Thursday, August 25, 2011

A big job!!

In thinking of all the things God has asked us to do and has given to us to care for I have found that none of them are greater than our children. They are such a blessing and a beautiful gift to us and we are to take the best care we can of them. God says in His word that we are to "train them up in the way they should go and they would not depart from it." Sometimes that is hard and we have to make some tough decisions, but if we are training them God will take care of the rest.

Tom and I believe 100% in Christian education. We have had our girls in Christian schools since they started. I heard a preacher preach one time on training our children up for Christ. He made this statement "Why would you raise your children in Jerusalem and bus them to Egypt for training?" I have never forgotten that comment. It is our duty as Christian parents to train them first and foremost at home. Teaching them about Christ and His love for them is the most important lesson we can give. I believe that sending them to a Christian school only strengthens the training that we as parents are giving our children at home.

We recently had someone comment about how we are spending too much money sending them to a Christian school. I was rather put out with that person and had to ask God to help them with their ignorance. It is money well spent!!! I worked a lot of hours this past year so that my girls could go and I wouldn't trade one moment for anything else.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Doing it the old fashion way

I have heard so many people talking about making their own laundry soap and I've kind of scoffed at the idea thinking that I couldn't live without my Tide...:):) I finally broke down and decided to make some home made soap. I had been give some recipes and had googled laundry soap and found even more recipes, but I just wasn't happy with any of them. I mean, who wants to spend an entire day trying to make laundry soap? I wanted something fast and efficient that would get the job done without the big expense I had been paying.

My friend Deborah Mershimer posted a recipe on facebook stating that she didn't melt and boil and squish stuff together but rather she just did a dry recipe. She made it sound so quick and easy that I wanted to try it too. I bought the ingrediants and made my first batch. I was so impressed. It was easy to make. Each batch is one grated bar of Fels-Naptha soap, one cup borax and one cup washing soda. All ingredients now available at our WalMart! Yay! You can also use Zote soap or castille soap. Today I made mine with a bar of Ivory soap because I had forgotten to get the Fels- Naptha bar while shopping on Monday. It usually takes about 2-3 tsp. of soap per load and you can add vinegar, bleach and oxy clean if you so desire. It is about 5 cents a load. You can't beat that.

So, I did my first load with this new home made soap. I think that load was towels. After they were done they smelled so fresh and clean I was impressed. But I knew the real test would be on my husbands work clothes. He works construction, mows the hay fields and sweats like a horse. I knew if his clothes (which I do not allow in my clothes hamper) came clean then I was sold on this soap. His clothes came out super clean!!!! They even smelled fresh!!! I was sold!!!!

Now that's all I use. I have 2 little kittens in the house right now because one has a broken leg and their bedding gets yucky!! They come clean and smell fresh!!!

So there it is. I love it and I would encourage you to try it for yourself. You will find it fantastic just like I did!!!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Hello friends

It has been quite a long time since my last update on here. I was so shocked and pleased to see all the comments on my last blog. I had not been to this site and didn't know so many of you were reading my blog. Thank you for your kind comments.

Summer is over and school is here. It's been a wonderful and fulfilling summer with lots of changes in the Wheatcraft household. It would take a book to tell you everything, so I will just highlight the events of our lives for you.

We moved from Florida to Ohio this summer. After 7 yrs. we felt that a change was necessary for our family. So we packed up and in June moved to a very little town in Ohio where there are no street lights and the only public building is the post office. A very radical change for us. We were one mile from Jupiter Island in Florida where all the stores were in walking distance from us and people were everywhere. It was so dry that everything was brown and ugly. Imagine the culture shock (in a good way) when we came to Ohio and everything was green and lush. The trees are so full of leaves and the grass is so soft and green. It took us a while to adjust to the beauty of God's handwork. Not to say that Florida is not beautiful. I love FL and would move back in a heart beat. We just had been used to the brown and dry yards in contrast to the lush green here. We moved into an old farmhouse with 4 bedrooms and lots of space. It has been an experience let me tell you.

You can see how old this house is but we have lots of beautiful yard and even planted a garden. My corn is high as an elephants eye...lol, and my beans are so bushy. They are getting ready to produce and I'm ready to pick...lol. This is another new experience for us because in FL we had nowhere for a garden. I'm looking forward to canning some beans and putting up corn.

Another thing that we are having a hard time with is gas in the vehicles. In FL we hardly had to fill up the cars because everything was so close. Here, we drive 30 minutes to get to Wal-Mart. It's been a challenge to say the least. After moving here and realizing this, we began to plan our trips so that everything we need was bought during that trip so we weren't making unnecessary trips to town.

My Tricia loves horses with a passion. We have never been able to give her a horse for lack of space and money. When we moved here there were 3 horses around the corner from us. Two of them kept getting out and grazing in every one's yards. One morning they found their way to our yard and my garden. I didn't know how to get rid of them and not wanting my garden in their bellies, I called the police. To make a long story short, they came and went and a few days later my hubby was talking with the horse owner and she said she was getting rid of the horses. When he asked her how much she said she was just looking for a good home for them. Tom was so excited to hear this and said we would take them. We took them out to the farm and Tricia is in love.

We are in the process of trying to buy our own place right now. We are hoping to be able to build a home on the farm that Tom's parents own. It's a slow process but we are patiently waiting. Last week the girls added two new kittens to our family. They are so precious. Sunday morning Katie accidentally shut the car door on the little females leg. It is broken so we put a splint on it's leg on Monday and she is sleeping in a cage in the laundry room. She is feeling much better. We named her Callie and we named the tomcat Tiger. We all nicknamed him fatso. He is such a roly-poly. He is a blast!!

Well that lets you know what is going on in our house. I will post pictures later of the kittens. I'm finding that blogspot is frustrating when it comes to pictures. Leave me a comment when you have the time. Take care.