My cute niece and nephew

Had some fun taking pictures for my sister while we were in Pentwater on vacation. Thanks for looking!

Two Brothers

     Here is a session I did last week. It was a struggle to get a genuine smile from the oldest, so I tried saying funny things.  It didn't work as well as I wanted. Apparently I'm not as funny as I think I am. But they turned out great anyways.  Thanks for looking!

It's about time

     Here I gave my lovely blog a makeover and haven't yet posted anything on it.

That is changing today. I am going to post a project I did a while back. I had been wanting a measuring chart for my growing boys for some time. I remember measuring myself as a child on the paneled walls of my family's dining room. I would just scribble it in pencil or pen, whatever I could find laying around the house. And it was done at sporadic times of the year- nothing scheduled.

I envisioned doing something similar for my children. But what if we moved? My dad still lives in our family home, but unfortunately the dining room was renovated in my high school years and the paneling came down. How sad is that? So there is no guarantee it will stay there even if you don't move. Here is my solution.

I started with scrap fabrics that I had used to make each of my 4 boys a little quilt. I also had some scrap muslin and some sweet School House Rock fabric I had got from a bag a friend had given me. I designated how big I wanted my project to be and cut the background fabric (School House Rock) a little bigger than that size.

I cut the muslin into long thin strips. These will be where I mark the measurements. The scraps I cut into rectangles and then sewed them into long strips.

Then I sewed the muslin and scrap strips together- alternating them.

I ironed on interfacing to the front and back to make it more sturdy.

I had made the front piece thinner than the background piece so that when I sewed them together, there would be an edge of the cool School House Rock fabric on each side of the front. I reinforced it all by ironing it flat and sewing along the edge and in between each row.

Before putting it together, though, I had personalized each column of muslin for each of my four boys. I used fabric from their baby blankets for their initial.

I did fun little things by their initials to really dress it up and make it a little more interesting.

The denim was used to finish the ends. I sewed it on and left loops on the ends to slip a wooden dowel into it on the top and bottom to help keep it straight and reinforced.

On the top I sewed a rope into the denim to use for hanging it up.

I measured from the floor up and put marks for 2ft, 3ft, and so on along the sides. That way, if we ever move, I just have to measure from the floor up and hang it accordingly. I mark the measurements of the boys on the white muslin with blue fabric pens. It shows up great and has been an awesome addition to our school room.

New Direction

So, I'm changing things up a little and doing a makeover on my blog. I am going to be posting a lot of different things, including photography, crafts, recipes, projects, and links to other blogs. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time, and finally have the time. Well, at least I will have the time in about a month. More posts coming soon!

Wow it's been a long time

I knew I was slacking on my blog posts, but didn't realize it had been so long since the last one. There has been lots of interesting things that have been going one. Mostly redecorating things in our house. I'm thinking of starting a new blog that focuses mostly on projects and craft ideas. I'm not sure of a name yet. Well, I have some pictures of my sweetie of a nephew, Hudson. These are his 6 month pictures. Thanks for takin' a peek.

New Nephew

I have a few cute kiddo stories to tell.
For some reason Noah is usually the main character in these stories. Maybe it's just the age I guess.

A couple of months ago we took a family vacation to a little hotel up north. The hotel had a pool, but Noah, Jayce and I didn't want to swim. We were cozied up on the bed in our hotel room. Noah was laying right next to Jayce, petting his head. He said to me "I wanna keep Jayce, mommy". And I said "Oh we are, we aren't gonna get rid of him". He said "I wanna keep him ever, ever, ever, ever, and ever. Okay?".

Since then he has said it on a few other occasions. I'm not quite sure where he got the notion from...but I have a theory. We had a dog a while back. A dumb (sorry for those that liked her) little chihuahua/yorkie mix that liked to pee in our house. Even after 2 years. So we got rid of her after realizing there was no amount of training that would correct the problem. I guess he's afraid it's going to happen to one of them someday.

Another one happened just a few days ago. Noah had pulled a dining room chair up to our kitchen counter to get a better look at the dead decomposing goldfish floating in the fishbowl. I was busy doing school with the other two at the table. He was yelling out to me to come see something.

As I walked towards him he looked at me and then pointed to the counter top without saying a word. I looked down and there was a good size crusted booger with some kind of liquid droplets surrounding it.(I apologize for the disgusting description but you must get the full effect). I asked him if he picked a booger and set it on the counter. He just shook his head no and replied with "I just did a....did a....ummm...I just did a bless you". I couldn't contain my laughter!

These are pictures of my sis-in-law's son and new wee little one. So precious! Only 5days old when photographed.
Thanks for peekin'.
Peace out.

Confessions of a Lousy Teacher

Am I failing my children? I would have to respond with a resounding, YES! In the educational realm, anyways. When I started with the idea of homeschooling, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I envisioned something much different than it has been. I love having my boys home with me, but am I doing what is best for them? I'm not 100% positive.

Lately, we have had a busy household. And school has been an after thought, rather than the main focus. I look at blogs of other homeschool mothers and see their schedules mapped out from early morning to late afternoon. And I wonder 'How do they do it?'. And even more 'How do they stick with it?'. Don't get me wrong. My kids are learning adequately enough. But most of the time their attitude is 'Let's hurry and get this over with'. In fact, they resent my interruption into THEIR day. How dare I take time away from their pursuits, which certainly aren't educational.

The most pressing issue on my mind, though, is the lack of spiritual guidance. I haven't made Bible a part of our homeschool curriculum yet. Even though this is the most important thing. I need to remind myself that I am shaping their minds and helping them become the person they will be. Am I arming them with the virtues that will be most important in life? When they look at us do they see what we value most and what we put first in our own life? Serious stuff, I know. I've just been pondering these things for some time now. The next step is to do something about it. Right? Right.
Here are some random photos of others and my own.