Jayke's letter to Mom and Dad

Just in case you can't decipher it, it says:
Mom Dad
You are such good Mom and Dads. Ceep(Keep) it up. I love you Love Jayke.

Do you think he gets plenty of pep talks in his life?

One down

I just finished Kate's Christmas present. I used scraps of old flannel from our Christmas pajamas that I never used and a couple yards of jean material I had bought when I was pregnant with her. Every time she saw me sewing it she would say, "me, me, me" because she recognized the jean material from some shorts I had made her. So, she already "knows" it's for her, but maybe she'll forget about it if she doesn't see it for a couple months. This is actually the first "quilt" that I have made. It is a rag quilt, so some may say that it is not really a quilt, but it's close enough for me. All I have to do is wash it so the seams will fray a little. Now, on to the boys'...

Ants!

Yesterday morning, Ryan was in our closet getting ready for school and he noticed he was being attacked by ants. He quickly got out the Demand (pest control spray) and doused them all, killing every single one. Everything was fine until that night when we are getting ready for bed and notice ants ALL OVER OUR CLOSET!!!! They were on the shelves, crawling through all of our books and clothes.....EVERYWHERE! Thousands of them.... So, we got to work cleaning out the shelves that were not infested yet. We filled up our new bookshelf with all the books from our closet. Yes, full. Ok, maybe one shelf isn't stuffed. Beside the point. We finished taking out what we could and then sprayed the rest, just to "quickly" take care of them. Yeah right. Ryan went outside with a flashlight to see where they were coming in. We found a little bitty hole near the attic in our room where they were traveling through. Ok, just take care of that hole and everything is ok, right? That would have been easy and ideal, but not to be. I left Ryan outside and I went in to use the bathroom. When I was just finishing, I looked up and saw ants everywhere. I'm just glad they didn't attack me in such a vulnerable position! Anyway, after this, we figured they were just traveling through our walls from one room to the next, so we checked the kids’ rooms to make sure they wouldn't be eaten in the night. The ones in the bathroom were the only ones in our house that were alive. So, we remembered that we had an ant bait still, so we set it up in the bathroom window...and watched...and hoped...and watched. They discovered it and gobbled it up. Ryan sprayed a barrier around that wall so if any ants did cross the line to explore our bedroom, they would suffer certain death. We had a few suicide jumpers (see pic of the floor). Actually, their line went right along the edge of the window sill and they would bump into each other and one would inevitably fall over the edge right into the Demand. HA HA HA (that's an evil laugh). 

 
Maybe they wanted to eat those french fries? I don't think the queen would really like to eat plastic! The line of dead ants goes from the corner down to the little white spec of paper. All you can see is a little dark area, but there are tons of them.

This is the shelf that they just started getting to. The other ones were much worse. 

All over the towels.

The ant bait just got set out.

The suicide jumpers.

The poor little ants that were successful at feeding the poison to the queen. Hopefully some of them made it back to kill that sweet little female with all of this poison and maybe eliminate her entire colony once and for all.

Yogurt

I have been dreaming of making yogurt for a long time now. I finally did it! I was really surprised at how easy it was. Yesterday we made strawberry smoothies out of one jar. It tasted like the Kefir drink, if any of you have tasted that. 

This is the only jar left. I read that you can make "cream cheese" out of it. I think I will try. All I have to do is hang it in a cheese cloth until it is the right consistency.

I feel as though I grew up in the wrong generation. I was telling Ryan a few weeks ago that I wanted to try hand quilting, just in case I ever needed to use it (if we ended having to go w/o electricity for long periods of time). I have even thought of using cloth diapers for my kids, although I have not been brave enough to try it yet. I dream of making my own cheese, though that might have to wait until I have a cow to milk. Yes, I dream of having my own milk cows. I wish that corsets and long, full cotton dresses were in style. I would wear them every day. I really hate the cheaply constructed synthetic material clothing we have "in style" these days. I hate that everything is designed to wear out in one season. Why can't we just go back to the days where people could wear a dress/outfit for years without falling apart? You know, when clothes were actually functional instead of just a decoration?

I even have a push mower. That's right, the ones that do not have a motor of their own. I have a gas powered one in the shed, but I don't like to use it. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn with my push mower. I can mow anytime I like, not just when Ryan is home to watch the kids. They can even be walking right next to me when I mow. AND I don't stink like exhaust and itch like crazy when I am finished. (I never break a sweat working with my lovely push mower...only from the extreme heat.) AND my hands aren't all sore and swollen when I'm finished, like they are with the gas-powered mower. AND the grass looks healthier when it is cut by "scissors" instead of a "tornado".

Am I just weird or am I being prepared for hard times to come? I know the world is going to get worse before it gets better (2nd Coming), so maybe this is all just in preparation for what will be later on in my life. Or maybe I am just crazy.