Category Archives: Reflections

Soap Update

Aloe Soap, Making Soap, Reflections, soap

Hello and Welcome!

Back in November I wrote about the new soap recipe that I made, and I mentioned in that post that I would let you know how it turned out. I used an oil combination of 40% coconut oil, 40% tallow and 20% olive oil. I also added aloe to it. The types and amounts of oils used in a soap will determine things like how hard the soap is, how cleansing, or conditioning it is and if the lather is creamy or bubbly.

My husband and I have been using this soap for several weeks now so I will share his thoughts as well as mine.

First my husband’s comments, “I love it!” (Short and to the point.)

Now my critique: I find it to be a nice balanced soap. It is a hard bar of soap but not so much that I couldn’t cut it. (In the past I have made some soaps that crack when I attempt to cut them.) It can be worked into a nice creamy lather and it it does not dry out my skin. (Normally this time of year the skin on my calves gets really dry but that hasn’t happened yet.) My favorite part about this soap is the addition of aloe. Aloe gives kind of a silkiness to the lather that makes it a great soap for shaving.

When I posted about making this recipe one of my readers asked me for a soapmaking tutorial. I have decided to break the tutorial up into 3 posts that will be done over the next two or three weeks. If you are interested in learning to make you own soap, you can follow my blog by email or for those with a WordPress account you can follow along in your WordPress reader.

Thank for visiting.

2021 Our Homemade Christmas

Christmas, Grandchildren, homemade, Reflections

Hello and Welcome!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did!

Before we move into the new year let’s take a look back at what kept me busy throughout the month of December.

You may remember this post back in October back in when my daughter, Lindell, saw me wearing one of the shirts, a hoodie, that I had made and decided I should make one for her. I told her “Christmas is coming”. Then when I asked my other daughters, they all decided they would like one. Each of the girls told me what color they would like, except Tina, who said “anything but pink”. Before I went fabric shopping, I decided to give them the option of having me make them a cardigan instead of the hoodie. Kara was the only one who took me up on this offer.

I also asked Tina what I should make for Jackson and Addie and she gave me some ideas.

It was toward the end of October, when I had my materials list ready, that I grabbed my sister and dragged her to the fabric store. LOL! Just kidding. If you know my sister, you’ll know she was more than happy to go to the fabric store with me. It’s one of our favorite places to spend time together.

I will say that I took some creative liberties with choosing fabrics for the girls. I didn’t want to make shirts that were just one solid color; I wanted to design one-of-a-kind garments that I thought would suit their individual style(s).

Hanna’s color choice was black, so I selected the snakeskin fabric then trimmed it in solid black.

Lindell asked for this army green, so I selected this tied dye green and white for trim.

I chose this blue print for Tina and the solid blue trim is actually sprinkled with glitter.

This shimmery stretch corduroy for Kara’s cardigan was so beautiful that I decided to use it for the entire garment.

Making these garments for the girls went pretty smoothly since I had previously made the hoodie pattern three times for myself, and I had made the cardigan pattern once before.

Then it was time to learn something new. The patterns that I selected for Jackson and Addie were both new to me and both posed some new challenges. While all of the garments were made with TLP (Tender Love and Prayer) there was probably more prayer that went into these.

For Addie, who loves to dress up, I made this dress with color blocked sleeves and a double layer skirt.

For Jackson I made this dragon hoodie.

I was so excited when Christmas finally arrived, and I could give the girls their gifts. Kara and Lindell had both told me that they were excited about getting them.

Christmas was a wonderful day – the house was filled with life, laughter and love (and food). After brunch (breakfast food for lunch) we opened gifts.

Below are a few pictures of everyone modeling my handiwork.

Beautiful Addie!

I was thrilled to see that Addie’s dress was a perfect fit. Actually, I was amazed as I watched each recipient open their gift and slip it on, that they all seemed to fit just right – answered prayers.

Jackson showing off his dragon wings.

After seeing Jackson’s dragon hoodie my daughters asked when I was going to make them each one. HaHa!

The sister picture. (Ranger photo bombed this one. LOL!)

Each time I get together with all four daughters I try to get a sister picture with the four of them together. It doesn’t happen very often nowadays. The last time we were all together was over a year ago.

Here’s a challenge for readers who don’t know our family personally: can you put the girls in order of age from left to right?

I also try to get a picture of me with the girls. This time around we were able to get Aunt Donna, my mom’s sister, in the picture and my granddaughter Addie. Four generations.

My husband doesn’t mind me saying that he is not a very good photographer. He needs to work on focusing and staging because while I wanted this picture to highlight their new Christmas clothes, I can’t help looking at those feet. LOL.

In the meantime, at least I can edit/crop the pictures to change the focus – the beauty in digital photography. No more crazy feet.

Well maybe one more look. LOL!

Thanks for visiting.

As 2021 comes to an end, we wish you a Happy New Year and a blessed year ahead. May God’s light guide your way in 2022.

Christmas Tree Round 2 and Other Strange Happenings

Chickens, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Forsythia, Reflections

Hello and Welcome.

On Saturday we discovered that our Christmas tree that had only been up for two weeks was dying. STRANGE. It was losing needles quickly and if we brushed or bumped a branch the needles rained down completely coving the tree skirt. At that rate it would soon be naked. I have never seen a Christmas tree die so quickly. In fact, the tree we had last year still had needles on it this spring, even though it was taken out of the house shortly after Christmas and left at the farm to die.

On Sunday we undecorated our Christmas tree and my husband went to the farm to cut a replacement tree. We brought the new tree in and set it in the stand but decided it was best to let the snow melt off the branches before we decorated it. On Monday afternoon I put the lights, ornaments and candy canes on the new tree.

My husband added the angel when he got home. This tree, that seems perfect in every other way, is missing a tall center branch on top that typically holds the angel, so our angel is in the center on top of the tree but nestled in amongst the outward reaching top branches. A unique Christmas tree indeed.

The dying Christmas tree is not the strangest thing that has happened though. That would have to be the forsythia bushes that blossomed at the farm about three weeks ago. There were two of them in full bloom. (I didn’t get a picture.) That is not supposed to happen this time of year. Our forsythias always blossom in May. STRANGE.

We also had bulbs, likely daffodils, sprouting in the prayer garden last week. That too should not happen until spring. STRANGE.

The other thing that is different this year than in past years is the chickens. Normally they stop laying when they molt in the fall or at least begin producing less eggs sometime in November. We get fewer and fewer eggs through December until we hit a low. After that it’s usually sometime in February, or around the time the sap begins flowing, that the hens begin laying more eggs again.

This year the flock began to molt in October and by November there were feathers everywhere and I was getting only one egg every other day. I expected this to last until February but about two weeks ago we began getting more eggs on some days and it has gradually increased until we were getting three eggs each day this week and then today, we got five eggs. STRANGE. (I wonder if the sap is flowing)

Even though I find this to be weird I’m not complaining – in fact I’m thrilled, especially since during our dearth my husband was buying eggs from a neighboring farm for $4.00 a dozen.

I don’t think it’s strange that I finished making Christmas gifts for my kids and grandkids last weekend though usually I’m not done quite so early. Since I had some time to spare, I decided to make myself a Christmas present. No, I didn’t wrap it and put it under the tree.

I put it on yesterday evening and my husband is now calling me Candy Cane. It’s made with flannel and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out and how it looks on me.

I finished up wrapping gifts today and tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I will spend cleaning and getting an early start on cooking for our family brunch on Christmas day. I am so looking forward to having the kids and grandkids here for the day.

Thank you for visiting and from our home to home and from our hearts to your heart we wish you a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What I Really Want for Christmas

Reflections

This post shared by a fellow blogger expresses my feelings so well that I needed to share it. The only change would be to sign it – Love MOM.

mitchteemley's avatarMitch Teemley

My wife and I have reached that stage where we have to “share” our kids with their significant others’ families at Christmas. OK, OK, technically I suppose “their” families have just as much right to them as we do. But “their” families could at least have had the courtesy of relocating to our statecity neighborhood (preferably next door). Anyway, the point is: our time with them is becoming increasingly limited and, therefore, more precious than ever, although this year will at least beat last year’s Merry Zoom-mas (“Hold your gift up to the camera so we can see it!”). So, faux curmudgeonlyness aside, when I read the following, it struck a major dad-chord with me:

What I Want for Christmas

~ Always and forever ~

♥ Dad

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