Nursery hint #3

Nursery hint #2

Nursery hint #1

*I had nothing to do with making this beautiful print*

*I do not own anything with this print* 

*It is simply serving as an inspiration and a hint*

I think I might have a problem

Or maybe it's just a side effect of living with Jeremy for a decade?  I have this terrible habit of seeing something good, but instantly thinking of ways it could be great.  I do this with recipes, sewing patterns, homeschool curriculum, and now with Abigail's "nursery" decor.  Every year I think how wonderful it would be to just buy a big box of ready to go curriculum, and every year I start with that intention when I begin to compile my order for the following year. By the time I hit the place order button though, I have completely dismantled the big box curriculum and pieced together my own.  Those big boxes just never fit quite right. *sigh* 

As for Abby's stuff, we'll be making most everything ourselves.  (and most stuff will probably end up being family projects that even the kids will help with)  I won't spill my secrets just yet; you'll have to look out for pictures in the coming months!

Possibly the easiest Halloween costume EVER?

Tonight the girls were talking about what they were going to be for Halloween.  Genna wants to be Kit and Bella wants to be Kanani; both from the American Girl collection.  Nahshon was nearby so I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween- a Nahshon doll!  I must say, that would be a pretty cute doll, but I'm not completely certain how to turn that into a Halloween costume.  I'm sure by tomorrow he'll change his mind, because that's just the way he works these days, but for now I'll enjoy his adorableness.

What do you want to learn about this year?

That was the question I asked the girls tonight as I'm trying to pin down the last details of our school year, and wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything important to them.  Bella said she wants to learn about horses, fruit, and fairies.  Yea....mmm....K.  I told her perhaps we could discuss fairies when we discuss what is fact vs. fiction, to which she responded with a face just like this:

and these words:

"What is fiction? Is that supposed to be like a B, like my name, Bella?"

Um, yeah.

*obviously this picture isn't from tonight, but it's exactly what her face looked like, so I used it.*

how to rock a rope swing

Step 1. Swim across the lake.

See the little house with the blue roof? That's our cabin. The older kids swam over while Isaac and Nahsh rode in a boat with Jeremy.

Step 2. Climb up a tree with the rope in hand.

Step 3. Swing for your life.

Step 4. Make a big splash.

Step 5. Have a blast.

Step 6. Repeat.

Unless of course you are Bella, in which case you will just sort of drop in to the water........

or if you are Nahsh, you won't even get out of the boat

miss minimalist: an experiment

Before we left for the lake house, I loaded a small e-book on my kindle that was a collection of articles from a writer who calls herself Miss Minimalist.  The articles were all about how to live a minimalistic lifestyle.  While some of her ideas seem a bit extreme, and some just absolutely would not work with a house full of kids, she had a few ideas that were interesting and inspiring to me.  Being nearly a family of 10 with very limited space, I have to be very mindful about what enters the house because it can multiply in the blink of an eye.  Even being mindful though, things still have to be sorted and purged once in a while.  For the next year, we're going to try a little experiment; everyone has to get rid of 1 item everyday.  It could be an item of clothing that is now stained, a toy fallen out of favor, a pair of shoes I never wear, an old bottle of lotion that is never used, or an old piece of paperwork or craft project that we have no reason to keep.  The item can be something that is worthy of donating or something that just needs to find a new home in the trash bin.  Hopefully at this time next year our household will be a lot lighter on stuff and far more organized. Wish us luck!

Please enjoy this cute picture of Noah while you wait for me to upload a handful of the 1700 photos I took on our vacation this week........

snail science

About a week or so ago my mom was visiting, and the kids spotted a snail on her chair.  We see snails semi-often, but this snail in particular is the biggest we've ever seen here.  The kids were really excited to "observe" our new little garden friend.

gently touching it and watching it crawl back into it's shell

Nahsh was a bit less than impressed with it, clearly

Micaiah however, was amazed!

Bella trying to feed it a flower

(notice Nahshon in the background, keeping his distance from the scary creature)

(yes, Micaiah dressed himself that day)

Nahsh coming to see the snail holding the flower, and he's obviously so impressed..................

The snail was actually holding on pretty tight to it!

Eventually he let go of the flower in favor of some fresh peas from our garden.  We placed him in a lovely patch of weeds when the kids were done thoroughly examining him.