myyyy dad!

My dad and my little brother-

and we all look CRAZY alike.

I think it's the squinty eyes when we smile.

This is such a funny picture to me.

During our wedding, Greg was saying a prayer and Keelin yelled "Papaw, whatcha doin?!"

Last night, my dad was in a nasty car accident.

When my brother called to tell me, it was like a nightmare-

having cupcakes with my dad yesterday afternoon for Father's Day and waking up to a call that he'd been in an accident just minutes from home. I was nearly sick.

Why?

Because I have a kickass dad.

He's one of my "people."

The world would not be near as nice of a place without him.

He's getting the good drugs at a local hospital now.

He managed to crunch every rib on his right side, but thank goodness for his seatbelt, his airbag, and his Honda Accord-

now lovingly referred to as "The Accord-ian."

;)

Yep, he coined that one BEFORE the pain meds.

I'll be out of commission for a few days-

Tim is going on a business trip, I have the kiddos, and Dad is in the hospital...

so my days will be a little crazy.

Thanks in advance for bearing with me.

OH-

and the next time you get in the car, put on your seatbelt.

Dad buckling up less than 24 hours ago saved his life.

Rain Barrels

I just realized the other day that I never updated with pictures of the rain barrels Tim made for me!

There are two of them, made the same way! They sit at the back of our house where they can collect rain from prime places- under two corner downspouts! I can honestly say that it has been awesome having them. With the spigots placed at the bottom of the barrels, there is enough pressure for me to hook up a hose and use the rain barrels to water the garden. I also use the rain barrels to provide water for the dogs and chickens. So far, I have only had to water the garden and animals with the water from our well twice!

One of our rain barrels!

I honestly think we could stand to have at least 4 more.

The piece of screen (recycled from an old window screen) keeps out the random stuff that washes down the spout.

The spout is firmly set with plumber's concrete.

Tim set the barrel up on concrete blocks to make it easy for me to get a bucket under the spout.

Cost:

60 gallon barrel: $20 each

screen: free

plumber's concrete: $6 for a tube (took 1/4 of the tube per spigot)

spigot insert: $8 each

Total cost for 2 rain barrels: $59

We don't pay for water since we have a well, but consistently, it provides water for 16 chickens, two dogs, and a garden that is about 1/8th of an acre!

If we were to be without power, as long as there had been rain recently, we'd have access to water for the animals and garden.

Pretty awesome!

A week in my garden and kitchen-

It's been an incredible week here!

Probably why I haven't been posting near as much as I should!

Warning: This post is a big pic heavy!

The peas are here!

And they are delicious, friends.

Last night, we had spinach salads topped with sliced cukes and green peas.

The flavor was sweet and fresh. Love it!

We've been eating our homegrown zucchini!

It's so fresh, cutting it is like cutting butter.

We could use a bit of rain, but the cukes still grow!

We had so many (a dozen in a day and a half) that I made dill pickles!

The yellow cherry tomatoes!

Growing like crazy.

I think there are 3 dozen green ones on this particular plant!

Grew these specifically for Jackson-

Keelin doesn't like fresh tomatoes, although I'm hoping that we can sway her this summer!

He emerged from the sandbox long enough to have a tasty treat!

Check out his sandy little paws!

hehe :)

What I brought in from the garden on Monday-

a zucchini, a dozen cucumbers, a pink egg, a cream colored egg, and a blue egg!

It was our first 3 egg day ever!

We're usually happy to find one- thrilled if there is two!

The third egg means that a new hen has started laying.

Very exciting!

I got some amazing peaches at the Farmer's market!

AND these are my cukes sliced up for pickling in the sterilized jars.

About half of what I made Monday night.

I made 4 pints of peach jam, 3 pints of Moscato wine jelly, and almost a dozen jars of dill pickles!

Oh, and I pickled a few jalapenos for Tim!

Just cuz I love him.

A shot of round 2 of peach jam making.

This batch came out much better than the first, for some reason.

The last of those peaches?

I'm thinking about making Spiced Peaches!

Anyone ever made them before?

This is a picture of what I've put up this week-

-tomato jelly

-peach jam

-moscato wine jelly

-dill pickles

-pickled jalapeno peppers

-apple butter

(although a special post is coming about the apple butter!!)

My father is helping me get a place in the basement ready for all of my canning. It's best to store your jars in a cool, dry place that's pretty dark. We're cleaning up an awesome cabinet to do jar duty- will post pics when it's finished!

Review for the new Cascade tabs-

I was given an opportunity by Crystal, the awesome blogger behind Surviving a Teacher's Salary, to do a review of the new Cascade dishwasher tablets. Pretty cool, because we just installed a brand new dishwasher and I'm pretty obsessed with washing dishes at the moment!

Now, you guys know I make my own dishwashing detergent (and it works like a dream!), but I'm open to try new things.

Yesterday, I made peach preserves, moscato wine jelly, and dill pickles.

I made a HUGE mess!

About half of my handiwork!

I was too tired by then to go downstairs to the pantry and get the ones I'd already hauled down there for a picture. Bad preggo blogger!

The pot I cooked the peach jam in. I scraped this thing as clean as I could, but between the peaches, sugar, and pectin, it was like glue in there after it dried last night.

Because the product claims to be able to wash 24 hour dried on food messes with NO pre-rinsing, I left it to dry until this afternoon. Not quite 24 hours, but close.

One tab popped in the thingamajigger.

Here is my stainless steel pot!

On the right side there is a glare, but on the left side, you can see that the pot is spotty.

I scrubbed it a bit with a dishcloth and it came off.

My new dishwasher was installed June 9th (according to my nerdy Facebook post about it- who publically celebrates a dishwasher, people?!), so I am hesitant to say that my dishwasher was the factor in this equation that caused the spots, but who knows.

The other dishes were cleaned really well, but this pot was my experiment since it had dried on stuff. I hate that I had to go back and scrub it by hand :-/

Pros:

• Super convenient tabs.
• I like how they don't get powder on my hands like my Method Smarty Dish tabs that I keep on hand for what have you.
 

Cons:

• More expensive than my super safe natural dishwashing tabs.
• WAY more expensive than my homemade dishwashing detergent.
• I have no idea what is in them, other than the package saying it is phosphate free.

In the end, it's a neat product! I enjoy getting to have tried it out! I probably would not buy it, simply because I don't know what's in it and the natural stuff I make myself seems to work just as well, if not better.

For those of you that are interested, here is my dish detergent recipe:

2 cups of Borax

2 cups of Baking Soda (or washing soda)

4 small packets of sugar free lemonade Kool-Aid

(you can also use 4 tablespoons of citric acid--if you can find it)

You use 2 tablespoons per load.

 My thanks to Crystal, for writing her awesome blog (that I make a point to read every time I have a moment to sit and enjoy reading my favorite blogs!)

If you've never read her blog, check out Surviving a Teacher's Salary!

28 weeks!

28 weeks!

woohoo :)

I told Tim the other day how excited I was about being mostly belly-

(with Keelin, my butt got HUGE and with Jackson, I had to special order bras- neither one of those scenarios excite me)

and the man, who clearly must not value his bodily integrity very much said, "Well, actually... with your hair pulled back, your face looks big."

Thank you, husband, for telling me that I have a fat, pregnant face!

:)

With 12 weeks to go, I have gained 17 pounds.

My next appointment with our midwife is in 5 days!

Other than a little bit of hip pain, I feel pretty good.

The little one is wedged in my right side with his feet in my ribs.

AND I think we might be getting closer to deciding on a middle name for our littlest sir.

Keelin's preschool graduation (better late than never!)

So, this post is a little late, but things have been a bit hectic around here lately!

Aside from me homeschooling Keelin, she has been in a 3 morning a week preschool!

From 9-1 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, she's had a blast!

(Except, she told me, she HATES the game "Doggy, Doggy, where's your bone?"

:)

Keelin saw us!

Doodle in her cap!

With her little diploma and gift bag!

Shane, Keelin's dad, replacing the lost tassel.

On a totally different note, because I know the question will come up-

Keelin's dad is a super nice guy- we're all friends, both of us happily married to the spouses we've been married to for around 3 years each. His family is great, too. His wife is great to my daughter and Keelin really enjoys her stepsister, who is a couple of years older than she is.Our family situation has the potential to be freakin' insane, but it's really pretty ideal. We all live close by, Keelin is with her dad often, we all co-parent to the best of our abilities- with no baby daddy, baby mama, or stepparent drama. Pretty awesome.

Me trying to hold up my kiddo (without exposing her underoos!) who will, no doubt, be taller than me!

Day Camp

I've gotten the Bad Blogger Bug!

This week, I was one of the leaders for Keelin's preschool day camp class. We had more than a dozen 4-5yr olds in our class! Granted, it was only from 9am-noon, but after I got home, I was pretty worn out.

So please forgive my slack blogging this week!

I'm hoping to catch up in the next day or so- with my own blog and with the guest posts and a review that I REALLY need to finish up!

Here are a few pictures from our week!

I'm only posting pictures of Keelin (and Jackson), since most of the pictures have LOADS of other kids in them and I'm not going to ask every parent for permission to plaster their child's face on my blog!

My girl!

Painting a placemat with fruit shaped stamps!

(We had a farm/garden/market festival themed camp!)

Wednesday was water day!

I seriously am going to buy one of these for our house at the end of the summer when they go on clearance. Keelin said they were awesome and they hold a 200lb person- so yeah, Mommy thinks she needs one of these! haha... no chance of me breaking it!

She was screaming her little head off- haha!

Being a kid is SO much fun!

And you gotta love her little "mono-kini"

I am really uncomfortable with most of the two piece little girl bathing suits out there. And no, I am absolutely not prudish in the least- but there are some sickos out there AND the less she has covered, the more I have to worry about keeping covered in sunblock.

I usually opt for a 1 piece for her, but this year she begged for a 2 piece- so we compromised on this one. It has a covered front and an open back. I picked it up from Babies R Us (it's a 5T- the biggest size they carry) for $12.99! Cool beans!

One of our projects was making butter.

We put 1/4 cup of heavy cream in a canning jar and shook the daylights out of it!

Miss Keelin showing us her shaking skills!

And Houston, we have butter!

We spread it on saltine crackers and ate it with our snack (watermelon- yummy!) that day. I like the taste of salted butter, so the cream turned to butter plus the salty cracker was pretty tasty. I have many friends that make their own butter, I'm sure not the same way that we did- but this seemed so simple that making it for my family doesn't seem too complicated.

I will definitely be looking into it!

Maybe it's time for me to move into trying to make my own cheeses and butter?

Butter doesn't scare me.

Cheese? Yeah, cheese is a bit intimidating.

Anyone have any words of wisdom?

Book recommendations?

I have the preggo munchies at the moment... mmm

It would only be better with a bit of my strawberry jam!

From my classroom, I could see Jackson's class when they went outside to play.

Couldn't resist snapping a photo of him, albeit a blurry one!

On water day, Jackson's 2yr old class went outside to play in a kiddie pool and explore with a sand and water table. While I was peeking out at him (my kids were making mosaics with seeds!), I saw my little boy strip off his clothes, go streaking naked across the playground, and dive (nude) into the kiddie pool. Can't fault him! It was 96 degrees and I might have done the same thing if I were him- haha!

:)