My Birthday!

M went all out for my birthday this year. I got my present early. =0) I'm really enjoying it. I've never had a laptop, and it's so convenient. I wanted a small one so I could take it with me. Then on the Friday after my birthday he planned a special dinner for me in our back yard. I knew that when he got home from work I had to leave the house for a few hours. I came home to this....

M had shopped around. The lights on the umbrella are from Target, the Wire Balls are from Pier 1. The Accordian Lanterns are from Pottery Barn, but I got those last year from my MIL...my mom reminded M about their location when the kids informed her of the plan. And the place settings, placemats, and tablerunners were another gift from M...those are from Pottery Barn. He bought beverages at BevMo. And ordered dinner from Alicia's. Even if you're not local...really check out their menu...it's fantastic...every town should have an Alicia's. We ate Chicken Ceasar Salad, Raveloi, Garlic Cheese Rolls, and Strawberry Shortcake that was to die for. The kids used walkie-talkies and M instructed them when to bring out the next course. My 2 little waiters were amazing. My princess was our entertainment...she danced in the candlelight. Not pictured is a cool dink caddy, but I can't seem to find it on the PB site either. We really enjoy our fun bottled sodas and this is a great way to carry 6. Here I was drinking a Route 66 Root Beer.

I sure hope I can do this well as I plan his birthday...it's coming up in July.

Dim The Lights...

Colorize...Quick Edge Burn. I HEART Pioneer Woman Photoshop Actions!

My other job...

...and why it's so hard to quit even though I don't get paid what I'm worth.

• I happened upon some clearance yarn. I now have 27 skeins of winter white paton's wool for dyeing. I didn't pay more than $25 for all of it!
  
• I also have 3 skeins of an olive green cotton-ease that I bought for $2.25 total!
• I got some paint, the equivalent of 2 sets of these, for around $12.
• I found some wall clings for my daughters room for less than $10. The retail price of what I bought without any discount or sale would have been $75.
• And I've also bought crayola markers @ 75 cents a box, camero models @ 75 cents each (retail $16), and assorted kid birthday gifts.

And then this weekend, while doing laundry, my washer decided to not drain. On Saturday my mom watched the kiddos while M&I went to the mall. We walked through Sears and talked to a very knowledgeable salesman about their washer & dryers. We enjoyed a lunch without the kids where we continued to talk about he W&D options. We picked up some towels on sale at Macy's and then some shoes for me at Nordstrom (not on sale...never go on sale), still talking about the W&D. We went back to Sears and bought the new set. At home, my mom had finished my laundry while watching the kids. The washer worked fine for her the whole time. Now today, I've got a load of rags from washing M's car and cleaning up the house over the weekend in the washer. It's been there since yesterday! The washer will agitate just fine...then it gets stuck and won't progress through the cycle. The new one isn't going to be delivered until June 5th. I wonder if we all have enough clothes to make it until then?

We've been saving my check since we didn't need if for food. It was supposed to be helping us build back into our savings account what unemployment took (everything). This kind of purchase came from that account. Now let's just hope no more appliances die before we're ready to replace them. I guess I won't quit for awhile.

An award and a contest

And just so that ambulance post doesn't stay at the top. 6 is doing well today. I'm letting the kids watch some PBS so 6 will lay still. I don't want anything happening to that wound before it gets a chance to heal. It does hurt some, but he's more bothered by the fact that it itches. He's thrilled with all the get well wishes he's received.

And now for the award...


Grace gave me this award and I'm thrilled to pass it on.

RULES you must resend this to 5 bloggers and you must tell 5 things about your crafts you like the most...what inspires you to make home made gifts..

1. Things I create are one-of-a-kind. I LOVE it when something can't be bought.
   
2. I put love and prayers into each gift. It just doesn't feel the same when I buy something.
   
3. I love passing on the gift of creating. I see this especially when I'm giving to little people, they see how easy it is to make something...and want to create their own masterpieces.
   
4. Making things WITH my kids is so FUN! I love when it's a family project.
   
5. I feel like when I create something, I'm doing what I was made to do.
   

My 5 bloggers:

1. Jessie
2. Krissy
3. Dorothy
4. Allison
5. Amanda

And the contest. Ali at Skeins Her Way is having a contest. If you haven't seen Ali's work before, she does fabulous stuff for Blue Sky Alpacas. Her contest for 3 skeins of the new 'Sweater' yarn from Spud & Chloe closes Memorial Day. Make sure you let her know you heard about the contest here.

I got to ride in an ambulance...

Today was our final park day with our homeschool group. Each of the kids shared their favorite thing about the school year. 7 said he loved the art class. 6 is so proud that he's learned to read. And 4 wanted to share how thrilled that she got to ride Cloud twice (after the boys horseback riding lessons) but she was too shy.

The kids all enjoyed cupcakes, then we started some games. A hula-hoop version of musical chairs, a relay complete with running with a small ball on a spoon, and spinning with their heads on a bat, and then another ball game. We were just about ready to start packing up because it was HOT...and I was getting sunburned, when...

In a freak accident, 6's head was slammed in the gate of the metal chain link batting cage at the Sports Park. I heard the scream...and I held him...and then I felt the blood dripping through my fingers. Another mom called 911 and we waited for the ambulance. I had 7 take off his shirt so I had something to hold against the wound and apply pressure. 6 & I left the park in the ambulance. At the ER he got a cat scan since it was a head injury. The results from that were good. We were seen by the Dr., and he got 5 staples in his head.

I'm so tired...but at the same time I can't sleep. 6 is sleeping on the couch. At bedtime he complained that it was hurting again. He also said it itches. And he's sad that he can't sleep on his normal side. I'm just praying that he sleeps through the night. We see our primary care Dr. on Friday for a re-check. Then we'll schedule a time to get the staples out.

I know this won't be our last trip to the ER. I just need to make sure I grab my knitting next time. I needed something to keep me calm.

**I'm SO grateful for the friends I was at the park with. I left my car, keys, and kids. I didn't think of it again. I knew that my friends would pack up my stuff, grab a carseat for 4, and take car of my kids. That made the whole experience SO MUCH EASIER!

***Some of the photos are fun...like in the ambulance. Not all of them are gory. I'll add the photos tomorrow to this post, but if anyone wants to see the wound, email me.

I want to win...

I'm planning on using the Apologia Astronomy for our science next year. I've read so much about their curriculum, I'm really excited. So today, I saw that Jeannie is having a contest for one of her notebooking journals. I would love to win one. If I don't, then I'll be ordering one in the next month anyways. So...I'm posting about her contest here. And if you're a homeschooling mamma and you've not ever looked at apologia...check it out.

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:

• A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
• Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
• Review Questions
• Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
• Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
• An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
• Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
• A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:

Botany: and Astronomy:

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on her site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

The contest ends on in one week on May 29th!

KP&S Finally!

A long time ago I CO for this KP&S sweater. When I was almost finished, I needed to frog the entire thing. March 29th of this year...I finally decided to try again. And I finished this on my birthday! Yes, I still need to weave in the ends, but it really is too warm to wear this now. I didn't note my modifications very well. I know I started with the size small again, but I didn't add on all the extra stitches under the arms.

I realized that my stitch gauge was ok, but my row gauge was long. This worked in my favor as I wanted a longer sweater. I don't need my "I've had 3 kids and one c-section belly" hanging out.

I went with garter stitch at the hem and sleeves. After looking at other sweaters on ravelry, I knew that I didn't want ribbing.

I just had to erase the whiny part of this post. I don't need to talk about the 10# I need to loose, but I will still leave you with the back shot of this sweater. It rides up a bit in the back after I've worn it a bit. I'll fix that, but not by frogging my knitting.

My verdict, I like this sweater. I could see myself knitting another one. It's just so Pure & Simple.

***7 took all these photos except for the first self-shot. That's why I'm headless. They were REALLY bad.

LOVE

I wanted to teach a lesson on Typography. I know this isn't typically seen as a topic for 4-8 year olds, but I know my kids watch Word World so I thought they could grasp it. I started off by showing the kids a series of company logos. My 4 helped with the example. She is starting to read short words...but she knows Red Robin, Home Depot, Target, Disneyland, etc. not by reading the text but by the way in which the words are written. I wanted the kids to know that sometimes HOW a word looks is as important as what it says. I showed them a party thank-you without showing the whole thing to see if they knew what the font indicated even though the words said "Thank-You". The girls didn't get this one, but all the boys knew right away.

We painted the word LOVE. I used this lesson from Art Projects for Kids. I showed the kids a photo of the Robert Indiana sculpture. One of the kids quickly recognized that her mother grew up near the New York sculpture and she'd seen a photo of her mom in front of this. We got ready to paint. I had pre-traced all the squares and letters. (given how long it took just to trace a number I didn't want to waste time tracing). The kids started tracing my pencil lines with a sharpie. I gave the kids one color of paint at a time and had them paint the first square yellow. Then they painted the shadow of the letter yellow. Next, they were given a bit of white to mix a tint of the yellow for the face of the letter. We repeated this for each letter. Do you notice that one of these 'Love' is different than the rest? I planned this so the kids didn't set their hand in wet paint. I had my lefty work opposite from the rest of the kids.

I think these turned out super. We used Liquitex Acrylic Colors on Canson Acrylic paper. I really enjoy seeing kids use good materials. I think the results are exceptionally better than when they just paint with that cheap strip with little tubs of paint.

One of the surprises from this lesson was a discussion on copywrite. Robert Indiana didn't copywrite his work. Maybe because he didn't...this work is so recognizable. But now, my kids want a copywrite on the bottom of every sketch they make. Too cute.

And then...I emailed this alphabet to all the moms. I wanted to see who could identify each of the letters. If you're up for the challenge, comment with how many you could identify. I got 23/26 quickly. Try not to cheat. There are versions of this with tags all over the internet. So if you're dying for the answers you can find them. Otherwise I'll email back.

Cute Kids

Since yesterday I posted 4, 6, & 7...I thought I'd continue with that. Here's 7.

6...

and 4!

They are getting so big...how on earth did that happen.

Next year I'll have a 2nd grader, a 1st grader, and a daughter who is convinced that she needs to be in Kindergarten even though she just turned 4. My birthday doesn't make me feel as old as having big kids does.

4, 6, & 7

This is another project I did with the kids art class. I used this idea from Art Projects for Kids, but I had the kids use warm and cool colors. Some of the younger kids didn't quite get this, but I love the 7 in the upper right corner. This isn't all the work...there are 15 kids.

I used a color wheel to start the lesson and talked about primary colors, secondary colors, and warm & cool colors. I showed them the De Muth artwork, The Figure 5 in Gold. I made sure to read them the poem too. Then they traced the number for how old they are, and colored inside/outside with warm/cool colors.

The most special part of this lesson came the next week. One girl brought this in to show me. She started another one at home all on her own. How sweet is that?!

Finished Turtles

Clockwise from top left: 6, 7, sample done with 6...this one had a bit more guidance, but he still did this himself., 4...I drew with pencil for her and she traced and colored this turtle.

California Quail!

As we finish up our 2008-2009 states study, we spent 2 weeks on California. Here's 7 drawing our state bird and flower.

I found this drawing somewhere on the internet...but I can't remember where it came from. I gave him a few outlines to start with. He used a set of staedtler pens and chose different weights for outlines and details. I did fill in the glazing mullions on the greenhouse because he said that would be too hard. Then he colored with watercolor pencils.

And here's the mostly finished piece. 7 ran out of steam with the leaf boarder. But I could care less. He did a great job blending colors. And this project was a true act of patience...this took him 3 hours.

Getting Ready for Sea Turtles

My kids were in a science class first semester, and they've done art for second semester. Our art teacher was unavailable for 3 class sessions. I was the substitute. I really think that my next job will be as an art teacher...I had so much fun. I normally do this kind of thing for my own kids...but it was great to see all the different projects. And what I thought was normal for everyone to think/know...other moms looked at me as if I was some sort of art guru. Who knew?! I thought everyone knew that watercolor came in more forms than those little pan trays you buy for kids. I hardly use those for mine since they end up all mixed together. For my first class, which happened to be on Earth Day, we talked about water conservation, endangered animals, the habitat of sea turtles, and then did a sea turtle project.

Here's 4 preparing a sample. Oil colors on watercolor paper to draw the turtle.

Then watercolor...really wet the whole page...with saran wrap on top.

She's so proud of her art. I let her squish around the saran forming her own wrinkles.

I'll post some of the finished sea turtles soon. I had each kid bring their own cookie sheet for the paper to be taped to...to help it dry flat and so they had something to transport their wet art on. They took them home before they were dry...so I won't have as many examples of this project.

Big Girl Haircut!

For her birthday, my big girl wanted a real hair cut...at my salon.  Usually I've just cut her hair.  She's young enough that I can't mess up too bad.  And it really saves money.  Here's her special morning...

She really wanted her hair washed.

She kept asking me to take more photos.

And more photos...

Josie took off about 3 inches.  Here's my princess.

Next stop, Starbucks for some hot cocoa.  

A gift from Rex...

He must have gotten out when we were leaving for the library the other day. This really upsets the kids since they know we signed the paperwork to keep him inside (he was declawed before we got him from the Rescue). Anyways, several hours later my mom was over and I was cooking dinner after the library and a playdate...and she screamed when she saw Rex wanting to come in the sliding glass door with a tail hanging from his mouth. Can you see it here?

He really didn't want to leave the tail outside, but I convinced him to let me throuw it over the fence. Poor lizard. We're not sure if he only caught the tail...or if he actually ate his prey and then brought us the souvineer. Aren't cat's wonderful.

Cinnamon

Have I talked much about how the boys took horseback riding lessons this year? Well, it was the highlight of our week. One of the best parts of the lessons was being 'on-the-farm'. We enjoyed the lama, goats, sheep, pigs, cats, dogs, and chickens. Cinnamon was raise by a family who couldn't keep him, so he came to live with our horse instructor. Because he had been hand fed he loved to be held. 6 LOVES Cinnamon!

I just hurt my daughters feelings...

I yelled at her. She thought she'd made her shirt FANCY. She had decorated herself with an entire book of stamps. How is a 4 yo supposed to know the difference? They look like stickers. You should have seen the look in her face. Yes...she should have not snuck into my cupboard and stole my stamps when she has her own stickers. But, I do need to find a way to bite my tongue and respond calmly.

Acorns and Oak Trees

Chan awarded me with the Renee Award, and truly....I am both awed and humbled by this award. I especially like the song she linked. Today, many might not know this about me, but I LOVE country music and I used to go dancing every week at the country bars. Oh...those were the days. But, to think that I'm strong enough when I feel like I'm just surviving...well, that's encouragement to keep going. It's humbling to know that any strength others see is not all my own.

Here is what Bella says of this award:
"This is a brand new award and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds it's way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak, giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns..."

I took this photo last August at the Dog Park near my Grandparents house. A really fitting time for this post. We were right in the middle of a storm. The winds of life blew hard and it was good that my roots ran deep. Go read this poem. (I was searching the internet for something about the strength of an oak and found this. It says so clearly what I want to share.) Last summer, when M lost his job, I wasn't sure how we could survive. I learned that I was a lot stronger than I thought. I owe it all to my Foundation. Where my roots are grounded.

California Oaks are one of the most beautiful things to me. I love their silhouette against the sky. To me...this is a glimpse of heaven. And now...I'll focus on them as the symbol of strength.

So, to pass this on...that's been the hardest part of typing this post.

Karen & Sue. These 2 are women I'd love to grow up to become. I admire their desire to pass on what they've learned.

Allison & Nancy. Both women had gone through a serious injury and shared with me hope when I couldn't walk. My knee has come a long way...but I'm still not the same.

Gail & Tammy. Evidence to me that you can survive homeschooling and still find time for knitting. Most of my homeschooling friends are still on their first kid. It's a huge difference to be homeschooling more than one.

Really...this could go to everyone in my bloglines. I read because you inspire me. To Love God More. To Love Others More. To Keep On When The Going Gets Rough. To Knit To Keep My Sanity. Thanks for sharing your lives.