By Accident ...

... I got dirty



can you tell he dressed himself?



can anyone be happier about dirt?

Seriously - that is exactly what he said!

He was dirtier, but Frank turned on the sprinklers and the dirt turned to mud and started to slide off.

Happy Birthday Julianne!

Wow! It has been 7 years since Miss Julianne Elisabeth joined our family.

With her favorite guy!

Always an artist!

we would find her sleeping anywhere!

The Birthday Girl!

WE LOVE YOU, JULIANNE!

We are so glad you are a part of our family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET GIRL!

Yarn-Along #16 - the gift edition!

From Ginny

 ~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

I have abandoned the stash blanket for a bit. I will get back to it - and I have even figured out how to finish it. But, I need to get two gift afghans done by the end of June for a dear friend.

See, way-back-when, in 1999, I went for a visit to my husband's family in the Azores for 6 weeks. Yeah, what does an American do in the Azores without her Portuguese husband and with 2 small girls and 4 months pregnant with #3 for 6 weeks? Miss the husband terribly and enjoy the time with his family! Anyway: one of my bestest buddies is married to my husband's cousin. (still with me?) She just happened to deliver their first child the day after we arrived. And in my suitcase was an afghan for first child.

So fast forward 12 years and I hear that said first child likes to mention to next 2 children that the blanket in the living room is HIS and not for them. I got rather neglectful and did not make more. Sooooo - I am making afghans for these 2 beautiful children so they have their own in the living room.  After much searching and ripping apart the basement, I finally found the pattern and called friend to get favorite colors.

The beginnings of Sara's afghan (in purple):

[Diana - you can choose to show her or not!]

Not a great picture... but I am working on square #16 / 48. Considering I made 20 squares in pink before I remembered the favorite color was purple: not bad progress.

I am reading
 

I like it. We shall see what I do with it - another topic for another post....

Off to see what is up at Ginny's.

Bragging Again

This time, gotta brag on Olivia.

Wednesday night was the Class of 2011 Academic Awards Night at her school.

Invitation only.

She got invited!


Receiving the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship:

"This scholarship provides four years of tuition at any University of Massachusetts campus or any state or community college. It is awarded to those students with outstanding MCAS results."



"Seriously, Mom, a picture?"



Receiving the Honor Cord:

"Awarded to senior students who have achieved excellence throughout their four years. The following students have a GPA of 4.0 or higher."

Receiving the President's Education Award for Academic Excellence:

"This award is for outstanding educations excellence. Each student will receive a certificate signed by the principal of the school, the Secretary of Education, and the President of the United States."

And she even agreed to go out for ice cream with her old, fuddy-duddy parents after the ceremony.

All in all a very nice evening with our oldest.

WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU, OLIVIA!

Small Steps - Graceful Death

I am praying.

I am praying for grace.

Actually, I am praying for a graceful death.

Explanation:

The Saturday morning reading in my "Shorter Christian Prayer" book:

Romans 14:7-9

None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord: so then whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to live, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

So: I am praying ~

That I can gracefully die to the Lord. That means no whining, no complaining, no cajoling, no bargaining, and hopefully no anger or anxiety.

That I can remember that it is all the Lord's and He really does want me to show His Love to everyone around me. And I so need His Grace to do that!

Good thing I am off to Adoration tonight! I need that time.

Off to Elizabeth's to see what everyone else has to say about Small Steps.

M is for Masterpiece: J

          J is for Japanese print

                              from far across the sea.

    Not the work of one artist alone,

                     it takes the skills of three.

This letter is about wood block printing. Like I was going to let my crew near a bunch of carving tools! I don't think so!

The next best thing: foam boards.

Way back when in 2004, I ordered some printing foam for my daughters to do some art prints. I still have bunches of it, and it is perfect for this project.

Unfortunately, we used finger paints to do this today....

getting messy!

Julianne's horse

Lucas' smily face - in his favorite color!

putting the paint on the board

Isabel's tri-color creation

Nathaniel's

I am going to have to get some different supplies: real paint, rollers, etc and see if we can do this again.
Might be fun to make some homemade cards for people.

Yarn Along #15

From Ginny

 ~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

 

Still working on my 'stash blanket'.

 

Not sure I like the blue set. May be a little too bright. Or maybe I should find more bright colors and have the blanket morph to brighter colors....

 

decisions, decisions, decisions....

 

And it still looks better in person!

Reading material is a pile of books from the library on cooking, canning, and preserving food. I think there might even be one or two in the pile to go on the 'gotta own a copy' list.

 

 

Off to Ginny's to see what everyone else is doing!

M is for Masterpiece: I

I is for Impressionism,

the way an artist sees

a picture of the forest,

without those pesky trees.

We are finally back to this book.

Today, trying to explain impressionism: funny.

Instead of painting, we used markers instead. 'Coloring' was not allowed. They could 'pounce with the markers or smudge with the markers.

Trying to guess what everyone 'painted' was fun too.

Isabel: night time / day time

Lucas: pink snow

Nathaniel: a boat tied up on the shore

Julianne: self-potrait



Small Graceful Steps

For a virtue that wasn't a virtue, I seem to be having a difficult time of it lately.

Grace was supposed to be easy ~ I thought.

And then I remembered - or was that God reminding me? - that Grace has been something I have been pondering for quite a while.

We are in a time for our family that will make us or break us.

Really.

After 21 years of marriage and six children, this could be do or die. And I have to say, I think we are on the 'make us' road. Occasionally we have a small detour, but not so big that it is more trouble to go back to our 'make us' road than to continue on the detour.

And God has been good enough to give us the means to stay on this road:

HIS GRACE IN ADORATION

A little over two years ago I called a friend who has been homeschooling her seven children for the past 20 years. And I sobbed: "I don't want to do this anymore! I want my children to go away! How do you keep going?" Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't hate my children, just wanted a little peace, and maybe a clean house for one day!

And my wise friend (and of all my friends, God gracefully pointed me to her) told me she survived the early years of schooling many small children by going to weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, Adoration. She suggested I try that for a month before throwing in the towel after just nine years of schooling at home.

So began the search for Adoration. One church 5 miles away had weekly Adoration during the day on Tuesdays. Good, I thought, for emergency situations, but not feasible for permanent (or at least for one month) Adoration. Somehow, leaving during the day and having my oldest watch the littles so I could be with God to be a better Mom just seemed wrong.

The other church close to me with Perpetual Adoration was a 25 minute drive. Perpetual was good, I could go at night and not abdicate my responsibilities too much. Husband would be home and littles would be sleeping: I decided to go at 9:00 at night. Leave at 9:00, arrive at 9:30, stay until 10:30, and be home by 11:00.

I mentioned this plan to my friends at Bible Study the next Monday and asked if anyone wanted to join me. 2 wonderful ladies said yes, and Thursday was the night picked and off we went a few days later.

It was HARD.

Some nights I didn't want to go. I had ladies coming to my house to go with me, I had to go. Some nights I was tired, those were the nights I "rested in the Lord" at Adoration (a really nice way to say I fell asleep.) Some nights we had great conversations to and from, some nights we were lost in our own thoughts. Some nights we shared what had happened to us, some nights we kept it to ourselves. And we continued to go. And about a year ago, my husband started to join us. And a little bit after that, his friend, the husband of my friend, joined us as well. So now we had 5 people traveling to be with Jesus every Thursday night.

And the cost of gas started going through the roof! And I started to doubt that I could keep going. Really, I have been reduced to equating all things to the cost lately (another post, to be sure.)

Anyway, as I said: God is Good!

The church with which we are loosely affiliated because of our homeschool group started daily Adoration from 11am to 10pm. YIPPEE! We now only have to travel 8 minutes to get to Adoration. And Father does the full benediction with us at 10pm every Thursday night cuz there are so many of us there. Very Cool.

And THAT is what is keeping us on this 'make us' road.

Adoration.

That time with Jesus.

A time to receive HIS GRACE.

In silence (and can I say, that is my second favorite part of Adoration, and occasionally ties with being with Jesus as the reason I go.)

I actually had this picture:

as the reason for my post this week: How I have been receiving God's Grace: Praying the Liturgy of the Hours (and I love the pod casts of this), saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet - over and over, and Small Steps.

But really, the end result is much better. God rocks!

I can only receive God's Grace when I am listening. When I am still. When I am silent.

I seem to get distracted easily in my house: what with schooling, cleaning, laundry, cooking, the computer, finances, children, etc.

Adoration is my favorite place to find God's Grace. I am learning to find It other places. But I really have to have the time with Him alone, to truly absorb It.

Off to Elizabeth's to see what others have to say about Grace!

Garden Update ~ May 15

Got back out to the great outdoors yesterday for the first time in a while. Gorgeous day just begged for me to enjoy it!

Not much different since the last post.

Got the 4 big boxes tilled over.

And can I say, my husband is the best gift-giver: ever!

Over the years, he has given me some great gifts - chief among them my 6 children.

But aside from my children, my two all-time favorite gifts might give someone else hives.

#1: Christmas about 14 years ago:
Frank handed me a box and said: "You probably won't like this, but I saw it the other day and had to get it for you." Inside the box: a kitchen fire extinguisher. Yep, a fire extinguisher! And the kicker: my response was "HOW DID YOU KNOW I WANTED ONE OF THESE?" No, really, I actually said that. And I meant it! I had seen one a few week before Christmas and remember thinking: 'I want one'. Gotta love that spousal ESP thing.

and #2: Mother's Day 3 years ago.
Frank had run out to get something at the local home improvement store. When he got home he met me in the back yard and said: "I know we don't usually do presents on Mother's and Father's Day, but I saw this and had to get if for you"

'This' was this:

My very own tiller! Yep, gotta love a husband who gives you great gifts!

Anyway, back to the garden - nothing planted, but lots of help!


Isabel: my picture taker - and helper with laundry



Lucas helping spread dirt!



Julianne helping to sweep the edges of the boxes

 My lettuce and kale are looking good.

But my favorite part of the garden right now:



my strawberry patch down by the pool




look at all those flowers!
(ignore the weeds)


Looking forward to some jam canning - getting the jars sorted now for the crop of strawberries growing in the back yard!

Yarn Along - #14 The Stash Edition

From Ginny

 ~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

 

 

So, I am not reading much other than books with the following words in the title: thrifty, saving, money, organizing, simple, homemaking, canning, gardening etc. 

All from the library (see the above words: thrifty and saving!) so I am reading haphazardly and sporadically.

However, crocheting has hit an all time high around here. Not sure why.

I inspired myself!

After completing the afghan for my friend with nothing but what I had in my basement, I am trying to see what else I can do with what is in my basement.  

So far I have the following from stash yarn alone:

full size afghan for my friend

baby blanket done

another baby blanket almost done

This Sunday, my husband removed all children from my house and I had it to myself for about 4 hours.

So to the basement I went!

I found another batch of yarn to use for a zig-zag afghan I wanted to try.



the pattern is much prettier in person



So far, I have the green and brown stripes done. I am going to start the cranberry tonight. I found shades of purple and blue for this as well. I am trying to work in yellow, just because it is pretty!

I think after this afghan I am going to rummage around in the thread bin. I have some great cotton thread I brought back from the Azores many years ago. Time to find something to do with it!

Off to Ginny's to see what others are doing!