Weekend Musings

The weekend started out slow, picked up a pace, and is ending slow again. Thankfully.

Sisters

 Is there anything better than having a bunch of big sisters to hold you? Fletcher loves the attention.

The girls really make him smile too. So thankful for big girls who love having siblings.

GARDEN

So it was time to pull a few potatoes from the garden. This is one of the most favorite things to do as far as the little kids are concerned.

 We grabbed an ice cream bucket to load the bounty in and headed to the garden spot.

 Red potatoes were not enough this year so we planted purple ones too.

Obviously the purple ones did not grow as large. I am not sure why, but there are lots more still growing out there. We only pulled about 5 plants. Now we only have to decide what to make with these purple (and very small) beauties. I suggested potato salad but the little ones want french fries! If any of you know how to make fries from tiny potatoes, please let me know!:-)

PARTY

I was selected to host a House Party for EXPO Dry Erase Markers. I decided that an ice cream party with some other homeschool families was in order.

Okay, so only one family showed up! That was OK though because we had lots of fun and everyone was able to take home an erase board and 2 packs of markers each! The EXPO company was very generous in their goodies!

IN MOTION


Little Fletcher, though not crawling, is able to scoot himself over to items of interest.

He discovered my yarn basket and so now he scoots to that spot all of the time.

My poor yarn will never be the same.

I actually moved the basket this morning. I had forgotten how quickly babies in motion can grab and toss and tear apart the house!

Oh and how he laughs now! He throws his head back and shows everyone his new top teeth while laughing from deep within his body!

EXHAUSTION

Zeb has been getting up way too early every morning (about 6am) and so by mid morning he's ready for a nap. Saturday he had an unusually rough morning when he fell and cut his lip.

 He played upstairs with his trains, but just couldn't fight it any longer.

Sleep won! He took a nice nap and woke up feeling much better!

JAM


Lots of raspberries from mom means lots of yummy jam for toast.

 It also makes a wonderful lunch...at least Rose seems to love it!

Happy weekend !!!

This Grand Life

I finally finished this book, the book about adopting children and how to manage some of the challenges that go along with the entire process. I was happy to be chock-full of knowledge since we had  our home study and parenting training today. I was ready to impress the psychologist with everything I had learned, except she had NEVER heard of Karyn Purvis or the book. (sigh)
I think that dealing with the state that is under-funded has been eye-opening for me. She was very nice and was very optimistic so we were thankful. She will come back next week for a short follow-up and then we are finished! They will put us into a state-wide database so we can wait for a match. We are in much anticipation.

This week has flown by and I am sad that June is almost half way gone. I have been savoring my time outside, despite the record heat and drought, because there is so much to discover and admire. We have lots of new critters hiding around the property so the kids and I enjoy snapping photos of them and giving them names.

Feathers seem to be the new "thing" here, so the girls' and I ordered some feather extensions to put in our hair. I must say that we all look good, but little Rose is cute as a button with her feather.

As if the kids need ANY excuses to not brush their hair, Devin showed them all how to take a bandana and make a do-rag for their heads. So we now have feathers and bandanas......everywhere!
I am not sure about Willow's yoga pose, but the girl is limber!

Zeb got his first real haircut, and he cried the entire time. It was a little pathetic, but he got over it quickly. That evening we sat outside in a very summer-like fashion and ate ice cream cones. I think we could have one every evening and it would be a perfect summer.

Last 

Speaking of perfect summers, we had a perfect dinner of fried chicken nuggets. I used to make them mostly for birthday dinner requests but I was really craving a comfort food and this hit the target. Of course Mr. Bartyl and Jaymes made the preparation even sweeter. It has been forever since I have had a wine cooler, much too long. Fuzzy-navel, oh how I have missed you.

Finally, this sweet boy not only has 4 teeth now, but he loves to sit outside and try and grab at the streams of sunlight on the rug. His little world is full of big wonder and new discoveries. Life is good from here, my front porch. All I have to do is slow down and take it all in, and I do. I love his sweet face, blue eyes, and chunky thighs. The dimple in his chin makes me *swoon*!

Now, if I could only find a way to slow time down.

Bee Wrangling

 Last week Devin and I went a friend's house and removed a bee hive that was living in the side of her house. We were happy to get a chance to try out a new bee vacuum Devin built. When we arrived bees were flying out the exterior corner here. Her husband sprayed expansion foam all around hoping it would keep the bees inside the wall and then they would die. Bees are clever and just chewed a hole through the foam.

 After a bit we figured out where the hive body was and Devin used his saw to cut a square out through that part of the house. BINGO! The hive was above the basement ceiling (finished basement) and below the floor joists to the main floor.

 It was not a HUGE hive, but they had several combs drawn down. These combs you see are actually attached up higher, so it was difficult to remove them in whole pieces.  the comb was full of brood, eggs and honey.

 Since my hand was smallest, I pulled the comb out and also tried to vacuum up as many bees as possible.
 The bee vacuum was attached to a  bucket. When we were done, we took the vacuum part off top and placed a screened lid on the bucket.

 We collected a box full of comb. Sadly, we were not able to find a queen. I am sure she was smooshed in the process. I threw this comb out in my apiary and let all the bees rob it of honey.

  I tried to get all the comb out. there were still field bees flying in, but the homeowner was going to spray them down with water that evening. The bees were actually very docile considering we were ripping their home apart.

They had some repairs left but at least the bees were gone and we got to a new hive. I put the bees in a 5 frame nuc and gave them a frame of eggs from another hive in the apiary.
I will check on them in one month and see if they have a new queen.

Planning a Mega-Family Lake Day

It's summer and that means loads of fun filled activities, right?
Logistically it's not ideal to load up my crew and take them many activities. That's not to say we NEVER venture out, but we tend to stay home (a common summer theme for many large families).
Economically, who can afford to do many vacations? Well, not many large families. Do we suffer and have a boring summer? No way!!!!!

Being large means thinking outside the box and keeping things simple. Most days we are at home playing games and splashing in a small kiddie pool eating popsicles. Occasionally, when the weather gets super hot, we have an afternoon movie day complete with popcorn and rootbeer floats. Summer is also a great time to learn a new craft or to start knitting those Christmas gifts.

The hot days are an opportunity to relax every afternoon so that after dinner we can stay up past dark and catch lightening bugs and play flashlight tag.

We are also fortunate enough to have grandparents who live on a lake and have a private dock. It's really nice because they also have a screened in building with a table and grill and also the water starts shallow at the shoreline and gradually gets deeper. This makes a great area for little ones to play.
This year I promised the kids we would pack a cooler and swim once a week. Tomorrow is a lake day.
I am trying to keep costs down and since it will cost about $20 in gas to get there and back, I must stay creative in selecting and packing food for the day. Seriously, you have to have lots of food when you are swimming, right?

Here's how a mega-family packs for a day of fun at the lake while keeping costs to a minimal.


First, a cooler is a must . We usually pack lunchmeat, etc to make sandwiches or I make PB&J sandwiches before we leave and pile them high into a cake pan. I will cut them in fourths so that the kids can snack on them throughout the day. Tomorrow we are bringing some ham and cheese so I baked up some sandwich rolls. By baking my own bread I save quite a bit plus it is much healthier.

My kids LOVE those jello and fruit cups, however they can be pricey for  so many of us and I don't want to limit how much food the kids eat. That would not be fun. We also have cousins who swim with us so I need to have plenty.
 This is where I make up my own jello cups.

 

I buy my jello and canned fruit from Aldis, which makes it very affordable. These plastic bowls and lids can also be re-used so it ends up costing me about $4 to make up 16 jello cups with fruit in them. the kids love them and Rose was excited to see me make them and helped me put the lids on them. These containers can also be used to make pudding cups. These cups are MUCH bigger than the little pudding cups you see in the store too.

We always like something sweet too and store bought cookies are not only expensive but loaded with junk you don not need. Tonight the big girls helped me whip up some peanut butter cookies.

I double the recipe and it makes about  60 cookies. That seems like a lot but there will be 10 kids and a few adults hanging out at the lake. Homemade cookies such as these only took about 30 minutes to make, thanks to my convection oven and cost me only a couple of dollars in ingredients.

Last year I bought soda for the lake. This year that just isn't going to happen. First off it's way too expensive and secondly it's way too sugary. This year I bought each child a tumbler cup that has a travel lid so that we can save by not using paper cups and so we could bring drinks in a cooler. Here is what I have for drinks.

My 5 gallon drink cooler was too big for a one day outing so I got these 2 gallon coolers. I put ice water in one and I make up lemonade or iced tea for the other. These are easy to carry and the perfect amount of drink. They cost me $14 each at Academy Sports but I saw them at Walmart 2 days ago for $9 each.

Aldis is also a great place to stock up on some chips or cheese sharks (think Goldfish crackers). Snacks are a big part of what makes these day trips enjoyable. I will also use a laundry basket to pack up extra diapers, sunscreen towels and a large quilt. The little ones will sometimes need quiet time on a quilt and under a shade umbrella.
So this is how we organize it all. I must also mention that the kids MUST clean their rooms and the bathrooms the evening before the lake day. I also do my best to get laundry washed and put away. Typically we get home exhausted so it helps to have the house clean and orderly. This also makes the unloading of the van easier. For dinner we eat a bowl of cereal or yogurt, and then it's bedtime. The kids are usually ready for bed after a day in the hot sun, swimming.
Like everything large families do, it only takes a little planning and day before preparations to take the whole gang out for an enjoyable day.

So what cool  and budget friendly things will your family be doing this summer?

Memorial Day Bugs

Goodness! It was a very hot Memorial Day today! It was a burning 97 degrees and we have no rain in the forecast this week. That stinks since I decided to plant a little more corn in the garden yesterday.

Devin was working his bootie off in the ER today so the kids and I did more yard work and ate a million popsicles. In fact I made 2 trips to the store to buy some:-)

Summer officially starts for us today, although school will be in session until Journee finishes up Algebra and Quinn finishes Biology. The young kids will be reading each day as well. Seriously, it's too hot to be out until dusk so why not stay busy?

This evening I was walking around picking up toys (and popsicle wrappers) when I found this hanging on the side of the house.

It appears that the larger spider ate the smaller one. Now, this spider looked to be about 5 inches across. Anyone know what it is? I have no clue and did not kill it, in the event it's a helpful spider. If ya'll tell me it's a mean, poisonous spider...I will hunt it down in the morning.
Yes, there are "helpful" spiders. I remember when I was young (guessing 12) my grandpa and I spotted a HUGE spider on the side of my parents' house and I told him to squash it. He refused, telling me what type of spider it was and that it ate poisonous spiders. I bet my grandpa would know what that ugly one there is.....ya'll let me know if you do! Right now it just looks like a carniverous spider.

I also went to feed my honey bees, the ones I took from a friends house. They are queenless and I put them in a 5 frame nuc with a frame of eggs and capped brood from the neighboring hive. They should raise a queen within a month. I decided to feed them some. Well, lookie what I found out there on a hive.

It looks like a little twig...until you look closely and see the mouth. Wait for it.........

It crawls around. It's like a tiny caterpillar. Wicked!!!! It's amazing how it is dressed to look like a twig on a tree.
So.....anyone know what this is? I will try and look it up later. I have never seen one, but it was good practice to photograph with my macro lens.
Finally........

This 2 year old boy of mine is trying to kill me with a looooong slooooooww death. You see this look he has? He winks and tries to convey a super innocent look. Well, he has learned to climb the back deck rail (YES, IT"S REALLY HIGH UP!) He tries to get up and look down over the rail, and he can do it quite well. What to do?????
I am considering locking him in his room until he's 18 and in the meantime taking up a career in entomology.