype and cell phones and e-mail and all sorts of ways to maintain some sort of contact with their husbands. When my husband was in the service, I didn't know where he was, if he was alive or dead. I didn't hear from him for months at a time. Our baby died while he was gone and I didn't even have a way to tell him."

Think about that. Think about how good we really have it. We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression and somehow I still have to get a beeper when I go to a restaurant to eat because it's packed. And don't even get me started on the recent billions of dollars Americans spent on lottery tickets! I think we ALL need a reality check!