Short Story

This true story illustrated that diligence us important, especially when someone charts a path that others will follow.

On January 17, 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano embarked on a voyage to the New World. Commissioned by the king of France to explore the coastal area between Florida and Nova Scotia, Giovanni and his brother Gerolomo were given the three-mast La Dauphine, and charged with the task of discovering a direct westward sea route to the orient. On March 1, Verrazano sighted the point of land now known as Cape Fear in North Carolina, and from that point he slowly worked his way northward, periodically landing on the east coast, and making careful notations in his log. The exploration concluded with a survey of the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The La Dauphine returned to France on July 8, 1524, and the Verrazano brothers immediately set themselves to the task of creating a map that represented their discoveries.

The result of their labours, now known as the Verrazano World Map, was published in 1529. The map was instantly regarded as the best authority on the east coast of North America; it was copied by mapmakers and distributed to navigators for over fifty years. Only afterwards did cartographers suspect that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

The Verrazano brothers made a critical mistake when they encountered the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Viewing a body of water on the opposite side of the banks, Giovanni and Gerolomo agreed that this was what they had been looking for - a sea lane leading directly to the Far East. As a result, their map depicted North America in two halves, with the southern half (now the southern United States) divided from the northern half (the northeastern United States) by a great sea that passed directly to the Pacific. The "Sea of Verrazano", as it turned out, was only the Pamlico Sound situated between the coast of North Carolina and the Outer Banks. The Verrazano brothers had not sufficiently explored the waters beyond the banks, and the misinformation that followed took the better half of a century to correct.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15

Co-op

We had our final day of Co-op last Friday - until next fall! Here is a picture of all the school aged children that participated this year. We had a great year, and can't wait to do it all again!

Brooks Turns 8!

This year Brooks chose an old fave. Look at this adorable comparison from 5 years ago, when he chose the same cereal. This is the same size bag, look at how much he's grown!

Brooks turning 3, and Brooks turning 8

He got a new bike from Mommy and Daddy, Spiderman Walkie Talkies from Kenna and a pack of gum from Grey

We had a big backyard barbecue - sort of a combo party for Brooks, and one of our military friends who just came home that very same morning. Welcome home! The invited guests were all the "Spartan racers"/workout group. We had quite a crowd - 25 people not including ourselves!

We are so grateful for a great outdoor space with this house. We had cornhole, frisbee golf, crokinole set up on the screened in porch, and our new trampoline, and then a bonfire - fun for everyone and plenty of space!

Oh, and a little canoeing! This is what happens when grown men throw frisbee's waaaay too hard and they end up in the middle of the lake. You'd think it would be a kid to do this, but no... haha! Actually, they likely did it on purpose just to give us the fun of retrieving it!

The frisbee in the lake watchers

Frisbee golf!

We had a bunch of pallets to burn, so we had a HUGE bonfire. I think we burned through at least 10 pallets!

Our brand new summer time family gift - a trampoline! We had a very old handmedown one that couldn't survive the move to Willow house, and we've been saving ever since to get another one! Thanks to a timely online sale, we were able to get it in time for the party!

We ate burgers, hot dogs, the kids all played (and played and played!) and we had a really great time together!

Calvin & Hobbes Cake

My kids were killing me with their desired birthday cakes this year! Brooks wanted Calvin & Hobbes, and honestly, it took me awhile to think of anything I could do that would actually *look* like Calvin, or Hobbes. The idea struck me, that I could do a large, edible comic strip.

It took a long time and tons of google searches and even a facebook poll of friends, and good suggestions were made. I wanted both Calvin and Hobbes in the strip, and there are no birthday related strips containing those two, only Calvin and Susie. I finally decided on the perfect strip the old fashioned way - by reading a Calvin & Hobbes book:-) Brooks is TERRIFIED of bugs and especially bees, and this strip seemed to encapsulate his fears, over reactions, and our nonchalant "oh my, must have been terrible" responses.

My original idea was to have the strip printed on edible paper at the cake store. I enlarged the strip to my desired size, and went into the store - and found out to print this how they do, on edible paper was going to cost $52. GULP! I will forever be grateful for an employee who was more concerned with the happiness of a customer, than the bottom line - because I didn't know you could buy blank edible paper. She told me that because the design was easy to trace, and the paper is see-thru, I should just copy it myself with edible markers. I was excited, because I already own edible markers for my cookie business, and the blank edible paper...was $1.75 for FIVE sheets!!! I literally saved $50 and it only took a few minutes to trace out the cartoon on the flavourless potato starch paper!

All traced and ready to go! This is edible paper.

I made the cake "marble" with vanilla and chocolate - the vanilla dyed orange, obviously. Because tiger stripes just seemed most appropriate:-)

I made a few "critical errors" with this cake - #1 I should have just marbled it the regular way, instead of layering it in the zebra stripe method. As it turns out, the zebra stripe pattern is only visible if you are cutting a circle cake, into pie shaped pieces. Cutting a square cake into square pieces - you see orange and brown, but no defined stripe pattern. Marbling it would have been fine in this cake, and taken less time.
#2 I didn't account for the size of the cake - this cake is three 9x9's end on end, and then stacked, so a total of six 9x9 cakes were baked (this took 4 cake mixes). I had planned to fill the cake with a whipped cream/pudding type filling - but that needs to be refrigerated, and this cake was too long to fit in my fridge! So I changed up the plan and did a marshmallow creme buttercream (dyed orange) instead - which was nice, but I was really in the mood for that pudding filling!

I iced the cake in vanilla buttercream, and tried to make it as smooth as possible! The paper towel method I use couldn't be done here, since I couldn't get the cake in a fridge, so I just had to use a knife

Applying the edible paper. The lady at the cake store told me to wet the cake just a little, and stick it down, so I followed that advice, and used a off set knife and hot water to smooth and wet the icing just prior to application. Error #3 - I don't think it needed the wet, the icing would have been just fine. I'm using paper towel to smooth and press the paper onto the cake - touching it with any amount of moisture on your hands causes it to stick and pull up.

YAY!

I did this Friday night, with the party being on Saturday night. The paper went on like a dream, and it was all too easy! I looked perfect Fri night...come Sat morning though, the ink had bled, just a touch. Not enough to make anything hard to see or read, but just enough to muddy some of the lines and that was frustrating, I think that was maybe just because of the liquid, though it wasn't much at all - unsure if it would have happened with just buttercream underneath.

All done! It bled a bit, but still looked good

Birthday boy and his cake

Reading his edible comic strip

And it's a tiger cake!!

All in all, it was a pretty easy cake to make - it hardly took any time at all. And thanks to the cheap edible paper, was affordable too. A great idea to make a themed birthday cake and have it look professional! I'm tucking this idea away for the future!

Top Ten - Vinegar

Vinegar - it's soooo useful! I'll share my top uses for this inexpensive "cure-all". If you are looking to either save money on your monthly budget, or be more earth or body friendly, by reducing the amount of chemicals in your home, then vinegar is for you!!

I don't know that my list is all inclusive, but this is just what I do with it. If you haven't tried some of these, give it a go and see how you like it!

1. Replace "jet dry" with vinegar. I just fill the rinse agent section in my dishwasher with vinegar instead of Jet Dry (or similar brand). It works wonderfully as a rinse aid, it's cheap, and it's not leaving any potential of chemical residue on the dishes you eat off of.

2. Replace fabric softener with vinegar. I actually make my own laundry detergent, and love it, but even if you don't - replacing fabric softener for vinegar is a good thing for your clothes! Or, if you don't use fabric softener at all, you can start, by using vinegar! I add this to the "center agitator" in my top loader, and when I had a front loader, I added it to the "softener" section in the pull out tray. And no, the clothes have ZERO trace of a "vinegar smell"

3. Replace glass cleaner with vinegar. Vinegar makes an excellent glass cleaner, and without the harsh smell of ammonia. Using a cloth/rag or paper towel, it gives a streak free clean just like Windex does. Can use it full strength, or diluted in water.

4. Replace bathroom cleaners with vinegar. Tub, toilet and sink/counter cleaners can all be replaced with vinegar in a re-purposed spray bottle. It works just as well as "normal" chemical filled cleaners, and is naturally mildew resistant, so it helps on those shower tiles or enclosures. You can dilute it with water if the smell is a little strong when in a shower area or something, though, while it doesn't smell great, it definitely isn't any worse than the harsh chemical cleaners. (Don't use other kids of vinegar for this one, stick to white. Brown vinegars can stain porous materials)

5. Replace floor cleaners with vinegar. Hardwood or linoleum or tile - they all love vinegar! I use the O Cedar mop to clean my floors - it works like a swiffer wet jet, only you make your own cleaner (vinegar and water).

6. Use vinegar as a training tool. Kenna was mouthy and sassy when she was little. If you put vinegar (any variety) in a travel size spray bottle, you can keep it in your purse and are able to immediately correct these behaviours (which are usually otherwise difficult to deal with quickly, and effectively) with a little squirt to the tongue. This can be easily done even while shopping or on the go. Kids obviously don't like the taste, and so it's a pretty quick reminder for them! I used this for whiney tone of voice (Brooks) too, and it doesn't take long, thats for sure! They get the message in very short order!

7. Replace dryer sheets with vinegar and wool balls. I recently wrote a post about this, so you can read the particulars here. But its a great way to reduce static in your laundry, give it a great (light) fresh smell, and even reduce the amount of energy used by decreasing dying time!

8. Replace ketchup with vinegar. Okay, okay, maybe don't replace ketchup - but definitely add to it! :-) I totally LOVE apple cider vinegar on my french fries. If you haven't tried it, you must!

9. Use vinegar to take the sting out. If you get stung by a jelly fish, apple cider vinegar is the best variety to get the sting out and take away the pain. Obviously this doesn't apply to those not frequenting the beach:-) We've never been stung, though have seen many many jellies. Once a young visiting friend got stung, and the vinegar totally did the trick. Keeping a small bottle in your beach bag is highly advisable, especially during jellyfish season (in our area, this is August on the Bay). It will also take the sting out of many varieties of bug bites.

10. Use vinegar as a weight loss aide/to support health. This is one I just can't do! I know it's effective, I just can't handle the taste of Apple Cider Vinegar! I've tried it with maple syrup, and all kinds of other tricks, but I just can't get it down. If you don't mind it though, it's a great way to support your body and overall health, and is also effective for weight loss.

Derby Cars

April 15 was the Derby Car Race at Awanas! The kids actually picked their car shape this year, and did 100% of the decorating themselves. In the past, Daddy has painted the base coat and whatever, but not this year! They were soooo pleased that they could paint it however they wanted! Brooks make his a landscaping truck, and we hot glued a few Playmobil rakes and a basket full of grass onto the back. We didn't win anything for speed this year, but the kids still had a great time racing and seeing who won their heats. I think Grey's car was the fastest of our three, consistently.

I forgot to mention, they were to participate in the Awana games this year too, in March. They practiced every Saturday in Jan and Feb as preparation! And The Games were on March 7th, but we were in the middle of pretty bad sickness (Brian and Brooks had the flu), so we couldn't go to the event! They were VERY sad about this, but the good news is that BOTH of their teams (Sparks and T&T) won first place! So proud of their friends/teammates for picking up the slack we created and doing so well. We heard it was a ton of fun!! Next year...:-)

Mom Down

It's been a long time since I've been sick. Or sick enough to be out of commission. This weekend I was feeling the allergies - the pollen was literally blowing through the air in visible gusts, and it's EVERYWHERE, even inside the house when you dust. But I was pushing through, as always. Then the Rangers games and impromptu party did me in. I haven't eaten much sugar/any sugar at all in a really long time (like, since early January). And on Saturday night, I had soda, a piece of cheesecake someone brought over, and candy. It was likely all a little much for my body to handle and pushed me over the edge!

I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and was basically totally out of it all day Sunday. Brian dressed the kids and took them to church. Then out on a special Daddy date for Mexican after. He made them dinner (a salad & bread) and it was apparently the BEST meal they've EVER had. EVER. Ooookay then.

And I slept. I couldn't keep my eyes open at all!! As often as I was awake, I was using my oils - My sinuses and head and throat hurt, and my fever lasted off an on most of the day. I literally had no energy for anything but sleep. By Sunday night I was starting to feel better and my fever broke. I slept well that night, and woke up feeling ok - good enough to function semi-normally anyway.

Things I learned while I was sick.

1. I think that I already knew this, but maybe I'd forgot. Without my constant help (via encouragement, bossiness or doling out chores and responsibilities) my family is completely helpless.

2. I need to work on the whole clean up as you go thing - without a Mommy reminder

3. My husband does not know how to use our washer or dryer.

They had used every.single. plate, bowl and cup that we own. All the glass, all the plastic, everything. It took me 3 dishwasher loads to work through it all. Literally every room was just like this, or worse, HAHA. I'm so grateful everyone is alive, and well. But really. Moms are just super necessary:-)

Googling my symptoms, I think I overcame a sinus infection, or the start of one. The oils I used to pull me through and get me back to normal within 24 hrs for my Monday.

Thieves - on my throat, and in hot water with lemon and honey
Peppermint - on my feet to control and cut my fever
LLP (lemon, lavender, peppermint) - on my sinuses
RC - on my chest
Sacred Frank - on my neck and swollen glands
PanAway - on temples and back of neck for headache
Purification - on bridge of nose for suffiness
*I also started using Thieves diluted in olive oil on my neck/glands on Tuesday when they were still swollen. That really seemed to be the kicker!

I also took a really long hot bath with plenty of epsom salts and lavender.


Today, (Tues) my throat is still a little sore from post nasal drip, but my sinuses and head feel incredibly better/totally normal. I do have a bit of a runny nose now, and a few sneezes here and there, but on the whole, pretty good! My energy is back to normal and that is a very good thing, If I was sick any longer, we'd have had to burn down the house and start over!

Hopefully it's a LONG time before I'm down for the count again!