School started back for Sis today. She woke with a song in her heart and she was so excited for her new class. It blessed my mommy heart so much but at the same time she is just SO old! Gee! She warmed up to her dress and was so happy to put it on, however, I never did iron it. We found out at Open House last week that her backpack would need to fit a folder and her current backpack (no matter how hard I tried) would not fit that folder so there was a bit of last minute sewing that took place around here after all. I had ordered a pattern about a month ago on Etsy just to have for when brother heads to school (you can purchase it here). I pulled it out and altered it making it a good bit taller, wider (to fit the folder of course) and added a pocket. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I did also alter a few other things in the pattern such as using heat-n-bond to add a fabric to the inside and not padding the straps but again using heat-n-bond. I would recommend this little pattern as it does come together pretty quickly and easily (trust me,I sewed it the night before school). Sis was amazed that the backpack was ready for her this morning and she was excited to head off with it to school. She had a great first day which I am most thankful for!!!

It looks like I let the kiddos loose in the garden, doesn’t it? Maybe they were playing in the garden and became hungry and settled upon a yummy looking honeydew and just started eating away. Well, I know that it was not the kiddos as we have a tall fence around the garden and the kiddos need my help to get in and out. We added the fence to keep the bunnies out but I think that the squirrels have found a way in! Grrrrrr! I have caught them inside the fence before but I did not know that they would really eat anything but now I have proof that they would. I started noticing a few weeks ago that part of our vines were missing off the honeydew (see how some of the leaves are brown in the picture. . .stinky squirrels) and a lot of the little watermelons were disappearing. I was trying to be okay with it because was still had fruit that was growing and getting pretty large. Today I became not okay with it because this stinky squirrel ate a hole out of the melon. It was really fresh when I found it so I must of just missed him. Who knew that one would have to worry about squirrels climbing the backyard fence to jump over the garden fence and land safely in the garden to chew down a bunch of honeydew vines and grab a taste of a honeydew while he was at it. Grrrrrr!

I get the privilege of walking with one of our neighbors twice a week. She is an amazing woman who has traveled all over the world, she is a great cook and she is a precious neighbor. She shares amazing stories with me of her travels, shares secret recipes and she always comes through when I am lacking that final ingredient to make cookies. Back to the story. . .we walk together. It was looking a bit rainy this morning so we were trying to decide if we should walk or not and I was really encouraging us not to walk because well, the clouds were a good bit dark! She really wanted to walk this morning though so off we went. I bundled the kiddos up in their rain jackets and just hoped that it would not rain. For some reason our children melt in the rain (a gift from their father although the whining that proceeds comes from me) so it does not make a wagon ride in the rain very fun. Off we headed into the unknown. Every few steps she would mention that it was not raining and I would just look up and hope that the bottom was not about to fall out of the clouds. We made it half way around the neighborhood so we were at the furthermost point from our house when the rain hit. She whipped out her umbrella and I looked back at the kiddos in the wagon and although they looked dejected they did not melt in the rain. I was SO proud of them (the wet lollipops could of helped). We made it back home very drippy but with happyish hearts intact. My neighbor shared that she loved to walk in the rain as a child so I am glad that we could share those memories that she had. It is good to know now that she likes to walk in the rain, maybe there will be a few more rainy walks in our future with more stories to share. The kiddos and I came in and dried off. I got the kiddos changed and started a load of laundry. I feel refreshed from our rainy walk and I love knowing a bit more of her story all because of a rainy walk that happened.

The Sunflowers have started to bloom this week. Our Sabbath morning started with seeing our first Sunflower fully open which was a sweet gift! Sister did laps around the downstairs screaming and dancing along the way. She was so excited!!! These seem to be a smaller variety but no matter they are bringing our household much joy! I love the process of watching them unfold and I love that they are all in process. They seem to be so much like us. . .we are all in process and we are all in different parts of the process.

Our local Chick-fil-a had truck day today. I wondered how big it would be but decided to take the kiddos and just see what was there as the kids do love trucks. Chick-fil-a truly did an incredible job! There were so many different trucks including an armored truck, bus, firetruck, motor home, bucket truck, cement mixer, dump truck, etc. There were tons of trucks and they really did do a great job! The kiddos loved seeing the trucks although they were hesitant to climb into the big trucks. It was a really fun thing to just walk around and enjoy the trucks. We love trucks!!!

This dump truck tire was as tall as I am and I am average height!

I spent rest time yesterday outside in the front yard. We recently had our bushes torn out as they were growing very old and tired and I also was growing tired of them so out they went. I replaced the bushes a few weeks ago with a the smaller Firepower Nandina and I am really excited about that choice. It took me forever to decide but I think that overall we are happy with them. We also have a TON (understatement) of monkey grass in the front beds which was fine with the larger bushes but now that we have the small bushes it needed to come out. I have definitely been putting this job off but after finding some thyme on clearance (I cannot remember the name of it but it will have white blooms in the spring and fall) at Home Depot I knew that it was time to dived and conquer the monkey grass. I finished one side but still have more monkey grass to pull out on the other side. I think that I could of finished but a bee sting slowed me down. I have not been stung by a bee since I was little but it still hurts even when you are older!!! Brad actually took the day off yesterday so he came to my rescue with ice and baking soda. He is my hero! It did feel good to accomplish at least part of this huge project and play landscaping for a day. Playing pretend landscaper is so much cheaper than hiring a landscaper but it is a ton of work!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We spent the morning in the pool thanks to my mom and some of her wonderful friends. We all had a great time! Everyone is resting now and then we are headed to dinner with Brad’s Dad! Yummy!
I finished up the 4th of July outfits yesterday afternoon for the kiddos. I used this pattern which was on Martha Stewart a few weeks ago. You can also find the pattern in Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing Book. It was simple to put together although I definitely altered it as sister requested a long dress (down to her feet). I also did not fold under the hem but used the serger to do a rolled edge for the hem. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I just used a normal little shorts pattern for brothers shorts which was super quick and easy.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day of togetherness and FREEDOM!

Yes, it is not officially here yet but the kids are out of school and the days are warmer so the feel of summer is in the air minus the humidity (it shall arrive soon though). We have been busy out in the backyard this spring working away on jobs and just getting the backyard to a place where we can really enjoy it. I think that we are headed into the years with the little ones where we will be spending much much time out there.

I had a small garden last year just to try it out and see if it seemed doable and this year I decided to go a good bit bigger. After planting about a month ago I felt super stressed out and was feeling a little done with the garden. . .I know not good to feel that way at the start of something. After a lot of work and weed control this has been the first weekend where I feel like it is at a place where I like it and can really enjoy going out there to pull just a few weeds and check on everything. For now no bugs are eating away at anything and the weeds are under control etc. It is a happy place! For now we have Carrots, Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, Jalapenos, Green Peppers, Yellow Peppers, Pimentos, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Yellow Beans, Green Beans, Okra, Sweet Basil, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Honey Dew, Sunflowers and some other flowers from seeds. Whew, we shall see what of that actually grows well but so far the squash and cucumbers, peas and green beans are all coming in. A few others have begun flowering so it is exciting!

Another purchase this spring were our rain barrels. I am super excited about these!!! It just takes a good rain for them to be overflowing so I am sure that we will add more in the future but for now I am very happy with two! They are very handy and hopefully they will save us some on the water bill when it comes to watering the garden this summer.

Last but not least yesterday Brad and his dad worked hard to install some post (set in concrete) in the backyard that we can attach hangers on for bird feeders. We have had one feeder for a very long time but we have all (even the kiddos) greatly been enjoying watching the birds come so we decided to add a few more. It has been fun to pick out some new feeders and I am hoping to plant some flowers underneath the feeders as well. We hope to add a few more plants to the backyard as well but for now it is all coming along. It has been so much fun to make our backyard our very owns space and bring a bit of restoration to it!

Brad and I escaped a few weekends ago to Asheville NC. It was a wonderful little getaway! We ended up staying downtown and having a yummy dinner at a local Italian resturaunt which was super tasty. I was hesitant to go to Biltmore as we have been in the past but I did really want to walk through the gardens there. We ended up buying tickets, as that is what one has to do even if they just want to see the gardens, so after a speed round trip through the house we hit the gardens and spent a large part of the day walking around and seeing many beautiful things. It was really wonderful to just be with Brad and to be unhurried. We both love taking pictures so we spent a lot of time doing just that throughout the garden. I love that we both enjoy pictures and I love that we both see things so differently. Looking through his pictures I gained a new appreciation for some things that I might of passed by as I was able to see them through his eyes. I am much more of a zoom in, close up kind of picture taker and Brad is a whole picture kind of guy which is actually how we are in real life as we deal with things. He is great at seeing the picture as a whole. He can take in the whole story of what is taking place. I however tend to get really intense with the little tiny details of the story. I love that God chose to put us together and I love getting to walk through life approaching things differently and learning from each other.

This was my second shirt of the day. Yes, it looks bad but the first one looked equally as bad although it had no blood on it! The first shirt spent the morning in the garden and then got caught in a rain storm in the middle of mowing. The second shirt baked cupcakes, helped clean blood off of brother’s mouth after he fell lips first into the hard cement floor of an office supply store (he is okay but has a swollen lip to show for it) and last but not least helped install our new rain barrels (more on that in a later post). Hubby always says that I am rough on my clothes. . .not sure where he gets that idea from!