Monday, May 16, 2011

No, I didn't finish my dress...

So, apparently what I get for mentioning that I was thinking about making dresses was having to answer to the several people who asked about it. Um, oops. It was zooming along just fine- I was all excited because I've never sewn a dress for myself before- and then I ran into some, uh, issues. I was having difficulty lining things up in the back and I got really frustrated and I put it away and decided to take it back out when the danger of me destroying the whole thing had lifted. And that didn't happen any time last week. But I do want to finish it... Really.

Oh well. You should know be by now.

The wedding Saturday was so beautiful and the whole weekend was a lot of fun. Like always time passed in a blink, but while it was here, we enjoyed it. Being together with family makes me look forward to summer days ahead at the camp. Soon, I hope.

But before that, I have something else to look forward to. This weekend two of my bestest and I are making an escape to do some garage saling... A whole weekend of no kids, no husbands, no responsibility. Part of the fun is in the anticipation, I know, so I will be happily anticipating our getaway all week!

Eep. Just realized I should be planning a real supper tonight since my husband will be home. He's doing night shift all week which is weird because I'm so programmed for him to be gone in the afternoons. I don't switch gears very fast. Then again, I have to give a massage this afternoon so maybe I should leave the supper-making to him. He does a better job of that anyways. I'll just pretend I forgot.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Jack is FIVE



On Friday, Jack turned five, so this afternoon we had a little party for him. Five. Five! As in... kindergarten in the fall, growing up so fast, five. This little guy was so excited for his party today. He asked me for a spiderman cake. Um. Spiderman? How about a lake with some fish swimming in it instead? He like that idea too. Whew! Much easier.

As mentioned earlier, I finished the quilt for him. It really went together quick because I was not worried so much about everything lining up just so like I had been with Lydia's. In other words, don't look too close. He appreciated it and that's all that matters.

One of the things I love so much about this kid is that he really does appreciate everything. He loves to give, and he treasures anything that's given to him. He's very careful about protecting his toys, keeps close tabs on anything of his the girls might play with, and loves to make things for everyone else. He's inventive, creative, and has such a big heart. We love him so much, our little boy.

So happy that he had a fun day today. He waited patiently for his party, and didn't stop smiling the whole time... Happy 5th Birthday, Jack!


Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy, Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know... And most importantly to my own mother and my mother-in-law. Such amazing friendships I share with both of them.

Because I happened to be sick today and because Ryan worked today... it wasn't exactly the most exciting Mother's Day in history, but it was okay. Perhaps if my head didn't feel like it had been stuffed with cotton batting, and my nose didn't resemble a leaky faucet it, and just maybe if every other thing I did wasn't punctuated by a sneeze it could have been a bit better, but oh well. It is what it is and life goes on. The kids were-for the most part- decently behaved letting me spend most of the afternoon curled up on the couch with my book and not complaining over the cold cereal supper. Besides, I get my getaway in 17 days. Not that I'm counting down till my escape or anything.

The garage sale we had, albeit a success for the most part, might have been my last. I know. I say this every year, but this year I think I'm done for awhile. Too. Much. Stinkin. Work. Just possibly might have seemed more pronounced by the fact that this whopping cold was coming on for the past few days. Gee, Maaaaaybe.

I did, on Friday, receive a very sweet Mother's Day present from my oldest. A flower planted in a painted paper cup and a copy of their class cookbook. Here is the recipe my daughter submitted:

Ramen Noodles

First she puts some water, then she puts some noodles when it's starting to bubble.
Then, she um, gets all the water out and then after she gets all the water out she puts the sugar in.
And then she puts it in the bowls!


What can I say? I am a woman of high talent when it comes to cooking. Apparently I do ramen noodles really well, thank-you very much. She also wrote me a really sweet note all by herself, sounding out the words she didn't know. So very special!

Hope your day was wonderful!

(Oh, and p.s.: Spell check doesn't recognize 'Ramen'. Hello. The staple to lazy, er, busy moms everywhere? Cook much?  Sheesh.) 


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May... {happy to see you, but how did you get here so fast?!}

A few days into May and I still feel stuck back in mid-April. The weather has helped out with that, as did a fun trip to visit our rellies for Easter. Today, however, was a beautiful day- sunshine and decent temps made it feel like spring. If only I could have slowed down considerably to enjoy it a bit more.

This weekend my sister and I are having a garage sale... which always seems like a good idea in March or so, but always becomes a rather large  and questionable project in the days leading up to it. I've been putting bags up in the attic all winter and when I pulled them down today I was kind of overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we had accumulated. It made me really refocus on my goal of simplifying things this year. Says the lady about to head out of town in couple of weeks for a girls garage sale weekend. Eh.

The other large project going on over here this week is my son's quilt. Yes, his birthday is next week. No, I did not start a month ago when I mentioned it. Yes, I only finished cutting the material on Monday, and you bet I plan to finish it by next week. He is, after all, waiting for a quilt. Yikes. This could get a little tricky. Thankfully it's not a difficult pattern and it's the same pattern I used for Lydia's. Which means I've been moving through it much quicker than I did for hers. And how can I not think of finishing it when he just came down and handed me an envelope saying, "Is it gonna be Mother's Day in the morning?" When I told him it wasn't until Sunday he just grinned and ran back up the stairs. Inside was a piece of paper with a heart drawn on it. So simple, so real, so exactly what melts a mother's heart.

And then... Hah. I won't even tell you what else I'm trying to slip in under the wire. I'm not planning to sew myself and Hannah a dress for the wedding next week. But you never know. Sometimes I think my life is defined by sprints. Will she finish in time, folks? The clock is ticking! I work good under pressure. If it's pressure determined by me, that is. But, oh well. Those last two things aren't that critical. Except that really they kind of are because I don't exactly have a dress. So unless I get ordering fast and just hope it fits perfectly- or happen to wander across something in our Massive Mega Mall- it could have the potential to become a slightly critical situation. But I'm not stressing about that. Yet. One day at a time, right?

Sidestepping away from the project scene, I'm finding myself suddenly very apprehensive of summer. I love summer, love the warm weather and the sunshine and the camp and everything else that comes rolling in when the calender flips over to June. But, this week I've had a taste of what I can expect living where we do.

The road we live on is not a main road, but a lot of people treat it like one. They fly. And I mean 45 miles-per-hour, not stopping for anything sail down our road. Teenagers, mostly. Cruising along with cigarettes hanging out of the windows and music blaring. And although we have a fenced in backyard specifically because of that, this year I have two kids who want to ride bikes constantly. Last year, when it was just Lydia doing the biking the majority of the time, I was a little more relaxed. By herself, she's more careful. But put two of them together? And they're distracted by the other constantly. And even though there's a large parking lot across the street that they ride in, I'm paranoid. Unless I am out there with them continuously- which shouldn't be a problem since I have nothing else to do, right?- I am constantly running to the window to check where they are.

Obviously we're going to have to limit when they bike so that one of us can be out there with them, but there's going to be two unhappy campers under our roof when they realize the freedom they assume they have this week is not going to last. I'm really considering getting a trampoline now. Something to entice them to stay in the yard a lot more. My always low blood pressure has taken a steep incline this week, I think. Something's gotta change.

And that's our current phase of life summed down to a few rather lengthy paragraphs. Hope you are enjoying spring sunshine and longer days!