It's been a year. How did that happen?

I knew it had been a long time since I blogged, but I really didn't think it had been a whole year.  And yet, it has.  A year and 4 days, to be exact.  Crazy how time flies.  So, bullet points again.  And hopefully I'll update again before another year goes by!

-  We did decide to homeschool this year.  It's been a good experience overall, and I'm glad we took the leap.  I love the literature based curriculum that we're using, and Kaylee seems to like it.  The flexibility is very nice too.  We plan to keep it up next year. 

Kaylee doing school

-My CSA venture tested out pretty well, so I've decided to expand it to include a few more customers.  5 this year, in fact.  Hopefully I can keep up with them!  I also got laying hens a few months ago, so I now have an overabundance of eggs to sell.  The kids LOVE the chickens, and I have to say I'm pretty hooked on them myself.  We have 24 Barred Rock hens, 1 Red Cochin rooster, and 3 pullets.

Spring CSA box contents

Barred Rock Hen

-Rich's Grandma Mary moved in with us in September, when Grandpa went to the nursing home.  Lots of adjustments but overall it's been a good thing for everyone. Grandpa died in March.  We miss him but are glad that he's not suffering any more.

Our last visit with Grandpa

Grandpa and Grandma, in October 2011

 We had an incredibly mild winter, with very little snow.  The kids did get to make a few snowmen, though. 

Snowmen, winter 2011-12

-We went to Montana and Yellowstone last summer for vacation.  My brother got married in Montana, so it was a great reason to get out there.  It was a fun trip.  My sister also got married in November in Oklahoma, so lots of traveling to weddings for us!

Yellowstone National Park

Bart and Lisa

Cheree and Troy

I guess that's the big things that have happened in the last year.  It's kind of a bummer that I haven't kept up with blogging about the little things....those are the ones you tend to forget.  Maybe I'll be better at it now that the kids are getting older!  They are growing so fast.

On that note, just for laughs, I'll end with a picture of Kaylee playing house with her brothers.  She's pretending they're her babies.  :-)  They're riding in the car (couch) - see her driving? ;-)

Playing house

Updates

I've neglected this blog terribly this winter.  There are lots of reasons for this, but they're all the usual ones.  So here's a bullet-point summary of our life since December.  If I get time I'll elaborate in future posts.  Don't count on it though.....spring is coming and I'll be out digging in the dirt as much as possible!

-  It snowed.  We dug out.  It snowed again.  It was cold.  We dug out.  The water pipes under the kitchen sink froze up.  It snowed some more.  That pretty much sums up December, January, and February!

- I started doing preschool-type activities with Miles and Ian the first of the year.  We pick a weekly theme, check out books from the library, and plan crafts and activities around the theme.  It's been going great.  Pictures in a later post...I promise!

-We started 45 tomato plants, 88 pepper plants, along with some eggplant, broccoli, and basil, the first week of March.  They are now ready to set outside, 5 weeks prematurely.  And they're taking over the dining room.  Oops.  Note to self...next year, wait until at least March 20 to start things! 

-I've got a big garden expansion in the works.  Doubling the size of it, in fact.  Partly to get started on my CSA adventure and partly because I'm crazy like that.  :-)  I spent nearly a month plotting, planning, and ordering seeds and plants for it.  Such fun.......now just wait until August when I'm waist deep in produce.....then ask me how it's going!

-Rich broke his leg (the fibula) climbing trees with the kids.  He walked around on it for almost 2 weeks before he went to the doctor because he thought it was only a pulled muscle.  No cast, but 2 weeks off work.  Note to Rich:  Old men like you must be more careful :-)

-I started seriously thinking about homeschooling Kaylee next year.  More on this in another post too.  We haven't reached a solid decision yet, but we're definitely leaning toward it.  For lots of reasons.

-I did a budget overhaul.  Started using online bill pay.  And started planning my menus from the grocery sale ads.  It's working well!  We're saving money even though we're buying mostly organic produce.  More on this later too.

-My yarn and fabric stash finally got organized.  And then ignored.  Somehow, chasing after 2 toddlers, doing preschool with 2 other kids, garden planning, researching homeschooling, careful menu planning, and keeping up with everything else has seriously slowed down my sewing and knitting projects. 

Life is good.  Busy, but good. 

Quick Update

It's been a loooong time since I posted again.  Somehow this seems to keep happening!  I've got lots of things I need to post, like Clark's first birthday, Thanksgiving, new recipes I'm loving, and lots of sewing projects.  But life seems to keep getting in the way.  So for now, a few pictures will have to suffice.

We had a beautiful fall, with some gorgeous sunrises.

My little cat and Iron Man on Halloween.  Miles really wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, but by the time we went to the stores, they were all sold out of Buzz.  Note for next year...shop earlier!

No dressing up for Clark, but he loves his big sissy!

Everyone had the stomach bug.  It really tired us all out!

They DO know how to play nice together!

 Clark learned how to walk, run, and climb into things he can't get out of.

As you can see, we've been busy living.  And now, winter is upon us.  It was 7 degrees out this morning.  Brrrrr. 

Clark is One!!!

It's hard to believe, but my baby is a year old already.  Since I'm doing this post after the fact, I set the time to his actual birth time, 6:20 AM!

We don't do a big party for first birthdays, but he did get a cupcake to smash.  He enjoyed it! 

Licking the beaters......yummy!

It tastes good mashed up too.

Wow, this makes a sticky mess!

Mmmmm, good!

Happy Birthday little man...we love you lots!

Car Cozie

My latest sewing project, easily finished in an afternoon (during naptime, in fact!) was a car cozie for Miles.  It's a variation on the crayon roll actually, only it holds cars for travel, etc.  The idea and tutorial came from the Sharla at My Little Gems.
It holds 6 cars.  The road piece folds down over the car pockets before you roll it up so that the cars don't fall out. 

 

You can even drive cars on the road!


Clark approves.

I'm thinking this will be perfect for our Thanksgiving road trip to Nebraska!

Music Lover

Clark is our little music lover.  He adores it when someone sings to him.  If you are playing the piano, he's right there, wanting up on your lap so he can "play" too.  The other day Rich got out his guitar, which he hadn't played for a while.  Clark was absolutely fascinated.  I had to get out the camera.

" Watcha doing Daddy?"

"Can I try it too?"

"This makes cool sounds!"

"I'm so smart!"

 

Crayon Rolls

Since becoming reaquainted with my sewing machine lately, I've decided to make a few other things for my kids.  They've been using plastic ziploc bags to hold their crayons in their "meeting bags", which are less than ideal for more than one reason.  The bags make lots of rustly noise as they search for the right crayon, and get easily dumped, which leads to crayons rolling off onto the floor or down into the couch cushions.  Enter a solution.....crayon rolls!

I followed a super easy tutorial found here.  All it took was a few small pieces of fabric, some interfacing, a couple of velcro pieces, and an hour or so of my time.  We already had the crayons. 

Here they are all filled up and ready for action.  Miles' is on the top and Kaylee's on the bottom.  If I were to make hers over I'd put the purple fabric behind the crayons and make the pockets from the print.  But she likes it this way, so its all good!

 I was really quite pleased with the way they turned out.  The Hot Wheels fabric was a hit with Miles.  And Kaylee, of course, got colorful flower prints.  Below are the outside of the rolls.  They're really more square than they appear (in spite of my rather rudimentary sewing skills!), because filling them with crayons causes them to bunch up a bit.  They're also supposed to be tied with ribbon, but since little ones have trouble tying things, I opted for the more kid-friendly velcro circles.

The perfect size to take anywhere!

The kids used them this morning.  No more rustling around with plastic bags, no spilled or lost crayons, just happy little coloring kiddos.  What more could you ask for?   I may be making more of these.