Crocheting Up A Storm

So, my latest and not so greatest hobby has been crocheting. For me, it's been very hard. I am usually really good at figuring out how to do craft pretty much anything. But for crocheting, nope! It's been a huge learning curve for me in so many ways. BUT...I think I found what I enjoy crocheting and I want to thank All About AMI. She posted a great tutorial that was easy to follow and detailed enough that I could figure it out! So, thanks!! Here is the project that I attempted and didn't to bad on, if I must say so myself!

First Day of School

 

First day of school went GREAT! I couldn't be more happier with it! It wasn't too hard but still challenged her. We did math, Reading, Writing, Art, Music and Bible. All with in 2 hours. Could it be so??

Above is H sitting at her desk coloring. This was after all of her school work was done.

Below she is at the computer watching/listening to a man playing a Soprano Recorder and coloring a worksheet of a girl playing the Soprano Recorder. This was part of her music work.  Later on, she got her Harmonica and made up a tune called, Fly, Fly, Butterfly Fly. Find Your Own Dream. It was just a super fast tune.  :-) Cute though.

Happy 1st Birthday

 From this:

 To this in one short year:

 

Happy Birthday my sweet and fun little girl!!

Homeschooling

So, I am starting school tomorrow with Hannah. Most of me is a excited and I have been looking forward to it. Then there is a part of me that is sad to start, mainly because I need to be the teacher and I need to be on and I need to be prepared and I need to teach my child school. The toughest thing is that it is rare that I get a break from kids. As I write this, one is awake...

On the bright side, I get to be with my kids all the time. I get to teach them and see exactly what they are learning. How cool is that!? 

I will be using My Father's World and Christian-based curriculum. There are SO many resources on the internet to compliment this curriculum along with other bloggers who use it and actually post week by week with pictures of what their kids did. I hope I will be doing the same. I want to post our journey of homeschooling this year. I have taken, oh, about a year off since Gianna has been born to not blog. But it is time. So, hopefully you will see more of what we are doing in our little home!

My New Favorite Picture

I just love the look on both of my girls. Hannah....silly, beautiful, sweet Hannah....and then Gianna, cute, sweet, strong, determined little Gianna. I love these girls!!! No matter how hard it gets or how much sleep I am not getting or whatever issue we are dealing with, these two light up my life! (Oh and the guy that is holding her hand is pretty special too!)

Finally...A Family Picture!!

This is one picture that happens very rarely since I am the one that takes the pictures...but here it is!! A family picture!

Fireplace Painting

 This is our faux fireplace before we painted it. It's hard to tell but the shelves on the side were a medium brown color. My husband kept getting on me about painting the shelves and I dug my feet until I couldn't do it anymore. Shelves are awful to paint, in my opinion. You have the top, bottom, and sides of each section. And of course, one coat didn't do it.  So, it was double the torture.

Since taking the picture I rearranged the mantel just a little bit. To me, it was looking a little busy. 

On the right side, I want to have a cluster of candles in different sizes but will wait on that a little but. A couple of items I got at yard sales. The books on the left give me so much joy. Such a simple thing but I think it adds warmth to it. 

The actual fireplace is a black/brown. I didn't want it fully black so I chose the brown color (which is hard to see unless you are standing near it in person). I then purchased Martha Stewart's Glaze paint and LOVE it!! I chose silver but since our house has more warm colors, I am thinking about changing it to her Pottery Glaze line.....we'll see. But for now, it is a nice change and it works. :-)

Tape Resistant Name

This project was super easy and fun for Hannah. We used Finger Paint Paper and Blue Paint Tape. She just spelled out her name with the tape and painted over it. Then when dry, she peeled off the tape...Wah La!!!

A Spring Wreath

 This is my wreath inspired through Pinterest, of course! 

I used a copper pipe insulation cover thingy. Sure wish I knew the name. Then covered it with light brown yarn. It took a long time to cover it because I am a perfectionist! Making the flowers we super easy. I actually got the tutorial off of Craftaholics Anonymous. She also has a great tutorial to get rid of the extra strings of glue that linger when using a glue gun. 

So, I did this wreath about 2 months ago and just posting it now. It is actually time for me to design another one. I want to use peacock feathers this time!!

Eggs For Breakfast

 Since becoming vegetarian, which I loosely practice now, I really learned to dislike eggs. If you think  about it, it is pretty gross. I won't get into that now because this is for a new love of eggs that I have now. My friend, Genelle, introduced me to a Google Group called Nourishing Foodies, and I have bought 8 dozen eggs through them. 8 dozen!!! And they are amazingly good! Almost too good, like chocolate...sort of. These eggs are from a farmer and they are organic, free-range, grass fed chickens. The yolks are orange, not yellow! And the shells are gorgeous. Every time I make eggs for the family, I notice how beautiful they are and I just had to take a picture even though my dear hubby thinks I am a quack (no pun intended) for taking pictures at odd times.

Aren't they beautiful!!??

Bridgeway's Family Fun Day

Yesterday, my daughter, performed for our church's Family Fun Day. She has spent the last 2 months, I think, at practices for this special day.

The girls!

My biggest sweet stuff...and littlest sweet stuff!

Getting her face painted. It's the mermaid design.

Eating Cotton Candy....yum!

My pretty mermaid girl!

All the girls chose the same design.

A Tent

One of Hannah's favorite things to do is build a tent. This was a new way to build a tent. It usually starts out with her taking all of our couch pillows and placing them in a huge pile on the stairs. Then getting the king-sized sheet out and trying use the huge clips (look on the top of the tent) to attach the sheet somewhere. By the way, the clips were one of the best yard sale purchases. $2 for a 4 pack!! They are huge and can clip onto almost anything!

Can you find Hannah?

A New Coffee Maker

My husband is one of the best deal finders...ever! He pretty much got this Cuisinart Single Cup Brewing System for free. When you spend a certain amount on your credit card (Which we pay off every month), you get money back every year. Well, we spent enough for the year to buy this from Costco!! Woo hoo..go honey!! It's my birthday! It's my birthday! Yes, he "bought" me this for my birthday!

Peeling and Peeling and Peeling and....

Hannah has been enjoying peeling potatoes and apples with a peeler. One night I planned on making a meal with diced up sweet potatoes and she eagerly wanted to help. Well, I am not a big planner when it comes to making dinner. (I have tried planning out my meals. When I do it works out smoothly. But I don't do it and we are obviously not starving. :-)) So, Hannah enjoyed helping me unfortunately it took 3 times longer than it would have if I had done it, which meant dinner was late. Fortunately my husband is not a demanding husband and doesn't demand to eat as soon as he got home.

Sometimes I feel that my daughter has ADHD but seeing her peel potatoes for 45 minutes assures me she is a perfectly normal almost 6 year old.

** She recently was peeling an apple with the peeler and sliced her thumb knuckle. I feel I may have lost my potato peeler for a while.

**Reminder for parents...make sure they peel away from not toward!

Valentine's Day Votive Candle Holders!

What do you think?

Hannah and I made these Valentine's Day Votive Holders,which came out pretty cute! I found the idea at Homemade Serenity.

Snow Flakes

Fold a coffee filter in half

The fold that in half.

Then fold that in half.

Fold it in half one more time. Cut it up with different shapes. You can actually search for a template to get some ideas. Once you start cutting and opening the filter up you can see how you need to cut the filter. Have fun!!

We then laminated about 20 big and small snowflakes to put on our front glass door.

Doing the Happy-Snowflake-Dance!!

5 Months Today

Gianna is 5 months old today! Here she is enjoying her most favorite toy, the exersaucer! When she is on the floor she doesn't last too long before getting irritated that she is on her belly or back. The little girl wants to be upright! So, the exersaucer gives me a little back break (from holding her) and I can get some things done around the house while she is perfectly content. This also is a great place to put her during dinner time. The swing is not where she wants to be at all or for longer than 5 minutes.

Her favorites things are when daddy and Hannah sing to her. She loves to be held and "chase" Hannah around the house while I am holding her. She loves when we dance with her. She also loves me.. The only other person that can hold her for longer than a couple of minutes is Jonathan. But that is ok. I love the little girl!

Here we are after giving her a bath. It's one of Hannah's favorite things to do with/for her. Gianna loves it too...although her expression is not giving it away that she loves it.

People usually say Gianna is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (What does that mean anyway?).

Homemade Strawberry "Sauce"

(This was Hannah's breakfast. Strawberry Sauce, French Toast, and sliced Cheddar Cheese.)

Ingredients:
15 Strawberries
1/4 cup of Applesauce
1 tbsp Honey

Put in the blender and wa la!

Blooming Potatoes

These were inspired by the blog, Savoring Time in the Kitchen. They are sort of like a french fry and a baked potato.

First, cut the potato long ways being careful not to go down to the bottom so the potato stays together. Then cut short ways forming a "French Fry" look. I brushed some olive oil on it and then sprinkled it with salt and spices.

Wrap them with tin foil and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees. After the 30 minutes open up the foil and you can add cheese to it and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes depending on your oven's temperature.

They should pull apart sort of like a Blooming Onion.

ENJOY!!

Counting By Fives

This activity helped so much in teaching how to count by 5's. We only printed 16 hands (counting up to 60) because I wanted to teach her how to tell time by counting to 60 for 60 minutes. Additionally, print out numbers in 5's so that they can match it up with the hands in order..

Materials:
Paper (large enough for 16-20 hand prints)
Finger Paints (We used Crayola Washables)

Gack-ish

Hannah and I made Gak the other day and it turned out pretty well. I am wondering if I used real Elmer's Glue, would it have been better. I'm sure we'll do it again soon. This is where I got the directions from: Our Best Bites.

1 teaspoon borax powder

1 1/2 C water, divided

4 oz (1/2 C) Elmer’s glue, clear or white

food coloring

Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet. Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.