workety work and Monster Gloves

This has been an unusual weekend. Fred started a second job, working 10-12 hours (plus the hour round trip drive) on Saturday and Sunday.

And I've realized that I'm spoiled.

Very.

My dear husband always lets me sleep in on weekends. And he always helps me bathe the kids. And reads to them and helps me put them to bed. He gets the drinks ready for dinner. And has the kids clear their plates.

Now I'm on my own for the weekends. It's brutal. (Actually, it's not that bad, I just miss my man!!)

The kids miss Daddy terribly, but he explained to them that one of us needs to bring in some extra income right now, and he wants it to be him. Gotta admire that. He doesn't mind me working, if I want to, but he doesn't want it to be out of necessity.

So, anyway, the kids and I have been doing some extra post-Halloween crafts. Monster gloves:

Nature Fairies

The other day we made "nature fairies." What's really neat about this is that Mrs. Smiley made some with her boys on the same day!! I didn't know anyone else would even think about such a thing! Just proves we are kindred spirits. :-)
I didn't get quite as elaborate, though, as I could not find my googly eyes. And the baby was around, so I didn't use the hot glue gun. These little creatures were fun, however.
Isabelle's Young Author book this year is about fairies, so we've been checking out books on how to draw them. This leads to lots of other winged crafts.

magnet kids

Dash gives this a lot of thought. How should he dress Little Lad?
After these photos were taken,
he got even more creative
and put a tutu and pirate hat on his little brother.

This was just an experiment.
I need to enlarge some full-front bathing suit pictures of the kids,
and cut out plenty of clothes and accessories
(maybe design my own, or have my little fashion designer sister do it)
and glue them on to magnet paper.

Magnet Baby looks happy with his new bouquet, doesn't he? :-)

yawn

I'm so tired. Another weekend of fun, busy things.

I've been crafting, crafting. In fact, we've been trying to fit in at least one fun craft each day, after school work. It's a great motivator for the kids (and me.) So far we've made Little Lad into a magnet baby, that we can dress up. And we've painted houses on our windows. And made scrapbook-y pumpkins to display. And painted wooden blocks, houses, and other nifty shapes. But my back-up drive is unplugged and my camera is in the other room. I am tired. I just need tea and a good book. This will be an early night. Pictures soon.

OH, and my hubby, Nature Man and my dad went on a float trip with cub scouts today. Nature Man's first float trip!! He L-O-V-E-D it!! Wish I had pictures, but I couldn't risk the camera going along. Good thing, too, because they came home drenched.

Dick and Jane

At our house, we love Dick and Jane books. Not just for the cute pictures, sweet kids that get along and help each other. But also for the clothes. Can't help but adore those lovely retro clothes. Pin It

My kids have been wanting a block puzzle for awhile now. We saw one months ago at an Amish restaurant. Loved it, but couldn't afford it.

So I made one for the kids the other day. Simple, simple. Lay block on picture. Trace block shapes. Cut out. Glue on blocks. Polyurethane for durability. Viola.

I've only done one side of the blocks so far, because I haven't found fitting pictures yet for the other sides.

I want to do photo ones next...

The Explorer Maze

When I was a kid, I loved to draw mazes. Don't ask me why, but I always had this fascination with art, puzzle games (but not plain puzzles,) brain teasers, mazes. I knew that pratice would come in handy someday!

My kids LOVE mazes. Tob got them activity books when Little Lad was born. They just finished all the mazes in those books, so I decided to make them personalized ones today. Here is The Naturalist, in search of his animals. The Artist's maze isn't finished yet, so she was trying out her brother's.

Just glue picture of child on. Put stickers, drawings, or photo of whatever they need to search for. And draw the maze. I put ours in our binder, in a page protector, so they can use a dry erase marker to do it over and over.

Maybe I'll do one for my husband for Christmas... he could be searching for keys, a remote, his cap... har har har

Mistreating the walls...and windows...and furniture!

Well, my sister Amy bought me a gorgeous print a couple weeks ago. I'd been pining for it, as it is to be the inspiration for my living room makeover. The darling gal set me afloat. How wonderful it is to have interior design-y people in the family. Today I had a scheduled consultation with her, to pick out paint colors, curtains, and a color for my furniture. Yes, I plan to sail into uncharted territory and recover my sofa and love seat by myself. Of course, it does help that my husband builds furniture for a living.

Where was I? Ah, yes. We picked "Spring Glow" for the walls, "Garden Sprout" for the accent, and a bright reddish orange "Paprika" for the furniture color. Curtains are also "spring glow" with yellow sheers behind them. This. Makes. Me. Happy. COLOR. My phrase for the room is "Simply Cheerful." Not too far-fetched a dream, eh?

I did just redo my living room (in fact, ALL the rooms) when I was pregnant, but that was more of a nesting thing, in my defense. And it was springtime. So I thought that dark, deep, intense shades would be great. You know sophisticated or something. It turns out that deep and dark, although gorgeous, is rather depressing to me during the cold wintry months when I 'm stuck in a small house with four small children.

Neither of my sisters have ever designed a room that didn't turn out stunning, so I have total confidence in them. Me? Well, I'm crafty and all, but I just don't know how to put colors together. Hence my signature "squiggly eye" handmade cards.

I love Nester's philosophy. It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. Why get your panties in a bunch, when something might look just as phenomenal with a quick color coat? I'm hoping that my couches look fabulous, but I'm not gonna sweat it if there are some crinkles or wrinkles. I'll just pretend that I intended it to look that way. Just hoping for no stray nails poking out! I may sleep on them before I invite any of y'all over again. Unless you think it's worth the risk. You could always just sit on the floor. Did I mention that I'm going to save for a rug, too? Oh yeah, baby!

So, anyway, I am VERY excited! Especially because I found so many great deals. You know me, I'm all about saving money!-- you know, since I have none. :-)

In other news, my Dad and hubby headed to the Naturals game tonight. Fred caught a ball. It would have hit my Dad in the face. (Way to pay attention, Dad.) Fred is totally psyched! He wrote the game info on the ball and then announced that it's going "in the bathroom." Yeah, poor guy just gets a bathroom. Hey, I think it's a pretty great arrangement. I decorate the whole house, and he just worries about one measly bathroom. He can do whatever he wants to that room (within reason, I mean, come on!) There are football figures, Chicago Bears colors, old action heroes, and now a famous baseball. No wonder he spends so much time in there. ;-)

Now, must get to bed. I won't be able to paint again until the kids go to bed tomorrow night.

So tomorrow we will dance and sing and jump around in our new half-way painted living room. And the kids can help me make more plans. Maybe we'll play Twister again while we discuss it.

Photo Idea

My friend, Miss Jenny posted a link to this fun photo idea, and I thought I'd try it out. We just cut the letters out of craft foam. I'll get some wooden letters next time around. I was short on time, though, as my Mimi's birthday is Monday. Happy Birthday, Mimi!!
(Don't ya just love how LittleLad bit the letter I? So cute!
My Mom's birthday is the 27th. Don't worry, she doesn't know how to work computers, so there's no chance of her seeing this early. ;-) The kids call her "Noni." Little Lad was not cooperating that day, so I went with a sleeping picture!! Heh.

The Playground

Well, it was a lot of work. I got my share of blisters, splinters, and ripped clothing...but now it is done, and we're enjoying the fruits of our labor! The kids LOVE it, and have already spent hours and hours playing. I have many people to thank: My dad for going with Fred to pick it up. Not an easy task. My uncle Chris for attempting to help Papaw put some things together. Heh. Papaw, for working diligently with me while he was here on vacation. And, most of all, my darling husband for helping construct and decorate the playground! This is a wood burning that Fred did for The Artist. We nailed in in the tower.

It has one coat of polyurethane, but it may need another.

The birdhouse that The Artist and The Naturalist painted, is nailed above the trapeze handles. Let's hope no birds poop on their heads. ;-)
We nailed a wooden snake and tiger up by the look-out.

You can see that LiveWire was helping by putting one of his superheroes up there also.

My flag banner thing is nailed to the playset as well.

It looks better there and gives them some more shade.

Yes, a lot of work. But totally worth it!!

Ethan said today that when he is a dad he will build his kids a playset, too. :-)

Awwww... Now, what to do with all the "extra" parts? ;-)

Making Craft Books

I always enjoy doing crafts with the kids. It's one of my "green light" activities; one of the things that excites and energizes me. There's just something about ribbon and glue that puts a smile on my face.

Fridays are our craft days. All day. Just crafts. So you see why I love Fridays. We make play dough, sew, paint, scrapbook, you name it. This morning I tried a new playdough recipe, and it worked out great. I tripled the recipe, and used kool-aid for coloring instead of food coloring.

Then we took our crafting supplies outside to the picnic table. Isabelle and Ethan helped me design & decorate little notebooks and journals that we have. I have one for my Bible notes and prayers, and one for each one of the kids, for all of the funny things they say and do...(plus my thoughts on certain matters, that they can read when they are older.) I got the inspiration for this from Simply. :-)

Party Animal notebook is Trevor's, of course:Fred writes in this one, about our family field trips and vacations:This one is empty so far. I don't know if it will be large enough to store my special homemade cards from friends...

This is my Bible/ prayer journal. I'm sure many of you have seen it, back when it was just yellow. Ah, the power of ribbon.
This is my day planner. Might as well give everything a dress-up!
My journal for Isabelle:
My journal for Nature Man, Ethan:

Been Busy!! Take a look-see...

Okay, so I've been neglecting my bloggin' buddies. In my defense, my computer was sick. I had completely filled up my hard-drive, to the point of not even being able to download my camera. UGH. So I had to backup files today, and get back into the swing of things!!

Here are the nursery curtains. I moved the white curtain rod shelf back in, put up the striped curtains, and used thread to lace the starfish up over the edge. I need to take a picture of the other shells, hung over the dresser. I'm still working on that dresser, too. Sherrill told me to post a picture of my kitchen light. Ignore the dust and focus on the wrapped flowers. ;-) And, yes, I realize that I'm also missing a valance in the background! Heh. I only have 20 or so projects going right now. Fred teases me about starting one, without finishing the others...but, hey, that keeps life fun! I can work on whatever I feel like! And, luckily, my sweet hubby really doesn't mind. He just grins and bears it. ;-)
The sewing machine. It's actually my Mom's, because my sister still has mine. Ah, sewing. I tried to make a lovey for Oliver. It did not turn out well. I will not subject you to a picture! But I have not given up hope yet!! My Mimi is an amazing seamstress, and my Mom is incredibly creative with her ideas and sewing projects as well...it has to be in my blood, right?!

I also got the easel back out! YEA! It's actually broken, and I had to use twisties just to hold it together. That works for now, though! I did some sketches of people...hopefully the nude won't offend anyone. I also did some rather strange paintings of birds, that look like they may have come from the hand of a 5-year old. I'm out of practice. I miss my art instructors.
This is going to be part of a game table for the kids. I made this side into a tic-tac-toe board. On the other side I will paint a checker board. My kids love checkers! I'll get some really neat, heavy buttons for the pieces. These circle and star pieces are wood.
And don't forget about the playground, which I've also been doing in my "spare time." Fred has been helping me a lot! YEA! We have two climbing walls up now, the rope, monkey bars, little tower, and slide. Next is the attached swing set. We're getting close to being done, but I need some warmer weather to finish it. Yesterday was fantastic...but today was just too chilly for me.
So there you have it. Today was Mothering Matters day, so we only worry about the schoolwork that they get done in their class. Fred got off work early, too. We decided to put all projects aside and just "hang out" with the kids, reading books, playing Nintendo (the old Mario Cart is all we have), and slurping root beer floats. I also squeezed in some card-making right after I got the kids in bed.
Okay, okay, I also have to tell you my exciting news: my sink is clean!! I know, this seems like such a little thing. But I've been in a bad habit of leaving dishes in the sink to pursue "greater goals." Haha. My darling friends have inspired me with their Home Keeping Binders. I want to get my tush in gear with the house. I'm good at some routines, but I let the house slide when it comes to regular care. I'm realizing, though, that things are SO much easier when I just do them and get them out of the way.
Yeah, I tell my kids that ALL the time, but it's so much harder to do it.
What would I do without great friends to keep me in line?

Works for Wendy Wednesday--I SPY jars and books

Originally I had planned to use our entire spring break to build the playset. In light of our recent flooding, though, we have chosen instead to craft and craft and craft some more!!


Yesterday we started out making I SPY jars, a wonderful idea from Angela. We filled jars with beads, beans, and other little trinkets and things to search for. Ethan turns it this way and that to find the orange tack, the silver frog, the yellow teddy bear, and so forth. Wonderful idea! This will be Great for the van-trips.
Ethan is so totally obsessed with the I SPY books. We also love the hidden pictures in Graeme Base books. Truly amazing.

So next we decided to make our own I SPY books! The kids worked hard cutting out all of the pictures, for themed pages. This first one is a random collage.



I SPY... 5 Ethans, 2 Grandfather clocks, a violin, two lanterns, Uncle Adam, a flying cow...and so forth...

Then our Garden page, with hidden food. I SPY...two mad carrots, 2 plates of spaghetti, 3 eggs, 2 apples, 4 bananas, and so on...


This is our People Page. I SPY... 6 pairs of glasses, a gold bracelet, 2 potted flags and a potted child, 4 Isabelles, binoculars, a blindfolded chicken...

We did six 2-page spreads (using an old calender, turned sideways for our "book,") and the kids are having a blast searching for the things they cut out, as well as pictures of them, and our family and friends. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner!

We used glue-all to put the pictures on, and then modge podged over it, to better protect the surface.

I'm also going to post pictures of the lovely nest from Jerri, as well as my forced branches, and blown eggs on the Art Page. :-)

New pictures of Suzanne and Jerri's families will be on ForgetMeNots later today. The rest of the families that had appts on the 8th will be on the site by this weekend.

The nest, the work, the tooth

I found a great site on forcing branches, so I used Bradford Pears and Redwoods. They are now blooming in my kitchen, complete with a nest from Jerri. Yes, Jerri redeemed herself and found the nest that she thought had already gone to Good Will. I wish I could post a picture!! I took some, but my computer is not detecting my camera for some reason, and I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. I'm too tired right now.

Speaking of Good Will, my sister has been given the opportunity to do something really neat. She will be giving free haircuts to the children at the local shelter. What an amazing ministry!! Julie is so multi-talented. If you need a hair cut, a cake decorated, a personalized portrait, interior decorating, fashion advice...she's your gal! Someday I'm going to make a fortune being managers for Julie, when she is a famous artist, and my other sister Amy, when she is a world renowned author. Oh, yes, there is talent in my family!

Which brings me to yet another point. How many things can a person do excellently? Looking at my sisters, you'd think that a person can do MANY things and excel at each one. But in my personal life, I find that I can only do about two things really well at any given time.

On the days that I keep the kids on schedule and we get lots of work done, and do it well, I find that I can either keep my house decent or do something crafty. If I try to do "crafty" things with our art time, then we get excited and carried away...and the house goes to pot. On the other hand, I can do lots of crafty things on our days off, and still keep the house decent, but we aren't worrying about school work. I can also trade art for decent exercise, or playdates, or baking afternoons...but I can't do it all.

I just asked some trusted friends about this. They seem to have it all together. You know who you are, with your working Home Management Binders. :-) I'm getting there, oh, yes, I'm getting there. Off like a herd of turtles, as my Mom used to say.

This is about what my day *should* look like:
dishes 2x a day, which takes me a total of 30 minutes (kids unload and put dishes away)
do laundry 2 x a day, which takes me a total of 30-45 minutes (kids help fold and put clothes away)
math 1 hour (yeah, it shouldn't take nearly this long, but it usually does!)
reading 1 hour (Isabelle and Ethan reading aloud)
My Bible time 30 minutes, although I usually start prayinga nd don't spend the whole time reading. Isabelle read sthe Bible aloud, too, so we discuss that.
Bible with kids 30 minutes
handwriting and spelling 30 minutes
geography 20 minutes
history 20 minutes
art 1 hour (heh heh...I have a weakness for art, and we don't always cap the time at an hour)
music 30 minutes (during which time we do "crazy dancing." This is not exactly the typical "music appreciation" or instrument instruction time)
PE 1 hour (read: run and play in yard or park)
cooking, 3x a day takes a total of 1- 1 1/2 hours, longer on days that I bake, too
vacuuming 1-3 x day 20 minutes each time (I have a crawler, so frequent vacuuming is absolutely necessary!)
phone calls 30 minutes, and I only answer when I have to, I really prefer email
bills 30 minutes (this doesn't deserve color!)
walking 20 minutes
night-time reading to kids 20 minutes
baths for kids 1 hour!! Yes, to bath all four it take AT LEAST one hour.
time with Fred depends on what he wants to do. We like outdoor activities, like walking, biking, fire pit, etc. And he likes for me to watch movies with him, so I usually fold laundry at the same time. Then he makes fun of me for not being able to sit still. Hehee.
computer ?
sleep - whatever is left

So, my question to you is how do I fit more in? Or do I try to fit more in? Suzanne just posted about this, too. Would God give us these desires do be artistic, to want to learn and do, if He wasn't going to let us fulfill them? Is this a matter of patience? Should I just wait until my kids are grown before I try to fulfill any of my artsy fartsy urges? Or should I just try to include them more? I can decoupage with them, but sketching a serious picture isn't at all easy with four kids underfoot. And, yes, I can use my evening time to do that... but then "therapy" (blogging) would be out. And if I don't do at least half of my household chores at night, then I take time away from the kids the next day to accomplish those things.
Oh bother, as Eeyore says. How do you know what to do and when and how much?

Quick prayer request, too: My tooth is KILLING me, I mean I seriously just want to grab pliers and yank the sucker out. I think it's abscessed. Pray for healing, or pain relief, and pray that the dentist will take immediate action tomorrow. Thanks!!

more projects...decoupage!

I'm just having soooo much fun with this.
As you can see, I've been neglecting housework time, to do fun craft time with the kids, after school.

We all sit at the table, cutting, gluing and generally just having a merry time. This is during afternoon-baby-naptime, if the school stuff is done. Oliver almost always takes a 2-hour afternoon nap, so even if we still have work to do, we can usually get it done for some kind of craft!!

I decoupaged my knife block. Fun, fun.

Then my living room platter.

And then a cutting board to display in my kitchen.

What a neat way to showcase my favorite art. I'm so glad I rediscovered the thrill of the scissors and glue! YEA !

Ohhhh..and speaking of art. Check out God's handiwork. Aren't these birds just beautiful? I'm so glad that they discovered the kids' birdhouses. They've been coming every day.