A Heart For Home

First Day of School Pictures {Finished Friday #55} Come & link up your projects, too!

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

This was our first official week of homeschool for the year. I think we have a great looking group of kiddos this year :)

Emahry - Kindergarten
so excited about school that it's the first thing she's asked about every morning

Jonathan - PreK
cried when I told him we were finished with school for the day
(Yes he's sporting a shiner. It was a case of eye socket meets sister's head while playing tag.)

Eliya - pre-pre-PreK
loves doing school like the big kids

Amelia - pre-pre-pre-PreK
somehow finds a way to get in the middle of every single activity

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Today's Question: Is your family back into the school-time routine? What's been the biggest challenge with the start of school this year?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Finished Friday, Learning at Home, Our Family, Photos

Building Our Chicken Coop {Finished Friday #53} Come link up your projects, too!

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

Earlier this week our hens started leaving some of these little goodies for us to find in their chicken run.

Finding our long awaited eggs lying in the grass gave us a little extra motivation to get the chicken coop and nesting boxes finished.

Tim's put in long hours on the coop and nesting boxes this past week and thankfully, the kids and I have been able to help a little bit, too.

Amelia slept on my back right through the sawing :)

Tim's actually done a lot more to the coop, but since it's not at our house, I haven't taken a finished photo yet. It's now attached to the chicken run and the hens (and a few roosters) have been enjoying the extra room and shade. Now we just need to train the hens to lay in the nesting boxes.

Here are the four eggs Tim collected tonight (on the left). Hens typically start by laying small eggs, called pullet eggs. The eggs will continue to grow larger as the hens get older. For comparison the eggs on the right are Large eggs.

Today's Questions: What projects were you able to finish this week? What to you hope to complete next week?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Finished Friday, Natural and Green, Our Family, Photos

Quick & Easy Dress from a T-Shirt & Skirt {Finished Friday #48} Come link up you projects, too!

Link up your projects at the end of this post.

Emahry, our five year old daughter, LOVES dresses! (Yes, she loves them so much that it's worthy of capitalization and an exclamation mark.)

However, she likes her dresses long, which we love, but it makes finding dresses for her much more difficult. While it's pretty easy to find more formal dresses in the length she likes (think Christmas, Easter, and flower girl dresses) it's really hard to find everyday play dresses.

So, once again, I decided to make a dress that I knew she would love. Even better was that I had all of the materials already on hand. (And obviously I didn't even bother to iron them.)

I started with a t-shirt in her size. The shirt fit the top part of her just fine, but had become awkwardly short so it had been moved to the scrap bin. I also had this juniors x-small skirt in my stash, a Goodwill find from a couple of years ago. Finally the wide, red gross-grain ribbon sash was originally the packaging for a fleece blanket I bought at a Valentine's Day clearance sale two years ago.

It worked out that the waist of the skirt and the chest of the t-shirt were the exact same width. So I simply pinned the skirt the whole way around the shirt and sewed it on with a long stitch. Then I centered the ribbon, pinned it to the front and sewed that on, too. I decided to leave the ribbon unattached in the back so that the dress could be tied tighter now and a little looser next summer (hopefully). Once I was finished sewing I turned the dress inside out and cut off the extra length from the t-shirt.

Emahry loves the pockets...

and the bow...

and the twirly-ness.

All in all, this project took my less than 45 minutes even while entertaining four little ones.

Today's Questions: Do you like to sew clothes for your kids? If so, we'd love to hear about your latest project. If not, why not try a super easy project like this to get you started?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Crafts and Decorating, Finished Friday, Frugal and Simple, Photos

Tips for Taking Family Photos {TIPsters}

Make sure you visit Kristin & Christy for their thoughts on today’s topic.

I am by no means an expert photographer. In fact, although I dream of having a fancy DSLR, my only camera is a Canon point and shoot.

But I don't think that has to stop me from taking pictures of my family. I love taking pictures of our daily lives. I love capturing the ways our children are growing and the interaction between family members.

So here are my Top Ten Tips for Taking Family Photos

Be sure to check out my Photography Inspiration Board for lots of great ideas.

1. Use natural light. Take pictures when and where you don't need to use the flash. Also, make your subject's eyes sparkle by having them look toward a natural source of light (like a window).

2. Take lots of candid shots, but sprinkle in a few posed ones, too. Candid photographs tend to capture personalities and emotions better, but it is nice to try to get a photo of everyone smiling at the camera every once in a while.

(Yes, Amelia was this pink when she was a newborn.)

3. Realize that with small children, having someone not looking at the camera is better than having someone crying :)

4. Take lots of pictures. This is the huge benefit of digital photography, you can take 50 pictures and only decide to pay for printing the very best one or two.

5. Capture the same event every month or year. Since Amelia was born last August, we've been taking a photo of her in the same location (and onesie) each month. I love seeing how she's growing! I had a friend growing up whose parents took a picture every year of their children's expressions when they first came down the stairs on Christmas morning.

6. Take pictures of the messy. Don't just fill your albums or scrapbooks with the beautiful, staged, cleaned-up-for-a-photo shots, but let your children remember life how it actually was. Pictures of laundry mountains and cookie-baking kitchen disasters could bring back wonderful memories for them. This also goes for simply taking pictures in general. Looking back, your kids won't care if you didn't have the best camera or didn't really know how to take good pictures.

7. Don't always be behind the camera. I'm actually really bad at this one, but find ways to get yourself into pictures with your family. Ask someone else to take a picture or use some of these creative ways to photograph yourself with your kids. And don't worry, they won't care if your shirt has a spot on it or if your hair is a mess, looking back, they'll just love seeing you involved in their childhood.

8. Edit your photos. Even with free online editing tools (my favorite is picmonkey.com) you can make a photo look much better than it did straight-out-of-the-camera.

9. For the posed family shots it helps to have a photographer's assistant. Recently our extended family got together for Father's Day and decided to take a new family photo. Unfortunately, the only time we could take one was after the older kids woke up from a much-too-short nap and before Amelia went down for a much needed nap. Having a family friend there to dance and act silly was so much better than just telling the kids to smile.

10. Your turn...What are some of your tips for taking family photos? Please, share your ideas in the comments section.

Check out the blog parties we like to join

Please visit my fellow TIPsters:

Kristin @ Bits & Pieces from my Life and

Christy @ A Living Homeschool

Coming Soon:

August 7: Schooling Kids of Different Ages
August 21: Teaching Kids to Read

(Remember if you'd like to guest host an upcoming TIPster post, just let me know.)

Labels: Children, Photos, TIPsters, Tri-Moms

Month-by-Month Baby Photos {Finished Friday} come and link up your posts, too!

Scroll down to link your finished projects & posts.

I finally edited Amelia's 9 and 10 month photos. So today's a two for one deal.

Amelia's waving...

and making cute little kissy faces.

Here's a recap...only 2 months left.

For those who have asked, I use a very simple point and shoot camera with natural light and no flash. All images are edited for free at picmonkey.com.

Today's Question: Have you been taking lots of pictures of your kids this summer? What are some of your favorite photos so far?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Bellies and Babies, Children, Our Family, Photos

Birthday Cakes {Finished Friday} come link up your projects, too!

This past Tuesday we celebrated two birthdays. Emahry and her cousin turned 5 earlier this month and we were finally able to get most of the family together for a party.

It was my job to make the cakes and I think they turned out pretty nicely (for a novice cake decorator).

I should have taken photos at home, in better light, but I was running around trying to get all the last minute stuff together, so this is the best I have :)

Emahry's cake was completely homemade. It was two layers, one strawberry and the other flavored with key lime juice, loosely based on this recipe. It was covered with homemade white chocolate butter cream frosting. Let me just say this frosting is delicious! (I used healthier, homemade powdered sucanat.) The little butterfly is from Hobby Lobby.

The birthday boy wanted a Captain America cake, so I decided to stick with pure white (store bought) frosting. I also opted for a squeezable bag of pre-colored shimmery red and blue frosting, since I know how impossible it is to make red frosting with regular food coloring. Let's just say that my fingers were stained all afternoon.

I think the birthday boy and birthday girl liked them!

Today's Questions: Do you make and decorate cakes for your child(ren)? What's the most difficult cake you've ever made? (links are welcome, too)

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where it says "Your name", type the name of your project.

Labels: Baking, Children, Finished Friday, Holidays and Gifts, In the Kitchen, Photos

Happy Birthday, Emahry!

Emahry,

You make me; dance silly in the living room, listen more, work on breaking bad habits.

You make me; madder than a hornet, lean on grace hard, wish little girls didn’t grow up so fast.

You make me; comb long locks of gold, pray more fervently, judge dresses by their ability to spin.

You make me; view the world with wonder, smile more, want to be a better example.

You make me; seek the Word for wisdom, look for purple, sip from tiny teacups.

You make me; read more, see every moment as learning, thankful.

You make me: a mama.