Mr. Kerrie's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe!!!!!

So you think you're ready to make spaghetti sauce, huh? In case you missed it, here's the post where I shared how I process tomatoes so they'll be all frozen and ready to make sauce when you are ready.

Before I give you the recipe, let me show you the process of making the sauce. First, make sure your commercial freezer door was somehow gets left open just a smidge so your frozen processed tomatoes will be almost perfectly thawed for you when you are ready. Seriously, though, thaw the frozen tomatoes that you already have processed (skinned, cored, quartered). Below is my hubs dumping out the tomatoes (unspackled walls in the background; I'll get around to it; get off my back already!). Note the big stockpot, even though the recipe I give you will be for if you just use a one-gallon bag of tomatoes. He probably quadrupled his recipe for each batch.

Your tomatoes will be gorgeous in the pot and ready to make sauce for you to enjoy. Tomatoes are all about making you happy.

Here's my man chopping up herbs from our herb pots on our deck. You have my permission to use store-bought. Just don't come raid my herb pots ... or try to steal my man who can cook.

Thickening on the stove, a ninety-seven 2-day process.

1 gallon processed tomatoes (16 cups, 4 quarts)
1 T rosemary, fresh, chopped
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bulb fresh garlic, chopped  (or if you are like me, just use 1 T minced from a jar)
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 T fresh oregano, chopped
1 T dried and chopped thyme
3 bay leaves
1 T dry marjoram
1 T salt to taste

Start all of the above boiling in a stock pot.

Reduce heat to a simmer. It will take hours for this to reduce and thicken ... 4 hours or more with you stirring every 10 minutes.

If you get annoyed by this lengthy process, toss in some tomato paste to desired thickness whenever you are ready to throw in the towel. [! Don't really put a towel into the sauce, please!!!!!]

Once it's as thick as you want it and tastes how you like it (might need more salt, a little sugar, more garlic if you love it a lot), keep it hot then either eat it up yum or CAN IT. No, I am not telling you to personally can it, like to shut up. I am saying get out your canning jars and lids and screw-tops and your big boiler thingie and go to town. This is the part where I get off because I'm not the canning expert in my family.

Thankful Thursday with Linky!: Tbox To-Go Tampon Holder

I like to involve my husband in the review process whenever I can, especially when feminine products are involved. Right about now you should be thinking something along the lines of, "Her poor father, the dad to an only child and a girl at that." or "Her poor husband." while shaking your head. P.S. Don't look at my unspackled walls. I am not proud of my brand of lazy.

How do you store your tampons in your diaper bag or purse or backpack? Do you just toss them in and the wrapper comes apart and the tampon gets all dirty and then you throw it away? Do you just stuff them in your bag and then can't find one when you need one? Do they fall out at a bad time? Does your kid get one out in the middle of church and wave it around before you can stop him?

The Tbox To-Go tampon holder is genius, and I wish it had been around when I was a teenager. Heck, it's cool for me now, and I'm 41 years old. Not only do you not have to worry about any of the above, but it also has a pill box attached to the end for you to put your Advil in! The Tbox holds up to 3 tampons, and they are protected. And nobody can see what's in there. And your kids can't get it open very easily. Trust me, I did the quality control test at my house.

The Tbox comes in three different colors and can be purchased here for only $14.99 (free shipping on two or more). They can be found here on Facebook.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Link up your reviews/giveaways here!

Keeping Kids Busy/Homeschool Science/Art/Geology

There are many FREE ways to keep kids occupied, but why not go to Michael's and blow a bunch of money on, say, a lip balm making kit or on a paleontologist kit? Then why not hit a garage sale and buy a bunch of cheap Easter egg kits and color Easter eggs in August? And then why not just call it art and science and geology?

Tackle-It Tuesday: Kid Shoes

Every Tuesday, I tackle a different project around my home that's been bugging all of us!

I have a very nice problem: too many kid shoes. We receive shoes from all over the place. We have shoes for Sam that his brothers gently wore. We have shoes from older boys for our older boys. We have shoes from older girls for our girls. Sometimes we find we don't have a particular size and have to go buy a cheap pair. I can't remember what happened in Wyoming but I do remember having to stop at Target in Salt Lake City to buy new shoes for Eva. We accumulate shoes around here. Not me, but the kids. Definitely not me. I wish!

So the only thing I've been putting off longer than SPACKLING (yes, I will get around to it ... probably when the weather is colder. Then you will be sick of spackling and sanding and painting pictures, mark my words.

Packaways Rockin' Storage Solution Review

I swear the blogging/reviewing universe is looking out for me because I keep getting these totally useful and absolutely wonderful things to review! Packaways Multipurpose Storage Boxes are no exception.

Here's my daughter modeling the product for you, readers. We'd just been to the pool, so that would explain the swimsuit!

Here are the reasons why I love these boxes:

1. They are colorful (more colorful than clear plastic bins, that's fo sho!)
2. You don't have to keep track of the dang lid (stuff gets lost around here, SHOCKER!)
3. They set up fast and easy and anybody could do it, even a kid
4. They have white panels on the sides so you can write on them what's inside the box
5. They stack easily
6. They come in different sizes
7. They are sturdy
8. They store FLAT when you're not using them so you I don't have to listen to your my husband gripe about having too much stuff and where will we put it all and on and on (hint: you store stuff INSIDE the boxes and keep it wherever you want and if you don't need the box right now you store it nice and flat, say, under a bed or in a closet or behind the fridge!)
9. They make good fort boxes for the kids
10. They make great moving boxes
11. They store old baby clothes so I can't actually SEE them, thereby making me want another baby
12. They are made in America (not that there's anything wrong with other countries, dear readers from other countries, but I happen to live in America and like to support American-made stuff when I can)

Here they are on Facebook (you gotta LIKE them!), and here's a little ditty on YouTube.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Live Clean (Baby) Products Review

This Live Clean (Baby) stuff makes me want to have another baby. Instead, I used it on my current brood and on myself and absolutely love it! Let's go over the products, which are available at Walgreen's and also through Walgreens.com (and I found some on Drugstore.com also). I love that these products are eco-friendly with natural ingredients that are good for my family and for the environment.

Non-petroleum jelly. Wondering why it's NOT petroleum jelly? Check out this creepy article. This stuff is just as great as petrolatum-containing products but I feel better putting it on Sam's buns, on owies and on my lips.

Shampoo and wash. Smells great and works great to clean my little grubby ones and their hair.

Baby bath. Smells amazing and makes great bubbles for the littles to mess around in the tub.

Baby lotion. I kinda mighta stolen this for myself. I did put some on the kids, but why should they have all the soft skin? It smells nice (seeing a trend here?) and keeps me moisturized all day.

Bar soap. This comes 3 bars to a box, so I put one in the kids' bathroom and one in ours. My husband and I love it for showering and I love knowing I'm getting the kids clean without perfumey junk.

Check back in the coming weeks because Live Clean (Baby) had agreed to send an entire set of these products (plus diaper rash ointment) to one lucky winner in a giveaway. I'll be tweeting and Facebooking like crazy so make sure you click the top left side of the blog to stalk me everywhere you possibly can!

Disclaimer: I got these products for free but was not paid to review them.

Returning to School Uniquely

Today I'm taking a little break from the production of The Kerrie Show, and we have a guest post by HB Redbird about heading back to school in a unique and trendy way.

More schools are going to uniforms and pre-packaged school supplies. It is difficult for children to feel unique in a public-school setting. Parents are left with children who wish they could have a specific color notebook or something to call their own. Of course, children could be unique with backpacks and lunch boxes, but parents can make their children light up with the use of personalized gifts for school supplies. 

Thankful Thursday: Pourty Potty Seat

Sometimes I love my job. Like when a Pourty Potty Seat (sounds like Port-a-Potty, right, and it is!) gets delivered to my front door when I have a kid who is almost 3 years old thinking about potty training! Here are some pictures before we discuss the product:

We got all excited and told him he got something in the mail.

"Is it a hat?"

Sister Callie took him up to the bathroom with it ... it was a family affair.

Later he really peed in it! Then we just picked it up by the front (the "cat ear" go in the back") and dumped it into the toilet, then rinsed it out.

I had actually gotten rid of our last potty seat after Eva potty trained because it was such a clunky pain in the butt. I got sick of the lid falling on them when they were using it, wrestling with it to get the white bowl out to dump into the toilet then getting it back into the potty seat. And it was kinda big. So he's been attempting to stand on tippy toe to pee in the big toilet but that doesn't always work out. God then sent us a Pourty :-)

Other potty seats cost up to $30. The sturdy, award-winning, already a hit in the UK (Beatles, anyone?) Pourty is only $14.95 through Amazon.com and you can toss it in your vehicle for on-the-road fecal fun.

Here are some better pics the company sent over:

Disclaimer: This company found me and asked if I would like to try their product. They did not pay me to review it, but I did put a link to Amazon.com in here if you want to buy it, and I do get a teensy kick-back on that.

Wordless Wednesday: Cross-Dressing Kids

Okay, so you have 3 pictures of my daughter Eva dressing in her brothers' clothes. She also has Sam dressed up and she called them the Krowt Brothers.

This one is older .... Sam dressing in some princess costume or another. This is what happens when little boys and little girls live in the same house together. Go figure. It's cute. Maybe they'll all be on Project Runway someday or something.

Dove Intensive Therapy Conditioner

Fans of Tackle-It Tuesday, I'm sorry, but I did not ONCE AGAIN get to the spackling. 

I hung out a lot of Labor Day weekend and swam and read to my kids and read to myself and it rocked. We'll do that post another time. 

Instead, let's discuss the fascinating topic of my hair, shall we?

I was excited to get this tube of Dove Intensive Therapy Conditioner in the mail because I love all things beauty product-related. I'm not huge on makeup, but I certainly do love my hair products and face creams and body lotions. 

I also love summer, but all the swimming I do with my kids and being out in the heat KILLS my hair and makes it all frizzy and then it turns plain greasy.

A Day at the (Kansas) Beach

Yeah, I'm taking a break from Moshi Monster Mondays for a bit ... too many great giveaways going on and other cool happenings in our lives. I'd be happy to accept a guest post on Moshi Monsters stuff, though ... hint hint at those who love all things Moshi!

Happy Labor Day, by the way!

Today I'm showing some pictures of a recent day off Aron had and how we went to Melvern Lake in Kansas, about an hour plus from our home in Overland Park.

So you know how my laptop, Toshiba Laptop McLoughlin, is my 6th child? Well, these are my husband's 6th and 7th children. He saved up a long time for his modest fishing boat and rarely gets to take it out. Then it was time to get a new vehicle when his old truck crapped out. He needed something big enough to hold a big family and haul a boat. It guzzles gas and cost too dang much, but it does a good job and he loves it. Why shouldn't he have these things he works so hard for?

Just the boys went in the boat and met us over at the beach part. Don't freak out, haters, because YES, Joel put on his lifejacket immediately after this.

A ladybug for luck!

The kids had fun giving me a mud skin treatment. It was very relaxing to soak up some rays and get my skin all treated with ... uh, well, nasty lake mud.

Callie REALLY got into it and made sure to be thorough on my legs :-)

Me with all my kiddles at the beach. What an amazing day I will remember forever. And so great to spend time with Aron, as well, since he had been gone for so long.

Later Aron took just the older boys fishing and I went to a park in the area with the other 3 kids. This is an old-school slide for sure. The Slide of Death.

This picture will always make me want to cry a little bit. It is so beautiful. The end to a wonderful day! It was August 17 and we were honoring Great Aunt Eva's memory since she liked to fish with her husband Max.

A Dentist Visit = A Walk in the Park

So what do you think about going to the dentist? I never minded much, until I was 13 and had like EIGHT cavities somehow. I have these "soft teeth" ... whether you believe in that or not, my grandmother also has them. We are always having issues no matter how much we brush or floss. The older I get the more it hurts to go to the dentist. My last 2 fillings took weeks to recover from and a full bottle of Advil, friends.

Anyway ... going to the dentist with my kids is no problem. Years ago Joel and Callie had some cavity issues and Michael never has. The kiddie dentist (not the one pictured here; we have a stable of them) and his assistants like to castigate me about night nursing and how that is what caused their cavities.

Right, sugar had no effect; it was ALL that horrible night nursing I abused them with!

Here are the 5 other kids I brought to the dentist while Joel was in the chair getting his exam. My dentist has no Starbuck's machine and no video games, but my kids are happy just coloring and playing, and I love how at the "kid-friendly" dentists they are (1) always running late and (2) snotty about lots of children. This never made sense to me, so I stopped going to Doc Hollywood in Overland Park and now truck my butt to the Kansas City, Kansas ghetto because they are NICE there. And I've seen this dentist since I was a teeny one.

The hygienist rocks and doesn't mind that the other kids peek in on the kid being examined. 

I freaking HEART Sherry ... she is so great with the kids. Joel has no cavities but got a recommendation to the orthodontist. Ah, crap.

Dr. Stephen Brotherson is amazing! He puts my kids at ease like nobody's business. Here's Eva getting checked out.

Eva has a large array of princess toothbrushes to choose from!

How do your kids like the dentist? If they have sensory issues (Autism, Asperger's, other stuff), how does the dentist work out? How do you prepare your kid? What if they need serious work done ... how does that go down?

Michael is Famous!

It's still exciting for me when I get published in a magazine, even though I've been in over 100 of them. Every now and then a magazine will ask for a picture to go with an article, and over the years most of my kids have been in them. Michael has never been in one, though.

So I perused the online issue of San Diego Family today for my article on Lego Afterschool Enrichment Programs and there was Michael! I was so excited. He doesn't really care, but I think it's cool! Check it out ... page 50!

Big Brothers Rock

Stuff like this kinda makes me wish I had a big brother when I was growing up! Here's a fun video of Joel giving rides on our sidewalk. Still waiting for the Mexicans to show up and walk it like our neighbor "threatened."

Thankful Thursday: I Love Cascade Dishwasher Pods

No, I did not receive any of these to review. I wish. More like they had a big tub of these in the kitchen at Kingfisher Bend Ranch in Evanston, Wyoming and I used the living crap out of them. But they seemed too expensive for me to use at home. Then I remembered how EASY they were to use. Just toss one in and go.

We run the dishwasher AT LEAST once a day around my house so these are a lifesaver for me. I am happy to go all Pioneer Woman and scrub laundry on a washboard and do dishes by hand, but when you get the go-ahead from your rockin' husband to buy THESE, you buy them, dangit. I mean, it's not like I'm askin' for Prada heels or Chanel glasses. Wait, I do have Chanel glasses. Never mind on that little spoiled brat splurge for ME by ME for my 40th birthday party last year. Think they can turn those into bifocals soon without messing up the frames?

Wordless Wednesday with Linky: My Mommyvan Bumper Stickers

You know you want a Kerrie Show bumper sticker for your ghetto sled, too. You can TOTALLY have one, too. Just order one from VistaPrint like I did. I'm thinking of getting my car one of those cool WRAPS ... the entire van will be a big ad for my blog. Absolutely worth the few hundred bucks.