Princess Four has Moved Home

Princess Four was supposed to move home yesterday but stayed over with Princess Five. She was going to leave earlier today but someone boxed her car in and she couldn't leave until this evening. 

By the time she arrived home, it was very late. We unloaded her car and didn't bother putting anything away. I was working on filling our vitamin containers while I waited for her to return home. 

I am not feeling well, so I wiped everything down in the house that I touched in the past day or two. I don't think it is Covid, but I have an infection in a root canal so I think it could be that causing me to not feel well. 


Hopefully, I can start to feel better in the next few days. I hope I don't have Covid. It would be horrible if Princess Four came home and got sick. 

Stay safe and have a Blessed day! 

Missing Blog Post

I wrote a post for today and set it to post this morning and when I looked this evening, The post was missing. I must have deleted it somehow as I was REALLY tired when I posted it and had fallen asleep several times when writing the post. I am sorry I am not going to rewrite it. 

Have a blessed day! 

How To Get a Straight Talk PrePaid Cell or Older Phone To Work On Verizon

I was told by VERIZON that I couldn't use this Straight Talk phone on our Verizon plan. They said they used different systems. I found that odd because I have purchased and used Straight Talk phones many times over the years and used them on the Verizon Plan I currently have. 

Instead of listening to the workers of the Verizon stores, I started to do some research on the apple iphone online. It only took me a few seconds to find that there are ways to do a "work around" the Verizon policy. Basically, they don't "support" older phones and like to sell you newer phones to use on the network. 


A few years back, the worker told me that I just needed to activate a newer phone that had the same type of SIM card (3G or 4G) and once the phone number you want to use is active on a working phone, you can then take the working SIM card out and put it into the older phone as long as the SIM is the same, as in a 4G phone into a 4G phone.

I activated a Samsung phone I used for a short time, and was able to get it going on one of the kids phone number, and then I took the SIM out of the Samsung and put it into the PREPAY iphone and it activated on the Verizon network with her phone number and I was able to make and receive calls on her number on the iPhone. 

You may have to contact the PREPAY company and get the phone unlocked. I did that earlier with a phone call to Straight Talk.

The worker at one of the local Verizon stores suggested that there is a work around for the year requirement for most prepay companies by paying all but a few dollars off on the prepay phone you purchase, and then after a week or so, you can pay the entire thing off and they will then unlock the phone for you.

Once the phone is unlocked, you can use this method to get it working on the Verizon network. Hopefully this method will work for you as it has for us! Have a blessed day

Happy Birthday To Me - Celebrating With Kids Home

My girls are all moving around currently, and knowing that I wouldn't have them home at the same time for an unknown amount of time, we decided a week or two ago to celebrate my birthday. 

I haven't had many girls home at the same time except for holiday and now Covid. With that, I wanted to have a few home to celebrate my big day as it isn't much fun celebrating by myself. 

I decided to pick up some sushi as it is one of our favorite foods. Since Princess Four was a missionary in Japan, she LOVES sushi. I allowed her to pick one of the sushi, and Princess Five to pick another. When I was checking out, the Sushi guy that makes it fresh daily found out it was my birthday and he gave me another sushi free! 

I always make friends with the sushi people at our local store as they pass through every year or so as a new trainee comes in to train in our small town and then move onto a bigger town with more stores as they learn to make more. I appreciate having a sushi person in our town, as for most years, we have never had any way to get sushi.

I bought a few new movies and allowed the girls to pick which to watch. The girls sang to me with a candle in the sushi! It was a fun way to celebrate with them. I love that I got to celebrate with someone. 

I also got to do a video call with the family and I forgot to take a screen shot. I got one of Princess Four in the other room talking to Grand Prince One. It was great getting to visit with them. 

I enjoyed the sushi and took some of the zucchini muffins the girls made to thank the Sushi guy at the store for his kindness in giving us an extra sushi! He is from Burma and is such a sweet person. I love getting to know new people. 

I hope you all are as blessed to have loved ones to spend your birthday with! Stay safe and have a blessed day! 

Getting Princess Five Ready To Leave For College

I have been working each day on doing things to get Princess Five ready to head to college. I packed up individual rice packets today so she can just dump them in the rice cooker. I packed up other food items from all the kitchen cupboards.

Princess Four had me get a TV for her when her roommate moved out that owned the TV. Her other roommate's parents purchased a TV for them at the same time I purchased one. Her roommates car was larger so she took her TV to their apartment and I have just been storing the one I purchased for Princess Four. 

Since she is moving home, she said Princess Five could take the TV to her new apartment for college. Today we decided to check out if we could get her new computer to work with the TV so she could hook it up with Netflix, or use it online with YouTube etc. 

When she purchased her computer a few weeks ago, she was going to buy one with a DVD player, but she decided to change her choice of new computers and got one without a DVD optic drive. I told her that I may have purchased one a few months ago at a second hand store that may work with her computer. 

She was able to download a driver and got the DVD player working. I had an extra HDMI cord and we were able to hook up her computer to the large screen TV and play a DVD on the TV. 

It may seem like a little thing, but the TV was less than $100, I think it may have been $40, but either way, the DVD player was $5 at a thrift store, and I buy HDMI cords when I see them at thrift stores. 

Princess Five is getting excited to get started at school. She spent the day packing up clothes to move. She also visited with one of her best friends who is getting married soon. I hope I can get her ready so that she won't have anything to focus on other than making new friends and learning! 

I am going to miss her, but am so grateful that she has been able to get two jobs to support herself at college, and that she found good housing and is healthy and can go to school. I am blessed! 

Stay safe and have a blessed day! 

Starting a New Life Quilt for a Special NERD

Princess one has gotten less t-shirt quilts overall as she was oldest and I didn't really start making the life quilts until she was out of the house. We did two life quilts for her in an A and B quilt. Her favorite shirts were on the A quilt, and the less favorite quilts went onto the B quilt. 

I told her I would make her another quilt since I have made each of the girls a "collection quilt." I made them each a quilt of shirts that match the collection that they collected growing up. I've done Snoopy, Sesame Street, Tweety, Pooh, and some girls have gotten even another quilt for things they enjoy like, Musicals, Comics, and Dr. Seuss. 

With that, she told me she didn't care about another quilt. I asked her husband if he was interested in me making him a "life quilt." He hadn't kept any of his t-shirts from his life. I then asked him if he was interested in getting a "nerd" shirt quilt. I give him nerdy shirts for birthdays and holiday, and he wears Nerdy Graphic Tees, so I thought it may interest him.

He said that would be fun. I then started collecting fun "nerd" shirts. I had Princess Two help me look and find shirts that we thought he would like representing things he loves and enjoys. He is an avid book reader, so some of them reference books he likes, movies he loves, and things he just enjoys. 

Last tie they visited me, I had him spend some time sorting through the shirts that I found that I thought he would like. He picked out his favorites in a quick sort, and then he sorted down to shirts that would fit onto a king sheet, as it can the be used as a bedspread for a full bed which is in their spare room. 

While I had Princess Three and Four down this week, we were watching a series from the hallmark channel that we spent hours watching. While we watched, I laid out the quilt in the order he picked. Took a few pictures to make sure I had it in the right spot, and then I washed all the shirts, and the black and white king sheet I bought for the backing. 

I finished washing and drying them, pulling them out before they dry wrinkled, and got them laid out in the order that Princes One wanted. He spent a VERY long time picking out the order that he wanted, as he took my advice on making it look even as it looks odd if all the colored quilt squares are in one corner or next to each other. He did a GREAT job laying it out, and that makes my life SO much easier as I can get right to cutting now. 

Laying it out is one of the most time consuming parts of the quilt! I am excited to get started on the cutting. 

Princess Five is moving to college this week, and I found out today that Princess Four is moving home while she job hunts,  so I will still be blessed to have one of my Princesses home! 

Have a Blessed day! 

Zucchini Muffins For My Girls - It's Been Years

I was driving past a "give and take" booth in town today and saw a huge zucchini for the taking. I didn't stop, but thought that I should make some zucchini muffins for Princess Four and Five as we had just been talking about how many years it has been since I made them muffins. 

I used to make hundreds of muffins in the fall every year and would freeze them in Tupperware in the deep freeze and would take them out for events and when the girls would come home. 

I would also freeze the zucchini in the freezer already grated and ready to make more as needed through the year. 

I went to a second hand store and there were two large zucchinis on the counter. They said that someone just left them on the checkout counter a few hours earlier. They said they were going to take them home. I asked them if they were going to make zucchini bread and one of them said that she had never tasted it before as he mother had never baked for her. 

I was so sad that she had never had that chance to enjoy fresh baked goods. I thought that sealed the deal that I would drive by the "give and take" booth and pick up that zucchini if it were still there and I would make the girls some zucchini muffins to take when they head off to school / home. 

I got home and the girls were really excited about making muffins. Princess Five wanted nuts and no chocolate chips, and Princess Four wanted nuts and chocolate chips. It was a group effort and we looked up the recipe on my blog since I used to make them all the time. Here is a link to that post. 

I posted some tips that make it easier. I figured that Princess Four who is headed home tomorrow, could drop off a container to each of her sisters as she passes through their towns on her way home. I think that taking a piece of home with them makes it easier for them to go. 

It was fun baking with my girls. I was reminded about a recipe for some yummy zucchini brownies my friends Julie gave me and wanted to link them here, along with the zucchini spaghetti I make as well linked here. I have a veggie salsa recipe with zucchini linked here. 

Have a Blessed and Safe Day! 

Up All Night - Want to Be Done with Phone and Car Issues

I want to start by saying I am SO grateful that all my girls have cars and phones. With that, in the past few months, four of our five cars have been to my WONDERFUL mechanic. He is SO good to get them in and work on them. I am SO grateful to have him. Yet, it is hard to always have some issue going on with one of the cars. In fact, I texted him the day Princess Four was driving down and told him how grateful I was that he is so good to get our cars in working order and I don't have to worry about them when they are driving home because he keeps them running so well. Within a few hours of me texting him that, I had to call him. He told me I jinxed myself! ha ha 

I literally went out to help the girls bring their belongings in and hadn't left the door of the car when Princess Four reminded me that someone that looked at her car for a flat tire told her she needed rear brakes. I laughed as I contacted my mechanic to see if he could work on her car. He told me to take it over. 

Princess Four also has the oldest cell phone along with the oldest car. I bought her a newer phone that is exactly the same phone that I got Princess Five used. Somehow, in all the months it took to get things switched over, the battery on her newer phone isn't holding a charge now. We struggled getting it unlocked as some phone companies are harder to deal with than others. 

We finally got it unlocked when we realized there was an issue with the battery. She doesn't want to put money into a new battery. I understand that, but don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on the exact phone, so I pulled out a phone I used for a few days before getting my newer iPhone. 

When I went to the phone store, I asked the worker three times to program her number into the newer SIM card and he said I didn't need to have it programed. Well, after being up much of the night trying to figure out how to "self program" the new SIM, it would NOT let us program it, so we will head to the local phone store for the fourth time over the new phone issues for her. 

She is headed back to her apartment that she needs to move out of by the end of the week. She is still trying to figure out where to go as she still hasn't found a job that she feels good about. She is struggling to know where to go as she wants to move closer to Princess Two where there are two larger universities where she can have more of a social life. 

It will be a SUPER busy week for us as Princess Five is also moving to school this week. We have been packing up food, clothes, and other necessities as well as washing and mending everything so she will be all set when she moves in for school. 

Be patient with us as I am not sure how much time I will have to post. 

Stay safe and have a Blessed Day! 

Healing or Curing a Cracked Painful Heel And Dry Skin

I have had many painful heel cracks over the years. I was recently visiting a family member and he was saying he had painful heel cracks and was putting coconut oil on them before heading out to work. 

I shared with him that since I started taking liquid minerals, the cracks I used to get on the corners of my fingertips have disappeared and haven't ever come back. My fingernails also started to grow and ridges that I had on my nails disappeared. 

I forgot at that point to share how I healed my cracked heals in the past. I have had them for many years, but I have been much better since taking the liquid minerals. I posted about the minerals in this post linked here. 

I thought I would make a video about how I cure the cracks in my heels. I use a razor that is designed to cut off callouses on the bottom of the feet. If the crack is really deep, sometimes the edges get quite thick and sometimes I use the heel razor to take off the thick edges. 

I then use any number of balm agents or ointments on the feet. There are products that are for cracking heels you can buy. I have used bag balm, Veterinary balm, Vaseline, different lip balms, or coco-butter lotions on my heels. 

Just before bed, I fill the cracks on my heels with any of the creams, balms, or lotions mentioned above. I then wrap a piece of plastic wrap around the foot, and then I put on a pair of socks. 

I pull the sock and plastic wrap off in the morning and wipe my feet with a paper towel getting any excess off. Since I wear sandals every day, I don't keep the plastic wrap and sock on during the day, but if you wear socks and shoes, you can keep the plastic wrap on during the day as well. 

I put the ointment and plastic wrap on my heels over the past few nights as I could hardly walk as the cracks were hurting with every step I took. My heels are to the point where I didn't even put the ointment on last night! It took less than a week. 

Give it a try if you are suffering with painful, bleeding, cracks on your heels! 

Have a blessed day! 

Spending a Day Mending - Glad To Get it Off the List

I shared yesterday in my post that I went through my clothes as I have been releasing weight. 


I had some clothes that I haven't been able to wear as they needed taking in and some items just needed mending. 

Princess Four had a bag of clothes she bought recently. When she was trying them on, I told her I would be able to take in some of the pants she bought and there was a shirt she wanted to change the sleeves on that I was able to help her with as well.

Princess Five had a wool skirt that she needed hemmed. I was able to do that for her today. 

I had a stack of mending that has been needing to be done for a few months and I was so glad to get them all finished today. 

Going Through the Closet - Getting Rid Of More Clothes

Last year, I went through my clothes closet KonMari method.  In looking up the post, it was just over one year ago I went through all the clothes. Here is the post about that.

Since losing weight since January, I have gone down a few clothes sizes. I hesitate getting rid of clothes because when I have times of stress or times of not sleeping, I gain weight quickly. I gained five pounds back in the last week and a half due to not getting much sleep and having all the girls home and going out of town for a long day. 

I do fairly well when I am home and have kept the 40 lbs for months. Recently, with all the not sleeping and stress, it doesn't matter what I eat, it just goes back on. 



It is hard to know if I should get rid of the larger clothes when it is so stressful and I can't regulate weight gain. I am happy that I have been able to keep off the weight for months, but just don't know that I can guarantee keeping it off. 

I have two of the girls home currently for a few days and they kept offering to help me go through and get rid of the larger and outdated clothes. 

We spent an hour or so with them sharing their thoughts on what I should keep, which looked good, which would look better if I lost a few more pounds. They were super helpful and easy going about it. I gave up worrying about if I liked it, and trusted their opinion on what I should keep and what I should get rid of. 

I kept a few favorite shirts that are a bit tight knowing that I will be getting back to dieting as soon as Princess Five heads off to school. 

I have four bags of "get rid of" things Many are cute but are now big and don't fit well. I do know someone that I think will be able to use a few of them. Whatever she doesn't want, I can share with the food bank as they give out clothes free. I just know at times during my divorce, buying clothes for myself was always a last priority after purchasing things for my girls and other necessities of life. I am glad I can help others who may be struggling in life. 

I appreciate that my girls care enough about me to help me look my best. I am blessed to have such wonderful and amazing girls. I hope I can continue releasing weight. It would be nice needing to go through my clothes on a regular basis to remove the larger clothes! 

Have a safe and blessed day! 

Photo Shoot of Princess Five

I have had a super long day but will share with you that Princess Five wanted to get some updated pictures done before she leaves to college.


The other day, she had gotten ready for church and looked beautiful so we decided to take a few photos in the yard. I have been struggling with my camera recently as today, the flash overheated and so I have been frustrated with the settings, but I was still able to get some cute photos of her. 

She and I liked different photos, but they are all beautiful. I am so blessed to have such beautiful daughters! 

Unlocking a Phone For a Different Carrier

Princess Four and Five both got new to them phones recently. I bought one from a woman who was in the phone store while I was hooking up my new phone. The company was only going to give her a about $60 for the phone, so I offered to buy it for $5 over that amount and she was happy to get the extra $5. 

I was shopping at a second hand store shortly after that, and there was the exact phone, pink in color, with the same memory with the box for around $30. I figured it was worth the risk as both girls love that small ipod sized phone and it fits in their pockets and is more sturdy than the larger phones. 

The SE is an older phone, but they sell the second generation SE currently for $400 at Walmart as it is a popular phone with kids. 

Princess Five hooked hers up as soon as she arrived home from her mission in May. We had no problems getting it hooked up to service. I actually gave Princess Four her phone before that but she was having a hard time getting her information off the phone as she didn't have time to go to the phone store and get it switched over as she needed and upgraded sim card. 

She graduated, finished working, moved, and didn't get it hooked up to service. Recently, I told her if she wanted to wait and get a newer phone after she finds a job, I could sell the older one. She said she would go and get it upgraded. 

She kept letting the battery run out forgetting to turn it off and her roommate worked at a different phone company and said that the phone wouldn't work on our service as it was a prepay phone. I kept telling her she needed to go to the carrier store and get the new iPhone working. She kept telling me her roommate knows what she is talking about and I gave up trying to get her to do anything with it. 

She came home for a family event this week and I asked about the phone. I charged it up and took it to the local phone store. The girl working was newer to the store and told me that in no way could the phone be used on our service. I told her I have used many prepaid phones on our service over the years and there had to be a way to get it to work. I also gave her information on another matter she said wasn't possible which I know for a fact is so I figured she just didn't have the knowledge. 

I then went to our local Walmart where there is a man I know is quite educated with phones and have gotten help before. He also told me there was NO possible way I could use that prepay phone on our service carrier. He was SURE. He then tried to sell the me exact phone second generation for the $400 with a $200 rebate from the carrier. 

I came home and did a very short google search with transferring the iPhone SE from a prepay to a major cell phone company. Within seconds, I found the exact question with the exact phone and phone carriers as my situation. It had several people responding saying to call the prepay phone carrier and get the phone unlocked. 

I then searched for the 1 800 number for the pre-pay carrier and had about a five minute wait. They had me give them the IMEI number for the phone. They check to make sure that it doesn't have any surcharges or is marked stolen and then the transfer to you to the department for unlocking the device. This call would have had a half out wait, but they give you the option to get a call back holding your place in line. I gave them my number, about forty minutes later I get a call back. 

After giving them the IMEI number again, they check to make sure it is available. They then get your email and name with a contact number so they can email you the "unlock" code so you can use the phone on any carrier. They give you a reference number in case you have any issues using the "unlock" code on the phone and you have to wait 24 to 48 hours to get the unlock code. 

I waited over a month to get the apple id password for my own phone going through Apple, so I was super impressed with the company getting back with me so quickly and a short response time. The last time I dealt with unlocking a phone it ended up taking months of back and forth, forwarding emails, unlocking the phone wrong, hours on hold, going into several company stores and in the end, the phone never did unlock! 

This was a BREEZE compared to that other situation. I know she would love a new phone, but this one is slightly newer than her current phone and the same size she has and likes so I am just grateful that I was able to unlock it. 

She does need a new SIM card for it but we are lucky to have two stores in town so that won't be a problem. I will share with both stores that the phone DOES work with the network even though it is a prepay and that they can share that information with others in the future. I will be glad to have another thing off the list of things to do. 

Stay safe and have a Blessed day! 

The Original Glue Stick - Fun Guessing Game with my Girls

I was shopping at a thrift store this week when they pulled a cart out from the back to put things on shelves. I thought that was unusual as they have stopped pulling out carts to refill shelves due to Covid. 

Since the pandemic, they usually just bring out armfuls of items so that people don't congregate around the carts causing close contact. I think it is a smart move. 

Just as I started moving towards the cart, one of the managers commented, "You better grab things quickly as we have to take this to the back room." I thought he was joking but he wasn't, the cart started to move to the back. 


I mentioned to him that I thought he was joking, and he said that the employee didn't know the rule about not taking carts out onto the sales floor and if I wanted anything, I could grab it quickly. 

The only thing on the cart that had any interest to me was an old glue dispenser that I used to use in elementary and middle school. It was so old that the once flexible robber top was so old that it was stuck onto the jar and was cracking. It was marked $0.75. I quickly picked up the dispenser and joked with some of the staff that my age was showing!~

I purchased it knowing that some of my girls were coming home for a few days and I thought it would be fun having them guess the use of the item! I wasn't sure if they would know what it was used for or not. 

I showed it to my youngest a few days ago, and she didn't guess what it was, so I thought it would be fun to ask my older daughters if they knew what it was, or to guess what it would be used for. They started guessing, and I thought I had better make a video of their guesses because some of them were quite funny. I stopped them quickly and pulled out the camera.

My favorites were: baby bottle, baby nose snot sucker, make-up applicator, and wax distributor. It wasn't until I said it was used for crafting that they were able to come close to guessing its use. 

It got me wondering how many other items like this there are out there that they may not know about! This could be a really fun college game! Typewriter eraser, erasing pen, correcting paper or tracing paper, and other school or home used items that became obsolete with progress. 

I took some photos, but the video is fun to watch. 

Have a Blessed day!