Marathon Sewing

Okay - if you sew, and if you like skirts . . . run out and get this book - Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics, by Francesca Denhartog & Carole Ann Camp. My daughters and I have been on a sewing frenzy. In the last week, I've made 4 skirts, and my daughters have made 4 (combined). I may have mentioned that I am tall - nearly 6'4", and that makes it very challenging to find clothes that fit. My daughters are 5'11" and Pearly hasn't stopped yet. When I found this book, I was definitely intrigued about making a pattern based on our very tall measurements. When we lived in the Philippines years ago, I took a pattern drafting class. My notes are in a binder and I haven't done anything with it. When I took a look at this book and saw the pictures, I had to give it a try.

We all made the wrap-around skirt first. It uses the fitted A-line skirt pattern. It took about 20 minutes to make the pattern and maybe an hour to sew the skirt (we revised the ties just a bit to make it even more simple). We drafted our pattern on special fabric for patterns so we can use it over again. I love the skirt except that the tie in the front causes my top to bunch up. What am I supposed to wear on top? Any ideas?

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Raspberry Coffeecake and Exercise

Here is a picture of my 17-yr old's 3rd or 4th piece of raspberry coffeecake. Yes, he needs that much butter :) Have you seen his legs? He's one long drink of water with not one ounce of fat. Unfortunately, I "need" butter on my piece, too. I can't imagine eating certain foods without butter. What can I say - I'm a butter snob. And good thing I got a new gadget for my birthday last week (turned 43 woop-DE-DOO) and here is my new techno-toy:

This thing rocks. It had great reviews on Amazon. I've never had a pedometer before. This thing is so cool - it comes with graphing software. Connect it to the computer and the software will chart your steps, aerobic steps, distance, calories, fat grams burned. The program allows you to set goals for yourself and multiple users are able to use the same software. I LOVE it. It is very motivating. I want to keep walking in order to see more graphs. That can only mean good things, right? Omron® Pocket Pedometer HJ-720 ITC. I got mine at Costco.

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Bunny

I readily admit it. I am smitten with this child. His porcelain cheeks, beautiful lips, gorgeous eyes, golden hair. People have said he reminds them of the stereotypical picture of an angel. He's 4. Pretty soon, he'll be five and with that age comes much more independence, confidence, and a few attitudes or two. I'm trying to tuck this moment away in my mind because it is pure sweetness.

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Let's Go Veggies!

Climbing Cukes

We're almost there - our favorite time when we get to pick fresh veggies from our garden. This little cucumber is almost 4 inches long. It's an English cuke, so it will probably grow another foot, but right now the plants are growing so fast, you can see the growth overnight. Amazing.

4-in. baby cuke

I'm "forcing" the cucumber plant to climb. So far so good. I have had to use twine to wrap around some branches to help it to stay, but eventually, they put out little tendrils that wrap around whatever they can grab and eventually can support themselves.

Tendrils

It's been so nice lately. After lots of hot, sunny weather, we got a couple rainy days with nice sunny breaks in the day. We don't mind rain every now and then - as long as it doesn't flood our basement. Here's Tall Dude pushing PJ.

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Backyard happenings

I love this time of year. Flowers are blooming. It's amazing how much this echinacea has grown in 4 years. It was only a 6-inch plant when I bought it and it has multiplied many times each year.


I don't know what this cream-colored freckled flower is. It reminds me of foxglove, but the blossoms are about half the size. Any ideas? I also forgot what the yellow one is, too.


Orange boy is standing by his raised bed garden. The weeds in the background are part of the vacant house/lot next door - the one that the developer wants to put 6 crammed 3-story homes in. We're still fighting this. We knew the ground in this lower portion of our backyard was saturated with water most of the year - even running water that goes into our yard, along our fence line, and into a catch drain in a neighbor's yard. What we didn't know is that it is definitely wetlands. Because of all the water, we rarely have to water the raised beds. When my son planted the seeds, we didn't water at all - that's how moist the ground is. The neighbors are wondering how the developer will deal with the water. Evidently, developers are allowed to pay a fine to fill a wetland. Oh joy. That may deal with the wetland, but what about the stream of water that comes through our yard most of the year - so much water that we cannot do any kind of landscaping or even walk? I try not to think about it - it is very upsetting.

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Wanted to get raspberries

but the variety available was far too perishable for my time constraints, so we picked Obsidian blackberries instead - 27 pounds of Obsidian blackberries. We've never had Obsidian blackberries before. I wondered if I had lost my head for a moment considering blackberries seem to be the prolific weed in everybody's back yard here. But these berries were different - they were huge, the berries stuck out so you didn't have to get your arms scratched by thorns. I told the kids they only had a one-bucket limit and we were out of there in no time. Made 20 pints of jam and some dessert sauce. Check out these twin berries that forgot to separate. Cool, eh?

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Last Day

Today was the last day of music camp. After dropping the two musicians off, the four little guys and I went to feed the ducks. Just after feeding the ducks and eating our picnic lunch, it started to rain. Lovely Oregon weather for summer - notice the long sleeve shirt!

The sun came out right after the final performance for my two campers. It was a wonderful experience for Tall Dude and Pearly to be around lots of musicians for the week. It's not so easy for homeschoolers to participate in groups like this, so music camp was a real treat. They are looking forward to improving skills throughout the year in anticipation for next year's music camp. That puts a smile on this mama's face - let me tell you.

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Even More Fun

Today we went back to the A.C. Gilbert Children's Museum (to make the most out of our family pass). It was raining most of the day, so the lighting was entirely different from 2 days ago when it was in the 80s and sunny. Here are a few of my favs:

Our normally reserved Bunny really got into the pumped air let his hair get all goofy.

Because of the rain/humidity today, the bubbles were especially good. Orange boy figured out that not only could he make a bubble "sheet", but also could blow a gigantic bubble from the bubble sheet he made. The first picture shows the bubble extending out to the lady with the brown top. The 2nd picture shows the bubble even beyond the picture. It was amazing.



A fun mid-air shot


Brown Eyes

PJ is such a cuddle bug. What a special treat. Only 2 out of the 7 liked to snuggle.
Tomorrow is our last day of adventures while 2 older kids are at music camp.

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Continuing Our Week of Fun

Yesterday, the boys and I went to a park and had a picnic lunch at the college campus where the music camp is being held. We've spent many hours together, missed naps, which means tired kids, unnecessary arguing, etc. Moments like this make it all worthwhile:


Today, we went on a carousel. PJ did NOT like it.
Bunny, however, loved it.

After the carousel, we went to the small airport nearby and watched the small planes and helicopters take off and land.
This Orange boy has been such fun. As I said in an earlier post, the dynamics really change when you remove a couple of siblings from the picture. This week, he has been the eldest and has been such a huge help. I didn't realize how responsible he is. As we've been going in and out of the van to various places, he's really paid attention to the things that normally I only do (ie, baby's pacifier, blanket, water, etc).

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Playing With the Boys

I dropped the 2 older kids off at music camp this morning and the 4 little boys and I played. I love observing family dynamics. With the older 2 at music camp and biggest sister at home, the dynamics changed. Orange boy became the eldest and he willingly took to the task.

Today we went to at A. C. Gilbert's Children's museum. The big rocking chair on the front porch always greets the visitors.
The Bubble Room is always a hit. I think we stayed there for almost an hour. PJ's shirt was sopping wet from the sudsy water.

Orange Boy was determined to make the biggest bubbles.

The biggest joy to me was seeing older brothers helping younger brothers. Below, Brown Eyes is showing PJ where to put the balls.
There's something about this baby's face I could eat!
Four more days of play left!

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Oodles of Strawberries

We went strawberry picking to stock our freezer. We use the strawberries to top our traditional Saturday morning waffles and also for smoothies throughout the year.

This picture cracks me up - the cashier lost track of how many containers she added and had me recount the containers. We picked just over 100 pounds for the price of $90.14. Gotta love Oregon strawberries!

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Tomato Cage Dilemma

* * * If you have arrived at my blog by doing an internet search to find tomato cage ideas, please be sure to read this new post with a method we found that works better than the ones shown here. New and improved method:* * * *




Every year we have been putting up with useless tomato cages. Our tomatoes usually grow three times the size of the tomato cages and do not provide the proper support. So this year, I went on a mission to find a solution to this problem. The above is one contraption found on the internet. This one is pretty easy to make. The only materials you need are pvc pipe, pvc elbow and T's and hack saw. It's not exactly cheap (less than $10), but if it lasts for many years, it will be worth it. After taking inventory of our garden, we decided this support might be a big help for our cucumbers to climb.

This idea came from the local organic gardner I met at the farmer's market. The fence posts are on the ends of three tomato plants. Twine was used to weave around each plant. The plants were already in tomato cages, so they were left as is. As the plants grow, more twine will be used for support at 2-ft, 3-ft height, etc. The fence posts were about $7 each, but will last forever.

This design seems quite sturdy. I like the fact that you can water the plants through the top of the pvc and it will go directly to the roots. We used electrical conduit instead of white PVC as it was a bit cheaper. It was quite a challenge to drill through the plastic, though. I'll have to show an update later in the season.

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Hot, out of the oven

Dh is at work. He should be home. I just sent him this picture. Wonder how long it will take for him to come home?

Follow-up: In less than 2 minutes of sending him the e-mail, I got the following response:

How much is left now? Are you letting those munchkins eat it before I get home to make me feel left out? I had to finish copying down what was on the board from my meeting ... I’ll come home now.

I can smell it already!

DH

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Sight to behold

I've been wanting to make a thank you card for PJ's eye doctor. This is what I will be sending him. It's 5 x 7 size. It's so wonderful to see my baby's clear eyes now.

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Marine Biology

Three of our kids are enrolled in a 6-wk marine biology class. Last week they made fish prints. They've learned quite a bit. One thing I love about homeschooling is being able to tap into parents who absolutely love their subjects. This teacher is such a science buff. It would be hard for me to fake that I enjoy science. I appreciate scientists and their knowledge, but I don't have a need-to-know the hows or whys like they do. Maybe it is because my science classes were awful. Hmm, that's a thought. Maybe I should have sat in on this class to relearn science in a more positive light. Oh well, I'm thankful that my kids are learning from highly motivated teachers who love their subjects. Next week they get to disect squid.

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Pillowcases

Dh's cousins live overseas and asked that I make them some pillowcases. They will be traveling in their car around the US. Everybody has their own color: dad = yellow, mom = green, daughter = red, and 2 sons, blue and orange. It was fun trying to find the perfect fabric for each person. Hopefully we will be able to see them in January, but if not, our hearts are with them as they make their journey.

I absolutely LOVED the yellow fabric for the dad. He's a great guy with a wonderful sense of humor. Click on the picture to see how cute that fabric is.

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Leave the room for just a second . .

That was one pound of butter, that is . . . .equivalent to 4 cubes. Oh joy!

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Unstructured Time

I've been devoting a lot of time this week finishing up on the homeschool co-op's yearbook. It just needs to be proofed and then printed. It looks great so far - can't wait to hold a copy in my hands!

While I've been busy, busy, I haven't devoted as much time to school work and the kids have had extra time on their hands. These two boys have been doing a little "unschooling" this week. I love to see creative juices flowing. This kept them boys happily occupied for a couple hours.

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My Boys

A rare shot of 5 boys staying somewhat still for one second.

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My baby's unplugged

Today PJ had the surgery to unplug his tear duct. He had to go under general anesthesia for a procedure that took only 13 minutes. But so far, everything looks good. He looked so sweet in the baby gown (click on the picture and you can see how cute). As soon as I went to the recovery room, he immediately wanted to nurse. He was so hungry from fasting for the surgery. Amazingly, the surgery had no ill effects on him. I'm also amazed at the wonderful staff. I don't ever remember such a positive experience at a medical facility. Tomorrow at PJ's post-op appointment, I will most definitely compliment the doctor on his very efficient and caring staff.

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