Our Family, By Roo

I love my children's art work. See if you can figure out who is who.

Egg Carton Fun

Fish asked if he could have an egg carton this morning. I said yes. Half an hour later, this is what I saw:

My Sewing Corner

I haven't sewn much over the last year and a half, but that's going to change.

When my dear friend Julie Schmoo moved far, far away a few weeks ago (waaaaah!) she left her sewing cabinet with me. My machine and all my sewing stuff fit neatly inside it and when it's closed it looks nice enough to be in the living room. Plus, the doors are hard enough to open that the kids can't get into it. So, for the first time in forever, I have a sewing corner!

Having the machine set up in the living room actually works a lot better for me than in some remote corner of the house. It's still tough to sew with a toddler, but it's easier when I'm centrally located and the kids can come and go with their toys. With the cabinet, I can quickly shut things up when I need to, but then it's not a big deal to get them out again. Oh, it's wonderful!

So what did I make, you ask?

I've wanted for a long time to make pioneer costumes for the 24th of July, particularly for myself but also for whichever other members of my family want one. I have long had the pattern and the fabric for mine, and I'll tackle that tomorrow. Today, for a practice run, I made one for Roo. She's madly in love with it and won't take it off.

I hope mine turns out as well as hers did!

The Costume Box

During this last week we got out the costume box again. It has been in the storage room for awhile (I rotate my kids' toys so that they appreciate them more). They were very excited to see their costumes again.

They've been putting on plays for me, which is something that they've never done before. For a long time I've hoped that they would, so I'm excited. I want to encourage a lot of theatrical production in our home. I can see it being a huge part of our homeschool. They haven't seemed very interested in the past, so I'm thrilled that they're taking to it now. Bean, of course, is the ringleader, telling the other kids what to say and where to stand, but he's very good at getting everybody involved, even the baby.

Light Prints

We really look forward to our monthly trips to the nearby art museum for their children's art program. They really do a wonderful job exposing even very young children to various forms of art. This month, we put cut-out shapes of black card stock on top of a special light-sensitive paper and then processed it outside in the sun to make these neat silhouette images.

I must admit, I helped Roo make hers this time. It was a little beyond her skill level, so I just had her show me what she wanted on it and approximately where she wanted it.

The tall shapes with the windows are grain elevators, because this is the prairie.

I didn't help Bean and Fish at all. They won't even let me sit by them when we go to the museum. But they totally get into it and love it and the woman who runs the program adores them (I love it when other people think my kids are great!)

So here's Bean's, complete with grain elevators, raccoon (on the bottom) and garbage can (on the right):

And here's Fish's-- I like his use of symmetry:

As I've done more and more art with my children I've rekindled the enjoyment I once had in it myself. I'm looking forward to years of doing art projects with them.

My Melon Basket

I was asked to bring a fruit tray to my cousin's bridal shower on Saturday. As I got thinking about what kind of fruit to buy, etc., I got the idea to make one of those melon baskets. It sounded like it would be fun. I was a little concerned that it might end up being a time-consuming pain, but I decided that I would plan on it being difficult and just enjoy it anyway.

There are lots of websites with instructions. They say the best thing to use is your pumpkin carving knives, so I dug mine out of the basement. They worked great. In fact, I was expecting to have to really saw away and so I was surprised at how easy it was to cut the watermelon. Much easier than cutting pumpkin. The cutting part went really fast.

The time-consuming part ended up being scooping out all the flesh and chopping it up. That took the better part of an hour and made a big mess, but it was fun. The kids got a kick out of watching me and eating small scraps.

A "Magic Eraser" took the black Sharpie lines off the basket easily. How did we ever live without those things? And despite the mischievous intentions of my curious children....

...my melon basket made it to the shower intact. I thought it looked pretty cute!

I wouldn't make one every day, but for a really special occasion I would definitely do it again. Plan on a couple of hours, but a fun couple of hours.

After reading a recommendation on one of the websites, I tossed the fruit with a mixture of the juice of one lemon and one lime along with a bit of sugar. I could taste a little extra zing to the fruit and I really liked it.

Finger Painting

It occurred to me the other day that it had been forever since we finger painted. So that's just what we did yesterday for Making Day. Despite the smocks and the outside location, I still had paint all over clothes and toes and noses and carpets, but I guess that's part of the fun. It was very washable paint, so in the end everyone was happy.

Note how Bean has one color on each finger. Roo made a big mix-y mess and Fish as usual tried to duplicate exactly what I did.

Roo Drew This

She says it's herself.

Had I not known that I would have guessed it was a parking meter/vortex.

The Yellow Horse

Our Making Day project on Friday was one of those suncatcher kits you buy at craft stores. Everyone was very excited about it at the start, but was a mixed success.

Bean loved it and did really well with it, but it was such a delicate operation that Fish and Roo couldn't help and were really in the way. I had to keep asking them to stop shaking the table and finally encouraged them to go find something else to do in another room.

Getting the little bits of plastic to go where they were supposed to was tricky. The instructions recommended tweezers and I don't have any, so we made do with a knife. This required a lot of help from me but not so much that Bean became disengaged.

For those of you who may not have had the pleasure of experiencing one of these projects, you shake the little plastic bits into the metal frame and then you bake the whole thing in the oven until the plastic melts. Here is Yellow Horse fresh out of the oven:

And here is Yellow Horse performing his duty as a suncatcher in the kitchen window.

I think he turned out very nice.

Another Prairie Paper Storm

Periodically we have these strange storms of construction paper that blow through my house. For weeks, the construction paper sits peacefully in a drawer in the "homeschool cupboard." Then one day it's suddenly all over the kids' room or the dining room table.

The kids emerge from the whirlwind wearing clever paper hats.

These storms are very exciting because I never know what I'm going to find in their aftermath. Today I found this. Very cool.

They're not much fun to clean up after, but they sure are fun!

Wanting What I've Got

Currently at the Badger's job he has abundant opportunities to work extra shifts and make extra money. We're really excited about this because we've got a few bills to pay off that would take years otherwise. We feel really strongly that we need to get out of debt and so we are working hard at it.

When that extra money comes in, though, it's tough to stay disciplined. Suddenly, there's all kinds of things we really ought to have and hey, we have the money to buy them! Wheee!!

For so many years we've lived with just enough money to cover our bases. That can be tough. But I actually think it's harder to have a little extra money. You get in the habit of buying things and before you know it you've overspent. Or both spouses think "we have an extra hundred bucks" so they both go and spend it without consulting each other and suddenly $200 is gone. The Badger and I have had to learn new communication skills. We've definitely grown more unified as we've met this challenge together.

We've also been working on determining what our needs truly are. We've found that most of the things we feel like we need right now we can live without, at least until Big Bill #1 is paid off. Both the Badger and I have returned major purchases to the store in the last several weeks after realizing that we really didn't need them after all, even though they would have been extremely useful to have.

One example is that I've been biking a lot and I would love to have a bike trailer to pull the girls behind me as I bike. It would be a really good thing to have, useful and fun. The girls would love it. Our family would grow closer as we went on bike rides all together. And we would use it often. It is a very justifiable purchase and I nearly bought one this month. But I didn't.

We've realized that there are so many things we already have that are fun and useful that we hardly ever use. So we are making an effort as a family to enjoy what we already have. The Badger has a few books he's bought that he hasn't read yet. We haven't even yet opened the outdoor sport set we bought for Christmas. And I have a ton of fabric sitting around gathering dust earmarked for this or that sewing project that I haven't got around to yet.

The other day I opened my fabric drawer and saw all these scraps in all these bright colors, so I decided to make a scrap quilt. Nothing fancy, just a fun late-evening project made entirely of stuff I already had. Stuff that was just rotting away in my fabric stash and now is part of a useful small quilt that someone can snuggle up in.

And there's lots more where that came from.

I really do have everything I need to not only meet all the needs of my family but keep us all entertained, busy, and productive for quite some time. It's amazing how the many thoughts I'd been having about all the stuff I wanted to get have been replaced by a deep feeling of gratitude for what I already have.

Painting Gnomes

For Making Day on Friday I bought "paint your own garden gnome" kits in the dollar bin at Target. (I love Target!)

They were a hit.

So many times cheap, simple crafts turn out to be more fun than expensive, complicated stuff.

The Shopping Cart Cover

Here, as promised, is a picture of the shopping cart cover I made for my friend. It was quite the hit at her daughter's birthday party. I got lots of compliments on it.

As I said, I had been looking at the ones on at the KozyPal website that are like, eighty bucks, and I realized that I already owned a pattern for such a thing (Simplicity 4225, includes patterns for a bunch of baby accessories like Boppy pillows...) All I needed to do was buy some pretty fabric. Pretty fabric isn't cheap, so even with the fabric on sale I still spent between $20-25 for everything necessary to make this. You could probably get it down to $15 if you could find fabric for a dollar a yard but you still have to shell out for the fusible fleece and the velcro.

So is it worth it? I never used one for my other kids and I got along fine, but then one day I borrowed one from my sister-in-law and I just loved it. Baby seems so much more comfortable and you don't have to worry about them getting rotavirus from sucking on the cart handle (Michele, I remember your story!) Of course, a lot of stores have antibacterial wipes for the carts nowdays. So, this is not a necessity but it's definitely a useful, fun thing to have. I made one for me and then I thought "I'll make one for all my friends having babies!" but after I made this one for Shannon I decided that it's pretty time consuming and I can buy something really nice with the same amount of money so I don't know how many I'll make as gifts. (Maybe I'll make BabyLegs instead!)

Thinking of You, Vera

During the 2005-2006 school year, Bean was enrolled in a marvelous preschool that taught voice and violin. He loved it and so did I. I've always wanted music to be a huge part of our home so the more musical training my kids have the better. Sometime during that year I picked up two tiny inexpensive violins-- a 1/8 size and a 1/4 size (they're so cute!) The intent was to have the boys continue lessons at home with me. The kids really really enjoy them and we've had a lot of fun with them.

Now, I do not play the violin. But I've always felt like I should be able to play the violin. Do you have things like that too-- things that you just feel like you should be able to do even though you've hardly ever touched them in your life? Me and the violin have a destiny. And a friend of mine who plays told me that it shouldn't be very hard for me to pick up the violin since I already play the piano. Another friend told me that you could buy a decent quality Chinese-made violin on ebay for $80-90 that would be just dandy for a beginner. I almost bought one back then but for some reason I didn't and then the whole thing slid of out my range of priorities for awhile.

Well, I got thinking about it again the other day and so I checked on ebay to see if the violins my friend had recommended were still there. They were selling them for $95 with "Buy It Now" but they also had several being auctioned every day. I decided to just bid low and see what happened. I didn't win the first several, but I wasn't serious about buying one right now so that was fine. But then I somehow won one for only $38. Oops! Yessssss!

I spent yesterday afternoon scraping and sawing and squeaking and enjoying myself tremendously. Between me and Fish we sound like a bunch of alley cats. Good times! (Sorry, Badger dear! Hope your ears recover soon!)

It makes me think of Dr. Seuss's ABC Book, which I'm sure all of you moms out there can recite along with me:

"Big V, Little V, Vera Violet Vinn

is Very Very Very awful on her Violin."

But I'm going to get oh, so much better. Oh yes. This was meant to be.

P.S. I bought the violin with the dark wood finish. Isn't it so, so pretty? I love it.

Highly Useful Readers

So I've had two of my astute readers send me links to photo tutorials on how to make your own BabyLegs. Thanks, y'all! I will be trying them out. I'm gearing up to start sewing my own pocket diapers too. I keep looking at them and saying "Duh, I could so totally sew these!" every time I change the Rabbit. Which reminds me I never showed y'all my prototype shopping cart cover that I made after spending a few minutes drooling at the beautiful and heinously expensive ones over at the KozyPal website. But first I have to show you what I accidentally bought on ebay that arrived today. I'll do that as soon as my camera batteries are recharged. Lots to look forward to here at the Birrd's Nest!

Three Things I Love

1. Lowes Build 'n Grow clinics. They do them twice a month on Saturdays and they are free. The kids get to hammer and build stuff. My boys adore them. This time around they built a jewelry box.

This is what it looks like when it's closed:

This is what it looks like when it's open:

There's even a mirror inside. Fabulous. Next time they're doing race cars. Can't wait.

2. Crayola Window Markers

Get you some. Let the kids go crazy. Just check to make sure they don't write "Help! My parents turned me into broccoli!" on the front window (that would never happen at my house though.)

3. My new pants size. I'm now only six pounds from my goal.

Self-Portraits

Once a month we've been going to this children's art program at the local art museum. It's been really fabulous. The last time we went they had the kids do self-portraits. They let them pick out a head in a color that matched their skin tone and then they got to hold a little hand mirror and make their self-portrait.

I don't think Bean really has green stuff coming out of his ears. I think he's standing in front of a hill. I like how much detail he put in his eyes.

Fish is evidently standing in front of a nuclear holocaust or something. But he sure looks like himself.

I sat with Roo during this exercise and I resisted the urge to do hers for her. She is warming up to the museum's children's studio. It took a little time, but she did this all by herself.

I think this was such a cool idea. I want to do these every year with the kids and see how they evolve.