After-Shave

Did you know that you can make aftershave?  Since one of our boys reacts to scents that are not from natural sources, I made aftershave for the boys.  Seriously!  I did!

adapted from a recipe on Recipegoldmine.com

Herb Garden Splash

2 cups white vinegar (you can use witch hazel or rubbing alcohol)
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon savory
1 whole bottle of whole allspice
2 whole bay leaves


Combine all ingredients and store in a sterilized glass jar for 1 week. Shake occasionally to mix contents. Strain and pour into a tightly capped bottle.

This smells a lot like Old Spice. Don't let the vinegar-y scent fool you---when that part evaporates, the spice smell will linger. I let it sit in a quart-sized canning jar for 2 weeks. It gets a dark color, just like "real" aftershave. 

What to put it in once it's made?  I bought some cheap aftershave from Wal-Mart, making sure I got glass containers.  I emptied out the cheap stuff and washed the bottles.  Once the aftershave was made, I used a meat flavor-injector similar to this one but without the needle attached.  It was very easy to suck up the aftershave from the canning jar where it steeped and "shoot" it into the glass aftershave bottles.  I added the boys' initials to the bottles and covered the paper with clear packing tape.

The Boys' Canoe Trip

John took the boys out on Shoals Creek Friday. It was a gorgeous day! There were very few people on the creek that day, as you can see from this video. You could be at just about any time in history--from early 1800's to 2010. They had lunch on this sand bar. There are houses all along the creek, but this is a lonely stretch. (John said he didn't know his hair looked so goofy, so apologies for that.)

You know your daughter is being raised in a house with boys when...

...when she yells, INCOMING! whenever she throws something.

...and that the boys like space movies...

...when she says, TRANSPORT! when moving her baby dolls from one place to another.

Here is one of those boy-types who teach her that stuff.

What are they up to now?!

I walked outside yesterday to see this:


Our neighbor's son holding up a sign to passing cars...
and JT playing with his Diabolo on the driveway next to him.
Here is the sign:

HEY
WATCH THIS
YO-YO THINGY
1:00-3:15

Boys and Camp

After hearing how miserable he'd be if he had to go to camp, Bryan ended up having a pretty good time and even learned some good things about our world. JT absolutely loved the 3 days and wished it were longer (mom didn't need to worry). JT threw himself into everything and even had a young lady in the group who had a big crush on him!

JT has talked for hours about all he learned and all they did there.

This little video is of the last minutes of the camp--after Luci and I arrived to bring the boys home. Don't tell them it's on the blog! They begged me to not post it. Bryan and JT have on orange shirts in this video.

On the way home, we had some wicked weather to go through. At one point, a tree was down across the roadway and quite a few vehicles were stuck...until one young man drove up and pulled a chainsaw from the bed of his pick up truck. He had that pine tree cut up and several men from other vehicles pulled the tree off the road. Gotta love country boys and their chainsaws.

Going to Camp

The boys went to camp today. McDowell Environmental Center has 3 and 5 day camps available for all age groups. Robin W. got a group of homeschoolers together for a 3 day camp. It was just too good to pass up. The lessons, on the environment, fit right in with our Weaver studies this spring. Usually things like this are out of our budget so that's another blessing to come from John's trip.

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Bryan was not convinced this was a good idea.

Until he found out it was 5 boys to 10 girls....if you look hard, you can see a little grin.When getting directions to the boys' cabin, the counselor said, "Go left at the fork in the road."JT was pretty excited about this camp. It's the first time he's gone on a trip without a parent...so Mom's nervous, but he is not.The cabin. Much nicer than what we had at Ivydale in the '70s!JT and Luci loving on each other.

The camp is in Winston County, Alabama. Winston County seceded from Alabama when Alabama seceded from the Union! The citizens here did not want to fight their Southern brothers or their Northern brothers, and seceded to make the "Free State of Winston."

Later today, Luci "fixed" her bicycle.

Spielberg and Lucas, Take Notice!

Bryan and JT had two boys from church spend the night last night. I looked out the back window today and saw four young, costumed filmmakers heading down to the creek. They look like they might be working on a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings re-make. Lots of fun!

Soccer Evaluation

Excited, but nervous.

Doing her thing. Very slowly, by the way. This is actually a video--not really, but Luci was very slow and careful during every drill.

The film crew. The boys took TWO handycams, and made a nice video for John. They worked really well together, and I am proud of that! We had to explain to every skill station what we were doing. "We brough Luci's film crew so we could send the action to Daddy in Afghanistan." It's a big church, and not everyone remembered where John is. We go to the late service and a couple of people at the evaluations go to another service and so were new to me. :) So glad we have so many who are willing to help our little ones learn a new game!

Bryan thought I was nuts for suggesting he lay down for this shot, but it made a very effective background for the credits in their film. Mama sometimes has good ideas!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

The Other Day...

I went out onto the deck and heard a commotion...there were three "army guys" in John's pick-up, defending Freedom!

Pretty tough, huh? Two nerf guns and an empty bb gun. The bad guys never knew what hit 'em. Our neighbor Clay, Bryan, and JT.

Gorgeous moon!

Boot Camp

No, John's not at boot camp--he's at a mobilization station. The boot camp is for the boys today! We needed a bit more discipline with getting up times, doing chores and lessons. So they were woken up by a drill sergeant (me!) and had to get in line for chow after getting dressed and making their beds.
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Oh, you shoulda heard the complaining! Push-ups were given out, ten at a time, for those who talked back to the sergeant, or made not-so-nice comments to other troops. One certain red-head did 40 push-ups total before breakfast was over. The red-head complained that he was not happy. Sergeant told him that "Boot camp continues until Mama's happy."
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It was a success this morning. Schoolwork is done, and the house is tidier, and we are off to work at the church for our give-away day coming up on Saturday.
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Some of you have asked what John's job is with the military. He's an electrical engineer, with a specialty in lighting. Here's his Christmas uniform: John called this morning to report that he passed all of his training, and told me the secret to his success, and I quote him: "They have it set up so you can't fail this stuff." I guess when they get you that close to actually going, they don't want to send anyone home.
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Luci's all ready ready for John to come home. She has a pile of drawings (she calls it her email) "to show Daddy when he gets home tonight." John wants me to set up my computer to use the video-cam that's built into it. I don't really want to because that means I have to have my hair and make-up on all the time! But for Luci's sake, I guess we'll do it.

They Finally Figured It Out...

John left this morning on a two-day trip. The boys started arguing (what else is new?) and would not stop. So, the time-honored punishment:

Go to your rooms and don't come out until your father gets home!

That's until late tomorrow night! I had TWO quiet hours until they figured it out!

Wednesdays are Karate/Library/Chore/School Days

I've wondered what Luci would do on those really long days. Would she run wild? Would I be wrestling with her to stay in her quiet place so we can do some school work? Today I got my answer.

Here's what Bryan and JT did when we finally got to the school work.Here's what Luci did. She's sleeping behind me right now. Bryan fixed up a pallet for her, with pillow, blankie, coloring book and her mayonnaise jar full of crayons. She fell asleep right away. I am so glad! This is the little girl who has to be held to go to sleep.
Here's our version of He Kexin!

She's wearing one of JT's gold medals won at a gymnastics meet long ago. Luci will tell you her shirt says, "Mei Mei. And that red part is chopsticks." Not quite, but for 3 1/2, that is pretty cute.

Another Reason to Teach the Boys to Do Their Own Laundry

so they are the ones looking into the wash-tub instead of me!

Maine Woman Finds 8-Foot Python in Washing Machine

By the way, Bryan and JT do wash their own laundry. Dry it, too. And then they have to put it away. It is a big help to me. Sometimes they get where they are going in rumpled t-shirts, but hey, they are clean!

Boys Working Together

The boys lost a birdie from the badminton set on the roof. I thought it was so nice how they worked together to get it down.

Moustaches!!

All the moustachioed men at the party.

Marty, Papa, Bryan, CalebBryan's moustache is helped along by chocolate icing.
JT had to get in on the act with a Cheetoh!

(sorry, Feingold friends...it is not a natural cheetoh)

Today is Laura's birthday. She's Janet's oldest daughter.

More pics on that in a future post. These were taken at her party.