Grandma's Recipes

This week my Mom and I were talking about extended family. I was born later in my Mom's life so I really don't know many of the extended family on either parents side. Unfortunately that same disconnect holds true for my siblings' children and their children. That made me think of how we could bridge that divide a little, and give my Mom's grand and great grandchildren a piece of her. They may not be in the same state as she is but they can share some of the family stories and recipes that we grew up on.

The first recipe that I am going to share is for Peanut butter candy. My Dad had a huge sweet tooth and every time he got hungry for something sweet he would ask Mom to make a batch. Mom would pull out her old tattered cookbook and set to work. Us kids would gather around once she poured it into the plate to lick the spoon and the pot (yes it is that good).

I plan on sharing over the next three weeks, several of Grandma's recipes. I have one more recipe on tape of Chicken fried steak with a side of corn fritters, but computer problems won't let me upload it tonight maybe by mid week. I was running out of space on my computer so I had to export this in a smaller format, but I hope you are still able to hear and see Grandma as she walks you through the most popular Smith recipe ever.

I hope you enjoy Grandma's Peanut Butter candy. The plate in this video was a quarter gone when we wrapped it up and went to bed but there was only two pieces left by morning :) Enjoy and come back for the Chiicken Fried Steak and Corn Fritters and our next video session we will capture Grandma's Sour cream Pound Cake.

Going Digital

This week my crafty mind went digital. I have been blessed to have my Mother with me for the past couple of weeks and we have had discussions that there isn't many people left to tell about the family. We decided to start a project with some of the old family favorite dishes (next week) but first I grilled her on her brothers and sisters and all of her nephews and nieces. 

After I grilled her for all the information I turned to a photo editing software called iPiccy. I mapped out my Mom's family and all of their children and Grandchildren if I had that information. 

Using the "make a design" feature you can type information right onto a background and place pictures with the text. It is sort of like a dumbed down version of Photoshop. You can crop, adjust and edit photos easily and quickly. When you sign up for a free account they allow you to store the pictures you are working on at their site. 

This is the Webb/Richards Family From Parkersburg West Virginia 

If you notice I am the baby of the next to the last child on this. Which means that I have no idea who most of these people are. I may have met them at one point in my life, but my parents had me later in life and then moved to Florida so I missed out on knowing my cousins. My daughters have no idea who their family is. Now with this and hopefully some added pictures down the road they will at least be able to show their kids where they came from. 

Here is the collage I made of my branch of the family tree.

As you can see my branch is pretty large. 

Don't be afraid of digital editing. Make a copy of your photos on your computer (just in case) and have fun. See what each button does to your photos. You can undo many things and if the worst happened and you totally mess up your photo you made a copy so you are still good and you figured out what not to do the next time. 

Below is an example of some of the old photos that my youngest (the picture editing master) and I have digitally restored. 

We were able to brighten this enough to see the baby face on my Grandmother 

This photo was wrinkled and torn but we were able to at least get it viewable again

This was another dark and dingy picture that was able to be brightened

This one was able to be brightened so we can see the smile on the girl and the seems of the young man's cover alls. 

Don't be afraid to try photo editing out. Preserve those old memories for future generations to appreciate. I love seeing pictures of my Grandmother so young. She died the week my oldest was born so my kids don't know her, but through this project, hopefully they will see that they come from a long line of very strong women. 

This week everyone in our house felt a little under the weather. 

Winter in Florida often includes all four seasons in one week and that can really mess with your sinuses. 
I know what we have isn’t a cold, so I went looking on Pinterest to try and find an organic solution to our stuffed up sinuses and soar throats.
The first thing I found is for adults (me) only in the house but that is okay. This soothing solution contains 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 tablespoons of Vodka and the juice of a lemon (about a quarter cup). Make sure no seeds get into the bowl and then place all the ingredients in a mason jar or sealed container and shake until mixed. I will take 2 tablespoons before bed and my throat will feel better and I will get a good night’s sleep.

The other thing I found is how to make shower bombs with Vicks vapor rub. I live on the stuff on a daily basis and have always wanted to have it in a form to take in a hot shower. The recipe is simple, it is a small container of, Vicks around 3 ounces, 1 cup of corn starch, ½ cup of baking soda and water to help in the mixing process. Throw everything in the bowl and start to mix together. I started with a spoon the quickly went to my hands to finish the job. I added a little bit of water until it ended up the consistency of play dough. I added them to a mini muffin tin and let them dry for 24 hours. Once dry I used a knife to remove them and when I take a shower they will be on the floor of the hot shower helping this never ending sinus headache to go away. 

There are tons of ways to help treat minor issues with organic products and essential oils. There are companies that offer products that help you live more chemical free as well. Our favorite company is the Honest Company. I use their surface cleaner everywhere; it doesn’t have a lot of the chemicals in popular cleaners. I have a child who is horribly sensitive to all kinds of chemicals and their shampoo and laundry detergent are some of the only products that do not bother her sensitivity. I am not against using popular products, but I think if it is possible to treat a sore throat or clogged sinuses without chemicals you should try. No one in my house is a fan of medication even when we are really ill, so hopefully using some more natural product will help them accept help to feel better. No organic product or recipe can take the place of regular medical care. Make sure that you run anything you put into your body by your physician. Enjoy, hopefully next week we will get back to our regular crafting schedule

Solar System Fun

My middle child and her BFF across the street are enthralled with all things space. For the past couple of weeks the planets have been aligned so you could see then in the night sky with the naked eye. This was terribly exciting for my future space cadets. My daughter organized a Super Solar System sleep over so they could go out at 5:30 and see the planets in the sky and learn more about space.

They stayed up most of the night watching solar system documentaries. Please know that this is not cruel and unusual punishment from a parent, they watched hours of documentaries by their own choice. They were able to go outside at 5:30 and were a little disappointed that the lights were so bright around our house that they couldn't see much. So they woke me up at 6:30 (because they knew if they woke me up at 5:30 they would not like the version of mommy that they found) and we drove down by the river, where there are no lights to get a better look.

If you look hard you can see a dot next to the crescent moon, that is Jupiter. I was curious how they knew what dots were what. They showed me they were using two different apps.

These apps use the camera on your phone and when you shine it up at the sky, it will show you what the lights you seeing are. It will show you planets and constellations. 

After the river we stopped to get breakfast and being a homeschooling momma I couldn't let the theme die there. I pulled into the conivence store and gave them the mission to find all the snacks for the rest of the day but they had to be named with a space theme. 

I was impressed to say the least. Most are obvious but let me explain a couple of them to you. "Air Head" because if you take your helmet off in space, then you will be an air head literally. "Fig Newton" they got in honor of Sir Isaac Newton.

After the store run everyone went home and slept after getting up early or not sleeping at all sleep was needed by all.

Later that day we finished off our day with a few activities. 

Painting is the favorite thing to do in our house so that had to be on the agenda. 

This is a representation of planets in a multiple star system surrounded by blue and red giants and of course our very own sun in the middle. My child went on for about ten minutes explaining what each of these things are and how they relate size wise to the earth. 

Finally the night ended with the phases of the moon desert. We took Oreo cookies and carved out the icing to show the phases of the moon. 

I think they taught me more than I could have taught them but this was a neat way to include something that interests them with something crafty and practical ways to help her sisters and her mother who aren't as interested to remember some of the facts. 

Using technology, crafting, food art and our budding photography skills we were able to take an event that would only be available for a few minutes and turn it into a day of learning and fun. They will remember their Solar System sleepover forever. Oh just to tell you what kind of children I am raising they had about twenty minutes before their friend left so they decided to make a volcano. 

I love that they love learning and use everything at their disposal to learn with. 

I love my girls to the Moon and back :)