Cozy Winter Fun - Cinderella Progress

(Blossom #3 wanted her hands in the picture.) 

 

There's progress!  The girls are really into the whole puzzle thing.  On the Belle puzzle, I did A LOT of the work, but I've done very little on this one.  Even Blossom #3, who is 4 years old today (WOW, our chubby baby is a big girl!) will sit down and actually do this puzzle.  She is really good at it.  So, I'm putting my hands-down stamp of approval on puzzles as a family activity. 

 

 

(Blossom #1 wanted a turn with her hands in the picture.) 

 

Yes, Blossom #3 still puts her elbows down and disconnects the puzzle periodically, but for the most part, she can really participate. 

 

And, they are all really good about checking the floor for snack-size pieces for Blossom #4...

 

 

One thing they love about puzzle progress, is that the closer you get to being done, the easier it is to find where the pieces go.  I can tell the excitement is mounting.  Blossom #2 and I will be frame shopping at the Thrift Store on Monday while Blossom #1 is having her piano lesson.  Stay tuned for more Cinderella puzzle progress!  :)

Life Lately ~ 10/14

Good evening, friends.  Life has been a little topsy-turvy lately, to say the least.  The Rugged Mountain Man had a long weekend, to honor Columbus Day.  Due to the beautiful weather on Saturday, we did the work of four Saturdays in one and put the garden to bed for the winter, amongst other miscellaneous tasks.  It was a family achievement and it felt mighty good at the end of the day when we sat down to eat the ribs that Daddy smoked.  I love that the Rugged Mountain Man's hobby includes large tasty cuts of delectable meat.  Carnivores we surely are. 

Sunday was a busy mix of Mommy working in the church nursery with a full attendance of smiling, creative little people.  Seriously, my assistant and I had a good time with the children and enjoyed fellowshipping with one another as well.  However, I was sweating when we left the nursery in apple pie order!  More little people make more work!  Then, we watched the Packer game and did a few minor tweaks to the house, since Daddy's cousin was coming for dinner.  The house was tidy, but certainly nothing more than that.  And the food was comfort food-type, but definitely not more impressive than that.  I told myself to chill and enjoy Amy's company.  She always comes to see us, not the perfect house.  That's the heart of hospitality, a balance of household excellence and a heart for people and their comfort.  The Blossoms have been pesting to make caramel apples.  I'd waited til we had the most delicious Honeycrisp apples (because a yummy apple makes a yummy caramel apple AND because that the girlies' favorite variety.)  As soon as Amy walked in, we started unwrapping caramels and getting it all going.  Chaos ensued.  Chatting.  Blossom4 spontaneously dipping her OWN apple.  Quick swipes of caramel.  Dribbles everywhere.  Sticky wax paper.  The whole nine yards.  I grabbed some Butterfinger Baking Bits out of the pantry and rolled some of the caramel apples in those.  #geniusappleidea  Then, we sat down to a cozy spaghetti dinner (with home-canned spaghetti sauce), alongside homemade bread.  The homemade bread stole the show.  It always does, which is why I serve it.  Homemade bread is like the home-cookin' constant.  It doesn't matter what cuisine you prefer or what age you are, everybody appreciates homemade bread.  I was grateful for Amy's sincere cooking compliments.  Later, we all headed out on the deck to eat our uber-messy, but super delicious caramel apples.  Rory licked Blossom4's apple and she was too busy to finish hers, but we all totally "made a memory" out their munching on what we later declared to be "the best caramel apple we've ever eaten."  (Pretty sure the Honeycrisp apples and the Butterfinger Baking Bits were the key!)  Later, as were pushing the girls on the swings and whatnot, we got a call that "Grammie" (The Rugged Mountain Man's mom) was in the ER with heart issues.  Oh man.  That's when it went from a busy weekend, to a topsy-turvy weekend.  Between praying, answering phone calls, running to get their dog, visiting in the hospital and having surprise nighttime company, it all got a little crazy.  Long story short, she's home and she's fine.  Praise the Lord. 

I still believe that God answers prayer. 

Tuesday was when all the craziness took its toll.  Everybody was cranky, everything was behind and no one was cooperating.  Thank God for grace, as a friend of mine reminded me.  Even Mommy had to apologize (several times) and start anew (several times).  Boy, is that ever humbling.  Hopefully, they'll remember my repentance and heart change, more than they'll remember all of my failings.  God is still working on me.  I want them to know how much we are all growing and changing, always. 

ALWAYS. 

Do you remember the Cinderella puzzle?  Somewhere in the last two weeks, we went back to the Snow White puzzle we started about nine months ago, toward winter's end. 

 

Spring came shortly thereafter and our schedules kicked into a different gear, leaving this puzzle languishing on the dining room table, seeing only occasional Blossom attention. 



Additionally, this little guy, Rory, came to live with us. 

He discovered two pieces on the floor and promptly chewed them.  We had no way of knowing if he'd eaten any more of them, but we chose to salvage the pieces as best as we could and eventually continue on with the puzzle.

 

 

The cold weather is here!  And, our puzzle drive is back!  Check it out!  All the pieces were still there and we managed to finish it through two weeks' worth of here-and-there work.   (Hint: You have to look HARD to find the Rory-chewed pieces!)

 

 

In a topsy-turvy weekend/week, it was a major highlight, since every time I look at it, I see the hours of quality time spent with the Blossoms.  And that makes me smile.  I'm hopeful they'll catch something good somewhere in that time.

 

PS - They're already talking about the Bambi puzzle!

 

 

 

Puzzling: Winter Fun

Puzzling is definitely a winter "sport" here in the Hollow.

It's much easier to have a puzzle around if you grab a foam core board from Dollar Tree and put the puzzle together on there.  Then, it's movable, should the need arise.  

We have a stack of puzzles waiting to be "puzzled out."  

And, we have a particular affinity for Thomas Kinkade Disney puzzles.  

I was pleasantly surprised at how ALL the Blossoms got into this puzzle.

Blossom4 did the entire Bambi section by herself.  

We all enjoyed "puzzling til our puzzlers were sore." 

(Bonus points if you knew that quote came from How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.)

Because this is Blossom2's puzzle, she was reserved the honor of putting in the final piece amidst great pomp and circumstance.  

Amazingly, this puzzle only took us twelve days.  This is indeed our record!  

We keep trying to pick a mix of winter "sports" like board games, handicrafts, puzzles, or reading aloud around here.  This kind of quality time is definitely a perk of winter.

Dominique

THE Puzzle

It's cold.  Like REALLY cold here.  Like forbid your Blossoms to go outside kinda cold.  (They didn't deal well with that.)

So, enter our puzzle.  We love the artwork of Thomas Kinkade AND we love princesses. (It's a house full of Blossoms, what do you expect?!) 

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Kinkade-Disney-Dreams-Collection/dp/B00D2SB2L8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389125133&sr=8-1&keywords=kinkade%2C+disney%2C+Cinderella

We finished the Beauty & The Beast puzzle not long ago, glued it with a squeegee and Elmer's Glue and put it in a Thrift Store frame.  I gotta say, we're pretty proud of that thing.  Onto Cinderella.

Here's where we're at right now.

Let's just say I check the floor obsessively for pieces that have fallen.  Sweet Pea would love to munch on them.

The Puzzle and Its End

 

At any given moment, you just don't know when you'll find any one of us at the dining room table working on this project.

A retired teacher friend assured me that puzzles are EXCELLENT for spatial awareness.  I'm still not quite sure what that is, but without a doubt, I can SEE that doing puzzles helps your mind.  So yes, there's a scientific name for the fact of what I've witnessed in our Blossoms.

Look closely at the picture below.  Yes, there is a piece missing.  Uh-oh.  We prayed.  Yes, we prayed to find it.  And just as I was about to break out the big searching, Blossom1 discovered it inside her over-sized hoodie sleeve.  There was rejoicing all around.   

And, it tied in to an excellent discussion.  Just as we were all SO EXCITED to find that one puzzle piece, that is how God feels about people.  Like the lost sheep.  Like the lost coin.  They remembered the stories and made the connection, which meant so much to me.

And now, they want to tackle the Snow White puzzle.  We'll see...

Geology Rocks

I've shared with you before that more people (especially homeschoolers) really ought to utilize the educational opportunities at their local state parks. 

We went over a valley or two and attended a 5 hour "Geology Rocks" session.  This turned out to be our best education state park experience yet.  (Previous picture is the group learning about sedimentary rock.  The bottom layer of sedimentary rock is very warm and totally feeling the pressure... the same as the kids as they piled on layer after layer of kids.)

 

Blossom4 and her little pal agree that there ain't nothin' better than a cozy fire.

 

I got to fellowship all day with my friend, her little one and my little Blossom4.  The Environmental Center was full of fun educational books, heavy duty dinosaurs, all sorts of stuffed native animals and even aquariums for fun gazing.

 

Blossom3 was so pleased that her and her little pal got to participate and identify the rocks in the rock collections, even though they aren't 9 yrs old.  (I like it when people are flexible to include siblings.)

 

Then, when Blossom4 grew tired and restless in captivity, we ventured out to the playground.  The sun was shining and we basked in its rays and its warmth.

The day was a terrific change of pace, packed with knowledge and excellent hands-on activities to "make it stick."

Even Rory and Jake love field trips!  The Rugged Mountain Man came along so that he could do some hiking on the Mid State Trail with the "fellas" (as we call the dogs.)

Plus, Daddy even got to keep an eye on the girlies' Run Your Own Profitable Mine activity.  (Blossom1 tied for first as having the most profitable mine on the second go-round.  She was pretty pleased.)  The activity was quite in depth, complete with a patrolling MSHA officer watching for safety, health and environmental violations. 

I loved getting to chat with Daddy on the ride over.  I thoroughly enjoyed having meaningful mama-friend conversations in the Environmental Center, while putting the same puzzle together (at least) 5 times. 

Never forget that true fellowship can happen just about anywhere - in a vehicle, on a playground, over a puzzle, wherever.  More and more, I embrace the opportunities that come my way.  I appreciate the encouragement that I'm given and the encouragement I can offer.  It's fellowship, even during a Geology Rocks session.  As I used to say in my early (EARLY) twenties ~ "I'm down with that."

Dominique

The Real Purpose of Dining Room Tables

- An art center in a free garage sale find treasure chest (that thrilled the Blossoms down to their toes!)
- Bags of bead projects in process... and beads EVERYWHERE!

- An elephant puzzle in progress (again)
- A stack of collected artwork, along with a red Lei from today's parade
- A plant from a girlie's day at work with Daddy
- A science experiment in progress (which I'll tell you about soon!)

I look at all this mess and it's happy clutter.  I loved making bracelets with my daughters today!  (It made them smile too.)  I love stopping at the table and dropping a piece or two into a puzzle for a happy little girlie.  I love sharing fond memories with our daughters about a science experiment.  This is what a dining room table was meant for!

Hope you all had a happy Memorial Day!

Blessings,
Dominique

A Little Home Tour

Open your Pinterest app and type in "home tour," and you'll find all the ways your home and your life are severely lacking.  (read with sarcasm.)  While most of us could amp up our style or our lives here and there, it isn't a need, as in a "need" to eat or something likewise vitally important. 

 

And yet, there are things in every home that are truly lovely and simply beautiful. 

Things that we treasure, items we value.

 

Vignettes that tell a story, a story of a happy little home.

Carpet, dingy from the feet of four beautiful Blossoms and several four-footed family members that lope, hop and otherwise traverse our living space.  Fingers that fashion a puzzle, a craft and such are busy here.

 

Blossoms lovingly plucked by little girl hands as gifts to a mama who's cooking and cleaning and cooking and cleaning like a cd on repeat play. 

Color in a corner where mundane work happens often.

 

Happy knick-knacks that make us smile, even when they aren't new, aren't hip and are a little dirty...

Knicks and scratches that speak of learning, life and noise.

Color that reflects work and lessons and dirt and poop and conquering fear. 

 

Old items, gathered together in a somewhat dusty corner, just so I can glance and remember...

This is my home tour.  Beauty, for which I'm grateful, but beauty that would never win a place in a magazine.

(The wreath is one I comprised of dried flowers from our dating and early married days, as well as dried flowers from the bouquets given at our children's baby dedications.)

The Music Room!

Blossom2 wanted to take a before picture.  I would rather not, as our basement is quite the utility storage area.  We do not have an attic.  Alas, Blossom2 snapped them and in the interest of real life, I feel I must share  ~ embarrassing though it may be.

Our basement houses our freezers, all the accoutrements for burning wood in our wood stove, homestead work gear, toys that are currently out of rotation, coats that are waiting to be grown into, scads of homeschool materials and records, and items on their way to be donated or disposed of.

What possessed me to tackle this???!!!!

Blossom1 has started accepting new piano students! I knew she would need a space to teach without disturbing the rest of the household rhythm, as well as the Rugged Mountain Man's work day.  

Additionally, all of the Blossoms are growing in their musical pursuits.  I knew they would enjoy and often utilize a music room.  

There were so many evenings I would go down to the basement and stand and stare.  I had no idea where to start.  It wasn't like the organizing shows were I could empty the room into the yard and then get it done in one shot.  The accumulation of dust from years of enjoying wood heat was enough to make me want to quit before I'd even begun.

I prepared myself to complete this project in the evenings or little snatches of time over several weeks. Much as I prefer to tackle and complete a project in one fell swoop, it's simply not practical for us and our schedule most days. 

We focused on cleaning as we went, wiping down walls, using the shop vac on the entire "delightful" popcorn ceiling and wearing out magic eraser after magic eraser.  The Blossoms were truly a force to be reckoned with.  Let me tell you, a good cleaning is as effective as a coat of paint!

We purged along the way.  I took loads to the thrift store as often as I could, so that we weren't tempted to change our minds on things we were willing to let go of.  We also took a load of junk to the landfill after we completed this project.  It was long overdue and boy, did it feel good!

I gradually relocated items and focused on making room for the piano.  That was the first big piece of the puzzle.  Once the piano was in, I worked on making way for the keyboard and drums.  As I tackled each area, it slowly took shape.  Eventually, we were able to move on to decorating.  Some records from the Rugged Mountain Man's childhood now double as trendy wall art.  

Perhaps you'll recognize some of our favorite Kinkade puzzles from these posts.  The Blossoms and I are loving the dramatic effect of all the princess pieces altogether.

Blossom1 and Blossom2 learned how to use the stud finder and mounted these inexpensive guitar hooks for the mandolin, guitar, and ukulele.

I searched for a low cost, yet fun BRIGHT light for the cathedral ceiling area.  This rustic industrial cage light was a steal for ten bucks.  I'm leaving a great review because I'm so tickled with it! With the vintage Edison bulbs, it's pretty sweet and banishes that dingy basement feeling that plagued this area for so long.

We did drop cloth curtains in here.  You can't beat ten bucks for each 6x9 ft. panel!  I spray painted old curtain rods as we were really going for a budget kind of makeover.  The curtains also add a surprising amount of sound deadening.  I find sliding or folding closet doors so annoying, so these are a great option for hiding gear we still need quick access to and cutting back on the noise.

We hung several layers of a black felt banner behind the keyboard for a fun decoration and for more sound deadening.  Initially, I was going to paint a quote on the felt, per some Pinterest inspiration.  However, everyone here has a different opinion on what music quote would work best, so I picked one and chalked it on.  Now, they can change the quote whenever they want.  They can also have their friends sign it and write fun comments on it.  

This station will house a Keurig, once it comes this week.  I can't tell you how many times I've meant to grab a cup of tea before we head to piano lesson and I've forgotten it in my rush to marshal my troops out the door.  This way, piano student parents can take a breather on the couch and have a hot cuppa while they wait.  The Blossoms are also really looking forward to disappearing down here with friends.  Tea and hot chocolate are great for those sorts of hang out times!

The table needed to stay, since we use it for various and sundry homestead projects.  Additionally, since many of Blossom1's students come from homeschool families, it's not uncommon for a student's siblings to need a place to do schoolwork while they wait.  The Blossoms thought they might like to play board games down here as well.  Yes, there is storage underneath.  That stuff had to stay, so that's where it is... for now. The denim table covering is tough and totally works for me.

We are totally thrilled with our new space!

AND, the Blossoms were practicing piano when the Rugged Mountain Man was on a conference call the other day.  He never even noticed.  Now, THAT'S success.