Concentrating on Kindness and seeing beauty everywhere

Today is another day of working to make our Home a Haven. It is also Fix it up Friday.  I do feel so very blessed to have a home that I can work to make a haven with the help of" fixing things up" here and there.

I had fun working on a little bit of fall decorating today after school time and spending some time outside on this blustery but lovely fall day. As far as the decorating.... I have long wanted to try my hand at making a bunting (I think that is the correct term- correct me if I am wrong, I know bunting can also be rounded) and I also wanted to figure out some fun way to display the fruits of the Spirit as a reminder for us to work on cultivating them. I decided to put those two desires together into one project.

 I went a looking through my material scraps and decided on wool for my triangles and then an eyelet strip caught my eye to use for what would tie them all together. I sewed little triangles, sewed them into the strip and I wrote (with permanent marker) all the names of the "fruits" on them.

 It was a pretty fast project and quite fun. The kids and I (I haven't had the opportunity to get Ken's opinion yet) like it quite a lot.

 I also had fun filling my little shelf with other fall fun things including Mara's people that I do really love!

Doesn't it look like they are having fun there on the shelf? I think I shall have to see if she will complete the family for me so we can have 4 kids up there instead of just one.

Speaking of children.....

All of the kids had much fun playing in the leaves today!
They have been coming down like crazy this week.

I did have lots of fun watching and appreciating them today (and them unfortunately I also got frustrated with them too- patience is still something I need to work on!). Here are some of the things I enjoyed seeing.....

Running with the wind and leaves

Mara's...... Willingness to help out when asked. Offering to do some baking which we all enjoyed. Totally enjoying the leaves and the wind. Her free spirit which allows her to have fun without embarrassment.

Jonathan's........ Diligence while doing his schoolwork. Good attitude. Creativity. Imagination. Willingness to vacuum the upstairs.

Aaron's....... Delight in finding things in the garden. Seeing a need and taking care of it. Enjoying his math. Sensitivity about so many things.

Megan holding the doll who is wearing the dress which she mended.

Megan's....... Growing up in so many ways! Coming to me and asking if she could fix her dolly's dress because it was missing buttons- I said to go ahead but didn't know if she could really do it without any assistance. After a while she came back quite happy to have a button sewn in place. That's my girl!

 There were struggles today -We were feeling tired (I think perhaps partly at least because of the change in weather) and so it was easy to be short with each other but over all we had a good day and, Lord willing, tomorrow will be even better!

Kindness was our theme today (and I think we will work on it more tomorrow!) and this is a verse I would like to emulate:

"She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." Proverbs 31:26