Creativity..

Last weekend the family took off for Atlanta, GA to watch our oldest participate in the Publix Atlanta  Soccer Cup.  It  is always fun to watch the team come together and as a bonus we get to enjoy the city of Atlanta!  We were in the car quite a bit, sitting for watching games and waiting for meals.  How did I ever manage to fill up all of this free time?

Free time, is a bit of an oxymoron.  Don't you think?  As mom our time is rarely free.  And when it is we seem to 'pay' for it one way or another. OK. Rant over.  Moving on.

This weekend as we traveled here and there I took with me a bit of hand work.  This handwork was in the form of a cross stitch that I have been working on for the last 8 years.  Sad, really.  or Really sad. Take your pick.

Now it is back in the rotation.  Hopefully this time I can get finished before tucking it away for another 8 years. HA! Since my sewing machine is once again being uncooperative,  looks like this time it has a better chance.

Emma and I also got creative on the sidelines.  Watching your brother play soccer can be boring.  Watching your brother play 4 games of soccer can be insanely boring when you are 13.  Thankfully she did a awesome job of entertaining herself, until she didn't.  The last game we decided to paint her nails.  Since she has been running Cross Country with the High School team this year, we drew up a little Wildcat inspired paint job.

The Key to Success.

Well, it's that time again.  The end of the school year is upon us.  The kids are giddy with anticipation of Summer Vacation.  One more day and it will be here.  Imagine my surprise when my 6th grader asked, "What are we giving the teachers this year?"  Hmm.  I had totally forgotten.  Off to pintrest to see what I could whip up in under an hour.  Nothing like last minute planning.

I stumbled upon these cute little key fobs at The Ribbon Retreat and knew that they would be perfect.  A few ribbons, 1 inch webbing and key fob hardware was all it took to make these cute key rings.

Unfortunately I Jo-Ann only had 5 packages of key fob hardware.  I went back to pintrest and remember this tutorial from The Idea Room that I had used once before.  It is slightly more time consuming but still a really quick and simple key fob just perfect for teacher gifts.

A little note tucked inside each teachers Thank You card and Ta-Da! Last minute teacher gifts finished.  Gotta' love the internet.

New Crates for the Mudroom

I build a Shoe/Locker Combination unit when we lived in Ohio.  Then the kids were smaller and so were their coats, shoes and especially book bags.  It was a wonderful place to help organize the mess that is brought in from after school.  Although truth be told I still think the kids prefer to store their belongings on the floor.  It seems everything ends up there, or the kitchen table.

 When we lived in El Paso there was little space for the Unit so it was disassembled and used in two parts.  One in the Garage and one in a bedroom for toy storage.  Now here in South Carolina the kids are bigger and we once again have room for The Unit although it is still in two pieces.  After 11 years it was starting to show its age, as with any older unit it needed a bit of wood filler and a little makeup, ah.  I mean paint.  Emma and I moved everything out of the storage unit and hauled the two pieces out to the Garage for a little TLC.

I went ahead and painted them the same color as the cabinets in the mudroom, a lovely Dove White.  Makes them look nice and fresh, however not so good for scuff marks and stains

Notice the Bag, On the Floor.

I also purchased these crates from JoAnn's months ago, finished them up with the same Dove White.  I stuck some adhesive backed felt onto the bottom to keep it from scratching up my new paint job.  We also added the cutest little chalkboard onto the sides of the shoe crates.

A little $3 bottle of Chalkboard paint and everyone has their own bin. Well, except, Emma has two bins. 

 Trust me I am well aware of how "unfair" it is but she is a girl, and therefore she does have more shoes.  Whatch' going to do? This keeps everyone's shoes separated so mom doesn't have to listen to "Ew!  Mark put his shoes in MY bin".  Ta-Da we are done.  Okay.  Temporarily, I still want to put up board and batten or wainscoting in the mudroom, make a covered seat cushion and whip up a valance for the door window.  But for now.  We are done.

Swirl-ly, Twirl-ly

Two nights ago I got the bug to quilt. I fired up my Long-arm, took a deep breath and jumped.  I have been fretting for weeks over how to quilt my Aunt Tony's quilt.  You may remember the post here.  When I get stuck I draw up a 'map' of the quilt and I photocopy it multiple times.  Once I have the photocopies proceeded to doodle quilting designs all over.

 This time it was very helpful in eliminating designs but not so helpful on choosing one. Desperate times my friends call for desperate measures.   Well, you may recall that my son declared the quilt looked like a giant eye, with the colors around the center representing the iris (at least in his mind's eye)  Throughout the weeks that the quilt hung on my quilting machine, Jack would insist that I quilt the quilt with swirls.  Swirls?  Really?

I hit the internet and starting looking for quilts done with swirls, curls, swizzles or other curvy type designs.  I began practicing them over and over and over, until I was satisfied I had a swirl that would work.  Then, yep, I went for it.

I have to say I am quite amazed that the swirls look so good.  Let me clarify.  I knew that the swirls would look good on the main body of the quilt. For some reason I got it stuck in my head that the borders needed to be a separate quilting pattern.  I am not sure where this idea came from but I was entirely wrong.  The allover swirls look fantastic and they do not take away from the quilt at all.  Yay.  So happy this quilt is behind me.

Sometimes it takes the mind of a child, or teen to make you step back and look at something from a fresh perspective. I am so glad I did!

a campaign based on facial hair and lights

This fall my middle child (and middle school child) decided to run for Class President.  The fact that he was unopposed didn't dampen his enthusiasm one bit.  After days and days of agonizing over what his campaign posters and speech should be about he decided on "The Mustache.'  I know I din't understand it either, but it made for some cute posters.  Thought I would share these.

I mustache for your vote..Jack Hoog 8th grade president

And this one ...

Obey the 'stache' vote Jack Hoog

When Jack decided to run for 8th grade President his father said,"the best way to get votes was to give away free stuff and to have flashing lights."  Since they are not allowed to give things away, he had to settle for flashing lights.   It's a bit hard to tell but around the perimeter of this poster we put lights.  (if you look closely you can see small black dots ...that's where the lights were threaded through the poster.)  Emma and I ran across poster lights at Jo-ann fabric and new we had to get them for Jack's campaign.  The funny thing is... It totally worked.  The day Jack hung the sign with lights he had one person after another come up and tell him they would vote for him!  Many had no idea what he was running for, which Jack found hilarious! Everyday Jack would go into school in the morning and turn on his poster. And everyday one more person would pat him on the back and assure him he had their vote.  Jack said it was a shame he was running unopposed it would have made for an interesting experiment. (obviously he was not running with the popularity ticket)

mustache gracias

Well, since Jack was unopposed he won.  Amazing I know. 

 Now if you will excuse me I really Mustache...:)

Back-to-school

The last few weeks have been filled with last minute summer things, gathering supplies for back to school, orientations, schedule pick-up and school tours. All in preparation for the first week back at school.  There have been a few changes since last year.  Emma is now a Middle Schooler, starting 6th grade and Jack is now in 8th~Wow how time flies.

 Mark is now driving himself to school, and attending a new high school!  Double Eeek!

The first two days were full of anxiety, stress and discovery.  I am happy to report that the newness has officially worn off with the arrival of the dreaded....Homework! 

Mark was a lot less enthusiastic this morning.

Now with my trio away for most of the day, I can slowly re-discover my sewing room..ah! 

Happy July 4th!

Happy Fourth! Hope this day brings tender memories, cool drinks and an evening BOOM!

In honor of the 4th Emma and I decided to give each other patriotic manicures.

It's over.

With the dawn this morning, Spring Break officially ended.  And If I had any doubts they were dispelled this morning as the back to school routine was in full swing. Here are a few revelations I had this morning.

You know Spring break is over when...

You hit the snooze button for 30 minutes before getting up.

The dog decides to sleep in. Even though she woke you at 5:30 a.m. everyday over break.

Your pre-teen daughter starts fighting with you at 6:50 because she "has nothing to wear." and quite obviously it is your fault.

Your oldest son suddenly has a desire to shower, at length, while his younger brother pounds on the door screaming, "Hurry Up! I need to brush my teeth"

No one is capable of locating their right shoe.

We have no chips, pretzels, cheese crackers, peanut butter crackers or anything "lunch worthy" to pack because it was all consumed while they were home.  Once again my fault.

It is 8:30 am.  I am enjoying this cloud free morning, peace and quite, and one great cup of coffee.
Cheers.

Having fun

Yesterday was just another day in the life of this busy family.  After school we had homework, snacks, laughter and tears.  We had supper and took off like the crazies we are to events for all.  I dropped Emma off at dance with a reminder that Daddy was picking her up.  I told her if Daddy was not there when she got out, she needed to sit in the waiting room and wait for him.  I didn't want her outside.  Her response, "Sometimes, Daddy runs late.  I know."  She even made those little bunny ear quotes around "runs late"  as if to say, that is what he calls it when he forgets to pick me up.

John took Jack to his middle school open house.  A week ago Jack had asked us to please come to his open house.  When I explained that Mark and Emma also had activities on this day and that only one parent could go he was in agony.  He didn't want to choose.  He said, "You cannot expect me to choose!  That is like having to choose between Legos and Pokemon."  It was a weekend long decision making process for Jack.  He wavered back and forth for days.  Finally impatient with his inability to make a decision I said, "Okay, I'll ask Mark who he wants to take him to soccer."  and so I did.  Naturally Mark chose Dad.  Jack then  promptly jumped all over Mark and I and said, "But, I want Dad to go with me!"  AH-HA!  The truth is revealed.

I was shipped off to watch Mark's soccer game.  John, Jack and Emma did not have enough time to come out to the game, a fact which John hated and Jack and Emma LOVED.  After the open house and dance were over John brought Jack and Emma back home.  The kids were wild with the excitement of the day and John was tired.  John encouraged them to play the piano for him, finish their homework, get snacks and take showers.  At one point Jack and Emma were HYPER, that is the only word to explain it.  John yelled at them to calm down and sent them upstairs to their rooms.  Not 5 minutes later, I was told, Jack and Emma heard the loud beginnings of The William Tell Overture.  They took off downstairs to investigate.  When they saw that Dad was to blame Jack said, "This is not helping us calm down Dad."  and Emma said, "I always knew you could be fun Dad.  You just don't show it when you're with Mom!"

A Super(mom) undertaking

This past week my husband was out of town.  The kids and I (mostly me) decided that we were going to surprise him for his 40th birthday with a new epoxied garage floor.  I know to probably all of you that does not sound like a great present, but he does spend a great deal of time in the garage with one project or another. (At least he does when he is not at work.)  He has wanted an epoxied garage floor since our first house was purchased, 4 houses ago!

I researched this project more than I probably needed to just because it was for him.  He tends to be a little bit of a perfectionist.  Truthfully, I didn't want to spend time painting the garage floor only to have it peel up the first month. Every website, YouTube video and product box I read said it should take about 8 hours to complete.  Sadly, I don't think this applies for a mom with three kids.

Monday was the start of our project.  Jack, who was without homework, tackled the initial removal of everything on the floor.  Let me just say that I knew my husband was an excellent organizer but holy cow we have a lot packed into our garage!  Most of the larger things, bikes, riding tractor, go-cart, barbie jeep etc, went under the deck.  The smaller things we crammed into the crawl space.  All told we spent nearly 3 hours unpacking the garage.

Tuesday we finished unpacking the garage and moving out the larger tools, workbenches etc.  I was totally surprised to find that we have a pretty good size garage when it is not stuffed with things.  After the removal was completed Mark and I spent time power-washing the floor.  As in all home improvement projects we had a road-block or two when the power-washer wouldn't start, then when the nozzle was clogged and then again when Mark carved his name into the garage floor with the power-washer but we persevered knowing we had only one week to complete this project.  At 10pm we finished and went to bed pretty darn pleased with ourselves.

Wednesday I spent 3 hours scrubbing the floor of the garage with degreaser.  Not only was our garage considerably larger than I remembered once emptied, it also had far more stains than I would have ever fathomed.   Then I followed that with another round of power-washing (minus my name carved into the floor)  Once Mark arrived home together we scrubbed another 3 hours.  Let me tell you I had no idea my arms, back and chest had that many muscles!  And boy-oh-boy could I feel everyone.  Mark and I downed a couple of Advil and prayed for a dry floor for Thursday.

wet but very clean floor

Thursday came and went and the floor remained soaking wet.  I guess the rain Wednesday night didn't really help things either.  Thursday I continued to pop my Advil like tic-tacs remaining sore and stiff. It even hurt to take a deep breath!  Super-Mom needs to up her workout.  The wet floor proved to be a necessary stopping point as the kids were getting tired of not having milk for cereal or bread for sandwiches.  Seriously though what is wrong with PB&J on a hot dog bun?

Friday afternoon the floor was dry!  I decided to paint half of the floor by myself, and let me tell you this was the wisest move I made last week.  Painting one side of the garage with three kids was plenty.  Since I am fairly certain many of you have never put down your own epoxy floor let me just say it is like painting with white school glue.  It is thick, sticky and gets dry in a hurry.  The kids were covered in it!

beautifully textured floor

This particular kit came with multicolored vinyl chips for sprinkling onto the epoxy to give it texture.  What man doesn't want a little texture in his garage?  Once the epoxy was rolled onto the surface of the floor, the vinyl chips were supposed to be lightly sprinkled over the surface.  Let me just say kids do not get the concept of "lightly"  I am glad we did not have any loose glitter because I am sure Emma would have loved to have added that.  Everything needs a little bling! The best part was when Jack and Emma would 'sprinkle' the vinyl chips they would throw a handful down and yell "HUZZAH!"

The finished project

We did finish before John arrived home and with 2 hours to spare we all went out for Pizza.  He was completely jet-lagged and seriously surprised.  It was wonderful to see him completely stunned by the magnitude of our undertaking.  But wait there is more!  Next week when it is all cured, I get to sit in a lawn chair, drink my sweet tea and watch him, try, to put it all back into the garage!  On second thought perhaps I should hit the fabric stores, my rotary cutting arm should be worked out a little.

Berries and Wine

Blackberries are one of my favorite things.  No, not the handheld, electronic version, the fruit.  On one of our daily walks we stumbled upon wild blackberries.  I was surprised at the amount of fruit on the wild bushes.  The more I looked the more I discovered that they are everywhere.  The bushes like to grow along the creek in  our neighborhood.  The more we walked the more we found.  I was determined to go and pick some for myself.  The kids love to pick strawberries, apples and peaches so I was sure they would enjoy this.  The fact that the berries were not in nice neat rows and were along a creek only added to the adventure. 

 

The kids and I walked down to the creek and found several bushes.  I explained what we were looking for and that we only needed the black ones not the red ones.  I handed out their cartons and away we went. At first the enthusiasm was abundant.  Then a few complaints came and went.  Blackberries have thorns and after a few pokes and a little blood, Jack was done.  Mark and Emma kept on picking.   Then Emma was bitten by a fire ant and then she was done.  Mark and I picked a few more minutes until he was distracted by the search for more bushes and off he went to follow the creek. I continued to pick berries determined to get enough to make a blackberry recipe I had found.  While I picked I listened to the buzz of several dragonflies,  the gurgle of the creek and the whining of my children.  Jack was hot, not to mention bleeding from a cut on his ankle.  Emma was whining because, "no one asked her if she wanted to pick the stupid berries."   I tried to over look the whining after all I was the one who forced them out into the creek.  I am so mean. 

As a parent I try to add variety to our summer vacations.  I truly thought that this would be fun, and for me it was.  I have to admit I had a beautiful image of my kids and I laughing, joking and discusing the wonders of picking wild blackberries.  As it turns out I once again exceeded my own expectations.  It appears they will someday need therapy for the blackberry picking mom made them do!  Eventually, I decided to go and hot, tired and a little bloody we returned home with just over 4 cups of wild blackberries!

Extra! Extra!

Read all about it New Species of Scytheolopods found buy scientists Jack and Emma.  These Scytheolopods are very rare indeed living thousands of feet underground.  According to Jack "this is why they have never been discovered before."  Apparently, multiple worm like creatures can come from one egg type.  The Scytheolopods are grouped into three types.  the Orients, the Carriopods and the Carefulopods.  The temperature of the soil determines the type of worm which will develop.  I am told by Emma that the Orients live closest to the surface but are rarely seen "because people just think they are regular worms."  

The other worms, carriopods and carefulopods live deep, deep, deep under the surface of the earth. The worms have been discovered to share some characteristics with meteors found in the area.  Thus Jack concludes they may be of extra-terrestrial nature.  

More study of these new an exciting creatures is needed to know for sure.  

In other news I have finished another quilt top!  This quilt pattern comes from the book 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts.  by Evelyn Sloppy.  This book has many wonderful patterns which I hope to sometime tackle.  I believe I may actually purchase this book because I just cannot renew it enough times to get them all done.   This quilt is called Fall Frolic and was made with 22 fat quarters.  I discovered in my searching that Ebay can be a wonderful source of cheaper fabric.  

This quilt was made with this fat quarter bundle from Moda.  ( And look no triangles!)

 Do not however be fooled by the title as I was.  Quick Cut does not mean Quick Assembly.  The author is very creative at breaking down very complicated looking quilts into simple steps.  This in combination with her great diagrams make the patterns easy to follow.  I have at least 6 other patterns flagged in this book.  I have already started the next quilt in this book.  Now if only my kids would cooperate and let me quilt.  

Boatin'

Well, as planned we got out on the boat this weekend. With the sun shining and the temperature hitting 92 it was a much more active lake than when we were out before.  We did some more exploring, found a cove to swim and fish in and dreamed about having enough money to live in the monsters houses that are build on the lake.  The kids had a great time as usual, they fished and swam and took turns driving the boat.  

Even Ginger tried to get in on the act!  

The water was a little cool for mom, but I did dip my feet in and enjoy the refreshment it gave me.  No fish were caught, but many were sited jumping out of the water, always inches from the bobber.  All in all we had a great time and came home EXHAUSTED.

Wild Kingdom

This weekend was clean up the back yard day.  The yard is full of small trees and is mostly full shade.  With all of the shade there is very little grass and lots of leaves.  Lots and lots of leaves. John decided it was time to take to mower to the leaves and try to compost them a little better.  While he set to work on this project, Mark was given the task of collecting sticks, knocking down dead trees and branches and clearing some of the smaller brush piles.  

Ginger decided she would "help" Mark carry the sticks.  She always chose the biggest and longest she could find.  

Then she would try to get Mark to chase her with it.  The only problem being the sticks were so large she kept running into trees and having to drop the stick.  It was a hoot.  While out and about in the back yard they ran across several interesting creatures.  

This Green Tree Frog was found at the bottom of the white trash can Mark was using for the stick.  They are a very slender frog with amazing suction power on their toes.  The tree frogs here are louder than the crickets.  They make a wonderful evening song.  In combination with the crickets they are very loud.  Jack, however, does not appreciate their croaks because he says they keep him awake.  

The next animal they stumble upon was almost compost.  John had stopped the mower to check underneath and this creature took off out from under it.  It is amazing he wasn't harmed. Thankfully, I think the quantity of leaves in the backyard padded him from the mower blades.  He is a Broadhead skink and was almost 10 inches long.  A bit of a shock for John.  Ginger was thrilled.  She chased the little thing around the yard and then up under the siding of the house where she stood and barked at it.  I am not sure she understands that not everything wants to play with her. 

When we woke up Sunday morning we had this little guy clinging to our screen door.  He is a Green Anole.   They too are great climbers.  The kids were fasinated and of course wanted to keep it.

Monday after I returned from running errands I let Ginger out and she started barking like a mad woman.  Wondering what in the world she was barking at I went out and found the source of the commotion.  She had stumbled upon a Yellow Bellied Slider.  A turtle basically.   Ginger was batting the poor thing around like a tennis ball.  I think Ms. Turtle was trying to make a nest as I found her in a whole where she had been digging. I knew the kids would be super excited to see the turtle so I put her in a box with some apple slices and a stem of celery.  When the kids got home they were indeed excited.  We did some research on the turtle and decided we needed to let it go, something mom had been rallying for from the beginning.  We took her down to the creek and waited for her to come out and swim away.  She was super freaked out and it took her about 15 grueling minutes to come out and swim away.

Jack is trying to be patient while waiting for Ms. Turtle to come out of her shell.  It had been such an adventurous weekend filled with animals.  The first question I got after school Tuesday was, "Did you find any more animals today?"

Giving Back

Yesterday we were at the Amigo Airsho here in El Paso.  It is an annual event here, but this year we did it a little different.  The Paso del Norte Quilt Guild I belong to does Wounded Warrior Quilts to present to soldiers wounded in war.  We sew them together quilt them and present as many soldiers as we can with quilts.  The best part is that we have members of the public, military or non-military, sign quilt blocks.  

They write their well wishes on to the quilt blocks  and we incorporate the blocks into the quilt.  Recently we have been having trouble getting enough signatures to complete the quilts.  Thanks to a wonderful connection  this year we were able to get a booth at the airsho and get people to sign the blocks.  In an attempt to open the eyes of my children to the people who do so much for them, I signed us up to work the event tent.  I was unsure as to how the kids would react to this.  It required us to stop complete strangers, many of whom did not speak English well, and try to convince them to sign a quilt block.  Initially they were shy and reserved.

    They truly exceeded my expectations.  By the end they were stopping strangers and asking them to participate in the quilt signing.  I was so impressed with them!  Jack and Mark worked the crowds and Emma stood behind the table and helped people as they came up to the tables.  It was a very proud moment for me to witness.