Favorite Things...Vinegar

Vinegar. 
I rediscovered vinegar when The Man was diagnosed with an egg allergy.
We had to start keeping vinegar on hand to make a substitution mixture for eggs when baking.
It works.
Then he grew out of the allergy, and now I forget about this little trick for egg substitutions.  If only there was a trick to remind me when I run out of eggs so I don't have to run to the neighbor's house to beg for eggs. 
Once vinegar was in the house, I started to experiment a bit with it. 
I love it in my laundry.
My Sis-in-law told me she used it as fabric softner.
It works.  Put it in the rinse cycle.
When I use vinegar as fabric softner I get a bonus out of the deal...my clothes don't fade.
If you ever do a dying project at home, they always recommend a run through the washer with vinegar at least once to set the colors. 
Well vinegar will do that for your clothes. 
My daughter was the first to notice.  Cause she gets those t-shirts for this or that and they have to been worn every week.  Well hers wasn't fading like her friends.  Vinegar. 
It is, also, a disinfectant.  Sick kids/family.  Colored sheets?  Colored towels? Colored PJs?  Want to disinfect all this and whatever else the germy family has drooled and snotted all over.  Bet you don't want to use bleach on all of it.  Well vinegar won't hurt the color or fabric.  If I am feeling real germ-a-phobic, I will put it in the wash cycle and the rinse cycle. 
There are lots of recipes out there for window cleaners, multipurpose cleaners... I haven't gone there yet. 
Maybe one day, I will take a moment and give some of the other possibilities a try. 

Home School High School Transcripts

The dreaded transcript. 
Talk about breathing fear and dread into the soul of a home school mom.
They make or break the college admission process for these kids.
Or so they seem.
All in all, the idea is not really complicated. 
The process in creating them, can be daunting.
The whole process started somewhere around seventh grade. 
Planning out course of study, dotting i's and crossing t's.
Then life happened and I started the stress all over again between sophomore and junior year. 
This past fall, I needed transcripts.  We were doing dual enrollment.
Once I discovered to shelve my anxiety, the process wasn't so daunting.  Especially, now that we have the internet.
Donna Young's website of free reproducibles has this awesome template available.
I just entered the information and did the math for GPA and voila all done.
Fast forward to November and College Applications and my life changed.
You see, now I need to record all these dual credit classes and the classes intended for next semester.
How do I fit in College name next to course study?
How do I explain GPA calculations?
Insert 3-4 hours of work on a Sunday afternoon.
I started with the intent to recreate my document.  Meaning no TEMPLATE.
Never having created a Word Document with tables before, I tried to follow the instructions in Transcriptions Made Easy, by Janice Campbell.  The whole process ended up with a grouchy momma.  I took a break, got something to eat and the light bulb went off.  I had made enough progress in creating a document from the blank new page, to discover I just needed to add some details to the comment section of the transcripts I already filled out earlier in the year.
At the bottom of my transcripts, along with GPA calculations and grade values, I noted abbreviations.  I did have to become a bit creative here, as my daughter is attending Friends University.  Just using initials did not look too appropriate next to course of study.  I indicated credits represented high school credit only, not college credit. 
All that I have left now is to buy the pretty paper in which I need for printing the transcripts. 

Thieves from Young Living

I am loving this Essential Oil for Young Living ~ Thieves!

Thanks to my diffuser, yesterday, my basement smelled like Thanksgiving, autumn, pumpkin pie.  Take your pick, everyone in the family has their own description of how Thieves smells.  Dad's Bud says it smells like Snickerdoodles and pasta.