Welcome Home Teddy!

We are so excited to welcome home our new little guy! He was born yesterday morning at 8:47 weighing in at a whopping 8lbs 10oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Little Teddy is a sweetie and a snuggler. We finally figured out how he was positioned in the womb (hoping to get a picture of that soon!) Needless to say it made things interesting in the last few weeks and added a couple of hours to his delivery. For a full birth story see Charity's blog at tangled-angles.blogspot.com
We've been taking it easy and both Rich and I will be taking some time just to be. No work, no plans, just family and life.
The two big sisters are so excited to have him on the outside where they can see him and get to know him better. The night before he was born I had them both tell him that it was time to come out. It seems like he is already listening to their sisterly advice.
Good times ahead!

The Bestest Cookies Ever

So I was making cookies and thought I would tweak the recipe for something a little different.
This is not always advisable as it can produce inedible cookies. On this particular occasion it worked beautifully and I have yet to name the cookie, so for now they are just:

The Bestest Cookies Ever
Makes about 4 dozen (so you can eat some and still have a decent amount to share :)
1 c. butter
1c. brown sugar
1c. white sugar
1/4 c. flax seed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. oatmeal
3/4 c. white chocolate chips
3/4 c. chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add flax seed. Blend in eggs one at a time. Now you have a choice. You can sift together flour, salt, soda, and pumpkin pie spice and add the mix to the blended wet ingredients; or you can carefully add the spice, salt, and soda so that they don't clump and add the flour once these are blended in completely. Add the oatmeal. Stir in the white and chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheets or baking stone. Bake at 350F 10-12 minutes until they have begun to deflate. (Mine puff up and then deflate around minute 11) Don't overbake them! Err on the side of undone. Let them cool for 4 minutes or so on the baking sheet. Finish cooling on a wire rack.
What results is a lightly spiced cookie with a tender top and crispy bottom (flax seeds help with this).
Store in a tightly sealed container as long as you possibly can...they may not last long!

Message for Lewis Kemper's Funeral

You can find the message I shared at my grandfather's funeral here:

http://tangled-angles.blogspot.com/

I'm doing laundry...soap!

A while back (read several months ago and I am not sure how long it's been:) we made our first batch of laundry soap following the Duggar recipe for liquid laundry soap. It worked really well, and was not too complicated, so now that we are about to run out I decided to make some more.

I don't know about you, but I like to use a recipe the first time I make something and then experiment to see how I could play with ingredients adding more of one or decreasing another. I do this in cooking and decided to try it with this batch of laundry soap...I will let you know how it goes, but here are the recipes I have used.

First Batch:
1 bar Fell's Naptha Soap
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda

Second Batch:
2 bars Ivory Soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda

I was not as happy with the Ivory Soap. It didn't seem to get my whites very clean. We didn't have that issue with the Fells Naphtha.

**Since Then:

1 bar Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap

1 cup Borax

1 cup Super Washing Soda

We have been pretty happy with the effectiveness of this recipe. As this is a natural soap, I would recommend using vinegar in the fabric softener compartment (about 1/2 cup). It keeps residue from building up on cotton fabrics. I don't do this every laundry day, about once a month is enough.

(We've also used the liquid Dr Bronner's--about 2 cups, along with the Borax and Super Washing Soda yielding 3 gallons of soap instead of 5 gal.)

Also, enjoy the step-by-step instructional pics!
This takes maybe 20-30 minutes and saves you $BIG$!



Okay, start with your favorite mild soap.
Often recommended are Fell's Naphtha Soap, which I used in the first batch; and Ivory Soap which I used here.


1 5.5oz Fell's Naptha Soap Bar
or 2 3oz Ivory Soap Bars

Finely grate the soap.






In a sauce pan, add at least 4 cups of hot water and stir over medium heat until soap is completely dissolved.










Grab a clean 5 gallon bucket with a lid.
Fill it half full with hot tap water.











Add some Super Washing Soda and Borax.
The first batch I made had 1/2 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Super Washing Soda.

This batch I used 1 cup of each Borax and Super Washing Soda.

Stir into hot water in bucket until completely dissolved.






Pour dissolved hot soap into the bucket and stir well. Fill your 5 gallon bucket to within a couple of inches from the top with more hot water, stirring and stirring all the while.


Now, pop the lid on and let sit over night.

When you open in the morning, it is a blob of gel! Fill empty and clean laundry jugs half full of gelled soap and half warm water.

Shake well every time you use the soap as it will gel up in the bottles. Use 2/3 cup in each load, it is low sudsing and perfect for HE machines.

These recipes make 10 gallons of laundry soap!!!

It can easily cost $40 or more to buy 10 gallons of laundry soap, this recipe cost me:
***$ 1.00 for 3 bars of Ivory Soap (only used 2 bars)
$ 4.00 for a box of Super Washing Soda (approx. 8 cups in the box)
$ 4.00 for a box of Borax (approx. 6 cups in the box)
Totaling $9.00 initial cost.
In reality only $1.82 for ingredients used in 10 gallons of soap!!
(That is less than $.01 per load)

The Borax and Super Washing Soda will make several batches of laundry soap.
The 5 gallon buckets can either be purchased or you can ask around at local businesses/restaurants if they have any they need to get rid of.

For powdered detergent, grate the soap, add the Super Washing Soda and Borax; stir until thoroughly mixed or pulse in a food processor. Use 2 TBSP per load. I have never tried it, so I can't vouch for it's qualities.

***The various soap bars you start with will differ in price. The Fells Naphtha runs about $2 a bar here. The Dr. Bronner's is the most expensive at about $4 a bar. Still much less expensive than one regular container of laundry detergent!

Supper Adventures!

No, I did not mean super adventures, it really is supper adventures!

We had such a fun time tonight at supper. Instead of eating at home, which we usually do, we went to Village Inn and had a fun supper. Being a mom, I don't usually encourage eating sweets for supper, but for one night we threw the rule book out the window.

Kathrina and Arabella both had smiley face pancakes and loads of fun with their kids menus. Rich had the Denver omelet, and I had a piece of white chocolate cherry cream pie and coffee...Ok, so I implied that the sweets were for the kids but really they were for me :)

The fun (and funny) parts of the evening were found in moments where the girls let down their hair and shone forth their true selves...not something we always encourage in public--all the moms out there know what I mean!

Kathrina's funny moment came as she was eating her pancake after systematically finishing off the blueberry eyes, bacon smile, and scrambled egg hair of her smiley face. As she smeared butter on the pancakes, she turned and with all the sincerity of a six-year-old asked, "What are pancakes made of?"
Being the mom and baker in our house, I answered, "Lots of things, flour, eggs, milk..."
To which she replied, "No, mom, I mean what ANIMAL are they made from."
Apparently we have been talking a little too much lately about the animal origins of some of her food.

For Arabella, moments are like all things in her life, nothing is ever small! Everything is attacked with the zeal only a three-year-old can produce. We had reminded her several times that she needed to use a little voice while we were eating so as not to disturb those around us--let's face it, people think kids are cute, but loud ones are obnoxious. So, when she screamed "Oow!" for no apparent reason as she was eating her pancake, we once more started to tell her she needed to keep it down.
As she stabbed a piece of pancake with her fork, our eyes were opened to the greater situation with her added statement of "Ow, that hurts me!" Onto the fork went the pancake, screaming for its life, and into her mouth with a big grin.
Rich and I laughed as we understood what was happening, which only further encouraged Bella. She promptly turned to her daddy and said, "I'm a pancake, eat me! I'm yummy!" We all got a big laugh then as she laid back in the booth and presented herself for consumption.

It was fun, and I couldn't let this night pass without giving tonight's supper adventures their proper due. It may seem like a little thing, but those little things all add up to big important feelings in little girls who learned again tonight that they are great people, that family life is fun and that sometimes love is best expressed in laughter.

Burundi Travel pics and stories 1

Well, these first two pics are of us sitting in the posh Wichita airport--known to travel afficionados as ICT. Lots of people came to see us off on our many hours (Don't ask, I haven't figured it out with all the time changes:) of flying to Burundi for the 75th Anniversary Celebration of Friends ministry in that country. Our flight was in the afternoon from Wichita to Chicago, then a layover and on to London. This being a first international flight for some, it was hard to know when to eat and when to wait. Who would think you would get on a plane at 9 at night and be served supper two hours later? Crazy, but I did like the hot towel service!





We had a layover in London long enough to ride the tubes to the Tower of London and barely make it back for our flight... So here is the London Bridge, and below you will find one of the world's most expensive bottles of water. I figured any warm bottle of water that costs me 1 pound 50 (translate to roughly $3) and fits in the palm of my hand is picture-worthy!

We've Been Tagged!

What is your current obsession?
Charity: Burundi
Rich thinks it an awfully strong word and can’t come up with a quick answer.

What are you wearing today?
Charity: New Shoes, green capris, black T, khaki jacket. Rich: Shorts and T.

What’s for dinner?
Braums!

What would you eat for your last meal?
Charity: Cheesecake.
Rich: Bacon Explosion to make sure it is my last meal, although I am sure it would taste disgusting.

What’s the last thing you bought?
Charity: New Shoes. Rich: Dinner.

What are you listening to right now?
Birds, traffic, kids.

What is your favorite ice-cream flavour?
Charity: Phish Food Rich: Chocolate Chip Mint.

What do you think of the person who tagged you?
Charity: We love Mike. I love reading his writings. We agree on a LOT regarding religion and politics and Jesus.
Rich: I just like to trash talk him while playing games… I think my wife pretty much covered the rest.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
Somewhere quiet near Family.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Charity: Someplace where the sun is setting over a beach.
Rich: With my wife.

Which language do you want to learn?
Charity: Kirundi (Burundi Obsession)
Rich: Greek or Latin.

What’s your favorite quote (for now)?
Charity: “She took a bite out of every one and she’s mean.” –Kathrina Sandstrom talking about Arabella’s tasting of ALL the strawberries in a pint.
Rich: “Daddy-dy-dy-dy-dy” -Arabella Sandstrom when she is calling for me from another room.

What is your favorite colour?
Charity: The Green of newly sprouted wheat (Verdant)
Rich: Blue and sometimes Green.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
Charity: New shoes.
Rich: Shorts of course.

What is your dream job?
Charity: Lead vocals in a band
Rich: Not having to have a job!

If you could invent any useful invention, what would it be?
Charity: The perfect bed that created the perfect environment for a perfect night’s sleep!
Rich: A replication machine.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on? Charity: A massage and spa day…why not, it’s imaginary money, in pounds even!
Rich: Books for Kathrina’s kindergarten.

What is your favorite architectural style?
Charity: American Craftsman
Rich: Modern, not semi-modern or half bred-modern.

Describe your personal style?
Charity: Cheap and comfortable, professional looking is a plus…
Rich: Practical for a pastor’s spouse.

What are you going to do after this?
Put the kids to bed.

What are your favourite movies?
Charity: Return to Me, Princess Bride, Wall-E, Josh and the Big Wall, Beauty and the Beast, Little Man Tate, Paul Blart: Mall Cop…I could go on.
Rich: Depends on my mood.

What’s your favourite fruit?
Charity: Good ripe peaches.
Rich: Depends on what I grow in my garden…successfully

What inspires you?
Charity: Coming out on the other side of difficult times.
Rich: People living their Faith.

Your favorite book ?
Charity: Hind’s Feet on High Places.
Rich: Outside the Bible, it is hard to say. I have preferred authors but to say any one book would be hard.

Do you collect something ?
Charity: Teapots kind of…
Rich: Not really. I use to collect things but things are just things and are not that important.

What would you name your next child?
Depends on if it is a boy or girl and what my spouse’s opinion is.

Polka Dots or checks?
Charity: Polka Dots
Rich: checks

What time is it?
Charity: 9:21pm
Rich: 8:53pm

Does your blog have a publishing schedule?
Nope. We go active and inactive at random.

What is your favorite non-required activity?
Charity: Making jewelry or something crafty like that
Rich: Gardening

I tag: Joy, Amy, Jere & Reagan, Resa...and anyone else who wants to be tagged? We don't know that many bloggers.
Rules:
1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people.(Or however many)