Back to School is coming...

The other day Naomi and I made this really cute chain to countdown to the first day of school.  She really needs a visual to help her understand when school starts. The picture was taken a few days ago and we are now down to 4 links.  I found the idea on Pinterest and she had fun making it. 

Then on each side of the bus we hung their letters they received from their teachers.  Naomi's is on the right and the purple one is Jacob's on the left.  Naomi's 1st grade teacher is Mrs. Lusier and she has been teaching for 32 years!  Jacob's 5th grade teacher is Ms. Baker.

Yesterday we went back to school shopping.  Darrick had the day off which was a huge help.  We had a bunch of supplies to get and also new socks and underwear for everyone.  It took us a couple of hours and we got it all done.

We have also been working on cleaning up and clearing out our garage.  It has been sadly neglected since we moved in 2 years ago.  It became a dumping ground for all the stuff we didn't know where to put.  Last week Micah and I worked really hard going through all the stuff and cleaning everything up and organizing it to surprise Darrick.

He was really happy.  Now he is doing his part organizing all of his "stuff"-mostly tools.  I will post pictures when he is done!

Reading Nook

It is now 3 weeks post surgery and I am feeling pretty good.  During my time of inactivity I made a huge list of projects that I wanted to accomplish.  For 8 months or so, because of my health,  I have been letting things in the house slide.  And when that happens things pile up, get stuffed, get lost and get cluttered.

As I am feeling better I have slowly been checking things off my giant to-do list.  One of those was to put some vinyl on a wall in Naomi's room.  I have a Silhouette, which is a craft cutting machine.  With this machine I am able to pick my color and design my own vinyl.

Here is the area where I wanted to put the vinyl:

We are setting up this area in Naomi's room to be a Reading area.  I found a really cute font online, with hearts, and designed it and had the vinyl cut.  Then this morning I placed it on her wall.  I love how it turned out!  What do you think?

 Here is a close up of the letters:

P.S. I made all those adorable pillows!

Projects

I love to work on projects, when I get the time, which isn't always a lot!  Here is what I have been working on!

After the boys saw the pillows I made for Naomi's room, they asked me to make them each a pillow too.  Micah found some fabric one day when we were at the craft store so I made his.  Jacob is still searching!

We have had this bird cage picture holder in our kitchen for a few months.  It came with clothespins to hang up the pictures.  I knew I wanted to add glitter to them to give them some sparkle!

We also have another picture holder on our kitchen that was originally white but since it sits on a white window sill with a white curtain it was getting lost.  So I gave it a pop of color with some spray paint.

I added glitter to this frame just to liven it up! 

Front Flowerbeds

 Saturday Darrick and I spent the day doing yard work.  Darrick mowed the lawns and I weeded the flower beds.  Darrick took out the rose bushes so we could plant them on the side of our house.  Some things in the flowerbeds were there when we bought the house 2 years ago so we are slowly making it our own and putting in what we like.  We also added a bird bath and tried laying down mulch this year.  We really like how it looks and it should help with keeping weeds down. 

Another Sneek Peek-Naomi's Room

Sneak Peek

I bought this beautiful bunting the second I saw it!  I love the colors and how bright and cheery it is.  It is perfect for Naomi's room.  It is what we are basing here room on!  Right now we are finishing up the painting in her room-she is so excited for it to be done!

New Print

 Are you familiar with Katie Daisy? I love, love, love her art!

There are a couple of her prints that I have my eye on right now.  When I saw the "Rise and Shine" print, I fell in love with it!  So I ordered it in the 11x14 size, and knew right where I wanted to put it.  At the bottom of the stairs that come from the kids' rooms.  That way they can see it every morning as they come down for breakfast.

And I totally scored on the frame.  Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off frames sale.  I found this rustic frame that sets off the picture.  Score!  Don't you just love it when you find the perfect match?

Basement Mess

 This is what happens when Mom is sick for a few months!!! Oh my! 

Watch for pictures to come as we clean it up...

The Trees have POPPED!

 We have the most amazing trees on the side of our house.  I just love when Spring comes and they are ready to just burst with life! 

Last week it happened-and as the kids would say-they popped!  They do look like they have popcorn all over their branches.  When the breeze blows they flutter down and it looks like it is snowing.

Solving our chicken problem

BEFORE

 Here is the garden last week.  It was ready to be planted except for one thing...see those chickens in the third garden box?  Well, they were tearing things up!

So Darrick came up with a temporary solution, so we can plant our garden, until we build them a new chicken run.

 The boys were all excited when Darrick started bringing all the power tools out and they were right there helping him each step of the way.  In this picture you can still see the chickens trying to have their way with the garden box!  They wanted us to know that they were not giving up the garden boxes without a fight!

 The front part is hinged on the left side so that we can just open the whole panel when we need to garden and then we just close it back up when we are done.

 The girls were not happy!  They kept walking around each box trying to figure out a way in! 

AFTER

Didn't Darrick and the boys do a great job?

From chicks to chickens

 It is so hard to believe that it was only one year ago these sweet little balls of fluff entered our family.  We absolutely adore our girls and their distinct personalities. People often tell us how dumb chickens are but we do not believe them!  Our girls are smart!  We have handled our chicks from day one and they are now so tame. 

 And here they are today!

Buttercup

Lily

Oreo

 As much as we love our girls, we have discovered a problem.  When we are home we let them free range in the back yard.  But now that Spring has arrived, they want to spend most of their time in our garden beds!  Three of the four are empty so it doesn't really matter but in the last one we have our strawberry plants from last year and they are tearing them up!

They are eating the new baby plants, digging huge holes and taking their dust baths, ugh!  We hope this summer to build them a better area with a nice big chicken run.  But until then Darrick has come up with a brilliant temporary solution so we can get our garden started!  Stay tuned to find out what it is!

Side of our house

BEFORE

 On the side of our house we have a long gated area that we have not done anything with.  It was getting weeds and moss was all over the sidewalk.  There is a rosebush that we transplanted there that we are hoping we will come back to life when summer comes around.

So when I saw some Primroses on sale this week for $.99 I thought I should get some and try to make this side of our house look nice.

BEFORE

AFTER

 I think it turned out nice.  Today Darrick also spent some time power washing the moss off the sidewalk.

AFTER

Let there be Lights!

BEFORE

AFTER

Our Living room is dark.  There are no overhead lights so the only light we have in that room comes from 2 lamps we have.  The problem with that is that you only get light if you are sitting next to one of the lamps. 

We seem to notice it mostly on Wednesday nights when we have Bible Study at our house.  It is hard for people to read their notes that they took from the sermon.  So we decided that we would use some of the money from our tax return to put in lights.

Thankfully, one of the Dads we know from Port Gardner, is an electrician.  He gave us a great deal.  He ran into a few surprises, which he says can happen with old houses.  The first was that our ceiling is made out of chicken wire and concrete.  Which makes for a solid ceiling but not so easy to cut through when you want to install lights.  He did it but had to use a new blade for each one because it was so hard it wore the blade down to nothing.  Also the spacing was about on inch shorter then normal which meant he needed to find an inch shorter can.

But all, in all, he did it and he did a great job.  He even installed a dimmer switch on the lights!  I know we will enjoy these lights for many more years to come!