Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Beach Break


On the way down the coast Friday to head to the baseball tournament, the kids were getting a bit antsy in the car. I'm sure you know how it goes:

"Slug bug!!"
"No, I said it first!!"
"No you didn't!"....

"Stop staring at me!"
"I wasn't staring."
"Yes you were!"...

"Can we listen to Mark Shultz?"
"No I want to listen to Mercy Me."
"Mom, I asked first.!"..

Ok, so time for a break!!!
We decided to take a little break at one of the day-use parks along the way.

It was absolutely beautiful on the beach... windy, but warm.





The kids had a great time playing run-away from the waves!

We all got our feet wet and some sand in our toes.

Perfect solution to car-weary-whines!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Busy, Busy Baseball


We have been going like crazy around here with the boys' baseball schedule for All-Stars.

2 Tournaments down... 1 to go!

Both teams have done very well.

Last weekend, Kyle's team placed 2nd and Ryan's placed 4th.

This weekend, neither team placed but they still played some good baseball!!



Lindsey was such a good girl, packing around Daddy's Pepsi for him!!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

A Tale of Two Barnyard Dilemmas

Let me start at the beginning...

Once upon a time, there was a cute, little goat named Daisy.


Now Daisy was very spoiled and was not asked to do anything but eat weeds and play with kids every once in a while.


She sometimes forgot that her owner would always put a nice heaping scoopful of her favorite grain out for her in the morning and that she always gets the apple cores and banana peels from the kids. And because she would forget this fact, she decided to stick her cute little head through the squares in the gate to try and nibble a bit on the tender grass that grew on the other side.


And being a goat, she would also forget that her horns don't always allow her to back up and bring her head out of the gate.


Now on one particular day, Daisy was STUCK!! And when I say stuck, I mean STUCK!
No amount of pulling, tugging, coaxing, or reversing would get her head out and back to freedom.


Until the man of the house decided to try using a ratchet tie-down strap to bend the bar up a tiny bit on the offensive gate square. To everyone's surprise, it worked!


Oh the joys of being a free goat!!

But remember, she is a goat, which means she doesn't always learn from her mistakes.


A few days later, that grass looked so appealing and tasty! She couldn't resist it's sweetness!
Oh no, back to having to be rescued by the big man of the house! He's a little irritated this time.


Again, a third time, Daisy tried to reach just a nibble of the luscious goodness on the other side of that gate. And a third time, the man grumbled and rumbled but finally released Daisy from her prison. (Only because the nice woman of the house whined and begged sweetly for him to help her!)


But this third time, the big man made a statement and a promise to the kind woman. He said, "If she does this again, she will have to find another home!"


WHAT!!? GASP!!


Desperation set in. The woman, realizing the big man was very serious, decided to take the matter into her own hands.


Her mind began to seek a good solution. After some pondering and worrying, she came up with the answer to the problem.


Chicken wire and twine!!

Daisy still dreams about the beautiful green grass on the other side. Sometimes she longingly gazes through her prison gate, wishing she could just get one little taste.


But for now, the woman of the house has solved her problem.


And the goat, the big man, and the kind woman lived happily every after. (hopefully)


THE END...



Another animal tale....


Once upon a time, there were 6 chicks.


The woman realized that the chicks living arrangement was not working anymore, for 2 reasons. They had grown much too big for the small "nursery" box that the kind woman placed them in weeks ago. It was time to spread their wings (pun intended!).


And this was the second reason:


Tansy!!

Tansy had become a bit broody. She had been sitting on some eggs for a couple of days now. Only getting off once a day to eat, drink, and potty.

This meant that Tansy would need the "nursery" box for her and her little ones soon.
But the woman, knowing that those nasty raccoons come around often just waiting for the opportunity to have fresh chicken, had to come up with a solution to the problem.

The chicks were not old enough to be with the adult chickens yet. So with the help of her eldest son , the woman maneuvered the portable chicken coop up to the little red barn in the side yard.



Ahhh, this could be the answer to the dilemma!

A play yard for the chicks and a safe, secure roosting place for night.

Oh, life was good for the chicks.

That is, until they had to be moved into the big hen house! The drama of it all!!

To Be Continued....

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Proverbs 16:3

"Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established."

I'm commiting....
----My Marriage.

----My Family.


----Our Friendships.

----My Work.
----Our Hobbies.

----Our Deeds.

---- Our Home.


"Commit your works (ALL your works!!!) to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established."

Words in parentheses are my own addition.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Keepin It Real... Kid Rooms

Am I the only Mom who has not made her childrens bedrooms look as if they are out of a showroom?

Is there anyone else out there who realizes that the room is going to get trashed anyways?

Am I the only one who wants my kids to have their things and their own belongings in their own space?
I would love to be able to have neat, tidy, spotless, perfectly decorated bedrooms... but is that realistic?

I choose not to spend my energy and time fretting over the impossible task of keeping my kids' rooms perfect!

AND HERE IS THE PROOF!!......

This is the girls' room...

For some reason, Kaycie has decided lately that she wants to sleep on the floor. She has a super comfy bed so I don't know why she is doing that. Last night she told me it's like she's camping. That makes sense!

Lindsey is still sleeping in the little playpen. We are keeping our eyes and ears open to find a set of bunk beds for them.

Here is Bear's room:

Notice all the "junk" under the bed. I don't know why, but this boy likes boxes. He has boxes around his room holding various things.
He has no certain way that he sleeps on his bed. Sometimes his head at one end and then another night his head will be at the opposite end. Whatever makes him comfortable!


Another view:

More boxes. Crooked posters. Overflowing laundry basket.

Are you completely horrified yet?


And here is Ryan's room:

Actually his room is not too bad right now. We had company the other night, which means his room was tidied up for company to sleep in.

I won't even show a picture of my bedroom. It would literally cause nightmares. When we don't know what to do with something, that's where it usually ends up!

I consider myself a decent housekeeper. I clean and tidy. You wouldn't know it by the looks of these pictures, but clutter stresses me out!

And don't get the wrong idea, I do make my kids clean their rooms about once per week. Other then that, the doors stayed close and I don't have to see the messes.

So tell me, do your kids' rooms look showcase beautiful? Or do you let it go and just be a kids room?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Teeter Totter Baby Quilt


This totally represents making do with what I had available.

When the nearest fabric/quilt store is at least 45 minutes away, sometimes ya just have to use up what ya already have!

I'm calling this one Teeter Totter because the light blue fabric has little boys & girls playing on teeter totters.

(sorry the pictures are so bad, I haven't ironed the blocks yet.)

Cute fabric, isn't it?


The red plaid is cut from a shirt that both my boys had outgrown. I didn't want the quilt to be too cutesy, so I thought the plaid would give it some "strength".

My plan is to add a couple borders and give it away as a baby boy quilt. Although, I don't know any new baby boys or know of anyone having a baby boy right now!


It's been fun to put together. I just started sewing strips together to form a block. Liked the looks of it, so made a bunch more with an assortment of fabrics.

After laying them out all facing the same direction, I decided to rotate them to make an entirely different looking quilt top.


I'll show you more as soon as I get more done on it.


On another note, the kids and I are really enjoying summer! No alarm clock, no rushing out the door in the morning.
We still have baseball every night but the easy, laid-back mornings are balancing the schedule out nicely!


Hope everyone is enjoying their summer beginnings so far!!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Sprouts...(& Weeds)


In an earlier post, I talked about my "patchwork" garden. It's just my way of saying "lots of weeds".
The garden area was poorly neglected last year and I had the bright idea of using no chemicals in the garden this year. Which means WEEDS!!!
So I have been routinely cleaning out the areas around the sprouts and disposing of the weeds out into the cow pasture.

I've envisioned when all my veggies come up, that it will look pretty with all the "patches" running in different directions and in smaller than normal rows. Like little "patchwork" blocks.

Radishes:


I have 8 tomato plants. They seem to be doing good:

It's about time to get the tomato tepees to support them, they are getting big enough!

Corn:

I have 2 different patches of corn going.

Pumpkins:

They are doing great. We have planted 2 kinds. Basic orange pumpkins and some white ones.
FUN!!

Lovely little bean sprouts:

The only things I'm a bit worried about are the cucumbers and spinach. They don't seem to be doing much. Oh well, we'll just wait and see!

School's Out!!!!.... & Randomness



Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated here...

Yesterday was the last day of school! I am sooooo happy that the school year is over and we made it through.

I officially have a 2nd grader, 5th grader, and 7th grader now!

As for the garden..... boy, I have my hands full there.
Because the garden was not "worked" last summer, the weeds are taking over. In the midst of my cute little sprouts, there is a bed of green weeds coming up also.

I have decided to do my best to clean out the weeds around my veggies and not worry too much about the rest of the garden area.

I'm determined we'll get some food out of there this year!!


And just when I thought baseball season was over... think again!

Both the boys made the All-Stars team. It's double emotions.... proud and happy for them but also wishing that we could be done with the baseball schedule. Oh well, at least school is out so the schedule won't be as bad.

3 1/2 more weeks of ball!



Lindsey is still not sleeping well. And last night she started running a fever. So needless to say, I haven't slept well for quite awhile! I know someday she'll be a big girl and won't need Mommy and I'll be sad about it. So I'm trying to enjoy every snuggle and every tear.



I feel like I'm typing away on a newspaper article. How boring!! Sorry.

And the pictures have nothing to do with what I've typed... just some summery, fun photos.

I hope everyone has a great day.

HELLO SUMMER!!!!!




Thursday, June 4, 2009

Western Swing


Ok, no more complaining about not getting any sewing done!

I have figured out that for me to work on the projects that I want to do, the house has to suffer a bit. oh well, the dishes will always be there and laundry never goes away anyways.

Lindsey has been chatting with me and having snacks while I have been piecing together this table runner.

I'm calling this "Western Swing". I guess just because of the blue chambray and red bandana material... it makes me think of cowboys, two-stepping, and chuckwagons.

I like how it turned out. I plan on using it on my antique buffet hutch. Or possibly to give as a gift.

I really, really, really need to get to town to buy some batting. There are now 3 completed tops hanging on my quilt rack waiting to be finished!


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

United We Stand

I'm so excited about this one!!!

The quilt top is complete....

I'm calling it "United We Stand" because the inspiration fabric is from Robert Kaufman's United We Stand line.

Kyle picked out the fabrics... all except the light blue chambray in the borders and sashing. I found that stashed away in a box (I'd forgotten I even had it).

I know he is going to love this quilt when I get it done.