Where are the Hummers?

I'm so disappointed. My garden is full of blossoming Lantana and two feeders full of fresh nectar. It's 80 degrees and sunny. Where have all the hummingbirds gone? I occasionally see them flying through the yard, and sometimes they stop to check out the Lantana. But they don't want to try my feeders at all. These Arizona hummers are all snobs- they loved my feeders back in North Carolina! Yet my feeders here stand full, untouched. But I will not be deterred. I will continue to woo them with my fresh nectar and possibly some new feeders.

Soccer Stills

Armadillos v Jack Rabbits

The Armadillos had their second game of the season last saturday morning. Here's the highlight reel:

Consolation

Ev has a new mountain bike. He decided that his "old" (circa Sept 2008) hardtail mountain bike didn't have enough bells and whistles. So he got a full suspension, hydraulic disc brake, top-notch component mountain bike. (What can you do? We need him to be safe. He needs all his arms and legs in working order.) He got a good deal: 2008 model year on sale. He bought it on friday, and brought it home from CA very excited to get it ready to ride over the weekend. We all went on a family ride along the canal on saturday. We parked at one end of the trail and got to the park at the other end where we stopped to play for a while. There, we discovered he had not one, but two flat tires. Yep. Totally and completely and utterly flat. I had to ride back to the truck and pick up the boys at the park. Ev's bike was carried to the truck in shame. While loading it into the truck, he noticed that the front suspension fork was leaking fluid. Hmmm...just not our day. So now the new bike is in the shop. Ev is consoling himself by reading all the mountain bike magazines he got for Christmas. Of course it makes him miss his bike even more. I think he was wishing he could be out on his mountain bike so I would stop taking pictures of him. Soon.

Ocotillo

I haven't posted any cactus pictures in at least two weeks. Ridiculous!

ART 101

Budding Artists? You never know. But we had fun anyway. I've been meaning to do an organized project with them for weeks. It still wasn't organized, but it was our first time working with acrylic paint. It's so much easier to see how colors work together in acrylics versus cheap watercolor.

Just look at that concentration!


Braden did an exceptional job of "filling the canvas." Maybe he's a natural.

Two-ish

Just when I start to think that my "baby" is not such a baby after all, he does something so precious and babyish. We've had a lot of tears and declarations of independence over the past few weeks. But yesterday afternoon, while we were watching the Inaugural Parade, he fell asleep on my lap. He slept cuddled there for the next two hours. Just what Mama needed.

A Prayer for My Country

Philippians 1:27-28 "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ...stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you."

Heavenly Father, you know my fears as I come to you on this day. Fears about the future of this country. The country where my sons will grow into men. This country where the people are turning their back to you. I pray that you will not turn your back on this country. Lord, please do not remove your hand of protection and sustenance from this country. Bring a revival of your Spirit over this land. Protect our families. Protect our children. Turn this country back to you. I pray that as Christians we will stand firm, unified in your Holy Spirit, working to advance the gospel. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2Timothy 1:7) I pray all these things in the name of my precious Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Quiet Time Activity Books

Ever since my kids started sitting in the church service with us, I have wanted an activity book to keep little hands busy and busy minds engaged. Well, my kids still don't have one, but one of my top secret Christmas projects was this book for my nephew, Graeson.


Since this books is ultimately designed to stimulate a toddler's senses, I decided to use a wide wale corduroy for the cover. I made the cover slightly larger than I planned the pages to be, folding in the top and bottom edges, then stitch. I added two handles, which I sewed to the cover, for easy transportation. I chose a very fine wale corduroy for the lining of the cover, which I pinked to avoid fraying and attached with fusible interfacing. (Iron-on both sides, Super easy!) This nicely hid the edges of the handles.



I also pinked the edges of all the felt pages, the felt won't fray anyways, but it looks fun. I chose to assemble my book before I made up the pages. That way I didn't have to worry about getting the placement mixed up. Knowing how many I would need for my plan, I cut large rectanges from felt, about 10x17 inches. I laid them on top of the cover, and ran a length of 1/4 inch ribbon down the center for decoration, then stitched straight down the center. That's it for assembly, now on to the fun stuff!

Number practice- Count the beads and see the numeral above.

The tee-pee zips open to reveal a surprise inside. I attached the zipper with fabric glue. I used a lot of felt, but tried not to feel limited. The horse's tail is plain cotton string. Also, I chose to use fabric paint for the picture that are not felt, but you could use permanent markers instead.

The apples on the tree can be "picked" by unbuttoning.

This apple was already picked and can be removed from the page by the velcro.

The traffic light circles are also attached by velcro.

The bed of the dump truck opens with a snap to reveal the load inside.

This puppy's bone can hide inside the dog house. The ribbon around his neck is great for learning to tie a bow.

I stopped there, but you could do as many pages for which you can think of ideas. This project can be time consuming, but it doesn't have to be difficult. You can make it as detailed as your skills and time dictate. However, if you're not so creatively inclined, you can also buy them here. Of course, the great thing about making your own is that you can customize it for your child's interests and skill level. Thanks to both this site and this site for sparking my creativity with their great ideas. I hope I've started your creative juices flowing. Have fun!

Good Golly, Big Lolly!

And they're still working on them!

To Market

Oranges, avocados, dates and honey...all local from a nearby farmstand. Field-fresh and Sun-kissed.

Planet Earth

The past two nights I have found myself completely engrossed in the Planet Earth mini series. If you have never seen it, find it. Watch it. Prepare to be amazed. I have to admit that on our HDTV the picture is unbelievably fantastic. But even if you don't have HD (I know there are some of you out there who are still in the dark ages), it is worth watching. Did you know that some birds who winter at the Gulf of Mexico fly to the north pole in the summer?! I didn't. I found out that there is grass at the arctic tundra! I learned about a desert where it snows. I grew up watching Wild America and Wild Kingdom and I am learning things that I never even heard of before. I've decided to start planning a trip to Antarctica. In the meantime, I can travel to all of these places from my sofa. I snagged this pic from my computer's samples, but maybe someday I'll have some of my own!

Jammies

I've checked one thing off my crafting queue this week. Trevor has two new pairs of cozy flannel PJs. They had tons of really sweet flannel at the fabric store, but since it was not on sale, I limited myself to two.




I love my sewing machine, but it does have one failing. I have been unable to figure out the buttonhole feature. So, this week I tried my hand (literally) at sewing a buttonhole by hand using the buttonhole (AKA Blanket) stitch. Who knew there was a special stitch just for that?? Well, my mom knew. And I suppose back before sewing machines, everyone knew. Now I know, too.




Trevor loves his new Jammies. Unfortunately, I'm afriad this is setting a precedent. Braden asked for bear pajamas last night. Well, in two years he can have these.

Number 2

Not to be outdone by his Big Brother, my "Baby" decided to display his physical prowess during soccer practice. Trevor never has been a climber. Braden has always been very physical, but too chunky to do anything so dexterous. So this genuinely shocked and amazed me. Ladies and Gentleman, my Climber:

Dribbling

The Armadillos had their first soccer practice yesterday. Everyone was pumped and ready to go. Between Trevor, me and Wikipedia we finally got him dressed appropriately. After practice I asked him what was his favorite part: When he got to be the goalie, because he could use his hands. Either he's destined to be a goalie, or soccer is not going to be his thing. I got myself signed up to bring drinks to the game on saturday. Does this make me a soccer mom??

Good Mornin' Sunshine

From Tree...

To Table. A little sunshine for breakfast.

Resolution #1

My New Year's resolution is to do more family activities. We'll do some brainstorming, but I especially like these ideas to get us started. Let's do more of these.

Museums, Cactus and Snow

In the afternoon of our first day in Phoenix, we decided to try one of the mountain bike trails as a family. We had researched trails and found one that we thought Trevor could handle at the McDowell Regional Park. It looked a little cloudy, but we had driven all the way up there we didn't want it to be a waste. So we headed out. About 10 minutes into the ride, it started sleeting. Yes, sleeting. But why turn back? We drove all the way up here. So we pressed on. No hats. No gloves. Just jackets and determination. We got about 1/3 of the way around the loop and decided we'd better head back. See those little white dots? That's snow. I think the kids would have been slightly more excited if they had been able to feel their appendages.


The next day we had better luck with the weather. Ev rode a great trail by himself in the morning, while the boys and I headed off to the Phoenix Art Museum. Everyone had a great time. The boys especially loved an installation called Fireflies. Then after lunch we met up with some friends and did some hiking. This time we hiked Usery Park in Mesa. Amazing views.

This is a Saguaro cactus "skeleton." The fleshy part has died and left behind the wood "ribs."

Our last day in Phoenix we went to the Heard Museum. It's dedicated entirely to Native American art and culture. It is much larger than we expected and we didn't even get to see everything. They have a fantastic children's area with many hands on activities. We were also lucky enough to be there on a day when they had a group of Hopi dancers come to perform.

Not bad for a mini vacation. Then we headed home to rest and clean up from our Christmas. A great end to a great year. Happy New Year, everyone!