Weaknesses

My two biggest weaknesses are office supplies and books....no wonder I became a homeschooler.

BTW - HIGHLY recommend the new Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman.

Paint....Once You Pop the Fun Don't Stop!

Where would I be if I didn't have a project (or 10) going on in my life? Haha! I'm at it again. What started out as just me painting one simple accent wall while Aaron was going to Father's and Sons, has turned into a major downstairs color make-over. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. :)

In my kitchen the pantry sort of pops out from the wall. To add some color to the kitchen, I was just going to paint it red, no big deal. But then I got thinking, and looking around on Pinterest, and I decided that instead of doing the pantry wall, I'd do the back kitchen wall, and I'd do it mustard color. But I wanted some texture on the wall too. I found a stencil I liked, and decided to do it in light yellow over top the mustard.

Here's Ollie and his nursery coloring sheet using our yellow wall as a background. It's REALLY hard to take a picture and have the color of the wall turn out looking right. You can see where the stencil ends above Ollie's head. Below that we're going to put in bead board that matches our coat rack. It'll look awesome when we get it finished. 

Once I got the yellows all done, I LOVED it!!! The only probably was that the other walls looked totally drab in comparison. But once I started doing them yellow as well, I could quickly see that it was going to be too much yellow. So, I went with green instead. The wall opposite the mustard wall is a light "Spanish Olive", and the pop out where the pantry is is dark olive. Or at least they will be when we get them all finished. Right now the main parts of wall are done, but I've been putting off taping to do the corners and alone the ceiling and baseboards. It'll happen though. Don't you worry.

NOT Back to School

It happens sometimes.

I was sitting at Lincoln's soccer practice last night, listening to some moms talk about how excited they were for their kids to be starting school the next day. About how nice it would be to wave goodbye and do the happy dance as the bus pulled out of the neighborhood. Listening to all the things they planned to do with their free time.

And I thought, "How nice would that be?"

Don't get me wrong, I love homeschool. And I know why I homeschool. But man, sometimes when you're in the thick of things, an eight-hour vacation every day sounds REALLY nice. So I was feeling a little bit down, and a little bit shackled-in to this life I've created for myself.

And then this morning I got a text from my cute friend, and fellow homeschool mom, Brenda, "In honor of the first day of school for the neighborhood kids I'm taking my kids to the reservoir. Do you want to come?"

Heck yes, I do! Get me out of my house, and out of this downer mood.

So we spent the morning with Brenda and her kids, and Brenda's friend Crystal and her kids. And it was glorious. I love the homeschool moms I know. There is something inherently good, and wonderful, and true about each and every one of them. High caliber women, all. Some day, I hope to be just like them.

And while I sat on the beach with Brenda and Crystal, I was reminded about why I love homeschooling, and about how grateful I am for the gift of time I have with my kids. I was reminded about the joy it brings me to watch them learn something, or accomplish a goal, or to see how they are best pals with their siblings.

I have always loved the way older homeschool kids treat the younger ones. Today a 15 year old boy let my eight year old tag along with him around the lake. And a 10 year old girl took Adelia under her wing just as if she was her big sister. I LOVE that! I love it.

So today I love homeschool. Today I'm glad that we've decided to do things differently. Today I'm proud to watch my kids be themselves, and to follow their own interests, and to let them do what they love.

Not to mention that now that everyone is back in school, we have all of our favorite places practically to ourselves. Homeschooling perks, my friends, homeschooling perks. :)

Toddlers During School Time

All the time people ask me what I do with my younger kids while I homeschool the older ones. And I always think I'll do a whole big blog post full of things I've tried, and what's worked for us at different stages, etc. But I still haven't gotten around to it.

However, today while I taught school, Ollie sat on the preschool table and played trains. It was adorable, and lasted all of 5 seconds after he discovered me taking pictures....then he started throwing pieces and jumping off the table.

Note to self: When you want the toddler to continue playing quietly, don't take his picture.

Growing

Why does it take so long to get things the way you want them? I have this glorious vision of how I want my yard to be. We are three years into working our tails off on our yard, and I feel like we have so little to show for it. At least when compared to the final product.

Everything takes too much time and too much money. Our fire pit is still unfinished. As is our chicken coop, our front flower beds, and our shed. Our grass looks like it belongs in the ghetto, it's so uneven, and patchy...it even grows scraggly. The lid to our sandbox has been demolished by children, and needs attention and repair that it isn't getting. The sprinklers have been spraying the back of our house for years, leaving hard water residue on all the windows, but we never seem to be able to get around to adjusting them. And there are plenty of other projects in my mind that haven't even been started yet. It's almost depressing to go outside, because I'm forever mentally going through the list of all that's been left undone.

But today, I want to try and focus on some positive things. Like the fact that we have grass at all. It could be worse, we could still have dirt and weeds, right? And even though none of our trees are big enough to offer shade (and won't be for another 10 years or so), the house next door shades our backyard by about 7:00pm. And I love to go out and sit on the patio in the evening and watch the kids play in the grass.

Another bonus...our peach tree is producing peaches. And they are beautiful. Whoever first said, "Pretty as a peach" had it just right.

Our front yard finally has a few blooming flowers, though not as many as I'd like. But they are pretty, and I'm glad what's there is there.

 My garden got attacked by voles this year, so a lot of our plants didn't make it. But the cucumbers did, and I've been able to make three batches of pickles so far. Two batches of Bread and Butter, and one batch of Garlic Dill. And the plants are still producing. I'm hoping to get to make my Granny Jan's mustard pickles, if my mom can find the recipe.

We planted our grape vines a couple years ago, and this is the first year we've gotten any grapes, and they taste good! (I can't remember if we planted table grapes or juice grapes....hmmm.)

 And I found this little guy while I was out picking tomatoes. I thought it was cool that I got such a great picture of him. I ran in to show it to Adelia, and she was thrilled. (I figured it was safer for the bug to show Adelia his picture rather than him.)

Rubylicious

This kid is going places...literally. :) Almost over night she went from sitting, to crawling, to standing up against things like it's nobody's business. Slow down baby Ruby, or you won't be a baby any more.

If you had to fit Rue's personality into one picture, this would be it.

I haven't been able to bring myself to put up the baby gate yet. I know it will keep Ollie just as trapped as it keeps Rue. But I did find her up two stairs the other day, so I probably should get that out. Ugh.

I love this kid though. She is always on the move, it's sort of hilarious. And she growls, which makes my whole day. She'd just as soon growl at you as look at you. Haha! She doesn't love to be held much because she wants to be free to go where she wants to go. She doesn't mind strangers, and she LOVES to be outside. No teeth yet, but she doesn't let that stop her from eating pretty much whatever she wants. Chub-a-lub. And doesn't she look soooo much like Adelia did? I think so.

Springville Reservoir Mit Cousins

Today we went to the Springville reservoir with Aaron's sister Stacey and her kids. Despite how it appears in this picture, my kids love the reservoir. It's one of our favorite places. 

Rue was a riot! And even though she missed her nap, she was still pleasant and agreeable.

Somehow we got all the kids but Rue in this shot without even trying.

Lincoln Turns Eight

Good morning EIGHT-year-old! This kid and his robot fetish crack me up. All he wanted this year for his birthday was MiP, the mini robot. Looks like his dreams came true. :)

He also asked for a cheesecake, and I was all pumped to make it for him. And then this happened. Cheesecake fail. :(

So we had to make a quick run to Costco, and Linc chose out a chocolate mousse instead.

Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry came down for dinner, and then we all went together to the Orem Owlz baseball game. We saw Lincoln's piano teacher there, and Linc was telling her all about how it was his birthday, and some of the players in the pitching bullpen overheard him, and autographed a baseball and gave it to him. Pretty sweet.

Happy Birthday Linc!!

Birthday Parties For Daysssss

We throw our kids birthday parties with friends on the years they turn 5, 8, 12, and 16. When we set that up oh so long ago, I had no idea that would mean that we'd be throwing Adelia and Lincoln birthday parties in the same year. There birthdays are only a week apart. And since there was only one free Saturday in our schedule between when swimming ended and soccer began, we decided we'd throw both parties on the same day. Yikes.

Adelia's party was first. She wanted a dress-up tea party. I even dressed up so I could come. :)

Most of the little girls dressed up. We made necklaces out of fruit loops, and bracelets out of pipe-cleaners and beads. Then we poured the "tea" and snacked on treats. We learned how to curtsy, and how to sip with our pinkies up. It was fairly low-key and fun.

After Del's party, we had an hour and a half to switch everything up, and get set for Lincoln's party. I tried my darnest to talk him into a water party (because it would be so easy to plan), but he really really wanted a Harry Potter Party, and Aaron jumped in and made that possible.

First, the coolest bday invites of all time:

When the kids first arrived at the house, they stopped and Gringots to pick up their wizard gold.

Next stop was Ollivander's Wand Shop, run by Ollivander himself. :) Aaron made these AWESOME wands just out of rolled paper, hot glue, and paint.

Once everyone arrived we sorted them into houses. I think we must be the Weaslys because all my kids managed to get into Gryffindor.

Then we had dueling club. Which was hard to get a decent picture of.

Next outside for a rousing game of beer-pong Quidditch.

Then a snack in the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

After that, Professor Swan taught a rockin' potion's class. First they mixed the ingredients for homemade rootbeer. Then they went outside to combine diet coke and Mentos for an exploding good time.

And we finished off the party with some Golden Snitch cupcakes. :) Everyone was happy. And Aaron and I were exhausted.