Author Archives: Rebecca

Overwhelming

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nine

It is often said that missionaries and other Americans who have lived overseas often come back to the States and find the selection at stores overwhelming. I have lived here my whole life and I am always overwhelmed and sometimes saddened by the number and variety of items to choose from.

Tonight I faced a wall of shampoo, most promising to do the same things for my hair. Having options is a good thing, but the overproduction of chemicals and products just can’t be good. (see: The Story of Stuff)

I do my best to reduce, reuse and recycle- I tend to buy shampoo/conditioner combos to save the extra bottle. This is just part of an aisle and the rest of the store is the same. I love my avocados in January, but gripe about the over-variety of hair care products. Where is the happy medium?

Swatch

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five

I don’t always swatch my knitting projects, but today I felt like doing it. Isn’t the yarn color nice? It’s a dark purple with flecks of pinky red and blue.

The project is a mystery. In fact, it is the Downton Abby Mystery Knit-a-Long. A portion of the pattern will be revealed each of the 8 coming Downton Sundays. This will be my first mystery knit and I’m excited to get started tomorrow night!

A Photo a Day: 365 project

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I’m a bit late to the game as far as 365 Photo projects are concerned. I thought it would be a good challenge for 2013 to capture glimpses into our everyday life, and to serve as prompts for interesting topics of conversation. I’m not going to impose any rules, some photos may come with stories, others may remain wordless. There will be tons of kid photos and probably other things as well. I don’t really instagram, but who knows, we might see a filter here and there. That’s the fun of it all.

I aim to ‘keep things real” and the first two photos seem to prove my point. There’s no candy coating around here! Just our real, everyday lives.


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We begin our challenge as the year began- with the crud. All four us us have had it since Christmas, but it seems Esme and I have been hit hardest.


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See above ^^


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New bowling shoes + Catherine = tons of awesome!

Moo! (or Last Minute Cow Costumes on a Budget of Zero Dollars)

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At 2:50pm this afternoon I learned that it was Cow Appreciation Day at Chic Fil A. Free food in exchange for showing up in costume? I’m all over that! With only a few hours till dinner and a crafting budget of $0 the project required a little quick thinking and some good ole Yankee ingenuity.

What? You want to make a kid sized cow costume with stuff you have at home, too? Here’s how we did it in about an hour (per costume):

Step 1: Get inspired. Google ‘cow costume’. Think about cows. Wander around your house looking at things you might be able to make look like cow parts. Squint if you have to. Ask your children what parts of the cow are important in a costume (enjoy their responses!) Try to zero in on the easiest possible way to accomplish those things.

Step 2: Gather your supplies. Here’s what I scrounged from my sewing ‘room’ and from around the house:

  • Adult sized white t-shirts (tell your husband they came from his drawer after he’s seen the cute kiddo in costume)
  • scraps of black fabric
  • scraps of pink fabric
  • scraps of brown fabric
  • wide elastic
  • headband
  • a little bit of batting or polyfil

Step 3: Go at it.

Use an appropriately sized dress/shirt as a guide to cut a dress/shirt from the large t-shirt. Be smart and salvage the bottom hem and you’ve saved yourself a step! Cut front and back pieces.


From the black fabric cut a number of black spots that vaguely look like cow spots. Vary the shapes and sizes. Always have a potty nearby.


Pin them on to the front and back of your costume. Have your 3yo help by insisting you select a color of pin and then wait an excruciatingly long time while she fishes out that color pin. Repeat. (this step could take days. Adjust as your time allows)


Cut a pink oval from the pink fabric. Scrunch up a bit of batting. Pin the oval udder on to the shirt with the batting underneath.


Sew around the spots and the udder. Straight stitch and zig zag work equally well. Enjoy that this is a costume and it doesn’t have to be perfect.


Now put the front and back together, right sides together. Sew the shoulders and side seams. Turn right side out. (no photo. I was too anxious to finish!)

Try it on your kiddo. Be sure to ignore the mess your kids have made while you’ve been ignoring them. I mean, uh, sewing.


Accessorize your cow: I made ears using this great post: Make Your Own Cow Ears. I made tails by sewing a tube of black fabric and then cut long fringe up 3/4ths of it. Then we pinned it to the back of the costume. Brown fingereless gloves were sewn up for ‘hand hooves’ (rectangles with thumb holes) and brown paper hooves were taped to their shoes.

Step 4: Go and get some Chikin. or Salid. or Milkshakes 🙂 Have fun with your family. If possible, meet up with friends who like costumes too!




Esme Turns Three

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Our sweet Esme, who loves to sing and dance and who can tell Mr Bates from Carson and Anna from Edith, turns three today!

Newborn Esme


First Birthday


Second Birthday

Third Birthday

Esme, you’re our little ray of sunshine! We love your sense of humor and your excitement. It is so wonderful to watch you grow up and learn so many things from your sister and the world. You love music and ‘Squeeze’ and sharing grapefruits with Mama. Papa thinks you’re a fantastic chef and loves to cook with you! We all love to do things with you, even if you only want to ‘subberbise’!

Happy, happy birthday, little one. Your Mama and Papa are so honored to be on this journey with you!

A line of her own

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What can save you money, is earth friendly, encourages discussion, solves discipline issues and introduces life skills to young children? A clothesline! Click here https://loanload

Catherine has, for some time now, been following me out to the clothesline during my (almost) daily chore. Hanging the laundry is a peaceful, monotonous, repetitive chore that gives me a great excuse to get outside in the morning. Having a five year old nearby clamoring to help can make the experience decidedly less peaceful, I’ve discovered.

My first response to her offers to help were “okay! Please hand me a sock!” That suggestion, as well as “Please hand me a clothespin!”, were met with protests from the aspiring Mama at my hip. “I want to really help!” she’d say. That meant that she wanted me to pick her up and let her pin the clothes up on the line. Not such a problem the first time, but my back can only handle so many ups and downs lifting a fifty pound kid! Also, while I wasn’t exactly in a rush to finish the chore, getting done in a timely fashion pretty much went out the window with this kind of help.

My second response was (I’m ashamed to say) to shoo her away. “Go water the garden or swing on the swings or collect sticks or, or, or…” Read: “Go do anything else and let me be!” Obviously, this option went over like a hot rock, and didn’t make me proud of my parenting skills.

My third response, and the best of them all, was inspired by something I read online somewhere. The author mentioned how she starting hanging her clothes out on a small line that her mother had strung up. The (cfl) light bulb above my head went of and a couple of days later Catherine had her own little clothes line on which to hang some clothes.

This little line has stopped the tugging on my shirt and the begging to help. She now can take her own basket of socks and small shirts and hang them while I’m hanging the rest of our family’s laundry. While we’re out there we can talk about the weather or nature or the best way to hang a shirt. We also talk about plans for the day, upcoming events and whatever else tickles our fancy. What we’ve left behind is the power struggle of who would hang what and the impulse to shoo away a girl eager to learn the ways of her Mama.