happy new year

             A sweet little ditty for you guys. Cheers to the new year!

the kids

It had been a while since I showed off my kiddos, so here they are! Isaiah will be turning 7 tomorrow, as hard as that is to believe.

These guys are becoming more and more independent every day, and I am loving watching them grow up little by little.

snapshot

Here's a snapshot of my day

Crochet, reading (twilight again), laundry and internet. It's turning out to be a lovely laid-back Monday. Anybody have any books they read and reread for fun? I love series.

The ones I have enjoyed the most are:
The Troublesome Creek series by Jan Watson
The At Home in Mitford series by Jan Karon
The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Please share your favorite series or books with me!  I'll try not to feel too bad when you come back with classic literature  :)

i-mazing

No one told me having an iphone is like having an awesome mini computer! I knew there were apps, but I had no idea what I was missing! I am thoroughly enjoying my new toy.

 (gratuitous image of our chickens using my iphone with the hipstamatic app--which I love)

PS we got a great deal, as we were up to renew our contract. We got a huge discount, plus they were on sale. Hurray! I usually don't know what the newest technology is like until it has been out for 5-10 years and therefore no longer the newest technology...

let's play

Let's play catch up!

-This fall we participated in sports activities for the first time. Isaiah played football and it was a great experience all the way around. At first I thought it was just going to be us hauling him around for his enjoyment, but I have to say, it was great for him. Plus football is just fun to watch. Next comes basketball, which Isaiah and Lydia are going to start in a couple weeks. We're just trying to figure out what sports they are going to like by letting them try the ones they are interested in at least once while they are little. i don't know how we are going to do it when the littler ones get older! I don't know if we can be 4 places at one time...

(go #40!!)


-A major clean up of our filthy basement happened yesterday! I am so glad to be able to use that space for the first time since we moved in. I have no idea how long it had been since it was cleaned--probably many many years before we moved here. It still needs to be mopped again, and the ceiling needs some work, but I can now use it as sort of a pantry, and hopefully, one day, a root cellar of sorts.

(Inside the airtight barrel are extra dry goods like flour and sugar, popcorn and oatmeal.)


-I just took 10 hats and 5 headbands to myrtle's this past Saturday. I'm hoping they sell quickly so I can get some extra Christmas money! I would love to eventually directly sell on my own, but this works so well for me I will probably sell there for as long as I am able. At least this way I don't have to advertise and/or run a shop of any kind.





-My kids are candy crazy. Chloe and Toby had sweetarts and bottle caps before breakfast this morning. We have got to get rid of this Halloween stash!

-I am on a Harry Potter kick. We just found the movies at walmart for like $4 a piece so we snatched up the first 5. Still waiting on the 6th and 7th ones, although I had 7 part 1 for like 6 months from netflix. I just keep watching them over and over...

-It's so nice to finally be back! Hopefully it won't be so long next time :)

guest posting

Today I am happy to be guest posting for Annika at all the live long day while she is on vacation.

Go check out her awesome blog. I look forward to every post she has!

oringinal artwork thursday

One day I will learn photography and photo editing. This is not that day. Enjoy the artsiness:)

a random collection

Homeschool has begun for this year. Isaiah is in 1st grade and Lydia is in Kindergarten. One day down, 174 to go. This is a marshmallow igloo. Because it starts with the letter "i".

Check out this haul from our garden yesterday! Tomatoes, 2 baby bell peppers, 4 aji crystal peppers (hot peppers), a small watermelon and a bitty pumpkin. This was so exciting! The most I have brought in at one time yet! Oh! and Nathan brought in 16 eggs from the past 2 days!

I made a bunting! I have been wanting to make one forever, and finally just did it. I made a freehand cardboard triangle template, cut around that about 10 times on 5 different fabrics with my pinking shears. I pinned those inside double fold bias tape and then sewed on. I did not measure or iron anything! Myfavorite kind of sewing project, no measure, no iron, quick, straight line sewing that turned out super cute!

Hope you enjoyed this random collection from the past week!

garden update: 90% off

First, our local dollar store had some garden stuff 90% off! I got 9 (small) bags of this soil for 15 cents a bag.
Some seed starter trays for 40 cents each, the little trays on top for 30 cents each. Those on top include seeds and dirt.

Some herb garden kits for 60 cents each! One of them is planted and just sprouted by my window in the kitchen.

Some of my favorite flowers growing on my front porch.

Our two raised beds are doing just okay. The tomatoes are doing pretty well, and cucumbers, but the beans produced nothing. We are getting ready to pull everything out of the garden on the right to plant for the fall. We are planning to plant lettuces, spinach, carrots, and maybe cabbage.

Our corn grew really tall, but we got no edible corn. The chickens got a few ears and all the buckwheat that I harvested and raccoons got the rest. The buckwheat was so pretty we will definitely plant that again. We ate our first bell pepper last week and I canned 11 (almost 12) pints of crushed tomatoes last week. I don't know how much more I will get to can, but I hope to get at least that much more. I would love to do spaghetti sauce too, but the tomatoes are coming in sporadically, so we'll just see.

Our chickens started laying eggs about a a week and a half ago!!! I absolutely love having our own eggs again. They are still small, but hopefully we'll be getting them by the dozens soon enough. If each chicken lays one egg a day, we'll be getting a dozen a day!

If there was one thing we learned this year with our garden it was : PREPARE THE SOIL!! Even the raised beds could have used more compost or manure. Next year we'll know better. That is something I love about gardening, the learning and changing--how the mistakes are made okay with the knowledge gained from them.

Hope you guys have a happy Friday!

original artwork thursday

Finally picked up the paintbrush after a busy summer. I think I got a few good ones, and a few that are just okay. (I don't show you guys the bad ones!) There are more, but I'll save those for another week :) Let me know what you think!

2 years

As unbelievable as it was to me, my BABY turned 2 last month. We had birthday pancakes and a fun day at home on the day of, and then the weekend after we had a pool party at my sister-in-law's house. It was so much fun and so laid back.



The cake was really the only part of the party that involved any work, but it was so much fun! I had seen rainbow cakes on MckMama a while ago and wanted to give it a try. Then I had the idea to put a marshmallow rainbow on top. I think it turned out really cute!

The trick to a great tasting rainbow cake is putting vanilla pudding between the layers. I found that tip after a google search (can't remember where). It makes the cake really moist without so much icing between every layer.

Look how big she is! She loves to swim, ask questions, color, play with baby dolls, and wrestle and fight with her brothers and sister.

She wrinkles up her noses when she thinks something is funny. She wants to take baths all the time. She is so smart and funny! Her hair would forever hang in her face if I didn't put it up in a top-knot. She loves to make huge messes involving make-up, crayons and markers, and dumping out the first aid kit and emptying the medicine cabinet. (after first climbing up onto the bathroom counter, of course.) She can count to ten. Her favorite songs are twinkle, twinkle and happy birthday.

I sure do love this kid.

making some jam

Turning two of these bags of blackberries into jam today was exciting!

Crushing the berries

Sieving out some of the seeds

Boiling, ladeling, and processing turned farmer's market blackberries into this amazing jam.

Yum.

Blackberry is my favorite.

family camping fun

We went camping last week. As you can see, it rained! Every day. We had a good time (although it alternated between scorching hot and rain the whole time we were there.)

We had a little glow stick fun.

We pet a real live skunk, and got to watch it eat.

I highly recommend the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery as a family destination. We probably spent close to an hour there looking at the different fish and turtles (plus the skunk!) and other displays. We also fed the fish that were outside. This is so much fun--if you even hold your hand over them they start jumping out of the water looking for the food.

Nathan and the kids went fishing several times and caught (and released) a bunch of small fish. They had a blast. (I spent most of that time reading Martha Stewart Living in the air conditioned van. Chloe stayed with me most of that time either napping or playing in the van. I just don't like fishing very much at all.)

It was nice to get away as a family for the first time in a long while. We had lots of fun, but I will say that camping in Kentucky is much more fun in the fall than in the middle of a blazing summer! Next time we'll have the good sense to go in September (or maybe even get a hotel!)

Besides camping we have been having a blast this summer, spending lots of time at Nathan's sister's house in their amazing backyard equipped with an amazing koi pond and stream, a huge flat screen t.v., a pool, a covered patio and bar and lots of fun people. Also have been spending time hanging out with my sister and her daughter, while they are out of school for the summer. This may be the best summer I've had in a really long time!

How's your summer going? Is it full of popsicles and pools, parties and people?

pictures, finally!

Welcome back sweet laptop!

A butterfly Nathan woke me up to come and see this morning. (He took this photo)


THE place to be at our house!

People kept giving us tomato plants, so we just dug up some ground and stuck them right in.

The sad raised bed. The onions are thriving, 2 tomato plants, and not much else.

The good raised bed. Beans and peas and spinach are doing well here.

The newest addition to our family of gardens. The tiller quit in the middle where the grass is, but it's a good walkway. Potatoes and tomatoes are planted here, though I'm not sure if they are going to do well or not. Wheat needs to be planted, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not.

The corn patch. To the right of the dirt walkway is our sweet corn. To the left is buckwheat in the back and popping corn up front.

These are some of the flowers given to me by my mother-in-law. The little orange flowers are my favorites, but I can't remember what they are.

This summer is going to be great. I've been doing a lot of sitting by (or in) the kiddie pool and sitting under the umbrella on the deck. I almost feel guilty that I'm not busy cleaning something, but it has just been too nice. I hope the kids continue to be entertained by 8 inches of water for months to come.