Happy Birthday Ethan!!!!!!!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
My Birthday Boy
It's Ethan's birthday today! I absolutely cannot believe that I have a 12 year old boy sitting in the other room! (they're all in there watching Cars, and I hear him laughing, so that makes me feel a little better, 'cause that's a "little kid" movie) Where did all the time go? And how can I possibly be 12 whole years older?!?! We'll be heading out to lunch for Chinese food, per request of the birthday boy, and I've got everyone's favorite dessert, Brownie Volcano, baking in the oven, so I'm sweating to death about now. I think we'll take a quick dip in the pool after lunch, and maybe I'll have to put Isabelle down for a nap. She sure is something when she doesn't get her beauty sleep, ha! And then we have to go down to the airport to pick up Bill, who has been hanging in Texas for the past three days. (Actually, he's been interviewing for a new job, but that's a whole other story!) I can't wait to go get him and have him HOME! Then we'll all be together for Ethan's birthday, just the way it should be!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Oh the storms of life
Most people tell me that I'm a pretty patient person (as a parent anyway), though I tend to disagree. Or maybe I just don't see it. This summer, while it has been a great one, has also been pushing me to my absolute breaking point! All right, so maybe not that extreme, but it feels pretty intense at times.
I think I lost my cool more than once today. I hate it when my heart starts pounding and I get all rattled and annoyed, and instead of going off to be alone and quiet, I give in to the desire to yell at one of the kids or roll my eyes or do some other unkind thing. It stinks. The aftermath never feels better; it only feels worse.
After moments like those, I wonder how on earth I am going to survive with five children! Is God playing some kind of cruel joke on me?
I'm just rethinking the events of the past few days...
Kid gets in the way and has head slammed by closing trunk and proceeds to fling himself flat on his back on the sandy parking lot, just laying there like a big lump (no, he had not passed out).
Twenty minutes earlier, same kid got pegged in the head with a tiny pebble and screamed bloody murder.
Someone got a new privilege of staying up a bit later and decided to reward the privileg-er (me!) by fumbling around the next morning before six, thereby waking up the other someone in his room. Grrrr.....
"Can we help?" turns into flour flying across the floor, dish detergent getting squirted on the ceiling, dishes being cracked, flowers trampled, vehicles scratched and dinged.
The way their voices all find that one tone that drives you so insane you can hardly see straight.
Arguments. Really dumb arguments at that. They make a girl want to run far, far away and hide her little self.
Insert long, loud sigh here.
But then there are those moments when I see a big brother tenderly dancing with his baby sister.
Or a chore taken over by another willing child who simply wants to be kind.
Working together on some grand adventure or project.
A smile, a hug, or a pat on the back.
A thank-you.
Those moments fill me with gratitude and hope that all is not lost, that we're raising siblings who love each other, and that there is indeed room in our hearts for more.
If only there was a mute button I could push every so often.... :)
Here are some favorite pictures from our week:
I think I lost my cool more than once today. I hate it when my heart starts pounding and I get all rattled and annoyed, and instead of going off to be alone and quiet, I give in to the desire to yell at one of the kids or roll my eyes or do some other unkind thing. It stinks. The aftermath never feels better; it only feels worse.
After moments like those, I wonder how on earth I am going to survive with five children! Is God playing some kind of cruel joke on me?
I'm just rethinking the events of the past few days...
Kid gets in the way and has head slammed by closing trunk and proceeds to fling himself flat on his back on the sandy parking lot, just laying there like a big lump (no, he had not passed out).
Twenty minutes earlier, same kid got pegged in the head with a tiny pebble and screamed bloody murder.
Someone got a new privilege of staying up a bit later and decided to reward the privileg-er (me!) by fumbling around the next morning before six, thereby waking up the other someone in his room. Grrrr.....
"Can we help?" turns into flour flying across the floor, dish detergent getting squirted on the ceiling, dishes being cracked, flowers trampled, vehicles scratched and dinged.
The way their voices all find that one tone that drives you so insane you can hardly see straight.
Arguments. Really dumb arguments at that. They make a girl want to run far, far away and hide her little self.
Insert long, loud sigh here.
But then there are those moments when I see a big brother tenderly dancing with his baby sister.
Or a chore taken over by another willing child who simply wants to be kind.
Working together on some grand adventure or project.
A smile, a hug, or a pat on the back.
A thank-you.
Those moments fill me with gratitude and hope that all is not lost, that we're raising siblings who love each other, and that there is indeed room in our hearts for more.
If only there was a mute button I could push every so often.... :)
Here are some favorite pictures from our week:
this picture cracks me up big time! how could you ever be cross with that face!?!?
tossing Pop-It things on the drive after dinner...they are LOUD!
excitedly working together to catch fish (they did!)
our Junior Rangers at the cook-out & awards ceremony this afternoon
this doesn't really need a caption, does it? ha ha
It was funny how nearly every day this week at the lake the storm clouds would come rolling in, we'd hear a few rumbles of thunder, maybe a couple flashes of lightning, and then, it was all over- the gorgeous blue skies returned and all was well. I guess I didn't really see the parallel to life until I just wrote out all that stuff above.
Still wish I had that mute button, though. Maybe just for emergencies.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Everyday Stuff
Whew! Another busy busy week, but it's been filled with fun stuff. The next two weeks are filled with appointments and such...not so much fun. Oh well, that's life with four kiddos I guess- I'm thankful that we have decent insurance.
Jonah and Caleb are doing Junior Ranger Camp again this year, so we've been hanging out at the lake quite a lot for the past 48 hours. A lake with tons of fish. That swim around you. And nibble body parts that...well, that they shouldn't! Naughty fishies! Bill is actually there as I write this, probably trying to catch one or two with the makeshift net I whipped up this morning from leftover tulle...never thought I'd be re-purposing tulle for that, ha!
We've also been doing tons of crafts- I think I'll do one big post before school starts about all our neat projects. I'm glad I have crafty boys! I think it's really important for them, and it's been increasingly easier to find things to suit them now that they're older- when they were small, most of the crafty things I encountered were definitely geared toward girls- SO unfair, ha!
And THIS was quite a surprise to find on the big ol' internet the other day! Part of me is completely flattered (especially since the author wrote such nice things, ha!) but part of me was really bothered that someone would just "help themselves" to something I wrote - and a picture of Isabelle- without asking or even letting me know first. I'm curious about what anyone else thinks about this... I suppose Pinterest works in the same way, and I think it's neat to see that some of my things have been pinned by complete strangers who happen to find something they like on the blog, but...still a little bit weird.
That's it for now...I've got a wailing 4-year-old on the stairs in a time-out, a cranky 10-year-old complaining about all the crying, and 2 that I haven't heard in a while....gotta go! I hope everyone is having a good week!
Okay, so I wrote that around lunch time today- it's been just Ethan and me all afternoon so we did some errands that may have included a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and the mall (ugh, I officially have a tween on my hands!), and then I got my rings inspected and cleaned. I know, really living it up! When we got home the sky got all dark and gray so I ran out to the clothesline to bring in sheets and clothes, and then everything got light again- it looked so pretty so I ran inside to grab my camera and snap some flowers in bloom. Notice there are no pictures of our actual {dead} yard. Oh well. It's just grass.
Jonah and Caleb are doing Junior Ranger Camp again this year, so we've been hanging out at the lake quite a lot for the past 48 hours. A lake with tons of fish. That swim around you. And nibble body parts that...well, that they shouldn't! Naughty fishies! Bill is actually there as I write this, probably trying to catch one or two with the makeshift net I whipped up this morning from leftover tulle...never thought I'd be re-purposing tulle for that, ha!
We've also been doing tons of crafts- I think I'll do one big post before school starts about all our neat projects. I'm glad I have crafty boys! I think it's really important for them, and it's been increasingly easier to find things to suit them now that they're older- when they were small, most of the crafty things I encountered were definitely geared toward girls- SO unfair, ha!
And THIS was quite a surprise to find on the big ol' internet the other day! Part of me is completely flattered (especially since the author wrote such nice things, ha!) but part of me was really bothered that someone would just "help themselves" to something I wrote - and a picture of Isabelle- without asking or even letting me know first. I'm curious about what anyone else thinks about this... I suppose Pinterest works in the same way, and I think it's neat to see that some of my things have been pinned by complete strangers who happen to find something they like on the blog, but...still a little bit weird.
That's it for now...I've got a wailing 4-year-old on the stairs in a time-out, a cranky 10-year-old complaining about all the crying, and 2 that I haven't heard in a while....gotta go! I hope everyone is having a good week!
Okay, so I wrote that around lunch time today- it's been just Ethan and me all afternoon so we did some errands that may have included a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and the mall (ugh, I officially have a tween on my hands!), and then I got my rings inspected and cleaned. I know, really living it up! When we got home the sky got all dark and gray so I ran out to the clothesline to bring in sheets and clothes, and then everything got light again- it looked so pretty so I ran inside to grab my camera and snap some flowers in bloom. Notice there are no pictures of our actual {dead} yard. Oh well. It's just grass.
the green you see is our neighbors' well-irrigated lawn
i didn't notice the little bee until the big one came storming by- sounded like a small jet coming in for a landing! (which apparently frightened the smaller one away)
this is a side-view of the garden in front of our house- i thought it looked so pretty (last year much blood, sweat and the occasional tear went into redoing that garden)
another small side garden i love- the butterflies really do love their little butterfly bush!
Monday, August 1, 2011
The beach...and a beach chair caddy project to make
We've had such a beautiful weekend! High temps but with much less humidity than before...which is extra awesome because my hair behaves better. Priorities, right?
On Friday my Mom and I had a date at the...HOBBY LOBBY! Yay! We have an HL here in New England now! And let me just say, after going there, I totally get what all you southerners have been bragging about all these years, ha ha! I had taken the brood with me last week for a "few" things and we bought out aisles 3, 4, and 5, but after a while the kiddos turned naughty and it was time to hightail it outta there. My Mom and I wandered around the place for a whopping four hours! I couldn't believe it! It was so much fun!
We had a lazy day yesterday, cleaning up a bit and hanging out, so after church this morning I was more than ready to hit the beach. Bill was ready to hit the hay- he was feeling awful and it was obvious the poor guy wasn't up for an afternoon of sand and sun. I hated going without him, but we did have a great time. I even ran into an old childhood friend of mine! Hi Pete...or Paul- the only identical twins I've ever known that I could never tell apart, ha!
So...onto the project...
One of our beach towels got a big tear in the center, but it was still in good condition otherwise so I didn't want to toss it. I kept thinking up ideas for how to reuse it or do something creative with it and I finally decided to try my luck with a beach chair caddy.
I didn't measure anything and the towel has stripes so that made cutting even lines a cinch. Of course I did have a few teeny tiny mishaps along the way (have you ever tried to take out stitches from terrycloth? um, yeah, that was IMPOSSIBLE!), but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
First I cut the desire size for the towel "envelope" that will fit over the beach chair.
Next I chose a leftover hunk of cloth for the pockets, folded it over to create a large rectangle- you will need the top to be the fold- and stitched the raw edges together (right sides together) along the bottom and sides. You will need to leave a small opening to turn the rectangle right side out. Press.
Stitch the rectangle to the towel along the sides and bottom.
I did a simple straight stitch and then reinforced the edges with a wide zig zag stitch- the pockets will need to be sturdy enough to hold full bottles of sunscreen and such. (I didn't bother to slip-stitch the small opening since the zig zag secured all edges to the towel.)
Then I measured 4 pockets and chalked my stitching lines. (Don't worry- the chalk comes off after.)
I stitched 3 straight lines, following the chalk. Easy peasy!
I must admit here that was it was slightly demoralizing to work on this project with a well-used towel, complete with stains, but...it's going to the beach so it doesn't have to be perfect and it's something that just would have been thrown away, so I'm happy to see it refurbished and given new life!
At this point I was going to simply stitch along the sides of the towel, right sides together, to form the envelope or pocket that slips over the top of the chair...but I wondered if it would slip off my chair if it got filled up with heavier items. (It didn't.) You could totally stop here and have a useful beach chair caddy, though I really do like the way I can roll the whole thing up and tie it together, keeping everything nice and neat.
If you want to add the ties, cut 2 long strips of towel, preferably along the finished edge so you only have to hem one side, and pin to the towel just above the pockets.
WAIT, STOP! This is backwards, which is what got me into trouble...Ignore this photo, go to the next one!
Aah, that's better! You don't want to make that mistake like I did!
Stitch ties in place above the pockets.
Fold top of towel over ties and pockets and stitch sides together (right sides). I kept the side with the caddy pockets a tad longer than the plain side, but you can do it however you like.
And voila! It works!
My messy tote went from this...
...to this! **except the powder- that was too big to fit in the pocket**
Today was its maiden voyage to the lake, and it didn't disappoint! (I was having too much fun to remember to take a picture of it!) I do wish I'd made the pockets a tad shorter since things got a little lost down in there, but overall it was very useful! Sunscreen, glasses, phone, water bottle, keys, Isabelle's change of clothes in a ziploc bag, and whatever else right at the ready and up off the sand- awesome! Maybe next time I will add 2 rows of pockets, hmmm.... (I did tie the straps at one point to see what it felt like to lean against them while sitting, and the added shoulder cushioning was kinda nice! I suppose you could easily tie the straps along the caddy pockets if you don't prefer a little extra cushioning.)
Functional, pretty and I feel like I just did some very small part in saving our earth. =)
Linking up to these great parties...
Sew Can Do
Sew Many Ways
The Girl Creative
Hope Studios
Sugar Bee Crafts
DIY by Design
Tea Rose Home
Tatertots & Jello
On Friday my Mom and I had a date at the...HOBBY LOBBY! Yay! We have an HL here in New England now! And let me just say, after going there, I totally get what all you southerners have been bragging about all these years, ha ha! I had taken the brood with me last week for a "few" things and we bought out aisles 3, 4, and 5, but after a while the kiddos turned naughty and it was time to hightail it outta there. My Mom and I wandered around the place for a whopping four hours! I couldn't believe it! It was so much fun!
We had a lazy day yesterday, cleaning up a bit and hanging out, so after church this morning I was more than ready to hit the beach. Bill was ready to hit the hay- he was feeling awful and it was obvious the poor guy wasn't up for an afternoon of sand and sun. I hated going without him, but we did have a great time. I even ran into an old childhood friend of mine! Hi Pete...or Paul- the only identical twins I've ever known that I could never tell apart, ha!
So...onto the project...
One of our beach towels got a big tear in the center, but it was still in good condition otherwise so I didn't want to toss it. I kept thinking up ideas for how to reuse it or do something creative with it and I finally decided to try my luck with a beach chair caddy.
I didn't measure anything and the towel has stripes so that made cutting even lines a cinch. Of course I did have a few teeny tiny mishaps along the way (have you ever tried to take out stitches from terrycloth? um, yeah, that was IMPOSSIBLE!), but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
First I cut the desire size for the towel "envelope" that will fit over the beach chair.
Next I chose a leftover hunk of cloth for the pockets, folded it over to create a large rectangle- you will need the top to be the fold- and stitched the raw edges together (right sides together) along the bottom and sides. You will need to leave a small opening to turn the rectangle right side out. Press.
Stitch the rectangle to the towel along the sides and bottom.
I did a simple straight stitch and then reinforced the edges with a wide zig zag stitch- the pockets will need to be sturdy enough to hold full bottles of sunscreen and such. (I didn't bother to slip-stitch the small opening since the zig zag secured all edges to the towel.)
I must admit here that was it was slightly demoralizing to work on this project with a well-used towel, complete with stains, but...it's going to the beach so it doesn't have to be perfect and it's something that just would have been thrown away, so I'm happy to see it refurbished and given new life!
At this point I was going to simply stitch along the sides of the towel, right sides together, to form the envelope or pocket that slips over the top of the chair...but I wondered if it would slip off my chair if it got filled up with heavier items. (It didn't.) You could totally stop here and have a useful beach chair caddy, though I really do like the way I can roll the whole thing up and tie it together, keeping everything nice and neat.
If you want to add the ties, cut 2 long strips of towel, preferably along the finished edge so you only have to hem one side, and pin to the towel just above the pockets.
WAIT, STOP! This is backwards, which is what got me into trouble...Ignore this photo, go to the next one!
Stitch ties in place above the pockets.
Fold top of towel over ties and pockets and stitch sides together (right sides). I kept the side with the caddy pockets a tad longer than the plain side, but you can do it however you like.
Functional, pretty and I feel like I just did some very small part in saving our earth. =)
Linking up to these great parties...
Sew Can Do
Sew Many Ways
The Girl Creative
Hope Studios
Sugar Bee Crafts
DIY by Design
Tea Rose Home
Tatertots & Jello
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