Our family's website, PeacefulHome.net, is in the process of changing hosting companies and is currently inactive. Our plan is to move this blog over once construction is complete. Please stay tuned for updates!
Around the first of this year I blogged about our friends moving to Haiti for a year or so to help with the reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake. While life down there could be challenging, overall things were moving ahead.
Last week, Jay, the dad, was involved in an accident that has left him without feeling below his belly button. He was air lifted to a hospital in Miami. There are challenges daily, but their faith in God and his mercies is strong.
Visit their blog for what they've been doing in Haiti. For up-to-date information, they have a Caring Bridge site. Please help pray for the miracles we know are coming!
I am so excited out the Hair Bow Instructions that I downloaded from YouCanMakeThis.com. I've tried countless times to try to make bows and wasn't successful until I got this ebook.
There are tons of color photos and excellent step-by-step instructions for 17 different types of bows. For only $7.99, this is a great value! I made both of the bows below in about an hour.
Emelie is even going to do hairbows as one of her 4-H projects. There are a couple little girls pretty excited about that!
We've known for weeks that one of our barn cats was "with kitten." While I've had cats for most of my life, we've never had the awesome experience of having kittens born. I was pretty nervous for the safety of the "teen mom" as well as for the kittens.
Last week a very pregnant Smudge followed Brigitta to the house after Bitta returned from checking for eggs. She called me to come take a look at the cat. I could tell that things would be happening soon. I'd never seen a cat with that look on her face, but I knew what it meant! So I called for a laundry basket and towels. I considered having someone boil water, but decided against it.
About 3 hours later, she delivered 4 beautiful babies. Even though Smudgie is not much more than a kitten herself, she's been a great mama. The kittens are getting very plump. We have 2 boys and 2 girls.
Today the children divided into teams to name them. So far we have Jedi, Persephone, and Saga. Ted and Heidi can't come to an agreement on the final boy's name. She wants Black Tiger, but Ted has vetoed that. The rest of us are pushing for Nikabrik. Hopefully the little guy will have a name soon!
What a great weekend! Great weather, great friends, great food. This morning it was actually too cold for the children's swim lessons, so we took advantage of the free time to sign up for the summer reading program. I think we overwhelmed the library workers with all our books, applications and energy. Hopefully we increased their numbers so they'll get more funding next year!
Time to get serious about preparing for the 4-H fair next month. We have three different commitments tomorrow night and Bryan will be out of town. We'll be enjoying a fast-food picnic while watching rabbit and horse practice!
Monday - Sam's Club pizza while we picked up a few things
Tuesday (Rabbit Agility, 4-H Horse & Pony, 4-H Aerospace) - probably McD's since I'll be vastly outnumbered by children under 10!
Wednesday - Korean Eggs Rolls, Asian Noodle Salad
Thursday - Brawt Potato Skillet, Lemon Garlic Broccoli
Friday - Greek Ham Wraps, Micro-Roasted Potatoes
Saturday - Grilled Pizza Sandwiches
Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.
After working on the girls' Easter dresses, I was looking for a fun, simple pattern to use up some of the fun fabric I had purchased for them. I came across this tiered flouncy sundress at YouCanMakeThis.com.
The discerning among you will notice that it uses the same fabric as the skorts I recently posted about.
These dresses went together in a flash. They're made flat for fast construction, and there is no front or back so the girls can just pop it on for quick cuteness!
I've been in scrapbook mode lately. I'm finally crawling out of the hole I've been in since Hunter was born, so I'm fired up to get some albums done. Here are some quick tips to help those pages come together quicker.
Run out of adhesive dots to hold down your ribbon to the page? Fret not, tack down the ribbons using brads at each end. Or wrap the ribbon to the back of the page and secure with regular tape.
Want an eye-catching background? Cut a piece of patterned paper into a large curved shape and attach it to your cardstock. It instantly creates visual interest to your background. You can use freehand, bowls, plates and anything round to help you draw the curved shape.
Lace a strip of ribbon through punched holes along one side of the border to create a pretty-looking page accent.
Do you love the stitched-look but can't sew or you want a simpler method? Use rub-on stitches or here's what I normally do, use a fine-tip pen and draw the dashes to resemble the stitched-look without needle and thread! Not perfect, but it saves me plenty of time.
Add on a premade envelope to your layout to tuck in extra journaling or additional. Give your envelope a unique look by customizing it to your own preference. You can also use library pocket to tuck in your extra journaling too.
And the #1 tip for fast scrapbooking....
Make 8x10 collages of up to 15 or so photos in a program like Picasa. This is a great way to use all 30 of those wonderful birthday photos without making 5 birthday layouts! I print mine at Sam's Club for around $1.50 each.
I've been such a blog-slacker lately. We've been embracing some lazy summer days lately, and there really has been little news that's fit to print. Swim lessons started today, so we have a little more motivation to get going these days.
On our dinner table this week will be:
Monday - Chipped Beef Gravy, Toast, Eggs
Tuesday (Rabbit Agility, 4-H Horse & Pony) - Mexican Dinner, Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday - Cold Cuts, Chips
Thursday - Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, Edamame
Friday - Baked French Toast, Sausage
Saturday (4-H Foods) - Swedish Meatballs, Noodles, Steamed Broccoli
Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.
Posts
