Remembering Andrew

You may have noticed no new entries on our blog for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes things happen in life that we are not exactly sure how best to react to. We have had one of those happenings in our life recently. After giving it much thought I (Carolyn) strongly feel the need remember a special young man here.

After fighting a diabetic coma for about 4 weeks my 17 year old nephew, Andrew Lawrence Prak, left this earth to be forever with his Savior in heaven. He was born April 11, 1991 and left this earth on September 14, 2008 ~ he was the son of my sister Suzanne and her husband Daniel Prak.

Included here is the picture of him that keeps coming to my mind as I have thought of him over the past month and a half. It was taken the one time Dennis and I and the kids (6 at the time) visited the Prak family in Hollister, California. (Daniel was in Cambodia when we visited) This visit would have been just after his 10th birthday. I believe it was the day we arrived their family cat had a litter of kittens. As always the kittens were a hit. I have always enjoyed this picture of Andrew with hie cute grin, as well as the one of Suzanne looking on. :)


Andrew... You will be greatly missed, we look forward to joining you someday!

Lots of Love,

Aunt Carolyn for all

Stain Removing 101

For school this year Amelia is 'taking' Home Ec. ~ we have no formal curriculum, so she gets to do whatever her 'Home Ec' teacher deems important. (wa-ha-ha!) This week she was to study laundry and in the process came up with these tips...

Stain musts:
1. Always apply removers form the inside of fabrics.
2. Put a folded paper towel under the stain to blot it

· How to remove Butter or margarine: spray with WD-40 then work in undiluted dish soap and wash on the hottest cycle safe for the fabric.
· Did your pen leak on your clothes? Well here is several ways that claim to remove Ink. If one does not work try another.
o I found several different places warning not to use hair spray because most have oil in them and will just spread the stain.
o Rubbing alcohol, either use a sponge or soak in a glass. (for tough stains try Denatured alcohol)
o White toothpaste (not gel) rub firmly into stain then pretreat and launder as usual.
o Milk soak stain in milk and the milk should dissolve the Ink.

And do you know those stains that kind of look like grease stains, and seem to just appear from the middle of no where (A.K.A. the dryer)?
The most likely cause: your fabric softener!

o How to fix: for dryer sheets dampen the stain then rub with a pure bar soap like dove or ivory for a few minutes then re-launder.
o For liquid fabric softener, use liquid dish soap, dampen then rub in dish soap then launder


Quick tip 1#: to reduce fading on clothes wash them inside out
Quick tip #2: tired of losing socks when you wash them put the socks (inside out) in a cotton pillow case (or a machine washable bag) then close the end with a hair rubber band, and wash and dry as usual.

Most of these tips were gleaned from the following two books:

• Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean by Linda Cobb
• Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson

Next she wants to type out our homemade laundry detergent recipe for you!

On A Lighter Note...

I thought I would add a picture sure to make you smile! Amelia took this out in Papa & Nana's shop last Saturday. I think he has some Jones in him! :)

Quilt Memories

Last night I finished sewing the binding on Charlyn's quilt. This is the quilt I made her when she was 4, I believe. I started quilting when we first moved to McMinnville and I found myself with time on my hands. I first cut out a Double Wedding Ring and after working on that for a bit I realized it really was out of my league... WAY out of my league! :p Those pieces still sit in a box in my sewing room. I am quite sure I will never piece it, but can not bring myself to toss the project. (the pieces were poor quality fabric and poorly cut) If I ever do make a Double Wedding Ring it will be with new fabric. Anyway - after shelving that project I decided to go more simple, way more simple and made Nicole and Charlyn 9-patch quilts for their beds. Nicole's was first and done in purples, I honestly do not know what condition hers in at this point. Then was Charlyn's - she INSISTED on pink, even way back then. My mom added the binding to the quilts, Charlyn had a pre-made silky binding that over the years was loved off. She wanted it shipped to her in Virginia, but I insisted on adding a new binding before doing so. This time making my own from start to last hand stitch last night. I think I have made progress over the past 16 years! This binding was even cut on the bias. (yuck! but the gingham looks better at an angle) It was kind of bittersweet sewing it on. Thoughts of my little girls (now 21 & 19) playing with their quilts would be inturupted as I pulled off yet another LONG hair. Part of me struggled at seeing what my work looked like back then, but then I would remember these quilts were made to be loved...

I think my goal was met.

A Random Post...

My kids love to use the word 'random' so I thought I would use it as well! :p I do not have one 'major' topic to post on but thought I would just share some 'random' thoughts.

Last week we started school, it is going well. Not great, but it is going. There is always something to interfere. Yesterday it was mom not feeling well, today - mom had a cleaning bug. :-o Tomorrow there is a homeschool picnic - we will have to make some deals to see if we go to that. :) My kids love the picnics so we just might get somewhere a little easier then normal.

Normally Seth and Beka both go to sewing class for 1 hour on Wednesdays. But last week and this they each went once for 2 hours as they both wanted to sew Christmas presents for siblings. Once both finished gifts for each other they both chose to sew for Charlyn next, I found that interesting. :)

Friday I had a regular OB appointment - baby's size was right on for dates (perfectly 16 weeks) the midwife was happy with that. Heart beat was 150/160. Some would say that means a girl... time will tell.

Saturday morning we headed to McMinnville's CityFaire - it was held in an lovely open park in town (Discovery Meadows) The atmosphere was great (and everything was free!) We all got a bit 'sun kissed' but had a great time. The kids (After a LONG wait in line) got to take a (tethered) hot air balloon ride.

After we were done at the park and a trip to McDonald's we headed to 'Papa & Nana's' (my parents) to pick apples and pears. While there one of the girls got this great picture of Caleb watching my nephew, Zach, working on a transmission. I thought it was too cute not to share ~

That is all the 'randomness' I can think of for now!

~Carolyn

A Hodgepodge Picture

Today was the first day of school for the Hodgepodge Acres Academy 2008-09 school year. Can you believe this is our 17th year homeschooling?! Yikes!
Anyway - at one point I was making my rounds checking on my students and did not find Beka - when asking where she was I was told 'the deck' - I expected to see her playing but instead found her outside doing her school work with a kitten (Fritz to be exact!) snuggled up beside her school book. This picture is even more fun (to me anyway!) due to the chicken wandering by - this is an old chicken of ours we can not keep in the pen, the best we can figure she thinks she is a cat - I also love the stack of wood to the left side. Dennis was off last week and having wood ready to go was a goal of his. He did good! :) We are all looking forward to those first couple of fires come this fall.

Blessings of a Large Family

Yup, two posts in one evening. When it rains it pours. I often write lovely blog posts in my head when away from my computer than forget when actually able to write them. So who knows how this one will turn out. :p

It is not unusual to get questions about having a large family. (my biggest piece of advice? Throw out the odd socks a couple times a year, a huge stress reliever) One thing we seem to have different from many large families is spacing. Nicole should be 22 by the time peanut #8 is born. I personally do find it challenging to have kids in so many age groups all at once, one minute I am dealing with young adults than another I am down to toddler-hood or grade school. It can feel like mental whiplash! :p But God says He will not give us more than we can handle, I believe it includes this challenge!

But with the challenges , come perks. Help with cooking, cleaning, driving and such is lovely. (Oh, and not having to change diapers when dealing with morning sickness is GREAT!!!)

There are also the heart tugging moments. There is nothing like watching older kids interact with younger siblings. Such as the above picture of Nicole reading to Rebekah and Caleb.

Coupon Savings...

Ok, maybe not exciting to most, but I had someone say they missed me sending e-mails detailing my coupon shopping trips. A week ago we had one of the best ever so I thought I would do a break down of it here. For this particular shopping trip I spent $21.24 and 'saved' $73.23 - I write 'saved' that way since if it was not for the sale, coupons and the fact this store takes competitors store coupons I would not be shopping there. :p But it is a fun number to see. :) $5.25 of my total was newspapers, we buy 3 Sunday Oregonians every week (as well as 1 News~Register) mostly for the coupons. But in a family our size, 3 sets of comics does not hurt either. (and when we hit 'birthday season' the kids use the comics for their wrapping paper)

Anyway - here is what I got for about $16 (no, it does not quite add up right, no idea why, but stopped worrying about it, not worth the stress)

4 - GUM Toothbrushes .25 each
20 - Dannon Yogurt - .30 each
3 - bottle Ken's Salad Dressing - FREE
3 - bottle Ken's Salad Spritzer - FREE
3 - loaves Sara Lee Bread - FREE
6 - pouches Purina Cat Treats - .25 each
6 - 6pk boxes of Sun Maid Raisins - .50 each
3 - Doz. Med. Eggs - $1 each

There you have it ~ It was a fun trip. :) This weeks trip, not quite so exciting. Spent $14.50 and 'saved' $22 ~ we got 9 boxes of Kleenex, 10 cans Campbells tomato soup and one package of flour tortillas - all things we needed.