Spring has sprung!

We were all able to spend a good amount of time outside today, soaking up some of the fresh, spring sun rays that were in abundance!

I just love that cat and how patient he is with Faith hauling him around.

Faith had a great time climbing on her cube and generally running around getting her play on! Just look at the smile on that girl!!!

One of her favorite things to do is to chase the chickens, trying to find one that is slow enough to actually catch. Today, she caught Farrah and had a good, long cuddle with her!

What a great day outdoors! I was even able to put some seeds in the garden...some sugar snap peas, ruby red Swiss chard, Indian mustard greens, and two types of carrots. We'll see how that goes, considering that the chickens are bent on scratching up the newly tilled soil...... :/

And now a word from...God?!?

Below is a brief monologue that Faith spoke to me as I was snuggling her before her nap this afternoon. Just thought I would share:



"I was crying because I didn't know what to do...

...or when....

...because God gave me a work....

God gave me a lesson."



Hmmmm....

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

The wonderful world of watercolor!

(How's that for alliteration!?!)

I am not sure why I am such a night owl, but I am. Once, I even had my cortisol levels checked over the course of 24 hours and they peaked at midnight! That, I suppose, explains why I was up painting the other night and the clock said this:

My dad has been venturing into the world of watercolor himself and very kindly allowed me to use his paints and brushes to give it a go myself. And what a beautiful, exciting world it is!!! So full of color and potential!

Since Faith and I were nearing the end of our visit with my parents, I found myself turning my heart toward home and was motivated to try to capture the gorgeous ridges that I see everyday in the western North Carolina mountains. This proved MUCH harder than I anticipated, but I still had fun!

Thanks Dad, for this opportunity to play with paints! I appreciated all your tips and admire your tenacity at working on developing new skills! We love you guys!!!

Faith's first Montessori pink tower!!!

So. I was scouting out Montessori schools for Faith for the fall, as she will be three by then (GASP!!! Where does the time go?!?) and we were both able to spend a day in a classroom, where Faith received a lesson from the teacher on the iconic Montessori material--The Pink Tower!!!

I was desperately trying to stay out of her way, lest I interrupt her concentration. (As an aside, you can see in the photo above that she finally tolerated wearing the green dress I knit for her...but only because it is the same color as Tinkerbell. Sigh.)

This was how she put it back on its stand. Far from perfect, but still, she seemed to really enjoy it! And she did make sure to put the smallest block on top! (Hard to tell in the photo, but it's there, all 1 cm x 1 cm of it!) :)

Hooray for Montessori!!!

PINCH!!! Well, you weren't wearing green!

"By my OWN self!"

I have been waiting a long time to see this! Slowly over the past several months, when the time and moods are right, I have been giving Faith lessons in how to use the sewing machine. She now knows how to turn it on, place a scrap piece of fabric under the foot, drop the foot, and turn the manual wheel that makes the needle move up and down (I've forgotten the official name of that part of the machine, sorry!). She will occasionally crawl up into to the chair and do all these things on her own. She also carefully holds fabric (that I don't need to be sewn very evenly, LOL) as it feeds under the foot while I control the speed with the presser foot.

This is just SO precious to me! I love seeing her be so independent. It also thrills me to no end that she has taken an interest in something that I enjoy so much. I would love to share this hobby with her; it's so useful and fun to know how to sew. Along the way I am sure she has some things to teach me....like how to look so dang cute sewing while wearing a purple raincoat. :)

The Chicken Chronicles

Well, I thought that since I put "farm" in the name of this blog, it was high time I posted something somewhat related to agriculture. For those who don't know, Faith got ELEVEN chicks for her second birthday last summer. We really wanted chickens anyway, so we killed two birds with one stone--pun completely unintentional--and got her chicks as a gift. (Ain't it *grand* when your kids are still young enough for such tactics to work?!?) Honestly, her adopted grandmother, Nana Kim, got them for her, which was so sweet! Here she is checking them out once we got them home:

It is so funny to see all eleven of them in that small cage! Now that they are full grown, not even one would be happy in such an enclosed space.

This was just the transportation cage, not the one that they stayed in, by the way. :) As we transferred them to their brooder, Daddy gave Faith an opportunity to look the chicks over more closely.

This is Bianca, our all white hen. Faith has favored her since the beginning, I guess because she stands out from the other black and brown hens. She is just a handful of fluff here!

Above, you see some of the other chicks in the brooder beside/behind Faith. Below, she decided to try to hold Bianca by herself. We had her sit down first.

After getting the chicks settled in their brooder, we realized just how fast these babies were growing. We needed to get going on the building the henhouse, and FAST!!! We built the coop around an existing chain link dog pen in our backyard. Faith was very interested in helping after watching Daddy use his tools. Here, she is marking the wood with a pencil after "measuring" with Daddy's tape measure:

(Sorry about the poor picture quality...this was taken from with the camera on my phone.)

What a cute helper!!! This just makes a mama proud. (PING! Oops, there goes another button!)

Once we got the perimeters of the coop enclosed, we would bring the chicks in for a fieldtrip of sorts to begin to get acquainted with their future home. It was also a way for Faith to get more acquainted with the chickens!

Faith was SO excited to "play" with her chickens! And they were SO cute when they were little, running all over the place, trying to figure out what was edible (NOT the moles on my arms, you birdbrains!!!)

Well, I know this post has run long (and congratulations, by the way, if you are still reading!), but there is still a LOT to be said about our chicken adventure. So, stay tuned for the next installment of The Chicken Chronicles! Same fowl time, same fowl channel!

Oh Happy Day!

You KNOW it's gonna be a good day when you go to make breakfast and see this:

May you all have a blessedly HAPPY day!!! :D

Recycled Snowman!

I made this cute Snowman "vase" from a Puffs container the other night after seeing this post on the Chasing Cheerios blog and this post from the Frugal Family Fun Blog. It has snowed SOOO much this winter, I told my mother over the phone that I thought we had accidentally moved to Colorado! This little guy might be just the thing to remember the snow next year, when we probably only get snow once. :/

In case you don't want to visit the links above for directions, I drew the "coal" eyes, mouth, and buttons on with a black permanent marker, then tied a red ribbon around his neck for a scarf, and glued on an orange felt triangle for a "carrot" nose. Voila! Instant snowman! I need to pass this idea on to my Florida friends! :)

Another Dinosaur Conversation!

FAITH: There's a dinosaur in there (pointing to the microwave, looking in). Here it? "ROAR!!!"

MAMA: (While scrambling eggs) There's a dinosaur in the microwave?!? What should we do with it?

FAITH: (Turning to look out the window.) We should put it outside so it can eat grass.

MAMA: What kind of dinosaur is it?

FAITH: A big, green dinosaur! See it eating grass? (Looking out the window, grabs a handful of pretend grass, feeds it to the dinosaur at the edge of the closed microwave door.)

MAMA: What's the dinosaur's name?

FAITH: Um, Caca Moco Paca. Lots of dinosaurs are in there. Dinosaur, I am gonna open the door, turn off the light.

(Opens door with a lot of effort.) They went outside to eat the grass.

DADDY: Why are the dinosaurs in the microwave?!?

FAITH: Because they are sleepy. Wake up dinosaurs!!!




Well, that explains it, then!

I hope you all have a creative day full of wonder and imagination!

Faith's first knitting lesson!

...and just look at how color-coordinated she is with the dress we are working on together! I didn't realize that at the time. I am hoping that, by involving her more in the choices of what color stripe to knit next and encouraging her to actually get her little hands on the needles, she will actually like this dress I am knitting for her. So far, she has worn one, but only because I made her and then left home, so she had no other clothes to put on. And the other she tried on so I could take pictures of her in it, and then promptly removed it after the photo session was over. Hmmm, we'll see about this one...

Animals lined up with labels!

The blogosphere has been so supportive lately. Through internet ADD wanderings, I stumbled upon The Snail's Trail, which posts about homeschooling ideas for young children. I LOVE the blog!

So, today Faith and I set about writing and laminating labels for our home environment. We wrote color coded labels for everything from furniture to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves!!!

Below, you can see how Faith lined up all her plastic animals (Golly, that's a whole other post!):

The line of animals was so long, I had to take two photos of it! She is always very careful to line them all up so that they are "looking" the same direction. I guess that's part of what Maria Montessori called the Sensitive Periods of Order and Attention to Detail!

Anyway, we then worked together to write the animal names down and match them to the correct animal. This is a great activity that promotes reading skills. And we had a bunch of fun, oddly enough, just working together on this project off and on throughout the day. It has been very difficult to find projects that she and I both enjoy, so this one that is sort of crafty and very educational came as quite a surprise to be such long-lasting fun for Faith. I have a feeling we will be labeling many more things in the days to come. Yay! :)

Everything's coming up...roses???

So, today I was super-excited to be inspired by another crafty mama's blog (Montessori Mama) to create a new, very fun activity to engage Faith. Faith and I used pom poms, pipe cleaners, and felt shapes to make these Seussical flowers:

Here is a photo of the variety of colors and shapes I cut out for Faith to use. The shapes were cut out with regular scissors and pinking shears, and included circles/ovals, squares, star-ish shapes, and triangles too! This definitely made for some unique flowers. :) I decided such beautiful flowers needed lush green leaves as well.

This wooden tray from Goodwill worked out well for holding all the pieces. Yay!

I have left the tray out so she can make more flowers in the coming days as she sees fit. I also gave her two (cheap) glass vases in which to arrange her felt flowers, which was a big hit. Flower arranging is a Montessori activity that teaches the concept of caring for the environment. This is a great independent activity for young children. I will certainly have to remember it when I am teaching in a Montessori classroom again someday!

Aren't they fun and funky and colorful?!? Maybe these beauties will help me wait for the real spring flowers to arrive...

What independent craft activities for young children would you like to share? Come on people, I need more ideas to keep this little one busy!!!

Daddy time!

Faith and her daddy really enjoy each other's company each evening after he gets home from work. He has recently introduced her to great 80's television reruns on Hulu such as The Littles and Scooby Doo. Last night, they worked together on the computer "coloring" and playing games based on PBS show characters.

This picture of togetherness will be something that I never tire of seeing. Cue warm, fuzzy feeling!