Valentine's Day Hair

We had co-op on Valentine's Day so I thought I would show you guys the way I did the girl's hair.  Kate's hearts are super messy b/c I forgot to take pictures until AFTER school.  But here they are!  I got the instructions from here. 

We woke up late so while the instructions say to use a ribbon, I didn't.  They were lucky to get hearts!  :)

School was pretty scary.  Although all the teachers had been encouraged not to bring candy, but rather to hand out stickers, pencils or some other small non-food item; the children were not reminded of this.  One sweet little girl handed Kate a gift she made her which contained a Hershey's kiss... MILK.  It happened so fast I couldn't stop her from touching it, but we have addressed it since and fortunately, Kate did not have a reaction.  Grace got wheezy in one classroom, she said there was a lot of chocolate around but since milk isn't airborne, I suspect there were nuts in some of that chocolate that caused the problem.  Tony is always on high alert when he's in public so he encountered no problems. 

The director has already said they will do better next time.  I just have to remind them that a foody-holiday is coming up and they'll send out notices not to bring food.  Such an easy task but it means the world to us.  I love the support we get from the staff of their co-op.  They are awesome!

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Life happened

I can't believe it's February already!  I know some of you keep checking for updates so here goes.  :)

Shortly before Christmas, my hubby's dad had a massive heart attack and stroke.  The docs did some emergency stop-gap miracles and although he lost his vision, he got better very quickly.  Hubs spent the week before Christmas in Kentucky with his family and came home on Christmas Eve.  That part was fun b/c we didn't tell the kids he was coming.  He was home when we got back from our Christmas Eve service and when he opened the door, you should have seen the stuff that went flying out of children's hands so they could tackle him with hugs and kisses.  I wish I had a camera for that moment; it was absolutely precious.

My parents were here to celebrate the holiday and they went home shortly before New Year.  Hubs dad finally went home and continued to make miraculous progress; so much so that his sister in law (who was there to help my mother in law) went home b/c she was no longer needed there. 

The next day his father passed away from another heart attack.  :(  Getting that call at 2:30 in the morning was a blessing though b/c Hubs and I had hours to lay in bed, crying and talking.  He needed that before the kids got up.  I have never seen my man so heart broken.  It was gut-wrenching to see but I am grateful I was with him when he got the call. 

He spent that day on the phone with relatives and trying to coordinate getting to his mom to help her.  His biggest concern was that she not be alone.  I do love that man.  My parents immediately headed back up to watch the kids (children with fatal allergies to skin contact with very common foods cannot be in the mix of these times) and a precious friend let us borrow a car, gave us gas money and off we went.  We spent a week with family (20 of us in one house for a few days - with ONE bathroom!!  We lived.) shuffling back and forth between various cities in Michigan.  Hubs dad was a 30 year Marine with two tours in Vietnam.  He wasn't in the military, he WAS military.  His van is covered in Marine stickers and every visit he was wearing a different Marine shirt.  :)  The funeral was beautiful and a perfect tribute to a man who loved to give gifts to others and loved his country with all his heart. 

Now my hubs family (mom, sister, bro-in-law & nieces) are moving near us.  After his dad's heart attack in December, there had already been talk of all the family moving here; this just accelerated the plan.  It will be wonderful to have family nearby.  Everyone in my house seems to be dealing with their grief well.  Staying busy has helped but I know once they live nearby, Hubs will feel his dad's absence more keenly. 

 And to leave you on a happy note, Hubs and I did enjoy the snow up north.  It's easy to love it when you don't have to shovel it.  HA!  We took lots of silly pictures to send the kids (thank you picture phone!).  Life has been sad recently and is about to get super hectic but I am grateful for the ability to find the fun moments, laugh and have fun. 

Look how deep this crazy stuff is!

Sticking icicles up his nose...trying to get pictures of him as Sid the Sloth (if you're familiar with those movies)

 

 

I adore this picture of him...he usually makes silly faces so I rarely catch the real him...LOVE this.  

Cherish your loved ones!

Nothing new

I have seriously neglected my blog!!  Time's fun when you're having flies, eh?  :)

My husband still does not have a job.  Military retirement pays but not much, so each month it is a choice between paying our mortgage and bills or eating.  Until recently my husband was working at a friends farm, clearing land and helping out.  He and Tony really enjoyed it and it paid well enough for us to survive (and for Tony to have some spending money for Christmas!).  With that job over, we're struggling pretty badly now; but expect that God will supply our needs. 

We're looking forward to Christmas with the grandparents!  Yay!!  We have completely rearranged our downstairs so they can stay down here except for shower-time.  Now they only have to go up the stairs if they want to get clean.  :)  We're hoping they'll do that at least once or twice during their stay.  I'll have to post pictures of our new set-up once I get it all prettied up... it's still in transition phase (read: disaster area).  One good thing about Daddyman being home all day is that I can give him projects.  Yesterday he switched the play room to the upstairs guest room; the downstairs playroom became the new guest bedroom, and the playroom became the school room. 

Awesome.  :)

Now it just has to be organized & decorated.  When he has a job and our budget is less scary, we plan to put a 1/2 wall in our entry way so the eye will be directed away from the school room...because now the school room is the first thing you see when you walk in.  But I think it will be easier to keep clean b/c it's out in the open where I can see the disaster and have them clean it; whereas before it was hidden in the den and I never even looked there unless I needed school supplies.

Anyway, there's a little update from our house.  I hope all who read this have a wonderful Christmas celebrating with friends and family.  And as we are certainly not the only ones struggling financially, I hope that if your family is struggling, that you are able to focus more on the people you love instead of the gifts you can't give. 

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

You know how I say "You are what you eat"?  Well apparently we're veggie filled turkeys.  :)

The kids just ate over 1/2 of this in less than 15 minutes.  LOL

This is the one I made for our church Thanksgiving... I should have made MY kids the super big one.  :)

Holidays here at our house are not about food... this is the first time I've made anything this awesome and it was b/c it's a veggie dish and ridiculously easy to make.  :)  Years ago, my husband told me to just cook easy and not cook anything that causes me stress.  He has gladly given up so many "traditional" foods so I wouldn't have to spend days in the kitchen stressing over how to make our food look like everyone's holiday table. 

Here, holidays are about family... yes we eat, but we celebrate each other, not food.  I am so thankful for my family.  I am one lucky girl.  <3

New fairy stuff

Grace told me the fence is there so the fairies can lean over the fence and chat with each other.  I suspect it may also be a divider to keep her sister's dirt off her side.  ;)

We decided to really spruce up the area and make it homey.  These are pictures from old calendars I had before the girls were born.  I kept them specifically for the pictures not realizing they would one day decorate Fairytopia.

 

Kate's new garden... it's for very young fairies who like to move their stuff around a lot and play in the dirt.  The snake plants really were getting much too large for her original pot so this is perfect.  Grace gave Kate her hanging name b/c it's actually cookies for the fairies to eat.  It only LOOKS like a Christmas ornament to keep trolls and other non-fairy creatures from eating it.

Grace's new spruced up garden.  See how neat she keeps it?   This garden is for the more mature fairy who enjoys a pretty quiet spot to rest at the end of the day.

The girls collected that cup of red berries today while at our home school co-op. 

 Ooo one of the fairies left their toy on the bench!  Grace put tons of pretty flowers on the side so the fairies will not get sad when it gets cold and all the flowers outside turn brown and die.

 River rocks and water, complete with seashells of course.

This is actually an overhead view.  Kate wanted the fairies to see how much she loves them even when they fly overhead.  They can see this heart from their door.

And there you go... the newest fairy fabulousness.  One thing I have come to understand in these years of fairy gardening is that fairies are not picky creatures.  They accept nice and neat as well as dirty and messy.  Gotta love it!! 

Last week there was actually an article in the paper titled : Fairy gardens can spark creativity in kids, adults.  My hubby cut it out and saved it to show me.  :)  Yep, I'd say fairy gardens have definitely sparked creativity for all of us here.  Even Tony, who will not be caught dead playing in the fairy gardens, has made trinkets for the girls to give their fairies. 

Fairy garden update

Grace and Kate were sick this weekend and missed a birthday party because of it.  So to make things happier, I let them redo their fairy gardens.  Before we started I realized we  never took pictures of the last redo!  So here it is.  I'll post later with pics of the new gardens.  

The stuff in the seashell is medicine Grace made from leaves in case the fairies caught their cold.  :)

Grace made this pillow for the fairies.

Just a close up of the door.  That's a cinnamon stick to the right of the door.  We heard long ago that if you smell cinnamon in the air, it's because fairies are nearby...when they moved in here they brought the cinnamon stick with them.  

I hope you enjoyed the pictures... stay tuned for more soon!

Random pictures for October

Well I couldn't very well post pictures about swings and not have a post of something for Grandparents... so here's something for you.  :)

This little caterpillars were caught in my celery garden (which is now a twig patch, thanks to the varmit).  It has been living in the butterfly garden for a few days and just yesterday we noticed it has attached to the top... forming a chrysalis.  We can't wait to see if we end up with moth or butterfly.  :D

Some random school pictures... this was the Zen garden we made as we studied the Manchu dynasty.
  It lasted about 2 minutes before it was just sand and rocks all over the house.  Not doing that again.  ;)

Tony was making his face to go with his completely body study. 

Grace practicing her typing.  She can now type 3 words a minute without looking... not a bad start!

Oh look!  My veggie garden!!  Isn't it beautiful????

Cabbages

Collards

A soon to be pickle.  ;)

Tiny little tomatoes!

 

 So far I have bok choy, tat soi, collards, kale, cabbages, scallions and tomatoes growing.  Oh and radishes are trying to grow but they're still wimpy right now.  I love going out to get food from my backyard!!