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It’s almost June and Jarod is quick to remind me that he has only two pairs of shorts that fit him from last year.

Being a good mom, I decided to take the kids to Joann’s fabric store and let him pick out some ‘boy’ fabric, since my fabric stash leans towards girls prints and colors.

I should have learned long ago that taking my children in the fabric store is a mistake.  They are worse than me for wanting every fabric they see.

During the hour in the store I heard the words,

“Mom, can I have this?”

“Oh mom!  Look how cool this is!” and

“How come he gets to get a whole bunch of fabric and I only get to choose one?”

at least several dozen times.

Meanwhile the little one insisted on being set free from the shopping cart and proceeded to unroll every bolt of fabric she could get her hands on.

The lady cutting our fabric commented, “It’s not summerbreak yet.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, “I homeschool.”

“Oh,” she said. (She did not appear to be a ‘kid person’).

Although Jarod insisted I start the shorts right away, I think they’ll have to wait till the weekend.  I don’t have a pattern but will make a template from a pair of the shorts that still fit him like the ones above from last year.

There are some good directions for sewing your own kids shorts here at Handy Home Projects.

If you want to save money and recycle old t-shirts then here is a great tutorial on making pants/shorts from an old t-shirt at Rookie Moms.

The suitcases are unpacked (but still sitting in the kitchen) and I’m almost caught up with all the laundry from our trip, so now it’s time to start finding some fun new things to make on rainy days.

The twins will enjoy making these simple headbands from Whimsy Girl.  Even if Jarod won’t be wearing them he loves to make things for his little sister (when he’s not teaching her to wrestle or climb a ladder).

We planted our first seeds outside between the raindrops on Tuesday.   Makenna immediately wanted to make some seed markers for them.  I was at a loss as to how to make some really neat ones until I stumbled upon these cute recycled garden markers at Still Parenting.

I had almost forgotten my baby’s 2nd birthday is coming up in only 2 1/2 weeks (this may have been due to the mommy moment of, ‘oh my God, my little baby is going to be 2)…I’m not sure. 

But here I am a little more than two weeks out and I have to pick a day, tell the family and plan a party.  Luckily Crafty Crow has this round up of party ideas that I’m going to have to check out after the kids go to bed tonight.

Three things I learned while away at the Indy 500.

My almost two year old can now reach the locks in most public rest room stalls.  (Trying to use the potty while the door opens 6-8 times is not easy.)

The stuff that you need to take to keep 3 kids content for a four night trip fills the back of a large pick up truck.

My three kids can actually talk and bicker and fight nonstop (and not sleep at all) on an 11 hour car ride.

…but we’ll still be going again next year,

I already ordered our tickets.

Some more photos

The twins rendition of climbing the fence like the winner did.  Albeit this fence is for the Formula 1 track in the inside of the speedway and not the actual Indy 500 fence.

This years race winner Helio Castroneves (he won Dancing with the Stars a few years ago.)  This was taken as he signed autographs the day before the race….as Jarod cried by my side because he wanted to wait in the insanely long line to get his autograph… and I being the mean mommy refused.

A long Saturday at the track.   She fell asleep on a Firestone tire poster.  The untold part of this photo was that we stopped to take it because an overly ’spirited’ college boy had been mooning some friends in the other direction and we needed to divert the twins attention this way.

I went to my first Indy 500 before I was two years old.  (Thank you mom and dad)

I took my husband there on our honeymoon 14 years ago.  (All the men in his family thought I was a really cool wife)

I went when I was 5 months pregnant with twins and took the twins to there first race when they were 7 months old. (My dad worried the loud noise so close to the track would harm the twins ears…..I think they’re ok)

Alex went to her first 500 at 11 months old last year.  (I was not crazy enough to go when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with her…I love the 500, but I did not want to give birth at the infield care center)

It’s kind of an unexplainable passion for me.

When I was Makenna’s age, I was probably the only little girl who had my room decorated in posters of Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti instead of ponies and princesses.

Makenna’s favorite part of going to Indy is staying at a hotel with an indoor pool.  (I don’t claim her as mine at this time of year)

I can name all the winners of the race since the late 60’s and without hesitation can rattle off the years Foyt, the Unsers, Rutherford, Johncock, Mears and Andretti won the race….

It’s not healthy really.

Nothing says Happy Anniversary like a family photo by a bunch of tires.

So we will head out tomorrow morning for the 12 hour trek to Indianapolis.

A 12 hour trip with 3 kids who only slept an hour of the trip last year……It’s not pretty.

But wanted to give a heads up that I won’t be posting while we’re gone.

Hava a fun Memorial Day and God bless all those who have served our country so bravely.

Here is something I never thought I’d try.  Homemade Shampoo.

But there I was hunting around for some knitting projects to work on when we go on a long trip this week, and I stumbled upon homemade deodorant at Angry Chicken.  Not that I particularly wanted to make homemade deodorant, because frankly I’m lazy when it comes to making anything with ingredients that I have to go to the health food store to buy, but I was curious as to just how you would make homemade deodorant.

And in there I found this link for homemade shampoo.  It intrigued me since it said it only consisted of using baking soda and water with an apple cider vinegar rinse.

I could do that.  I have baking soda and vinegar in the house.  And I had used vinegar for years to make my hair shinier.

So on a whim I decided to wash my hair with a Tablespoon of baking soda mixed with water.  I did however skip the vinegar rinse because it was going to be raining that day and I know from past experience that if your hair gets wet after using an apple cider vinegar rinse you will smell a bit like vinegar.  My hubby hates the smell of vinegar.

For a rinse I decided to try green tea instead.  Why green tea?  Because I had it in the house and thought it sounded healthy and all natural. 

At this point my husband and son had weird looks on their faces as to why I was bringing baking soda and a cup of tea in the shower with me, but they know better, and didn’t even bother to ask.

The results.

Well, that was a week ago and I have been using it ever since….it really works.  And the bonus is that it keeps my very oily hair cleaner longer than commercial shampoo.  Generally I would have to wash my hair every 24 hours, and by then my hair would look dirty, now it stays clean that whole time. 

I don’t always use a rinse because I don’t always feel like making a cup of tea, but the baking soda alone works great. .  I am thinking of checking out some different teas that are said to have different effects on your hair..

Next I’m going to try it on Makenna’s thick, dry hair to see the results.  I won’t try it on Jarod.  I can’t imagine my boy letting my put something you bake with on his head.  

So my hair is shinier and softer, I’m saving some money and we’ll be helping the environment too.  Yeah.

Here are some other links to homemade shampoo.

Frugal Granola

Craftbits.  A good listing of hair types and what herbs work best for them.

Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life. 

Proverbs 22:4

Poor Makenna has had this 1960’s gold flamingo waste can in her room for 6 months.  She tried to cover it with magnets (since it’s metal), but that really didn’t help the situation.   Gold flamingo garbage cans don’t go with pink ponies and princesses.

Enter, the pink spray paint.

New waste can.  Makenna is much happier now.

It still needs some embellishments.  She plans to paint the raised flamingo and trees around it with some acrylic paints.  Pink flamingos work with pink princesses I think….it’s all pink right?

I have to admit, it is not always easy to come up with a  good deed for the kids to do each day. 

We can do alot of the same things, which is still a good deed, and appreciated;  but we’re trying to do different things so that they learn how many thousands of simple gestures can make a big difference in someones day.

I really, really would like to do a seperate page on this blog, one where it would have it’s own tab at the top, that we could then list out a seperate good deed each day.   I’ve seen other wordpress blogs that have tabs like that, but I am struggling to try to figure out how to do it.  As soon as I can make a seperate ‘good deeds’ post page on the kidoozy blog I will do that….I just hate when I want to do something neat and am limited by my computer stupidity.

Now on to some recent good deeds by the kids.

Jarod shared some of his special ‘toy cash’ at a club meeting with a boy who need a few more dollars to get the specific toy he wanted from the toy cart.  (Sure it’s not real money, but to part with some of it and limit what he could ’buy’ the next time was a sacrifice)

Makenna carried mammy’s purse for her at the store since it’s difficult for mammy to carry while using her walker.

Jarod drew a picture of jets and gave it to one of his baseball coaches.

Alexandra smiled at and waved to older people while at the doctors office with mammy (it’s very easy to do good deeds and make people happy when you’re so cute and little.)

At church the twins helped set up folding chairs for a meeting.

To do your own quick and simple good deed for the day, you can click each day to help feed the hungry at TheHungerSite.

Silly me, I have promised to paint the kids bathroom and bedrooms this spring.

Why I did this not, I’m not sure, considering anyone who knows me will tell you that once it’s warm out the majority of my ‘free time’ is spent outdoors ‘playing in the dirt’ (as my husband likes to say.) 

The bedroom painting I have managed to stall by telling the twins that we can’t start painting designs until they can keep their room neat for a week.   At this rate I won’t have to paint their rooms till sometime after they’ve moved out.

But the bathroom, I should do.  Not that they keep it neat all the time, but because it’s the ‘public bathroom’ in our house that is the one guests use when they are visiting.  Plus, the bathroom is small and manageable with a lot of tile and very little to actually paint.  So, I can do this.

We got this really cute Nemo border to go along with the fish theme that I’m carrying over from Alexandra’s room at the old house.  Now that she is big, and will be sharing a room with her big sister fish are out in that bedroom. 

To keep me focused there’s this great site Design Dazzle that I look to every day to give me inspiration and keep me motivated to paint.   She does all the work of finding great room and decorating ideas and posting something fun each day.

So now it’s time to get some blue paint, and get painting on our next rainy day.   And I promise I’ll post pictures when I’m done.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles,

they shall run, and not be weary;

they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Wishing you a very restful and blessed Mothers Day!