White boards & Decor

One thing I miss about our old house.....

I no longer have a wall-o-white boards. Not YET anyway.

So, for now I have this......

I used to have this.....

Hoping to have at least one panel in the fall. First I have to figure out where I will put it.

BUT...I do have a fun art corner in the dining room.

and these 3 tiny vases in my kitchen...perfect size for the gifts my children bring me

Kids and projects

My 2 oldest boys are working on building a chicken tractor.  I'll post pictures when it's done.  They've built it from scratch and are almost done.  MAJOR work in progress.

My 2 oldest girls just added another bookcase to their room.  They have chosen to share one dresser so that they can fit 3 bookshelves in their room.  Seriously, these girls like books.  (And...they each have another dresser in their basement bedrooms in progress - so it's not like clothes mean nothing to them).  They are cataloging their books - so far over 300 and they are not done.   This is something I always thought would be great to do with the rest of our books but never really took the time.  They love Half Price books and getting books as gifts. 

Our Homestead Farm

Not our backyard farm.
But hey, we've got 7 chickens, 2 apple trees, and 1 eggplant (sort of a joke from my fil, since we won't have eggs until August..get it..egg...plant). Hopefully tomatoes and cucumbers soon. But, we've got a high school graduation open house and various other projects around our new home (was foreclosed). So, a real garden will have to wait until next year. Until then, we just dance around the kitchen listening to this :)

My husband, father-in-law, and various kids (our own) are helping make a chicken tractor with a run). I'll post pics soon. We think one of our 7 "female" chickens is actually a rooster...time will tell.

Litany of the Saints

Not anywhere near All Saints Day but I absolutely LOVE this song, this picture, and the voice.  So calming.  Beautiful.

Z is for zoo

In our house we currently have:
7 chickens (they'll be moving outside shortly)
1 rabbit
1 bearded dragon
2 turtles
2 big fish tanks

Anna starts college in the fall to begin her journey to becoming a vet.  I wonder if she will be the only animal science major in her class that never had a dog, cat, hamster, or parakeet.

The final post of my blogging thru the alphabet challenge.  Thanks Anna.

Small Successes

I have found Small Successes again, or should I say it kinda landed right in front of me.  Either way, I find it helpful to remember that it's the small things that count.

For more small successes click here (I have yet to figure out the link - maybe that will be next week's success)

1. Ordered graduation invitations for our first high school graduate!
2. Kept the kitchen island clean (well....useable) for over two weeks. 
3. Ordered CAT tests for my 4 students required to take standardized tests. 
4. Attended W morning Mass.  My 4 oldest attend every W (2 oldest boys are servers every W).  This meant bringing along 4 more kids.  Attending daily Mass is very hard/comical (depends on my attitude on any given day) with a little one.  It's so short all it takes is one diaper blow out, a toddler needing the bathroom, or a hungry baby to miss most of Mass and try hard to make it back for Communion.  When more than one of these happen...almost seems like the only time I am in the chapel is for Communion.  But, I think God understands what's going on.  I think the priest does too.

Y = mx + b

need I say more?