School is (almost) in session!

We're about to embark on our homeschooling journey! I was thinking about waiting until next year and starting Olivia with 1st grade, but she said she wants to start kindergarten. We'll have our first day of school when Joe starts, which will be Monday. I plan to follow his calendar. I've been brainstorming and making lists of activities we can do. I found some recipes for play-dough, finger paints, and other good stuff. We'll work on writing (some letters need a little attention). We'll also work with numbers. She can count pretty high but doesn't recognize numbers after 10. I also want her to learn the coins. She's been wanting to buy things (she saw a Tinkerbell kite somewhere), so I'd like to take her to the store, let her pick something, pay for it - let her experience the whole thing.

Those are a few ideas I've had. She's reading a little - I think she's doing pretty well for her age. Today she was reading in her coloring book. She got stuck on "triceratops" but otherwise did well!

Breastfeeding Awareness Month

August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month and August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week. Baby Blues has always been an advocate of breastfeeding. Here is a compilation of breastfeeding strips. These are hilarious! At least I thought so.

Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries

Make that "several bowls" full of cherries. This mama's hands look terrible. They look like they belong to a mechanic. Kroger had cherries for $0.99 per pound. I think I bought about 10 pounds of cherries Monday. Then I sent Joe by to get another 8 pounds or so Tuesday. It seems all I've been doing for the past 2 days is pitting cherries. We've eaten quite a few and I made some jam. I ended up with 11 or 12 pints. I've still got a few bags of cherries in the fridge. I think next will be a pie.

Samples of my Embroidery

I've been playing around with my new embroidery machine. Here are some of the things I've done. The butterfly was my first attempt. I put it on an old washrag.





Mama wanted A's put on her pillow cases. I did 3 sets.








I made my brother-in-law some candy for his birthday and used this kitchen towel for wrapping paper. This was tricky because I had to do one line at a time. I'm gonna play with some free software that will, hopefully, let me program several lines at once.



I also put his name on a bath towel...








...and some flowers on a hand towel and wash rag. As it turned out, the flowers didn't show up too well against the brown towels.






The other day I bought some new designs that I want to use for baby quilts. I've started embroidering one - I'll be doing a little at a time as I have a few spare moments - and I'll post pictures when I finish. I plan to offer them for sale on Etsy.

Pearls!

Yesterday I added some jewelry to my shop, including some pearls. Here are a couple of samples. I was working on a pearl bracelet when my pearl reamer broke, so I've gotta order a new one. When it arrives I can finish the bracelet, make some more earrings, and make another strand of pearls. In the meantime I'll be working on other items. Click here to see what else I added.

A Few Pictures

Jesse is helping Daddy fix the vacuum.











Olivia is filling up her wading pool.











Jesse is looking out the window.











Olivia has been playing in the sand pile.

FuzziBunz Giveaway!

Win three FuzziBunz cloth diapers. See Two of a Kind for details on how to enter.