The Thanksgiving Trees

I wanted to do a craft with the boys to help decorate for Thanksgiving.  I wanted it to incorporate thankfulness, be fall-colored, be cheap, and preferably create very little mess.

I often see snippets of Pinterest Moms' work on Facebook.  It's adorable.  Everything looks perfectly crafty, thoughtful, well-done,  and....frankly,  like it took hours of work.

So, as I was trying to think of something cute and crafty, I briefly considered perusing Pinterest, but, who are we kidding - I do not have the time.  So, instead, I went to my favorite place - the Target dollar spot (though it is getting pricey there too! Stuff as high as $3!).  I found Thanksgiving trees for $1 each, and we made a couple of them.

Decorative? Check.

Incorporate thankfulness? Check.

Cheap? Crafty? Little mess?
Check, Check, Check.

The tree was pretty simple to put together, and we all took turns filling up the leaves with things we are thankful for.  We had 12 leaves, and I wondered at first if the boys would be able to fill them easily, or if Dave and I would need to help fill in a lot.  I was so wrong!  They not only filled in the 12 leaves, but also filled the backsides.

The list ranges from lighthearted and fun to ones that required depth of thought and caring, and the boys came up with almost every one.  Among the ideas they thought of:

Family
Football
Water
Yarbo
God's Grace
Jesus

We don't often sit around together thinking of things we're thankful for, but perhaps we should do so more often.  It was a blessing to get a peek into their hearts and see what they were thankful for, and we had fun decorating our Thanksgiving Trees with our Thankful Leaves.

Maybe someday I'll get everything pulled together for Pinterest-level craftiness, but thankfully, the boys don't know what they're missing on Pinterest, and I've already purchased my $1 crafts for Christmas.  I think they'll enjoy them just as much as the trees!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4

Today I'm thankful for laughter.  Laughter is good for the soul and refreshing to the spirit.  It's a wonderful gift to share with family and friends, and I'm thankful for it.

Our Photographer

And when it's captured in photos, so much the better!

 

Better together

I teach piano several days a week, so sometimes Dave gets the boys from school and hangs out with them during that time.  One day last week, I walked into the kitchen from the front room I teach in to find this:

And this:

Dave had taken the boys to Costco, and they decided they wanted to get me flowers, but couldn't decide on one bouquet, so Dave let them each pick out one to give to me (having boys is working out very well for me!).  

As I was trying to figure out how to best display them so that they were each equally shown off and appreciated, I settled on a solution:

And I decided that they looked better together.  Like they just belonged together.  Each bouquet had it's own distinct beauty, but together, they were stunning.  And over the course of the past week, it's been a lovely reminder of my two boys: each of them wonderful and incredible on their own, but when they're together, one can see that they are brothers brought together by God himself.  And that is beautiful to this mama's heart.

Fashion feedback from the backseat

Lately, I feel like I haven't had time to even look in a mirror before moving on to do something else (more on that later!).  Lucky for me, I have someone who gives me feedback on my fashion choices.

Today, I wore the above earrings, and was feeling pretty good about them, until I heard a voice from the backseat:

"Uh, Mom?"
"Yes?"
"Your earrings look like grapes.  Not the kind I'd want to eat, since they're just grey, but they still look like grapes.  Just wanted you to know."

Apparently they didn't make the cut in his fashion book.  I'll probably still wear them anyway.

The upside?  He's been calling me Mom.

A trip through the garden

I have had ridiculous amounts of fun learning how to garden this year.  I really didn't know if I would like it when we started.  I'd had a lot of pots of stuff on the patio, with varying amounts of success, but a garden is a little more of a commitment.

And it turns out I've really enjoyed it a lot.  I've picked a couple of zucchini, lots of lettuce and kale, and am getting ready to have an overwhelming amount of tomatos.

One thing I've got to get better at is spacing.  As you can see, it is a small jungle, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  You can't really see it from this shot, but there are all kinds of vines trailing over the fence and out the back of the garden.

Doesn't Yarbo look relaxed?

I kept planting more tomatos because they never looked like they were going to do anything, and I got very impatient (which I know must be quite a surprise....).  Eight tomato plants later, they are taking over about half of the garden.  Next year I will try to be more patient while waiting for them to grow.

We have lots of leafy things...

Lettuce

Parsley

Kale

We were supposed to have 12 plants of yellow string beans, but only 3 of them ever came up.  Those three are now overshadowed by the massive tomatos, as are the beets that are supposed to be growing. One of my bell peppers are making it, but they're just barely out of the reach of the tomatos.

Yellow beans (there are 2 more beans on another plant.  So sometime we'll have 4 beans with dinner...)

Sad little beet plants

Pepper

One of my favorite parts of the garden to watch grow is all the vine plants.  I truly should have had about 4 times the space for the plants that I have, but I'll know that for next year.  I planted cucumbers, spaghetti squash, zucchini, and yellow squash.  The plants are HUGE.

Tiny little cucumber

Aren't the cucumber flowers pretty?

The spaghetti plant is getting out of control, but I love how the tendrils curl so tightly around anything they touch

How many zucchini can you find? (I think there's 3 in the photo)

A squash blossom that hasn't opened yet

I also planted eggplant, but the plant that grew in that space hasn't produced any signs of an actual eggplant yet, so I'm not sure if it's really an eggplant, or a weed that has gotten ridiculously huge.  If it's really an eggplant, I'm kind of wondering when the vegetable will start appearing.  If it's not an eggplant....well, the size of the weed will be kind of embarrassing.  Time will tell!

Anyway, that's most of my garden.  I have a few other things growing there, but most of the rest of my plants are in containers on the front porch or the back deck, including a bunch of herbs.  

This fall, we have plans to add more garden space and raise the beds to make it nicer to look at and easier to work with, and we'll do more landscaping at the back of our yard then too.  In the meantime, my first-ever garden has been a lot of fun, and the vegetables I've picked so far have been so fresh and tasty!

Do you have any good gardening tips?  I'd love to hear them!  

Dough-slapping silliness

We have been crazy busy, and I was shocked today to realize that Isaac had never made bread with me before.  I had made some right before he came to live with us, and that lasted a little while, and we actually bought a loaf from the store (gasp!...I know...).

Actually, I have one more reason that it's becoming more and more important to me to make my own bread:  it's WAY cheaper, it tastes better, it's really healthy, AND it's SOY-FREE.  I looked at a ridiculous amount of labels before finally just settling on a loaf of bread that had soy oil, just further down the list.  Every.single.loaf had soy oil in it.

So...today we made bread.  I was a little torn with the idea - on one hand, it's crazy-hot here - a heat index of 110....on the other hand, it's a good day to do indoor activities.  I rationalized it by reminding myself that it would be an educational activity for Isaac, and plus, Dave loves fresh bread.

It was.....awesome.  He had SO much fun learning more about my stand mixer, and how to operate all the buttons and levers (don't worry, safety and fingers were discussed at length).

Once we had the dough all mixed and kneaded, I pulled it out of the bowl to shape it into a ball and grease the bowl for rising.  While shaping it into ball, it was kind of moist, so I was sort of "slapping" it into shape, rather than using a soft touch.

At first Isaac just sort of stared at me, speechless, then he just dissolved into giggles.

Then, when I told him he could slap it, the giggles were just about endless.

He slapped and giggled, laughed some more, slapped it from a different side, and laughed so hard he almost fell off his stool.

After we were done slapping the dough, he wanted to know if we could get a slapping attachment for my mixer.  I don't think KitchenAid makes those.....

Anyway, it's been fun to see how the smallest of things are so much fun to a little boy.  He loves to help in the kitchen, and it's been a fun way to work on fine motor skills (pouring slowly, dumping flour gently, stirring in different directions), math skills (counting how many cups of flour, adding and subtracting to see how many of things we need), and build our relationship (the giggling!).

For anyone interested in trying the bread recipe, you can see that post here (note, dough-slapping was not included in the instructions, so feel free to add it in!).

HOURS of fun

Isaac loves to play in the kitchen, and he loves to work with his hands.  So, when I saw this recipe for home-made play-dough, I knew we had to try it!

Source

So far, we've only made one batch, which is red (really pink, but we pretend it's red).  It is seriously the softest, best-smelling, longest-lasting home-made play-dough I've ever seen.  I'd never tried cooking play-dough before, and I think that's what helps with the texture.  We also added french-vanilla extract to it, so the salty smell is covered, and it actually smells nice.

Even better, it has lasted almost a month in the tupperware, and it's still just a soft as when we made it.  I let Isaac play with it on a big cutting board on the table, give him toothpicks and a couple of cookie cutters, and he'll often play with it for a couple of hours.

So, for anyone else looking for something fun to do, click here to check it out!

Confession.

Here it is: Even though I have revived my house-keeping system, I didn't get to it today.  At all.   Nothing in my house was cleaned today, except for throwing the breakfast and lunch dishes into the dishwasher.  

Instead, I played with my kid all day long. 

And I loved it.

The housework will have to get back into the schedule, but today was so much fun.  We had my friend's 2 and 1/2 year old boy come over for awhile today, and Isaac thought it was pretty fun to be the big kid around.  He took him on a tour of every single train engine that he owns, helped him put his shoes on, and showed him how to work the hose outside.  

Our lawn is well-watered.

Isaac had such a good time, that when I told the boys that our little friend was leaving soon, Isaac turned to me and said, "Um, Kelli, can we pray that he comes back again soon?  Can we pray that right now?"

We also spent awhile outside picking stuff from the garden this afternoon.  I picked the veggies and herbs, and Isaac collected them in a bowl.  We had a great time counting how many basil leaves we picked (13, if you're curious - it's still a little plant!), and he's starting to learn the names of all the plants. 

Once inside, we mixed all the herbs together when we washed them, then he sorted them back into piles so they could dry off a little before storing them.

It's pretty amazing to me how many interests we share.  He loves to help me in the garden, to learn more about food (healthy food that you can eat a lot of, healthy food that is good to eat in little bits, and junk food....he can categorize about any food we eat), and likes to help in the kitchen. 

He also thinks dusting is fun, but he's on his own with that one.

Anyway, today has been a great day.  I still have to keep reminding myself that he gets to stay, and every time I think of that, it makes me smile.

Is it Friday Yet? (Just kidding, this post is mostly about gardening)

I know, I know, it's not Friday yet.  But could it please be Friday soon?  Like tomorrow?

I realized something yesterday.  Lately, every time I think about how much I miss Isaac, or wonder if it can be Friday, I plant something.

As a result, I have about 12 pots of flowers, a hanging strawberry plant, 7 herbs, and around 35 plants growing in my garden.  And the only reason I'm not planting something else today is because it's raining cats and dogs out there.

Aside from the therapeutic factor, I really do love my garden.  Last year, I wanted to start a garden, but it was more than I could handle while going through cancer treatments, so this is my first garden ever!  I'm growing all kinds of stuff, and I'm so excited to be able to harvest all the fresh food.  I'm growing tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, artichokes, parsley, cilantro, and peppers.

Theoretically I'm also growing yellow beans, but those seeds have been in the ground a long time and I haven't seen anything yet.  (sigh).

I'm learning a lot, especially about what not to do.  And I still need to do some research on a few things, like how much space a cucumber plant takes, and whether I should thin out the sprouts.

The strawberry plant has been especially fun.  Isaac really likes categorizing things, and one weekend, we spent a long time talking about which vegetables or fruits grow above the ground, and which ones grow below.  Of the ones that grow above, he wanted to know which fruits grew on the ground, and which ones grow on trees.  Because of that conversation, we got a hanging strawberry plant, so he can see a fruit that he likes develop and grow.

Anyway, overall, gardening has been a very pleasant distraction.  Even though it's only Wednesday.  But as much as he enjoys doing stuff outside, I'm really looking forward to working on it together once he lives here full time! (or at least working on it while he's singing and playing nearby on the swingset!).

It's Friday!!!

It's finally, finally Friday!  Just a few more hours now till we can pick Isaac up for the weekend.  Can't wait!

In the meantime, Dave has been spoiling me a little.  Last night, he took me to the first farmer's market of the year, where I had the most incredible berry tart I have ever had in my life.  The crust was soft, yet held it's shape, the filling was creamy, amazing, and not too sweet, and the glazed berries on the top....

I'm getting distracted thinking about it.

Anyway, we followed that with a dinner at an insanely busy Mexican restaurant (happy Cinco de Mayo!), where I got a dish I wish I wouldn't have. The chips they brought out were hot and fresh, though, so it was still pretty amazing.

And now today.  Dave an I are going on a picnic before our meeting with the social worker, which is what we're doing before we pick up Isaac.

And that is why it's so amazing that it's Friday.