Milk Carton Bird Feeder

Today, my awesome DH started picking up some stuff and putting it in the trash for the boys to take out to the street for pick up. I thought, "How sweet!" Then, I saw an old milk carton that I'd been saving for a while go into the trash. gasp! Not my milk carton! I told him I've been saving that to make a bird feeder with the kids. In his defense, it has been sitting around for two weeks.

I decided the time is now to make that bird feeder!! The weather was unbelievably beautiful outside today, so I grabbed B. (6) to help me. Here's what we did:

1. You need a cardboard milk carton. Trace a template onto the front and back, then cut out. Don't forget to do both sides! :)

2. Make a hole about an inch or two below the opening. Put a stick or dowel through the holes to make your little perch.

3. Next, make a hole in the top of the carton, then string yarn or wire through the hole.

4. Fill up the bottom of the carton with bird seed.

5. Hang it in a tree or wherever you find that birds can use it! Stay close and enjoy seeing the birds that come to your yard!

If you've done this project or end up making one, let me know! I'd love to see your post or pics!

Thankful Thursday

Today, my heart is bursting with thankfulness mostly to my God for loving us, leading us, and providing for us in every way.


Also, I'm unbelievably grateful for the group of guys from our church family that got together and came to our house to help us with our yard work. Some of you know that my sweet husband is disabled, in a wheelchair, and simply cannot do things like work in the yard that he wishes he could do. There were 30 trees in my small backyard. Nothing would grow back there because it was completely shaded, even grass wouldn't grow. I wanted to grow a garden in my shady backyard, but had given up hope of getting all those trees down. A whole group of friends showed up with their chainsaws and willing hands and made quick work of my yard! WOW!! I'm so thankful!! I pray that God blesses those people even more than they have blessed me. Thank you so much, Lord, for providing for me and my family.

Thanks, Guys!!! You're awesome!!

It's in the BAG!

My newest sewing hobby has been making bags. I picked up a pattern for handbags, but decided I needed something a little larger probably. I tried enlarging all of the pieces, and now I can make them any size we need! The boys needed a bag to have all of their Patch the Pirate stuff in to take to church every week, so I started with theirs first.

Ry likes the cool flames, so his is done blue on the outside and orange on the inside lining

B. picked out Veggie Tales for his bag.

Then I made one to be a door prize at a Ladies' Mtg. I hosted last month, but I can't find the pic!

Here's one I made large enough to carry scrapbooks. The bright colors just jumped out at me in the store and said this will make a cute tote.

And finally, this is a bag I made for my sweet little nephew's birthday.

I also made a Thomas blanket and pillow that fit inside it.

I just love tote bags! I carry all of our stuff to church in them, books and videos to the library, all kinds of "necessary" things on trips like camera, snacks, extra batteries, magazines, goodness SO many things to carry!!!

Spring Break with my parents

My parents came to visit us on their spring break. They were here for 3 days and brought along my lovely little niece. She's precious, and I don't get to see her often. The first day rained and rained, but the next day we had beautiful weather. We all went to the Caldwell Zoo and had a terrific time!! Here are some pics of our trip.

Ancient Sheets.... I mean Greeks

When we finished up our chapter on Ancient Greeks, we decided it would be fun to dress up to fit the part. We learned through our lessons that the clothing looked like a toga. We looked for sheets that would work, but B. insisted that he wear his Toy Story sheets! I KNOW it could have looked a little better, but it's such a sweet memory and kind of funny to think of trying to make a Toy Story sheet look ancient. Thankfully, we were going for fun instead of perfection.

Quick trip to Jacksonville

Wednesday, my sweet hubby was invited to speak during chapel at Jacksonville Baptist College here in East TX. The boys and I decided to keep him company on his 2 hr. trip. Ry (11) was excited to see a college campus and took several pictures, got a chance to speak with several of the professors, and brought home a t-shirt. On the way home, we pulled over at "Love's Lookout," a little overlook out at the hills in the area. It was really beautiful. Here are some pics!

Ry and B. at Love's Lookout

Ry took this pic of me at Love's Lookout.

I thought he did a great job!

We had a neat time and enjoyed the break from our regular school days.

Smelling the tomatoes

My darling hubby and I went out for dinner and a concert Saturday night with some good friends. While waiting for our friends to arrive at the restaurant, we noticed people coming out of the little door next to the restaurant with sacks of produce. It caught our attention because lately the produce at our local superstore is seriously unappealing! This stuff looked incredible... even in grocery sacks. We decided to take a peek inside and were rewarded for our curiousity. It was a small hispanic business selling various produce and spices. We bought 5 lbs. of tomatoes and several oranges and onions. When I got them home, I put the tomatoes in my produce basket and was surprised that I could actually smell the tomatoes. They have a lovely aroma that you just don't experience in produce from our regular grocery store. WOW!!! Look at those, aren't they beautiful? I can't wait to make salsa, have them on sandwiches, and if there are any left I will make some spaghetti sauce.

Markerboard Monday

We use the markerboard every school day for lessons and even on Saturdays to mark off chores or things we want to do that day. Because there are so many different lessons to teach daily, the board gets erased after teaching/learning a particular subject to make room for the next lesson.

Here is an example of how we use the markerboard to help us learn History and Geography.... We take turns reading from our book, then we write a basic outline on the board including key things to remember. This is our last subject of the day. When we're finished, I will write questions about this section on notecards to review, and we will go over them the next day (and each day after that, reviewing all of the cards until the end of the chapter).