July Birdie Stitches Block Done, & Homeschool Prep

I finished my first block for the Birdie Stitches block of the month. No rhyme or reason as to why I picked July - it just happened to be on the top of the pile. My fingers are a little sore, but other than that, this was a breeze. I still have to decide what fabric to use for the borders to make this into an actual quilt block, but I might wait until I've finished all of the stitching before I do that. We'll see. I'm not sure I want to commit to a color yet, and may just wait and see what looks best with all the blocks once they get done. For now, I probably better start working on that stitch sampler for the give-away ...

I know this picture is blurry, but I love it - the expression on his face is priceless. I took the picture with my phone, so I didn't have a flash, and when he noticed I was taking his picture, he started clowning around.

I love that my kids all love to read. I have pictures of each one of them sprawled across the furniture with a book. It reminds me why I love homeschooling. I get to see the joy of my kids learning new things, and instill in them a love of learning. I love seeing them get excited about a subject and take off on their own with it.

I've seen a lot of my friends post pictures on their blogs and Facebook of all the books they have for their children for school. My "school books" look a little different than most of theirs. While they have stacks of textbooks and workbooks, and a whole curriculum set from one publisher, I have real books - actual story type books. (I always feel a little sorry for those children. We've been down that path, and found that fill-in-the-blank books just didn't cut it for us. It sapped the desire to learn out of our kids). I've found that my children learn easily about different subjects when they read about it in a real book - one that tells the story from an interesting, personal perspective. They get involved in the story and connect with the characters, and remembering the facts becomes easy, because it's a story they can picture in their heads. I am using the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, and Charlotte would have called these books "living books." And they are. There is no arguing or complaining when it is time to do school. It isn't drudgery, filling out one blank after another. They look forward to it. And it doesn't feel like school.

Anyway, this is my first box of books. I've got them set aside in a crate. I have about this many more on the way in the mail, and that will probably take us to Christmas or so. We'll see. I buy all my books second hand on amazon or half.com, or get them at yard sales or the thrift store. I always buy the cheapest copy that is in "very good" condition. I could get cheaper ones if I was willing to take books in worse condition, but I figure these books have to make it through at least three more boys, so it's worth it to get a copy that's not falling apart already. Anyway, I look at this crate and can't help but think how much fun we're going to have very soon...

Incidentally, I had to put this crate on top of a bookshelf in my room to keep the 7 year old from reading all the books without me :)

The newest member of our family is growing like a weed. He is so alert and pays such close attention to everything. He studies my face and coos and seems to be really trying to "talk" to me :) He is the easiest baby I've had. He hardly ever cries, and then not for long, and he has a soft cry that is not annoying or ear-splitting. He takes good long naps and sleeps for 4 hour blocks of time overnight, even though I am nursing. Usually my newborns want to eat every 1 hour and 45 minutes - day and night. Not this guy. And he's gaining a lot of weight, so we've done something right that I missed before. I'm really enjoying him. I just wish the time would slow down a little. I have my 6 week checkup tomorrow, and can't believe it's been more than 3 weeks since he was born. Time flies when you're having fun ... and I definitely am!!

Got Some Stitching Done

The hardest part of any project for me is just getting started with the stitching. I do great with the planning and with the prep, but when it comes to that first stitch, I sometimes stumble. So I decided to jump in with both feet. I haven't embroidered in awhile, so I thought I would do one of the birdie blocks before attempting anything on the sampler. This is as far as I got. Not bad considering I was trying to nurse at the time. I've found that if I can get him propped up just right, I can embroider - at least while he is on my left side. Haven't tried the right yet, which I am guessing might be difficult, given that I'm right handed. Too much information? Anyway, now I'm off and running on the embroidery project. I think I might be stuck on this for awhile. I LOVE embroidering, and am much better at it than I am at sewing or making those very precise Farmer's Wife quilt blocks.

This morning while our power was out (before we left for church) and it was pretty dark, I figured it was a good time to get all the patterns traced onto fabric using the light table that my seven year old has told me he wants back ;) The block above is for April - and has Easter eggs on it. I'm sorry, but I can't reduce what my Savior did for me as He paid for my sin on the cross to cute little eggs. No offense. I know most people don't think twice about it. But it's a tender spot for me. So, when I traced this one, I left off the eggs and added the crosses.

Then when I got to the June block, I didn't think it suited me either. It just has a bunch of text - you can see it in the previous post with the picture of most of the patterns. It's cute, but I didn't think it really fit well with the rest of the blocks. I had seen someone else draw their own block, so I figured it was worth a shot. This is my own original. It represents what our summers look like. That's my hubby roasting hot dogs, which I don't care for, and me roasting a marshmallow, which he doesn't care for :) We love it here in the West, and love being outdoors. We just haven't gotten to do much of it this year, with the new baby and all. Anyway, I think the block turned out cute.

And here's a little brotherly love for you. The seven year old is always wanting to hold the baby. He is very gentle with him and does a great job. All the brothers love one another :)

Embroidery, Car Problems, & a Haircut

I had a chance to pick up some embroidery floss yesterday - It's a very interesting story, but we'll get to that in a minute. :)

I told you I was going to work on some embroidery patterns I found at Little Miss Shabby. These will all be made into a quilt, once the year is up and I've gotten all the blocks done. It's a block of the month project, so I won't have all the patterns until December.

There is also a give-away at We Love French Knots, but to be eligible, you have to sew her stitch sampler, so I'm going to work on that too. It has to be done by the 25th of August, I think. No problem, right? I've got all the time in the world.

I had in mind the jewel tone colors I wanted to use for all this embroidery. So I went out to the sewing room (aka garage) to get my grandmother's old basket of embroidery supplies. When I opened it, it was as if the 1970's had come back to life :) The one skein of blue you see there at the top was the only skein that wasn't some shade of harvest orange, avocado green, yellow, red, or brown. Hmm. Not at all what I was going for. And the blue is variegated, which is also not going to help me. My own local quilt shop had such little selection that I only found two colors that would even be usable. So I was thankful to get a chance to get to the store in the bigger town.

These are the colors I was going for. Actually, I hadn't thought about using any purple or bright pink, and I wanted more of a neon/lime green, but this will do.

And now for the very interesting story behind the shopping trip...

It's never a comforting feeling to get a call from your 20 year old son when you know he's on his way home (a 3 1/2 hour drive) in your car, and have the first words you hear be, "First, I want you to know it wasn't my fault." Mind you, this is the same kid who once called to tell me, "Mom, I totaled the car." - which being interpreted, meant, "Mom, I flipped your car end over end, off a bridge, landing the car on it's roof on a very large boulder. And yes, the car really is totaled." (Then he hung up before telling me whether he was okay - which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that he had borrowed the phone from a passer-by.) So you can understand my apprehension when the first thing I hear is that whatever has happened wasn't his fault.

Well, thankfully, it was nothing like last time. Instead, one of the back tires had shredded, which resulted in some damage to the fender. (Odd really - the tread came off, but the tire didn't go flat. Never had that happen before).


Okay. Nobody else involved. Car still drivable. My advise... "Well, you know how to change a tire, right?" He did, and made it home safely about an hour later.

Well, that was last weekend. The reason he was driving our car in the first place, is that his own recently purchased car (May) blew a head gasket, so he sold it to the junk yard. He hadn't payed that much for it but it seemed like a decent car. Anyway, it's not wise for him to buy another car right now because he will probably be shipping to a base overseas within the next couple months. So we said (with a little trepidation, given the outcome of the last loaned car, "use ours.")

Fast forward to this weekend. This weekend, he wanted a ride to the Greyhound station so he could go visit a friend across the United States. Literally. He will go from Western Wyoming to Pennsylvania on the bus. (It will take him 2 1/2 days on the bus. Ugh. Not for me, but sounds like an adventure to him.) So we took him there yesterday morning. Now, mind you, there's not a lot of towns in Wyoming. So the nearest bus station is 100 miles from here. But then, so is the nearest Walmart, so it wasn't that big of a problem. After all, we needed a new tire ;) so off to Walmart we went.

Instead of buying one tire, we decided to buy two. (The other two have been recently replaced). Wow this is getting wordy... Anyway, I decided that I hate Walmart. Big news, eh? No, more accurately, I hate how people behave (or don't) in Walmart. People were blocking aisles, cutting in front of us, running into us, pulling out of aisles right in front of us without even looking, letting their kids run and scream through the store and not even noticing them, etc, etc. I was SO ready to get out of there. And the amount we spent. There were less than ten things on our list, but $150 later, we left with an overflowing cart... not including what we spent at the pharmacy... or on the tires. Oh yeah, and did I mention that once we got back home (100 miles, remember) we found out that the geniuses at Walmart gave us the wrong size tires. ARGH. Now the car will be out of commission for the next 10 days until we have to go back to the bus station for the 20 year old. Good thing we were planning on going back there soon. Sometimes it's months in between trips.

Now really, in the scheme of life, it isn't that big of a deal that we are without the car for another week. Thankfully we have Old Blue for my husband to drive while the car is out of commission. But it's just frustrating that people can't do the job right the first time. After all, this is what you are paying them for, right? Not to mention, when we called to inform them of the problem, the lady who answered the phone told us that we were the third customer THAT DAY to have the SAME problem! I really think they need a better system... or to hire someone who can read.

In other news, the 20 year old volunteered to cut the 7 year old's hair before he left town. This picture was taken midway through the process.

He did a really good job.

I thought this was a funny picture. Not sure what the arms crossed across the chest was all about, but he sat that way - looking like he was in a great deal of pain - through the whole process.

Anyway, it came out nice, and I didn't have to do it :) I didn't even have to clean up the hair, which is always my least favorite part! Now, to just get to doing my husband and the 2 year old's hair...

A New Project, FWSQ & More Baby Pictures

Most of the blogs I read have headlines like, "A Finish" or "Another Finished Project." Not me. Nope, I just have more starts. I just continue to start new projects as they come to me. This time, I'm on to embroidery :) Maybe one of these days I'll finish SOMETHING.

I saw on someone's blog that they had completed a block of the month embroidery project called "Birdie Stitches" and thought it was super cute, so I asked where they found the pattern. Turns out it is a free block of the month project found here from Little Miss Shabby.

So I did what any mother of a 7 year old artist would do. I borrowed his light table and got right to tracing the patterns onto fabric!

This is the block for January (I have a little catching up to do.) All the blocks feature the cute little birds. I'm looking forward to this. Embroidery is like walking to me - a super easy, no brain power required project. I've been embroidering since my Grandma taught me how when I was about 6 years old. I love to do it, and it works up quickly. And after doing a couple of the "easy" Farmer's Wife quilt blocks, I think I need a no-brain-power-required project.

I also think it's a bit unrealistic for me to think I can spend a couple of hours at the sewing machine each day at this point in my life. With a nursing one month old, it's just not gonna happen. I'll still get it in when I can, but I can't count on doing it daily. Let's face it... I didn't even bother to plant flowers this year. I knew I wouldn't have time for it all.

Speaking of the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt (FWSQ), here are my first two completed blocks. This is block #4 - Basket Weave. It's a little catty-whompus. How's that for a description? I'm very thankful that it doesn't seem to look as much like a swastika as I expected it to. I think this ought to be about the easiest block in the book... and I had to re-do it twice. Frustrating. Made me really wonder how well I will be able to do the difficult blocks.

This is block #2 - Autumn Tints. All my fabrics are bright, tone-on-tones, and there will be a rainbow of color in the finished quilt. I'm trying to pick the most appropriate or fun fabrics for each block, based on the name of the block. For the Basket Weave block, I just picked the farthest thing from Nazi colors as I could - ha.

I know I said I was going to do each block in alphabetical order, and for the most part, I intend to. I prepped the first four blocks, and won't prep more until those are done. But when I sat down to sew the other day, I didn't expect the baby to give me more than a few minutes of quiet sewing time, so I started with the Autumn Tints block. I've got to kind of play it by ear, you know?

I've got my hands full, wouldn't you say? Quite literally :)

Hi everybody. (See him waving?) :) Looks like he's greeting all his loyal fans :)

Here he is having a little conversation with Mr. Giraffe...

And trying to figure out how to get those arms to work. He's been "reaching at" things - not able to get his arms to do what he's thinking, but you can tell he really wants to touch stuff and he's trying.

Love the perspective on this one. It was taken by my 20 year old :) And wow, do we need to get to those haircuts!

All that sewing was done yesterday and the day before. As for today, I'm not sure how much I'll get done. My 7 year old is finishing up his second week of VBS - this time at the other Baptist church in town, and they have a program at noon, followed by lunch, so we're packing up everyone and heading over there in an hour. Then I have some phone calls to make, bills to pay, and so on. Hopefully I'll get a few minutes to sew something. Actually, I did fix the basket weave block this morning, so I guess that counts for today, even if I don't get back to the machine. I'm thinking I'm really more in a hand-sewing season, and so I'm looking forward to getting to the store Saturday to pick up the colors of embroidery floss I need to get going on those embroidery blocks. (We're heading to the town 100 miles away to put the 20 year old on a Greyhound to Pennsylvania to visit a friend and do some sightseeing before he heads of to the next assignment. My local quilt store has about 30 different colors of floss - only two of which were the colors I was looking for. Can't wait to get to where I can buy a whole assortment. I sure hope Walmart still carries floss.) I'm pretty sure I can embroider while I nurse. If that proves too cumbersome, I'll get my hexagon blocks back out. So far, I've spent most of my nursing time reading and staring at that beautiful baby :) - which I do intend to keep doing!

What Time Is It? BIBLE TIME!

I mentioned earlier that this week was another busy one. This week we had Neighborhood Bible Time at our church. We knew it had been a long week when on Saturday my husband slept in until 11:30! I had planned on going to yard sales early, but didn't actually leave until 9:15, and the only other person up (besides the baby) was my 7 year old. Now we're fairly well rested and ready to go.

My 7 year old won one of the daily Bible drills - where they have to find a passage in the Bible before anyone else - so he got to participate in the grand championship Bible drill at the closing program Friday night (He's the one in a blue shirt and khaki pants).

The competition was intense. He was very close to winning, but the girl in the foreground won. He's really improved in being able to locate Bible passages. We're very proud of him.

The teens, along with teen evangelist "Mr. Andrew" had to perform the Booster Cheer in front of everyone in the closing program. This is a song usually reserved for the younger kids, so it's always an embarrassment to the teens to have to do it :) My daughter was the pianist, so she is hiding behind the kids on the left.

She won everything for the teens though - The Fisherman Award for most visitors brought, the Bible Memory Champ - she said over 25 verses (last year she said 111, but all she did all week was study verses. This year she took a more relaxed approach and enjoyed the week. I think she could have beaten last year's total if she had tried. She said all her verses this year on one night, so if she had worked on them all week, she should have been able to do 125 at least). She also won the Bible awarded for the teen earning the most points (not surprising since verses and visitors all add points).

Here's a good picture of both of our NBT evangelists - Mr. Andrew (teen leader) on the platform, and Mr. Jarod in the front. He was in charge of all the younger kids. They were leading the congregation in a silly song called "Hi My Name is Joe." It was hysterical.

My daughter, doing "Hi My Name is Joe".

Here's the younger crowd doing the Booster Cheer. There were a lot more kids I didn't get in the picture - I was trying to zoom in on my 7 year old.

He's directly in front of the pulpit here.

My 7 year old won the Bible for most points for his grade. He also won the Fisherman Award, bringing the most visitors in the Primary department (1st through 3rd grade).

After the service, the teens on the winning team got to pour "anything you want to bring from your refrigerator" onto a chosen few from the losing team. My daughter made sure there was plenty of gross stuff in it, and mixed the concoction all together.

I won't show you the picture of it being poured on, as it was truly disgusting. The one doing the pouring was very merciful and mostly just got it on the garbage sacks on their backs rather than on their heads. Probably a good thing since right after the program all these guys headed up to the rodeo for the night ;)

It was definitely a great week. We had several young people make decisions for salvation, and for other things. I was able to volunteer more than I thought I would be able to with the new baby. I took the baby backpack (not sure what you call it when you actually wear it on the front of you) and was able to take care of snacks each evening for the teens. It was a good thing too, as it was just my husband and I helping for the teens at night. I was really thankful to have the opportunity. I love to be involved in Bible Time, but knew with the daycare and the baby, there's no way I could stay in the mornings and help with the younger kids. Thankfully our 20 year old was in town this week so he kept the 7 and 2 year old for the evenings while we were gone. That was a great help.

The middle of this week was our wedding anniversary. We almost both forgot about it. I didn't realize what day it was until noon, when I happened to see some friends of ours who share our anniversary post about it being their anniversary on Facebook. My husband didn't have a clue until our 20 year old reminded him just before we went to the teen meeting which started at 7 pm :) I wasn't angry - I knew there was a lot going on, and we had already decided before then to celebrate on the weekend instead. So last night we went up to a very fancy restaurant at one of the lakes, and had a nice steak dinner. It was excellent, and it was really nice to be out just the two of us (though by the time dinner was over, I was ready to get back to my baby!).

Science, Homeschool Style

I love homeschooling. It gives you opportunities to enjoy nature in ways you might otherwise have missed. After all, how many of us have paid any attention to moths or butterflies this summer, other than just to notice them in passing?

Well, for us, this is the summer of bugs. Insects, to be more accurate. So when I found a dying butterfly the other day, my first thought was to pick it up and take it inside to study later. It's been another (yes, yet another) crazy busy week. (I'm going to have to quit saying that. I think I say that every week, lol.) We have VBS at our church, which means we're there in the morning for young kids, and then again in the evening for teens... plus keeping up with the daycare. On top of that, the baby had a checkup in the town 77 miles away on Tuesday. Well, Tuesday was the day I found the butterfly - laying in the driveway (probably fell off the Excursion when we got home). It was being dragged across the driveway by a tiny little ant. So, I did what any normal homeschooling mother would do. I grabbed the butterfly, took it inside, set it on the counter, and put a glass over it so it wouldn't escape or get crushed. Then I rushed back out the door to the teen meeting. When we got home late Tuesday night, my husband captured an unsuspecting moth and added it to the collection under the glass.

Now, it's Thursday, and here they still sit... with one notable change...

The moth laid eggs on the butterfly! We were planning on adding both to our insect collection. But now, we have a living, growing experiment at hand. Did I mention I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING?

One Month...

Where does the time go? I can't believe the baby is a month old already. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and he now weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces and is 22 inches long. That's a gain of 13 ounces in 15 days since our last appointment! Yeah!

We're starting to get some really good smiles :D We have been getting little ones every now and again, but recently he's started smiling when I talk to him, and it seems like he really means it :) I love it when a new baby starts smiling!

Of course, it's not always easy to capture those smiles on camera!

Sometime in the past month or so I saw on another blog the idea of taking pictures on every month birthday, with cards saying how old the baby was. (I saw the idea here). I think this is a great idea, and I *intend* to do that each month.

This is not as easy of an assignment as you might think...

Hopefully I'll remember to do it every month. With a birthday on the 1st, it should be a little easier to remember (I hope)!

And what post would be complete without a picture of the goofy 2 year old, and the 7 year old who somehow manages to get at least his head into most pictures at our house? Believe it or not the 2 year old was not posing for the camera - I just happened to get a shot of him clowning around.

CONGRATS S&J :)

Yesterday my sister had a beautiful baby girl. She was 10 days early, which is funny because now we have the first and last days of July covered ;) Call if Alpha and Omega if you will - ha. Anyway, can't wait to see her. I'm sure there will be quite a size difference when we get the new babies together - our son (July 1st) was 9 pounds 11 ounces, and her girl (July 31) was only 6 pounds (and she was 1 1/2 inches shorter than our boy (who is now growing like a weed). We get to meet her in a month or so. :)