Winter Beauty

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

-St. Ignatius of Loyola

Winter Lights Craft

My little class finally got to make this Winter Lights craft that I had planned to do before Christmas. Luckily January is still snowy and cold, so we made them when classes started up again. We used old, washed, glass jars and lids, white permanent paint pens, rubbing alcohol, glue, battery votive lights and optional felt and ribbons. Use the rubbing alcohol to wipe down the outside of the jar so paint pen will stick. Decide on your design. We tried  silhouette and snowflake designs. I printed out snowflake designs from the internet and we positioned them inside the jars to copy over with the white pens. We cut felt circles to fit inside and outside the jar lids as needed to cover advertising. Ribbons or stiffened lace can be glued around edge of lids to decorate even more.  

Above: my example jars

We had to take our finished jars into the bathroom to see them with the lights out and the votives glowing. The kids made their jars with the lids on top. We had to take one picture with the kids and jars in the bathroom mirror.

Back to Bugs!

Our little co-op started again and we finished up some art/entomology projects we had started. We had made baked clay (Sculpey) scarabs when we studied beetles. After the kids formed them, I took them home and skewered holes through them and baked them. We wanted to be able to use them as jewelry, so I added a bead and jewelry findings to them. Note the tiny scarab earrings by Elea and the fossilized centipede by W. When I returned them to the kids, we painted them with gold acrylic paint and wiped it off, leaving gold in the indentations. When dry we put strings on them for necklaces. This was a fun project. It's interesting how much scarab jewelry is out there if you look it up! (See some cool examples below.)

We also finished up our rock ladybugs. This is a two step project because the paint takes a long time to dry-especially when they are enthusiastically painted. We just left our wet, red rocks on paper plates and finished them with black permanent markers when we came back from break.

More Homemade Christmas

Daughter M. made some self-designed sweet embroidery for girfriends. We framed them in thrift store stretchers and added a little bow to each.

L. gave these book letters to friends Rayna and Shannon. I added some self stick beading embellishments from scrapbooking supplies and tried out a new flower style to decorate them up a little.

 

I whipped up a couple more fun colored T-shirt rugs. Red, white and grey for Friend Nancy and bright colors to brighten the long winter for Brazilian Friend Ana.

New Years 2014!

 We enjoyed ringing on the New Year with our K friends.

 The middle and high school kids played games.

 College and wedded got re-acquainted.

 Dads talked.

 Back rubs.

 Visiting.

Good buddies.

Back to School

Started lessons back up after a nice break. Books scattered all over the place again, dance and piano practice resumes. M. and L. have both started One-Act Play competition practice.

Our Own Christmas

After Christmas with Husband's family, we had a "munchies" supper and gift opening with our  kids at home.

 

Christmas Day

 A beautiful day at the farm for a Christmas celebration.

 Good food, good company.

 Dessert "table."

 The two "little kids" of the siblings.

 Our kids on a couch.

Another generation of fun in Grandma's basement.