Quiet Book

With our pending trip to Europe, I have realized that we won't be bringing a lot of toys with us and hope to come home without a lot of extra stuff.  I also recognize that sometimes kids just need something to do that doesn't involve walking around a city and quiet time with their hands so I decided it was time for me to make a quiet book.  Hyrum's mom is very good at making quiet books so I grilled her for information, tips and tricks.  I scoured Pinterest and the internet and I think I found a pretty good group of pages and made some up on my own.  I'm not completely done and I will add a post when I finish but this is what I've been doing a bit of this month.

The picture on the left was my mistake.  I am using fabric transfer sheets for any writing I want on the pages.  I'd printed a mirror image but I'd forgotten that each of the numbers were  individual boxes so when I flipped them for their mirror image they didn't flip across the clock face.  So I sewed another circle over it and put the flaps on that will cover the minutes. (You can kind of get the idea between the two.)  I have more printing to do so I'll wait until I'm all done and then add the rest of my words since they don't hold up well to the ironing and I'm doing a lot of that in making these pages.

Not pictured here are a jack 'o lantern page, Math, Blokus, and shapes.  I'm hoping to get a number page, patterns, colors and a few others.  I also made some marble mazes.  I'm hoping these will be light weight things that can keep my big kids and little kids occupied as we travel and days when we just need a break. 

I will put up a more in-depth post once I finish it.  I'm really excited about it though.  It's looking really good.

Wedding Reception

Adam and Rachel's Wedding Reception was the weekend of President's Day and Valentine's Day in New York.  Hyrum was out of town that week so we waited until Saturday morning to head up there.  the drive was a little crazy for a bit while we drove through snow and windy conditions.  Thankfully it stopped about 30 miles south of Erie and we made it in good time.   We then went to the fire hall where they were holding the reception and set up the decorations. 

 I made the hearts in coral and navy and then lined them in the opposite color.  I wrapped navy twine around the top of mason jars and made a small A&R for the jars.  My mom cut about 100 tree branches for us and we put those inside the jars in the paper shreds.  We then hung the hearts on the branches. 

These were vellum luminaries with small hearts printed on them.  We put battery operated tea lights inside to give a little glow to them.  There were navy and coral table runners and squares on the tables.  It all ended up looking nice.  A bit simple but still gave the room a nice touch.  I'm sad I didn't get pictures but that is one habit I'm not very good at. 

It was nice to spend time with my parents and Adam.  I haven't spent much time with him since I went to college nearly 15 years ago so it was nice to get to know him as an adult a bit better.  It was nice to get to know Rachel a bit better two.  They are a good pair and we're excited for their future together. 

We celebrated Valentine's Day with conversation hearts, and I made my family chocolate covered brownies with mint and orange filling.  We also attended church together.  Rachel's parents came for the reception so after dinner of reception leftovers we sat and talked with them for several hours. 

Monday we took our time getting ready that morning and enjoyed a tasty breakfast.  We broke in my mom's doughnut pans with vanilla and chocolate doughnuts.  After doughnuts,  Hyrum and I took our family, minus Ben, to a great hill and spent about 45 minutes sledding.  We'd forgotten a pair of boots so we had one unhappy child on our hands after the boots she was wearing feel off so we didn't last long.  It was fun though and after we got back to my parents' house, Hannah and Jonathan spent at least another hour playing in the snow. 

We packed up the car and headed out around nap time.  We enjoyed the weekend and it won't soon be forgotten.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

February marks the anniversary of my birth. I can't believe I'm 32.  I certainly don't feel that old.  The kids and Hyrum were good to remember my birthday with signs all over the house and special Happy Birthday wishes all day. 

I celebrated by going grocery shopping and ordering pizza for dinner.

I'm grateful for this mortal experience.  I sure learn a lot every year and I'm so grateful for the time I get to spend with my family. 

January

January passed by in a blur.  The month started out with a new experience for our family.  Both Spencer and Ben developed Hand foot and Mouth Disease.  We've not had the experience before and thankfully our bout with it was pretty tame.  We only had external blisters and congestion.  My kids slept fine and didn't have any blisters in their mouths.  I was really grateful for that although it is really hard to tell a kids who feels fine that he can't go anywhere because of his spots.  Spencer wasn't too happy to be left out of a few things for a week and a half.

Hannah had a violin concert.  I was able to accompany her and that was fun.  I didn't get to go at all last year because of Ben's birth and our trip to Italy so it was nice to see her play.  The difference in skill between the 3rd and 4th graders was amazing.

This is Jonathan on Dress Like your Hero Day.  He wanted to dress like his Dad and we had to find the best shirt and tie combination.  He was pretty proud of it.  Hannah donned an apron and went as me.  They're sweet kids.  I'm glad we can be their heroes. 

 

My brother and his wife had a reception in New York in February and I was in-charge of the decorations.   These hearts were part of the decor and I spent a couple days cutting and sewing them.  They turned out nicely.  

We kept warm and busy.  Thankfully we only had one two hour delay that month and so far not any super cold days. 

Deck Work: Prep for Destruction

No project like taking down a deck is an easy task, and while I'm not yet ready to start cutting things apart, there were a few things that needed to be done.  Next week, I'll start pulling up deck boards, but right now, I have to do a little bit of prep work, namely taking down the light and undoing the existing electrical wiring to said light.  I don't want to have a problem when I start in with the saw next week!

The victim, with wiring visible to the left.

First step: figure out which breaker controls the outside lights.  While I went through a similar exercise with the entire house when we got the main panel replace a few months ago, I didn't know where this specific light was.  I eventually found it connected to a 20-amp circuit for the downstairs bathroom, presumably so it's GFCI-protected.  Not entirely the approach I'd take, but it's just another one of those "you've got to be kidding me" moments which happens whenever I open up a wall in our house.

After turning off power, I opened the face plate and pulled out the old switch.  Fortunately, there wasn't anything too surprising, and I was able to disconnect the switch from it's power source and cap both the wires leading to the outdoor light.

The light outside was a little harder to deal with, as the screws which fastened its junction box to the deck had long since been painted over.  After a couple of attempts with the impact driver, I decided it was worth it to just come back later with the reciprocating saw.