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One of our
daughters (all of whom love to crochet and do various crafty-things
with yarn) apparently placed the fan a little too close to their craft
basket one night before going to bed. |
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Yarn mess. |
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More yarn mess. |
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Yarn caught on
the blades. |
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Yarn in the
motor. |
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More yarn in
the motor. What a mess. We finally did get all the yarn
out, but it had burned out the motor and there was no help for it, we
had to get a new fan. |
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Crayola Oil
Pastels are one of the best school art supplies ever invented.
They're not only inexpensive, they're creamy, smooth, and eminently
blendable. Buy some today, without delay! :-) |
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Children
reveling in the joy of doing their chores. |
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More reveling. |
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Geneva got
made-up by her older sister, and boatloads of royal blue eyeliner were
used up. |
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Boatloads, I
tell you. |
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Blurry... |
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Blurry... |
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Blurry... |
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Not bad! But
still a little blurry, so we tried one more... |
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Pretty good,
but still a little blurry... |
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Ahhh!
Best of the lot. I encouraged Geneva that with professional
modeling, it usually takes hundreds of photos to get a handful of good
shots, so we really didn't do too badly! |
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Renaissance
Mooms! Megan loves this dress, and looks so pretty with her hair
up like that. |
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Another shot
of Megan on dress-up day (these pics are out of order) |
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Megan again. |
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Many shots of
Laurent in her beautiful royal blue gown and upswept hair. |
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Lovely
profile, but it cuts off a little bit... |
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Sidelong
look... |
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Back of the
hair - this hairdo was sooo easy, with her curly hair! |
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That's a cameo! |
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Full length
shot... |
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One more -
what a beauty! :-) |
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Here lies
Godric Gryfindor. |
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Leftovers... 7
quart bags of shells, veggies, and alfredo sauce. We're set for
several meals there... |
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From the
laundry sorting day - this was the trash that had accumulated in
several clothing baskets. Sheesh. |
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Finished with
sorting -- much better!! |
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Buzz, back in
action after some serious troubles. |
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It was a dirty
job. Paul was much, much, much dirtier! |
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Prince Theodore, Rajah of the Indian Province of something or other... Megan created this cute little outfit (with yarn, the remains of which you saw above) |
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Headress. |
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Fancy little
trousers and neck ruffle. |
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Megan and her
Prince. |
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We decided to
return to a previous practice of having the kids wear uniforms for the
school day. It does help keep them a little more focused on
"business"! |
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One day, while
Mom was busy helping The Boy, his sisters had a field day drawing on
each other. |
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Folded laundry
on the big laundry sorting day. So nice when it is all folded and
tidy! |
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More drawing. |
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More drawing
(but she's a cute little elf, isn't she!) |
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Yard
excavation with trowel and hammer. |
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Laurent was
sent to "Sick Bay" one day, and Nurse Megan took very good care of her. |
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Sisters!
(All together now, "Awwwww!") |
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Jacob reading
some Classic Greek Myths. |
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Jacob actually
thought he was going to be let out of the house this way. |
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Uhhhhh.... |
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There, now,
that's better... |
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I think he was
too caffienated to stay still for these pictures! |
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I've been crocheting many things lately with cotton yarn. This started out as a washcloth, and ended up a hand-towel. It works very nicely, too! |
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A closeup of the pattern. |
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The yarn is
called "Swimming Pool" and it really does look that way in this shot. |
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extra. |
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Laundry day,
happy helpers holding heavy loads! |
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One day I
needed to sew on some buttons, and couldn't find ANY thread. Till
I remembered my embroidery floss! |
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Much floss. |
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Ok, I wanted
to get the "perfect" shot of my floss box. So sue me. |
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Yard
excavation. (out of order.) |
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The end result
of a good laundry day. |
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Jacob was
reading about medieval traveling theatrical productions. |
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A daughter
thoughtfully brought me a very large mug of tea, and along with it... |
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a pie server
with which to stir in my Splenda. |
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Rainbow Bright
crocheted washcloth. |
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Rainbow Bright
with Country Print Yellow crocheted washcloth. |
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The beginnings
of another all Country Print Yellow washcloth. |
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Mary, Queen of
Scotland and the Isles -- by Margaret George. I hope it is a good
book. |
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Jacob had a
project that involved making his own braille alphabet. |
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One day after
picking up all the books we could find in the living room, dining room,
and work table area, I decided it was worth a few pictures. |
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Jewels
washcloth. |
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Three pretty
washcloths. |
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Three pretty
washcloths again. |
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Went shopping
at Hobby Lobby. YARN!! :-) |
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Laurent did a
very nice oil pastel rendering of Noah's Ark. |
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closeup of
water |
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closeup of
water -- a bit blurry |
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closeup of
water. |
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closer view of
entire picture |
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closeup of
water and woodgrain. |
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The Sword of
Godric Gryfindor. |
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The Sixfold
Pattern of Man's Work. (This was useful on Laundry day! see
Nettie's
Blog for more details...) |
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Jeff snapped
this with his phone outside the Jamba Juice one day when he took the
kids there for a treat while Paul and I were finishing up our Wal-Mart
shopping across the parking lot. This one is entitled "Brain
Freeze." |
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Jacob made me
take several pictures of his "Tumble Down Thai Tower", which you see
here and below. |
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Jacob and his
bugs. This beetle was huge and coming toward me as I tried to
take the picture while simultaneously moving backward. The
resulting image is less than clear. |
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Tumble Down
Thai Tower |
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Tumble Down Thai Tower |
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Tumble Down Thai Tower |
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Tumble Down Thai Tower |
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The bug.
A different view. |
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Tumble Down Thai Tower |
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Tumble Down Thai Tower |
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Jacob wrote
this on the side of his math test page and it kind of made my day. |
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Laurent with
her new magnetic clip-on sun-glasses. |
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The new frames
without the shades. |
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Side
view. Cutie. |
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Pretty
detailing. |
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Fiesta Ombre
wash cloth. |
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Table
decoration in ecru and forest green. |
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Bad lighting
but another attempt to view the interesting stitch with which I was
experimenting. |
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This yarn is
called "Cherries and Chips". |
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Ecru and
forest green again (also a good lesson in perspective.) |
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Same thing,
better light. |
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Closeup of the
Fiesta Ombre washcloth. |
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A grand living
room re-arrangement occurred. From Nettie's Xanga: The view into the living room
from "the landing" or "the tile" or "the entryway".
I'm shoving the TV shelf back against the wall most of the time now, except when the telly is in use. Makes the walk through to the work-area more easily navigable. |
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This is part of the view from the bike seat. |
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Here is a
view of the window wall, which used to be all couch. (Notice my yarn crate!) My bike is now easily accessible as well, for which I am grateful. |
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The little
black chest of drawers that fits into handy little corners so well. |
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I had to
work around these two silly-muffins to get everything shipped
and shaped for this photo-op while they were working on averaging
numbers. As you can see, the couch is now in front of the lower half of that book case. I was convinced for these many months that I couldn't put anything in front of that shelf that would block library access, until I realized that the two lower shelves were filled with engineering and math books that none of us currently use. Hurrah! I just found a new wall!! |
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This is the
"nook" between the rocking chair, window, bird-shelf, and
couch, which is nearly constantly occupied by one or more little
readers. It is well lit by the torchiere lamp during the evening, and the window by day, yet shielded from general viewing, so it is quite the perfect little fort. |
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And here is
a window sill designed by Megan, with G.A. Henty books and the Elsie Dinsmore series arranged to perfection. Without windowsills these books would have no place to call home but the floor! |
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Jumping break
on a particularly nice fall day yielded these four photos. |
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A child who
remains unidentified to this day saw fit to grab the camera and try to
photograph Lolly inside her terrarium. |
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My desk.
I think I took this picture after I cleaned it to prove it was possible. |
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Lolly. |
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Lolly. |
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My closeet
after I cleaned out all the clothes that do not fit. |
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Lolly. |
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All the
clothes that do not fit. |
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How the dogs
are getting by without a couch to jump up on when they need to bark out
the window at passersby. |
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Pizza brought
by our good friends at McDowell Mountain Church for Wednesday night
fellowship time. |
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Wednesday
night at Westfork! |
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Two young ladies of Westfork. |
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Another two
young ladies, studying for Latin. |
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Laurent
getting comfy while studying. |
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Sissy brought
in a nearly-dead bird. |
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More
wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense. |
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More wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense, of the Geneva and Jacob variety. |
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Megan,
unperturbed as I peer over her book, continues studying. |
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Our McDowell
Mountain friends, (or as we like to call them, "The McDowellies")
serving up supper! |
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More wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense. |
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More wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense. |
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More wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense. |
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Koos and Jeff
in their usual after service positions. |
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A closeup of
the nearly dead bird. |
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Serving drinks
on Wednesday night. |
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More wooly-headed Westforkian nonsense. |
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Overnighter
under the stars. |
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A Big Mess. |
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Big Mess. |
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Lipstick pot
holder. |
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Megan's BIG
HAIR!!!! |
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Big Mess (out
of order...) |
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More BIG
HAIR!!! |