Another sewing project...

I saw this really neat dress on the Gap website the other day and it inspired me. The top was made of a ribbed knit tank top and the dress was made of vertical striped fabric, in layers, like the layered skirts I make. Well, it made me think. If you can use tank tops, you could probably make dresses out of old t-shirts, right?LOL So, here is my first attempt at a t-shirt dress...



I took this little green t-shirt that Evie out-grew and made it into a brand new dress for Sophia. I roll-hemmed the top and bottom of the blue fabric, used my sewing machine to gather the fabric at the top and then sewed the fabric to the bottom of the t-shirt. This was an extremely easy project and took no more than 30 minutes from start to finish. Not only that, but it was mostly free. I paid $1.00 for a yard of the blue fabric and only used 7 inches of it for this dress. The t-shirt was a hand me down, so I count that as free. I can see that using a long sleeved shirt would make a nice winter dress. That will probably be what I work on next.

Blessings,

Jon's Eggroll Recipe...

Supplies required are as follows:

1 bag of shredded coleslaw cabbage
1 bag of precooked frozen shrimp (you can buy raw, just prepare that like you would for shrimp cocktail)
Soy Sauce
1 package of eggroll wrappers (I recommend having 1 extra)
Vegetable oil

Preparation:

Use just enough oil to cover the bottom of your favorite skillet and pour in the bag of coleslaw cabbage, along with your desired amount of shrimp, fry it until the cabbage is fully cooked and add a good splash of soy sauce. Drain out excess oil and put the cabbage and shrimp in a bowl. Now that it is all cooked, this is when I normally remove the tails from the shrimp and cut them into chunks. Now get your eggroll wrappers out along with a bowl of water, take a decent amount of cabbage/ shrimp and place it in the lower/middle of the eggroll and follow the wrapping directions on the package. Now just fill a saucepan with enough oil to half cover an eggroll and fry untill they are golden brown.


Jon

(I'll take some photos of the process sometime this week.)

Random and Varied...

One of my favorite things to do after a very long week is to look through all the photos that various people took. I always find it interesting to see what everyone finds important to them. I'm also thankful that the older kids feel comfortable borrowing my camera and I'm planning on buying a smaller camera for the younger ones to use. That way, we'll see what they think is important a little more often.


This first photo is by Jon. Before he and my Dh went to Ohio for Grandma's memorial, Jon wanted to make sure that I'd have food to eat. He made me 42 egg rolls! I know that there are only 37 in this photo...I was hungry.lol He really is a master chef!


This next photo is of the extremely noisy frog/toad that Allison raised from a tadpole last year and it not only survived, it has been a pain in the neck ever since.lol


Here is Isaac, not only smiling but showing off his latest creation...a shark. I think he did a great job! The kids love homemade playdough.


Here is my Sophia. Her hair is getting so long!


Just look at those curls and that color!


Here is Sophia's masterpiece. Would you believe that she did this with watercolors? She really knows how to use the space on paper and her colors are amazing. Every picture she draws or paints or colors is completely used when she's finished.lol



Well, that's all the photos I have for now. Genevieve is getting excited about her 7th birthday coming up. Allison's school is great. It's a great fit for her. Jon is excelling this year. He's an amazing student and I'm thankful for his servant's heart. Isaac and Sophia are staying out of big trouble and keeping busy with all our activities. I'm 11 weeks along now with our newest little one and everything is going well. My only complaint is exhaustion but I really can't complain. It was a lot worse with my last one. So, there's my update. Sorry I'm not keeping up with this blog much. It's hard to manage everyone and everything and still have energy at the end of the day.lol Maybe once I get my sea-legs things will get easier. We'll see.lol

Blessings,

A Portrait of Allison

Two summers in the 100 degree heat,
Working 6-7 days a week,
Sometimes for 8 hours at a time.

One VERY long winter,
Freezing in the cold,
In a bathing suit,
Sometimes even in the rain.

One semi-patient mother,
Who went without a car,
For the whole summer.

All adds up to this,
Bought yesterday,
With her own money,
With some help from two Grandmas,
One Grandpa,
And two parents.

2001 Saturn LS100 with only 28,000 miles.



We are very proud of you Allison! (And I'm thankful to have my truck back.LOL)

Blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

To: Cucumber Jon,



We found you in the garden today, fat and happy.



Sophia fell instantly in love and named you Really Jon.



She's carried you around all day, expecting me to take many photos of you.



How will I ever get you back?



You are destined for pickling.

An announcement...

We're expecting another blessing next year! This one is due sometime around April 1st. It's a bit of a surprise, but we're pretty excited.

I've not been feeling that great, but so far I'm hanging in there.lol

The littles are so excited about this new little one! Names have been flying around like paper airplanes.lol I have to say that I'm pretty much out of names. I've been joking that I'm going to set up a jar and let everyone put their favorite names into it. At least then, I can say, "Go put it in the jar." Instead of being continuously peppered by kids non-stop all day long. (How 'bout Trucker?lol)

In other news, Allison will be taking three classes at the college instead of two. They had an opening for Spanish and we jumped at it. This is the best possible class line-up that we could have hoped for. She's taking English Comp, College Algebra, and Spanish 1. Next semester, if all goes well, she'll take PreCalc, Spanish 2, and a beginning Chem class. She's also decided to join one swimteam instead of two. She really liked the highschool coach and will go there.

I guess that's it. lol Here are some photos from the past two weeks...

Evie and Sophia hamming it up...


Jon, the snake catcher...


He's also the "Do math/science on my hand guy" too.


Isaac's creation... It's really huge and he wouldn't let us put it away for THREE days!...
Just for perspective, our tiles are 18" square...



Blessings,


Lisa

Long time, no see...

I think that next year, I may just take the whole summer off from blogging. At least if I announce it, I wouldn't feel so guilty about not getting around to it.lol

Things have been crazy-busy here. Here's an update, for my records of everyone and what the future holds for them. LOL

Allison- She's going to college this year! Pretty neat! I happened to look into the dual enrollment program at our local college and it is a perfect fit for her. My dh and Allison met with the D-E coordinator last week and she was very impressed with Allison's test scores and her work ethic. She appoved her immediately for the program and now Allison is enrolled in two classes this semester and will take up to three classes next semester. In other words, she will finish out all her credits at the college and I'm actually DONE with one student. Wow! What a shock for this to come one year early. It's a great opportunity for her though and it allows other colleges to see that she's ready for college work.

In other news, she's also decided to join two different swim teams this school year. She'll go to the local high school team and the YMCA year-round team. This is along with working too.

Jon- Here's Jon's subject list for the year...

MUS Precalc
Apologia Adv Chem
Apologia Physics
Notgrass World History
IEW Adv Communication Series
Teaching the Classics
Japanese 2

He's also continuing with Boy Scouts. It's his hope to become an Order of the Arrow this year and I think he'll do just fine.

Genevieve- Here's Evie's list...

Formal Curriculum...
MUS Alpha
Apologia Astronomy
Spell to Write and Read
I Can Do All Things

Informal...
We bought her 150 readers for this year. They are levels 1, 2, and 3. She'll be reading through the ones that interest her and we'll save the ones that don't for the next two. We got GREAT deals through ebay.

I'll be reading classics to her from our collection of books. They will cover a range of different subjects. My plan is to follow her interests and to also broaden her knowledge base. The more she knows, the more she'll want to know. :)

We'll also begin memory work and reading the Bible each day.

She's also going to continue with gymnastics two days a week. She's made wonderful progress this summer and her coach is very happy as is Evie. It's a sport that she really enjoys.


Isaac- We'll begin preschool with him. VERY gently.lol I'll work on teaching him his letters, counting, sharing...lol All in good fun. I've been visiting the Dollar Store and Michaels to refill our activity bins and have found some fun things to keep him and Sophia busy this year.

Sophia- Activity bins. Lots of them.lol We'll be rotating her around to different rooms and different activities all day long until the school work is done for the day. Trying to keep her busy, will be the hardest part of the school year! I'm also working on some Montessori practical tray exercises to keep her and Isaac busy too. I'll have a dish washing bin, a veggie peeling tray, and a cheese cutting tray.

I'm also working on schedules for chores, revamping the menus and grocery lists for fall/winter, and organizing the new school space.

I guess that's it for now. lol I've got to get off this computer and get back to work.

Blessings,

That's Mommas....

Since Jon never updates his blog, I'm going to share something between him and Sophia.

Today, Jon was using his calculator at the kitchen table finishing up some science experiments, when Sophia comes over to him and says, "That's Mommas!" He very kindly says, "No, this is my calculator. See? It has a "J" on it."

Sophia says, "That's Mommas!"
Jon says, "No, it's mine."
S says, "That's Mommas!"
J says, "No, it's mine."
S says, "That's Mommas!"
J says, (while secretly slipping the calculator into his side pocket)"No, it's mine."
S says, "That's Mommas!"


Jon says, "What's Mommas?"
Sophia looks to one side of Jon, then the other. Then she says, "I don't know." and walks off.

Very clever, Jon!

Blessings,

Lisa

My Latest Sewing Project...

This week, I decided to take time out of my usual busy-ness and make matching skirts for the girls...








I picked this fabric because my plan is to make a matching button-up shirt for Isaac. His will have the puppy fabric with brown pockets. I think it'll be cute.lol The girls really like their new clothes!

Blessings,

A Portrait of Allison

My long lost daughter...she's in lane #2 looking at the camera...




And she's off!


Look at that girl go...


Finish line...


Happy to be done for this week!


I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when Allison said she wanted to join the swimteam. I mean, she already spends everyday at the pool! Well, it's been a good fit for her and she's really enjoying the friend's she's made and the great coaching that she's received. I'm glad that she's enjoying her summer.

Blessings,

Cabin Fever is Upon Us

It's hard to update week after week when this is our time of year where the heat is so oppressive that we just stay inside all the time being crabby at each other.lol

Here are some highlights:

1. Allison joined the swimteam.(God bless her, like she doesn't spend enough time outside in the water.lol)

2. We've been spending a million hours in the pool. It's the only time when being outside is not too bad.

3. We've been witnessing the local wildlife since it's been too hot to mow the yard.LOL

Here's some photos from the above, except Allison, whom we never see anymore.

Around and around they go...

Looks like a great set-up...

We had two of these birds of prey!

Here's one in flight...

They REALLY liked my garden. Not sure what they were after but...

They patiently waited for my DH to leave the yard and quit taking photos of them.LOL

Lately, it's either raining or 100 degrees outside. Yuck! I can't wait until it cools off, you know, in October. sigh.lol

Blessings,

Keeping Cool...

It's been so hot lately! This week, I noticed that our bounce house wasn't THAT BIG and sooooo....



Fun was had by all...



It was almost like a vacation and the kids thought I was just the best!

Blessings,







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My Garden...

Here's a few photos of the garden today...

This is my greenbean, dill, basil, and lettuce garden. I just replanted the lettuce since the older heads are starting to bolt. I planted a heat tolerant variety and will also be putting a shade over it soon. It's also close to the house to shade it during the hotter parts of the day.


This is my greenbean patch. I also have some carrots and beets but they don't grow well in hot weather. I'll replant those for the fall/winter garden later in the summer. The greenbeans have been great this year! I'm having a stinkbug problem but am still getting lots of beans. I've kept the garden organic this year and the bug population thanks me.LOL! I'm still trying to fight them but it's not going too great.



Here's the cucumber bed. I got so many cukes this year! Unfortunately, we've been attacked by the dreaded pickleworm and I need to decide if I'm going to treat it with Seven, or if I'll try BT first. BT is organic but has had limited success. Sevin is not organic but is usually more successful. I'd love to get more pickles out of this season though, so I need to decide on something!lol


Here's my pepper and tomato plants. Now, they've also been attacked by stinkbugs but they seem to do ok anyway. The aphids have been the hardest bug to fight with these plants. I've used ladybugs and an organic soap spray but the rain keeps washing the bugs off for me and they are still thriving. It has definitely taken a toll on productivity but we're still getting more tomatoes than we can comfortably eat in a week's time so I guess I don't mind sharing.lol


Here's my soybeans...We got hit by hail this week for over an hour and it tore holes in all the leaves. I'm hoping that they will bounce back. We'll see. :)


Here's a close-up of the pods and some of the leaves...


As I said in a previous post, this has been a good year for gardening! What a blessing to feed the kids out of our gardens and know that the food didn't have pesticides on them. It's been hard work but for the most part, it's been fun. Not fun to cut the caterpillars off the tomatoes or fight the other bugs, but the weeding and tending has been a joy to me. I'm hoping that each year will be easier as I learn more about gardening.

Blessings,

The Little Engineer...

Isaac has become quite the block builder of late! We just keep finding these creations all over the house...

Notice his use of space...


He also loves things to be symmetrical...


He used parts of my old vacuum to suck the bad guys...lol


Now, if it weren't a 100 degrees outside! I guess it's better than the hail.lol

Blessings,