Five on Friday

1. Bees!  Okay, so not yet. But soon. Soon we will have bees. My eldest son has been obsessed with interested in honeybees for a couple of years. He saved up money, bought supplies, and ordered bees. He also set up a webpage for the whole endeavor. I'm a bit of a partner with him in this, but we've changed roles because he is the boss while I am the underling.

Son-created website

So, if you're interested in following along on our latest adventure, check out Sideling View Apiary's webpage. He will be updating the blog there to document our adventure in treatment-free beekeeping. I'll also put a link in my sidebar.

2. Instagram. I signed up to Instagram today so I can follow my friends. But. I haven't figured out how to post things yet. Someday. (I think a big problem is that I don't have a cell phone.)

3.  Dress. I made a dress for my daughter for Easter. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, I had to learn a lot the hard way. For example, store-bought patterns can have multiple mistakes (I'm talking to you New Look #6427). But my sweetie was absolutely thrilled with the results.

Hand-dyed scarf was made at homeschool group.

I spent a lot of time on this, so I haven't made much headway on the Great Clothes Heap Challenge. However, I like to think I learned skills that will come in handy when I try to repurpose that huge pile of unwanted stuff and make it useful again.

4. Soap. Remember how pioneer-y I was feeling a few week ago?  Well, the soap didn't come out perfectly. In fact, when we flopped it out of our primary mold, it wasn't ready and cracked and generally looked ugly. But it'll be okay. Today we cut it into bars. We put all the ugly ones and pieces into a container; these bits and pieces will become "hand-milled" soap later because my daughter wants to make "flavored" soap. (By "flavored," she means "scented.")

Ugly soap

5. Spring. It's still a bit chilly out sometimes, but spring is here. It's fun watching spring creep up Sideling Hill.

I'm looking forward to getting more things planted outside. One of them is this beauty a friend gave to me.

I have just the spot for this on the east side of the house.

That's all for now. How's your week been?

Five on Friday

1. The Great Clothes Heap Challenge.  Okay. I haven't made a ton of progress. I did mend a few things. However, the most important progress was in getting the sewing area semi-organized. Also, the piles of stuff surrounding the shelves are now sorted into different totes-- one for mending and one for items to be re-purposed. Three garbage bags of my mother's clothes went to Loaves & Fishes (my favorite thrift store). Progress, not perfection.

That stuff on the floor has found new homes.

2. Snow. In early January we got a small amount of snow. It was maybe enough for the children to play in, but they didn't because they were sick. They were not sick enough that they didn't notice a neat "gingerbread house" effect on the gutter that we'd not ever seen before. One child said, "So that's why the make gingerbread houses look like that!"

3. Not Christmas Cookies.  My kids always like frosting sugar cookies at Christmas; I do, too, to be honest. We'd been waiting since our "Big Trip Out West" to use the cookie cutters we'd bought my mother at Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately, the chance to use them with her never came, but I'd promised we'd use them soon. However, this year at Christmas, we were sick, so cookies didn't happen. 

So, our "Christmas cookies" fun came a little late this year. Over the last few years, I'd been storing up inspiration from The Frugal Girl's cookie guessing game. This year I even invested in candy eyes! And they were almost everything I'd hoped for, except when I put them in a little dish for fingers to easily grab, they got a little wet and smudged. This did not ruin my fun.

Tree and maybe Elton John

Wonder Woman, obviously

Three colorful fish and Tyrone (from Backyardigans)

Absolutely no clue what this one is

4. Spring Has Sprung (Maybe. I Hope Not). On the first of January, I cut spinach. On the last day of January, I took this picture. My daffodils were peeping out of the ground. This weather has been so strange.

Silly daffodils

5. Pride and Prejudice. I read it again. Folks, if you like a good romance, this is it.

Five on Friday

1.  Christmas Reading.  I've been wanting to post more about books I'm reading, so here goes. Over Christmas I was able to read two books.

My Christmas reading

Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey was a gift my husband gave me for Christmas because I picked it up in the used bookstore and said, "Get me this for Christmas, please!" He obliged after commenting that I was the only person who would want to read a book like that. 

Well, both of my teenage sons picked it up and read it before I did. All on their own. Then I picked it up and read it in one evening. I loved it. Florey meanders through a bit of the history of grammar instruction in the United States, falls into the old argument between language descriptivists and language prescriptivists, and lands somewhere in the middle with me. 

This book made me want to look up my 7th and 8th grade grammar teacher, Mr. Kite, and recommend it to him. Maybe I will.

The second book is Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I recently happened upon a comment somewhere online comparing this book to The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye. I read Kaye's lengthy novel when I was a teenager and reread it a few years ago, appreciating the historical aspect of it more the second time around. I was curious about Kim, and it didn't disappoint me.

Except the ending. The ending was disappointing to me. I wanted more, more, more. But the ending made me think, think, think about why Kipling chose it. In the end, I'm still thinking about it, and I think I like the ending better now. Have you read it? What did you think of the ending?

2. A Portrait of Me.  I'm glad I didn't get one with Mommy NOT "waering clohes," right?

Portrait of me by a dear child

3. Facebook.  I've ventured into Facebook land. Last night I created a Facebook page for Sideling View Crafts. I'm still not going to be active with my personal profile because I know I'd enter that rabbit hole and never return, but I do want to grow my business a little bit. Check out the page and like it or share it or whatever-- I'm still so confused about all of it! Feel free to leave a comment giving me some advice. 

4. What I'm Listening To. (Or, after reading Sister Bernadette, should it be "That To Which I Am Listening"?)  In either case, the children have been listening to this album the last few days; that means I am listening to it also. I'm okay with that because it's Snoopy, and who doesn't love Snoopy?

5. Great Clothes Heap Challenge Update. I haven't forgotten this challenge. I even moved a few bags around and begged my husband's help. 

Have a great relaxing (or, if you prefer, productive) first weekend of 2020!

. . . In with the New

Can you guess what I was doing today on this first day of a new year? Well, I'll bet you won't guess that I was cutting some spinach and lettuce from a raised bed. We've had a few good spells of freezing weather, but these greens are still growing!

January spinach and lettuce

Other than taking care of sick children and trying to keep the regular house work going, I've been thinking a lot about the new year. I have a lot of accumulated stuff in this house because I always see a use for something. However, after bringing to our home lots of similar stuff my mother felt the same way about, I have realized the time to deal with the stuff is now. 

The easy way out of this stuff conundrum would be to donate or throw away. But I still see the use in the stuff. I've decided to tackle one issue at a time. First is the pile of clothes/unfinished projects in my sewing space. Now, don't you think for a second there aren't other piles elsewhere! One baby step at a time for me.

First clothes heap to tackle

So, starting today, January 1, 2019, I'm attempting to make myself accountable by beginning my Great Clothes Heap Challenge. What is in that great clothes heap? Well, some of my mother's clothes, some materials for specific projects, and a whole lot of clothes that were piled up for mending (but were never mended). 

My challenge is to keep up with my regular daily housework and homeschooling AND, little by little, make my way through this heap of stuff. Some things will be donated, some will be mended, and I'm hoping a fair amount will be used in projects for my family and some upcycling of items to sell on Etsy.

Additional stuff which has overflowed into the game closet

If you'd like to come along for the ride, I'll be attempting to keep myself accountable by posting updates every week or so. If it's been a while, send me a nasty comment to keep me motivated to get this space cleaned up and organized so it's more fun to use and prettier to look at.