dressing up for thanksgiving

I don't usually decorate for Thanksgiving.  When Halloween was over, Peter said we needed to take down the Halloween decorations and put up Thanksgiving ones, so I had to follow orders.  We kept it simple and inexpensive.

There are always $1 wreaths to be had at the thrift store.  I wrapped this straw one in strips of some of my favorite vintage stripes and then added the fabric flower made from my fabric scraps and the orange berry bush twigs that I got from the Halloween clearance at Target.  This was actually my costliest item at $3, but it was a garland, so I have a lot more for other projects.

We have a large blank wall in our living room which is perfect for changing up for the holidays.  I made a banner with small flags and framed some free printables.  The subway art print is from eighteen25.  The  other two prints are from Craftily Ever After.  All of the frames are from the thrift store.  I was lucky to find the one for the subway art print in good condition, but the other two were scuffed black frames, so I painted them blue (blended my own color from the grey, royal blue, turquoise, and ivory that I had on hand - it's amazing what you'll do when you live 40 miles from the store) and spray painted them with gloss.

 And our best Thanksgiving decorations are these ones that Ned painted.  He is such a creative kid.  He wanted to paint, so I suggested that he do the fall tree and make the leaves with Q-tips (saw this idea on Pinterest).  He did that one and then had to make the house on the left and the picture of friends playing on the bottom.  Love that kid!

lately

Lately, our little family seems to be on a roller coaster ride.  So far, it doesn't look like we will be getting off of the ride anytime soon, but I am getting more used to its ups and downs.  I am also getting more used to the idea that I am certainly not the only person going through a bit of craziness right now.  Until last Thursday, we anticipated that Ryan's job would end this week, but we have been extended an unexpected tender mercy and now have ten more weeks.  

I wasn't sure if I would come back to blogging until we were more settled and this was all behind us.  I have felt lately though, that in the spirit of embracing life and whatever it may bring us, I should be blogging.  So here are a few of the things we have been up to since my last post:

-The summer weather in Idaho is perfect and we enjoyed lots of time at the nearby reservoir beach.

-The boys both took their first swimming lessons this summer and now are proud that they can do some simple strokes and fetch a penny from the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. 

-We moved one block at the end of August. 

-Peter started 2nd grade and Ned started kindergarten.  I continue to substitute teach a couple of times a week.

-We took our annual Harvest Break vacation to Yellowstone and the weather was perfect again.  Ryan's sister's family joined us and made it even more enjoyable.

-All of our craziness has sparked some creativity in me and I've been spray painting, sewing, hot gluing, and generally making a mess.  More on that later.  

All of this uncertainty has been so stressful and hard.  I am trying to face it with faith and courage.  I do know we are being watched over and I'm grateful for family and friends that love us.  Unless there is news on our job search, I'll probably not talk about it too much here.  There's so much else going on and I know I need to focus more on that, so on with the blogging.