Category: A Year in Pictures 2011

A New Project

We have conceded our crib. After all the recent recalls of drop sided cribs, I just couldn’t deny anymore that it was a potential death trap. Molly has never really slept in it anyway, although Tessa, Max, and Lily did. So Molly is stuck in a pack and play.

Jay decided to cut it apart so that it couldn’t be used again. (We didn’t want that whole *death trap* thing on our consciences.) And he discovered that it was made out of really nice wood with a great sound to it. So he is going to try to make a xylophone out of the slats… or at least that is his current plan. I’ll be sure to post a picture of the crib xylophone if he can do it!

Project Week

Ben's project week diorama Ben's project week diorama

Project week in my older children’s school is a week where they make you homeschool.

The week after Christmas break, the kids have another week off, where each grade has a specific and HUGE assignment that they need to complete that week, and they need to log their hours worked on it so that we can justify it as a school week.  It meant that instead of getting my house in order after Christmas, we made multiple library trips and had to monitor their activities every second so they would get even close to done.

Posy had to work up a 10 minute (minimum) presentation on Charles deGaulle. That was pure torture.  Ben had to create a diorama of and animal habitat, write an outline, and give a 5 minute (maximum) presentation on his animal. He had to have 5 sources. Unfortunately he didn’t pick an animal with easy to find sources on like penguins, hummingbirds, or kangaroos. No, he picked a North African Jerboa, which has about a half a paragraph saying the same thing in about 3 books in the world.   Of course building the diorama was the fun part.  The outline and research? Notsomuch.

And in case you are wondering, when I took that first picture, I got, “Really mom?!?”  Then he sat down and gave me a nice smile.  That stuff on the plate is paint.

The laundry kitchen

The laundry kitchen, originally uploaded by groftzoo.

Our house was set up as a caretaker situation before we owned it. There was a paralyzed man who lived on one side and his caretaker lived on the other. So we have two kitchens, a full one with a fridge, sink, microwave and stove, and a partial one with a fridge and sink but no stove.

I use the counter top in the partial kitchen as a permanent laundry folding area. Since laundry is such a huge part of my life, there is just no way I can get it all folded AND put away all the time, so this allows me to fold large quantities without using one of our couches as a laundry couch – although one of the couches catches the laundry spillover often.

Because, really, no one person can stay on top of laundry for 9 people. Not if they have anything else they need to get done.

Dinner helpers

Dinner helpers, originally uploaded by groftzoo.

I’m getting started a few days late on this 365 picture blog, but I am sure I will catch up with more than one picture per day at least a few times. (I started today then backtracked Jan 2, 3, and 4)

Today was a hectic one, as I spent a lot of time updating and adding some new features to my blogs, and dinner suffered. Especially since Jay was going to grill and he didn’t end up getting home until well after dinner. Thankfully Paisley was around to lend an extra set of hands tonight, and Molly and Lily were there to “help” make salad.

So in the end, we all got fed.

Fairy Princess

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I am beginning my Year in Pictures project – for 2011, I am going to (try to) blog a picture every day. 365 pictures, 365 blog posts. The blog might not get done each day, but hopefully the pictures will and the blogging can be caught up on frequently.

Cheating a little on the 365 project: these were taken before Jan 1. Oh and since I posted two pics, this will count for both Jan 1 and 2. Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.

The Tutu is a defining outfit for the New Year. Lily has two big fluffy ones and they complement EVERY outfit.