Projects, Projects and More Projects

Two Sundays ago Erik hurt his back during a water rescue drill with the fire dept. Thankfully it wasn't a bad injury and he got to spend a week at home with us.
Can I tell you how amazing this was?
It was so much fun to have him home, not only did we get to hang out with him (which was the best part) but I've gotten to finish some of my really long project list.
I "built" a screen out of PVC pipe and then sewed and painted curtains for it. It's to take with me when I travel with "The Story of Gomer". I needed something light and fairly easy to take apart and put together. I used a painter's canvas drop cloth for the curtains; very inexpensive and easy to paint. I think I like how it turned out.


Don't mind the messy house surrounding the screen, I hadn't gotten to that yet...

I also got our bedroom deep cleaned and re-arranged.

Put a new zipper in a dress who's zipper has been broken for 4 years. Finished another dress. Finished an apron.

Moved the bookshelf from my closet to the girls' room.

Cleaned out 5 boxes of stuff from the boys closet, making room for some and adding some to the Goodwill pile.

Hung a few shelves and pictures that have been languishing in my craft closet.

And...

...cleaned out my craft closet!

And yes, amidst the many things I've gotten done we did actually get to hang out with Erik.

The things on my list, individually don't take very much time but the nature of them distract from keeping an eye on certain children that know how to open doors and escape. It's been nice to have an extra pair of eyes and hands around.

It feels good to get things done!

And Erik headed back to work today.

We missed him!

I Might Be Crazy

I just might be crazy.

And I'm just going to come right out and tell you why:

I'm not going to buy any clothing for myself for one whole year.

This might not seem crazy to some, and some will think I'm off my rocker completely, no doubt about it. But it's something I need to do.

I have a closet full of clothing. I have a dresser full of clothing and I simply do not need anymore. I love goodwill and I love thrift stores, I love finding deals. I have a weakness for wool skirts, sweaters and dresses. But too many deals can really drain the wallet quickly and so I'm quitting for one year.

Starting today.

Now this does not mean that I will not make myself clothing. But the rule is I cannot buy fabric or patterns for that purpose, I must use what I already have. I may buy thread or zippers to make said clothing but that is it. This doesn't mean I can't accept hand-me-downs or gifts. I'll still gladly take those; it means no cash will exchange hands for my clothing until July 9, 2012.

I will make do or do without.

I could have said a month. Or 4 months or 6 months. But no...I'm going cold turkey and I'm going extreme.

And I need to tell you. Because if this was just a goal in my head I could change the starting date, I could justify. I could ...gasp....lie to myself.

I'll update you on how this goes. I'm a little scared.

Wish me luck!

Little Bit of This and That

In the process of moving dirt (yep, still doing that), and playing outdoors and enjoying the summer that has finally started, I have missed sharing with you some very important dates.

June 21:

Erik and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary. Sorry, I have no pictures. Our "celebration" consisted of saying "Happy Anniversary" and me leaving a great card I found at Fred Meyer the day before on Erik's pillow.

June 25: My 10 - year high school reunion up on Whidbey Island. Alas, I did not take pictures. I could probably go steal some from FB but I"m not going to. Suffice to say it was really fun and I enjoyed seeing people I haven't seen in 10 years.

June 28:

Hannah turned 7!
My little girl is getting bigger, oh me, oh my. This year she wanted cupcakes (yay!) which made it super easy on me. And luckily Aunt Mindy came down to celebrate so there where seven of us, which made one candle per cupcake. I like when things work out like that.



July 1-2
Erik's parents and sister came to visit. The girls garage-saled in the morning and then Erik and his dad worked on attaching a $5 garage sale slide to our porch.


The kids love it! (And don't worry, we've built up the dirt around the bottom a little more). Mostly we used the dirt that I dug out of our new fire pit:


I dug a big hole, put down a layer of rock, lined it with cinder blocks and then at ground level surrounded it with really cool river rocks that all came out of the free fill dirt we got.

July 3-4

We broke in our new fire pit by roasting hotdogs over a fire and then after the kids were in bed we invited our neighbors over for s'mores.


We did get to ride in the fire truck for the parade, but I didn't get pictures. And then the kids all went to bed and missed all the fireworks. Our really great babysitters came over and "watched" the kids (sat at the house while they slept) and my sister Mindy and I were able to go sit on the fire truck with Erik and watch the fireworks. The firetruck is right behind where they light them off from, it's probably the best seat "in the house". Maybe next year I'll work up the courage to wrangle all four kids in the crowd by myself so the kids can see the big fireworks but this year they enjoyed 3 days of little fireworks. Once with Grammy and Grandpa, once with the neighbor girls across the street and once with the boy next door; I don't think they felt deprived.

Tonight T-ball starts.

Whew...I think that's all.

I Want to Be Like You

My husband told me the other day that I needed to update my blog.

You know it's been awhile when he reminds me.

I haven't really needed the reminder, what I really needed was a topic.

Sure, I could write about the many small children that I love, I could write about the many small things that I love. There have been many small things I've wanted to share but haven't found the time or motivation to write down.

But I think this morning I'm going to share this:

Follow the Rabbi Lectures by Ray Vander Laan

My sister Mindy shared these with me last January and Erik and I finally made it through them all. (We only listened to them together while we where traveling somewhere and we just haven't traveled all that much).

I highly recommend these lectures. I put them on my ipod and listened to them before falling asleep at night. I listened to them when I went walking. I listened to them on the computer while the kids where doing homework or watching a movie, and then I listened to them in the van with Erik.

And it's got me thinking about a lot of things. But last night it got me thinking about this:

So many times I've thought to myself: I want to be like my mom. I want to be like Laura Ingalls Wilder. I want to be like this friend, or that friend. I want to be like so and so... The list can go on and on. And yet why is it that though I claim to believe in Jesus and I want to be a disciple of him it's farther down on my list that I want to be like Jesus. That's what it means to be his disciples, to be like him. And I'm finding that I don't know what that means. I'm finding that I don't know what that means because, I hate to admit it, I don't know what he's like. Sure, I know he's God and I can spout the many attributes of God as listed in the Bible. I could probably even quote you some verses. But do I know Jesus? Do I know how to answer the oft misused and abused "What Would Jesus Do?" Do I really know what he would do? I can make an educated guess but do I know? Do I know it with every fiber of my being?

Wish I could tell you that I'm on fire and passionately seeking him, diving into the Bible with joyful abandon and devouring his word like I devour other favorite books, but I can't. It's a choice that I'm making and working at. I want to know my Jesus. I want his name to top the list of people I want to be like.

I want to purposefully and practically know Jesus.

Welcome to My Gym

Yesterday the kids discovered their new "play area".


Well, yesterday it was dropped off.



Two dump truck loads of free fill dirt in the front yard. I love that they love to play in dirt! (Though I'm not sure about loving the mud leftover in the bathtub when they're finally clean at night).

But that's not all.

Three dump truck loads in our neighbors back yard and four on our other neighbors side yard.
We have nice neighbors.

We are sharing the dirt with them and we are leveling out a few low spots in our yards. Which means unless we can sweet talk (or rather con) someone into bringing over a tractor I will be wheelbarrow-ing much of this dirt into our yard. But even if we do have someone bring in a tractor, I'll still get to move a bunch and smooth and spread it out.

Welcome to my gym.

Amidst the many crazy things of our lives the last few months I have been slowly clearing out brush in our backyard.

Ivan and Clayton kindly offered (okay I bribed them with chocolate chips) to stand in front of one day's brush pile for a size reference.


The brush pile is to the left of the picture, but there's our backyard.

There's still a way to go but I do enjoy the work; though as I type my back muscles are all cramped from the starting of said wheelbarrow-ing.

Free dirt, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. That's my kind of workout!

On A Sunny Afternoon in May...

Yesterday I was cleaning Marilyn up at the kitchen sink and I looked out the window to see Ivan standing quietly and nicely at the garden gate.

He was obviously expecting something.

And then I noticed Hannah walking slowly with purpose on the pathway to the garden.

I laughed really hard, left Marilyn on the counter (came back to her rummaging in the compost bucket), grabbed my camera and caught the tail end of the wedding.


Vows and rings. The rings being jewel stickers that Hannah earned at violin lessons on Monday.


And then back down the aisle they go!



Then they finally noticed me on the deck with the camera and asked for their pictures to be taken. I'm no wedding photographer but I think these turned out well. : )

It's Not Raining!

Yesterday we worked outside all day.

Oh it was lovely.

I made a little fence from branches and twine to go in front of my apple tree:

I'm hoping it will keep Quincy from running through that garden/flower bed.

Any ideas on what to do in the area between the apple tree and the deck? That's where I'm standing to take the picture.

Here's another perspective of the same area. I don't know what to do right there, I suppose I could just leave it grass but it gets so wet there when it rains that I just don't know.

The kids worked on defining their play area, I found this sign tacked to the tree.

Marilyn has decided she likes to be rocked to sleep but sometimes it's hard because she (as well as all the kiddos) eat chives all day long and the smell just lingers on their breath.
But Clayton remarked the other day that, "we will never starve when we're outside because we can eat chives".

Hopefully we'll get the garden planted soon and things will grow this year, then maybe we can find more to eat outside than just chives.