For example, a couple of days ago, I put some cardboard, masking tape, crayons and paddle sticks in the middle of the table and ask, “What can you build with these?”.  An HOUR later JJ is done and here’s what he came up with…

He grabbed the Army and space guys when he was done and played with his camp set-up until dinner was ready.   He’s amazing.

Go under the chairs…

Across the “moat” via cushions…

Across the tightrope…

Slide down the little slide and shovel 3 scoops of rocks into a truck and push it to the other side…

Hop over the bricks to the clubhouse…

Run through the clubhouse and down the turbo slide…TIME!

Now another dozen times until dinner.  I love my backyard.

]]> http://peelosophy.thepeel.org/2010/07/18/the-4-oclock-hour-backyard-obstacle-course/feed/ 0 http://peelosophy.thepeel.org/2009/07/27/backyard-dreaming/ http://peelosophy.thepeel.org/2009/07/27/backyard-dreaming/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:11:50 +0000 jill http://peelosophy.thepeel.org/?p=950 I heart my backyard.  It’s mostly the nature thing- being outside is so therapeutic for me. The kids are entertained for hours out there. The size of our backyard is just manageable for us, but there is also room for ideas.  And of course, we have lots of ideas.

There are those things I would just like to update…

• grass that is plush and perfect
• a fence that matches on all sides, but not a privacy fence – I love our neighbors too much and there is something about being able to look up or down four backyards that says community to me.
• some new plants in some of my established flower beds

And then there are the other ideas that I get when I am out there…

• For sure, we need a PATIO.  I’ve been going back and forth between patio and deck, but I think patio is what would do it for me.  It would need to be big enough to fit out patio furniture and grill with extra room to spare.  I like flagstone like this, but way bigger…

(Sunset magazine)

or a stamped concrete like this…

• I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a hot tub too.  The problem is privacy.  I know it would go at one end of the house.  Maybe something like this with a little more tall foliage…

• A water feature, later I do want little pond, but for now I want this fountain – I just can’t find one that’s not under $200.  I even have a place for it! I am totally serious.

There are a couple of things I would want to add to the playground area.

• A couple of these diggers like these, of course John wants to build them with his new welder…

• a kids size picnic table like this one, of course I would want to build it…

• some sort of fort on the ground.  I love the idea of a living willow fort like this one, but I can’t find where to buy willow in the States.  I love how natural it looks, like the forts my brother and I used to make down by the creek.

But I would settle for some sort of camouflaged tee pee or barrack similar to this…

• An outdoor shower attached to our house, just a simple teak shower, more for when the boys come into the house to hose them down.

• It should be said, that John wants to make some sort of man-made creek that drains and a half-pipe back in the play area as well.  I’m trying not to think about that too much.

That’s about it for now. Feel free to enter me in whatever backyard sweepstakes/makeover you can find!

Back to the Basics: Batch Cooking – SimpleMom: I have been waiting for something like this post to get me exited about batch cooking again.  I used to do it here and there a couple years ago, but lost my rhythm.  I thought this post was great to jog my memory and to encourage ideas that I haven’t tried before.

Before/After Chad’s Filing Cabinet Planter – Design Sponge: I don’t have time.  I have so many unfinished projects.  But I want to do this – I know exactly where it would go and what I would plant.  Oh well.

Dirty Little Secrets: The Riverside Church Blog: I  love this post that Kim wrote.  I loved reading the comments that people wrote about it.  I have read this book too. There are so many ideas from this book that really resonated with me, but I could never put it into words and this book does a great job.  I’ve always wondered where parenting righteousness comes from and why is it so hard for moms/women to be honest with each other;  this book addressed alot of this for me.

My decoupage experience is very limited.  I’ve decoupaged one other thing previous to the party, it was a car bucket for the boys room to keep the million cars we’ve accumulated with 3 boys.  I decoupaged it with the DK Publishing book “The Big Book of Things that Go” which had almost all of the pages torn out anyways.  It turned out great and went with the car theme we had going in their room.

Here’s a picture:

The night of the Art + Wine party, we could choose from a tray, vase or bangle bracelets – I chose a tray.  It was definitely a process of trial and error for us all.  I learned about what not to do from my own mistakes.  The biggest one was paint the tray BEFORE you decoupage the center. The other was I wouldn’t have used the quote if I knew the paper would wrinkle up like it did.

My tray didn’t turn out perfect, I could maybe get a nickle for it at a yard sale, but I love it.  There is something about making something for yourself.  It wasn’t for anybody but me.  The upholstery I do mainly goes into to other people’s  houses so I don’t get to see it everyday.  I love seeing the tray everyday.

Here’s a picture of the tray:

I saw this decoupage idea after I did my tray.  If only I had some of grandma’s purses still around….

Kim was talking about how she was going to homeschool Tyler for preschool.

Me: “Oh, I could never homeschool, I’d go crazy , I’m not organized enough, etc”

Kim: “Jill, you DO home school your boys.”

Me: “Oh, I guess I do.”

I never think of it as homeschooling.

I don’t send my boys to preschool for two reasons.  First, and foremost, is that I know they have the rest of their lives to be in school -so why rush it?  Second, I’m cheap and don’t want to pay for something I can teach them myself.

I’ve watched other children in my home since JJ (5yo) was 9 months old, so socialization isn’t an issue.  These days, I have a three extra kids other than my own three, three days a week…wow I guess three is the magic number!  I think coupled with my own Montessori education and the the interest I had in early childhood education in college, it was natural that our days have become a loosely structured day with focused time for learning.

For the past four years, I have made my own “curriculum”.  Usually it was gathered through lots of surfing on the web and trips to the library.  Sometimes, the themes (that’s what I called them) would work beautifully and other times I would get very overwhelmed with because I would make it more complicated.

Fast forward to the last several months, I discovered Tot School and Totally Tots.  Both of these sites are specific for moms who keep their toddlers home to prepare them for a homeschooling future.  This doesn’t fit me entirely – JJ will be attending half -day kindergarten in the fall – go Hudson Hawks!  BUT, the ideas and community I have found thorough these sites have provided me a great relief.  I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they have a simple curriculum that I feel I can pick and choose what works for us.

We do Tot Trays once or twice a day.  First in the morning and sometimes again in the afternoon if the 4 o’clock hour is especially hard.  Here are some pictures from using our trays this week.  In later posts, I’ll actually explain the specifics on what the kids are doing.

We implement ideas from Totally Tots on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – when I have other kids with us.

It looks like this:

Mondays: Now I know my ABCs – weekly ABC ideas with tots

Wednesdays: Bible Bites and sometimes Crafty Corner

Thursdays: Once a Upon a Book

I’ll be doing a post on Sundays about what we did the week before in Tot School.  This might help me own more what we’re doing, going back to my conversation with Kim.  I think it’s so funny when friends give me a totally different view of myself that I don’t see.  It’s funny that I see myself so differently, I’m thankful that I have friends that will sweetly tell me the good, bad and the ugly.

We hit the train first, in case we were rained out, then the Insectarium and ended at the somewhat new ZOOmagination Station.  The ZOOmagination station is awesome.  It’s basically a discovery room where there is tons of stuff for all the kids to get into animal/nature related.  It is FREE! and you go for 45 minute sessions that start every hour.  It’s one of my new favorite things.

The afternoon I spent cleaning up a bit while the boys played and then we headed out to Sams and Rogers Produce.  After the boys were in bed, I headed downstairs to word on my deck chairs…yes I know I don’t have a deck.  But they were part of my unfinished business and so they will be yard chairs.  With John as my teacher, I learned how to pilot and counter sink my screws for my chairs.  Very cool – I so love learning something new especially when it has to do with power tools.  My new expertise may come in handy with the chicken coop Maddie…

Most of the projects I have put off are for us, so I guess that makes it easier to put off.  There are 2 for other people,  one I have not finished a present for and another I haven’t even started.  And, the not finished one,  was a Christmas present for my niece which we gave her unfinished – a big pet peeve for me.  Oh yeah, and it’s March now.  Here’s a picture in her chair at Christmas after we gave it to her.  The wooden arm pieces need to be stained again and are not on it…yet.

So I thought I’d make a list of the unfinshed projects here and see if writing it down “in public” (for the 5 of you who read this blog) might motivate me to get them done.

(in the order I’d like to accomplish them)

1. Finish staining arm ends for Allison’s chair…see above.

2. Build outdoor wooden chairs…I’ve had the wood for them for 2 years…started tonight

3. Reupholster chair I found on the side of the road a year ago..I’m really excited about his one…I just need the right fabric.

4. Make “tiny seat” chair for E.  Fabric cut – waiting for the chair from John.

5. Reupholster tiny recliner for the boys…I’ve had this guy for about 3 years, but it goes in the basement….need to decide on fabric

6. Reupholster couch for downstairs.  Need to decide on fabric.

7. Make or throw away frame for butterfly chair.  I’ve had the char for 10 years bought it at Humble Abode…don’t event think they are still around.  Anyways, the cushion got gross and I threw it away and I haven’t been able to part with the frame or find a new cushion.

I feel little better now.  I have a plan.