My Poor Little Boy...

Has a rash.


It's the worst here, on his face.


But it's also all over his tummy and back.

I'd call it roseola, but he never had a high fever. He had a mid-range fever for a day or two, so it's still probably what it is. At least it doesn't seem to itch.

The others are sick too (fevers, feeling achy). I hope it doesn't last long.

Jesse Tree Activities for Preschoolers

This is our first year doing a Jesse Tree in celebration of Advent. When we started, I thought we'd make ornaments each day, and put them on our little tree.

But it's worked out to doing some related activity each day instead. And it's been fun (even though our tree is relatively bare. Here's what we've done. (We're using this devotional as a starting place.)

• November 30th: Isaiah 11:19. Got out the Christmas tree, talked about it being a Jesse tree.
• December 1st: Genesis 1:26-31. Celebrate creation in some way. We made snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and beads, (it was our first snow).
• December 2nd: Got out all of our snake toys and talked about making the right choice when we want to be naughty. Hung a snake on the tree.
• December 3rd: Cut a cereal box in to the shape of an ark and played with animals in it.
• December 4th: Genesis 12:1-7. Made Abraham's traveling tent out of a blanket and chairs in the living room. We played "Abraham and Sarah" all evening.
• December 5th: Genesis 21:1-7. Played with baby dolls, name them all "Isaac".
• December 6th: Genesis 22:1-14. Played "Hide and seek the Ram" with a stuffed lamb. It's currently still hidden behind the computer.
• December 7th: Genesis 28:10-22. Played Tag (the person who was "it" is the problem, others are running from their problem -- a stretch, I know).
• December 8th: Genesis 37: 1-36, 50:15-21. Made a coat of many colors. We used paper bags, cut the front open, made a hole for the neck and two side holes for the arms. Then we turned them inside-out (so they were solid) and colored them. Now the kids are wearing their colorful vests.
• December 9th: Genesis 5:1-22 Wrote messages to each other on rocks. Crayons worked pretty well for this.
• December 10th: Joshua 2:1-21 Hung a piece of red yarn in the window.

What activities have you others been doing for advent? If you've been doing the Jesse Tree, what sorts of things make it memorable for your young ones?

For other Works for me Wednesday, visit Rocks in my Dryer

Made it Myself Monday - Graham Cracker Houses

Last Friday, we observed one of our favorite Christmas Traditions. The making of Graham Cracker houses.

Simply put, we build a structure out of mostly graham crackers. Melted candy canes are the "glue". We melt the candy in an electric griddle, then dip a graham cracker in it, then attach it to another for a nice, strong joint.


This technique for making a strong wall is exceptionally good.




We have a history of going all-out. This year we were a bit more conservative, confining our efforts into about 2 1/2 hours of construction and decorating. Here's the results:

I built each of the kids a tiny little house and let them decorate it. They enjoyed it a lot, and ate way too much candy.

Josephine already has a bit of a tummy ache.


Lisel is quite proud of hers.


Bennet built a really nice yard around his.


I built a nativity,


and Chester built a ship crashing into a bridge.



Some of the others built really nice houses.


Clearly, their decorating sense is better than mine!


They also brought the nice kinds of candy. Yum!



You can always tell a more engineering type. They build such great structures that they run out of time and don't end up decorating them. The structures are so cool, though, that they really don't need decorating, do they?

A double water wheel.


Look at the spiral stairs on the inside of her tower!


And a space ship.


Yep, we had a fabulous time. Thanks to Dan and Hannah for taking the ball and running with it this year. All photos, by the way are by Dan, and can be viewed for real at Tiger Photography.

Keeping Christmas Simple

I'm blessed to have grown up in a fairly simple family that wasn't tempted to
keep up with anyone in particular in our Christmas celebrations. Thus, it's been easier (I think) for me to keep Christmas simple with a family of my own now.

Here's a few of the things we've done in the past or are doing this year:

Gifts We've only ever bought one gift per person. Each child gets one thing, each name we draw in the extended family gets one thing. Our extended family observes price limits -- $5 on one side and $15 on the other. This year, we're forgoing gifts within our immediate family so as not to be so overwhelmed with new stuff all at once.

We've tried to make a habit of having the kids participate in giving gifts. Last year, they each chose a gift that they thought Jesus would like to have (i.e., something they really liked), and we donated them to a gifts-for-the-needy program. This year, they are each picking a gift for Jesus out of the Samaritan's Purse gifts catalog. They'll do extra chores to pay for their chosen gift. They also draw names with their cousins for a gift exchange, and we moms have an agreement that they just swap their own toys rather than buying new ones all the time.

Decor We have a 4 foot tree this year (last year, we had a 2 foot tall one). And everything that we get out is safe for the kids to play with. Our favorite is the Veggie Tales nativity. I don't have to worry about breakables or precious decorations. We tack our Christmas cards to a bar that's hung on our kitchen wall -- most of the year it displays current kid art. But at Christmas, it displays cards and Christmas letters.

Shopping I do all my shopping for gifts during the summer garage sale season, or I handmake them. This allows me to get really nice gifts while still observing the price limits. It's usually my goal to be done with the shopping by September, allowing a few months for the things I have yet to make. This year, I'm done shopping, but still have lots to make, so it's a bit busier than it has been in the past. I also make lots of jelly in the summer, and use it as gifts for families at church and co-workers.

Cards I've always written a Christmas letter. A couple of years ago, I decided that a letter with pictures was fine without a card -- just by itself. Then I noticed that if my Christmas letter arrived at the same time as everyone else's, it didn't get read. So now I send out either a "Thanksgiving letter", or a "Happy New Year" letter in mid-January. It takes the stress out during Christmas, and gets a bit more attention from the recipients too.

Activities Just like all year long, we minimize our activities. We like to be at home, together in the evenings. We like to have friends over to our house too, but December is usually so busy for others that we get to enjoy more evenings at home by ourselves. We generally try for one extra activity a week (or less), and it usually works. (This week we built Graham Cracker houses -- so much fun! Look for pictures on Monday). I think life in general is calmer and more centered when we minimize our outside activities.

This year, we're doing the Jesse tree for the first time. I thought we'd make ornaments each day, and put them on our little tree. But it's worked out to doing some related activity each day instead. Here's what we've done so far:

• November 30th: Got out the Christmas tree, talked about it being a Jesse tree.
• December 1st: Made snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and beads, Thanked God for His creation (it's a stretch, I know, but we got our first snow that day).
• December 2nd: Got out all of our snake toys and talked about making the right choice when we want to be naughty.
• December 3rd: Cut a cereal box in to the shape of an ark and played with animals in it.
• December 4th: Made Abraham's traveling tent out of a blanket and chairs in the living room, played "Abraham and Sarah" all evening.
• December 5th: Played with baby dolls, named them all "Isaac".
• December 6th: Climbed a couch cushion "mountain", and "sacrificed" a stuffed lamb on the top (after carrying up a baby doll named Isaac, of course).

We'll keep doing these types of activities. (Do you want me to share abou them here while we do them?) The tree isn't getting very decorated, but we're having fun, and the kids remember each day's story and activity (and I don't have any more of a mess than usual to clean up).

That's it for now -- especially since I can't access my pictures to add some and break up this post. Maybe later today. For other's Simple Christmas ideas, go on over to Keeper of the Home.

Cost Analysis of 'No-Poo' Baking Soda Shampoo

Looking for the monster hoodie giveaway? It's here.

Using baking soda instead of shampoo ( no-'poo) seems to be an internet rage right now. I've read about it several places, and even given it a bit of a try. Like others, I found my hair was definitely greasier than usual at first, but I think I could make it work. Unlike most others, I get my shampoo free from the local food bank, so using baking soda (which I don't get free) is actually more expensive.

So I decided to figure out how the costs compare.

The 16 oz box of baking soda in my cupboard cost 54 cents. I measured 30 Tablespoons in the box.

My most recent bottle of Aussie Shampoo from the local food bank is 16 fluid ounces. That's 32 tablespoons.

For one shampooing, the site above recommends using 1 Tbsp. baking soda. So one box has 30 shampooings. In my couple of weeks trying it, I acually use a bit more than this, but I'm leaving the calculation at 30 Tablespoons.

When I use normal shampoo, I use about 1/2 Tbsp regular shampoo for my chin-length hair (That's shampooing twice in the shower). You may use more or less than this. But this makes my calculations easy. That means that I'm getting 64 shampoos from a bottle of shampoo. I'll call it 60, just to be lazy.

If my bottle of shampoo costs less than double the price of a box of baking soda, it's cheaper to use shampoo. I know that not too many 16 oz bottles of shampoo are actually one dollar or less, but I've definitely seen those prices on sale. I also realize that it's probably healthier to use the baking soda even when it's more expensive. In the past, though, I've bought shampoo for $5 a gallon at Sally Beauty Supply (on sale) before. That's equivalent to 8 - 16 ounce bottles of shampoo at about 63 cents each. My baking soda would have to be cheaper than 32 cents a (16 oz) box to beat that price. (And it might be in large boxes or with a coupon). Have you found baking soda cheaper than 2 cents an ounce?

Conclusion: "No-poo" may be healthier than shampoo, and probably is better for your hair than the cheapest shampoos. For most people -- those who buy something more expensive than the absolute cheapest shampoo, it's probably cost effective to switch to baking soda. But not for everyone.

Another note: My hair does not usually need conditioning. If you use conditioner, the cost of washing your hair approximately doubles. But you'll probably need some apple cider vinegar with your baking soda too.

I've been trying baking soda shampoo for about 2 1/2 weeks so far. It's okay, but I'm not totally sold yet. My hair still feels more oily than I like, but it looks clean and fine (actually it looks better than before). I had the kids switch to baking soda, since it's much gentler on the eyes than regular shampoo and we finally (after nearly 3 years) ran out of the last of the baby shampoos that we were given in baby showers.

In any case, using baking soda for shampoo is a terrific "in a pinch" tip to remember.

Monster Hoodie Giveaway

I've been known to go overboard once in a great while. ahem.

Last February, I bought a bunch of hoodies, on sale for a terrific price. They would make terrific gifts, and maybe I could even sell a few!

I had to buy rubbermaid totes to house all the hoodies, and then I lost motivation.

All year long, I've been housing rubbermaid totes of hoodies that I don't want to deal with anymore. It's time for them to move.

So, here's the deal. I'm making them in to monsters as fast as I can. I'm giving away as many as I can to people that I know for their birthdays. To date, this has been about 20.

I still have 18 hoodies. Six are set aside for Christmas. That leaves 12.

Six are listed in my etsy shop (created for the sole purpose of getting rid of these hoodies that are consuming my basement). I'm working furiously to get more in there.

And one (or more), will be given away, right here, right now.

Here's the deal. Go to my etsy shop. Decide who you know that would like one of these. Then come back here leaving me a comment with the name and age of the person that would like one. I'll randomly generate a winning number and email you. (Oh, leave you email address too, blogger doesn't tell me those things).

Then, I'll make a hoodie for that person. You'll get to pick the size and the basic colors, if you wish (limited to the stock I have). Then I'll ship that hoodie to you, free.

Sound ok?

You have until Wednesday evening to enter -- it's a quick one because I want to get that hoodie made and shipped yet this week!

SewMamaSew has suggested that we keep these open a bit longer, to give everyone a chance to enter. I'll be closing this on Friday, December 5th instead of tonight. Thanks everyone!

Welcome Internet Cafe readers! Notice that htis contest is a short one -- it's over on the evening of Friday December 5th, so enter quickly!


For a 15% discount in my store, enter SewMamaSew when you buy!

Made it Myself... Tuesday: Dolls and Doll house mod

Unfortunately, there's more to life than blogging. Sorry for my recent absenses. I may have to resort to a few-times-a-week-blogging rather than daily blogging, I'm not sure.....

That said, do you like my new project? It's our friend's 2 year old birthday today! She wants a doll house.

We had an old garage-sale doll house that needed to go, so we spruced it up a bit...



The "yard" was a piece of old, badly worn paper. We tore it off, and glued down fabric to make a bit of a path. Tacky glue worked pretty well.



Then we added flowers and a tree, and threw in some of our dollhouse furniture (we have excess).



A dollhouse needs dolls, right?

So we made some. This is "The Mom"


"The Fireman"


"The Farmer"



"The Fairy"


"The Dad"


and, "The Ballerina"


I hope she enjoys them! They were more work than I had bargained for, but she's worth it. We're taking it to supper at her house this evening.

Do any projects this week? Add a comment sharing a link!