We have been having so much fun this summer! We have been spending time with family, going on road trips and hanging out as a family. We are loving it!
We got back from our vacation about a week ago and I hit the ground running. Butterfly had swimming lessons and Hubby and I scheduled a date weekend. We threw some a quick trip to visit some extended family in there and had ourselves a GREAT weekend.
That brings us to this week. We are in the second (and final) week of swimming lessons for Butterfly and Bee and Bubby are heading to Mimi's on Wednesday. Butterfly and I will be taking Dragonfly to visit Nana (my grandma!) then as well. We planned an afternoon full of Skip-Bo. Then on Thursday we are heading to visit my Cousin in Law (that is a term right? LOL!) for the afternoon.
We are hoping that the sweet corn my father in law planted will hold out until we are done with the busyness that is ahead of us this week. When the sweet corn is ready we will pack everyone up and head over there so we can pick it and get it in the freezer so we can prepare ourselves for winter.
Our garden has done pretty well. We have increased the garden from 4 raised beds to 6 raised beds. We think the deer got the best of our "salad" garden, which was planted with peas, green beans, two kinds of lettuce, and carrots. However, our potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, asparagus and kohlrabi have all done really well. We didn't get to harvest the asparagus this year but we can see it will be bringing us lots of yumminess next year.
Hope you all are having a fantastic summer. I will be doing a post of just some of our summer pictures in the coming days.
<3 Alison
Monday, July 16, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Car trips
We are anticipating a car trip with our four kiddos. We will be driving roughly 16-18 hours one way to visit friends in Ohio. With that said I am thinking we need to come up with some ideas of what to have our kiddos do while we are on the road.
Here are some of my thoughts.
~ Alphabet Game (finding each letter of the alphabet on signs along the road)
~ License Plate Game (finding license plates from across the US and writing them down to see how many we can find)
~ box with paper, crayons and pencils (using a pizza box works really well because you have storage and a hard surface to write on. You can even tether the pencil/crayons with a string so that they don't get dropped.)
~ Travel Scavenger Hunt (find different objects, locations, buildings along the way)
What other games can you think of that will help pass the time on a long car ride?
<3 Alison
Here are some of my thoughts.
~ Alphabet Game (finding each letter of the alphabet on signs along the road)
~ License Plate Game (finding license plates from across the US and writing them down to see how many we can find)
~ box with paper, crayons and pencils (using a pizza box works really well because you have storage and a hard surface to write on. You can even tether the pencil/crayons with a string so that they don't get dropped.)
~ Travel Scavenger Hunt (find different objects, locations, buildings along the way)
What other games can you think of that will help pass the time on a long car ride?
<3 Alison
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Summer Science Experiments
Today the kids and I did a couple of science experiments. The first one was for the big kids and it will take a day or two to complete. We place a raw egg in a jar with vinegar in it. The idea here is to let the egg sit in the vinegar and the shell will dissolve leaving you with a "rubber" egg. This site has some ideas to take the "rubber" egg a step further. We will be trying those steps this week as well. :)
With my little kids I poured some baking soda on a sheet pan. I then gave them medicine droppers and a cup of vinegar. I let them drip and drop the vinegar all over the baking soda and let them watch the reaction. They LOVED it and it was an easy (and CHEAP!) experiment. :) When they were tired of the droppers I said, "What do you think would happen if we dumped the rest of the vinegar on the baking soda?" And of course they wanted to try it. So they did and they had the best reaction (as did the baking soda and vinegar) of all. :)
For the big kids, as they are doing experiments I am having them write down what experiment we are doing, what they see and what they think will happen. It is very interesting to see what they think. They will get to compare and contrast what they think will happen and what actually happens.
Here are some pictures of the littles and their experiment. :)
With my little kids I poured some baking soda on a sheet pan. I then gave them medicine droppers and a cup of vinegar. I let them drip and drop the vinegar all over the baking soda and let them watch the reaction. They LOVED it and it was an easy (and CHEAP!) experiment. :) When they were tired of the droppers I said, "What do you think would happen if we dumped the rest of the vinegar on the baking soda?" And of course they wanted to try it. So they did and they had the best reaction (as did the baking soda and vinegar) of all. :)
For the big kids, as they are doing experiments I am having them write down what experiment we are doing, what they see and what they think will happen. It is very interesting to see what they think. They will get to compare and contrast what they think will happen and what actually happens.
Here are some pictures of the littles and their experiment. :)
Here is the first picture of the egg experiment as well.
Hope you are all having a great start to summer!
<3 Alison
Friday, May 18, 2012
It is time!
It is time that I pick this blog up again and dust it off. In November I just kind of ran out of time and since then life has continued to be busy. However, life is not slowing down but I am needing an outlet...and this blog has been that for me in the past. So, here I am again, ready to tell you all about the things we are doing.
We are getting ready for the summer by planting our gardens, to which we are adding two beds. I have already planted 2 beds of tomatoes, one of which I need to replant because I purchased poor plants. :( As soon as the 5th and 6th beds are done I will be planting peppers, squash, peas, beans, lettuce and carrots. We also started some aspargus and rhubarb plants this year. We hope that they will become fruitful in the coming years.
This year we are also planting 7 trees in our yard. 4 dwarf junipers, 1 weeping willow and 2 apple trees. We have all but the apple trees which we will be getting here in the next couple of weeks. We are also doing a patio in our backyard complete with a firepit. :D
I will take pictures as we do all of these updates to show you our progress.
I hope to see you all soon!
We are getting ready for the summer by planting our gardens, to which we are adding two beds. I have already planted 2 beds of tomatoes, one of which I need to replant because I purchased poor plants. :( As soon as the 5th and 6th beds are done I will be planting peppers, squash, peas, beans, lettuce and carrots. We also started some aspargus and rhubarb plants this year. We hope that they will become fruitful in the coming years.
This year we are also planting 7 trees in our yard. 4 dwarf junipers, 1 weeping willow and 2 apple trees. We have all but the apple trees which we will be getting here in the next couple of weeks. We are also doing a patio in our backyard complete with a firepit. :D
I will take pictures as we do all of these updates to show you our progress.
I hope to see you all soon!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thankful for Health
Many of you may not know this, and that is the way we wanted it until we knew what was going on. We told a core group of people so we could be praying together about what was going on. Let me rewind and tell you a bit about what happened.
Over MEA break (fall break to those who don't live in MN), I had taken the kiddos to Sioux Falls with Grandma and Uncle B. We were having a great time. We stayed in a hotel, swam and did some shopping. We were finishing up shopping and decided to let the kids play in the play area at the mall for a bit. Shortly after getting there Butterfly came up to me crying. She said she fell on her stomach and it hurt. With that I did what every mom in the world would do, I took her in my arms and comforted her. A few seconds later I noticed that she stopped crying. I laid her in my arms and looked at her. She was pale, her lips were blue and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. She was trembling. *insert freaked out mom here!* I kept calling her name and rubbing her chest to get her to wake up. Eventually she came to but was VERY lethargic. As we thought about it, we realized that this was the third time in six months that we had an episode like this. It was time to bring her in to the doctor.
The following week we saw our doctor. She was concerned and recommended that we see a neurologist. But before he would see us he would require some further testing. The week after that I took Butterfly to get and MRI and some blood work done. And then the following day I took her in for an EEG. After that we had to wait a week to see the neurologist.
During that wait we had made another trip to the doctor's office for an unrelated appointment (not even for Butterfly). Our doctor told us that they did in deed find something abnormal on her EEG scan. *insert panicked mom moment* That is all they could tell me. Great. I had a week to really worry about things. Not something I was looking forward to.
That weekend was the Hearts at Home conference in Rochester, MN that I was attending. What a blessing that weekend was. I got to experience the fellowship of other moms who worry and struggle and have similar lives as I do. It was a fabulous weekend. During one of the sessions there was a picture of the cross up on the big screen. I kept envisioning Jesus taking my little girl's hand and holding her close. That was the best thing I could have experienced. I knew that He was taking care of her no matter what. It was then I had a sense of peace.
Fast forward to this week. We finally had our neurologist appointment yesterday (Thursday). He looked at her tests and did an exam to evaluate her status quo. When he was finished he discussed what was going on. During Butterfly's sleep cycle and during the period where they had her hyperventilate there were abnormal waves. After discussing the events and after the exam we concluded that we are going to wait on doing anything further.
So for my thankful post for today I am thankful for health. My kids and hubby, for the most part, are healthy.
What are you thankful for today?
<3 Alison
Over MEA break (fall break to those who don't live in MN), I had taken the kiddos to Sioux Falls with Grandma and Uncle B. We were having a great time. We stayed in a hotel, swam and did some shopping. We were finishing up shopping and decided to let the kids play in the play area at the mall for a bit. Shortly after getting there Butterfly came up to me crying. She said she fell on her stomach and it hurt. With that I did what every mom in the world would do, I took her in my arms and comforted her. A few seconds later I noticed that she stopped crying. I laid her in my arms and looked at her. She was pale, her lips were blue and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. She was trembling. *insert freaked out mom here!* I kept calling her name and rubbing her chest to get her to wake up. Eventually she came to but was VERY lethargic. As we thought about it, we realized that this was the third time in six months that we had an episode like this. It was time to bring her in to the doctor.
The following week we saw our doctor. She was concerned and recommended that we see a neurologist. But before he would see us he would require some further testing. The week after that I took Butterfly to get and MRI and some blood work done. And then the following day I took her in for an EEG. After that we had to wait a week to see the neurologist.
During that wait we had made another trip to the doctor's office for an unrelated appointment (not even for Butterfly). Our doctor told us that they did in deed find something abnormal on her EEG scan. *insert panicked mom moment* That is all they could tell me. Great. I had a week to really worry about things. Not something I was looking forward to.
That weekend was the Hearts at Home conference in Rochester, MN that I was attending. What a blessing that weekend was. I got to experience the fellowship of other moms who worry and struggle and have similar lives as I do. It was a fabulous weekend. During one of the sessions there was a picture of the cross up on the big screen. I kept envisioning Jesus taking my little girl's hand and holding her close. That was the best thing I could have experienced. I knew that He was taking care of her no matter what. It was then I had a sense of peace.
Fast forward to this week. We finally had our neurologist appointment yesterday (Thursday). He looked at her tests and did an exam to evaluate her status quo. When he was finished he discussed what was going on. During Butterfly's sleep cycle and during the period where they had her hyperventilate there were abnormal waves. After discussing the events and after the exam we concluded that we are going to wait on doing anything further.
So for my thankful post for today I am thankful for health. My kids and hubby, for the most part, are healthy.
What are you thankful for today?
<3 Alison
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Thankful Thursday
Today, let's see, what am I thankful for. Today, I am thankful for my children. As challenging as they can be at times, I am so thankful that God gave them to me for a time. God has given me the greatest gift with each of my kiddos. Butterfly is a whiz at anything you put in front of her, Bee has a fantastic energy, Bubby is our comedian and Dragonfly is just sweet and developing her personality. God truly has blessed me with these kids.
Who are you thankful for today?
<3 Alison
Who are you thankful for today?
<3 Alison
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Wednesday's Thankfulness Post
Today I am thankful for opportunity. Recently a friend of mine, Amy, told me to open up a crochet shop. I really enjoy crocheting so I thought, why not. After some discussion, we came up with a name and I have been crocheting ever since. So, not only am I thankful for opportunity, I am also thankful for Amy, for giving me the kick in the rear. :)
If you would like to you can check out my FB page and Etsy site. :) The shop is called Sweet Knottings.
<3 Alison
If you would like to you can check out my FB page and Etsy site. :) The shop is called Sweet Knottings.
<3 Alison
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