Boy Scout

 I am so proud of this guy! At the beginning of the year, we all set some goals we wanted to work on. Bucko's goal was to finish First and Second Class ranks before he turned 12. And he did it! They had the Court of Honor at the spaghetti fundraiser dinner tonight. I helped out by making three crockpots full of sauce. I also ended up buying two desserts! But the best was Bucko getting his rank. He was SO happy and I'm so proud of him for working so hard.

Silly Kids

 My kids can be so silly sometimes, especially Goofy. He still says things that just crack us up! He decided to make himself a Robot out of cardboard boxes and wore it around the house for several days in a row.

And this little girl loves doing "cartwheels." She totally thinks she is doing one and this is the pose she holds for several seconds. She starts with her arms up like she's going to do it and then goes down to this position and waits for the applause. Love these kids!

Start the Art Night

Every year the elementary school does a Start the Art Night showcasing the student's artwork. The kids love to go and show us their art. It's always jam-packed and crazy at the school, but lots of fun. It was nice to see other families and friends I don't always get to see. Minnie had two things to show, plus her award for Top Dog was posted at the front of the school. Goofy had four pieces of art on display! Bucko went with us so he could say hi to all his old teachers. Crazy that he is in middle school!

Service

We have been trying to do more service with the youth at church. My 1st counselor in Young Women's decided she wanted to take them downtown with some sack lunches to hand out to the homeless. We also gathered up some winter clothing to hand out as well. It was an absolutely amazing experience. We had beautiful weather and were able to help several people. The first guy I talked to was so sweet. He was so appreciative of the lunch and then asked if the clothing we had set out was for free. He picked up the only pair of men's boots we had and said, "You've got to be kidding. These are my size! I've been looking everywhere for some boots!" It made us feel so good! I got into a long discussion with a man who helps out the homeless regularly. He used to be on the streets and got to a really low point. Ready to commit suicide, he realized he had value and could use his life to help others. He got himself straightened out and now helps the homeless find hope through Christ. I talked to him about my own beliefs and even gave him a Book of Mormon, testifying to him that it is another testament of Jesus Christ and goes hand in hand with the Bible. He promised to read it and ask God if it was true. I hope he will.

Nana's b-day

 We had Nana over to celebrate her 66th birthday. I made PC's favorite brownies for her cake. We added the "66" in powdered sugar to look like Route 66. Fun to celebrate with family!

Top Dog

Minnie was awarded the Top Dog Award at her school's Bulldog Assembly. Her teacher was dressed up as the Bulldog this time, so another teacher filled in to hand out the certificate. Top Dog Awards are given to students who are always helpful and good examples to other students.  We sure love our girl!

Strep

 Oh boy! Goofy stayed home from school today because he threw up last night and had a bad headache. Rosie's eye was looking really infected, so I decided to call the school district clinic and see if they could take a look at it. When I got there, I apologized for having Goofy with me and the secretary said, "You know that headache and throwing up are signs of strep throat, right?" I had never heard that before, but she encouraged me to just sign him in and have him checked as well. Since I had nothing to lose, I went ahead. Rapid strep came back positive. (Could hardly believe it since he seemed fine and doesn't have his tonsils!) I said maybe they should check Shortcake as well, even though strep hardly ever presents itself in someone under 3-years-old. Her rapid strep came back positive a few minutes later. I asked if they could squeeze my other three kids in that afternoon because they had all been sick the week before. Since it was a four-day weekend, I figured I better get them all checked out. Tink, Bucko, and Minnie all thought I was crazy taking them in since they all swore they were fine. Every.single.child was positive for strep! Since Rosie did indeed have an infected eye, all six of my children were on antibiotics. Oh fun. But I woke up to this beautiful sunrise and thanked my blessings, especially the one in the form of the secretary who encouraged me to have Goofy checked for strep.

Sweet Girl

 I really can't get enough of little Rosie. She just makes us all so happy. She loves playing with Shortcake's Doc McStuffin's stethoscope.  (1/4/16)

 

And we have a hard time not kissing that sweet face! (1/3/16)

 

Isn't that just the sweetest face? (1/6/16)

Laundry Soap

My friend gave me her recipe to make laundry soap and I have been waiting until I ran out of the liquid soap I had before I made it. I am almost out now, so decided I better get to it. Our Walmart was out of a few ingredients so I had to run down to the one closer to town to pick up the super washing soda and borax. It was actually a lot of fun to make, though I will definitely wear a mask next time. All the mixing together creates a lot of dust so beware if you ever decide to make your own!
First you have to grate the Zote soap. So I used my Kitchenaid for that.
Then you have to mix that up with the other stuff, so Shortcake helped me mix it up in the bucket.

When it's all done, you put it into the containers. It works really well too! PC recently grabbed one of his shirts because he wanted me to use the Fels-Naptha on it to get a stain out that he said had been in there for a couple washes. But in the most recent wash I had used this new laundry soap and the stain was gone!

I'm not sure how long one batch will last, but I filled two containers and you only use 1 or 2 tablespoons per load so it should last a while.