ZOINKS!!!

As of this past weekend we entered a season in life VERY FEW can claim and VERY FEW will follow...

because they are...um...not insane...

What is it?

We officially have nine...

Nine...

NINE!!!

teenagers in our home!

YIKES!!!

Here is the teen age role call: 19,18,17,17,16,15,14,13, and 13!!

DOUBLE YIKES!!

or to quote Shaggy

ZOINKS!!!

The young ones are 12,11,11,9,9, and 6. Oh, we will be SO teen raising experts by the next round.

In full discloser: For those of you who have been around for any of my numerous very few breakdown crying spells over these last few weeks, they were crying spells of...joy...just do not ask the kids their opinion. Their reality is a tad altered by teen hormones.

~~

Ok, now on to wishing our newest teen a wonderful 13th year!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Joel made two pinatas to help Josh celebrate.

Josh

I

LOVE

YOU

SO

MUCH!!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Something I Overheard Yesterday

"Joel, when you are not busy do you think you can get a needle and thread to sew up the hole in my pants."

"Sure, Lily. I don't mind. I can do that."

A few thoughts crossed my mind...

How sweet that a nine year old can do (and is willing to do) such awesome big kid tasks in the eyes of a six year old.

How sweet that in the mind of a nine year old, he can handle such big kid tasks with awesome confidence.

How less than sweet to realise your six year old needs to ask her nine year old brother to sew up a hole in her pants because the mom, this mom, moi, is 'too busy' sewing other things for pretty much imaginary people. Haha.

Anyway, the humbling sting was quickly pushed away by this sight.

I just could not get over the huge blue hat on Joel's head.

Don't let him know just how precious it looks.

Please.

He would then take it off and never put it back on again.

And then he will, all of the sudden, be 'closer to ten' than 'just turned nine'.

And more proof that I am loved.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Randoms

Two almost finished skirts.

I am going to miss getting them into my Etsy shop for Valentine's Day.

Oh well.

At least they will be ready for next year.

Like I say, I am always thinking steps ahead of the the rest...

~Sigh~

Yes, yes, that was said tongue and cheek.

You were not supposed to tell, you know.

It is all about the illusion..

But truth, I am usually miles behind...

Moving on.

A little Fancy Nancy

Moving on a little further...

The perfect candle.

Much care was taken by Josh to preserve the perfectly placed wax drips.

To conclude this post I would like to quote Fancy Nancy from her Favorite Fancy Words book shown above,

"répondez s'il vous plaît"

 aka: RSVP

Hm...realizing that fancy set of words does not apply right now.

Does this introduce an awkward moment into the content of my post?

Kind of thinking it does.

Maybe I will change the fancy words to:

Passez une bonne nuit!!

aka: have a good night!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Bit More Beauty...

"A flower is an educated weed."

~Luther Burbank

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Through the Eyes of Josh

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Few Frocks and Such

Muffin-pan eggs and oatmeal scones with orange and apple made a fun breakfast.

Elena giving Lily nail polishing tips.

Oopsy.

I guess I overlooked Lily's need to change her clothes from yesterday. She fell asleep in her day clothes last night and it did not register in my mind until I looked at this picture that I should have had her change. What awesome parenting skills,Tina!

Joel and Josh making snowmen

Shiloh giving the guinea pigs an intimidating 'who's the boss?!' stare down

Cyrus brought home his football pictures today.

My sewing for the day.

I am kind-of glad tomorrow is the end of the week. I have had a week long headache, not much sleep, and am looking forward to a Saturday nap. I have been prickly, harsh, and have not been rising above my negative attitude well this week. A lengthy nap would do me well.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Hanging On By A Thread

a very thin, weak thread.

If you have some sort of grievance against me today is the time to let me know.

Do not be shy.

Just make sure you speak up so I can hear you over the rest of those who have words for me.

Is this really Christmas Eve?

All I want to do it curl up in my bed and never come out.

Say and why did the world not end on the 21st?

Maybe the end of the world is just running late.

Today would be a good day for the end to show up.

Plan B would be for me to beg Santa to take me with him on his sleigh after he unloads the kids bundles of coal I mean presents and drop me off in Australia or somewhere far away.

The secret is you can not tell that the day was just bad based on these photos I took today.

Joel and Josh. No editing was done on Josh's eyes. They are big and beautiful naturally like that.

Spice drops. Always a treat.

My sewing for the morning.

Two cute little size 1-2 dresses.

A pink cowgirl skirt

Tweedy Bird! This is a size 5-6 dress.

I had just enough for a tiny baby Tweedy Bird skirt. I guess it to be about 6 to 12 months maybe. It is very cute.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Curtains and Bedrooms

Over the last few years we have been working on painting the attic bedrooms.

Things are starting to look real good.

Grant brought home some beautiful fabric from Ghana so I made curtains for his bedroom.

I kind of made them a tad shorter than I wanted. Some child cut up my measuring tape so I only had inches 22-60 left to work with.

Although, for the rest of the population that would not prove to be a problem, my mind was having a hard time measuring correctly.

The fabric is beautiful and was so fun to work with!

Josh and I painted Grant's room a light brown since he had new curtains.

As you can see Grant is a bare minimalist when it comes to room decor.

That is just fine. There is less to clean that way!

Once upon a time Josh shared a bedroom with Josiah, Cyrus, and Nolan down on the second floor but thought the little attic alcove would be just perfect for his own private bedroom space.

I agree.

He uses his space well.

I guess 18 year old young ladies (aka: Elena) do not need to clean their rooms...

Patches the cat does not seem to mind the mess,though.

Alan's bedroom.

He painted it black and dark green.

His room is usually pretty clean so the mess you see is not a common sight.

We just need to:

paint the attic hallway.

On our 'if we ever win the lottery' wish list would be to replace the windows and bring better heat and electricity up there.

and Elena dreams of her own bathroom...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

La-De-Dah

While the kids were away this evening at AWANA and youth group I had some quiet time to get a few projects finished up.

It was SO quiet.

It was nice.

Um...very nice.

It was a whole hour of silence.

I almost did not recognize the sound of my own thoughts.

La-De-Dah

Very nice.

~~~

My completed project.

P.j. bottoms for two adorable kids.

As long as I was on a p.j. bottom sewing kick ( and had the patterns out) I put Josh to work after he got home from AWANA sewing his own pair of p.j. bottoms.

Now he can go to bed all cozy!

Nolan making pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast.

Nolan approved this picture for blog use only but never to be put on Facebook.

I wonder if I should have disclosed that my blog post links go right on to Facebook...

It will be a nice breakfast.

Weird to make our breakfast pancakes the night before. I know but this way there are not as many big messy breakfast dishes waiting to be done.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom