I have been trying to be pretty strategic about the toys that enter our home. One on my list for awhile was wooden animals. Unfortunately the ones I really like are rather expensive, so I decided to make some. I started trying to carve with my pocket knife which was super slow going. Andrew came…
Projects
Happy 4th Birthday Emily!
We celebrated Emily’s birthday all weekend! In July she told us she wanted to go hiking at Turkey Run State Park, get frozen yogurt, and have a pink cake with purple frosting. Last week when we were finalizing plans she added in having her friends over for cupcakes. Andrew bought the supplies for the Pickler…
Emily’s Peg Rail Project
Sometime in June Emily ran out of her room with great energy. “Mom! Let’s make a peg rail for my room to hang my dresses on. We’ll hang it right here (running back in) by my bed!” A few times a week she’d bring up her plan. When we returned home from our summer travels…
Playground Woodworking
The success of carving the wooden spoon has spurred me on to an new passion of carving. I usually limit it to when the kids are outside playing, whittling away on my stick at the playground. I’ve used all sorts of playground equipment to provide stabilization for sawing or leverage for cutting. I carved two…
Project: Hand Carved Spoon and Andrew’s Towel Rack
I long for us to have our own wood shop, or at least a garage with a few tools. I was feeling particularly bummed about our situation when I realized it was completely outside of my control. So I gave it up and started looking a tiny bit into hand carving. As in I watched…
Project: Play Dresses for Emily
Emily started growing out of many of the dresses she’s been wearing for the last year. I took some old shirts of mine and turned them into play dresses that should last for another year. The first dress took about two days to figure out. The second one Emily I made together in thirty minutes….
Project: Rag Rug
Last year with the start of our family scripture study being distracted by toys, I decided to make a rug. A place where no toys are allowed, where we can focus on reading together. About that time our sheets wore out and I had some old painting sheets that my family gave us to hang…
A Special Christmas Season
This year I felt the spirit of Christmas permeate our hearts and home. Participating in the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative gets a lot of the credit. Emily eagerly awaited each morning to flip a square over and watch a movie about it. I love seeing all the different ways Christ blesses our lives and how we can…
A Family Wood shop Morning
Andrew and I have a dream to have a wood shop of our very own. We want a place to teach our kids how to use tools and build whatever idea pops into our minds. Currently our projects are accomplished with Andrew cutting the wood on campus and us gluing at home. This works well…
DIY Sprinkler Fun
We really enjoyed all of the water playing we did in Utah from swimming to sprinklers to spray bottles and buckets. I especially loved the kid exhaustion that followed with guaranteed naps or bedtime. We don’t have great access to a pool here (driving to and from and swimming with two completely dependent children is…