Homemade Fire Starters - the lint method

So, let me start off by stating that this was something that we learned how to do in Girl Scouts what feels like a lifetime ago.  Our troop went camping a million times and before every campout, our family always made these fire starters.  This was the best friend of our young troup.  I have been teased about using these when starting a fire by some friends of Corry but I think that they are genius. 

You don't have to be a Girl Scout to find use for these fire starters.  I have seen these on multiple "prepper" blogs as well for good items to have in your Bug Out Bag that don't take up too much space and stay good so long as you are not in extreme heat.  We always keep these in our camper for our camping trips.  My husband loves a fire even if it is 500 degrees outside and so these come in super handy when they are in the mood for a more spontaneous fire. 

You will need:

an empty egg carton
dryer lint - there had to be a good use for it, right? 
candles - use cheap ones preferably with no scent
a heat source
something to melt your candles in - we use an old aluminum can


Melt your candles in your aluminum can over your heat source until they are fully melted.  Be careful when handling this liquid.  This is your warning that melted candle wax is hot. 

                                     

While that is melting, take your dryer lint and stuff it into your empty egg cartons.  My husband puts plastic wrap down on the counter in case any wax drips out of the cartons.  You can omit, but it makes for easier clean up. 

                                    

Pour the melted candle wax over the dryer lint.

                                     

Allow the wax to cool.  This is what the finished product will look like.  From here, you cut each 'egg' out and you have 12-18 fire starters depending on the size of your egg carton.  This is an excellent way to recycle both the lint and the egg cartons. 

                                     

Depending upon how ready your wood is to burn, you can use 1-3 of these every time that you would like to start a fire.  Just light one end of the cardboard from the egg carton that doesn't have wax on it and throw into the fire. 

Enjoy!

-Sara

Corry's Birthday Weekend Celebration

We didn't initially plan this trip to celebrate Corry's birthday, but it lined up perfectly with his 40th birthday this year.  Our friends that we met through NTTE wanted to go camping and it was decided that we were going to visit Lake Murray State Park near Ardmore, OK. 



 We decided to leave Thursday night, which was Corry's birthday, and head up there after work.  Luckily, it didn't take us that long to get up there, get set up and relax with our friends.  We stayed in the Rock Tower area of the park and it was awesome!  The first night there were very few people there and we got awesome camping spots right on the water.  The area was very quiet and the spots were spacious and ideal for a larger camper, which you don't always find in a campground.   This was our first time to camp at this state park and we definitely will return.  They have several hundred campsites in the entire park and awesome amenities like an ATV area, fishing, swimming, play grounds, etc. 

 

 

As I have mentioned several times before my children absolutely love camping.  I will admit that I am stressed for days before a campout that at least one of my children isn't going to sleep well at night, isn't going to eat what we are serving, is going to fall out of a camper and injure themselves - wait... too late on that one.  Needless to say, my children would live in the wild if I would allow them to.  They love being outdoors and have no problems just wandering around playing with bugs and dirt.  By the end of the evening, they are both so worn out and dirty that they really should be hosed off before going to bed but they couldn't even stand up long enough for that. 

 

 

 

Because we now have Grace living with us, we had a different sleeping arrangement this time than we normally do so we could give her the most comfortable sleeping placement possible.  We moved Isabella to the table bed and let Grace have the fold down couch bed.  It works out fine, especially because Isabella could sleep on a log, I think, if she was tired enough.  Most nights she sleeps so well that she ends up with awesome bed-head like this.  We called this her 'I went to prom last night' hairdo.  Silas slept amazingly well in the 'baby-jail' situation that we have set up for him in the bunk house portion of our camper since it gets dark and mostly soundproofed in there.  Our friends have children that are older than Isabella and Silas, and they have so much fun with their children.  They love other kids and are starting to not freak out 'stranger danger' style around our friends.  

 

Of course because it was actually Corry's birthday, we definitely had to get a cake.  And, of course, because we were ordering a cake I contacted Heather from A Sweet Fix bakery to make it.  She went so above how I thought this cake was going to turn out.  Everyone was amazed and oohed and ahhed over how awesome it looked and how great it tasted.  It was rich and chocolatey and delicious.  Corry agreed that this was definitely the best tasting cake that we have ever had from her.  I know that I have talked about her and her business in several blogs before but definitely if you are in the DFW area and in search of an amazing cake, you have to check her out.  This cake was an amazing chocolate inside and chocolate buttercream on the outside.  I know that buttercream is not what she normally deals with but it is always excellent.  She made these awesome donut shaped cookies that my kids loved as well.  She really goes above and beyond what I could expect every time that we order a cake from her.     

 

 

 

All in all we had an excellent weekend with family and friends.  My parents came up to bring the cake and celebrate with us.  We also met some very nice new people while we were camping who had some very sweet children.  I definitely could not have asked for a better weekend for my husband's birthday. 

 

What would be your ideal birthday weekend celebration?    

   

Camping: toddler sleeping arrangements

Sleeping arrangements for our toddlers is one of the things that cause me the most anxiety when I think about planning a camping trip. We keep our kids on a relatively strict sleeping situation – in their cribs, super dark rooms, fans, blankets, etc. So when I have to think about putting them to sleep and getting them to stay asleep while camping when those circumstances are different, I get a little stressed out. Strike that, a lot stressed out. Luckily, we seem to have found a situation that seems to be working out pretty well for both of them. If there is one piece of advice that I could give to anyone who is taking a toddler camping, it would be to make their temporary bed as much like their bed at home. You will have much more success at getting them to sleep if they are in a comfortable, familiar surrounding.

In our camper, we have a bunk bed in the back with a double on bottom and a twin on top, a table that folds down to make a double and a couch that folds down to make a double as well. We decided that the best bed for Silas is the double in the bunk to keep him from rolling off onto the floor while he is sleeping. When he sleeps he is all over the bed and often times end up on a completely different side of the bed than when he went to sleep. At the entrance to the bottom bunk is a person sized hole that you can crawl through to lie down. Because we wanted to avoid him rolling out this hole, we had to rig something up that would be sturdy enough to keep him in the bed if he bumped against it, but that would still be flexible enough to be able to be moved if we needed to get to him or if there was an emergency. We tried several things, the scariest of which was a sheet tied between the sides. It was fine until Silas rolled into the sheet and was fighting like crazy to get out. After that, the sheet went away.

One of Corry’s most amazing ideas of 2013 has been to use the top bunk’s twin mattress in that entranceway. He folded it almost in half and when pushed into that entranceway, it fits perfectly along the sides of both walls. We are still able to easily get Silas in and out of that bunk, it comes out easily in case he gets stuck towards the outside of the bunk, and it keeps him safe. Another bonus is that since the mattress is so wide, it blocks out most of the light that we have on in the camper, which leaves the light more like his room at home.

After several different places, we decided that the best place for Isabella to sleep is on the fold down couch. She usually is rather still while she is sleeping, so we really don’t have to worry about her rolling off the side of the bed or anything like that. I make sure, when packing, to pack her blankets, pillows and some stuffed animals that she sleeps with on a daily basis. Because she sleeps with so many blankets and stuffed animals, we can’t bring it all. Normally I bring at least one, if not two, blankets and both glow-worms and one baby doll. All of these items help her to feel more comfortable and more at home, which helps her go to sleep easier and stay asleep longer. She normally fights us a little bit longer before agreeing to go to sleep, but normally because she is so excited to be camping.

All in all I think that we have established a good sleeping arrangement for both toddlers in our camper. Even though this situation in general causes me stress, it is comforting to know that we already have a system in place that works for us and has worked for numerous camping trips.

Camping Part II: The Good, The Bad, and The Injured

The Good: 

My kids love camping.  This is a blessing in that they will run themselves ragged when we are camping just being outside and collecting rocks and sticks and leaves.  They love the rocks and the dirt and the bugs and the sleeping on any surface that seems like a bed at the time.  Oh and they especially love the way that bath time is almost non-existent while camping.  We have usually convinced my parents to go with us and they bring this wagon that my kids love.  It's an awesome time.    
 

My husband loves camping for different reasons.  He loves the campfire and just being away from the house on a mini-vacation.  He loves hanging out in the camping chairs talking.  Hell, he loves camping so much that we bought a travel trailer last year. 

The Bad:

Bugs.  Who would have known that there were so many bugs in the world?  I despise bugs.  Especially when they crawl on you in the middle of the night or outside when it's dark.  Now I have that creepy crawly feeling thinking about it.  It's just gross. 

I can't sleep when we camp.  It's not my bed.  It's not my mattress.  My kids are weirded out sometimes because they are not sleeping in their beds either, so they are acting funny.  Plus, I am usually so tired that by the time I go to bed I am too tired... I don't know if that even makes sense, but I can't sleep when we camp.  Around the third day this makes for an awesome experiment in behavioral studies of patients who don't sleep.  I look and act somewhere between a zombie and death warmed over. 

The Injured:

Now on to my least favorite part.  It never fails that someone will get injured when we camp.  Normally it's me.  The last time I pinched my finger hard while putting up the awning.  The time before that we had the scariest time in my life as a parent when Silas took a tumble out of my parent's camper.  Luckily he was fine but that was a six hour trip to the only minor emergency clinic in Mt Pleasant, TX to see the oldest doctor on the face of the planet, who should have stopped practicing medicine like 95 years ago. 

Since becoming a parent I will admit that my anxiety has increased like 4 fold, but if you take that anxiety and add in a camp fire, uneven ground, random holes, bugs, rodents, stairs and open bodies of water, I pretty much become the most stressed out human alive.  Keep repeating:  They are kids.  They will get dirty. They will fall down.  They will get back up. 

Camping & Sara:  It's a love/hate relationship. 

Camping Part I: The Prep

My children and my husband love camping.  I think that the three of them would live at a campground like a weird combination of nomads and homeless people and not even feel sad about it.  My kids are your typical toddlers and LOVE getting dirty and picking up sticks and rocks and Lord only knows what.  The picture to the left shows Silas's last camping trip so I was excited to see how he reacted this time.  I will admit that now that he can walk, camping is a bit more enjoyable for everyone because he has something to do.  He is awake about 7 total hours during the day and walks about 6 hours and 45 minutes of that time so he is content just walking around.  Plus, he gets to be completely dirty and doesn't have to take a bath, etc.  Camping is his deal. 


 My daughter is a hoarder at the tender age of two.  If you saw anything at our house in her areas then you would fully understand what I am talking about.  She has, at any moment, like 15 different toys, stuffed animals or random items in her crib that aren't blankets.  While we are camping she focuses on one item and picks up all of them that she can find.  The last trip that we made, pictured to the right, was to Dangerfield State Park and she collected pine cones.  She has probably 20 of the miniature ones in our garage right now and we found some of them that she stowed away in our camper when we unpacked the chairs this time.  This time it was a little bit of everything - sticks, firewood, rocks, charcoal pieces from the fire circle, etc.      

We decided at the end of the week that we were going to go camping for one night with my parents at a local campground.  Let me admit that I am not a camper.  We camped like 4 million times as Girl Scouts growing up and to say that I am burned out on camping for life is an understatement.  Most of the time that we camped as Girl Scouts it was in tents or shelters, so I will agree that our style of camping now is a bit different.  Rarely do we not have some sort of media available and we have heat and/or A/C readily available.  I don't hate it as much as I used to but the majority of the time that I agree to go it's because I know that they love it so much.   

A camping trip takes a lot of preparation.  That statement is SO ridiculous on so many levels because camping, in itself, is meant to be a relaxing vacation.  Why would it take so much work?  And this is not just me saying that it takes prep because I am in love with making lists, Type A personality, etc.  It could be because I have two children under three and EVERYTHING takes a lot of prep work.  Hell, it even takes me more than 30-45 minutes to leave the house to go anywhere with the two kids. 

We got an awesome deal on a travel trailer last year, so that takes some of the prep work out of the equation totally, since you always know that you have somewhere to stay.  We were only looking for a few weeks and ended up with something that we really enjoy.  We knew that we wanted a fold out couch, and bunk beds in the back for guests or our teenagers or whoever wanted to put up with our sleeping habits while camping.  We ended up with a Jayco Jayflight 27BH.  Our first camping trip on the right - floor plan below.     

To help with the preparation, we leave a lot of items in our camper so we don't have to worry about
re-packing those anytime that we go.  For a list of those items see below.  The idea was to get to the point that we just had to bring clothes and food and were ready to go for that trip.  We are close to that, which will take a lot of stress off of me.  I am a chronic over packer of clothes.  I am always worried that I won't have enough clothes for me or my children.  I usually lay out clothes for my husband and he inevitably puts back about half of what I lay out for him.  I would rather have too much than not enough.  This applies to food as well.  We usually bring back more than half of what we packed to eat.  Even though we usually get combined meals with my parents or my sister and her husband, we still plan more than we eat for some reason.  One of my goals is to lessen the amount of food that we return with because it isn't often that we incorporate that food back into our regular eating for that week and it ends up going bad. 

List of items that remain in our camper year round:

• Sheets, pillowcases, blankets for all beds - washed and replaced after every trip
• Pillows for all beds
• Toiletries including toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wash, hand soap, hair ties, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, etc
• Wash clothes, bath towels, hand towels and kitchen towels
• Bag for dirty clothes - washed and replaced after every trip
• Toilet paper appropriate for campers - different than just regular toilet paper for your home
• First aid kit - restocked and replaced after every trip
• Radio
• Art supplies (for kids)
• Random age appropriate toys
• Booster seat
• Cleaning supplies, paper towels,
• Cooking spray, paper plates, plastic ware, plastic cups
• Cheap pots and pans
• Random kitchen supplies - cutting board, sharp knives, can opener, oven mitt, etc

Tomorrow I will cover a second post: Camping - the good, the bad and the injured. 

-Sara