Happy birthday, John Paul!

Now it's JP's turn! 

Happy birthday to our sweet and funny John Paul!

 We had a lazy afternoon lunch and shopping 

for birthday presents, it was perfect!

I took this picture of JP being, well, JP.  And thanks to Pinterest, I scribbled some of the things he is all about right now at eleven years old.  I hope to do this with all the kids 

(and wish I had discovered it sooner!)

We came home and had a nice dinner with Doug's mom and dad and then dove into lemon LEGO cake.

I think the smile on his face says it all.

Getting ready for flu season

Instead of getting a flu shot this year, I am stocking the pantry with an arsenal of healing herbs and vitamins:

Mullein and garlic oil for earaches.

Dried mullein leaves for tea.  Mullein is great for respiratory problems such as bronchitis, colds, coughs, and sore throats. Mullein tea has anti-bacterial properties that can help to reduce inflammation and infection. It is also a natural expectorant that can expel excess mucus from the airways.

Honey and garlic are like antibiotics.  They carry multiple antiviral, antifungal, and antibiotic properties.

Elderberry syrup/tincture is an especially strong immune system booster!  We try to take it daily in a little juice.  Studies have shown that it is better at combating the flu than Tamiflu!

Astragalus root helps increase white blood cell count, stimulate growth of antibodies and elevate body’s resistance to bacteria and viruses.

And mega doses of vitamins C, D-3, and zinc round out our cold and flu arsenal.

I'll also be supplementing our diets with probiotics in the forms of kefir and apple cider vinegar.

We've done really well in past years using these remedies and I am hopeful that we'll be flu/cold free this season as well!

Our precious girl turns ONE!

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated Mary Grace's first birthday with us!  And God bless our Mary Grace with many more happy birthdays!

First Haircut

 Before

After

And now my life is changed forever...

Live long and prosper.

 

A birthday party on the cheap

Mary Grace will be turning one in a little over a week. We always have a big first birthday party, but with finances so tight, I was beginning to rethink that idea. 

 Thank goodness for Pinterest!

After a visit to the thrift store, I was able to make two cake stands for a little less than eight dollars.

I found these two sweet plates for a steal at .75 each. They are nice, big, sturdy, and best of all vintage.  I used a candle holder for the base of one and a candy dish for the base of the other.  I glued them together using E-6000 epoxy.

After the glue dried, I spray painted them upside down with a matching yellow.

I also came across some additional fabric at the thrift store and made yards and YARDS of bunting to hang everywhere.  I used up most of my fabric stash for the bias tape and bunting and made out like a bandit ~ $3.00 for over 30 yards!  I don't think you could by streamers for that price.

 I'm not big on "themes" but I'm definitely sensing a vintage feel for this party.

Old plates and vintage fabrics...why not!

Mary Grace IS my daughter, 

surely she'll love them as much as I do!

More party projects to come, stay tuned.

Taking time to smell...

the lemon verbena and basil!

I had cut these two back to the ground a few weeks ago thinking that their summer glory was gone.

I was wrong.

All they wanted was a good cutting back!  Now I am enjoying them all over again.  It smells divine in my kitchen right now and the kids want to know what I'm cooking.

So what if school work is getting started a little late this morning.  We are taking time to enjoy the little things today!

Pickled peppers

The one thing the bugs left alone this summer were my pepper plants. Almost daily I can harvest baskets of these fiery goodies. My jalapeno plants are especially prolific:

My oldest two and I love spicy foods.

I found a tutorial online for a wonderful pickled pepper to use up all those jalapenos.  It's so good that we've already gone through two quarts of them!

If you like pickled peppers, you'll love this recipe!

Rinsing the peppers after cutting really does take a lot of the "bite" out of them and lets the flavor come through.

10 large jalapeno peppers, sliced

1 tbsp sugar 

3/4 cup white distilled vinegar

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp kosher salt (I doubled this amount)

1/2 tsp oregano

1 clove garlic (doubled this, too!)

The last of the summer sewing

Thursday evening I finished the last of three tunic dresses for little Mary Grace. I used THIS PATTERN that I got off of Etsy.  I made the 18mo. size even though MG turns one next month.  They are a little big right now (looking more moo-moo than tunic) but in six or seven months they will be perfect for spring!

I used fabric from my vintage sheet stash and I think they came out simply darling!

They even have pockets, which will be perfect for stashing Cheerios in!

Have I mentioned lately that having a little girl is really FUN?

Busy...

Sorry I have been absent from this space, but managing a family of seven has been kicking me in the butt lately!

It's a usual September, we are getting back in the routine of homeschooling, chores, and kid's activities.  Doug has decided to go back to school as well and that has been an adjustment.  Work is killing me, as usual....and I'm continuing to pray to win the lottery!

It's the simple day to day events of life.

I'm not complaining, but a nap every now and then sure would be nice!

I hope to get back here soon.  I have some wonderful projects to share.

TTFN!

I'm in LOVE with Luffas!

Every year I try to grow something "different" in the garden. This year I tried my hand at growing Luffa...and I am in LOVE!

Luffa are technically gourds and can be eaten while young and tender.  They say they taste like squash.  I'm not in them for the food value, I want them for scrubbing.  Scrubbing dishes, cars, people, anything that cannot tolerate steel wool.  I also hope to include them in some handmade Christmas gifts this year.

Growing luffa is really easy but you must have two things, a long growing season and support.  I planted two seeds underneath a huge trellis that Kyle built for me.  They outgrew the trellis in a week and have now taken over the side of my house!  One thing that just happened to work out beautifully was planting sunflower seeds next to them.  As the mammoth sunflowers grew to the height of the roof, the luffa vines were just getting started.  By the time the sunflowers had thick, sturdy stalks the luffa found them and grew right to the top.

Now the sunflower is spent, head harvested for seeds, and the stalk remains a strong support for the new luffa growing.  Yeah, it looks like crap on the side of the house, but up close it's beautifully awesome!

They've even taken over my bathroom window.  But with at least six more growing in that spot, I'm not taking the vines down any time soon!

I recommend drying the luffa right on the vine.  The green skin becomes a dried up brown color and if you shake the fruit you can hear the seeds rattle inside.  Once thoroughly dried, they were very easy to peel.  

Our luffas are super soft and smell like freshly mown hay.  I know that we will be growing these for many seasons to come.

The fall garden

It's time to rip up the summer garden because my fall seeds have come in!  This week my goal is to get the weed patch I call a garden cleared and composted so that it will be ready for these seedlings in 6-8 weeks.  Hopefully by then we'll start having some cooler temperatures, too.

That's what I love about gardening, 

it's so easy just to start all over!

I got these gorgeous heirloom, non-GMO seeds from
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.

My next big project

I snagged all Kyle's old baseball jerseys one day and decided he needed them sewn into a quilt (thank you, Pintrest!).  

More to come on this project soon, 

I am stupid excited over it!

One more baseball post then I'm done, I promise!

On Monday night, the Sugarland Skeeters recognized our boys before their game at Constellation Field.

They let the guys on the field a good thirty minutes before the game started.  Kyle really took everything in, I think he loves the Skeeters more than he loves the Astros!

It was fun to watch the boys who started out all lined up against the fence.  Slowly, they gravitated as a group to touch the grass, talk to some players, and joke around with Moe the mascot.

The night was "a buzz" for the Wharton All Stars!

(pun intended)

Then finally it was time to take the field with the Skeeters...

And to use the words of a young man who doesn't say very much...

"It was VERY cool!"