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…
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Creating More Music Autonomy with a CD Player
When we were at my family’s home in August I was surprised at how Emily and Nathan spent their time. In a big house with lots of fun toys they chose to dance to music blasting from a kids electronic keyboard. All day long. Listening to a handful of songs on the keyboard all day…
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…
Rearranging Bookcases
This weekend we did some rearranging of books. This is part of a larger project to rearrange bedrooms and help provide everyone in our family with what they need. First we pulled out our small bookcase into the hallway and filled it with the children’s books. Emily and Nathan immediately took to their space. The…
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….
Achieving Inbox Zero
My relationship with email has changed dramatically over time. In middle and high school getting an email was as exciting as a letter in the mailbox. In college I had it open almost constantly, answering emails as they came in. I only deleted junk mail, leaving everything else in the inbox so I could find…
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…