Celebrate Thanks

Thanksgiving Day is usually a day when family and friends gather together for a large meal and reflect on the things that they're thankful for.

This Thanksgiving was a little different for us. First thing Thanksgiving morning we joined a crowd of 30,0000 others in Sacramento's 16th annual The Run To Feed The Hungry benefiting the Sacramento Food Bank.


This could be a start of a new family tradition.


It helped us remember that there are many, many people in our area that aren't fortunate as us in the ability to put a large meal on the table for Thanksgiving or any other day of the year.


And on the morning when we're reminding ourselves of all the things we have to be thankful for we gathered with others 'running' for the same cause.

The crowd was huge! I'd never seen that many people gathered together before. We could only see a portion of it at a time but this crowd went on and on.

You should really see that panorama larger. Click here. Then click 'original' on the top right if you want to see it up close.


We were at the starting location around 8:00am. The sun was just starting to come up over the trees. There was coffee and a band and people meeting up with others that they knew. I even ran into a girl from one of my school classes and met her husband.


Walt and Carley are standing by the light pole. Can you spy them?


There was such a great vibe waiting for the gun with that many people.


And we're off! We walked the 5k (3.1 mile) fun run.


LOTS of people walked the 5k fun run.


Carley was such a trooper. Her little legs carried her the whole way. Well. My shoulders carried her for maybe a 1/4 mile but that was it. She did the rest on her own including all the walked to get to and from the car.


She was so proud to do this race with the family and all the people.


There were various bands along the way. The music always perked up the energy level.


We did it! Finished the whole walk. With thousands of other people.

Josh is pretty positive that he could have won the whole race if I would've just let him run. I promised that next year he and I could run it. We'll see if he wins.


Our family has a lot to be thankful for. I'm glad that we could give to others while giving a fun-filled, memory-making morning to ourselves.

And then we went home and ate.

Clean is Clean

Last summer I caught commercial promoting the upcoming newscast; they plugged a segment on a mom who made her own laundry soap.

What!? I'd never heard of such a thing! I didn't actually see the newscast that day but I looked into homemade laundry soap recipes over the following week. I decided to give it a try and see how easy it was to make, how cheap it could be, and how well it worked.

I've made three batches now. It takes about 10 minutes to make and lasts this family of four about 1 1/2 months.

The last time I made it I calculated what I paid for each portion of the recipe and approximately how many loads it lasted. I figured out that the laundry soap costs me about $0.02 a load! That's it. Well worth my 10 minutes a month.

This is a quick post about the process of making homemade laundry soap. The recipe I've followed lately is this one but really I just google 'homemade laundry soap' and make what I come across. Maybe it's about time I add the recipe to the recipe book.

I'm not going to post the entire recipe here because you can just go to www.thefamilyhomestead.com and follow her directions.


Start with Borax, A&H Washing Soda and Fels Naptha laundry bar soap. All these items can be found in laundry sections of larger grocery stores or most drug stores.


Grate 1/3 the Fels Naptha bar into a pot.


Cook the Fels Naptha shavings in water until melted down.


Add in the Washing Soda and Borax.


Stir until all incorporated.


Pour soap mix into a bucket already containing water. Add more water and stir.

Cover and let sit 24 hours.


It comes out looking like egg soup. The first two batches I made were runnier than this batch but it all washes the same.

Use 1/2 cup per load. I keep my 5 gallon bucket of soap (only half full) and scoop on the washer. Badda-boom, badda-bing.

The clothes I wash seem just as clean as when I use the expensive, scented name brand detergents. And I'm happy I'm saving money.

Farm Day: Take 2

Last month, the kids and I went to our CSA farm for Farm Day. I sort of, kind of posted about it here. Okay, I didn't really post a whole lot about it. But I'm here now to talk about it more now.


Terra Firma Farm is were we get most of our vegetables from in a weekly CSA box. Yearly, they host a Farm Day so all the subscribers can go for the day, see where the food comes from and have a good time.

We sure did have a good time. The day was beautiful and there was so much to do at 'our farm.'


The kids each got to pick out an organic pumpkin.

Because of our trip to Washington during Halloween we weren't going to carve our pumpkins until we got home but by then, Josh's had started to soften. Instead of carving Carley's pumpkin, we cooked it and turned it into a pumpkin pie and pumpkin cupcakes. Mmmm mmm good.


We took a tractor ride out around the fields. He dropped us off at the strawberry field where we were allowed to pick and eat all the strawberries we could find.


Josh was amazed with how great these fresh, organic strawberries tasted. He kept saying "these are the best strawberries I've ever had" to anyone who was near him.

Unfortunately we'd had a pretty heavy rainstorm the week before and so there weren't many strawberries that survived. Josh sure found his share though.


While Josh continued to hunt strawberries, Carley and I hopped on the tail end of a farm tour given by Pablito.

Pablito is one of founders of Terra Firma and writes the weekly newsletters that are very informative about things from pest control to agricultural politics. He always includes a weekly recipe for the current produce and they're always oh so good.


These collard greens have been showing up in our weekly boxes. I cooked some last night for the first time. I don't have much greens experience but boy did my dish come out tasty.

The day wasn't full of just produce....


The kids played in bounce houses. Forever.


There was hair painting and kid tatooing.


The kids ate pretzels off strings without using their hands. The pretzels were so hard that it caused one of Carley's top teeth to come loose. That didn't stop them from finishing the whole pretzel.


We laid in the orchard and listened to the live band while having a snack.

And the kids took a bike ride to the moon.


That's what this self-powered carnival ride is called. Bike Ride to the Moon!

Carley wasn't quite tall enough to peddle it herself so the operator would grab the kegs (counter balance and only full of water, not beer) and run around the trailer to get her swinging. She held on tight and enjoyed her ride 'to the moon.'


Josh, on the other hand, really got it moving. It turned out a bit harder than he expected.

The great thing about self-powered rides... the kids don't stay on too long. They get tired and have to stop sooner rather than later.


It wasn't the plan to stay the entire four hours of Farm Day but we did. It was just such a beautiful day and so much fun for all of us.

I'm already looking forward to Farm Day next year. Thanks Terra Firma!

Six Already

Carley celebrated her 6th birthday over the weekend. I think we must've skipped a year somewhere along the way. It seems impossible that my baby bean is six-years-old already.

Ever since attending a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party back in May, Carley has had her mind set on having a Chuck E. Cheese birthday herself. Even though I've tried to nudge her in other directions she never wavered from that plan.

Chuck E. Cheese it was.

She loved every minute of it. She had a blast. She loved being the center of attention. And she definitely loved getting presents.









It occurred to me while at Chuck E. Cheese that this is the first time Carley has had a birthday party somewhere other than at home.

No wonder she was so adamant about it.

Happy Birthday Carley.

Halloween Wedding and a Weekend

The kids and I took a quick trip to Washington for my sister's Halloween wedding.



The wedding was Halloween day at noon. My nephew was sick with a flu, possibly the H1N1 flu, so Alex chose to cancel most of the wedding festivities rather than drag her son from event to event when he was feeling so bad.


She was a beautiful bride. The ceremony was short and sweet.


It was a costume wedding. The kids enjoyed checking out the goodie bags after the ceremony.


My nephew, Owen. Poor guy just wasn't feeling good.


My nephew, Octavian. Look at those baby blues and chubby cheeks. I took his 3-week-old pictures while I was up there in April.


Best Dad, Dave.


(Photo by Kurt Smith the wedding photographer)


Later that day, Aunt Ashley insisted on carving pumpkins with the kids.


Somehow there was a dare and Josh swallowed some pumpkin gunk for five bucks.


My mom, Ashley and I dressed up and took the kids trick-or-treating.




We didn't go to many houses but the kids made out with the candy. I guess we hit the right neighborhood.


For the second year in a row, we celebrated a mini, early birthday for Carley while in Washington. She was excited to help make the brownies and open a few presents.




While we were at my mom's, I was fortunate enough to see each of my sisters and meet my neice, Jordyn, for the first time. I went to her baby shower in Colorado but I haven't had the privilege of knowing her until now.


What big, bright eyes she has.


She has a huge smile too.


My kids couldn't get enough of her.


We were sad to go but the ferry ride is our last little treat. The kids think it's the greatest and we pretty much have to walk the whole boat.


Thanks Shelly for the use of your car while I was there. It worked out perfectly and I got to see you a little bit more.

We had a terrific time seeing family and attending Alex's fun wedding. Love you all.