Linda @ Linda’s Lunacy

Fun Eclipse Projects, Maps, Simulator, and Viewing Tips

August 18, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

In case, you have missed the news, there will be a total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, 2017. This will be the first total eclipse to be visible from the continental US in 40 years. The path of totality will travel across the length of the continent.

The next total solar eclipse visible from the states will be on April 8, 2024. You can check out this website for other future solar eclipse dates, as well as maps.

Use this website to check the Eclipse Time in your area.

Use this Eclipse eBook from Apologia to help the kids learn more.

Check out these eclipse viewers to make:

Printable Pinhole Projectors

Make a Box Pinhole Projector

Make an eclipse viewer out of a cereal box

Or try using your hands to view the solar eclipse.

Eclipse Mega Movie Simulator – This is so cool. Type in your city and state, and it will play a video showing what the eclipse will look like where you live.

Check out this video from The Weather Channel

Now that we covered the fun stuff, lets cover solar eclipse viewing safety.

NEVER look directly at the sun. Make sure your kids know this, too. If you are in the path of totality, you can safely remove your viewing glasses for the brief moment that the sun is in total eclipse. Then put the glasses back on to view the rest of the eclipse.

Don’t use do it yourself viewing glasses or solar filters to view the eclipse.

Don’t put on solar eclipse viewing glasses and look through binoculars.

There are a lot of counterfeit eclipse glasses on the market. Several brands of eclipse viewing glasses have been recalled. Please check where you purchased your glasses to make sure they haven’t been recalled.

You can find out where to purchase eclipse glasses approved by the American Astronomical Society here. NASA also has a list of eclipse viewing safety here.

Please Don’t Do This To Your Child!

August 14, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

The other day I was visiting someone at their house. They had other company as well. I saw one of these women pick up their child by one arm. I was surprised. I have very rarely seen someone pick up their child by one arm. I can’t even remember the last time I saw someone do this.

Picking a child up by one arm is painful for the child. It can lead to bruising, dislocation of the wrist, elbow or shoulder.

Even if the child doesn’t experience a dislocated joint, they could suffer pulled muscles, tendons, and ligaments. All of which are painful for the child.

Did I say something to this woman? No, I did not. Because I didn’t know her. If I saw someone I know pick up a child like this, I would tell them. I do not recommend telling a complete stranger how to take care of their child. In this day and age, telling a parent what to do with their child does not always end well. You will have to judge your situation for yourself.

This child that I saw was 3-4 years old. Except age doesn’t matter. Size doesn’t matter. A child should always be picked up using two hands.

Never by one arm. Please don’t do this to your child.

My Family’s Favorite Homemade Pancake Recipe

July 21, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

*This post contains an affiliate link

My family loves pancakes. My kids always loved them for breakfast, lunch, & dinner. My husband doesn’t like to eat them as often as the kids always did. He loves blueberry pancakes, though. With no syrup. Me? I like extra real maple syrup on mine. 🙂

I like to have a bunch of pancakes in the freezer. Flash freeze the pancakes on a cookie sheet, then bag them. Or put waxed paper between the layers of pancakes so they don’t stick together.

That way, everyone can get their own for breakfasts or lunches. Or even snacks!

My Family’s Favorite Homemade Pancake Recipe

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup milk

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Set aside

In another bowl, beat the egg. Add the oil & milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Batter will be a little lumpy.

Drop 1/3 cup of batter onto a lightly greased, hot pan or griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the top of pancake, about 2 minutes. Flip, and cook an additional 2 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 8-10 pancakes

Recipe can be doubled, or tripled. I usually triple it.

For mini pancakes, use 1 tablespoon of batter

*This post contains a affiliate links. If you click the link & make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. Your price doesn’t change.

A Great Gift Idea – EntertainArt Wall Decor

July 17, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

A while back, I received this Star Wars wall decor from EntertainArt. EntertainArt offers exclusive, limited edition and ready-to-hang wall decor from some of the most popular movies, comics and TV shows.

EntertainArt has growing selection of officially licensed and exclusive designs. So when you purchase a wall hanging from them you can be sure it’s authentic.

I found this to be high quality wall decor. The canvas is wrapped around a solid wood frame.

See all the detail on the canvas? It really is a high quality canvas.

As you can see, the picture on the canvas wraps all the way around the sides. This canvas looks awesome hanging on the wall.

My husband loved this Star Wars wall decor. I gave it to my teenage son, though, to hang in his room. He was so excited to get it. He is a huge Star Wars fan. I like that while he thinks it’s cool now, it can go with him when he moves out on his own. It looks great in his room, and will look equally great in a living room, family room, or media room.

Head on over and check out all the available designs on EntertainArt. They make great gifts!

*Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” My opinions are my own.

A Unique Wedding Shower Idea

July 6, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

My youngest daughter is getting married in September, so I recently hosted a wedding shower for her and her fiance. Fiance didn’t really want to come. My daughter told him he had to, though. lol So I endeavored to make the shower as guy friendly as I could so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, and would have a good time.

We are in Kentucky, and fiance is from Tennessee. So I came up with the “Kentucky meets Tennessee” wedding shower theme. Once I had the idea, everything else fell into place.

I had my husband draw out a big K, T, and the word meets on poster board. I colored them with markers, and cut them out. We hung them on the focal wall with a poster of one of their engagement pictures that I had made. The poster looks crooked in the picture for some reason, but was not crooked in real life. lol

I put two gift tables on the focal wall. Covering one with a Kentucky tablecloth, and the other with a Tennessee table cloth. My daughter decorated the chairs with blue and orange tablecloths.

I also used blue and orange tablecloths on the tables.

Since I was trying to keep all the decorations guy friendly, I used these blue and orange sprays that I got for $1.25 each. I mixed the colors ups to keep it a little festive.

I served guy friendly food in the kitchen of the hall, using blue and orange paper products and utensils. I forgot to take a picture of the food! I served hot dogs, hot dog chili that I made, along with cheese, onions, ketchup, mustard, and relish. I had corn chips for those that didn’t want a hot dog, so they could put the chili and cheese on those. I also served nacho chips, the ones in the red bag, because those are a favorite of fiance.

I set up the dessert table on the wall to the right of the gift table. My daughter hung some or their engagement pictures on the wall above. I used blue and orange plates & utensils, Kentucky napkins & Tennessee napkins.

I made the “Kentucky meets Tennessee” cake myself. I used boxed mixes, chocolate & yellow side by side, and made the frosting myself. Except the black. That is from a tube. Because black frosting is really hard to make.

I orded 3 dozen cookies from a local person. I had 1 1/2 dozen in the shape of the state of Tennessee that said “TN Boy”.

And 1 1/2 dozen in the shape of the state of Kentucky that said “KY girl”. Unfortunately, the baker didn’t have time to do the writing. She did send along an edible marker. After I asked for frosting to do the writing myself. My husband did the writing on all the cookies. They looked ok. Not nearly as nice as the would have if the writing was in frosting, though. I was a little upset. As the baker still charged me full price. Didn’t even offer any kind of discount or anything. Offering a discount of even a dollar or two a dozen would have gone a long way. I probably won’t use this baker again. Unfortunately.

For a little decoration on the dessert table, we used a stuffed Tennessee dog and a stuffed Kentucky Wildcat. We had them hold the opposite color balloon, and they looked really cute.

On the wall to the left of the focal wall, I put all the drinks. My daughter hung more engagement pictures. Yes, they took a ton! Water bottles, Ale81 (a soda made in Kentucky), and Dr. Pepper, the fiance’s favorite soda. My daughter brought the 2 liter bottles of soda. I also served lemonade and sweet tea. Which is iced tea with too much sugar in it. lol

In keeping with the Kentucky meets Tennessee theme, I labeled the drinks. The lemonade became “Kentucky Moonshine”. And the sweet tea became “Tennessee Fire Ball”. No alcohol in either drink, just the names. lol

I tried to keep the games guy friendly, too. So no clothespin or safety pin games. So I came up with 2 word games. Not as guy friendly as a ball game, but not too bad. lol I came up with 20 words that had to do with the bride & groom, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I used an online word scrambler to do the scrambling. So I didn’t scramble my brain. lol For the other game, I asked them a list of questions, then used their answers to form 20 questions about them. Guests had to answer Abby, Austin, or Both.

Everyone had a great time! Including the fiance! So this unique wedding shower was a hit!

You can take this idea and make it work for any opposite sports teams, color schemes, or to combine the bride and grooms interest into one shower. This idea would also work for combined birthday parties for kids. The decorations, food, and games are all easily customize to your event.

Don’t forget to pin this post for later!

Making a Home – Homemaking Link Up

July 4, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Welcome to this weeks………

Making a Home – Homemaking Link Up!

This weeks featured post is……

Cherry Chocolate Brownies from Simply Stacie.

I don’t know very many people that don’t like brownies. These look amazing! I’m looking forward to trying these. If you missed this yummy looking recipe last week, click on over now to get it!

Making a Home – Homemaking Link Up

Now it’s your turn! Share your posts about homemaking ideas, recipes, crafts, decorating, cleaning tips, basically anything that has to do with caring for a home and family. The Link Up is open all week.

Don’t forget to visit a few other links while your here!

Your click is a vote for next weeks featured post! Having your post featured means I will share the picture you add in the link up, as well as the link to your post, in next weeks post!

All featured posts will be pinned to a special

Making a Home – Homemaking Link Up Pinterest board!!

So link up your posts, tell everyone to visit the link up, and maybe your post will be the featured post next week!

Click to tweet! Help spread the word! The more people that know about the Making a Home Homemaking Link Up are more people that will see your link!

[Tweet “I just shared my post at the Making a Home #Homemaking #LinkUp @LindasLunacy #recipe #craft #homeschool posts & more!”]

No giveaways, please. Giveaway links will be deleted. You can link your giveaways on my Thursday’s Giveaways link up. Thanks! Please provide a link back to me. A text link is fine. Of course, family friendly posts only.

Lunacy – The Correct Word to Describe My Life Lately

July 3, 2017 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I haven’t been around much lately. Life has been so crazy, that crazy isn’t even a strong enough word! Lunacy seems a little more accurate.

Ok, my life as a mom of 6, along with homeschooling all of them is a crazy life. I admit it. lol So much more has been happening, though, to elevate life way beyond crazy.

It all started a couple of months ago. My oldest son was driving my car to work when he was rear ended at a red light. He was ok, except for whiplash. I did spend about 6 hours with him in the er, though. My car was damaged, but thanks to my husband, I could still drive it. He is an Auto Body Tech. The guy you take your car to to fix! So he checked it out, and fixed my tail light so I could still drive it while waiting to wade through all the insurance paperwork.

About a week and a half later, the other persons insurance company tells us they are totaling the car. We chose to buy it back from them, so had additional paperwork to do. We had to apply for a salvage title, then when that came back, apply for a rebuilt title before we could drive the car again. We found this out the hard way. I was out with the car while my husband went to the court house. He came and told me I couldn’t drive it anymore. Yikes! I did drive it home. Thankfully, it was only about 5 miles!

This is the part of the story that really starts the lunacy!

I have been driving my son to work every afternoon. So now that we were down to one car, I had so much more driving to do! Let me start by saying that my husband & son work in a different town than we live in. My husband works about 20 miles from home, and my son works about 23 miles away. Same direction as my husband, just 3 miles beyond his work. Due to traffic, it usually takes at least 30 minutes each way, sometimes more.

So I had to drive my husband to work in the morning. Drive my son to work in the afternoon. Drive to pick up my husband at work. Then one of us had to go pick up our son from work. Thankfully, my husband picked him up most days. There were several days, though, that I picked him up.

Are you catching that? I did 3 or 4 – 40+ mile round trips a day! That’s about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours in the car. Every day. It sure felt like I was living in my car! Throw in cooking, cleaning, laundry, and homeschooling my 17 year old. I barely had time to breath!

Then on Memorial Day, while still having only one car, I spent over 6 hours in the er with my sick mother. Then a few days later I had to spent 8 or so hours with my sick son in the er. Then a few days later, I spent about 9 or 10 hours in the er with my yet again sick mother.

In a 10 day period, I took people to the er 3 times! That’s not counting doctor visits I took them to, as well. While still being a one car family. Thankfully, everyone is on the mend now. Except for 2 follow up appointments scheduled right now, I hope to stay far away for doctors and hospitals!

I finally got my car back a couple of weeks ago! I was so happy. For 4 days. That’s when we were driving down the highway, at about 59 mph, and a deer ran into our car! It was at 11:20 in the morning! We didn’t see it until right before it ran into the car.

It was a good 4 days! lol I lost the use of my car for another 2-3 days while my husband had the windshield replaced, put a new drivers side mirror on, and pounded out some dents. Lots of dents. At this point, I do not even car what the car looks like. As long as I can drive it, I couldn’t care less if it is dented.

So now I finally have my car back for real, I only have to take my son to work in the afternoon. My husband usually picks him up at night. Oh, what shall I do with all that free time?!

I thought that once I got my car back life would calm down. I should have known better! Especially since I had events scheduled on my calendar.

On Saturday, June 20, I hosted a wedding shower for my 18 year old daughter and her fiancee. It was a great shower! It just involved a lot of planning and prep. I plan on sharing shower pics later this week.

I volunteered in the kitchen at my church for VBS last week. So I was there 3-4 hours a night Sunday thru Thursday. While packing for….

2 days ago, on the 1st, we helped our 21 year old daughter move to a big city a couple of hours from home for college. She has attended a local community college for 3 semesters, while living at home. Now she will be going to a big university to finish her degree. She wants to get a B.S. in Anthropology. She spent a couple of years after homeschool high school working, and deciding what she really wanted to do. And now she’s going for it! I am so proud of her!

Her moving means that I now have to deal with all the “stuff” she left behind! I’m not sure how she crammed so much stuff in her bedroom. She took 2 car loads of stuff to college with her. And the rest has exploded all over my house!

That is a few of the major things that have made my life so crazy lately. There were many, many smaller things adding to the lunacy, too!

I spent yesterday on the couch all day with a bad headache. I didn’t even go to church it was so bad. My step counter registered under a thousand steps for the entire day. So, yeah, I barely moved.

I have a bit of a lingering headache today. But I am ready to get back at it!

Ready to get this house in order after the shower and moving upheaval.

Ready to get back to blogging!

*Edited to add the part about the deer. My husband just told me I left it out. How could I forget that part?!

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