Long time no blog!

Can you believe hubby and I are still sick? Me either. Hubby's had a "put you to sleep" kind of medical test, and we are waiting on those results. Me? Sinus infection that hasn't cleared up (even to the point where I can sleep at night) after 7+ days of sulfa! I'm ready to feel better now.

Every year I get it in my head that homemade gifts are nice, and I find a project to do for the "outer" relatives. You know, the grandparents and inlaws and aunts. This year I'm doing two projects: hand lotion and family videos.

The family videos have been on VHS since 1990 when we got our first video camera. It's time they joined us in the digital age, so I've been transferring them to DVD. But not a straight-across transfer, oh no. I am editing and adding titles, a project I should have started in May to get done by Christmas! I was doing okay getting them all done, then the second master disc (of 5) died suddenly from child abuse (abuse by the children, not of them) and had to be recreated. 5 discs, 2 hours each, edited and titled. We are talking no small feat here, considering I didn't start until after Thanksgiving and have had all kinds of other issues going on, eh?

The hand lotion is something that's been in my head and kitchen in test batches for nearly 5 years. While studying herbal medicine, I found some herbs and oils particularly suited to the skin care needs of older hands. Combining those herbs with others for this aunt's thin, easily torn skin, and that grandma's perpetually cold hands, and the other grandma's arthritis, finding the right formulation to lighten age spots, and then perfect the lotion to where it's light and non-greasy has been a real challenge, but a lot of fun. I finally got the formula exactly right and made the "gift" batch last week. OH NO! One of my ingredients was purchased from a different source than usual and was much stronger! The lotion still works, but it turns skin brownish purple! AARGH! I didn't throw away the whole batch because I don't care if my feet are brownish purple, and it's a temporary effect anyway. But, I have to start over from scratch, AFTER the mail order of one irreplaceable ingredient arrives. If it arrives in time.

I'm beginning to rethink the homemade gift thing.

Need a candidate?

Mike Huckabee on Homeschooling

Another reason I <3 huckabee.

Eco-friendly bubble wrap

Homeschool Buyer Co-op

The Homeschool Buyer Co-op is a free homeschooling organization for both new and veteran homeschoolers. Co-op membership is free and confidential, and entitles homeschooling families to discounts from hundreds of educational suppliers. The Co-op also sponsors "Group Buys" for curriculum packages that can save homeschooling families lots of money. On the site you'll find lots of free information, such as databases of free curriculum, field trips, and educational contests and scholarships.

There are different discounts on a wide range of goods and services. A couple of the discounts we have enjoyed include:

The Entertainment 2008 book for our area. I get one anyway, but saved a little chunk of the price, plus got points for the purchase that I can use to get discounts on still other products.

God's World magazines are something we love to use, but the price is prohibitive. With our group buy, we are getting them for half-price. This is particularly a good investment with the upcoming election year.

The Homeschool Buyer Co-op also participates in eScrip. Scrip is a wonderful way to support local schools and charities with very little time investment. Most programs require a separate scrip purchase. For example, I use scrip to support my local high school. I put a certain dollar amount on a grocery gift card provided by the high school, then use that gift card to pay for my purchases at that grocery store. It only takes a minute or two to add money to the gift card, and it's a whole lot easier than selling candy, gift wrap or magazines to support the school.

But eScrip is even more elegant, using cyber technology to track purchases made with my grocery loyalty card instead of a separate gift card. I look forward to when more stores are added.

All in all, the Homeschool Buyer Co-op is a great organization, and is continuing to grow and diversify as it matures. Well worth a stop by!

Click here for more information.

In the meadow, we can build a B&M

We lived in a sleepy little burg of 1000 before moving here. I used to go every Black Friday to the nearest town (of 10,000 people!) to do all my holiday shopping on one day and loved it. My mom and sister would give me their lists for us and I'd buy their gifts too, so they didn't have to ship cross-country.

I'm seriously scared to go to the malls or larger stores here. Too close to the city, too many people, and too many stories on the news of people getting pushed and trampled. If I get pushed, I fall over and I've hurt people too many times falling down and the cane going flying. Too dangerous.

But I miss going. It's really where the holiday season starts for me. So, I set the alarm for 4AM and gave it a shot. I drove past Best Buy at 5AM, and saw the line outside was all the way around the building. Hm. Not for me.

At Shoe Carnival they greeted me with a $10 gift card and a buy-one-get-one-half-price offer, so I got slippers for hubby and me. Not gifts, we need them NOW!

The fitted sheet on my bed has bit the dust, but the rest of the set was fine, so I toodled over to Bed, Bath and Beyond at 6 when they opened for a really nice replacement. I can't afford $100 for a set of sheets, but I can afford $25 for a really nice single fitted sheet (especially with a 20% off coupon!) I picked up a charging station there, too so hubby would stop losing his cell phone charger. That can wait to be a gift, I guess.

I dropped by Joann for some pillow forms at 50% off so I can get started making some special pillows for the kids (I'm taking their old special event T-shirts, iron-on-ing a photo of them on the back, then turning the outgrown shirts into pillows as keepsakes). I grabbed some crochet kits and a soapmaking kit (that's the one I used the 50% off coupon on) so they can make gifts for their friends.

At the Christian store I got all gifts: the kids some new music (Switchfoot, Mercy Me, Barlowgirl, etc.) and the new holiday CD by Jars of Clay. They had a 20% off coupon and a BIG cup of hot cider for me at the door. Aaah.

Best Buy was my last stop where I got some DVDs, a Wii game and my gift to hubby: a supercool computerized remote to control all our living room gadgets. We joke about our 7 remotes, but it's becoming ridiculous. When we switched from cable to sat TV he was saying he didn't like the new remote, so it's as good a time as any to consolidate. All of this stuff will be gifted.

Later, in the afternoon, hubby took us to Books a Million and Target. I didn't find anything in either store I can't beat the price on online. But, while at BAM I read up on the new Mac OS upgrade and found the gift I want to send to my oldest boy 'cuz he's da bomb!

I still have a ton of books to buy, but I can get those at Amazon much cheaper than the stores. I have money available there anyway because for the last three months I've taken my profit from my Amazon store in gift certs.

I didn't have to be up at 4AM, I didn't have to wait in long lines, but I wanted to. It kind of kick starts the holiday season for me. I didn't get but a handful of gifts, but saved more than $50 on things I needed anyway because of the special Black Friday coupons and sales.

The rest? Free shipping at online stores! YAY!

We also have crabs.

No, this isn't a health-related post. We have actual crabs. As pets. Land hermit crabs. Okay, maybe not so much as pets, but they live in an aquarium in our house.

They're really pretty cool, but they are a lot more work and expense than the info sheets at the pet store would have you believe.

Right now we have a total of 10 crabs:

4 purple pinchers (Coenobita clypeatus): Leia Clawgana Solo, Luke Sandwalker, Obi Wan Crabobi, Yoda

2 ruggies (Coenobita rugosus): Chewbacca the Ruggie, Han Solo

3 equadorians (Coenobita compressus): C3PO, R2D2, Wicket

1 strawberry (Coenobita perlatus): Darth Maul

We have also had a second strawberry, Depa Billba, who died after a complicated moult and a purple pincher we named Anakin Sandwalker, who died from post-purchase stress syndrome. They are buried in the front yard with the appropriate grave markers (an empty shell filled with tiny artificial flowers.)

Here are some photos:





A crab peeking out from behind the logLeia, Han and Wicket discuss the benefits of their particular species

This is a shell fight. There were no injuries, and the offender was moved to isolation for about 24 hours during which he calmed down. When returned to the general population, he ceased threatening others.









Ah, the elusive Darth Maul. Contrary to his character in the movie, our Darth is very shy.

Aw, whatabunchasweeties!

My girls decided I needed a "date" night with hubby, so they planned a dinner for us. They got all the necessary groceries during our last trip, set the table, even used plastic dinnerware so they could do the dishes all by themselves. We had Happle Bagel Sandwiches (half a bagel, topped with cheddar cheese, a slice of tart apple and a sprinkling of cinnamon, broiled), homemade chili con carne, yogurt crunch (plain yogurt mixed together with granola and chocolate chips) and Bananaoids (frozen chocolate-dipped bananas) and "wine" (grape juice). It was wonderful. Food always tastes better when prepared by someone else! They did a lovely job of decorating, too. Rosie made place cards, and Christie set the table. Kate was the chili cook and oversaw the operation.

Hubby and I had such a lovely time on our date that we decided to continue it the next night! We left the kids in Blair's capable supervision and went to see Dan In Real Life. It was so refreshing to see kids being respectful of their parents, yet still being kids; grown children and parents interacting intelligently; smart adults making very human mistakes and owning up to them; and it was all done without sex, violence or language. I really enjoyed this movie.

Hm. If Steve Carrell isn't careful he's going to keep on making good movies like this and Evan Almighty and get noticed by Christians. That'll pretty much be the end of his career.

In new news, John, the one child of mine who very, very rarely gets ill, has developed a fever today. This is a new bug entirely, the cough and tummy problems we've dealt with so far this autumn didn't include fever. Oh, and I've got the cough.