Gibb's Garden

{This is a very picture heavy post!}

Adrian and my birthday are 2 days (and a couple of years) apart.  As a birthday present, Adrian's parents told us they would take us to Gibb's Garden when the daffodils were in bloom.  So last week, we made the trip.  It was so beautiful!
A couple of years ago, we had a membership to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  We couldn't help comparing the two gardens, but they are very different.
Gibb's Garden felt more like wandering through someone's backyard, albeit  a VERY large backyard cultivated to perfection.  But it was relaxing and quiet.  Atlanta Botanical Garden felt more like something new and different was planted in every corner and along every path.  It is very pretty, but not relaxing in the same way.
Gibb's Garden was very beautiful, relaxing, and peaceful.  One of my favorite parts was the stream that ran through the lower part of the garden.  The fields of daffodils were amazing!  Can you imagine 20 million daffodils?  I couldn't have before seeing it in person.  They were more beautiful than I could imagine.  Mr. Gibbs had a vision for the gardens and spent 32 years planning and cultivating it before opening the gardens to the public!  That is vision!  If we all had that kind of vision in our Christian life and focused on becoming more like Christ, what could we do in 32 years?
I didn't realize that the Gibbs family actual live on the grounds of Gibb's Garden.  They allow visitors to wander through the valley gardens and the manor house gardens and actually sit on their porch to see the view from their home!
We walked more than I expected and much of it was up and down hills, so if you go, prepare for the exercise.

Even the path markers are pretty!

This little girl and her curls just make me smile!

I was amazed to see all the daffodils.  I especially liked seeing them growing among the trees.

A small section of daffodils had been trampled (assumingly so people could take pictures among the daffodils), so we took advantage of the spot and took a couple of pictures of the kids.  They weren't the most cooperative, but it is still nice to have all of them together.

I love all the variety of daffodils.

I think the yellow on yellow daffodils are my favorite, but I do like the lighter and darker ones as well!

 Once we left the daffodil fields, we moved towards the manor house gardens.

We thought this would make a great sledding hill!

 This is the view from the Gibbs' porch!  I wouldn't mind waking up seeing this every morning!

Walking back towards the valley gardens, this is the view up towards the house!  Spectacular!

What a cute little owl near the Japanese garden!

Mercy likes the turtle.

in the background you can see the bridge modeled after Monet's bridge.  I liked the little sculpture on the island.

Overall, the day was perfect!  The weather was gorgeous and the gardens were magnificent.  I would love to go back when all the leaves are on the trees and see how the gardens look different.  Maybe one day!

Donuts for Rewards

A few years ago I read about finding ways to reward children when they do good things.  We decided that an inexpensive and fun reward was donuts!  The kids really love this, and work hard to earn them!  Now they don't get donuts just for a good test or one job well done, but for finishing their math for the year, or learning to tie their shoes, or learning how to use the bathroom.  Mercy is currently waiting to go get her treat, but we haven't found the time yet!  In the past couple of weeks, Sophia and Kyle earned donuts.

Sophia learned how to tie her shoes!   
She couldn't wait to eat her donut while I took her picture.

The wind kept making it hard for Sophia to eat her donut.

Kyle finished reading GA Henty's With Lee in Virginia!  Henty books are substantial books with a large variety of vocabulary.  Kyle was really excited to get the specialty donut from Krispie Kreme.

Project 365: Week 11

I am starting to forget how many Sundays I have missed, but the week of March 13 - 19 found me at home with Kyle suffering from asthma.  But moving forward, Patrick isn't nursing as much, so I can leave him with Adrian and can go to church when the kids are sick.


Sunday: As Kyle and I stayed home from church and moved around getting things ready for lunch, we spotted a bird feathering his nest!  This bush is just outside of my pantry window.  I am thankful for seeing God's creation up close!
Unfortunately, we haven't seen Mr. Bird in his nest again.  I hope we didn't scare him off!

Monday: I don't know how or why I missed Monday.  This picture is from Wednesday when Adrian's parents took us to Gibb's Garden.  It was amazingly beautiful!  Right now they have over 20 million daffodils in bloom!  I loved seeing the daffodils mixed into the woods and just swaying and fluttering in the breeze.  I am thankful for the opportunity to see such a beauty!

 Tuesday: Mercy Rosie turned 3!  It is so hard to believe!  I am hoping to take a picture of each of the kids on their birthday.  You think this would be obvious and easy, but I am going to have to try hard to remember.  I want something that shows their personality, not just a picture in front of their cake (which we also try to take every year).  I am thankful to God for entrusting me with her.  Such a big responsibility that I do not feel worthy to undertake, but the Lord is good and allows us to raise these children.
I took Kyle to the pediatrician for his asthma.  As I suspected, he needed the oral steroid to help open his lungs. :(

Wednesday: As I said earlier, Adrian's parents took us to Gibb's Garden to celebrate our birthdays (that were a few months back).  We really enjoyed how relaxing and peaceful the gardens were.  Such a beautiful place, I can't imagine living here, but the Gibb's family does!  I am thankful for the wonderful weather so that we could enjoy such a beautiful place.

Thursday: Thursday was crazy as usual, but involved several extra trips up and down the interstate to and from church.  I thought I was going to miss taking a picture all together, but right before bed, I asked who wanted me to take their picture.  Sophia spoke up first, so I told her to smile or make faces.  She chose to make faces!  I am for this bundle of craziness.  She keeps life interesting.

Friday: On Friday, I went to the pediatrician for the second time this week. This time, Avalyn needed to be seen.  It turns out that she has swimmer's ear and an ear infection.  I didn't know that swimmer's ear is a swelling of the ear canal.  So besides the pain of an ear infection, she also has that pain!  Adrian kept his eye on the kids, and this is Patrick asleep in Adrian's office!  I love the trail he left behind him. 
Friday was Avalyn's birthday, too.  She didn't get to spend it the way she wanted!  But we did have her birthday dinner and cake and ice cream.

Bonus: Avalyn on her birthday.  Even though she wasn't feeling well, she managed to smile a couple of times for me.

Saturday:  One of our many helpers!  Sophia loves to help cook the breakfast sausage. 

Project 365: Week 10

My how the weeks fly by!  We had colds, and then asthma, and other odd illnesses.  I guess that is the nature of children, and especially a lot of children!  This is for the week of March 6 - 12.

Sunday: I had to stay home from church again, but I got to see these too play together!  I am thankful for sibling love.  Watching the relationship between my different children is wonderful.  They each play with others in different ways and enjoy the interactions they have.

Monday:  Sophia wanted to read to Mercy.  I am thankful for Sophia learning to read!  What a wonderful world reading opens up to us!  I love Mercy being goofy and Sophia being crazy.  These two are quite the pair.

Tuesday:  I have taken many pictures of this tree.  It is outside of Keira's speech therapy.  I have enjoyed watching it change and blossom.  I am thankful for Keira's speech therapist.  She is working with Keira on several sounds, and Keira is improving all the time!

Wednesday:  I missed Wednesday.  Going back, I am not even sure what I was doing or why I missed it!  Oh, well.  This picture is from Thursday.  Megan and I took pictures of a quilt that we made together for a friend who is having her first baby.  I almost like the back better than the front!  The red is a nice rich color and the variegated thread just makes the back iridescent!  I am thankful for being able to learn how to sew and quilt and to be able to use my skill to make pretty things for my family and friends.

Thursday: The kids love to jump on their trampoline.  I asked Keira to see if she could bring her knees up while jumping.  She did a great job, and made funny faces!  I am thankful for Keira's many silly faces, and that she loves to make them!

Friday: Megan and I went to a quilt show.  I was disappointed overall!  Megan and I went to the same show about 6 years ago, and I remember more booths and more modern fabrics.  This time, it seemed to be several booths selling fat quarters all sorted by color and the rest of the booths selling sewing machines, notions, or patterns.  I was really hoping to see some of the new fabric lines in person and possibly some interests quilts on display.  We saw the quilts that were a part of the contests, but weren't real enthusiastic about them.  Probably 90% or more were appliqued, which I am not really interested in.  But as we wandered around the booths, we saw more quilts that we did like.  The picture for today is the favorite quilt that Megan and I saw.  I may try to figure out how to make it as I love the colors and the design.
I am thankful for learning and growing.  I pray that I know more tomorrow than I know today, and that the Lord sanctifies me more and more each day.

Saturday: I planted a little bush in a bonsai pot.  We will see where this goes, but I look forward to seeing if I can help this little plant grow and thrive in a pot.  I also have hope that I can plant a few more in the next few days.  I am thankful for God's nature and this small opportunity to take dominion of this little bush!

Sewing: February

To review, I started three projects this year in the sewing department: Mercy's quilt, the #mightylucky quilting club, and Dr. Seuss wonky stars.

I am really pleased to say that I not only finished Mercy's quilt top, but I also finished the back!  I am amazed at how fast it came together and I still can't get over how awesome it looks.  The pattern is wonderful, and I really want to make another one for my bed.  Maybe some time, but not right now.

One of the rows, I really liked the curves so close together.

The top is finished!

The colors from the front with the color that will be the background for Mercy's name.  The background color is from the main quilt backing fabric.

Here you can see Mercy's name panel.  I really wanted to do something with serifs, so I looked up a bunch of different fonts and picked one that I liked.  Then I used that as a guide for how I would make each letter look.  Needless to say, the letters don't look much like the font, but it still gave me ideas on where and how to make the serifs and how big to make the letters.  I really love how wonky these letters are.

The finished back!

A close up of the main backing fabric.  I don't think I could have found a more perfect fabric!

I didn't do anything for the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club this month.  I was really hoping to finish Mercy's quilt in time for her birthday, so I focused on that completely until I couldn't do any more on my own.  (Technically I could have basted it on my own, but I didn't want to!)  I put together some fabric at the beginning of March for February's challenge, and hopefully I can do February's and March's in March and get caught up.

I did make some wonky stars while I was sick and couldn't baste Mercy's quilt.  The stars came together so quickly that I just kept making more and more!  Before I knew it, all sixteen were finished.  I had been planning to leave the quilt top like this, but I had some small pieces left over.  I thought I'd use them on the back, but I changed my mind and decided to make a piano key border. I don't want to waste any of this fabric, so I'm excited about the idea for the border, though it will add a bit of time before the top is complete.

In addition to all that sewing, Megan and I completed two small quilt tops and backs during our Thursday sewing time.  We each took one home to quilt and now all that is left for each is to sew on the binding.

A friend took this picture of me while I was sewing at the church.  Patrick had been fussy, so he was in the backpack.  He likes to be there, and I like being able to get things done while having him close.

This little pink quilt was made and basted all in one day.  I had all the strips of fabric prepared from making two other quilts with these fabrics.  The first quilt with these fabrics was Mercy's baby quilt.  We also make the binding on the same day!
Preparing to baste quilt number 1.

The binding for this little pink quilt is VERY scrappy.  Check out how small some of these pieces are!

The finished binding for the little pink quilt.

This little quilt was made from leftovers from Kyle's bed size quilt.  I love the fabric line because it has gears, circuit boards, flying cars, and robots.  This quilt took longer to put together because we didn't have a lot of any fabric, so we had to piece lots of bits to make each block and then we wanted to make it asymmetrical, so we added more bits to each grouping and sewed them together into the top.

You can see how many little pieces there are in this section of the quilt.

The two little quilts together, waiting to be quilted.  Megan and I were both quilting them at the church when my sewing machine broke!  Fortunately, my handy husband was able to fix it a couple of days later, and it back to working again.

 An close up of the quiling.  Loops seems fitting with the trail from the flying cars.

Project 365: Week 9

This week has seen us still sick.  We seem to be getting better, but not fully over the cough we have.  It was another week with many things to do and unexpected challenges, but through it all the Lord is faithful and good.  This post is for the week of February 28 - March 5.


Sunday: As often happens, I did not take a picture on Sunday.  We all stayed home from church as we all have a cough.  It was a restful day even though we were all not feeling our best.
This picture is from Friday when I took my camera to the chiropractor. He have a beautiful garden in the back and beautiful flower beds in the front.  As I was leaving the chiropractor's, I thought I'd take a picture of a couple of daffodils, but I ended up liking their shadow better!
I don't know if it is just me or if all people are like me, but I didn't really start to notice different types of flowers until the last several years.  I feel like a grew up oblivious to the small colorful beauties all around me.  Now I almost think of it as a game to see if I can find some bit of color where ever I am.  I am grateful to the Lord for opening my eyes to another aspect of his creation and how beautifully he designed his world!

Monday: LEAP DAY!!!  Last leap day, we made a time capsule package.  Avalyn was the most excited about opening it up and seeing what we had written.  But with dentist appointments in the morning, we didn't get to our Leap Day activities until the afternoon.  I had all the kids fill out an about me page and a couple of other printables to put into a new time capsule.  Then we measured heights and weights and hands and put everything into a new package.  After that we opened the old capsule.  The last Leap Day, Kyle was 3, just a bit older than Mercy is now!  We were also a family of 6!  We all enjoyed seeing how much the children had grown and changed, and now we can anticipate the next Leap Day and see how the Lord has blessed us through the next 4 years.
 I am thankful for planning ahead!  I am terrible at making a plan and following it.  I am working on that, but in this circumstance, I remembered and planned and we all enjoyed the results.

Tuesday: Patrick found the pots and pans!  He had a great time playing in the cabinet with all the pots and pans.  I am thankful for small joys.  This little guy shows us the world through eyes that are astonished at everything.  It is a pleasure to enjoy the world with him.

Wednesday: Keira, Sophia, and Mercy set up the blocks as a track for their cars.  Keira even made a little arch for her cars to go through.   I am thankful for the kids playing together.  There are many days where the kids argue and fuss until all I want to do is put them each in their own room.  But often, they play together well enjoying the thoughts and creativity of the others.  I love seeing how they feed off each other in creative ways.

Thursday:  I took two of the kids to school, but I returned home with the others to rest a bit and to keep our coughing kids away from other children.  At the end of the day, I grabbed some fabric to through together something for the February challenge for the #mightylucky quilting club.  I couldn't figure out how to make a collage easily in gimp, so here are three pictures of what I was playing with.  The last picture is more like what I will sew together.  The challenge is called minimalist improv.  Do these colors and layout bring anything to mind?  I want to know if you see what I see.
I am thankful for challenges that help me learn new things.  I wish I saw all of life this way, but the Lord is not through with me yet.  So hopefully I can apply this lesson to my life more gracefully than I have in the past.

 Friday: Patrick seems to have taken an interest in cruising around the furniture and pushing our chairs around the kitchen.  We decided to give him our little shopping cart to push.  We have used this for all of our children to learn to walk, and like the others, he loved it!  Every picture I took of him, he had his mouth open "talking" and squealing with delight!  Oh, the delight on his face!  I am so thankful for that!

Saturday:  Megan and I had been planning to baste Mercy's quilt at the church a week ago Thursday while the kids were in classes.  I didn't feel well that day, so the quilt just sat waiting.  I had hoped to baste it this past Thursday, but again, didn't stay at the church during classes, and interestingly enough, neither did Megan.  Adrian offered to help me baste the quilt, so we laid it out in the dining room on  Saturday to baste it.  This quilt is HUGE!  It filled almost the whole room.  But I still love it as much as ever, and I look forward to quilting it.  I took a couple of sets of us basting the quilt, but as is typical, I couldn't stop making faces at the camera.  This picture is my favorite, even though neither of us are fully in the frame.  In it, I had decided to attack Adrian and see if I could knock him over.  Since he was already kneeling, I didn't get very far!
 I am thankful for my husband supporting me in my hobby and helping with a big task like basting this giant of a quilt!