Life In a Shoe

Your burning questions answered

kimc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:30:53 +0000

I am pleased to present answers to a few of your questions from my pathetic Help Me post. Thanks for jump-starting my brain.

On your book, Princess Adelina , who is Julie Sutter? I keep getting confused how it’s your book and yet doesn’t have your names on it….Could you give us a puzzle piece?

Julie Sutter was the author of the original book. We didn't write the book. We just found an old book, retyped, updated and edited it, created maps and a glossary, etc. Then we presented it to Vision Forum for re-publishing. Our names are inside, as editors.

Tell us how schooling is different now than when you were being homeschooled. What are you thankful for that you know since you were homeschooled?

We were homeschool pioneers when I was a kid. We hid in the house during school hours and endeavored to recreate the institutional school experience at home, minus the humanistic worldview. Well, not exactly - but there was no such thing as unschooling, relaxed schooling, or even the eclectic approach. Each step away from "the norm" was akin to walking on the moon: one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. My parents were brave pioneers during an early and uncertain time for homeschooling, and I'm thankful to be farther down that path in a friendlier part of the woods. I'm thankful to be another generation removed from the assumption that "real school" = age segregated children learning from a canned curriculum in an institutionalized setting.

update us on how your chicken experiment is going!

After a brief and horrible misunderstanding with our Golden Retriever regarding her life purpose and that of our chickens, our hen population has stabilized at just under 20, and we were getting 1-2 eggs/day. That's pretty pathetic, but I blame myself. I have read that most chickens need 14-17 hours of daylight for optimum laying, and it took me weeks to drag my sorry carcass out to the chicken house to install a light to fool our hens into believing that it's still summer.

Now, after 3 days of never-ending light, our production is up to 3 eggs/day and we've had our first 2 green eggs which means that new hens are laying. Of course we're hoping that it will rise more than that. My suspicion is that it will take a while to kick everyone's body clocks into action.

I’m curious about the potted plants on your deck. Was it worthwhile? Do you plan on doing it again next year?

Worthwhile? No. But we had a brutally hot summer and I've heard that very few gardens in south Texas were worthwhile this year, so I'm hesitant to call it quits on our deck garden after the first season. We'll probably give it another shot next year.

Why don’t you re-post your birth stories? Those are some of my favorites.

Thank you. I enjoy them too, especially in the past sense. Not so much at the time. Here they are:

When Silly Putty Attacks

kimc — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:53:24 +0000

Connie blogs regularly at Smockity Frocks. She is the mom of seven rowdy children, wife of one hunky golf pro, maker of aprons, wiper of noses, writer of stories.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a child's play thing that was so frightening, so traumatic, that it scarred you for life to the point of having Post Traumatic Toy Disorder whenever you unexpectedly encountered said toy?

No? Well, count yourself blessed, Friends, because you may be just one unfortunate encounter away from this happening to you! [Cue creepy organ music.]

In the days of yore, when we only had two small children, my husband would load his golf clubs into our van and we would pack up our suitcases and travel around with him to one golf tournament after another for weeks at a time.

I was in the habit of packing little bags of toys and trinkets to keep the kids occupied in the van on the long stretches between tournament towns. I included small trinkets like a mini Etch-a-Sketch, crayons, tiny note pads, little books, Sillly Putty, and small stuffed animals.

One particular tournament that will forever be seared into my memory was in the Atlanta area. It turned out that one of the children was upset that the Silly Putty was missing from the activity bag.

"Don't worry," I comforted her as I gave a quick glance around the van, "It will turn up." [This would be called "foreshadowing" in an actual literary work.]

Oh yeah, it turned up all right.

We had found a little country church just outside of Atlanta where we could attend worship services that sunny Sunday morning. During one of the "stand and sing" portions of the service, I noticed that some teenagers sitting in the pew directly behind me were giggling hysterically, which I found odd since I didn't see anything funny about "This Is My Father's World".

At one point, I looked back to see what was so funny and I saw their eyes dart up from a southerly direction.

Self consciously, I rubbed the back of my dress, and to my horror, I felt the missing flesh colored Silly Putty clinging stubbornly to the back of my navy dress like a barnacle on a tug boat.

I inconspicuously contorted myself like a Chinese acrobat to wrest that rubbery blob from my back side, all the while trying to act like I wasn't about to die of embarrassment thinking of all the people who had just seen me with a glob of gummy goop on my hind end.

I quickly dislodged the offending wad and tried to act as if nothing had ever happened. I continued singing, all the while wondering how many people had noticed it and WHY one of them didn't stop me to say, "Ma'am, you have a glob of goop on your... uh... dress."

Of course, the kids were thrilled to have their Silly Putty back, but I was already making secret, sinister plans to dispose of it and forever banish it and all its kin from my presence.

To this day, whenever I pass Silly Putty in the toy aisle, a cold shiver goes down my... uh... dress and I must hurry away from that horrid reminder of the time Silly Putty attacked.

Connie
www.smockityfrocks.com
Aprons and abc's, baking and bandaids,
laundry and long division...
All to the glory of God

Current chore list

kimc — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:19:46 +0000

This question popped up once or twice when I asked for blogging ideas, so here's what we do currently. The list changes about every 3 months. This is more often than hubby and I prefer, but not nearly as often as the children would like.

Deanna (16yo): clean & straighten living room; plan and cook dinner; rinse dinner dishes; iron
Kaitlyn (14yo): burn trash; clean & straighten dining room; put away clean dishes; iron
Lydia (13yo): Lydia has requested all outdoor and animal duties: feed & water animals (chickens, dogs, cat); keep yard picked up; take out compost; "first shift" on dinner dishes (clear & wipe counters, put away leftovers, set up coffee for following morning); iron
Megan (11yo): clean & straighten bathroom and kitchen; wash dinner dishes; iron
Natalie (9yo) & Becca (8yo): hang all laundry to dry; sort and fold dry laundry, put away towels and diapers; clean & straighten laundry room; breakfast & lunch dishes; clear & wipe table after dinner.
Rachael (5yo): clean and straighten deck (under Lydia's supervision); help clear table after dinner.
Perry (3yo): empty small trash cans in bedrooms.

More notes:

The kids also put away their own laundry and are responsible to keep their bedroom clean.

8yo Becca very often volunteers to cook breakfast. She made pancakes this morning.

Deanna often has help with dinner. Her primary duty is to plan and prepare a main dish.

This list is not comprehensive: some people regularly help above and beyond the scope of their daily chores, and I have no reservation about making "extra" requests of anyone and everyone when the need arises. The sentence, "But that's not my job" is a capital offense in our house. We used to have more children, but had to make examples of some.

Just one puppy boy left…

kimc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:58:53 +0000

...and he's the sweetest guy ever!

I've heard that pups left with their mothers longer than the standard 6-8 weeks learn better manners and are more gentle than those that go to new homes sooner. The theory says that their mother schools them in doggie manners, teaching them not to play too roughly, where to relieve themselves, etc.

I was a little skeptical the first time I heard it, but you have to meet our last pup. At 12 weeks, he has none of the crazy wildness one expects from a high-energy breed like Golden Retrievers. He is gentle enough to trust with the baby, and has been almost completely housebroken by his own mother - though he's not entirely averse to using a back corner of the bedroom if we miss his signals. Ahem.

But here's the best part: we accidentally left him alone in the house for 10 hours over the weekend, and came home to...no surprises. He didn't chew anything. Didn't get into the trash, even though he was desperately hungry by the time we got home. We found a couple of accidents, but he could hardly help that. The only surprise was that there were no surprises.

We had a couple of inquiries about his ad yesterday, so I took him out on the deck for a photo shoot. The hardest part was narrowing down the results. Isn't he handsome?

PS. Just in case you might be interested, Duke is AKC registered and for sale for $400, though we'll give readers a special $50 discount. He can be shipped to any major airport in the continental US for an add'l $300.

Happy Birthday

kimc — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:59:07 +0000

It's official. We now have 3 teens in the house. Not content with 3, hubby is counting down to the day we'll have 5 teenaged daughters at the same time. But is it just my imagination, or is there a haunted look in his eye when he contemplates those days? hmmm...

Lydia turned 13 yesterday, but I took her out for a birthday trip earlier in the week since I was going to be in town anyway. At her request, we visited several thift stores and used bookstores. This is my children's idea of a perfect shopping trip, and I love it!

Then we splurged and split her first-ever prime rib dinner at Outback Steak House. I say we splurged, but the entire meal was just over $20, including tax and tip. I'm not sure introducing her to prime rib was such a great idea, since she enjoyed it just as much as hubby and I do. Expensive taste isn't always a good thing. But prime rib is always a good thing. Oh, yes it is.

13 Memories for Lydia

Remember when you used to play hide-and-seek with Cinder the cat? You always chose the cat's hiding places. I'm not sure we ever convinced you just how much the cat despised this game.
Remember the nickname we used to tease you about loving animals to the point of cruelty?
Remember when your sisters convinced you that they were going to bury you in the 4' pit they dug in the backyard?
Remember when you were too short to turn on the bathroom light? You would leave the door open for light, and short chubby little Megan would grin and slam the door, leaving you in total darkness.
Remember when somebody wrote your name with a rock on Grandpa C's van? But it wasn't you, was it?
Remember when you wedged toothpicks upright into Grandpa B's chair? And he actually sat on them?
Remember when we were learning about Egypt and you got to be the mummy, all wrapped up in toilet paper? Everyone wanted to be the mummy, and then you got too scared to go through with the job.
Remember when you helped a certain young aunt eat a cheesy stone-fried stick bug?
Remember when Deanna dressed you up like an Indian? And years later, she found the old pics and posted them to the blog? And dad was shocked and made her take them down.
Remember when you woke up and found your pet caterpillar all wrapped up in tape-y stuff? And you unwrapped him to save him? Poor lil guy.
Remember the stink bombs from Grandma's old barrel of rotten horse grain?
Remember when you and your sisters tried to drown the rats out of the walls of the upstairs bathroom?
Remember when you threw a peanut shell in another customer's drink at Texas Roadhouse?

Do you remember all those, Lydia? We do. Happy birthday!

Help wanted

kimc — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:13:18 +0000

You know how tired you get in your first trimester? Does anyone else spend those weeks feeling like their personality dried up and blew away? I have no imagination, no motivation, no personality. I pity anybody who invites me to a party. At least I won't be throwing up on their floor. Yes, the beans are still helping. I spend all my time nauseated, but rarely cross that line to actual vomiting. I'm thankful but also feeling an amazing tendency to whine about how I feel. Isn't human nature an audacious thing?

Due to my utter lack of personality - which I sincerely hope is temporary, because I'm even boring myself - I also can't seem to think of much to blog about.

Your input is welcome in nearly any form: Suggestions. Requests. Questions. Guest posts. A swift kick to the seat of gentle nudge to the other 5 members in this household who are supposed to be blogging.

Review: Bummis!

kimc — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:12 +0000

Isn't it cute? Ours looks just like this, and the print made us coo and squeal when it arrived. Even Bethany was pleased, patting her diaper all day to remind us that the cover was new and pretty. We have plenty of simple, respectable diaper covers that do a perfectly adequate job, but the cute ones like this really make cloth diapering a pleasure!

We found our Bummis covers to be simple, well-designed, and effective. We had no leakage problems. They have gusseted legs, which I think are essential with prefolds. They have laundry tabs, which we all should learn to use consistently.

I love the nifty crossover feature, which stretches the sizing by allowing you to cross the velcro tabs over each other. Obvious and ingenious!

Based on name-brand recognition, I assumed that Bummis were the best and most expensive cover on the market. I was pleasantly surprised to find that their prices are very moderate.

We also got a beautiful wet bag to hold used diapers and wet clothes. When not in use, it takes very little room inside the diaper bag. Once it begins to fill up, we can use the snap-strap to attach it to the outside of the diaper bag. The triple seams and zipper closure keep odor, wetness and mess safely inside, and bag itself can be dropped right into the washer along with the contents. For the first time in my married life, I am not using all the grocery sacks that come home with groceries. I just might switch to reusable grocery sacks, a greener habit than I ever expected of myself.

But in spite of the solid quality, features and sheer cuteness of their products, where Bummis really shines is customer service! I was committed to using cloth diapers but getting discouraged by our persistent stinky problem. Even after several washes and rinses, even with plenty of sunning, my diapers still stunk. The ladies at Bummis picked up on this and volunteered their time to help me find the problem. They asked questions, offered advice, sent free PDFs on the subject, and persisted until we found the problem. They are committed to helping their customers and making cloth diapering a pleasure. This takes more than a cute cover, and they are willing to put out the effort.

disclosure: If you must know, I received these products free for review. I requested them myself, because I really wanted them.

No shampoo update: 7 months and counting

kimc — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:28:20 +0000

It's been a long time since I mentioned the no-shampoo thing (I just can't bring myself to call it no-poo), because I've adjusted very well. The initial adjustment was tough, but that was largely because of the learning curve and my horrible hard water. Maybe somebody out there can learn from my experience and have an easier time of it.

There are a few pros and cons, but overall I think my hair and scalp are much happier and healthier. Saving some money is a nice perk, too.

MY PRODUCTS

soda water

To prepare my soda water, I boil 2 quarts of water. Then I turn off the heat and slowly stir in 1/3-1/2 cup baking soda. Once it cools, I pour into a large empty dishsoap bottle. This makes it easy to open and close, and easy to apply. I keep this right in the shower, like a bottle of shampoo. 2 quarts is enough for ~8 uses, even with my long thick hair. For those with less hair, it would go much further.

Try just stirring together baking soda and water first. If you don't have freakishly hard water, you probably won't need to boil yours like I do. But if you find that your baking soda just sits like grit on your head instead of dissolving while the natural oils stay in your hair, try boiling. The soda water should feel slippery rather than gritty, and the oil should just rinse away.

vinegar rinse

My "conditioner" is just diluted apple cider vinegar in a second dishsoap bottle. I don't measure. I just pour ~1/2 cup in the bottom of a 1/2 gallon bottle and add water to fill.

White vinegar works too but apple cider vinegar seems to be milder and has a more slippery feel to it, so it leaves my hair feeling more conditioned.

MY ROUTINE

Most of the time I put my hair up when I shower. About every 3 days, I decide my scalp is getting oily or dirty enough to benefit from washing. On these days, I use soda water to wet it down. I don't know why, but I find it works much better if I don't wet my hair first with plain water. Although my hair is long and thick, it only takes ~1 cup to thoroughly wet my scalp.

I don't worry about the rest of my hair - that doesn't really get dirty, and does gets plenty clean in the process. I just wet down my scalp and scrub gently to work in the soda water. I have a tendency toward dandruff in certain areas so I pay special attention to those areas.

After washing with soda water and rinsing with plain water, I squirt about 1 cup of this throughout my hair and gently work it in. It should feel slightly slippery. One more rinse and I'm done. I've learned not to worry about lingering vinegar smell. It dissipates as my hair dry.

PROS AND CONS

My hair used to be so oily that even 24 hours between shampoos was a little gross. I had dandruff nearly all the time, only barely hidden by frequent shampooing and trials with dandruff shampoos. At first I tried to go a week between washings. That was simply too much, and made the transition harder than it needed to be. Now I wash about twice/week. For the first time since I was little, after 3 or 4 days my hair just looks shinier than usual rather than having an oil slick on top of my head.

I have found that the occasional flakiness I get now can be brushed away. I think this is more of a natural shedding than the unhealthy scalp I had before.

My hair has a subtly different feel now, and I like it. It's a bit heavier and more substantial. It feels thicker and is more obedient, even though I use absolutely no styling products. This always reminds me of the old saying, "I just washed my hair and can't do a thing with it!" Now I know what they meant. My hair used to be so soft and slippery that I couldn't keep it in a clip - it just fell right through. Now it's soft but has some body to it. It also looks shiny and healthy, with none of the flyaway-frizzies that I used to get when I skipped conditioner. Weather affects it very little. No static, no frizzies, no flathead. Just normal happy hair.

One thing I don't like is that the natural oils make my scalp attract dust and lint. I have to brush more often to keep it clean, and my brush gets a white greasy residue and has to be cleaned frequently. Yes, kinda gross, but I just remind myself that this is the natural oil designed to protect my hair from the elements. Frequent brushing helps distribute this oil to keep your head of hair sleek and shiny.

At first I missed the fragrance of shampoo and conditioner, but I quickly realized that I can add my own fragrances by applying a dab of perfume oil or a spray of cologne to my hair brush. The funny thing is, once I realized this I stopped missing it. Just knowing that could seemed to stop me from feeling "deprived." I rarely remember to do it now.

I'm not one to jump in with every trend that comes along, and I thought this one sounded crazy when I first heard it. Now I have to admit there's something satisfying about not being dependent upon commercial shampoo. It feels like the way hair is meant to be treated. Once I quit stripping my hair daily, it became hard to think about going back.

Have you jumped on the no-shampoo bandwagon?

That boy makes us laugh

kimc — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:41:59 +0000

Last week, Kaitlyn showed the boy a coin trick.

She started by asking if he wanted to see something cool, and of course he agreed. She showed him a penny in the palm of her hand.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.

"No, that's not the cool part yet. Watch." In the blink of an eye, the penny became a quarter.

Eyes wide with incredulity, he asked her how she did it.

"It's magic," she glibly replied.

His face fell and his tone suddenly became serious. "God said not to do magic."

I think she’s right

kimc — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:02:44 +0000

Becca just came to me out of breath, straight from the henhouse.

"Mom! I think one of the chickens is sick!"

me: "How do you know, honey?"

Becca: "She was still on the roost, and I was petting her and she was making a noise like this: wheeze! gasp! wheeze! gasp! hack! hcckhpbbt! And then wah-bam! She fell on the floor. And she's still there."

me: "I think you're right. She sounds sick."