Some people are above bribery...

I however - AM NOT.

Andra is a REALLY GOOD reader.

When she HAS to be.

She is not the kind of child that likes to sit down and read for fun.  For a child as easily distracted and NOSEY as she is - its almost torturous to expect her to sit and pay attention to the book in front of her.

The library here offers incentives for reading (If you read 8 books, 800 pages or for 8 hours they give you things like coupons for things, cheap plastic toys, a chance to enter drawings for cool stuff, blah blah blah).  That stuff seemed awesome when she signed up, but when it actually came time to sit down and READ the books that we checked out - it didn't seem to be incentive enough to keep her attention.

My solution???
$1.00 for every chapter book read in 4 days or less.
When I first mentioned the $1.00 per book, I saw her eyes float across the room to Lane's little preschool board books and the $$$$ lighting up her little blue eyes.  I needed to make sure I was paying for age appropriate books.  I added the 4 day stipulation, because Andra has only ever finished 2 chapter books that weren't required for school in her life  (seriously) - we are working on "FINISHING" stuff.

So believe it or not, she has read 6 books so far and I do owe her $6.00.  It takes a lot of "encouragement" and "reminders" to get it done, but at least she has FINISHED something. AND, the haggler tried to get me to give her an extra buck for reading a longer book the other day (it was 190 pages instead of the usual 80 or less that Junie B Jones books are...  THATS MY GIRL! ;)  )

Then she told Lane she is getting money for reading.  He wants money now too.  Though his idea of reading a book is opening it, looking at about 3 of the pictures on the pages and asking to play Wii.  He is happy with change (And not the Obama kind...)

What do you do to get your kids reading??

Homemade laundry detergent - does it really work!???!

I'm going to say YES it does...

I got this picture from another mom at Pre-K.  Apparently my son was LOVING this ice cream cone...

It happened to be his grandparents day to pick him up and feed him lunch..  They picked him up from his AM class and changed his shirt, and gave him a washcloth bath (including getting chocolate ice cream out of his ear canals) before his PM class. 
They warned me that there was a chocolate covered shirt in my living room that would need attention, but I forgot all about it.  For atleast 2 days that Chocolate ice cream set in before I got off my butt had time to clean my living room.

This was the shirt before going into the washer.  No pretreatment, just tossed the very dry shirt in the washer.

This was the shirt after washing.

Not perfect, you can still see a few shadows of chocoate stains..  But NOT BAD considering how long it sat with out attention!

Home made laundry detergent ROCKS!

Homemade laundry detergent

*I started this post on 5/24/2010 - it just took me this long to upload pictures and finish the post.  How lame is that!??

I want to give credit, where credit is due.  I did not come up with this recipe,  I just followed THIS TUTORIAL.
I *LOVE* Craftster.
I *LOVE* Making Things.
I *LOVE* Saving Money.

Here is the break down on the cost of 4 gallons of laundry detergent.
A 5 gallon bucket with lid  (made in the USA, from Walmart) $3.29
A box of Borax  $3.59
A box of Washing Soda $2.99
A bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap $1.29
A GRAND TOTAL OF:  $11.16

$11.16 is not bad for 4 gallons of laundry detergent, but the best thing is.  I don't have to buy another 5 gallon bucket, I can reuse the one I bought over and over and over and over..
And, I only used one cup each of the Borax and Washing Soda, so I can use those boxes many times over as well..  The next 4 gallons of laundry detergent will cost me $1.29 for the bar of laundry soap!

Now my initial review of this laundry detergent: 
Mine didn't turn out quite like hers did.  She lives in a cooler/dry climate.  I live in Oklahoma, the armpit of the US.  Its hot and incredibly HUMID here.  I really think that is what made the difference.

My laundry detergent didn't "gel" like hers showed.  Mine looks more like a thick Egg Drop Soup.

I kept a detergent container from the last time I bought detergent (one of the concentrated ALLs).  Since mine didn't gel, I fill it about 3/4 of the way up, top off with water, and shake well (She used a dilution rate of 50/50)..  I use the same measurements as the bottle of All would have me use.
I do have a front loader washer, which requires you use an HE soap - and this works BEAUTIFULLY.  Borax's new box even says its HE approved. 

I've really liked it so far!  Our clothes are just as clean as they are with the commercial products, it has not aggravated anyone's skin, our clothes smell fresh and  clean...

I'm sure I'll have a "real" test soon...

A few tips if you are interested in trying...
1.  You can often get lidded 5 gallon buckets free from places like Walmarts or Sam's Club bakeries - they get their frosting in those buckets and often just toss the out.  It wouldn't hurt to call and ask, and save yourself $3.50!  (I didn't because I did this on a Sunday when the bakeries were closed and I didn't want to wait a day for them to open to call and ask.)
2.  Borax can be found at Target.  I also found it at several little mom n pop type grocery stores, Williams grocery store in Choctaw, Ace Hardware, Homeland, and King Soopers (Kroger).
3.  Washing soda is NOT the same as Baking Soda.  I found Washing Soda at a couple of the mom n pop type stores, Williams in Choctaw, Homeland, and King Soopers (Kroger).  Target did not carry it.  Ace Hardware didn't have it in store, but they had it on their website and would ship it to the closest store free.

Bathroom woes....

As if  'public institution, commercial grade' John Wayne TP wasn't bad enough before.
This is what is in our bathrooms now.

My hubby said this looks like "A workmans comp claim waiting to happen."

Well Now!

I was walking across campus earlier today, there were 5 of the ladies from our maintenance department sitting at a table by the student centers cafe, talking with one of the guys from the maintenance group..  I looked over and waved as I drug my computer past their fog of smoke, and one of the girls just reached into the neck of her sweatshirt, grabbed her left boob, and did a TOTAL boob adjustment in her bra! 
Man, think of all those wasted minutes stepping into the bathroom to fix my boob issues!

Give me 2 yards....

So my friend was sending Andra a dress...  What I thought was a spring dress, that could be worn for Easter.  I was mistaken and it turned out to be an all navy blue dress - not what people here in Oklahoma would consider an acceptable Easter dress.

So off to the craft room I head - with one of Andra's tank tops in hand for reference.  I didn't want to spend any money on fabric, incase it turned out badly (as some sewing projects inevitably do!)  - then I wouldn't be out fabric $ AND a last minute dress!  (I was already going to have to go buy bigfoot some new shoes - the 2s from last spring are far too small for her size 4 to 5 feet!!)

I had some springy looking fabric left over from when I made my bible cover this winter and a zipper from another project I never finished..

A little newspaper patterning with her tanktop, a little swearing, a few pokes in the fingers with pins and VOILA dress top to try on...  When I was satisfied with the top of the dress (3 fittings, 2 sewn adjustments, and one case of mommy begging later), I jumped on google, looked up directions for a full circle skirt, figured out how much fabric I would need for the skirt, and headed off to Hobby Lobby (its like a crack house for crafters - if you've never been, I highly suggest going!). I went on a hunt for some kind of swishy skirt fabric for the bottom of the dress.  I found one that I thought was a complimentary color for the top and took it to the cut counter. 
The hateful bitties at the counter looked at the bolt of fabric on the counter and the top of the dress in my hand and said "The colors go really well, but I sure wouldn't mix cotton and satin like that..."
My reply  was:  "Give me two yards.."  (Which was the nicest way I could think to say "I really could give a crap what your opinion is.."  )
I spent about $4 on the satin for the skirt with my 40% off coupon, and $2 on thread to match the satin (which I didn't end up needing)...

I really didn't like the way the top transitioned into the skirt - and didn't want to admit that the bitties ladies at Hobby Lobby were right, so I dug out a really wide matte satin ribbon from my stash and VOILA - a dress Andra can twirl her brains out in!
(And thats actually long enough for her!!)

 I couldn't find a way to "finish" the bottom of the dress, so I trimmed off any loose threads and put some fraycheck around the bottom to keep it from fraying.. (I was totally out of time!)

I think I'm going to get a thinner brown ribbon and trim the bottom of the skirt in that, to give it a true finish.


And she matched my bible cover perfectly!

I'm not the only crafty one...

So we hated the mailbox that came with our house.   It was a really nice mailbox, but it required a key to unlock it, the locking mechanism was stiff enough the kids couldn't always get it to open, and I always had soggy mail when it rained.

Our mail lady HIT the mail box.  (OH DARN!)  (If I ever saw her, I'd probably hug her neck!  lol)
It wouldn't stand up straight anymore.  It had a metal cable running through the center of the stand, and it just kind of swayed in the wind.  LOL

So I put my handy hubby to the task of replacing the mailbox, and this is what he came up with!  (Isn't he awesome!??!  He came up with the idea, cut all those tubes and welded it all together himself!)
(Yeah, I'm supposed to be stenenciling our address and name on that box any day now...  LOL)

So as it turns out, the mailbox we hated....  They are designed to take a hit, and had we known, we could have snaped the stand right back in place...  AND when we were cleaning off the evidence of the "accident" it was involved in, we noticed that who ever put it together didn't align everything right, which was why it was hard to unlock and leaked when it rained.  So now all the things we hated about it are fixed.  LOL

Its for sale on craigslist if anyone is interested.