Thrifted

 

Books. (Always). A few yards of wool.  AND I have been wanting an oversized Turkish beach towel and I found one thrifted brand new!  Total for all $10.50.

And hear me out here. Flannel. It's SO expensive when you buy it new.  We use 100% cotton flannel for a lot. I have made unpaper towels for maybe the last 10 years? And I make various smaller washcloth type sized too. Plus my kids' pajamas. When I find 100% cotton flannel sheets in the thrift stores, if it's in good condition, I buy it if it's $1 to $2 a sheet.  Then I wash it all in hot and dry it up.  Then I with either use it for bedding and retire our current bedding into unpaper towels or cut it directly for a project. I can tell you the bottom right will likely be next year's Christmas PJs for my kids.  $1 will definitely get me multiple pairs of pajama pants!  I got all these 100% flannel sheet sets for $12 total. I feel like this is a win all around...saving these from the landfill, supporting the thrift shop charitable cause, saving money, not wasting paper towels. 

Hand stitching

 Audra picks up on something crafty and mass produces. She then takes a loooong pause while she picks up something else.  She's rotated back around to hand stitching. 

She made me this delightful little pillow:

She's been working on old fashioned pockets.  She is currently hand stitching her 5th.  She has only kept one, the rest she keeps gifting to friends. 

I'm inspired by her creativity! 

Nature Co-op

 Our nature homeschool co-op is back for spring and it's just so very wonderful to be with nature loving friends outside.

Easy as 1-2-3. Not really.  I put a heck of lot of time into planning, but it's 110% worth it!  8 weeks of exploring 1 square foot of various habitats, here we come! (Couple of pics pilfered from friends, thank you!)

Movie vs. Read Alouds

 Me: "Kids, your dad isn't going to be home and I have to zoom a meeting.  You can watch a movie." 

:::Mom zooms. Kids watch movie.:::

Me: "Sorry, my meeting went later than expected. You can just finish the movie and go up to bed when it's done."

Kids: "WHAT? And skip read alouds?"  "No. That's a bad idea. Let's shut it off now." "If we shut if off now, can we still read?"

(I've already read to them this morning for a solid hour and then some). 

If you know our family, you are certain of what happened next.

Bookworms through and through. 

Spring feels!

 Know the best way to escape mud season? The beach.  Sand is much preferred to mud! 

Little Miss Take My Picture is wearing mama made dress, pinafore and coat!

Way ahead? That's Adrian getting space from his sisters! 

Said sisters.  One rolling in the sand. One getting wet. Sigh.

thrifted

 

Books. Fido jar. Metal bookends. Wetshirt.  $5.

The woolen/namebrand load!  LL Bean wool sweater. LL bean vest. Timberland wool pull over.  LL Bean wool scarf.  Three pairs of adorable socks for Anna-Kate. Two woolen hats.  $5.75.

Presentations 2022

 Today was the 4-H Public Speaking Tournament. This year my kids did their presentations with hardly any help from me.  Confident. Organized.  Well spoken. I'm super proud. Some practice and the big day pics. 

Adrian did Greenlight Collectibles, which are American made diecast vehicles. 

Audra did hers on rescuing dogs.

Anna-Kate was too young to enter the competition, but she made a poster, collected some supplies and announced her presentation was going to be on white-tailed deer. 

Our 4-H agent was kind enough to allow Anna-Kate join as the key note speaker.  

Anna-Kate said she loved everyone listening to her, loved how everyone clapped for her. She also says she think she winned the whole competition. All kids got completion certificates, one may enjoy reading what Anna-Kate's says! 

Proud of my trio!  They are certainly talkers (like their mama-I spent years doing public speaking in 4-H too).