A Trip to the Mountains

A few days ago my parents had to go over the mountains to pick some elk meat that my dad had dropped by the processor after getting his elk last month, and the kids and I got to go along. We'd been cooped up in the house for a few days and were starting to go a little stir crazy, so this was the perfect opportunity to get out of the house and have a good time.

On the ferry deck

                                                                                 

                 

The view from the ferry towards Everett

Ellie looking carefully down at the water

The tallest mountains had a dusting of snow on them. :)

We had so much fun!
We picked up the elk meat at Owen's Brother's, then went and visited Teanaway, which is a valley just over the ridge from Cle Elum. It's gorgeous, and I grew up camping there with my family nearly every year.

There are a bunch of ranches with cute farmhouses and pretty barns, gorgeous views of the mountains and  more often than not you will find wild turkeys, deer or elk grazing in the meadows along with horses or cows.


At the campground we got out and explored and it was so much fun to see the kids have fun running around playing where I spent so many fall days riding bikes, climbing trees and swimming in the river.

The fall leaves were just gorgeous!! 

Teanaway River

More pretty yellow leaves

The kids found a bouncy log and had fun playing on it 

We walked across this log to get to the other side of the river.
 The kids thought that was SO cool!
I thought it was a little scary, but still cool. 

This is "The Shoe Tree". For whatever reason, people have been putting shoes on this tree for probably 20 years.
 It's just a big tree at one of the campsites that's become a novelty. :) 

We headed for home as the sun sank behind the hills, looking forward to next spring when it's warm enough to go camping again and to experience the beauty and adventure Teanaway has to offer. :)

Those Days

You know those days when you just can't seem to get anything done?

When you want to put some chicken in the crockpot for dinner but you have to keep running to the other end of the house to referee the kids and keep them from putting twist ties in each other's hair and wrecking each other's lego creations, then you just get back into the kitchen and remember that you need to switch the laundry, then another fight breaks out and you try for two hours to get that darn chicken into the crockpot but are STILL unsuccessful because you keep getting interrupted??
Oh, and there are no clean dishes so you have to start washing those just to clean a place on the counter so you can put the crockpot where it will reach the electrical outlet?

I am having one of those days today.
I sure can't do this mom thing on my own!

I am so thankful that I read this verse in my quiet time with the Lord this morning, because I desperately do need HIM:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:5,6

I need God's direction today so I don't go crazy with stress and impatience! My path today has been erratic and twisty and full of stress, just trying to get through the day. Nothing super important has happened, yet the day has just been really hard!
It's amazing how when we take our eyes off of our problems (however big or small they may seem or actually be) and put our eyes on Jesus, what a peace He gives us and our paths just seem to straighten out and slow down. When we rest in God, everything falls into place because we let Him do His job, instead of us trying to do it for him.

If you're having a bad day, or overwhelmed with problems, just take a few minutes to fix your eyes on Jesus, and remember that He died on the cross for your sins and rose again for YOU, and that if you let Him, he will make your paths straight, no matter how crooked they may be. It kinda puts things in perspective.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted."
Hebrews 12: 3,4

I feel so much more peaceful after taking some time to ponder and surrender my day to God.
Oh, and I did finally get my chicken in the crockpot. :)

KCWC- Day 5

So last week was Kid's Clothing Week Challenge- and I sewed three out of the seven days.

It was a busy week and I just didn't get to put in as much time as I wanted to, but I did make this cute little skirt for Eliana out of the same fabric as I made Ethan's lounge pants.

I'm calling it, "The Schoolgirl Skirt".

It has a nice drop waist with pleats and plenty of room to grow lengthwise, with an elastic waist so its nice and comfy.

I'm thinking of making her a few others in knit fabric for next summer. Making skirts is so much fun because they don't take long to sew and they usually are fairly easy projects. Unless your fabric gets stuck in the feed dogs or the tension gets messed up or something. 

Thankfully that didn't happen with this skirt, but it sure has happened on other ones!

She just HAD to wear her "pony hat" for the photo shoot!

Precious little toes

Hope you're having a good week so far, I'm going to be writing up a few posts on foraging wild for rose hips and what to do with them after you pick them in the next few weeks, so stay tuned if that sounds remotely interesting to you. ;)

A Fun Fall Craft: Leaf Creatures!

 A few days ago I was browsing Pinterest and saw an idea that I just knew the kids would love:

Leaf Creatures!!

The website linked to Pinterest was just a photo, but these are so easy to make you don't need instructions. I'm going to give them to you anyway. ;)

1.) Gather some leaves.

2.) Find some googly eyes. Varying sizes are best.

3.) Glue or stick the googly eyes to the leaves and then use either popsicle sticks or, if you don't have any of those, regular sticks to make a little handle for your kiddos to parade the leaf creatures around. I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry on the sticks, so I just used some twine to tie the sticks to the stem of the leaf.

Bam.
Done!

They are SO cute!
You could even go crazy and make them have mouths, but we didn't have the supplies for that. I like them with just eyes.


So go find some fall leaves and have fun!!!
 :)

KCWC Day 2 and 3: Lounge Pants

Hi, Tuesday was day two of Kid's Clothing Week Challenge and  I made some lounge pants for Ethan out of an old cotton drop cloth that was leftover from making curtains from the living room.

I used Made by Dana's flat front kid pants tutorial as a jumping off point for the flat front; although I already have made several pairs of pants using this method for kid pants. I kinda mixed and matched with the instructions, although I think I used Dana's more because she was using cotton fabric and the other site uses knits.

I like the way the pants turned out but might add pockets in the future to make them look less "loungy" and more like regular pants.

Either way, Ethan loves them!!
They are comfy and since the weave is more loose like linen; dirt washes out easily.
I found this out first hand since one of the first things E did was go out and play in the dirt pit in them.
His cousin was visiting from Arizona and those boys had a blast!

I didn't do any sewing for the kids Wednesday; I finished up the curtains that I've been sewing for the living room and then didn't have time to whip up anything else.
At least I sewed something, right??

KCWC Week Day 1: Cheating, Kind Of

It's day one of Kid's Clothing Week Challenge, where you sew an hour every day
(or cut patterns or fabric to get your stuff ready to sew) for a week and make some cool stuff for your kiddos. If you want to join in or see what others are making, to check out the Elsie Marley blog- That's where the real cool stuff is at!!
There's some amazing sewing goin' on this week, a bunch of WAY more talented people than I are sewing all kinds of beautiful clothing for their kids. Someday, I hope to be that good. :)

I'm kind of cheating today, because I didn't actually make something for my kiddos but something for my kiddo's toy.

Eliana had a dolly that she got from the thrift store a few weeks ago that is naked. Thankfully whoever made it had the foresight to sew undies onto her, but the poor doll had no clothes so I decided to sew her a dress.

This was a very simple dress; I could've put more embellishments on it, but I just didn't want to take the time.
Doll dresses are hard to make because they are so stinkin' small!
I take my hat off to people who have the patience to make doll clothes on a regular basis- I don't think I'll be making a lot of them because they are just kind of tedious, in my opinion.


Here is the pattern I used, from Quaint and Quirky. She made an adorable rag doll and this is the clothing pattern for it. The doll Eliana got from the thrift store was around the same size, so I just adjusted the sizing and made her dress slightly smaller.

I had some knit fabric that I used so I didn't have to hem anything. If you are venturing into doll clothes making, knits are great because they save a lot of time- those tiny stitches you have to make on the hem are killer!
I did hand-sew a hem around the neck hole to make it look nicer, then put some cute little buttons for a bit of detail.

The sleeves are inside out...(on purpose, of course)......Ahem....
I seem to have trouble with sewing on sleeves.
Everytime I try to put sleeves on I do it wrong at least once, and this time I sewed them on upside down and inside out the first time, then inside out the second time.
As you can see, I didn't feel like picking the seams and trying for a third time, so the dolly got inside out sleeves. We can say its for contrast. Yeah. That's it. ;)

That's it!

I'll be back tomorrow with some pants for my son, Ethan (hopefully!).
He needs a few more pairs, or I just need to do laundry more often. ;)

Life In Washington

We've now been in Washington for not quite a week and it already feels like home.
It might help that it was my home for 18 years, but even the rest of my family is settling right in as if we've always been here.
Of course, we still have moments of adjusting- the coolness of the nights chills us all to the bone, even though it only is in the 50's and we miss our Tennessee friends. (Hi, friends! We love you!!)
We've yet to make any new friends, but I know we will at some point.

But overall, life is good.
Tim has been able to work several days with my brother Scott's boss doing concrete and replacing broken pipes, digging holes, that kind of work. Even though it's only part time and probably temporary, we're incredibly thankful.
The kids have been playing outside and roasting hot dogs over a huge fire and digging in the dirt pit and helping Tim split wood to deliver to someone. (Another odd job to earn some money!)
God is taking good care of us. :)

(Lest you think everything is perfect, Ethan is currently grounded in his room for repeatedly disobeying and hitting his sister. Life is not all sunshine and giggles.)

Here are a few pictures of our beautiful home, and some fun we've had since we've been here.

Here I am, taking pictures of clotheslines again..but isn't this one pretty? My daddy made it.

A water pump in the back yard. It still works.

My mom's gorgeous hydrangeas

Itailan Prunes- what could be fresher than just picking them off the tree? Organic at it's finest.

Ethan watching the cows next door.

Ellie going on a walk down the driveway

Blackberries from the bushes right down the driveway. I made blackberry cobbler with them Yum!

My awesome Daddy, workin' on the bulldozer.

My sweet Mom, picking blackberries with me

My Parent's house- and now our's too!

Tim and Ellie splitting wood together

Ellie's first time playing in the Puget Sound. She loved it!

Playing at Double Bluff- so much fun!

Cookin' hamburgers with Poppa Don

Cows!!

What our mornings look like around here.