i love it when school gives me an excuse to craft!

I have been working on these beauties all afternoon. It feels so good to be sewing and creating! Can't wait to show you the finished product, so far they are turning out great. I will let you all guess what they are :)

never a dull moment...

You know the feeling when you are so tired you can't even talk? I think the exhaustion has extended to my fingers. I have no words, but these pictures are making me smile right now...

I am off to bed, hope your smiling too :)

happy birthday, Regan!

Regan is 7 today. The day has been a whirl wind of presents, school, toy stores and cake. I have not really stopped to reflect on the fact that my little girl is growing up. She was so teeny when she came into this world, 5 lbs 7oz and 19.5" long. Not much has changed in that respect, she is still teeny, but she no longer snuggles up on my chest to sleep. Actually, I am lucky if I can get a hug from her these days. She is fiercely independent and strong as can be. She is generous and caring. She has pushed and stretched me in ways I never could have imagined, before having kids, and has taken hold of my heart in a way that is impossible to explain... If you are a mother, you know what I mean.

Happy birthday, my Sunshine!

We like to open out presents early in our house :) Here is Regan with pieces of her sewing kit I got her for her birthday. She is always wanting to create and has been begging me to teach her to sew for months now. We've done a few project with foam and plastic needles, now we move on the the real deal!

Probably her favorite gift of the day. Thanks Grammy!

I am not sure what compelled me to make this cake, we will never be able to eat it all! Two cake mixes and three can's of frosting! But, your only 7 once!

Make a wish!

strategies for keeping your two year old busy during school

A favorite pass-time of Tallulah's. Pealing paper off of crayons!

introducing Mat Man!

This is Mat Man

He is part of the Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K curriculum that I bought for Max. He loves Mat Man, and can't wait to make him again every morning.
Actually, they all seem to enjoy Mat Man and even Tallulah sings along with the Mat Man song on the Get Set For School CD.
I am still trying to figure out how to fit Max's curriculum into our days that are already busy with Math and Phonics for Regan and Micah and Konos, but for now, Max is content to play with his letter blocks, polishing them and making Mat Man.

a peak into our week

This week has been pretty hairy. I did well at staying organized for most of last week, and then I lost it and have not yet recovered. That is why there have been no posts this week. Anyway, we have gotten a few things done and started a few others, here is what we have been working on this week...

Last week we were studying light and authority and part of that was lighthouses. We started making lighthouse this week, it still needs to be paper mached and painted, but it works! The kids are very proud of our first electrical project and Regan has big plans for the decorating of it.


We started studying horses this week and are learning about their points and markings. We read a book about the Pony Express today and yesterday we tried out hand at drawing horses. These two are my drawings.

This is Regan's. She does not like it, but I think it is pretty good for an almost 7 year old! I helped her draw the first few shapes, but she did most of it herself.

She gave up after the picture above and resorted to tracing horses and drawing scenes for them.

Must get back to my to-do list, more to come soon!

did I do something wrong, or is this normal?

My neighbor gave me 18 pounds of tomatoes Thursday night. He has a huge garden, probably 30 tomato plants, the same amount of cucumbers, some watermelons and peppers too and from what I can tell, they hardly use any of it! He gives some away, but lots of veggies just rot on the vines. I have considered climbing the fence and picking some, I am sure he would not mind, but his dog is not too friendly!

Anyway, I recently finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle and was inspired by all her gardening stories and recipes and thought I would give her tomato sauce recipe a try. She calls for 30 pounds of tomatoes, so I just cut the recipe in half. If you have ever wondered what 18 pounds of tomatoes looks like, this is it.There were not any instructions for how to make the tomato puree needed for the sauce, so I did some Internet research and went to work. This is where I am thinking I must have done something wrong. Those 18 pounds of tomatoes, that filled my biggest pot, only made 2 jars of sauce. Is that right? If it is, then that is a lot of work for very little return! I hope it is good!