Mom's Halloween Birthday Carnival!

Mom's partys are always SO much fun - and we always have too much food :)

my busy day...

First thing I had to do this morning was make a new batch of my homemade laundry detergent.

I can't remember if I have blogged about this or not, but I use half a box of Borax, an entire box of washing soda, grated 1/4 of the bar of Fels-Naptha (it's a stain remover). It costs me $4.97 to make- and I can usually get 128 loads out of it! -- I have been making this for just over a year. I was thinking about buying some Tide to supplement my laundering (I was washing Thomas's sheets every single day, and sometimes twice or 3 times...) anyway - I was SHOCKED at how much it cost. Somewhere around $10 for only 64 loads. I just couldn't spend that much.

Anyway..... I did about 5 loads of laundry today.

I also hung up my magnetic board in the dining room. I like it :)

I made cheese balls for MOM's birthday party/Halloween carnival tomorrow! She asked me to make them Halloweeny - so I did a Taco Jack-o-lantern

And a Ranch Ghost.

I didn't have anything around the house to make the faces, so while I was on the phone with my next door neighbor, I had to ask what She might have around her house. LOL -- she had lots of great stuff for me to use (I asked if I could borrow some olives, and she said NO - she didn't want them back LOL)

And lastly I made one of my favorite halloween treats - Nutterbutter Ghostys.

Also mixed in my busy day was some last minute costume making -- Tyson's hadn't really even been started yet - It won't be as fancy as it should be, I just hope people will be able to tell what he should be :D

recycling and composting

There was a video on Yahoo a few days ago that was just the motivation I needed to get back to doing more...
http://news.yahoo.com/video#video=22530922

if you don't watch the video - some of the facts are that Americans throw out an average of 4.5 lbs. of trash every day. That equals a national average of 250, 000, 000 (yep, thats millions) TONS of trash a year. 12.7 % is food, 13.2% is yard clippings, and 31 % is paper.

So I already recycle paper, cardboard and plastics. But since I need compost for my garden next year, I decided it was time to stop throwing out all the compostable kitchen scraps (like those banana peels, egg shells, unused produce, etc.) and yard clippings -- we had been throwing them in the garbage because we didn't want to weeds seeds to go back on the lawn.

So I did my online research and here is an article I liked:

http://www.grist.org/article/rot-n-roll/

and here is the video I liked the best:

http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-7560688.html

I looked into a tumbler composter, but since there are pallets just laying around here from building, and they are FREE - I went with this set up (got the idea from my "Square Foot Gardening Book")http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Square_Foot_gardening1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-san-francisco/all-new-square-foot-gardening-by-mel-bartholomew&usg=__B-CRqBlSOT47SOE-qmZQ_HtemX0=&h=240&w=240&sz=19&hl=en&start=3&sig2=tFLRoAWt1iGK9YIGYgIjqg&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=S56TisMSNhwsGM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsquare%2Bfoot%2Bgardening%2Bbook%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS304US304%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=qejJTIyLFsnPngeNgOnWDw

(square foot gardening images - http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4HPIA_enUS304US304&q=square+foot+gardening&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=XejJTLnvMdKnngfGsYn5Dw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CEcQsAQwAQ

That is what the boxes on the west side of the yard are going to be used for next year.

getting started...

FINISHED for now.......

so how does it look?

the Ghost goes Boo Hoo

Crafty~

I think fall makes my crafty side come out

This week I made:

Spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes for the cake decorating contest for our block party

the meatballs are homemade peanutbutterballs dipped in chocolate and rolled in almonds

the sauce is strawberry jam

I also made the pinata for the block party. As with all the pinatas I make, I wondered how this one would do. I was a little worried, because I didn't get started on it until just a few days before the party - so I didn't get as many layers on it as I would have liked. AND the weather turned cold, so it took much longer to dry (I had to bring it inside to my laundry room, and run the dryer to make it warm).

but this ghost was a champ!!!! There were about 20 kids - ages ranging from 1 to 12 - and they all got to take a turn before the ghost finally broke!

and for super saturday at the church I got to make this huge magnetic board! I think we are going to put it on the dining room wall, and put pictures on it with magnets, and sorta just switch 'em out whenever we feel like it (that is why I picked that saying - it will be perfect)

chance of snow???

well, it's been a lovely October. I don't think I could have asked for nicer fall weather. We have been able to enjoy being outside for much longer than I expected. It's a good thing too, since going outside is the first thing the boys ask to do every single morning.

Grayson, can't talk of course, but he has his body language, and he knows that I know what he is saying. He sometimes starts off by pulling my hands and pointing to the door. Or he brings me his shoes and sits down and starts to put them on himself. or he just goes over to the door and starts banging on it, and when I shake my head or say not now, he sits and cries and cries.

Today was pretty chilly, no blue sky to be seen thru the gloomy clouds. I was able to sort of deter them, by letting them play in the garage for a while (still cold, but not as bad as outside).

I had a goal set to get the garage cleared out enough, that I could park at least one car in there by Nov. 1. But looking at the extended forcast, our chance of snow is coming on Wed (Oct. 27). I guess I had better hunker down and actually FINISH my decluttering. Since I let the kids play in there, their stuff is everywhere. The small trampoline, toys, bikes, cars, and don't forget all their discarded muddy clothing, socks, and shoes.

The biggest problem in the garage is all the boxes of books we have. But we don't have a place to put books anywhere in the house. We really like our books, but don't want them out where the kids can destroy them (and yes, they would destroy them). Tyson's going to put some of his collection into a cabinet with a child safe lock on it. I think I need to seperate myself from most of my books, and just donate them, since I am obviously not reading them if they have been packed up in boxes for years and years.

Ultimately I want to build one more set of shelves, to store things up high, utilize that unused space. But it looks like that will have to be a project for next summer when it warms up again. (but that didn't stop me from buying myself a circular saw, for when the time comes.... I am sure it will come in handy for other stuff too.)

lookin good

our lawn is starting to really look nice. the second dose of weed and feed is working well. next year, hopefully, the grass will be stronger than the weeds! the backyard is worse, and will probably take a little more time. we had to have someone help us with installing a storm door (we tried, but it was harder than we expected LOL. you can see it's propped open in this picture with a chair). but it's fixed now, and really adds to the look! several of my marigolds grew amazingly huge, while others, must not have gotten enough water and are pretty sad looking. for now, I am happy with the little curb appeal we do have!