Yes, These are OLD Chairs!

This summer the high school that I graduated from had a garage sale to sell off some old items that they no longer needed.  I thought it might be interesting to see what was there, so I went to check it out.  They had lots and lots of old metal and wooden chairs that had been used when I was a student and probably when my parents were students!  They were dusty, scratched, and many of them showed water damage.  I decided to get some of the chairs because I knew they were tough old things–much sturdier and hardier than what is available today.  I figured if they could survive 50+ years at a public high school, surely they could get us through the remaining years we have homeschooling our own kids.

I cleaned the chairs up, but I asked my Dad if he might be interested in refinishing the chairs for fun.  I guess it really didn’t matter that they looked old and worn, but I thought it might be nice to try to fix them up as nice as they could be.  My Dad agreed to work on the four chairs that I had bought, so he took them in pairs to refinish.

When those chairs came back to my house, I could hardly believe it!  Didn’t my Dad do an amazing job?!  These chairs seriously look better than they ever did before, and they are just as sturdy as if they were brand new!  I am very thankful that my Dad took the time to do this.  I think these chairs are ready for at least another 50 years of use!

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2015 Painting Projects

Every summer I rotate around the rooms of our house and do some painting.  I had not gotten around to the kids’ bedrooms since 2008, so it was definitely time for a change.  After all, my kids are now teenagers, and the “little kids” look just didn’t fit anymore!

I got a late start this summer, so I am glad that I got as much done as I did.  I didn’t make it to the living room or kitchen, so I guess that will wait until next summer.

I started in the boys’ room.  My biggest issue in there was removing the camping-themed border.  That crazy border just wouldn’t come off!  I had to scrape and scrape, and even then it only came off in little, tiny bits.  Once that was finally removed, however, the rest of their room went pretty smoothly.

The girls wanted a “focus wall” in their room.  I let them pick out the colors, and I’ll admit I was pretty skeptical of their choices!  I really couldn’t imagine such a dark shade of blue on a wall, but I wanted to do what they chose, so I plowed right in.  My biggest obstacle in that room was the paint on the floor.  Yes, the table that I had just set a new can of paint on collapsed spilling most of the gallon on the carpet.  Fun….  We worked for several hours cleaning up that mess, but it doesn’t look too bad now.  We’ve needed new carpet for quite sometime, so maybe this just bumped it up on our priority list a spot or two.  Kara said that I should be glad that it was the neutral color that spilled and not the dark blue–now there is an optimist for you!  🙂

I dreaded doing the computer room, but it had to be done.  That room is where we “live,” so it was pretty messy and full of stuff–some of it very heavy stuff.  Again, I just plowed right in–what else could I do?  John helped to pick the color.  I was originally going to use a tannish neutral color, but John persuaded me to be a little bit more bold and try a soft shade of green.  Again, I was kind of skeptical, but now that the change has been made, I am so glad that I listened to him!  It really has made a cozy room!

My biggest obstacle in the computer room (other than the furniture) involved the throw rugs.  We have always kept throw rugs in this room because we want to protect the wood floor.  Several years ago, however, I noticed that the rug underneath my computer desk was deteriorating and leaving quite a mess.  I didn’t want to deal with it, so I put it off and put it off until painting time came.  By that time I had a huge problem!  There was a sticky saw-dust like film all over the floor that had to be scraped off with a razor blade.  Wow.  Just wow.  Eventually I got it all cleaned up and repolished the floor, but there was NO WAY that I was going to put that crazy rug back on the floor.  I started looking online for something else, and I found a clearance rug on Walmart.com that was originally $500 marked down to fifty dollars!  Yes, you read that right:  $50!  And the measurements looked like it would fit well.  I ordered it, and when it came I was so pleased!  It has added a bit of sophistication to this room, and I am so thankful for it!

I originally wasn’t going to paint the hallway, but it needed it so badly that I just went on ahead.  I used the same paint as I used in the computer room, and it looks so much better!

So, that brought my 2015 painting to a close.  Painting is a job that is never done, so there will be more to come…

I am going to add a Smilebox slideshow to this post to show more of how the rooms turned out:

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2014 Christmas Stocking Buttons

Because of our crazy schedule this year, I was a little bit later than normal getting our Christmas Stocking Buttons finished.  I did get it accomplished by Christmas Day, though, so I guess that’s okay!

I began this tradition the year that Dan and I were married.  Each year, the Prairie Family members select a special memory from that year to symbolize on a button to place on the Christmas stockings.  Each year when we get these out, it is kind of neat looking back on all of these great memories!

This is what was selected this year:

• Dan:  playing Lazer Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof
• Lois:  directing David’s Dynasty at Heartland Christian School
• John:  taking voice and piano lessons at the college
• Brock:  focusing on playing the fiddle
• Cosette:  going to summer camp and the fall retreat at Bethel Bible Camp
• Luke:  learning to play Mario songs on the piano
• Kara:  getting our new guinea pig, Ginger (who was pregnant with SEVEN babies!)

 

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Learning to Sew

The past few months, the girls have been going to a friend’s house to work on sewing projects.  They both love it so much, and I am so thankful that this special lady is taking the time to share her talent and skills with them.  So far they have made a tote bag, a simple quilt top, and these cute cropped pants:

When Cosette and Kara were cast as Tevye’s two youngest daughters in Fiddler on the Roof, they immediately asked about being able to sew part of their own costumes.  I talked it over with their teacher, and she thought they could put together the skirts that they needed.  So, the girls went over to her house on a Saturday afternoon and whipped out a couple of darling skirts that they will use for the musical.  (That is what Kara is sewing in this entry’s first picture.) Believe me, they are DELIGHTED and can’t wait to start the dress rehearsals so they can wear their new skirts!  🙂

We are so blessed with many, many friends.  Truly our lives are rich, and we are very thankful!

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Trying out Christmas Gifts

It is wonderful being on Christmas break from school.  We love school, but taking a breather every now-and-then helps keep us all on track.  (It also gives me a chance to do things like catch up on this blog!)

We’ve pretty much been relaxing for the last few days.  The kids have been enjoying trying out their new gifts, watching movies, etc.  We’ve also been working on science projects….but that’s another story for another future entry!  🙂

The unicycle-type thing that Kara is riding in this entry’s picture is quite an interesting deal with an interesting story.  It is called a Cyco-Cycle, and I saw it on a Black Friday sale and thought that it looked like something the kids would enjoy.  So, I ordered it online not knowing who exactly would be receiving it.  Then I waited…..and waited….and waited!  Other things I had ordered at the same time came with no problems, but this cycle just didn’t come!  Finally I checked on it’s shipping status, and, believe it or not, it came back as “item is not shippable–destroyed in shipping.”  Destroyed???  How could this possibly be destroyed to the point of being undeliverable??

Anyway, I contacted the company, and they said that my money would be refunded if the item ever actually made it back to them.  That gave me a lot of confidence!  😛  I still wanted to get one of these as a gift, and I was fortunate in that they still had some available to order at the Black Friday price.  So, I placed a second order and hoped for the best on getting my money back on the first one.

Eventually it all did work out:  the money was refunded, and this one arrived in good shape.  As I got my list together for gifts, it was obvious that this one would go to Kara, and she has loved this silly thing!  It is more like a unicycle than anything else I have ever seen.  At first, she rode it hanging on to the seat, but now she can ride all over the place without hanging on (as the picture for this entry clearly shows!).  She can make it turn and twist wherever she wants to go, and can’t wait until the weather is nice enough and the days are long enough for her to ride it when we take our family walks in the evening.

Another interesting gift that was received this year was the Make-Your-Own-Music-Box kit that Kara bought for Cosette.  Cosette had seen these in a catalog and had wanted to try one, but I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to make it work.  This thing is just a plain music box with no song built-in.  To make it play, you have to make your own song strips with a special puncher.  It works very much like a player piano.  To me, it looked kind of complicated.  It wasn’t intimidating to Cosette, though!  It didn’t take her long at all to jump onto Sibelius to write out the notation for “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”  Here is a picture of her doing that:

Then she got busy with the paper strip and her special puncher and got that all ready.  When she put it into her little music box and turned the handle, here is what happened:

Pretty cool, huh?! Not bad for a first try!  Since this one, she has put together another strip of “On the Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady.  She’s going to keep all of the songs that she makes and is writing the dates on them so she’ll be able to keep track of that as she grows up.  I think it’s a very neat hobby!

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2013 Christmas Stocking Buttons

Boy, all of our Christmas decorating was way behind schedule this year!  We did get it all done, but it was close!

The Prairie Family had fun picking out what to put on our stocking buttons again this year. Each year, each person picks out something special about that year to symbolize on a button that is pinned to the stockings.  Each year, the buttons accumulate and the stockings get fuller and fuller! It has been a fun tradition that we started the first year that Dan and I were married, and I’m glad that it has continued.  I am also glad that several years ago I put together a list that I update each year with explanations of what the buttons mean.  There are so many buttons now that it would be impossible to remember them all without my cheat sheet!

Here are what each member chose this year:

Dan: Paint Your Wagon; he really enjoyed playing Mike Mooney in the CCC spring musical.

Lois: String Quartet; Our family grew a lot musically through our string ensemble.

John: CCC Choir; He loved being part of this group!

Brock: Barbershop; He has enjoyed learning to sing barbershop style.

Cosette: Piano; She has generally loved piano, but has especially appreciated getting our upstairs piano this year.

Luke: Jolly Ranchers; He loves those things!  🙂

Kara: Sewing; Kara has loved learning to sew this year at a very special teacher’s house!

So, another year has come and gone, and another year is highlighted on our stockings.  2013 has certainly been a year of blessing and fun!

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Don’t Worry, Mom! It Will Be Fine!

The kids have wanted to enter items at the county fair for several years.  I have been hesitant to let them do so because I didn’t want to deal with hurt feelings, hyper-competitiveness, etc.  Early in the summer, the girls again began to talk about entering items at the fair, so I gave my usual speeches.  You know how they go:  “I guess I really wouldn’t mind taking things to the fair as long as you understand that ribbons are simply judges’ opinions.  If you are happy with your projects, then that’s all that matters.  I don’t want you getting discouraged because you may not get the ribbon you think you deserve.  I also don’t want you to brag if your project gets a better ribbon than someone else’s.  That’s just not right, and if that happens, we won’t do it again.”  And so on….  The girls assured me that they understood all of these things, so I decided to give it a try this year.

So, the girls picked out some of their favorite crafts from the past year to enter.  Then the week before the fair, Cosette started working on a painted star craft just for fun.  The more she worked on it, the more she liked it, and she thought she might like to take it to the fair too.  Well, she painted the front, but didn’t finish it for several days.  I kept reminding her that she’d need to finish it or she wouldn’t be able to take it to the fair.  “Don’t worry, Mom.  I’ll finish it on time.  I’ll work on it later!”  It sat, and sat, and sat, until the morning that the entries were to be taken to the fair.  I told her that I guessed the star would have to stay at home.  She thought she could still finish it, though, and got busy painting it.

I told her that I didn’t think it would have time to dry.  After all, the star base is a soft cardboard.  Using watercolor paints just soaked that cardboard!  The whole thing was absolutely soggy!  She kept painting, though.  The star was so wet that when we picked it up by the hanger, the star tore!  I told her that it really was just too late to get that star into the fair, but again she assured me that it would all be ok.  She’d fix it up with hot glue and set it on an air vent to dry.  By noon that day, the star was dry enough to attach the bling, so she looked through what I had on hand, and we ran the star along with our other entries to the fair.

On the way to the fair, I again reminded Cosette not to be too disappointed about ribbons–especially on the star that was thrown together at the last minute.  I told her and Kara both that there is no way to predict how these things will be judged, and they said they understood that, and really just wanted the fun of seeing their projects at the fair.  So, we filled out the entries, left the projects, and went on our way.

The next day was the fair parade.  The girls were on the library’s float, and we were to pick them up at the fair after the parade.  When I went to the building to meet them, Kara came up to me and said that they had found their projects in the display cabinets, but that they really didn’t understand the ribbons.  “Oh, no, here it goes….”  I thought!  Kara went on to say that her lampshade and Cosette’s key chains both had blue ribbons, but that Cosette’s star was in a separate case with a purple ribbon on it.  They didn’t know what a purple ribbon was!  I couldn’t believe it until I saw it for myself:  yes, Cosette’s star that I almost did not let her enter won Grand Champion!

Needless to say, the girls were very pleased with their entries.  I did remind them that even though the star got a good ribbon, putting projects together at the very last minute is really not the best plan for making fair entries.  I told them that really these things should be planned and put together with great care, and they both agreed that they will work on things throughout the year that we can enter in next year’s fair.  Brock has also expressed interest in entering something, and, who knows?  Maybe I’ll even put something out there.  Of course, there will be the usual speeches about not getting too ribbon-focused, etc., etc.,!

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Summer Activities Week 2

This week was really extraordinary for the Prairie Family.  Boy, was it busy, and I found myself playing bus driver most of the time, but the kids had some wonderful experiences.

First of all, John passed his written and driving exams to get his restricted license!  This is quite a process in our state, but that major step has been cleared.  Brock is chomping at the bit to get his Learner’s Permit so he can start working towards his license as well, and we’ll probably begin studying for that soon.  Teaching your kids to drive is quite an experience!

Also, we might be getting an acoustic piano!  I have been wanting one for awhile.  I love my digital piano, and definitely don’t want to replace it, but the touch of a digital piano is just not quite the same as an acoustic.  So, when the kids play for church, it takes a little adjusting for them.  So, I have thought that having a regular piano would allow them to get more used to the feel of playing a “real” piano.  Anyway, I grew up knowing a special lady who played the piano at church, and when I grew up, we often played together for services.  She and her husband have both passed away now, and their daughter wondered if I might like to have her piano.  Dan and I agreed that if we could figure out how to get it here, we would love to have it.  So, I contacted a music store to see if they could help us with this process, and it sounds like the piano will come to its new home sometime in the next couple of weeks–very exciting!

Kara and Luke took a printmaking class this week.  The kids have enjoyed this class several times, and it is always a favorite.  It’s definitely not something that we can do here at home, so I’m glad that they can participate in something like this where they have the right supplies and knowledge to help the kids be successful.

Cosette helped with an animal diorama class.  She is greatly admired by the younger kids in her crafting classes–they see her as so grown-up and talented (and she is!) This week they were especially impressed with her ability to make little figures out of pipe cleaners, so she was fully employed making little people and other things for them to add into their dioramas.  She even had an order that I had to deliver because she had to go home for lunch and didn’t have time to finish the girl’s little doll.  I took it to the girl later at the library, and her face just lit up when she saw that Cosette had remembered.  She told Kara, “Your sister is really talented!”

Speaking of the library, I had the privilege of filling in for John for the elementary classes this week.  He was busy at another activity, and I told him that I didn’t mind taking his place so the librarian wouldn’t be short of help.  I had never actually seen what they do in those classes first hand, so that was a great experience.  It also made me appreciate what John does each summer–I’m sure the librarian is ready for him to come back!  He has worked with her long enough that he knows just what is needed without being told; I tried my best, but definitely needed a little more instruction at times since I really didn’t know what was going on!  🙂

John, Brock, and Cosette spent all of the afternoons this week at a museum camp.  That was a wonderful experience, but I will save the details of that for the next few posts.

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Looney Tunes

The kids have recently discovered the fun of the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety, Sylvester, Road Runner, and Coyote have all become the latest Prairie Family Fad.  Cosette drew this picture of Marvin the Martian, and I thought it was pretty cute:

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The End of an Era: The Prairie Family Pinewood Derby Car Collection

If I counted correctly, there are 37 cars in this picture.  Thirty-Seven Cars!  I guess we’ve made a few of these things over the years….

We have learned a few things about making Pinewood Derby Cars.  After all, I think we’ve made all of the mistakes at least once!  🙂  The cars that are mounted on the display boards were from our first year.  Wow, those were bad cars!  They literally jumped the track on every race they ran!  We had no idea what to do when we made those cars, but that year was a good learning year. By the next year, we had ordered some books and had read some websites about how to make Pinewood Derby cars that would actually get to the end of the track!  Each year we added new steps to improve our cars and learned new decorating techniques.  So, in our later years our cars did decently–not always winning, but consistently doing all right.

A few of the cars really stand out with good memories.  The first car in the top row with the lightning bolt on it was our first car that ran decently.  We decided it must be the lightning bolt sticker that made the difference on that one!  LOL! The 7th car on the top row is our Purple Bomb.  That crazy car is a random rocket! It makes no sense whatsoever, but that year we had an extra car body cut out that we decided to finish for fun.  We used some leftover paint, a few colorful stickers, and just stuck on some wheels.  This haphazard method worked out, though, because it has won official and unofficial races in several different settings.

John’s “paint splat” car (next to last car on the top row) is one of the cutest and most unique cars.  The gold car right in the middle of the picture with a flower sticker on the front was Cosette’s random winner.  That car flew in every race it ran.  The Cub Scouts couldn’t believe it–a girl’s car was the fastest car that year!   The most notable thing about Brock’s cars is that he doesn’t like decorations.  “After all,” he says, “they are racing, not entering a beauty contest!”  So, for Brock, it’s all about speed!  Luke had two winning cars–the junk food car and the igloo car on the front row.  I think my favorite car of Kara’s is the little brown car with the rainbow hearts.  She made it when she was four years old, and I think it is just a precious little racer!

So, now the Prairie Family cars will be put away.  Maybe they will come out for an occasional VBS or a legacy Pinewood race, but mostly they will be saved to hand down to another generation of racers someday.  We are considering looking into the “Big Boy” version of racing with the CO2 cars.  We’ll see, they just may join the growing collection in a year or so!

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