Does anyone else...

...have to clean around army men battles?

Family Easter Pictures- for the Grandma's

The Family

The boy

Reagan posing

Taylor folding her hands

Tomboy Andi couldn't get her dress off fast enough.

My almost teen

Practicing My Constitutional Rights

Today I took the kids down to Hudsonville's little town "center" for the local TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party. It was a good opportunity for them to see a government of the people in action. We got to participate in free speech, assembly and religion.

I was thinking that attendance would be small as we as a country have gotten quite lax in the previous fatness of our capitalism but I was pleasantly surprised to see at least a few hundred people there- including two or three of the area's t.v. news stations and a lot of newpaper reporters.

I wish I could say the kids were impressed and learned a ton but they really just wanted the free cookies (which were "small" they said) and tea (which they didn't like either.) Long live liberty!

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Silly Me...

I thought I'd read up on square foot gardening. I picked the book up from the library yesterday. Hmmm... it's currently being used for other things. Other more important things apparently! Namely a Lego Star Wars base. Only a terrible mother would destroy a Lego Star Wars base. (That is until the book is due.)

My DH- always the practical one

Over the weekend I found this great listing for a little farmhouse on three acres. It is right in our area, only a few miles northwest of us. It is white and cute with a great little porch and a big red barn and the asking price is only $79,900. With a USDA Rural home loan we could go 0 down, have no pmi (private mortgage insurance) and have a payment of around $450 a month. Plus the seller could pay up to $4500 dollars of closing costs and we'd qualify for O'bama's $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers. (We qualify because we haven't owned a home in three years.) Draw back: One bedroom, one bath, 1,000 sq. feet.

The DH, always the realist, says I'm "smoking crack" to think of shoving all seven of us in that space. I told him we could add on, one room at a time but he didn't catch the vision. So we wait.

I WANT LAND! I WANT GARDENS & CHICKENS & A PIG NAMED BACON!

Someday. Okay, I'm off to wait patiently.

Back after the flu!

Whew! Sorry for the unplanned break on the blog. I was unprepared for the flu to hit the family mid-last week. Nothing is harder than having a five month-old vomiting after every feeding. But we survived and are back to normal.

On the news front: I received- courtesy of newbaby.com - an easy to operate, hot pink vado pocket video camera. Soon I will be adding videos to the blog! I just have to get used to being "on camera". It's kinda weird as usually I do the shooting or photos, not be in them. The camera is great and easy to use even for a non-techy like me! Even my eight year old can just grab the cam, push a button and start recording. (That did mean deleting seven minutes of Sponge Bob he chose to video off the t.v.) When I'm on video I plan to enlist my 12 year-old to shoot but I can also use a tripod too. Here is a question for my readers: What do you want to see? I know the Grandparent's answers but what about the rest of you?

Okay, on with the day! I have a big pile of mending calling my name, a family to feed, a garden to plan and hopefully a trip to the farm store to see the little chicks and research coop options. I love being an Artisan of the Home!