I ♥ Faces Photo Challenge | Pet Faces

This week's challenge over at I ♥ Faces is all about pets.  I've taken a couple photos of our dog, Toby, since I started the 365 challenge and it was hard picking which one I wanted to enter in this week's contest.  I decided on this one because this is how Toby spends most of his day while the kids are at school.  He'll usually raise his eyes up to look at me but never really raise his head off the floor.

Go over to I ♥ Faces by clicking the logo above to see all the other adorable pet entries this week!

All things FEET

All of you that have a foot phobia, go ahead and find something else to do because otherwise you're going to read this and say "eww, feet" the whole time and then blame me for the 5 minutes of your life that you wasted on reading a post about feet.  You don't even like feet anyway.

OK, for the rest of you that have stuck around and really want to hear about feet, here you go.

Did you know you can get eczema on your feet?  Seriously, is that for real?
Is the skin on your feet super, overly dry?  So dry that maybe your husband might say "honey, you really need to get that checked out" and you probably reply with "oh, it's just really dry, it is winter, you know."  And then he follows it up with "seriously, haven't you heard about some disease that makes you have lizard skin? You really need to get that checked out."

OK, so I waited a few months to get the super, overly dry skin on my feet checked out.  We're headed to FL next week and a light bulb went off....Florida, hot, sun, FLIP FLOPs... Oh shit, the lizard skin!  (oops, sorry mom, no worries, I already bit the soap; good thing I make my own now.)

Guess what she told me?  The coconut oil, vitamin E, super expensive creme I've bought?  None of it will work.  It needs a steroid cream because its eczema on my feet.  One day of cream and my feet are pink again, who knew?!  So, here's your daily tip.
If you husband tells you might be developing some rare lizard skin disease, go to the doctor!

Feet story #2
Emily's feet grew from a size 7 to a size 10 in about 7 months last year.  Talk about an expensive shoe bill!  I nearly birthed a cow in the sports store when the size 9, then 9.5 didn't fit and I had to reach up and pull the size 10 from the top shelf.  I had half a notion to buy the sports wrap and bind her feet right there but I thought surely we'd come to the end of the growth cycle.

Since last fall she's had a lot of pain in her feet after activity and she's a very active girl so we heard her complaints often.  I finally thought this wasn't growing pains so we made a trip to the pediatrician who referred us onto the podiatrist.  Her appointment with the podiatrist was today and after one look at her feet and x-ray he asked me "is your husband tall?"  I get asked this ALL the time when I have Emily with me and he isn't with us.  My response, as usual, was 'no, he's 5'10"" so then he looked at me quizzically.  I knew what this look meant because I see it just as often as I'm asked about my husband's height.  I quickly replied "I have a very tall grandmother" and he said "ah, there it is."  It must be in the doctor's handbook to trace down the tall DNA gene or something.  He told us what we've heard many times, Emily will be tall.

As it turns out, Emily got screwed when they handed out the feet DNA and has some issues that we need to work on resolving.  One way to hopefully resolve it without surgery is orthotics made for her shoes.  As with most insurances, ours won't cover custom orthotics and buying a new set every shoe size change would become quite costly.  I mentioned to the doctor that she's been in a size 10 for a few months now so maybe that means she's leveled off on the foot growth and orthotics might be a good idea.  Right about the time I said she's been in a 10 for a few months Emily piped up with "Yea, and they're getting small!"  Oh my, seriously?  Size 10.5?

When I was a teenager my mom and I had the same sized feet, pretty much.  But, she always hated it when I wore her shoes, "you'll stretch them out," I'd hear.  I'd always think "yea right, how can I stretch out your shoes?"  When Emily blew through her size 8-9 shoe range and tried to take my shoes guess what I said to her?  "No, you'll stretch them out!"
You'll stretch them out is really 'mom code' for "get my nicely cared for shoes off your feet before you wear them outside and get mud in the treads or let the shoelace drag on the ground because I don't buy shoes for my teenage (or tween!) daughter to wear;  get your own damn shoes!"

Now that Emily wears shoes nearly 2 sizes bigger than I do, I don't have to worry with her borrowing my shoes anymore.  Small victories.

Bread (alternately titled: My Time Suck)

These are two loaves of bread that I baked yesterday.  Take a guess on which one is whole wheat bread.

Well, duh genius, the one on the right. Right?  Or, correct? for you English aficionados.  I'm sure you were able to guess the bread on the right is wheat based on the color but I'm about to blow your mind.
They are both whole wheat bread!

Yes, that is right.  Merely an hour before these slices were rising into beautiful loaves of bread they were wheat berries in their whole form.  The slices on the left were made from hard white wheat and the ones on the right were made from hard red wheat.  Hard red wheat is the standard wheat used in wheat bread, hence why you were able to guess the slices on the right based on their color.  Hard white wheat has all the same nutrition as red wheat but it has a lighter color and milder flavor.   I use white wheat for nearly everything I bake but J likes a hearty, nutty red wheat loaf occasionally so yesterday I baked two different kinds.

I alternately titled this post "My Time Suck" because that is what it's become.  Not that I mind it but now you know what I'm doing a lot of the time instead of writing posts on this blog.  About 7 months ago we made the jump into grinding our own wheat and making our own bread products.  I'm sure you are thinking "that is just crazy, is she for real?"  I know you are because I thought the same thing when I first learned about it.  I even added "seriously, people do this kind of thing when bread costs $2-$3 a loaf?!"  It was not a cheap investment but once we listened to a conference and really researched all the health benefits from grinding your own grains we decided it would be a good investment in our health and our children's' futures.  It's certainly not for everyone but it has worked for us.

I've been wanting to write a post on this crazy adventure so I figured I'd start with this and the promises that I'll dive more in depth soon.  That is, as soon as I clean the flour off the countertops and wash the pile of dishes this adventure brings.

Want to learn more?  I've learned a ton at www.urbanhomemaker.com (where I got our bread recipe), and www.kitchensterwardship.com
I've ordered most of our products from www.pleasanthillgrain.com and we started this journey after listening to Sue Becker from www.breadbeckers.com

Making Homemade Soap

A couple of years ago I started making my own laundry soap.  Then I stumbled across a video at GNOWFGLINS on how to make your own bar soap and it started my internet research (about the only kind of research I do) on exactly why it would be better for me to play Dr. Soap in the kitchen rather than pick up a 12 pack of Dove soap from Sam's Club.
I found that historically, soap was made from lard, lye and water but now we buy soap that has many synthetic ingredients.  Some of these synthetic ingredients are there for a good reason, such as making the bar last longer but many of them actually remove the moisture in our skin instead of providing moisture for our skin.  Plus, I think just as it is in many other areas of our health, we can do without most synthetic ingredients.
So, now I will show you how to make your own "cure everything lye soap" that sells for $4 a bar or more at those fancy historical theme parks.

Here are the basics:
You take lye (sodium hydroxide) and mix it with water to dissolve it, then you mix your fats/oils in a separate bowl and once you mix the two mixtures together it creates a chemical reaction where the lye bonds to all the fats/oils and creates soap; this is called saponification.  It is no longer lye or fats; it is soap. Although, the qualities of the fats you used will still benefit your skin.
Pretty cool, right?  It makes you want to strap on your safety goggles, rubber gloves, old apron and say "Let's get started!" Right?

Is it cheaper?
At first, no. I spent about $40 to buy the initial supplies to make our own soap, but I've only had to replenish my coconut oil and palm oil since my first order last summer and I've made 6 batches of soap (about 18-24 bars each).  Even the cheapest bar soap at the store will eventually be more expensive than making your own because the $40 in supplies makes more than 40 bars of soap.  It just takes more than one batch to see your savings but your skin will see the difference immediately.

I purchased my first supplies from the The Soap Dish (no affiliation, no money, mkay FTC?)  They are like most other online companies trying to combat methamphetamine abuse; as they will only ship lye (sodium hydroxide) if you purchase it with other oils or supplies.
(Side note: After making this purchase I did find drain cleaner at Lowe's that is straight sodium hydroxide.  Before the time of online stores, most people purchased their lye from a local hardware store in the form of drain cleaner.  Very few stores carry straight sodium hydroxide now due to the methamphetamine movement, so if you decide to look for it locally be sure to check the ingredient label.  The only thing listed should be sodium hydroxide (lye); there shouldn't be any fillers.  If you do find it you can come home and make soap with simple oils in your kitchen- using only olive oil would make a pure castile soap.)
I have made another purchase to replenish my supplies from Oils By Nature (again, no affliation, no money).  They had a bit better price on bigger quantities and when I had a mess up with the order they were very friendly and fixed it right away, at no cost to me.

My original order from The Soap Dish included:
Coconut oil 76 degree
Palm Oil
Stearic Acid (has acid in the name but it is actually a fat, it hardens the bar)
Shea butter
Castor oil
Sunflower oil
Lye
I used these fats along with olive oil that I had purchased locally for our first several batches.

To calculate any recipe I use SoapCalc.  You can research all the different qualities of fats and then decide what kind of bar you want to make by adding the individual fats; it will then calculate how much water and lye you need to use.
Example: I choose our bath soap to be heavy on the conditioning oils and lighter on cleansing but I make our laundry bars heavy on the cleansing oils and lighter on the conditioning because I need it to clean the dirt out of our clothes; not nourish our skin.

When cooking, I am the type to throw some of this and that into a pan and not measure anything.  You CANNOT do that with soap making.  Lye and the water/lye mixture is extremely caustic and you must have the correct ration of fats:lye in order for your mixture to make soap and not a harmful bar of caustics.  To make sure all the lye will be saponified you "superfat" your recipe by 5-6%.  That means you have 5-6% more fat than you scientifically need, just to err on the side of caution and ensure that there isn't any unreacted lye in your soap.  SoapCalc's lye calculator defaults to a 5% superfat recipe but you can change it to a higher percentage if you want.

OK, so I put my fats into the lye calculator at SoapCalc and then told it I wanted to make 2 lbs of soap and divided out the percentages of each oil.  It then gave me the weight of each oil, the amount of water to use and the amount of lye needed to produce a 5% superfat.  It also gave me the chemical make up of the final soap so I can see how hard, creamy, bubbly, conditioning, etc. the soap will be.

This batch has the following fats and measurements.  The information in the parenthesis is what that particular fat contributes to the final bar of soap.  Don't use these measurements for your own batch though; please put your fats into the lye calculator and print our your own; just to be safe.

12 oz. distilled water
4.4 oz. lye
8.1 oz. coconut oil (hardness, cleansing, creamy lather)
8.1 oz. olive oil (hardness, creamy lather, conditioning)
7 oz. canola oil (conditioning)
6.4 oz palm oil (hardness, creamy lather, conditioning)
.9 oz. sunflower oil (conditioning)
.6 oz. shea butter (conditioning, creamy lather)
.3 oz. castor oil (extremely nourishing to skin, bubbly lather)
.3 oz. beeswax (hardness)

Gather safety equipment: white vinegar, gloves, safety glasses, old apron, long sleeves, long pants and wear shoes. Fill a gallon pitcher full of water and a cup or so of white vinegar; use this to clean up anything that touches lye.  The vinegar will nuetralize the lye; I pour the vinegar solution on the bowl, thermometer, spatula, etc. a couple of times and then wash with dish soap before I take off my gloves because the idea of washing things only once really freaks out my husband who avoids the kitchen lab like the plague when the lye is out.

Weigh water in a glass bowl.
Weigh lye in a separate bowl then slowly add to water while stirring.
(Always add LYE to WATER and never water to lye.) This will create some fumes so if it's nice outside, I do it outside (with the kids nowhere near!) but if it's cold I do on the stove top with the exhaust fan running.  If you add the lye very slowly the fumes won't be so bad.
Adding lye to the water will create a chemical reaction and it will get very hot; don't try and pick up the glass bowl for awhile.  Place a thermometer in the bowl and wait for it to get to 110 degrees; this usually takes at least 20 minutes for me.

Measure your solid fats by weight into a bowl, then place them in the microwave for 30 second intervals until they are melted.  Measure your liquid oils and combine with your melted oils.  I usually measure the liquid oils directly into the big bowl I will be mixing the final soap in.
Wait for your oils to reach 110 degrees.

Once the lye mixture and fat/oil mixture both reach 110 degrees, carefully pour the lye mixture into the fats/oil mixture.

Use an immersion blender (I found an old one at the thrift store for $2!) to mix the mixture; be careful not to spray it everywhere.  It will turn creamy as the saponification takes place.  You are looking for the mixture to "trace" which looks like pudding or custard.  When you move the blender around and the trail stays then you have reached trace.
After trace you can add anything you want to, such as oatmeal, honey, lavender flowers, fragrance, etc.

Time to mold!  I use $2 drawer organizers found at Wal-Mart to mold our soap but you can buy official soap molds or just use a dish from your kitchen.  Sometimes I line my mold with parchment paper, sometimes I just rub some coconut oil on it to help release it.  This particular batch was extremely hard to remove from the mold, so don't do what I did; line your mold with parchment or freezer paper for easier removal.

Smooth your soap out, lightly tap it on the counter to settle it and then put it somewhere safe, out of direct light for 24 hours.  After 24 hours you can unmold the soap and cut it into bars.  Most of the saponification has taken place so it will not hurt you anymore; in fact my soap is already producing a bubbly lather after 24 hours!  Once you cut the bars, stand them on their sides on a tray and place in an area out of direct light to finish the curing time(I put ours in a bathroom closet.)
Some say one month is a long enough cure time, others say 6 weeks.  The longer it cures, the harder and more creamy the bar will be.  I cure our soap for 6 weeks just to be safe that all saponification has taken place; plus, the bars are harder and will last longer.

Now you have this somewhat soap, somewhat-not mess left to clean up.  If you clean it now it will be more like cleaning oil.  If you wait 24 hours it will be like washing off soap.  I usually clean it up right away and just deal with the oily residue but this time I waited 24 hours and it was so much easier.  I just stashed the bowl inside the closet so I wouldn't have to look at it for a day.

So, there you have it; a tray of 14 bars of soap that is so much better for your skin than the bars purchased at the store.  If you were to package these and sell them as "old fashioned lye soap" just like the fancy historical theme parks you could rake in around $56 for that tray.

I hope you'll don your safety glasses, gloves and apron and play Dr. Soap in your kitchen lab soon!

New Restaurants

Have you heard?  I am opening up two new restaurants.

One will be named "I Don't Know" and the other will be "Wherever You Want."

So, those times you're in the car and ask everyone "where do you want to eat?" and get the standard reply of "I don't know", you will have a place to drive to.  I predict it will be full of families with many indecisive members.

The other restaurant named "Wherever You Want" will most likely be full of couples. Young, dating couples, middle aged couples with children (who have left them at home) and of course, older aged couples as well.  So, when one asks the other "where do you want to eat?" and they get a reply of "oh honey, it doesn't matter, wherever you want" they will have a place to take their significant other.

Seriously, I can't believe these restaurants don't already exist.

One Year!

Can you believe it was a year ago today that we walked into a Beijing orphanage as the parents of 3 children and walked out as the parents of 4 children?!  Head over to our adoption blog to watch a video I made for this special day.

http://lovejourneytochina.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-year.html

I ♥ Faces Photo Challenge| Innocent Wonder

I found another photo challenge website and decided to give it a go.  This week's challenge theme at I ♥ Faces is "innocent wonder."

I have chosen this picture of our youngest daughter, Claire, who was adopted from China exactly one year ago.  She always loves to laugh and has shown us innocence as she has learned what it's like to be a 7 year old in America.  Everything is new, everything is good and she approaches it all with a smile on her face.

A funny

While mixing up sourdough crackers and english muffins this morning, I stand cackling with laughter in my kitchen while watching TV. Loudly; alone in my house.
Why?

A man asks his wife what she'd like for their anniversary, which is quickly approaching.
She tells him she wants something silver and shiny and will
go from 0 to 150 in 3 seconds.
He bought her a bathroom scale.

Admit it, you're laughing now too.

365 Project

I want to learn more about photography.
I want to learn how to use all those dials and buttons on my camera.
I love looking at photos that other people take and it inspires me to pick up the camera and take more of our own.

So, as a way to challenge myself and learn more I am trying the 365 Project.  I made a new blog just for the daily photos; we'll see if it lasts 12 days, 120 or the full 365 days.  Thankfully 365project.org uses themes for each week because otherwise I'd run out of ideas after a few days.  I've learned that the kids only like the lens in their faces a few times a month and have coined the term "mamarazzi" and use it often, so this will give me ideas for photos that leave them out of it.

To follow my 365 Project, bookmark my photo blog and see how far I make it.
www.cnj365project.blogspot.com

Claire's 8th Birthday

My baby girl is 8 years old today.   It's official, I sound completely crazy when asked what ages my kids are- 12, 10, 8 and 8.  Let me tell you, that raises an eyebrow; especially if I tell them my last two are 8 months apart and my kids aren't with me.  I tell them sometimes just to see their face.

It has been a joy watching Claire enjoy and soak up the special attention her birthday has brought.  She has shared with us that she would have a small cake on her birthday in China but never a birthday present.  She was very loved by her foster family and having a small cake is more than most children waiting for adoption receive but she has definitely been waiting for those presents.
She patiently waited through all the birthdays in the family and commented frequently about "my first birthday in America!"  I was a little worried she was expecting a pony or something with the amount of her excitement, but no, she was just looking very forward to her special day.  I found this t-shirt months ago and tucked it away for today.  Now the whole world will know it's her birthday and I'm sure she will be quick to tell them it's her FIRST birthday in America.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Thanksgiving

This is the day of the year we are supposed to pause and ponder what we are thankful for.  I've been trying to explain today's holiday to Claire, who is celebrating her first Thanksgiving with us.  I think she understands what being thankful means; after explaining it to her the best I could she stopped, thought and then said "I'm thankful for being in America."  So are we babe; so are we.

We are doing our big Thanksgiving meal on Friday but I've already been in the kitchen for a few hours this morning preparing.  It is about now that I wish I had an entire wall bank of ovens.  I have my recipes all printed out and organized, just as any Type-A Thanksgiving cooker would.  You all do that too, right?

I am so thrilled to open our home to our family and fill their bellies with good food, at least I hope it's good!

Disappointment with a side of anger

Do you anger easily?
Sigh, this is one of my many shortcomings and although it's taken quite a long time, I am now able to see that my anger is usually a front for disappointment.  I am able to see that even more clearly when my tween carbon copy, my mini-me storms out after something not going as well as she'd hoped it would.  Hmmmm, anger?  No, disappointment.

Just this morning I had high ambitions of power washing the front of the house, despite it being a crisp 45 degrees outside.  I figured the water wasn't frozen so I might as well be productive.  I got bundled up, everything covered except my nose and mouth and headed outside.

1. Drag out the muddy tools that need to be cleaned so I can do everything at once.
2. Drag out the ladder.
3. Drag out the hose.  Upon reaching the hose reel I see the spigot on the side of the house has been dripping for quite some time.  It's closed as much as possible but still leaking; sigh, another task to add to the list.  I get it all hooked up and drag the hose out to the driveway.
4. Hook up the 2 connections for the wand, both of them want to strip and I'm willing them to screw on correctly with a few choice words under my breath.
5. Hook up the hose to the power washer.  Again, it does not want to screw on and is just begging me that Nov. 3rd is the day it will strip the plastic threads.  Who puts connections with plastic threads on a piece of power equipment, anyway?
6.  All is hooked up, trek back and turn on the water.  Gusher spraying everywhere from the spigot.  I think the neighbor may have heard my frustrating grunt that time.  I try to tighten it, no luck so I say forget it and let it spew.
7.  Get the tips in the wand.  The wand says "forget you" and won't close all the way due to being cold.  Oh, and the tip I need for soap is gone.  Oh well, I'll try to figure something out.
8.  Power washer started- holy GUSHER.  Every connection is leaking, spraying and looking downright ridiculous.  Who hooked this up, a 5 year old?!
9.  FORGET IT ALL.  I was so pissed, just down right MAD.  

I turn it all off, unhook all the connections, throw the hose off the driveway so I don't have to look at it, push the power washer into the garage and come inside.  The dog was moving slower than I wanted so I yelled at him too, just for good measure.

Looks like anger but really it's disappointment.

Not like Mom

Clue #1 that I don't do laundry like my mom:

After telling the kids to bring their laundry down and sort it by color I was inundated with replies like "what?! what do you mean?"

I mean sort it by light colors or dark colors.
"So, this dark pink, where it would it go?  And gray, what do you call it?"

Not kidding, every.single.child said the same things.

Clue #2 that I don't do laundry like my mom:

My kitchen currently looks like this. 

The view this morning

Matthew had time to turn a few cartwheels before catching the bus.

And Claire had time to laugh. Of course, when doesn't this girl have time to laugh? It's one of the things she does best.

A Picture Story

One evening we decided to hike up to a lookout to view the sunset while overlooking the river.  I bring you a picture story of how our evening went.

The kids started off with way more energy and stamina than I did.

But Claire stopped and said something like "don't worry Mommy, I wait for you."
Oh, thanks sweetheart.

Me: Lets get you all together and take a picture, OK?

Yea, they were all thrilled about that, Matthew obviously the most thrilled.

Me: Well, I need new pictures for my frames so let's get one of each of you alone.  Thankfully, that did work, the pictures from this post are their individual photos from that night.

Claire: I need to go potty!
Me: Hmmm (looking at my wonderful husband),..well, honey I'm toting around this camera, would you mind taking her?

So off they went.

The other kids were growing restless and trying to find things to do at a place that doesn't really have things to do; except look out over the river, of course.

Let's make our footprints in the sand.

Me: How about let's take some pictures of the views from here guys.

Jacob: No, that is kind of boring Mom; let me think of what we should do.

Yes, that park bench looks like a mighty fine place to entertain ourselves.

We kept moving towards the general direction of the only restroom, hoping to intersect J and Claire on their way back to us.  But, it was still taking quite some time for us to meet up so Jacob pondered more activities.

This looks like a fine hill for us to run down and nearly fall on our faces.  Sound good to you?

Wow guys, that was fun.  I think we should really try to make ourselves one with nature.  Care to join me?

Well, since we're doing this lovey dovey thing and you can lean on me and all that, how about you remind me to take my allergy meds next time.  OK, bro?

Me:  All right, Claire is back!  OK guys, gather together and let's try getting a few pictures of you before it gets too dark.  Mmmkay?

Emily takes charge of the gathering and gets her long arms around all of them.
Matthew:  Do not touch me!  Get your arm off me!  Don't!

Claire: Will you please don't touch me?
Matthew:  *Insert scream grunt here* Get off me!
Claire: I don't want any picture.

OK, well that was fun!  Let's move on.

Dad is always best at changing the mood so we find a picnic table and he starts making up "I dare you to fill in the blank" games.  These start out simple enough but the kids must always out do each other.

Shortly after this last picture the inevitable happened; Matthew fell off the table as he escalated his tricks.  The only other people at the lookout were totally giving us looks and I wanted to yell, "Yep, we're THOSE parents!"  I was really disappointed that I didn't get any pictures of Matthew falling off the table because after he promptly stood up, brushed himself off and let out a smug "I'm fine!" my mother's panic turned into "darn, that would have been a great picture!"

I chased Claire around for awhile trying to get her picture because she had been avoiding me.  I got her to slow down enough to put her hair behind her ears.

When she realized I got her picture she laughed and said "I don't know why you always take my picture, Mommy?"

Because I can, and because I love to!

With that we got a picture of the sunset we came for and made our trek back down the hill.

What a fun, impromptu evening overlooking the river.

While Mom's Away

I'm squeezing my beauties a little tighter this morning before they run off to school.  Why?
Because I'm leaving this morning for the weekend with just the ladies from my family; my mom, sister, grandma, aunts, and cousins.  I'm so excited to shop all day for 2 days with some of the ladies closest to me.

Are the kids worried about me leaving, or sad that I won't be here when they get off the bus today?
I don't think so based on Matthew's realization the other day.

Matthew: Mom, so you are leaving and we're staying home with dad?
Me: Yes
Matthew: And how long will you be gone?
Me: 2 nights, 3 days  (I'm thinking he's worried that I'll be gone long enough for the house to run out of toilet paper or something.)
Matthew: (as his eyes are rolling around to indicate he's thinking hard)  All right, that means we'll have enough time to eat at all the places you won't let us!  Mom, did you know that Dad takes us to eat where you don't like to go while you're gone?
Me: Yes, I know that
Matthew: (covering his mouth) Oops, maybe I shouldn't have told you that!

So, my kids aren't disappointed at all that I'll be away from them for a couple of nights.  Nope, instead they are already dreaming up the milkshake concoction they will be slurping from Steak and Shake in the very near future.