My Precious Daughters

As parents, we only want what is best for our children.

As parents of daughters, we strive to protect them like fragile pieces of china. We want them to feel loved and cherished. We want to bring them up properly and show them the best ways to live life. Here are two fabulous blogs by one of my favorite sites Club31Women that are written to parents and their daughters.

 

 

 

 

 

24 Ways to Become a Lovely Woman Printable

 

 

 

 

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Busy Weekend = Sweet Results

Not only did we make our own laundry detergent this weekend, we did ALOT of canning! Its getting closer to spring time and we needed to get our freezers cleared out of all the berries and juice we had prepared last year that wasnt made into jams & jellies then. Since it was an unusually cold weekend here in South Louisiana, we decided this was a perfect weekend to do some canning.

First up was Mayhaw Jelly: This weekend we put up 48 1/2 pint jars of Mayhaw Jelly which is one of our favorites!

This is the shelf in my sunroom where the jelly did its final cooling before being moved to the overflow pantry area in the laundry room.

Second up was Strawberry Jam: This weekend resulted in 72 1/2 pint jars of Strawberry Jam which is BY FAR my children's favorite. We usually go through 1 or 2 jars a week at our house.

Dont those strawberries look delicious!

Of course.... using a burner on the front porch sure does make that water bath boil faster than on the stove and we dont heat the house up as much either!

And you simply CAN NOT spend a day of cooking during Mardi Gras season without eating King Cake while you cook! lol

I even had my hubby in the kitchen cooking. He was stirring the jelly here, but see that pot in the back? That was his delicious vegetable beef soup simmering to perfection!

The BEST part about cold weather is hot food!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

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Yes... We DID Make Our Own Laundry Detergent

I have been reading more and more about people making their own laundry detergent, cleaning products, etc. After looking over many different articles, blogs and posts I decided it was something I wanted to try myself.

Lets face it: we ALL want to save money! That was my main reason for trying it. With six people in our house, there are always clothes waiting to be washed. One of my favorite things about my house is the 14' x 14' laundry room. Its nearly as big as my bedroom (or is it bigger? hmmm). Anyway.... its a huge laundry room, one of the most used spaces in our home and I love it. I have a table to fold clothes on, shelves to put the folded clothes on, and a hanging bar to hung clothes up immediately.

We also have an upright freezer in there and one whole wall is lined in shelves that we use as our overflow pantry. Above the washer and dryer are more shelves used for "utility" type things and extras like oil lamps, foot baths, Igloo water cooler, etc. Needless to say, our laundry room is a well used room.

But back to the laundry detergent: I decided to try it out. So, one of my (many) projects over this past weekend was to make laundry detergent. Now mind you, my darling husband thinks I am crazy, and my ex-husband thinks I have totally gone off my rocker. But oh well.... when I have saved my little family some cold hard $$ that when I get to laugh at all of THEM!

The total start up cost of this "project" was about $20. I purchased the following things:

1 Box of Borax
1 Box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
2 Bars of Octagon Soap
1 Bottle Essential Oils
1 5 Gal bucket with lid

Now, I didn't use NEARLY all of that for my first batch, but I couldn't see explaining to Walmart that I only wanted 1 cup of Borax & 1 cup of Washing Soda, so I went ahead and bought the whole box they sold it in! :)

Recipe:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Octagon Soap
15-30 drops Essential Oil


I have seen many recipes using Fels-Naptha soap, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I saw the "spot" for it in two stores, but they were out so I went with the Octagon soap instead. From what I have seen, any all-purpose bar soap will work: Fels-Naptha, Octagon, Zote, Ivory.

Step 1: Grate 1 whole bar of Octagon Soap

It kind of looks like cheese huh?

Step 2: Mix the grated soap in a pot with 4-5 cups hot water  on medium heat until the soap melts down completely. DO NOT let it get to a boil. Stir in continuously.

Just keep stirring the pot!

Step 3: Once the soap is dissolved, pour it into a 5 gal bucket. Then add: 1 cup Borax & 1 cup Washing Soda. Mix until mostly dissolved.

Add Soap mixture, Borax & Washing Soda to bucket

Step 4: Fill bucket 1/2 full with HOT water. Add 10-15 drops of essential oil for every 2 gals of water. (I used about 25 drops total even though I used more than 4 gals of water.) Mix until well blended.

Yes, I brought the bucket onto the porch and used a drill with a mixer attachment on it!

Step 5: Fill the bucket the rest of the way up with hot water and mix well.

Step 6: Cover and let set over night. Once it has set, it may appear clumped up or like gel or may be watery. (Mine was a mixture of gel and watery.) NO BIG DEAL! Just stir it up and then put into containers (I am using emptied liquid Tide containers).

USE: 1/2 cup per load of laundry

Now I am sure you want to know the COST of this right? Here is my breakdown:
(1 - 5-gal bucket not included in price below)

1 Bottle Essential Oil - $3.60 (Reg Price $5.99 but I got it on sale)
1 Box Borax - $3.38  - 76 oz = .04 cents/ oz
1 Box Washing Soda - $3.24 - 55 oz = .06 cents/ oz
1 Bar Octagon Soap - $0.97

Recipe:
8 oz Borax - $0.32
8 oz Washing Soda - $0.48
1 Bar Octagon Soap - $0.97
Essential Oil (approx 1/5 of bottle) - $0.75
Water - FREE

Total Cost of 5 gals (approx 150 loads)

$2.52 or $0.02 a load

Tide: $19.98 for 170 "loads" = $0.12 a load

When doing JUST 2 loads of laundry a day I am saving:

$0.20 a day

$1.40 a week

$6.00 a month

$72.00 a year

And that is if I only wash 2 loads a day.... I WISH!!!

MAN I LOVE SAVING $$$

Not just that we will save $ but that we are being more self-sustaining!

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White Wolf Summit Farmgirl

Succulent Sunday Recipe 1 - Chicken Pillows

I have become a Pinterest addict like so many others I know. But one of my favorite thing to pin is recipes. Anyone who knows me, and has been in my kitchen, know the love I have for cookbooks. I have 100s of them. I pull recipes out of magazines, I have more recipes saved in my Favorites online.... I just love to try new recipes. My two favorite things to cook: chicken and any sort of dessert.

Chicken! Go figure... We raise them and its my favorite thing to eat. (Although our girls aren't for eating anything but their eggs!)

Recently, while on Pinterest, I stumbled across this amazing chicken recipe from this amazing cook named Nikki at Chef In Training. Nikki has many recipes on her site that I just cant WAIT to try.

So I tried her Chicken Pillow recipe.

This Photo is not mine.
I assume it is a photo taken by Nikki herself at Chef In Training.
Mine did not turn out NEARLY as pretty and I wanted to make sure that the
photo I gave you was a appetizing at the meal itself!

To say the least I was pleased with the recipe! My family had mixed reviews but all in all, this is definitely something we will be trying again (with some minor modifications).

Here is the recipe from Nikki:

CHICKEN PILLOWS:

1 can of 8 Pillsbury crescents
8 oz. block of cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
2-3 cups shredded chicken, cooked (I usually just buy a Rotisserie chicken and shred it up to make it even easier)
1 egg
saltine crackers, crushed

TOPPING:1 can cream of chicken
sour cream (a couple spoon fulls worth)
milk
shredded cheese


Preheat oven to 400 F

Soften 1/4 cup butter and 8oz. block of cream cheese. Then stir to a smooth consistency. Add cooked shredded chicken to the bowl.

Lay out the 8 crescents on a cookie sheet.

Stretch the crescent out. Place a couple spoon fulls of the creamy chicken mixture into the center of the crescent to fill it. Then fold the crescent around the mixture so that none of it is showing. I'll call this the "pillow"

In a separate smaller bowl, put the egg and a little bit of water, maybe a couple Tablespoons worth and beat together.

Dip the "pillow" into the blended egg.

After dipping into the blended egg, proceed to dip it into the crushed saltine crackers and place on cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining 7 crescents.

Cook the pillows at 400 F for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them your oven might cook them quicker.

For the sauce topping:

Put can of cream of chicken and milk into a sauce pan. Add as much milk as you want to get it to the consistency you want i.e. thicker or runnier. When hot enough add 2 spoon fulls of sour cream and cheese to your liking.

My MINOR modifications:

1. I will be taking out the sour cream and using more milk (or maybe some cream) from the sauce next time. With the sour cream it made the sauce too rich for my liking.

2. I added salt & pepper to the pillow stuffing concoction.

THAT'S IT!! I served it with fresh mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. This was an AMAZING recipe & I cant wait to try it again! Please visit Chef in Training for more recipes that I am sure you will enjoy!

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I "CAN" Knit (Kinda)

I have long wanted to learn to knit. I can do a few basic things with crocheting (nothing to brag about, mind you), but the whole two needle thing with knitting has defeated me repeatedly. Of course, I am not the most patient person in the world so I am not a good learner of this beautiful craft.

Now....

It is MY understanding that needlework is supposed to be relaxing. Well I am here to tell you that me & two knitting needles was far from relaxing! Until I found the Knitting Board! While aimlessly wondering around our local Hobby Lobby I stumbled upon it. Hmmmm, could this be my way to knit?

Knitting boards are the neatest little contraption that really do make a novice like myself appear to be a pro. My first purchase was a 10"small gauge board. It wasn't too small, but wasn't so big that it was scary.

www.knittingboard.com

With my new board and yarn in hand, I made my purchase and headed home excited to try it out. It came with a video tutorial as well as written instructions. I popped the DVD into the player and sat back on the sofa eager to learn. Can we say EASY? Seriously folks.... this is one of the simplest things I have ever done in my life!

This is what it looks like when you are wrapping the yarn on the board

All you are basically doing is wrapping the yarn around the pegs twice, back and forth, then you take the yarn from underneath and loop it over. Again, the video and written instructions are very easy to follow.

This is showing a section of the unfinished project where I changed colors

I have no idea why, but I cant get this photo to post in landscape. Anyway, this is the finished scarf I made.
(I apologize for the horrible picture. It was taken with a cell phone & laying on lime green sheets in my daugther's room)

My first attempt at knitting was a success! In less than 24 hours I had knitted a lovely hunter green and white (my daugther's high school colors) scarf that was SIX FEET LONG! Yes you heard me.... less than 24 hours and 6 feet long! Whoot Whoot!

Really want to know how easy it is to use a knitting board?....... Our family now owns 1- 10" board, 1- 38" board (for sweaters & afghans), and 2- 6" Tadpole boards. My 16 yr old daughter & 10 year old son are both working on knitting projects of their own!

I have also purchased round knitting hoops, but I haven't tried those yet. I will let you know how I do with those once I finish the scarf I am currently working on.

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Have a Blessed Day!