So, what have we been up to?

Yes, indeed.  What have we been up to?  I mean, it's already December!  Where did November go?  How is it that Christmas is right around the corner already, and I have TWO stockings to finish sewing (yes, poor Tornado has had a whip-stiched-at-the-last-minute-to-hold-it-together stocking for the last couple years)??  Well, we did take on a few projects around here.  And by we, I mean of course, me.  Thunder is busy enough with work and church to be crazy like me! Something new I got to try is a solar oven:

 I know it looks like some hokey science project that will never work, but it actually does!  My first try cooking didn't go so well because I didn't get it out there early enough.  But the second day, I put out some sliced apples with brown sugar and they turned out really well!

 I went to a class by Sue Moyers (srmoyers{at}hotmail.com) where she showed us how to cut and fold the ovens from large roll of material she had purchased for us.  It feels like thick, squishy foil. To cook, you have to have a small dark pan with a lid. Then put the pan inside an oven turkey bag and elevate the whole thing (I put mine up on an old can of diced green chilis).  Then just face it towards the sun around 10 AM and that's it.  Magic!  It got too hot to touch after about 5 minutes.  I thought it was freakin' RAD!

 One night the boys just grabbed their sleeping bags and headed out for a loverly sunset.  The mountains really are beautiful here.

 Ah, and on to the projects!  We were having an indian summer, and so I decided why not just paint a few rooms?!?  A few months ago I rearranged the kids into different bedrooms and tried to decorate, but I was prego at the time and couldn't paint.  So I decided it was time!  Cloudburst's room was destined to be yellow, since she kept asking for a yellow room.  The color ended up being very BRIGHT!  And she had no idea I was painting while she was at school, so here is her reaction:

 I did 3 walls yellow, and left the one behind her bed tan.  You think I wanted to redo all those flowers??  But the desk was bugging me. SO MUCH.  So I bought some stain...

 ... and refinished the whole dang thing!  It took quite a bit longer than I thought it would, but I love how it turned out.  Now all the furniture in there is dark.

And the poor boys were at the store when I was buying paint, so I couldn't just NOT get paint for their room right?  I was going to paint their room all blue, but Thunder thought it might look a little "babyish," if I remember right, and so I decided, why not try some stripes?

 After taking over my life for 4 days, I got those darn stripes taped...

and painted!

 I love how it turned out.

 Good thing the kids took care of themselves!!

 And then our indian summer was over... and all the kids took a dare from their dad and rolled around in the snow with no shirts on (yes even Cloudburst!).

And that's what we've been up to!