Unexpected Death of Beloved Pets

This week is Spring Break for these parts. I have to say, it has been a horrible Spring Break for our household. I had intended to continue to do half schooling during this Spring Break because we a slightly behind, but that plan went out the window pretty early on when I discovered my cats had been poisoned.

Our two kitties are indoor/outdoor kitties. Were indoor/outdoor kitties. We got Miss Em from the humane society in Stuttgart. Trixie was a feral cat that adopted my second son. They loved to explore and adventure. I know that the lifespan of indoor/outdoor cats are much shorter than strictly indoor cats. Trixie was always at home outside though and Miss Em soon followed her sister.

Monday morning, Miss Em vomited in our bathroom. I thought she was just eating the grass and it upset her tummy. We went on our errands, one of which was to stop by a pet store to pick up some oat grass. After we finally made it back home and settled a bit, I heard Miss Em yowl slowly, painfully and lowly. Little Duder was being nice and calmly petting her, but I knew he likes to cradle her, so I intervened and picked her up. Immediately, I knew something was not right. She didn't "feel" right. Her eyes were glazed and her inner eyelids were covering the inner portion of her eyes. When she seized we took her to the vet even though we don't have any income and we knew it could be expensive. In the end, we chose to end her suffering. It was so heartbreaking. I hoped Trixie wouldn't have gotten into the same poison.

Tuesday morning, Trixie was lethargic and vomiting as well. She had the exact same symptoms as Miss Em. Double, triple and quadruple heartbreak. Roosiers was at a church sponsored outreach program and Trixie was his cat. All the children loved the cats. Despite unintentional roughness, the cats were very patient with the kids when cornered. We had to pick u Roosiers and we all as a family made that fateful appointment. Listening to Trixie yowl was awful. We couldn't let her die slowly and painfully.

We suspected antifreeze poisoning and the vet agreed. We have no confirmation because we couldn't afford the bloodwork. The signs were there. I walked the neighborhood and I sure enough found a neighbor who stored their antifreeze open in their yard. It is also possible that some other neighbor might have had a spill in their driveway. It doesn't take much antifreeze to poison a cat. We informed our neighbors of our circumstances in hopes of saving their pets as well. But I have to say, our neighborhood is very much lacking the kitty presence that it had just a week ago.

Needless to say, Spring Break was a bust. I particularly love cats and to lose them that way was so difficult. I'm in mourning. I made a little video tribute to my cats. Here is the link to the video on YouTube==> Rest in Peace Beatrix and Miss Mistoffelees.

Carol

Messy is as Messy does

It seems that my daughter is well on her way to taking after her mother. I guess having four older brothers does help a little in that department. Growing up I was pretty much a tomboy. I like to think of myself back then as Rainbow Dash with just a tiny bit of Rarity (My children have been watching an awful lot of My Little Pony, The Magic of Friendship.) So last week when the boys took their sister outside to give Mom a few minutes on her own and I came out to check on them to find this:

 I wasn't too surprised. I thought it was rather cute. Princessa Flower loves baths so she didn't mind too much. Although rinsing the dirt and sand from her head gave me oodles of admiration for mothers of curly and kinky haired children. Her bathtub did resemble a beach when it was all said and done, but she walked out of it squeaky clean and ready for the next adventure.

Today I was a bit more irritated when I saw this:

What does she have on her face and hair you ask? Why, Little Duder reached up on the top shelf and gave his sister my first trial of cloth diaper friendly diaper rash ointment. Yes, Princessa slathered on diaper rash ointment all over herself. I'm a bit miffed at the waste of ointment though I am glad that it wasn't the store bought stuff. This ointment is basically my lip balm base with titanium dioxide and a bit of Polawax to help rinse it away easier.

I did wipe most of the ointment off her skin, though the stuff in her hair just didn't want to budge. I have to say once the ointment was exposed to the bath it started to rinse away very well. I need to test it more on the cloth diapers, but I'd say I have a winner as to the ointment. Now if I can only keep the Princessa from making so many messes...

Yeah I didn't think so either. I highly suspect that there will be many baths and clean ups in the future and won't it be wonderful!

I posted pictures on my Facebook and a comment from one of my friends inspired this set of posters:

Enjoy!

Valentine's Soap 2014

It has been too long since I have posted pictures of my soap. Enjoy!

Dragonfire

Strawberry Citrus

Wild Rose Bouquet

New Undated Meal Planner and 2014 Meal Planner

It is another year and I have a couple of Meal Planners for you today. I reformatted my Undated Meal Planner. It is still very plain, but at least it isn't just for moms. I added some lines as well because I find that it is convenient. I still like the booklet style of planner. I can tuck it into my homebook/planner or have it sitting next to my desk. I have to say it usually hangs around the kitchen though my boys do like to take it and browse through it. I'm not sure what fascinates them about the silly planner, but I have caught Boy Genius just thumbing through it occasionally.

I thought I would go digital with my meal planning, but in the end, I liked writing in my meals. Pepperplate was a little troublesome for a time. I didn't like that I couldn't see the meals in the past. I'm sure they might have fixed that, but I haven't checked. I do still use Pepperplate for my shopping list. I love that I can order the categories the way I shop in the store. It saves me time. I used to spend a LOT of time walking back and forth because I my list was so disorganized and I had to go back for an item. It is very irritating when you are tired in the first place and the children are getting restless and about to burst. Yes, I love that feature.

If you would like the Undated Meal Planner, click ====>here.

Here is the 2014 Meal Planner ====>here.

How to put together the Booklet:

Supplies Needed:  Printout, a long reach stapler, bone folder (optional)

Step One: Print out the planner. It is 8 pages, front and back. It will look like it is messed up, but once you have printed it out and folded it, it will come together. I manually do the double sided printing on my printer since I don't like how my printer messes up every time using the automatic feature. It helps if you know your printer and how to do double sided printing.

Step Two: Fold all the pages in half. I do this with them all together, but you can do this one at a time. A bone folder is helpful to use to get the crisp fold. If you don't have a bone folder, just use a marker or pen.

Step Three: Staple on the fold.  I like making booklets, so I invested in a long reach stapler. You can probably get this done at a Print shop or bind it using bookmaking techniques.

Step Four: Use your new Planner. Fill in the dates if you are using the Undated Meal Planner. I like to highlight special dates such as birthdays, anniversary's, and holidays. Start writing in your meals.

Carol's Tips on How to Plan Meals

Tip #1:  Choose a day and a time to do your meal planning. I usually end up doing this Monday mornings. Be consistent.

Tip #2:  Decide the time period you like to have planned ahead. I used to plan a month a head of time when I was able to do our monthly Sam's Club trip. Now I plan only a week ahead of time, because that seems to work better for us at this moment.

Tip #3:  Make a list of your usual meals. I have left a few pages for this in my planner. It was a really big relief to have a list of the meals I make frequently. Once you have a list, you can easily chose what you want and write it down on the day that is most convenient.

Tip #4:  Tip #3 doesn't mean that you won't ever make a new dish. You know which days are really busy and could use an easy to fix meal. Plan to make a new dish or complicated dish on those days you know are pretty free.

Tip #5:  Be flexible and have a backup plan. Changes happen and a free day becomes very busy. It is good to have an easy to fix dinner on standby in the pantry for days like this.

Tip #6:  Put together your shopping list right after you have finished your meal planning and plan to shop it as soon as you can. The point of planning your meal ahead of time is to have on hand the ingredients you need to make these meals. I usually shop once a week for a week's worth of meals because I no longer have the room or refrigerator/freezer space to more than a week's worth of food in my home. This also eliminates wasted food as I try to buy things that will be eaten and won't be forgotten in the back of the cupboard.

Tip #7:  Look at your meal planner at least once a day. Take out anything that needs to be thawed or processed ahead of time. Example, If I'm making beans from scratch, I put the beans on to soak the day before and it is in the crock pot cooking all day for a quick mash and fry at dinner time.

I have developed another system that goes with my Meal Planner. I'm still working out the kinks and frankly, I lost some of my components in the move. I will be sure to share with you once I have it put together.

Thanks for stopping by,

Looking Forward to 2014

Happy New Year! We have finally made it to our destination and I have been unpacking and organizing our new home. I'm not sure if I am getting used to moving or that I really just light unpacking. This trip I learned that my time in Receiving at Alco really was a boon. Receiving was the perfect job for me, as I love opening boxes and seeing what is inside. I'm still looking for various items and of course, that is very frustrating.

I just wanted to get back into the saddle and start blogging again. This will be a short post as I just wanted to post a little update though I am working on the 2014 Meal Planner and will be posting a link to the printout soon. I'm also working on making a better undated Meal Planner.

I am getting more and more organized these days. It is amazing how very freeing it is to have a plan of action. I function so much better when I have goals to reach for. I'd like to share with you this freebie I came across today in my efforts to be more organized. Little Learning Lovies is offering a free 2014 Goal Setting Planner. I love the look of it and plan on using it. The design is so adorable. As frugal as I can be, I will be printing these in color to enjoy the design. Sometimes, you just need to splurge a little.

May you be blessed in the new year.

The Weather in Weatherford

As you know, I am in the process of moving. We are moving from Arkansas to Arizona. This is supposed to take 3 solid days of driving. I had all the stops planned. Food and snacks for the trip were bought and stored away. Well guess what? Yes, we are stranded in the middle of Texas.

The winter storm that blew in seemed to chase us. I know really that we were driving into it. The roads were wet but still very drivable. We got off to a late start with the piddling things to load up our moving van with. Then of course, we had a little hiccup in that our suburban broke down. Some sort of alternator connection thingy. We were only able to get to the outskirts of Dallas.

In the morning the world was ice. There was ice everywhere, but I looked at the weather and the map and figured that if we could just get past Weatherford, we'd be golden. Then it took all day to get thru the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Let me tell you, when the sign says that there may be ice on the bridge, that is such an understatement. My GOODNESS, the overpasses in Dallas and Fort Worth are darn right scary when they are iced up! We made it to Weatherford around 4pm. I said I quit, I'm not driving in that in the dark. The road was crazy thick with ice and parts were melted, making it even more treacherous. Our minivan's alarm, which is being towed, went off several times.  

So here we are stuck in Weatherford. I hope we can leave soon, but in the end, I'd rather not drive in such icy conditions again. Not with my precious ones. But there is beauty in every situation. So while I await the thaw, I leave you with this image. I took this picture today. A truck had come in to the motel for a room. The couple drove from Arlington. It took them around two harrowing hours. It really was a beautiful find.

Moving Day Has Arrived

I think that most everyone doesn't like packing. I telling you straight up that I really don't. It is moving day and I still have things left to pack. This has been a very difficult move from the beginning. The night before, my Little Duder just up and started to vomit everywhere. My little Princess Flower climbed up the ramp of the moving van and then rolled down it. The older boys have very selective hearing.

Despite all the trials and hardships, I am excited that today is Moving Day! We will be on the road for three whole days, but I will be happy to reach our final destination. Pray for safe travels, there is fog this morning. I am hoping to outrun the winter storm coming this way.