I found a great new blog (well it's not new but it IS new tome) about all things homemaking! I love this blog! The ideas on it are endless and inspiration is overflowing!! Is is written by a Christian woman and mother and she is nothing if not inspiring!
There is a link-up going on right now so there are links to almost 100 more sites with similar interests. I posted a link to my blog over there and am looking forward to some new visitors so please go on over and check out the site and the other blogs.
http://raisinghomemakers.com/
Have a blessed Wednesday!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A Teacher Appreciation Craft
Last week was teacher appreciation week and my daughters and I got crafty. In typical blogger fashion I took pictures as we went along and I have them here to share with you. Now I know that teacher appreciation week is over but the end of the school year is quickly approaching and this would be a perfect end of year gift as well.
One of my favorite things about this craft is that it is inexpensive. And it's cheap. And it's really cute. Well, I suppose that there are a lot of other things that I like about it- including the fact that we got to work together as mother and daughters to make it.
STEP ONE- Go shopping. I went to the dollar store and bought a glass vase with smooth sides (well I bought two because we were making two) and I bought six packages on pencils.
What you see here is $8 whopping dollars at my local dollar store and since I'm a crafty nut I already have Mod Podge on hand. We are ready to craft!!
The beginning is the hardest- I used a foam brush ($0.15 at a craft store) to paint some Mod Podge onto the vase. And then you have to start lining the pencils on it. I put them eraser side down and used a hair tie to hold them in place.
The more pencils I put in place the easier and quicker it went. Once I had them covered in pencils I let them set overnight.
The next day my girls took the scissors and went outside to cut flowers and long grasses and other greens that looked pretty to them (after all it was for their teachers.) They each made a little card for their teacher, punched a hole in it and we used a pretty ribbon to tie it to the vase.
One of my favorite things about this craft is that it is inexpensive. And it's cheap. And it's really cute. Well, I suppose that there are a lot of other things that I like about it- including the fact that we got to work together as mother and daughters to make it.
STEP ONE- Go shopping. I went to the dollar store and bought a glass vase with smooth sides (well I bought two because we were making two) and I bought six packages on pencils.
The beginning is the hardest- I used a foam brush ($0.15 at a craft store) to paint some Mod Podge onto the vase. And then you have to start lining the pencils on it. I put them eraser side down and used a hair tie to hold them in place.
The more pencils I put in place the easier and quicker it went. Once I had them covered in pencils I let them set overnight.
The next day my girls took the scissors and went outside to cut flowers and long grasses and other greens that looked pretty to them (after all it was for their teachers.) They each made a little card for their teacher, punched a hole in it and we used a pretty ribbon to tie it to the vase.
This is the one my 9 year old made for her teacher.
And the one my 11 year old made for hers.
On each of the cards the kids wrote a little word play on the number 2 pencil. For example- "Number two pencil, number one teacher."
I bumped into my 9 year old's teacher in the office the other day and she was raving about the vase! She said that she has gotten several compliments on it and that it is a big hit! I was so glad to hear that!
With the end of the school year approaching you will most certainly be in need of a nice 'thank you' for those with whom you entrust your most precious goods. This could be a perfect project!!
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Animal adventures
You remember our new family member, right? If not then look at the last post and you can read all about her. Well in the end our little toad was named Emma. She was a short lived pet since we turned out to be horrible bug catchers. This evening before bed our teary four year old released Emma to the backyard after much hugging and patting. It was sad to see her little chin quiver at the idea of releasing her little woodland friend but in the end she learned that sometimes you have to let a loved one go in order to love them the best. Ah... life lessons.
As we came inside from the dark, cold yard my little Abby and I made plans to go toad catching tomorrow so that we won't go too long without the companion of someone from the toad family.
In other animal related news, I've been training Abby's turtle, Shelly, to eat from my hand. It is going very well. As soon as I begin to lift the cover from her tank she swims right over to the side (instead of trying to hide as she previously had done) and waits for me to lower my hand with the pellet in it. Shelly and I have been enjoying this daily get together as I learn that she is more than just another animal to clean up after and she learns that I am more than just the lady who periodically evicts her from her home so that we can clean it. Well, it was going swimmingly (pun intended) until Abby wanted to feed her turtle. Can you see where this is going? Surprisingly enough I didn't. Well, I gave Abby the pellet and showed her where Shelly comes for her food. Abby put her little fingers into the tank to feed her friend and despite the enticing treat that was between them Shelly went for the chubby little fingers that held the aforementioned treat. And she didn't let go quickly. Oh the screaming! I consoled my little princess and washed her hands and then we put antibiotic ointment on it and a bandaid and she went off to bed with Daddy to watch Mr. Rogers. Despite the trauma Miss Abby isn't upset with Shelly and she understands that she was just being a turtle. It is a good thing that she loves animals because this was a traumatizing evening!!
Here is the offending turtle trying to hide from me after the commotion of feeding time.
And on to our last animal story for the night (there could be more but I will spare you the details of what our rooster, Kenny, did to his hens as the kids watched) we move on to a cute anecdote about our baby chicks. We have adult chickens that lay eggs and all that already. They are a fairly evasive bunch and not very social when you finally do manage to catch up with them so we acquired a few little chicks to try and raise to have a more pleasant disposition. We have one, named Cutie Pie or Tweety bird (depending on who you ask), one named Pie and two others who have been deemed Mary 1 and Mary 2 or "the twins." These little ones hang out together and roam around the yard as a little mini flock. They are sweet and fairly friendly and are also hated by the senior birds. The babies are also a tasty looking snack for our dogs who seem to have a penchant for foul. This evening as the birds were free ranging and I was cooking on the grill up on the deck, with the dogs sitting at my feet lest any food should fall, two of the babies made their way up the stairs of our deck! It was the cutest thing!!! Clearly they didn't smell the chicken on the grill or they would have waddled away for their lives!!!
For the life of me I can't fix the orientation of this picture so please just turn your head to the left. :) So you can see two of our babies and our very hungry dog, who really wanted to eat them but is afraid of getting in trouble, trying to restrain herself. :)
Well, I am hoping that that is all of my animal adventures for tonight but really who knows. I am going to curl up on the couch and read a book lent to me by a friend. If I'm feeling ambitions then maybe you'll see a book review in the near future. God bless!
As we came inside from the dark, cold yard my little Abby and I made plans to go toad catching tomorrow so that we won't go too long without the companion of someone from the toad family.
In other animal related news, I've been training Abby's turtle, Shelly, to eat from my hand. It is going very well. As soon as I begin to lift the cover from her tank she swims right over to the side (instead of trying to hide as she previously had done) and waits for me to lower my hand with the pellet in it. Shelly and I have been enjoying this daily get together as I learn that she is more than just another animal to clean up after and she learns that I am more than just the lady who periodically evicts her from her home so that we can clean it. Well, it was going swimmingly (pun intended) until Abby wanted to feed her turtle. Can you see where this is going? Surprisingly enough I didn't. Well, I gave Abby the pellet and showed her where Shelly comes for her food. Abby put her little fingers into the tank to feed her friend and despite the enticing treat that was between them Shelly went for the chubby little fingers that held the aforementioned treat. And she didn't let go quickly. Oh the screaming! I consoled my little princess and washed her hands and then we put antibiotic ointment on it and a bandaid and she went off to bed with Daddy to watch Mr. Rogers. Despite the trauma Miss Abby isn't upset with Shelly and she understands that she was just being a turtle. It is a good thing that she loves animals because this was a traumatizing evening!!
And on to our last animal story for the night (there could be more but I will spare you the details of what our rooster, Kenny, did to his hens as the kids watched) we move on to a cute anecdote about our baby chicks. We have adult chickens that lay eggs and all that already. They are a fairly evasive bunch and not very social when you finally do manage to catch up with them so we acquired a few little chicks to try and raise to have a more pleasant disposition. We have one, named Cutie Pie or Tweety bird (depending on who you ask), one named Pie and two others who have been deemed Mary 1 and Mary 2 or "the twins." These little ones hang out together and roam around the yard as a little mini flock. They are sweet and fairly friendly and are also hated by the senior birds. The babies are also a tasty looking snack for our dogs who seem to have a penchant for foul. This evening as the birds were free ranging and I was cooking on the grill up on the deck, with the dogs sitting at my feet lest any food should fall, two of the babies made their way up the stairs of our deck! It was the cutest thing!!! Clearly they didn't smell the chicken on the grill or they would have waddled away for their lives!!!
For the life of me I can't fix the orientation of this picture so please just turn your head to the left. :) So you can see two of our babies and our very hungry dog, who really wanted to eat them but is afraid of getting in trouble, trying to restrain herself. :)
Well, I am hoping that that is all of my animal adventures for tonight but really who knows. I am going to curl up on the couch and read a book lent to me by a friend. If I'm feeling ambitions then maybe you'll see a book review in the near future. God bless!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Our new family member.....
I have been so busy this week. It has been nonstop kids and by tonight I was fried. I have three kids, I babysit three kids a few days a week and I babysat my friend's three an additional evening this week. So needless to say, I am kidded out. AND I babysit tomorrow. So for the duration of Saturday I will have my daughters (ages 11, 9 and 4) and three kids I sit for who are 6, 5 and 2. You might be relaxing but I will be crafting, cleaning, changing diapers, getting dirty, breaking up fights and who knows what else!
In typical knight in shining armor style my husband rescued my sanity tonight. I had to go to church for a bit to set some things up and instead of the taking my small entourage with me my husband took them for the evening. I was alone. At first the silence was blissful. It was so quiet that I could hear noises that weren't even real. After about a half hour I was lonely. Oh well, I was in need of sanity time and solitude and I got it thanks to my wonderful husband.
A couple hours of time to myself and then I arrived back home to my husband, three daughters, one turtle, two dogs, nine chickens and our toad. Wait- TOAD?! Yup. Apparently the kids caught a toad and my husband, having not considered the difficulties of catching live flies, told the children that we could keep the toad. After a little (really gross) research it had been determined that our little guy would consume approximately 4 to 7 bugs every two or three days. And apparently they only like live, moving, bugs. Nothing dead. Great. Well the little guy has yet to be fed since my fly catching skills are not what they should be but he does have a nice little home in an old tank that we had lying around. I hope he lives. Ugh.
Since all of this excitement happened just prior to bedtime our little guy doesn't have a name. So if you are a creative sort and you could possibly think of something to call him please tell me. Since our turtle is named Shelly you know that we are not very creative so we can use all the help we can get!!
So this is the toad. Please name him so that I can try to develop an attachment to the little guy. He's really not all that attractive so I think we need to personalize him. I'm sure that I'll have stories to tell you about tomorrow that involve bug catching and other gross things. Wish me luck.
In typical knight in shining armor style my husband rescued my sanity tonight. I had to go to church for a bit to set some things up and instead of the taking my small entourage with me my husband took them for the evening. I was alone. At first the silence was blissful. It was so quiet that I could hear noises that weren't even real. After about a half hour I was lonely. Oh well, I was in need of sanity time and solitude and I got it thanks to my wonderful husband.
A couple hours of time to myself and then I arrived back home to my husband, three daughters, one turtle, two dogs, nine chickens and our toad. Wait- TOAD?! Yup. Apparently the kids caught a toad and my husband, having not considered the difficulties of catching live flies, told the children that we could keep the toad. After a little (really gross) research it had been determined that our little guy would consume approximately 4 to 7 bugs every two or three days. And apparently they only like live, moving, bugs. Nothing dead. Great. Well the little guy has yet to be fed since my fly catching skills are not what they should be but he does have a nice little home in an old tank that we had lying around. I hope he lives. Ugh.
Since all of this excitement happened just prior to bedtime our little guy doesn't have a name. So if you are a creative sort and you could possibly think of something to call him please tell me. Since our turtle is named Shelly you know that we are not very creative so we can use all the help we can get!!
So this is the toad. Please name him so that I can try to develop an attachment to the little guy. He's really not all that attractive so I think we need to personalize him. I'm sure that I'll have stories to tell you about tomorrow that involve bug catching and other gross things. Wish me luck.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Growing out of Myself
Historically I am famous in my family for not being an outdoors kind of girl. I'm allergic to things and I dislike dirt and sweat. You can see where this is going, right? Well, I married a country man a bunch of years ago and was later moved out into rural life. I was willing but reluctant. Well, a couple of years in and I have to admit that I am beginning to get a taste for the world that God in Heaven made for us. It has taken some work from my loving husband but I am seeing the joy in all things living! Now if only I could keep a plant alive.....
Anyhow, last month I asked my husband to put up a clothesline for me to hang the laundry out on. I have no idea why I asked him to do this. First of all, I dislike being outside. Secondly, our clothes would get all covered in pollen, thus making me sneeze. Well, my husband worked hard to secure the contraptions to a couple of tree by the river in our yard. He nearly fell off of an old rickety fire pit that he was using to stand on and if he had we'd both have ended up in the river. But thankfully we avoided that result.
As it turns out I like the clothesline! It gives me a purpose to being outside with the kids and animals and it makes laundry almost fun. Please note that I said almost. You may NOT bring your laundry to me. In reality, I do not enjoy it.
Anyhow, last month I asked my husband to put up a clothesline for me to hang the laundry out on. I have no idea why I asked him to do this. First of all, I dislike being outside. Secondly, our clothes would get all covered in pollen, thus making me sneeze. Well, my husband worked hard to secure the contraptions to a couple of tree by the river in our yard. He nearly fell off of an old rickety fire pit that he was using to stand on and if he had we'd both have ended up in the river. But thankfully we avoided that result.
As it turns out I like the clothesline! It gives me a purpose to being outside with the kids and animals and it makes laundry almost fun. Please note that I said almost. You may NOT bring your laundry to me. In reality, I do not enjoy it.
My new clothesline with it's first load of laundry.
And of course two of my beautiful helpers.
Now that I have ventured into the land of the out of doors I am going to see what other ventures I can take on this summer. If you keep checking in on me here I am sure that you will see some successes and some fails. Pray for me! And if I get poison ivy I may just quit outside all together!
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