T's quilt ~ finally finished!

Over the years,

TJ has let me know reminded me, multiple times,

that he still was in need of a quilt.

I had been collecting fabric for a quilt for him for awhile,

but when I was about ready to actually start working on it,

I figured it might be smart to ask what kind of a quilt he had in mind.

Which turned out to be a good idea :-)

(and since it wasn't a surprise, I got to keep him updated on my progress, which was fun)

Instead of a bed quilt, he wanted a large throw for his living room,

so he could snuggle under it to watch a  movie or play video games.

His furniture is pretty neutral, but he likes bright colors,

so we decided to marry the two.

In February

I ordered fabric (kona solids) and designed his quilt based loosely on one that I'd spotted on Pinterest.

I made excellent progress at first.

The top came together in just a few weeks,

and the back  - a vintage sheet that he loved, along with some pieced solids - came together nicely, too.

Then, the quilting...

He wanted some hand-quilting, 

so I hand quilted the very center, the outer border, some of each corner, 

and just a few random blocks through-out the quilt.

That part went well.

The  machine quilting with aurifil 12 thread was causing me fits, though.

I ended up ordering a silicone lubricant - to actually spray on the fabric (that made me nervous - let me tell you!)

and then a thread conditioner to soak my thread in.

I had to go super slow, and I'm still not overly thrilled with the quilting,

and not even super confidant in it holding up long term

since I had lots of tension issues, too.

(It'd be fine and then all of a sudden, stitches were loose again....)

If some of the machine quilting does come out, since every piece was quilted individually,

it won't be a big deal to replace the machine quilting

with hand-quilting

as it's needed.

I think I've improved a lot as a quilter since starting this quilt

(I started, and finished, this one, and I've got a paperpiecing project - both of these helped my accuracy, I think)

so when I look closely, I see all the imperfections, and what I wish I'd done better.

But when I step back, and see it as a whole - and as a quilt for a young man - I like it quite a bit.

So, 

there ya have it 

 ~  T's quilt  ~ 

designed and carefully created with love for a son I love so much

and am so proud of.

I'm entering this machine pieced, hand and machine quilted 70" x 84" quilt in Amy's awesome Bloggers' Quilt Festival in the throw category.

Oh.

And I'm still collecting fabrics for my original quilt idea for T. 

You know how it is - you get an idea in yer head...

Love you, my boy!

Big Red

My suspicions were correct.

looky here  :-)

(sorry; I can't figure out how to get my video here)

robotics

For the past six weeks,

Tyler and Brandon

(as well as the other 8 members of the team and their dads, and sometimes moms)

have spent hours and hours (and hours!)

designing and building (and for the parents, facilitating and helping build)

a robot.

It's not all been smooth sailing

and as of last night, they were still finishing up the building and programming,

so they spent very little time actually practicing with or using the robot.

this was taken Thursday night ~ they had to take the bot
completely apart because of a problem with a center piece.

Brandon said, 

"It's pretty sad. If we don't go on to Regionals, our robot will be disassembled the day after it got finished."

"We spent 6 wks building a robot

for  5 - 3 minute battles." 

But,

our tiny little homeschool team,

The Other Guys

aka

Tog

fought hard and played well 

and won 2nd place in robotics in the Best Robotics Competition 2013

and will advance to the regional championship in December!!

We're pretty proud of our team!

They worked really hard, learned a ton, and did an excellent job.

They've figured out a few things that they need to do differently in the future.

For instance: as with all teams, it took a few weeks for everyone to get comfortable with each other

and figure out their roles within the team.

Getting the team together earlier

and doing some team building exercises and a small project 

would allow them to jump right into designing the robot as soon as the assignment is given at the competition kick off.

There was sooo much more to the competition as a whole than just the robots,

and we actually didn't do real super in some of those areas.

Not horrible, mind you, but we fell a little short of excellent....

Fellow students and fans loved Tog's booth;

they had a couple of mini-bots and a little game set up, similar to the real robot competition that people could play,

but the judges didn't really feel like it really inspired people to want to go into maths and sciences.

bad picture - but you can see some of their booth...

And they didn't document their work enough.

We also didn't have enough fans, in their opinion,

and the fans that were in attendance 

apparently weren't loud and flamboyant enough for their liking.

I'm not sure they took in to account the fact that our team was quite small, with only 9 members.

* a few of the teams brought along marching bands (we were competing against public school teams, as well as another homeschool team) and they would march around the stadium.  Lexi wanted to join 'the parade'. The students were sweet to her and high-fived her. One girl gave her a little pompom, and another time, she just went up and marched along side a boy and he held her hand for a few minutes and marched with her. 

yet another horrible picture taken from clear across the arena - but you can see how happy she was to be in the 'parade'

As far as the robot competition goes:

in a (very small) nutshell

There are 4 'playing fields'.

each color is a separate playing field

Only the driver and spotter (the one who controls where the robot goes, whereas the driver controls what the robot does)

are allowed on the playing field during the competition. 

(They can have 1 assistant to help them get the robot set up - they've got 30 seconds for that)

They use the robot to move rods and hangers and puzzle pieces to earn points.

Ultimately they can 'collect' enough of these pieces to 'build a computer'

but I don't think even the #1 team got that far.

I don't mean to brag, but this handsome guy was a big asset to the team :-)

in this one - the robot has a puzzle piece

here he's got a rod

it's in!!! 10 points!

aannddd ~ times up. Stop!

Team Tog had lots of trouble with their robot and various electrical issues.

The other teams were all very helpful in offering assistance and parts.

So even though it was a competition - there was lots of camaraderie, even among the teams, not just within the team.

There were also a couple of teams there who had so much trouble with their bot,

they didn't even get to compete,

but still the hung around, and worked on their robot - exemplifying perseverance.

I'm kinda sad for them. How bummy!

All in all, I think it was a very good experience for Brandon

(although, admittedly exhausting for the fam)

and he'll likely want to participate if our homeschool group puts together a team next year.

But right now,

he's got some more work to do

to get ready for Regionals...

Alfredo, perfected

I made 

what I think

was a perfect Alfredo sauce this evening.

So

before I forget how I made it, I'm writing it here.

We tend to lose scraps of paper magneted to the fridge.

I should interject - Tony once taught Tyler to make a very delicious Alfredo sauce,

but neither of us can recall exactly what he was taught.

I only can remember that it used egg yolks,

and being as my chickens are of a rather stingy sort,

I need all of my eggs, with yolks intact

for other eating.

This sauce was super easy;

I just turned the burner on low and tended it

while I was making the rest of dinner

(Philly wraps, if you must know, made with planned-over roast. Yum!)

In a small saucepan, I put

1 stick of butter

4 garlic cloves, minced

and 

8 oz cream cheese

When it was melty and mixed, I added 1 c. of cream.

I thought we might need more liquid,

but I felt like things might be getting just a wee bit heavy,

so I added 1/2 c. almond milk, unsweetened, and unflavored, of course.

When that was all whisked nicely together

I added a cup of parmesean/romano blend cheese ~ just the dry stuff in a jar from Aldi.

and a few shakes of red peper flakes.

I let that cook on low until we were ready for it.

The texture, the aroma, the flavor

- all of it -

perfect.

We ate it on spaghetti squash ~ the four weren't overly thrilled with it.

I thought it was positively scrumptious

and combined all of their leftovers in one bowl

and will eat them tomorrow :-)

(Just so we're clear - it was the squash they weren't fond of. The sauce, they seemed to like very much.)

welcome to another episode of - she should have been blonde

More than once, twice, thrice,

I have turned the water on to fill up the sink,

left the kitchen to do something 'real quick'

and come back much later to a veeery wet kitchen.

I'm no longer allowed to leave the kitchen when the faucet is on.

Except.

Sometimes,

I forget.

~

We have a little spot in the kitchen, sort of above the sink, hidden behind a board that runs across the ceiling between the wall cabinets,
where it leaks when it rains.

For months, I waited for the the ceiling to drop; it was only a matter of time.

Sure enough, about a month or so ago, when Tyler was gone,

several chunks of ceiling and bits of shingles came crashing down into the sink.

I cleaned up the mess

and then thought it'd be smart of me to gather up all the dangling pieces of drywall off of the ceiling

before they, too, fell down

and made another mess.

Of course - I made a mess gathering them all up.

I waited several days (until Tyler would have a chance to do something about it)

before I even mentioned it to him.

He wasn't overly worried about it.

I, on the other hand, though not worried, per say,

am not overly thrilled with a gaping hole into the attic/outside

just above my head (sort of).

~

Tonight, after a hurried dinner,

Tyler and Brandon left for Robotics

and the kids went outside to play in the rain,

I put the drain plug in
and turned on the hot water to soak the dishes.

When I went to get more dishes from the table,

I found some scraps to feed to the cats,

so I took them outside.

The scraps. The cats were already out there.

When I came back in,

I set about clearing more of the table.

At which time 

I heard water in the kitchen

and thought, "Well, CRAP! That ceiling  and roof has completely given way

 and it's raining in my house!"

I ran in there

and saw

that I was still filling up the sink.

breaking news

Lily rides a two-wheeler!

there really is a first time for everything

So.

I went to peek on Lex' and she was still awake.

Thinking I might get an early bedtime out of a napless day,

I told her she could go ahead and get up.

She said, "I think I should lay down a little longer.

But I can get up when I want, okay?"

Um.

Sure.

(p.s. she fell asleep)

little nut

I tend to talk to, and about, other drivers.

Stupid drivers, specifically.

I become a bit more gracious when there's a new driver in the house, though,

because it helps me think perhaps that stupid driver

isn't really stupid,

so much as new.

Last night, I took the four (that's what I call them now that they aren't 'the little ones' - 'the four') to the movies.

It was the first time for the girls to go to a theater.

We saw Turbo, which I thought was cute and well done.

I think I like it more than Cars, even.

But none of that is relevant to the post....

Driving home from the movie,

 after we got icecream cones, using the kids' free coupons earned during the library's summer reading program, (which is also irrelevant)

we were behind a 

- shall we say -

less than stellar driver.

He (she?) was driving under the speed limit

and slowed even more when passing oncoming traffic.

I wondered aloud what was wrong with that driver.

Josiah, knowing that it is difficult for me to see at night without my glasses,

said,

"Maybe he forgot his glasses."

To which Jeremiah replied, with a grin you could hear, 

"Or maybe" he drug the word out,

"he had too many glasses."

"Glasses of beer."

system failure

I'm thinkin' I need to rethink my system.

Ever since we bought Tyler a new work wardrobe

that fits properly

(and he looks so stinkin' hot I've seriously considered going to college

so I can get a job at Data-tronics, too.

But I nixed that idea

because

first of all, 

the chance of me doing well enough in college to get hired on at DTC is pretty slim,

and secondly,

If I did manage to get a degree

and get the job,

I'd lose it right away for failure to achieve.

'Cause the only reason I want the job in the first place

is to look at that all day.)

Where was I?

Ah, yes, Tyler's clothes.

ahem.

What I meant to say was - every evening since Tyler started dressing all awesome for work,

when he tells me he's heading to bed,

I head in

 to iron his next day's shirt.

More than once,

after I've ironed the collar and collar stand,

the yoke,

backs and fronts of both sleeves,

one front,

and one back,

I'll find,

when I get to the final panel  - the other front,

a spot.

Now, I very much appreciate that he re-wears his shirts so as to not add unnecessarily to my workload,

but 

last night, I fired him from checking his own shirts

for another-time wearability.

(He's not messy. I'm much more of a slob than he is. It's just that, 

sometimes, 

there's a little something on his shirt that renders it unwearable

in my opinion,

and it's always on the last section I iron.

Never on the collar, or the sleeve...)

I'm not real sure about my new system, though,

'cause I was busy when he came in for me to check his shirt

and I told him,

"Just put it in the dirty laundry."

And just like that, I made more work for myself.

jack & lola

Jack and Lola are good friends now,

as I suspected they'd be.

They like to wrestle,

which makes the kids ('specially Lex')

a little nervous.

I have no idea why...

farewell

We visited Central Christian Church 15 years and about a week ago.

I don't recall anything specific, only that we planned to go back.

So even though it wasn't our first visit, my first memory of Central

is Grandma Susie.

Brandon was born not long after that visit, and he was a bit of a fussy baby
(poor, poor sweet miserable thang!)

so it was a few months before I returned.

When I finally attempted church, we sat in the back, knowing I'd have to take him out,

most likely multiple times.

Grandma Susie, dressed in a black skirt, red (I think, won't swear to it though) blouse

and a very colorful stained-glass looking drapey jacket,

came and stood behind me

for a good portion of the sermon.

(pretty sure she was also wearing black pantyhose. and sandals ;-) But I won't swear to that, either.)

Brandon loved looking at that jacket.

And the whole family has loved 'Grandma' Susie

ever since.

Farewell, precious lady.

I'll miss your smile, and hearing your sweet voice telling me what a fine family I have.

smilin' sad

Ever notice how some of the things that make you cry

are the very things that make you smile?

Things like:

Bernie coming to visit.

(most days it just makes me smile ~ the days he wants to linger, and put his head in my lap make me cry too, though)

A happy memory of my girl.

A picture on facebook.

A random text.

Rubbing lotion on tired old feet.

Remembering Liberace, my sweet beautiful rooster (damn neighbor's dog!)

An 'I love you' at just the right time.

The news that Grandma Susie is with Jesus now.

~
or maybe it's just me...

just in case you were wondering

My friend Amy told me I'm useful.

So,

in the interest of being useful and all,

I, very thoughtfully, made a Pinterest board

of gift ideas,

just in case,

you know,

you wanted to buy me a gift,

but you weren't entirely sure what it was that you wanted to buy me.

I stole this picture. on accident. Pinned the photo, not the blog
where I saw the photo. which is a shame ~ I'd probably like the blog...

If you don't see anything that grabs ya,, not to worry,

I'll keep adding to it.

Because, as you know,

I'm so kind.

and useful.

;-)

just one watermelon

Josiah decided in early June that he wanted to plant some seeds.

Tyler, being the great pop that he is, took 'Siah to the hardware store

to buy seeds.

They came home with Big Max pumpkin and Crimson Sweet watermelon seeds and some dirt.

And some Miracle Grow, which I was not to be told about,

but of course, I'm not as dumb as I look,

and knew about it anyways.

He was just trying to up the kid's chances of success.

About 2 days after they planted the seeds, Tyler took the kids camping,

so it was up to me to keep the seeds alive.

I faithfully watered them and sent multiple texts with horrible pictures of the seeds sprouting.

The pumpkin started out with a bang

and the flowers were huge.

He got 3 tiny pumpkins,

then they died at the blossom end just like our yellow squash does,

and no more pumpkins ever turned up.

The watermelon started considerably slower,

but for the past several weeks has taken over a good bit of the front yard.

We've lost count of all the baby watermelons.

And there are still hundreds of flowers out there.

As the watermelons have grown though,

something has happened to 'em.

Some of then just split clean open, but mostly, the chickens have eaten them.

Poor kid.

It was looking like all of his work tending his plants was going to amount to nothing.

But there was one watermelon, quietly growing quite large,

quite unnoticed.

After we discovered it, I'd cover it back up with the vines after checking on it

in an attempt to keep it safe from the chickens,

and more than once Josiah has stood out there by it,

shooing them away and yelling at them to leave his watermelons alone!

We googled 'how to tell when a watermelon is ready to be picked'

then kept an eye on the spoon leaf and the tendrils.

But then we couldn't find the nearby tendrils....

I didn't want him to pick it too early, but if we waited too long, it'd be yuck, too.

Plus, the chickens might get it.

We finally decided it was time.

He could barely lift it ~ that watermelon weighed 25 lbs!

I wish I could say it was the sweetest, yummiest watermelon ever grown.

But it wasn't.

We should have left it longer...

It had a pleasant flavor, if not as sweet as it should have been, though,

and it was edible.

For that, I'm grateful.

perfectly pleasant Sunday afternoon in paradise

I thought about taking a nap in the hammock yesterday,

but decided instead to sit in the shade of the pear tree behind the house and stitch on T's quilt.

Even though I was tired (what else is new?) it was a good decision.

I spent a perfectly lovely (and quiet!) 2 hours out there

with some of my favorite things in the world 

(minus the people - but then, there wouldn't have been quiet...).

I probably would have accomplished more quilting if I'd stayed inside though,

'cause I kept stopping to enjoy my surroundings.

Sometimes, looking around, I almost got teary at the thought of living here.

I love this place. These critters.

(of course, I've gotten teary at lots of stuff lately, so maybe I'm just hormonal...)

Jack hasn't yet completely captured my heart, but he's working on it. 

chickens are so funny!

Lola & Jack liked watching the chickens, too

All that time I spent loving on baby chicks, and this girl is the only one who will let me hold her now.
I think maybe she's a little touched in the head. She don't seem real bright. But I love her anyways.

And this girl. She is the best dog ever.

This is Strawberry.
When I feed them,
she jumps up to steal from the container.
Every. single. time.

I have the awesome ability to look past the yuck - like the alien spacecraft LEM exterior, filthy windows,

and crap on the table - and see the things that make me smile, like my flowers, cool lamp, the postcard 

from a sweet internet friend, my rocks, one of my prints from an artist friend, and my red lunch box.

With the exception of the first and last picture, all pictures were taken from my chair.

So you can see how this was such a perfectly pleasant afternoon

in paradise.

(It's too bad I can't do it justice with the camera...)