Fun Craft for the Wall

I had so much fun making this darling wall hanging out of pallet wood.

It was, however, very challenging!

Have you ever tried to take a pallet apart? If you haven't, don't bother.

The wood was exactly what I wanted, the perfect aged look and thickness. I assumed it would be a breeze. Nope. The nails in this pallet were about 3 feet long and the wood loved them so much, they they hung on for dear life!

I found myself sweating and panting and just ripping the wood apart like a rabid Tasmanian devil. Take a minute to picture that.

Anyway, it was still fun, just hard. After the sweat and pretending not to cry for fear of failure while the kids were watching, the rest of the craft was the breeze I was hoping for.

This is it, the crowning piece on the kids bathroom wall...

I am considering making a tutorial for this one if there is enough interest!

Duke and Daisy...

The 4th of July was a day mixed with emotions and fun.

We made the difficult decision to let Duke and Daisy go to a family that could better care for them. We will really miss them, but this new family was very blessed to receive them, and they can afford to feed them!

Looking back the the several times Duke and Daisy jumped the fence and ate the garden. The several times they pushed against the posts to bend them down and get out. We were afraid that they weren't getting enough to eat. They ate all of the raspberry bushes and the lettuce. We still love them and want to keep them, but we simply cannot continue to pay for feed, fencing and time to fix everything they damaged.

We adored hearing them talk and watching them run and play in the yard with the kiddos. They were so happy when we let them roam the yard, but in the end, we didn't have enough grass to keep them fed. It doesn't help that the amount of pee and poop those animals produce is seriously unreal.

We found a family who will love and care for them, and they have other sheep!

So, before our exciting day of food, friends and fireworks, we let them go. The kids were all bummed but soon were distracted by all of the prep and excitement. Today the kids talked about them but there was almost a sense of relief that came with the lifting of a burden. They speak of them so lovingly, like they are already a distant memory.  Every one except for me and Abby.

Abby and I are the only ones who are still bummed. I loved caring for them. I loved the experience for the kids and the fact that we had actual sheep living in our back yard! I seriously enjoyed every minute of having them. Abby loved being chased and hearing their voices.

So, farewell Duke and Daisy. Don't be surprised if one or two of Bella's kitties are named after you!

Learning as we go...

Our financial struggle this year has turned into some pretty interesting conversations between me and the kids. I really enjoy explaining to them that God will provide, that he is always listening, and that everything is going to be OK. What I enjoy more is when the proof is in the pudding. 

As I am in the garden pulling weeds before breakfast, waiting for the bread to finish baking, I have all the kids working. Ellie is following me around yelling "boobie" and pulling on my shirt, Tan-man is whining that he shouldn't have to pull weeds because he is so cute, and Abby is complaining that she is pulling weeds but cannot dig a hole to China. The three oldest are diligently pulling weeds, but only because they have figured out that if they just do it, it will be done and they can go play. 

Perfect time to talk. As we talked we reflected on the last few weeks and about the garden we wished we could have put together this year.

When We planted all of our seeds earlier this year we had SO MANY plans. Little did we know, Duke and Daisy had plans too. 

The lambs ate everything. Every sprout, every plant, everything of value. 

All we had left were a few kinds of unplanted seeds. The kids were almost as bummed out as Ash and I. All of the money and time invested in those sprouts, gone. All of the plans, the excitement, man, we couldn't catch a break.

After the disappointment of losing the garden we tried to make up for it by planting some old seeds. Pumpkin, watermelon, corn, cantaloupe and zucchini. The zucchini came up almost immediately. A neighbor friend emailed me that week to tell me about a plant sell that supports the garden program at a local college and the plants were "super cheap." We went over there as a family and purchased several tomato plants, peppers and a few trees. We spent $17! We planted them in the garden and made it almost beautiful again. 

Would you believe, the lambs knocked the fence down and did it again?! I know, we should have known better, we didn't. Thankfully, they only ate the peppers and the corn. Apparently lambs don't like tomatoes and zucchini. We wanted to give up. We halfheartedly pulled weeds for a few days, but only because we duper love the only things growing, zucchini and tomatoes. The other seeds hadn't sprouted yet, so we wanted them to have a fighting chance.

Fueling my give up fire, I over did it, and hurt my back. I was unable to get out and the kids aren't motivated to pull weeds without me, so it had been a few days since any now had been out there. The weeds in the garden exploded! There were millions of weeds everywhere!   

I have been trying to go out there and pull weeds as much as time would allow. After a few days of trying to catch up, something interesting happened. We noticed some sprouts that could only be pumpkins!There were little pumpkin sprouts everywhere! When we rototilled the garden before we planted we left the tiny old pumpkin that never grew last year. Last years garden was a total fail. Apparently, the seeds from that unenthusiastic pumpkin plant spread through out the garden and now there are sprouts everywhere!

We went through and tried to pull weeds around each of the sprouts, thinking maybe if we got nothing else from this garden, at least we might get some pumpkins! Pulling weeds for a while we noticed something else. The weeds we were pulling were mostly the common weeds that we have to pull all around the property. There was one weed that we didn't recognize, in an attempt to identify them, we started pulling them up and examining them. Teachable moment about our 5 senses we decided to smell them and realized we recognize that smell! These are TOMATOES! There are tiny little tomato plants everywhere!

Now instead of begrudgingly pulling weeds, we are rejoicing in the fact that we are not just going to have a couple of tomatoes and a couple of zucchinis; we're also going to have a million tomatoes and pumpkins too! We made the decision to pull weeds around the tomato plants and let them all live where they are. If we need to construct supports for them later we will.

We also noticed that the corn and peppers that the lambs ate are growing back! The seeds we planted are starting to sprout and we fixed the fence. So as the kids and I pull weeds I get the joyful opportunity to explain to them that each and every single weed that you pull is giving God a big high-five and saying thank You. Thank You for all that we've been given, thank You for our blessings...

 This garden may have turned out to be a success after all...

Chicken Coop!

We have enjoyed our chickens so much over the last year, we decided to get 6 more! We got our chicks around the same time we got the lambs, and they stayed safe and warm in our garage with the lambs for several weeks!

Now that we have 11 birds, we need a bigger coop and enclosure to house them. After the amazing experience with the lamb shed, we decided to keep up the momentum and finish out the enclosure and coop for the new chicks. Before we could finish we had many obstacles, you know, like working in the rain... I am not keen on muddy chicken poop with a ton of kids... excuse me while I gag...

We did however complete all of the components in an untimely manner... :)

They have been in their new house for a few weeks now and they are HUGE! They grow super fast. The new chicks are doing well, one of the older hens is a little mean, but she hasn't hurt any of the others.

It is so interesting to watch the social dynamics of chickens. They totally form groups, there is a bossy one and they all pretty much throw their social hierarchy out the window when the crazy 4 year old runs in there to kiss them all!

Picture Frame Fun!

Ok, I know this one is super simple. I just had to share because I it's so cute and fun!  I love being able to change out pictures, or keep a picture in a frame forever. Sometimes I want the pictures to reflect the seasons or the season of life we are in!  With the endless possibilities of home decor, let's just keep it simple!

I started this project with a few simple items.

•  Large inexpensive frame 
• Random paper clips or clothes pins  
• Twine or string of choice 
• Photo/photos (made at Costco)

I removed the glass and backing so the frame was, well, just a frame. Before I could attach anything else, I had to make a hard decision; hang the frame landscape, or portrait.

After making my sons hold the frame up all different ways for several minutes of agony, I decided on landscape, and they survived, just barely. 

 I used tiny picture screws to tie the twine to the frame. I did have to be careful not to split the faux wood.

You can place the screws and twine where ever you want. I decided to place mine very high on the frame because I am hanging only one large photo. If you wanted to hang several smaller photos, you can easily string several pieces of twine across the frame.  

Before I finished I got a crazy idea to add fun little tags that I had stuffed away in my craft closet. I have a bout a million random little goodies stashed away in there... I might have a problem.... And wash tape... for real, its the most amazing craft item in the history of ever...

WASHI TAPE! EEK!

After stringing all of the letters on a piece of twine, I hung them from the corner in a diagonal and used a piece of tape to hold the letters facing forward.

I did change my mind about where I wanted to hang it after I moved the room around a little. Now it is sitting on my little home made buffet in my kitchen.  I am in love.



 

 

 

Lambs!!

Yes, you read that correctly! We have Lambs! Why? For no reason at all. Maybe we are crazy?

We waited  a little while to post or blog about them because we wanted to make sure they were going to survive a few weeks first.  So many resources warned us that there was great potential that our lambs would not survive, so we held off on posting about them.

Since we moved to our little piece of land with enough grazing room, we have thought about having some kind of grazing animal. Hubby talked about getting goats, but as we have researched it and prayed about it over the last year or so, goats don't seem like a very good fit for our family. From what I understand they eat everything, and lets be honest, I don't always make the kids put all their yard toys away.

A friend of ours posted about finding a home for a couple bummer lambs and it seemed like they were a better alternative!

Of course, as I always do, I have wasted hours researching how to care for them. Understanding that lambs are fragile, we have taken our responsibility to care for them very seriously. We started out feeding them every 4 hours, then every 6 hours then every 8 hours and now we are working toward larger portions every 12 hours. We have had very few issues and things have run very smoothly so far.

All of that said, we have had them for long enough to put their cute little furry butts outside! As you can imagine, they LOVE being outside!

Since we never do anything half way, our family spent the day Sunday building the cutest little "Sheep Shed" for out little lambs! Of course, it's darling and we couldn't be more thrilled! What a fun family experience.

We turned all of this random wood, into a fun, adorable family project! 

We were brave and actually drew out what we wanted and made our own little plans. We have never actually built something like this from scratch, so we were pretty cautious! 

Boy did we learn a thing or two!

We made a list of every cut and took our time measuring and cutting every piece before we got started. After we had each piece cut and ready, we started to assemble the sheep shed.

Everyone needs a pic of a baby with a popsicle... 

All the cool kids have tool belts...

The littles made balance beams while power tools were used! 

After the frame was assembled, we moved it over to where we plan to keep it. One lesson we have learned well over the years is; if you build a heavy project, build it where it stays, or you will have a heavy immovable object in the wrong place.

Coolest stapler ever..

They are very excited about their new house... I just know it.

Painting with 6 kids is not the best idea... They had fun though :)

Almost done!

First night outside!

All done!!