Quick! Somebody Grab an Oar!

(our back patio/yard taken with my phone)

I mean, I realized April showers bring May flowers, but there better be some flowers on steroids after the rain we've had this month!

It's been a while since I remember having such a rainy~and very storm~spring here in Arkansas. I'm so ready for the tornado season to end. It's not fun. At all. And it terrifies my Princess.

So far we've only hauled them out of bed to the *safe place* once. But last night I was hosting our homeschool group's Moms Nite Out and Vince had taken the kiddos to Chuck E. Cheese. Then the storm swept in (tornadoes are fast, you know). They ended up spending part of their time at CEC sheltered in a closet~the sighted tornado was right by where they were. And I spent the time storm-watching on the front porch with my fellow homeschool moms.

We Arkansans are great about protecting our children, but ourselves not so much. By the time you're an adult here you're pretty well used to the whole tornado drill. You know when to take it very seriously, but the rest of the time you continue on with what you're doing.

We've also been having flash floods. The rain has been what-feels-like incessant! Yesterday was the first day of sunshine in many a day and it was SO good to see it! We desperately need to dry out.

Of course, lots of rain does tend to show you lots of character traits about a new abode. For instance, we've discovered that when our backyard is saturated the water stands several inches deep on our patio...then drains down into the under-the-house vents that are on the patio...which then in turn drains out...through the garage. Fun stuff. We sandbagged those vents yesterday. It's a good thing because we've had one storm since then and today looks nice and rainy.

Thankfully we've had no other problems, even though we're awaiting a new roof on the house.

And in more good news, the gold fish have not floated right out of the several-times-over flooded pond. The tadpoles, on the other hand, don't have the good sense to stay in. I'm sure they're thinking "hey look, a bigger pond!" ha

Spring has been a fickle friend this year. What kind of weather has Spring brought you?

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

my blessed life

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