Covered In Roses

I kid you not – I had a 40 hour work week with just driving my girls around and getting errands done this past week. Between private dance, riding lessons, grocery shopping, homeschool classes  -  there was not one day that we were home for an entire day and those days we WERE home – it was not for more than 45 minutes. Whew! That week is finished though and this week is proving to me much, much, calmer. And then camps start next week which of course,  is the start of a very busy summer. We also have a few feis planned for J this summer (Irish Dancing competition) – One in Branson Missouri, Kansas City Mo and of course those here in St. Louis.  It’s a wonder I’m still sane sometimes!

Last week? Week before last? Was teacher appreciation week. Every year a wonderful mom arranges for a surprise for J’s dance teacher. Last year each child brought one flower for MJ and by the end of the week there were 5 + vases  filled with flowers. This year is was simply – Let’s not forget! These are her favorite things……. (with a list). So J and I ignored the list for the most part and made her a salve for bruises and small cuts. Lavender, nettle and calendula went into the salve.

Here’s the oil after the herbs steeped and were strained.

Small container of the salve for us  -

We also made her some bath salts -

Lavender of course – for relaxing. I also made an eye pillow and then we added a box of tea and  a bar of chocolate to the goodie bag.

Row has one more Algebra class this Thursday to make up for a snow day in March I think!  We’ll be doing some clothes shopping for  my teen this week also.  Other things I need to accomplish – figuring out lunches for a week of camp – turning in a violin, exchanging a viola and I honestly believe that may be all I need to do! Whew! So glad this week is going to be a lighter week than last. I don’t know what I would have done if this week had been my crazy week

We ended our crazy week with the first bonfire of the summer in my mother’s day present! A new fire pit!

Today is Monday which of course, means off to the barn again  What would we do with out that place?

Bright Blessings!

Last week J and I stopped in a thrift store before dance.  I love going into thrift stores and a lot of the girls clothing is from a thrift store simply because it’s more economical.  Where else can you find name brand clothing for $4.00!!

Anyway, – we stopped briefly – and I didn’t find any thing to wear but I did make a decent find with some other items – A bag of zippers! A water bottle, a vintage math flash card set and a shower curtain  -

I would show you the picture, but I seem to have inadvertently deleted it  - very frustrating. The water bottle was a Nalgene water bottle. These are $10 at a big box store and I paid $2.00 for it – score! We have about 5 of them now and I fill each and every one of them up for working summer camps. It can hit 100* + here in the midwest and we need all the hydration we can get!  I did a happy dance over the bag of zippers! So many bright colors – I’m going to put them to use making zipper pouches with some of that gorgeous fabric I bought on my trip to Minneapolis from the Crafty Planet fabric store… Have I shown you that fabric? Oh dear! I will have to take pictures and show you!

The girls had their friends over this weekend. The girls who live 3 hours away. They had a great time, short and sweet. Rowan is an introvert and as much as she loves her best friend, I know that too long a visit and she starts to feel overwhelmed and tired. I do too.. J, however, can go for weeks and other than the “we can’t find anything to play”, their time together goes fairly smoothly – just fairly – we’ve certainly had our moments.

We held J’s “official” friend party on Friday – A few friends, homemade pizza, fresh fruit. What more could you ask for? (sorry this picture seems to be missing also). Saturday was the mall. Funny – we only seem to really go to the mall when these girls are here Oh well. That’s what they wanted to do so that’s what we did.

Today is Monday – another beginning of a week of school, barn work, dance lessons, riding lessons and school.  It’s almost May and in 4? short weeks Camps start at our barn! I can’t believe how the time flies. Rowan is saving up to buy another horse and Jaia wants Saige – the American Girl.

Me? I would love a week off

Bright Blessings and Happy Monday!

Rowan making dinner.

Bright Blessings!

With my husband traveling more and more often because of work – we try to make the most of the weekends we are all together.  He doesn’t travel constantly, thank goodness, but we have  had months where he’s gone almost 3 weeks out of 4. NOT many by any means and I am SO glad my girls are older. This would not work if they were toddlers!!

This past weekend we went to a Food Truck Festival.  Food trucks are relatively new here in St. Louis I believe  - so we’ve actually NOT seen a food truck on the streets!  We also don’t work anywhere there would actually be a food truck so I’m  assuming that’s why we don’t see many of them  LOL!

Clothes truck.

Totally Fantastic cupcakes – Try the “drunken pig”.

Grilled cheese, quesadillas etc..

We had some pretty delicious food. Tacos – beef and chicken, southwestern chicken quesadilla, Rowan had a what I would call a shrimp po boy. We tried a  shredded beef sandwich, some sort of deep fried  rice ball with sausage – Gumbo ball.  There were a few trucks we didn’t get to – there were maybe 8 trucks and we tried food from 5 of them??  The greek truck, unfortunately did not have falafel and I DO love a good falafel!   We all picked something to try and then sat and shared. We had a wonderful, laid back afternoon

Bright Blessings!

This weekend we were to have the girls family birthday parties. We haven’t done a family party in years – choosing instead to have a large friend party. Family of course is always welcome to attend these, but, you know, MY family doesn’t want to, doesn’t like to and won’t.

All went well for the Saturday party – burgers, hotdogs, wings, chips, fruit, and I even bought soda. Which I rarely do  - except when it’s to mix with rum of course. By the end of the day J was complaining of a sore throat and stuffy nose. She went to bed with a head cold and woke up feeling worse. SO the Sunday party for my in-laws was cancelled – Oh well.. We’ll do it again.  So instead of smashed chicken we had homemade pizza instead. -

Prosciutto, pine-apple, jalepeno, and spinach on the parents.

Pepperoni and spinach for the girls.

Yes -I do put spinach in almost everything!

Today we are back to school after our home school spring break – and off to the barn this afternoon -

Bright Blessings!

So much has been going on here!  Here are a few pictures from the past couple of months just highlighting it all!

Bright Blessings!

I hope that spring and warmth are returning to your neck of the woods!!

So obviously I’ve not been posting much. At all. For almost 6 months. I guess I got stuck in a rut. Although I love the idea of blogging I am an introvert. I have a hard time with expressing myself and wondering exactly, WHO is interested enough in reading about the things I am doing here in our humble house. And really with all of 2 readers I was kinda depressed.  I think I have tried to fashion this blog very similar to other blogs I love to read and I realize that I cannot do that. I need to write this blog for me, for my girls and what we love to do.

So I will be starting fresh – with the hopes that this blog becomes.  Becomes a place where I like to write, becomes a place I like to let you know what I am doing. I hope it becomes a place where others come to visit. I mean, more than the two readers who do – Thank you for coming!

So I will start over here, today, this week. Welcome.

There have been so many things going on! It really seems that since October we have been going non stop – and really still going but we’re having a welcome lul.

I will post more about stuff as time goes on.   For today I just needed to come here. To write what is in my heart and my head. We will see how time treats this small blog of mine.

Bright Blessings

and Happy Spring!

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Thanks SouleMama for letting me join.

My goal this homeschooling year, is to make sure we incorporate different arts and crafts into our lessons. Or rather, as lessons/learning processess themselves.  My girls tend to not like to do “history projects, or science projects” for some reason.  Maybe they don’t want “art” muddled up by learning? Funny girls! – Oh well – I’ve always made sure we have good supplies on hand and the girls are welcome to create whatever they’d like, but occasionally they like to have direction! Imagine that – LOL:)  Further into the school year we’ll learn about some well know artists and try our hand at painting like Monet or Picasso – but for now, we’re just playing around with what ever suits our fancy.

We have a couple of different things we’re playing with now…

Trying our hand at making stamps.

This is my very first attempt at carving a rubber stamp!

Not too bad – we’ll be playing around with this more this week – we’ll see how it goes!

Turning old cigar boxes into school supply boxes -

I love old books so I grab them periodically when we’re out thrifting – or sometimes libraries get rid of books that I’ll grab. Rowan decided to cover her box in this old book that was falling apart.

We’ll mod-podge them when the glue dries!

I also have a couple of things I’m mentally planning out – The annual Avalon Anniversary party is coming up – November 3rd and I think we’ve finally narrowed down what each girl wants to do – Jaia and her pony are going to be Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter – Yep! who’s mad?? Must be me! How am I going to get a top hat to stay on a horse’s head! And Rowan, I think,  and her horse are going to be twins!!! Too funny – we’ll find matching t-shirts, make him “jeans” and maybe a baseball cap or hat of some sort…  Fake tattoo maybe?

I ordered and received a pattern to make a Feis dress for Jaia. Right now this is more for practice and for fun – she’s no where near needing a solo dress but hey!  Give me a challenge and I’m going to try!

I finally “finished” the metal cabinet I dragged home. The fabric, of course bubbled as I put the mod-podge on but oh-well – looks decent enough for my first attempt at mod-podging (and it will be in the basement anyway)..

I’m trying my best to allow the girls to try out what ever craft medium they’d like – with in reason of course. We didn’t do a lot of crafty things growing up – in fact – I don’t remember if we had crayons at home, let alone paint or play doh! – so I’ve always been determined that my girls  get the opportunity – and I’m constantly looking for more ideas! No – I take that back, we had crayons at school, where I remember coloring the sheet for art class and having it look just. like. everyone. else…  blah.

Enjoy your day!

Bright Blessings!

Busy with school work.

Bright Blessings!