The Five of Us

     This has been a long, fun, aggravating, and somewhat stressful week, even though it's not over yet, I can't wait until it is. 
      The fun part of this week was Easter (of course!)  I made a few things for the kids baskets this year.

Wooden magnates, since we are always in need of magnates to help display art work.

Wooden tops that were REALLY easy to make, yet work really well!  They spin forever.  All they are is a 1/4 inch dowel stuck into a craft wheel.  I had to drill the hole in the wheel a little bigger in order to fit the dowel, cut the dowel into 3 inch lengths, sharpen it in a pencil sharpener, and stick the dowel in the wheel, and that was it.  I probably could have sanded them, but they work good regardless.
     I also gave the kids some more hand dyed play silks, because you can never have too many.

Their Easter baskets; ready and waiting for morning.

All ready for church!

     After church, my family came over for Easter dinner.  My oldest brother and sister and their families could not be here, but even so it was a crowd.  I don't realize how small my house is til there are twenty people in it.  (Six of those being toddlers!)

     I had a treasure hunt for the older kids, with golden coins for the treasure. 

   

Chocolate coins, that is. I hid the clues inside real eggs that I had blown out, and poked a big enough hole to slip a rolled up piece of paper in. 

     The toddlers had an egg hunt, which a couple of them seemed to get the point of.  Abriel doesn't have the competitive edge necessary for egg hunts.

      It was great to see everyone, and to host a family event at my house, which although crazy, is a lot of fun. 

      Now the not so fun part.  On Easter I noticed our water pressure was... lacking.  Like barely a trickle coming out of the faucet.  This of course is while everyone is here, and needing to use the water.  Wonderful timing.  Here's the aggravating part.  We have a well, and everything (pump, etc.) seems to be working properly, but yet something is obviously NOT working.  We have had no water until today; when suddenly, for no apparent reason, it starts working again.  This is a mystery.  One that I have pondered today while washing mounds of dishes.

     Also going on this week:  I tested Anna.  Much more stressful for me than her.  I think my tongue is bleeding from all the times I've had to bite it to keep from saying, "Are you sure about that answer?"

      It turned really cold and even frosted some of my plants, which makes me very sad, sniff sniff. 

I have managed through all this, to make some placemats and napkins.  Stress makes me want to make things.

  When I am finished there will be five placemats and napkins.  Currently there are five napkins and two placemats.  I could really use more, but I had limited materials, since I repurposed a old set of curtains that I no longer needed to make them.

    For the appliqued strawberry, I copied a design I saw on a vintage table cloth.  I love strawberry designs, especially vintage ones.  This was my first time doing a ric rac trim.  Not super easy, but hopefully by the time I am finished with these, I'll know what I'm doing.  Maybe it's a good thing there are only five, since that makes them a "for family use only" set. 

     I also whipped up some beeswax skin salve tonight.  Anna's skin gets easily chapped, but it's so sensitive that most salves hurt her.  This is just beeswax and a combination of olive and grape seed oils.  It works really well at protecting her skin, and it doesn't have anything acidic in it to hurt her.  I use approx. one part beeswax to three parts oil to make this.  It can also be used as a wood rub for unfinished woods.

    And
             now
                                                                                        to
                                                                                                                bed....zzzzzzzzzz