It’s FRIDAY!!!

So cliche to say it, but it seems like three months ago that we were at Family Camp, and this week has gone SO fast!

My prayer at the end of my quiet and prayer time every morning is that I would use the day that the Lord has blessed me with wisely, and redeem the time He has given me with the burdens that He has placed upon my heart!

It is crazy, crazy busy here most days….so I hope and pray that I am doing just that in the midst of this busy season! I know He hears my prayers and knows the desire of my heart!

When we were planning our packing for Family Camp, I got this idea to use a cleaning caddy to carry things back and forth from the RV to the sessions.

It really worked well! So I thought I would share that idea with you all! Just in case you are ever living in an RV for a week! Just kidding, because you really could use a caddy in a lot of other scenarios too!

I learned some AMAZING laundry hacks at camp this year! Laundry is just one of those things you never finish right? Please tell me you all never finish your laundry either! Since Eliza and Tate have been home, I really struggle to get to the laundry room and to get anywhere on what is suppose to be going on in there!

Since Addie Mae is working part-time now, she has blessed me beyond measure and offered to be my full-time laundry gal. I KNOW!! You can’t have her! I am going to still keep Chad and Lane doing their laundry chores of washing towels and cleaning rags though, because it is a skill I want them to have.

During a women’s session at camp, the dot system was shared. I have heard of this system before, but did not need it last time I did. You mark your boys/girls clothes with a black dot with a permanent marker based on their birth order. I just need this for Grant and Chad’s clothes. They are in the same size and it is difficult to remember whose clothes are whose. Since Grant is the oldest his clothes get one dot, and since Chad is next his clothes get two dots. If I had more boys clothes I wanted to mark, I would just add a dot for each child down the line in birth order.

This works well for hand-me-downs too, because if Grant hands something down to Chad, I would just add a dot to the one that was there to make it have two dots for Chad. Hope this is making sense!! I don’t think I will be handing anything of Grant’s down to Chad, but I still like how easy it would be to use this system to do so.

Another laundry tip that was shared was about socks.

I DREAD white laundry. It usually sits clean in a basket way too many days.

Someone mentioned using laundry bags for socks – which would mean no more matching socks. I was all in!! And bought all the laundry bags I could find on our date last Saturday night! I still need more, and plan to get them tonight.

So, we have one bag for each boy, with their initial written on it. Their socks are all SO similar, but are not the same. Everyone brings their dirty clothes to the laundry room before bed each night. Now, when the boys bring their dirty laundry to the laundry room, they put their dirty socks in their laundry bag. The bag will get zipped and washed with the whites, dried in the dryer, and then taken to the right boys drawer and dumped in. Can you see me dancing?!?

Do you all make your own salad dressings? We do. I just don’t like all the extras that are in pre-made salad dressings. We have been in a salad dressing rut around here. I make ranch dressing weekly. It is the kid’s favorite. We needed to get out of this rut though! So I found some recipes. This apricot sweet and sour dressing was SO good! I have to be honest, the ingredients did not sound like they would be good together. But it will be a favorite one to make now too!

Recipe:

I blended this with an stick immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender too. Add water to thin to desired consistency. Pour into a mason jar and store for up to one week in the fridge. I need to double this next time!

I put this photo on IG the other day and got a lot of requests for a recipe! In 2012 we grew squash on our farm for Organic Valley and got to keep the seconds. We ate squash in every way possible! I will share some recipes here on the blog soon.

I also shared some photos of Tate on IG this week when he got stung by a bee. My poor boy! I used Young Living’s essential oil owie blend and the swelling went out of his eye in just a few hours! Gotta love those oils.

Last, but not least, let’s talk the weather. We are SO blessed. There has been some serious rain around these parts, flooding everywhere, and even mud slides that included a house that slid into the highway and killed the person inside. It was the highway we took to get to Family Camp just last week. Our farm is wet, like really wet with standing water everywhere. Our basement has a drainage tile system and a sump pump that has not been able to keep up as well. But we are safe. And made it to Madison and back yesterday for Tate’s appointment, even though we had to take a different way to get there and back. So much to be thankful for on another dreary, wet, rainy day!

This photo is of a small thin creek that runs through our town. It was almost to the road!

I can’t wait to share Tate’s awesome report from the surgeon yesterday! But first I need to help my crew finish cleaning this big ole house and make a grocery list! And go and check the basement again! And drink some coffee, just to be honest!!

Hope you all are having a great week and will enjoy your weekend!!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!