The Nuffer Nest

A friend of mine showed me a folder she put together for her daughter that had some activities and fun things for her to do to keep her busy.  I really liked that everything was protected with lamination.  I asked her where she went to get everything laminated and I was SHOCKED to hear that they have personal laminating machines now.  Now, I'm sure personal laminating machines are not a new thing, but I often don't catch the obvious.  Anyway, not only did I find out that there are such things as personal lamination machines, but also that they are CHEAP!!  I bought one (immediately) at Walmart for under $30 and it came with 20 laminating sheets.  I bought 50 extra sheets for about $15 with tax.  I wanted to put together a felt board for the boys for an Easter present, but after reading about how to make one myself I realized that felt boards are almost obsolete and magnet boards are the new "thing".  I just bought 2 metal cookie sheets ...

After about a dozen of my friends started making their own laundry soap I decided maybe it's time I give it a try too.  After talking to a friend that I KNOW is a neat freak like me and she has 4 kids with double the dirty, sticky, crayon-laced clothes that I have, and she raved about homemade detergent I was sure I wanted to make my own laundry soap too.  You can find my recipe here .  I was able to get spaghetti stains off of a white shirt and make Jim's dingy work shorts really clean and bright again.  All of this with just one little tablespoon of homemade detergent.  I did pre-treat the dried spaghetti sauce with a bar of the Fels-Naptha soap (found in the detergent) because someone told me it's a great stain remover and pre-treat agent, and it is! So here's how I made mine... Step 1:  Gather all the ingredients.  I found ALL of the ingredients in the detergent isle at Walmart.  I did buy the generic Oxy-clean, and it's more than enoug...

I really really need to be organized.  I can't just throw a bag of "stuff" in a closet and call it a day because that bag of "stuff" will start calling me getting louder and louder until it's saying, "FIX ME, I'M UGLY, AND JUNKING UP YOUR HOUSE!!".  You can imagine how annoying this is.  Anyway, I found this super easy fix for $6 plus tax.  I found some paper towel holders at the Dollar Tree and I had some empty paper towel rolls lying around the house (I keep all sorts of crazy things for the boys to make stuff with), and this is what I created in my craft closet (well, Jim put them up for me).  It's perfect!!

So I've been totally ignoring the blog this month.  I don't know if I've been too lazy or too buzy- probably a combination of both.  Anyway, here's a quick catch up. The boys have been sick A LOT!  Austin has been to the doctor more since he turned 1 than Jackson had in his first 3 years of life.  We were going to the doctor a few times a week for awhile.  This is difficult for a couple reasons:  First, I'm a mom and it's hard to see my babies sick.  And second, because I am a germ-a-phobe with OCD (I don't think it gets much worse than that) and I just see germs creeping and crawling ALL OVER MY HOUSE!  The boys never passed around the same virus, thank goodness, but they kept picking up new viruses.  I'm not sure which is worse.  Anyway, as of Saturday night Austin has yet another ear infection.  I'm going to start looking into some more natural ways of keeping in the ear infections at bay like oils, vitamins, and probiotics. ...

 "I would seek out the erring one and try to win him back to a righteous and happy life." So this was April's challenge.  I was very intimidated by this challenge.  Who am I to call someone to repentance when I'm so busy not following all the commandments.  I'm far to busy committing adultery and killing my neighbors to call someone else to repentance.  Well, ok, obviously I'm not committing adultery or killing my neighbors, but I still felt like there was a lot of work to do on me before I could help others find the error of their ways, so that's what I did.  I re-prioritized some things in my own life.  I'll leave it at that, but I did take this challenge to heart. May's challenge can  be found here .  Basically, it says the opposite of April's challenge.  This month I need to love people through any difficulties they might be having and not judge them.  This reminds  me of a quote from this past...