Flies and Vinegar Re-purposed

Because of our wonderful party on Saturday, we have had a gazillion flies in our house. I've been keeping the swatter close, and my girls have been rooting me on or trying to get the flies themselves. However, it's still been disturbing to hear Saige regularly announce, "I kill 'dem, I kill 'dem. I wanna turn!" Even though I know she's talking about flies, I catch myself wanting to make a new word up for what we are actually doing to those dang flies.

Speaking of flies and the party, I wanted to chat a little about vinegar today. You know the saying that says you can "attract more flies with honey than vinegar". And sometimes, you have to take that saying literally instead of relationally. Well, in our house we don't want to attract flies. So, what do we need? Vinegar! I am not saying that if you spray vinegar around your house that the flies will magically disappear, but if you use the vinegar to clean up crumbs and stickiness, less flies will be attracted to your house! What I mean is: for a lot of my cleaning, I use vinegar water. I have a squirt bottle that I put 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water in. And then I use it to clean and disinfect my kitchen counter tops, clean cabinets, wipe of the floors and anything else you might regularly do with a cleaning product. This way, I know there aren't a bunch of extra chemicals being sprayed all over my house. Just another bonus!

My Fancy Cleaning Bottle

 But wait, there's more....

I use vinegar for all kinds of things! Not just for cleaning. I also put some in my spaghetti sauce every time I make spaghetti. You can use regular old vinegar, or apple cider vinegar. Did you know that vinegar is really good for you? Some people drink apple cider vinegar straight for health purposes. (I tried it once and almost lost my lunch.) But, instead of drinking it straight, I just sneak it into my cooking whenever I can, and it tastes awesome! I made my spaghetti sauce from scratch tonight. But even if I have a store bought sauce, I still add it!

Vinegar is also good for taking away a sunburn! When either me or one of my family members get one, I just soak a paper towel in some vinegar and lay it right on the burn until the skin is sopping wet. If you let that air dry, it dries quickly, the burn turns to a tan and doesn't sting anymore. With my fair skin, I've had to use this trick a few times. I love it. (It helps if you don't mind the smell of vinegar. I certainly don't mind it.) It took awhile, but now even my husband is a believer in this vinegar trick!

Anyway, I know there are a ton more uses for this wonderful stuff, but I don't want to give away all my secrets in one post! Plus, I'd love it if you shared your secrets with me. We can compare notes.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I appreciate it!
Blessings, Amber

Re-purposing 3 Ring Binders

When you were in high school and college, did you have a 3 ring binder that you kept everything in? I did! I became very dependent upon my notebooks for information that had attached due dates, or reminders, or syllabi updates. I kept all of that stuff in one place for easy access and in order to keep it all straight. I distinctly remember receiving my syllabi at the beginning of a semester, and writing all important due dates into my agenda, and then keeping my agenda in my 3 ring binder so that nothing would be missed! Of course, I didn't do this my freshmen and sophomore years as diligently as I did it my Junior and Senior years, but I still did it.

A few years after graduating from the small private Christian college I attended, I realized I missed my handy 3 ring binders. Purses just don't keep you nearly as organized as the binder does. So, I went back to having one. I don't use it nearly as much as I did in my college days, but there are times in my life where I still depend on a binder now and again.

The binder that I've come to lean on the most these days is my prayer binder. This idea was not original to me, but I've latched onto it full force. Unfortunately, I don't crack my prayer binder open everyday as I once did, but I still try and sit down with it as often as possible. (I'll get back to everyday as soon as I can!) I love my prayer binder. I have different sections and categories to keep me on track, and there are people I pray for in my prayer journal that I haven't talked to in years. I love it. This is how I do it.

My "Gorgeous" Binder...It's Pretty Boring

A Place for Pens and Highlighters

It helps to not have to go searching for everything....

First Section: Daily Prayers
In this section, I have a prayer request page for each member of my immediate family.
I have a page for Dave, Julia, Lydia and Saige. Then I have 2 prayer pages for myself. I know I am not worthy of my wonderful family or the Lord's grace, and I honestly need the most prayer sometimes. On these pages I list specific prayer requests or praises for the person at the top of the page. I pray for the future and present.

Daily Prayers

There are Scribbles from my Girls on Almost Every Page

Second Section: Weekly Prayers
I have this section split up into days of the week. I only have Monday through Friday listed. I pray for my parents and siblings on Mondays. I also pray for Dave's siblings and parents and other family members. Were you ever in a small group or Bible study with me? Chances are, you are prayed for during the week. (This is why I don't want to skip any more days!)

Weekly Prayers

Third Section: Monthly Prayers
I use a printed guide to help me say an additional prayer for my children according to the date. Click here to see what I mean. I also have one for my pastor. Since we are in-between churches, I sometimes skip this section. But sometimes, I still pray for Pastor Gregg, or for my pastor before him, Pastor Joe. I also use this section for praying for other men in my life like Dave or my dad. Click here to see a similar example to what I use.

Fourth Section: Listening and Journaling
This section is very important to me. I ask the Lord, "What would you like to say to me today?" and then I write down whatever comes to me. I believe it is mostly from the Lord, and not from me. I date each day, and find it really interesting to look back at and see what was going on with me at different times in my life. Mostly, God tells me He loves me, that He is with me, and that I shouldn't despair. But sometimes He shakes things up a bit according to what I'm going through. For example, when I moved to Houston, I was extremely lonely. I later realized I was also pretty depressed. During that time, there are hardly any journal entries. But, I do have two really long ones from that 2009 summer of hard knocks. Those two entries weren't voluntary ones. They were from the Lord waking me up in the middle of the night. When I couldn't shut down any longer,  I wrote down what I felt he said to me. Somehow, he got me through my ugly time of continual anger and on the other side where grace lives again. That's the beauty of Christ.

Fifth Section: Scripture Memory
This is where I list scripture that I am working on memorizing. --One prayer I have listed for myself is that I would speak scripture to my children and others. But, I'm so dang bad at memorizing scripture. It's like a pop-quiz for me. It's in my brain for a few days, and then poof it's gone as if I've never memorized it before. This is a section I need to work on more diligently.

(As you can see, there is absolutely nothing special about my journal. The importance, of course, is what's inside.)

I also keep some miscellaneous stuff in my journal. Notes from Bible study lessons that inspired me, or things I should revisit, like a piece of paper with the names of God on it. You know, all those things that I need to have a better grasp on, that I don't have a very good grasp on yet.

 FYI, It honestly only takes me about 25-35 minutes to get through my journal on any given day. I can race through it in 10, and unfortunately, sometimes I just skip parts... however, I am so blessed when I do go through all parts of it everyday.

Well, that's all from me! Do you have a similar method of praying? Let me know! I'd love to hear your tips and maybe some re-purposing tricks.

Blessings, Amber

Re-purposing FAIL

So, like anything else managed by a human, I sometimes fail in my re-purposing attempts. I would like to share some of those attempts with you today. :)

About 2 weeks ago, I planned to talk with you all about re-purposing potato water. I still believe that reusing potato water is awesome, but the recipe I planned to show didn't come out at all!!!!

Here is a picture of the recipe I took from the classifieds in our new home town of Dickinson:

 According to the recipe, you should take the potato water and use it as a sourdough starter. I thought this was a great idea! However, the recipe didn't fully explain all the steps to making the recipe, and my sourdough biscuits turned out more like rock biscuits. I wish I would have been less embarrassed and taken a picture of them. They were seriously a hilarious sight to behold.

potato water

After boiling, I put the potatoes in a freezer bag and placed them in the freezer. We were planning to go out of town that evening, and I didn't really need the potatoes for anything, but I wanted the water for making the sourdough starter and for sharing a re-purposing idea with my blog readers. I also would have liked to bring some of the biscuits along and throw some of them in the freezer for when we came home...but I ended up just throwing the majority of them out....

However, to look on the bright side, I still have those potatoes, and perhaps I will get them out of the freezer, reheat them and make potato soup or mashed potatoes with them tonight. I also saved the leftover potato water in the freezer, so the soup idea is actually very plausible. Especially because it is chilly and rainy today. Which brings me to my next fail....

Due to the weather, we probably won't be getting our compost pile made today. Our yard consistency is actually very soupy. Hopefully tomorrow though.

>>Other fails:

Once I used my peanut butter (nothing but peanuts that were ground) in a recipe that called for organic peanut butter. I was supposed to heat the pb in the microwave until it was smooth. I kept heating mine up, waiting for it to be smooth, but I'm pretty sure I just burnt it instead. Those granola bars were not well received or well eaten around here.

When I was a bank teller in highschool, pantyhose were mandatory. I really tried to salvage the ones that were ripped with clear nail polish. However, that never worked to stop the run. But, it did work in gluing the pantyhose to my leg.

I've also tried way too many times to repair things with super glue. It is not a magic, fix-all, people. (As I'm sure you know.) It does not do well at repairing wooden picture frames, barbies, or most things that will be regularly used. At least, that's my experience. Actually most glues have failed me often.

Once, when we lived in Houston, our van froze over due to freezing rain. I was in a HUGE rush to meet a real estate client, and had no de-icing gear (because I lived in Houston). So, in my haste, I remembered that when I lived in Northern states, some people used credit cards to scrape ice. However, this ice was thick and didn't feel like budging. I shredded my most used credit card. Stink!<<


Well, that sourdough biscuit recipe and I aren't through yet. And once I figure out the missing parts to the recipe, please know that I'll post it here for you all to read about.

Thanks for reading. Please share your re-purposing fails with me soon!

Blessings, Amber

Re-purposing in Yellowstone National Park

Well, we are back from a whirl-wind trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was a beautiful experience! And, I have to say, that except for the falsified video of a bear surprising you by trying to get your lunch out of your car, it was everything I expected it would be.

We drove on mountains, saw tons of wildlife, stayed in a cabin, and watched Old Faithful gush. I am exhausted today, and my goal to do laundry and grocery shop have fallen by the wayside, but at least our family has a new set of memories to behold.

waterfalls from melting snow

Snow in June

 The mountains still had snow! We drove right up the side of many mountains. I was so thankful that I didn't get motion sick. The mountains were a little unnerving to travel through but gloriously beautiful and breathtaking.

Frozen tushies in the snow

 The temperature on the top of the mountain was a cool 47 degrees. The valleys temperatures were in the 60's, though.

 We saw an awesome waterfall, and decided to make a quick stop to see it. It was gushing and gorgeous and sounded wonderful.

The First Waterfall

Blowing Dandelions by the Waterfall

This Big 'Ole Turkey Loved our Van--He Snuggled Right Up to It

 The turkey was outside the park. Once we entered the park, we saw tons of buffalo and then after a little while, we saw a mama bear and her cubs.

Mama Bear and Her Three Black Bear Cubs

 Dave told me before we go back to Yellowstone, that he will get me a zoom lens. Yay!!--Sorry you can't see the bears better.

Can You See the Grizzly? He's in the Middle of the Shot

 Like I said, I need a zoom...

The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Me and the Girls

Hiking to the bottom of the Falls to Get a Better Look

Family Pic

 Even though we hiked down quite a ways, we were still really high, and there is not a good fence around the edge of the "cliff". I only freaked out twice when I thought the girls were going to topple off the side. (Confession: I'm a little afraid of heights and quite spastic when my children are near them.)

Julia's Freakishly Long Arm

 The girls were exhausted from traveling and going crazy because of sleepy sillies. It was about 9:00 p.m. when I took this picture. (Even though it looks like it was the middle of the day.) We were sitting on these benches while waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. In order to kill some time and keep from driving everyone around us mad, I had the girls take some pics.

Same Picture, Arms Slightly Moved

Old Faithful

 Amazing!

 We got to bed every night at about 11, including the girls. So we are pretty tired, but when you are at Yellowstone, you want to fit in as many animals as possible. So, we got up early to head back home and fit in as many animals and sights as possible. (But we still didn't get back until around midnight.) Besides seeing a turkey up close and personally, we got to see an up-close bull elk, and this huge herd of buffalo. There were tons of calves in the herd, and they were all over the road, weaving in and out of cars. The Rangers were there (they were everywhere the animals were) trying to keep the herd moving so cars could pass and buffaloes wouldn't be injured.

Lots of Calves.

My Baby LOVES "Buff-a-yo"

I Love this Pic

 Saige is looking through the "minoculas" at the hot springs, Lydia is excited about a spotted bird, and I am taking pictures.... Julia was behind me.

Grazing Pronghorn on Our Way Out of the Park

We also saw a woodchuck, a bull snake, antelope, deer, a distant herd of elk being chased by a grizzly, a young beaver, a crane, a cow elk and her baby, a black wolf through our binoculars, a coyote, a red squirrel, a chipmunk and tons birds and loads of beautiful scenery!

The whole reason we went to Yellowstone (besides the fact that it was on our bucket list) was because we were tagging along on a work trip for Dave in Billings, MT. And, while traveling, I re-purpose a lot. One thing I love to re-purpose are the little cups that they give you in the hotel.  I like to hang on to them for distributing snacks or crayons while we are on the open road. I usually bring along chex mix or pretzels, and I dislike passing around a huge bag of food for the girls to help themselves. Putting the snacks in cups helps keep a few crumbs off the floor boards, and a few less disgusting surprises in car seat cubbies. But, just a few.

I'd love to share some more of my traveling re-purposing tips with you over this next week. Please stay tuned! And, please let me know what tips you have for traveling! I love trying new things!

Thanks for reading! Happy Monday! See you soon, Amber

Dryer Lint Re-purposing.

When my hubby was growing up, he was in Boy Scouts for a few years. Nearly every time we set off on a family adventure (i.e. camping, hiking, exploring, fishing, going to Cabela's), he shares a recollection with me or my girls about an experience he had in Boy Scouts. The stories are usually interesting, and sometimes provide me with good re-purposing ideas.

Several years ago, when Dave and I still lived in Oklahoma, I remember him telling me about how dryer lint is good for starting fires. I found this information silly because there are lots of good fire starters readily available...newspaper works, dry leaves work... But, just in case, I started saving dryer lint anyway. It was sort of a "I'm listening" sort of a gesture. I saved the lint, and when he barbequed or burned leaves in the backyard, he would use the lint to start fires, and that was that.

However, if you read my blog, you may have seen that we have gone camping and been outside starting fires quite a lot in our short two months in North Dakota. Because I knew camping would be happening frequently with our family, I started saving our lint again in our new house. And, on our last camping trip, I brought some lint along.

Dave was so pleased. (I think I won some points.)

Shoe box full of dryer lint

The good stuff

The cool part is, though, that as we built the multiple fires on that chilly evening, I realized why lint works better than the newspaper I also brought along and the dried leaves we put on the fire. While those items burn quickly and disintegrate, dryer lint burns slowly and is more likely to catch the sticks and logs on fire before it burns up.

So, I'm thankful I tried something from Dave's childhood, and that I won some points doing it. I am also thankful to be able to find a new item to re-purpose. Because, I don't throw things away much around here. :)

I'd love to hear your camping tips or tricks! Tootles, Amber