Weekly Wrap-up: Vacation Projects

In our homeschool this week. . .
Woohoo! Loving vacation!!!! Ya'll should join me!

In my life this week. . .  I have become a Pinterest Princess! My mom continues to say how much I'm putting everyone else to shame by completing projects.  I've made several more aprons, chef's hats to go with them, as well as oven mitts. . . They are completely fabulous!!! I'm in love with them!

Someone asked, and yes, I sewed on a t.v. tray, my iron is on the other one. . . cutting was done on the coffee table from a kids school desk chair!  And, they still turned out soooo stinking cute!!!  See the mess??

We took these to her the day she found out her dad died.  It was good to see her smile! Hers is my favorite set.

This sweet girl looks like a Keebler Elf every time she puts that hat on.... it makes me smile!

I did put a link for the website to the apron tutorial in this post.  The oven mitt, and chef's hats were both in different tutorials.  I used the same material as the aprons, and had a matching set for each kiddo; apron, chef's hat, oven mitt, and for Crazy K, an adorable pot holder from the front pocket of her sweet jeans!

2 of my chefs did some holiday baking for me! It looks like they were  really concentrating here, hehe.

Here they were decorating Pringles cans with holiday paper so they'd have a pretty way to deliver them! Another  idea from Pinterest, but I don't think I pinned the link. . .oops!

NEXT, I decided to try to make a cute little bag.  Now, I think the total time spent on this project was 10-15 minutes.  However, it took about 1 hour to finish it due to one cranky, whiny, crying Baby T who interrupted several times, one broken sewing needle, and several other interruptions!  I forgot to finish the edges of the ruffles before sewing them on the bag, but it's still cute.  Don't you think so?  Instructions for that are here.  I had some small black bags I bought for $0.79 at Michaels after Halloween last year.  They were just sitting in a drawer, so I pulled them out to try my hand at ruffles. . . I don't think it's too bad for my first time.


Oh... In all honesty, and with full disclosure, I didn't spruce up my pictures, because I wanted you to see, that while I'm accomplishing wonderfully amazing projects on the sewing machine, my life is in disarray, especially my house!  I haven't done anything else.  I've washed several loads of laundry more than once, stayed up waaaaay too late, and have even, dare I say it, slept in! I've continued to be the "yes, mom". I've made crockpot meals and big dishes so I only cooked dinner 1.5 times this week...my 7 year old cooked the lasagna (oh and hubby helped).  My 7 year old made breakfast all week.  There's STUFF everywhere.

I'm praying for. . . 
My God-daughter Crazy K has had a tough life in her short 11 years!  This past week her biological father passed away.  I can't imagine being faced with the mortality of my parents at such a young age.  She didn't feel up to school the day after she found out, so we had her over.  That's how I got the pic of her all dolled up in the apron and such...that was hers from a pair of jeans she gave me.  She's so amazingly strong, and dealing with all the grown-up issues in her life in such a mature way.  She's so dear to me, and I love her.  I'm praying that God will show her that He's blessed her with so many fathers that have been good to her, loved her like their own, and are still here, and that He Himself has adopted her as His own princess entitled to be His heir!  He is good, even when life is bad!

My favorite thing this week was. . . being home, sleeping in, crafting, saying yes to the kids, wearing pjs at 1:07 while writing my blog post, and eating all the cookies we made!  It's been a fabulous week!!!

Things I'm working on. . . thanks to Pinterest, I will never forget all the things I want to accomplish.  It's like a to do list you can't lose.  There are several projects I have pinned that should be coming up soon.  Next week though, the girls would like to make aprons for their American Girl dolls. . . I'm not quite sure I have the patience to deal with them and the sewing machine (they did try sewing straight lines on scraps today).  If I'm not too exhausted from my crazy work schedule (2 days on, 1 off, 1 on, 1 off, 1 on, yuck, yuck, yuck) then we might give it a try. . . AND I guess at some point, I have to clean out the school room again (sigh) and start planning for our next semester (double sigh). . .

Well, I have to go to bed and start my weekend job. . . Ya'll have a blessed weekend!

Unplugged and On the Farm

My soul is refreshed!  I told Hubby that he should look into researching the effects of simple farm life on anxiety for a school project!  The kids and I have all come home with a new confidence, a refreshed feeling, and relaxed.  I had no idea how much I needed to unplug, relax, and enjoy God's beautiful, amazing landscape.

Our days on the farm were fantastic!  We hooked up the wagon to the big FORD tractor and went on hours of hay rides... A hayride like few can experience.  Not commercial. Just us. Just our friends. Just nature.  We would stop every now and then to get a lesson on a tree, to climb a deer stand, or to jump the hay bales.  We call them "bay hales" because my mom could never say it right!  It was hysterical... one of things where you have to be there I suppose. Oh...and I got to DRIVE the tractor! How cool is that?!

This was a 17 foot deer stand that everyone (except me) climbed up....even Grandma did it! 

Those "bay hales" were huge, and the kids jumped from one to the next ....this  photo was taken after they went down the row and back a few times!

Me driving big blue... This is right by the pond, and I drove it from the fence at the top of the hill down... that was quite enough for me, but exciting!

Farmer Mitch (our guide and friend) gave us a great nature study on trees and their nuts.  He was so knowledgeable about the different kind of trees, we could hand him a nut or leaf and ask him which tree it came from, and he would know!  We took some neat pictures you can see below...school with what we had on hand....

This one tastes like a pecan, but is quite a bit more work to get out than a pecan.

The perfect fall acorn!

Very bitter tasting.

The "stains" is on there because the "meat" between the shell of the nut and the "fruit" is used as furniture stain...

We had all hoped to milk a cow, but they aren't milking them anymore. However, we did get to pet one, while she was nursing. We also watched them wade in the pond while we were fishing.  Fishing was quite the experience.  They have a pond for the cows to drink from.  About 20 years ago they stocked it, and have not had to stock it since.  We each caught about 10-15 fish (maybe more....you stop counting at a certain point).  Sometimes you would put a new worm on your hook, throw it out, and pull it right back with another fish!  What a great first experience for the kids!  We only caught small blue gill that had to be thrown back even though he swore there were catfish in there somewhere!

We had a biology lesson like no other.  The girls wanted to know what the inside of a fish looks like... so Mitch obliged and cut one open to show them the insides!  They were enthralled...don't let Little Bit's face fool you! She was pretending, but the whole time kept saying how "cool" it was to see the inside.... Bean Boy however, kept his distance. It was interesting that at the end of the day Mitch finally told him, I'm not taking this fish off for you...you have to touch it... and, he did it!  Now, you have to understand that he has OCD tendencies, especially when it comes to being clean and having clean hands. So, it was a big deal that he actually touched the fish and took it off the hook!!!  I was so proud of him!

Bragging rights:  Be forewarned, now I will start bragging about my kids....  I'd just like to say that they were WONDERFUL!  Poor Bean Boy was sick during the ride up, but still tried to work on his school work. He was sick the first day there, but mostly kept a good attitude, until his fever got the best of him, at which point, I gave him Tylenol. The girls were amazing.  There were NO ARGUMENTS the entire trip between the 3 of them!!!  They didn't ask 500 times how much longer....Baby T asked a few times, but not excessively.  They obeyed well. They were kind to others. They had happy hearts. They were helpful. I would have loved them if they weren't any of these things of course, but it just made the trip spectacular! (Ok, I'm done now!)

One last thing that made this vacation super fantastic.... NO CHORES!  For any of us!  Our sweet friend Debbie was so quick with the laundry that I never beat her to putting our laundry in the washer or dryer!  I did fold clothes as often as I could, and the girls helped with the towels.  Debbie loves to cook and we ate like kings and queens!  And, she did all the cleaning!  What more can a tired momma ask for?

I truly wanted to have this post out and ready for the Weekly-Wrap Up, but we drove all day Wednesday. We arrived around 8:30 pm, ate a late dinner, which Hubby had ready for us, took showers and went to bed.  Thursday morning I had a meeting, and Thursday night began 3 in a row at work!  Yes, we got right back into the swing of things!  But, I don't mind... (adding this in much later.. I left my camera at work and have just been able to pick it up to add in pictures! Will post this mid-week and probably use as my wrap-up...)

I'm thankful that we had so many fantastic experiences, that I could only highlight them for you. I'm thankful that the lack of phone service and internet service provided me with time to "unplug" without feeling guilty for doing it! I'm thankful for friends who interrupted their life to host us and show us a fantastic time.  I'm thankful that my mom and I were able to work out our schedules to go together. I'm thankful for seeing and enjoying so many amazing things. I'm thankful my kids were so wonderful.   I'm thankful that God is faithful and keeps His promises.... 

Matthew 11:28 Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. 

Jeremiah 31:25  I will refresh the weary, and satisfy the faint.

Linking With:

I'm Ba-ack!!!

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm back from one of the most amazing vacations ever!  The only things that would have made it better would be if Hubby could have gone and if it were just a tad bit longer!  I'll be posting about our amazing time with some great pics. For now just know that I'm back, "plugged in"

 again, and ready to go!

Enjoy the preview!