or, rather, Taylor and her best friend, L’s, little houses. I made these little house pouches lsat night and finished them up this morning. The tutorial can be found here. The house is made with some canvas I had because I wanted them to be sturdy without extra work. I used little scraps of fabric for the doors and windows. I had some Timeless Treasure Apple Tree fabric (one of my favorites) that I cut the trees out of. I decided I would like this better than the flowers – I am a tree girl! This was a fun little project and was pretty quick too. I almost don’t want to give them to the girls for their upcoming birthdays. I really want to keep the blue one, which Taylor has claimed for herself. I might just have to make myself another one to match.

I also finished the knitting of my vest. I ended up just doing a ribbed edging, because I just can’t do the applied I-cord edging. This is the second project that I have tried to do it on (really tried) and I just don’t understand. My hands and needles just don’t work together. Anyway, since I did the ribbed edging I decided that I needed a zipper up the front instead of toggles and I can’t find a brown zipper of the right length right now. I’ll have to check the thrift store soon – then I can wear the vest this fall:) Yay!

Here’s a parting gift – Kameron with our basket of veggies that we picked yesterday. We are not getting much at a time, but we are getting some, so I should be happy. I am getting ready to plant some lettuce and snap peas and spinach this weekend so that we’ll have some good stuff for the fall. I hope that your garden is doing well if you have one. I hear of many that aren’t this year. Probably not the best year to start gardening, but at least I’m learning!

2. Being called a “big meanie” by my almost 5 year old daughter and not caring that she just called me that.

3. How my children’s stomachs always have room for dessert. Where, on earth, did they get the idea that we should have dessert at every meal everyday? I sure haven’t given them that so I’m a little confused.

4. No matter how much I clean each day the house looks like a wreck. Seriously, how does anyone keep up with 9 rooms and 3 children and a husband?

5. How everyone else in our town has huge amounts of tomatoes, but we only get one or two a day. Hilarious! And there is nothing I like better than a good ripe tomato in the summer. I could live on them…if they would just grow and ripen. I think I’ll plant twice as many next year.

Anything funny to you today?

I haven’t started the other kids hats yet, but I do have in mind to finally finish my Estes Vest from the Interweave Knits Fall 2008. The last time i worked on this was about a year ago. All I have left is the edging and buttonloops and it will be done. Shouldn’t take too long. Maybe the mojo will stay long enough to finish it.

In other crafty news, I turned this little number that cost me $1 into something I just love. I got the chalk/bulletin board from a local thrift store and removed the cork. Then I painted it and covered the cork with fabric. I do still need to make some kind of piece for the cutout at the top. Thinking about using chalkboard contact paper so I can write my title in and change it whenever I want to. I bought some chalk markers and I love those too. If you have never used them, get some. They make chalkboards desireable again!

I also fixed (with nails, amazing) and painted this table and chairs that were mine and my sisters when we were little. We are going to use this for a our school table for now. While we would like to get something like this, it just isn’t in the budget now. This was free and will be big enough for 2 of the kids to work on. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have!

And, in garden news, we are picking green beans, banana peppers and tomatoes now. Just not as many as I had hoped for. My in-laws gave us tons of tomatoes though and some green peppers, so I can can and freeze some things for winter. I bought some corn from my favorite producer here and am working on it today. I am still hoping my second planting will be worth picking. The first was destroyed by deer, ants and worms – we only got about 5 ears. My cucumbers, gourds and cantaloupe are producing small babies now and I am hoping that they are able to grow to pickable goodness. I also have several cold weather crops to plant in a week or two so we have some yummy stuff for the fall. At least my flowers are beautiful!

Help me, Father God, to lead others when they can’t do it for themselves and to never leave someone hungry for love, hungry for You.

Sanctus Real – Lead Me

Here are the lyrics:

I look around and see my wonderful life
Almost perfect from the outside
In picture frames I see my beautiful wife
Always smiling
But on the inside, I can hear her saying

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can’t
Don’t leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you’re willing to fight
That I’m still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone.”

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They’re just children from the outside
I’m working hard, I tell myself they’ll be fine
They’re independent
But on the inside, I can hear them saying

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can’t
Don’t leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you’re willing to fight
That I’m still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone.”

So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I am called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won’t you lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can’t
Don’t want to leave them hungry for love
Chasing dreams that I could give up

I’ll show them I’m willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this out home
Lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone

Father, lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone

I feel like I have learned a lot about myself in the past few years and figured out what sort of relationships work for me. First, having my husband to talk to and do things with is wonderful. Having that male companionship is important to balance out any drama coming from my female friends (even though the males can have their fair share of drama too.) Second, I have a best friend who I can share everything with. Drama is non-existent between us, I think, and she is someone I can share anything with and I don’t have to worry about what she’s going to think of me or if she’s going to tell someone or whatever. If everyone in the world had a spouse and a best friend like this I feel like we’d have less depression and emotional problems. I think you also have to have a strong faith and relationship with Jesus. Without that it’s hard to keep the right perspective and easy to get caught up in the drama that may not be noticeable if you are in the Word and praying.

I understand that sometimes the drama unfolds unplanned and I’m not saying I am immune to it (in fact I’ve struggled with it this week, but I just keep praying for God to love that person through me so that it won’t be as hard), but having those key relationships (Jesus, spouse & best girlfriend) helps you to keep the right perspective and get over whatever it is before the drama escalates. How was that for a run on sentence? Ha!

Not sure why I felt compeled to share this – but it was on my heart tonight even more than it has been the past few days. I guess maybe part of it is that I see so many women out there who don’t have any of these 3 relationships and it makes me so sad. Maybe if those friendships were there (REAL friendships) then so much drama and ridiculousness wouldn’t exist.

So anyway, just my opinion – have a great weekend celebrating your freedom! I think we may end up staying home for a quiet few days of reflection and family fun. It’s better (not to mention safer) that way sometimes!

So, we are doing the summer reading program at our public library again. We are a reading family, so we’ll probably do it as long as it is offered! The great thing about our library’s program is that they include the parents and younger siblings of children who are actually the right age to participate. So Kristopher is actually “signed up,” but Taylor, Kameron and I also get to keep a reading list and earn book bucks. Kameron gets special baby ones and I get adult book bucks. At the end of the program in a few weeks we will get to spend our book bucks on items like school supplies, little toys, coffee mugs, paper, etc. The reason for the different colored bucks is so the babies only shop at their table with safe toys and the adults stay at their designated tables. I think involving the whole family is great and actually encourages reading more than a program just for the K-12 crowd. Kristopher has already filled up 2 front and back pages with chapter books and is working on his third sheet. He has a little friendly competition going with his best friend B. He also really wants to reach the maximum number of allowed book bucks – although he really doesn’t need to. Last year he had over 100 and didn’t end up spending all of them because the merchandise is priced low so kids can get it! But he’s reading and enjoying, so if he wants all those that is fine with me!

Usually I don’t read much because our summers are so busy. I will count the books I read to Taylor and Kameron, but only read one of my own. This year I decided to actually read some books that interest me and I have enjoyed them. I have gotten less sleep this summer though! Here is my Summer Reading List:

Ford County: Stories by John Grisham – I’m a big fan of John Grisham and I really enjoyed his latest work.
Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs – I probably should have either skipped this one altogether or waited until closer to Christmas. I read her first novel last year, The Friday Night Knitting Club, and while it was enjoyable, this one just seemed to go on and on and just updated me on the old characters. It was kind of boring.
Ever After by Karen Kingsbury – Such a sweet story. Her books always make me cry, a lot, and this was no excecption. Even though her works are fiction, I always learn something from her writing because she uses so much of what is going on in the world to tell her stories. So good.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks – I had a vague feeling that I’d started this one before, but not finished it. I did enjoy it though and am glad I read it. I have read most of his books and think his love stories are very good reads.
A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks – Now, this one was sad too. I did like it, but after the last two sappy love stories I was getting ready for a change, so my heart wasn’t in this read as much and I had to hurry to finish it! It was a good story though. Wonder if they’ll make a movie out of it – might be kind of a thriller…not his typical book turned movie romance.

I’m currently reading The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. I actually own this book and have read it mostly before, but I wanted to reread for ideas so I checked it out from the library so I could count it. :) I think this will be my last for this summer (at least on the list.) Too much other stuff going on to focus on books right now. I’ve read many little kids books to Taylor & Kameron and will continue to do that. I let them pick theirs and then I pick some good ones for them so that we don’t have all Disney and board books to read.

Do you have a summer reading program at your library? If you do, and aren’t involved in it, check it out. We have a lot of fun and reading new books is always an adventure!

Can anyone tell me what this bug is? It has 6 legs and appears to have bright red fangs hanging down from it’s face. We looked in our bug book and didn’t find any answers. If you know tell me!

2. Kristopher had his 5th piano lesson yesterday and he really seems to like it. I don’t have to tell him to practice everyday, he just does it, and he’s flying through the book. My friend who is teaching him said he’s doing really great. I am so happy he likes it and is doing so well, because when it comes to musical instruments I am not able to put my brain and hands together. My dad tried to teach me piano when I was a child and I didn’t like it, I tried to teach myself a bit in college and I didn’t really like it, and now I have looked at the stuff and tried a little and I still don’t really like it or find it easy to try to play. But I love to hear piano music and I hope that he will continue to play for me. Kody has been playing some things by ear too (which amazes me since I can’t sit down and do that), so maybe he will be playing more soon too.

3. A couple of weeks ago, I was having a rough morning getting ready for church. The dress I wanted to wear needed some hem work, so I did that with very little time to get ready, and then I was getting everyone else ready and the zipper split in the back. After that I looked in my closet and decided that I had nothing to wear! So, Saturday I went to a local thrift store to look. I found a beautiful dress for $3 that fit and another little weekday dress for $1. I also found 3 yards of a great fabric to make myself a fall dress ( I had a pattern in mind when I saw it – yay!) Then on Sunday, one of my good friends gave me a dress (brand new!) that she couldn’t wear because it was too short. That is never a problem for me and while it is not something I would normally pick out, I tried it on and I think it is pretty cute. So, I had a good dress weekend!

4. Kristopher had his games taken away for the last week and I am considering not ever giving them back…just kidding, I think. His offense wasn’t terrible, he just wasn’t listening and his attitude was poor much of the time. Since the games have been gone he has been so nice and good and things here have been peaceful. It seems like that’s the way it works wach time and I don’t think it has anything to do with “getting them back.” I think our house is just a more happy place when we are spending time together and helping each other. Once the games come back it is too tempting to ignore others and just turn the game on. Instead of finding something else to do when bored, all he can think of is games. I know his brother and sister are much happier when he is playing with them!

5. Well, my garden is not quite so beautiful anymore. Something knocked over a lot of my corn and I think something else tore a few of the stalks down. I’m not sure if it was a recent storm that knocked it over or if an animal did it. I didn’t see any tracks. My second corn planting is coming in and the ones that were knocked over seem to be okay, they just aren’t standing straight anymore. My second planting of green beans were supposed to be bush beans (I thought), but they seem to need something to grab onto, because they are shooting out vine things from their tops. I guess I need to work on something for them. I’m still hoping for a good crop of food, and praying that all animals and bugs will stay away from my veggies! We have gotten about 15 green beans (we sauteed them) and 6 blackberries so far. They were good!

6. I will be making lots of paper vines and waterfalls and animals on Saturday. That’s right, it’s time for VBS again! I am teaching the 3 year old class for the third year (3′s a charm!) I like the little ones and I’m looking forward to a great week. We’re doing the Sonquest Rainforest theme and teaching from the parables that Jesus used.

7. My birthday was last Saturday. Twenty-nine is not very exciting. I guess since I’ve been waiting and wanting to be 30 for so long I am just not happy with this age. I know no one wants to be 30, but I can’t wait. I look forward to being out of my twenties and feeling like the youngest one in my group of friends. I know I’ll still be the youngest, I just won’t feel quite so young when I’m 30, which to me is a good thing. I’m tired of being a kid! Anyway, this birthday was not very good – just a regular day for me, Kody was sick, so I had to make my own birthday dinner. I did get to go to town by myself for my regular errands, but I didn’t do anything exciting the rest of the day. I told Kody that I wanted a surprise party next year for my 30th. I have told him several times, actually. If I keep “reminding” him I guess I’ll expect it and if there is a party it won’t be much of a surprise, but either way I want a party! We’ll see.

8. It is so unbelieveably hot this week! I know everyone is talking about the weather and how hot it is, but I don’t remember the heat being this bad last year. We are drenched within 3 minutes of walking out the door and I can’t keep enough water on hand when we have to run errands in the car. I hope it cools off, just a little even, soon.

9. For my birthday, from my dad, I got some money. He usually sends money, but this time I had my short list of things I wanted and it turned out to be a perfect amount for them! I got a serger that I’ve been wanting for a long time; it’s just the cheapest little Singer one, but I don’t need a big fancy one to do what I want to. I also was able to get a little netbook/notebook computer. I got the Dell Inspiron 11z. I really wanted blue, but I decided that color wasn’t worth $40 extra. So I looked at skins and I found a really awesome one with trees that I hope is going to work. If it does it will be exactly what I want!

10. I’ve been watching my children lately when they are picking out clothes and listening when they complain about what I’ve picked out. I just think it’s funny to see how their sense of style has evolved. Kristopher likes his shirts to be kind of fitted, he doesn’t like loose or baggy shirts. I’m going to have to work on this some, because I like to buy his shirts big so he can wear them longer. He also likes his shorts to come down to his knees and cover the knee caps. If they are above his knees they bother him. (wow it’s really hard to type knees.) Taylor has decided that she really likes shirts with sleeves. She is not really a tank top kind of girl and she really doesn’t like thin straps. I know I shouldn’t complain about this because it will probably be a fight to get her to wear sleeves in the future, but she has so many cute sleeveless things that she doesn’t want to wear now. She also hasn’t been wanting to wear dresses much this summer and I’m not really sure why. I think she is just nervous that someone will see her underwear. She feels more secure if she is wearing the little short leggings with her dress. I guess I need to invest in some more of those so she’ll wear the dresses again!

Well, that’s 10. I was going to share my summer reading so far with you, but I’ll save that for another post. Enjoy your day and stay cool!

Anyway, here is what it looked like on June 10th: (I even labeled it – click for larger)

In that big open space that says, “nothing grew here” I have now replanted some corn that will hopefully come in later and some pumpkin seeds in a row. I know they’re supposed to be in a hill, but I’m experimenting and since it’s my garden I can do that! The carrots and second zinnia planting were the other newest things and they’re labeled, but so far no carrots and only 4 small zinnia plants. Each time I go out I feel so excited to see all my plants, but then am discouraged by the things that aren’t growing. I need to be happier about the things that are growing. :)

Here are some close up shots of my plants.

Our kale is ready to eat, unfortunately I don’t think I really like it and I know I won’t cook greens, so not sure what to do with that. It is beautiful though! I’m not sure the cucumbers are going to make it. Yesterday when I went out they were lying down on the ground looking sad. Maybe that’s what they’re supposed to do though? We have lots of little tomatoes and I’m so happy about that. I have big plans to can lots and make spaghetti sauce and of course eat them everyday this summer! If you know anything about me it should be that I love tomatoes and could live off them. The peppers have small blooms on them now, so it looks like we will have a few peppers at least. In my second and third garden plots I have green beans, sunflowers, tomatoes and strawberries. The strawberry plants are growing, but we won’t get strawberries until next year. All the tomatoes in these areas are small and not ready yet, but the beans are taking off and looking great. I’m so excited for those as well. Yesterday there were even beans on the 4 plants in the big garden and they look ready to me, so maybe I will pick them today. Our blackberries are also coming along nicely and will be ready soon, I think. No blueberries this year though.

Saturday and yesterday I worked around the little sitting area we are making. Last April we tore down the smallest shed that was in our back yard and there was a concrete floor under it. We didn’t want to break it up and there was nothing much we could do with it since it’s not that big (12′ x 9′), so we’re turning it in to a sitting area. Earlier this spring we lined it and filled it with pea gravel. And now I am surrounding it with flowers so it looks nicer. I put roses, that I got for $3 at Lowe’s, along the back side and I’m really hoping that they live! The two long sides will match, although I only have finished one side right now. I have a rudbeckia in the middle and then bush that I can’t remember the name of (fire-something?), and then the dark red and yellow day lillies on the ends. My yellow butterfly bush is now next to the stepping stone going into the sitting area and I will either put daylillies or spiderwart (that my inlaws have offered me) next to it along the front. Hopefully I will get back to Lowe’s tonight for some of this and some mulch so that I can make it look like a real little flower garden. This is the first year that I’ve really done much with plants and I’m surprising myself with how much I enjoy it and how much fun it is to choose things. I hope that I can someday make our yard as beautiful as my in-laws!

Plants I still need to get: flowers for the last side of the sitting area; a hosta to put in the flower bed around the deck where I removed the butterfly bush; some kind of small, pretty, flowering tree for the front of the house next to the porch to make it less plain; 2 more blueberry bushes and 2 more blackberry bushes; a cherry tree, possibly.

Items I still need outside: bench/chairs for sitting area; weed control fabric; mulch; fertilizer; my own tiller – someday!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer day! Sorry about my modge-podge post. It was just what I needed though. :)