Enchanted Childhood Preschool ~ The Letter R

R is for Robin!!

So thankful spring is here and the robins are abundant!

Sister Robins!

R is for Rainbow!

It is always a good day when a child who moved on from our little family comes back for a visit!

Every now and then I like to "observe" various skills of the children.

The above picture was made by three children. stats, left to right:

boy 4 years 2.5 months

boy 4 years 2 days

girl 2 days shy of 4 years

interesting.

A favorite game in the classroom is to have the children close their eyes while I pass out continents.  After they open their eyes, I call out the continents and they place their's in the right place!

R is for Rabbit

  It is always exciting to find paintings you know!

Often when someone is attempting a new work, 

the other children seem to just naturally gather around to watch (best learning!)

I love our happy, busy classroom!

Each week I join several linky parties! What a fun way to share and learn!

Craft & Activity Share, Monday Sharing Day on Facebook, Thoughtful Spot, Natural Living Monday, Montessori Monday, Homemade Mondays, Mama Moments Monday {Link Up}, The Gathering Spot, Little Wonders' Days, Mom's Monday Mingle, Mommy Moments, Frugal, Crafty Home, Hip Homeschool Hop, Mom's Library, Tuesday Tots, Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}, Tuned in Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuned in Tuesday, Tuesday Tutorials, Life Created Tuesdays, Kids in the Kitchen,  It's Playtime, We Made That Linky, What I Learned Wednesday, Kids Co-Op, Artsy Play Wednesday, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Adorned From Above , Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Kids Crafts, Link and Learn, needle and thREAD, Made U Look, Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers, Natural Living Link-Up, Small Footprint Friday, Our Days Homeschool Link-Up, For the Kids Friday, FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop, Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday, Read. Explore. Learn., Creative Learning on Friday, Preschool and Kindergarten Corner,The Friday Baby Shower, TGIF Linky Party, Family Fun Friday, Creative Friday, Friday Flair Link Party, Shine on Fridays, Friday Favs, Outdoor Play Party, Do Something Crafty, Weekend Whatever, Saturday Show and Tell, Tot School Gathering Place, Sharing Saturday, Share It Saturday, Country Kids, Link and Learn, Show and Share Saturday, Stress Free Sunday, Sunday Parenting Pointers, The Sunday Showcase, The Sunday Parenting Party, The Homesteaders' Blog Hop, Making Boys Men, Made with Love, Raising Memories

My Less Messy Mudroom

I have spent much of this year de-cluttering and organizing my home. I recently tackled my mudroom. The top shelf had been over run with Papa's tools and things, so I found him some space in our kitchen closet for those. Then I moved extra laundry soaps and extra clothes for my afternoon daycare kids to the top shelf.

Then I ditched our hamper for three tubs to separate dirty clothes into more manageable daily amounts. 

I also placed a basket on my dryer just to tote things to and from Mama's house. 

We have a lot of back and forth so this helps a ton with keeping it organized.

I also pulled in a bench to sit on while putting on shoes

(I since replaced it with two chairs 'cause I needed my bench back lol).

I store winter hats and things in the wicker chest,

 and empty egg cartons and diaper bag behind that.

Coats on the hooks, shoes on the rug.

That is about all. Pretty simple. I already had everything I needed.

Not a whole lot of work, just a little creativity.

Four In The (Queen Sized) Bed

Our co-sleeping set up rocks. Papa, Squirrely in the middle, me, and Bunny in her own little bed next to ours. Except, Bunny doesn't stay in her own little bed next to ours. She usually makes it only a few hours before waking up and wanting to snuggle, and then we are pretty squished. Papa loves it. He tells people we sleep in a real pile. A heap of tangled up bodies. I'll admit that I LOVE that he loves it. I'll also admit that I would really love to be able to roll over in my sleep with out having to rearrange all the arms and legs laying across me.

We had plans of buying a king sized bed with our income tax return, but alas, the cheapskate in me won out. I mean... do we need a king sized bed? No! We can manage. We can rally. Even when Papa works nightshift, I still end up squished. These girls just love to sleep right up next to me. So I will just pry Bunny off of me and scoot her over into her little bed at some point during the night, and push Squirrely over some, and we will be fine. There is no need for a bigger bed... Unless I found one really cheap... But that is just how I roll. I come up with a price of what something would be worth to me, if it happens to be more, I do without. This method has worked quite well over the years. I am pretty good at budgeting. I was even better when we had even less to budget. But while I was great with very little money, I find I am only pretty good with more. I am striving to do better though. We have dreams, and they aren't going to pay for themselves. We need to save money.

I have once again found myself craving less and less. A more simple, less cluttered life. For the first time ever, Papa seems to be completely on board with me tossing out and giving away boxes and bags full of things I feel we no longer need. Of course I sometimes have to pause and let him sort through a pile to pick out what he thinks is necessary to keep. But I think he is catching on to the fact that less junk, makes less hassle, makes a happy wife. And we all know that a happy wife makes a happy life ;) Simplicity sometimes means we're more squished (like when there are four people in a queen size bed), but sometimes it means, less junk, less spending, less waste, less work (in the long run), more love!

Each week I join several linky parties!  What a fun way to share and learn! 

Natural Living Monday,  The Children's Bookshelf,  Monday's Kid Corner, Hey Mom, Look What I Did!, Montessori Monday, Made by Little Hands, Homemade Mondays, Mama Moments Monday {Link Up}, The Gathering Spot,  Little Wonders' Days,  Mom's Monday Mingle, Mommy Moments, Frugal, Crafty Home,  Hip Homeschool Hop, Mom's Library,  Tuesday Tots, (tot school tuesday), The Tuesday Baby Link-Up, Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}, Tuned in Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, TOO Cute Tuesday, Open Call Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuned in Tuesday, Kids in the Kitchen,  Waldorf Wednesday,  It's Playtime, We Made That Linky, What I Learned Wednesday, Super Link Party, Kids Co-Op,  Artsy Play Wednesday, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Adorned From Above, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Kids Crafts, Link and Learn, Thrifty Thursday,  Hearts for Home,  needle and thREAD, Made U Look, Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers,  Natural Living Link-Up, Small Footprint Friday,  Our Days Homeschool Link-Up,  For the Kids Friday, FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop,  Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday, Read. Explore. Learn., Creative Learning on Friday,  Preschool and Kindergarten Corner, Friday's Nature Table, The Friday Baby Shower,  TGIF Linky Party, Family Fun Friday,  Creative Friday, Friday Flair Link Party, Shine on Fridays, Friday Favs, Outdoor Play Party,  Do Something Crafty, Weekend Whatever,  Saturday Show and Tell,  Tot School Gathering Place,  Sharing Saturday, Share It Saturday, Country Kids, Link and Learn, sharing creative, ideas {all weekend}, Show and Share Saturday, Stress Free Sunday,  The Sunday Showcase, The Preschool Prekinder Nook, Fun Sparks, The Sunday Parenting Party, Making Boys Men, Spring Carnival, Made with Love, Raising Memories

And each week I co-host Eco-Kids Tuesday Link-Up!

Rhythm of the Home--Nana's Get Well Box

Rhythm of the Home is a wonderful online magazine celebrating LIFE!  We have enjoyed it since its very 1st edition! ROTH has encouraged us to live a simple, intentional. yet very full life!  So it is very exciting (an honor really) that "we" have an article in the Summer edition, just released this morning!!  When I say "we", I really mean "me" NanaKerri, but it is all about those grandbabies, so "we" it is!


Hope you take a moment to go read my submission,  Nana's Get Well Box, as well as take a little time to read the others.  There is so much food for thought and encouragement found there!

While there be sure to visit the Rhythm of the Home blog and enter the Rhythm of the Home Give-Away!  Hannah is giving away a gorgeous playsilk from her little shop: Enchanted Childhood Playthings! 

Hope, as you read through the articles,  you find encouragement and a sense of simple beauty.

A Good Tree ~ Not A Poor Tree

We may have picked a bad day to go get out Chrsitmas tree. It was wet, and rainy, but we had already told Bunny, so there was no going back.

We got to the green house and decided to snoop around inside for a bit.

Waiting for the rain to let up.

Papa talking to the owner about local produce. 

"What tree you like, Papa?... I like dis one!"

Us girls waiting on the men folk to load up our tree!

Jumping from stepping stone to stepping stone

"Lets go! It raining on us!"

One nice thing about living next door to my parents, is that we share things back and forth all the time. So we borrowed my dad's truck for the day.

Sweet sisters, holding hands with the tree in the back.

Yay! Papa got the tree up!

Bunny, explaining the happenings to Squirrley.

Helping decorate.

I love how even her braids curl up on the ends! 

We can only touch with ONE FINGER!

"Hark the Herald, Angels Sing... Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" 

Note to self: NEVER leave the room with a two year old with a popcorn and hot cocoa picnic set up... Not even for a second.

 

Sharing with:

Happy Family Times

 

Weekending

We had a busy, but wonderful weekend!

Saturday--my Blessingway! 

 Ten women and six little girls gathered to celebrate this new little life growing inside me!

We ate lots of whole foods (organic berry oat bars, organic pb cookies, melons) and then...

chocolate covered strawberries! 

We made labor/postpartum supplies: sitz bath bags, mama tea bags and rolled beeswax candles.  We made candles for me and for each woman to take home to light and say a prayer when my labor begins!

This is "My Ruth", my midwife. holding my neice, Birdy!

We did henna tattoos (mine above, my "artist" sister's below)..

and had little temporary "henna" tats for the babies and for my 80 year old grandmother!

She picked the butterfly and was quite proud of it!

My mama was in heaven, surround by six little girls.. three are her grandbabygirls.

And Bunny's braid was the icing on the cake.. or the chocolate on the strawberries!

(which Bunny would eat off and put the berry back on the tray. over and over and over... lol)

Sunday--our church picnic!
 

37 (measuring 40) week belly!

Soon!

Linking Up with Family Frolics, Mama Moments Monday,  Mom's Monday Mingle and Happy Family Times!