Just call me “Ma.”

Today I decided to tackle two tasks: Making more laundry soap and making pickles.  Both tasks were inspired by Mother Necessity.  We were out of laundry soap and needed clean clothes, and the cukes in the garden were ready to be picked! 

This is the second time I’ve made this powdered laundry soap mixture.  I use the recipe on the Duggar’s website. I had leftover Borax and Washing Soda from when I made it the last time, and 4 bars of Ivory Soap that Jeremy bought to make more laundry detergent.  After shredding the 4 bars, I discovered I did not have enough Washing Soda for 4 batches of detergent.  So I sent Jeremy to the store to get more, and he also bought 4 more bars of soap.  Happily, this used up all the Washing Soda and made 8 batches of detergent.  This should hopefully last us a long time!  I wasn’t sure how well it was removing stains, so I might try using extra borax if the clothes are especially dirty.  

After this I started slicing the cukes for pickles.  I discovered I like the pickles slices round instead of spears, so I bought a mandoline slicer to make this process easier.  I love it!  ($15 at Target!)

I didn’t get to actually pickle the cukes tonight since we discovered we don’t have garlic.  So that will have to wait until tomorrow.  For now, the cukes are sitting in ice water and getting very crispy.  Let me say folks, that REALLY WORKS!  The cukes I sliced last night were in ice water overnight and wow are they crispy today.  I just hope they stay that way until I can get them pickled. 

For supper tonight we ate green beans from our garden, picked yesterday.  (Spaghetti and green beans cooked courtesy of Jeremy Groff – thanks hunny!) Wow, fresh really is best!  There’s nothing like fresh veggies right out of your backyard.  Gardening is hard work but so fun and such rewards reaped – literally!

Jeremy commented on my activities today of homemade laundry soap and pickling cucumbers from our garden, trying to say I was being very domestic and natural. 

“Just call me Ma,” I replied. 

Sleeping, Soccer, Shopping and Storms

 

I couldn’t resist taking this picture last night of Asher sleeping with his teddy.  Rest up, Buddy!  Soccer game tomorrow!

Team Charge is ready to play!

Teams Courage and Charge pray with the Ref before the game.

Asher and Coach Daddy!  Asher really was happy, this just caught him by surprise!

Mom-Mom, Grandma and Grandpa came to watch his game!

Ellie sits on the bench with Asher.

Asher congratulates Team Courage on a good game!

After soccer we ended up shopping with Grandma at Miracles Consignment.  I found some Little Tikes doll house items, a dry-erase letter practice book, Disney princess shorts for Ellie to wear with her new Disney princess shirt from Missy, and a clock toy for Asher.  We then went next door for pizza at Caruso’s with Mom and Dad. Here is Asher as Pop-Pop, posing with Grandma. 

After that we went home and we all took NAPS!  Jeremy had been up since 5:30 since we thought we’d have to be there at 8 for pictures.  (They were cancelled due to the weather).  Games were then held INSIDE – ours was at 10 am. 

After a delicious meal of spaghetti and broccoli prepared by Jeremy (thanks hunny), we all went about different projects.  Jeremy started the taxes and the kids were watching Mary Poppins.  I started re-arranging the Living Room, again…only to put it back how it was, again.  About that time Dad called and said there was a tornado warning in our area.  So, we all headed to the basement for about 15 minutes until we were clear.  I was praying for God to calm the storm and not allow damage to occur!  We are so thankful for His protection! 

After that I started working on organizing the basement stairway – finally installing these clips for hanging brooms and vacuums and such.  Here is the result of my work!

I hung the various hooks on the opposite side for the dusters, etc.  You’ll notice Asher’s famous Blue Vacuum now has a home on one of the clips  

Jeremy finished the taxes…almost – only the local to finish now.  All in all it was a great day, busy, but great.  We are teaching the 2s tomorrow, so I’d better get to bed!  Good night!

Spring Things

Today was a beautiful spring day with a high of 67 degrees. It was a perfect day to get some gardening done since it was sunny but not hot. I took advantage of the soft soil from the last two days of rain and started hoeing the weeds out of the garden area. The picture above shows one area I had done before. Today I started on the areas that were the vegetable garden last year. Here is the upper area. It’s fun to take pictures so I can see what I accomplished!

Before

After

Here is the side of the house after I hoed the weeds. I don’t have a “before” picture.

Here is our lawn. I wanted a picture of it now, early in Spring, because HOPEFULLY it will look better after we treat with fertilizer. Right now there are a lot of patches of these blue flowered weeds – I think it’s chickweed and it seems to have taken over a lot of the yard. I was explaining to Asher and Ellie that weeds grow because of the curse of sin. They’ve recently watched “In the Beginning” on DVD and so I was trying to tie it in with that.

Here is Ellie in her fairy wings, swinging away!

I got a great picture of Asher here! He’s finally learned to SMILE for the camera! Lord, I thank you for the beautiful day, for safety, for fun, and for hard work and health. Amen!*****************************************

After we got home from soccer practice, the kids played outside while Jeremy and I (mostly Jeremy) removed the stones from the path out front. (We want to extend the flower bed to include that area). As we worked, Jeremy remembered a time working on this same area with two other children – Kaylee and Kearstin. They were spending the night with us when we were working on digging this flower bed and putting the stones down for a path!

Ellie was helping by picking up stones and putting them in her wheelbarrow.

Virtual Open House

As the holiday season approaches, I’d like to help make this season especially memorable. That’s why I’m inviting you to view my virtual Open House! In less than 10 minutes, you’ll see 10 ideas, including new products, gift ideas, money-saving offers and money-earning opportunities, Creative Memories is offering in the upcoming weeks. Creative Memories has solutions for anyone who takes pictures, not only the "crafty" ones!

Those of you who were unable to attend my Open House last Saturday at Janeen Kime's home, can still receive my Open House gifts by participating in my virtual Open House that’s available from November 19 - November 28. Watch the program, complete the Holiday Wish List (attached to the email you received) and email it to me, and I’ll set aside an attendance gift for you. Place an order by Nov. 28 and receive a sheet of coupons to be used in 2010 when you order from me! Order $50 or more from me or purchase online, and I’ll give you the coupons and a bonus Open House gift.

To ensure holiday delivery, you need to place your order by November 28. If you have questions, I can make a customer care call in the coming weeks so that you can share with me how I can assist you this holiday season.

There are many great benefits to hosting a Get Together, including earning FREE products! Please take a look at the attachment detailing our current Hostess Benefits. If you schedule a Get Together, I'll also set aside a special gift for you.

I would also love to share with you the fun I'm having using Storybook Creator Plus. I have just printed some of my first digital 12x12 prints and placed them in an album. Below is one of my favorites. They look amazing and I'm excited about this new way of memory keeping. If you are interested in attending a party at my house to learn more about the features of this program, please let me know as I'll be holding one soon!

Thank-you and enjoy the Virtual Open House!
Click here: virtual Open House

Sincerely,
Erin Groff
CM Consultant
717-333-3935
ejgroff@comcast.net
Shop online at www.creativememories.com and search for Erin Groff at checkout.

A Great Christmas Gift Idea!

For the past three years I have given a homemade, personal calendar to each of our parents for Christmas. Using a Creative Memories Picfolio Minutes Album, I have created a little scrapbook page for each of 24 sleeves in the album. By adding a little calendar printout to 12 of the sheets, it creates a display calendar - a gift that lasts all year! Our parents absolutely love it because it contains pictures of their beloved children and grandchildren and memories from the past year - all year long!


The Picfolio Minutes Album converts to a display easel with the exclusive magnetic cover strap. Just lift the cover open, clasp the magnet from behind and the album is ready to be displayed on your desk or coffee table!

This year I am so excited to be doing these pages digitally on Storybook Creator Plus. It should cut my work in half, seeing as I'll easily be able to print two copies of each page! I can also easily make one for our family, something I've always wanted to do but I've never had time to do as of yet. Secondly, I don't have to purchase double supplies - I can use the digital papers and embellishments as many time as I want!

This is my favorite gift to make and to give, and I'd love to share it with others. This year, I thought I'd see if anyone else would be interested in making a calendar such as this as a Christmas gift. So, to anyone who purchases a Creative Memories Picfolio Minutes Album from me, I'd like to invite you to come to my home and use Storybook Creator Plus Software to make calendar pages, free of charge! All you need to do after ordering the album is to pick out 25-30 of your favorite photos and bring them to my house either on a CD, DVD, or a thumb drive. Then I will help you use your own pictures to make your own calendar album!

Please let me know soon if you would like to create an album so that we can order your album and get started soon!



Below are samples of the pages I have created for my gift calendars for this year.

It's about time for me to write about Ellie at one year old! She will actually be 13 months in 3 days so I'm not too late yet!

In the last two months her looks have really changed from baby to more todder-like. She now has 4 teeth - 3 of which have appeared in the past month! She enjoys eating real table food more now than baby food - but we're still giving it to her to make sure she gets her fruit and vegetables.

She started walking on September 17th! I was changing Asher's diaper and all of a sudden I saw her walking towards us! I quickly grabbed the camera and started taping her!

She likes to try imitating what people do and imitates talking a lot, though her vocabulary hasn't expanded too much yet. She did go on her first plane ride and trip to Nashville last weekend! She liked the plane ride a lot. I tried nursing her while we took off but as soon as she felt the plane moving she sat up and looked out the window. On the way home I was telling her we were up in the sky and I think she was trying to say "sky." Mom came with us and I also think she was saying, "Mama" for "Grandma."

Asher and Ellie are really starting to interact and play with one another! You can tell they like being together and playing together.

Capture the Moments

This is really what I should use the blog for - to capture the moments of life that I want to remember always. I wish I were a great writer, but I'll just do my best to get the moment written.

Right now, Asher and Ellie are watching, "Baby Faith" - God Made Me. Asher was singing along to "Oh How I Love Jesus." It was so cute and sweet! I love that he is learning so many songs of the faith. Ellie was sitting on the trampoline and now she's on the bouncing zebra, and now she got off. They are both making noises along with "A Mighty Fortress."

I put the video on because they were getting a little crazy, wanting the same things at the same time, Asher pulling on Ellie, etc. They needed a distraction and I needed a break. Actually I should lay back and close my eyes while they watch this. I think I will. Night night.