Randomness

Our weather is seriously bi-polar and it's finally caught up with me. Yesterday, I stayed on the couch all day and only got up when Jaelyn needed help with something. I honestly didn't care if she did school or not. Dan has no class today; so I'm taking the whole day off. As far as I know, Jaelyn did her school work and then the two of them went off shopping. Zac and Gracie have been snuggled up in bed with me most of the day.

Jaelyn has such a giving heart. I really hope she can harness that and use it for good as she grows up. She can be so mean sometimes to her siblings. Anyway, she brought me back a charm pack of fat quarters. Sweet girl, I'm telling you. We decided to make a baby quilt with them to put on etsy to see how long it takes to sell.

We are trying to take Jae off her ADHD medicine now that we are very settled into our school routine. We've stepped down the dose for a week now. We have 3 more days to go before she's totally off it. I can see her fuse getting shorter unfortunately. We'll give it a few weeks, but from what I've seen already, I'd say the medicine was helping a lot with her control. I just want her to grow. She's so tiny and the medicine curbs her appetite.

Jaelyn played two pieces in a piano festival last weekend. She earned superiors on both of her pieces. I peaked on Allie practicing her violin the other day. She's getting a lot better. I was impressed. She says she wants to keep taking violin lessons next year. Caden got his recorder yesterday for music class. He's a little miffed at me because I won't let him play it unless he's in his room. Seriously, though, my head feels like it's going to explode. I don't need high pitched squeaking. Next year, Caden thinks he might want to take guitar lessons.

We hit our 100th day of school on Tuesday. I feel so triumphant. I never thought we'd persevere this far and then decide to bring the other two home next year. Crazy. I still worry that she isn't learning as much as she should or would in school, but that's one of the things I have to let go. She is learning and even better she's learning on her own. I've seen so much self motivated learning lately. Her reading is also improving. Actually, she swiped the chapter book we are reading "Tuck Everlasting" and read it after lights out for 30 extra minutes.

From This Morning

If you can believe, there is almost no snow left in our backyard 4 hours later.

Where did the words go...this goes with the last posted pictures :)

The kids were in shorts and flip flops on Saturday. Jaelyn actually got a flip flop buried when she sunk into a snow bank while playing. Crazy! The warm weather was short lived. We got a couple of inches of snow yesterday morning, then sunshine to melt it away, and then another dusting of snow. Today, it snowed all morning. The sun is shining again and melting away the snow. I heard a nasty rumor about more snow the beginning of next week. I'm thinking of being an ostrich and sticking my head in the ground and ignoring it. Gracie loves that she can go into the backyard again and play on her own. She's had a ball nosing around in the snow.

Sent from my iPhone

Crazy Weather

Our Next Move Will Be Upon Us Soon

All of our military moves have been hundreds of miles apart.  Not this time.  This summer, we'll be moving to Charlottesville, VA.  It's a two hour drive from our current house.  We made a little road trip this weekend to check out the town and housing.  It was a pretty drive.  It looks like hiking will be in our future.  Dan really wants to take the kids on an overnight hike.  We shall see...

Dan will be stationed at a facility north of town.  This is the first time we won't be near a military base.  We found a mix of houses, but very little for sale or rent.  We are hoping that'll increase once it warms up or we might end up having to buy.  We made the mistake of going into a model home that was way over our budget and absolutely beautiful.  Dan even commented that we shouldn't have done it.  I have a friend with military connections in the area who will keep an eye out for us.  I've decided to homeschool all 3 kids next year.  It was nice not having to compare areas to school ratings.

After checking out the housing, we drove to a trail near Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.  We had a great time walking on the trail.  Last weekend was weird.  The kids were in short sleeve shorts and even shorts some with snow on the ground.

All in all, it was a great day.  I've been anxious about our upcoming move; so it was good to check it out.  I'm excited to get our orders (next moth or so) so we can start making plans in earnest.

For My Alaskan Friend

I finished another quilt last week.  I love how it turned out.

My friend's only request was a dove.  I love this one with his olive branch.

One is a lonely number, you know, so I gave her two more.

And who doesn't need a little extra sunshine in their lives?

I hid a couple of hearts and a cross in the background.

And it's a little hard to see, but I did a swirly stitch instead of stippling.  It was a lot of fun and actually felt easier because I knew where I need to go next.

Kid's Stitchery Quilt

I finished the kids' project last week and I couldn't be happier.  Well, there's a few things I would do differently, but it has nothing to do with their part and all to do with mine.  I bought some really cool (and super duper expensive) variegated rayon thread and I'm in love.  It worked great to do the writing on the quilt.  I would LOVE to do a whole quilt with nothing but quilted words.

I Want a Gerbil...Says Jaelyn

Jaelyn has been begging to have a nasty little rodent in her room for years, and for years, I've been saying "no" and Dan's been saying "when you can behave with no explosions."  We are quickly approaching the no explosions clause.  She is still up and down like a yo-yo and can be a little toot, but she is controlling herself when it comes to the really out of control behavior.  We haven't had a major screaming fit in a while.  Once she finished her horse and sloth research, she moved on to gerbils.  Are they rodents?  I don't know, but they look like little rats.  Yuck.  She's learned all about them.  She can quote you types of hay and why one brand is better than another.  She has researched prices of cages and accessories to know what she wants.  She knows the type of gerbil and colors that she wants.  We've added "a savings of one year worth of gerbil expenses" to her "behaving" requirement because I'm not paying for it.  Tonight she gave us a presentation with a homemade poster with all sorts of facts and a powerpoint presentation that she put together.  I must say, I'm a little impressed.  If she continues to hold it together and saves about $100 (her estimation), then I think Jaelyn will be the proud momma of two nasty little rodents just as soon as we move this summer.  Of course, the day she forgets to feed them or asks me to clean out their cage will be the day they find a new owner because I'm not being responsible.  Cats and dogs are my limit!

I'll have to get Dan to help me upload her presentation.  I haven't figured moviemaker out yet on the new computer :).

Self Motivated Learning

A Little Bit of Sewing

I needed a present for a little girl's birthday so I thought I'd try something I'd seen on Pinterest. This was only a Pinterest semi-success. I used a pair of Caden's old jeans and turned them into a ruffley girlie purse. Just FYI, rivets and sewing machine needles don't play well together.

Allie was off yesterday; so I decided to spend some extra time with her today. As the typical middle child who is fine spending hours by herself playing with her dolls, she gets over looked a lot. Definitely something I need to pay more attention to. Anyway, she's still asking to sew. I showed her how I made the material for the cat in her quilt and taught her how to do a very basic appliqué. Her cat turned out so well that I decided to do the same project with Caden and asked Jaelyn to make it on her own. Caden loved the project. I'm going to turn their little quilts into a wall hanging for me. We'll call it an early Mother's Day present.

A Little Bit of Snow

So we got a little bit of snow last week....about a foot to be precise. The kids had a 5 day weekend with Presidents' Day today. No one, including me, is ready for school next week.

I finished Caden's quilt.  He loves it which makes me love it even more.

If you look at the stitching on the bear and then this corner you can see how much I improved over the course of the quilt.  I wish I had quilted each section with color that matched the section, even if it had been very time consuming.

I think it looks great hanging in his room.

Do You Want To Build a Snowman?

I think we got the 7-12" of snow the meteorologists were predicting and we aren't done yet.  We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.  Thankfully, it's nice and toasty warm in our house.  Sleet and/or ice are heading our way soon, followed by more snow, so hopefully the electricity continues to stay on.

Gracie was not thrilled that she had to hop through the snow like a jackrabbit to potty this morning.  Her knee didn't like it.

The snow did something weird on the partially frozen lake.  Those are some crazy ducks and geese!

Jaelyn's New Shadow Box

Jaelyn chipped in and helped buy a printer's drawer off Ebay to turn into a shadow Box.  She was so excited the day it came in the mail.  It was filthy, dirty.  Step one was cleaning.

We decided to paint it white and back each hole with a different color paint chip.  The kids got a little out of control the day I turned them loose at Lowes.

Jaelyn learned how to spray paint and distress wood.

It's going to take her years to find the perfect memory for each little hole.  This dragon came from our last Thanksgiving at Medieval Times.

We found these sweet knobs to go on the bottom for ribbons and awards.  As soon as the snow clears and I can get to Lowe's for shorter screws, we'll get them attached. :)