Nontoxic ant repellent for home interiors

Last year when I posted about our ant problem, a friend of mine posted her suggestion for ridding our living area of ants. Baby powder.

Baby powder? No way. I was so skeptical, I never tried it. But this year rolled around and the boys had so many ants crawling on the ceiling and walls around their beds, the big black yucky ant kind, that I needed a nontoxic repellent to eradicate ants since it was in their sleeping area. I remembered her suggestion and decided it was worth a shot. The worst it would do is make the house smell like a clean baby's butt.

So I went around and puffed baby powder along the wall, floor, and ceiling cracks where we had ants and beyond, and watched and waited.

Within 24 hours, we saw a 99% reduction in ants! The day before I applied the powder, the kids counted the killing tally and within an hour were in the 30s. The next day I saw one ant on the wall.

I wondered if it was a fluke or just a dramatic answer to prayer, so I asked God to show me. The next day I happened to look at the doorway threshold and saw an ant writhing in the powder like he's eaten ant poison. Amazing!

Thanks, Kelly, wherever you happen to be, today. Your suggestion reversed the ant invasion on our family!

Check out more Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks In My Dryer.

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Tech Tags: ant ant killer house natural ant killer nontoxic bugs infestation remedy solution

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BYB Sunday: No Debt Load

Welcome to Blog Your Blessings Sunday.

I've been reading a lot lately about how people nationwide are struggling financially as gas and food prices rise. The stimulus payments that will start to flow to Americans tomorrow will, by necessity, go to help fill the gap these higher prices are causing. I realize steep inflation is forewarned in the Bible, but living through it doesn't make it easier.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" Revelation 6:5-6 TNIV

Complaining (again) yesterday about our tiny home and how hard it is to keep clean when it seems gremlins follow me to mess up what I fix, my understanding opened. Many people right now carry vehicle loans and mortgages, and as prices skyrocket, it becomes harder to pay for them.

I may never like this sardine can of a house, but it's time for me to once again count my blessings that we fully own our vehicles, land, mobile home, and house under construction. And because we followed what God showed us and did not get a loan or charge credit for building supplies to get in our house sooner, we don't have debt making it even tougher to pay the essentials.

Living in 800 square feet with eight people and a Great Dane may challenge us and make me want to scream at times, but at least the added stress of losing the little we have does not exist like it has for us before and does now for others.

Thank You, God, for this. It is a blessing indeed.

But what if you have that mortgage, loans, or car payments choking you? Is there blessing you can find when you're feeling strangled by gas and food prices?

I believe there is, but like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so are blessings. These you must search out and find yourself. (Try asking God, first.) In the mean time, take heart. Spring is upon us and there's no finer time to learn to plant a garden or manage indoor vegetable-bearing plants to help ease the cost of food. And to look into hydrogen powered cars fueled by water... (Jim's new hobby)

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Tech Tags: food ~ gas ~ price increase ~ inflation ~ stress ~ blessing ~ finances ~ struggle

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Earth Day Humor: Ways we help the earth & environment

Welcome to
Works for Me Wednesday,
sponsored by
Rocks In My Dryer.

Since yesterday was Earth Day, I thought I'd share a few green living tips--ways we help the earth, and you can too.

1. We open our doors to let air conditioning outside. We want to do our part to help stop global warming and figure that if everyone did this, maybe we could cool the earth back down and once again weather would resume to normal behavior. No more 80 degree April days in Vermont!
2. We throw our banana peels and apple cores outside to feed animals and fertilize the ground by what they leave behind. I hope this will make our sandy lot more garden friendly so we can start growing our own vegetables instead of buying pesticide laden ones from the grocery store.
3. We buy recycled napkins--lots of them. The more we buy, the better the recycling industry will do. And since they're biodegradable, we throw them on the ground too to keep them out of already full landfills.
4. We clean our bathroom once a month so we don't put more chemicals in the air or harm the environment. We like that all-natural bathroom aroma.
5. I make our kids wear holey clothes to keep them cool instead of maintaining a pool full of environmentally unfriendly chemicals. We get most of the holey used clothes from clothing giveaways so we can also preserve money to build our house.
6. We give all our junk to free places like Freecycle or hospice places. That way our broken monitor and printer stays out of electronic landfills in Asia.
   
7. Last but not least, I make our kids wait at least a week before showering so they don't waste water. And that's when they're allowed to brush their teeth. Waste not want not.

No, really folks, if you think we really do these things, you're nuts!

Earth Day is great time to evaluate our lifestyles.If we exchange one product for a recycled one, like napkins, or change out a chemical toilet cleaner to baking soda or vinegar, and everyone did this, the impact on our environment to preserve the earth would be great and our earth would bear us better.

Here are ways The Building Brows really help our earth:

1. We recycle and use recycled items.
2. We avoid foods made with artificial flavors, preservatives, and colors (all chemicals).
3. We purchase decent used clothes, visit clothing giveaways, swap clothes, and give away ones we no longer use or need.
4. We turn off water (or try to remember to) when brushing teeth and soaping dishes.
5. We exchanged a few chemical cleaners for natural ones made of plant bases, and they really work.
6. We shower instead of bathe to preserve water.
7. We carpool and/or consolidate trips in our fuel-efficient Kia Spectra.

We also have the option to purchase greener electric power that comes from wind sources instead of filthy coal-burning plants at a slight price increase. We may look at this in the future for a self-appointed portion of our bill. Perhaps your electric company also offers a greener power alternative.


Hope you enjoyed this Works for Me Wednesday post and will consider what one thing you can add or change to make an environmental difference on the earth for all who live on it.

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Tech Tags: Earth Day ~ environment ~ tips ~ green ~ Works for Me Wednesday

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April summer; Warning--Heat exhaustion/stroke danger in covering infants from sun during high temps

This April weather is outrageous--70s. Forecasters predict a high of 77 degrees today and 80 tomorrow. April in Vermont isn't supposed to have weather like this. It's usually rainy, and we've had very little rain so far. You know, April showers bring May flowers, not April summers bring May bummers.

This means we've hit summer in our mobile home. Today's temp indoors will reach mid to upper 80s thanks to the sauna properties of this building that just soaks up all the outdoor elements: freeze in winter, roast in summer (and apparently in spring 2008). I don't want to be here for Wednesday.

We've already had to pull out the fan, and might have to consider the air conditioner if temps stay up. NT's intolerance to heat necessitate some type of cooling system so he doesn't get heat exhaustion which is nasty stuff. He almost died from it when he was one year old.

We were at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire during a week-long camping trip. Temps that day reached 100 degrees and not one place on the strip had air conditioning. I was suffering from heat exhaustion myself with a splitting headache I never want to experience again. When I checked on him in the stroller where we had covered him with a towel to keep sunlight off him, his face when pale white and not a drop of sweat on him. He was lethargic and unresponsive.

NEVER COVER A CHILD IN A STROLLER WITH A CLOTH, BLANKET, TOWEL, OR SIMILAR THING IN THE HEAT!!! IT CREATES A SAUNA AND INCREASES THE TEMP WHERE YOUR CHILD IS!

Mortified, we rushed him to a bathroom and splashed him with cool water including wetting his shirt, which I years later learned wicks heat away from the body. Then we placed him in front of the fan the restaurant had stationed in the waiting area that was packed with people trying to escape direct sunlight. During lunch we gave him cool sips of water and he began to come around. We spent the remainder of the day driving around in the air conditioned truck and walking the cool supermarket.

That was a scare I never want to experience again. And so, we have air conditioning in our home to protect NT. Today when he overheats, his face turns a strange blotchy mixture of beet red and bone white--goes all white when over the top--but, thankfully, he now sweats some where he didn't used to. So when we see these symptoms, we cool him.

We'll never know if that incident caused his intolerance to heat or if it's due to a pituitary gland malfunction since he was unable to regulate his temp on his own when he was born. It is likely due to the latter, but the first heat stroke incident certainly didn't help.

How I long for normal April weather. All I can say is, I hope July and August weather don't resemble summer in Death Valley.

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Tech Tags: heat exhaustion ~ heat stroke ~ warning ~ parents ~ infants ~ heat ~ danger ~ April ~ weather ~ spring ~ high temperature ~ heat intolerance ~ pituitary gland ~ air conditioning

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Tax man arrives with hope for resuming house construction

The tax man has cometh. Most people want to hide from him, but Jim and I have been waiting expectantly for his arrival. I've alluded before to a plan we were following to resume house construction. For the past several years we'd been looking at something significant with the power to impact our financial health, but did not count on anything until it happened. Now with the tax man's arrival, it has, and I can share.

Roofing is a tough industry in New England because it's a three-season job. It's difficult for a family to live on a roofer's income when he's just the worker and has no income in the winter, 4-5 months of the year, so these past fifteen years have been very tight financially. It's why we're living in a tiny mobile home and could not afford a normal mortgage or rent or car payments. (Not that we want them anyway...) But we knew there was hope on the horizon because my dad talked of giving Jim the business.

This past year was the first year Jim and Dad were business partners. We had no idea what our finances would look like until the tax man arrived, and we kept things strung tight the entire year not knowing how the winter would be without unemployment or income and still having to pay quarterly taxes. It looks like we've done OK and will continue to as long as we mind our budget.

We are now be able to pay ourselves a small mortgage to put into building supplies, so work should resume this year. I can't tell you how happy and relieved this makes me. When you sit in tiny hole year round looking at your unfinished house untouched for the second year in a row, it gets depressing, especially when you can't see a way to change things.

I'm grateful to God for supplying our needs through good old fashioned hard work, and for helping us hang on and be faithful to roofing when God asked us to even before talk of ownership began. That's the toughest part of faith--following what God asks when you can't see any logical reason for it. It borders on lunacy, and would be if not orchestrated by God. (All the more reason to know God to discern His direction.)

So we'll keep budgeting and start building up house funds, and hopefully we'll be back in that house pounding nails soon. Yippee!

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Tech Tags: taxes roofing house construction budgeting mortgage building DIY

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Truth or Lie?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

SM and NT came home from school angry yesterday with their clothes, boots, and backpacks soaked and a waterlogged game system. The neighborhood second grader had come up behind them and shoved them off the road into a stream below for no apparent reason. And then he lied about it to his mom this morning saying our kids had started it when they kicked him in the nuts.

When questioned, my kids' mouths dropped open and they started yelling he was a liar, all while I'm on the phone with his mom who believed her son was telling the truth despite that she knew he tended to lie. And then she said the defining issue that often goes unspoken but is the core of many two-family parent arguments. "I think I can tell when my son is telling the truth."

There began a delicate conversation about chronic lying and our abilities to read our kids' truth meters. Can you say Can of Worms? All I can say is, thank God I'm friends with her and she loves Jesus too.

The truth is, some kids are chronic liars and many parents instinctively want to believe the best about their kids, or at the very least, that they are good enough parents to be able to ascertain truth from lies coming from their children. What parent wants to face that maybe they can't or that maybe they aren't smart enough to keep from being deceived by an imp? It threatens us with the back pedaling topic of "bad parent."

But maybe we can't always read our kids. Maybe some of them have become so skilled at lying that they can get by even our toughest defenses against deception.

Oh no! We might be deceivable, just like that darned woman in the garden of Eden. God forbid--because if we're deceivable, we're penetrable and can be humiliated.

Nope, we counter later in the day of questioning while our kid tiptoes up behind another unsuspecting peer on the way home. I can read my kids. I'm not a stupid parent.

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Tech Tags: kids lie lying truth parenting poll

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Slip Sliding Away

I awoke to my 13-year old asking if school was canceled. Freezing rain had made our road sheer ice and it was raining. He'd tried to catch the bus, but he fell several times along the way. By the time he got to the bus stop, the bus had come and gone.

IJ, CJ, an SM piled into the car and off we went in first gear, sliding in every direction. The car skated down the hill despite brakes. I dropped off IJ's brother and sister for early jump rope practice and then hauled him to the next town over to middle school. Roads were fine.

Upon return, halfway back up the hill the car got stuck and I realized I had made a huge mistake in leaving NT home the first trip out. I walked home to get kindergartener NT. I wished I had ice skates.

NT and I walked gingerly back to the car, spreading dirt ahead of us from a bucket with a cup I had filled at our dirt hill that came from digging the house's recessed first floor. I never realized three gallons of dirt weighed so much. My arms ached under the load as I tried to step carefully on the watery ice.

We reached the car and buckled up. Reverse. Sliding. Brake. Dumb, Brandy.

The car fishtailed into the bank and stuck caddy corner across the road. Good thing I had called the school before we left home and told them NT would be late.

No dirt left, I grabbed my bucket and retrieved some from the bin fifteen feet back up the hill Jim had put there during our first winter there.

On the way back, I fell on my butt and slid ten feet toward the car, stopping just short of the front corner. NT watched from the back passenger window. Cold wet pants clung to my backside. Ew. But I wasn't hurt.

Thank God for gloves, and cell phones. Dirt under our studded snow tires failed to get our Kia Spectra out so I called home for help. Jim would drive down with the tractor.

I wondered if it would slide into the car and what would happen if it did. My imagination supplied a few ideas. Best not to remain in the car. I decided to walk NT to Kindergarten, usually 10-minute walk from that point.

Dumb move. The bottom of the hill was more dangerous that the top. It took five minutes to cross a seven foot section. We would be better off trekking home through the snow beside the road.

As I contemplated the idea, the tractor inched toward the car. Even with chains, it almost slid into the car. Glad we weren't still in it.

Our neighbor came home as I wondered what to do and he offered to drive NT and I to school. By the time we returned, the car was at the bottom of the hill ready to go to Wal-Mart, and Jim had spread sand. I hoped the ice would melt in the day's unusual warmth while I was gone.

And that began my first two hours of the day.

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Technorati Tags: family ^ parenting ^ kids ^ ice ^ slippery road ^ hazardous driving conditions

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Rebuttal to public flame of The Building Brows

It's time to take a break from my regular posts to address a recent situation that has emerged thanks to an anonymous commenter who took it upon him/her-self to flame my family not only in my comments to my last post, Energy Audit for Weatherization, but also on a public scrapbook message board. (Why there, I have no clue.)

Here's the general gist of the accusations from that commenter and others following the board's thread: Jim and I are irresponsible parents for making our six kids live in a tiny home in filth. We should change our careers, get loans, sell part of our land--anything at all costs--to "do our duty" and provide our poor kids a larger space and more things. And we never should have had so many kids if we are living here.

There are a few major points I want to make about these accusations:

1. My kids are well cared for and provided for. They do not lack what they need. Each has a bed, space to be, places for a few things, clothes, food, shelter, warmth. We love them and keep them clean. They do chores and attend school, and do very well at it. They are learning the value of waiting for something they really want, and choosing the thing they want most since there is not room for everything. They are learning to value family above things and to treat each other with respect and courtesy.
   
2. Our house is clean, and though deteriorating and not the prettiest, it is safe and functions. Soft spots in the floor are covered over with solid material. Mold and/or mildew is removed. The bathroom is clean; floors swept and vacuumed and mopped; we have a couch and recliner to sit on though I personally prefer the floor. Our appliances that were hazardous have been removed. Filters sit in the floor registers to filter air. Fresh air vents work to bring in outside air and remove stale air. Pests are fought and cold drafts stopped with new insulation. It works. Period. And we trust God to make it continue to work for as long as He deems necessary for us to live here.
   
3. We seek God's plan for our lives first which can put out of order what may seem logical for raising a family. And if it were not for following God's directions made clear to us in several ways (which no one except us and few others can confirm), we would be fools to live in this manner. There is a fine line between faith and foolishness and that line is whether or not someone is following what they believe with conviction is God's will because they received confirmations through something or someone outside themselves. To assume something is God's will without confirmation, and live in sheer faith that that thing will come to fruition when there was no assurance it was God to begin with, is dumb. This is not what we have done. We (I in particular) fought long and hard about moving here. But I could not escape that God was asking us to do it, so I bent my will and complied, with much heartache. It is only through much work God has done in my heart through living here that I have come to peace with it for as long as God sees is necessary for us to dwell here. Those without a lifestyle of submitting to God cannot understand this.
   
4. This trailer is temporary and we've been here only 3.5 years. When we started having kids we were in an apartment and eventually bought a different house which we remodeled and sold for a $100,000 profit (how we bought this place and do not have a mortgage). Had someone told us we would end up in a mobile home with eight kids, we would never have believed it.
   
5. You don't get a loan or rent an apartment or house when you know you cannot pay the bill year-round and would have to file bankruptcy. Now that's irresponsible.
6. You can change careers, but you cannot change your purpose in life. Each person was created for a special purpose and everyone should search out what that is. We have. Jim's has to do with building trades and mine with writing. God forbid we should ever walk out of our purpose to get a different career for more money. Money is a much lower priority than following God and walking in our purpose in Him.

There are more points we can make, but I won't bother to waste my time or yours. If you want to read more of our responses, including one from Jim which is rare, then visit that scrapbook message board, but do it soon because the whole thread might be deleted since that anonymous commenter shouldn't have even posted it there.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog...

P.S. I understand our blog often locks up people's computers so we're working on a template redesign and hope to install it soon. Please bear with us.

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Technorati Tags:  family ^ parenting ^ kids ^ flame ^ lifestyle ^ mobile home ^ rebuttal ^ hot topic ^ controversy ^ scrutiny

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Stop the Plague of Stuff

I love the holiday season, but I'm frustrated. With all the giving in the air, we've suddenly become inundated with good will and are drowning in a sea of books, videos, shoes, and clothes in so many sizes we could outfit a store. But we still need some things, like a size 14 pair of snow pants. Instead we have sizes 3-6 months, 12 months, 3Ts, and 7s which are useless and taking up space.

All of this is not good will's fault. These things were already accumulating despite careful intake because I was trying to be a good steward and not squander what God had given to us. But there is a fine line between good stewardship and hoarding.

Several years ago I ran clothing giveaways in our church that had little storage room. It was constantly so saturated with donations, mounds of clothing bags fell out of closets and overflowed into other work areas. It looked horrible and made a bad impression on church members and the community. People complained, but the ministry head was afraid if we limited the donors, they would stop donating completely and we would no longer have anything to give.

But it became simple and clear to me after finally bringing it under control. God wanted us to be good stewards and we weren't if we accepted more than we had room to store--we had an abundance of women's clothes, few children's and men's, and keeping the abundance disallowed us to obtain the needed items. I got bold and asked for only certain types of clothes that were hard to secure. We actually got them, which made us better able to serve the community.

After tripping through my home in frustration tonight, I remembered this, realizing our needs are being drowned by the abundant extras.

We must stop the plague of stuff, and stop being afraid to let go of something we don't need now but might later and we worry we won't be able to t replace it. And we need to do it by trusting God to supply the need when it comes. And I know he does because He incredibly restored three lost wardrobes for ND when she was an infant. (BTW, happy birthday CJ, and ND!)

So, over the next ten days I'll be donating all kinds of excess stuff. This will actually make way for--gasp!--bunk beds in the girls room which they desperately need. Wowwee! It's Christmastime indeed. :)

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Technorati Tags:  family ^ stuff ^ giving ^ give away ^ donate ^ stewardship ^ holiday ^ gifts ^ Christmas

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RECALL: Aqua Dots Dangerous!

The As Seen on TV product Aqua Dots turns out to be a dangerous craft set for children. If children ingest any of the beads, the chemicals in the beads break down into the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB) and can--will likely--cause unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma, and death. The product was first recalled in Australia and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled Aqua Dots in the US yesterday.

If your children, play groups, or daycare have Aqua Dots, please remove them from use immediately and contact Spin Master at (800) 622-8339 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or through www.aquadotsrecall.com.

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BYB Sunday: Hunting, Ticks, NaNoWriMo

Welcome to Blog Your Blessings Sunday.

I have three blessings to post today.

1. IJ, now almost 13 years old, went hunting with his dad yesterday morning for youth weekend and he saw a buck. Jim said it was about 140 pounds, old and gray. Not many get to see or shoot one of those. IJ said he didn't shoot it because he didn't have a good shot and he thought he wasn't allowed to shoot a doe. But he regrets it.

Jim and IJ are out again early today for another round and hope to see that deer. IJ says that this time if he sees the gray doe, he's going to shoot it. He has a good chance because the deer are bedding down on the bank just beyond our playground (the old llama pen extension).


2. Apparently, deer isn't all IJ saw yesterday morning. Later that day, he came to us with a tick on his neck and another crawling up the front of his shirt. He freaked a little seeing how earlier in the week we had to dig one that had sunk itself deep into his hip.

Then CJ found a tick crawling up her leg, so it looks like they carried the buggers home. Yuck. There aren't many things I hate, but ticks are one of them.


3. Lastly, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. That's where you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days in the month of November. (Don't be alarmed if the website is slow. There is a ton of traffic hitting the site this week.) It's my birthday present to myself.) I'm working on a middle grade novel for girls and doing terrific. I'm very pleased. I have 4,031 words.

Now if you break down 50,000 words per day, that's 1,667 words and I'm technically about 1,000 words behind, but that's easy to catch up. I'm most happy, though, because I have a nearly complete story line including three acts (no middle slump!) and I know where I'm going.

The last time I participated, in 2004, I had to restart a week in after a bad first run that wasn't worth salvaging. (Trust me on this one.) But after that, I went on to catch up and complete my 50,000 words. That was the year I learned I could pound out 5,000 words per day, a few days on end. It was the largest body of work I've completed to date, and I aim to do it again. Only this time, better quality. I'm aiming for publishable on this one. :)


So, there you go. My three blessings for this Sunday. What are yours?

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Technorati Tags:  family ^ hunting ^ kids ^ youth weekend ^ deer season ^ ticks ^ NaNoWriMo ^ write novel

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Heat Sweet Heat

We finally did it--broke down and turned on the furnace. But this time it wasn't me. Jim's always the hot one in the family. It takes a lot for him to get cold while I walk around the house in twenty layers chattering my teeth out. But you would have been proud of me.

I woke up two mornings ago to the vacuum cleaner and my daughter asking if it was OK if she could vacuum in my bedroom. I was sleeping so late because it was the only toasty place in the trailer, but I had no idea it had been 58 degrees F when Jim woke up. He was so cold, he turned on the gas oven for a few minutes before finally deciding to turn on the furnace.

And not a peep out of me while I combated hypothermia. Nope. Turning on the furnace was totally his decision while I slept a tad longer peacefully, waiting as long as I needed to for heat without complaint. And what did I get for a reward?

Heat sweet heat, baby. I'm lovin' it!

VICTORY IS MINE!

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Technorati Tags:  cold ^ complaint ^ heat ^ furnace ^ weather

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