We’re back

from 10 days on the east coast to visit my sister and her family in Baltimore and attend Michael’s sister’s wedding in New York City.  We had a great time!  We had adventures!  I’m sure I’ll share more, as well as pictures, in the days to come.  The pictures, though, are on Michael’s camera, and I don’t know a.) where it is, or b.) how to get the pictures off the camera.  So that will have to wait.

One adventure we could have done without: our flight was cancelled yesterday. That meant that, instead of arriving at 2:30 in the afternoon, we were put on a nighttime flight and arrived shortly after midnight.  Blech. The kids slept most of the second flight and were very good, but midnight here was 3 a.m. on the east coast and Michael and I didn’t sleep much at all.  Michael’s birthday is today, and instead of making him a cake, I took a three-hour nap with the baby.  (He didn’t complain, and was fully in support of the nap.  He took one, too.)  We had chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and he had a candle in his.  His gifts were all ready, though, and I’ll work on getting him a cake sometime soon.  Hopefully we’ll be a bit more ready to go tomorrow, since two yards of compost arrive in the morning, to be put into our planting boxes!

One really fun aspect of this trip is that everywhere we went, people told us how wonderful our kids are.  We had to agree – we think they’re wonderful, too.  But there is something quite refreshing about going places and seeing the looks of fear as our four kids accompany us on the way in, and then getting compliments on their wonderful behavior and friendliness on the way out.  There’s a lot of intense work with parenthood, with many rewards that won’t be seen for a long time, but sometimes there are rewards here and now. 

One really, really cute thing that I have to report here happened as we were sitting on our Amtrak train during a delay.  Sim, who had taken a nap on the train and was feeling refreshed and joyful, began singing.  “Thank you God for giving us Tess!  Thank you God for giving us Tess!  Thank you God for giving us Tess right where we are!  -- Sing with me, Mama! – Alleluia, praise the Lord!  Alleluia, praise the Lord!  Alleluia, praise the Lord right where we are!”  I’m pretty sure he was the perkiest person on that train.

Questions grab bag

Today I was wondering where Sim was getting the questions he asked in the car:

Mama, what’s a bomb?

Mama, what’s a FIREbomb?

Mama, what’s a telephone pole?

Mama, what’s a devil?

Mama, what’s a website?

At which point I said:  HEY!  I know!  Let’s listen to some MUSIC in the car!

Of course, I didn’t actually do that, but we were in the car for all of about 20 minutes today, and those are the questions he asked. 

with a needle and thREAD

Here are some of great things about sewing that make it an excellent pursuit for me:

I make lovely (hopefully!) things that people can use

It requires practice and patience

The more one practices, the better one gets – mostly (this helps me practice what I preach to my children. I’m always saying to them, “Well, how do you get better at something? Practice!”)

The people who are more skilled inspire me to do more and become better

Humility

Humility is the main one this week.  I had the dresses for the flower girls almost done last week, and was working on the tulle skirts.  Then, once the skirts were done, I had Hannah try hers on with her dress.  And – ta-da! – it looked funny.  The empire waistline and gathers just made it impossible to arrange without it looking funny.  Whoops.  I don’t know if I could have predicted that, but it was true.  Funny-looking is NOT the flower girl look.  SO…I made new dresses this week.  I tried them on the girls this morning, and they DON’T look funny.  I think they look quite cute.

        

Luckily, the new dress pattern is quite simple, and I’d made it before, so they came together quickly.

Hannah won’t have purple socks on for the wedding!

Have I mentioned that the girls are very excited about this wedding?

I still need to put the ribbon on, but we’re nearly there. 

Reading this week has been somewhat limited, because most of the reading I’ve been doing is from my to-do list and the talk that we’re giving at the local Newman Center tonight.  However, I did download a couple of Grace Livingston Hill books on Elizabeth’s recommendation, and I’ve gotten a sneak paragraph here and there from The Enchanted Barn.  I imagine that an airplane trip in the near future will give me a chance to do a bit more reading.  It will certainly cut down on the sewing!

You can see what others are sewing and reading at Elizabeth’s blog!

with needle and thREAD

Elizabeth Foss is having a weekly blog get-together about things we’re sewing and reading, and since I’ve been doing a lot of both lately, I’ve been hoping to join her.  This is the first week I’ve had time, pictures, and a chance on the computer during the appropriate time. 

My sewing efforts right now are for Michael’s sister’s wedding.  We have a ring bearer and two flower girls for this wedding, and they’re all EXCITED!!!  The ring bearer’s vest and tie have been sewn by Grandma Ellie (see photo at the bottom).  The dresses and tulle overskirts (which will have rose petals in them) are being sewn by me.  I have about 10 days left to finish, and the girls are convinced that it’s not going to get done.  It will get done, I tell them.  It’s part of their daily prayers, though, and I’m not discouraging them from praying for it.  :)

Petals, waiting for a skirt to decorate.

Tulle is ridiculous to work with.  Line it up?  Align the center creases?  Iron it?  It doesn’t stay where it should, slipping everywhere.  I don’t have a future in making veils for brides, that’s for sure.  I have 8 1/2 yards for one skirt and 11 1/2 for the other.

It’s going to work, and it’s going to be really, really sweet, but it takes lots of space, time, and concentration.  That combination can be hard to come by in our house.

The dresses only have the hem and the shortening of the straps to do.  They were pretty straightforward, especially since I’d made a dress with this pattern before.

Both the dress and skirt patterns are from this book, which I think I heard about on Elizabeth’s blog first, too.

I have a pile of books I’m reading (as usual), but I’m really enjoying this one:

Potatoes, Not Prozac, by Kathleen DesMaisons.  I’m learning a lot about brain chemistry and sugar sensitivity, and how nutrition fits in to the picture.  Toward the beginning of the book, she has this simple assessment to see if the reader is sugar sensitive:

“Imagine you come home and go into the kitchen.  A plate of warm chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven sits on the counter.  Their smell hits you as you walk in.  You do not feel hungry.  No one else is around.  What would you do?”

Ha!  Apparently there are some people who DON’T answer, “Eat at least 4 of the cookies,” or even, “Wish that I wasn’t on a diet/avoiding wheat/avoiding eggs so that I could eat at least 4 of the cookies.”  They say they’d go see if there were phone messages, or go change their clothes.  Hmm.  Really?

Something that I like about this book is that she has a multi-step program that one can follow to deal with sugar sensitivity.  She doesn’t tell the reader to immediately drop everything and get rid of every bit of sugar in the cupboard.  I think hers is a realistic method for approaching diet change.

Here’s the ring bearer, trying on his vest and tie, made by Grandma Ellie:

For the wedding, I think we’ll go with something other than pajamas underneath…

To see more of what people are sewing and reading, visit Elizabeth’s post!