Another giveaway from Adventures in Self Reliance

Katadyn Hiker filter from Emergency Essentials
here is a little info on the water filter...
The Hiker's unique filter prevents early clogging. Compact and lightweight (only 11 oz), the Hiker is great for emergency kits, backpacking, and camping. The filter's simple design makes it easy to use. The Hiker eliminates bacteria and protozoa (Giardia and Cryptosporidium). A carbon core reduces pesticides and chemicals, producing fresh tasting water. An ergonomic handle makes it easy to pump up to one quart per minute.

knitting loom

We have been playing around with our new knitting looms.  We have more scaves than we know what to do with.  We made a few hats too.  This is our first one.

It's currently on the snowman outside.  I'm working on a blanket now.  I find the loom easier to use since the surgery on my wrist.

Raising a frugal daughter

My daughter makes me laugh she really does.  We have a very large recycling collection.   I am not allowed to put them out for pick up if my daughter is around.  The way she looks at it they can alway be made into something else.  I guess it's my fault.  I started saving paper towel rolls and tp rolls for crafts.  She actually cried when I put an apple juce container in the recycling bin.  She wanted to use it as a planter.  Her new kick is the flyers that fall out of the magazines.  She will not allow me to throw them out or burn them.  I take great pleasure in burning our junk mail. I like to add the ashes into the compost pile.    By the way it's time to add wood ash around the lilacs bushes.
I figure after it warms up a bit outside I'll show her how to make paper.  I can't think of anything else to do with them.

fire starter giveaway

Adventures in Self Reliance is having a giveaway for a fire starters.  I have to laugh because I started a fire yesterday melting wax to make -firestarters.

Another stuffy-Craft

Oh what to do on a cold and yucky day.

Tee shirt -Before

Tee shirt -After

The last time we made a stuffy we use an old pair of my sox.  This time we used one of Coles old shirts.  The front was covered in paint and glue. So we just used the back and the arms.  For the back and parts of the face we used some pieces from Moes old shirts that we couldn't pass down.  It's a little messy.  I sewed it by hand.  I'm hoping my DH will be able to fix my sewing machine, but I think it's a lost cause.

Happy Valentines Day

Did you get roses? Did you get chocolate? Maybe you got a nice little card with cute little hearts and sweet things written in it. Do you want to know what I got?


I got a "Happy Valentine’s Day honey, Ok your job today is to rip up the hardwood floor in the dining room!"

Um OK! And I’ll never forget my precious little boy yelling “I hate you” first thing in the morning because I wouldn’t go and buy him more chocolate.
I look over at my DH and he says, "I'm not saying anything they both still like me."

Covered in chocolate

 

The kids wanted to make something for daddy for Valentine’s Day. Of course it had to chocolate! So we looked around for anything we could dip into the chocolate. Their favorite things to dip would have to be their fingers.

Phenology

I never believed it when they said Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and claimed six more weeks of winter. I rebelled and started some of my seeds indoors. Even though we have almost three feet of snow on the ground and spent over 5 hours yesterday shoveling snow, I believe spring will be here soon.   I can dream right?


Let me tell you I was so excited to see several Robins playing around our bird feeder. I've been eagerly waiting for their arrival.

I want to teach the kids more about Phenology. We are now watching for the crocuses and then the daffodils to bloom so we can plant our peas. It gives the kids something to look for kind of like a treasure hunt. We will have to do our searching at neighbors houses because the squirrels have eaten all our bulbs. I only remember a few things from gardening with my Dad and I’m not having much luck finding a list online for vegetable gardening.   So I'm off searching the web and watching for more Robins.

Lost in the snow

This was how high the snow was.  That's my mailbox out there.

The Kids First Snowman

blog problems

I've been having some problems with my thekochfamilyblog.com site.  I don't know what is going on and it seems there are quite a few other people having the same posting problem.  I was waiting on blogger to fix this.  It's been over a month now that I can't post.  I gave up and started a new blog today.  I left the other site as it was.  Maybe someday they will fix it and I can go back to the domain I paid for.  I have also had problems with a lot of spam showing up in the comments.  I'm sure that these problems have something to do with the last update.  They added all these cool new thing I can do like change the size of my font.  I can now change the color of the text.  Woopie!!! I want to know what happened to my spell check. INEEDspell check people!

frustration

I'm just a little frustrated right now. I don't know what the heck happened to my blog. The whole page disappeared, I finally got it back and my posts have not updated in about a month. I'm trying to figure out if I should just dump this one and start a new one.