so much to do, so little time:)

I have been busy and our schedule has shuffled quite a bit lately. I have been watching other children on and off since Kylan was a year old to try and make a little money from home. I haven't had much regular work for a while. Now I watch a 3yo girl 2 mornings a week, I have several 'on call' families and more often do 'nights out' for parents. Starting next month I will be watching 2 children 3-5 days a week as well.

In addition I have started cleaning houses and have 2 accounts:) I don't mind cleaning and it's always funner to clean other peoples houses! I even get to help one family de-clutter and re-organize which I LOVE! and best of all I get paid for it!!!!

I finally have a very clear picture of our monthly budget and track everything. I am very motivated to get some necessary stuff done on our house which we could not afford if I were not making money. So, I'm feeling very optimistic, but also hoping the job I start next month works out.

Meanwhile, I also am trying to do the normal cook, clean, crafts at my own house. In some ways I feel more motivated the busier I am. I'm hoping to find time to blog a little later this week.

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn! We made apple gingerbread this morning and read autumn books. I have a couple things planned for tomorrow to celebrate. Did I mention I want another baby? now. But we need to wait a year for logical, practical reasons...but I don't wannna, waaa. But I know I need to. Ok, I'm off, many blessings to everyone and have a happy first day of fall!!!!

quick picnic

The other day our plans fell through at the last minute and Kylan really wanted to go somewhere (he always does), so we went for a very last minute picnic at a beautiful park about 10 minutes away from us. I think we will be doing this more often;)

Hope you are enjoying the last week of summer!

*many blessings*

1st day of homeschool

Our first day of pre-k 'home school'!! (Waldorf is non-academic before 1st grade, so it's more like a loosely organized preschool plan) I changed my mind on this weeks theme at the last minute. Since we are going to the Ohlone Day festival this weekend, I thought it would be fun to do some native American tales. I found a book with 3 animal tales from the Indian of this area that were very age appropriate for him and not too long. Kylan loved the first one we read! We did our first circle time (more on that later) and read one tale, then drew from the story. Kylan was so eager and really liked the tale. He will love the festival, can't wait to go!

In the background is my first try at chalk board drawing. I will change it every week or two to go along with our theme or the season. I really can't draw at this point, but I'm eager to learn too!

Don't know why, but these would only load sideways!? We both drew from the story (birds on a tiny mountain top during a flood) The top one is mine, it was so cute that he tried to draw the same, I was a little surprised! His is so cute:)

Geoff made 3 chalkboards with large frames we had in storage. We put one down low in our living room so the boys could draw on it:)

Tomorrow we will read the second story and bake cornbread and maybe '3 sisters harvest stew':)

messy garden goodness

The garden is doing well. It's hard to photo since I planted everything mixed up and way too close together. Now I know why farmers plant in rows! It's just a mess and some areas are hard to get too. Still, I had to get all my starts in the ground, so here they are! I'm glad we've had some warmer day, the tomatoes have finally ripened:)

I started these little pansies from seed and they make me so happy every time I see them:)

Blackberries are still here! Usually they are done by the 3rd week of August, but I guess the mild summer has kept them going. We've picked about 30lbs just from our yard! Yum!

I recently planted some fall/winter veggies, but have much more garden work to do!

How does your garden grow?