Last updated: Nov 11 2010
Phase Two: Home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.
Step One: Making soap nut liquid/canning.*Done*
Results: Making up the soap nuts liquid was fun. I think I made a small mistake with this 4 liter batch but will do better next time. I have done lots of reading online while waiting for my first soap nut samples to come in and settled on the method of making soap nut liquid that seemed easiest to me:
"OVEN METHOD
* Place 7-10 soap nuts in a clean glass quart(liter) jar with a resealable lid. Fill with boiling water. Place lid on securely. Place in an oven preheated to 250* Watch until the liquid starts to bubble and then time it for half an hour. Turn off oven and let cool a little. Remove from oven.
* The jars should seal and will keep indefinitely until you need to use it.
* I make a canner load each time I make it and keep the jars with my canned goods. When you open the jar you can strain out the soap nuts if you want to, but I just leave them in the jar until the liquid is gone and then throw them in the compost or make them into paste.
* This is my favorite and most economical way to use soap nuts! Works out to about 10 cents to wash a load of laundry! (purchased in the 100g size bag)"
In my case I think the water wasn't quite boiling when I put it in the jars and they didn't bubble very quickly. The jars were in the oven a loonng time ... they did seal though so I feel the resulting liquid will keep just fine. I have 4 liter jars to test. I would like to add something that smells nice to the liquid as it doesn't smell pleasant - thankfully it leaves no scent behind it.*Success*
Step Two: Hand dish washing.*In Progress*
Results: Washing dishes with no bubbles is flat out weird! I've done 2 or 3 hand wash loads of dishes with just the soap nuts liquid - everything is coming out clean and my hands feel nice(although this may be wishful thinking as I can't recall what my hands felt like after hand washing with dish soap). Having no bubbles is more disturbing than I thought it would be - the bubbles hid just how dirty my wash water is. If I had a double sink I would take up rinsing but I don't and have always felt rinsing was a waste of perfectly good water so I won't start now. The dishes appear to be as clean as when I washed with dish soap.
Step Three: All purpose cleaning.
Step Four: Hair and body foam.*In Progress*
Results: I can make the foam from the soap nut liquid with my hand blender. I've been making it up for A & M for their nightly baths and made some up for myself yesterday. I was unimpressed by the job it did on my hair. I think a little extra scent wouldn't be a bad thing. I say "In Progress" because I feel that lengthy testing is required before I can say "Yeah, this is good" or "Nope, this sucks".
Step Five: How long does it keep?
Phase Two Summary: I continue to use soap nut liquid on the laundry and it is still getting everything clean - even pee bedding. everything smells fresh out of both the washer and dryer. The liquid smells a bit funky so I am thinking about adding a little essential oil to the liquid to make it smell better in the jar - it leaves no scent on the clothes though so I may not. Why spend money when I don't need to?
Hand washing dishes with the soap nut liquid is odder than I thought it would be but the dishes are coming out clean so I will adjust.
Soap nuts, my overall thoughts so far: I love that this is a natural cleaner but without washing dishes in nothing but hot water and clothes in nothing but cold water I can't be sure that it's really doing anything ... it must be doing something, right? After all if all I was using was water on my clothes wouldn't they stink after a while? So far everything is coming out smelling nice except for the odd thing(like smelly dish towels) that would sometimes come out of the washer/dryer smelling funky when I used traditional detergent. I was unimpressed with it as a hair wash but the kids love washing with the foam and they smell all right.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't see any difference(other than the lack of bubbles when I'm washing dishes) with the soap nuts liquid than with the traditional detergents I was using before. It doesn't clean worse but I don't see that it cleans better or that my clothes are any softer than when I used detergents(I never used fabric softener). Will I keep using it? Yes, because it cheaper and I get to "make" my own soap. I will however keep using traditional shampoo to wash my hair and the kids hair. If at any point I feel it is failing at the job I'll quit using it just like I would any product that doesn't live up to it's claims.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Home Experiments: Soap Nuts Phase One
Last Updated & concluded: Nov 6 2010
Step One: Order sample of soap nuts & stain bar to test. *Done*
I ordered two sample bags of soap nuts from the first Canadian supplier I found online(Greener Living). Called them and asked a few quick questions and she suggested I try out a stain bar that she said would work on the old food grease stains on all our clothes. Worth a try. Click to see pictures Soap Nut Trial Pack & Stain Bar
Step Two: Wait for order to arrive at house. Order is in transit. Should be here this week or the middle of next week at the latest. *Done*
Results: Order received on Friday October 29th 2010. *Success*
Step Three: Test soap nut on the stinkiest thing I own; Susie's harness. Nothing seems to get the doggy smell off her nylon harness. *Done*
Results: According to myself and two of the four children I had smell the harness before and after cleaning(two of the four refused to participate in after sniffing) the harness now smells like nothing. Update: Once dry the harness & leash still smell a little but that may be because of drying it inside laying flat rather than out in the sun or in the dryer. I will call it conditional since it does smell better and even detergents didn't do better. *Conditional Success*
Step Four A: Test soap nuts out on our daily laundry. Daily laundry sometimes includes pee accident bedding.*Done*
Results: After using the bagged soap nuts I found everything was coming out clean. On a lark I did a test wash with nothing in warm wash cold rinse and the clothes came out clean as well ... I have to wonder if we really need a cleaner in with our clothes at all but I will still use one. I will say this is a success but will make and sue liquid so i can switch back to cold wash cold rinse. *Conditional Success*
Step Four B: Also test stain bar on old food grease stains.*Done*
Results: After washing grease stains appear to be gone. I am waiting for item to come out of the dryer to confirm...t-shirt was still stained but failure may have been on my part as I did not completely follow directions. *Conditional Fail*
Will continue testing stain bar on daily laundry.
Results: Tried on another load of laundry. Following directions this time. Stains still there - the search continues for something to get laundered in grease stains out of my clothes. *Utter Failure*
Step Five: If soap nuts pass steps three and four I will order a larger bag for further testing.*Done*
Results: Found closer supplier of soap nuts and picked up 1 KG bag on Nov 3rd. *Success*
Summary of first phase: Susie's harness still a little funky. Stain stick a complete failure. Soap nuts appear to work fine on laundry.
End of first phase of testing ... next home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.
Step One: Order sample of soap nuts & stain bar to test. *Done*
I ordered two sample bags of soap nuts from the first Canadian supplier I found online(Greener Living). Called them and asked a few quick questions and she suggested I try out a stain bar that she said would work on the old food grease stains on all our clothes. Worth a try. Click to see pictures Soap Nut Trial Pack & Stain Bar
Step Two: Wait for order to arrive at house. Order is in transit. Should be here this week or the middle of next week at the latest. *Done*
Results: Order received on Friday October 29th 2010. *Success*
Step Three: Test soap nut on the stinkiest thing I own; Susie's harness. Nothing seems to get the doggy smell off her nylon harness. *Done*
Results: According to myself and two of the four children I had smell the harness before and after cleaning(two of the four refused to participate in after sniffing) the harness now smells like nothing. Update: Once dry the harness & leash still smell a little but that may be because of drying it inside laying flat rather than out in the sun or in the dryer. I will call it conditional since it does smell better and even detergents didn't do better. *Conditional Success*
Step Four A: Test soap nuts out on our daily laundry. Daily laundry sometimes includes pee accident bedding.*Done*
Results: After using the bagged soap nuts I found everything was coming out clean. On a lark I did a test wash with nothing in warm wash cold rinse and the clothes came out clean as well ... I have to wonder if we really need a cleaner in with our clothes at all but I will still use one. I will say this is a success but will make and sue liquid so i can switch back to cold wash cold rinse. *Conditional Success*
Step Four B: Also test stain bar on old food grease stains.*Done*
Results: After washing grease stains appear to be gone. I am waiting for item to come out of the dryer to confirm...t-shirt was still stained but failure may have been on my part as I did not completely follow directions. *Conditional Fail*
Will continue testing stain bar on daily laundry.
Results: Tried on another load of laundry. Following directions this time. Stains still there - the search continues for something to get laundered in grease stains out of my clothes. *Utter Failure*
Step Five: If soap nuts pass steps three and four I will order a larger bag for further testing.*Done*
Results: Found closer supplier of soap nuts and picked up 1 KG bag on Nov 3rd. *Success*
Summary of first phase: Susie's harness still a little funky. Stain stick a complete failure. Soap nuts appear to work fine on laundry.
End of first phase of testing ... next home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Look! It's October!
Yup, it only took me until the middle of the month to come back on. The weather has been fantastic but I think the biggest and best change has been for the last month and a half I have been keeping up with the housework!
I remember doing this before ... I even Blogged it but I don't mention FLYlady. The FLY in FLYlady stand for Finally Loving Yourself and is the basis of a Housework organization system that is free and comes with a good support system of other women that are having the same trouble with keeping on top of things. Last time I was working on this I got the menu planning down and have been on top of that for 4 years and it works great. We average $200/week for food for 2 adults, 3 children, 2 cats and 2 dogs. However that was the only this that stuck.
Flash forward 4 years to a few months ago. I was miserable, feeling martyred and just generally unhappy. While Mom was living with us she took care of the main floor of the house so I had gotten a bit spoiled. Then *poof* my cleaning fairy was gone and I had to do it myself again. Okay not again because I wasn't really doing the housework before she came - I did a lot of not doing my housework and a whole lot of feeling worthless because doing the housework was my JOB and it was the only job I had ever really wanted. Yet there I was not doing it and when I did it I was angry and resentful about having to do it - how crazy is that?
So a month and a half ago I Googled FLYlady again and started over. Step one: Shine your sink. I committed myself to keeping the sink shiny. In my mind that meant committing myself to keeping the dishes done. I said "Even if all I do this week is keep the sink shiny and the dishes done up it will be more than I'm doing now." This time when I did that it stuck - I felt so good about keeping the kitchen tidy(because you know that clean sink turned into a clean counter and so on ...) that I went to work on the rest of the baby step on the FLYlady site. I pulled out my old control journal and wrote out a Morning and Before Bed routine. Another few days went by and I hit a week of keeping the laundry under control ... unheard of! Every morning I can say by 7:30am "My laundry is done!".
Somehow over the last month and a half I have found the mental switch in my head that made me miserable while I was doing housework and switched it OFF. Now when I finish each chore I feel accomplished and happy. Housework may not be fun but I am doing it out of love now rather than out of anger and how everything looks almost all the time is all the payback I need for the work I am doing.
I have a rather long Morning routine but I have time in that routine to sit and relax. My Morning routine goes from 6am to 9:30am and pretty much gets everything done that needs to be done all right at the beginning of the day. I can then relax until I need to make lunch for the kids. Each weekday I focus on one area or task and on weekends all I have to do is my daily routines and no other extras. This set up has left me with lots of down time and keeps the house looking great all the time - it's almost effortless!
The one exception to keeping on top of things has been the litter boxes - the cats each have one. For the last couple of years I have been using a litter called Feline Pine - it's made of compressed pine pellets and absorbs the cat pee and turns into sawdust, any solid waste can be scooped and flushed and when all the pellets have expanded you can compost it. I love environmentally friendly litters but I hate dumping and refilling the litter boxes and I never kept after the solid waste no matter how may time I said I would this time every time I changed the boxes. So I've switched litters and moved my scooping chore to in the mornings when I am close to each litter box. The new litter is made out of corn, clumps and is flushable. I'll get both solid and liquid waste and I should get to it everyday now.
Once this last task is incorporated into my daily routine all I have to do then is maintain this level for another month and a half. Why that long exactly? Well my reason is that at no time in the past have I kept after the housework for longer than 2 months - after about a month and a half I tend to fizzle out and end up doing a whole lot of nothing again. Then after a while of that I get upset and angry all over again - You see the problem?
So I'll check in in a month and a half and let you know how it's going.
Cass :)
I remember doing this before ... I even Blogged it but I don't mention FLYlady. The FLY in FLYlady stand for Finally Loving Yourself and is the basis of a Housework organization system that is free and comes with a good support system of other women that are having the same trouble with keeping on top of things. Last time I was working on this I got the menu planning down and have been on top of that for 4 years and it works great. We average $200/week for food for 2 adults, 3 children, 2 cats and 2 dogs. However that was the only this that stuck.
Flash forward 4 years to a few months ago. I was miserable, feeling martyred and just generally unhappy. While Mom was living with us she took care of the main floor of the house so I had gotten a bit spoiled. Then *poof* my cleaning fairy was gone and I had to do it myself again. Okay not again because I wasn't really doing the housework before she came - I did a lot of not doing my housework and a whole lot of feeling worthless because doing the housework was my JOB and it was the only job I had ever really wanted. Yet there I was not doing it and when I did it I was angry and resentful about having to do it - how crazy is that?
So a month and a half ago I Googled FLYlady again and started over. Step one: Shine your sink. I committed myself to keeping the sink shiny. In my mind that meant committing myself to keeping the dishes done. I said "Even if all I do this week is keep the sink shiny and the dishes done up it will be more than I'm doing now." This time when I did that it stuck - I felt so good about keeping the kitchen tidy(because you know that clean sink turned into a clean counter and so on ...) that I went to work on the rest of the baby step on the FLYlady site. I pulled out my old control journal and wrote out a Morning and Before Bed routine. Another few days went by and I hit a week of keeping the laundry under control ... unheard of! Every morning I can say by 7:30am "My laundry is done!".
Somehow over the last month and a half I have found the mental switch in my head that made me miserable while I was doing housework and switched it OFF. Now when I finish each chore I feel accomplished and happy. Housework may not be fun but I am doing it out of love now rather than out of anger and how everything looks almost all the time is all the payback I need for the work I am doing.
I have a rather long Morning routine but I have time in that routine to sit and relax. My Morning routine goes from 6am to 9:30am and pretty much gets everything done that needs to be done all right at the beginning of the day. I can then relax until I need to make lunch for the kids. Each weekday I focus on one area or task and on weekends all I have to do is my daily routines and no other extras. This set up has left me with lots of down time and keeps the house looking great all the time - it's almost effortless!
The one exception to keeping on top of things has been the litter boxes - the cats each have one. For the last couple of years I have been using a litter called Feline Pine - it's made of compressed pine pellets and absorbs the cat pee and turns into sawdust, any solid waste can be scooped and flushed and when all the pellets have expanded you can compost it. I love environmentally friendly litters but I hate dumping and refilling the litter boxes and I never kept after the solid waste no matter how may time I said I would this time every time I changed the boxes. So I've switched litters and moved my scooping chore to in the mornings when I am close to each litter box. The new litter is made out of corn, clumps and is flushable. I'll get both solid and liquid waste and I should get to it everyday now.
Once this last task is incorporated into my daily routine all I have to do then is maintain this level for another month and a half. Why that long exactly? Well my reason is that at no time in the past have I kept after the housework for longer than 2 months - after about a month and a half I tend to fizzle out and end up doing a whole lot of nothing again. Then after a while of that I get upset and angry all over again - You see the problem?
So I'll check in in a month and a half and let you know how it's going.
Cass :)
Monday, August 09, 2010
Long overdue update ...
I see it's been entirely too long since I typed anything at all on here so I guess I should try to update you. You all must know very well by now that the reason I don't write is because everything is pretty much the same so I'll try to focus on the stuff that is different.
Mom moved out from my place back in July to go help her parents out and she gave us her little Shi Tzu,Wikket, as she doesn't have the time/energy to walk him from the apartment she is now living in with her parents. Wikket, of course, has been part of our family for over a year now and we would have all missed him if he had gone with her so we're happy he's staying.
Another furry member of our family for just over a year is Cloe who is looking pretty darn wonderful now and is finally, after a year, asking to be petted from time to time.
The kids are all doing well in school and enjoying summer vacation. And J & I are fine. I got new glasses recently so I'm happy - I wonder if I looked back in my Blog I could find when I got my last new glasses? It does go back quite a way and I had a major rant about how our then eye doctor's office handed a mix up that was their fault. We've since switched practices. You don't get the Momma bear mad, she'll take her whole family and profit someone else ... Nope I just looked it's not there - so pre 2007 anyway.
Let's see ... anything new? Not really:
We got a new to us sectional last fall and this past Sat I got rid of half of it so I could open my front door again.
This summer has been too hot/humid and I am looking forward to October.
The kids are all getting too old for me to comprehend and I keep telling them to stop. ~I~ am getting too old for me to comprehend and I can't seem to stop - 39 this year.
All my pets are great and I am happy except for when I'm angry but since I have come to the conclusion that I like being angry that's okay as well.
Yeah, pretty much same old same old. I Sim, I read, I neglect the housework(tomorrow I have to do laundry all day), I love on my family(both furry and not) and I keep on keeping on. I like my life most of the time.
Happy Summer!
Cass :)
Mom moved out from my place back in July to go help her parents out and she gave us her little Shi Tzu,Wikket, as she doesn't have the time/energy to walk him from the apartment she is now living in with her parents. Wikket, of course, has been part of our family for over a year now and we would have all missed him if he had gone with her so we're happy he's staying.
Another furry member of our family for just over a year is Cloe who is looking pretty darn wonderful now and is finally, after a year, asking to be petted from time to time.
The kids are all doing well in school and enjoying summer vacation. And J & I are fine. I got new glasses recently so I'm happy - I wonder if I looked back in my Blog I could find when I got my last new glasses? It does go back quite a way and I had a major rant about how our then eye doctor's office handed a mix up that was their fault. We've since switched practices. You don't get the Momma bear mad, she'll take her whole family and profit someone else ... Nope I just looked it's not there - so pre 2007 anyway.
Let's see ... anything new? Not really:
We got a new to us sectional last fall and this past Sat I got rid of half of it so I could open my front door again.
This summer has been too hot/humid and I am looking forward to October.
The kids are all getting too old for me to comprehend and I keep telling them to stop. ~I~ am getting too old for me to comprehend and I can't seem to stop - 39 this year.
All my pets are great and I am happy except for when I'm angry but since I have come to the conclusion that I like being angry that's okay as well.
Yeah, pretty much same old same old. I Sim, I read, I neglect the housework(tomorrow I have to do laundry all day), I love on my family(both furry and not) and I keep on keeping on. I like my life most of the time.
Happy Summer!
Cass :)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Mini Reno at my house!
Crazy to blog twice in one day but I know there is at least one person waiting for this one so here goes. Thanks to my Mom coming into some money we did a mini reno on my house; New kitchen & bathroom flooring, new toilet, new stove, and a new vanity. Following are the pictures before, during and after with my commentary(of course).
Kitchen(before). I didn't realize how messy it was until I looked at the pictures but you try doing a reno like this with 6 people, 2 cats and 2 dogs in a house that is under 1000 square feet and I'd like to see what your pictures look like!
Bathroom(before). As you all know from my Jan 2008 house tour this is my only bathroom.
To save money I then had to do the following:
Move all appliances from the kitchen(that's 2 fridges & a stove)
Move pantry cabinet from the kitchen(it's a stand alone)
Remove toilet from bathroom
Get J to remove vanity from bathroom
Remove peel and stick tiles in bathroom
Now in almost any other house there may be a spare room somewhere nearby, maybe even a dining room that could be used as a storage room. Not in my house. I had hoped everything would fit in the girls' room but the larger fridge would not fit and had to go into the mudroom. I moved K's bed on top of M's bed and put the girls out in the living room for the night.
Kitchen(in progress):
Bathroom(in progress) those are towels on the floor. I peeled up the peel and stick tiles and the left over adhesive was very very sticky and the bathroom still had to be used overnight and the next morning.
Girls' room & mudroom stuffed with stuff:
Living room/girls' room for the night. You'll notice a few changes in the living room since my 2008 tour, it has been 2 years. We have a sectional now and yes it totally blocks the front door. The front windows can be used for an emergency exit.
Kitchen floor going in. Yes I asked permission to post this poor man's back end on the interwebs. Nice guy, worked fast.
Bathroom(in progress). No toilet and leveler on the floor drying. My bathroom is almost a sane size with nothing in it but the tub ... /sigh/
Kitchen(final reveal). Nice and tidy after a day of use. Yes that's homemade bread on the stove top, J made it. I love my fancy new oven.
Bathroom(almost done). J has to put the new vanity and sink in, this involves piping and he has to buy the stuff to do it and all that.
Living room all tidy and stuff - this room looks very nice other than the walls need a fresh coat of paint.
And that was my mini reno. It was a lot of work for 2 days but it's(almost) all done now. Hopefully J won't be too long putting the new vanity/sink in. He's working this weekend so maybe next weekend or some evening this week ...
Kitchen(before). I didn't realize how messy it was until I looked at the pictures but you try doing a reno like this with 6 people, 2 cats and 2 dogs in a house that is under 1000 square feet and I'd like to see what your pictures look like!
Bathroom(before). As you all know from my Jan 2008 house tour this is my only bathroom.
To save money I then had to do the following:
Move all appliances from the kitchen(that's 2 fridges & a stove)
Move pantry cabinet from the kitchen(it's a stand alone)
Remove toilet from bathroom
Get J to remove vanity from bathroom
Remove peel and stick tiles in bathroom
Now in almost any other house there may be a spare room somewhere nearby, maybe even a dining room that could be used as a storage room. Not in my house. I had hoped everything would fit in the girls' room but the larger fridge would not fit and had to go into the mudroom. I moved K's bed on top of M's bed and put the girls out in the living room for the night.
Kitchen(in progress):
Bathroom(in progress) those are towels on the floor. I peeled up the peel and stick tiles and the left over adhesive was very very sticky and the bathroom still had to be used overnight and the next morning.
Girls' room & mudroom stuffed with stuff:
Living room/girls' room for the night. You'll notice a few changes in the living room since my 2008 tour, it has been 2 years. We have a sectional now and yes it totally blocks the front door. The front windows can be used for an emergency exit.
Kitchen floor going in. Yes I asked permission to post this poor man's back end on the interwebs. Nice guy, worked fast.
Bathroom(in progress). No toilet and leveler on the floor drying. My bathroom is almost a sane size with nothing in it but the tub ... /sigh/
Kitchen(final reveal). Nice and tidy after a day of use. Yes that's homemade bread on the stove top, J made it. I love my fancy new oven.
Bathroom(almost done). J has to put the new vanity and sink in, this involves piping and he has to buy the stuff to do it and all that.
Living room all tidy and stuff - this room looks very nice other than the walls need a fresh coat of paint.
And that was my mini reno. It was a lot of work for 2 days but it's(almost) all done now. Hopefully J won't be too long putting the new vanity/sink in. He's working this weekend so maybe next weekend or some evening this week ...
Xmas Summary, because no one wants to see all that red-eye!
Okay, I'm going to make this short because only a Mommy & Daddy can enjoy looking at pictures of people opening gifts(and then only if those people are loved ones). To everyone else it is boring. I tried to hit on the high points with the pictures I've chosen but the 12 I am posting are not all of the pictures I have of the big day. I am, however, using them as reference so I can get the general gift list right.
I have to start with Xmas Eve as we gave the children our traditional gift then as well as a second gift that I figured would be better set up before the business of Xmas day itself. Our traditional gift is pajamas and sometimes a little extra gift(this way everyone looks nice in Xmas morning pictures). This year we did jammies and a book. A also got a little bag of plastic soldiers and M's book came with a necklace. The children's other gift was individual computer desks - I had been telling them for over a week that I had bought them cages. When J and I went down into the basement to set them up I sent the empty boxes upstiars to the kids with this label taped to them:
I went on with a back story that caging kids was a new parenting method and that I bought the cages from the people that ran the website that was talking about this new parenting trend. I told them as soon as Daddy and I were done setting them up we would let them try them out. A figured it out but the girls(especially M) were almost fooled.
Their reactions were wonderful, I think there is relief in those smiles:
Of course everyone was happy with their new jammies as well and were happy to show them off to the camera for me:
Here is a shot of our tree with all the goodies:
Me on Xmas morning, I insisted on this shot because my dog has her head on my ankles and I thought that was sweet:
Yes it's still dark outside but is around 7am. I'm not going to list everything everyone got because that's silly. I think my best gift was the new camera J got me, J got 6 new t-shirts from me but he thinks his best gift was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book set I got him, K's fave gift was probably the cash she got, A's is either the DS or the Lego Star Wars PC game we got him, M has gotten the most use out of her Littlest Pet Shop play set and I think Mom liked the pictures of the kids we gave her.
The kids lined up for the first gift of the day:
I had just said, "You're lined up like three little soldiers." what hams I have!
A has, by far, the biggest reactions to everything, he was shocked to get a DS of his very own:
But nothing beats getting something you really wanted but didn't think Mommy & Daddy could find:
He went right downstairs to install it and play for a while!
Even Mom's Shi Tzu was into the Xmas spirit:
That's it. Using our 'one gift each and then take a break' method we managed to keep the gift giving going until noon. This is really good since the kids only had 4 gifts each to open. It was a great day and well worth telling you all about!
Cass :)
I have to start with Xmas Eve as we gave the children our traditional gift then as well as a second gift that I figured would be better set up before the business of Xmas day itself. Our traditional gift is pajamas and sometimes a little extra gift(this way everyone looks nice in Xmas morning pictures). This year we did jammies and a book. A also got a little bag of plastic soldiers and M's book came with a necklace. The children's other gift was individual computer desks - I had been telling them for over a week that I had bought them cages. When J and I went down into the basement to set them up I sent the empty boxes upstiars to the kids with this label taped to them:
I went on with a back story that caging kids was a new parenting method and that I bought the cages from the people that ran the website that was talking about this new parenting trend. I told them as soon as Daddy and I were done setting them up we would let them try them out. A figured it out but the girls(especially M) were almost fooled.
Their reactions were wonderful, I think there is relief in those smiles:
Of course everyone was happy with their new jammies as well and were happy to show them off to the camera for me:
Here is a shot of our tree with all the goodies:
Me on Xmas morning, I insisted on this shot because my dog has her head on my ankles and I thought that was sweet:
Yes it's still dark outside but is around 7am. I'm not going to list everything everyone got because that's silly. I think my best gift was the new camera J got me, J got 6 new t-shirts from me but he thinks his best gift was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book set I got him, K's fave gift was probably the cash she got, A's is either the DS or the Lego Star Wars PC game we got him, M has gotten the most use out of her Littlest Pet Shop play set and I think Mom liked the pictures of the kids we gave her.
The kids lined up for the first gift of the day:
I had just said, "You're lined up like three little soldiers." what hams I have!A has, by far, the biggest reactions to everything, he was shocked to get a DS of his very own:
But nothing beats getting something you really wanted but didn't think Mommy & Daddy could find:
He went right downstairs to install it and play for a while!Even Mom's Shi Tzu was into the Xmas spirit:
That's it. Using our 'one gift each and then take a break' method we managed to keep the gift giving going until noon. This is really good since the kids only had 4 gifts each to open. It was a great day and well worth telling you all about!
Cass :)
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