Aug. 17, 2009 - Our First Day Of School!

Yes!  I'm alive! LOL  Oh...I admit it.  I've been horrible at keeping up on my blog.  I also have to admit that Facebook has a "little" to do with it... and knitting!!  Yes, I got sucked into the FB world and have posted many photos there and just felt overwhelmed trying to keep up on 2 places.  BUT I like it here MUCH better and really hope someday I'll get consistent!!  I also have been knitting a lot for my Hyena Cart shop, The East Side, but am slowing down now that school season is here again!

I planned all last week to start school today.  I had a nice big drafted schedule and got going on it last night in preparation for this AM!  It worked very nicely, but I still need to tweak it a bit over the next couple weeks!

One thing I added to my schedule is a morning walk on the days when it's nice and the weather bearable!

SO... the kids were all up and ready by 7:30 (which wasn't the EASIEST task, since they've been lazy bones all summer!!!) and we headed out with Dad for an AM walk!

Oh...it was SOOOO beautiful out and the heat hadn't hit yet so it was PERFECT!!! 

My oldest daughter was the one who found the most fun stuff on the way...

Here she is with her blue jay feather:

and then she found a cute little ladybug:

Everyone else wanted to see too!

My littlest guy found a caterpillar...

and he also discovered that not listening to Dad & Mom and running too fast causes you to fall and scrape your knee!!  It was a minor little boo-boo, but his big brother took good care of him...

We don't live far from my parents (who live in the same house I grew up in) so as we walked past, Nana said hello through the door!

We headed home, had whole wheat pancakes for breakfast and got ready to study!  You can always tell it's schooltime when my end of the table is loaded with books!  While the kids eat, I read Scripture, read inspiring stories, go over rules, talk about the day, etc!

My youngest daughter is 5, so she is excited to do a lot of schoolwork this year!  She started out her morning with some paper dolls!

My oldest son didn't feel well so he took it easy in the AM and we went over schoolwork and read from "Boyhood and Beyond"...and INCREDIBLE book by Bob Shultz!  He also helped with my youngest while I schooled with the others. 

My older daughter and middle son were busy with their schoolwork, but I didn't get many pix of them.  I focused today on the little ones since they are doing more work this year than ever!

I was really impressed with my "almost 4" year old!  Here is my little lefty working on a schoolpage... (with my oldest daughter doing her studies in the background!)

We ended up finishing all of the studies before lunch and had a "quiet" time in the afternoon... well...if you wanna call it that!  This being the first day, although I've prepared them, it was a bit rough.  Mainly for my youngest daughter!  She just did NOT want to go in her room, then I agreed to let her play Duplo's quietly with her younger brother, but then she wanted to go downstairs with the older kids.  THEN she wanted to come in and out of my room while I was having some quiet time.  THEN she fussed and fumed and ended up getting spankings and by the time quiet time was over...she was settled down and I didn't get any rest!!  Well, there is always tomorrow!!!

As usual, thank you for letting me share a bit of our lives!! ~ Bridget

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Jul. 7, 2009 - I've been busy!

Hey all!  I am finally getting a little bit of time to catch up on here!!

I am having a lot of fun at Hyena Cart ever since I moved from Etsy!  I've been busy knitting up customs and just love all of the people I am working with!

Thought I'd show you a little pair of capris I've sold recently and a new custom I'm working on :) 

I'd like this to be a place for shoppers to view what's going on with me and for custom buyers to be able to keep tabs on my progress!

I recently sold these little favorites of mine and just got a new custom order for longies in this style!  Can't wait!

I am almost finished with a custom called "rainbows on pink" and they are for a sweet little girl's 1st birthday party in October so I can't wait to show photos later on!  All I have left is the i-cord and weaving in ends!  The only problem, which I am so thankful that Jamee is really patient and kind, is that the whole boat load of Cestari I bought came to me smelling like moth balls!!!!  I am working with the company now and hear that this has been common, but people still love the wool so much they've dealt with the "airing out" process for now since the company has changed their storage process!  Like I said, I LOVE the ladies I've been working with!  They make my job fun and relaxing!!

I'll be back!  Just wanted to share a tad with you before I start my day!  I'm hoping to post more often!!!

Thanks for poppin' over to The East Side!  I am always adding to my list for customs, so please email me if you have anything you are looking for!!

:) Bridget

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Jun. 21, 2009 - I love Goodwill! (Look under ribbon photo for ART BLOG link!!)

My Husband and I went to Goodwill last night and this is a bag of stuff I got for $5!!!  Being completely O.C.D. about deals like this... I HAD to add up the things with prices on them and came to a grand total of $90!  Can you believe it??  Just the buttons alone came to about $50!

Here's my fun stash in full:

And I love when God works in little unexpected ways!  My friends and I have been making CRAYON ROLLS for our kids and for some fun giveaways on our homeschool art blog, the "WEDNESDAY GALLERY" ,and you need ribbon.  Well, I had everything BUT ribbon so we ended up using some bias binding and sewing it to make a fake ribbon LOL.  Well, not only did God bless me with ribbon... but He blessed me with CRAYON COLORED RIBBON!!!  Thank you, Lord!!

AND of all the vintage steel crochet hooks I have of my Grandmother's (and I have a LOT!) these were 2 sizes I don't have!!  I also got a couple stitch holder and a sewing gauge!

And buttons!!  I have buttons galore now!!!  What a great thing to have around when you love to sew AND when you have kids that love to do crafts!!!  OOOOH I feel so blessed!  Just wanted to share!

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Jun. 10, 2009 - Homemade Pizza Recipe (topping on this one is Grilled Chicken!)

I LOVE grilling.  And not only do I love to actually grill food, I love how food looks after it's been grilled...

But I like the way it looks even better on homemade pizza dough...

Yes.  I know.  There is pepperoni on my "Grilled Chicken Pizza".  That is for my one "could be a pepperoni eating vegetarian" son.  He doesn't like meats like baked chicken, cooked hamburger, etc.  BUT will eat gross McDonald's nuggets and things like sausage and pepperoni.  I don't get it, but I don't mind either.  Even if he is one of those "kinda vegetarian" people who don't eat beans, at least I know he LOVES peanut butter.  He'll survive ;-)

Anyway.  I used to make homemade pizza ALL the time but then at some point I got out of the groove.  Well, after our little bread making lesson here and seeing my Niece share her pizza recipe, I got encouraged again.   I had her run me through her recipe the other day and I've made it twice since! 

I used to make one 100% whole wheat, but I like this much better!  (and it's very flexible so the amounts aren't too specific~~ she does hers a little different.  I kinda took my old recipe and used some of hers)

Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Dissolve honey or sugar in 3/4 c. water.  (I use a couple teaspoons of sweetness, but don't measure, just blop it in!)

Add 1 packet yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons) and stir and let sit to get foamy.

Preheat oven a bit so it's warm and then shut it off.  At this point you can also grease your pan.  I use a large cookie sheet and grease it with olive oil.

Once foamy, PREHEAT OVEN TO 425 DEGREES and then add up to 1/4 cup of olive oil to the yeast mixture.  (the more the better!!)  Now you can add some flax seed & spices.  A few T. of flax is good (or more if you want) and my Niece loves onion powder and adds a bit of that along with my favorite...garlic powder!  MMM  I just sprinkle some on... probably like 1/4 to 1/2 t. if you measured it) Mix 1 cup of whole wheat flour into dough.  Then add white flour until it forms a nice dough.  Just stir in as much as you can, put the dough on floured surface and knead in more flour until it's nice and smooth.

Place in oiled bowl and roll around to get dough all coated.  Cover with damp cloth and place in warm oven for about 20 minutes.

Punch down and knead just a little then flatten out onto pan.  Add whatever you want for sauce, cheese and then the toppings. 

Bake for 10- 15 minutes or so.  I used some really fat mozarella my Husband bought (and loaded it!), so it took closer to the 15 minutes to cook.  Even after the crust was all done, the cheese wasn't as browned as I like it, but it was still GOOOOOOD!

I served it up for lunch with some organic baby carrots... perfect.

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Jun. 3, 2009 - Check out this great ART BLOG!!!

My friend, Shipra, came up with a great idea for homeschoolers all over!  She started the "Wednesday Gallery ~ an inspired artblog" and I'd like you to please help me to get the word out!

Each week there is a new word, which is to be used for inspiration, and the kids need to use their thinkers and get artsy!   

This week's word is: 

The new word is posted on Wednesdays along with the prior week's photos!  One photo per child is submitted to shiprapanosian@gmail.com by Tuesday evening, along with the child's age, their "title" for their project, and art resources used to make the project.  Feel free to also send links to any websites you may have used to get creative ideas!

Last week's word was "ROCK" and my kids had SO much fun deciding what they would do and then it was fun to see what they would name their final art photo!  As soon as their photos were posted to the blog, they were SO excited to see them along with all of the other children's entries!! 

Here are my oldest three children's entries:

"A" (age:6.5)

"Tiger Rock"

paint on a rock.

"Z" (age:8)

"rocks ROCK!"

she spelled "rock" with rocks, including her birthstone, amethyst.

and "C" (age:12)

"Rock Mountain"

photography and rocks from his art collection including flint and quartz.

This coming week there will be a contest and all photo entries for next Wednesday's post will be eligible to win!   I don't think the contest has been posted yet, but know that if your child enters a photo for the blog, they will  get a chance to win a prize!  As a moderator of the group, I will be aiding with Shipra to offer other different contests here and there for fun!

Hope to see you at: (clickable photo)

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