Over the deep 'Green' edge?

Okay, so most of you know that I've made my own laundry soap but I've also dabbled in other cleaners, dish detergent, windex, carpet cleaner, all-purpose cleaner. I used a lot of them on the rental house and they worked really well. After all my couponing efforts, I still have a lot of stock on manufactured cleaners so I haven't been using them here but I will when I run out of the others. It just seems silly to waste the other cleaners.

I've also started trying to make more food cost-cutting techniques. One being cutting up whole chickens. They truly taste better! I've made my own vanilla and chicken stock. Last week we made taquitos and Patch wants more! The mini-chicken pot pies were not a great idea because we still had to spend over an hour cooking them when we wanted to eat them.

Before you read further, take a guess at what these are:

These are why I'm wondering if I've gone over the edge of 'Green'

They are Soap Nuts and I'm going to try using them for the laundry! I read that these are how people washed their clothes in the rivers. They also gave me a small bottle of concentrate that I can use to clean other things. Now I want my own soap nut tree! LOL

Cooking day!

I keep saying that I would love to spend my day off doing absolutely nothing. It never seems to happen though. I love my job. I love the money I make but I miss my weekends. I do try to make the most out of my day off and do something fun with the boys.

I was bad and didn't take pics of the boys actually helping but I know Patch and Franklin enjoyed most of it. We made mini chicken pot pies:

And, chicken taquitos!

 The first thing we did was cook and shred the chicken. I figured that I had never shredded any meat until just recently and now the boys already know. After that, they didn't help much with the pot pies but we had a fun assembly line going for the taquitos. Patch loaded the tortillas w/ chicken and cheese, I rolled them and stuck them with a toothpick or two and Franklin cooked them. It's always a learning experience and we know that we need to find better tortillas next time. We did taste test them (isn't that the best part of cooking??) and they taste good even if they aren't the prettiest tortillas we've seen - at least they have something in them unlike some we've seen at the grocery store ;-) ) And now we have a couple fairly quick meals waiting for us in the freezer.

And our reward for all our hard work? Going out to dinner!!

School update

School is going really well this year. The boys are a huge help with getting their day started even if it's a late work night for me, they both still get up and get started w/o me.

This is my most organized school year yet. We had never actually worked at spelling before but I picked up some used Rod & Staff spelling books and they use them! Both boys are learning cursive and trying to figure out why they need to know it. I said there are only really two reasons... 1) to sign your John Hancock and 2) to read fancy signs. I really don't like that some schools aren't teaching it anymore. I am wondering if any other languages use a cursive type font.

For math, we found the Life of Fred series and the boys seem to really like it. I like the idea of teaching them when they'll actually use this stuff rather than just giving them problem after problem to solve.

Franklin is going to attempt the junior version of NANO this year. I'm excited for him! We are working hard on opening him up to different types of writing this year. I think he has a real talent there and he loves writing.

I'm going to look for more Charlotte Mason type science and social studies for them because what we're doing now is a little boring.

We're learning about Ancient Greece now but moving on to Space soon. It seems like there's always more to learn about a unit study topic.

Nature Walking...

I admit it, I will bribe the boys to get their school work done. And, why shouldn't I? I don't mind doing the things I bribe them with. Like today, we hit Pooh Park! The weather is perfect lately and I don't really want to spend every day penned up in the house. We headed to the Lake House side since we've hit the Pooh Park side so many times. Hermione liked it too. I'm sure she appreciates the cooler weather since she has that fur coat to wear all year long. 

Patch took most of the pictures. This is one of the trails we walked. 

Franklin gave up his iPod for most of the pictures. Too bad he missed some things because he was jamming to his music. But, he does love his music!

The butterflies were abundant today, they were flying all around us in brilliant color.

I'm not sure what look Patch was going for here. He did comment that boys could show their bellies though.

I guess since I'm not the only one holding the camera now, I have to get my picture taken sometimes.

Patch know more about this camera than I do. He set it up to take the picture and then ran to get it in. I think the photography camp he did taught him a few things.

I love looking at reflections in the pond. He decided that walking up closer to the pond gave this shot a better look.

These next two are framing the picture of the lilies.

These two are a worms eye view. The sparkle on the pine needle was beautiful but of course, you just can't capture some things in a picture.

This is a cropped version of the first butterfly picture. He does get some good focus on a picture.

So... in other words. It was a wonderful day for a hike in the woods. I hope this cooler weather hangs around a while!