Looking Back: The Dragonfrye News August 2005

Was life ever easier?

I can not remember.

Wait!

Let's dig out our first ever issue of our homeschool newspaper

The Dragonfrye News!

Before my blog.

When the family was less than half the size it is now.

When I still had my marbles...at least more of them than I seem to have now.

I do not think I ever yelled or got hyper back then...

Ok, I just choose to have a selective memory.

I did yell and did get very hyper.

But do not make me take off those rose colored glasses I am wearing.

~Sigh~

Life was good.

Life is good.

Good looks different at different times.

Ok and I am NOT listening to Alice Cooper as I write this blog post.

No. Not.

It is not a reflection of my mood right now.

All is good.

For the record I would be SO upset if the kids listened to Alice Cooper.

Kids, do as I say not as I am doing right now.

Some of the kids (Elena, Grant, Alan, Josh, and Joel) and I had a good time reading all of our old issues of The Dragonfrye News tonight.

They are so fun.

We Fryes are just a family of goofs...

And proud of it.

Wasn't that sweet!

Yes, we did hand The Dragonfrye News out to our family and friends.

At the time this was written Elena was 11, Grant was 10, Alan was 8, Nolan was 5, Josh was 4, Anya was 2, and Joel was not quite a year old.

We had just hit our 12 year wedding anniversary.

We had been living in Waseca 2 years.

We had just made the transition from Evergreen Community church in the cities,which had been our church home for over 19 years, to Christ Community church here in Waseca.

And the thought of adoption was just in it's infancy.

Wow!

How things have changed in these past nine years!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Not So Fine But Yet Still Ok

I have been pretty stressed lately.

There has been quite a bit of conflict here.

It is not just particular people but a little of everyone chimes in with issues.

It is important for teens to practice stretching their wings but so many at once?

I am in the same boat as most of you and I should not fuss too much about it. It is what it is.

Time moves on and the kids grow.

And I am growing. Becoming a better Tina. I hope so, anyway. I kind of feel I am moving backwards.

The difficult toddler years are a distant memory and so will the teen years be soon enough.

Oh,peace.

I long for peace.

So what do I do?

Sew!!!

I mean sew like crazy.

Super crazy.

I did sew some very beautiful dresses,though.

I did not fully edit these pictures yet but I wanted to let you see what I have been pouring my stress into. My model was playing Barbies and could not seem to fit taking pictures into her schedule today. Understandable. And I would have had to comb her hair. Not in the mood for that,anyway.

I can not decide which one I like the best.

This first one is eyelet fabric. So dainty and feminine.

Bright and bold zinnias.

I just love owls!!

This is a very unique dress. Not every child would care to wear bird cages on their dress but the colors are SO bright and happy.

This fabric reminds me of the french countryside. It is so dreamy, elegant, and pretty.

I do wish I could wear a-line dresses as well as little girls do. My caboose is just a bit big.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Pancakes: Good Eating

8 cups of milk
8 eggs
2 sticks melted butter
8 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
a few tbs lemon juice

makes enough of these for the whole crew.

Nothing better than a sneak taste hot off the griddle

I tried to jazz some pancakes up by making grapefruit syrup.

Why grapefruit?

It was the one and only piece of fruit we had in the fridge and I was feeling adventurous.

Have you ever tried to squeeze juice out of an almost frozen grapefruit?

Not easy.

All in all, the process of making the syrup was fun but it did not have much taste.

Good thing we also had maple syrup.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Vintage Valentine's Trip to Paris

Lily is just a little spunky model!

We had fun taking pictures of the two dresses I finished this evening.

Grant's Ghana hat and Nolan's old cowboy boots are a must as our shoot props.

Here is one I will call A Trip to Paris.

This one is Vintage Valentine It turned out very pretty.

I added some vintage looking buttons to the front as well as a last minute impulse I added the ecru cotton lace over the red hem band. It is so pretty. Too bad I missed Valentine's this year! I put it in my Etsy shop anyway.

Jeff and Elena went to a Love Out Loud concert in Minneapolis tonight and look what they brought home for me!!! So kind!!! Yummy almond bark. It is one of my all time favorite treats! They bought this at the Minneapolis store but I grew up in Stillwater and remember a candy store in downtown Stillwater. I wonder if it is was called Candyland store back then.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

A candid shot of Elena with her new Family Force 5 hat

A sneak peek at two almost finished dresses for my Etsy shop.

A day in Paris

and My Funny Valentine

A long ago memory that warms my heart

Elena (3) and Grant (2) in 1997

Two peas in a pod

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Blustery Wednesday

I called our utility company this morning to double check our high bill. She did indeed confirm that it was NOT a typo nor was it a meter mistake.

~Sigh~

Large families, drafty old houses, extreme cold, and chilly feet are not a good mix. It makes for a high bill. She said we will have one more rather high bill this next month and then it should lower. Gee, our house is heated by gas primarily but because of the cold we had turned on the supplemental electric wall heaters. That must have been what added that extra to the bill. I am very nervous to get the gas bill.

On a very sweet note Joel made me a Night Rhymes book. He added this original night rhyme. This is going to be a keeper!

I finished the dress that matches the skirt I made last night. The dress turned out wonderful!

I putzed around taking pictures of it with the help of my model. The pictures turned out pretty good but would have been that much better in day light.

Stay warm Thursday. It is going to be another cold day in this now Dome-less state.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Just Having Fun

I have been looking forward to using this fabric all week.

Isn't it so pretty? The skirt turned out very good.

I have an a-line dress cut out that I hope to make today if I have time.

Maybe I will put them in my Etsy shop as a sibling set. I have seen other shops do that.

Cute teeny tiny Golden Books. I ♥heart♥ you teeny tiny Golden Books.

I quadrupole ♥♥♥♥heart♥♥♥♥ you sweet Lily.

I do NOT ♥ heart ♥ you utility bill.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Always Something To Say

I always have some sort of goofy rambling blog thing to share.

Of course, today is no different.

Most of the time it is hard to pick and choose.

No fun picking and choosing.

So I usually don't.

And I know a few of you have stuck around over the years so my blog must be kind of ok...

Maybe?

This story might help explain me a bit.

The other day I tried to give one of my kids a visual picture of what it was like having my mind.

Imagine standing on one side of a gymnasium. Now imagine someone dropped thousands of balls from the ceiling and the balls are bouncing around like crazy and instead of the balls each losing their bounciness their bounce gets stronger. Your job is to get to the other side of the gym. Just simply walk across the gym floor. One side to the other. Sounds easy but those balls keep bouncing and it can be very hard to focus on anything but the bouncing balls. Sometimes it can even be hard to see your hand held out right in front of your face. The noise,the chaos,the craziness of those bouncing balls. That is me. That is my mind. I have always been that way.

Ha ha.

It sounds like I am describe just plain ol' being a mom and trying to get things done with the kids around.

It can be just like that,can't it?

Just in my case I have been this way since I can remember.

Having the large family I do has actually helped me get a little bit better at focusing.

Anyway, not a surprise my blog reflects my crazy chaotic mind!

On to the day's pictures!!

Tuna will make the crankiest cat kind(ish).

Patches and Loki

Joel's Garden of Eden in clay

A few blankets off soon to their 'baby owners'.

Ok, I had this awesome idea to try to give my hair some sort of rich brown tones.

Guess what I used?

Guess what made a HUGE HUGE mess?

Guess what I will not do again anytime soon?

Coffee grounds rubbed all over my head was NOT the way to do it.

Who knew?

My eldest did.

I should have googled it first.

I would have appeared much smarter.

Lily, that sweetie pie, tried to reassure me that my gray was now not as bright.

I kind of think I set her up to fib out of love for her dear old mom.

Not a good mom.

Pictured below:

My 'not as bright' gray.

I noticed one of the girls Barbies had on this AWESOME BEAUTIFUL dress!!!

What a gem!!

Where in the world did this dress come from?

I stripped Barbie naked.

Sorry Barbie.

Is it mean for me to keep the dress?

Can I hide it?

I think I can use one of my a-line girl dress patterns I have and add the inserts to recreate a dress that has a similar look.

Mine will not have sleeves and maybe not a collar...although I could do a collar...thinking...

I was pinned today!!!!

My very first pin.

That does not make me an Internet celeb, though.

I was humbled by a child of mine who knows about pinning.

My pinned Etsy Sock Monkey dress.

P.S: I keep forgetting to put deodorant on. What is my deal? Who does that? I was never like that before. My poor family. At least today I smelled strongly of coffee.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

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