WFMW: making my own rag rugs

This has been a very crafty summer (see my post on learning to sew), but I think my favorite craft has been the new rag rugs I made for our bedroom and our bathroom.

I've always liked rag rugs, but they simply seemed to complicated to make. How, after all, do you braid rags?

Well, I still don't know the answer to that question. But, thanks to this tutorial from This Vintage Chica, I now know how to crochet rags. And that, my friends, has made all the difference. The truth is, if you know even the most basic single crochet stitch, you can make your own gorgeous rag rugs. And the other truth is, the part that takes the longest isn't the crocheting, it's the cutting of the rag strips.

This rug, now in our bedroom, is mostly made out of our old denim couch slipcover:


This rug, now in our bathroom, is more colorful, and is made out of shirts, sheets and sarongs:

The nice thing about that one is, because I made it myself, I was able to make it extra long, so that we could kneel comfortably next to the tub when bathing the kids. It's also made out of mostly cotton cloth, which means it dries out easily.

I wish you could see what these actually have done for these rooms. The bathroom looks more cheery now, with that bright, soft rug on the tile floor, and the rug in our bedroom picks up the colors from the quilt on our bed and the hangings over the windows and lends the room a mellow, comfy air. This is a great, satisfying craft - beautiful and useful at the same time. (And frugal! You'll never throw out a stained shirt or sheet again! Just cut out the stain and rag the rest for a rug!)

Making my own rag rugs works for me!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

WFMW: iced tea

Summer's on the way (almost past soup weather now), and a cold drink sounds good most afternoons. But soda's not healthy and not that cheap either. Iced tea on the other hand? Healthy, cheap (even the good stuff, compared to soda in the can), and delicious.

Here's what works for me: I make a big pitcher of tea one day, and then, once it's cool, pour it into two Nalgene bottles (one for me, and one for my husband to take to work) and stick 'em in the fridge. That way, when I'm ready for a cool drink the next afternoon, I just open the fridge, and there it is: 32 oz. of cold wonderfulness.

I find that if you let the tea brew a bit long, you can make pretty decent iced tea with two tea bags to 64 oz. of water. I like it without sweeteners, but my husband usually puts a bit of honey in his.

And I usually end up sharing it with the kids, cause they're so cute when they beg. ;)


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

getting published

I'm guessing most of you, being fellow bloggers, are also fellow writers, of one stripe or another (even if it's just the practical sort, who realize that blogging has it all over the phone when it comes to cost). You may or may not cherish dreams of getting published, but the trick I'm going to share would work for other goals too, so stick with me. :D

I've been writing since before I could write. Honestly. I used to illustrate stories, narrate them to my mom, and have her write the narration down on my pictures, to form a rough storybook. (Such a cool thing to do with your kids, btw.) And I've always wanted to get published. But, barring a stint at my college newspaper, and a few contests here and there, nothing much came of it.

Till this year. There's a lot of backstory (which is mostly about me needing to stop writing for awhile, do real life, and grow up a bit), but for one reason and another, by the grace of God, this year seemed like the time to tackle that goal. Here's the thing though: the idea of saying "I will get published this year" absolutely terrified me. Not least because it was a promise the outcome of which I couldn't control. I couldn't guarantee an acceptance.

So I tweaked my resolution into something I could guarantee. I resolved, "By the end of this year, I'm going to get one paid article published, or get twenty rejection slips, whichever comes first."

See, while I couldn't promise to be published, I could promise to send in at least twenty articles. That was a little less than one every two weeks, which is, frankly about the right rate for a mom of two toddlers. And if I failed, I'd fail without the sneaking suspicion that I hadn't given it a fair try. Because twenty submitted articles is a fair try.

So, my tip is: if you've got a goal, figure out what you need to do to achieve it, and resolve to take those steps. Forget about resolving to meet the goal. Real life happens, and no achievement is entirely in your power. Resolve merely to do the parts in your power (with God's help!).

And, you might get your goal thrown in. (My first check for freelancing arrived this week. :D )

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

shopping specific colors

Okay, so I like clothes shopping. And I especially like thrift store clothes shopping. Because it's much more affordable and less wasteful than new, of course, but also because it's more fun. There's so much more variety, so many surprises! You're not just stuck with the choice of whatever (probably ugly) style is popular at the moment.

But thrift store shopping, and any other kind really, can be a bit overwhelming. And there's always the danger of buying something you will never, ever wear. While there's lots of tricks for preventing this (only shop for what you actually need, think about which clothes you wear most often and buy similar ones, etc.), I came up with a new one recently that's been really helpful.

I've started buying only two colors, other than your basic black, white and denim. I picked my favorite two colors of course! For me, that's blue and green. I'm a winter, so I looked good in a lot of those lovely deep jewel tones, but I don't always feel like wearing all of them. I've found, for instance, that though I look well in burgundy, I often don't want to wear it. I don't know why; I just happen to find it a slightly depressing color.

But I always, always, always am in the mood to wear blue and green (the versions of it that go well with my coloring, that is). To me, wearing blue and green is shorthand for thinking about sky and trees, and that's just never bad. So I decided I'd just buy those two colors, and, hopefully, eventually, everything in my closet will match. (Though I admit, that there's been at least one instance since I instituted this rule when I bought something, well, pink. But I figure if it's gorgeous enough that I notice it when I'm not looking for it, well, I'll make an exception.)

In the short term, what it's done has been to make clothes shopping a lot easier. Thrift stores aisles aren't nearly as overwhelming if you're only keeping your eyes open for variations on two shades.

So . . . yeah! I'm sure everyone out there would pick a few different colors (and hey, maybe your "basics" would be tan and grey rather than white and black), but limiting my wardrobe to my favorite colors sure works for me!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

skip the party

I'm planning on throwing birthday parties for my kids. Someday. But I really haven't yet, even though, together, they've had three birthdays so far. Why not? Because they're toddlers, and, frankly, they don't care. We make a cake and give them presents, and the grandparents usually supply cool things like balloons (mylar! we have such smart grandparents 'round here!), but I've never thrown a birthday party for my kids.

and you know, it really works for me. And them too. They get everything they want (cake! presents! cards in the mail! grandparents making a fuss!) and feel special on their day.

Now, I have friends that love throwing parties for their toddlers. And more power to 'em. There's nothing wrong with it. But, if you're like me, and the thought of organizing a big to-do for someone who a) won't care and b) quite possibly will be provoked to tears by all the hoopla, makes you crazy, then I say, just skip it. To my mind, it's a lot of work for very little reward, and I just don't like equations that come out that way.

I imagine that around four or five, Bess and Gamgee will start asking for a party. And once they want it, I'll be glad to do it. We'll have little people running around the house, playing games, eating themselves sick, and going away with favors.  But during these crazy toddler years? Cake and presents with family works for me. :D



peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

WFMW: Miracle-Gro

Okay, I don't mean to sound like a corporate shill here (and I'm not - I'm not connected in any way with the company), but man! that stuff works!

I have an ivy plant that I grew from my wedding bouquet. My sister has a similar one, grown from her wedding bouquet. We both got the cuttings for our bouquets from plants my mom grew from the ivy from her bouquet.

While I did manage to keep my plant alive for the first year and a half of our marriage, I didn't manage to do much more than that. So when I went over to my sister's house, and saw the big, beautiful plant her cutting had grown into, I was shocked. Especially since she got marriage a year after I did, and so my plant had been growing a lot longer than hers.

"How did you get it so big?" I asked.

My sister gave me that "you're a bit of a weirdo, Jess" look and said, "Um, I fed it?"

Ah.

And that was the start of my love affair with Miracle-Gro. Just the nice, blue powder form at first. I put a scoop in the bottom of my watering can every week, and, lo-and-behold, my ivy plant grew. It's huge now.

Then I discovered that Miracle-Gro makes potting soil. Folks, they're not kidding about bigger and better plants. The comparison of the tomatoes I grow in their potting soil to the ones I grow in my garden soil? Thick, dark green stalks next to puny, pale ones. ('course, my garden soil's pretty sad stuff . . . I'm working on it.)

So, someday, I want to be a super-cool, composting, organic-soil-amendment making greenthumb. But till then? Miracle-Gro: works for me!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. the picture is of my wading pool garden as of yesterday (Miracle-Gro soil, y'see). As you can see, the cosmos are blooming. As you probably can't, the zinnias are about to (there are buds! yay!). The bachelor's buttons, to my sorrow, don't seem to have any plans on flowering in the near future.

Below is a picture of the cosmos from the wading pool garden (along with some flowers from my side yard) doing their duty on our kitchen table. Food tastes better with eye candy like that, no?

WFMW: babywearing

The mei-tai we made is about the third or fourth step in our adventures in babywearing. It started with a sling, and went on from there.

Anyway, I've found more and more often that the answer to many homemaking dilemmas can be found when you answer your question with another question. That other question being: "How did women accomplish it in the eighteenth century?" Or, as an missionary kid, I more often ask, "How do women do it in third-world countries?"

With babywearing, the original question was, "How do I get anything done when I have a kid who just wants to be held?" After asking how women have always done it, I came up with the answer: You strap the kid on, and keep going. There's gazillions of ways of wearing babies, starting with just tying them on with a shawl, and getting more complicated from there. My favorites have been: ring sling for little babies, REI-style backpacks for long walks, and a mei-tai (the Korean baby-carrier in the above link) for around the house, once kids are too big for slings. (btw, check out some of the many babywearing sites on the internet before you just "tie a kid on". Research first, because there are some safety precautions to be taken!)

Babywearing lets me make dinner without having a fussy baby tugging on my pant leg, gets my son to nap through church services without killing my arms, and lets my husband and I take long walks together without either of us having to push a stroller. Babywearing: works for me!



peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. Thanks for the many entries to the Easter Blog Carnival. Keep sending them in! And check back on Sunday for the carnival itself!

p.p.s. Not that we never use a stroller.

p.p.p.s. I also have to say that if my mom is sitting next to us in church, I skip the babywearing. Somehow, my son has no problem falling asleep in the pew if Grandma is doing the holding! :D

WFMW: owner's manual

Today's Works For Me Wednesday is the car edition. Here's what I know about cars: cars with stick shifts cost less to repair, and I really want a minivan someday.

Okay, now that you are in awe at my vast store of mechanical knowledge, I'll tell you the one thing that really does work for me: the owner's manual. Of course things will happen to your vehicle that you can't take care of yourself. But you'd be surprised at what you can do, and at how useful that little booklet that came with your car is. I've taken to leafing through it sometimes when my husband is driving and I'm sitting pretty in the passenger seat. It's taken us through jump-starting batteries and replacing headlights. And maintaining the proper level of clutch fluid. And other useful skills like that.

So take a peek. They're simply written, easy to understand, and surprisingly useful. Consulting the owner's manual: works for me!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

WFMW: outside flip-flops

Okay, this is one of those "oh-I'm-sure-everyone-already-knows-this" tips, but it really works for me!

Living in SoCal (and being married to my Indonesia guy, from whom I really picked up the habit), I go barefoot around the house most of the time (take that, Flylady!). That means that if I go outside and water the plants, I get my feet all goopy.

My solution? A pair of old flip-flops right outside my front door. I slip into them as I walk out, tromp all through the garden, and then slip out of them when I'm ready to go back inside. Those shoes never see the inside of the house, and my feet never see the mucky soil of the garden. Those flip-flops just stay outside in all their glorious muddiness. And by the time I'm ready to go outside again, the mud on the soles has dried, and can be easily sloughed off.

Keeping my bare feet nice and clean? Works for me!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. I don't hate Flylady. I love how her ideas about timers. But the shoe thing? Ha!

WFMW: plant stand

See what my clever husband made for me?

Most of those plants are perennials I've nursed through the winter, that are just now starting to bloom again. My problem was that they were hard to see; none of them (except the nutty verbena on the right) are very tall, so when I looked out my windows they were largely invisible. Now that they're flowering again, I really wanted to be able to see them.

So Adam took a couple cinder blocks and a couple boards ("I hope you appreciate that I'm giving up good scrap lumber for you." "Oh! Do you need it for something?" A grin and: "No, it's just always nice to have good scrap lumber around." "Oh! Then I'll appreciate it!") and made me a plant stand! Easy as laying boards across cinder blocks (like you would to build a bookcase) and it doesn't matter how it looks, because the plants will draw the eye away from it nicely.

So now I look out my window and think I'm seeing something from Better Homes and Gardens. A beautiful display of plants, the plants I've been eagerly checking in the morning for new bud clusters - now I'll actually see them bloom! Works for me!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. Also working for me this week? My new blog: From Print to Plate. I'm enjoying writing about the new recipes I try. Check it out!

WFMW: double French roll

Okay, so this is a slightly strange Works for me Wednesday, but this has worked for me all day long:





It's a double french roll. A real french roll is extremely elegant, and very hard to do. This, on the other hand, took less than five minutes, and it's stayed in all day. (And I don't know about you, but I always feel better when I don't have to fix my hair every five minutes, or push it out of my face every ten.) Now - you can see it's not perfect, but I still felt prettier than I do with just a ponytail. :)

To do it, put the top half of your hair up in a rubberband (loop your hair so that it's all up on top of your head, out of the way of the bottom half). Then, take the loose bottom half of your hair, twist it round a pen or a chopstick, and roll it all towards your head. You want to end up with the chopstick vertical, if that makes sense. Stick a couple of long bobby pins alongside the chopstick, pinning the rolled hair to the hair next to your scalp. Slide the chopstick out - your hair roll should stay put.

Take the top half of your hair out of the rubberband, and repeat the above rolling and pinning process with the top half of your hair. Pin any loose bits in. All done!



This works best with wet hair, btw. It's working for me - hope it works for you!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. Some of you wanted to see how my wading pool cutting garden turned out. Here's a progress pic:

WFMW: herb salad

The Proverbs tell us: "Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."

But even though what that's telling you is that it's better to have a full heart than a full stomach, I've recently discovered that herbs aren't that bad for filling up the corners - that instead of just garnishing with them, you can actually eat them.

I discovered this on accident, when making the Vietnamese Fried Rice from the More-With-Less Cookbook. The recipe called for the rice to be served piping hot on a bed of lettuce, parsley, mint and cucumber. Well, I didn't have cucumber, but I did have lettuce, parsley and mint in my garden (the mint is currently invading our lawn), so I put together a simple salad to go under the rice.

Not only was it delicious with the rice, but it was delicious on its own. So I've been trying it some more, and I've decided that, really, herbs are just leafy greens (you know, the kind women's magazines keep urging you to eat more of). Except that they're leafy greens that taste good. And they grow like weeds, which makes keeping a fresh supply cheap and easy.


So, using fresh herbs in equal measure to lettuce in salads? Works for me!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

WFMW: Love, Sweet Love Edition

This weeks Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer, is all about love, in honor of St. Valentine's Day.

Back when I was engaged, my mom gave me (along with the recipe to her amazing pie crust), some tips that have helped me time after time in my marriage. She said they summed up what she'd learned in 25+ years of marriage to my dad. So, in hopes that they'll help others, here are my mother's recommendations for a long and good marriage:

1. constant prayer
2. frequent, joyful sex
3. regular time spent together
4. continual forgiveness
continual repentance
5. conscious support of his career & hobbies
6. encourage 10x more than any critique


and then, at the end of that list (she did this, btw, at the invitation of the hostess of one of my bridal showers), she put an unnumbered tip that became my marriage mantra:

"Remember - if it's good for Adam, it's good for you."


And she's right. That sums it up. My husband's good isn't separate from mine. If it benefits him, it benefits me.


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

WFMW: nursing poncho

Somehow, on Sundays, naptime always falls right in the middle of our church service. For me, this meant I either needed to find a way to modestly nurse my babies, or I needed to leave the service.

Well, I didn't like the idea of leaving, but with my firstborn I never was able cover up well with a blanket; it kept sliding off!

But, during a thrift store trip just before my son was born, I found a wonderful thing. It was a poncho, the kind made for teeny-boppers, the kind I'd never really consider wearing as part of any outfit, but the kind that was, though aimed for the 13-15 year old set, perfect for nursing a baby under!

The cool thing about this poncho was that, despite its loud pink and white pattern, it was thin enough that air could pass through it well (no smothering the baby you're trying to feed), but closely-woven enough for modesty (no flashing the folks in the next pew), and, best of all, since it was a poncho, it couldn't slip off.

I've nursed Gamgee under this sucessfully during many a mass, and I think what I like best about it is how well suited it is for nursing when it was never, ever intended to be used that way. Finding a new use for a silly fashion item? Works for me!

(And finding it for next to nothing in a thrift store? Even better! If you want one, you probably won't have any trouble locating one secondhand, it's the sort of thing that's always falling out of style and being tossed.)


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

For more cool tips, visit Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon of Rocks in My Dryer.

wfmw: audio books

When I was a teenager, I read for hours and hours a day. Once I recommended a book to my mom's friend, Cyndi, and she told me, sadly, "Jess, I just don't think I have time to read that right now."

It boggled my mind. How could you not have time to read?

Now that I'm a mom, I get it. In between cooking, cleaning, child-care, doing the budget, etc, etc, etc, it's hard to sit down and polish off a good book. And even when I get my devotional time in, it's never as long as it should be.

My solution? Audio books! I usually work on dinner in the afternoon, when my kiddos are down for their naps. And now that's the time I listen to books too. And it's the time I can listen to the Bible on tape for an hour at a time, while I get other things done. It's not Bible study with any great depth, but it's Bible study with some great length, and that's a welcome change!

So, books-on-tape while I do chores: works for me!

(And what else works for me? Checking them out for free at my local library!)

For other great ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. Cyndi, btw, was in the middle of getting her doctorate, and reading tons of OTHER good things, when she gently let me know she didn't quite have the time to read the latest novel that fascinated the teenage me. I don't want anyone thinking this amazing women was in the slightest bit literature-adverse. Now she sends ME books to read for MY kids. :D (Thanks, Cyndi!)

wfmw: kid time

For quite awhile, I'd feed my kids and myself breakfast, and then try to clean up the kitchen with my two-year old running amok and my nine-month-old hanging onto my skirt and whining. I hated the idea of leaving the kitchen with dirty dishes and the table sticky with jam, but I also hated trying to clean it up with my kids acting fussy the whole time.

I had another problem too: I couldn't seem to stick in reading time anywhere in our day. When my son was a newborn, it was easy. I just read to my daughter while he nursed. But after a few months he got old enough that that distracted him, and I had to stop doing it that way. I hate to say it, but our reading times were pretty hit-and-miss for awhile there.

But a couple of weeks ago, I found the answer! Reading time right after breakfast! Yup, I decided to be brave and try an experiment: I left the dishes dirty and the table sticky, and hauled the kids straight from their breakfasts over to our couch, where we picked out a variety of books and read for twenty or so minutes straight. I alternated between the story books my daughter likes and the board books that fascinate my son, letting my son chew on the board books when it wasn't his turn (that's what they're for!). After about twenty minutes of reading, I turned the two of them loose and went back to clean up the kitchen.

And guess what? After those twenty minutes of straight, uninterrupted mom-attention, they played happily for the twenty minutes or so it took to do the dishes! I was tickled pink - if only all of my experiments could turn out so well!

So there you have it: reading time and dishes both checked off of the list - works for me! Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more tips and tricks.

And, in keeping with the theme of the blog, let me point out that a regular reading time is a great way to familiarize your child (and yourself) with different Bible stories. My favorite series is an old one, the Arch Bible stories. They're not published anymore, but you can find them pretty easily and cheaply in thrift stores or on eBay. Our current favorite is Jesus' Second Family, about Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Bess calls it the "Bethany" book. My favorite part comes after Jesus gently rebukes Martha for complaining about Mary's lack of help with the housework:

"Now Jesus' words surprised them all,
But soon they understood:
He didn't mean that work was bad,
But hearing God was good."

Honestly, that little quatrain helped me understand that story better than four years of Bible college ever did. I love children's lit!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. like the post below says: this blog's getting regular updates now. So come back, look around, leave a comment - it's great to hear your thoughts!


This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

wfmw: healthy eating

(I have to start out by saying that my husband insists "wfmw" must be pronounced "oof-moo". Helpful, isn't he?)

Well, in keeping with the theme of this blog, my healthy eating tip has to to with church. My husband and I, and a lot of our friends, tended to go out to eat every Sunday after church. We're not rich, so it was usually the Carl's Jr. down the block, but still, that wasn't good for waistline or pocketbook.

So what we've started doing is packing a picnic lunch and sticking it in cooler bags in our trunk. After service, we stop at an arboretum that's between home and church, and have our picnic.

Sunday lunches are a great time to picnic. You know it's coming up and you can plan for it. And, honestly, just about anything you pack is going to be healthier than a burger and fries. It's just one meal a week, but losing weight's like saving money: little things add up.

So here's my recipe for a nice picnic bag:

-whole wheat crackers (like Breton, mmm!)
-a couple ounces of hard cheese
-a pop-top can of fruit (like peaches, double mm!)
-a 2-liter bottle of flavored seltzer
-cups, plates and a man with a pocket knife (to, um, cut the cheese)


Good food, good company, good conversation fodder (if you were paying attention during the sermon!), and a happy tummy! Works for me! Merry picnics, folks!

To see more WFMW tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. oh yeah, and I recommend inviting your fellow parishioners along with you after church. If it's the first time, they can just pick up their lunch on the way to the park, if it becomes a tradition, then everyone can brown-bag it. :)

WFMW: toddler memory verses

welcome to Homemaking Through the Church Year! I've decided to start this new blog off with a bang by participating in Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at rocksinmydryer.typepad.com.


Here's the tip: you know how your two-year old toddles 'round the house all day, singing pieces of nursery rhymes and old folk songs? That means that she's just old enough to memorize, and just young enough to find anything - from TV ad to holy writ - fascinating.

So my tip is: take advantage of your toddler's propensity to repeat anything - and everything - over and over and over. Start by having her repeat the verse you want her to learn after you, and do it with enthusiasm. My favorite so far is "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Short, sweet and - grin - such a USEFUL moral. Around our house it sounds something like this:

Me: CHILDREN!
Bess: CHILDREN!
Me: Obey your PARENTS!
Bess: Obey PARENTS!
Me: In the LORD!
Bess: In the LORD!
Me: For this is RIGHT!
Bess: For this RIGHT!


To make it stick better:
1) Start with something short.
2) Break up that short verse into even shorter bits.
3) Give it a nice rhythm when you recite it.
4) Recite it first, then have her repeat it in chunks, then have her recite it herself. Start a phrase and let her finish it.
5) Add actions; we point to emphasize "this is RIGHT!"
6) Recite it often, say after each meal and snack. Or before naps and bedtime. Or whatever works for you.

And that's what works for me! For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit rocksinmydryer.typepad.com.


-Jess