Moments From the Week

I know I've said this before, but I am getting sooooooo frustrated with my camera! It takes blurry pictures 70% of the time and the other 30% of pictures are not very good either. I REALLY want a new camera. Whaaaahh! Okay enough whining. Here are some pics from the week.

My mom torturing my poor son (just kidding).

 Naia holding the little man.

 Taven trying to scare him.

 My brother brought us some vegetables from his garden!

 First thing up....zucchini bread!

 My niece Abigail over for a visit.

 Relaxation.

 Taven outside in his favorite boots.

 I finally got around to giving the kids their art packages a week and a half after Mirek was born.

 And since I'm too busy to sew, my lovely mother has been sewing the kids quite a bit of summer clothes. Thanks mom! Here are just a few of the items she has made them (excuse the wrinkles in the first dress).

Our Mini Homestead Plans

So I like to think that I'm a homesteader, but I'm not. I have dreams like most, but instead of waiting for them to come true, I would rather work with what I have now. What I have is a pretty small suburban lot. My plans for the near future are an L shaped raised bed garden along out backyard fence, a pallet compost bin back behind the chicken coop, and a rain barrel near our back porch. Luckily, my brother is willing to help me with all of this. It's not too much work, but it does require a little bit of start up money, a little know how, and a few days labor. My brother has a homestead in progress about a 3 hour drive from our place. Planning a time to get together and do this is probably the hardest part.

In other news, the kids received their art packages.

I haven't been doing much except resting and staring at the wee little one.

I did manage to cook a bit. My brother brought us some produce from his garden last weekend and so I've been pulling out all of the squash and zucchini recipes.

wood or brick? Reading barnheart and a feast nearby. Hanging for greens, cooptop garden for herbs, hanging baskets for stuff, pots for tomatoes, fence, chicken book.

be keeping the kids fed, laundry, diapers, chickens, cleaning, just basic needs at this point. Not much to blog about. Ants and chickens super guilty. Screen free time.

this post took me forever to write. Few sentences a day and not sure I have anything to relay share.

discovered pinterest my to do

book rotation - reference and seasons

new baby new rhythm

Summer collage using the kids' pictures

Well I haven't had time for blogging or even for taking pictures much. We certainly haven't gotten around to doing anything crafty yet. Just trying to establish a new rhythm with the new baby. We will get there. However, I remembered that I had written this post a few weeks back and never published it. So why not now when I have little time for much besides meeting everyone's basic needs? Mirek is an angel by the way. Just working on trying to fit in time for the others...


While the girls were making a collage yesterday, I decided to make one as well.

 Finally! My artwork hangs on the wall too.

Welcome Mirek!

Guess what!? I had a baby Tuesday! The little man, Mirek Adewale, was born 8 lbs 2 oz, 21 inches long, at 11:08 am. "Mir" means peace and Adewale is a little hard to translate but basically means our wealth has arrived home.

 He is perfectly healthy, perfectly happy, and perfectly loved.

 He's big on sleeping.

 The men of the family are in love (so are the women of course).

 A perfect Father's Day here at our home.

Backyard Fishing

Lately, the kids (especially Taven), have been pretending to fish a lot. They use shoestrings mainly, but also sticks, recorders, pencils, whatever. This morning I got the idea to make them some magnetic poles and fish.

What Excites Me

I know this post won't excite most, but it excites me (and this is my blog lol!). We went to The Homeschool Store today and I sold some of my old curriculum books (that we never used). What need does an unschooling family have of boring books about how to read, write, and spell anyway right? 

I browsed their fantastic used books selection and found a lot more interesting items to purchase with my new money!

I thought this was kind of cute for 2$.

 I bought myself this National Geographic book on John Muir (says 2$ but they gave it to me for 50 cents).

 Some Dover coloring books for the kids' art packages (2$ each and never colored in!).

 More coloring books and a sticker book with all of its stickers.

 Usborne Puzzle Adventures.

 More Usborne.

 And some encyclopedias.

Now that is what excites me!