At Last

Today marks the promise of love everlasting for newly wed Mr. & Mrs. K. R. You were both radiant!

Today also marks my first dance with my own everlasting love. It only took 15 years to get him on the dance floor. Now we're waiting for our call from Dancing with the Stars. The dance was well worth the wait.

Results of sewing inspiration

So all those sewing blogs that I've been finding have left me longing to do some crafting of my own. During nap time last week I thought I'd try to sneak in a quick project. I saw this idea in one of Martha Steward's BABY magazines long time ago. (It's actually to prevent pinched fingers when babies are learning to pull themselves up on things.) It's not hugely amazing but very pretty practical. It's for those soon to be gone days when the house windows are wide open and the wind catches the doors and slams them shut shaking a person to the core.
Here's my old solution, so lovely.






Here's the finished product.

What did he jump off of this time?

Last night as I picked up Little E from the nursery, one of the nursery workers handed him over to me and said with a low chuckle "Wow, he's really . . . daring." My comment, "What did he jump off of this time?" The tables, the window ledge, and he scaled the 3 foot bookshelf and jumped off. No worse for the wear of course, just a roll landing and probably a "TA-DA!" I think he's practicing his cliff jumping for a camping trip with Auntie P and Uncle A.

Furniture Flip

How I wish I could show you a picture of this bench when I found it at a garage sale. Picture a scuffed dark brown laminate beast, the top surface was peeling and had blister bubbles over the entire surface, junk. As I looked at it, the owner immediately said they would take half of the asking price, $3.00. Then they offered to deliver it to my house, I bought it. It's just what I was looking for for my front entry way, you know, minus it's current condition. After some paint, a remnant at the fabric store and some free foam I got off of Craig's List (the owner of the foam ended up living a street over from me and is a stay-at-home mom, how cool was that!), here's what it has become.

My Little Cubbie

My little Cubbie experienced his first night of Awana tonight. Is he really old enough for this? He just looked older to me when I picked him up from his little classroom. He's all set with his vest, book bag, and jumper book. Having spent time as a "pioneer kid" myself (back in the day) I'm clueless as to how this Awana thing works. It sure will be fun explaining "wear comfy pajamas" night to H! I wonder if I could get away with wearing my PJs to my Bible Study? Maybe just some slippers. I selfishly opted for a Bible study rather than volunteer to help with Awana. I felt so guilty over the decision that I signed up to work a second day each month in the nursery.

I love the book we're studying in my Bible Study. It's For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn. I've already read the book and can't say enough good about it. In my opinion every woman in a relationship should read this. I'm not very good at reading "help" books (I think I have about 5 parenting books on my night stand that have been there for about a year- ugh!), BUT I flew through this book. It's all about what women need to know about the inner lives of men. Chuck full of information that you can put to use right away.

I'll close this with two of H's comments from today.

H: "Mom, am I allergic to anything?"
Me: "Nope."
H: "I think maybe I am allergic to stinky smells."
Me: "Okay."

and (as H sits on the steps examining his toes) . . .

H: "Mom, is this my pointer toe?"
Me: Blank stare, it was the correct toe if comparing it to your pointer finger. . . "Um . . hmmm . . . um" (Have I mentioned that Little E has taken to starting his sentences with "um . . .", not sure where he gets that from.) This was all followed by some random answer about hands and feet of which I can't remember to repeat. Somehow I feel ape-like now.

Bath Tub Toys

The bath tub toys are freshly washed. Murphy's Law says E will pee in the bath tub tonight.

Trace Upon Our Hearts

September the 17th, 2007. This date marks the day we anticipated as the birth of our heart's child. As all we are left with is a trace of this wee one, so our babe was named. Trace.

It's hard to keep from imagining this babe among us, living and sharing breath with our family. When people ask how many kids we have, I long to say three, but somehow I don't think it's polite conversation to bring grief into a conversation with someone I've just met. My heart says we have three!

Dear Jesus, please whisper our love into the ear of our sweet Trace. Thank you for the opportunity to feel once more and share the love You've freely given to us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Trace: A mark or sign of the presence or passage of some person, thing, or event.

Oh so full!

A wonderful blog was recently brought to my attention. It's called the angry chicken (I'll have EH help me figure out how to make that a link sometime). This blog let to another blog, and another, and another. They are all about sewing, crafting and quilting and I feel as though I've just ate a full thanksgiving dinner I'm so stuffed on sewing inspiration. I think I'll go back for some more . . . I'll post some of my favorites after I've narrowed it down a bit.

Laundry Day

I have been hearing more and more about the simplicity of having a "laundry day" for a couple of years now. My own dear SIL has mentioned the merits of it. I think I mentally blocked it out though thinking "it just wouldn't work for me". About six weeks ago I started to seriously stew on the idea. I have water the plants day (my plants are looking much healthier, thank you very much!), and pay the bills day, and cleaning day, so why not try this? I have been at it for three weeks now, not long enough for a happily-ever-after proclamation but . . . I think I'm changing my way of thinking. Before laundry day I just did the laundry whenever the piles seemed to be taking over the closet floor space OR whenever I need a "no-brainer" job to do so I felt like I had accomplished something. Now for all those moments when I'm not sure where to start, instead of grabbing a load of laundry, I'm going to the to-do list. I'm actually getting things done that I have let go for way too long (in my own opinion). My house is even starting to sparkle a little bit . . okay well maybe that's just the sun reflecting off the spilled juice on the floor but I can dream can't I. H has had to re-wear undies and socks a couple of times but you know, he really doesn't need to change his socks three times a day so I think he's learning a little something too. So enough already, so long laundry life and hello laundry day!

Settle down!

The boys had been gradually working their way up to a loud roar when I broke into the noise with a classic "Settle down!". H looked at me and said (with a definite twinkle in his eye and a conspiring voice) "Mom, I want to settle up!"

Guilty Pleasures

Yesterday H was going to his buddy's up the street while I was going to do some errands. As I was dropping him off (which took about 25 min since I hadn't talked to my "buddy", AKA the mom, for way too long) I happened to mention that I was on my way to Trader Joe's and her eyes began to twinkle. As she dashed to her car for cash I realized that much to my delight I would be able to do her a favor. She came back with the request for rice pudding and Jo Jos (TJ's version of Oreos). It seems this rice pudding is her guilty pleasure once the kids are in bed. Can we actually admit to these pleasures? Oh the refreshing breath of air this brings! Mine would have to be once the boys are down for nap time and I sit down at the computer for a few quiet moments of web/blog surfing and ichating with my beloved. Anything chocolate will do. But I have also discovered the pleasure of banana chips dipped in peanut butter. I already have a significant love affair with banana chips and to combine them with peanut butter is sensational. Ah. . . I have a slight enjoyment of food, can you tell? Anyway, by the time I was leaving Trader Joe's the store clerk was also going to buy a carton of this rice pudding and half of the other groceries I had bought (I was buying for a bridal shower I'm thrilled to be hosting this week) and I was happily restocked with a bag of banana chips. To all of my five readers, what's your guilty pleasure?

School: The first week

Oh it feels so good to have the first week of home school done. The first week has been so intimidating to me, just figuring out where we're going to set up and how H will respond. I know it's only preschool but I figure if this goes okay then we'll probably continue on with kindergarden at home too. H is only disappointed that school goes so fast. H eagerly wants E to join us. If I mention putting E down for a nap, H begs for him to stay up "just for school".


We've taken to sitting at a little kids table that I picked up at a garage sale this summer. (An answer to prayer as all the wood tables that I saw were $50. I found this one for $15 with a custom paint job!) Little Hands to Heaven (our curriculum) brings everything back to the Bible and since I had determined that this year would be primarily character development with some school stuff mixed in, it does it wonderfully. I especially love the little devotional book called My ABC Bible Verses, Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt. Our verse this week is "A soft answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1. At an unexpected moment H said "I think I'll quit hitting Mom." Well the resolve lasted for only about that moment but it was a comment out of the blue and I think it shows he's hearing the message.

On the first day of school I put a little bin of new school supplies at H's breakfast spot. Markers (since E had chewed off the tips of his other ones), erasers, water colors and some foam ABC, 123 puzzles (that mysteriously appeared at our front door while we were gone on vacation - thank you to the still unnamed donor!) H looked at the puzzles and said "Mom, I already know my ABCs and numbers, why did you get me these?" Smarty pants! And on day 2 H was ready to switch out our letter "A" on the learning board to the letter "B". Again, smarty pants. The focus on letters is a lot about the letter sound (which we didn't do last year). This summer I picked up some DVDs by Leap Frog. One of them, called Letter Factory, is all about letters and the sounds they make. A teacher at the home school conference that I went to in spring gave me this lead and we loved them and felt like it was a good way to pave the way.

Free and Clear

We just paid the final payment on our car! We own our beautiful red saturn all by ourselves now! It feels like I just learned how to ride my bike "no handed", I just got my driver's license, or like we just won the lottery (I guess we'd have to actually buy a ticket for that!). I think some sort of celebration is in order. Maybe a trip to the local DQ.