Homemade Swiffer Wet Jet Cloth

Today I have hit a wall. An ick wall to be exact. I was pushing through full steam until lunch time when I just went downhill quickly. 

Fortunately, I start my day at about 5 in the morning, so a large chunk of my work was already finished. 

Unfortunately, part of that work came to fruition because my Swiffer cloth I made 2 years ago bit the dust this morning. It was simply worked to death. 

A few years ago I decided to find a frugal way to replace the never ending purchases of wet Swiffer cloths. I was going through them at a ridiculous rate. 

So here's what I came up with:

It's not perfect stitching by any means, but I don't think my Swiffer minds. 

I really, really stink at tutorials, so just bear with me. 

Materials:

Velcro strips (enough to cut into four 2 inch pieces) 

Durable washcloth

Sewing machine/or needle

Thread

The first thing you need to do is find a high quality, durable washcloth. 

Fold it in half and sew along all the edges. It should look like this:

Once you have that done, you get yourself some Velcro. Walmart sells long strips. 

Cut into four 2 inch long strips. 

(I forgot to get a picture of this. I told you I'm not good at this.)

Make sure you're using the soft side of the Velcro. 

Pin each piece in the corner of your washcloth. 

Yay! Look at how awesome you are. So nifty, you. 

Sew each piece on making sure you see the edges so they don't pull off. 

Once you have all 4 sewn on, you're ready to attach the cloth to your Swiffer and get to cleaning!

Congratulations. You are now a frugal goddess.  

Good on you.

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Throwback Thursday

This isn't your average Throwback Thursday where I post old pictures of myself. 

 No one wants me to do that. I grew up in the 80's and 90's, enough said. 

Nope, I figured since my blog is about the South somewhat  after all, I should, you know, post about it every now and then. 

I have every intention of posting some things I learned while reading Bittersweet Country by Ellen Cray Massey. 

It's a book I inherited from my great- grandpa about the early years in the Ozarks ( the area where I'm from).

Every post will have some facts and day-in-the-life examples. I've read it before and it was so interesting to me, but it's been awhile, so I need to re-read. 

I know personally, by the time I cared where my family came from and southern traditions, the people who would have answers had already passed on. 

This way I can start new and teach my children. 

Whether or not we use these skills everyday or not, it's still nice to know how. 

Oh, and just to be a good sport, here's my kindergarten picture. Note the acid wash dress and the untamable cowlick. 

I'll see you next Thurdsday!

Be excited. 

=0)

Manic Monday

This title truly describes our Monday.

I was so busy yesterday sewing, cleaning, running, and babysitting that I didn't have a chance to blog. 

We had a plan on Monday, and some things we stuck with, yet other events were thrown in randomly. 

Our first stop was out to a farm to get some fresh milk and free range chicken eggs. We had never had raw milk and quite frankly, we scoffed at it. I'm not against store bought and I wouldn't pay extra for raw milk. This purchased saved me money, plain and simple. The eggs were $1.50 a dozen and the milk was $3.50/ gallon. But, the milk has a layer of cream on the top that filled a pint jar. I used it for my creamer and on my next purchase, I will be making butter with the cream. So... A gallon of milk and a pint of cream for $3.50... Yeah, count me in. 

After that we headed out to Ponca to see how high the water was when we discovered a preserved farm that we had never noticed before. Being the adventurers we are, we decided to check it out. 

This is the barn. 

Hoops anyone? Josh had to explain to me why this bucket was nailed to a tree, you know, cause I'm oblivious. 

This is the actual cabin. I really want our next family portrait shoot to be here. 

Like, desperately. 

This is the smokehouse. 

Back porch. 

Root cellar. My Nanny's house has one of these. My mom said scorpions used to run rampant in it. 

*shudders*

Pretty sure we all know what this is. 

And finally, the Chicken coop

Sawyer was grumbly at this point. He doesn't really care for nature or the heat. 

We headed about a mile down the road and went to one of the viewing areas for Elk spotting. We only got to see a baby one from really far away, but Sawyer got to read about them and Sofia got to climb and run.  

After we left there, we went one of our good friend's homes to pick wild blackberries. I intend to make some blackberry vanilla jam with them later. I didn't get any pictures of the picking because the kids were purple and cranky at this point. 

After some naps were over, we headed to my dad's to vacuum our vehicles and let the kids play in the sprinkler. 

I love our Monday adventures! 

What day does your family like to have adventures on and what are some of your favorite things to do? 

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Happy hump day!

The Doomed Herbs

Yep, I planted some herbs on a whim yesterday. I call them "doomed" because I have a tendency to kill plants.

I literally almost killed our aloe plants. Those are hard to kill, y'all. 

I'm so tired of not having fresh herbs on hand and I like to dry my own herbs in the kitchen. It makes me feel like I have the kitchen out of The Good Witch movies. 

If you haven't watched The Good Witch movies on the Hallmark Channel, please do so. I LOVE them and are a requirement to start my Fall. 

Anyways...

Here the herbs are on day one. I'll do weekly updates for your comic relief to see (if they even grow) how quickly I kill them. 

Let's go on an adventure together!

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Lazy, crazy Sunday

                            

So this is what I'm doing this morning. 

Yes, that is a Jack Skellington coffee mug that Josh got for me a few birthdays ago. I like to use it on drill weekends cause, well, I'm a sap and I miss him. 

Call me romantic. 

I was planning on trying to go to church with just me and the kids, but in all honesty, we're new to this church and I've never taken the kids by myself. 

Call me a wuss. 

So we're reading the bible here at home today and talking about the kid's bible stories. 

We've been getting a super abnormal amount of rain lately, which means the lawn needs mowed like crazy. However, since it can't help raining at least once a day, they yard never dries so I can mow it. It's a viscous cycle. I may attempt to mow this afternoon when we get back from my dad's house. 

Also on my list for this afternoon is climbing the Neighbor's apple tree (chill, no one lives there and free fruit should never go to waste) and get some apples to make and can some apple pie filling. I bought and Amish cookbook a few months back and I'm dying to try some of the recipes, although it seems like I've lost my cooking touch recently. 

I've had more meals bomb than succeed. Oh well, practice makes perfect. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow night because we have some adventures planned and of course I'll want to share. 

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Happy Sunday, y'all!

Why I'm excited for back-to-school: It's not why you think.

*WARNING: Soapbox session about to commence*

I haven't much thought about what it means when parents say "I'm exhausted! I'm ready for school to start back!"..  Until recently when I had a friend bring it up on Facebook. It just never crossed my mind as an issue. It was something that I heard regularly growing up, so it was just something parents said, right?

Why are parents so excited for school to go back in session? 

Usually the most popular answer is because they're tired and are ready for a break. 

What does that say to your child who overhears it?

"Mom/ Dad can't wait for me to get out of their hair. Am I a burden?"

Most likely they aren't reading into it that consciously. However, some might, and there is that implication behind it. 

You can't really take that statement any other way. 

We as parents made a conscious decision to have our children and raise them. 

Instantly that means we made the decision to make them feel special, important, wanted. If you feel they are a burden, remember, you chose this to be a "burden" you wanted. 

I absolutely have days where I'm like, "I'm so ready for bedtime. I need a reset. Tomorrow will be better." 

See, that's completely different from saying, "I can't handle this much time with my kid and I'm ready to send them off to a public babysitter." 

Okay, okay, that's a bit harsh. But do you see my point?

Like I said, I had never payed attention nor saw it from that perspective until recently. 

No, not all parents are maliciously thinking this. 

I know some who are. Seriously. 

So here are my reasons for why I'M glad my kids are heading back to school. 

1) They get to see old friends and make new ones. 

They certainly don't get to do much of that here with their parents. 

2) They'll have wonderful, influential teachers. 

I wouldn't have thought about this before, but Sawyer's teachers last year changed my mind. 

They will always be his first teachers and I couldn't be happier that they are his first memories of school. 

3) I get one-on-one time with Sofia. 

During the summer I get to spend a lot of quality time with the kids. Before Sawyer went into preschool, I had a lot of special time with just him. We danced, learned, and made memories of just us. It was nice. I'll get to do that with Sofia now. 

4) Those "I missed you" after school hugs are the best. I don't get those in the summer. 

5) I get to hear stories from school. 

There is something about my child sharing stories without me asking that warms my heart. 

6) "Mom! Guess what I learned today!"

He learns things at school that I never would have thought to teach him... And he loves to share. 

7) I get to shop!

Clothes, shoes, backpacks, oh my!

It's neat to see how Sawyer's personality and tastes change from one year to the next. 

8) I love seeing Sawyer become more independent every year. 

He's pretty fearless, but there's always apprehension on a parents part when you just go and drop them off all day without you. 

Seeing him just charge ahead reassures me we're doing something right. 

I'm a little misty-eyed right now, so I'll wrap this post up. 

Our school is back in session on the 19th so we're going to soak up the rest of Summer as much as possible. 

What are some of your favorite back-to-school moment?