Projects in July

We are plugging away at our projects.  It is a bit slow going.  Doing anything with five little ones seems to be that way!

Phil finally managed to finish the new siding!  It looks great!  Now time to prep and start painting.  It amazes me how long it takes to just do the little odds and ends jobs that need to be done.  I thinned and tied up my tomato plants the other day while Phil organized and cleaned up a small section of the backyard and it literally took all day!


My first real needle felted project.  This was a bit ambitious.  I don't like the faces very much but that was the best I could do.  I tried to sculpt with small pieces of wool and after hours, I cut the head off and tried again, this time with seed beads and wool for the smile.  I am finding that the projects are very fuzzy.  Steam ironing helped a little but I am not sure how well they will wear if they are played with.  Truly, some of the needle felted projects I have pinned on pinterest and the ones that I see on etsy shops are works of art!
 
 

Precious, precious little baby almost one year old.  She is getting such a little personality.  She is loving her food now.  She screams in delight (and also when she is not so delighted), claps, smiles and laughs, and can can navigate through the whole house by army crawling.  She still thinks in Mommy's arms is the best place to be.

We have not been able to pick and preserve as much as we would have hoped for.  We did get 30 pounds of strawberries before summer officially began and Phil made them into jam but that's it.  Every year I plan to make this a priority but it gets pushed back for more urgent projects.  We did get to u-pick a bucket of apples the other day and Sawyer set to work preparing them for applesauce. 
This is after I cleaned the kitchen!  Notice dishes to the left of the sink, dishes waiting to be put away on the right, and a counter top loaded with lots of stuff.  The reality of the summer kitchen.  I can't seem to keep on top of the cleaning when I am outside!

Dangerous scaffolding.  I had to stand on the shorter end and hold up the siding pieces.  Scary!   

The front and my beautiful new BIG window.   

Siding the rabbit cage.   

My hard working husband.  He is such a handy man!  There is really nothing that he can't do.

I have to be honest.  I can't wait until the projects are over and we can start cleaning everything up!!  Outside is a construction zone and I am too busy to clean up inside so we are pretty much in a constant state of mess and clutter (which I really really dislike!!). My garden is a bit of a mess.  I have languishing plants still in pots, a horrible cabbage moth problem, some sort of green caterpillar devoured my bed of gooseberries,  and I can't keep up with the weeds.  I am keeping my sanity by getting up between 5:30-6:00 and having a good long time doing devotions.  
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