When life gives you lemons...or stains...or...

All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.

Marc Chaga

When life gives you stains, TIE-DYE! 

Soooo, I am part of a REALLY cool co-op where we share clothes that are too big or small for our little ones.  Some of them come stained, some of them not.  Some of them are perfectly stained...for a dye bath!  I took this sweet white sweater and tie-dyed it, after finding some milk-stained marks on it!  perfect!  love it!
I use regular dye and mostly dyes from natural sources:  onions (red onions, you already know are my favorite!), berries, greens, walnuts and greens (beet, dandelion, etc..)

"But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colors." Robert Delaunay

The gnome!

And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.  Black Elk





The gnome eats a cookie and avoids the wild ducks and geese that are waiting to pounce at the pond!

sweet gnome baby!

about 60-70% of Willow's clothes are tie-dyed.  Why invest in new clothes when the abundance of used clothes is all around us.  Kids outgrow clothing seriously fast!

"Colors are the smiles of nature. "  Leigh Hunt

belly shot!  lol

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. "pablo picasso

Home Education: WARM WINTER DAY

We've had a very mild winter, up until this point. January 2012. Life learning for this family has been a bit of this:

Gluten Free Rustic Crust Pizza with spinach, feta, olives, tomatoes and basil

sweet girl Willow

                                                         


"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it."
Harry S. Truman

Fresh Pork Tenderloin with roasted strawberries and Red Onion (my secret love affair is with the darling sweet Red Onion. Ahhh!)

This guy got a new camera.  A "fancy" one!  :)

and this sweet Willow was his favorite subject

We studied Astronomy, we studied the moon, we relished in the beauty of our Creator.

we played with those mean birds ;)  (upcyled wool sweaters, meany faces, hours of fun!)

Cai Ocean...Wonder Boy.  This boy sees the DELIGHT in EVERYTHING!  He is so special to all he is around!

She learned to Sign "thank you"

New Rainbow hat in progress for baby girl.  Rainbows 'speak' to me!  When I was little and someone asked what my favorite color was, I would ALWAYS say "rainbow"!  :)

                                                                Hugs from brother

                                                  Jumping for Joy.  Giggle.

Coffee filter snow flakes.  We used a varity of water colors to make them pretty before we cut them up.

I knitted this gnome hat for my middle son

but my oldest loves it and wears it the most

                                                                          napping

                                              Birthday Celebration this month for my sweet husband.  Blueberry/Elderberry
                                                                         Cheesecake.

Needle felting fools, we are!  This is a pair of longies made (upcycled from a wool sweater) by my Mama (aka: Granny Goose) for Willow with a needle felted snow "woman" scene on the leg.

                                        The girl is on the move!  She started walking in November 2011

Sleepy clean sweet girl

                                                                   Middle son, my love

                                                               "Girl at the purple door"

                                                  Her favorite spot

Zay needle felted this awesome peace sign/mushroom hat for himself but baby girl likes to sport it :)

                                                                  still at the door

 

Resting and building with legos while I read to my boys

today

Willow Psalm Kamaria Kemp.  I am grateful and in awe of the blessings of my friends and strangers since she has been born.  (I PROMISE TO WRITE HER BIRTH STORY SOOON!!) I have recieved a HUGE amount of cloth diapers and clothes (and shoes and hats and tights and longies and shorties) since her birth and every bag (of love!) blesses us so much.  I am VERY VERY  behind on posting, but all in good time I will get back to blogging. SHE takes  up most of our time right now, along with homeschooling her brothers. (titty girl, she is) I hope you all are happy and healthy today and always. For those that have been commenting in my email box, I *think* my comment section has been fixed so feel free to try it out!  xoox

SUPPORT FARMS, NOT PHARMACEUTICALS ~SHAWNA SEALING KEMP

Ronda and I took sweet Baby Willow and Cai Ocean to the Farmers Market.  I went to buy lamb and some onions, Cai Ocean went for the cookies.  I constantly express to my friends that buying LOCAL, IN SEASON goodies not only is better for our bodies, how nature intends us to eat, but that is supports local artisans and farmers, which in turn, supports our local economy and communities.  Community, the word itself, says it all.  We all need a slam dunk of help from friends from time to time and the more we build bridges and offer our help to each other, the better off we are and the more we are truly LIVING. We need to live, eh?  If we support growers that poison our foods, use tons of fuel and many miles to bring us onions and sacrifice community by doing so, we are not truly living.  I am guilty of buying those deeeelish avacados and bananas from other parts of our country and beyond, but seriously, buying local and in season makes my heart sing.  Sing with me please.

Willow and daddy

My love, oh how much I could write if I were not nursing you, smooching my babies or home educating your brothers.  I love you so and I love the things that I do that are meeting your needs. So for now…this picture will have to do.  Know that you are fiercely loved and adored by us all.

Introducing Willow Psalm Kamaria

This precious butterfly girl came into our lives on December 17th 2010 at 4:50am.  I know that I am like 4 months late in posting this breaking news, but this blog has been put on hold while I readjust to life with a newborn.  She is the sweetest babe and we are all totally in love. I'll post more pics and my birth story in a future post.  Deeply in love, Shawna

WEEKLY WRAP UP #3: The busy family, no naps and flying lessons

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Anderson

These last few weeks have been busy and crazy and during the chaos, I wasn't sure if we got enough "school" time in, but now that I am writing this, I am SURE we did "learning" overload (shh! don't tell the kids).

Acorns are lovely to discover, abundant and great to study for Nature learning.  We took acorn caps and filled them with glue.  Then we picked flowers from the garden and pushed them into the glue and let them dry.  I am thinking of either drilling a hole in the base for a necklace or just using them on our Nature Table as a centerpiece.  They sure are lovely!  I gave a few of these out last season to a darling little girl at her birthday party and she LOVED to play with them.  They can also be used for ordering and patterns.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I am with you kid. Let's go." ~Maya Angelou

On the home front:  I have been somewhat nesting and after decluttering and gutting my bedroom and closets for the past few weeks, my husband is finally painting my bedroom for me!  So exciting and a lot of work.  I am now 35 weeks pregnant and feeling it!  Yowza! :)

My oldest son went on his flying lesson/adventure with a friend who is an air photographer.  He had a blast on this beautiful fall WINDY day, while Mama was home praying her heart out for their safety.  I know, I know, more accidents happen in cars than in planes but...well...you know :)

Last Monday we went with some other homeschool and preschool families to the library for a Costume Parade, story and snack. This was horrifying and unbearable somewhat hard as Zarian woke up with a sore muscle in his arm and was in pain (but still insisted that we go) and Cai had 1, 2, 3... 10 meltdowns along the way. It was fun to see all of the sweet kids and their costumes and overall we did manage to have some fun.

Tuesday was spent putting the baby dresser in my room and washing little teeny weeny baby clothes (aw!) to prepare for our new little heart.

Wednesday we went with friends to a local Pumpkin patch.

Thursday is our weekly PLAY ONLY play date at the park with special friends-we made it to one the week before last and this past Thursday we had our midwife appointment.

Friday my BFF's took my boys to a corn maze.

We did some work on our Bible notebook and learned a few new memory verses.

 BFIAR we rowed the book entitled Caps For Sale and worked on our notebook for that.

The boys have attended the local homeschool PE (gym) class 2 Mondays in a row and really really enjoyed soaking up some of this years last warm sunshine.

**THIS IS AN OLDER POST THAT I FORGOT TO PUBLISH**  I AM NOW 38 WEEKS PREGNANT**