Home Made Furniture Polish

I still love scott's liquid gold for every day dusting. Yes, I prefer it to pledge - although I will use pledge in a pinch.  

But for polishing, and scratch cover, this works REALLY well.  Especially on really old dried out wood!

• 2 cups olive oil (use the cheap stuff)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Mix well.  I use one cloth to apply, and a second to buff off.  It is not supposed to store well, but to be honest, I have never stored it for long, so I really do not know.  :-)

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-grass-is-always-greener-in-pasture.html

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
My rating: 1 of 5 stars


When I looked at this book, I saw the description "On the eve of the United States's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter."




At the time it appeared to me that this would be a big, monumental event.  Rereading the description now, I can see that maybe it wasn't even meant to sound that way.  After reading the book, the description seems to sum it all up pretty well...  it really does tell you everything.  There is no surprise, no twist, no big event, and no great story.


That's the other thing I first noticed when looking at this book and adding it to my "to read" pile.  I saw in the back there was a section "the real story" and I assumed, falsely, that this was a book based on a little known real event in history.  Had I read that section first, I could have saved myself a lot of time drudging through this book.  It was based on a few things the author saw that inspired her to write the book.


It was tedious for me to read, and I wish I hadn't wasted so much time on this book.  :-(


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https://amzn.to/37bzev3

Greg Mortenson's book Three Cups Of Tea is a lie??  I really should pay more attention to the news I guess.  I read Three Cups Of Tea.  I loved it.  I was planning to read the sequel this year.  Guess there's no sense in reading THAT now.  I'm so disappointed.  :-(

Three Cups of Deceit

How Greg Mortenson,
Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way

Greg Mortenson has built a global reputation as a selfless humanitarian and children’s crusader, and he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is also not what he appears to be. As acclaimed author Jon Krakauer discovered, Mortenson has not only fabricated substantial parts of his bestselling books Three Cups of Teaand Stones into Schools, but has also misused millions of dollars donated by unsuspecting admirers like Krakauer himself. This is the tragic tale of good intentions gone very wrong.
http://www.byliner.com/

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/reading.html

Paper Flowers

Found the kits at Big Lots last year - they are by Martha Stewart

Now that Meg's room is painted, we finally put them together as accents in her room.  :-) 

The vase of flowers here, and another out of sight on the other side of the tv, were also a Martha Stewart kit, also from Big Lots - we made those last year.  :-)

Men's Thought Boxes

Focus on the Family broadcasts have had two episodes recently about the differences between how men and women think.  the first one, shown above, is more humorous (but so true!) and the second is a bit more expansive.  


http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio.aspx?ID={5BC2A206-2864-42DC-8F98-5673EEB64280}
"In a discussion based on their book Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti, Bill and Pam Farrel explain how a husband and wife can understand and appreciate one another's differences. "


This really is something I wish I had heard before we got married!  20 years in, I "get" it, but those first few years, when I asked him what he was thinking about and he said "nothing" I really did think he just didn't want to talk to me.  :-)





http://time-warp-wife.blogspot.com/

There is a goat in my living room

But he's not on the carpet, and not on the furniture (if you do not count the footstool as furniture, which apparently our son does not...) so technically not violating the stated rules.  Note to self - make more specific rules.  :-)


He's outside now, it was just too wet and nasty to put him outside his first day here, so he stayed (HA!) in a dog kennel in our laundry room for the first day, and again overnight last night, just to be sure he's acclimating ok.  He gets a bottle 
twice a day yet.

Coming home from the amish sale...

He's in a kennel in the laundry room for tonight - it's too cold, wet, and windy to leave him outside his first night here. He's obviously used to being bottle fed, he took right to the bottle.

This will be our billy goat next year.  :-)

BSF WK26

My notes from the lecture

http://www.youversion.com/notes/1068187/bsf-lecture-wk

This week there was an extra handout - Home Training Lesson on Teaching Your Child About Easter.  As always, it's a fantastic resource!

This week was an excellent tie in with our families study of James from last week!  

Sewing Kit - Felt Craft

I love felt embroidery, and I do not know why I don't do more of it.  So simple!  I didn't have a pattern for this, I saw one in a catalog (or website?  I can't remember which) from Hopechest Legacy.  My daughter and I were working through her Needlework Skills Book 1 together at the time, and this looked like a simple additional project.  It was.  :-)

Sadly the Hopechest Legacy site has pretty much closed down, we love the books and patterns we have bought from them, and there are still a few good freebies on the site. http://www.hopechestlegacy.com/index.php?page=free-resources (Freebies are listed on the red sidebar to the left)

The inside pockets hold a pencil, scissors, embroidery floss, needles are stored under the flap on the top right, the heart shaped pocket holds a thimble and my needle threader, and the center bottom is a stuffed pincushion full of pins.  

It was such an easy project that my 12 year old daughter made herself one at the same time.  

   
The Hope Chest Legacy Website is gone, but the books are still available on Amazon:

 https://amzn.to/2QBQFP6

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An Index Of My Craft Related Posts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/crafts.html

Peanut Butter Eggs

Our teen age daughter makes hundreds of these each year.  She pays her own way to summer camp by selling them. :-)

2 cups 10x sugar
1 cup Jiff Peanut Butter
1/4 cup butter
1 T milk
melting chocolate


Soften the butter, combine all ingredients
     (we use the kitchen-aid to cream the ingredients together)
Form into egg shapes
Pop in the freezer for about 30 minutes to an hour
Dip in chocolate

Freezing them first helps so much when coating them in chocolate.  Otherwise this can get very messy.  :-)

I get the wafers at Ac Moore.  They go on sale for $1.77 a bag, and when they do, I stock up.  do not like the chocolate wafers from Michaels - they are too waxy, in my opinion.

You can melt the chocolate in the microwave - just make sure the bowl and spoon are COMPLETELY dry.  One speck of water can make chocolate seize.

We don't have a microwave here (no big health reason, I just got tired of them dying, and we don't really use it..  a counter top convection oven was under $40 and works well for reheating food)

I have a melting pan similar to this one. I paid under $20- check Michaels or JoAnns and use a coupon for a good deal on one.  If you melt a lot of chocolate (we make a LOT of peanut butter eggs each year) it's well worth the investment.

To coat the eggs, drop them in one at a time, then lift out with a fork, shaking it back and forth gently to even out the chocolate and remove the excess.  Then place on wax paper, or parchment paper, to dry.

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel


My rating: 2 of 5 stars




I had for some reason believed this was some sort of classic, and appropriate for our younger teens reading lists. I'm glad I read if first- the story line is good, but it is not a classic, and the rape scenes are unnecessarily detailed, even if the details about sex are kept simple. Those passages, in my opinion, ruin the book and make it one I would not recommend.


After finishing this book I was curious about the fates of the charactars, the story line is good... but after reading a quick summary of the other books in the series, it appears sex continues to be a strong theme shared in detail too often.


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Rigatoni Casserole

This is such a simple "recipe" (I rarely measure, so my recipes tend not to be what most think of as a recipe.)

Cooked rigatoni ( I used 4 boxes)

Spagetti sauce ( I used 2 large jars)

Alfredo sauce ( I used about half a gallon of it- I make my own.  Our milk is fresh from the dairy, and includes a good bit of cream in it)

Mushrooms, peppers, onions, and cooked hot sausage, optional (saute the onions, peppers, and mushrooms first)

Mix, bake.  Optional- top with cheese before baking.

I made 3 heaping full 9x13 pans...  i think one small jar of alfredo sauce from the pasta sauce aisle, mixed with one equally sized jar of spaghetti sauce, and one box of pasta, would nicely fill one 9x13 pan.

This freezes well!  I first learned the recipe at an Apples Of Gold meeting, where the woman teaching us had learned it from a woman in our church who brought it to her after a funeral.  It's a great meal to keep in the freezer and pull out to warm up and take to someone.

Chicken Salad Club Sandwiches

(there was also a bowl of cubed cheese, one of hard boiled eggs, and one of yogurt, to go with this meal today)

A few weeks back Dh and I had lunch at a little dive in Sunbury PA.  We had an AWESOME chicken salad club sandwich...  and I knew it would be simple to replicate here at home.  The ones there had two layers, but I made them just one layer here..  it would be simple enough to add another piece of bread in the middle.

Chicken Salad - 

Cut up chicken (I use just white meat)

diced apple

diced purple onion

diced hard boiled egg

shredded carrot

mayo (I make my own, but a jar works too)

mustard

a little lemon juice

a little dill, salt, pepper, and powdered garlic

Then toast the bread (to keep this much bread warm, I turned my oven on low and put the bread in the oven as soon as it came out of the toaster.

Place a strip of bacon (cut in half, but use both pieces) on the toast

Top with a lettuce leaf (I use romaine)

top with chicken salad, and another piece of toast

HUGE hit - this will be a common meal this summer I think!