Taking turns

is a hot topic in our house, of course, because we are a sharing family, you know.  What’s interesting is that now we have to take turns SINGING.  Sometimes it’s okay to sing together, but sometimes certain kids want to sing BY THEMSELVES.  This means that we end up having one singer joining in, only to have the original singer stop singing and yell (it’s always a yell when it comes to this particular situation, never a polite request), “STOP SINGING!  IT’S MY TURN TO SING!”  Because of this, singing time can quickly deteriorate into screaming time.  Really fun. 

Swimming lessons

began Monday.  Daily for 2 weeks, but just for the girls.  The place we’re going doesn’t have lessons for anyone under three.  Simeon is not impressed.  The girls were a bit chilly, but both had a great time and did very well. 

Fruit picking

Michael took last week off, so we used some of the time to pick fruit.  I’ve told you about the strawberries.  Friday it was cherries and blueberries.  We got 32 pounds of bing cherries, 14 pounds of pie cherries, and 11 pounds of blueberries. 

So now we just have to eat them or pit them and process them. 

Photos will be forthcoming. 

I can see the humor even now

As the baby’s due date approaches (August 28), posts like this make me laugh even more than usual.  Which is good, because I think that, with the first couple of kids they made me sweat and worry. 

9 years ago today

Really?  9 years?

Strawberries

We’ve finally entered strawberry-picking season!  It’s quite late this year, because the spring was so cold and damp, but we’ve picked, as a family, 27 pounds since last Friday.  That’s really just 2 farms visited and 11 pounds picked Friday and 16 yesterday.  Michael came with us yesterday. 

Hannah and Naomi are great pickers.  Simeon can readily identify the ripe berries and eats them with great vigor.  Yesterday, though, the farm had a dirt track next to the field, so Sim spent most of his time there, playing in the dirt.  Of course, since he’d been slathered with sunscreen before the excursion, and then had eaten several strawberries before the dirt, he was quite a sight when we finished.

I’ve made 2 kinds of preserves and a strawberry jam, and I’m looking forward to a couple more kinds of jam, as well as strawberry syrup and butter.  Hannah wants to make freezer jam, too.  And, of course, we’ve been eating strawberries plain, in smoothies, and in strawberry shortcake.  Mmmmm, summer!

More creations

A lot of what we’re creating these days involves the garden, but I haven’t taken the camera out there recently.  Yesterday would have been perfect, since the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  But I didn’t think of it.  Today it’s overcast again, so I think I’ll wait for another sunny day.  Hopefully it won’t be too long.

However, something I made recently was a book of felt saints for our goddaughter.  I got the idea from a website, as well as from our Catholic Craft Day group, which did a felt Last Supper during Lent.  The only problem with the felt Last Supper was that it didn’t stick very well, since we used glue.  The woman who made the website I found (which I can’t remember now…typical for my life these days!) used embroidery techniques to put together her felt pictures, so that’s what I did.  Then I made them all into a little book.  It’s very handmade (lots of fun mistakes!), but I thought it came out cute.

I asked my goddaughter’s mother what saints were their favorites.  Our Lady of Kibeho topped the list.

Saint Anne is supposed to be sitting on that bench.  It’s difficult to get felt pictures to look like they’re sitting.  Try it sometime.

I had a lot of fun with the iconography.  The lily is a bit funny-looking, but at least the saw is very clear.  I was doubly pleased that Naomi guessed who this was before I told her.  Hannah knew, too, of course, but I wasn’t sure if Naomi would recognize him.

St. Peter’s name is completely wonky.  But the keys, which Michael thought were hatchets on my first attempt at making them, came out looking mostly like keys, I thought.

St. Nicholas was the most fun, because he has all kinds of different iconography.  I had to be sure the little bags of money were in there, for the dowries, you know. 

I have a feeling more felt saints are in my future, because I had so much fun with this one.