Life lately

I feel like my blog posts are getting farther and farther between postings.  It’s been nearly two weeks since I last posted, so I’m gonna attempt to play catch-up a little bit with this one. 

I’m still trying to chip away at the long to-do list for this house.  Except for the kid’s bathroom (which has wallpaper that will eventually be ripped down), I’ve painted the entire upstairs.  So logically, my next room to paint was the downstairs basement.  When we first moved in, we really didn’t have any furniture to put in this room.  It’s a big room and it felt a little bit overwhelming to try to tackle right away, so it got pushed aside for awhile until we got the rest of the house in order.  But once we started homeschooling again back in March, the basement became our homeschooling space, and since we were spending a good bit of time down there, I was more motivated to do something about the lack of furniture. I was tired of sitting on the floor all the time.  So over the past few months, we found some couches off of Craigslist and some chairs from Joss and Main and the room has begun to take shape.  And then about two weeks ago, I finally painted down there.  It’s the same color as the living room (Behr’s Irish Mist).

Here’s a picture of one corner of the room.  It kinda has a beachy cottage feel.  I’m so glad that it’s a walkout basement with plenty of light shining inside.  I just couldn’t spend a lot of time in a dark, dingy basement.  Hopefully, I’ll be back at some point with a little tour of the room.  It went from a space I really didn’t like at all to a place that’s now bright and comfy.

 

Remember when it looked like this?!

Spring has been a bit finicky around here.  We’ll have a day that hits 80 degrees and I become convinced that Summer is just around the corner and then we’ll have a cold snap come through and the days will barely make it out of the 50’s and the night’s drop down into the 30’s and it feels like Winter will never leave us for good. 

On the nicer days, we’ve been enjoying getting out and exploring this area.  There is so much to do around here.  Lots of nature parks and historical areas, perfect for homeschool field trip days.

One day last week, we went to Hidden Oaks Nature Center.  The kids had fun exploring along the creek and down the trails that led us through the woods.  We saw a few deer cross the creek and run through the woods.  And there was a small nature center with snakes and turtles and even a bearded dragon that the kids were brave enough to touch (I was not!).

Here’s Peyton doing a nature study of some rocks in the creek.

This week, we went to Claude Moore Colonial Farm.  It’s a living historical farm set back in the year 1771, so you can actually see what it would be like to live in Colonial Virginia.  This year, we’ve been studying American History.  We’ve read about Leif Ericson and Christopher Columbus and now we’ve been reading all about the Pilgrims.  And although this farm is set at a date later in history than the Pilgrims (this was set right before the Civil War), I think it gave the kids an authentic idea of what life was like back then with their farms and small houses with dirt floors, as well as the kinds of clothes they wore and how they lived their daily life.

 

Pudgy turned 9 years old and the kids convinced me to bake him a doggie cake.

 

An outtake… Poor Pudge.  He puts up with a lot from us.

 

A month or so ago, Peyton and I picked out some fabric for her window and I just now got around to turning it into a window valance.  I used No-Sew Heat Bond and it was a pretty simple project once I set my mind to it.  I’m happy that it’s done!

 

While we are on the subject of window treatments, awhile back I found the boys some Pottery Barn Kids blackout curtains on clearance and snatched them up.  Love.

 

Here’s to a bright and sunshiny rest of your week filled with popsicle afternoons!

Insta-Friday

I cannot even begin to tell you guys how happy I am that today is Friday!  I’m so ready for the weekend.

This Insta-Friday has been two weeks in the making since I didn’t get one up last Friday.  Tim has been out of the country for the past eleven days and that has just kinda left me in survival mode around here and uninspired (or maybe just too tired) to blog.  My coping mechanism for when he goes on long trips is usually to throw myself into some sort of household project which most always involves paint.  This time it also involved ripping down ugly wallpaper first.  I didn’t particularly think it was fun, but the kids sure did.  And they were really a big help with that part of the job.  Slowly but surely, we’re whipping this house into shape. 

Have you ever noticed that it’s always when your husband is away that completely random things happen… like a bug flies into your son’s ear at soccer practice and gets stuck flapping and buzzing around in there.  And then since you have no idea what to do about that sort of thing, you google it and read about the absolute worst case scenario / horror story - like a bug stuck in the ear can actually burrow into the brain and cause death, so it is imperative that you get your son to a doctor immediately.  But since you just recently moved to the area, you don’t yet have a pediatrician to call and you have no idea where a walk-in clinic is and it’s nearly 6 pm and everything is closing soon and you can’t call your husband cause he’s out of the country and so you start to freak out just a little bit on the inside, but remember to remain calm on the outside so you don’t freak your kids out too.  And you remind yourself that Jesus is with you and He is leading you and He would never allow you to be in a situation without giving you the grace and wisdom to get through it and so you eventually get your son to a Walk-In Urgent Care and at first the doctor doesn’t see the bug and questions whether there really is a bug and so you silently pray that she will pleease find that bug and then she immediately says “oh there it is!” and she pulls that bug right out of his ear and you breathe a huge sigh of relief and whisper up a silent “thank you Jesus!”.

And it only took two more doctors appointments, oral antibiotics, and ear drops to make sure his ear was in the clear and on the mend.  What an ordeal! 

And I just didn’t need all that drama right now. 

But anyway, moving on…

Last April, while Tim was away on a long trip, we talked him into letting us get baby chicks.  I’m pretty sure he will never agree to chickens again, but this year, the kids convinced him to let them get pet mice.

 

 

 

Meet Cheddar and Cheese! 

They’re pretty cute little things.

 

When Tim is gone, the evenings and weekends are the hardest for me.  I miss him the most at those times and I’ve found that it helps if we stay busy.  So over the weekend, I took the kids to a nearby farm.  We saw cows, sheep, chickens, peacocks, pigs, goats, and horses.  And since it’s springtime, there were lots of cute baby animals to see too.  But apparently, I thought my kids were the cutest things there because I only took Instagram pictures of them and didn’t get any cute animal pictures on my phone to share on this blog.

 

Tyson and Peyton have been raising money to buy fresh bedding for their mice.  Since we have so many azalea bushes blooming in our back yard, they’ve been clipping the flowers, making bouquets, and then selling them in front of our house.  The neighbors have been so incredibly kind-hearted to stop and buy their bouquets from them (even though they also have azaleas blooming all over their yards!).  It sure makes my kids’ day when they sell a bouquet.  And selling bouquets is waaay more profitable than selling lemonade! 

 

One morning, Tyson took a fresh bouquet to a neighbor just to give to her.  Right afterwards, she called me to tell me how much she loved the flowers and then invited us out to lunch with her. I’m telling you, we have the best neighbors!

 

Another morning this week, we took a field trip to Green Springs Gardens.  It was a beautiful day and it’s the perfect time of year to go since all the flowers are in full bloom.  If I had planned ahead, it would have been a great day to pack a picnic lunch.  Maybe next time.

Besides the wide variety of plants, flowers, and trees, we also saw geese, turtles, deer, and even a snake hiding in some rocks (you should have heard Peyton scream!!).  This Daddy goose (it could be the mommy but it looks more like a daddy to me) was not happy about me taking pictures of his babies.  He was hissing at me and seemingly threatening to attack if I got any closer.

 

Can you see the two deer in the picture below?  The easiest one to see is peeking out behind the tree right above the tops of Tyson and Peyton’s heads.   There’s another one to the left of Tyson’s head.

 

We were amazed at how close these deer let us get to them before they ran off.

 

We spent quite a bit of time at this lake trying to catch turtles with a stick.  No turtles were caught and none were injured in the process, but we had fun trying anyway.

 

 

Tim comes home late, late, late tonight and we are looking forward to some good family time over the weekend. 

 

Happy weekend to you too!

Insta-Friday

Happy weekend to you!  We’ve had a fun and busy week around here. 

The weather has been so nice (up until tonight when it’s been pouring rain) and we’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors. 

I’m jealous of my neighbors crab apple tree.  It’s so beautiful right now and I want one in our yard.  I’m so tempted to chomp off a few branches and stick them in a vase in our house so I can stare at them all day.  (Of course I wouldn’t really do that!)

 

We’re in soccer season once again, so we spend our Saturday mornings out at the fields cheering this guy on.

 

And after a busy weekend of soccer, neighborhood friends, and late nights, Tyson zonked out for a Sunday afternoon nap.  This never happens!

 

On Monday morning, the kids and I went for a walk and strayed down a trail at the end of our street.

 

Then we decided to get really adventurous and we abandoned the trail for a hike into the woods to see what we could see. (Pudge was there to protect us from lions and tigers and bears and to help us find our way home if we got lost.)  We found a spot to play and the kids looked for bugs and worked on building a fort with sticks until it was time to go home for lunch.  They’ve been asking to go back ever since. 

 

Do you ever feel like God just drops a sweet little unexpected blessing right in your lap.  Like He knows what you want and then He gives it to you just to remind you of His love in a tangible way?  I love it when He surprises me. One day as the kids and I were on our walk (they ride their bikes and I push Hudson in a stroller), we saw a pile of bikes tossed out to the curb and left for the trash truck. So after Tim got home that evening, we took the van and went to pick one out for me (cause I had been wanting a bike).  (We did check with the owners beforehand to make sure they were really getting rid of them. They were.)  And the thing is, God didn’t give me just any old bike, it’s a really cool old bike!  He knows what I really like!

 

It needed air in the tires and a good scrubbing, but otherwise, it’s in great shape; perfect for going on family bike rides.

 

Hudson couldn’t wait to get his new seat put on and take it for a spin around the neighborhood.

We have a long way to go to get our new yard whipped in shape so this past week, I started attacking it with a vengeance.  Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I tend to just start getting rid of things, whether that’s clutter in my house or trees in my yard.  Too much of anything overwhelms me, so digging out this tree and hacking oversized shrubbery makes me feel like I accomplished something, even if you can’t tell at all by looking at the yard.

 

While I was hacking away at things in the yard, Tyson and Peyton went out wandering in the woods right behind our house and found this animal skull.  Peyton noticed the antler knobs and realized it was a buck.  They were super proud of their find.  We’re keeping it for our nature collection.

 

One morning, we went on a little field trip to Cox Farms.  There were goats, alpacas, chickens, sheep, and a llama.  The kids had fun playing and I brought home a few herbs to plant.

 

Three cute hooligans.

 

After our neighborhood walks, we end up here a lot.  It’s a favorite spot, whether to play and explore or just sit and think.

 

Peyton and Hudson are also in a little gymnastics class together.  They absolutely love it.  And I love watching them.  This was a picture from last week, but I’m slipping it in here anyway. 

These two.  They look like they’re sleeping, but they’re actually watching a video on the iphone in Peyton’s hand.  I love how they’re all curled up together though. Super sweet.