Home By the Creekside

I love crafting. Anyone that knows me knows I love to be creative. For activity days last week, for developing talents, we were inspired to teach the girls how to make little clutches out of duct tape. However, it is really hard to teach 20 girls how to do them. We tried to go basic as we could.  Here is the website that hardly has any directions that inspired me. I loved the picture of the little wallets on the website. They looked really easy and instead of a chain, we could use a thin ribbon. I had a crop a dile and eyelets. As we got started, I showed them how to cover one side of the felt with duct tape, and then they grew impatient and took off with their own creations. Most girls wanted the ribbon and some did not. They all looked cute. Well, Lyndee was excited to get my samples of wallets. But Brayden not so much. I told him they had cool skull duct tape for a wallet. Everyday since Tuesday, he reminded me to get the tape. Finally, husband got the t...

I went visiting teaching on the last day last month. I was aweing and ooing over her pretty irises in the yard. Then early Sunday morning, she knocked on my door and gave me a bouquet of them to enjoy.That was probably one of the sweetest things ever as I was having a bad weekend, bad month, bad year, or whatever. I have been so depressed lately. It is pretty lame for me to admit. And I know that it is just plain crazy. I feel lonely. Having gone from 29 students in a classroom, grading papers, planning, and all that jazz and then go to being home with my two children. I am grateful that I get to stay home in the summer with them and watch them grow like weeds before my eyes. However, I have never in my life been one of those depressed women that need to medicate themselves and I don't plan to either as I have been pretty happy all the time. However, I am trying to crawl my way of this funk and I know that I am close to banishing the dark cloud overhead.

Not sure why we got another cat! Maybe it has to do with fact that we are surrounded by unkept fields and that equates to field mice. Lots of field mice..However, after watching our other cat Sunnyside, chew up a mouse in front of us, I am so grossed out so this new cat might be an inside one.  Brayden especially thought it was way cool. I still have images in my mind and I keep hearing him say, "Eww, he is eating the mouse's head and we can hear the bones crush." Anyways, the new cat, Boots...we like him or her. Not sure what it is either.

Dear Sisters, I want to talk about something that happened to a dear friend of mine who is not of our faith. All of the sisters in her subdivision gathered at a house for dinner and then went to the movies. I can tell you it is not my ward but it is in our stake. Everyone attended except for the 3 or 4 that were not LDS in the neighborhood. It makes me sad because my friend is friends with everyone as well. Why should she be excluded? What a great opportunity to fellowship and befriend someone! Can you imagine eating dinner and seeing everyone in the neighborhood that you have grown close to for several months flock over to one person's house and not be invited or even asked? Shame on you! Even if you were there knowing that others weren't invited, can I say guilty my association? Needless to say after having a bad taste in my mouth of this, I wonder do I or others do the same? I am thinking YES! I have seen a neighbor invite other sisters from the ward but not everyone m...

  The above picture is the first day of school and the pictures below are the last day of school. Brayden mentioned that he should wear the same clothes as the first day of school. I don't think his pants survived and  Lyndee's shirt can't be a little dress with leggings anymore. So it is just a shirt with jeans. They did great this year. They both read above their grade level. Brayden's math is way above grade level. He has several of his facts for multiplication down already and we discuss them daily. Lyndee's reading is way above grade level too. I am a proud mama.     Yay! School is out! We finally get to relax and the house/life organized and cleaned up. Our plans for the summer include: soccer, hanging out, camping, fishing, going to visit great grandma/pa in Oregon for a reunion, visit grandma and Aunt Carol in Utah, go to Yellowstone, pick huckleberries, clogging camp, piano lessons (maybe), and to the end the summer with flag football. I am now ...

 Lyndee's clogging recital was in May. She had several performances with her group. This year she was with a team that didn't compete. Next year, she will be in a team that will compete. She will go to Pocatello and Lagoon. We are excited about that and she does a great job when she focuses. She likes it as well.