34 years and counting

Last Thursday, the 13th, was my 34th birthday...hard to believe! On Tuesday, my friend Deanna came out and spent the day with me. She made me the CUTEST set of wooden blocks, covered in pretty papers and embellishments. They are lovely!! There are some blank sides for me to put pictures on, and I had the perfect spot for them on top of the bookshelf in my craft room.

While she was here, she wanted me to teach her how to sew...or at least, introduce her to sewing, so she could decide if it was something she wanted to pursue. It didn't take long for her to add a sewing machine to her Christmas wish list!! She had brought some of her daughter Taylor's old flannel baby blankets with her, and we whipped up a quick little blanket for Taylor's dolls. It turned out sweet, don't you think?

My birthday gift from my awesome hubby was a complete surprise. If you recall, when he got me the sewing machine back in August, he told me that was my birthday gift. So I was quite thrilled when he came home Thursday with a sewing machine cabinet!! Thus far, my machine has been sitting in the corner on my main desk in my craft room, but this will work out so much better!!

My mom sent me a gift card to Starbucks (yum - I had my first peppermint mocha of the season on Sunday) and to Fabric Depot. I ordered some fun flannel from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom line to make myself some pajama pants - can't wait!! My friend Gloria sent a gift card to Jo-Ann's, and Anthony and I had fun shopping after church yesterday...I got several little odds and ends, including a very cool little glue pad I'll be playing with in the near future. You can use stamps with it to stamp an image in glue, then sprinkle glitter over it!! Fun!

Anyway, it was a nice birthday. Saturday, Darrell let me go to the house of a woman who used to work in his unit in Indio, who lives not too far from us now, for some scrapbooking/card-making time. I made some great Christmas cards - I'll post them later. It was a lot of fun, and I fell in love with a new Cricut cartridge - Wild Card. If you get just one Cricut cartridge - THIS needs to be it!!! Wow. Seriously. Wow.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!!

Two years ago today

To the baby we lost...

Because of you, I am a better mama today.

Because of you, I hug my kiddos a little bit tighter and a little bit longer.

Because of you, I take more time out to enjoy the ordinary miracles every day.

Because of you, I take less for granted.

Because of you, I have two beautiful, precious daughters that would not otherwise be here.

Because of you, I am a more compassionate friend.

Because of you, I have a gentler spirit.

Because of you, I am more sensitive to others' hurting hearts.

Because of you, I have some precious friends in my life who might not otherwise have crossed my path.

Because of you, I share a knowing with other mamas who've experienced the same brokenness of this loss.

Because of you, I live more in gratitude and less in want.

Because of you, I know what it means to lean not on my own understanding.

Because of you, I know it is truth that His ways are not my ways, and that His plan is perfect.

Because of you, I know that His grace is sufficient, in every circumstance and in every need.

Roasted Acorn Squash

Mmm...I wasn't a big fan of winter squash when I was growing up, but as an adult, I've grown to LOOOOVE it, especially when roasted and sweetened up a bit! I fixed this last night, and even Anthony gobbled up two slices of it - which is a big kudos, since he rarely eats veggies of his own will!!

To start, simply cut open an acorn squash in half, and use a spoon to scoop out the insides. I toss them, though I suppose maybe you could roast the seeds like pumpkin seeds - I've never tried it myself. Then slice them into hefty pieces - about 3-4 per half. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over them, then add salt and freshly-ground pepper, and a sprinkling of ground cinnamon. Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes until tender.

You can eat them just like that. Or you can take it a step further. You could drizzle warm maple syrup over them. Or you could sprinkle some brown sugar over them and broil for a couple minutes. I melted some brown sugar, butter, and maple syrup together and drizzled it over them - wow! Yum! A perfect fall side dish!!

Peppermint Soap

I'm continuing to work on Christmas gifts...really trying to stick to handmade and trying to get things done early to avoid last-minute stress. I had picked up a copy of a Martha Stewart Holiday special issue on handmade gifts, and found a cute idea for making striped peppermint loaf soap. Since I knew I was going over to my friend Allison's today for some crafting time, I figured it would be a good time to give this a try.

As it turns out, I should have looked up some more info online before I made the soap. The process went smoothly enough. I bought 4 lbs of melt-and-pour soap at Michaels - two pounds of clear olive oil glycerin soap, and two pounds of white shea butter soap. I also had peppermint essential oil and red food coloring. I melted, dyed, scented, poured, and repeated, until my soap loaves were complete. But when I got home and excitedly dumped my soap loaves out to cut them into pieces, and I began cutting, I discovered a slight problem. On about a third of my pieces, the layers of soap came apart. As I discovered, upon looking it up online, this is a common problem - conveniently NOT mentioned in the magazine article!! And there's an easy solution - in between each layer of soap, you just spritz a little rubbing alcohol before pouring the next layer - and this will cause them to adhere to each other. Unfortunately, there's no easy fix for AFTER the fact. So unless I figure out some magic, I guess we'll be using quite a bit of peppermint soap around here!!

The instructions can also be found online here...along with comments from people about the layer separation problem and solution!

***Update: I discovered that by using a long candle-lighter (actually, two of them - one in each hand), I was able to slightly melt the top layer of soap and then re-attach the separated layers fairly successfully. I only had a couple small drips, and overall, they turned out great! Yay!!

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Yesterday, we went to a playdate at Tracey's house (from our mom's group). The kids all got to paint cups/pots, and then plant seeds. We chose basil seeds...since I just killed our basil plant. (Hey - I kept it alive 3 months, which is longer than any other plant I've had!! Progress, people!) Anthony woke up this morning and said, "How come my plant isn't growing??" Patience, my son, patience!!

Did you happen to notice that there were no twins in any of the pictures?? That's because my wonderful husband had yesterday off and kept the girls home with him while I took Anthony to the playdate!! As we were leaving the house, my arms felt so empty! It seemed entirely too easy to just walk out the door with my purse and one child - no diaper bag, no heavy car seats with babies, no running around looking for pacifiers and bottles and blankets...we actually just walked. out. the. door. Bizarre. Thank you, honey!!

Anyway - we'll keep you posted on any growth that happens. Hopefully it happens. Or I'll have a very disappointed 3-year old!

Hip hip hooray!!

A HUGE HUGE thank you to my friend Allison's hubby, Bryan, for fixing the problem in my coding so that my blog looks normal in Internet Explorer now!! I went over to do some crafting today with Allison, and I ever-so-casually (not!) mentioned that there might be a little problem with my blog code. Twenty minutes and a whole lot of techie lingo later, he had it fixed!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bryan!!! And, by the way, if your website is in need of some fixing, click on Bryan's name to go to his website...this is what he does for a living, after all!!

All of you IE fans - does everything look good now??

Party at Makayla's crib...2 a.m.!!

*yawn*

Oh, excuse me...it's been a long couple of nights in our house!! First off, the snot monster is making a return visit...or really, he never completely left...at any rate, Makayla's all snotty again. And now I've managed to catch it - I've got that lovely "my head might explode at any minute" sinus headache thing going on...only slightly more bothersome than the "now I'm dizzy and can't lean over too far either direction or I might end up on the floor because I took some cold medicine" feeling.

Two nights ago, Makayla actually slept all the way through the night - pretty unusual - she usually wakes up at least once or twice to nurse. Mackenzie, on the other hand, who normally sleeps for about 12 hours straight, decided to pick up the slack for her sister, and woke up crying at about 2:30 a.m. and ended up in bed with us, refusing to go back to sleep for at least an hour. She did finally go back to sleep - in our bed, where she remained for the night.

Then last night, it was Makayla's turn. 11:30 p.m. I was *just* about asleep - you know, that place where you're blissfully unaware of anything and just about to completly doze off into the sweet darkness...when Darrell rudely awakened me by handing me a wide-awake curly headed munchkin. I nursed her, took her back to her bed, started the process of trying to fall asleep again, and...REPEAT an hour later, once again *just* as I was about to fall off the cliff into a nice deep sleep. Ugh. Nursed her again. Took her back to her bed. Went back to my bed.

Forty-five minutes later, she's crying. Again. I thought, "Maybe she's being thrown off by me nursing her in my bed - usually I nurse her in the rocking chair in her room." So I tried that. She nursed for all of 2 minutes, I put her in her crib - let the screaming begin. But it wasn't "I'm hungry," or "I'm hurting," or anything like that. It was very much, "I'm mad, and I want to play, right now!" I didn't want her to wake up Mackenzie, and I don't like to let her cry, so I got her back out and sat in the rocker, thinking maybe I could rock her to sleep. Not. So. Much. She much preferred to play games - drop the binky on the floor and make mom pick it up, try to put the binky in mom's mouth, give mom big sloppy wide-open mouthed kisses so she can't possibly be mad about this 2:00 a.m. crib party...you get the picture!

I played along for about 20 minutes, and when it became clear that she was not going to let me rock her to sleep, I finally put her back in her crib, gave her the binky and blanket, put her music on, and walked out. She cried. She got mad. I think she threw her binky on the floor. But two minutes later, she was asleep. I know it was TWO minutes, because I watched the clock, praying the whole time that Mackenzie would not wake up and that Makayla would calm down and go to sleep!! Mack didn't, and Mak did. And I finally, finally, got to go to sleep.

*yawn*

Mama to Mama: the Caps to Cap-Haitian Project

As we start to get into the holiday season, it's easy to get caught up in the festivities and the decorations and the gifts. But if you're like me, it's also a time of year when I am overwhelmed with gratitude for how incredibly blessed I am, and the desire to give is strong - to give beyond just my immediate family and friends. And yet, sometimes when I look at the world, it seems so overwhelming - so many problems, so much need - where do I start?

Amanda, from SouleMama, author of The Creative Family, has just started an incredible project that really excites me. The bigger project is called Mama to Mama, and this is what Amanda says about it:

"As crafters, the reasons we create are many. Just one may be to spread a little bit of peace into the world, to make a small but meaningful difference in one person's life through a simple act of crafting with intention. Mama to Mama seeks to find ways to connect handcrafters with mothers, children and families in need of a little bit of handmade love." -Amanda Soule

The immediate, specific project she has started is the Caps to Cap-Haitian Project. Haiti has a very high maternal and infant death rate, and there is a current project going on where they are putting together safe birthing kits, which include newborn caps. I am thrilled by how simple it is to make a difference for these mamas and babies. I can't wait to go through my drawers and closet to find some t-shirts and get to sewing some little baby caps!! Click on the link, where you will find a description and more information, as well as a PDF download with the pattern and instructions for making the caps.

photo by amanda soule

Holidays by Hand

It's probably a little bit silly that I'm SO excited about this - but SimpleMom is hosting the first in a six-part Holidays by Hand series today...this week's theme is Sewing. And if you head over to SimpleMom, you'll see MY NAME listed in the list of projects with a link to my apron!! :) How fun is that?! There are also lots of other really great gift ideas, too, by the way!!

And for even more inspiration, Sew, Mama, Sew is doing an entire month of gift ideas right now on their blog - you should definitely check it out!! AND they're offering giveaways every single day this month!! How great is that?!

Halloween happenings

Yes, yes, I will get to Halloween. But first, I have to share these pictures...though, I am somewhat ashamed of them, because I am admitting that I knowingly allow the girls, ahem, Makayla, to do this.

So these are my little darlings. Mackenzie's just along for the ride - she puts nothing in her mouth, other than her fingers, so she's just tagging along for the fun of it. Makayla, however, is on a full-fledged HUNT for food (because, of course, I'm starving her!).

Apparently, having found none IN the high chair, she's now searching the floors below.

And...success!! Look, mom...a cheerio in my mouth!!

And this picture - this is my view whenever I try to get anything done in the kitchen...cooking, cleaning...whatever. Two little munchkins at my feet. All the time. When they're not hunting for food, of course.

Anyway...Halloween! I was lazy and did not dress up the girls...well, lazy and broke...didn't want to spend money on costumes or supplies for costumes. Anthony's dragon costume from last year - which I didn't get to see him wear, thanks to being in the hospital on mag sulfate trying to keep two little girls from coming WAY too early - still fit him, so he happily wore it again.

We started the day off with me taking Makayla for her upper GI...exciting! Wouldn't you know - they had her drink the barium, and did the x-rays over a period of time, and she had NOT ONE DROP of reflux the entire time. We got back to the car, I nursed her, and the second she sat up, she puked all over me?! So I need to email the doc and figure out where we go from here. I'm starting to wonder if she's allergic to something I'm eating - like dairy - that she's getting in my breastmilk.

Then, in the afternoon, we all went to a Halloween party at the park with the mom's group. Emily did a fantastic job organizing it, and there were well over 50 moms and kids there (a few dads too). Anthony wore his costume for a bit, but quickly took it off, because it was just too hot! He had fun finding candy and playing games, though, and enjoyed the cake!

Then, after a quick dinner at home, we headed over to our church for their Hallelujah Night harvest festival. Anthony had a great time hanging out with his friends, playing games and winning candy. As you can see, the dads were all on stroller duty!!

When we got back home, there were some trick-or-treaters out and about, and Anthony wanted to go out too, so Darrell took him out for a bit. It was short-lived, though...Anthony was a bit scared of the dark and scary costumes and a house that had flashing lights/scary noises...he only lasted about 10 minutes. He had fun handing out candy at our door, though, to the other kids...but even that went quickly - we figured he was tired of it when he pretty much dumped the rest of the candy at the last group of kids that came.

We never did get around to carving our pumpkin!! It's still sitting on our island, all big and pretty! Maybe we'll have to cut it up and roast the seeds and roast some pumpkin to eat or something...we'll see!