Museum time

Last week Matt finished off the last bit of his vacation time. He never became sick as a dog (like the last time he took off) and the weather wasn't horrible (like the last time) which ended up meaning we rarely saw him, so busy was he on house/garage/barn projects. That is one HUGE downfall to not going to vacation destinations, if you ask me.)

It was a casual week of me us waking up and lingering in each others' arms, where we ate EVERY meal together and got to go find him whenever the urge to play/chat/see him arose. Never-the-less, I begged (nay, demanded) that ONE day would be set aside JUST for the family--where NO work was allowed and the only thing on the agenda was being together.

That day happily coincided with the promise to take the children to a museum we pass on the way to church every week. The Museum of the Earth.


I knew there would be some worldview "issues" to contend with, but I had absolutely NO idea how steeped in evolution the place would turn out to be. I don't think there was a single thing there that was any less than a billion trillion gazillion years old. ;-)


WARNING:: SOAPBOX ALERT!!!

It's incredibly unfortunate that beautiful fossils and relics are preserved in places such as these. I secretly wish "us Christians" could get our hands on a few and splatter the globe with truth-spreading historical and science museums. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

(Yes. I have heard about the Creation Museum. And yes: we are saving up!)

But-ONE JUST doesn't cut it if you ask me.


Thankfully (1), the children are not interested in reading the hundreds of propoganda signs (and neither were we) but were more interested in experiencing it all just for what was right there. Bits of our past. Secrets. Mysteries. Bones. Awe-inspiring creations of a the Master.

Also (Thankfully 2)-since we aren't big on dumbing things down, Corynn and Andrew already know the evolutionary position and the creationist position. They can explain it to you. They know what many scientists would have us believe. And they know not to believe it.

At six years old and three, the fact that we evolved from monkeys at best, ooze at worst, is already just plain laughable to them. Out of the mouths of babes.

And finally (Thankfully 3), we had this to read on the way there and I had done my homework HERE to answer any/all questions I could that might arise.


There was less dinosaur information there than I had expected, but what was there was fun.

Andrew got right into them.

But who wouldn't like T. Rex? (dead, of course.)



I think the high point of the visit was this guy, though:


A locally found Mastadon skeleton...read the sign! A guy found it in his backyard when he was expanding his pond! How stinkin' COOL is that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!


It is absolutely incredible to see. Amazing. Can you IMAGINE?



After the museum we just drove around. Holding hands. And talking. First, the whole family-but then the little people decided to snooze, so the bigger people got to do some heart-to-heart.

Maybe that was the highlight for me, afterall.




And completely off topic here: I have to say, I wish this were a room in my house. I would have FABULOUS pictures all the time! Oh, to dream.............

Sarah

Edited to Add: I wanted to thank everyone for their comments yesterday in regards to this post. Your well-wishes and empathy were tremendously heartening to me. Perhaps it is silly, but everyone's assurances that I wasn't dumb really did make me feel better. Being married to a Farmboy through and through means he really doesn't "get" the whole crying over a cat thing. He was compassionate at first, but by the end of the night was making fun of me. Course, by the end of the night, I was making fun of myself, so flabberghasted was I!)

I was glad (once again) for the different kind of support I get through the thoughtful friends who visit me here. Thank you.



Yesterday when I was canning (what was supposed to be) a boatload of apples, I found our kitten-cat dead. I had been searching for her all morning, calling her name-walking around the property. The fact that she didn't come when I called her worried me more than I can say, since she would always RACE to us when we called (if she wasn't already by the door!) So I would call her every few minutes. Check the windows again and again.

Finally I found her.

I don't know what happened-not a trace of foulplay.

Ever since, I have been a big 'ole bawl baby. I stopped canning because I just couldn't anymore.

It's just she was so stinkin' sweet. Really personable. and she was always AROUND me.

If I was in the garden, she would come too.

If I were hanging clothes, there she was.

If I were blogging, she would be purring, curled up in my lap or when I was reading a book on the patio.

If I were reading to the children on the counch, she would crawl up my belly and lay herself under my chin for a snooze. It tickled and was cumbersome-but I loved it.

If she was outside, she would race in the moment the door was open.


If I laid a picnic blanket outside, she would be the first one on it.


The children, thankfully, didn't take it too hard. They certainly have handled it better than me.


I fear I am not that great of a country wife after all, if I get so emotional about an animal. I'm really dumb.

I wouldn't be sad about chickens. Or even Jed. But Sarah? She was a sweet part of our everyday and her only purpose was to be with us.


It's really dumb that I am so upset over her. But I am.


And for some reason, I can't stop crying.

IT'S JUST A CAT, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

Handmade Holidays

Only 45 more days until Christmas, and with this being a wholly HOMEMADE Christmas, all 45 of those days are going to count.

I have a good headstart on the gifts; I've been working on them whenever I get a free minute (which granted, is not all the frequent).

I wanted to share with you some of the gifts I will be making/giving this year, many of which have come from free tutorials/patterns around the web. Perhaps you could steal an idea or be directed to a fun project how-to that you haven't seen before.

I figure, with only 44 more crafting days, now is as good a time as any to start sharing.

I am notoriously bad at "scheduled" posts (I am incredibly proud of myself for posting Foto Friday each week) so I won't promise a handmade post any particular day. Just when I am able or inclined.

I *might* even surprise you with a few handmade posts all in one day, just to add some spice to life. ;-)

Here is my first Homemade gift. The cutest baby sweater I have EVER seen. Also: the first baby sweater I have ever crocheted. Also: the only (so far) baby sweater I have ever crocheted.

I made this sweater for my sweetling of a baby niece last year, but never got around to putting buttons on it. Then we moved, got shoved in the to-do/mending box and packed away. The mending box hardly got touched. I was sorting through it a few weeks ago and discovered this fully done sweater without buttons.

It was not-so-perfectly sized, a year later, for my niece but incidentally, it was just right for my own littlest sweetling.

I planned on saving it for her Christmas gift, but it was just so darn cute! And the weather did get to be pretty chilly! SO I just started putting it on her.

(And no-I still haven't gotten to the buttons! eek!)

The pattern is so simply done: worked as one piece. The homespun yarn is so cozy-and beautifully vibrant.

The free pattern can be found at Baby It's Cold Outside, if baby sweaters are on your Christmas List.

I do hope at some point I might be able to make a matching Elfin Hat.

And maybe add some buttons.

Foto Friday: Playing Dress Up

Last week's Foto Challenge was timely, the theme being DRESS UP. Perfect for Halloween, to be sure, but the theme could have been interpreted in so many different ways and run with having nothing to do with Halloween.

I have nothing incredibly creative to share this week. I used up all my Halloween costume shots on this insanely long post so I had to raid the costume box very last-minute like. Nothing profound, but still fitting the theme.

And of course~ the BEHIND the SCENES shot:

Now it's YOUR turn...........



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge and post it to your blog (and when you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

Most importantly~challenge yourself, but HAVE FUN doing it.

This week's theme is one that get's us right in the Autumnal spirit of things: LEAVES.

Better get this one out of the way quick, before all the leaves disappear altogether! :-)

So, back to nature we go!

Hope to see you next week.

Happy Halloween 2009

It's party-time!!!

I had been toying with the idea of hosting a Halloween Party for some time and when I mentioned it to the children you can imagine what their reaction was.

They had as much fun making plans for it as I did and they were faithful to the daily countdown of when the day of the party would finally arrive

Corynn constantly bombarded me with her visions for the party: every day after rest time she would have a new version printed out for me:

(A gnome hitting a pumpkin pinata with pumpkin moonshines for decorations. In case you wondered...)

Outside of the food and candy costs ( which seem always to be exorbitant-even when you make everything from scratch), I spent a whopping $6.00 on decorations ($1.00 for polka dot napkins (instead of using plain white ones which I had) and $5.00 for some orange lilies~which I broke my "no buying decorations" policy for and then didn't even notice the whole night! :-( SO not worth the guilt!)

Other than that, I used everything I already had on hand to decorate and I found the challenge not only fun but REALLY worthwhile too! The fact that I was successful says less about my frugal nature and more about my "packrat-ing" issues. I used glitter, glue, balloons, tablecloths and lots and lots of construction paper. All of which, I already had on hand.

The invitations were made of orange construction paper two, glued around the edges with an opening on top. The information was glued on a ribbon stem and could be read by pulling the stem up out of the pumpkin pocket. Of course, there had to be faces.




Matt chuckled when he saw me arranging "dead" things into old planting containers. It was fun (and very prickly) to gather all the things along the road and fields. I didn't realize how thorny fall plants were until I had to walk back and get gloves! I sed sand from the sandbox to hold the stems in place and weight down the containers. I set them atop concrete blocks for some added height. (I never said I was Martha, so don't harass me about my redneck "columns". Thankyouverymuch.)

No-I didn't find those four red roses in the fields. Those roses were these roses, long gone, but still perty. Especially in these 'dead' bouquets.

~Inside~

I made WEB doilies out of black contruction paper and glitter and scattered them atop a green tablecloth. I liked them a lot. (Just fold the paper as you would for making snowflakes and cut a swish mark on the end and follow with matching marks along the edges until you get about 2 inches from the point.)


The black candlabra was a birthday gift from my sister a few years back. I have always loved it-but it was given new life as a Halloween centerpiece and it TOTALLY fit.



And then~ the table with food~

Last year's trick or treating (vintage-looking) tins were used to hold peanut butter popcorn.
My colored glass cups and dishes were scouted out from around the house and used to hold soup garnishes, plasticwear, and dipping sauces.
On the menu:

Chili (garnished with sour cream and shredded cheddar)
A big pot of Cheddar Corn Chowder (garnished with bacon)
Soft pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce (the Pretzels were the one thing I didn't make from scratch)
Brownies
Witches hat rolls
Breadsticks
Chips
and Peanut Butter Popcorn

My sister brought a FABULOUS taco salad dip which was gone before I got to enjoy my fill. :-(




Oh-and there were candles. P.L.E.N.T.Y of candles. The room was positively BRIMMING with them (and I didn't buy a ONE for the party). I just had them lying around: this fact and many others shows how much of a packrat I really am.

~The CANDY STORE~

A Pinata was DEFINITELY on the "party planning" idea checklist and the one that got my childer-two most excited. They have admired pinata's in sotres before and were anxious to be able to actually MAKE one. (You can DO that, Mama?!?!)

Of course you can! And who doesn't have flour and water lying around?!

The Idea for the party was to get/give candy in an unusual way-maybe even, dare I say it, EDUCATIONAL?!?!

Since money is a concept that we are working on with Corynn, I thought it would be fun to set up a candy STORE where the children could buy their OWN candy.

So, after we made our pumpkin Pinata, I filled it with coins instead of candy and set up a candy store in the front room using more cinder blocks and scrap wood. These red lights came in pretty handy too.


I bought several bags of candy and asked parents to each bring one to share. All in all, there was plenty for everyone. Except my poor kids who wound up with only tootsie rolls by the end of the night! (Oh well, candy is candy to them. But for me?! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa.)


The candystore concept was a good one, except there were lots of little bitties who didn't know a dime from a mime and the fact that there were 20 kids vying for the candy table all at once~it got a wee bit hectic there for a minute! :-)

I spied children playing store well into the night, long after the crowd has scattered.


(And the store is still set up in hopes I might get a few more chances to practice money with Corynn in a shopkeeper's setting.)

~ The Costumes ~



I didn't get a single picture of the costumes on "actual" Halloween....too busy being hostess.
These were taken the next day with slight variations on clothing (not that the children need to be asked twice to put their hats on again.)



This year I got to take it easy on costume-ing. They asked to be gnomes. The only request was that Andrew have a beard. Nothing else mattered, but the beard.



So I whipped up some gnome hats for each of them using fleece I already had on hand, a beard for Andrew and skirts for the girls. I used interfacing for the hats to keep them erect (though at times they began to fold flat making them appear POPE-ish instead) and since I used fleece, no seams to finish so it was easy peasy. I had to put ribbon on Miss Adele's hat though, because it was so big it kept falling backwards right off her head! :-)

I had plans to do the same for Matt and I but ran out of time. :-(

And now that I have posted all my Halloween costume DRESS UP pictures, I am not sure what to post for Friday.

MAN! I lack foresight, don't I?