It Feels Like Summer

It may not officially be summer, but it sure feels like it is around here. I am loving every minute of it. Winter and I do not enjoy each other. I would rather spend my days curled up under a quilt reading or watching tv. Spring, Summer, and Fall can stick around forever. I realized this year as all the trees were blooming God knew exactly what we would need to brighten our days after the cold winter days.

It has been absolutely beautiful, with no bugs and not too much rain. The weekend of the carnival was actually really nice compared to most years. The kids of course loved it. It was Ari's first year to be able to really ride. Eli and Lilliana don't get as excited. We decided that the first year they really get to ride is the best to watch. Ari wasn't too sure about everything, but he promised us he had fun. Eli also rode the bumper cars by himself which he loved. He was tall enough to ride some of the other rides, but did not want to.

I borrowed a telephoto lens and have been stalking birds. We did a nature pal exchange for school and gathered a lot of things to sent to two cute little girls in Texas. I also took some pictures of our birds for them per the kids idea. They love bird watching. The night I picked up the lens I took a couple of the kids. They wanted to be monsters. It was huge and heavy, but surprisingly very sharp for non Nikon and also not being a prime. I won't bore you with details, but I enjoyed it.

James has been been catching all the said birds. He will sometimes average 3 an hour. That and the baby bunnies have no chance with him around.

A big part the kids homeschooling for science and everything really is the idea of getting out on Nature Walks and really observing. I know some families love doing winter nature study. I think we will to when they kids are a bit older to trek through snow without me carrying them. For now, we stick to spring,  summer, and fall. The past two weeks we have averaged two a week to make up for our lack of winter ones. We  are loving it and have learned some knew things. This is helping them become very observant. Who would have guessed a two year old would sit and study a spider for 10 minutes. He has been, they can name more birds than I could at their age. We even made our own ant farm. I sat and fed ants sugar in my house during my coffee time. LOL They learned so much about ants that they dug up a queen and tried to convince me to let them keep it in another colony and watch it. Unfortunately we were headed out for an appointment and so I insisted they put her back and we try again another day.  This was a huge reason I was drawn to the Charlotte Mason education style.

We have had a lot of appointments for dentist, check ups, and special appts. Lilliana got orthotics to help her with her pigeon toes. She likes them and it is helping with her leg pain. Ari has some other ones coming soon and Eli has had a dentist appt. rescheduled 4 times on the dentist part. We won't talk about that as it has been a little annoying.

We also have had family visit. Anthony's brother and sister were in town. We got all the cousins minus one who could not make it, for a few photos. 

We are enjoying the days that feel like Summer!! 

When Two Hobbies Collide

I grew up learning to sew from both of my Grandmas. I made my first quilt top in highschool. I hurried and finished it to give to my parents before I left for college. It was beautiful. I have a picture of Eli laying on it as a baby. I love thinking back to it and remembering the summer I spent sewing in our rental house we called the Hacienda. It was such a funny house.  My parents had sold the house we all grew up in and had not found the house they wanted to buy yet. My sisters and I all shared one room that summer. It was horrific to even contemplate when we first had to do it. It ended up being one of the most fun summers we had before we all left for our ways. I spent the summer sitting at the kitchen table furiously sewing to finish that quilt.


Fast forward to being pregnant with Ari. I hadn't made a quilt or sewed in several years. I did his quilt. It was a tough one to complete thanks to never actually quilting the top, but I struggled through. I also bought fabric at that time hoping to finish the following quilt the next year. That never happened. Last fall as I was rearranging things I came across the fabric and decided this winter was it! I would then lay it under the trees come spring and photograph Lilliana.  I sewed all winter. I began quilting the top and really questioned my sanity. Every square inch was quilted and heavily. It took me 1-2 hours to quilt each block. There were 20 blocks. I don't doubt I put probably 70 hours into this quilt. It came out exactly as I had hoped. Some of my stitches are not straight, and it has several flaws, but it is still beautiful!

I thankfully finished it in just enough time to take Lilliana's photos under some blossoms.
Our neighbor graciously let us use her yard for the magnolia blossoms.

Then we went to an old orchard and used their apple trees. Sadly, they were not as great as they were two days prior. The guy had told me to wait when I did a session for a friend. So, I did and they were not as good. I still loved them regardless. This will forever be known as the "Summer of Twirling." This girl has fallen in love with dresses that twirl. Thankfully we have found a great company with some wonderful twirl dresses. I also finished the quilt just in time to take her out this night.

There are so many more photos I loved of her. It may be the best session we have ever had. She was just so silly and happy which is how she usually is. I just am not always to capture it well as she gets shy. I am thrilled she let me. I love the fact that I was able to combine to hobbies that I love. We may make this a tradition. It will give me something to look forward to all winter and a good way to keep the days. Hopefully at some point she will sew her own quilt to use. She and Eli love to help me sew, so I see that in both of their futures. 

28-29

I have been meaning to write this post for a couple weeks, but life of course has happened.


28 was a huge year of reflection for me. I always think yes, I know who I am nothing really is going to change. Then I get slapped in the face with reality. I have honestly dreaded getting close to 30. I have no idea why, but I have. Maybe the older I am getting I am realizing life goes so quickly. How much of a difference have I made in that time that seems so long, but yet so short?


I sat in the bathtub the eve of my birthday relaxing. It had been a LONG day with 3 monkeys. I needed some breathing room. I sat and reflected over the year. Had I met the goals I was working really hard to attain. No, I had not met them completely. The good news was I was better off going into being 29 than I was going into 28. I was smaller, less stressed, more present, and happier.

I reflected on the fact I have one more year of my 20s. How would I define the 20s of my life in the coming years? To be honest, I couldn't remember a lot. I guess I chalked that up to child and baby fog. In reality. I spent my 20s soaking up my babies and enjoying them. Endless hours of diaper changes, rocking, crying, laughing, and love. Of course there were the frustrating times of wanting to crawl in a hole and make it go away, but all the good outweighed the bad. I thought about the time we live in and is this the norm? Not necessarily. Many people would probably prefer to wait to have kids from when I did. I don't mind though. I may have spent my 20s in yoga pants, not showered half the time, a messy house of kids toys, overweight, and looking like I survived on coffee and sheer will. Was it worth it? I could have been successfully working and building a huge house with all the upgrades I wish I had, spending late nights out with Anthony, sleeping in until I wanted on Saturdays,  exercising without children between my legs or a jogging stroller, taken many vacations we just can't afford. So did I miss out? I weighed it in my head and really thought it through. The answer was a big no. I did not miss out. I am building a heritage. All of my things for the most part may be used or from goodwill. I may have to move kids toys from the bathtub just to relax and ponder these thoughts. I also may have to forgo vacations or even seeing my family. All of that can be hard sometimes, but it is so worth it with these kids. So 20s regrets would have been not letting my dear husband gut my upstairs. That might be it. Then I could actually add another child to this crazy mix.


So here we are 29, and I am learning even more. Emails can wait a week. Yes, that is terrible to say, but I put off a weeks worth of emails. Instead Eli and I spent time reading, Lilliana and I drew, and Ari well we probably had a go around about something. This would of course lead to cuddling. Either way, less email responses means less stress and more fun. So those of you I have not replied to, I am just enjoying these kids. Ending my business has been wonderful for my head and stress. I worried come spring I would miss it. I did for about a minute. I haven't had so much fun with the kids outside and with school in a year. I don't have to hurry and get done so I can do all the business work. It has been wonderful. I do miss the extra cash flow, but that is ok. For now this is what is important. 28 I said was my year, and it was in so many ways. It allowed me to begin initial changes for the better. 29 is even better as we are enjoying those changes. It isn't so scary being almost 30. With age is coming wisdom. The age old adage is true. The last but not least thing that I always knew, but maybe have not always put into practice. Beginning the morning praying and reading just one verse of scripture can make or break the days. I know the days when I have woken up and rushed downstairs to deal with kids and not done this. It has made for a rough morning. Sometimes I just need that quiet time with God so I can be a good mom and not a dreadful, cranky, mean one. Yes, I can be I fully admit it! It is a work in progress and always will be.


It was a wonderful birthday with this crazy crew who even made me a great cake!! They made my day special in their own little ways. I am so thankful for their little hearts and the joy they have in celebrating everybody's birthday. I am also very thankful for my wonderful husband who made the cake with them and made my day so special.

10 on 10 May 2015

We had a kid less Saturday thanks to Grandma taking the munchkins. We slept in, then enjoyed a quiet breakfast. Making breakfast is fun these days as I watch all the birds fight over the feeders. It really has become a fun morning ritual. Usually I have a child on the step stool next to me watching, but today it was just me.

After breakfast I went out to check the garden. Everything is doing great. I hope to finish the rest in the next couple of weeks.

This lilac smells amazing. Everything is in bloom right now and I am loving it.

Then I came in so we could finally finish painting the laundry room. We have found painting with three monkeys at this age has been a little difficult. I think we started this 2 weeks ago and it still isn't finished. My house is a wreck at the moment thanks to moving things out. Yellow I am finding is not the easiest color to paint. It requires more coats of paint than you realize. Hopefully tomorrow it is done and then we can get the new wood floor in.

We finished some areas and the ceiling and then headed to Sams club for groceries while it dried. We came back to do more painting. I really did paint, but according to Anthony I am terrible at it. So, we had a system and that left me time to work on other projects. 

Finally the kids came home from Grandma's house.

After dinner there were many tears. The oldest two were fighting of the Bible App. they like to play on. Then Ari had a meltdown over getting beat at checkers. It was just bed time!

Finally Anthony got a few smiles out of him....

It didn't last long! As we speak he is laying under the dining room table. He fell asleep kicking and screaming there. I believe he has allergies from all the tree pollen and is not feeling well. Hopefully tomorrow brings a happy boy.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms, enjoy your beautiful kids

Please check out these wonderful ladie's blogs to see their 10 on 10:

Jessica: http://www.jessicakubitphotography.com/2015/05/11/may-10-on-10/

Shannon: http://shannondoherty8.blogspot.com/2015/05/may-10-on-10.html