Food Storage Friday: No More Excuses!

We all like to make excuses for the things we don't want to do (it's not just me right?) I've heard a lot of them from people who haven't started on their food storage but I know it can seem overwhelming and there are legitimate concerns, so for the next couple of weeks I wanted to focus on getting rid of the excuses.  Without further ado, excuse Numero Uno: 
"I don't have anywhere to put it."
Ah yes, a nice large pantry or food storage room is ideal, but not a necessity.  I grew up with food storage under my bed, in my closet, and even made into a desk at one time! Look at this awesome craft and sewing desk made with food storage HERE by LucyH: 

a new blog to me but one I think I need to explore! You could cover the boxes with some pretty fabric if you wanted to hide it more.  You can buy table tops at Ikea too.  Start thinking "out of the pantry" (ha!) and see what you can come up with.  I have designated Miss B's bed to hide wheat, Miss G's pinto beans, and Miss E's rice.  You can fit a lot of those big cans down under one bed. If yours are too low you can get some bed risers like these:

I've even seen someone who installed a large, strong shelf over their toilet and stacked that to the ceiling!  So no more excuses, go make some space and start building a 2 week/3 month/1 year or more supply of food and necessities!

For Mother's Day, or any day...

Anna Maria Horner has a new book out and it sounds lovely!  If you are shopping this Mother's Day for a new or expectant mom, or even a grandma who likes to make things for little babes, "Handmade Beginnings" would make a great gift!  I'm a huge fan of Anna Maria Horner and even though I am most likely done with the "welcoming baby" stage of my life (snif, snif!)  it's sitting on my Amazon wish list!  I know it will be full of beautiful pictures and darling patterns.  She is one of my "hero moms." You can order a signed copy from her shop HERE.

WOW

Have you ever seen or read something and thought "I need to tell everyone about this!"  Food Inc. did that to me. I came home last night and my husband was watching this on PBS and my initial reaction was to cringe- "now he's going to be telling me how I'm poisoning our kids with Mac N Cheese or fruit snacks..." but quickly I was sucked in and it was really interesting, and a little sad! (and a little sickening) You've got to see it, you will really think about what you're eating and feeding your family, and hopefully make some changes!  (I am)  I don't know if it's going to be on again, I missed the beginning and want to see it all. 

Free Books? No more late fees? Awesome vintage ads?

Were you aware that Google has scanned over TEN MILLION books, available to read online for FREE? I wasn't. Go HERE to check it out! If they are still in print you will probably only see a preview, but there are a ton that are there in their entirety. You can also look at old magazines, I found my favorite VW ad from a 1964 LIFE.

"You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car- even the brakes" Ha!

Or this one is awesome, from the same magazine,  "Sugar's got what it takes... and it's all energy."

Of course if kids today got as much excersize as "Tommy" it wouldn't be so bad...

For more free books, check out your library's website, ours has a section for kids where they can click on a book and it will be read to them, complete with pictures, some of them even animated a bit!  I may never have to go back and pay those late fees. :-)

A birthday- plain and simple

If anyone out there still reads my L-A-M-E, lame-o blog I am sorry I've been absent.  I've decided that maybe 4 kids was my limit, but we just love Harrison too much to send him back, so I'm trying to figure out how to manage things with 5 kids. (and not doing it very well yet)  Blogging is a little low on the priority list, though as long as I have to sit to feed Harrison several hours a day, reading blogs will still get done!
My sweet/sour Mr. C turned 2 today!  I can hardly believe it! 

It's not fair how fast time flies when they are little.  I went back and forth about having a party, he's so into "choo-choo's" right now, I had a grand vision of a "Choo-Choo I'm 2!" party, with cute invitations, matching t-shirt, fun train-ish favors, train wheel pasta salad and "choo-choo chewy" popcorn balls all at a fun train park this weekend, (styled after THIS adorable party.) But I was really nervous about actually getting it together, yesterday I decided to go for it, but after spending nearly 2 hours trying to make/find the perfect train graphic for the invitation, I abandoned that idea, and decided dinner at home tonight, with a cake and presents was just fine!  So this morning we went shopping for gifts, and this afternoon I baked a cake, stuck a train on top and at 8:30pm, when dad got home from his church meeting, we had a little party! 

He got some fun new toys, his sisters all gave their usual "find something around the house and wrap it in toilet paper" gifts, 

and I think the real hit was some hand-me-down Thomas the Train toys from his cousins- he was seriously into that.

And sometimes he does wear pants, but they were long gone by the time our "party" rolled around and I was too tired to go find them! Hopefully I'll have something more interesting next time...