Royal Wedding

In celebration of today's royal wedding, we got out the fancy china, and had tea and scones for breakfast. I read aloud to the kids about queens and kings in London, Big Ben and Parliament. And we may have practiced our British accents just a bit.
One of the many things I love about homeschooling is scrapping your regular curriculum once in awhile and learning about something related to what's going on in the world.

And we get to do it all in our pajamas and fancy hats.

Superhero Birthday Party

There is no shortage of superhero party ideas out there, but I thought I'd share our fun little celebration we had for Jack. Our kids love to play superheroes. It's a good party theme for our little circle of friends, because it works for boys and girls. I told the moms that my kids would be dressing up, so they could plan for their little ones. I also had some extra stuff in case someone came unprepared.

We kind of went with a "Superhero Training Camp" thing. Our first activity was "What is your Superhero Name?". My husband made these name tags, and he wrote everyone's name tag for them. This was a hoot! We all had to call the kids by their names all evening. One of my favorites was "Metal Man". Metal Man's costume was made out of foil.

Then we had an obstacle course. The object was to get past the bad guy and save the baby in the play house. The bad guy was played by one of the dads, who was wearing a scary mask and waving a weapon. Again, more hilarity.

Next was a relay race. My husband explained to the kids that as a superhero, you would have to be able to change out of your normal clothes into your superhero clothes quickly. We lined the kids up in two lines and each line had a pile of clothes. The kids had to race to put on a coat, hat, and tie and race around a tree and back. So fun!

I had a final game of "Rid the City of the Kryptonite". I spray-painted a few rocks fluorescent yellow, and the plan was to hide them around the yard and have the kids look for them. We didn't get to this one, but I think it would have been a hit.

We feasted on wings, nachos, pepperoni rolls, grapes, carrots, and this favorite of Jack's. My mom made her beautiful cupcakes, and my husband and I made the toppers for them. I also passed out store-bought superhero popsicles instead of ice cream.

This was really a good time. I don't know what I'll do when all of my kids outgrow these parties; I really enjoy having them!

Some Random Things in a Hurry

Sorry for the delay in posts. My husband had my computer at his office working on it, and we were in the midst of our birthday marathon around here. When things settle down, I hope to post some of our birthday party stuff, and part two of Girls' Room Before and Afters.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post some links of projects and finds along with an overview of what's going on around here. Sound good?

This project is super cute! I think peeps are fun, but I'd honestly rather look at them than eat them! I don't know if I'll get to this or not, but someone should.

I found these reusable straws some time ago, and finally decided to purchase some. We love them! We go through straws so quickly that I think they are worth the investment for us. I did wait for a sale however, because they are pricey.

We also added to our hens recently. Twenty-seven of various breeds ordered from here. We have loved raising chickens; it is really so easy, and having our own eggs has been great. Raising pets has never been our strong point, but we have had great success with chickens. My husband and I talked for years about getting chickens. I can't even remember when we started talking about it, maybe even before we were married. We always thought it would be a good opportunity to teach responsibility to our kids, and it certainly has. Our two oldest, ages eight and six, are able to gather eggs, feed and water the birds, and even clean out the coop.

Speaking of eggs, I made this for my husband and I for dinner one night after the kids went to bed. We occasionally wait to eat dinner together alone after bedtime. I make something easy and fun for the kids, like pancakes and chocolate milk, and then we can have a relaxing dinner alone. We loved this meal, and it's definitely something that I'll make again. So, so good.

And please...this is so super fun. We love Starbucks. There is one located about five minutes from our house, and we frequent there. Awhile ago, when we pulled up at the drive-through (all six of us), the guy knew our order. It was funny and frightening at the same time.

Okay, there you go. Just needed to clear the cobwebs off of this space! Have a good rest of the week!

Reflections on the Birth of a Boy

My oldest son turned six today...six! I simply can't believe it. When I was pregnant with him, having had a girl first, I couldn't imagine what loving a boy would be like. I'll never forget getting to know him at the hospital during the hours after he was born. Nursing him in the dark while my husband slept in the chair next to me, it happened. I fell in love. I will never forget what he looked like. He was tiny, and his little head popped out of the tightly-wrapped white hospital blanket. That little head was covered in perfectly spiked black hair. I can remember just staring at him; he was just beautiful.

Today we celebrated his birth with a breakfast of cinnamon rolls he requested, a picnic lunch at the park, and dinner out with some friends. There were gifts, but this one had to wait. I'll be finishing it up tomorrow.

I'm so very thankful for this sweet, adventurous boy. His zest for life is inspiring and addictive. What a gift he is!

Girl's Room Before and Afters, Part One

We started a few weeks ago redecorating our girls' room. Then things got complicated. We had homeschool testing, people got sick, and our birthday marathon began. We have four birthdays in our family in less than a month. That drives me crazy. Anyway, now I'm scrambling to get done.

Here are some before shots.

Notice the room also needs a good cleaning. I'm into multi-tasking.

Now for the nice clean, freshly painted and wallpapered version:

You can't really tell in the photo, but the green on the wall is wallpaper. It has a tiny cream dot pattern. I originally wanted something floral, but when we saw this we loved it. Wallpaper was our big splurge, as was the crown molding. I can't imagine wallpapering a whole room; that stuff is really expensive.

We have new bunk beds to bring in, but everything else for the room I'm either sewing or we are bringing in from elsewhere in the house. I "shopped" our garage for some things, and we re-painted a couple of pieces. I think for the girls' name letters, I'm going to just use their initial and hang with ribbon.

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Permission to Throw in the Towel

Math has always been a difficult thing for me to teach, and it was never my favorite subject in school. In the first grade, I remember having trouble counting by two's. I just didn't understand the point of it all, and the teacher was less than patient. She was standing over me with a mad face, trying to get me to understand. I think about that often when I'm trying to help my little girl with math. She's like I was, good at reading, writing, and spelling. Math is a little tougher for her; and you'd think I'd understand and just be sweet and patient and make her some cookies and milk. But sometimes I get frustrated when she doesn't get it, and I just don't know how to help her.

We were having a rough time one day last week while I was going over some new material in preparation for our homeschool testing this week. She just didn't get it, and I was resembling that teacher from the first grade. I was trying to make her understand something she just wasn't ready for. How unfair. If six year old me was standing there, she would've kicked me in the rear.

Well, we took a break, then I decided to throw in the towel. I left the kitchen in a mess and books all over the table, and we took off- out to lunch and to a pond at a local high school to feed the ducks. It was just the ticket. I like to be real with people, so I'll say that our little trip wasn't without frustrations. I had to tell Maggie to sit down three times during lunch, and Jack stepped in the pond after I warned him many times to be careful. That being said, it was a refreshing time.

From now on, I plan to give myself permission to push the books aside. Math will always be around; it will be here when my little girl is ready to conquer it. She, however, is growing up, and I want to remember to spend precious time with my children now.

Plum Crisp: Y.U.M.M.Y

I've never been a big fan of plums, but when I saw them for fifty cents a pound back in the fall, I wondered if they would make a good crisp. I mean, come on, if you sprinkle something with sugar and roast it, it's bound to taste better right? Right!
I can't believe this fruit I've passed up for years is so good baked into a crisp. I made this a couple times in the fall, and then I couldn't find anymore plums. Last week I found them for fifty cents again, and I wasted no time in bringing them home to be cooked into crisp-y goodness.
You could use your favorite apple crisp recipe to make this, if you have one. For years I tried to follow apple crisp recipes, but I was always changing and adding to get the results I wanted. The topping part was never oat-y enough for me, or it was always too greasy. Also, there was never the right crisp to fruit ratio for me. (I get that I'm picky.) I also don't like to kill fruit with sugar, so I always go easy on the sugar in desserts like this.
Try my topping recipe on plums, or use your own! I just wanted people to know that plums rock in a crisp. And maybe someone has already discovered this...

Plum Crisp

7-8 plums
Slice into wedges, kind of thin, so they will bake quickly. I got about 8 wedges per plum.
Sprinkle with about 2 TBS sugar, toss together and put into a casserole dish.

1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
Stir together the first four ingredients, then cut in your butter.
Spoon over your sugared plums, and bake on 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until golden and your fruit is tender.

I know you'll want to top this with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.

Swoon.

Twinkie Cakes!

My mom used to make us these yummy little cakes that we called twinkie cakes. They tasted just like a twinkie, only better. The secret is in the filling, which I'm going to share with you. When I started making them for my kids, I began rolling them in sparkly sugar and calling them fairy cakes. Whatever you call them, these are really good and really simple. I made them for Valentine's Day this year, and colored the icing pink.
Just use your favorite yellow cake recipe, or yellow cake mix. I really like a cake mix for a treat like this, because it lets you get to the fun (and delicious) stuff faster. This time I used a yellow cake recipe from my old faithful Good Housekeeping cookbook, but I've used a cake mix many times as well.

Twinkie Cakes (aka Fairy Cakes)

1 recipe yellow cake made into cupcakes, but don't use liners! At the end, you're going to cut them open, so you want to keep the sides intact. Just give the muffin tin a spray with cooking spray.

Twinkie Filling

Combine 1 cup milk and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring just about constantly until it makes a thick paste. It's going to get thick really quickly, so just stir until it thickens then remove from heat. Now let it cool just a bit, then pop the pan into the fridge to chill.

After the paste is nice and cool, it's time to finish making the filling. Now beat 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup crisco together in your mixer for 4 minutes.

Then, add 1 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp vanilla and beat another 4 minutes.

THEN add your chilled paste, and yes, beat yet another 4 minutes. It's going to pay off, I promise you.

It's okay to have little bitty chunks in the filling, they will be few and far between.

All right, now just halve your little cakies and fill them up. Around here, we like things sparkly, so if you are so inclined, roll the edges carefully in some chunky sugar or sprinkles.

You can also use this filling to fill and ice whole cakes. It goes really well with a rich chocolate cake. In fact, the filling recipe will probably make more than you'll need for the cupcakes, so why not make that cake too, and then invite me over to help you eat it!

A Good Time

Our family was blessed to be able to spend a few days in the mountains with childhood friends and their families last week. I knew that I would spend a lot of time laughing- a lot, but I wasn't anticipating long talks about the gospel and God's grace in our lives. It was so refreshing and encouraging to see God at work in the lives of dear friends. Our God is so faithful.

Kiddos spying some turkeys.

Good food. You know there was food.

Old friends catching up. That's Joanna, me, and Carrie on the steps of our cabin.

We were so excited about this trip, and I wasn't really ready for it to end. It was just such a good time. I could have spent a week with these people. The time together really exceeded my expectations, and I'm hoping we can make it a yearly event.

Valentine's Day Crafting

I have always loved Valentine's Day.  Who doesn't love roses, paper heart doilies, pink, and sappy love songs?  Okay, lots of people I'm sure!  But I am such a romantic at heart.  It is such a great time for crafting, and even if you don't sew or aren't really crafty, there is still lots of opportunity for crafty fun.

I pulled this out a couple weeks ago, and today me and the kids did a little crafting.  I was thinking about something for the kids to put their valentines in, and I thought it would be nice to have something out now that we could leave little treats and love notes in over the weekend.  I had lots of brown paper bags, so we decorated one for each of the family.  Each bag is closed with a clothes-pin with a paper heart glued on.

If you're looking for gifts, this was a big hit with my husband last year.  I made one for him to put in his office, and it turned out so well that we made another one for our home.  We've since given one out for Mother's Day as well.  I just bought pre-cut poster board and a fat sharpie to make the letters.

Here is another craft I did last year.  I bought flour sack kitchen towels and red fabric paint.  I used cardstock to make a heart stencil, then stuck a paper doily onto the towel with spray adhesive.  Then, I sponged the paint onto the towel over the doily (using my stencil), then carefully peeled the doily off.  This was not an original idea, but I can't remember where I saw it.  I think this would make a sweet gift for a lady used as wrapping over a loaf of homemade bread.

Hope you are finding fun ways to spread the love this year!

Gifts for Baby

Here are the two handmade gifts I made for our little guy for Christmas. I had wanted to make this little rocket man for quite some time! This was a fairly easy project; although I had a little trouble getting the little pouch just right. I used a cereal box for the wings, like the tutorial suggested. I'm kind of thinking that something sturdier would be much better though; maybe plastic canvas. The only thing I had to purchase for this was the wooden egg. It was so exciting this year to only have to buy a very small amount of supplies for the gifts I made.

This little book was a last minute gift I put together. For the pages, I just cut rectangles from an old white sheet, about 8 x 17 inches. I used Steam-a-Seam to attach my shapes/animals to one side, then sandwiched felt rectangles cut a half an inch smaller. Then top-stitched the pages before putting it all together. Most sewing projects I just want to see the end result, but I really enjoyed the process with this one. I could have really gone nuts with this one, more embroidery and fun trims, but Christmas was upon me and I needed to keep it simple!

Felt pocket with shapes to pull out. Inside the shapes I put bits of that plastic wrapper that wipes come in. It gives it a little crinkly sound.

On the last page I put a little lift-a-flap. Inside the flap I put a bit more crinkly wrapper. Fun, right? I really like how this turned out. I think I'll be making more of these in the future.

Some Sewing Links You Might Like

I was able to get a little sewing done last week, and just thought I'd pass along some cool refashioning links. I love being able to take something I already own, and give it a whole new look.

I found this brilliant idea, and thought it was a great solution to buying skinny jeans. Have you ever tried on skinny jeans? I tried a pair on two sizes bigger than my regular size and they were way too tight! I had this pair of flared jeans that fits my curvy frame, and I didn't mind cutting into them. They turned out pretty good. They aren't quite as skinny around the ankles as your typical skinny jeans, but I was afraid they would turn out just looking really unfashionably tapered. At the bottom of the post she gives tips for adult jeans. The measurement I used for mine was 2 1/2 inches. And speaking of jeans, I tried a great method for hemming jeans a while back. Check it out here; it's genius, and so easy!



I also made a simple jumper for my two year old out of one of my shirts. This shirt never really fit me right, and the color wasn't that flattering. But such adorable fabric and details; I knew it had a life as something else. I just placed one of my daughter's A-line dresses on top, and traced it, adding a little extra for seam allowance. Maybe now I'll have the confidence to try this tutorial. I cut the neck and arms a little too big, but it turns out it also looks cute on my eight year old as a shirt. So, no harm done really.

There are many more refashioning ideas I'm hoping to try as I get the time. I'll be sure to pass them along.


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View From My Spot on the Couch

Most of our family has been sick this week with colds and sore throats, myself included. I'm missing my normally energetic self, but trying to remember I need rest. Just after I snapped this picture the baby stole the tissue box and started to pull the tissues out. I guess I can't be completely lazy, thanks to him!

I'll admit, I only buy tissues when I am sick.

Seasonal Goals (or, New Year's Resolutions)

I've never been a big New Year's Resolutions person. It's not that I don't think they are a good thing; it just seems that there is a whole lot of hype surrounding them. Promises are made to do this or that, and then you forget about it. It's quite possible that this is just my problem, and there are lots and lots of people out there that are disciplined with their resolutions. I do like to set goals though, but I just tend to make them more slowly, as the seasons come. For instance, last summer I was determined to do three things: grow a successful garden, can jam, and make pickles. I did them all and it felt great! As the year came to a close, I began to think about changes I'd like to make, and things I'd like to accomplish. And because I have seen growth in myself with regards to being disciplined and determined, I'm making some goals for the new year and sharing them here for all to see!

Read my Bible with better consistency and memorize scripture
I regret that I have not always been disciplined in this very important area. I find that I am able to respond to my family with more patience and love if I am prepared for battle by spending time in the Word. Many times I have found myself searching my mind for a Bible verse to help me with a situation; I hope to really work on hiding God's word in my heart.

Love more, complain less
This has become kind of a mantra of mine. I just want to put more of my energies into showing love, and less into finding something to fuss about. I think I complain to my husband more than anyone else. (Not about him mind you, honestly the man is a jewel and hardly gives me reason to complain.) I find lots of things to complain about and he's the lucky one who gets to hear the drama. I also don't want to set an example of discontentment to my children.

Cook more foods that my husband likes
My man is not a picky eater, or a complainer. He loves everything I cook, but I know there are things I'm not cooking that he likes. There have been times we've been at a pot-luck and he'll go on about something simple like deviled eggs, or broccoli casserole. I realized I wasn't really planning our menus to include some of his favorites. I made banana pudding last week, and this week he asked for potatoes au gratin.

Crochet something other than a scarf
I learned to crochet in home economics in high school. There was a boy in the class that made about ten blankets that year; mine is under my bed, unfinished, in a dusty trash bag. Hmmm..speaking of determination and discipline? Sad, I know. I started crocheting again last year, and I love it. But the only thing I made was a scarf. Those patterns are really intimidating for me, but I am determined to figure it out this year.

Learn to play Claire de lune on the piano.
I took piano on and off growing up, and then for a couple years after I was married. Then I had my oldest, and didn't go back to my lessons. I really miss playing, and I have always loved that song.

Get up early and spend time with my husband
I was always a morning person before I had kids. Most mornings now it seems I'm dragging a little. I often stay up too late, because I so cherish the quiet time after the kids have gone to bed. There's also the possibility that I'm up with a little one at night, and then I'm sleepy the next day. Going to bed earlier is going to have to be a priority if this is going to work.
This goal is a shared one with my husband. We both are really looking forward to sneaking downstairs and having coffee together before he heads off to work.

So, there you go! I'm looking forward to a new year. New adventures, changes, challenges, and growing to be experienced. What are you looking forward to?

The Best Person Ever

My daughter wrote me this note one night after I had been sick all day. It says she thinks I'm the best person ever. When my children say things like that, it makes me want to really live up to it. However, we all know that those kinds of expectations are unreasonable. Our children already think we're the greatest even though we are filthy stinking sinners that mess up day after day. These little ones know how to give us grace and offer unconditional love with no strings attached. I can learn so much from this.

Grace has become a part of my daily vocabulary. It seems that it is needed in very practical ways in my life as a mother. I was talking to a dear friend on Facebook the other day about rough weeks and feeling unworthy for motherhood. Maybe we can feel unworthy because we are unworthy. I didn't do anything to deserve this wonderful job I have. A job that I always wanted no less. We all have days where we feel completely unqualified to be a mom. The reality of being unworthy should not translate into feelings of guilt or despair. If God is gracious enough to bless us with these children, then surely He will give us the grace we need to bring them up. Grace to know how to train them, to love them, to give up control to Him, and grace to let go of guilt when we mess up.

My daughter will remember that I make the best tea in the world. Above all though, I hope she remembers that I lived a life that shone of the grace of the Almighty, and that these good things in me were only because of His work in my heart.