Hot mess

My "three meal per day"  dining room chair seats were 

covered in  cream malletasse.  

 Did I mention  have 5 children 11 and under? 

I forgot to take a before picture. (not really) 

I enjoy reading others blogs more than blogging and I have been  stalking people who are making all kinds of things from drop cloths. 

 Lovely Tree skirt by Beth found here...http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2011/12/diy-christmas-linen-ruffle-tree-skirt.html

Sweet Pillow found here...

Beyond description lusciousness found here..http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-table.html

picture on canvas was $2.50 at AC Moore

I  tried it on one chair.  My expert in all things domestic mother in law came over to help me do the chairs. 

She was not smitten with my creativity. 

I ordered oilcloth that night to redo the chairs. 

As usual,  everyone pitched in.  Oliver is my go-to-guy for removing  and replacing seats.  

Nana and  I wrestled for almost 3 hours to do 6 chairs. 

I  knew the oil cloth  would be shiny but I wasn't prepared 

for it to be so hard to work with. 

The chairs did not come out as planned. 

squinting

I think if you look at them from far away , in the dark,  while squinting they look passable. 

This picture intentionally hides the hot mess of wrinkles on 

the front. 

Seriously....

 I am so happy to have clean, non-stained seating surfaces,  wrinkles and all.  

Happy New Year!

Last year we went to a church party, then Mrs Joyce followed us home so we could ring in the New Year together.   I am missing her today. 

We went to a countdown to noon program at the library which was so well done. 

The kiddos made noisemakers. :) 

My eyes filled up when we counted down to noon and yelled Happy New Year!   Joyce drove all the way over so we could count down and yell.  Then she went home. 

Sophia the unicorn. 

Christian started reciting the Gettysburg Address. 

I bought some dropcloths to potentially recover my dining room chairs.    I gave it a test run my recovering the cushions from this chair BFF and sister gave me last week.   I also finally used the rest of my one and only feedsack I have been pampering. 

I hope you all have a very blessed and peaceful 2012. 

The Thrill of Hope.......

We had a lovely holiday season........

hmmmmm.....wonder who the someone is....

We had fun raking for Mrs R. 

Christian and Gillianne's choir had their concert.  I couldn't get a good picture of Christian singing. 

Keith surprised me with a real tree! 

Yipee! 

I have to keep it real around here. 

In the interest of keeping December simple so I don't yell at everyone and ruin Christmas I told the kids if they wanted outdoor light they were more than welcome to put them up. 

We celebrated the week before.

On Christmas morning Christian gave me a huuuuge pair of hoop earrings.  Oliver gave me a necklace and GG gave me a watch. 

I didn't take too many pictures because I wanted to soak in the wonderfulness of family. 

Oliver really loves origami. 

The Nanas took the girls to an American Girl tea party at the library. 

I failed to document a lot, like my own Christmas eve party (eta if you want to see pics Keith has some here),  but this year was the absolute most joyous Christmas ever for us!  

O  Come Let Us Adore Him! 

Silent Night

Cookie Baking at our House!

Squid devises a new use for the blow dryer pertaining to melting butter. 

The fad caught on!

A nice tub for Sophie to get all of the red frosting off. 

Yes, Abby sat in frosting. 

Zosia cracks us up!

On another note I wanted to share  a timely post with you from Kat from Inspired to Action where she shares how a small action can get things in motion. 

Every day I walk in and make a crucial decision:

Do I set my stuff down on the counter or do I put it all away? And you know what affects my decision most of all…

Is there stuff already on the counter?

Because if there’s stuff already on the counter, it’s not worth trying to keep it tidy. It’s already not tidy so I might as well just dump my stuff.

But if the counter is spotless and glorious? I happily put each thing away where it goes. Things are wonderful and clean and I want to keep it that way. All is right with the world.

Read the rest here.  

Have a great Monday! 

How do you home school 5 kids?

I get this question almost daily. We start out with Bible reading and prayer over breakfast.  We then move on to history and science all together cuddled on the couch or in the kitchen.   


Then  I schedule  a time for each older child to be on "Sophia Duty"  while I work with the other children.  I try to plan activities that are enriching and will more important keep her focus. 


Here is an easy example.  I bought tiny pom poms from the dollar store and set out bowls for her to "tweezer"  them in.   All of the children up to Oliver's age of 7 enjoy this.  Most of my crew need all of the fine motor skill help they can get.