Thought I’d highlight some of Michael’s handiwork, since it is his b-day weekend… 🙂

For the past two years he has been dabbling in wood crafting/carving/whittling. Some of the wood he uses comes from when he, Paul, & Mike are working on harvesting firewood for Grandma & Grandpa’s outdoor woodburner. Our basement has many “treasured” pieces he is drying out to turn into “something”. 🙂

Last year, he & Mike “played” a bit with chainsaw designs. Mike cut this cross, then Michael stained it & added the nails. 🙂

Mike cut these “tablets” out for Michael, and then Michael burned the words, and varnished the finished product. This replaced the hand-written, construction paper tablets the boys wrote out our first year of homeschooling. I LOVE the upgrade! 🙂

And other creations are crafted from softer woods, like bass wood. He has made quite a variety of ornaments. Here are just a few…

What a blessing it is to watch our boys develop the creativity the Lord has blessed them with. I love that Michael & I share “visions” of transforming things into a finished product. We’ve learned many of the same lessons, but through different crafts. Sometimes the finished product looks NOTHING like we originally planned. Sometimes the action was more about perfecting a technique, so that the NEXT time, there will be a better end result. And sometimes, it turns out better than we ever imaged it could! 🙂