Art

J loves to do art.  Especially when it involves stampers and glitter. 

The beauty of a child's face is art itself, isn't it?  

Whenever I have a random item that has outlived its purpose, I'm always thinking "Hmm....can we use this for art?"  The 'yarn' you see below is from a rug that unraveled.  And now it has a slot in our art supply hanger (shoe holder.)  

Around Here

Just a few pictures from around here:

We harvested our first watermelon for this season.  Unfortunately it must have been too soon, as it was most definitely not ripe.  Oh well, perhaps the rabbits/turtles/other critters enjoyed it, as Mr. GV disposed of it by throwing it over the fence in the backyard and into the woods.  There are several baby watermelons growing so hopefully we will figure it out soon!  The banana peppers are just fine though.

The garden has gone crazy.  There's greenery everywhere.  

I've been getting a fairly steady stream of cucumbers, some of which I am sending over for my nephew's lunch.  

I've been soaking some beans (chickpeas in this case) and used them in 3 different dishes:  chickpea salad, teriyaki chickpeas, and as an addition to vegetable soup. 

I shelled some purple hull peas we got from the local organic farm.  Love that place.  If only they had continued their CSA....Anyway, we ate half and half went into the freezer for later.  

I've been making Mr. GV's bottled tea.

I had honeybees visiting in my backyard!  I'm sure you've seen articles that state the honeybee population has been declining, so I was glad to see them. Here they are sucking a hummingbird feeder dry of its sugary solution.  

I've been trying to get clothes hung out on the line more often.  We had rain almost every day for weeks and it was just difficult to get them out there.  I'm still lazy sometimes and use the dryer--I'll admit it, but I really am trying when we have dry days now.  

I attended a Bingo fundraiser to benefit a local humane society.  My mom met me there and we had a blast.  We've been a couple times before and never won.  This time we each won twice, so that was a pleasant surprise.  

One rainy morning I stayed snuggled up in bed with Milo and read through some old magazines.  I've been meaning to get through for a while.  They are now in my car and I should be taking them to the library tomorrow!  

A Weekend in May

The kids' garden club project for May was an adorable wind chime made out of  metal bottle caps and an upside down decorative metal watering can.  We spent a lot of time getting this one done, but it was a lot of fun and worth it when you see the end product!  

J was really proud of it and couldn't wait until Mother's Day to give it to his Mom, so she got it later that day.  

Here you see Mr. GV getting attacked by J right after he came home from work.....Well, they were actually having a fun "Uncle-back ride."  

We pulled out the Stomp Rocket.  Yes, it's cheap crap from China (or CCFC as we refer to it in this household) but oh so much fun!  The rockets glow in the dark but we have yet to be out there after dark to give it a try.  

The next day, with his mom at work, J and I hung out at the town fountain, 

and had a picnic lunch.  

The days were really starting to warm up, so Milo was glad for the large concrete water bowl I put in the backyard, just for him.  (Ha!)  

Building a Bird Feeder

J and I made some bird feeders.  I found the idea on Pinterest and thought it looked simple and was a good way to use up orange or grapefruit rinds.  

I mistakenly thought I had some wild bird seed, but only had thistle, so that's what we used to fill these up the first time.  

While I hung the feeders, J enjoyed adding a few things to his "treasure chest."  He's allowed to put anything in there he wants....as long as it's not a living creature. 

Superhero Capes, Magic Carpets, and Skillz

You know what else comes in big, child-size boxes?  Superhero capes, also known as brown wrapping paper.  

Perfect for playing bad guys vs good guys....

This is the rug in J's room.  Milo seems to think it's his, though.  So far he has dragged it all around, chewed off a few loops, and just generally roughed the thing up.  

And....someone has really shown a lot of improvement with his reading!  It's like it all "clicked" one day, and since then you can catch him reading, or for more advanced books, sounding out the words in books quite often.  Love it!  

Baskets and Boxes

The last little bit of Easter pictures:  J's basket.

The perfect box for a 5-year old:  Just big enough to lay down in, and shallow enough to still be able to watch TV.  Bonus:  it also keeps his snack safe from Milo, who has no manners when it comes to food.  

Junior Gardener

Our local organic farm offers a club for children. Each month they do a different craft and learn about an aspect of nature.  J has always seemed interested in how plants grow, and loves scientific information, so it seemed a good fit for him.  

The first meeting for the year was in February, and it was snowing just a bit as we drove there.  J got to catch some snowflakes on his tongue.  

Listening to information about herbs.....

Getting some help making his soap

So proud!  He made 2 bars of soap and a lavender sachet/necklace.  

Today

Today I:

.... continued to hang almost all our laundry to dry.  Today it was a load of towels, washcloths, and socks.  On the left under the bath towels you can see the vent.  With the cold weather we are having right now, the heat is unfortunately running quite often, so I take advantage of that by drying the laundry over it.  

I had picked up the bad habit of using my dryer for everything except for some underthings and Mr. GV's biking clothes, which need to be line-dried.  I have a clothes line outside, but didn't use it this past summer like I should have. So back in December I started again with this great drying rack I've got.  I've found if I do one load of laundry most every day, I can keep up this way.  Shirts I put on hangers and hang them in the guest bathroom on the shower rod.  That shower is only used when J comes to visit, so they're not in the way at all.  It is a small room and if you shut the door it warms up very nicely in there, and the shirts dry overnight.  

I do use the dryer for a few things:  sheets (because of their size), and dog bed covers/blankets and "dog sheets."  Dog sheets are sheets that cover the love seat, the backseat of the car, and our comforter to keep the hair from taking over.  If I don't put these items in the dryer, the hair does not come off.

Another benefit to air drying in the house during the winter:  it adds humidity to the dry air!  I don't know for sure if this is the reason, but our hands are suspiciously not as dry and cracked as they normally are in the winter.  Until I'm proven wrong, I'm going to believe it's from the extra humidity in the living room.  

.....marveled at the beauty of the veggies and fruit Mr. GV was juicing.  

....cooked up a black bean vegetable soup from Veganomicon.  I cooked the beans overnight in the slow cooker then cooked the veggies this morning and added it all to a pot.  I haven't tried it yet but Mr. GV says it is very good.  

Making Wrapping Paper

I thought it would be fun for J and I to make some wrapping paper.  It was fun and messy, I loved it, and I'm pretty sure J had a good time too.  Did I wind up using any of this wrapping paper at Christmas?  Nope.  But that's OK.  We still had a good time and made a memory!

Taking the term "wrapping paper" a little too literally I think.