Bloggyness

We've been on the road for the last week on a big trip to see my parents in Ohio. We made some stops along the way. Some bloggers may be able to guess where we were from this photo--afternoon chores in action--


Did you guess? We were visiting Lisa Anne, Jerome, and Amelia from Harmony Valley Homeschool. We explored the farm, talked,


played games, talked, did chores, talked,


and generally had a nice visit. Hels, Lou, and I snuck off very early in the a.m. for our 10-hour drive to Ohio. We listened to lots of Hardy Boys on tape, memorized the top 40 tunes on the radio and played Mad Libs, arriving safely at my Father's in time for dinner.

We drove back through Niagara Falls.

We got back in time for one of our favorite events of the year--the "5-College Book Sale" which is an enormous used book sale that takes up two school gyms and all the halls in between. We stocked up on some summer reading. Sarah will note a book at the very bottom of the pile that she recently blogged about. I took note and there it was at the sale!

Lou's favorite purchase was this 3-piece boxed desk encyclopedia (which we got for $1). She is very excited about it.

Our trip began with such a wonderful visit in Pennsylvania. Thanks to Lisa, Jerome, and Amelia for a lovely visit. It was fun to see Amelia and Hels tromp off into the woods together.

Read more...

The bunny came....

We all know that the Easter Bunny has to be attracted with beautiful, spring-like tables and baskets, so the girls created this scene. The bunny left some cute chocolates.


The bunny popped this little mouse, some seeds, and some chocolate in Hels' basket.

and this little bunny, seeds, and chocolate in Lou's.

While I think it's safe to say that there are no longer any true bunny believers in our house, it is still exciting to find a trail of jelly beans leading down the stairs to the dining room. That bunny left jelly beans all over the place!

Read more...

Flotsam and Jetsam of Life

Do you have a junk drawer? Well, we have a junk basket which lives on our kitchen island. It has been getting just a little full, so I decided to try and empty it today.... let's see what we find.


Here's a little pile of stuff for Lou to put away-- flute, panda, journal, gnome, bouncy ball....


Duck whistle...


Fortune-telling equipment ...


Beeswax fingernail collection...


Then there is all the lost stuff-- the sunglasses....

The calculators....

The chapsticks....

The jacknives...

Can anyone really write with these?

Unfinished knitting projects--this is a bagpipe chanter case.

What is all this stuff?


Like any good junk drawer, this basket will never be empty. It still has the drill bits, tape measure, camera, sunglasses, and other bits of stuff. At least it isn't exploding all over the kitchen.

One little spring cleaning project is done!

Read more...

It's looking Eastery....

....inside anyway!

We dyed some eggs yesterday. I use brown eggs because I like the deeper colors.


Our Easter grass almost needs a cutting. We planted this grass just a week ago by covering a bowl of potting soil with wheat berries from the grocery store. The berries sprouted within a day. I love how rich and green the grass is. It almost demands the darker eggs.


Now, if I only had the time to knit a "modern" bunny for Hels before Sunday.....

Read more...

What's for dinner?

This morning, after staring into the refrigerator and trying to make a shopping list, I made everybody choose a cookbook, grabbed some sticky notes and a pen, and took us all out to breakfast before grocery shopping.


The idea was that each of us was to pick a recipe that we would be willing to cook for the family this coming week. The waitress brought us coffee and tea and we dove into the cookbooks. It was quite fun as the girls poured over their pasta cookbooks while Nels and I talked about Mark Bittman's book which we are enjoying.

Lou has chosen to make "spaghetti with egg and bacon" -- of course. Hels choose a dish with asparagus, portobello mushrooms, and a boursin sauce.


We added what ingredients we needed to "the list," sipped the rest of our coffee, and headed to the grocery store.


I'm really hoping that we end up with some new dishes we like and two girls eager to do a bit more cooking.

Read more...

Tutorial: needle-felted figures

tutorial: Balloon Lanterns

tutorial: neede-felted advent spiral

  © Blogger template Shush by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP