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!

Definitely never was I a boy scout nor a girl scout, come to think of it, I am never really prepared for much of anything but this year I am prepared for the first day of school. Yes, even a month early! I finished up sister’s first day of school dress last night. While I am excited about the way that it turned out sister is still trying to convince herself that she likes it. She is not a huge fan of the bows although she loves the pink on it. Hopefully she will be excited about it in a month and hopefully I will iron it before then!

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.

Yes, I still sew! There is so much on the sewing table waiting to be sewn that it is sad! I am not sure what is keeping me from sewing but alas I am anxious to snap out of it! Our dear friends were expecting their third little one and she finally arrived this morning just a few hours after her official due date. She has already received a few goodies but this little blanket will be accompanying us tomorrow as we head over to meet her. I still need to monogram it but I am excited about the silky trim and flower fabric. I found the fabric a few years ago on clearance at Joanns and knew that it would be perfect for a little baby girl someday so it has been waiting in the stash for a long time. It was fun to finally pull it out and sew away.

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.

The garden still amazes me! I mean food actually grows out there! It really does blow my mind sometimes! Saturday morning I went out to pick a few things and just check on the garden in general to see how everything was doing. 5 cucumbers, a pile of beans, several jalapenos, squash, okra and zucchini all went into the bucket to come back into the house. Food growing in my yard! Wild! Yes, it is work but it is still neat and exciting! I went back out to look around the garden one last time and I spied the baby watermelon! Watermelon growing in my yard! Amazing! I mean yes, I planted it but you always think, at least I always think, will it really grow!? There are so many things that have to work together to create little veggies and fruits that grow into big veggies and fruits. Who knows if they will make it to full size (maybe the large problem is that I am a negative thinker) but the baby watermelon was such a fun surprise! I went out again this evening to water and I found a honey dew growing as well! They are so cute when they are small! God is amazing in the way that He creates and grows things! Definitely amazing!

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!

I wanted to give a thank you gift to a friend who has really invested herself in our family in extravagant ways lately. I thought for a long time and finally decided on a purse. Our friend has a gift of creativity and she is very stylish with her dress so I felt a little nervous picking out fabric for the purse but once I remembered the bird fabric I was excited. I stumbled upon the bird fabric one day at Joanns and bought a fair amount (40% off coupons are our friend) that I tucked away for such a time as this. I ended up using Amy Butler’s Frenchy Bag pattern which I really liked. It was quick and simple to put together especially if you leave the pockets off as I did. These pictures are iffy as I used my cell phone to take them but at least I remembered to get pictures at all!