Every once in a while I stumble across something that actually makes sense. A program that creates LESS dependence on consumerism and provides valuable resources to those in need. Maybe you remember (or maybe it’s still running in your area) the Tamp*x commercial that gives pads to african girls for every purchase. (Or something like that.) In theory it’s a great idea. Until you start thinking about landfill issues and the waste/disposal problems. Or the fact that Tamp*x is very strategically marketing to an untapped demographic. Talk about name-branding!

Anyway, as an answer to all of that Good 4 Girls is starting a campaign to put reusable feminine hygiene products into the hands of young women in Africa. There are a several ways you can help. 1) Sew and donate. 2) Donate through cash contributions or 3) Purchase new pads and donate them to G4G. Visit the How To Donate page for more information.

The theme for this week is “Lighthouse” and the vocabulary word is “Beacon.” We lucked out and were able to find one book on the library list and then I found another photography book on the lighthouses in Maine. I also have a TON of nautical stuff around the house to use, so we’re doing better this week than last.

I tell you what, though, the lack of available material at our Public Library is surprising and sad all at once. They never have any of the books I’d like to read and now, it seems, they don’t have much for the kids. I mean, they have a sizable children’s section. So why is it so hard to find books based on themes? I can totally see why some parents just bite the bullet and buy curriculum. That way you KNOW you’re going to have everything you need. No scrounging around and substituting.

I tried searching for lighthouse type activities to do in the DFW Metroplex, and am coming up empty handed. Apparently they don’t build them in area’s that are landlocked. *chuckle*

In other news, we’re switching our Raw Milk provider. Our Coop will now be getting our milk from Nors Dairy in Abbott, Tx. Next Monday will be our first day using their milk, and I’m curious to see if there’s much difference. I have tentative plans to organize a farm day with the girls to go down and visit the farm. I know they’ll love to see the cows.

My mom and I also have sketchy unformed plans to head out to an Alpaca Ranch just NE of us. One of the ladies in our spinning guild raises ten Alpaca’s out there and said they’ve got a little shop open to visitors.

Speaking of spinning guild. Did I mention I have found a new obsession?

Spinning!

My husband groans every time I mention it. I’ve promised him that I’ll start small while I’m working on honing my knitting skills. My plan is to make myself a drop spindle from an old CD and dowel rod. He (my husband) still maintains that I’ve lost my mind. hee hee.

Doesn’t matter. I’m still really on excited about it. I have four ounces of Icelandic Wool to spin, and then a lady at the guild gave me some silk, mohair, and cotton to try once I master wool spinning. Can you just feel the excitement? I’m practically tingling thinking about it.

I always feel terrible when I allow days to drift by between posting. I used to update daily, now I’m lucky to get something once a week. I guess life got busy? Who knows.

Anyway, I wanted to share a link to Faith Comes By Hearing. They have the entire New Testament available for free download to your favorite mp3 player. As I type, I’m downloading the dramatized NIV version to my player. The site also offers a variety of pod-casts. Including an entire page of stories for children. I just recently listened to one of the KidzBible podcasts and think that DD1 might get a kick out of them. Some of them are quiet and relaxing enough, that she might even be able to have the on to listen to before naps.

Speaking of naps, I stopped by the library today to pick up three books for this weeks theme. (”Eyes,” with the vocabulary word being “iris.”) Usually I bring in a list of 5 or 6 recommended books and then choose three of the most interesting options to check out. I limit our selection to three books because A) It’s an easy number to remember and B) three books is my pre-bed limit. The problem with today was that there was only ONE of the books on the list even available at the library. Which would have been fine if the book hadn’t been mis-filed. Dh and I searched that place up and down and never located it.

So then we decided to just find something that would work instead. Except, we couldn’t find ANYTHING that had anything to do with seeing or eyes. No “I Spy” books, nothing. It was so frustrating. When I asked the librarian for help she told me I needed to stop looking at the fiction books and go check out a book on anatomy.

Gah.

The whole point is to find three STORYbooks that follow our week’s theme. Not to go check out a textbook.

In the end we found three books that only sort of relate to our theme. One ended up being a horribly boring selection about “spectacles” and a little girl that found out she needed glasses. The other book was a book about dreams. The third is a book about “seeing” the moon. All three are quite odd. We probably should have just scratched the theme all together and just tried to find three fun books. Except, by the time I started thinking about that option, the girls were starting to get restless and we bailed.

About the only other real accomplishment for today was the fact that I finally picked up ringsling material for a sling I’m making for my cousin’s baby. (He doesn’t read my journal, I don’t think. So this shouldn’t ruin the surprise. I hope.) My plan is to make the sling tomorrow and have it in the mail by Wednesday. We’ll see how ambitious I get.

I have two more craft projects on my list. A bag for a friend and three heavy capes for the girls. The capes can wait, though. They’ve been waiting for a couple months already. So a few more days won’t hurt. I have a photo shoot concept that I want to do with the capes. Stay tuned for that adventure.

Oh, before I go. I wanted to mention that I just found out Sonlight is offering a Core A curriculum for 3 and 4 year olds? We’d thought about getting the Core B for DD1 in the fall, but now I don’t know. We’ve been trying to do the Letter of the Week Pre-school curriculum and may just continue on that course. I guess it just matters how far we get with LOTW.

Santa’s workshop is in full swing and stocking stuffers are almost complete. (Yeah for an all home-made Christmas!) I’m feeling really excited about the projects I’m working on.

So many of them I won’t be able to share until after Christmas day. But, thankfully, my kiddos do not yet have flickr access… so I’m able to share some of the things in the works for them.

FWIW, the mice are not quite finished. I still need to embroider their eyes, nose, and teeth. But still… I can’t help but feel super excited about how close to finished they are.

Tutorial can be found here: http://mollychicken.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/08/mousey-and-his-.html

A little over a year ago I decided to post my faux babylegs tutorial on Flickr. I couldn’t afford the real ones and after reading a discussion on TBW about different ideas to make your own, I sat down and decided to give it a go. All the online directions I could find either had you serge the ends of tube socks or add ribbing. Neither option was all that ideal for me. Instead I improvised and used remnants from the foot to make a finished cuff.

The faux babylegs were an instant hit in this house, and I got some great feedback on the idea. Along with the feedback, I got a host of emails from people who needed help. Rather than write everyone individually and hope to explain myself properly, I decided to write up a tutorial; complete with step by step pictures.

Several times a month I get emails from people who have used the tutorial and who have found ways to clarify it, or who just want to thank me for putting the info out there. Every once in a while I get someone who complains about the instructions or someone who wants to sell their creations by posting a link on the tutorial. I try to handle the complaints and I diligently delete spamming.

In over a year the tutorial has received over 27,105 views.

The funny thing is that faux babylegs are a simple project. It’s not rocket science. But I do ask that if you (general non-specific “you”) use the instructions to create babylegs, that you do it for personal use only.

All this leads to my real point:
Today someone sent me a heads up that someone is selling the tutorial on ebay. As far as I can tell, she’s taken her own step-by-step photos. (At least the image she uses on ebay is not an image of any babylegs I’ve ever made.) She’s selling the instructions for $2.99 and emailing them out as a word document.

First of all, who in their right mind is going to PAY for instructions when they’re available online for FREE?

Second, where does a person get off making money from something someone else has done? *scratches head in annoyance.* I guess folks will make a buck any chance they get?

Aargh. It really doesn’t matter.

Does it?

Last nights dinner was delicious. It was also, as it turns out, fairly hazardous to my health. You see, the recipe called for me to brown the chicken in a pan, transfer the pan to the oven for baking, and then remove the pan from the oven (setting aside the chicken) and use the pan to create a glaze for the chicken.

It all went fine until I removed the pan from the oven, put my hot pad aside, and then grabbed the handle to the pan to shift it on the stove.

Won’t make that mistake again. I burned my hand fairly effectively. There is a spot on my palm and my two fingers that are already blistered and white. In fact, it took me almost three hours before I could take my hand out of cold water without crying.

Oops.

Needless to say, I won’t be making the girl’s halloween costumes. Instead, I will succumb and buy their costumes from the store. Which I hate. Because I hate how cheaply those silly things are made. Earlier I saw that W*almart was selling a ghost costume for $17.00. SEVENTEEN DOLLARS! Essentially a sheet with two holes, and they’re going to make nearly twenty dollars! Sheesh.

If I can swing it I may still try and do DD3’s costume. I just can’t bear to spend that much money for an outfit she won’t even show off. We’ll see though. I’m not feeling very ambitious.

Anyway, it’s taken forever just to type what little I’ve typed. I’m going to get going on this end. Dinner for tonight needs prepped and with the girls napping I should probably at least do something constructive.

I saw this waffle french toast idea on recipezaar and adapted the concept for our home. I made the french toast batter with raw milk, free range organic eggs, and cinnamon. I then dipped our wheat bread in the batter and “toasted” the french toast in the waffle maker.

We’re out of real maple syrup so I opted for sprinkled powdered sugar instead.

It was such a simple and fun way to eat french toast. AND I didn’t have any “throw aways” because my waffle maker lets me know when it’s ready instead of me having to “test” the heat with the first slice.

Of course, DD1 declared that the she didn’t really like the “sugar.” But she happily endured.

There really isn’t much else to report on this end. Life keeps going. I have two major sewing projects to undertake. The girl’s costumes and the soft structured carrier I started the night I went into labor. I’m missing two buckles for that project… so I’m not sure when I’ll ever get around to fixing it. Bleh.

I’m hoping to have it done by the time we do our trip to Denver. That way one of the kiddos can ride in the patapum and the other in my carrier. We’ll see if I get that adventurous. lol.

I wanted to thank everyone for the nice comments regarding DD2’s faux babylegs. I got the idea to make babylegs from adult tube socks from a forum I read over at TBW (thebabywearer.) Everything I read suggested to buy ribbing for the cuff, but I find using the footie portion of the tube sock works just as well. The real babylegs can be purchased at babylegs.net As I understand it the real deal has a seamless cuff. Which I’m sure is gorgeous. I’m just too cheap to pay 12.00 bucks for a pair when I can make them myself for less than 2 dollars and ten minutes of time. Not to mention the seam doesn’t bother DD2 at all. No red marks or nothing.

One last thing. The really cool thing about these babylegs is that they fit either DD2 OR DD1. Plus it’s been neat having them for DD1 because she’s potty training. No more pulling down tights to get to her panties! Woot!