Painting My Life

Remember this? The lack of color was getting to me. So I changed it up again. Now I can't find the "before" picture. oh, well.

~New BLUE hutch~

And, because it's all rainy and cold today, I've been doing some artsy fartsy stuff with the kids, too.

They drew and colored, and I painted my Life.

{sigh} Have I mentioned how much I love LOVE love art? Love.

Best Part of the Morning

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
3 John 1:4

Education Fair

I'm obviously so far behind, it's ridiculous. Between holidays, record-breaking storms, and an infected wisdom tooth and removal (phew) my time was stolen away, bit by bit. In a way, though, it was very nice for Easter. As much as I enjoy hands-on crafty projects and dying eggs, etc... it was not to be this year. I was tired, in pain, and in the middle of a flooding town. And so, our time was spent with family, reading, praying, and watching videos, including The Gospel According to Matthew (which is word-for-word Scripture, wonderful way to share the Word with children--love it) There was more emphasis on WhatIt'sAllAbout, and less on the "candy coating."
It's fine (in my opinion) to do both, but there should certainly be a spotlight--focus-- intensity on the Why of Easter. I feel like we had more of that this year, and it's something I want to retain, cling tightly to throughout my life, not just at one time.
Whoa, now where was I?
We participated in the Education Fair this year, and had a blast. My Oldest did her display on Hanoverian horses. Of course, it would be something on horses! ;)

I'm so grateful that many of the older kids in our group also participate. There were truly amazing displays to view!

If you aren't already a part of a group, consider joining one. The friendship and support is such a blessing!

The Skirt from Ecletic Whatnot

A few weeks ago, I won an amazing custom-made little girl's skirt from Eclectic Whatnot

I spent a few hours pouring over the fabric choices at Hawthorne Threads and finally decided on the these:

My Little Lad and my niece:

Scarlett baby, I love you and am so glad you were able to get this.

RuthAnn, it's amazing!! Thank you for the giveaway!!

Friends, you should go to her etsy shop and check out her other fantastic things!

Recovering. In Pictures.

My Mouth: On my birthday, just yesterday, the pain was too great to eat my favorite things: pies, poppyseed muffins, banana bread. So they are all waiting for me to recover.
I had the afflicted, infected wisdom tooth removed this morning. So forgive me if this post is weird, written by a drugged-up woman.

Our Town: this may go down as the 1000-year flood. There were water rescues, flooded homes, closed roads, and bridges washed away. We're fine, but others are not. Our town and the surrounding ones will take awhile to recover.

My "Baby": Still the only one with pox, he's getting a lot of cuddling. And screen time. All the rain, all the spots leads to many movies.Plus I was too distracted by pain to plan hands-on activities. Oh, well. Sometimes movie marathons are the only way to get through it.

My Garden: most things survived the storms. Lettuce, potatoes, beans are doing great, coming up everywhere. My peonies, thankfully, had not yet bloomed, and therefore were not destroyed by the hail and high winds & waters.

We're all in recovery mode. Waiting, watching, praying...thankful that we are recovering.

Update in pictures

Awesome photo shoot with my dear hilarious friend Amber and her family:
Lovin' those dirty knees

Two days later, the youngest of my four broke out in chicken pox:

Once-a-life illness, and I'm trying to make it memorable. We're eating spotted foods (think watermelon, yogurt with blueberries, etc) and wearing spotted clothes.

This week we'll have a Pox Party.

And last night, tornado watch & then warnings, severe storms, sirens going off and on, kids in and out of the hallway, covered by a mattress... finally outside to behold the sky.

My Jedi obviously scared the storm away.

And the crazy beautiful sunset clouds last night.

Today's agenda, while the storms rage on:

Craft, Paint, Read, watch family movies, and spend time in prayer.

This day is heavy with hope, anticipation, sadness, longing...

On Easter, Jesus defeated death

and saved us.

Updating The List

Do any of y'all remember my 35 Things To Do Before I'm 35 List? Well, seeing as how I'm about to be 31 (still young, folks, still young!) I thought I'd update it.

1. Write letters. Lots of letters. Make a point to thank children for their help and kindness. DONE; I've been pretty diligent about this, and even reinstated Letter Writing Friday with the kids.
2. Host a Wonderland Tea Party Still need to do this, asap! I have had mustache and polka dot parties, though.
3. Volunteer at the Children's Shelter or Pregnancy Center. I'm going to try to give what I can, by painting the NB resale store at no charge. Must get started on that soon!!
4. Run a 5K. Hmph. I'm no closer to this than I was when I set the goal ;/
5. Host a Cooking Club Night. DONE; I did a Greek night awhile back
6. Canoe. Soon.
7. Finish painting the bathroom and kid's rooms (including mural.) Buggers. I had to restart Izzy's because she didn't like the color. This may take me until I'm 35!! I've repainted the living room twice since the list started!
8. Make my own iron-on transfer shirt designs Sooooon.
9. Paint a very large canvas. I bought it. Does that count for somethin'?
10. Finish the Family Tree
11. Get my bike fixed, and start taking family rides. Well, I did get the kids new bikes. But mine still isn't fixed :(
12. Host another Art Night DONE
13. Take all the kids rafting (so far only three have gone) We're planning to do this in May or June-- woot, woot!
14. Reopen my Etsy shop DONE Nest In the Sun
15. Take all the kids to the beach (only three have gone) DONE We went to South Padre last summer. Simply the best vacation ever.
16. Go rock climbing. I may end up zip lining before rock climbing. And I'm serious.
17. Finish 20 "book portraits" (paintings on book covers-- I've completed two so far) not yet
18. Go with Fred [and kids] to a Walton Arts Center Performance (we've never gone together.) We're going tomorrow, to Imago Theater's ZooZoo
19. Make a scarf. DONE, several times over.
20. Take kids to the Discovery Museum. DONE, with and without the homeschool group
21. Go to another local play DONE
22. Make more of our own clothes. I've made some, but I'd love to do more
23. Organize the baby book contents (and memory boxes, too!) not yet
24. Get back into my favorite jeans. arrgghh not yet
25. Pay for a stranger's meal. ...when we're not unemployed...
26. Go tent camping with all the kids (only three have gone so far, but we have a trip planned this month) soooooon
27. Submit artwork to the downtown art store. pricey than I thought, but I'm submitting to other places.
28. Write and Illustrate a children's art book. in the works
29. Videotape an interview with each of the kids. I'd totally forgotten about this. oops.
30. Sew matching summer dresses for me and Isabelle to wear. She's not really interested, my dear tom girl, so it may need to be skirts...or shorts...
31. Host some bloggie giveaways; share the love. DONE, even on blogs not my own
32. Paint pictures of each of my children. need to do
33. Visit a nursing home. Bring handmade cards and goodies. (I won't risk singing and giving anyone a heart attack!) still want/need to do
34. Send unexpected Just-Because cards and gifts to friends DONE
35. Give myself grace if I don't get this list all checked off. Am doing