They're Just Humoring Me!

Thank goodness Danny's a good sport and the kids are still young...it gives me the freedom to experiment!

We are developing our CentsAbly Green workshop for BeCentsAble and doing a lot of hands on research.

We started by trying out several products from Shaklee and found their Basic H and Scour Off to be excellent and low cost in addition to being all natural. It only costs $.03 to make a bottle of cleaner from the concentrate Basic H vs $.30 per bottle we were paying for vinegar and water solution! Plus, it works VERY WELL and smells good :)

Next we made our own laundry detergent! I know - it sounds crazy but read on!

We both read The Simple Dollar (the author, Trent, is from the midwest and recently published a book - he's very resourceful!) and last week he posted a tutorial on making your own liquid laundry detergent for $.01-$.02 per use! That's compared to the lowest price we could find of $.17 per use with a low end detergent.

We make a 5-gallon bucket in about 10 mins and have tested it on a variety of stains (blood, chocolate, mud, grass stain, berry stain - seriously, these kids are messy!) and it works just as well as the other stuff at a phenomenal price and it's healthier for you and the environment. Guess What? it can be used on HE machines too. HE washing detergents are made to work with less water and formulated to suds less. The homemade detergent doesn't suds at all so it's no problem.

Now, we diverge from family experiments to my own personal experiments. Danny has't done this one yet.

I have been using baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash and condition my hair. Way too out there for you? I understand. But, if you're game, try it out one day when you don't have anything planned - I LOVE IT! It's been 5 days now and my hair is fine, it doesn't smell like vinegar, it's not greasy or dry or frizzy or ... it's just fine, for pennies and I don't have to worry about build-up.

Here's the process:

1 TBSP of Baking Soda to 1 C warm water, pour over your hair making sure it gets down to the scalp, rinse well
1 TBSP of ACV to 1 C wamr water, pour over your hair, comb with fingers and let sit for 30-60 seconds, rinse.

The last major change we've made is to our choice of DW detergent. We have a truy horrible dishwasher and the water stains, detergent residue were really bad! We bought an eco-friendly dtergent from CostCo (their Kirlkand brand) for HALF the price of the same size box of Cascade and were blown away by how well it works! It's been about a month now and the dishes are actually cleaner, with no residue and no water spots! It's really kind of unbelievable. It was $5.67 for a 128 oz box vs nearly $10 for the Cascade.

And now the BIG LEAP, for the girls...guys, you've been warned - just stop reading right here

I've personally been using these for a couple of months and have ordered this and...NOTE: I was a HUGE skeptic but we got them for free to try out for the workshop so I did...I'm a complete convert. There were 5 others from the BeCentsAble team who tried them and we ALL (yes 100% agreement) love them and have sworn off the traditional method.

WoW! It was a looong winter!

We're terrible, we feel awful, guilty, shamed...


What can we say? Sorry :( But, we're back now!

We are busy planning Miss Caitie's 2nd birthday. Caitlin loves Tinkerbell so we are having a Tinkerbell of a party. I think we're going to stay at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak next weekend. They havecute little "Casitas" (kind of like small townhomes), a great waterpark and "dive-in" movies. You can watch family movies outside at the pool. Sounds like a blast!

For Evan's birthday we are planning a trip to Disneyland (just 6 short hours away). We are really excited. Our summer garage sale will be a "Disneyland Fundraiser".

Caitlin is growing so fast! She's speaking quite clearly (and forcefully) and using the potty; really it's a good new reason to read a magazine (her favorite new reading source) and get lots of praise.

She and Evan started gymnastics last week and LOVED it. If you didn't know, Caitlin is the most flexible, daring and STRONG little girl! She did so well the coach was even impressed. Evan is
strong too, he can hold a chin-up for 5 seconds (hey! that's longer than I can hold one).

Again - we feel awful, but life is back on track. A girl named Julie comes over 3 days a week to hang out with the kids, feed them lunch, etc while I continue moonlighting as an author.

Christmas Day Fun

Christmas Day was so much fun...now that the kids are both older (and Caitlin kind of takes her cues from Evan) opening presents was a blast!

We have so many pictures I've just put a slideshow below.

Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts for the kids...there isn't one thing they haven't loved and played with (or worn!)

The light-up shirts and jackets were a big hit! So were the tractors (did you guys coordinate that?). We have Little People parties every morning :)

Grandma Came to Our House Christmas Day!

It was a beautiful Christmas for us despite all the raining and complaining around here! It was in the 50's all week and rained quite a lot but when you compare typical winter weather here with what we are accustomed to, it was beautiful!

Grandma got here on Christmas Day around 1pm. Danny and Evan met her at the airport. We had Christmas dinner (something simple) and relaxed!

The kids were very excited to get to spend some time with Grandma "Choo-Choo"...

On Friday morning they woke up around 6am (as usual) and Grandma was awake and I GOT TO GO BACK TO BED!!!! Hallalujah!

While she was here we went to Tortilla Flats for lunch and the Botanical Gardens (although it was a bit chilly) and the RLDS Temple in Mesa to show her the amazing lights! We also went to Casa Grande to visit some of Grandpa Glass's family, drove to the top of South Mountain for a view of the City, played Wii (grandma even beat Danny at one game) and Chutes and Ladders, and ordered in Mexican one night! Lots of fun in 5 very short days...

We had a great time...of course when she left the weather cleared up and it was nearly Summertime (72 and sunny!).

Here is a slideshow of the week's photos!

Happy 2009

Video of us and the kids celebrating the New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve...Some More

More on Christmas Eve:

Christmas Eve was quiet but fun! We wrapped that last of our presents, had pizza for dinner and made Santa's cookies. After the kids were all tucked in Danny and I went to a candlelight service at church (at 11pm) while Tracy stayed home for us. When we got home, we watched a movie and went to bed just in time for Santa to leave gifts for the kids.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I think I love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas Day...

I know it sounds crazy but here's my reasoning:

Christmas Eve still holds all the anticipation of what "might" be, all the fun is still to be had. We cook and wrap and clean and it's all for a yet unrealized grand finale!

I love Christmas Day, too, but there's always somwhat of a let down that evening knowing that you'll wake up the day after Christmas to an ordinary day, with all of your ordinary things to do!

Anyway, in honor of all of the wonderful times we have yet to have this year, I thought I would wish you all a Merry Christmas Eve!

My Grandma will arrive tomorrow and as of this morning, she hasn't changed her mind about coming even though the weather is not entirely cooperative. It's rainy here (for nearly a week now!) and snowy and COLD in Kansas City!

We are cooking and cleaning today. We got the casserole ready for tomorrow morning so all I have to do is throw it in the oven to bake! We are making our Christmas cookies tonight for Santa! I still need to get the Chicken ready and prep the potatoes but otherwise we're just having a regular day. We will hopefully head to church this evening if the kids get a nap in. I really want to take everyone to the 11pm candlelight service but I'm sure as bedtime nears I will come to my senses about that. Maybe Danny and I will go and see if Tracy can hang out with the kids in case they wake up.

Anyway - Merry Christmas! We'll be posting some great video and photos over the break.

Love to you all!