Guest Teacher

This is a morning a few weeks ago that we got to spend with my Aunt Deb. She had called me and asked if she could do a homeschool lesson one morning with us. How cool is that? Of course, i took her up on it. She came very prepared with a outlline, samples and even treats to do a lesson on Trees. The kids loved it. They learned all about kinds of trees and the parts of trees, and as you can see even made some trees of their own with crafts supplies that my aunt borught along with her. She is so cool! At the end of the "class" we had a tree party with dirt and bushes(brownies with green frosting on top) and ice cream with maple syrup on top(because it is from trees). We love Aunt Deb, and Uncle Ron too.

books

i probably should be putting a little more time and thought into this post but i have been looking at my book list and thinking that maybe i should be commenting a little on the ones that i have recently read. Perhaps you have read the book or maybe you have never even heard of it but this is what i think about them.

BOOK 1...
I recently finished, Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book definitely made me think about the food we are eating and where it is coming from. So much so that we have definitely decided to join one of our local CSA's. It basically goes over in fact and in storytelling the journey of this one family and the year that they committed to eat only local food. Not necessarily organic, although it seems that as a happy accident, local and organic often go hand in hand. It has a wealth of information on how you can make that a possibility for you and your family. I am one that is motivated by guilt, and knowing some of the processing that goes into mass marketed food and what that does to the food and the environment really has made me stop and think about what we are buying and where it is coming from. Imagine how many natural resources we could save, ie oil, if we just chose to eat local more often. Often i think these things snowball and make you more thoughtful about everything that you do within your own household. I am not perfect at this by any means but by baby steps i hope that our family is improving and by that helping to improve the world around us, saving some things for our children.

BOOK 2...
this was by no means as thoughtful a book compared to the book i was reading just before it. I enjoyed it because i enjoy Jane Austen. How fun to chose your own course through a book. Remember those from when we were kids and you could chose the outcome. I confess that i failed miserably at the attempt to marry well and wealthy, which is the whole point of this book and of Jane Austen's novels. But it was fun and for that reason i would say, "read it". And i think you could read it many times over and change course every time, almost making it a new book each time.

Sorry about no pictures....

for Grammy

here you go Mom, these are just for you. I went back a few years and dug up some old pictures from when they were little that you probably had not seen. I think they are near the same age...although i can not be sure. And that one of Dad playing on the floor with them is obviously much more recent. I hope that you like them. I did not want you to check in with us and there be nothing new. So here is to days of old.

The Old and the New

Last night my Mitchie got a haircut. Not his first but probably one of his more dramatic. As you can see his hair was getting a little unruly. We called it his hippy hair too Sarah. But i loved it. Since it was so out of control we went for it. We have a nice hairdresser that comes right to our house. Chris and i got in on the haircutting too. Avery was too busy being sick, literally. The kids had some kind of mystery virus that put them both out for about 24 hours. I hope Chris and i don't get it. My handsome baby looks like a big boy.

Avery Pop

This week Chris had soda making night. He has been brewing his own beer and making his own soda for a little while now. I don't drink the beer but i love it when he makes some soda for me. He has made cream soda and root beer and now, as you may be able to tell form the neon orange, is a batch of orange soda. My favorite. What you probably can not see in the picture is that beside that huge "A" on the caps it says Avery Brewing. So that is why we are calling it Avery Pop. It is more catchy, i think, than Avery soda. Check out his reflection in the first picture. Thanks for the sugar rush honey.

Jammie Time!!

This is one of the projects that i finished this week. I made jammie pants. I did not really intend for them to be that only but Avery and Mitchell seem to have adopted them as such. They both wore them for a day straight after they were done. I made patterns for these based on pajama pants that they have in their drawers...fold, trace, cut, sew and voila they are done. My models were getting a little sassy with the poses.

Mitchell's New Birthday

My baby. He has grown so much and still sometimes seems so little but sometimes does things that are so big. This morning i was visiting by phone with my sister and the kids came downstairs to tell me something exciting, you could tell by how they were talking over one another. Mitchell says loudly(because that is his only volume) "I prayed to God.". My interest was piqued so i started asking some questions. Me, "what did you pray?"...Mitch says, "please let me be old and bring me to heavens. I prayed God to be my, what it that called Avery(this is where she provides him the word)? My Savior. That's all of it!" How sweet. My mommy's heart is very full. Now Mitchell is not always good at giving full stories so i asked Avery what they were doing and this is what she told me. They were playing Polly's in her room and she said she had a question for him, "did he want to last forever and ever?" Mitchell said "YES" so she led him in prayer. She told him what to say and he repeated the words after her. I explained to him about God living in your heart and always being with you and that He helps you be good and do the right things. He seemed to understand this. Avery told him that all the angels were dancing around heaven and singing and that now they had put Mitchell in their list to go to heaven. I know he is little but i believe he is still able to mean it. So friends and family, rejoice today with us for Mitchell, we are so proud of him. Matthew 19:14, "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come unto me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' " I love you Mitchie!!!

Musician in the Making

I could not resist. Mitch is very moved(literally we all are) by some new music we have in the house. Rodrigo y Gabriela!!!. Tonight he got out the guitar he got for his birthday and went to town. All day really he has been pretending this. I was secretly watching him this morning while he talked to his audience at breakfast...."hi. this is rodrigo. I am gabriela" and then he proceeds to do a little mock guitar playing...arm out stretched and strumming his belly. These pictures are blurry. It is hard to get a guitar player to be still for his photo shoot.

sewing central

There has been a lot of sewing going on here. This first picture is a great representation of what my sewing table looks like all the time. Computer open to a pattern, a heap of fabric waiting to be made into something and a half drank cup of warmish tea. I wish i had a more tidy place to sew but for now the only place is right in the middle of my living and dining room. Now that it is all out all the time i definitely get more done than when i was using the dining table and had to put it all away for every meal and company. Long ago Avery asked for a baby doll sling. I used one for Mitch when he was small and she wanted one the same. That tells you how long she has been asking for one. I was inspired this week, found a simple pattern and they literally took barely half an hour each. Don't they make lovely models? Mitch is very into the dolls and make believe right now and he has a baby with him just as often as Avery does. That is his Rudy. I hope they make good use out of their new baby slings. I particularly love the goldfish fabric that Mitchie's is made from.

craft this

Avery and Mitch got right in the thick of things with this project. I had them paint wooden game pieces for the tic tac toe board i made them. I had a pattern and finally got a chance to make it(not the greatest photos, oh well). They seem to be enjoying it and are starting to understand the concept of the game. They were very intent to paint those and they did a really great job.

A Little backyard Fun!!!

The weather here has been a little off. One day it is warm and rainy and the very next it is freezing and snowy. During this a ice rink appeared in our backyard. The rain puddle froze and the snow melted and the whole thing grew! The sun had come out a little bit this day so we decided to make the most of it. We are getting a little cabin fever and are tired of being inside all the time. Chris and Avery put on their skates, Mitch got out his hockey stick and we started playing. The ice is big enough that there is room for Chris to actually skate and for Avery to skate/shuffle. Mitch and i had a great time hitting the puck back and forth and Chris got in on it too. This was definitely a unexpected winter gift that we are all loving.

homemade

Try as i might to blog more than once a week i seem to be falling into a habit of a weekly cram session. This week began with a whim to make homemade butter. I think that day it was snowing and we were looking for something interesting and fun to do. I broke out the jar and poured in the heavy cream, with just a pinch of salt and got to shaking. The kids helped. Not as much as i thought that they would like to but even while we did school Avery and I kept passing the jar. In about 20 minutes the butter came together and there it was. Very tasty too. My sister says you can add fresh herbs and shake those in as well or honey. Yumm huh? We drained the liquid that separates from the butter solids and then i pressed it all into my butter crock. And we have been enjoying it since. It has been especially nice on out Irish soda bread.