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By Alyssa, September 25, 2010 10:27 pm

Breakfast

Confused?  See this post.

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By Alyssa, September 22, 2010 9:03 pm

I’m not going to cry or whine or moan.  The crap-ola has been pretty deep around here the last couple of days so I’m writing this post in hopes of a more positive attitude.  Enjoy my silver lining…

-Despite waking up to 1/4 inch of water covering almost my entire kitchen and wood flooring Tuesday morning, we have great insurance and may get new floors and cabinets out of the entire catastrophe.

-Leaving Haus with the boys right after the flood discovery wasn’t the nicest thing, but my VA (Veteran’s Affairs) appointment was actually the most efficient and productive of the two year process.

-Not being able to use my kitchen for the last 48 hours makes for a lot less dishes.

-The water that poured through the kitchen floor air vent into our basement may have ruined the files I’ve kept for the last 10 years, but my keepsakes were unharmed.  Besides, I’ve never been a fan of the IRS.

-Taking Haus to the emergency room for a possible serious issue only a few hours after the plumber left allowed us to snuggle on a hospital bed and watch a little Dancing with the Stars sans kiddos, a psuedo-date night… and his diagnosis included pain meds and a simple antibiotic treatment.  Praise God!

-The boys slept right through our trip to the E.R.  because we have amazing friends with the ability to drop everything in five minutes to come over and babysit.

-The paper walkway taped throughout our house also substitutes for a rocking matchbox car speedway.

-The fans left by the water mitigation team block out any barking dogs outside.

-Ten or so loads of dirty laundry make for interesting outfits of seldom worn clothing.

-Overcrowded Elementary School fundraising night at Chick-Fil-A could have ruined our dinner plans, but the boys were pretty excited about our picnic in the car.

-Tearing out my entire kitchen cabinetry may drive me pretty close to an obsessive compulsive breakdown, but just think of the possibilities during the reorganization phase of the new cabinets!

*INSERT SIGH HERE*

Happy Wednesday to you… it is Wednesday right?  My nice warm bed calls.

Can't you hear the whir of the fans from there?

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By Alyssa, September 17, 2010 2:23 pm

After four weeks of online courses, two weeks in June and two weeks in September in the resident course at Fort Jackson, I’m an official graduate of the Adjutant General Captain Career Course.  Considering I was scheduled to complete this course in 2004 when on active duty, it feels good to be done!  I put off the course for, well… having a baby, commanding a company, deploying, having another baby, and joining the Army National Guard.  Sheessh!

I completed the course just in time for a promotion board next month for the rank of Major.  I know, I know, who would seriously consider promoting to Major??  We’ll see.  Pictures and another post to follow.  Right now it is hard to concentrate on posting when I know I’ll be home with my boys in less than six hours!!!

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By Alyssa, September 13, 2010 5:26 pm

Through my friends at Soldier of the Day, I found out one of the veterans they honored last week is currently in the VA hospital suffering from cancer.  This sweet man recently received word that his illness is terminal and feels alone with the knowledge of his condition. If you’ve ever been to a VA hospital, you know what a lonely place it can be.  I thought how easy would it be to send him a little love.  I’m writing a letter right now and mailing it his way.  If you’ve got a stamp and a minute, do you mind sending something too?

Here is his address:

Jerome (Jerry) Rosinski
VA Hospital, Room 826D
3495 Bailey Ave.,
Buffalo, NY 14215

To give you a little bit of Jerry’s history, he served in the Navy from 1965 to 1986 on the USS Lexington,the USS America, and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.  This retiree has very little time left here and needs our support.  If you can’t send a letter, I’d love your commitment to pray for him.  God bless you, Jerry, and thank you for your service to our nation!

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By Alyssa, September 9, 2010 7:50 pm

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning, you know I’m a little crazy about laundry detergent. When I found this recipe a year ago, I discovered I could save us big bucks while forming an addiction to the crisp scent of Fels-Naptha bars.  So faithful peeps, bear with me.  I’ve found an easier process for the recipe and wanted to post about it.

The Recipe

3 Cups Fels-Naptha Bar granules (1 cup equals about 2/3 of a bar)

3 Cups Borax

3 Cups Washing Soda

In other words, equal parts of crushed Fels-Naptha bars, borax, and washing soda equals pure heaven in your HE washer.  Before I start the tutorial, I’ll add that the entire process of making over eight months worth of my homemade HE laundry detergent took a little less than an hour (double that if you have a 4 and 3/4 year old “helper”).

Here are my tools:

I’ve played around with cutting up the bars with a knife in the beginning, but I didn’t want to burn out my good food processor.  Once I started pre-grating the bars with a rotating tool, I cut my time in half…

… and now never worry about overheating my $9 food processor.

After the processing of the bars is complete, the only steps left are mixing in the other ingredients.  I mix equal parts of the borax and washing soda in this 4-cup measuring glass…

… and then add it to the Fels-Naptha bars.  The easiest way to mix together the three equal parts of the ingredients is to shake the closed container until the detergent looks like this:

One hour of work equals this much detergent:

Easy-schmeasy!  With only 2 tablespoons needed for each load of laundry, you can’t beat it!

Be sure to check out this post if you’re curious about the ingredients or other specifics. Mmmm… I can smell the Fels-Naptha now!