A New Week, A New Schedule

The schools have Mid-Winter break all week down here.  Which means that all kid-related activities are canceled!  No YMCA, no Scouts, and no Pioneer Club.  I noticed that the school up there in our old hometown had a long weekend for Mid-Winter break that included President's Day...not much of a break, but I always thought have a week off from school less than two months after Christmas and less than two months before Easter (I mean Spring) break was stupid.  Especially down here where the rich people live.  I thought it was designed for the rich people to take a week to go skiing one last time before the snow melted.  And this year there is no snow, so nyah nyah on you rich people!

So now that my YMCA days are over and the rest of our activities are on break, I have one whole week to dedicate to schoolwork and housework.  No running off in the afternoons.  No insane marathon days on the road with all four kids.  No disruptions (at least until Friday when S goes north for his Taekwondo test).  And I had a three day weekend that my dearest husband insisted I take off.  I literally sat around all weekend.  And yesterday when I thought I was feeling better, M made me take one more day off.  He knows from experience that once he starts feeling himself again, he usually knocks himself out on the first day back to work!

This morning I awoke bright and early and created a schedule for this week (and this week only).  I am going to whip these kids into shape and teach them all sorts of useful things.  Like how to unload the dishwasher.  And wash the kitty prints off the windows. And how to wipe up the bathwater they spill.  Their (and my) day is split into 30 minute increments, much like the Managers of their Homes people.  Starting in 15 minutes!  Will I have sucess?  Of course!  Look at the weather!

Can you see all that sunshine?  The sunshine that is now bouncing off my computer monitor?  Like a message from God saying, "Get off the computer and get to work!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated like any parents-with-many-kids-and-a-baby-on-the-way: We left three of them with Grandad and took F errand running.  We went to the dump, the grocery store, and the hardware store.  We pretended F was an only child expecting her first sibling.  Cashiers and grannies fawned all over her, her big eyes, and her cute hand knit pants.  We do like our little jokes.

Our real celebration was heart-shaped Boboli pizzas (the pizza says I Love You by the way) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle marathon.  Heroes in a half shell!  Turtle Power!

Was this my most romantic Valentine's Day?  Not at all.  But it was just what I needed.  Last week completely wiped me out.  I'm thankful M has a day off tomorrow; he has been so incredibly helpful as I've slowed way down.  Maybe I'll take a Mid-Winter break after all...

Another Great Seymour Day

But this was the best!  Our dear dear friends, the J Family, came all the long way down here to enjoy the day with us!

These boys look like they're lookin' for trouble!

The leaders were brave, brave people taking 15 kids out in a canoe (in the pouring rain) all by themselves.

Watching them paddle away around the point into the bay was the hardest part for me.  Until after lunch.  Then this was the hardest part:

This is a 37 foot climbing wall.  See the child in the red helmet?  That one is mine.  Which child?  Let's get a closer look...after they reached the top:

Can you see HER now?  Yes, that is E!  Freshly four years old and out-climbing her older brothers!  No fear whatsoever!  Um, scary!  She absolutely loved climbing the wall, all the way to the top.

And when she headed back to me, she said "See Mom?  I told ya I could do it!"  And she got right back in line to climb the wall again.

Anyone who knows S knows how competitive he is.  He couldn't be out-climbed by his little sister! Red helmet is E, blue helmet is S.  They stayed about even:

And at this point, S decided he had had enough and came back down.  E finished at the top one more time.

After our exciting day at Camp Seymour, our friends came back to Twin Firs for a Valentine's Day party complete with cookies, candy, and Pokemon card trading.  What a great day!  And what a great day to end a week!

Sergin's General Warning

Clever, clever me.  Clever title, clever projects.  I have been busy creating useful items with my new serger...all while reducing my fabric storage and saving the world, one scrap of fabric-staying-out-of-the-landfill at a time.  Warning!  I'm having fun!  Which means I'm less likely to keep up with my other responsibilities!  I'm posting pictures of some of my projects, but keep in mind when my camera's battery is dying, the pictures end up with funky lighting...

His and Hers Lambswool Hats

I took an old sweater that had been given to me (by a gal who bought some wool pants I knit), cut it up, and made these awesome soft hats for M and E.  The sweater was wonderfully light, lofty, soft, and oh so warm! And not itchy at all!  M loves his new hat and wears it in the house most evenings.  Yes, it is sometimes that cold in here, but I'm a human furnace right now and M is a cold weeny. The sweater was originally for wool pants, but F has enough.  Saving-the-World Fact: This sweater would never be worn by anyone in my house and probably would have ended up being eaten by moths and going to the dump.

Speaking of F, this one was my best idea (today):

Towel Poncho

I have the hardest time keeping towels on my little streaker.  She just isn't old enough to hold her towel around her when she gets out of the bath.  I cut a T-shaped hole in the center of a very, very, very old towel and put it on my wet baby, I mean, toddler as she ran naked through the house.  Later I will find the matching hand towel and attach a hood with my serger.  It should take about two minutes.  Saving-the-World Fact: These towels are so old and falling apart that they should have been sent to the dump about ten years ago.  And no one in this house has ever been able to get rid of anything useful.  So I have a whole giant closet so full of towels that my large family could use each towel once for a whole month and I would never have to do laundry.  And none of the towels are in good enough shape for Goodwill.  Now one more towel has a purpose again.

I've been checking books out from the library all about repurposing old things creatively into new things to keep old things out of the landfill and reduce the consumption of resources by not purchasing new materials.  Most of the projects in the books use old things from the 1960s, now considered vintage, and making them into cool 1960s-like items.  Yuck!  I live in a 1960s house, with all original 1960s things!  Why would anyone want to bring that stuff back?  Turning old towels and pillowcases into bathmats? Ew! Ugly! Using an old table cloth to make a picnic blanket or curtains or pajamas?  No thanks! Although I do like the idea of pillow case sundresses...I'll just use pretty pillowcases from Goodwill (if I ever make any) instead of old yucky orange ones from the 1960s...and I won't use rick rack or pom pom edging!!!  Thank goodness I already gave some 1960s-lover the gift of a huge pile of old sheets over the summer when we moved here- just go to Goodwill!

Stay tuned for more fun projects!

We Can Work When the Sun Goes Down

Today was way too beautiful to work inside.  IJ thinks Spring is already here, but I remember the year it snowed in April...

Prepare the Garden

 

Waiting for a Push

 

Playing with the Cats

 

Or your sister

 

Getting Vitamin D

 

Hangin' Out with Mom

We love early Spring feeling.  M and the kids had a picnic at the pond.  We walked around the property and inspected our trees (both fruit and future fire wood).  M planted another plum tree after he rototilled the garden.  But now the sun has gone down and we have to do "real" work...

Firestarter

Last week E's PE teacher mentioned that E had a...wicked side to her personality.  We don't call her michevious and devious for nothing.

 

The similarity is kind of scary, don't you think?

Happiness Is...

Riding bikes...

Helping Daddy plant apple trees...

And playing with my new serger...