Picture of the Week: Tulip Kids

 

tulips

 

We took our annual trip to the Tulip Festival with my in-laws a couple of weeks ago. It was super fun, as always! This year, Small Fry was big enough to walk around and do some stuff. He really liked the swings. The face cutouts are some of our favorite things to do for pictures while we’re there, too. Last year, Seahawk, Munchkin, and their grandpa posed in this particular cutout. This year, Small Fry was big enough to participate . . . while sitting on Seahawk’s knee, that is!

Blessings,

Wendy

Simplicity: Home Decor

simplicity

I’ve always wished I was better at interior decorating. I go to friends’ houses or to my brother and sister-in-law’s house, and they’re always so pretty and put together (at least the non-kid areas!). But my house always seems thrown together to me. I don’t know if it’s because it’s my house, so I see it more often than I see all those other houses, but I don’t think it is. Because it’s not all our friends’ houses that are so beautiful to me, only some of them. (And I don’t mean to be judgmental of any of my friends; I’m just making a comparison here.)

But alas, alack, I’m no interior decorator. So our home is very basic. Which is the point of what I’m writing about today. When the goal is a simple life, we shouldn’t care about what the inside of our home looks like (within reason). We’re not making memories with the way we decorate, we’re making memories with what we do in them. Kneading bread with Munchkin will matter more to him as he grows than whether our walls had cool hangings on them. Spending time playing board games with his brothers and me will matter more to Seahawk than what kind of flooring we had. And getting down on that flooring and chasing and tickling Small Fry will mean more than what our furniture was.

With that said, I do want to add a little more to the story, though.

I’m only mostly hopeless. Mine and Will’s bedroom is the one room that I feel is “put together.” I’ve mentioned before that we recently painted it, and that helped it tremendously. Once we did that, we decided we wanted to go with  all-white furniture and accessories to complement the red-wine of the walls, so I made us a new quilt (more on that soon) and painted our existing bedside tables white. (They used to be a light wood color.) Those two things really helped to bring everything together. Even without wall hangings, that room feels more “right” than any of the others, decor-wise.

The lighting in this picture isn’t awesome, but it’ll give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

bed

What’s your favorite home decor tip, simple or otherwise? Leave a comment and let me know!

Blessings,

Wendy

Simplicity: In the Homeschool

simplicity

 

Homeschooling our children is very important to us. It’s something we knew we wanted to do from the time I found out I was pregnant with Seahawk. We never considered any other option, and now that we’re ten years (almost eleven!) into parenthood and five years into homeschooling, I’m so glad we made this choice. I wrote on the “School at Home” page of our 2013 family yearbook that teaching our children at home is one of my greatest joys as a mother, and I truly mean that. Of course there are days when I wonder what it would be like if the older two were off at school for 8 hours a day. Then I come to my senses and remember why I wanted to be a mom! (Hint: It wasn’t so I could ship them off somewhere the minute they turned five so I wouldn’t have to “deal” with them until they were 18.)

So, how do we balance living simply with homeschooling? There are so many different styles of homeschooling out there – almost as many styles as there are homeschooling parents – and it’s all just a matter of finding a balance. I’m going to go over the way I teach today. This is not a tell-all, do-it-this-way-or-you’re-awful kind of post. This is just what works for us, and if you can take some or all of what I say to make your homeschool day easier or better for you, then that’s awesome. If not, that’s awesome too. But enjoy a little glimpse into our day.

We wake up between 8 and 8:30 each morning. I prefer to be the first one up so I can have a little bit of quiet time before the day starts. That doesn’t always happen though. I’m working on getting the kids into a routine that involves them getting dressed, making their beds, and reading a chapter from their Bible before they come out for breakfast, but that’s still a work in progress. We eat breakfast around 9 (typically just cereal or toast, but sometimes biscuits or pancakes). On the days he’s working from home, Will takes Small Fry out in the mornings so the older kids and I can do school more easily and efficiently. (He works in the afternoons on those days.) Ideally, by 9:30 we’ve started our school day.

I’m a visual person, so I need my kids to “do” something for school, not just read a bunch of books and call it a day. I do know that they can learn so much from reading different books – and we run a very literature heavy school – but it still gives me an odd peace of mind when they do paperwork or projects. We’re somewhere between “school at home” and “natural learning.” The first thing we do is bring out the schoolbooks. After reading a blog post last year on homeschool organization by Jamie at The Unlikely Homeschool, I totally took her idea and bought magazine racks – one for each kid. These have been worth their weight in gold for the simplicity it’s brought not only to our school day, but also to the bookshelf in my sewing room where I keep all the school stuff.

schoolbooks

 

Everything we need for a given day (except for the read-aloud books and pencils) is in those racks. Right now, our main focuses are:

  • Spelling – Spelling You See
  • Bible – Apologia’s What on Earth Can I Do?
  • Literature – Little House in the Big Woods study by Progeny Press
  • Cursive Handwriting – This is different for each kid. Munchkin just finished up Logic of English’s Rhythm of Handwriting, so he’s been writing a letter to someone each day; so far this week he’s written to his pen pal in Utah and his great-grandmother in Southern California. Seahawk is working through Patriotic Penmanship, a practice workbook that we received for another review. He likes it because the lessons are very short.
  • Math – Learning Wrap-Ups

We’ve been working our way through An Island Story: A History of England for Girls and Boys and The Burgess Animal Book for Children this year, too, but we’ve got so much other stuff going at the moment that we’re taking a break from those for a while.

On a normal day, we manage to finish all but one of our subjects before lunch – which one varies from day to day. I don’t let the kids choose what they learn per se, because they’re still young enough that there are tons of things that are non-negotiable (times tables and proper spelling, for instance). To help them feel like they still have some control over their own education, then, I let them help decide what order we do the subjects in.

At the end of the school day, all the books get put back in their magazine racks and the racks put away on the shelf until the next day. And that’s how we keep things simple – and organized! – in our homeschool.

What’s your favorite homeschool organizational trick?

Blessings,

Wendy

Picture of the Week: Making Music

making music

 

 

A friend of Seahawk’s recently gave him this guitar. It’s a kid-size, not a full-size, so it’s perfect for his ten-year-old hands. At some point during the next year, Will will likely start teaching him to play (he used to be a professional musician). In the meantime, the kids are just having fun making sounds on it. Especially Small Fry!

Blessings,

Wendy

Simplicity: Time Outdoors

simplicity

So. It’s Thursday. And I’m just now posting. Crazy week.

I hope you all had a fabulous Mother’s Day full of special treats just for you. I know I did! We got a family gift on Mother’s Day: a new BBQ grill! Our previous one has been really good for us, but it was time to upgrade. The old one was one of the $20 varieties designed for taking to the park or for small families/couples. We’ve had it for a long time. As a family of five, it just wasn’t big enough anymore, and we were tired of having to eat in shifts whenever we grilled. When we went to Fred Meyer on Sunday and saw that the grills were on sale, we snapped the new one up. And it’s been awesome.

We’ve used it for cooking dinner every night this week (except last night). See, it’s been crazy hot here on the west coast – way hotter than normal for this time of year. We’ve had temperatures in the upper-80s, which we don’t usually get until July or August, so to see heat like this in May is practically unheard of. But we’ve been embracing it with outdoor activities. Like cooking and eating outside.

We had something of a block party in our backyard on Tuesday night. It was incredibly impromptu, so not everyone could come. But we did have our across-the-street neighbors (an older, but not “old” if that makes sense, retired couple) and our friends from around the corner who are the other homeschooling family in the neighborhood. It wasn’t anything fancy. We just grilled Brats and boneless chicken and had potato salad and chips on paper plates.

But it was awesome.

Spending time outdoors on a sunny, summer (in the spring) evening, getting to know the neighbors was a great way to spend an evening. And really, cooking over hot coals, eating outside, chatting with friends . . . How much more simple can you get? I look forward to doing this more and more over the coming months!

What’s your favorite way to simplify in the warmer weather? Let me know in the comments!

Blessings,

Wendy

Wednesday Chat #6

chatsonthefarmhouseporch

It’s Wednesday again! I hope you guys are having a great week. As usual, I’ve got a fresh set of questions from Patrice at Everyday Ruralty.

Do you like (dried) beans? What do you like them in?

Dried beans are okay, but I like the convenience of canned beans better. I mostly only use dried pinto beans for making my own refried beans. For almost everything else, I use canned.

Does your house have enough storage?

Yes! But that’s because we don’t have that much stuff (out of choice). We have way more room than we (currently) need, but we’re not sure we’re done having kids yet, so it’s a bit of a tossup whether our next house will be this big or a little smaller…

Do you have any childhood memories of a store?

My mom used to work at a local pet store. She was best friends with the owner, which was how she got the job in the first place – she went from “best customer” to “employee.” In the summers, my brother and I would hang out at the store all. the. time. Sometimes we got to help with some of the work. My favorite thing to do was work the cash register.

Do you ever shop at a farmers’ market?

Oh yes! We love going to the farmers’ market in the summertime! We also have what our family calls “The Fruit Stand” here in town, which isn’t technically a farmers’ market, but is kind of similar. It’s an outdoor stand that sells only produce and a few dairy items (milk and eggs). Their stuff isn’t really any more local than the grocery store, but their prices are much better! A true farmers’ market is better, but the fruit stand is a nice way to get us through the week. (They’re open every day, whereas the farmers’ market is only once a week.)

Do you still have your wisdom teeth? Are you wise? 🙂

No. I got mine out when I was … 20, I think. Maybe 21. It was awful. Typically the recovery is supposed to be only two or three days, but I was out of commission for two weeks. Blech. As for being wise, I suppose it depends on who you ask ;).

Now it’s your turn. Answer one (or more) of the questions for me in the comments?

Blessings,

Wendy

Simplicity: Wardrobe

simplicity copy

Our clothing is the one area of our lives we’re true minimalists. In fact, in reading some other minimalist blogs, I think we’re more minimalist in our clothing choices than most of them are! Let me first start by breaking down for you what we own. Then I’ll go into the why of our small wardrobes and how we make having so few clothes work for us.

Will:

One pair of jeans. One pair of shorts. Two t-shirts. A week’s worth of socks and underwear. Two long john undershirts. One pair of sneakers. One pair of sturdier shoes (he chose Converse All-Stars for his sneakers this year, which are good aesthetically but not that great in real life, so he kept his shoes from last year). One pair of sandals.

Me:

Two dresses (we have plans to get one more, but we’re holding out for exactly what I want, not settling). One skirt, which is a holdover from my winter wardrobe. One turtleneck (also a holdover from winter; it’s not quite warm every day here yet!). A week’s worth of socks and underwear. Two pairs of sandals (one black and one white). A pair of black Mary Janes that I got from Goodwill.

Seahawk:

Two pairs of shorts. One pair of jeans. Three t-shirts. One set of long johns. A week’s worth of socks and underwear. One pair of sneakers. (When the weather’s consistently warm, we’ll get him a pair of sandals.)

Munchkin:

Two pairs of shorts (hand-me-downs from Seahawk). One pair of jeans. One pair of corduroy pants. Three t-shirts. One set of long johns. A week’s worth of socks and underwear. One pair of sneakers. (When the weather’s consistently warm, we’ll get him a pair of sandals.)

Small Fry:

15 cloth diapers. Two pairs of socks (he hardly ever wears them). Five onesies/t-shirts. Two pairs of pants. Two pairs of shorts. One pair of Crocs.

Additionally, we each have a swimming suit (a cloth swim diaper in Small Fry’s case), a pair of pajamas, and a jacket. Those don’t count toward our “allotment.”

We’ve also put aside some of this year’s winter clothes to wear again next winter. That’s something we’ve never done before; hopefully it works out well for us come fall.

We keep all of the clothes in mine and Will’s closet and invite the kids in each morning to choose their clothes and get dressed. It might seem weird to do it that way, but it makes it easier to a) put the clothes away and b) know when everyone’s out, or nearly out, of clothes and it’s time to do laundry.

Here’s a picture of our closet. It’s pretty grainy, so you’ll have to bear with me. The lighting in the bedroom is absolutely awful. This shows most, but not all, of our clothes. We were wearing some of them at the time of the photograph ;).

closet
When I first approached this topic last year, some of you asked things like “don’t your clothes wear out faster?” “don’t you spend more time on laundry this way?” and “that’s really it?!” The short answers are no, no, and yes. Well chosen clothes will last just fine, even through frequent wearings. One thing I learned from my grandma (about quilts, but the same is true of clothes) was “Using [wearing] it doesn’t wear it out; washing it does.” So we only wash our clothes when they’re actually dirty. We don’t wash them every time we wear them, “just because.” A shirt or pair of pants that’s been worn for a day isn’t automatically dirty. We wash our clothes every 2-3 wears, or when it’s visibly dirty. Which is a lot more often for the kids’ clothes (especially Small Fry!) than for ours, but still not every time. This means we only have to do one or two loads of laundry a week.

So, now that the mechanics of what we do and how we work such small wardrobes are out of the way, what about the Why? I’ll be frank with you: this is mostly Will’s idea. I sometimes think he pushes too hard for the tiny wardrobes, but I also understand our roles in the family and I’m willing to follow him and not rock the boat, so to speak, on things that don’t matter that much. The idea is that we want to be ready to pack up and go at a moment’s notice if God calls us somewhere. And if you have leave in a hurry, what do you absolutely need to take with you? Not the kitchen full of dishes and small appliances. Not the bookshelf full of books (which we’ve consolidated almost all of to our Kindles and/or library use). Not the desktop computer, printer, and scanner. What you need is clothes. There are other ways of dealing with the other stuff once you get to where you’re going, should the need for such a hasty departure ever arise. In that vain, we’ve decided to keep our clothes to a minimum so that if we ever find ourselves in that situation, we can move quickly. Of course, such a scenario isn’t ideal, but we want to be prepared nonetheless.

I have just one more parting comment on the topic before I “sign off.” This wardrobe may seem drastic to some of you, but it’s not that much smaller than what we had “before we were minimalists.” I’ve read stories and articles about people with hundreds of items of clothing and dozens of pairs of shoes. That’s never been us. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than ten or twelve outfits at a time in my entire adult life. So cutting from twelve to four isn’t such a big deal. Additionally, I understand that this kind of choice isn’t for everyone. I won’t condemn you if you have a walk-in closet full of clothes and shoes. I won’t understand it, but I won’t condemn it ;).

Blessings,

Wendy

Picture of the Week: Grenouille

PitW Grenouille

 

We used to have a frog. It was a tree frog indigenous to the area that Will caught while he was out in a farmer’s field one day (we know the farmer, so it wasn’t weird for him to be there). The frog came through the irrigation pipe with the water. (The water was pulled from the river to water the fields, and there’s a large frog population right near the pump.) He caught the frog, brought her home, and we had her for a pet for about three years. Her official name was Gummy (in honor of the candy, gummy frogs), but we always just called her Froggie.

Unfortunately, Froggie passed away a few months ago. The kids were pretty sad about that, but it was a good life lesson for them. We’ve been pet-free ever since then – until Easter.

Seahawk and my mom arranged a surprise for the rest of us: a new frog! The two of them had been planning this for nearly a month (ever since my parents took the [older] boys to the Exotic Animal Expo at the end of March). This one’s a lot bigger than our other one, and it will get much bigger than it is now. It’s a Pacman frog, named thus because of their huge mouths. We’ve named ours Grenouille (gruh-noo-lya). That’s the French word for “frog.” We thought it was appropriate for our family :).

Do you have any pets?

Blessings,

Wendy