oh yeah...May.

So we talked about June. Do you want to hear about May? Cause that happened too. At the beginning of May, the grass was still yellow.



















But as it grew in, some of it looked very strange. I couldn't remember if it had been this way before, but for some reason many different plants-grass, weeds, etc. Were coming up with tinges of red and purple in their leaves! I wonder if it was something in the soil? It seemed very curious and was everywhere around our community, though I didn't notice it anywhere else.

As the end of the month neared, the grass was green again, and the red tints seemed to disappear without a trace.




















The end of the school year came with the end of year pow-wow. We missed it last year because of a funeral, and I seem to remember it getting canceled or something the year before, so everyone was glad to be able to go this year. The kids got to hang out with their class one last time, and Elora even got her hair decorated with the flowers blooming all around. The other girls were very jealous.

May also brought some pretty wildflowers, and wildlife! We saw a toad in our garden, a snake in our yard, and lots of turtles on the road. May was a pretty good month!

 

little artists

A week or two ago, we all sat down and did some paintings together at the table. I was surprised the boys stuck around (especially Joshua) but we all had some fun. Would you like to see what we did?
Here is Eli's minimalist painting, as well as one he did a few days ago. Eli is kind of like Elora in that he will sit and paint by himself if I set the stuff out for him. He was into markers for a while, until he suddenly realized he could draw on his arms and legs too, so we don't get those out so much any more.






































Jonah got to use some acrylic paints for his drawing. He says there are bird foot prints in purple:



















And Joshua has become interested in drawing monsters lately; typical seven-year-old boy stuff. See the little guy by the tree being scared in both pictures? That shows you the scale of how big his monsters are.

 














































I was very impressed with Elora's drawing; she chose a glass mug and got it out herself then sat and drew it for an hour. I think it's on par with a beginning art class in high school. Good job Elora!


























As for myself, I was testing out a new "moleskin" notebook I got for my birthday. I keep seeing them on Pinterest, and decided I wanted one. I'm still hazy on how to take a good picture of the whole notebook with the pages laying straight- it's too big for my scanner.
The day before, I drew a picture of my newly-finished quilt, and then painted it this day. It turned out pretty good!

June is:

June is: fields full of yellow clover. Yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing before I moved here either. This year it's everywhere!

 

 

June is: tall grass and picking flowers! Sometimes even mommy's flowers that we're not supposed to pick. But not usually.

 

 

 

June is: Joshua's birthday! With lots of cool presents like a pogo stick and a bug catching kit.

 

(The little boys didn't use the pogo-stick, but they were ready, just in case.)

 

 

June is: mommy's birthday too. Shhh,.

 

 

June is: blowing bubbles on the porch! Don't you love my feet superimposed over Joshua's body?

 

 

June is: visiting parks in Eagle Butte and Spearfish...where we actually get to visit and feed real fish! (Elora's such a poser).

 

 

June is: Almost seeing a real tornado for the first time! But not quite.

 

June is, walks with the family, and mosquitos.

 

 

Jean Quilt

Elora helped me finish a big project this month. Can you tell what it is?




















Yep, it's a jean quilt! We don't have any stretcher bars or fancy equipment to make it really nice and smooth, and the lines of yarn aren't exactly even, but it's done. Yay!

I started putting squares together for this quilt about four years ago! (Yeah, I don't work on it very often.) All I knew was that I didn't want uniform squares or lines, and I wanted to preserve memories of my kids..and their pants. Okay, there are many of mine and Joseph's pants there too. That's one of Joseph's big pockets  in this picture.

























Hmm. Okay, there are lots of Joseph's pants in here. When I first started, it was really hard to figure out how to sew the squares together when they weren't going to be in perfect lines. But last year I found a technique online that made it much easier, especially considering I don't know much about sewing or quilting.




















This is the rumpliest section of the quilt, mostly because when I was sewing the edge I didn't notice the thread had run out, and when I re-sewed it I didn't repin it. So it's kinda screwy. I don't mind though, it has one of Elora's cute pockets from when she was three or four. Aww.

























What I found most rewarding about this project was feeling like I was recycling and not just throwing things away. I will definitely be making more in the future! Though it might take five or ten years.