Hmm...

It's been quite a while since my last update, but since I'm fairly certain no one reads this anyway, I'll not apologize for that.  

Right now, I am sitting in the very spacious master suite of a lovely resort in Orlando, Florida. Why, you may ask? Simply because my parents had the foresight to buy the last week of the year several years ago, and then got a dog, so they no longer use the thing.  But rather than sell it, they hold it for us kids to use as we wish. And we definitely wish to enjoy it this year! ☺️ My parents decided to get my entire family, all five of us, passes to Universal Studios, Florida!!!  And not cheapy-cheap passes either! They got us year-round passes with free parking and no black-out dates! From parents who are constantly complaining about having no money, this was definitely a surprise, too! So once the husband goes back to his home on Monday night/ Tuesday morning (he has to work on Tuesday, 😕) we will be heading to the park to see all the wonderful sites. I'm hoping there's not a huge line at "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", because the kids all want to go there! Of course I'll take pictures, and hopefully I'll even remember to upload them, too! ☺️  But regardless, this is a week for family fun, to forget about all the troubles we have to deal with on a daily basis, and to just enjoy being US.

I'm really hoping that we have a great time, and not a stupid, boring, mediocre time, which would really stink, but if my older sister has her way, that is EXACTLY what is going to happen.  She is here too, of course, and she ALWAYS tries to take over EVERYTHING, especially where my kids are involved!  But I have a plan! It's called "let her walk ahead of us and go one way, them we take off in the opposite direction!" lol Seriously, I love my sister, I really do, but she is SOOO controlling! You've no idea, unless you happen to have an older sister like mine.  Then you know all too well!  :)

And so that's all for now! With the hubs here I don't have to cook a single thing until Tuesday, so I am going to enjoy my wine, my chocolates (gotta love half-off Christmas candy sales! lol), and relative silence, huh?  And who knows, maybe I'll start feeling ambitious and post a recipe or two once I start cooking again.  ☺️

Well...

So, it's been hectic and crazy for me, trying to get things done in the house, not go crazy with the kids, pay bills, make it to after school activities, etc., etc., etc., but I'm trying my best.  And it seems that things are actually going fairly well for us.  The kids have been behaving much better than they have in the last few years, they actually do the things that they're told to do, even the Eldest, who has almost NEVER done as he was told, much to my surprise and excessive pleasure.  My Wee Boy is still having some problems with school, and we're trying to get him the help he needs to figure out why he keeps having the problems he's having, and my Wee Girl is...  Well, she's still herself, and nothing about her has changed.  lol  I haven't synced my phone, which is currently my only camera, to the computer in a while, so I have no pictures to share yet, but I'm hoping I will soon, as there are a lot that I would love to share!  But for now, that is all, and I'll try to write more often than once a month!  :)

Away...

Well, it seems I've been away from here much longer than initially anticipated, and that is mainly because I still don't have a computer, never mind Internet, at home.  But I'm working on it.  I'm doing everything I can to try to get both within the next month or so.  I really need to as well, since I intend to try to open my online shop again.  I really need additional income, I'm not sure I can continue living on nearly-nothing each month.  But for now, I have the library close enough, and if I _REALLY_ get desperate, I can always use my phone.  Service at my house is spotty at best, but it's what I have.  That's all for now, I have email to check as well as other things to do.  Have a happy Monday evening!  :)

9/11...

12 years...

It's been 12 years since the events of 9/11/2001 left their mark on everyone old enough to realize what happened.  And in 12 years, so much has changed, but so much is still the same.  It's bizarre how that happens, isn't it?  A war was started, a war was ended, people blamed the ruling party in government for both, and neither was really at fault.  Oh, some could argue one way or the other, I'm sure, but honestly?  What's the point?  So where were you when you heard about the events of that tragic day?

I was laying in a hospital bed in Aurora, Colorado, having just given birth to my younger son two days before.  It was the day I got to take my sweet little bundle home from the hospital, and I was excited about it.  We'd been having a good morning, the sky outside my room window was blue with big, puffy white clouds, my little man had nursed like a champ, as he had since he was just 30 minutes old, and we were snuggling when some woman walked into my room.  To this day I don't know who she was or why she was in my room, but figuring she was a nurse or something, I greeted her with a cheery "Hello!" and a smile.  She stared at me with doleful eyes, then glumly said, "Oh...  Hello..."  I was confused by this greeting, after I had greeted her so cheerfully, and I asked, "What's the matter with you?"  She replied, in that same glum voice, "Oh, you didn't hear?  They blew up the Twin Towers.  Sorry."  Then this woman, who I didn't know and had never seen before in my life, turned tail, walked out of my room, and I never saw her again.  Figuring she was just some weirdo, I turned on the TV to prove to myself that she was some wacko, and it turned out she wasn't.  Well, she probably WAS, considering she walked into my room out of nowhere with all of this, but on that point, she wasn't wrong.  My heart hit the floor.  I tried calling my parents, my husband, everyone I knew.  I even called my work, where they had found a TV in a storage room and all the agents on the floor were watching in dumbfounded silence.  I think the worst part was that neither my parents nor my husband was answering the phone that day, which had me absolutely frantic trying to get in touch with them.  And being in Colorado, and so close to the mountains, there was concern that a plane might try to make a go at NORAD, the The North American Aerospace Defense Command, I suppose it was a legitimate concern.  All hospitals, schools, and government buildings were on lockdown, everyone was terrified of what could possibly happen next.

Over the next few days, things started to return to some semblance of normalcy, but the events of that day will always be indelibly etched into my brain and heart...

Moving...

My kids and I moved on Friday, 16, August. It was... Well honestly, to say it was one of the most stressful moves we've ever made would be a definite understatement! We left far later than we had wanted to, as the truck got there much later than anticipated, so we didn't actually arrive at the new house until about 2:30am on Saturday. And then the truck got stuck trying to get into my driveway, and it took over an hour to get it UNstuck, before we could start with the unloading. Which went surprisingly fast, considering how very long it took to load the darned thing! But once everything was in the house, we were able to settle down and sleep for a while. I think the kids fell asleep around 5am or so, but I couldn't manage to get to sleep until nearly 6am. But then we were all up and ready to go for the day by about 11am, go figure. That was when we started finding out all the things about the house that I think I would rather not know... But more of that later!

We spent the better portion of Saturday finishing our school clothes/ shoes shopping, getting food, and doing that sort of thing, then Sunday we went to get school supplies as well as a few essentials that I didn't already have because I left them at the other house for the boys there. And it was Saturday night/ Sunday morning that I realized my 11yo was definitely sick. >.< So he missed the first day of school to go to the doctor, was given appropriate medications to treat his malady, and he went the very next day. The Littles seem to enjoy their classes, which is good since most kids I know don't usually enjoy school, but the oldest... Well, he's an angsty teenager, he doesn't actually LIKE anything anymore! lol But he has expressed satisfaction with his schedule, and the fact that several friends are in many of his classes while his cousin is in none ( and believe me, for him that is DEFINITELY a good thing! lol) so maybe it won't be so bad after all. As for me... Well, I've been unpacking and trying to organize this place, all the while trying to figure out where I'm going to put things, how I'm going to get the rest of my furniture, which is currently at my parents house, to MY house, and slowly realizing how very much was left behind, things that are necessary and generally needed on an almost-daily basis, at that. Ah well, hopefully I'll manage to replace it all, but until then, I suppose I just have to keep doing everything I can to make what I have work, huh?

We've been here a little over a week and a half now, and I've still not managed to finish unpacking. The house is still full of bags, bins, and boxes that need dealing with. I think one of the reasons I haven't managed to finish unpacking is because I don't have the space for my craft stuff, and I really don't want to just toss it all into a closet or something. I want to be able to have it out and use it, since my craft stuff really is rather important to me. I mean, I really love making things, and this place is just about big enough that I can have a crafting area set up all the time, I just need to find a table so I can have it set up. And THAT is what's proving to be so difficult, finding a table to use. I know I will find one, it's simply a question of when, but until then my things remain in boxes, and that is so very frustrating. But I'll manage, I'm sure. After all, I always do! :)

Happy 10th birthday, my sweet little girl.

Today you are 10 years old.  It seems like it was just yesterday that you were a tiny little thing, though you were the biggest of my three babies, snuggled up in my arms.

You were a joy right from the beginning, though admittedly getting you here was a bit of a trial at first.

Ah, but I have never ever, not for a minute, wanted anyone other than you.  You are (most of the time) a joy to be around, such a wonderful little helper, and generally pretty cheerful.

 

Happy birthday, my sweet little girl.  It's hard to believe it's been ten years already, but proof is right there in front of me, for all to see.  :)

Rollercoaster ride of life...

Today has definitely been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me.  Yesterday I was all upset because the place for rent that we had been looking at wasn't going to be ready in time, and that REALLY bummed me out, because we NEED a place to live that's close enough to the school for my kids to be able to go.  That sent me to bed unusually early for me (before 11pm!) which in turn had me awake at about 6:30 this morning.  I don't usually answer my phone before 10am, but then almost everyone knows not to try to call me before then, so it's generally not an issue.  But then about 9:15, I got a phone call from the man who owns the house I was looking at.  I didn't hear the phone ring, thanks to my phone being in "Do Not Disturb" mode until 10am, but I saw it shortly after that, and immediately called the man back.  He has another house for rent, and is willing to lower the rent so that we can afford it.  It's still $50 more a month than the other house, but it's bigger, way bigger from what I was told, didn't need nearly the amount of work the other place did, and this one has a FIREPLACE!!!  Ooh, I just LOOOVE fireplaces in houses, almost as much as I love two-story homes with beautiful stairway railings.  :D  So I found out all the information I could about the new place, including how much he wants down on it and all the rest, that there's no dishwasher (though there really is plenty of counterspace to install one, the kitchen is simply HUGE!), and several other things I needed to know about it, including the address, because that is a fairly crucial piece of information when you're trying to get utilities hooked up!  lol  Anyway, then, all of a sudden, completely out of the black, I was in a bad mood.  The worst part is, I don't even know WHY I was in such a bad mood, but I was.  And I still kind of am, which sucks, because I was in such a GOOD mood earlier!  But alas, such is life, yes?

Well, I have ONE more finger puppet to sew up and stuff tonight, and then I can package everything.  That's gonna be fun, since I have no boxes and no wrapping paper, but more importantly, no money to go out and BUY either!  So I guess I'll just have to make do with what I have on hand, little though that may be.  Eh, it's not so bad, I've done so before, and will very likely have to do so again.  I predict that this is not the end to the lean and scarce birthdays for my little Brood.  Not that I care very much, but...  Sometimes I wonder if the kids will look back on all the years that I made them birthday and Christmas gifts and say, "Gee, we must've been really poor back then.  Mom couldn't even buy us gifts, she had to MAKE them!"  I just hope, when they look back, that they see the love with which each piece was made instead.  And I hope, I truly hope, that my children will also develop and keep a sense of love for handcrafted items, enough so that not only do they buy them when they see them, but that they also want to make them, either for their own children and friends children, but also just because, and maybe to donate places as well.  And now, though I am not in quite such a bad mood anymore, I am still not feeling quite...  Right yet, either.  Ah well.  Likely I will soon enough.  I promise that I will post pictures of the things that I made for my sweet girl after she has opened all of her gifts tomorrow.  And what a day it's going to be, too!  :)

O.o

Tomorrow is my little girl's 10th birthday.  I am rather boggled at this.  Ten years, really?  WOW!  I can't believe it's been 10 years already.  I've made her a few presents (pics will follow after she has opened all of her presents) and I am just finishing up on one today.  I know I have to be insane though, because I am honestly thinking about trying to make her a skirt for tomorrow, despite the fact that I really do have no time to do so.  But I know me, and now that the idea is in my head, I'll be hard pressed to get it out.  I will do my best to post pictures once either she goes to bed tonight or after she has opened everything tomorrow.  This is going to be a fun day though, rest assured!  :)

Memories...

Growing up, I would hear stories of the things my mother made for my sisters and my brother. But for me? I have vague memories of a bathing suit that my mother made me, and that's about it. I have an afghan my grandmother made for me, complete with a crocheted monogram, but really, that's all. I guess that's just what happens when you're the youngest in a family of 6, and your parents first grandchild is born just a scant 10 months after you. I am not upset or bitter about this, not at all. I'm the youngest of six children for heaven's sake, and not just that, but also the last of four girls! To say my parents had their hands full would be an extreme understatement! But sometimes... Sometimes I find myself wishing I had had that closeness with my parents; that bond that just seems to be missing from my entire family...

So I am doing everything I can to make those good memories with my kids, so that they will remember them, hopefully fondly, when they're older and have children of their own. Crafting is wonderful, and I do enjoy it to be sure, but I need to constantly remind myself not to let it take over my life! It seems I have somewhat forgotten this in recent days, and now all I can to is strive to make it up to them. So please, don't be like me. Don't forget to play and have FUN with your children while they're still young enough to enjoy it and actually want you there with them. I'm not saying don't make them clothes or toys if doing so is something you enjoy, by all means do those things if they make you happy, but don't let doing those things make you lose sight of what really is more important, making memories with your child. You don't want your son or daughter to look back at their childhood and think, "I remember my mother/ father being there, but s/he was always tired, crabby, and just not fun to be around. S/he was always stressed out about finishing a project, meeting a deadline, or something else. Yeah, s/he made stuff for me, but... I think I'd rather not talk about that anymore. So, what's going I with..." Yeah, that's not exactly how I want to be remembered by my kids. I want my kids to remember the time we made Oobleck and they got to feel the liquid, yet solid properties of it. I want them to remember when we made play dough on the stovetop and they got to help kneed the different colours in. I want them to remember that trip to the Springs, when in the middle of the summer the water was so cold we could barely make it in past our hips, and our lips were almost purple when we finally got out to go home. Or that trip to the beach that took forever to get ready for, much less find, but that we enjoyed so much. I want them to remember the hand-crafted toys and gifts I have given them, certainly, but I think I would rather be remembered for the fun we shared together, I would rather they remember me actually being there, and not just remembering that I made things for them.

This whole post came about because I was talking to a friend today and I realized that I don't really have many pleasant memories of my parents from when I was growing up. I have plenty of memories of them being there, just sort of off in the background, but not really THERE there.  I have memories of bad things, like when my parents got into an argument or I got in particularly bad trouble for something, as I'm sure most people do, but yeah, there really aren't many FOND memories in there. I don't want that for my kids. I don't want them to look back and only see the fights, the arguments, all the terrible things. I want them to look back with fondness, and to try to give their children the same fun times, plus more if they can, and maybe a few handmade gifts here and there as well.

Birthday presents

The problem with having children with birthdays in August and September is that it's too far away from tax time, and too close to the winter holidays.  Money is always short, and there's a great deal of stress involved in trying to make sure your child(ren) have a good time for their birthdays.  To be honest, it really SUCKS when their birthdays come around and you're perpetually broke from trying to make ends meet, never mind trying to save up for Christmas/ Hanukkah/ whatever holiday you happen to celebrate at that time of the year.

This is why I have taken to trying to make gifts for my kids.  No, they don't always appreciate the work I put into their things, and they also don't always entirely LIKE the games/ toys they're given, but that never seems to make me stop trying.  This year, I am making my daughter a "doll-making kit", but I'm having difficulty thinking of what else I should give her.  I know birthdays shouldn't be all about gifts, and I do try to teach my kids that they're really not, but sometimes I feel like that is the best I can do for them when it comes to their birthdays, and since we may be away from their father when their birthdays roll around yet again, I feel like I really need to make sure that they get something really special from me, and hopefully Daddy will be able to move with us by Christmas.

Oh, before you ask, no my husband is NOT military.  He works for a local grocery store and is trying to get transferred to a store in our target area, but so far isn't really having much luck.  He's on the list for management, which is a good thing, but honestly, who knows how long that could take to actually get?  But since he doesn't want me homeschooling the Littles, and I refuse to put them back into the school system in the county where he lives (they did not help my younger son in the entire 5 years of school that they had him, in fact they did him more harm than good) it looks like we will have to find a home and move back to the area we were in for all of last year, provided we can find one that's in our target price range and size.  THAT is where we will likely run into some problems, as my budget for housing is EXTREMELY small, but I'll manage, I always do!  :)

Birthdays

Have you ever forgotten about a loved one's birthday? I almost did this year, and I feel TERRIBLE about it!  See, this is my daughter.  She is every ounce of spunk and determination you see in this picture.  She is my youngest, and my only girl.

And she turns TEN in just over two weeks!!!  Here I was, thinking I still had over a month to plan everything, and now I'm kinda totally freaking out about it!  I haven't made any party plans ( though I have an idea in my head for one, I don't even know where we may be living in two weeks!), I haven't been telling my husband every ten minutes that we need to figure out what we're giving her, since 10 is what I consider to be a milestone birthday, and OMG NOW I'M TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!!!  Last year my parents gave her some toys, I made her a felt crown that she wore all day, and I made a few gifts for her, specifically the aforementioned crown, a "jumping pixies" game (tutorial can be found here), and  a rainbow ribbon wand (simple tutorial found here, though mine didn't look even 1/4 as lovely as theirs did!, but my little Lovey loved it anyway), the ideas for which were all obtained thanks to Pinterest and some of my absolute favourite blogs.  So now I have 2 weeks and 2 days to come up with gifts for her, and not only am I running out of time, but I'm out of money as well!  But no fear, I will definitely come up with ideas for things to make her, I always do!  And when I do, you can be sure there will be pictures posted.  :D

Dolls

Have you ever made a toy for one of your kids? Over the years I've made so many toys for my kids, it's not funny. And the past few days, when I couldn't sleep, or when the Littles were otherwise occupied, I've been able to sit down and make things. Specifically, I've been making little (and by little, I mean like 3-inches-tall, little) dollies for my Girl. I've been making them for years, but recently discovered a blog that gave me a great idea on how to make their feet and hands work so much better than I had been making them! And oh BOY have I been making them a LOT! lol Here are some of the ones made over the past few days. :)

These three are the very first ones we made, and by me I do mean me and the Littles. My sweet 11yo made the one on the left, and he was too impatient to sea her dress together, so he used glue instead. lol The middle one is my first try, and I rather like her. The third mg daughter started, got angry at when she couldn't get something to work right, and threw at me to finish, which I did, and now of course, V loves her. lol

(Please ignore the messy workspace, I have very limited room for my crafting, unfortunately) this little lady is my first attempt a fins on a bendy doll. I definitely need t tweak my fin pattern (too thick in the middle, too thin at the waist) but other than that I think she went fairly well. 

Now, this little beauty actually does have a face, though she didn't when I took this picture. Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to leave her as-is, or if I want to add little leaf wings to her back. And though you can't tell because they're covered, she has lime and green striped "tights" on her little legs, which make me think of a flower stem. And that works, since her dress is made up of disassembled faux flowers! :)

I don't have any single pictures of the doll on the left yet, but as you can see I made another with a flower dress. I and truly rather enamoured of these types, and foresee several more being made in the future. Also, I need to fix the eyes and mouth on the right-hand doll, as her eyes are too light and her mouth is too dark. But for now, at least, I have decided to leave her wing-less, though I may well make a removable pair that can be shared amongst the bendies. Oh, and I have SOOO many other ideas for bendies, just wait! I need to make a few improvements to the ones already made, and I have at least two dozen more ideas running about in my head for others, so I'll be sure to post pictures of them as I go. I'm truly having fun with these types of dolls, and I'm very glad I rediscovered their simple construction! :)  The tutorial for these little lovelies can be found here, at The Enchanted Tree.  I love these little things, and I think my daughter will enjoy playing with them as much as I have (so far!  lol) enjoyed making them.  :)

Teenagers

What is with them, anyway?  I mean, I've met some of the best, most well-adjusted, sweetest, kindest, amazing teenagers ever, and then...  Then there's my kid.  16 years old, constantly talking back, giving attitude, causing trouble...  I swear, he is just such a jerk it's not funny!  And I was the total POLAR FREAKING OPPOSITE when I was his age!  I just about never talked back to my mother, I did as I was told, usually when I was told to do it, though sometimes it would wait 10-20 minutes if I was already in the middle of something else, and he is...  I need an antidote for the boorish, anti-social, self-centered, egomaniacal teenage male, and I need it fast...  >.<

Crafting

I'm a Pinterest addict, have I mentioned that?  No?  You should check out my boards sometime, you would totally understand.  lol  Well recently, I found a page to make something called "Bendy Dolls" and realized that I've been making them FOREVER, only I never called them anything!  So here is the link to the craft I am going to attempt to make with my Littles today.  If they prove successful, then I shall post pictures of them later.  :)

Sleep.

Do you get the requisite 8 hours a night?  How about at least 6?  There was a study done a while back (can't remember when or who did it) that says our bodies work on 1.5 hour cycles, and you need at least two of these cycles of REM sleep in order to be able to function.  I, my friends, am living proof that this is not true, as I very frequently manage to not only function but pretend to be a normal person on less than 3 hours of sleep.  Today seems to be one of those days.  I really do TRY to sleep earlier, but for some reason, it never seems to happen.  Take last night, for example.  At 11pm, everyone was in bed.  As I lay there, staring in the dark at the ceiling, I thought to myself, "Maybe you need something else to help your brain unwind.  Why not try a book?"  Thinking this was a wise idea, I grabbed a book my sister gave me a few weeks ago, but that I had only managed to read about 4 pages in.  This was probably around 11:15 or 11:30.  I finished the book around 2:30, with no signs of tiredness happening any time soon.  So I picked up the second book in the series (there are three that I have, I don't know if there are more than that though) and read it for about 10-20 minutes, then realized I really needed to get to sleep because the alarm was set to go off at 8:45, and I really wanted to be able to get up then and be productive today.  So I turned on my white noise app, and laid down, fully prepared to stare at the ceiling for a few more hours before finally falling asleep.  Surprisingly I fell asleep quickly, but UNfortunately, I woke up much sooner than expected.  I'm guessing my hubby must've bumped the bed or something, because I woke up as he was getting ready to leave for work this morning (he went in as 6am today, and will be going in at the same time tomorrow) so by 5:45, I was awake.  I thought I could go right back to sleep, but that didn't happen, so I tried moving into his spot on the bed, to see if that would help me sleep.  After about 20-30 minutes of really trying and wishing that I was sleeping, I gave up, got dressed, put away the laundry that was sitting about in my bedroom, and came out to the computer, to discover my 16yo sound asleep on the couch with his glasses still on!  lol  So of course I removed his glasses (I really should give him back his contacts one day soon, lol) and sat down at the computer.  I've been here ever since, but I think I'm going to go do some dishes and start breakfast.  Maybe the smell of strawberry syrup and French toast will wake up my Littles so they can eat and work on some summer workbooks for a little while.  Most likely I will be back later, and possibly even with PICTURES of my attempt at a simple breakfast for my kids.  :)

Children and Chores...

For some kids, chores are simply things that need to be done before they can go about the process of having fun and enjoying the day.  They do them automatically because they know that doing them will get them to whatever it is they want to do that much faster.  Then there are kids who see their daily chores as torture and torment of the vilest and wickedest nature.  Unfortunately my children fall into this second category, and will go out of their way to do everything BUT their own assigned chores.  I'm trying to break them of this habit, but it isn't going so well.  I'm trying, though, always trying!  For example, my 11yo was told to put away HIS clothing the other day.  HIS clothing, no one else's.  Well, instead of doing that, he sorted EVERYONE'S laundry, but left his sitting in a pile on the floor!  lol  I'm tellin' ya, they make more work for themselves and they STILL don't get what needed to be done in the first place actually DONE!  It can be rather comical, but also most vexing.  But we're working on it, and I'm trying to change their bad habits to good habits.  :). It's not exactly working yet, but hey, I'm still trying! lol

Christmas on the brain...

It's barely July, and I am already thinking of Christmas.  I really must be losing it, seriously, I have to be to want to start on Christmas stuff now!  But alas, that's just how it is!

My thoughts right now are that I should pick at least four things from different boards on my Pinterest and make those for my Littles, as well as some things for teachers, neighbours, etc.  So now I have to decide which of the things in my boards I'm going to make for the kids, which are going to be clothes, which toys, and what to make for others...


My 11yo will be simple to make things for, and since there really aren't that many patterns for boy clothes out there that I would be willing to make him wear, likely he will end up with more of the toy-type handmade gifts than the clothing ones.  Which I'm sure he won't mind, since he loves anything and everything that I make for him.  He really is the sweetest child I have ever had.  :)

Coming up with things to make for my daughter is probably going to be the most difficult thing imaginable, especially if you've ever encountered the Pinterest board of things I want to make for my girl!  If only I actually had people who read this thing (I'm under no delusions here, I know this isn't exactly a popular blog, I've seen how many page views I have, and it's decidedly lacking, lol) then I could ask for reader opinions, but instead I'll likely just ask on Facebook and see what some of my friends think.  lol  it's still going to be extremely difficult to manage though, because there are THAT many things pinned there...

I suppose you're probably wondering why I haven't mentioned making anything for my husband or my 16yo, but if you've ever been into any sort of crafting, you already know that husbands and teenagers rarely ever appreciate something handmade and with a great deal of thought, they would rather you buy cheaply-made, commercially-available crap and electronics, though my hubby DOES enjoy cooking gear too, since he is a chef by trade.  So pretty much other than that sort of stuff, I'll not be making anything for my biggest "boys" for Christmas.  Although, maybe some homemade shaving cream, or something like that?  Hmm...  Methinks a search of Pinterest may be in order now...  :D

And of course, I am ALWAYS thinking of things to make for friends, since I simply can't get through most days without their help.  And I am very happy to admit that I have MANY friends who I consider family.  I love them as much as if they were family, possibly even more so, because they are my CHOSEN family.  I may not see some of them all that often, but whenever I have a problem or need someone to talk to, my family of choice is almost always there more often than my birth family.  I gotta say, my friends really rock.  :)  So that's it for now.  I'm sure I'll post updates and things as I go along, hopefully with pictures of the things I've decided on and how I made them.  This should definitely be an interesting next few months!

Eggs...

There is nothing so simple, yet so vastly complex, as an egg, is there?  I mean, think about it for a minute.  Eggs are used all the time in recipes for different foods, and also eaten on their own, they can be baked, fried, poached, boiled, used to make delicious savory sauces, and also as delightfully sweet desserts.  But have you ever actually thought about that box of eggs in your refrigerator?

As I've mentioned, we just spent a little over a year living on a farm that was very much a WORKING farm.  We had cows, pigs, ducks, a turkey, Guinea fowl, a dog, a cat, and more chickens than I could count on any given day, with more hatching all the time.  So really, we were never at a loss for eggs!  But...  For the first time in probably more than a year, I cracked open two eggs from a store-bought dozen, and nearly started to CRY.  The yolks were so PALE!  The melted butter in the pan almost had more colour than they did!  I wish I had some pictures of the eggs our chickens up north laid, because they were BEAUTIFUL by comparison, they were a bright, deep, RICH almost ORANGE golden yolk, and they had AMAZING flavour!  I actually once accused my mother of having added yellow food colouring to the scrambled eggs she served for breakfast during a family trip once, because the yolks were THAT bright.  Not the pale excuses for yolks in these commercially grown, store-bought eggs.  So tonight, and until I can find a source for farm-fresh eggs again, I shall be mourning the loss of my wonderfully bright-yolked eggs from chickens I know and love...

Independence Day and exhaustion...

...  These two almost always seem to go hand-in-hand for me, and this year was no different.  I had planned to make a simple dress from a dollar store t-shirt for my daughter a few days ago, to wear to a dear family friend's party Thursday, but then I kept getting distracted from it until about 10pm the night before Independence Day, YIKES!  I was initially inspired by the cute t-shirt dress with the braided collar Ashley made for her younger daughter over at Make It & Love It, but I couldn't find a single one of her cami's do use as a pattern!  So instead I grabbed one of her tank tops, and laid it out on the shirt, totally forgetting to remove the pocket first, but thankfully when the dress was cut, the pocket stayed on and I was able to pick it off after cutting the dress out.  YAY!  Since the only T that I could find that was the appropriate size was grey, I just HAD to dress it up with some red, white, and blue now didn't I?  And THAT is where the trouble started!  lol  The dress was so simple to make, I'm sure I'll be making at least a dozen more, but WOW, I didn't realize how much more difficult making things like clothing can be when you no longer own an iron!  Yes, you read that correctly, we no longer have an iron.  At some point over the last year that my husband and I have been apart, he managed to lose/ throw away my expensive, cordless, Oreck iron!  Needless to say, I am DECIDEDLY less than pleased!  However, the dress is cute and I am quite satisfied with the results.

So, I mentioned that it's a dress made out of a size 3X t-shirt from the dollar store, right?  Cuz it absolutely is.  And in order to give it some pizazz for this wonderful holiday, I used three sheets of craft felt, one each red, white, and blue, and cut four stars from each one.  These were SOOO difficult to get on!  I had pins in more spots on this thing than I think I have used ever, except when I had to pin-pleat a shirt I was making for my son, and I couldn't get my sewing machine to gather the piece I needed gathered.  Sewing on those stars...  Yeah, I don't think I will EVER do something like this again, EVER.  (Of course, having said that, now you know my brain is secretly plotting for me to do exactly that another 50 times before the end of the year, right?  And I'll only find out about it after I've made the first 30.  lol)  But enough jibber-jabber! 

Here is the dress before any pinning/ sewing took place, it only has the stars laid out where I wanted them to be:

That was about the point when I realized I was going to KILL myself trying to sew down each of those stars individually, with nothing holding them to the dress front to make it NOT move, and no stabilizer or interfacing to help give the fabric some heft and make it not move about as well!  Ah well, such is life, right?

Well, about three hours later, I had this.  Well, most of this.  About 3am I got so frustrated with the thread I was using for the hems and the neck- and arm-hole openings, because it kept snapping randomly, that I just HAD to go to Walmart and get new thread!  It was maddeningly frustrating!  But this was done by 4am, all but sewing down the seams to the back of the dress, and she keeps insisting she loves it.  I would honestly be surprised if I discover her not wearing it when I go to bed later!  lol

So my guess is that the dress was a hit.  She loved it, and surprisingly we received several compliments on it today, too!  I like it when things that I make get complimented, especially when I'm not too sure how the finished product would look, as I definitely was with this one.  So I'm very glad it worked out.  And that's it for now.  Happy Independence Day for those still celebrating, happy sleeping and Friday, for those already on to the next day of the week.  :)

Little bit of catching up...

Things have been fairly hectic for us.  As I think I have mentioned, my children and I were staying with my parents in another part of the state, away from my husband.  We had planned a 3-week vacation to visit him and spend time over the summer with him, and at the very last minute, my mother decided she not only didn't want us to come back at all, but she wasn't going to ALLOW us to come back, and had planned to throw away all of our things after we left!  So we packed as much as possible into my car and headed out.  Initially I had been planning to call their bluff and stay, just to annoy them, but then I decided I didn't want to do that to my children, and I would rather not be around people capable of treating their own flesh and blood in such a manner.  So though the kids were a bit buried, we managed to make it here with almost everything of importance.  Of course, we completely forgot the cords for both my sewing machine and my serger, but I still have my old machine down here, so I can use that until my sister can bring me those cords.  Well, IF she will bring them to me, I guess would be the wiser thing to say.  And I have talked my mother out of throwing everything away, she will hold onto it until I can arrange it's transport either back down here or to a place up there, which I am looking for as we speak, as well as a job to pay to live up there.  So for now, I will just make do with what I have and hope I don't go stir-crazy in the meantime.  :)
Today I decided to dig out said older sewing machine, and I made a dress/ maxi skirt for my daughter.  It looks wonderful on her, if I do say so myself, though admittedly I need to make a belt for the dress part, and maybe straps to help her keep it up.  But I haven't decided yet, so we'll see.  What do you think?  Not bad for no measuring tape, no iron, and just a yard of fabric, huh?  :)

This is with it pulled up as a dress.  I didn't realize when I snapped the shot that her head was moving, otherwise I would've taken another picture.  Also, the turquoise at her shoulders is not part of the dress, it's just the shirt she happened to be wearing when I had her try this on.  :)

And here it is as a skirt!  I'm really kinda tweaking about the waist, because of it being as uneven as it is, but she said she loves it, and doesn't want me to change anything about it, so I guess I'll just have to leave it.  She really likes it as the long, LLLOOONNNGGG skirt, so maybe it will get more wear that way.  She also said it would make a great cover-up for after the beach, and of course now I'm thinking of removing the elastic and casing altogether and shirring the top instead.  lol

I love making clothes for my sweet little girl, and as far as making clothing goes, this one couldn't be simpler.  Simply sew a tube of fabric (for her I used 1 yard of fabric that was about 42" wide), hem one end for the bottom edge, then either add a casing for elastic at the top or hem and shirr the other side for the waistband.  Couldn't really get much simpler than that!  I have another yard of this fabric and I'm seriously thinking about making a jumper for it, but I'm having trouble finding an appropriate pattern.  I'm sure I'll find something to make from the other yard of this, and I have so many ideas, not only in my head but pinned to Pinterest, that it's not funny!  Up next, if I can find a suitable fabric, I think I'll be trying to make a sort of t-shirt dress, only without sewn-on sleeves, if that makes any sense.  Ambitious, aren't I?  :)

Turmoil and upheaval...

... of both the emotional and physical kind is going on in my life right now, and unfortunately this is a new enough blog that I don't have any back-ups ready to be published as a simple way to distract myself from everything. However in the coming days, as things settle down and I can start trying to pick up the pieces for me and my children, I'm sure at least SOMETHING will come to mind to write about. That is all, enjoy the remainder of your evening.

Weird observations...

Have you ever had a memory from childhood, something you haven't thought about in years, come back when you least expect it, and have it be just like it happened yesterday?  That happened to me in the shower the other day.  I was reaching for my shampoo, when all of a sudden I remembered being about 4 or 5 years old, and deciding that I was going to "save" some hot water in an empty conditioner bottle for me to use the next night in the shower.  Now, I don't know why I thought I could do this, or where the idea even came from, but hey, I was little.  Well, the next night, I got in the shower, turned on the water, and poured the bottle of "hot" water into my hand.  And wouldn't you know?  It was ICE COLD.  Ooh, I was so ANGRY!  I was certain, as certain as my little 5-year-old mind could be, that one of my older sister had STOLEN my hot water and replaced it with this cold junk, just to be mean to me!  So that night, I filled TWO bottles, and hid one, just sure that my ingenious plan would work.  But of course, as I'm sure you've figured out, the next night BOTH bottles were cold, and I was so upset.  I don't know how long it took me to realize that my sisters didn't CARE that I was trying to save hot water, neither of them had touched the bottles, that the bottles were losing heat because that's what they do, but I think I was mad at the two of them for at least a week.  And this all came back to me, thankfully with a smile, as I was getting ready to wash my hair.  The random things that come into my head sometimes...  :)

Poison oak is no fun!

So about this time last year, I managed to get exposed to poison oak. This was not a pleasant experience, and I still bear the scars of my encounter today. In the end, after a week of agonizing pain and anguish, I went to the local ER and ended up on a steroid and an anti-itch medication.

This was taken about two days before I went to the ER and yes, it really was that bad. I wasn't just on this leg, it was also on my opposite upper thigh, various parts of both arms, and on my jawline as well, I just didn't get pictures of those. But this was the worst of it, as this is where it began, the rest was spread by contact. Now, a year later, it seems I have gotten into it again, though this time in a much smaller amount, and now I know how to treat it, so maybe it won't be as bad! This time it's on my left wrist (of course, because I just HAD to be left-handed, didn't I?) and I think I actually came into contact with it off my daughter, who his not in the least bit sensitive to it and has no problem touching it.

She has also discovered the wonders of making her own "magic paste" and just LOVES using baking soda and vinegar on every teensy tiny itch she comes across! lol The other day, I swear both of her legs just COVERED in it, because she "got into an ant nest, Mommy!" Yet strangely enough when it flaked off a few minutes later (thank goodness my 11yo loves to vacuum! lol) there wasn't a single mark anywhere on her! My Littles are so silly! :)

Racing thoughts...

So tonight has been one of those nights where my brain just will NOT let me sleep. It has been running and racing since about 10:30, when I first thought to myself, "Hey, maybe I should try going to bed a little earlier than usual tonight." Guess that was the trigger, because my brain went into super-overload-crafting more, and I haven't been able to stop. I've had ideas and projects racing through my head nearly nonstop ever since. So I decided, what the heck, maybe I should try a few of these ideas out, right? Maybe it'll calm the brain enough to sleep. And this was after straightening/ cleaning under the bathroom sink, too. So I tried out three projects, though one simply involved modifying one previous, and I think I can finally sleep. Biggest problem? Totally forgot to take pictures while I was working. >.< Ah well, I've a feeling I'll definitely be doing all of these projects again, so I'll just have to remember to take pictures then, won't I? :)

Anyway, tonight's projects that I just couldn't get out of my head were bubble dough, (which didn't work so pretty good the first time I tried it using a generic version of Dawn dish soap, so I used a pretty smelling shampoo and that worked nicely, but it looked NOTHING like the pictures/ description on the site, though it was still neat to play with) even better bubble dough, (again, looked/ behaved nothing like what I expected from the site, but was still neat. And yes, I added glitter to mine as well, because glitter rocks! lol) and rainbow rice, (I left out the scent on the rice and so far I've only made two colours, and I made VERY tiny batches of them, just because I wanted to test the technique). But I'm okay with that since I know I'll definitely be making more again, though likely not before we leave to go visit Daddy for a few weeks, given how things have been going. But now I'm going to go try again to sleep and hope I'm more successful this time around than I was the last time. Wish me luck! :)

Peacock Springs, or What We Did for Father's Day

We currently live over 300 miles away from my husband, and the Littles father. This is by choice, but not because we are separated, because we're not. We live so far away because the school system in the county we were in wasn't helping my 11yo when he needed it, and the system where we are now absolutely IS helping him. But Big E hasn't been able to get transferred up to this district yet, so the kids and I are staying with my parents (>.<) while we wait for him to get the transfer. So basically, I've been mother and father this last year, though I never really thought of it that way.

Well, on Father's Day this year, my sister, who is a single mum, decided she wanted to go swimming at one of the Springs (we have two different branches of Blue Springs near us, and they are BOTH delightful!) so I gave in and let the kids have a day of fun at the Springs. We chose to go to the one a county over from us, as it was more likely to have less people at it, but when we got there, it was closed!! However, the very nice ranger told us about Peacock Springs, which neither of us had ever heard of, and so we decided to go there. It was an adventure, to say the least! But it was well worth it, as when we got there there was almost no one there. Peacock Springs is a cave-diving Spring, as there are caverns below the surface of the water, that are apparently wonderful and beautiful, but as I don't know how to scuba dive, I wouldn't know. However, there is also not much actual land to sit/ stand on here, so getting my Littles into the water wasn't easy, believe me!

There were rocks out a bit from the steps, but once you were at the bottom of the steps there was about a 20-foot drop to the bottom of the Spring! Scary thought! And boy oh BOY was that water COLD!!! But it was definitely worth it, the water was so clear and BLUE!!! I will definitely be going back, whether the kids want to or not! :) I had wanted to add some pictures to this, since the Springs were so very lovely, but it appears that I'm having issues doing so from the iPad yet again, so it will have to wait until I can get to the computer, sync my phone's photos, and then do it manually that way. Ah well, such is life! :)

16-year-olds...

This is my 16-year-old son, A. He is more than a handful, to say the least. Do you remember being 16? I do. And I NEVER remember acting the way he does! In fact, if I had tried 1/1000th of the things he does, I probably wouldn't be sitting here tonight writing this!

The 16yo in question

I love my kids, I do, each of them is special and unique in their own way, but this boy... I'm more than half ready to put him on a plane to his biological father and let HIM deal with the next two years of the kid's life, cuz I really just can't take much more of him!!!

Maybe...

I think I've figured out how to get pictures up while writing from the iPad or the phone, and it only took downloading one app to do so, yay!!! So le'ts see if it worked, shall we? :)

I like to take pictures of the sky at different times of day. I generally take them in the mornings when it's foggy, since I love the fog, it's so... Yeah, I dunno, there's just something about it that I just adore. I also like to take pictures of sunrises, sunsets, and any time the sky is just looking particularly lovely. This was one of those times.

I've also discovered that I can't add more than one picture at a time, otherwise the page doesn't allow me to add text before and after the photo. Nice, huh? >.< But hey, I'll figure it out soon enough! :)

Crafty much?

Sadly,Vi haven't yet figured out how to post photos from the iPad to here, so for now, I'll not be posting anything with pictures. Which sucks, cuz I've gotten into a crafty mood lately and have been making a bunch of things recently. So far I've made a pair of wraparound shorts, a cute matching top, and a few skirts for my daughter, and I've been working on some little toys as well. I'll figure it out, or I'll get rid of the kids long enough to go on the computer to put some photos up, but if anyone knos how to get pictures uploaded from an iPad, please let me know, I would love to make this more colourful and visually friendly! :)

A bit of honesty for ya...

I'll be the first person to tell you that I can't sing. I'm not exactly tone-deaf, but I really can't hold a tune in a bucket. I can tell when someone hits a wrong note in a song, and I can tell when something resonates properly to me, but when it comes to actual singing? Yeah, beyond lullabies, I tend to confine my singing to when no one is around to hear me. But then... But then sometimes, I just can't help myself, and I start to sing whatever I happen to be listening to at the time. Well, I usually take great pains to make sure there is no one around when I'm singing, so as to not hurt delicate little ears, and I had THOUGHT that the kids were all outside feeding the animals, but apparently not, because shortly after I started to really belt one out, my oldest came into my room, a pained look on his face, BEGGING me to please STOP, before his ears started to bleed! (He's not too dramatic a teenager, is he? lol) And of course, this makes me... That's right, you guessed it, SING LOUDER! lol I just couldn't help myself, it was so funny. He closed my door, I opened it, he closed it again, I opened it again, he crawled in on his knees, I laughed. It was probably one of the more amusing interactions we have had lately, truth be told.

But today has been one of those days for me. One of those days when I feel like... I guess when I feel like flying into a thousand pieces and just freaking out on everyone. We are suppose to be leaving to go visit the kids Daddy in two weeks, and the chores the three of them were given in order to be able to go are not being done. And here's the thing. If they don't do what they're suppose to, regardless of how much any one of them or my husband is looking forward to this trip, we will NOT be going. Period. On this I will not budge, because if I give in on this, I'll have to give in on everything, and I don't think I'm ready to lose that much authority here. So while the kids continue to fight with me about doing what they were told, I'm afraid it will just mean the cancellation of everything we had planned. Oh well, not my concern! Getting this place in a decent condition so as to not come home to a horrifying mess is my one and only priority and nothing else will happen until that does. PERIOD. So I'm a mean mommy, I won't give in and let the kids walk all over me and still get what they want. Yep, that's me, mean old Wicked Witch of the West evil mom. And I think I like it that way, at least for now. :)

Chickens

We have 15 baby chickens in our dining room right now. Why, you ask? Because that's where the incubator is, of course. And also, because the barn hasn't been put up yet. Six years and it's still laying on the ground. >.< And the greenhouse is still in pieces in my bedroom closet. Guess it'll all be put up one day, but today is not that day. lol Anyway, we have them separated into older and younger chicks, because when we put the younger chicks in, (there's about two weeks separating them in age) the older ones were beating up on the baby-babies. So for now we have chickies in our dining room. I suppose it's better than calves in the living room, but honestly, how would we get those things up the stairs? lol But back to the chicks in the dining room. This morning, one of the older chicks managed to escape his/ her brooder box and went on a mad dash all over the house. I'm not really sure why he/ she decided to do this, but that chickie seemed to have a grand time running about the house trying to escape our attempts at capture! But once s/he was back safely in his/ her box, we were able to go about our day again. It really was amusing, and as they get bigger, I fear it may start happening more and more frequently!

Whoops!

Have you ever gotten so involved in a project, one of your kids has to comes to you and say, "Mommy, what's for dinner?" before you realize you not only have NOTHING planned, but it's also PASSED THEIR BEDTIME!? And then you realize you still have to drive 20 miles to your sister's house to retrieve some things your son left with her, so you load everyone into the car, go all the way over, it takes three times as long as necessary because you sent the kids in without supervision, thinking to yourself, "How long could it possibly take?" and of course it takes FOR-FREAKING-EVER because you had the temerity to think that to begin with! Yeah, it was one of those nights tonight. But everyone got fed, and the project is well on it's way to being completed. I just hope I manage to get it completed before too late tomorrow, I have so much to do it's not funny, and with my parents suppose to be coming back tomorrow, that makes this project all the more crucial to finish before they arrive. Which reminds me, I should get back to it before I fall down from sheer exhaustion. :)

Ssshh!!! I'm holding summer hostage.

I'm a mean Mommy.  My kids aren't allowed to "celebrate" summer break until they get their bedrooms clean.  School officially ended here on 5, June, and they aren't doing anything until that cleaning is DONE.  And oh, did I mention that I AM NOT DOING IT MYSELF?  Yep, I am making THEM clean up their messes, though I have agreed to take care of the things that are mine.  Which is probably why my bed is currently buried under baskets and baskets of clothing that needs folding, and why I am seriously thinking of getting still another dresser to contain MY clothing, since most of it can't hang in the closet.  Oh, and this ban on summer includes a trip scheduled for later this month to go spend several weeks visiting with Daddy, who is really looking forward to having some regular "family" time again, even if just for 2 or 3 weeks.  Until our part of the house is clean again, including under the beds and in closets, we will do nothing summer-y or fun.  Not a single thing.  And it's working so far.  The messiest of the two bedrooms is more than half done, which is a minor miracle considering at one point the one part was nearly 2-feet-deep in child-related detritus.  Yep, it was THAT bad.  O.o  So until further notice, none of the fun stuff on my summer-related Pinterest boards is being done.  Not a SINGLE one.  I'm really hoping it will all be done by Saturday though, we have a planned outting with some friends to go to one of the local Springs, and I _REALLY_ want to go!  So here's hoping we can get the 1 1/2 rooms left done before we go to bed Friday night!  :)  Wish us luck!

Life...

Kids are weird.  Anyone who has kids will agree, even silently, even if they would never dare say anything like that in public, and would likely feign shock at my saying so.  "MY children aren't weird!"  Well guess what?  All kids are weird.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  Kids are kids, and as an adult now, I see that kids really are, well, WEIRD!  Take my 11yo for instance.  Today, he is suppose to be helping with a major cleaning job around the house, that needs to be done by Friday.  He has gone out of his way to do everything BUT clean, his final stall tactic being to show me a tiny splinter in one finger and told me that he "just noticed this" yesterday.  Well, judging from the level of mild infection, he knew this splinter had been in his finger more than just a day!  So I did the only thing I could think to do.  I grabbed a pin, sprayed it down with rubbing alcohol, and went to work removing the splinter.  Believe me, with him being the middle of my three kids, this wasn't my first go-round at splinter removal, and likely won't be my last, either.  I put a tiny hole in the top near the brown spot I could only assume was the splinter...  And that's when the WAILING started.  He was writing around, wailing that he was in AGONY, and I wasn't even touching him!  lol  Then, to try to work some of the infection out, but also hoping it would carry the splinter with it, I gently, GENTLY, rubbed the pin shaft over the spot.  Oh, BOY you would've thought I had just cut off his finger!  Now don't get me wrong, I know that it probably DID hurt a bit, but I've had to remove splinters from my own hands, and in worse condition than his, so I'm fairly certain it didn't hurt THAT badly!  The splinter took about ten seconds to remove once I got him to stand still, but then of course I had to clean the area.  I sat there for a good three minutes, not touching him other than holding that finger, as he wailed at me that IT HURT!!!  SOOO BAD!!!  It was seriously the funniest thing I had seen all day.  And then, OF COURSE, he couldn't help with the cleaning because his finger hurt "so bad!"  lol  I love my kids, but they sure are weird!  :)