the risk...

a few weeks ago, i was lucky enough to come across this blog entry by sandy coughin. she wrote about the risks we take when we open our homes to other people. as i read it, i found myself nodding in agreement and even pausing to reflect on her words. i thought about it for quite a bit afterwards. fast forward to this week...

i am on the christmas party planning committee for our home school co-op. as the holidays are fast approaching, we started to plan a meeting time/place to get things started. i found myself thinking, again, about the article sandy had written. should i offer up our home as the meeting place? i went rounds with myself. the pros and cons list in my head was forming. i was talking myself into and out of the offer. after much (probably too much) thought, i decided to take the risk. i invited 6 other moms and their children (roughly 15!) to my home to meet.

much like sandy, i worry about the little things.

what would they like to eat/drink? what i serve the "wrong" thing?

will they notice that the playroom is disorganized?

what if my kitchen table isn't big enough for everyone to sit comfortably?

are they looking at the baby's chair attached to the table caked with leftover breakfast and getting disgusted?


maybe all of those things will end up being worthwhile things to worry about. maybe the table won't be big enough. maybe i won't have the perfect snacks set out. maybe, maybe, maybe...

so, here's what i've decided. is it worth not taking the risk if that means not connecting with these folks? no. these women could turn out to be more than just acquaintances from co-op. they could evolve into personal friendships. we need to be connected to other people-not just via email, facebook and other social media. but, real face-to-face, flesh and blood connected. if they are judging me by the state of my (usually presentable, fairly clean) home, so be it. i'm sure i'll never hear of their disapproving attitudes. and if i do, well, that will tell me a lot about them.

in the end, it's going to be just fine. and if it isn't, then hopefully i will take something away from the situation and improve upon it for the next risk i take. because really, i want to be a person who takes some risk, who goes out on a limb hoping for the best and willing to learn for the future.

halloween banner

so, thanks to a great idea and fabric banner tutorial from Craftaholics Anonymous i was able to start, finish AND be happy with a crafty decoration today. this doesn't always happen for me. usually, i start. then i get stuck and frustration ensues. you see, when crafty folks say that the project is "easy" or "so simple", that translates into impossible for me. so i go quickly from start to give up. i am pleased to share with you that today was different. it was simple (for reals, simple) and ended up pretty cute! i am going to attempt a thanksgiving version of this same banner. while i'm feeling good about my accomplishment, i'm going to post some pictures.

the way we spent our morning...

this morning after addie & i left the breakfast table, we found ourselves in narnia. unfortunately, we were at war. but! not to worry, addie was prepared for battle. she whipped out her baby doll curlders to use as bows.

just when it looked as if we would lose the battle, she quickly whistled for back up. lucky for us, susan, lucy, edmund & peter were more than willing to help us out. battle won, morning successful!

why we do what we do...

as the official start of school has come and gone, i have been thinking very carefully about why we do what we do. i didn't think that what we do would be perceived as such a radical decision; that people would believe that we were making a choice that would ruin my daughter's life. i didn't think of the looks i'd get from total strangers. what we do is choose to keep our daughter home from school. yes, we choose to homeschool. i know, shocking. i've discovered that people are quite curious about why addie isn't in school. for instance, when we are out and about, addie is usually questioned by random people about why she isn't in school, "no school today?", "are you sick today?" these questions from strangers, among my own personal thoughts got me thinking about why we do what we do. here's what i've come up with so far...



i can honestly say that since school has started in our area, not one day has passed that i haven't breathed at least a tiny sigh of relief that we are not going to school. i wasn't expecting that. my daughter would be entering kindergarten this year had we enrolled her in school. as i tried to prepare myself for the upcoming year, i have to admit, i was concerned about our decision. concerned that i wouldn't do a good job, concerned that addie would be missing out on something...of what i wasn't sure, though. i thought that once the buses started stopping out in front of the house (the bus stop that she would stand out is in front of our house), i would be questioning our choice...wishing i was putting her on the school bus with her friends and waving goodbye from the curb. me, holding her baby sister wishing her a wonderful day, smoothing down her hair and waving goodbye. goodbye....



that didn't happen. instead, the buses came, the kids got on and moms waved goodbye. but not us. no, we were just getting out of bed, still sleepy in our jammies. we were cuddled up on the couch feeding laney and discussing the reasons African elephants have such large ears. we were pondering what to do with our day. we were living. and me, well, i was silently rejoicing. doing a silent happy dance in my head about having both my girls home with me. delighting in the fact that we weren't tied to someone else's idea of a good schedule (getting up by 6:15am to be ready for school isn't appealing to any of us!). ecstatic that i got to witness the lightbulb moments that addie has. thrilled to see my 5 1/2 year old learn through our everyday life. i could go on and on...



so, why do we do what we do? we do this so our children have the experience of learning at their own pace. we do this so they can explore their interests in depth without being rushed or moved on to something else. we do this so we can have more moments of being cuddled up on the couch together-something that may not last forever.

loving it!

check out this local stay at home dad! he has some great diy projects. fun, fun, fun! i can't wait to try some of his ideas. check him out

http://madebyjoel.com

fun idea!!

you can mail easter eggs?? who knew?! i plan on testing this out in the next week or so.

http://burstsofcreativity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-mail-idea.html

the extent of my craftiness these days....

wait, what?

for the last few days i've had this really annoying rolling stones song stuck in my head. not just popping up once in awhile throughout my day, but more like on repeat all day long. at first it made me laugh...singing inside my head, "tiiiiiimmme is on my side, yes it is..." over and over and over and yes, over. however, lately it's become more like a really cruel joke. time, in fact, is NOT on my side. it doesn't really seem like it's been on my side since laney was born. don't get me wrong, i'm enjoying the new addition to our family and watching her weave her way into the fabric of our family, but geez already! since when did having a new baby mean everything had to change?? oh right, since forever. i guess i forgot a lot of this since it's been 5 years now since we've had a baby in the house. so, mick, please spare me your lame lyrics because it's become very apparent that time is not on my side. not a little. not at all.

Outrageous Fortune: Dear Person at the Grocery Store

i'm loving this blog post by a fellow mom and friend... Outrageous Fortune: Dear Person at the Grocery Store: "Dear Person at the Grocery Store, Yes, they are twins. We did not hit a baby B.O.G.O sale; the hospital did not throw in another one as we ..."

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....

candy canes...

i got this idea from http://frenchknots.blogspot.com/ awhile back and LOVED it. so, i finally gave it a shot. i was a little aprehensive since my last sewing experience had been a little less than pleasant. however, they were so cute and fun, i just couldn't resist any longer. i'm very pleased with the final product. i'm definitely going to be adding to my collection using different fabrics, sizes, embellishments, etc. i plan on bunching some together to use as gifts and right now we have some hanging around on the doors-very fun! thank you SO much to pamela at french knots for the cute idea!

short & sweet

addie asked yesterday if she could get a haircut. i'm always excited when she makes the request since it seems to be a struggle to get it done and under control. when i asked her whether or not she was thinking of a trim or something different, she said she wanted ""short hair that wouldn't make her sweat at naptime". so, i bit my tongue as i watched inches of her hair get snipped off. i have to admit though, the end result is very cute. she looks a little too grown up for me, but it suits her well...let's just see if it holds up once she's showered and i try to get it to lay down :)

sew frustrated...

feeling VERY confident, i thought, "i think i can make laney a hat." so, i searched the internet for a tutorial/pattern that looked easy peasy. let's just say finding the pattern was probably the easiest part of this project for me. the site said it was a "15 minute project". that made me feel even better-i can handle 15 minutes...being totally honest about my sewing skills, i thought even if it took me double the time (i thought that seemed fair) to make the hat, fantastic-i can spare 30 minutes! fast forward to hour 1...i'm reading, re-reading, and having hubby reading the instructions for attaching the band to that hat. for whatever reason, i can't get it to make sense. hubby is suggesting i go rogue and just go for it a different way. while i appreciated his advice, i am a follow the rules kinda girl, so i couldn't just go my own way-instructions are there to be followed, right?? i finally thought i had it figured out and moved forward with attaching the band. ha ha ha! i must have been in some sort of sewing-daze because i sewed the stinkin' hat closed. i could have killed myself-after all that hemming (ha!) and hawing about what to do and then i go and sew the thing closed. ahhhh. HOWEVER, not to be detered, i pushed on. pulled out alllll those tiny stiches and tried another tactic. i finally settled on a compromise with myself. i think followed the directions mostly and did finally get that darned band attached. it ended up turning out alright-definitely a test-run, but i can see what it's supposed to look like anyways. final time for completed project: 2 hours, 13 minutes. geez louise!

in my own defense, the tutorial was done using a solid color fabric, which i think contributed to some of the confusion. it was hard to see exactly how the band was attached, etc. add to that the fact that i was using a patterned fabric and i think it made it even more difficult. hey, i need some sort of excuse to make me feel better about the fact the project took me nearly 2 hours MORE than it should have.

i will be attempting this project again-i just may wait awhile for the 2nd attempt. i'd also like to add that anyone who has ANY advice on an "easy" (i use that term loosely since nothing to do w/ sewing comes easy to me) way to attach a band to a baby hat would be GREATLY appreciated!!!! help....please....

from pumpkins to jack o' lanterns

carving pumpkins was really fun this year! addie came up with her own jack o' lantern face, drew it on and helped carve it out. it turned out just how she wanted it, too!

addie's creativity

we decided to make our own halloween t-shirt this year. it was SUPER easy using iron-on bats, ghosties and "halloween" lettering. what wasn't super easy was letting addie just go for it. i thought it would be fine, thought i'd be able to just let her creative juices flow...nope. i suggested, got a teensy pushy and tried to convince her to spread things out a little, use a little less...the list is endless really. however, my confident, strong girl held her own and we did exactly what she wanted to do with her t-shirt (it was hers after all, right?). so things turned out as they should have to begin with-her creating her own halloween t-shirt.

pumpkin patch

what a beautiful day for the pumpkin patch. there were animals to love & feed, pumpkins to be foudn and we got to enjoy it all with nana! perfection.

my new "baby"

we got the new stroller and i got it all set up and rollin' this week. i took addie ( 4 1/2 yrs.) out for a nite-time stroll to test it out. even though her knees were in her mouth (she's a tad big), i LOVE this stroller!!! it is easy to handle, it's a smooth ride and just as important, it looks great! i love its sporty orange color. i can't wait to test it out with the car seat adapter and laney :)

finished projects!

spent part of the weekend working on new things. i have to admit, i'm feeling fairly proud and a teensy bit accomplished! i used a pattern to make a few burp rags for laney. they turned out pretty cute.

the bigger accomplishment was making addie a halloween pillowcase without using a pattern! this is a HUGE step for me since i'm usually frantically scouring the internet for a "recipe" (i always forget the word 'pattern') on how to make things. i decided to be brave and go it alone...after all, how hard could it be? it turned out to be not so hard. i hit a few rough spots, but figured it out (after a bit of stitch pulling-lol). i plan on making some more seasonal pillowcases-fabric shopping, yeah!!

and the winner is....

we have finally decided on a name for the newest member of our family...laney rae. we're slowly pulling her room together and i'm trying to find some easy crafty things to incorporate into it. i want it to feel like there was love put into its creation. any ideas for easy things to do for a nursery would be greatly appreciated.

on another note, we're gearing up for halloween-yahoooo! putting together a banner currently (will post pics soon). happy halloweeny-season!

we're having a girl!

we are adding another little girl to our family. we are excited to give addie a little sister and can't wait to meet her!