Our Pig

meet our pig. he's the black one with the pink feet.

last sunday my grandpa asked us if we wanted a pig. we said yes.
we haven't come to a consensus on the name, so i don't know what to tell you. i, for one, like pig.

i'd just rather not turn him into too much of a pet. i'm thinking that won't be too difficult, since he will be staying at my grandpa's.

Just A Couple of Things...

The three older kids have been away for the week. They've been visiting their Grammy. I get to go pick them up tomorrow. I am really excited to see them. They each have had their moments, but Isaac has definitely had the hardest time... Other than the homesick phone calls, I have to say, the quiet around the house has been nice. It's been peaceful.

There were two things I wanted to get done while the kids were away: mopping the floor, and cleaning out the van. I got them done right at the first, so I could enjoy them for the whole week. Those two things probably sound a little silly because I DO mop and I DO clean out the van while the kids are at home, but the thing is I wanted to enjoy them for a whole week, not just one day. There you have it.

So everything else I got accomplished this wonderful week was just icing on the cake. Yippee! A few things I've been meaning to do are pictured below.

The trellises and netting with fence posts. These trellises should have been put up weeks, MONTHS ago! Squash to the left. Pumpkins to the right. (I like these two pictures a lot for some reason. The orange with the green, maybe?)

Bunk bed painting. Glorious day. I started painting these things in March over Spring Break. First with my sister, then with my mom. Now they're finally, FINALLY getting finished. You know, we only got them for Christmas. It's now June. I'm telling you, we move at a slow pace sometimes around here.

More pictures of the netting and trellises Gene and I installed. This is part of the Square Foot Gardening method. Plants and vines are supposed to grow UP, rather than OUT. I sure I hope it works. Our soil in the North garden is really sandy, so I'm not quite sure whether the rebar and posts are going to stand up to the weight once the plants start getting heavy with fruit. (Okay, I like the top picture because it shows Isaac's fort. And the beautiful lavender. Those babies are humming with bees. I'm loving it.)

I just want to say one more thing. No, two things. hehe

1. I am enjoying talking with so many of you about gardening. I love running into you and talking about how things are going in your garden. I am LEARNING so much.

2. I'm hoping for a GIVEAWAY next week sometime. So stayed tuned...

Paper Peonies

The birthday decorations have finally, FINALLY come down. They've been up since the end of March. MARCH. First for Aryn and then for Zoe. I have to admit though, I liked having them up. They're so pretty and added fun color to the kitchen.

I got the idea from Keri, who made some for her daughter's birthday. Heather made some cute polka dot ones for her sister-in-laws baby shower, and I saw some over on Autumn's blog for a bridal shower. So they're pretty versatile decorations, easy to make, and look beautiful hanging from the ceiling!!

My mom has made them a lot for different things, so she came over and showed me how to make them. Let me show YOU how it's done...

You will need: tissue paper, scissors, garbage ties or wire, yarn.

You can use 6 or 8 sheets of tissue paper.
Decide on the size of flower you want. Small-cut the tissue paper in half. Medium-cut some of the top off. Large-use the full size.
Fold the paper back and forth into an accordion fan.
Cut the ends on both sides into either a rounded shape or a point (like the white).

Twist the garbage tie or wire around the middle of the accordion fan.

Very carefully, pull the sheets of tissue paper apart individually toward the wired center. Go slowly because the paper rips VERY easily. Make sure to do this to both sides.

Voila! A beautiful paper peony.
Make a bunch of different colors and sizes, tie on some yarn, and hang them from your ceiling. (I'm thinking of hanging ours back up in the girls' room.)

Dangerous Things

I've had the sewing machine out on the kitchen table for the passed few days. This can be a dangerous thing for me. It stays there and takes up a lot of space and time, with it's accompanying chaos. I stay up late at night and during the day everyone gets to fend for themselves, until the project is complete...

Anyway, I've been busy making some things. I can hardly wait to share what this mess is to become. But not until they are all finished. (Then maybe a giveaway...wink, wink?)

And I've got a little helper. Whenever he sees the pincushion, he says, "My ball." He loves taking out the pins. Dangerous, I know. I keep taking it away from him. Somehow, I don't think this is the end of dangerous things for this boy. Only the beginning. Speaking of dangerous, have any of you read The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden? I liked it. I think maybe enough to purchase it.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

The kite.

The Grandpa. (Who sometimes wakes in the middle of the night with grand dreams!) The Grandpa decided to build a kite. A box kite. Made out of newspaper, plastic wrap, glue, and dried sunflower stalk.

He enlisted the help of my older children. (Isaac is not pictured, but he did go over one day to help glue.)

Everyone had to wait a few days for some wind to test out the new kite.

Presto! The wind arrived on Friday. (Just before the kids went with their dad to visit their Grammy. Ahhh... we love grandparents.)

The kite FLIES!!!

Garden Boxes

Last Friday, I took the two littlest kids with me to Home Depot. We bought these 2 x 6's and had the store cut them into 4 foot lengths to make 3 garden boxes. I also bought a bag of turkey manure compost.

Later that evening, Gene told me that my grandpa had some old 2 x 6's at his house we could cut up and use. We went over the next day, and found lumber good enough to make 4 boxes.

We drilled 3 holes into one end of each board. That took awhile because the drill bit kept slipping down. (Also, I had Gene take a picture of me drilling because it always looks like HE'S the one doing all the work.) Anyway, we thought we had the right length of screws at home, but it turns out we didn't. So we loaded everyone up and took a trip over to Ace Hardware.

We got home and started fastening the boards together by rotating the corners to make a square box. Gene and I both think we probably could have done without the predrilling.

7 boxes down, 3 more to go! I'm going to get to go back to Home Depot. Yipee!

(After many pencil erasures, this is the layout I've finally decided upon. The drawings should be switched around.)

Room Redo?

I've been wanting to make some changes in the girls' room for the last little bit. Changes for me come rather slowly, especially when it involves projects. We bought this bed at my aunt's yard sale a while back. The bed needed some help. So a few nights before Christmas, I painted it in the garage. Voila! New bed.


The girls were a little sad to have their old bed leave, but the change is good. The bed looks cute with the new bedding (Christmas too). I am going to have to do something with the walls. Which will then lead to something else... I already have a million projects that need to get finished and like I said... Changes for me come rather slowly, especially when it involves projects.

So, a complete room redo? No. A start? Maybe!


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