Interesting...

I was looking at our utility (water/electric) bill yesterday and noticed this...

Well...we never wanted to be average anyway...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

A Two Day Wrap Up

I finished my square quilt top last night.

It looks good.

I tried very hard to keep the corners matched up.

That was my goal while making the quilt.

I did a pretty good job but towards the end of piecing the quilt top I ran out of certain squares and was scrambling through my stash to find alternates that fit the quilt look. I was not careful in cutting out accurate 4 inch squares so the piecing got a little funky and outmatching in certain areas. Nothing horrible just bothersome. I plan to meander quilt it and meander quilting does a good job of hiding those little goofs.

Josh worked all afternoon yesterday making this mini quilt for me.

It is wonderful.

He is still in the sewing mood because he asked me today for some flannel fabric pieces for a new project he is working on.

I am excited to see his latest creation.

I have been having a few low days lately. The colder weather is already getting me down.

One of the kids made this note for me a few weeks back and we hung it in the bathroom so I could look at it while I brush my teeth.

As I was looking at it last night I caught my self thinking "Tina, you really are not very super you know..." So true. And I am too tired to shine on... Love the negative talk. Instead of fighting it, I let it roll. No good comes out of letting negative talk roll...

Here is my first draft of the Tootsie Roll hat I had envisioned in my mind.

It needs lots of tweaking. At least Lily did not mind it.

I guess it can be reversible. Bonus! I added a layer of flannel in between but still not 'Minnesota winter warm'.

I heard while I was napping today the big kids and their friend were trying it on making fun of it. Ha ha. Maybe these Waseca teens are not as fashion forward as I thought. Ha ha. It does look rather odd...

I will give the hat another try after I change things a bit.



Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

A Few Weekend Projects

I have made some progress on the the square quilt that I had all nicely laid out one evening last week, until our baby cat Shiloh thought it would make a fun playground.

I decided it would be easier to sew three sections of 5 x 12 squares each and then sew the three sections into one.

I have one more section to piece together.

It will be 12 squares by 15 squares when it is all finished. Each square is 4" x 4".

It is looking very pretty so far!

A few years ago I made a baby quilt for a friend and as I was cutting out her quilt I had enough extra fabric to cut out duplicate quilt pieces to make another at a future time.

I had forgotten about it but came across it last week while filling an Etsy order for a customer.

I just had to sew it together and I love it!! It coordinates with my square quilt above.

Not sure when I will get to quilting it but I hope soon.

This was the quilt book I got the pattern from.

And the quilt pattern.

I was not going to go out this past weekend to shop but I had two separate customer fabric requests in my Etsy shop. Yeah! I was out of stock of the fabrics requested so we all bundled up Sunday evening to quickly run to the fabric store to see if I could fill the fabric orders.

I had luck with one request but sadly not with the other.

While I was looking around I picked out this combo.

Don't laugh but I think I am going to make a few childs winter hats out of this. I have a pattern that I wanted to try for a while. We will see how it looks! In my mind it will look pretty swell but the real world does not always match what is in my head...

And this fabric was on clearance.

There is something about it that is so pretty. It is a M'liss fabric. She comes up with some fun stuff. I do not always care for her fabric lines but this particular fabric is fun. Her Josie's Aquarium line I kind of like as well...

I know for sure I want to make Lily a dress out of this and bought enough to make a few more dresses to put in my Etsy shop.

Hope you enjoyed your Monday!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Happy 13th Nolan!!!

Wow!

Nolan, you have grown up so fast!!!!

It is hard to believe you are now an official teen!!

Have a wonderful 13th year!!!!

Happy Happy birthday!!

A few random birthday celebration pictures.

Lily and Alan

Naomi, Odell, Ekie, Grace, Lily, and Anya

Joel

Love, Your Dragonfrye Mom

Shiloh

Oh, don't you go looking all sweet and innocent

I know what you have been doing when my back is turned...

Shiloh meanings:

He who will be sent (yes, to mess up my quilt squares)

Peaceful, tranquil (um...no not this Shiloh)

It is hard to hold a grudge.

You are just so cute.

I still love you Shiloh!


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

My First Born / My Beauty

My eldest Elena has a great talent for photo taking and editing.

And she just happens to be a beauty as well.

Our cat Patches

Lily

Anya and Joel

It is amazing that she does this all on her phone.

~sigh~

Elena is growing up way too fast.

Thank you for letting me show off your pictures, Elena!


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Tuesday Going-ons

Doesn't every kitchen have one of these?

What is it?

It's my grease cup!

I poor grease drippings into it and store it in the freezer.

I just chisel a little out when I need to fry onions or eggs or whatever needs that extra flavoring.

Thank you grease cup for letting us look forward to our breakfast this morning!

P.S. I always think it looks so impressive to show my kids meal plates all lined up like this. Sometimes I stop and think "Wow! I am very blessed!"

P.S.S. The dinner breakfast rolls are compliments of this past Sunday's community Thanksgiving meal. (That seems like an oddly worded sentence,doesn't it?) Thanks CCC!

Grant brought this drink back from Ghana. It tastes very different. It is very ginger-y.

Lily and I walked to Hyvee this afternoon to mail an item for an Etsy customer.

The HyVee customer service area is right by the bakery section and these Turkey guys were at a certain four year olds eye level.

Now, do you think HyVee planned it that way?

And to Alan's great embarrassment I had to snap this picture.

A few years back Alan was very into puzzle books and word searches. That was what he would spend all his paper route money on.

He came across a half finished word search book last week and decided to finish it up.

Way to go Alan!

Hm...now does this constitute as school work?

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Another Random Monday

Sometimes I wonder if my blog is boring to others.

I think it is fun and clever.

I know how self centered I can be.

I just wonder.

I am feeling insecure.

I feel the same way about Facebook.

Sometimes it feels like high school all over.

Guess what group I fell into in high school?

Did your school have an Invisible Club?

Mine did...

It had one member in it...

Umm...me...

I suppose do to the invisible part of the club no one else could see it to join.

~Sigh~

I am so insecure and embarrassingly shallow.

I also did not get any sleep last night.

My mind runs crazy-like on lack of sleep.

OK!! Enough!!!

Stop that crazy thinking Tina!!

Move on.

Enjoy your day!!

I took the camera out with Joel and Lily while the bigger kids were doing their chores.

Lily showing me her tree skills

One of our guinea pigs met an untimely death this summer and the kids made her a grave stone. It looks pretty against the leaves.

Lily and I getting the yard ready for Christmas.

Notice the lack of snow? It was in the 60's here in Minnesota today. Kind-of weird but I love this weather. I am not fond of snow and cold.

Josh found some fake Christmas tree branches on the ground while he was walking his paper route last week. He cut the branches apart and designed a pretty wreath for our front door.

Homeschooling in it's finest moment...

Elena took these pictures of Josh helping Lily with her school.

These are just very sweet.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Grant's Home Tomorrow!!!

Grant and the rest of the Ghana team will be home here in Minnesota tomorrow!!!

Yeah!!!

Here is the latest email we received this morning

"I hope this finds you well. The Ghana team is well. Even so, we have experienced a delay in our travels. During our flight from Accra, Ghana to New York City, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, our plane’s fuel gauge failed. The pilot did not consider it safe to fly across the Atlantic with a non functioning fuel gauge, so he diverted the flight to Dakar, Senegal, where we made a safe landing. Delta has accommodated us in the King Fahd Hotel, which is a luxury hotel in a safe and quiet environment.

Delta is sending an empty plane from New York to pick us up and take us back to New York. That plane will depart Dakar for NYC on Friday (today) at about 8:30 PM Dakar time, which would be 2:30 PM Minnesota time. The flight will take about 8 hours, so we should land in New York on Friday at around 11:30 PM New York time, which would be 10:30 PM Minnesota time.

We do not know the flight number for the Dakar to NYC flight, but it will be a Delta flight. We do not yet have any connection information for a flight from NYC to MSP, but the airline is working on that. We will try to communicate that when we have opportunity"

Wow, what an adventure! I am glad they are safe.

Here is a funny thing. Because I sometimes have fluff (or something) for a brain, I thought that the team was getting into Minnesota Saturday morning not Friday morning If the plane did not turn back to Africa and everything actually went as planned poor Grant would have been waiting an awful long time for us to greet him home! We would have been a day late.

It sounds like the team will stay in New York overnight tonight and arrive in Minnesota tomorrow morning so it all works out.

I am SO excited to see Grant and hear how his time went.

Here are some pictures that are on the ASON Facebook page.

I thought it would be fun to share a few of them with you all.

 

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom