Making It Meaningful

It'd been a while since I'd even gone into my craft room folks, but I couldn't hold off any longer. I had some very stressful months where survival was the objective of each day, and I guess part of getting over or healing from that was the urge to create something. That's the way I roll, pretty much.

We were given some men's shirts and some of them were colors that I didn't really think any self-respecting man had any business wearing. :-P I put them through the stringent hubby approval system and ended up with a bright orange shirt to do with as I wished. I may go back to hubby's wardrobe in time, as his approval system was, in fact, less stringent than I thought it should be. :-P

I'd been wanting to try this tutorial for ages: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=170402.0
so it was obvious what I'd do with this shirt. The shirt used in the tutorial was much more interesting than my husband's kool-aid orange reject, but I thought it would turn out okay. Here's what I ended up with...



I think it turned out well. Grace was very happy with it (no seriously, she was!). It was a little plain in it's original state though, which is why I added the house to it in cross-stitch. I have no idea why I thought a house would be suitable, but it was. It just was. And I think it works because it makes us both smile when we look at it. :)

In the future, if I make another one of these (which I hope to, because it was fun, and easy, and...I just liked it) I will try to use a larger shirt so I can get as much width into the skirt as possible. And I will make sure the visible portion of my house appears to be clean when I take a photo. I mean, sheesh.

I knew I had more photos to share -- not many of them, but here they are anyway.

I like to stick my nearly 4-year-old daughter outside while we homeschool. She is noisy. :) She loves playing with different colors of water, measuring, mixing, adding sand and leaves and twigs, and so on. The 2-year-old enjoys this activity as well, but he's normally napping during our afternoon school session when we do this.

We also do a similar thing but with a mixture of lentils, rice, dried peas and beans and so on, instead of the water. Just for a change.


Sometimes I manage to get all five of them contained in the same room, almost doing something together, but at their own levels. I think it's cute.


(Apparently I need to homeschool myself on how to take a non-blurry photo...)

I think the above picture makes a welcome contrast to the other kind of activity they all enjoy doing together:


You know, I mean, because I try to avoid this scenario, but...nobody's perfect!

but darn it, I want to post something. I have this problem a lot, come to think of it. The thing is, there's nothing very defined for me to blog about any more. My days are flowing and a bit monotonous, and nothing really stands out in them now.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not (big picture) but from this side, it doesn't feel like a good thing, I must be honest. However, coming from the mindset of needing "big things" and "variety" (relative) in my day to keep my interest, I suppose it will take a while for me to be able to see, let alone cherish, the small things. I shall have to make that more of a focus in my life.

I have some photos to share. These have been languishing on my camera for a while now...I guess they serve to remind me of some of the little things I have to be joyful about. :) As I load these onto my blog I am holding a 2-year-old with golden, bouncy, vanilla frosting-scented hair. Aaah. It is good.

Okay, so first I'll show you my new kitchen shelves. I have waited a long time for these! I finally broke down on a trip to IKEA with my little (persuasive) brother and bought them, and then he put them up for me. You can also see my little herb plants in the windowsill. A gorgeous friend put that together for me to cheer me up when I was having a hard couple of days. There is oregano, basil, thyme and parsley. I would like to make another one with coriander, maybe flat-leaf parsley, and I don't know what else.


Wow, that photo is awesome. You can't even tell how messy the side of the "yard" is, or how dirty the window is. LOL. Here's a photo of Jonathan (it's a CLOSE UP!!!!). I included this because you can see my collection of aprons in the background. ;) They need to be better displayed, I have some really nice ones (thanks Aunt Jeannette and Shelly B!). Jonathan took this photo himself, therefore, not my fault.



Now moving on to some random homeschooling photos...first, we took pics of the kids' new school boxes. I stole the idea for individual boxes from Shelly B. :) I had the kids make their own labels and we stuck them on. I think they turned out great. I use the boxes to put each kid's school stuff (books, worksheets, etc.) for the week in, and that simplifies the organisation a fair bit. Shelly, I like your style.

Jonathan's.

Mae's.

Grace's.

FWIW, the kids took those photos so again, not my fault. :P


We made sprouts for the first time. It was so, so easy and they were yummy, and very good for us!! I haven't done it again since then though, but I will.



This is a cookie solar system we made for Mae's unit study on "The Planets". It all went really well and as an added bonus, MAE RETAINED INFO!!



Also for Mae's unit study, we made a volcano (of the playdough, bicarb, vinegar type). This was to remind Mae that Mars is home to the biggest volcano in our solar system. It was fun, while it lasted (which was all of about 30 seconds, but oh well).



The next two are some random play clay constructions. The first is a dear little chooster (chicken/rooster?!) and eggs, made by Miss Mae with no help from anyone. She's only five, and as such I thought this was akin to fine art.



This one is...some kind of...thing...well it is cute, anyway. By Jonathan.



And finally, probably one of my favorite photos of all time...Benjamin. Painting.


I could eat that kid.

I guess that's all I have for you for now. I hope to post more soon, because, well it forces me to reflect on how much we've achieved and that feels pretty good. Praise be to God for enabling me to teach my kids at home! I am blessed.

As per my sporadic usual, I have neglected my blog for about a month or so. I just don't have time, or much interesting stuff to write about. I thought I would come here today though, just to say to Moey and Shelly B. both, I miss you guys and wish I could sit and chat with both of you (at the same time would be ideal ). I am feeling rather isolated and lonely right now, too. I suppose it shall pass.

I am lovin' me some homeschooling. Yes, even with grammar like that. I did it on purpose. Anyway, the children and I are enjoying ourselves! (The exclamation mark denotes an element of surprise behind that statement.) We are doing unit studies, lapbooks, some workbooks here and there, and lots of hands-on stuff.  The little kids are daily engaged in water play, playdough, paint, scissors, glue, crayons, bouncy curls and giggles. I'm not sure what learning is happening, but we're having a ball! And what a relief...

Shelly and Moey are two of my biggest inspirations in the homeschooling world. Shelly has graduated four (right?) homeschoolers, and *ONLY* has ten more to go! Both of these girls have some of the *best* kiddos on earth so I know they are doing some awesome things. You ladies are wonderful. I mean that.

Crafting has not really been happening around here. I have been on a new schedule for the past couple of weeks, out of sheer desperation, and for some reason I don't seem to have enough gumption left for crafting, after muddling through my routine. I think the routine is working though, in most every other way. I guess it's a trade-off I'm willing to live with for now.

Oh and a note to Karen: I am still working on that *something* for you -- it is about 2/3 finished. Hopefully I will be able to get it done before too long. It is slow going though, due to the above.

I can't remember if there's been anything else on my mind lately, so I'll go now and get my babes to bed. Ah yes, but don't let me leave you without a photo...albeit a pretty badly blurry one. All of my children, seated at the table, learning at home. 

Oh man, I can't find that photo. Here are some Tim Tams instead: