spring dreaming...

found here on the web...
perfect inspiration for Spring flowery thinking...

care package...

Have you ever opened a package of halibut with "Hey Sis!" written inside one of the layers of paper? Well, obviously not if you are a guy.
My brother Anthony caught this particular halibut himself in Alaska; where he lives (at least part of the time). My Mom needed to fly to NY State for a recheck on her back from a previous operation. My brother talked her into taking the halibut since she was planning on stopping here for a visit on her way back home. So my halibut did a run through (several months) in my Aunt Dorothy's freezer in NY and then onto me. My mom also brought venison roasts and backstrap from deer season while she was in NY.

halibut: cooked in cast iron w/onion and garlic powder & dill

I just cant get away from posting about food lately huh? Well, this post was supposed to be focused more on the love of my brother and mother, so that is what I will end with.

My brother who caught the fish (delicious by the way) and saved it for his sister, nieces and nephew 3,000 miles away and my mother who transported it across country and back-- to us.
love to you both!

birthday party x2...

Sophie turned 6 on the 6th (her golden birthday) and Zack is turning 12 this Wednesday (26th).

Soph loved her cake, she wanted a *pretty* birthday cake: translated= lots of sprinkles and her name on top.

Zack wanted a cake that was like a reesies peanut butter cup. I made a brownie for the bottom layer and mixed corn syrup with peanut butter for the topping. I chopped up reesies pb cups for the sprinkles.
Pretty sure Zack liked his...you know how talkative 12 year old boys are about cakes. LOL!
Had to share the outfit that Hannah picked out for the day. great color combos!

mmmmmm.. still enjoying a bit of cake today.

kid art website...

If you have kids (and like to encourage creativity-LOL!) you have to visit this site Zackery and I just stumbled on.
Mr. Maker

We were looking for the question of *Does a fox actually live in a fox hole*? We found a neat site for that and this Mr. Maker site was linked to it.


we are going to try this project of painting with wool string
I t looks like the same concept of splotching out a goob of different colored paint on one side of folded paper and closing the paper to make a design.
there are lots of other art/creativity things on that site too.
have fun!

apples...

I know, I know; another post about the kids. LOL!
I can't stop being proud of them and how they love to cook.
Angry chicken was talking about her girls and her making sugar cookies the other day on her blog, the message I left in her comment section turned into a short book bubbling of my girls cooking and how proud I am of them.
oops... sorry Amy.
~grin~
the kids LOVE...literally, they do love this apple corer/pealer. I don't think it officially belongs to us either. I think Andy borrowed it from someone before he moved out. Well, I certainly don't know anything about that (I can play dumb right?) and it has been at least 4 years since it appeared at our house so maybe it is officially ours by way of a grace period or something.

My son was the one who started the marathon apple pealing, lemon water dipping, cinnamon sugar sprinkling(ahem...sugar loading) of the apples. We haven't used the dehydrator for about as long as the peeler/corer has been at our house. It's amazing what treasures the kids can unearth around here.

You know there is something mysterious about dehydrators when apples with cinnamon/sugar is on them. A person goes to get some crispy-cinnamony apples goodness, lifts the lid to find....nothing! So she continues lifting trays in a fruitless( pun intended, LOL!) effort of hunting for apples and nothing. I fear the same fingers who placed them in there couldn't stand the wait and gobbled em up.

On a side note and none less interesting than the children chef's in the making-
If you are interested in listening to a mama-married woman-work at home entrepreneur you should head over to craftsanity and listen to the podcast with Anna Maria Horner. It's long but well worth it for the realness the girls showed.
nice...

color...

Sunday breakfast for 6.
**red grapes, fried potatoes and maple sausage.
All delivered (except mine of course) to prospective beds to my children...some sick-some I just wanted to spoil.

Did you know there is a website that you can find the color you like and it will give you the html code?
Well there is!
Yep, I am shouting...this is how excited I am that *I* could add colors to my blog.

How do you like it?

I took color from the header Tessa made me and then added the blue as the "element of surprise".
I have always liked one thing as the element of surprise when I sew....like a purse with a large vintage orange button...

Etsy...

My Shabby Chic Stripey Handbag was picked for my first treasury on Etsy.
wooopeee for me!

feels good...

balance...

let's talk single parenthood...
I know I just lost several of my readers in that phrase alone. I used to feel that way myself; that it doesn't pertain to me. I think differently now that I am in it. What we don't understand of someone else's life could really touch our own in unknown ways.
As in-- I may have been a bit more content in my life at the time if I had known more about a single mom's life before I actually had walked in it --just the difference of time management for instance alone, would have opened my eyes to how precious mine is.

As I sit here I am wrestling with a few things...
1. how will college classes affect my family life in the long term and how long of a term do I really want that to be?
*Yesterday I found out in my counseling appointment for this next quarters classes that counseling may not be a career I really want to attain. I love to encourage people and also to help them to see who they really are and not who life says they are but that may be something I do in a day to day walking out with people who cross my path in life.
To counsel in the way I had thought I was going to would take a masters degree and honestly, I don't want to be walking this college path for 6-7 years. I also dont want to cram classes to the detriment of my most precious possessions--my children. Thinking out loud to some other avenues that I may turn to instead.
so herein rests the balance questions....my heart is in my home. can single parents really find supporting jobs without a *degree*? Can they be creative sort of jobs? Do I want to get an associates in art instead and also learn the CAD program...is that a responsible choice considering the availability of jobs locally in that field?

Is your head spinning with ideas like mine yet? :o)

hmmmmmm....

2. being a single parent doesn't leave a lot of room for taking chances....
*Tessa has asked several time why don't we open a lissilulu storefront? oh how I would love to devote myself to creating like some women online that I know. how that would feel sooooo good. I cannot take the chance...the time it takes is tremendous.

ALTHOUGH one thing I do want to do and would love input is to make some patterns for sale of some of my design. I would like to make a giddy-up skirt appliqué pattern and a few other appliqué patterns along the same lines for sale. I need resources for how to have a professional sleeve for it though.
I have had another crafty mama offer to show me how to make a pdf form of it for people to buy also.
so many ideas.

anyway....balance...

offhand, my final grades are B in English (with a very high expectations teacher), A in pre-algebra, and an A in my study skills class.

yeah for me with my first quarter grades!
Lori

collaboration...

This past week we had a few days of sunshine in a row here in Washington state....I know, I know it's scary. Anyway, the kids and I cleaned up all of the storm debris that was still out there from the continual rain since the storm in December.
Hannah unearthed Sophie's stick horse.
bad things happen to toys left to the elements ya know.

Hannah decided that since Sophie's birthday was so close that she would make her a new stick horse. She badgered me until I took her to my stash and helped her pick out some fabrics. I have made a few stick horsies in the past for my kids for Christmas presents so I went by past knowledge...didn't turn out exactly like the ones I have made because of the time issue but i think she did a cute job with it.

sickies around here ....

six...

decisions, decisions....math class versus making a breakfast-in-bed tray for my sweet little girl on her birthday morning? not a hard choice. It was so nice to be shuffling around my kitchen with only the sound of my slippers on the floor and the smell of fresh coffee in the air instead of rushing about to get to class on time.
hookie...not bad sometimes, if for a good reason.

Doesn't look like she is having any problems tucking into her food, does it? Her hand is moving so fast it's just a blur in the photo. She loves yellow so I went to my stash and found this fabric with orange, green and yellow polka dots; just the size for her tray.

--Menu for 6 year old girl birthday tray--
*tray (of course and very important)
*cheery fabric
*fun dish for smoothie or yogurt
*napkin to roll silverware in
*flowers-fresh or fake
*sprinkles (also very important)
*LOUD singing of the Happy Birthday song as you approach the intended bedroom door

*yogurt w/granola and sprinkles
*homemade smoothie--banana, brown cow yogurt (vanilla flavored), frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
*omelet --eggs from our hens, shredded cheddar and ham chunks

mmmmmm.....
Have a GREAT day!
lori

the click of the keys....

an old typewriter thrifted by my oldest daughter several years ago for $5.

future writer? perhaps of love poems...she was typing everyone's names and i love you with them.
leaning right into her writing...such passion. Her sister Hannah will set up one of our two manual typewriters at the table and ALWAYS has to have a cup of chai tea beside it...like writers do with their coffee.

I still haven't started designing or cutting out her or Hannah's Easter dresses yet. so much going on....i need to make time though; it's really important to me to give them a mama made dress this year after the past couple of years from getting away from that.

Sophie turns 6 day after tomorrow...she doesn't know yet but I will be staying home from classes to give her breakfast in bed. It's a tradition at our house to get breakfast on a tray in your bed on your birthday. Sophie already has had such a hard time with me going to school in the mornings.
What does a single mama do though? either i go to work for much longer than two hours a day or i just go to school. try to explain that to an almost 6 year old though.

i am trying to get my etsy shop going more though so the summer months don't send me to work somewhere while i dont have school to support us.
single mama sustainability...