Getting Kari'd Away

Recently, I decided to jump on the band wagon and make my own laundry detergent. I did this for two reasons. One; I was really tired of the liquid detergent I'd been using and the price it cost. Two; I had a wholesale club sized box of Oxi Clean sitting around that never got used and was an ingredient in the 'recipe' I found.  I also knew that if I made my own detergent I really didn't want to cook and do the liquid route. So I found this posting with a recipe for dry, powder detergent that seemed very doable. I changed the recipe a little because I couldn't find Zote bars, but I found Fels Naptha bars, which are actually smaller than Zote, so I had to accommodate for that.   So, I've been using it now for a month or so and I love it! I found all the ingredients in the laundry aisle at Walmart. It was all near each other, but low on the shelves and most of the time, all the way in the back of the shelf. Here's the recipe that I used, adapted from th

Years ago I worked for a very nice summer day camp. During camp we would have morning meetings and review important details for the day. At every meeting there were comment cards that were read. Parents or coworkers could anonymously fill one out and submit it for a camp employee. When an employee received 3 of these cards they would receive a special pin called a Bravo Zulu. The Bravo Zulu symbolized a job well done. They were put on your name tag and everyone saw it. I worked very hard my first summer and always hoped for a Bravo Zulu, but didn't get one. Not receiving the coveted Bravo Zulu that summer always bothered me. Recently it made me think of the story of the prodigal son. I always heard messages about that story but didn't get them. All I could hear was the brother of the prodigal son did all that hard work, made the right choices and didn't get one Bravo Zulu. I always felt like he got jipped, he got shafted. No parties for him, no celebration because he

A while back, I put on a cute new shirt I received as a gift. I had to laugh because, this pretty shirt, with a large branch of sequins covering most of the shirt, only came with one little replacement sequin in the baggy attached to the tag. One, that's it! For the whole shirt!! That seemed so crazy to me that they wouldn't even give you two! A few days later in my small group we watched a video. The video we watched talked about rain and the times of our life that are like rain. Not just the pretty rain that ends with a lovely rainbow, but the rain that pounds down, changes your plans and just plain makes you wish rain didn't exist. That type of rain can be seen in many of our lives, at any given moment. You know those types of times. The times when you feel all alone, you just want to give in, you just want to quit or you need a break. The video painted a picture, that for me, as a parent, was easy to understand. If one of my sons fall and hurt himself, has a bad d

I am Super Mom.  Didn't you know that? Perhaps if you've met me you wouldn't notice right away. See, I keep my cape hidden. Or at least I think I'm Super Mom. I swoop in at the least bit of injustice and I make it right...Sometimes to my detriment, or my kids. Recently, this was brought to my attention in two ways.  Yesterday my three year old, Nathan, was playing with his brother. While his brother was out of the room Nathan grabbed some toys and began to name them. He's so creative with names. His sock monkey with button eyes is named Buttoneyes, his blue puppy dog is named Blue Dog, etc. With all this creativity flowing he decided to name the current toys Cutter and Smacker. Super Mom mode kicked in, as all I foresaw was the results of what Cutter and Smacker would do once Nathan's brother, Derek returned to the room. I donned my cape ready to spring into action, then I realized something. He was playing with the toy pizza cutter and spatula. Oh , I though

It happened, my sweet 5 year old has been in school 100 days. It seems impossible! So, before I start gushing over where time went and how it happened so fast, I will gather my self and tell you what we planned for the 100th day of school.  If you haven't had a kiddo involved in the 100th day of school they are asked to bring in 100 of something. It can be anything, as long as it fits in their book bag. Derek's first choice was pennies. He continually told me that he wanted to do pennies despite my futile attempts to convince him otherwise. However, by day 97 I had begun to plant the seeds of "Are you sure that's what you want to take?" and "I'm afraid everyone else will have the same thing." and my personal favorite "How about we put 100 stickers on your clothes?"  All I can say is thank goodness he didn't pick the stickers, we would have been very late to school!  So on day 97, we were getting ready to leave Gramma's house when D

This past summer I was asked to make some bean bags for my church's pre-school classes. I had fabric left over from super hero capes I had made for the classes as well.  Anyway, I thought I'd show you how I did it. It really wasn't very hard, just straight stitches, but it was a lot of steps! I started by cutting my fabric into 4x8 rectangles. I planned on making 20 of each color (red and blue) so I cut out 40 rectangles to make the bags double layered so they were a little sturdier.  Next I folded them all in half and ironed the fold. Next, pin the side opposite the fold and sew two sides of the square starting from a corner of the folded side. When you get to the corner leave the needle in the fabric, lift the foot and turn the fabric 90 degrees to do the next side. This will give you nice crisp perfect corners. Make sure to back stitch when you get to the end and trim the thread. It'll look like this after you sew it: Next, you'll need to turn it insi