Joyfully Weary

It's probably a little late to be sharing these photos, but we had so much fun dressing up as Harry Potter characters for Halloween that I'm going to do it anyways. I can't believe it's already the middle of November! I make so many plans to visit this place...taking pictures and jotting down ideas of what I'd like to share, but time flies by and then the pictures and ideas seem old. Right now family and homeschooling can be all consuming some days. It's a season and one I'm trying to savor and not fight against. As much as I preach to myself, I still struggle to enjoy the moment instead of focusing on all the possible to-dos and what-ifs.  Anyways, back to costumes. This was the first year were everyone dressed up around the same theme. I loved it, and have been throwing out more theme ideas for next year. Nobody seems to be biting though. Harry Potter is a story we all enjoy, and it was easy to find characters that we all wanted to be.   Jeremy wen...

I'm a little late posting these photos. It's been a busy week...mostly, for happy reasons. We had an out-of-state friend stay with us a couple nights which led to an evening full of good wine and good conversation. We also had some unhappy busyness - sick and teething kids up at all hours of the night. Mini Man has been begging for the last couple years to make our house scary for Halloween. We debated for awhile; we don't want to glorify death or evil. After having some conversations with each other and with the kids, we decided we would decorate with natural scary things like spiders, bats, etc. Jeremy and I are also huge fans of stories and mythology so we figured we could also incorporate some of the "scarier" characters from our favorite books. The big spider on top of roof is suppose to be Aragog. We have plans to add a little bit each year...he needs some fur and some glow-in-the-dark eyes.  This year Big Buddy dressed...

This past week has been full of cold cloudy days. On days like those I prefer to curl-up on the couch and read/nap. My kiddos usually have different ideas though and they talked me in to making some sweets. We decided to tweak the traditional rice krispie treat recipe and make something a little more festive.  Ingredients   stick of butter 2 - 10oz packages of marshmallows  1/2 cup of pumpkin 1 t pumpkin spice 1 t vanilla  1 box (12oz) rice cereal tootsies rolls 1 T butter   Directions Melt butter in large saucepan. Slowly add marshallmallows and stir until melted. Stir in pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and vanilla. Slowly stir in rice cereal. Coat hands with butter and create small balls with the rice mixture. Place balls on wax paper and push a tootsie roll into the top. Let cool. Mini Man and Little Lady are pretty self sufficient in the kitchen and made the recipe all by themselves with just a little g...

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces". These are the small graces, little moments when the miracles come... Small graces leading me to the larger one... Last week was filled with so many good things:  a day out with friends,  crisp fall weather, halloween... On Tuesday we met some friends at the Discover Center Museum . It had been awhile since our last visit so the kids were excited to revisit some of their favorites exhibits, like the shadow room. They also had some new exhibits. The kids were especially pumped  about the Build It/Make It room. 

I've mentioned before that our family goes through a ton of orange juice, so I'm always looking for ways to do something with all the old cartons . In the sprit of Autumn and Halloween, we turned a few into lanterns this week.  Our Supplies: empty oj cartons, black spray paint, flameless tea lights, x-acto knife, scissors, tape, black construction paper, and a hole puncher (optional: tissue paper, color tint overlays, stencils, push pins, foam board, & pipe cleaners)  Step 1: Use the x-acto knife to cut up the orange juice carton. We discarded the middle of the carton and cut the top portion to be approximately 7'' tall and the bottom portion to be approximately 1" tall. Then use the x-acto to cut windows into the top portion of the carton, ours are roughly 3" x 3".  Step 2: spray paint cut-up orange juice carton Step 3: cut "panes" slightly larger than "window" openings.  Step 4: decorate panes....