Wonderful Days of Summer

On our way down to the tide pools at Patrick Point State Park. It was quite a climb!

A pulley that Jeremy and the boys rigged up in our backyard. The boys all love it!

Micah after watching a family movie. We thought this looked like he had been shot down, and had to take a picture!

I wrote the title tongue in cheek. We have had a break from the heat for the last few days, yesterday and today actually being cloudy. This afternoon, the sky broke open with a hailstorm - pretty good-sized hail, too. And it was really loud on the roof. Silas told me today that he doesn't like storms. I told him that God is showing us how powerful He is! It must have stuck a little, because he told his older brothers about it later.

Next week, we are going to a conference in Graeagle, CA. We will leave Sunday afternoon, and spend the night in Redding, before heading down on Monday. We are all excited! It gets over on Friday, and then we will be heading home. Jeremy's mom and sister are coming down for a visit on Saturday. So the next couple of weeks will be a whirlwind of activity, but we are very excited - both about the conference, and about our company.

I got a recipe from my mother-in-law for dishwashing soap. It has been so much fun to find all of these homemade recipes, and to see how we end up buying less and less from the actual grocery store! We have started making homemade laundry soap, dishwashing soap, cereal, granola, baby food; I still have recipes for different kinds of crackers, but just haven't tried making them yet. I thought I would start posting some of these recipes just in case someone else is interested in saving money, and making things from home.

Dishwashing Soap:

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

1/4 cup citric acid

I found the borax and washing soda at WinCo. The citric acid we found at the health food store, but is a little pricey - $7.99 a pound. But with the little bit we use for the soap, it is still at least comparative if not cheaper than what you can buy at the store. My mother-in-law just told me to put vinegar in for the RinseAid.