diy//desert terrarium 101

This is a fun and super easy project for your kiddos to do.  Carter needed to make a terrarium for scouts and I was missing the Arizona desert, so this project satisfied both of our needs.  I let Carter do most of the work, only stepping in to help keep the soil from going all over the place.  We put the terrarium together in our living room because the best natural light is in that room of our home and I needed good light for picture taking.

As for the materials, we were able to purchase the succulents and cactus soil in the garden section at Lowes.  You need cactus soil for succulents because it drains well.  I picked up the white rocks at PetSmart where the fish supplies are sold.  They have several colors to choose from.  I went with the white rocks because they go best with our home decor.  The fish bowl was less than $4 from Michaels. I am loving the way this terrarium turned out and hope my brown gardening thumb doesn't kill it ;)

family fun//virginia museum of fine arts

We are a family of six, and live on a tight budget.  So pretty much everything we do as a family must be free or very cheap.  We all had an itch to get out of the house a few weekends ago and decided a little trip to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond would be fun.



The museum is free (my favorite word) if you opt not to view the special exhibit and we chose to park on a side street (which was also free) instead of a museum lot which cost $5 or so.   There are paved paths, water features, park benches and plenty of grass for the public to enjoy.



Inside, we were greeted by the nicest security guard.  Really, he deserves a raise.   He gave us a map of the museum and we made our way up to the Chihuly sculpture.  The mix of blues and whites is mesmerizing.  I kinda want to go back without the kiddos so I can enjoy it longer.



We made our way through most of the museum in the next couple of hours.  Noah is only six years old, so our whole visit was based on his attention span.  It was a good challenge for me to point out little things I knew about some of the exhibits to him while being silently grateful for all the art classes I took in college.   There was an entire room dedicated to horses and Hailey was in heaven.  That girl is slightly obsessed with horses.   Carter was intrigued with the ancient Greek and Egyptian art while Tatum was moody from the beginning and wanted to go home before we even got there.
 

It was an interesting little trip, to be sure.  Overall, though, we had a great afternoon and look forward to going again this summer.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was completely wonderful.  And I can say that because I have 15 of them under my belt and most never met my expectations.  I selfishly used to think that this special day was all about me and that I deserved a nice breakfast in bed and should be showered with gifts and handmade crafts the kids would make at school.  I didn't want to lift a finger and I wanted this day to be all about me.  Me, me, me.  I mean really, didn't anyone know just how much I went through to have four kids???  And I would get really down by the end of the day because I wasn't as spoiled as I wanted to be.

I was purely selfish.  I know it.  And I am not proud of it.

My focus shifted this year.  After coming home from church, I changed out of my dress and plopped onto the couch.  I looked around and happiness filled my heart.   My children were laughing and carrying on and I was happy that they get along so well.  They are gifts from heaven and I am deeply grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to be their mother.   It's very humbling.  My sweet husband showered me with love and that is way better than any gift, although he did have a few surprises for me throughout the day.  I reflected on the state of our little brick rental home and it was a bit of a mess.  But I didn't care because it meant that our home is lived in and well loved.  I felt such a connection to all of these things.  I felt fulfilled.

We all worked together to tidy up so that the missionaries from our ward (church) could skype with their moms that evening.  It's the one day of the year, out of the whole 2 years they are away from home, that they get to talk to their mothers.  It was so impressed with the amount of love and gratitude these two 18 year old boys have for their mothers.  It made me realize that my time with my children is so precious.  Before I know it, they will be out in the world making their own choices.  So for now, I am holding on to them as tight as I can.

Amongst all the happenings of the day, I got out my tripod and we snapped some family photos just before the kids got distracted by a bunny in our neighbor's yard.  Noah was not really into it, but we managed to get a few good ones.

I hope that your Mother's Day was extra special this year.

sunday style//plaid and waves

Last weekend, the Mr. & I squeezed a little shopping time into our busy schedule and I came home with a cute green plaid shirt from Old Navy's clearance section.  I never buy anything in green - ever.  But now I am officially in love with the color.  I paired my new top with my favorite thrifted red pencil skirt and thrifted tan heels.

I also fancied up a thrifted necklace by adding extra links in the back to add some length and then attached a skeleton key I purchased while on a family trip to Tombstone, Arizona to the front.  It's cute enough to wear to church and fun enough to wear during the week.

I like to get all gussied up for church each Sunday, it being the only day of the week I dress up and do my hair.  I was lucky enough to win a Jose Eber clipless curling iron from Rachel over at Smile And Wave recently.  It is amazing.  Truly.  I will never go back to using a regular curling iron again.  It took some getting used to as my new iron has no clamp on the barrel to hold the hair down.  Instead, a glove is included to wear on the hand you wrap your hair around the heated barrel with.  No more frazzled hair ends.  And I get beautiful waves of hair every time.  If you are in the market for a new curling iron, I give this one my full recommendation.  I know I didn't have to pay for mine, but it I think it's worth every penny.

**just pretend you don't see those ugly garbage cans in the back, okay??**

our first garden

When we moved into our little brick rental home, I was super excited about the possibility of growing our first ever garden.  I've wanted a garden for years, but always put it on the back burner because we had a handful of pesky gophers on our property in Arizona that ate anything and everything in sight.  Those sneaky suckers were so tricky to kill (nearly impossible, really) that I knew any efforts to grow juicy, delicious veggies would be in vain.  But here in Virginia, we've been told we can grow just about anything and I was hooked on the idea of having a little garden in the back yard.

The Mr. and I picked up supplies one weekend, along with some seeds of several kinds of vegetables.  Carter needed to pass some projects off for cub scouts, so he and the Mr. built the frame for the garden using a circular saw and a drill.  We planted the seeds just this weekend, keeping our fingers crossed that something will grow successfully.  It's a small leap of faith to put so much effort into something and not know what the exact results will be.



To protect our seeds and future crop, we put together a cage using chicken wire and sticks we found in the yard.  While putting it together, the Mr. & I decided there were probably 100 other ways we could have done it better, but decided to move forward with our original plan and make a better one next year.  Hopefully it will keep the deer, moles, and voles out.  Hopefully......



The weekend was so beautiful and we finished up the garden this past weekend.  The kids came out to enjoy the weather and found a few fuzzy caterpillars scooting their way around the yard.  The last time I saw a caterpillar was in Pennsylvania where I grew up as a little girl.  It makes my heart happy that my kids get to have the same little experiences with nature that I did growing up.  Moving them across the country has given our littles so many more experiences with nature.
 

legos and life as of late

Legos have taken over our living room table - the very same table that once found itself in the boy's room when we lived in Arizona.  There isn't space to put it in their room in our little brick rental home so it sits in our living room and the legos have trickled back to their familiar place.  I'm usually a stickler when it comes to rules, especially the one we have about toys staying in the bedrooms.  But I'm letting this one go.  I even found myself playing with them this morning.

I'm seeing that I have really grown up as a parent.  There was so much I didn't know how to handle a handful of years ago that is so simple to handle now.  Some of our kids really used to give us a run for our money and sometimes I lost my temper.  It hurts sometimes to think about all the times I reacted instead of acted.  I don't want my kids to remember their childhood as the time when their mama always yelled at them.  But this is life and we are all learning.  They are quick to forgive and move on.  My children are my greatest teachers.

Life for our little family has been very good as of late.  No, I think calm would be a better word.  We are all healthy, the kids are in the homestretch of school before summer begins, we got our tax return back last week and have a million things we want to use the money for, and I am making mental preparations of what needs to happen so each of the bedrooms are fully organized and prepped for summer.  Our first garden is almost done and I am anxious to eat fresh veggies and strawberries.  

What projects are you working on?

handmade laundry soap

A year before we made our big move to the east, a sweet friend gave me a recipe for homemade laundry soap.  Her son had actually tested her homemade laundry soap against a well-known store bought brand for a school science project and the results were amazing.  I was intrigued and asked her for the recipe.  I've been using it ever since.  I may have even shared it on the blog before, but I think it is worth re-sharing because there are just a few things I do differently now than I did when making it before.

First, let me give you the recipe:

1 bar fels-naptha soap or zote soap
1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax

Shred the bar in a food processor (some people use a blender).  
Change the shredder attachment on your food processor to the blade that sits in the bottom.  You will need to empty the shredded soap into a bowl first.
Add the rest of the ingredients in with the soap, stir and pour back into food processor.  (If you use zote soap instead of fels-naptha, you will need to split your load in half so that everything is mixed well.  In other words, you'll be blending everything together two times instead of once.)
Blend well.
Pour into container.
Use 2 tablespoons for every load of laundry.

So here are the things I have learned from using this over time.  First, fels-naptha soap works just as well as zote soap (which was the soap my friend told me to use in AZ - find it at Walmart).  A bar of zote soap is larger so you end up getting a couple more laundry loads out of it than you would with fels-naptha.  Fels-naptha soap smells stronger fresh out its package, but makes no difference when your clothes are dry.  Second, washing our clothes this way has saved us big bucks.  Laundry detergent is expensive so we opt to make our own instead.  Maybe if I started couponing and got laundry detergent for free, I'd use that instead.  Maybe.  Or just keep it for backup.  Third, this is not the only homemade laundry soap recipe out there.  But I'm sure you already know that.   There are tons of recipes for dry and wet soap.   The most helpful hint I can give you if you are ready to try making your own laundry soap is to find a recipe first and then see if anyone made comments about it (easy to do if you find the recipe on a blog).  People are so willing to share what their laundry soap successes, failures, tips and tricks.




I am going to experiment with scenting my soap in the future.  Do you make your own laundry detergent?  Do you scent it?  If so, with what?  I'd love to know, so please share in the comments!

sunday style//yellow & lace

Today was a beautiful day.  After being under tornado watch just a couple of days ago, the beautiful weather today was more than welcome.  I hope it stays for good.



As I was taking these outfit photos today, I asked myself why I even do this type of post on my blog.  It's not a fashion blog by any means.  Coming up with something different to wear every Sunday is quite a challenge considering the size of my wardrobe is very very small.  I am going to run out of outfits to post sooner rather than later.  But it stretches this blue jeans & t-shirt wearin' mama to come up with something cute to wear once a week. And I like that :)

lace top/tank top/mustard tights/shoes: Target

skirt: thrifted

necklace: handmade by yours truly

So I want to know..... do you have a small wardrobe?  How do you switch things up so your wardrobe feels fresh?

follow annie and m on bloglovin

Good morning!  You've probably already heard by now that Google Reader is shutting down in the summer, so I just wanted to let ya'll know that you can still follow me over on Bloglovin.  I've added a clickable link above my profile photo on my right sidebar.  See ya there!

things I want my kids to know

[photo taken Spring Break 2013]

It's okay to let Tatum give hugs and kisses on the cheek at bedtime (boys, ahem).

Smile at others for it may be the only kind thing someone does for them that day.

Homemade pizza is better than store bought but sometimes your mom is just too worn out on Friday nights to make it from scratch.

When there are globs of toothpaste inside the cap, it's okay to take some initiative and clean it up yourself.

We get to have donuts 2 days in a row in June for birthdays - I call the ones filled with frosting.