WFMW May 31

Ahh! It's time for another "Works for Me Wednesday," the part of the blog where Amy comes out and gives a WFMW tip.

In honor of our lack of A/C, which is currently being looked at right now (and while you're at it, please say a prayer that we do not need to replace our 18 month old heat pump), I am going to post a few "keeping cool" tips that I've learned in the last few days.

Foiling your windows (this is an elaboration of tip #3 from yesterday). DH used to do this at college, and surprisingly, it helped enough that the back of the house (west-facing) stayed nice and cool all afternoon long - even upstairs! I took the cheapest aluminum foil I could find, DH's masking tape from the garage and had at it. I left a few holes for light, but it still helped. I'm sure the neighbors thing we're wierd, but what's new, eh?

Fan positioning. We have a 20" fan tilted up the staircase, so it is blowing cool air from downstairs into the upstairs. I think I'm going to continue doing this trick, as it is making our loft so nice and cool. The other fans are positioned in the bedroom doorways, so we're constantly pulling the cooler air blown up the stairwell into our bedrooms.

Run the heat pump fan constantly, even without the A/C running. This helps bring the hot air downstairs and the cool air up and makes the temperature more even. Otherwise, upstairs is around 85 degrees and downstairs stays a comfortable 78 degrees.

Those are the biggest helps, but I'm so thankful for the fan positioning tips from my parents. They've really helped keep us as cool as anything.

Beating the heat

Well, our A/C conked out over this nice hot humid long weekend, and it's going to be at least Thursday for anyone to come look at it, or next week if we wait for the company that installed our A/C to come out. So, in honor of the heat, stickiness, and general overdependence on conditioned air, I thought I'd write out my suggestions for things to do. Given the situation, I think it is a good idea. I might otherwise forget a few of my ideas and get desperate.

1. Run fans. Lots of fans. Moving air is much better than still air.
2. Popsicles, watermelon, and crushed ice in our water.
3. Foil on the west-facing windows - keeps the back of the house cool.
4. Stay downstairs as much as possible.
5. Don't use the oven.
6. Nurse as little as possible, give sippy with ice instead.
7. Library - A/C, books, and a play area.
8. Acclimate.
9. Be grateful when it is fixed!

Meme fun

Got this from Kim at Hiraeth

20 years ago I . . .was only 8, and dreaming of what I was going to be when I grew up - a nurse, a ballerina, a teacher, and most definitely a mom

10 years ago I . . .had just graduated from high school, and I was dreaming of my plans to pursue a special education degree from Ball State University

5 years ago I . . .had my first baby, only a couple of months old; we lived in an apartment, and I thought I was going to have to work my whole mothering career

3 years ago I . . .had my second baby, and he was only a couple of months old; living in a duplex and scared that I would go insane from battling my challenging oldest child.

1 year ago I . . .had my third baby, only a month or so old, plus settling into our new house - such a blessing!!! We also were getting ready to leave our PCA church and start going to a Reformed Baptist fellowship.

So far this year I . . .have become a member of said Baptist church, started to develop a much closer walk with the Lord, and bought seeds for a big garden (that is still unplanted due to rain and cool temps), still getting settled into our house & now trying to figure out how I want to decorate things inside and out.

Yesterday I . . .got the 2 big boys back from mom's, went to MIL's for supper, and finished reading Tracy Groot's book Madman, which is a fictionalized account of the demoniac of Gerasene

Today I . . .did laundry and cleaned up the play room. Still need to bake bread, and want to sew some (maybe due a tutorial of yesterday's WFMW tip or the cloth napkins that Kim has mentioned).

Tomorrow I will . . .go to the chiropractor and get groceries to prepare for the busy weekend

In the next year I will . . .begin my homeschooling journey in a more formal manner, possibly get pregnant again (feeling the call that our quiver isn't quite full), and maybe help HOH start a consulting business with another couple at church.

In the next minute I will . . .hit "publish post" and get off of here to change Teflon (aka Short Stuff) as he has stunk up his diaper for the 4th time today - must be teething from the smell.

WFMW May 24

Getting more mileage out of your clothes.

Let's face it, even moms get holes in the knees of their favorite pants. I can't tell you how many pairs of pants have done this traitorous thing to me in the past 5 years. Normally, my first course of action is to make shorts out of them, cutting them off above the hole. Now, however, I've taken to making them into capris. You might ask, "Capris? With the holes in the knees?!?"

This is where it gets creative and works for me. Cut them off right at the top of the hole(s) or just slightly above. Then, cut strips of a contrasting fabric (this is where the remnant section of JoAnn's is fabulous) as wide as you need it to be to make capris (I usually like my capris between mid-calf and my knee, so I'll usually make my band 6-8 inches, minus the hem). Sew the strip together to make a band of fabric the same width as your pant leg and hem it before putting it on the pants. Then, attach the band of contrast fabric to the leg of your pants and voila! You have some really cute capris! If you want to get really creative, you can buy about 1/2 yard of fabric from the fabric store, instead of the remnants, and use the leftover scraps to applique patches up the legs, on the pockets, make a kerchief or even a belt. I've even considered (haven't done it yet) tacking on some rickrack where the pants and the contrast fabric meet for even more cute flair.

Now, this can also be done for little girls pants, but I don't recommend this course of action for boys. They're not so appreciative, nor are their dads. :-P Their pants are better suited for shorts or very boyish-print patches on the knees until the poor knees can't take anymore patching, in which case they're probably ready for the trash anyway, not a makeover into shorts.

Prayer requests

I've had a lot of prayer requests lately, and I want to share a few with you.

Firstly, momrn2 just got back from a trip, and her daughter is really sick. Here's the post that tells about it.

Secondly, a good friend of mine, RW, from the PCA church we attended has suffered her second miscarriage in less than a year. This time, she was about 15-16 weeks along when they found out the baby was dead. Fortunately, she was able to deliver it without needing a D & C, so they got to bury it in their yard under a rosebush. My heart is just heavy for her. She has 2 sweet boys - a 3 year old and an 18 month old, and they want many more children so badly.

Thirdly is a selfish request from me. I need wisdom in speaking with my family members who don't agree with my faith views. So often, I feel like "muff" it when speaking to them, to maintain peace in the family. I try to not be hard on myself with the things that don't matter, but both parties to which I'm referring hold some very erroneous beliefs that I simply cannot condone. I need strength to hold to my convictions and lovingly (in God's timing) explain my beliefs.

I appreciate all the prayers, and I'm sure momrn2 and RW would be especially grateful for them!

I've been struggling a lot lately to find something worthy to talk about. I don't just want to be some self-absorbed fluffy blogger, and I really want to touch my readers' lives the ways that some of my favorite bloggers have touched mine. My faith journey looms very large in my mind right now because of the tremendous journey I've been, especially the past few years.

I also wanted a place to showcase my knitting adventures, but there's not a lot to talk about there, either. I like to knit socks and get a pair done in about a month to six weeks - need to post my Thuja-inspired socks. I'm addicted to wrap patterns and have started one (Cozy from Knitty), only now I'm nursing an injury in my left hand, so I shouldn't be knitting at all until it heals up.

I think for now, aside from my WFMW tips, I may try to post about different issues that are near and dear to my heart and my Christian walk. If you have any suggestions about how you come up with blogging topics, please feel free to leave me a comment! I'd appreciate it!

Works for Me Wednesday, May 17

You know, I had this great WFMW tip all in my head, but didn't immediately write it down. So, of course, I don't remember it now. It wasn't anything to do with natural health, but that doesn't help me, so I'm going to post something different. If I do happen to remember what it was I was going to post, then you'll get 2 for 1 today! LOL!!

Meal-planning helps
HOH has started going with some other men to do prison ministry on Monday nights. He doesn't really have time to eat with us, so I'm officially making Monday "Breakfast for Supper" night. It's quick, delicious, and we get to eat some of our favorites that are usually too time-consuming for me to fix the hungry pirhanas, er, boys in the mornings. Wednesday nights can get hectic, too, so I almost always make that my leftover night - quick, easy, and frugal, too! Another "leftover" time is lunch on Sunday. We live 30 minutes from church, and get back home right at lunch time. To ward off any "let's-just-eat-out-itis" having leftovers planned works, and if the "let's-just-eat-out-itis" does indeed strike, then we can always eat the leftovers another day. If we're going to have company over after church, however, I almost always fix something that can be cooking in my oven while we're worshipping. That way, my family and guests arrive to the wonderful smell of warm food that's ready to go as soon as we set the tables. The other option is to stick something in the crockpot on high, but that is rare.

Part Two
Reading Holy Mama's fast-food-in-the-minivan post sparked the memory of the forgotten tip(s). So, here's two more for today!!!

#1 - We try to keep a few small toys from the dollar section (usually of the local Christian book store) in case the toys in the kid's meals are inappropriate for our children. This works really well when HOH tells the boys they can have a kid's meal and the toy that goes with it, only to find out that the toy is some grotesque thing that we don't want in our house or van.

#1b - Well, along those lines, I often do not get them a kid's meal. They can split a medium drink, medium fries, and get more chicken nuggets for less dinero if I order off of the value menu. The toys are great for cases like this. Yet another thing, I try to keep sippy cups sans the spill-proof part in the van for this purpose, so that they don't think they're sharing a drink.

#2 - When HOH cooks (aka, Chinese takeout), the boys all love fortune cookies. Sometimes I find the sayings to be a bit confusing, or too much like horoscopes, so I will "read" them to the boys and substitute Scripture, an attribute of God/Jesus, or other helpful "tip" for the Christian walk. Not only do they get their "fortune," but they also get a theology lesson! Sneaky, eh? And, I just thought about using some key questions from the Westminster Confession! Like "What is the chief end of man?"

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy mother's day!

My favorite proverb.

Proverbs 31 (ESV)

The Woman Who Fears the LORD
10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
13She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.
14She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar.
15She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.
16She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.
18She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.
19She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
20She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
22She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.
24She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
26She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
29"Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."
30Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

Works For Me Wednesday

Another natural health "works for me" tip!

Instead of using Immodium AD or Kaopectate, we use ground nutmeg in our house for diarrhea relief. Up until the great discovery of empty gelatin capsules, we would just take a swig of water, hurry up and pour about 1/4 tsp of nutmeg down, and chase it with copious amounts of water. That does work; in fact, it worked for us for many years. Now, however, we just fill a handful of capsules every once in a while and use those. It takes about 1-2 capsules per dosage. Sometimes, we have to take 2-3 doses (after each trip to the bathroom) to see any relief, but it usually works after the first dose, with maybe one "accident" after the dose. What I like about this is that it doesn't leave you with the exact opposite problem the next day or week. Nutmeg is evidently an antispasmodic, which is why it works - it calms your colon down. I have read that adding cinnamon can also be beneficial, and have used it a couple of times, but I'm not sure to what degree it helped.

This may seem a bit silly to rejoice over, but today I wiped Timex's nose for the first time in over a year! He seems to finally have gotten the sniffles that the rest of the family has been battling for a week now, and his little nose is running. He didn't remember how to blow, though, and has spent the greater part of the day fetching kleenex for me to help him out. I'm so glad that his tonsillectomy has helped out. Oh, and another praise on that note - it was billed as a $12,000 surgery, and we're only responsible for $500. We were expecting to pay much much more, so we're grateful.

Works for Me Wednesday

This is from Shannon's blog. I think it is a great idea! :)

If you're into "natural health" type topics, you probably have heard the hoopla about how good apple cider vinegar is for you. From my reading, I don't see how it could hurt, at the least, and I've used it to help cure a nasty case of heartburn that OTCs just didn't hurt. Now, why am I waxing poetic over apple cider vinegar? I can't stand the taste, and can only get it down if it is in something. However, at the handy dandy little local health food store, they have apple cider vinegar tablets! Yup, little tablets that smell like vinegar, but aren't nearly as nasty to taste. What's even better is that a small bottle costs about $5 and lasts quite a while. I think the brand that I use is Nature's Sunshine, but there could be others out there. So, that's my tip. If you can't stand apple cider vinegar, but want the benefits, try the tablets. In addition to the heartburn episode, I've found them to help keep candida (thrush) infections at bay while nursing.

Currently reading

I just had to put a little blurb on here about one of the latest books I'm reading - one that I will be buying very soon. Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher is an absolutely fascinating book! A lot of what he says rings true with me. Apparently HOH and I are not as much in a minority as I had previously thought! In fact, there are several "crunchy cons" in our church, which is tremendously delightful to me. I get along well with the wives, and for once I don't feel the need to skirt around certain issues or explain myself for some of the things we choose - especially the ones like choosing not to vaccinate our children according to the AAP schedule, using nutrition, chiropractic care, and herbs as a first line of defense in our health care, and cloth diapering. One comment he makes, that has stuck with HOH and I is that the economy should serve us; we shouldn't serve the economy. Our consumerist culture is being driven more and more to serve the economy, and it has frightening implications for the family & society in general. Not to mention that this consumer-driven mindset is completely contrary to historical Christianity (and, as Dreher makes note of, many of the other major world religions). Oh, I could go on and on, but I'd rather encourage you to read the book if you're interested.

The other books I'm reading are interesting, too, but they fall into the following categories - mindless fluff and Bible study. In my mindless fluff stack are several John Grisham novels, and maybe some medieval mysteries will fall into the library bag today. In my Bible study bag, I have Martha Peace's The Excellent Wife that I'm doing with our associate pastor's wife; I also have Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp and something by John and Susan Yates about a home of grace. Our Ladie's Bible study group is on the last lesson of Seeking Him, too, so I have that to finish up, but it is in such doable sections, that I just plug away a little bit every day.

Week 1 sans TV

This week went pretty well. The only time I really missed it was last night. It has been chilly and rainy a lot this week, and last night was the coldest & rainiest. However, HOH quickly remedied that by taking us all out for a drive while he returned some stuff at Best Buy. The boys are doing well without it, too. Timex sometimes forgets that we don't have the TV in the cabinet and asks for VeggieTales. I may cave tonight and let them watch a VeggieTales DVD on the computer with me, if HOH is gone tonight. Then again, maybe not. We've spent several enjoyable nights together in the master bedroom reading, and one family game night where Timex soundly skunked everybody at Hi Ho Cherry-O! I am looking forward to it warming up and drying out just a bit so we can swing, sit around the fire pit, or otherwise enjoy the outdoors.

I've also been cutting down on my Internet time significantly. In all my "spare" time I found yesterday, I made bread from scratch (and even hand-kneaded it), homemade jelly - black raspberry, and finished some craft swap items that are now overdue. Of course, I did forget the laundry for a few hours, but that's forgiveable, right? Today's plans are much lighter. I'm going to put supper in the crockpot, make 2 more craft items to include in the swap packages, and then mail those suckers. If the boys do a good job at the P.O. for me, we'll go to the library and get some books and audio books/Adventures in Odyssey CDs.