unexplored territory (in our own backyard!)

The beavers have been busy
















flooded, muddy ground = falling on your bottom




Kevin shook the apple tree to get some apples to fall down for the girls


It took a couple of tries to get ones that were actually edible this late in the season






Yum! (Little L in C's old Gnomie hat and my babywearing poncho)





camouflage







The rainfall for our area has been a bit higher than average this month creating quite a sight in our woods. Our normally tiny, and calm pond and creek have flooded causing them both to behave more like a raging river. We took a family nature walk (dog-free this time around to observe our forest friends) to survey the land. In all honesty, we also decided to head out to this neck of our woods for K. She was jealous that C, Little L and I explored out here recently for a homeschool adventure day. We even ventured into new unknown areas (well, new to the little ones and I. Kevin and Nara had previously explored them.), stopping to say hello to our animal friends and marveling at all that we had been missing out on. After this full day, I have a feeling there will be many more nature walks in the rest of our unexplored woods in the near future.

p.s - I had no intention of breaking out the Christmas or winter books yet but my girls found the box they were stored in so a few of them have found their way into our home. C had me read Any Room For Me? about fifteen times in a row today while K begged for Winter Awake!

p.p.s - C and K say hello to their friends back in Virginia in matching dresses while I say a big thank you to their Mama for her never ending help and support (and e-mails with notifications of cute dresses on sale).

unexplored territory (in our own backyard!)

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.







There is a little bit of this and a little bit of that going on in our home right now. K is needle felting some ornaments (using the same technique we have used in the past) and still knitting away hoping to finish her blanket in time for Christmas.

I finished both of the girls' Christmas Phoebes and their sweaters so I am trying to work on a couple of things for Little L now. We have a family tradition of three gifts per child. These three gifts represent the three gifts given by the wise men. I like our little tradition as it also helps to keep our focus on the day itself and not the gifts.

That scrumptious yarn you see above is destined to be knit into a Sea Shepherd sweater. The colorway is sea grass. I wish you could see it in person, I wasn't able to capture it's subtle variations. I'll try harder in the next photo I take of it.

There is a little sewing project in the works, too. I have been dreaming about this project ever since I bought that charming fabric pictured above last summer. I hope it comes out as delightful as the image of it in my head is.

What are you working on?

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) please leave your link below. It can now be either to your specific blog post or Flickr photo. There are no rules, only that your link is current and something about a craft project (of any kind) you are working on. Don't forget that there is now a KCCO Flickr group for you to share your crafting photos at anytime.

Please remember to link back here so that others who may want to join KCCO can find us.

It's as simple as that. Remember your post can be from any day of the week, it doesn't have to be today. We all love feedback so if you have a moment please leave a comment on some of the KCCO posts you may visit. I know from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Let's call the whole thing off!

nature's mobile (Little L's elf hat)




his view


C is getting braver each day with her climbing (in her koala bear sweater)


Little L wanted to climb with her so...




she led him to his own little climbing 'tree'

Some days the best thing to do is to just throw in the towel and escape to the woods. That seems to happen quite often in our home, especially once the weather starts turning and winter is near. Today was one of those days. I should have followed my gut and got us all outside in the fresh air but I tried to ignore my frustrations and keep on going. This led to a meltdown (of my own!), a husband who's accomplishment was ignored (after almost 3 years in this house - he finished organizing the garage so that our van could be in it), and a kitchen covered in sticky maple syrup. (an incident that involved Little L and a full bottle of maple syrup...I'll spare you the details) Every mole hill turned into a mountain and I became overwhelmed at every little thing brought my way. I mean, I couldn't even think about picking up the phone to return calls without my head spinning. I just couldn't snap out of it and I have no idea way. Well, I suppose sleep might have something to do with it. Little L has been going to bed at his usual 6:30 bedtime but he then wakes back up when I come to bed and stays awake until about 5 - 6 in the morning. So I have been getting about 3 hours of sleep for the past couple of weeks. It wasn't a bother at first but now I can see it is taking it's toll on me.

I sat down at my computer again feeling overwhelmed as I thought about some work I needed to do but then I found these pictures from a semi-recent homeschooling adventure day.They made me stop in my tracks. What on earth could be so upsetting that would have me forget about the gift of being alive? I am so grateful to have come across these. I needed the reminder to slooooooow down and remember just how beautiful everyday life is.  But sleep, that sure would do me some good,too! p.s - This song popped into my head as I was typing this up, hence the post title.

Let's call the whole thing off!

Our THANKS Giving Tree

Our typical day before Thanksgiving usually consists of cooking a few side dishes while devouring an edible arrangement sent from Nana and Grandpa. Little L was old enough to partake in it this time around, much to his delight. He nearly leapt out of my arms squealing "yum, yum!" when it arrived at our door.

Did you notice in the pictures above that C has purple streaks in her hair? The girls decided to secretly paint their nails this morning. They swear they asked Kevin if they could. He swears he told them only with me...That was fun to wake up to. I am still cleaning nail polish off of their clothes, bodies and just about every surface in our home.

For us, Thanksgiving isn't about pilgrims or discovering this land (The Native Americans had already 'found' it, thank you very much) but about gratitude for the blessings in our life. With this in mind, we made a THANKS giving tree as a visual reminder of what we are thankful for. We went out in the forest behind our house to find a branch and then stuck it in an old Martinmas lantern filled with pebbles. I printed out the tree leaves from Ann and had the girls write what they were thankful for on the back of each leaf.When they finished, they hung their leaves up on the tree. There were quite a few leaves and I was nervous at first that they wouldn't be able to think of that many things they are thankful for, but they filled them up and even wanted more. There were some rather serious thank yous like K's "thankful for the life I've been given" and "C loving me" but also some ones we giggled at like C's "pumpkins"and"food".  Little L dictated a thank you to me (at least that's what I told the girls) saying "thank you for my sisters". I am thankful Kevin gets the day off and we will actually get to spend some time with him.

Our THANKS Giving Tree