Thursday, July 30, 2009

It's the Little Things

I missed the fun of posting some Small Successes last week while my parents were in town, so there are lots of things to choose! Having my parents around gave us a lot of time to work on a few things together -- like hanging pictures. (I picked the place, Kansas Dad did the hammering, as always.) Second Daughter especially likes having the pictures all around. She points to them and jabbers because she recognizes us. Now I just need to order updated pictures for some of the frames so there are pictures of her!

Here are my official Successes:

1. I finished the dressing frames for our preschool next year. Mostly these are for First Daughter, but First Son could use some button help as well, so hopefully they get a lot of use. My mom was an amazing help in getting these done and there will be (eventually) a complete post on them.

2. Hanging things! Kansas Dad and I had some time to shop by ourselves last Monday while Grammy watched the kids so we finally picked a little valance for the kitchen window. Now we can wash dishes in the evening without going blind from the setting sun shining into our eyes.


You'll have to forgive the mess on the sill. I wanted to leave in the bright red zinnia Kansas Dad and the kids grew (one of the few the bunnies didn't eat).

While my parents were in town, Kansas Dad and I had some time to shop the local Catholic bookstores for a crucifix for our living room. (We hate taking the older ones to those shops because there are so many things to play with break there.)


It's above our poetry and religion bookcase, which I think looks wonderful when it's not being used as a resting place for everything else. As you can see, I cropped it for the picture.

Last, but not least, Kansas Dad finished repairing the clothesline and we used it! (Until the rains came.)


3. I experimented with making chocolate graham cracker animal crackers and learned the hard way that you have to separate them completely before baking. The best thing to do is roll the dough out onto parchment paper, cut the cookies individually with lots of space between, pull up the excess (to roll out later) and bake. Beautiful, but time-consuming.


We also learned the graham crackers are much better when sprinkled with sugar before baking. Not that it kept us from eating them. I have crumbs left I intend for a pudding pie this weekend.

Head over to Faith & Family for more Small Successes!