Ready for Spring...

Earth is crammed with heaven,

And every bush alive with God

But only he who sees,

Puts off his shoes.

Mrs. Browning
We truly enjoyed yesterday's beautiful spring weather and hope it's here to stay. Went to the park and took a nature walk on the trail. It was short, as Chloe stumbled and fell onto the paved trail. Her nose started bleeding a little and she had a pretty good boo -boo on her knee. But she's a toughy , let me assure you.

Lillie has really grown to love drawing. And, what's more, she's pretty good at it. I remember clearly the day about a year ago when it hit me that this was a love I needed to nurture in her. She came up to me with her sketch pad and said "Look Mommy! I drew you a princess!" And it actually looked like one. I was impressed to say the least. Wednesday, I clipped her a blossoming limb off one of our Bradford Pear Trees and she drew it, with a little assistance from me, but mostly on her own.I am thinking of collecting her drawings and printing a book on Shutterfly to keep up with them. I've been meaning to scan them , as well. My dad kept alot of our drawings as kids tucked in books. It's neat to go back home and open a book and out fall a crayoned masterpiece from my younger days.Here's a flower she drew the other day, so I let her copywork be a snippet from a beautiful spring poem called "The Voice of God".

For math, Lillie has been reconstructing the hundred's chart. I print out a couple on cardstock and cut them into puzzle pieces, then , she has to put the hundred's chart back together. It really helps with her number recognition and number sequence. For more fun ways to use hundred's charts, click here.

Found a nifty and simple tutuorial online for these peasant blouses. This is the first one I made and I could see immediately some alterations to my pattern that will need to be made to make it fit Lillie a little better. But I plan on making the girls some blouses and skirt sets to wear out and about. This shirt took only one hour and was so easy, it made me giddy! I am going to try to make a dress using the same pattern.Chloe loves hats. If there's one lying around, she puts it on. That and she likes to wear skirts on her head to.

Have a truly wonderful day in the Lord!

Sew Productive!

I have to be in a mood to sew. What's more is I'm not a very knowledgeable seamstress. I don't like to use patterns, though I do alot of times. I just get discouraged very easily and suffer from envy for people like Anna over at Pleasantview Schoolhouse who can make, like, anything. God blessed me with two girls and as we wear skirts and dresses exclusively, I can't tell you how hard it is to find stuff to cover the bottom half of Lillie . She's stick straight and very tall, so dresses and jumpers that fit up top are really too short for my liking. So, it's a matter of necessity that I know a little something about sewing. I know enough to get me by and I am always on the prowl for easy tutorials and nifty patterns for little girlie things and like to recycle things in the process, make use of what most would throw away. Neccessity truly is the mother of invention. I like clever things...
Enter...the pillowcase dress.

The main body of the dress is made from a vintage pillow case I picked up at the Goodwill for 10 cents, I think. And imagine my joy when , while cleaning out a closet yesterday, I found an old bed ruffle and pillow case that had this pretty eyelet trim. So, I cut it off and tossed the remains. I think it really made this dress something special. And this was sooooooooooo simple. Pillow case dresses have been made throughout the years, but I got the instructions at RedInstead. And the best thing...it's already hemmed at the bottom! Lillie loved it and said she felt like a real princess in it! She can hardly wait for warmer weather so she can wear it out!

Well, I thought since I had the itch, I needed to scratch it for all it was worth. Jack has recently hit a growth explosion and needed some new pants. Jack is hard on jeans, so most of them have little holes or alot of wear. I could just toss them, but why when I could make...

Denim Skirts!!!!

This particular pair of Jack's pants had holes identical to one another. What to do? Well, I sewed contrasting material behind one and then experimented with applique on the other. I realize this "patch" will probably fray the first time I wash it, but I figure it'll add to it 's funkiness (the good kind of funky) . Sewed a simple tie belt, cause accessories are the key to any outfit.I love to mix and match fabric...it's both a gift and a curse.I winged this one, but there are alot of tutorials out there for you if you catch the sewing bug! I feel very productive today...now I have to do school. Have a blessed day!

Christmas Past...

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Once again, I have found myself buried in toys and candy. Had a great Christmas and got to have alot of fun with family. Christmas Eve, we headed to my sister's house. We decided to kick tradition in the teeth and have Stroud's BBQ for supper and in the process may have started a new tradition. It was sooooooo good. Played Christmas songs and hymns on the guitars and banjo and my poor left hand is still stiff and swelled where I haven't played that much in years. Here's pics of the fun going down at Leila's..

This is Baby Lauren, who is battling another case of thrush so has to scoot around with purple lips...She's still cute though.Here's Leila reading us all some Christmas stories. I think this will be a annual tradition with our family from here on out...

Jody has become really interested in playing chess, so I got him a nice glass chess set. Here he is imposing his will on the kids, Kasey in particular...Sophia lovin' her dolly....Chef Lillie in her flashy pink chef's hat ...Mom with all her grand babies ultrasound pics...Jackson with his basketball game...Now, just for kicks... I present to you "Anatomy of a Fit" starring Chloe...The wringing of the hands...The opening of the mouth... the shot of the tonsils...Look at those precious little hands balled up into fists...All this drama cause I told her she couldn't have any candy until she ate some breakfast! Sheesh!

Well, Christmas day we headed to Jody's mom and dad's. Everyone's had the stomach virus so we decided to eat light this Christmas. We had sandwiches, which was fine by me cause I'm a big fan of big Christmas dinner, but not such a fan of the after big Christmas dinner Kitchen Duty. My sis in law , Shanna brought over some bbq made from antelope and before you curl up your lips, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. No one could be more surprised than me. Jason and Cassie and Olivia couldn't be with us, cause Livy was not feeling good. I can tell you one thing, when your family is close like mine is when someone is not there, you really miss them and are very aware of their absence. I'll take this time to say to Jay and Cassie and Livy, "We sure did miss ya'll!" Still had a good time opening gifts and watching the children's antics.

Poppy D in camo...we can still see you...you weren't gettin' out of it that easy! Paul with his headlights (literally)
Here's the boys screaming "Merry Christmas" at the neighborhood...

Scoots and Chloe fighting over the chair massager...Hey kids...you're supposed to be RELAXING! Chloe got her first haircut... Nanny with her babie's...well some of them anyway.

Here's the finished dolls I promised...

I sure hope your Christmas was as fun and action-packed as mine. I always hate to see Christmas go, means another year is come and gone and I'm reminded that time is still going on, whether I want it to or not and I must live everyday as if it were my last. Many thanks to my whole family, both sides, for their love and goodness this Christmas. Blessings, Della.