big vacation

Today I leave for my trip to Costa Rica with Holly, Ashley, and Aglisha. Tonight we stay in Atlanta so that we can get up at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn) and head over to the airport to leave for Dominical, Costa Rica. I am so excited I can hardly stand it, but I also know I am going to dearly miss Jason and the kids. This is my first time ever leaving the country and Costa Rica is somewhere I have always wanted to go - not to mention the rain forest and the ocean all in one big trip. The hardest part of this vacation is that calling will be difficult, but thankfully it is only 5 days. I won't be e-mailing either because there's no internet connection, not even taking my computer. We are supposed to be going zip lining through the canopy of the rain forest and I think if everything works out ok, we will be also going snorkeling. There will be lots and lots of pictures to come... in the mean time, here's the link to the swank place we are going to be at if you want to check it out... We are staying in the butterfly suite...

www.waterfallvillas.com

I will be back in touch on Wednesday of next week!

rain, rain, and more rain...

Whew... just about had enough... Not really, I try so hard to be thankful for the rain. It really is such a blessing when it rains down upon us. The kids love it - especially when they can get out in it! Once again, as the rain poured down on us on Friday, the kids got out on the ramp and had a blast with the boogie boards slipping and sliding and getting muddy and wet... I love watching them have so much fun!

egyptian crowns

What does our typical day of homeschooling look like? Well, it depends on the day or the night. Typically, the kids do some English and math work along with reading almost every day... there is the occasional day that we let that slide for taking it easy or researching stuff on the computer or going out and learning out in the world... There is much to be learned everywhere, not just at our table doing lessons and so far, the best thing about masters academy is all the interest in history and learning the kids are taking from it and the "homework" they have they actually look forward to doing and they are learning so much. Last week, the homework involved making a replica (as best they could) of the crown that King Narmer wore. So, they settled into work with their dad and here is what they came up with...

hard at work






Walking like an egyptian


all finished!

a rose by any other name

India love roses... and she loves pumpkins... She enjoys tending to them and picking them and she enjoys just taking them in... We have a beautiful yellow rose beside our front porch as you come up the steps because India has taken excellent care of it all summer. When the japanese beetles showed up she was deligent in pulling them off and telling them to LEAVE HER ROSE ALONE! When the stink bugs crawl around on them, she pulls them off, she keeps it watered and she's been pulling the dead buds off... Well, last night as we were sitting outside taking in the great weather, she decided she was overdue pulling those dead buds off because it is loaded with new ones and it's still putting energy into the dead buds. Pulling them off helps the rose put more into its new growth. Jason suggested she use the pruning shears which I don't think she had been using. Now, Jason is picky when it comes to pruning. He has such an eye for making plants beautiful through pruning and he really sees where the place is going when he cuts something off of it, so watching him watch India was so sweet I had to go in and get my camera! She came in and got the shears and some gloves to protect her from the thorns, and clipped off the buds, but she left some of the stem sticking up (that is exactly how I would have done it). Jason pointed out to her she could cut it back far enough down the plant to hide it under the blooms that are coming and it would just look like it was perfect. Good point, India took it and it looks great. He then explained where to cut it to get new growth each year and why he does that and what it does for the plant. Talk about a wonderful science lesson... It was dark outside and she was pruning under the lamp, but the rose is gorgeous and the next time she goes out there to clip it, she will know what to do and why!
Here are the picks I took!




This one is right after the first one when he was explaining why to cut a little lower you can see her pruners are high in the first and lower in the second.

been busy

I started a new quilt project this weekend that I am hugely excited about. Jason was sick on Friday and Saturday and slept all weekend. The kids were gone a big portion of the day on Saturday and today they have pretty much left me alone to do my thing. Jason is feeling better by the way and he's back to the garden planting our fall veggies! So, what has me excited is that not only have I worked diligently for 2 days which almost never happens, the image I am going to be quilting is a drawing of Jason's that I have had my eye on for a few years. I'm itching to move in a new direction and try new things (which I do in every quilt), but he has always helped me come up with my concepts and get them drawn out and ready to turn into something, but I have NEVER taken one of his drawings and turned it into one of my projects. He has been really sweet about the whole thing, throwing suggestions here and there, but not getting his feelings hurt when I'm not interested in what he has to say. I really want to turn his fantastical drawings into our art! I can't wait and it's going so fast. I've got the background finished and hope to start piecing the image sometime in the coming days. I love when a quilt just comes together fast...

So, I thought I might tease you all with some photos of the background. If you have ever paid close attention to what is around my quilting wall you would have seen the image, but for the rest of you... you will just have to wait!

Here's the whole background:


Here's a close up:


Stay tuned! I will hopefully have this one finished in no time!

masters academy

The kids have begun attending a program called the Master's Academy of Fine Arts. Every Thursday from 12 - 4 they spend the day learning drama, music, art history/art, and world history. We have been debating for a couple of years now whether to try to put the kids in it or not and finally have decided to take a leap of faith and go for it. I have been feeling like we just weren't doing enough around the house and though both kids are very smart and plenty motivated to learn on their own, I still cling to some structured learning in our life and I feel like Master's Academy will take some of that pressure off me to focus more on other things in their schooling that might have been slipping through the cracks. I still have the strong sense that much of the education should be predominately directed by them so that they remember what they are learning and are interested in it rather than me forcing something down their throats. This theory has worked for us for the most part, yet I am left feeling like we are still lacking something... The cool thing so far seems to be that on soooo many levels masters is creating a lot of side interests in many things and we are having a lot of dialogue and learning happening on the days that masters is not going on which has helped me to get back on the good ship of feeling confident in my home schooling endeavors. The transition to working as much as I do while homeschooling has been a difficult one, that I really FEEL like is finally getting on track. (I think more of that had to do with mom settling into a rhythm with it and accepting my own limitations than the kids feeling slighted in anyway.) This year, I'm feeling good about the goals we have set for ourselves and for the kids and I'm excited about the new learning more structured learning environment and India is reveling in the structure and the "homework" and she is so eager to have more more more and Kalib is totally digging it too. His learning style is very different from hers (one of the perks of schooling at home is I can cater to their different learning styles), but they have both already gleaned a lot in the last 2 weeks, and I am excited to see where we go from here. (It helps that MOST of their closest friends have also decided to do Master's with us...)

So, here are some pictures from their first day last week...Yes, I made a big deal out of it just like it was their first day of school (it's the closest thing we have had to that - they are even going to be taking school pictures in Oct... will any be coming your way? I don't know... depends on how much they cost.)

Kalib doing his Kalib thing


India wishing I wasn't so obnoxious with the camera


Last but not leastly together... We don't get too many of these anymore and I really love how the kids personalities come out in this one! They are such wonderful people and I'm so thankful for all that I learn from them.

Kitchen Gratitude!

As I grow older I become more aware of what a great life I have. Yes, there are plenty of days when I'm not feeling that way, but at the end of every day as I lie down I can really only be thankful. I think it is such a beautiful way to live to be able to tell the people in your life how grateful you are for them. Jason and I are surrounded by A LOT of really wonderful people, close friends and friends from a distance, people we admire and people we want our love to overflow too. Lately, I have really been feeling like I haven't had a lot of excess love to go around to my friends, but they still love me and nurture me the only way really great friends should. I hope sometime VERY soon to get to repay my gratitude. There is no Tit for Tat amongst us women folks and men folks, it is a joy to help one another and I know in the coming months I can look forward to opportunities to repay the kindness shown to me yesterday and I really can not WAIT!

I have these 3 friends, Jennifer, Rachel, and Shannon who formed this cool thing that they call the Cleaning Club, every Monday, they get together at each others homes where together they work on a cleaning project. When they get together there is a total of 11 children and one on the way and they still manage to accomplish a lot. The older kids help out with the younger ones while the moms work without any resentment or wishing they could be doing something different, they are just thankful their mom is getting the help they are getting and that they are also getting to hang out with their friends. This is something that has always impressed me about cleaning club is the managing of ALL the children. So, they have accomplished a lot of stuff in each others homes. They have hung photos, cleaned drawers out, cleaned out a fridge, repainted a bedroom, closets are no match for these ladies, and not to mention the support and help they get from one another in the process of it all. So, they are reaping such benefits from it they are now offering to help out friends who need it. Me being one of the people they have repeatedly offered to help. Now, I feel pretty sure you all are just like me and it is SO hard to ask for help when you really need it and I am strong independent woman and I really don't like to ask for help, but I finally did and they came to my rescue in a VERY big way! My dear friend Ashley also showed up to help out too and every hand was appreciated. For years, and I do mean years, Jason has been after me to do SOMETHING with our kitchen to make it more usable and more functional, but I had no ideas and it just seemed like the most daunting task in the world to me. I want things to look nice and be functional and I just had absolutely no ideas where to begin, not to mention I'm only 4'11" tall and can only reach the bottom cabinets in my kitchen. I am constantly kicking around a stool, so I started putting EVERYTHING down low which caused everything to be cluttered... CLEANING CLUB AND ASHLEY TO THE RESCUE!!!!

I called out for help! I picked a weekend (labor day being a 4 day weekend seemed like as good of a time as any) Jason painted the kitchen based on a fabric swatch by Amy Butler. We went with yellow on the walls and gray trim. At first I was a little scared of the yellow, but it looks just awesome, and I'm going to pick up some of the fabric to make a small window treatment to bring it all together... So, Jason spent Friday night and Saturday painting (I was recovering from a stomach flu and was no help at all), but I was busy thinking... thinking... thinking... Yesterday, at 1:30, these ladies showed up. We emptied out every single cabinet in my kitchen, wiped them down (Doors too). We wiped everything in the cabinets down too, Shannon took to the task of cleaning my appliances and most of them look brand new (even the one's we have had since we got married) and then we put it all back, taking down some of the doors of the cabinets and reorganizing and culling through, and I ended up not feeling like I had to get rid of much and still being very happy with how it all looks. So, enough of my talk... on to the pictures, but not without the sincerest thanks I have to these women for helping to make me excited about being in the kitchen and just feeling like my kitchen is a kitchen for ME now! A place where I feel comfortable and every time I look at it I will be reminded of what a great life I have with great friends!

I looked for a before kitchen, but couldn't find a good one...let's just suffice it to say it was messy and an awful shade of blue...
Here it is as Jason finishes up painting.


plastic containers organized? Check!




recycling will no longer live on my counter!












Lastly, the best picture of them all! Ladies well satisfied with work well done, and please notice the mushrooms in the back and how lovely all the plates look standing up! Jennifer put nails in there to hold them up to display them and don't all my bowls just look so nice!


Thank you thank you thank you! I LOVE IT!

What's my next big project you ask? The computer desk and around our table, but there's plenty of time for that and no reason to rush it!

winter?

You bet we are thinking about it. All that work we did in early spring has certainly paid off now. I have learned to can - at least tomatoes - and Jason has learned to make pickles out of cucumbers and jalapenos. We have got tons of green beans stored in the freezer along with okra, strawberries (not grown here this year - we have plans for next year), black eyed peas, garlic, onions, and lots and lots of pesto all for winter! Unfortunately, the late snow and all that rain we got (how weird is that to say? in GA?) did our potatoes in this year, but we haven't lost hope on raising them for next year! We ate so many cantaloupes we grew sick of cantaloupe and our friends got plenty of them, we also enjoyed so much watermelon this year... We even learned to make watermelon and cantaloupe juice sweetened with rice syrup that was super! That recipe came from southern living. I feel sad thinking about putting it all to rest and starting up our fall garden, but truth be told, I love the greens and I can not WAIT to have fresh spinach on the table and watch India devour it again! MMMMMM fresh Kale awaits us, and Collards, and the list goes on... Jason has ordered a lot of new stuff that will be here any day and he'll be getting the fall garden going as we lay the summer stuff to rest... oh and we will be having sweet potatoes to harvest soon - sweet potato fries...mmmm.... I make good sweet potato fries. Really, I can't wait! We are hoping to find 5 families who would be interested in buying a box of veggies from us each week from the garden, similar to a CSA, but we aren't ready to call it that yet. We are tripling the amount we grew last year in hopes of getting this farming thing up off the ground, so if you think you might be interested, please let me know, I have an idea of what the cost is going to be and it is REALLY good...and a couple more months and we will be adding eggs to the veggie boxes hopefully. Anyhow, here are some photos of the fruits of our labors!



canned tomatoes... so pretty... so yummy! We'll be eating salsa in the winter!


It's just so pretty, I keep coming back to look at it!


bread and butter pickles


pickled jalapenos


garlic, onions, and jalapenos that are drying to be powered into pepper somewhere down the road...

up from

My latest quilt... Thanks to Chad Osburn for being so quick at getting the photos taken and sent to me. I'll have detail shots on my website in a few days.

This piece is a piece I made years ago when I first started really exploring curves and more intricate piecing. I made this really cool background and sun and clouds and then made an attempt at piecing the phoenix over it - raw edge. The pieces didn't all match up, so I ended up doing a lot of bead work (which I was also just beginning to explore) around the edges to hide where the pieces didn't come together. When I was about 3/4 of the way through with it I decided I didn't like it and put it away to pull out again one day. That was 5 years ago. It seems like yesterday I was envisioning this quilt. Well, about a year ago, I was cleaning out my closet organizing my old drawings and I came across the sketch for the bird again, which inspired me to pull out the unfinished piece and consider picking it back up to finish, but when I looked at it, I KNEW my skills were much better than that now and I had loads of new ideas and possibilities, so I put the original back in it's place and set to making this one all over again... and as I told Jason, I have no shame in being proud of my quilts. My whole life I wanted to find my creative voice and I have and even though I can find plenty of mistakes throughout a piece each one is an opportunity for growth and I see new ideas explored in each one and I love them all and if I don't, I put them away until whatever I was trying to accomplish is within me... I am VERY excited about this one! The piecing is intricate, the quilting is intense with lots and lots and lots of thread couching and the sparks I made twice to get them right! Sometimes it pays off to start all over!


(you can click on it and it will show it to you bigger!)
Tell me what you all think! I love feedback - especially good feedback!

kalib is 9

On August 22, Kalib turned 9. Can you believe it? We certainly can't. He had a great day! Friday night we went to dinner with my side of the family to Outback (which was his restaurant of choice) and then Saturday, Elijah came over and we drove up to Discover Mills to see Ponyo which we all enjoyed (Sarah and Beatrice also went with us to make it an extra special treat)! We rushed home and Jason's whole family came over to celebrate with us and Elijah spent the night! This year, Kalib received a Nintendo DS for his birthday, so he got a bunch of games and money to spend on games. Thankfully, he has decided to only spend some of it and open a savings account with the rest! (India opened one a few weeks ago and has already made 3 deposits! - I love it and I'm proud of her for saving and encouraging Kalib to do the same!) It is really hard for me to believe Kalib is 9. It seems like just yesterday he was born and nursing all the time and I do mean nursing ALL the time! We are so grateful for our babies! They do nothing but bring us joy - even when we are feeling frustrated with them. We grow as they grow and they push us to strive to be better people.

Kalib didn't have a big party this year. I just didn't have it in me, so instead we went to the skating rink with all of his friends (well, most of them anyways). It's so dark in there, I wasn't able to take any pictures, but I have some of him on Friday night when we celebrated with my family! And yes, I already know he needs a haircut, but he wants to grow it long, and it is his head, so what can I say?



Kalib doesn't really like cake, so he had an eclair cake! YUMMY!


I think Jason was just as excited about the DS as Kalib. We bought a skateboarding game, so every opportunity Jason gets he plays on it too.


Proud owner of a blue DS


India took the time to hand wrap each game...