Stitchery

Inspired by the section on embroidering with children in Amanda Blake Soule's book "The Creative Family", and seeing this fun little free pattern on The Crafty Crow, I decided to try embroidering with my kiddos just before Easter.

Embroidery is something I've recently learned to do myself. Some of my first projects were portrait bookmarks of my kids' drawings from this tutorial.

I had no idea what to expect with a 5.5 year old, 4 year old and 2.5 year old (Grace at 13 is already an intermediate stitcher.) Well it turned out to be more of a hit than I could have imagined! Moses and Judah both completed their entire projects in one sitting and pretty much just wanted to do "stitching" the whole week. They're both on their 3rd projects now (which got interrupted by the birth of little brother, otherwise I'd be willing to bet they'd have several more done by now.)  Clementine didn't stitch, but she colored her chick and then organized all my floss, specifically the pinks and purples.  =]


So first mama drew the outline on some linen fabric (I like linen because it has an open weave and is easy for the kiddos to poke the needle through) then they colored them in with crayons and colored pencils. Then I placed some scratch paper over the drawing and lightly ironed them to "set" the colors.

Then I let the kids pick out what color floss they'd like and threaded a big tapestry needle for them. (Tapestry needles are big and somewhat blunt - perfect for Littles.) I taught them a basic back stitch and they got it right away!

 

 

The finished products! Aren't they amazing!?

 

If you're interested in embroidery, here's a couple great beginner's tutorials:

Wild Olive Embroidery Basics
Sublime Stitching Easy Embroidery Tutorials

Baby Benjamin is Here!

Little Benjamin Maccabee was born on his due date, April 3rd! We had another wonderful and peaceful homebirth. I hope to share his birth story soon, but in the mean time here's some amazingly cute baby pictures:

Five Month Break, And Maybe Five More...

Well wow, it's been about 5 months since I last posted on ye old blog! What can I say, life has been busy and other priorities have pushed blogging aside. Speaking of pushing, I have about a week until Baby Six is due, so I can't promise there will be many more posts for a while after this one either! 

Honestly, I've felt like a bit of a hermit all winter. We haven't done much or gone anywhere. I've found myself pulling in, content to just be at home with the children, doing school, cooking and baking, sewing, reading books, being a family-at-home. I'm not sure if it's been because of being pregnant, or just the demands of a large family, or what, but that's what the last 5 months have pretty much been like.

It's a little crazy to think of a new baby joining us in a matter of days! God has had me on quite the journey this pregnancy. It went something like this:

Spring 2011: Having decided that our family is complete with 4 kids, I finally come to terms with "no more babies" and get rid of almost all my baby items, baby clothes, and maternity clothes. I grieve a bit, and embrace Clementine being my "baby", and start to love the idea of our family being "complete".

June 2011: I unexpectedly get pregnant. I can't wrap my mind around it. Richard takes it philosophically and moves on, while I scream "WHY!?" and am in complete denial. I've emotionally accepted and embrace no more babies, and now I have to do a complete flip-flop and get myself ready for another baby! I find this very difficult.

August 2011: I start having some abdominal pain and go in for an ultrasound. I'm sure I have an ectopic pregnancy or something else bad, but I get to see a tiny little 7 week old BABY with a heart just pumping away and it's pretty amazing and I'm happy that everything is okay. But still my heart's not 100% there and I'm totally anxious about how I'll manage 5 kids.

Summer-Early Fall 2011: I decide to just ignore the fact that I'm pregnant and deal with it when I can't ignore it anymore. Besides being tired, I don't even feel pregnant so it's pretty easy to be in denial for my whole first trimester.


October 2011 (20 weeks along): I hit the halfway point, and suddenly I'm gigantic and feeling VERY pregnant. I can't ignore it anymore, it's very noticeable and I have to buy maternity clothes and I start feeling uncomfortable a lot. I'm also feeling baby moving a ton - he or she will not be ignored any longer!


22 weeks along: We go in as a family for an ultrasound and see our adorable baby. Richard feels sure it's a boy, but we don't find out officially. I start feeling slight urges to buy baby things and being nesting...

January 2012: I'm in my 3rd trimester and I'm actually really excited for another baby! I begin collecting and making things for baby, making lists, thinking about projects I want to get done, etc etc.

March 2012: We have unseasonably warm, spring-like weather and it feels like the world is budding with new life. I am thrilled to be expecting another addition to our family and feel like 5 children will be no big deal! (What's one more at this point, right?) The kids are excited as well and we've gotten everything ready for Baby to come! Despite developing the worst case of PUPPPs imaginable around 7 weeks before my due date, which involves vicious itchiness, millions of blisters all over my body and miserable sleepless nights, I find myself drawing closer to God and feeling thankful for the privilege of carrying new life.

So here we are! The next post will probably be to announce the birth of our next baby. I'm already looking forward to our first walk to the library with FIVE children.  =]

7 week old Baby Six

20 weeks along and feeling gigantic!

Baby Six at 22 weeks old

PUPPPS. You do not want this.

Our family at Christmas.

Homeschooling Little Ones Together

 This year for the first time ever, I'm homeschooling more than one child! Grace is attending a private Charlotte Mason school for the 2nd year now, and Moses and Judah are doing school together at home! Moses is in kindergarten (he's 5 years old) and Judah (3.5 years) is doing a lot of what Moses is doing, except modified to more of a preschool level. Clementine is almost 2 years old and of course very "in the mix." 

I honestly had doubts about how this year would go, even though Kindergarten and preschool are very fun, easy and simple "grades" to teach at home. With 3 very young children, would it be complete chaos all the time? Would I feel pulled in 3 different directions the whole time?

So far, it's been amazingly fun and has gone GREAT. Really great. I am LOVING it, the kids are loving it... we're all very happy!