Upcoming projects

We are still fighting the flu in our house.  Yes, it's been a week-and-half.  But when there are 8 people it can potentially work its way through, it can take a while.  As a result, I haven't gotten much work done on any projects.  But I have several lined up.

The weather's getting warmer here, and my daughter with the severe latex allergy needs some latex-free lightweight pants and shorts.  A while back, my hubby went through his closet and culled a bunch of clothes.  Among them are several good t-shirts that I plan to turn into shorts and pants for her, using latex-free elastic for the waistbands.  If you cut them out using the bottom hem of the shirt as the bottom of the pant legs, no additional hemming is required!!

I recently saw this adorable thimble necklace on The Wind and the Sail.  So I bought some thimbles and all sorts of cute pins to make my own.

(Photo: The Wind and the Sail)

My oldest daughter's birthday is nearly upon us, and we'll be giving her the sewing machine we bought for her.  I'll be delving back into the world of making pillows, simple aprons, etc.  You know, all those learning-to-sew-in-home-ec type of projects.  =)

I also have my very first giveaway coming up next month!!

So stay tuned for all sorts of fun!

Seven-Year-Old Boy's Craft

My seven-year-old son wanted me to show you that he's crafty, too!  He loves building his own creations.  His latest is a very versatile firearm.

It's used for hunting, and he can change caliber depending on what game he's stalking.

It even has sights in the scope.

It's amazing what his mind can do with a bit of foam packing, a paper towel tube, a toilet paper tube, q-tips, paint, and tape.  He says he's sorry he didn't take pictures for a tutorial.  =)

(Don't worry, it's not loaded, safety's on, and the chamber's open.  hee hee)

He says he's bringing home venison for dinner.  Yay!!!

How to treat the flu

My kids have the flu.  It is no fun at all.  They look and feel horrible.

You can always tell my kids are sick by looking at their eyes.  

So we've been trying to make them feel better and help them get over it more quickly.  Some things we do are making sure they get their vitamins (particularly D and C) and giving them elderberry.

When they actually feel like eating something but they still don't feel like leaving the couch, pouches of applesauce have been wonderful!  Easy on the tummy, and easy to eat without the mess!

Of course, handwashing is a MUST!!  Especially when I'm dealing with several sick kids, while still caring for and feeding a newborn.  There are also various herbs, essential oils, etc. people like to use.  I try to stay away from medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, unless the fever gets really high (my daughter pictured above was running 104* yesterday afternoon), or if they're in a lot of pain (her head and body were aching horribly).  I prefer to let a lower fever burn as much as possible.

What are your tips and tricks for treating the flu?

What are your best tips and tricks for treating kids who are sick with the flu?

Homemade Bibs

My seven-year-old son wanted his latest project as my next post.  However, he's still not finished with it.  So it'll have to wait until later this week.  In the meantime, here's my newest favorite thing!

A friend of my mother-in-law made the most awesome baby bibs.  They're large, they're absorbent, they're...

HAND TOWELS!!!!!!

How brilliant is this idea?  Hand towels with a hole to go over the head?!?  I LOVE it!!  How many times have you had a bib that the baby tugged on and it came off, just in time for them to spit green peas down the front of their white shirt?  Or the bib covered the top half of the baby and wasn't absorbent enough, so when your toddler was learning how to drink out of a cup, you lifted them out of the high chair and it appeared that they had peed their pants?  (But sorry, these bibs won't help you if your toddler really did pee their pants.)

Anyway, these are so simple and so genius.  She simply cut a hole out and serged on a collar.  

Then she added a decorative ribbon to add a touch of cuteness.  

I plan to make a bunch of these.  I don't have a serger, so I'll just zig-zag the collar on.  You could easily repurpose the collar off an old shirt, use ribbing, or use interlock.   

Maybe I'll do an actual tutorial soon.  This will be a fun and easy project.  Useful, too!

Make Your Own Hair Gel

I love spiking baby boys' hair.  But my kids all have very sensitive skin, so I didn't want to chance using some chemical-laden product on their tiny little heads.  Then I learned how to make my own hair gel (I'm sorry, but I can't remember where I got the original recipe).  It's so easy and so cheap!!

All you need is some unflavored gelatin and hot water.

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup hot water to 1/4 tsp of gelatin.  (I've always added a bit more gelatin to it than that).  Dissolve the gelatin in the water and allow to cool.  Store it in the refrigerator, or make just enough for a single use each time.

How strong the hold is and how stiff it is totally depends on how much gelatin you add to the water.  The amount in the original recipe is not stiff or super holding.  So play with it a bit.  I like to throw it in the fridge and let it set up into a gel consistency before I use it.  It's easier to deal with that way.  You can also add essential oils if you want it to smell good.

I'd love to show you a demo picture, but my boys all have hair too short.  I recently cut my hair short again, but it's not short enough to spike this time.  =(  

So, I need pics!  If you try this and like it, please email me a picture I can post here!!

Allergen-Free School Supplies and Toys

If you're able to buy your kids whatever crayons, paints, toys, etc you want to, I am soooooooo happy for you!  For many of us, it can be a nightmare.  Having to call or email companies to find out if a certain type of tape has latex, if their putty has gluten or wheat, if their crayons have been handled by someone wearing latex gloves, etc.

For instance, you're at home, wrapping a present for your daughter's birthday--your daughter who is deathly allergic to latex.  Then you run out of tape.  You need to go to the store anyway, so you head out  to get some.  Once at the store in front of the tape, you realize that you forgot to write down the brand you bought last time--the one brand that you already found out was latex-free.  So you call your hubby at home and ask him what brand it was.  Only, he already threw away the empty dispenser you so rudely left in the middle of the floor, took it outside, and the garbage truck has already come.  You call the 1-800 numbers listed on several tape packages, and they all say they'll speak with their "whatever-it-is" department and get back with you, may they please have your name and number, they'll call you back in 5-7 business days.

So you write down several brand names and head back home tapeless, but on a mission.  Once home, you get online and write e-mails to all the companies, asking if their tape is latex-free.  You try to be civil, even though you feel like telling them how idiotic it is to use such a highly allergic material in anything anyway.  They all write back a week later, asking for specific product names, numbers, colors, manufacturing date, and all of the other information you didn't write down from all of those packages.  So you go back to the store, write down everything, head back home, and e-mail all the information in.  They then write back a month later, just to tell you that all of their tapes contain latex, and they hope your pleased with their products, and they hope they can be of more service to you in the future.

Meanwhile, your daughter's birthday passed two weeks previous, and you eventually just threw the half-wrapped gift into a gift bag.

I recently heard about an awesome website, Discount School Supply.  On their site, you can actually look only at products that are free of specific allergens!  You can search based on gluten, dairy/casein, peanuts/treenuts, eggs, soy, and yes, latex.  They even have latex-free, regulation-sized footballs, basketballs, etc.  And the prices are great!!

No, they didn't ask me to advertise for them--they don't know who I am or that I'm even blogging about them.  I was just excited that someone actually took the time to make it easy to find safe products without jumping through hoops.  I thought this might help some of you out, too!

Spaghetti -- Gluten-Free

My family loves spaghetti.  I used to make two different kinds of noodles each time:  whole wheat and gluten-free.  I'll admit it was a big pain.  I had to be careful not to contaminate the gluten-free noodles or sauce with whole wheat.  I had to keep track of what was in what colander when.  I had to time things to be done at the right times.  Etc.  And if you accidentally stick the fork you were using to stir the whole wheat noodles into the pan with the gluten-free noodles, that whole pan is now contaminated and no longer gluten-free (been there, done that.  Very frustrating!)

The simple solution would have been just feeding everybody gluten-free noodles.  But they're expensive!  And most of the brands have yucky ingredients in them that I didn't want to feed my family, anyway.  So I knew I had to come up with something else.

I've used brown rice as a substitute in other pasta dishes, so I figured, why not try it with spaghetti?  It turned out pretty good!  This is the kids' first choice, if they can't have noodles.

My favorite is raw zucchini.  I just wash and slice the zucchini and pour the hot sauce over it.  It's so delicious and healthy!

I've also been told that spaghetti squash is an easy substitute, as it already has the shape and texture of real noodles.  So I'm going to try that next!

I totally cheat on the spaghetti sauce.  I've made my own, but in reality, it's cheaper to just buy the twin-pack of giant bottles of Prego Traditional sauce at Costco.  (Yes, at this point in time, it's gluten-free.  Be aware that they can change their recipe at any time, however.)  Yum yum!!