I looove Fall.  The colors, the cool weather (which means an excuse to start a fire in the fireplace,) and the foods that just “go” with the season like chili and pumpkin bread.

We bought pumpkins at Walmart for each of the kids, and because we waited until they went on sale ($2.47 each for huge pumpkins!) I bought 3 extra pumpkins for me to try my hand at making puree.  I love to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cheesecake.

I surfed online a bit and found a couple of handy tricks:

• If you want to roast your pumpkin seeds (such a yummy and healthy snack) you only need to put the pumpkin innards (I know that sounds gross, but they are gross) into a bowl and fill with water.  The pumpkin seeds float to the top!  All these years I’ve been getting my hands entwined in the stringy mess, sliding out each seed, and it usually took so long that I quit before getting most of the seeds.  Yesterday I took the “float” advice from Alton Brown at the Food Network and it was only minutes until I had all the seeds scooped out.  There’s a couple of ways to roast your seeds:  on the stove or in the oven.
• If you want to make pumpkin puree (you know, what many of us buy in a can so that we can make pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread) it’s amazingly easy.  I had been told to peel the pumpkin after cleaning out the inside… uh, that’s just too much work in my mind; peeling potatoes are bad enough, but a huge pumpkin?  Huh-uh.  BUT today I found out that you don’t have to peel!  Here’s a great tutorial of this easy process.  

Pumpkins sum up the Fall season for me: warm colors, yummy foods.  Please leave a comment and share your favorite pumpkin recipe!

I love the Old Farmer’s Almanac.  It just seems that the “old wisdom” depended less on technology and chemicals, and more on the laws of God’s nature and simple common sense.  Not that the folks at OFA don’t enjoy some old wives’ tales thrown in, but for the most part they have a lot of useful information.

Like how to deal with fruit flies.  Those little critters bug-bug-bug me; my goodness, they’ll fly right by my mouth as I’m taking a bite!  The solution at Old Farmer’s Almanac online is simple: 

“You may want to try trapping the flies by inserting a paper or metal funnel into the mouth of a quart jar baited with bits of overripe fruit.  The flies will get into the jar, but they will not be able to get out.”

See?  Simple!  I actually have OFA online as my homepage.  I enjoy the tidbits of information that I never knew I needed  :)  They have an Old Farmer’s Almanac for kids, too, that I’m going to suggest to the grandparents for Christmas.  It’s got facts that kids would find interesting, like the part of a cricket’s body it uses to listen, and directions for activities like how to make a sunflower house.

The no-rinse hand sanitizers have always bothered me.  It’s the thought of putting chemicals on my hands to kill germs but not rinsing them off… then I rub my itching eye or lick the chocolate off my finger…  I don’t know, it’s just doesn’t seem healthy.

But I like the concept, a lot.  If we’re on a trip and stop at a gas station to use the bathroom, I just can’t believe there’s any part of my body with worse germs and bacteria than what’s on the doors and faucet and doorknob of that bathroom.  In the past I’ve kept baby wipes to clean our hands after using a nasty public restroom, but I like the idea of a hand sanitizer much better– something that will actually kill the germs!

I found this recipe online, and I can’t wait to try it out!  It calls for ingredients I need to purchase so I haven’t made it yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes when I try it out.  If you make it before me, please share your results!

Homemade Hand Sanitizer

• 1 cup aloe vera gel
• 1 tsp rubbing alcohol
• 2 tsp vegetable glycerin
• 8-10 drops tea tree or lavender essential oil

Check out the full information here if you are interested in making your own hand sanitizer!

Kyra’s having a Cowgirl birthday party Saturday, and I’ve been searching for an activity to do with girls around the age of 8.  I thought of friendship bracelets, since this age is capable of more than stringing beads on yarn.  What a nice thought… friendship bracelets… the problem is, I’m apparently knot-impaired. 

I searched online and spent far too much time repeatedly tangling my fingers in hemp and embroidery thread.  So I spent more time searching online, and found this helpful site that you can use, too, to teach your kids (and yourself!) how to make cute, inexpensive bracelets for both boys and girls.

This You-Tube video has an 11-year-old girl explaining and demonstrating a very simple 5-string braid.  It’s all about hooking your fingers through the thread, which is by far the simplest way to teach a child (… or a knot-impaired mother.)  Kyra (almost 8) and Josiah (9) watched me make one, tried it themselves with my guidance, and have spent much of this afternoon making more on their own.  I’m sure kids younger than mine could learn to make these.  Levi (5) just had no interest, so I can’t tell you how a 5-year-old would do.

I couldn’t find a better way to knot the bracelet other than a basic knot.  All of the instructional sites and videos I found were either too difficult for my understanding or didn’t really hold well, so I ended up just tying a strong knot. 

This is a great hobby to teach your kids to help keep them busy during the summer months, or as a rainy-day activity.  It’s also a cool craft that they can make for their friends, and is light enough to tuck into an envelope to send to a distant friend who’s moved away.  Plus it’s inexpensive; an 8.7 yard length of embroidery thread costs only 35 cents, and it takes less than 5 yards to make one adult-sized bracelet.  Happy bracelet-making!

I'm so proud *sniff*

I get very excited over little things, I admit.  When I received an email about a video showing how to fold fitted sheets, my computer just couldn’t work fast enough!

I subscribe to an enewsletter, ”Living on a Dime.”  There’s tidbits that help with living frugally, and always lots of recipes.  Today they sent me to YouTube to show how to fold those annoying fitted sheets, and hers looked so even and flat…

I gave it a try immediately (I know, I’m a little pathetic) and even used a thick flannel sheet…  It turned out totally flat and square and so easy to fit into the linen cupboard!  If you are remotely as excited by this as me, check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5k9nWcuFc

The main event of a birthday party is always the cake.  In my world that means it needs to be chocolate, but for my kids it means mom spent time to make it special.  I learned some cake-decorating tricks from my mother-in-law; she has made wedding cakes for years, and taught me tips as well as her secret frosting recipe.  I had to pinky-swear to never reveal her recipe, but I can share what she taught me about basic cake-decorating. 

Tip #1:  After baking your cake let it cool, then cover it with plastic wrap and freeze it for at least 2 hours, overnight if possible.  This makes it easier to handle for Tips 2 & 3.

Tip #2:  Trim the cake with a serrated knife so that the surfaces are level.  That means the mound in the middle and the raised (and kinda stiff) edges.  This is also the time to do any cutting if you want to make a specific shape.

Tip #3:  Using clean hands, smear frosting all over the cake to seal in the crumbs.  No knife or spatula, just your hands; and yes, this is a very messy step.  The cake will look terrible at this point because the frosting will be full of crumbs and there will be some areas that will take extra frosting to get it covered, but don’t skip this step!

Tip #4:  Spread another layer of frosting using a spatula or butter knife.  This layer will be crumb-free and as thick as you want it.  You can get it totally smooth by dipping your spatula or butter knife into a glass of warm water.  After you level off an area, scrape the excess frosting off and redip into the water.  The warm water softens the frosting enough so that you can erase any uneven or streaky spots.  Your cup will look as nasty as mine!

Tip #5:  Don’t be afraid to use inedible objects.  I have added toys like crowns, legos, race cars, and today: toy soldiers.  Well-cleaned toys can add whimsey and a 3-D effect as well as making the cake-decorating  process a lot easier.

Tip #6:  Remember that your child will love whatever cake you make.  I have had the same adoring and proud response from each of my kids for every cake I’ve made them; not just the really cool ones that I knew looked great, but also the pathetic cakes that I was embarassed to display.  “It’s the thought that counts” is so true in this situation!  Just knowing that Mom spent time and did her best just for him or her makes the birthday child feel special and loved– which is what the birthday celebration is all about!