Fall art project: Pumpkins

 I love to decorate my home for all occasions and fall is no exception. Little Buddy loves to help in this process as well. Since we home school we are making Friday's craft days to decorate the house. This past week we chose pumpkins....

Our homemade pumpkins....

If you want to learn and do this with your little one the just follow along. This was a super easy craft:)

First you will need supplies:

orange paper (2-4 pieces depending on how many pumpkins you want),

brown paper (kind of hard to see in the pic sorry),

scissors,

glue stick,

 hot glue gun (or tape will work too).

I cut the strips of orange paper in varying sizes because I wanted different sized pumpkins. You can have you little one also cut the strips for you using safety scissors, of course.

Then criss-cross 4 strips of paper while putting clue in the middles so they will stay put:)

One by one pull the ends to the middle and either use tape or hot clue (parental supervised) to secure them. I then use a small strip of brown paper to make the stem. I rolled it up to give it depth, but you can use that activity for fine motor skills.

Sorry that it went sideways:(



We then decorated the fireplace with all of our finished pumpkins. We had a lot of fun making these and even Baby Girl got to help. I hope you get a chance to try these at you home this fall:)

Another baby...

Before I start..no I'm not pregnant:) I just want to get that out of the way just in case any friends or family read this. These are my personal thoughts and beliefs and I thought I'd share them. I also am referring to "married" women in this post. My husband may or may not share the same feelings express in this particular subject, nor does he really know about this post yet...


Recently I have been secretly longing for a third baby. I have been hearing a lot of friends having or thinking about having more babies. And of course looking at their baby's pictures makes my internal mother want another. I know, I know, Baby Girl just turned one and it would be a little much at the moment. But I still can't help but to think about another.

I was talking to another mom about this and she made a very interesting point, "Does we ever really feel like we are done having kids?". God made us to reproduce, right? Did He ever tell us to stop? I guess what I mean is that I believe God placed a desire in our hearts, as women, to want children. I don't think that God will ever put more on us than what we can handle. So how many can you handle? Some days the two that I have are plenty. But then I think how I would have loved my son to have someone to play with and now I'm starting to have the same thoughts for Baby Girl.

This also brought up another question with another friend that is sometimes controversial...birth control. I know some couples that use absolutely nothing and leave it all in Gods' Hands. Could I be that brave? I don't really know how my husband would feel about this subject and would probably freak out a little...hehehe. It says in 1 Peter 5:7 to "cast all your care...", does that include a possible pregnancy as well? ALL means ALL, right? Do we get caught up in trying to control our own lives through modern day contraceptives? I am definitely guilty of this. I think sometimes we feel safer if we can "keep" from getting pregnant. I feel if I can control that part of my life then it will be okay.

So, will I have another? I don't know. I would like to one day (some family members just fainted..lol!). I know that if I don't then that will be okay too. I know that God has a plan for me and my life and it is a perfect plan. What do you think?, (please keep it family sensitive).

Thansgiving...yes its coming:)

I recently asked my husband if I could host my very own, very first Thanksgiving. He said he would think about it....still I'm on edge because Thanksgiving will be here before you know it!!! I would love to be able to invite our parents (three sets: mine...divorced & remarried, and his), our siblings and their kids, and possibly my grandparents and Aunt. It doesn't look like a lot but I think it totals about 25 with us included!

For years I have left and traveled all day on Thanksgiving and now that I have a home of my own and my children are little I would love to have it here. I would like to be able to open our home to our family and friends that really don't have a place to go on Thanksgiving. I would love to host, because I love being the hostess. Yet, there are other reasons to...my MIL is physically unable to host this year, all though she will be stubborn and try as usual, love her:). My mom has MS and doesn't get around very good lately, right now she has two broke arms, yes both of them! My dad and his wife may want to stay closer to home this year?, so I was going to invite them as well. I am realizing as I get older that our parents are as young as they used to be and they don't get around the way they used to. I just want to honor them this way because I show love by doing things for others.

YET, for the longest time, 13 plus years,  these precious parents secretly don't really get along. My MIL in holding grudges against my dad and stepmother because of how they treated my husband before we were married and even though they have apologized and its been 13 years she still won't let go and forgive. My mother and stepmother have a LOT of history because sometimes people say things in custody battles that should never be said. That happened 25 years ago and I think they get along for the most part or at least they try to for our sake.

I want this so badly and because of all the drama I don't think it's going to happen. Which in turn will break my heart. I don't want to go to someone else's home and cook part of a Thanksgiving feast. I want to cook my own feast in my own home and give them all a chance to relax. If they would like to bring a dish of their favorite item then yes, I would love that. But I really just want them all to enjoy this Thankskgiving.