Will Work for Food

It's fall and every year around this time I start feeling crafty. Which is a good thing because I like my kids to have a little something made by mom each year for Christmas. Sometimes it's just an ornament. Sometimes it's something a bit more elaborate. Remember JD's handmade Christmas gift last year?

All that food and the "kitchen" was, and still is, a big hit with all the boys. I'm planning on doing an encore for my nephew Cooper this year. I want to do a better job of documenting the "how to" for future reference. I already forgot how I put together the oranges! So watch for mini tutorials soon. I think I might even make up a few patterns.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the patterns let me know and I'll email them to you! The felt food (and little kitchen) is a great gift and very easy to make! We paired it with this primary colored, gender neutral dish set and cooking set. It makes a great gift for a little boy... or a girl! :)

Just a friendly reminder... if you plan to order gifts from Amazon please use the box in the right hand sidebar to start your shopping. The Shown family gets a small percentage of each order in the form of a gift certificate! Thanks!

Buck

A week ago we had to put our dog, Buck, down. We got him as a tiny puppy from my friend Cindy way back in 1999. Named partly after Buck Showalter of Diamondbacks fame and partly after me (one of my nicknames is Buck. Ask my dad if you want to know why!), he was the Number Two dog in our house until our dog Lucky died in 2007. He was a pain in the neck at times, but we loved him anyway. :) That dog would bravely bark at anything and everything (loudest of all when there was a baby napping), but was terrified of thunder and fireworks (even rain made him nervous). He was very patient and that's saying a lot in a house with five little boys!

Buck loved pillows!

Buck moved with us from Arizona in 2000. And had plenty of other adventures in the years since. He almost ruined our Thanksgiving a few years ago by running away while we were up at my parents. He hadn't fallen in the river or got hit by a car like we all imagined, instead he was off exploring the cemetery across the street. He didn't get many chances but if given the opportunity he would run off to explore.

JD always loved Buck. I think "Buck" might have even been his first word! Although he doesn't understand why Buck is gone he thinks of him and misses him every morning at Buck's breakfast time. It was JD's job to feed him every morning. When JD took over feeding Buck he had trouble filling the cup full so we'd tell him to fill it to the "tippy top". So every morning JD would bring me the cup of food and ask, "Is this the tippy top?" He didn't want to short his old friend at meal time!

Buck went blind and was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this year, but was doing fairly well on twice daily insulin shots. Last week he had some eye trouble that could only be treated with surgery. Neither us or the vet felt that was a good option for him so we knew it was time. Wesley took it the hardest and calling Roz wasn't fun either.

We took this silly picture of Buck (in JDs shirt)
to send to Roz when she left for college

Yesterday we got a nice package in the mail from the vet's office with a sympathy card, a mold of Buck's footprint, and a little ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. The ornament was a Schnauzer with a little halo and wings. I got a chuckle out of it but the boys loved it! Tenderhearted Wesley cried all over again as he read the card.

Losing a pet brings up lots of questions and great discussions with children. I honestly have no idea if there will be dogs in heaven, but I found this great little article about pets and heaven (written by Randy Alcorn) since that was one of the boys main questions. I especially loved this quote from Joni Eareckson Tada:

"If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn't surprise me. It would be just like Him. It would be totally in keeping with His generous character … Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy—utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous. … Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness of joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on His children."

AWANA 2010

This year ALL five boys are in our church's AWANA club. Jerry has volunteered to be a leader as well. Gone are the days of little JD being left behind waving as the van drove away without him. He is really happy about that too! This year Wesley has moved up to the T&T (Truth and Training) group. Eli and Justus are Sparks. Hayden and JD are Cubbies.

If you're anything like me you'll notice two things about this picture. First, the boys need a haircut (Don't worry, I took care of that about a week after this picture was taken). And, second, Eli is a good two inches taller than Justus. I think Eli is going to take after Jerry and Justus, oh poor Justus, got the McCormack genes for height.

Here is a picture of the boys on the first AWANA night in 2009 and here is one from 2008.

Space Room Tour

I was going to wait until I found a few more accessories before unveiling the twin's space themed room but I'm doing some catch up blogging and if I don't do it now it might never get done!

I've already shown you the before and after of the other room. So I'll start with a few quick before shots of this room.

This was the "nursery", otherwise known as JD's room. These pictures are a bit old since he moved to a toddler bed awhile ago but you get the idea. I do have to say that I will miss the Noah's Ark decorations, but you never know... maybe I'll be able to get them back out someday. :)

This room got new flooring as did the hallway between the two rooms. We did paint, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic since we just freshened up the color that was already there. I sewed a new valance and made the space window to hang on the wall. I also ordered some planet Wallies and put those up.

Can you see the Space Shuttle flying up in the corner above the planets? (Click to enlarge if you can't.) I made that with some of the leftover foam scraps from the space window. You can't see it but there is also a glow-in-the-dark planet mobile hanging in front of the new valance too.

I moved a poster (that I got from the dollar store) from the homeschool room in the basement up to this room since it had an astronaut hovering over earth with the saying "The Sky is the Limit". In among the planets is the boys Moon in My Room light that they got for Christmas a few years ago.

We are going to get an area rug for this room. (What do you think about this one?) For some reason it is the coldest room in the house and right now the sound bounces off the walls and floors something terrible. If you don't have little boys let me just tell you... they can be quite loud and we don't need to amplify the noise!

I have enough fabric left over to make a throw pillow for the window seat and maybe cover a lamp shade as well. One thing you can't "see" on the tour is their cool night light. I found one that shines an image of the planets on their ceiling. They love it! The dresser is has nothing on it right now. I'm not sure exactly what we are going to put there. I might try to find a model of the space shuttle, maybe a lamp, and the boys want a clock as well. If you have any other suggestions let me know!

Building Bunk Beds

When one of our bunk bed sets broke as we were re-assembling them after the Extreme Room Makeover we were at a loss. We asked around and checked Craigslist but didn't really find any great deals. Wesley and Hayden just slept with their mattresses on the floor for a few nights while we decided what to do. Then I went to check up on one of my new favorite blogs (she had changed her feed and I somehow missed it!) and saw these bunk bed plans. Talk about perfect timing!

Jerry needed a little pep talk before he agreed to give it a try but we ended up at Menard's on Friday night (the last weekend of September) buying supplies. We started early Saturday morning with a pile of lumber and a printout of the plans.

Jerry was on cutting duty and I was the sander. Special thanks to my brother-in-law John who let us borrow all his power tools. What a difference good tools can make!

Measure twice, cut once

Did you know that sanding for several hours
can make your hand go numb?!?

Rejoicing was heard around the cul-de-sac when the first side was complete! And then we moved on to the next side. About this time we came to understand the meaning of "square" and that it was actually a very important quality in a bunk bed.

The boys were really good and played while we worked. Although I'm sure OSHA would have something to say about kids riding bikes in the middle of our work zone! We took a short break for lunch and dinner but got right back at it.

Actually, Jerry didn't want to go back and finish up after the boys went to bed... but we were so close I could taste it! Our "baby" was almost finished and he wanted to throw in the towel. Like any good labor coach, I gave him some helpful encouragement and he made it through to the end!

After finishing some of the final details in the driveway using the car headlights for illumination we moved the pieces into the living room for a dry run assembly.

It went together perfectly! Whew! We left it standing in the middle of the living room and fell exhausted into bed. JD gave it a quick inspection in the morning before we put it in their room.

We ended up putting it in the boys room for a week to make sure we didn't have any issues then we took it apart and brought it out to the garage for staining. I did all the staining in one night. Then we let it dry for a day before bringing it back into the boy's room for re-assembly.

It looks great in their new room! And every time I look at it I am so very proud of our first furniture building attempt. Ana has great plans on her site and they are written for those of us who don't build furniture on a regular basis... be sure to check out her site.

Living on Auto Pilot (and a side note)

Yesterday I read a great post about why another Christian, homeschooling family in our area doesn't celebrate Halloween. It really is a very thoughtful, non-judgmental article and you should read it.

My favorite part of the post, though, was the admonition that Christian's should not operate on "automatic pilot". I have been thinking about this a lot lately in regards to many areas of Christian living. I am not going to throw any stones here since I clearly live in a glass house, but why do Christians do this? Do things just because that is what others are doing, without even giving it a second thought or praying about it? Isn't that the way "the world" lives?

If you have prayerfully made a conscious decision to do, or not do, something that is one thing... but are you making important decisions while operating on "automatic pilot"?

It's more than just whether you celebrate certain holidays... what about whether or not you work outside the home, where your children are educated, or whether or not you have more than 1.8 children? Do you do (or not do) things just because that's how your parents did it or that's how your friends do it? We, as Christians, need to do a better job of considering what God would have us do, searching the Bible for answers, instead of just blindly following along with what everyone else does.

We are not to "conform to the pattern of this world" (Romans 12:2). What does "not conforming" look like? Actions speak so much louder than words. Is your life an example to others that God's way is a different, and better, way?

Will your conclusions on various issues, after prayer and discussion, be the same as mine? Maybe. Maybe not. I definitely don't have all the answers, but these things are worth taking time to think about, pray about, and search out in the scriptures. When I write something on this blog, I'm not trying to convince you to do things my way, I'm just sharing my personal feelings. My hope is that you will think about these things and look to God's word to find answers. Ultimately, we will each have to answer for our decisions, not to each other, but to The One who created us.

A side note about Halloween: We do not "celebrate" Halloween. We did years ago when Roz was little but have since stopped. None of the boys have ever gone "trick-or-treating". At our old house we did hand out candy (once with an encouraging quote/Bible verse sticker on them), but when we moved a few years ago we decided to not even do that. Our neighbors probably think we're a bit odd (or party poopers), but I'm okay with that.

I have one more thing to share. I actually know one person who is a professing Wiccan. Even as an adult this person loves Halloween, dresses up, and goes all out to "celebrate". (Other cults also "celebrate" Halloween.) That alone is enough reason for me to steer clear of it. Look at this map to see what countries have the most Wiccans, it shouldn't surprise you to find out that these are the same countries that celebrate Halloween. Perhaps your faith is strong enough to ignore the darker parts of Halloween and withstand evil temptations, but what about those who are not that you lead there by your example? (Mark 9:42)

But examine everything carefully;
hold fast to that which is good;
abstain from every form of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5: 21-22

[Now, I've said this before and I'll say it again... if you are not a Bible believing Christian then feel free to ignore this post.]

Twenty Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today was a Friday. I was a junior in high school and in a typical teen girl funk. One of my friends (Hi, Chuck!), in an effort to cheer me up, suggested I join him at the away football game. I didn't really want to go. I wasn't that fond of football and staying home to pout sounded like more fun (even without Facebook to whine on). But I went. At the time my going didn't seem like a big deal, but looking back it turned out to be an important decision.

At the game, we ended up sitting behind a group of his friends that I knew of but didn't really know personally. I sat directly behind a guy I considered to be a prominent member of the "nerd herd". I don't remember anything about the game, (I'm pretty sure we won, because I think our team went undefeated all the way to win the state championship) but I do remember having a good time. Instead of paying attention to the game I decided to tease the poor nerd in front of me. While I'm sure I was annoying, if you're a teenage guy you'll take any attention from a girl you can get.

Well, me and the nerd hit it off and now, TWENTY years later, we have been married for over fourteen years and have six kids! We've had good times and bad. We've changed a lot and learned a lot. We graduated (from both high school and college), got married, became Christians, moved across the country, changed careers, and had a family. We basically grew up together and I'm really looking forward to growing old together!

It was the pre-digital, pre-camera in every pocket era and I don't have a picture from that night in 1990, but I do have one from just a week or two later! I'll show it to you if you promise not to give the old nerd and his wife a hard time...

Shelly (age 16) and Jerry (age 17)
in November 1990

Happy "Anniversary" to my Sweetie! Hope the next twenty years are as much fun as the first!!

Tune In Tomorrow!!

Remember back in August when we went to see them working on the Extreme Home Makeover house in Neenah? Well, the Neenah episode airs TOMORROW! If you live in our area it's on Channel 2 (ABC) at 7:00pm.

If you want to read about our visit to the house click here. If you watch the show tomorrow, look for us across the street! :)

Fire Station Open House 2010

We have made it a yearly tradition to go to the Fire Station Open House. Some years it has been freezing cold ('09) and others ('08), like this year, the weather has been perfect! Warm and sunny!

There is definitely something special about family traditions like this. Not only is it fun to make memories, it also makes for some great photos. We have pictures each year of the boys on the fire trucks and it's fun to go back and look at how much they have grown over the years.

Just for fun, since I didn't have the blog back then, here are a few blast from the past pictures:

from 2006 and...

... from 2005!
(Even though the twins still look like babies,
Hayden was born just over a month later!)

Here are the shots from this year:

With hats

Without hats

JD and Justus

Everyone takes a turn spraying the fire hose (click to enlarge):

A Window to the World

I've already given you the tour of Wesley, Hayden, and JD's room... but the twins got a "new" room too. The transformation wasn't quite as dramatic. They chose a space theme. Dinosaurs were in the running as well... space won out in the end. I'll be posting a tour of their room soon, but wanted to show you the "window" I made for their room.

Since the other boys got a fun window I tried to find one for Eli and Justus. No such luck. I did find lots of space murals hand-painted on walls. I'm good, just not that good. I was not ready to paint something on the wall and then not like how it turned out. So I asked around for suggestions. I needed something smooth, lightweight, paintable, and easy to cut.

I almost went with luan board, but decided on foam board when I found out you can get it in very large sizes at Hobby Lobby. I ended up buying a huge piece for about $9 and over the course of a few days it was transformed into a space window... as in you are in space looking back towards Earth.

All good ideas start with plans. This was my inspiration. This was my plan on paper:
And then I transferred the grid onto the foam board:
And then I took a deep breath and cut the hexagon:
Actually, it went better than I thought. It cut beautifully with a utility knife and straight edge. Then I taped off the "windows" to paint the black sky:
Here is what it looked like after it was spray painted with the black:
If I get some weird lung disease, please remind me it was probably breathing in all that spray paint back in 2010. Then I covered the "windows" to spray paint the "metal frame" with metallic spray paint. I used plastic cling wrap and for the center circle a piece of transparent contact paper. The white is where the tape was on during the first round of paint.I spray painted the frame and then came the details. I glued real metal nuts all the way around the perimeter and between the window panes. Then I painted the moon and the stars. For the moon I traced a drinking glass, filled it in with off-white paint, and then used a straw dipped in grey to make the craters. I wasn't brave enough to hand paint the space station so I printed on offline and glued it on. The stars were just randomly dabbed on with a toothpick.
And then came the earth and clouds:
Final product: measures 40 inches high by 60 inches wide. Final cost: about $12. Final results: Overall it turned out pretty well. There are a few mistakes if you look really close. I am not a very neat spray painter and that stuff drips if you spray it on too thick. The tape and contact paper left a little bit of residue too. The only thing that really matters though is that the boys really like it!

Extreme Room Makeover: Blue Room Edition

Have you ever read the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? This is the story of "If You Give Shelly New Flooring" because you know she's going to want some new paint, blinds, etc. to go with it!

We decided awhile ago to replace the flooring in the boys bedrooms. It was getting pretty gross. It was the original carpet (about 10 years old) and showing it's wear. We shopped around a bit for carpet but decided that with five little, stain-making boys we'd just be in the same boat again in a few years. We priced laminate wood flooring and were pleased to find it was half the cost of new carpet if we were brave enough to install it ourselves.

But... before we put in new flooring we thought we would take the opportunity to paint the boy's room. Only one room had been painted an actual color when we moved into this house. And what a color it was! Thank goodness we had boys! I'm not sure these pictures really do it justice. The walls were a bright blue and the ceiling was a shade or two darker. Even the blinds were blue. This room gets afternoon sunlight, but it always seemed dark. The light (natural and artificial) was just swallowed up by the dark colors.

So the first step of the room makeover was painting. We chose a light tan. Thank goodness for primer and paint in one! I have to admit I was quite skeptical when the paint guy at Menard's told us it would cover the blue... but it did. Even after just one coat the blue was covered! It was amazing!Beside having poor taste in color... the previous painters didn't take the time to properly tape off any of the wood work. I gave up around the closet/door/window and painted the edges of the trim to cover it up. The baseboards were removed to prep for the new floor so I was able to scrape the blue paint off of those. Not a fun job, but worth it in the end.
We left the carpet in as a "drop cloth" while we painted. Once the painting was done it was time to rip out the carpet. We pushed this up on the schedule a little bit to catch the bulky item trash pickup week. Which meant the boys lived with only plywood floors for a couple weeks. Don't worry, I covered it with sheets so they didn't get any splinters. It was real high class!
Then came the laminate flooring. It was a learning experience and we made a few mistakes, but it looks AMAZING! Sometimes I just want to stand there and stare at it! It is such an improvement over the nasty carpet and we did it ourselves!
The final touches were the only thing left. So the boys and I discussed several options for "themes" in both rooms. We had already decided that the Eli and Justus would be moving to the front room and Wesley, Hayden, and JD would share this room. Since Wesley has always been my nature lover and we already had some leftover cabin/lodge decorations from their room at the old house that is what we chose for this room's theme.


I did a little online shopping and found some "Wallies" on clearance. Everyone loves the Wallie cabin window! We trashed the old (broken) blue blinds. Since they fit perfectly, we ended up moving the white accordion blinds from the front bedroom into this one. I hung Wesley's old quilt and sewed a new valance and we were good to go!!
Well, except for a bunk bed. When we went to reassemble our old set the wood cracked. So Wesley and Hayden ended up on mattresses on the floor until we could find a new set of bunk beds. After a fruitless search for a decent used set and pricing them new we decided that we would build them ourselves. What can I say we were on a roll! You'll get a peek at them here, but the bunk beds are another post!The painting and floor part took us about 2 weeks. The bed building and decorating took another week. In the meantime we still did our usual working, schooling, feeding, clothing, plus several other activities! The only things that suffered were our backs and our blogs!