Seedling turns One!

Hard to beleive it's been a year already!

The question I was repeatdly asked was "so what are you going to do on her birthday?".  I responded with "we're going to stay home and have a lazy, quiet day", and I felt that most people seemed disappointed.  I can tell you that we were not!   We had the opportunity to spend the whole day with Seed, unintrupted, unscripted, to just enjoy being with her, to reflect on her first year, and to pray into her next year with us.

Alright, the "quiet" part kinda happened ... and we did not forgo the birthday celebration.  Seed and Sprout decorated the kitchen with chocolate and butterscotch finger paint, while Speedy and Sunshine each baked and decorated her a small cake.

And she loved the cakes so much, that she stood up in her chair, and began dancing!

This project has been in the works for some time, but I did not want to spoil it. 

I haven't knit anything since I was seven, when my mother taught me to knit a scarf.  I have thought about trying to learn again, but finding the time/energy for somthing I don't really need to be doing ... yeah, it's just not going to happen.  Then Sunshine recieved a knitting loom as a gift.  Ah - this I can handle! Yes, you could call it cheating, and I would not agrue, but this was still quite an undertaking.

Two buntings for two new precious babies. I chose red and white so that they would be unisex, and had intended to add a flower/car emblishment when babies came, but life got in the way, and I decided best get the gifts to the babies before they outgrow them.

They are far from perfect, but full of love.

These also fit our cabbage patch dolls perfectly for when they are outgrown!

Getting back into "the swing of things" has not been easy.  I am having a hard time trying to do too much, but not getting anything done. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

For me, this comes down to priorities, organization, and schedule. 

Prioritizing is never fun for me.  I find this difficult because there is not usually an obvious, frivilous drain, or an easy solution!  It means really praying into what things need to be given my time an energies, and what things are not as important.   Yes, it means "giving up" doing some things that I value, but I find I am able to value my other priorities even more.

Organization can really make or break my priorities.  A house worthy of Better Homes and Gardens is not one of my top priorities, however, it does need to maintain some stanard for me to focus on my priorities.  If I fail to organize, I can spend all my time cleaning and "fixing" (which can be neverending) and never get around to my priorities.

Lastly, every time I make a shift in priorities, I realize that my whole household feels these shifts, and it can take some time to cement into our schedules.  I try not to overschedule our time, but the more consistant I can be, the more the children will know what is expcted of them (routine = less disclipline), and again, our main priorities are more likely to be met.

This week, I am my work in progress.  This does not mean I don't have a few other projects in the works, but whether or not they get completed really won't matter to anyone other than myself.

Sushi

Sushi!!

The first time I attmpted this was with a room of 2-year olds. It was so much fun watching them taste (and spit across the table) the ingredients before we rolled it.  Amazingly, they all tried it again once it was asssemble, and even more amazing - they ALL liked it!

(I still remember hearing the parents' comments:  "You got my child to eat WHAT?", and "He won't eat rice at home for us", etc.)

I stuck with fillings I knew they loved: carrots, cucumber, and tomato.

Still, I find myself shocked that my four children love this same sushi.  I have never gotten really creative with fillings, although they loved the imitation crab meat in there, and we do keep ginger and wasabi on hand to compliment the rolls.



Find other real food appetizer recipes at Whole Foods for the Holidays: A Real Food Progressive Dinner, hosted by Kitchen Stewardship this week.

Pea Soup

This post is part of a real foods for the holidays progressive dinner link up! Click through to GNOWFGLINS for more information.


I was suprised at how well my family ate this the first time I made it.  I am usually the only one eating peas around here, although the two babies seem to enjoy a few as well.  The soup, on the other hand, was devoured by all!

Ingredients:
  dried green split peas
  diced ham and/or ham bone
  sliced carrots
  chopped onion
  2 ribs celery plus leaves, chopped
  2 cloves garlic, minced
  1 bay leaf
  1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  salt and pepper to taste
  6 cups chicken broth

Method
  Layer ingredients in slow cooker in the order given, adding the broth last.
  Do not stir ingredients.
  Cover and cook on high 4—5 hours or on low 8—10 hours until peas are very soft.
  Some of my family prefer it to be pureed in the blender before I serve it.

The best part is that other than the ham/ham bone, it is all ingredients we normally have in the house.  This makes it a perfect recipe for using and stretching that left-over ham from Thanksgiving!

Welcome Back

I can't really say that I "took the summer off", but I am thankful!  We had a busy summer, but enjoyed it thouroughly!  Now that we seem to be into a more scheduled routine, I hope to get back to adding some posts. 

The highlights ....

... spening time with friends and family

... Seed decided she was ready to stand up and start chasing the boys!
                                              (wrong way, girl!)



Sprout (lazy me, just pictures!)

I was looking through some of Sprout's latest photo's today ...

Do you think I never wash his face? LOL

Join Us!

We are looking for participants for our Summer Photography Challenge - the challenge is to be purposely taking more pictures, not challenging against each other for better pictures.

We are starting off with a game of "I Spy" ... I'd love to keep this going, but need participants!

Check it out, follow the buton on the right hand of this blog.

Speedy's Story

Speedy usually isn't very talkative on Sundays when he is released from Sunday School.  If I ask about his class, I usually get an "I don't know" or, "I'll tell you later."  Either way, I do get to hear about it later.  In great detail. 

This week, when I asked about the picture he made, I got the "I'll tell you later". 

When Maverick asked what they did, Speedy told him they learned about Jesus being born.  Maverick thought June was a weird time to learn about Christmas. Speedy then elaborated. "God is love because he gave Jesus to be born to save us." OK.  That made a little more sense.

It wasn't until Monday night over dinner that Speedy finally unpacked the story about his picture.  And a story it was ...

"One day, Jesus came to visit me at my house.  We did a couple games, then a couple puzzles and books.  Then we went outside and played soccer.

Then me and Jesus builded a big church - a huge church.  All the children in the world went inside the church and Jesus told them about him and God.

And then God made a big, huge field - bigger than lots of soccer fields - and all the children had a team.  God's team.  They broke into a thousand and ten teams.  Yeah, but God did not let Satan's people play.

Their mom's and dad's and grandma's and grandpa's came to watch them play, and to watch Jesus play.

Then they ate supper.  Jesus took the bread, broke it in half, and gave it to all the children. He said, "Eat this; it is my body."  Then he took wine, and said "drink this, this is my blood I'll give to you".  And they all prayed, ate the bread, prayed again, and drank the wine.  Then Jesus got food out - perogies with his body, and juicy sausages with his blood.  That is what he gave them.

After they ate, they had a meeting, and talked.  They talked about fighting Satan and the devil.  Then they went out and did it!  But it wasn't real fighting.  They said God's word, and they prayed.  And guess what?  Satan did not bother ANYONE! and it was the happiest world ever!

THE END

This is the story from Speedy's picture,
and this is the story that he wrote."

Wow!  My hand was sore, and the writing was very messy to keep up with him, but there it is!

p.s.  I checked with his ss.teacher, and they did do the Christmas Story in June - but with a twist!

Feeding the Birds

We spent a little time outdoors today, feeding the birds,

and if this makes you think of:

birdseed,

breadcrumbs,

or sunflower seeds,

and if feeding by hand looks something like this:

and if you are picturing a quiet backyard ....

YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW MY BOYS THAT WELL!

This is Speedy, using his water-filled bird whistle to call the birds, so he can hand feed them the worm he has just dug out of his very own, 2-foot-deep mud hole!

LOL

The city has done it's spring clean-up down our street.  The old trees have all been trimmed, and the cut branches have been shredded.  They were too quick infront of our house, but we managed to sneak down the street and salvage some branches for Speedy's room.

He had a blast choosing different yarns, and then weaving them in and out of the branches.

The branches are now high above his loft bed, and I am sure that he will continue to add to them over the next few weeks.

This whole idea of posting a "work in progress" does not work well for me.  Why?  Because many of my "creations" are spur of the moment, I want it done NOW projects.  This one, for example, I saw a scarf at a thrift shop, brought it home, and decided last night that Seed could use a new dress. 

This dress is actually only half of the scarf, so maybe the "in process" can be what I do with the other half!!!  Matching pants/shorts/skirt, or maybe a bonnet?

(My not-so-willing model -- Yes, she did wear it today!)

Math lesson, or child labor?

Well, I suppose if we were receiving the profit, we would need to examine this further.  Since we are not, we call it a math lesson.  Speedy counts out the pennies, arranges them in rows of 10,  then skip-counts by 10 before rolling (mini-muliplication).  He even enlists Sprout's help to roll! 

 

These are all pennies from their piggy banks. 

When we began, Speedy wanted to donate it all to the church, so they can "send more people to go tell people who don't know Jesus".  He has been donating any change he finds. 

However, he received his first gift-card this Christmas, and we did let him pick and make his own purchase.  He enjoyed that, and now wants to donate half of his change, and save half to buy toys. (I see a nice introduction to division coming!)

Of course, Speedy has NO concept of the value (or lack of) of his money.  Now that he has counted several hundred pennies, he has "lot's of money" to replace laptops when he breaks the screen, or to buy people real Mustangs for their birthdays! LOL

I was making a transformer poster. At the bottom, it shows you who is allowed to look at the top and who is not. First of all, there is the girls, which aren't allowed to look at the top of the poster because girls don't like transformers and fighting. It says that boys are, and boys only are allowed to look at the top because they like transforers and fighting, but some boys don't.















I wrote on my poster that I have transformers at my house, that is the favorite thing in my life. I want it to be the only thing I have. There is nothing on the back, so I wrote a big X to let them know. I wrote all about transformers so that if some boys don't know, they can look at it and learn about the guns and stuff. Well, I accidentally made a mistake: I made Optimus Prime be the smallest one, by mistake, it was supposed to be Bumblebee who was the smallest of the Autobot group, and I had to make Bumblebee be the biggest one because then people would be thinking there was three Autobots, but I only know 2: Bumblebee, the Buggy Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and the twins, but I didn't make the twins yet. Maybe I will put them on today. Today I will make them, but when I make them, they willl probably look like the real ones, but I can't usually make the cars that similar, but I know I will today. Today is the day that I will make them finished, but maybe not. But today or tommorow I will go somewhere with only boys and I will show them everything about it, about fighting and transformers, when I am done.
I made this because transformers are my favorite. The End.

Ok, so it's been a while ... not that there has been a shortage of projects, but finding the time to download pictures and post them has been used otherwise.  But I am making it happen tonight, so here goes...

WRITER'S CRAMP?

100 circles in pencil, followed by 100 circles in marker...

Check back next week (or the following week) to find out more ... guesses are welcome!

QUILTS

  the boy's room, if you could say it had a color scheme, would be green and orange, so here is the plan for quilt #1: it is in greens and black , and here is my plan for quilt #2: it will be in oranges and black

LEFTOVER SCRAPS

I guess in an attempted "spring cleaning" of my sewing area, I decided that Seed needed a new dress to wear to Sprout's birthday party....quilting squares from a bed quilt and edging from clear bibs made a very colorful dress!  It was perfect with her grey wool pants with the felted flowers and the checkered crib shoes daddy bought!  [Mommy forgot to take a pic :( ].

Sprout Turns 2!

A Spring Walk to the Park

The weather has been getting warmer, and today we took time out for  a walk to the park.  Seed was the only one who got a free ride! She sported her new sunglasses, but decided it was still best to sleep for the duration of the walk. The see-saw produced a lot of smiles (yes, there has been a fine line between play and praise for Speedy lately) ... but it was the monkey bars that stole their attentions.

Speedy just learnt to hang upside down ... first time ever was on a swinging trapeez bar, believe it or not!  How could this possibly make me nervous?  I enjoyed watching, and snapped up these photos.  I was just thankful that Sprout was uninterested, and wandering around, exploring!