365Project.2014 | Week 9

It's so much more fun to do this project when I actually remember to take pictures throughout the week! :) 

55. Yep, we do have school around here. :) 

56. So thankful for Emmy who watches Matthew during Good News Club! :) Matthew loves playing at "Callie's house," and you'll notice that gender distinctions require NO coaching! ;)

57. Our dear friend and adopted "Grandma" was blessed once again in marriage this weekend! We are so excited for her, but we're definitely going to miss our Sunday morning rides with her as she moves away to her new husband's home. ♥

58. Spelling. Some lists are easier than others and this week's was one of the "others" ... our letter tile "game" came out and made practice much more fun (and effective!)

For any who are curious ... I made a table in Word and typed one letter per square till I had all the letters for his spelling list. We printed and cut those out. I also made "word cards" with a picture on one side to represent the spelling word and the word printed in light gray text on the backside (so that you couldn't see it through the paper.) He would pick a word card and then have to choose the tiles needed to spell the word correctly. He simply turned the card over to check his work. We don't do this every week, but on the weeks where he's still struggling significantly with his list on Wednesday, this helps him over the hump.

59. Mommy had a day without back pain! :) And since the weather was beautiful AND it was Friday AND strawberries were only $1.67/lb ... we made an excursion to Publix for the ingredients for strawberry shortcake! :)

Hannah and helpers made the from-scratch shortcake entirely by themselves while Mommy cut up strawberries.  What a joy it was to this Mommy's heart to watch them working together so sweetly! ♥

60. Saturday was a bit of a random day ... Daddy and Peter finished some rearranging in the shop, with one end result being a workbench for Peter. :) He's more than a little excited! ;)

Hannah and Matthew did some more baking ... Oatmeal Scotchie pizza was on the menu this time.

And Mommy sewed the valence for the front window in our bedroom! :)

61. Ta-da! :)

And one other random photo collection from the week ... Mommy's other sewing project. :) (With some less than professional pictures ... sorry!) I had some maternity shirts from previous pregnancies I had lovingly termed "tents." They were in the bag for Miracle Mart until I got inspired to see if I could replicate the side "ruching" I had seen at Target but didn't care to pay $20 for.

Pinterest made it look easy. ;) I started with the shirt I liked least ... since I could care less if I destroyed it ...

Before: Tent #1 ...

After: Multiple inches trimmed off the sides, elastic added for "ruching," and sleeves now appropriate for the upcoming season. :) It's now hanging in my closet! :)

And tent #2 ... it wasn't quite as huge as the other, but still more than a little shapeless.

And now it fits! (With room for the baby to grow ...) ;) (You'll notice I was actually wearing this one on Saturday when hubby snapped my photo!)

And that's that ... I've never altered clothing before, and am very excited about the results (and the potential!) Definitely have a few more shirts with which I'm looking forward to trying my new-found skill. Although, I strongly suspect that I might benefit from some instruction on how to sew with knit/stretchy material ... maybe YouTube should be my next stop ... 

Thanks for visiting! :)

365 Project | Week 47

As I'm sure was a common theme this last week, we thoroughly enjoyed having some extra time together at home.

 

Day 324. I am so thankful for Hannah's reading ability! She reads with great expression, and is nearly always cheerfully willing to oblige her brother(s) with a story. It's a blessing in so many ways!

 

Day 325. Hannah's been learning how to play the recorder, and Matthew decided to give it a try as well. He can actually get some pretty good volume out of that little piece of plastic. Of course, Mommy had to hold up the music for him so that he knew what notes to play. ;)

Day 326. I've determined that next year I'm going to plan a bit of a Thanksgiving unit for these few days of school, but we still incorporated something special into our regular studies. Each of the kids shared the 3 (or 5, if you're Matthew) things they're particularly thankful for this year. It was neat to see how such "simple" lists so clearly reflected their ages and personalities.

Hannah, age 7:

1. The chance to homeschool.
2. A church [where] I can learn to love and obey God.
3. Loving parents.

Peter, age 5:

1. Lincoln logs
2. Knex
3. Little Legos

Matthew, age 2:

1. Going to the library
2. Riding on Thomas
3. Riding on an airplane
4. Tractor rides on a big green bucket tractor
5. Going outside

Mommy, age 29ish:

1. The opportunity to homeschool my munchkins
2. The privilege of memorizing Scripture with my kids
3. My God's sovereignty

Day 327. We specifically kept things simple, and enjoyed Mommy's "Thanksgiving in a Crockpot" dinner--chicken, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and green beans ... all cooked in a single pot. Beautifully simple to prepare and to clean up. And then, since I realized I didn't have apples, we enjoyed brownies and ice cream instead of the apple cake I had planned. :)

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 328. We began our day with a family photo shoot ... can hardly wait to get back the pictures! After that, along with painting some trim, cleaning up leaves in the yard, and various and sundry other projects spearheaded by Daddy, Mommy pulled out her sewing machine and tackled a BUNCH of projects over the next few days. #1 on the list ... Toby's bed cover. The sheet she had brought with her from her first family finally bit the dust. I was so excited when I found the perfect fabric ... in the perfect size ... in my fabric stash. I *think* Toby's forgiven me for disposing of her shredded Dalmation sheet ...

Day 329. Under the close supervision of either Hannah or Peter, depending on the hour, I sewed a valence for our remodeled bathroom ... again with material from my fabric stash. I also washed, starched, and ironed our bedroom curtains and used the fabric scraps from the quilt my Grandma made for us to sew new tie backs! :) One advantage of using pieces from the fabric stash ... the available fabric determines the final dimensions, and thus simplifies some of the decision making procress ... ;)

Day 330. And the sewing machine came back upstairs! When Hannah mentioned at lunch that her friend's birthday was today and she would like to give her a gift, we brainstormed and decided that a skirt for her doll would suit the bill nicely. First to the computer for a (free) pattern, and then back to the fabric stash. I was so pleased with how simple this skirt ended up being to make, and I suspect that a few more will be in order before Christmas ... ;) It's a reversible wrap-around skirt--so cute! (And I love that you get two skirts for your time investment!)

 

And I am thankful.

Thankful for my husband, for my munchkins, for my God.

Thankful for my fabric stash.

Thankful for my sewing machine, as finicky as it be.

Thankful for a home and family to sew for.

Thankful for a daughter who desires to give gifts.

Thankful for a bit of time to do the "extra" things.



Clownin' Around

Clown Day, here we come!

A Fun, Productive Week

We enjoyed a great visit with Jenny's parents between Christmas and New Year's.

Along with having plenty of fun, we had a very productive week in the realm of "projects." :o)

The men ordered and spread a load of gravel in the driveway by the basement. It was torn up during "The Project" this fall, so it is a definite blessing to have it usable again.

Grandma sewed "window quilts" to help keep the cold out and the heat in! (She can testify that quilting with a 2 & 4 year old is much more . . . umm . . . exciting (?) than doing so on your own.) :o) Thanks, Grandma!

The men also removed the remainder of the chimney . . .

Before:

During:

(Peter supervised.)

After:

And although it's pictureless, it must not go undocumented that the ladies spent significant time cleaning up the black soot which managed to settle on every horizontal surface of the upstairs! Socks were still turning black even after multiple moppings!

The chimney brick was deposited in the creek, much to the kids' delight. The flood of early December wiped out a significant portion of the creek bank, so the chimney brick is the beginnings of what will be a retaining wall sometime next summer.

For the record, Peter's hands are still black in the creases. :o]

And then, last but definitely not least, the men tore down the walls which blocked in the back basement bedroom. Due to staging issues with our storage and such, we're working on just one room at a time, and this room had the least "stuff" in it. (Credit to the ladies for multiple hours spent removing what stuff was in it!)

We plan to use this back bedroom as our office and also a guest room until the front bedroom gets refinished. We decided to remove the block walls because they're difficult to work with and impossible to "adjust." We wanted to move the door over and put in some proper closets. So, down with the walls! One HUGE praise is that the mold resulting from former water problems appears to have been concentrated in the carpet and paneling!! We really weren't sure what we'd find when we pulled out the surface coverings, but it seems that most of the mold went with them! (At least there were no huge mushroom-like creations growing on the walls . . . !!) :o)

What a blessing to have Dad's truck to haul it all away!

And the kids definitely enjoyed the trip to the dump as well! :o) (Mommy used that time to take down the Christmas tree, while Grandma worked on window quilts without "help.") :o)

So that was that! In the midst of it all, we enjoyed great fellowship and more than a few rounds of Rummikub and other fun games. And our socks are no longer turning black. :o) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We love you!

So Grandpa, would you rather move brick walls or snow?? :o) At least the brick walls don't come back! :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!