A bit more personal

This is something I stumbled on several days ago and had to share.
I'm not sure how many of you have read this, but it's worth reading again.

Sometimes I get lost in the amusing or picture laden posts that I neglect one of
the original purposes of my blog.

I love sharing my family with you, I love entertaining you and making you laugh,
I love encouraging you and inspiring you, but I desire to
share more about who I am and how I am the person I am.

Without God I would be lost, lonely, uncertain, missing something and wandering.

He is my Rock, my Fortress, my Shield, my Deliverer, my Heavenly Father,
my Savior. With Him all things are possible, without Him there is no hope.

I love my God with all my heart and all my soul. I desire to be the woman, wife and mother
He wants me to be. I desire to learn more about Him every day. I am nothing
without Him, and everything because of Him.

CHRISTIAN WOMEN
by Maya Angelou'

A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ
that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not shouting 'I'm clean livin''
I'm whispering 'I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I still feel the sting of pain..
I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Pretty is as Pretty does.... but beautiful is just plain beautiful!

Playtime with Daddy

The pictures say it all!


"Reehue" ride (aka horsey ride)
Reehue is the sound a horse makes, at least according to my kids :)

Afton's flying leap onto Daddy's back

Her face is priceless!

Caleb mid-jump

All worn out...I wish...they have endless amounts of energy!

I thought you would appreciate those pictures!

I never get tired of watching my kids fly through the air
with the greatest of ease.

Oh boy...this is a long one!

I can hear you muttering under your breath, "It better be for the length of time we had to wait!"

...and to that I say, "I'm sorry". I have a laundry list of excuses, but I'm too tired to start listing them, and boy are you lucky!

Thanks to Apple for the kick in the pants...umm...*cough cough*...I mean, reminder, that I left you hanging for too long! *wink*

So, go enjoy the photos. They are in order and I'll put a bit of commentary on each one.

The blushing bride to be, Carrie.

Me, my sisters and my mom

The bridesmaid luncheon

Me and my sisters at the luncheon

Releasing the tension

We are the YMCA

Awww....a kiss after my brothers fireworks display

They really are perfect for each other!

Mirror images

The beautiful bride

The vows

Carrie and "her girls"

Matt and the girls

Matt and "his guys"

The happy couple

Matt's "rock" (aka ring pop)

My handsome brother, the groom

Me and Matt

Me and Mike

Mike, Caleb and my dad

Matt's already keeping Carrie in line with is rockin' guitar

Awesome wedding cake!

Cutting the cake

My boy loves cake!

Mike and Afton

The End

Congratulations to my brother, Matt, and his new wife, Carrie!
I love you both so much!

I'll be back

I have pictures, updates and other stuff to post. I'm just trying to catch up from a very crazy week/weekend!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

I'll be back as soon as I can to post some pretty interesting stuff :)

Airing my "dirty laundry"

For those of you hoping for a tell all...shame on you! Don't you know gossip is a sin? We won't get into that right now though. That is a whole other post :)

No, today I want to talk about laundry detergent. Some people grow up and use the same thing their mama used. Others hated what their mama used so they use something completely different. Some people buy laundry detergent based on the look of the product, the smell of the product or the price.

While all that is wonderful the bottom line is this: Soap is soap. Plain and simple. Soap cleans dirty things.

So, after this revelation I began to wonder what was so cool about the 2X, super-duper cleaning power of the commercial products on the shelves. You know what is so cool about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now that's not to say it doesn't look very pretty on the shelf, beckoning you with it's heavenly scent, smaller bottle and catchy advertising, but have you ever really sat down and done the math?

No? Well, now is the time. So, go get that bottle of detergent, take out a piece of paper and a pen and figure it out. All I did was take the price of the bottle and divide it by the number of loads the bottle "says" you can do with it. The reason for the "says" is you know you never put in the amount they suggest. You do a bit more...just to get the clothes cleaner, right? They know this too.

Stay with me because I'm getting to my point.

So, I did this one day and realized that I was paying more than I wanted to per load of laundry. You also have to figure that you use fabric softener, so don't forget that. Well, that was it...no more for me.

I found a recipe for making my own laundry detergent and went right to work. It's so simple it's silly!

This is the "recipe":

1 bar of soap, grated (I used a sharp knife and cut off slivers)
1/2 cup borax, optional (the first time I didn't use this)
1 gallon water

Combine the above ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Then turn heat down and simmer for 15 minutes or until the soap slivers have dissolved. Then turn off the heat and let cool on the stove for a little while. Pour into a large container (not a pour container). It will cool down completely and turn into a gel like substance. When doing laundry use 1/2 cup at at time.

How easy is that? The best part is it can be as expensive as you want or as cheap as you want. It all depends on the bar of soap you use. I can usually get 32+ loads out of this one batch, and you know how much it cost me per load? About 1-2 cents! Yes, you read right...one or two penny's per load of laundry!!! I'll let you in on a secret too....

I don't use fabric softener because I don't need it anymore since I started making my own detergent.

So, I save even more money. My clothes are just as clean. I can choose my scent of detergent depending on my mood the day I make it. I'm saving money! I don't have all the chemicals in my clothes that the put in regular detergent. I'm not drawn in by the small, pretty bottles on the shelves.

Oh, and can I just say something about the new, smaller bottles? What did they do to make it 2x more powerful? They must have added more chemicals. I don't want that on my skin. No wonder people have reactions to laundry detergent.

All of this to say...

With the price of everything getting higher and higher we do have a choice as to what we pay. We just have to figure out if we're willing to put in a few extra minutes to prepare these things for our family. It's kind of like making dinner vs. buying pre-made stuff. You know it's healthier to make it from scratch. Same thing with everything else. You can choose what you want to put into the things you make. Laundry detergent included.

Now go have fun and make some laundry detergent. You'll feel so much better when you do. I did!

Catch me if you can

It's actually more like I'll catch up on the blogging when I can.

I'm at the "crazy" part of the week where my brain is starting to self destruct and purposefully fry itself in an effort to make the madness stop!

Ok, not really, but I'm definitely feeling the pressure of the next few days.

Saturday is a HUGE day for us. Me, Mike and our 3 kids are in my brothers wedding. So, not only do outfits need to be kept track of, but so do extra clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, food (can't forget to feed my kids or hubby), pies, and a million other things I'm forgetting!

I can't even imagine how the bachelor and bachelorette are feeling!

So, while my goal is to keep you entertained, challenged, encouraged and to make you think, I thought it would be fair to warn you that I may be MIA for 2 days.

Now, please don't cry and just leave me in a puddle of your tears...I'll be back...promise.

I even have the ability to schedule posts. So, if you read something over the next few days I probably pre-wrote it and had it post on a certain day. Pretty sneaky, huh?

Alright, I'm over and out. I have some work I need to do now. Like laundry.