buying

 A friend found me these eggs on facebook and I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE.

 I have also bought a ton of quilts lately. So many that I had to reorganize two massive piles of quilts in order to put them somewhere. This one I bought because I had never seen a quilt with locations all over the world on it. After doing some research it appears this is a tribute quilt rather than an autograph quilt. The names are all names of important missionaries from the Church of the Nazarene. It really is a lovely thing!

 I sold this one.

 And this one.

 And this one which had ONE MILLION tiny pieces, but was too late for my collection really (1950s). (Hey, I have to draw the line somewhere, LOL)

Lucky me!

Around the house

 I did manage a little bit of house puttering this summer. I made a new bathroom curtain based on pinterest one that has been on my pinterest boards for like 8 years. I still am not sure I love it.

 I finally got so sick of looking at a constant mess in Sam's room that I used up some gift cards and bought her new shelves. It's been my experience with the kids that cube shelves are kept infinitely tidier than book shelves.  I have to say it's been a total win - she really has kept it tidy.

 I bought her some dream catchers for the wall next to her bed after being unable to come up with any other ideas.

And I finally found some organizers that fit her vintage desk.

First Day of School

Thank God for school buses. 

That is all.

Grade 10

 Grade 3

Grade 1

Summer road trip

(These photos are totally not what I would have chosen but I have no preview on the vacation photos and there are approximately 1000 of them, LOL).

This years road trip was to Mount Rushmore! We went through Nebraska on the way there and Minnesota on the way home. We spent a week in Custer State park and saw ALL THE THINGS!  we saw a pony express station, the quilt museum, Mount Rushmore, the Crazy horse memorial, Custer state park, The badlands, The Ingalls homestead in De Smet, Walnut Grove, Chimney rock, bison, antelope, deer (twin fawns!), parts of the Oregon trail, we took a chuck wagon and had a cowboy cook out on the fourth of July, and so much more. It really is the most lovely, peaceful place and we enjoyed every minute of it.

The kids are at a really good age for road tripping. As long we allow them access to screens in the car they pretty much just ride. We always do "mom camping" and stay in a cabin, this time the bluebell lodge in custer state park. The kids get a kick out of "tiny housing" it and I get the peacefulness of camping but with a bed and a toilet. The weather was AMAZING. Jackets in the morning, shorts all day - not hot and only cold on the chuck wagon. It did rain every evening on our S'mores parade, but meh, if that's the only disappointment we are winners.

We are already thinking about where to go next!

Well then

I've thought about blogging a few times, but clearly I have totally lost my mojo. The summer has actually gone blissfully fast (despite doing virtually nothing) and school starts in just 2 days.

There are a few things to note:

 Sam decided she wanted her ears pierced.

 It was starting to seem like she would never want that!

 I went on a sewing binge and made two doll quilts and two baby quilts. One set will be gifted, hopefully the others will be sold in Etsy.

And Grant was accepted into Gifted Ed! We are three for three on that front.