Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

Description:
Make your own liquid hand soap from your favorite scented bar soap!

Ingredients:
2 cups grated bar soap shavings
2 Tablespoons Glycerin (available at any drug store)
10 Cups water

Directions:
Use a cheese grater or Cuisinart to grate your bar soap into shavings (I like Yardley's Lavender). Measure 2 cups into a stock pot. Add glycerin and water. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until soap is completely melted. Allow to cool completely before filling soap pump and excess storage container. "Liquify" in a blender if you want a foamier consistency. That's it!

Note: Thanks to SavvyHousekeeping.com for the original recipe, which turned out too watery. I've altered it to get the thicker, store-bought consistency I prefer.

12/22/11 - Holiday Cheer

December has been much drier and sunnier than usual, though we often have frost in the mornings.  The girls are enjoying being able to go play outside in coats and mittens without worrying about rain or mud.  They love decorating Christmas cookies and seeing the Christmas lights wherever we go.   We went with our friends Megan and Todd to the Grotto to see the Festival of Lights.  Bethany was afraid of the puppet show but loved petting the animals (go figure), and the girls had a blast running around looking at Christmas lights with their friends Madeline and Bella.

Eva has been counting down the days until Christmas on the calendar, occasionally stuffing Mommy or Daddy’s stocking with a new picture she drew while frequently reminding us that we’re not allowed to look until Christmas.  The girls had a lot of fun filling an “Operation Christmas Child” shoebox with toys and other items for a little girl far away who wouldn’t get any presents otherwise.  Every night we’ve been reading a story from “The Jesse Tree” advent storybook.

 

We took the girls to visit Santa at Dave’s building, and Eva wanted to know where his reindeer were.  Mrs. Claus informed her that they were still on the roof, and Eva observed, “Oh, I didn’t look on the roof when we came in.  I must have missed them.”   Though Amanda wouldn’t go near Santa last year, this year she proudly informed us that “I’m not going to be shy anymore.”  She sat boldly on Santa’s lap and told him that she wanted a “puppy costume,” and that Eva needed a “lion costume with a mane.”   Bethany, on the other hand, didn’t want anything to do with the strange man in the red suit.

 

Eva seems particularly concerned this year that we don’t have a chimney for Santa to climb down.  “Maybe Daddy can build one,” she suggested, but I assured her Daddy and I will be happy to stay up and let him in through the front door.   

Transitions

A few months ago I got some new “normal” shirts for myself after 7 years of being either pregnant or nursing.  This month I decided that it’s finally time to ditch the diaper bag.  I still have to carry around a few diapers, wipes, and snacks (I keep extra clothes in the car), but a large purse can handle that just fine.   It’s another bittersweet reminder that our baby days are mostly likely behind us. 

 

Bethany recently graduated to at 2T coat, and Eva is big enough to ride in a booster seat now (though I still prefer to keep her in a 5-point harness as long as possible).   It’s funny to think that if we were following the spacing pattern we’ve had up until now (the girls are all 26 months apart), we’d already have a newborn by now.   It’s strange to have three kids who sleep through the night and only one left in diapers.  It’s weird to realize that next year, we’ll already have two who are school age.  Where does the time go? 

So "Two!"

At 27 months, Bethany is a girl who knows her own mind.  Though she still can’t talk, she expresses herself through pointing, nodding, shaking her head, and other gestures.  When she wants something that Eva or Amanda happen to be playing with, Bethany has a habit of swiping it and running away at full speed with a screaming sister on her tail.  Sometimes I wonder if the thrill of the chase or the attention is more exciting to her than the item itself.  She knows she’s not allowed to have a sweet until after she finishes lunch or dinner, but that hasn’t stopped her from pushing her food away and crying because her sisters are getting a treat after polishing their plates.    

She loves to climb on the desk while I’m typing or push her little chair around the kitchen and use it as a step-stool for reaching things she’s not supposed to get into.  She loves to get into the wet wipes and “clean” things around the house.   Yesterday I caught her wringing a wet wipe into my coffee.  She is soooo “two”!    

Bethany is now old enough to understand a lot of what she sees on TV and find it either funny or frightening.  I very rarely allow the girls to watch anything with a villain in it (at 4, Amanda is still at the age where it’s difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality).   But little things you wouldn’t think of, like Mr. McGregor chasing Peter Rabbit away from his garden,  are suddenly scaring Bethany, so I’m more careful now what I allow the girls to watch when she’s awake.  

AWANA

Eva and Amanda love their Wednesday night AWANA club.   Eva frequently asks me to help her memorize her Sparks memory verses during the week so she can finish her book and catch up with her friend Kasey (who is a year old and has two patches on her vest).   Amanda is in Cubbies (3 and 4 year olds) so her class all does the one verse together each week.   By memorizing verses and participating in activities like the canned food drive, clubbers can earn “shares” that they can spend at a bazaar twice a year.  The girls loved shopping at the Christmas bazaar and choosing presents for the family and their little friends.  Volunteers helped them wrap the gifts afterwards so they could remain a surprise, but they’re so excited I’m not sure they’ll be able to keep them a secret until Christmas.  

10/11/11 - School Days

It’s hard to believe we’re already a month into the school year.  Eva is enjoying First Grade.  She especially likes the science experiments and learning about animals.   Right now she’s learning to write sentences with punctuation and to do simple addition problems. 

 

Amanda has her own preschool workbook she likes to do while Eva’s doing school work.  She’s learning to stay on the dotted line when she traces.   Bethany wants to do everything her big sisters are doing, so I give her pages from a coloring book that has letter practice at the bottom.   It looks like her sisters’ school work so she intently scribbles with a pen and proudly shows her work. 

 

At Monday School, Eva gets to go upstairs with the “big kids”.  She has three classes that she picked: “Bendaroo Biology” (learning about Animals using Bendaroos), “Ocean Life” and “Animal Adventure”.  I’m detecting a pattern of interest, here.  ;)  Amanda joins the Pre-K class and I stay with Bethany in the toddlers’ class. 

 

On Wednesday mornings Eva and Amanda take ballet, though we’ve missed the past two weeks due to a cold that just doesn’t to quit.  We’ve also missed Amanda’s library class and the AWANA club, but hopefully the runny noses will quit soon so we can get back in the swing of things.  Two weeks is too long to be cooped up indoors.  

Fun Times

Eva is very creative and loves to draw pictures or make cards.  She’s very detail oriented, wanting me to tell her exactly what certain animals eat so she can depict it correctly, or how to spell a word (though sometimes she guesses).   When the girls watch a movie, they like to act it out at the same time, and Eva plays director.  Sometimes they use their little toy animals (dinosaurs for “Land Before Time”, or dogs for “Balto”), but many times they play the parts of the characters themselves. 

 

Amanda always carries a toy animal with her wherever she goes.   It rotates by the day – mouse, frog, lion, etc. – but it’s always something.   We’re slowly building a collection of Schleichs, and whenever we go over to a friend’s house she immediately wants to play with whatever animals we don’t already have at home. 

 

Bethany loves to cuddle, so she tends to gravitate towards a toy doll our neighbor gave us that has a freakishly enormous head.  Not sure why she picks that one, but it appears to be her favorite.  She also loves music and will want me to put on a sing-along DVD about a dozen times a day, like Mary Rice Hopkins or Cedermont Kids.   These past two weeks when everyone was sick I quickly got tired of them, but Bethany still wants to hear them over and over.  

Changing Clothes

The great thing about having all girls is that clothes can be handed down.  I have Rubbermaid tubs full of clothes from newborn to size 6, all labeled and stacked.  The weather has turned cold again, so I’ve packed the summer clothes back into the garage and brought out the winter wear.  Eva is wearing size 6 tops right now (size 6 pants are still a little too long), so she’s wearing new long-sleeved shirts and dresses I found on clearance last summer.   

Amanda is moving up to size 4T, and though she likes the shirts and pants she’s inherited, she prefers dresses.   I’ve been buying every long-sleeved dress I could find in the second-hand clothing store for the past few months, and she’ll wear them even if they’re size 5 or 6 and the sleeves are too long, since she loves twirling in the long, flowing skirts. 

 

Bethany is a “girly girl”, too, but I don’t have any warm dresses in her size, so she likes to put a tutu or dress-up skirt over her clothes when she’s in the mood.   She’s barely 20 lbs, and her legs are so short she still fits in 18-month outfits with separate tops and bottoms.   Her torso is too long for one-piece outfits that are 18-months, so I’ll put her in 24-month outfits and roll up the sleeves a bit.  I prefer to put her in one-piece outfits right now because that way she can’t take her diaper and pants off.   

Petite

Bethany is so tiny for her age and has dropped well behind the growth curve trajectory she had for her first 6 months of life.   Once I started introducing solid foods, her growth rate slowed down dramatically, and we haven’t been able to pin down why.  We thought eliminating gluten after she tested positive for gluten intolerance would get her back on track, but her growth remains slow.   We had her tested for food allergies and did a blood test for thyroid, iron, kidney and liver function and hormones, and everything has checked out fine.   Her development is on track except for her size and weight, so I guess she’s just petite.  

Bethany Turns Two

Bethany turned two on September 19th.  We had a small party with friends and gluten-free cupcakes.  It's hard to believe we don't have a baby in the house anymore!  It's funny to think that if we were still following the pattern of the past few years (a baby every 26 months), we'd have another one by November!  Instead, I've put all the maternity and nursing clothes away for the first time in 7 years.  

The crib has been packed away, and Bethany now sleeps like a big girl on the bottom bunk.    But her newfound freedom has meant that she pops out of bed like a Jack-in-the-Box when it’s time to go to bed.  Once she finally goes to sleep, though, she typically stays in bed until early morning.  She’s been fully weaned for a couple of months, but she still likes to wander down the hall around 4am, crawl in our bed and cuddle. 

 

During the day, Bethany is a typical 2-year-old fighting for independence.  She gets into anything that’s not locked up or put up high.  I have to cook using the back burners because she likes to stand on a chair to reach things on the counter or get a better view of what I’m doing.   We had to put the diaper pail on the top bunk because she started getting into it, pulling dirty diapers out and bringing them to us. 

 

She figured out how to take her diaper off and likes to sit on the toilet like her big sisters, except she’s afraid of the hole in the seat, preferring to perch on the rim.   She hasn’t figured out how to go yet – just likes to sit there and pretend.   Last week she wouldn’t let me put her diaper back on and spent almost an hour just sitting there, before she decided to come out to the living room and peed on the carpet next to the couch.   Yep, not quite in tune with bodily signals yet.   I’ve resorted to putting her in one-piece outfits with snaps so she can’t pull her pants and diaper off and have another accident.  

Pushing Buttons

With the return of the rainy season, I decided to get a used Wii as a way to get some indoor exercise.   I found one on Craigslist with a Wii Fit Board that was barely used, and the girls love it.  Amanda’s favorite game is sword fighting (she calls it “knocking people off into the water”), and she’s really good at it.  Eva prefers the baseball and bowling.   Bethany will take a dead remote and follow along with her sisters’ motions.   

 

Bethany loves anything with buttons, so we got her a toy laptop and she loves to pretend to type on it.  She’ll hold the mouse to her ear like a telephone, so it appears hers is a hybrid model of some sort – half phone, half computer.   Still, she has a lot of fun with it. 

Toddler Chatter

Bethany is learning to say a few words now.   She calls me “Maw-yee” (it sounds like “my” with a drawn-out southern drawl) and Dave “Da-yee”.   She can say “bye-bye” clear as a bell, but usually only after we’re loaded in the car and the person she’s waving to can’t hear her anymore.   Eva will coach her and can get her to sound out words better than anyone else.  

 

While her vocabulary remains limited, she definitely understands what words mean.  If I tell her simple instructions like to put her dirty clothes in the hamper or find her sippy cup, she knows exactly what to do.   She nods or shakes her head and has no problem making it clear what she wants.   Her favorite strategy is to pat my arm or leg until I follow her, where she’ll point to the desired object and emphatically yell “Ah!”   

8/16/11 - Second Honeymoon

We celebrated our 10^th year of marriage this weekend.  Hard to believe how fast time has flown!   In honor of the occasion, we went to Oregon coast for the weekend, leaving the girls in Grandma and Grandpa’s capable hands.   

We spent an afternoon in Seaside and then drove down the coast to a beautiful little Bed and Breakfast called Sandlake Country Inn.  It had a whirlpool tub and a fireplace, and they brought breakfast do your door instead of making you eat together with strangers every morning.   I definitely preferred that arrangement!  

Despite living in Oregon for four years, it was the first time David had seen the coast, and only my second time.   We did see a couple of surfers along Pacific Beach, but the water was freezing enough to require full suits, hoods and booties, even in August.   Besides the beach, we also went to see the Tillamook Air Museum, the Pioneer Museum, Cape Meares Lighthouse, the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and the county fair, which just happened to be in town the same weekend.   

They host a local annual tradition called the “Pig-n-Ford” races, which is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.  Racers run over to a pen, grab a pig, haul it over to their stripped-down Model T, turn the crank, get in, drive a lap, put the pig back, grab another one, and repeat for two more laps.  What’s really funny is when one of the pigs get loose and you have six to eight burly guys trying to chase it around the track.  

After a day of checking out the local sights, it was nice to come back to a warm bubble bath and cozy fireplace (man, I miss having a fireplace!), and strange not to have to worry about getting the kids fed and bathed and into bed, or having the baby wake me up at 2am.   This was the first time David and I had been away from the kids overnight since the girls were born – over six years ago.  I think I did pretty well, only calling home three times!    Of course, the inn didn’t get cell phone reception, so I HAD to check in, just in case.  ;) 

Getting Ready For School

Eva is going to be a big 1^st grader this fall.  I can hardly believe it!  I’m getting everything ready for her to start school the first week of September.  This year for History, Literature, Language Arts, Bible and Science, I decided to go with Sonlight, a literature-based curriculum that uses the Charlotte Mason approach.   I was  lucky enough to get it used from another home schooling mom for a fraction of the cost.  One of the benefits of Sonlight is that it uses more “real” books than textbooks, and very few consumables, so most of it I can keep to use again when Amanda is ready.   We’ll also be using Handwriting Without Tears and Singapore Math – our first year with a full load.  

I’ve decided to go on the 4-day schedule (Tues – Fri) so that we can go to the “Monday School” co-op as our fifth day.   Thankfully, the teacher’s manuals already include the option of a 4-day schedule, so I don’t have to rewrite it.   I plan on signing Eva and Amanda up for ballet again, and letting them join the AWANA club on Wednesday nights now that Amanda is old enough to participate.   There’s also a Saturday morning “Reading Readiness” class at the library on Saturday mornings that I’ll be taking Amanda to for a few weeks, so it promises to be a VERY busy fall!  

Maria

Last month we hosted an exchange student from the Basque country in Spain through the Summer In The USA program.   It was a last-minute decision in response to a request for a host family that was circulating on our home school co-op email list, but I’m so glad we decided to do it.  Maria was patient and sweet, and the girls immediately fell in love with her.  She had been to the states twice before and came as an intern since she was already 19 and out of high school (older than the average participants).   

The first two weeks were spent getting to know our family, then a week at Young Life camp, and then one last week with us before flying home.   We tried to pack as many new and interesting experiences as we could in such a short time.  We introduced her to oatmeal cookies, pumpkin pie, cranberries, blueberry pancakes, and other foods she hadn’t tried before, and she made us a traditional Basque Tortilla dish and a delicious pudding made from minced walnuts simmered in milk.  

We visited the Oregon Zoo, hiked to Latourell Falls and Larch Mountain, and drove to Seaside for the first time.  It reminded me of growing up in Avalon on Catalina Island, with all the souvenir shops, seafood, saltwater taffy, and tourists walking in the streets.

At the aquarium, the girls got to pick up starfish and hermit crabs, feed the sea lions, and see an octopus and stingray up close.  

We visited the library and saw the “reptile man” bring out exotic snakes, lizards, turtles, and a giant bullfrog that delighted the kids.

Katya, Megan and I took Maria and all our girls fishing at the Rainbow Trout Farm, which was a lot of fun.  Maria caught two that got away from her when they started flopping, but finished with the biggest catch of the day. 

 

Having an exchange student stay with us was a new experience, but a wonderful one for all of us, and I certainly hope to do it again.