Creekside Company & Critters

It isn't deep and it isn't huge, but "our" creek is a blessing to us.  

They're always armed with goggles and floats and whatnot, even though it isn't much deeper than 24 inches.  Who am I to argue when I don't have to carry it?!  I tote my chair down there and get comfy with my feet in the water and my ears attuned to the soothing sounds of water rushing and kids happily playing.

Even "extras" like the creek!

And lately, we've enjoyed some of the fabulous critters nearby.  We named this dragonfly "Azul" for obvious reasons.  

Oh the excitement over this monstrous crawfish!!!  We haven't seen a crawfish in the creek in ages, so we took this one as a sign that our creek is getting healthier.  After a full inspection, we put him back.

When checking the creek water levels today, we found this gem.

It's a black and yellow argiope!  Honestly, we were just thrilled to be able to use our new spider field guide!  What brilliant colors!!

And on the way back, guess what the Blossoms discovered are ready?  The touch-me-nots!!!

Touch-me-nots are also known as jewelweed, the antidote to poison ivy.  Though some have argued that it might not truly be, I still rub the leaves on myself if I feel itchy in the woods.  I figure, what do I have to lose?!  

Touch-me-nots are country girl fun ~ tiny seed pods that explode when you touch them!  

I love that creeks are free entertainment AND education!

At a (different) Creek

Y'all know my thoughts on socialization.  I'd hardly call the Blossoms unsocialized, although I realize that not everyone agrees with me.  

Because we take a different road, folks question if we'll get to the right destination.

The mother of these boys is a good friend of mine.  We always have something to say to one another so we were aching for a get-together.  The thing is, we've noticed that our kids have very different interests and finding common ground has been a little bit harder for them.  They get along fine and treat each other well, but we were hoping for more.  

We put our heads together and decided to meet up at the park this time, with scooters and bikes in tow.  There was two-wheeled fun, and after lunch, we found ourselves by the creek.  That's when the real fun began.  Wading.  Shouting.  Laughing.  Waving.  Falling.  Slipping.  Grinning.  

My friend and I spent our time with our feet in the creek, laughing about our guesses of which kid would fall in first and discussing kayaking and whatever else meandered through our brains.  

The fellowship happens in the mundane, the deeply meaningful and all the meanderings in between.

Effective socialization isn't about people just hitting it off.  

Developing relationships involves working to cement a friendship, finding common ground and trying to include those that might not "click" right away.  That's so much deeper than mere "socialization."

That sounds like a true life skill to me.

We were happy to hear "I can't wait to do that again!" from both of our gangs on the way home.

Dominique

To Chart the Changes

This little corner used to be dented, dirty and cluttered; cluttered with the measurements of the girlies as they blossom through the milestones of their years.

I could barely paint over it because I'm so sentimental, but I snapped multiple close-up pictures of it and emailed them to myself for safe keeping.

After the Revere Pewter went on and was dry, I used a Sharpie and a ruler to put on the measurements.  Then, I found a font I liked and free-handed that on for the numbers.

Afterward, I added the Blossoms measurements back on with a very fine tipped Sharpie.  I love how it turned out and so does the Rugged Mountain Man!  

I frequently find Blossom3 and Blossom4 measuring themselves to see if they've grown at all and are catching up to their big sisters.  

Aren't those Chelsea Gray doors in the background drool worthy?! 

Dominique

Super School Room

We've been working our way through the main rooms of the house, room by room.  I knew this summer was the time to get the school room painted BEFORE school started. 

Here's what everything looked like before.

We still love our white boards and bulletin boards!

I started off painting the doors in the hallways around the corner Chelsea Gray.  Once again, Pinterest recommended that it was a match made in Heaven with Revere Pewter.  I'm inclined to agree.

I was ecstatic when I got the first glimpse of the Chelsea Gray with the Revere Pewter.

Revere Pewter went up on the walls after I patched all the dents and holes with drywall compound.  And there were A LOT.  This room had been flat white primer since we moved in.  You can imagine what 13+ years of kids and dogs would do to a place.

This room was by far the largest room I did, so everything took way longer than all the other rooms.

It should be noted that in the upper right hand corner of this pic is the tallest corner of the house.  I found dog hair stuck to the ceiling in this corner.  I was cracking up laughing over that.  

We were super happy to get this project finished.  "Normal" is greatly valued at our house, which is to say that we appreciate a peaceful haven-like home.

The major lesson we learned in this room is that stud finders do not work on freshly painted walls.  We were beyond frustrated trying to hang the white boards back up quickly since the children were in bed.  I've NEVER had trouble with my stud finder and replacing the batteries didn't help.  Yep, I googled it.  It's a thing!!  The next morning after the paint had a little more time to cure, we had zero problems!  

This time when we put the bulletin boards back up, I went with a navy blue fabric I dug out of my fabric stash.  #fabrichoarderjustified

This place is really coming together!

I guess you're not wondering anymore what I've been up to lately.

Dominique

Being the "Littlest"

Sometimes when you're the "littlest," you get the most interesting jobs!

I looked up this morning when I was sitting on my swing reading to see Blossom4 helping to move meat bunnies into a bigger pen!

Rather than reaching all the way to the back, Blossom4 happily crawled in and helped out!

#microfarmlife