Craftin

I have found a newfound love of the Waldorf swaps. Basically in a nutshell a bunch of moms pick a theme, do some major crafting and then swap and share! This months theme was "Play Kitchen" so I was very excited seeing I just finished making the kids their own bigger kitchen out of a repurposed coffee table. I hope it isn't just me but I get frustrated when I look at some of the toy kitchens and it seems only 1-2 children can fit over there at a time. With 7 total its just not an option so the coffee table was a much better fit.

 My contribution for the swap is sushi so I journaled a bit for inspiration.  

and then Beanie and Koda helped paint all the pieces I had cut out from my new scroll saw I received from my dad for my birthday.

Aren't they sweet?!

Catching Fire-

So I sent the teens this monday to go see Catching Fire with a few other homeschool girls. They said they met some new friends and had a great time being geeky, drooling over boys and comparing and contrasting the book. I counted it as a great experience for them.

Koda's Photos

With Koda aspiring to go into photography I have given her tasks to go out and take photos occasionally. They are generally glorified scavenger hunts but with the point to go and be observant and take pictures.

Talking internships

Well Koda is finally "growing up". Being a Junior in highschool we have to start thinking about what will happen after us. Originally she wanted to go into the FBI and become a criminal behaviorist. Well being as she doesn't excel in math or science, Randy and I didn't think it would be a good fit. Koda had expressed a sudden interest in photography however and BAM! We found a passion.

taken from google images

" I don't think I want to work in the FBI anymore," couldn't have sounded like sweeter words.

Koda doesn't like people. Period. She has however an abundance of love for nature and animals due to her father. I have possibly found an opportunity to send her to a farm for a few weeks as an intern. She would help with milking goats, making goat soap, canning, butchering chickens. You know, what all teenage girls want to do. She is so excited as in some possible downtime she would love to go and take photos of the animals, the barns and nature.

taken from google images

In the meantime we are going to work on some basic photography skills and photo-editing to get her prepared for this.

Socializing highschoolers

Everyone's big concern is "socializing". Although we have pulled the girls out in middle school and highschool we still find ways to socialize. Our biggest desire is that our kids march to the beat of their own drums and not stoop down to the levels of dressing inappropriately or caking on makeup just to be popular.



Koda went back to her old high school for homecoming and the 2 biggest things that stuck out to her from the experience was " Wow girls had some super short dresses" and "There was just nonstop drama and about 10 /minutes of dancing". It made us feel like we did something right.

Cake decorating

We participated in our local library's cake decorating contest. Neither of us won however it was fun to practice. We had a few of the teens come from our co-op and decorate too. My book theme was Owl Babies and the older girls did the book D.U.F.F.