Light {8th birthday}

The birthday book we read ever birthday eve for all of my children. Birthday by Heather Jarman K's card for L per L's request - Tum Tum wrapped in a playsilk
This little light of mine's birthday was last week. 8! Can you believe it? I sure can't! All he wanted for his birthday were his two front teeth...oh and one another tooth on the bottom. This dear boy of mine takes after his oldest sister when it comes to teeth. She didn't loose her first teeth until she was 7 and the same went for him. Now they are falling out like crazy!

In true L style, he didn't decide what kind of birthday he wanted until the week of his big day. After thoughtful consideration he decided on a transformers/construction truck party. Where this transformers obsession came from, I don't really know. I did my best to tie the two together. He was happy and that is all that matters.

He opened presents as soon as he woke up (our family tradition) but as I am sure you can see - one family member was not too happy about it. Baby F thought he was celebrating his own birthday again. L saw how sad his baby brother was and invited him to help open presents. He loves his brother so and is such a great big brother to him.

We spent the day playing with his new gifts and then went bowling...well, I *though* it was bowling but it ended up being mini-bowling. The kids all still had a blast and I think Baby F appreciated the mini balls he could actually grip to throw. L was nothing but smiles the whole time. We ended the day with dinner at Panera (his birthday meal request) and one last gift waiting for him at our door when we came home.

My prayer for this special boy of mine is that he will always let his light shine for all the world to see and never allow the darkness to smother it.

Light {8th birthday}

Wild and Three

*singing along to his birthday song* C made these sweet Baby F and fox beeswax figures!
My sweet, spitfire baby boy is three!!  How does time fly by so? It feels like forever since I was last pregnant yet I can still remember it so well. I can still remember all his little kicks and hiccups and then I can remember when they stopped. I can remember going into labor and having that gut feeling something was wrong. I can remember my midwife's words of how he wouldn't have made it if we waited even a moment longer to get to her and the weight of my very tiny 5 pound baby in my arms. Oh my sweet baby boy. He was an answered prayer and his life is truly a miracle. I am forever blessed for knowing him and love him more than I could ever put into words.

He is the most demanding, energetic and strong willed of all my children, but I feel like that is because he had to be such a strong fighter at the beginning of his life. He wants the world to know he is here and not someone to be forgotten. I love his strength and tenacity. All of these traits that might be challenging at times to parent will serve him well as he grows into an adult. Especially when you couple them with his enormous compassionate heart, his ability to love in any situation and his little gentlemanly manners. Not to mention his love for cuddling and giving hugs and kisses every moment of the day. Goodness, I am the lucky one!

I apologize for the rather horrible photos. It was so dark the morning of his birthday. We stayed home and kept it low key because we just really needed some down time as a family. Of course, everything was fox related. It reminded me a lot of his first birthday. I honestly don't remember much of his second birthday, as sad as that sounds. I think I have tried to erase most of that year in Oregon from my mind.  He even wore the same pants I made for him on his first birthday. Would you believe I made them so big that he can still fit into them at age three?!

He mostly received clothes from us. I couldn't really think of anything fun and exciting to give him. I guess that is what happens when one's birthday is exactly one month after Christmas. His Nana and Grandpa made up for it though with a new book and a John Deere toy to play with on his farm mat I made him. Oh let's not even talk about the 10 year in the making farm mat. I shed a few tears after I took it out of the washing machine (purposely felting it as per the pattern) and it came out super felted and literally half the size it was. All the beautiful detail is now gone but you know what? He still loved it and that is all that matters. C made him a sweet set of beeswax figures seen above (goodness how I love them) and Kevin's Dad (!!) sent him some tinker toys that he and L instantly built things with. Lastly (and perhaps the most uncommon gift to give a three year) he got his own peace lily plant. Our church is filled with peace lilies and every Sunday Baby F is always admiring them. It seemed like the perfect gift for him and he loved it. He tells everyone all about "my plant". He might be a crazy plant boy in the making - like mother like son I suppose? 😂

Wild and Three

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 or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.



K has taken over all my Stitch and Story projects. This one is a baby blanket. For what baby, I do not know. Maybe for one of Baby F's dolls???


What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting 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 or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.



This Crafting On is focused on something that K is making - a cabled headband. She has been wanting to learn how to cable for quite sometime. When this kit came to us in the mail last week it was obvious that it was meant for her - even the color screams her name. She actually already finished one cabled headband and had enough yarn left to knit a second one so she is making this one to give to a friend in her RE class.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting 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 or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


 I am actually currently working on finalizing the pumpkin pattern (yay!) as well as finishing up the children's Pevensie costumes but I'd rather share about what K just finished instead. Last week I received a package from Stitch and Story that included two knitting kits. Some of you may have seen my kiddos unboxing them on my IG stories. K instantly claimed one of them - the sweet cup cozy you see above. It was such a fast and easy knit she finished it in one sitting. I am starting on the other kit as soon as my aforementioned WIPs are finished. For those of you that have been wanting to learn how to knit - these kits would be a great place to start! Each kit is geared towards first time knitters and contains very detailed instructions. They also have the softest yarn in the most beautiful colors. You can see their kits and yarn  here (USA) and here (UK). Use code FRONTIER20for 20% off your purchase!

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting 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 or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I have a lot of crafting going on at the moment but no photographic evidence of it. With that in mind I thought I would share a project K is working on - a Christmas gift for Baby F. It is a knitted chocolate roll to add to his knitted food collection. It is also from the book Tasty Knits.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting 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 or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

 Well, I got as far as I could with my chunky knit pumpkin. I was to the point of stuffing it when I realized I didn't have any stuffing. Oops. Pictured above is the children's handwork from school - weaving on forked branches. I'll share after photos when they are all done.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Our First Week of Homeschool 2018

Dye baths Left to Right: goldenrod, pokeberry, grass, carrot and beets carrot dye bath beet dye bath C'sfingerless gloves before pokeberry dye bath I feel rather silly posting this now as we are about to start our third week of school tomorrow morning but things are going so well (so far) that I just had to share. My children have all been very diligent and perseverant for the most part with everything we have done. Somehow I have been on the ball and waking up in the wee hours of the mornings to make sure we are all on schedule. I pray the year continues in this manner.

Our first week included nature walks to our creek, (including one day that was so hot we decided to take a swim) dyeing silks with natural dyes (some worked but most of them didn't, however I attribute that to not properly mordanting them. Honestly, I never had any hope for the carrot or grass dyes, though), memorized a verse and made use of our leftover corners from making the chalkboard by turning them into mountains (to cement the verse in our brains), oh and we had special guests in the schoolroom - two of our chickens. This. This is how I envisioned homeschooling. Not the way I had been doing it in the past - stressed out and done in. This is the way it was meant to be.

Our First Week of Homeschool 2018