leaving the nest......

Father son good bye photo...

Study hard at college...:)

Dylan with granny.
Good bye my son...you're not far, we'll see you soon, we love you.
I have some photos with me but my mom forgot to mail them to me so I will post those later...

summer so far

water splash action....

new friends being born in our home....

farm fresh eggs, pumpkin I froze last year from the garden....

precious baking helpers....

warm moist goodness...

There is so much happening around here and nothing at the same time. Children at various day and overnight camps, friends over, swimming, keeping the house up, healing a re-strained knee, getting down to the pile of clothes needing sewing repairs. Braveheart caught a nasty virus that really knocked his socks off. He is getting so much better but he still so weak and gets so tired. I think he may have lost weight from this one. My man and I would really like to see him put some more meat on his bones. I am trying, as always, to fill him up with good foods like chicken soup, grass fed beef with all the fixin's, organic fruits, veggies, homemade pumpkin muffins and rhubarb cake with dark raw sugar if he is going to have sugar. Yummy. He doesn't have much of an appetite right now.

wordless wednesday

do teens have to grow up?

I can't believe my boy is graduating! I tease about them having to grow up because we do have a healthy view 'nest leaving', but it is surreal looking at this child. I truly remember the day I first laid eyes on this precious boy and how much love burst throughout my chest. I really do!
What a big weekend. Braveheart had his 'official' last day of chemo drugs so we are fully rejoicing in that. What a nice feeling to not count the time and give that bedtime chemo one hour after eating. Dylan had his finals at college last week and a home school dinner banquet to attend. What a cool dad to let him and his buddy go in the Miata. He had to dress snazzy for it, which I loved, but him, not so much. Then our church had a special celebration as they do every year for whoever is graduating. Here are two fine young graduating men. May God guide them, protect them and use them mightily.

happy 17th!!

Can it be real? 17? I am still reeling from this fact. It's true, I am late even posting this. I don't even have a picture from that day or near it. We had a hospital stay going on while he had a planned party with his buddies. We had to skip the family part as it was too complicated that day. His buddies came and it was fun even though this is the second birthday in a row that got side swiped by family illness, but we and especially he didn't dwell on it. Unselfish. Growing up. Becoming a man. God is working out all these things in his life. Thanks and praise be to Him.
See that sweet little boy above? He is turning into a fine young leader of a man there in the current photo.
Many blessings to you son.

march was sewing month

I have tried to devote the end of our days in March to making time after school to delve into hands on projects for all the kids. However, I devoted this blog to some of Damsel's fun.

I am encouraging her to keep working on her hand sewing skills before we tackle the machine, so she is chipping away at a flower that I drew on this fabric for her. Isn't she determined? A great way to get your youngster started is to get one of these embroidery hoops and just let her/him go to town. I am thinking of investing in a needle threader. Do any of you know if these work as good as they seem like they will?

Although she has been very interested in all things sewing, hand sewing will not satisfy her appetite for using the machine! We have been working on many different, fun projects and I have naturally taught her what every good sewing mother teaches her daughter; how to have 3-5 projects going at once, of coarse! You girls all know what I mean. But, that's ok, completely normal, part of the territory.

Have I told you how much I love having a daughter that loves all this girl stuff too?

Needless to say, sewing by hand did not last long before the drive for machine power overwhelmed her. :) I couldn't deny her. She is tall enough, agile enough and I discovered, talented to boot. First we started on paper copies from a book I bought years ago when Dylan was little. Before long, she was working with cloth. The paper puzzle gives lots of good practice for turning and maneuvering the machine. I made a little movie memory. She was so deep in concentration, it was hard to just get her to look up and smile before I shut it off.

Here's an actual finished product. She made this pillow for her dolls. I think they will like it very much, don't you? I can't wait to show what else we've been doing. We just finished the edge with an overcast stitch.

Look at this sewing basket I found at the thrift store for damsel; isn't it adorable? It seems to be very vintage and yet like new. Love it!!

In addition, I was looking for some perky, long spring skirts for my girly girl and found a great selection of wonderful stuff in not only the girls section, but also the women's department!! One quick adjustment or adding elastic and viola...thrifty bliss!! Isn't that fun? I also found some brand new Land's End spring dresses to boot! Here are few examples.

Happy sewing and thrifting to you all and I pray your spring will be bursting with blessings of goodness from the Lord above!!

wordless wednesday