Looky, Looky!

Look what came in the mail today...it's my dad's book! By which I mean he wrote it! My dad is a preacher, and has been for 50 years. He has every sermon he ever preached outlined on a little 4x6 card, cataloged and filed. He preached full-time in Canada for 22 years (during which time I was born), and the rest in his native United States. He has even been a guest preacher in Scotland a few times. The book is based on some of his sermons.


What makes this even more exciting in our household is that Firstborn designed the cover. He gets his very own copy. (Disclaimer in case it looks familiar to anybody: he started out with free clipart, but the publisher didn't want to use that, so Firstborn drew it freehand and made some of his own changes.)

My dad and Firstborn doing the scripture reading
at our church last fall while dad was visiting.

You can watch videos of my dad's recent sermons here; I think the plan is to be able to order his book from the website as well, but they don't appear to have that up yet. If anybody would really like to order a copy, let me know.


In other news...Guess what? Tomorrow will be my 50th post! Maybe I'll have a (very small) give-away!

WFMW--Kids' Chore Wheel

Over the years I've used different systems for doling out and keeping track of chores for the kids. Some have worked better than others; we have been using the current method for a couple of months and it's been quite successful.

I call it The Wonderful Wheel of Work because the kids just love it so much! What, don't believe me? Okay, really I call it that because it (the name) kind of bugs them (snicker...bad mom!)

These are just basic daily household chores; it does not include stuff like making their beds or tidying their rooms. It also does not preclude me occasionally asking them to do something else that needs to be done. (As you can see, I blocked out my kids' names. I've gone to a lot of effort to use pseudonyms for my blog and I wouldn't want to spoil the mystique!)

I have three kids, so I came up with 6 chores, a morning and afternoon or evening one for each of them. I tried to pair them up more or less equally so that each day includes an easier and a more difficult/unpleasant job. Each day is always the same; i.e. Empty Dishwasher always goes with Set Table (if you enlarge the photo you can see that there are days A, B, and C). The only variation is that on day C, the afternoon chore for my oldest is to scoop the litter box; for the other two it's clean the bathroom.

I made a larger circle out of cardstock, pasted a different color on three of the pie wedges to differentiate morning and evening, and attached a smaller circle of a third color with a brad. The red circle has the kids' names, and every morning I rotate it. This system has cut down, though not eliminated, a lot of arguing and complaining. They can plainly see what is expected of them, and for the most part get it done without [too many] reminders. Works for me!

Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more practical ideas!

Thrift Store Bust

This morning I felt oddly at a loss, because with my chalkboard finished, I do not have any bloggy projects waiting in the wings. I had a couple of errands to run, so I thought while I was out I would stop by the thrift stores for inspiration.

I was specifically looking for old clip-on earrings for my magnets. It seems like these would be a dime a dozen, doesn't it? I did find a few, but they were $2 a pair, which just seemed a little too high. So I'll keep looking, and if I don't find them any cheaper, I'll go back.

I also looked at Michaels for this 'family' magnet; I've seen this project a number of times and it's really cute and simple. I couldn't find it, though. Can anybody help me with brand name, or what section it's in?

I had a couple other things on my thrift store list, like a winter coat for Pinkerbelle, but didn't find anything today. (I did find her a brand-new-looking American Girl Chicago sweatshirt for $1, which I will save for later as it's too big now. We've actually been to that store several times, so it's not cheating, as Firstborn would claim.) Overall, it was slim pickins.

I've recently made it a habit to squeeze all the throw pillows in the thrift/consignment stores, looking for down or feather filled ones. The cover doesn't matter, because the plan is to recover them for our bed whenever I get around to our room decor. Today I found this matching pair for $6 each. That's not bad for feather, and these are a good size, about 1'x2'.

These actually have pretty covers, and go very well with the paint color in the family room. So for now, I parked them on my craigslist couch. As you can see, what I need to be working on is window treatments.



So, somebody needs to come up with a quick and easy project that I can copy and that will cause a run on the dollar stores, like the 'boo' frame did. I'm getting antsy, here! 

Chalkboard Project

Today is the unveiling of a project that has been a couple of weeks in the making. It all started with my desire for a chalkboard in the little hallway that leads from the garage to the kitchen. I had purchased some chalkboard paint with the intention of just painting a rectangle on the wall. I have used that method in previous houses and it worked well.

That, however, was before my introduction to blogging and all the creative ideas that are out there. Inspired once again by JOYS OF HOME and this project, I decided to keep my eye out for a suitable frame. Shortly thereafter, I found this one at Goodwill. It's quite large; the picture, not including the frame, is about 2'x3'. And it was "only" $9. I say "only" because GW around here can be quite ridiculous and random with their pricing; I recently saw a mauve and country blue faux oil painting from the '80s of about the same size at a different GW priced at $100!! Give me a break!!

I originally was just going to paint over the picture with the chalkboard paint like Joy did, but decided that I wanted it to be magnetic. So I went to Home Depot with a magnet and a mission. I did look at the magnetic paint, but I had heard it didn't work that well, and it was $21, more than I wanted to spend. Next I went and checked out the building supplies; flashing (for roofing, I think) is thin, flat and metallic. Magnetic? Yes. But it came in long rolls that weren't wide enough and was actually kind of pricey. Then I came across an endcap display of metal sheets. I'm really not sure what they were for; some were magnetic and some weren't and the ones that were didn't come in the right size.

I had just about resigned myself to risking the magnetic paint when I stumbled into the ductwork aisle. Thin smooth, metal. It passed the magnetic test, what about size? Aha! I couldn't believe my luck! There was a flat piece that was exactly 2'x3'! And it was under $9! Score!

I cut myself twice on the sharp edges while carrying it out, and was almost dragged across the parking lot sail-boat fashion since it was quite windy. But I got it home, primed it, and painted it with the chalkboard paint. I did the frame Heirloom White and will probably antique it with gel stain the next time I get to a craft store (I tried one color of gel stain and didn't like it, so I've got to look for a different color).

It was a little tricky getting it in the frame, as it was just a wee bit too big, by a matter of millimeters. Handsome fixed that by using his Dremel tool around the inside of the ledge, creating a little slot all the way around that the metal sheet popped into. I used the old picture as the backing.

Pinkerbelle christened it with a picture of Skippyjon Jones. She used up the last of my chalk, so until I get to Walmart I can't actually write on it, but it is hanging in my little hallway and it looks great!



This hallway is kind of the information center. On the right I have some cool metal office-y bins that I found on clearance at Joann Fabrics a couple months ago. There's one for mail and receipts, and one for each of the kids, which they are supposed to deposit all their school papers in when they get home each day. I also put up a corkboard strip to keep schedules, lunch menus, etc. accessible.

Next, I'd like to make some of this magnet bling for my new board. Time to hit the thrift stores again!

Souper Saturday--Country Split Pea

Today's offering came from the New England Soup Factory Cookbook again. I will most likely be using this book fairly frequently this winter. The full name of the recipe is Country Split Pea Soup with Bacon and Potatoes. The author describes it as a "peasant-style recipe".

The recipe again called for sherry; it seems to be a favorite ingredient of the author, as it is in a number of her recipes. Unlike last time, however, it called for dry sherry instead of cream sherry. I don't know anything about sherry, and I'm not about to start a wine cellar in order to have the correct type for each of Marjorie Druker's recipes. So, again, I skipped it, and naturally we didn't know the difference. I don't doubt that it adds a little something to the flavor, and I'm not against using wine for cooking, I just don't keep it around.

Anyhoo, the soup was thick, hearty, and satisfying. Handsome and I really enjoyed it. It tasted just like a split-pea soup should, but I would probably skip the potatoes next time, personally.

And now for the ratings:
Handsome 9
Me 9
Firstborn 7
Skippy 5
Pinkerbelle 3

Average 6.6

One thing I like about many of these soup recipes is that they start out with lots of veggies...this one had celery, carrots, and onion, as well as the split-peas...and then you blend it all up with a stick-blender and the kids are none the wiser!

Livin' the Dream

I'm going to forego my Frugal Friday post today (I didn't really have anything to say about that anyway!) to highlight my nieces' blog Bringing the Highlands Home.

Two months ago my nieces Katie and Amy fulfilled a dream and moved to Scotland. They plan to be there for at least a year. They are renting a flat in Edinburgh and have part-time jobs, and in their free time, they travel. They just started a blog a couple days ago, so that will make it much easier for me and the rest of their family to follow their adventures.

(Hope you don't mind me using your photo, girls.)

I'm really so excited for them! Who hasn't thought about doing something like this, at least in passing? Once you're married and have kids, it just pretty much ain't gonna happen. I'm so proud of them for actually making it happen! I think even my sister is glad now, and hopefully isn't still worried that they will be kidnapped and sold into s*x slavery.

I went to Scotland with my dad and brother when I was 16. Just for a couple weeks, though, and staying with your dad's friends isn't the same as traveling around on your own and staying in youth hostels. Nevertheless, it was really cool, and seeing some of their photos of places I also visited brings back memories. Now, I'm just living vicariously!

Love ya, girls!

Awesome Purchase, Part Two

Last week in Part One, I revealed my armoire purchase and mentioned that on the same day I had bought something else but wouldn't be able to pick it up for a week or so. Today was the day, and here it is, my new china cabinet!! Excuse me for a moment while I go hug it.

I was browsing craigslist one day, as I sometimes do, for no particular reason, and came across this, just listed and on my side of town. This is a solid wood piece. It probably came from a real furniture store. Not Walmart or IKEA--I still love IKEA, but it's a long distance relationship, unfortunately. (You can see the color we are eventually going to paint the walls in the upper right corner.)


It has cool dentil molding (not dental, people, although it is from the Latin for tooth), and although I'm not sure it was intentional, there's even a little bit of distressing going on.


Look inside the upper doors...beadboard! Love it! There's also a groove in the shelves for displaying plates. I was thinking I would paint this, but it just occurred to me that this matches the color scheme of my kitchen table and chairs, so I don't know.


Inside the lower doors is a nice storage area with a shelf.


I will have to fix this: she dabbled the upper glass with white paint for sort of a faux frosted look. It's a little too faux for me, plus I want to display things. It's an easy fix, though; I just need to scrape it with a razor blade.


Also this. If you enlarge the photo you can see that she didn't paint the top. Shouldn't be too hard, I guess.


Do I need a china cabinet? Not neccesarily. Do I even have an obvious place to put it? Not really. But I couldn't pass it up. Why, you ask? Well, not only is it a quality piece of furniture, and already black, but it was only....

THIRTY. FIVE. DOLLARS. Thirty-five dollars!! Picture me doing the Cabbage Patch right about now. No, wait, that would not be a pretty sight.

Is there a prize for finding the bargain of the century, 'cuz if so, I just won it!