Sewing

I helped start a sewing ministry, Scarlet Threads, at my church. We are sewing backpacks for the children attending Royal Family Kids Camp this year. Our meeting was Saturday and we got started.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Schuteker

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 69. She died so young at 56. Nice in a way because she didn't go though all the aches and pains and age-related problems. It's also bad in a way because she didn't get to celebrate may milestones with her family and grow old with the rest of us.

Charlie's taking me to Sticky Fingers tonight. Then probably a quick trip to JoAnn's. O and I wanted to to make me a treat to cheer me up. I got to hide away in my room while they cooked some brownies for me. We will probably eat them when we get home tonight.

I found this old picture of my mom. She was 19 and pregnant with me. Not sure why the coloring on her face is off.

 This picture is shortly after her cancer diagnosis, 2004.

Labels for handmade items

Trying to add a picture to this blog with my phone. Ugh!

I made labels for the things I make. The "Because I Love You" ones are for things I make for family and close friends. The "Amy Suzie" ones are for everything else. I'm so excited about them. It will allow me to tell at a glance what year I made something. I have no clue for some of the older clothes. I'm not sure why I left the email on the family ones. A bit of laziness and I wanted to keep them the same size. I'll probably change that with the next batch.

Two posts in one day!

I want to keep up with the blog. It's useful for remembering big and little life events. I got swept up reading the blogs of other people who have lots of great writing and great pictures. That made me feel like I couldn't do this. This blog is really just for me, though. If someone else likes it, great, but it not, also great.

I went through all the posts and cleaned it up a bit. It's all so scattered. I want it to be a bit of everything we do. They're will be sewing, food, family, laughter, and disappointment all mixed in together.

More later.

Instant pot

I borrowed an Instant Pot recently. I wanted to know if I would use it enough to be worth the price.  It was great!

The first thing I cooked was boiled eggs. We use fresh eggs, and those will not peel when boiled. I read that steaming them made them easy to peel but never tried it. Then I read that it was easy peasy to steam them in the IP. We only had half a doz eggs and into the pot they went. A cup of water and 10 minutes later I was peeling eggs. Really peeling them. The kids were so happy.

Later, I threw some frozen chicken breasts in to make tacos. Those were done and shredded about 20 minutes later. Awesome.

After those tests, I got one for myself. I got the 8-qt IP duo. I'd actually like to get a smaller one for side dishes. An Instant Pot take less time, obviously. It also uses less water. It will also not heat up the house on the summer like the oven or even like the crock pot.

Tonight is pork roast. I browned the roast a bit using the saute feature. After that it's 60 minutes under pressure.

More later.

Latin projects

I used a tutorial for making O a tunic for her Latin project. She looked so cute. There were 2 pieces, an under garment and a dressier over garment.

H and Mrs. Peterson are holding the wax tablets that H and Charlie made. They made the wood shape and the writing implements. All I did was melt the beeswax and pour it into the tablet. Those are so cute and fun to use.

Olivia Made

Olivia made the cutest little cape for her Barbie doll. I got the pattern here and let her sew it up. The paper pattern pieces are stored in the Love to Dress Up book.

She is going to take a sewing class at PPQ, and I want her to have a bit of experience behind the sewing machine.

Days 1 & 2

I didn't plan to start the AIP journey right now, but I did it anyway. Yesterday I ate full aip. I already had most of my special foods in the house. So much of the prep has been emotional, just gearing myself up to give up more food for an unknown length of time.

Today I feel nauseous. I could be fighting off a bug, or i could be reacting to some supplement. I was sick Sunday as well. This is the kind of stuff my new diet is supposed to clear up by healing my gut. I hate having to think so much about what to eat.

More later.

Canning chicken broth

I will start the Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet soon to help heal my gut and help heal my Hashimoto's.  Most of the information can be found with The Paleo Mom. I gave up gluten over a year ago and my health remained unchanged. That led me to give up nightshades (all peppers, potatoes, eggplants). That was tricky since many gluten-free products contain potato starch. I have been able to work around it. I don't like it, but I do it. I hoped my digestive issues would go away after giving up gluten and nightshades for a time. Then I started reacting to dairy. That was awful. I love cheese, raw milk, yogurt, and cream. They make all the spice-less non-gluten food a bit better. I gave up milk and began seeing a holistic doctor in Mt. Pleasant. They discovered I had Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the thyroid like a foreign invader. Many people use the AIP diet to put their autoimmune diseases into remission by healing the gut. After the gut is healed, foods are added back into the diet to see which ones cause a reaction.

AIP eliminates all grains, legumes, dairy, nightshades. Those I have already been doing since January. I miss grits and corn tortillas.

It also eliminates all nuts and seeds. This is a new problem. Homemade cashew milk is a very good replacement for regular milk in my blender drinks. Cashews are now out. So is most chocolate since it comes from cacao seeds. My doctor says i can have raw cacao power even though it is not technically allowed. It tastes different than cocoa powder, but I am getting used to it.

Another big elimination is eggs. They are actually a pretty allergenic food. They were also a quick and easy lunch or breakfast.

I am already tired of not eating the same food my family is eating as I transition to this new, hopefully short term diet.

And now to canning chicken broth.

Bone broth is a very nutrient dense healing food. I make it from all out leftover chicken and turkey bones. When I started the latest batch, I realized that it contained black pepper (a seed) that is not AIP. Charlie went to the store and bought some chicken backs and a couple of whole chickens. I cooked them, picked the meat off, and made broth from the bones. I don't think I have ever actually bought chicken to make broth. It's practically a free food since we use the leftover bones.

I canned 5 qts of AIP broth and 8 qts of regular broth. That gives me a bit of broth to use while I wait to get a big enough stash of AIP bones in the freezer to make more "free" broth.

Catching up

I get behind in posting. Then I feel bad because I haven't kept up which keeps me from posting.  Silly me.

June 1st we received an order of Zaycon chicken breasts. It was so easy! We paid last month and waited for the pick up date. I loaded most of the kids in the van for the drive to River Bluff church. Easy peasy. Once we got there, it was just a few minutes until it was our turn. We drove up to a semi truck in the parking lot and a man got out and put the box in the box of the van. Done. We got there at 12:30, and we were at Chick-fil-A getting a drink for the ride home by 12:50. A 40 pound box of chicken breasts for $1.69 a pound. I had to clean some of the fat off and cut the whole breast into the halves we are used to seeing. I took me and L about an hour to do it all.

Here is a list of what we did with it all:
1. Single meal of garlic chicken for the freezer.
2. Double meal of spinach chicken, one for that night and one for the freezer.
3. A lot of chicken nuggets. Three meals for the freezer.
4. Seven quarts canned for later.

All of that work was done by the next day. I was so tired. The chicken breasts were huge. We can get by using fewer than we usually use for a meal.

The canned chicken is awesome. Next time I will get two boxes so I can process more. We really like to have the canned chicken. It is so tender. Mostly we use it for Mexican (tacos, nachos), but it's also good for casseroles and chicken salad.

Sunday sick day

O was running a mild fever this morning so she and I stayed home from church. While she watched The Magic School Bus, I got a job done in the kitchen. I canned mustard. It's easy, and it saves us both money and space to buy it in bulk. We just don't go through it fast enough to keep that giant tub in the fridge. I read online about re-canning it. It's a simple process using a water bath canner. I followed the directions from here. I used 2 of the big tubs from Sam's and got 23 half-pint jars. Now, we just have a little jar in the fridge instead of the big, honkin' jar taking up all the space.

Organized patterns

     All of my paper patterns are organized and in their new place. They have been stored in different parts of the house in the past. In the old house, there just was no good space. Moving to a new house has given me space, and I have been trying to use it wisely.  I have about 420 patterns, not all of them are paper. Some are digital, but as I print out the relevant parts they get stored like the paper patterns. Each pattern in in a 9" x 12" manila envelope labelled with the name and number of the pattern. The big envelope allows me to keep all the pieces together without having to refold them into the tiny rectangle to go back in the original envelope. I also put in tracings I make of the pattern when I make the pattern multiple times. Some are quite bulky. All the patterns fit into 8 cardboard bankers boxes that are up on my closet shelf. It makes me quite happy to see them so neatly organized.

     I picked up my sewing machine today. It was dropped off for service on December 30 with an expected wait of 2 to 3 weeks. I love People, Places, and Quilts! Their repairs are always fast, they don't mind all my kids touching everything (the big ones just sit and read), and all the employees recognize me. Several of them know me and the kids by name. Whenever possible, I will give my money to friendly, local people with good service.

2014

I sewed many things this year and only wrote about a couple. Sad, but completing them was more important than blogging about them. I want to do better this year.

Fabric out was 46.84 yards, a bit more than double fabric in. Yay! The year to beat for fabric usage is last year with 62.11 yards out. That included a giant project left over from years ago. This year I would like to keep sewing stash. It is easy enough to use the stash when I am sewing smaller or scrappy projects. It is harder to sew bigger, coordinated projects because my fabric is from all over the place. So much fabric, but it's an uncoordinated mess. I've already got 12 yards ripped up to make another rag rug. That uses up the less desirable or questionable quality fabric.

I also went through my pattern stash. A few got pulled for the trash, but I still have plenty. I've sewed 18% of the patterns at least once. I would like to get that number up to 20% (85 patterns). I need to stop sewing the same things and try new patterns.

My machine is in the shop getting a tune up. I have 2 new patterns cut out and ready to go. One of them is a purse that H wants to make. I bought the pattern and fabric for her Christmas present and said we could work on it together using her machine.

Finishing up

     I finally finished an embroidery project that I bought late 2012. It's a Christmas piece from PPQ that I pretty much only worked on while sitting in the dentist and orthodontist offices. I will post a picture as soon as I take one. I am planning on making it into a pillow for the sofa this Christmas. The DMC colors are 469, 972, 498, 166, 890, and a dark brown which number is lost.

    I also finished up my yo-yo's using fabric from a charm pack I bought a few years ago at PPQ. The fabric is cute and colorful. I want to use them to make a decorative pillow. My charm pack included most of the fabric in this picture.

From Projects

I hate allergies

Let the ranting begin!

I hate allergies. I have a few allergies, mostly medicines. Aspirin, all the -cillin drugs, all the -mycin drugs, ambien, and a couple I don't remember off the top of my head. I also seem to have a gluten problem that probably led to my anemia. And the nightshade veggies (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant) make my hands swell and joints ache.

A few years ago, L developed a severe shellfish allergy. Fine. That's easy to handle, though, after giving up our shrimp and crab legs. We have to avoid some restaurants and carry an epipen, but otherwise it isn't such a bad deal. She's also highly allergic to rabbits, so no bunnies for us either. Many people around here raise and sell them.

Then, J started having problems being around cats. Once at my in-laws his face starting swelling so bad we went to the ER. Just avoid cats they said. That's ok. We really just wanted dogs when we moved to our property anyway. Dogs for fun and for protection. So we got one. J then proceeded to have another severe reaction. Eight hours and much benadryl later, we gave away the dog. The kids were miserable and cried for a good bit. Charlie and I were pretty upset to give up our dreams of a nice little home in the country with a couple of dogs.

Well, at least we still have the bees and maybe some chickens later.

Last night Charlie and J went to the old house to bring the bees here to the new house. Charlie texted me to get some clay ready because they each got stung. No biggie, it's happened before. A paste of bentonite clay or my homemade calamine-like lotion works wonders. Except when it doesn't. J started swelling and hives started appearing everywhere. Another trip to the ER and another epipen. So the bees had to go. The kids are upset again because we like the honey. I like the beeswax for crafting. I feel bad because it was Charlie's thing more than mine, another potential way to make a few extra bucks is gone, and now I have to buy my own honey and beeswax. Grrrrr

I'm going to make all the kids pet, feed, and play with a friend's chickens before getting our own. Please, please, please don't let them be allergic to chickens!

100 Days of Exercise: Day 23

After finishing grades for the year, I exercised.

20 swings
12 dead lifts
15 squats
20 side pulls each side
10 squats with high pull
0 reverse lunges

Hopefully, after the move I will get back into sewing.

100 Days of Exercise: Days 17-22

Wow. I've been slack on the blogging. Kind of slack on the exercising, too. I have exercised infrequently. These are a few of the dates I recorded.

4/2/14 1.02 miles walked around BiLo shopping center

4/3/14 1.18 miles walked around Briarwood during SHEEP, walking for speed

4/23/14 0.72 miles walked to gas station with J. Only included because I'm proud of myself for not driving.

4/24/14 2.1 miles walked around Briarwood during SHEEP, walking for speed

4/27/14 2.72 miles walked during walk/run ministry

5/4/14 2 miles walked on trail with family

Prayers of a six year old

Usually we eat leftovers and fend for ourselves at lunch. All at the same general time, but usually not all sitting down to begin at the same time. Sometimes we say a blessing for all, especially if one of the big kids or I get ready first. Other times we say individual blessings. If we notice someone praying we are quiet and respectful. Enough back story.

Blessings said by a six year old boy are comic gold.

Today Isaiah just wanted a leftover hot dog, straight from the fridge with ketchup. (Eww) He started blessing. At the end we could hear "... And please destroy all the bad guys." Then he looks up and asked if we all noticed he prayed for God to get the bad guys. Of course we did. Giggle fits from some of the girls.

Most of his prayers in fact call for some sort of destruction for those who don't love God or Jesus. Hellfire and brimstone, that's my boy.

100 Days of exercise: day 16

Today I held a plank for 1 minute. It's a start.

I did the KB workout again. I'm still trying to build up to the recommended amount.
30 KB swings
30 KB dead lifts

10 donkey kicks with each leg

100 Days of exericse: days 14 and 15

Sunday 3/23 I walked with the Walk/Run ministry at church again. The weather was great, and I walked 2.34 miles. My pace was slow because I walked with the flower-picking stragglers.

Today, 3/24, I did the KB workout again.
30swings
30deadlifts
7 squats