A Frugal Tip.

So the last month or so I have been trying to come up with ways to save a few extra dollars for our family, maybe even a couple hundred dollars or more over the year. I have done a bit of couponing but nothing heavy duty, the average I save is about $30 per shopping trip, not much but it was a start, then doing a bit of research on making my own laundry soap and fabric softener I realized, 1.its not that hard to make, and 2. at a cost of about $19 I can make enough laundry soap for 6-8 months, when compared to about $9 for 32 use bottle of soap, and thats for 2 week,  it does add up, expecally since my house hold goes through a ton of dirty laundry, its something I wanted to look more into.
So let me share with you my recipe for my powdered laundry soap and liquid fabric softener.

                                        powdered laundry soap
INGREDIENTS-
      -1 bar of Ivory soap (you find this where the bodywash is in the store)
      -1 bar of Sunlight soap (this is in the laundry isle of the store)
      -2 cups of Borax (this is as well in the laundry isle)
      -2 cups of Amaze (this is just a laundry booster just like the Borax) or for those who can find it instead of Amaze use WASHING SODA this is not to be confused with baking soda.
      -1 cup of oxyclean (I just used the store brand of oxyclean)
     
DIRECTIONS-
       -with a cheese grater shred up the bars of soap.
       -in a food processor with the chopping blade put all the ingredients in and run it till you can no longer see big chunks of bar soap. it should all be a even powder.
       - place in a container with a lid
use 2-3 tablespoons per load, this is okay to use for top loads or front load washers.

                                  Fabric softener
INGREDIENTS-
       - 2 cups water
       - 1 cup vinegar
       - 1 cup baking soda
       - fragrance oil, or essential oil

 DIRECTIONS-
       - combine water and vinegar in a large bowl
       - add the baking soda SLOWLY it fizzes up
       - stir well and add the fragrance oil until the desired is reached
       -pour into a pourable container and make sure to shake before each use.

To make fabric softener sheets just use old pieces of cloth in a container and pour the mixture over top and toss, throw a cloth into the dryer with you wet clothes should work fine (I have not tried this method yet)

I hope everyone who trys this likes it as much as I do, I'm interested to hear your feed back and ideas for other $ saving ideas.

Angelversary!

8760 hours or 365 days or 52 weeks or simply just 1 whole year,
 no matter how it is you look at it,
that is how long it been since mom took her last breath, that is how long we all have lived life without her here,
but most of all that is how long she has been missed by all of us.

The day she passed away, we all thought at one point how it was that we were to live life without her here with us, It was not easy and still is not easy, and I know it does get better with time, but for now we can just live for today, besides a year ago, we had no idea where we would be physically, or emotionally  today, and even though some of us have chosen to withdraw from what matters (FAMILY) we are doing OK.

When she was told by the doctors that there was no cure for her cancer, she did her best to ready us all for the day she would earn her angel wings, she did tell us it was not gonna be easy for us, and also told us that one day when the pain is not so raw, we would be able to smile and not cry every time we thought of her, she asked us to remember her and talk about her as often as we needed to.

I still can't believe its been a year, it feels like last week and at the same time feels like years have passed, I find myself wanting her back, but knowing if she was here the cancer would be here too, and she would be in so much pain.

Thinking back to the last few days of her life, and remembering dad as he held her hand and told her how much he loved her, and thanked her for all she had done and had given to him, has opened a side into my dad I never seen before, and to see him today, still making sure her wishes were and are full filled, is priceless.

If I was asked who my hero is, I would have to say I don't have just one, my mom AND dad are my heroes, they have taught me all I know, but most of all they are who I am today.

Today won't be easy,
but we are together and that is all that matters,
that is all she really wanted.

A letter from myself today, to myself a year ago.

Today you know that in the next little while mom will be getting her angel wings, and you may find yourself thinking this is not happening, but it is, nothing you say or do is gonna stop it from happening and you fear that you can't live without your mom, but guess what? you will be OK.

Over the next year you will encounter a range of feelings, some good and some bad, you will want to shut down and just lay around not wanting to talk to anyone or do anything, but you will push though because mom wanted you to, and you will do your best to be a mom to your children, because they are what gives you strength each and every day.

Remember it OK to cry and you will cry yourself to sleep most nights, and remember even though you feel all alone, your not, she is still by your side (she said she would be) just like your family is.

You will learn who you can trust,and who you can talk to, and there will be very few.

Parenting will get harder, just because you won't be able to call mom for advice.

You will pray almost every night that dad is safe and sound, ad that cancer stays away FOREVER!

But all that you will face in the next year, please know...................you will SURVIVE IT.
not because you wanted to, but because you needed to.

He was my best friend!

 My brother Byron was born on this day in 1982, at 18 months apart we were always together, we were so close that some of our classes in school, we were in the same class, some people even thought we were twins, of course we were not, and at one point growing up at about 6 yrs or so, people thought he was older because he was taller than me, which he then earned me calling him my bigger little brother.
 but all the good memories are shadowed by the day he died and let me tell you the day he left, my heart sank, I felt like I now had to face this world all on my own, I had no Byron to buddy up with. I still ask why after almost 10 years why he left me.
He took a piece of my heart with him when he left, I know people say time heals, but I'm not so sure of that, I think we just develop scars, no person on this earth could replace him, just like no person can replace my mom, yes there are days that are easy, an others that are not, like today.

I sometimes find myself thinking of who he would be today, and this is my picture, he would be married, working on the oil rigs, he would have a house on an acreage, and him and his wife would have at the very least 5 kids and maybe more, he loved kids, and could entertain and age child with his goofy self.


every year the calendar hits February and I cringe, I hate February, its a hard month to swallow, but as the clock ticks and the days pass I don't get the choice to shut down, they come and go, and before I know it, it will be March, a new month and the rest of the year will follow.

And so Today is February 16Th 2012, and today my brother Byron would have been 30 years old, today I feel a little lost, but I do know tomorrow will be better, ..............the day after is always better.

Some of my thoughts.

So last week I had a meeting at the school because there were several things that were bugging me about our local school that I needed to sit down and talk to the principal about, I'm not going to talk about all of them that we discussed but I do want to voice a big one.
My son who is 10years old has dealt with bullying since kindergarten/gr.1,from the same 2 kid, and every year I voice my concerns to the school about it, it does get better for a bit but it always returns to the same, and the cycle begins again with me speaking up.
I would do anything to make sure my kids are taken care of, even if that means pulling them out of school and home schooling them, I had even went as far as telling the Principal that I was not sure I could do another school year in this school, and contacting the home schooling center for info but after along time of stewing this in my brain and talking with a lot of people, I made the decision that running away was not a good idea, it shows my kids to do the same when things are tough, and I don't want that.
Instead I am using my life experience (as I too was bullied as I was growing up) to teach my kids to stand up and say NO! all kids should be taught this.
So as it stands my kids will stay put in this current school, and the teachers will just have to put up with seeing my fat ass there a lot more.

I watched some of our home videos with my girls tonight, you know, the ones where you say OMG they were really babies once?
Come September of this year all 3 of my babies will be in school. One in kindergarten, one in gr,2 and one in gr,6. where has the time gone? I feel so scared, like when you have worked the same job for over 10 years and then it feels like its gone because you have been demoted? I know its not, I still need to raise this children till they are adults, which is years away.

When I finished high school I was 18years old, I moved out of home all on my own for all of 3 months before moving in with Eric (which we only dated for a little over a month before doing this). I became pregnant with Aidan just 10 months after we started going out, So you see I don't know any different than having at least one child with me at all times, with time I'm sure I will adjust to the change, but I know it won't be a easy one.

Whats new?

With the new year well into January, and being my last post was at the end of December, I figured I should put a post in about what I have been up to.

So I once again made a resolution for the new year to healthy myself, loose some weight and try and be a bit more organized in our day to day life.

I feel like over the last few years when the new year rolls around I find myself fatter, unhappy, and unorganized.........also I am sounding like a broken record when it comes to this weight loss thing, its been a thorn in my side for almost all of my life. and after watching both my mom and dad suffer though cancer and mom passing away from it, it has made me more aware of how just by changing my life style can impact my not leaving my kids without a mom when they are 30.

I don't smoke, never have, so that is already one point for me my kids, I don't exercise as much as I should, in fact if it involves soreness I avoid it as much as I can, I never really cared what I ate, except when I'm trying to loose weight.

So all these things I am changing, some days better than others, but so far as of last Friday Jan/13/12 I was down 9lbs, I feel great, my energy is unbelievable, my house is getting a lot more organized simply because I have the energy, and as a bonus, because I changed my diet, my woman issues I WAS having have normalized, so I hope it stays that was because I don't want to nor do I have the time to go though a surgery for it, I still do have a ultrasound on the 24Th of this month to check for cysts on my ovaries.

So that pretty much sums up me, now on to other things.

Dad scared us last week by rolling not on but 2 propane bulk trucks at work, he luckily was not injured in either accidents and no one else was involved, but after the last roll over, it was found at the hospital he had dangerously high blood pressure, like 179/103. looking at those numbers its obvious that it needs attention ASAP, he is now on high blood pressure meds as well as baby aspirin (talk about walking heart attack) you would never think he would have an issue with blood pressure weighing 165lbs (he is still very thin).
He is doing OK for now, and I tell him that he has got a lot of angels watching over him.

Well I think that's all for now, the washing machine beeped so that my Que.