Fun with Daddy

Work has been very busy for Daddy with school starting up, so we've been extra glad for the time we get to enjoy with him!

A friend whose family no longer camps gave us their tent! :o) We had fun settting it up yesterday!

(Sorry, it's the only picture I have with it up--Hannah was dealing with itchy bugs and Peter had bumped himself on the rock wall!) It's a very nice tent and much larger than our old one. I must say, though, that any tent is very stuffy and warm when it's 90+ degrees outside! The kids had fun playing in it though. :o) Just had to keep them liquified! :o)

So, one more week with meetings, and then things will hopefully settle into a more "normal" schedule. :o)

Electrician in Training

And here's our second trainee! :o) He helped Daddy finish up the outlets in the livingroom this weekend.

1. File the edges of the hole. (Never mind that he was using a pencil . . . ) :o)

2. Test the fit.

3. Push the flap down so it does fit.

4. Grin with delight at making it fit.

5. Attach the cover. (Yes, the power was off. And yes, he was admonished that screwdrivers and outlets are not a normal combination.)

Two-year-olds are fun, too! :o)
(Most of the time . . . just require a good deal more supervision than four-year-olds!)
:o)

Mommy in Training

Hannah's been my shadow this week. :o) Often she's busy playing or whatever while I'm fixing dinner and such, but this week she was at the counter for nearly every meal. It's been fun! :o) The company is enjoyable, and she's actually becoming a real help. :o) (Mommies and Grandmas should understand what I mean by that.) :o) It's especially nice to have help with "lunch train!" It really does go faster when there's a second set of hands to fill the bags!


She's also learning to make her "lists." We never go shopping without a list! (That's actually a very handy reminder when we're at the grocery store and she sees something attractive. My simple response is that it's "not on the list." She doesn't question it because she knows full well that I only buy what's on my list. So the second question becomes, "Can we consider putting it on the list for next week?" I'm always glad to consider that--but Mommy's secret is that Hannah rarely (maybe only once?) remembers it long enough to ask for it to be on the list next week!)

And here's our princess. :o)

I love having a four-year-old!

No more backwards hooks!

It's been a pretty ordinary week with meetings, school, meetings, . . . (Umm, did I mention meetings? We've had at least five meetings outside of church in the last three weeks for various and sundry things.) However, one of the nice things about blogging, and trying to do so regularly, is that it helps you look at even "ordinary" weeks and see what was special about them. So as I looked at the few pictures I managed to capture, I found some special things even in an ordinary week.

However, for me, I'd like to state that my ironing is completely caught up. For the first time since at least January, and maybe before. So now you know--ironing is not my strong point. But I determined that I would get caught up, and I set a goal of ironing five items a day. I didn't quite manage it every day, but over about a week and a half, I got it finished. So there. It's nice to be caught up. And it really wasn't hard ironing five items a day. That's doable. It's the huge pile which takes 3+ hours which had me overwhelmed to the point that I wouldn't even bother trying. (And for the record, no, it wasn't actually "piled." If something needs to be ironed, I simply hang it up in the closet with the hook backwards. ) So . . .

Three cheers to no more backwards hooks!

(Till the next load of laundry . . . )

:o)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Heather!

We love you! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Scissor Skills

Peter's scissor skills continue to improve! He has moved beyond "fringing" to actually cutting corners and edges, and today he successfully cut out the head from the puppy picture Hannah donated to his cause . . . not bad for a 27-month old. :o)

What I didn't take a picture of (simply didn't think of it till I was sweeping the last pile), is the very large mess that gets generated during these creative enterprises. Think 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper cut into approzimately 50+ slivers of varying sizes and shapes. But it's a reasonable trade off for the 15+ minutes of quiet self-entertainment that goes along with it. :o) The paper only takes about 30 seconds to clean up. :o)

More Fun with Friends

Since Daddy had to work this weekend, we decided to make it a special morning with a visit from Hannah's friend Faith Ann. :o) (Seeing them together reminds me so much of times spent with Aunt Heather when she wasn't "Aunt" Heather yet!)

We played at the creek for a while . . . very quickly migrating beyond "the deep part."

Ready for lunch! :o)

And here's the girls playing Princess . . .

Good friends are a blessing! :o)

Pizza, Pastor, and Horsey Rides!

We thoroughly enjoyed having our Pastor and his wife visit for dinner Friday evening! It was fun especially for the kids to spend time with them outside of church. Hannah was super excited all day, and was asking every two minutes from about an hour before their arrival exactly how much longer it was going to be . . . "Any minute, Mommy? Any minute?" (Thankfully both kids took good naps, or I suspect I would have been hearing that question most of the afternoon!)

Peter was quite pleased not to have to take turns for horsey rides--he had his own "horse!" :o) (Thanks, Pastor!) :o)

After our pizza dinner, we went outside to show Pastor and Mrs. M'r the creek and other cool things around the yard.

And here's the lovely "Mrs. Pastor" as well. :o)

Thanks for sharing your evening with us! :o)

The Motivation of Company

Company . . . an excellent motivator for all sorts of good general cleaning and organizational projects. :o) In my mid-week preparations for dinner with our pastor and his wife on Friday, I took a look at the dining room window and determined it needed help. (We still had the rope and flags hanging from Indepence Day!) After considering multiple ideas, I finally decided to see if I could make use of the 1/2 yard of floral fabric I had bought as a sample earlier this spring. Combining that with some fabric remnants from former curtain projects yielded the following:

It's not done yet--we need to buy a decorative brushed nickle curtain rod and I need to look at some manufactured back-tab curtains to figure out how the tabs work, but masking tape and an old curtain rod are quite acceptable for now. :o)

Oh, and here's the cutest part--I made them Thursday evening, and Friday morning when Peter went in the kitchen with Daddy, he immediately pointed out the curtains. Daddy suggested that he should "show Mommy." So Peter came to the bedroom, took my finger, and led me to the dining room to show me his discovery. :o) I asked him if he liked them, and he simply smiled and said, "Uh-huh." :o) Now that's what I call success! :o)

P.S. - When the Lord fixes something, He really fixes it. Oh me of little faith--I fully expected that I'd need to take my sewing machine in for repairs to get it to sew evenly. I thought Saturday evening's blessing was just a one-time blessing to help me get over the hump in finishing Hannah's dress. It never crossed my mind that whatever change took place between last Saturday afternoon and evening would be permament. However, my machine continues to sew beautifully even stitches! Praise the Lord!

Evidence of Rain

We left for church Wednesday evening with just a few sprinkles hitting the windshield. We returned home to the same--just a few sprinkles. However, our creek bore ample evidence that it had rained a good bit harder in between times.

Homemade Baby Wipes

Here's a random "how to" article--feel free to skip it, but it might be of interest to some, so here we go! :o)

We use homemade baby wipes at our house--the home nurse who visited after Hannah was born told me about them, and we've been hooked ever since. They're considerably cheaper than storebought wipes, and there's no chemicals or anything to make little bottoms sting. I've given the supplies as a baby gift at lots of baby showers, but just the other day I had someone else ask me how to make them. I decided to take some pics as I went through the process this morning.

Supplies:
- 2 quart plastic container
- 1 roll Bounty Select-a-Size paper towels
- 2 tablespoons baby bath (any variety)
- 3 tablespoons baby oil
- 2-1/2 cups boiling water

Instructions:
1. Cut the roll of paper towels in half. If you have two containers, you can make two at once, otherwise, save the other half for the next batch.
2. Place towel roll in container (cut side down).
3. Drizzle baby bath and oil over top of towels.

4. Pour boiling water over towels.

5. Once cooled, remove core from towels.

Wala! Simple homemade baby wipes! (And as long as you keep the supplies on hand, you never have to worry about a run to the store when you find that you've used the last one--just make a new batch.) :o)

First Day of School

It's been a rather busy week all around--mostly just getting adjusted to a new schedule with a few meetings thrown in for good measure. :o) School started on Monday, and here's our big girl ready for K4! :o)

It's hard to believe our little girl is in Kindergarten! It seems like just a few weeks ago we brought her home from the hospital! Time flies!

The Oil Change Pit

All of you car mechanics out there will appreciate our new home's oil change pit . . . Chris most certainly does! :o) Here it is in action . . .

The trash can is just the right height to hold the pan.

Ah, it's nice not to be on your back for such things! :o)

The Finished Product

Thanks so much for all of the kind comments about Hannah's dress! :o) Here she is wearing it Sunday morning . . .

Mission Accomplished!

Kudos to my wonderful husband who not only significantly improved the operation of my sewing machine, but took the lion's share of "kid duty" today to allow me to sew.

It has been a very long day, but praise the Lord, the mission is accomplished, and Hannah's dress is finished! :o)

I have learned much today.

1. Sewing the second sleeve is 10x easier than sewing the first sleeve.

2. It will be worth the investment to have a professional cleaning/tune up of my machine so that it will sew even stitches. (It's on its second generation of school clothes!) :o)

3. The Lord cares about little things. I worked all morning and afternoon and by dinner I had one sleeve left to sew on and the hemming. I was exhausted though. Not only has it been a very long time since I've sewed clothing, but my machine was being very cranky--it refused to sew even stitches. After dinner, we attended an icecream social at church. We returned refreshed, and after the kids went to bed, Chris volunteered to do one of my yet undone normal Saturday chores so that I could sew the last sleeve. Not only was it MUCH easier sewing my second sleeve than the first sleeve, but my machine sewed even stitches. That may not seem like a huge deal to you, but it was to me. The difference between before dinner and after was profound. Maybe the Lord commissioned an angel repair service, I'm not sure, but I was so thankful and so very encouraged! Encouraged enough to plug on and it's now ready for tomorrow morning! (A late night bathroom trip gave me an opportunity to have her try it on, and that's when I modified the pattern to include the ribbon--it was quite a bit too big without it.)

Anyway, just wanted to share my blessing. :o)

A Special Evening

With a promised reward of three M&Ms, Hannah happily dressed up in her new outfit from Grandma H. so that Mommy could get a special picture for the living room shelf.

Gulp.

Our little girl is growing up!

And here she is ready for her K4 Open House.

However, it was an absolutely beautiful evening . . . low 80's! So we combined the Open House with a thoroughly enjoyable pizza picnic and fun at the park!

And away we go!

Weeeee!

Peek-a-boo! :o)

Yikes! Your big sister taught you that?!? Who said 2-yrs-old was big enough to dangle over dangerous precipes without a care in the world?!?!?

(Another picture, closer up, of this same activity was abundant reminder of the very good reasons that little girls wear shorts under their skirts!) :o)

Ah yes, a lovely special evening! And the Open House went very well, too. Hannah's excited about her first day at K4 on Monday! :o)

Mommy's working on it. :o]