Moving??

     Bear with me for a week or so, and follow me over to Knit 5 Together, my new address (I think).  When you get there, I'll share Eve's first words with you...

this week's moment

     Oh, and sorry I wasn't here yesterday. Our entire family was hit with some horrible, mean germs. The last few times we had any, this Mama some how found herself with just a light sniffle, and an ache or two - you know - Mommy Immunity.

     When my hubby and Micah started feeling yucky, I actually, stupidly, cockily thought to myself, Self, don't worry about it, you have Mommy Immunity.

     Ha. Ha. Ha.

     I didn't get a cough, or sniffles, or any of the yuck the other two had. Oh, no. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to find myself incapable of picking myself up off the bathroom floor, and feeling as though I'd been run through a dryer. 

     I am on the mend though.  See you on Monday.

new project

     Levi's drawing skills have gotten to such a fun point.  I thought I'd show you our next big project that I have planned, before I show him.
      What with the Lego board game (and others) that he has invented, and his love of The Hobbit (which we just finished reading together), I thought we'd put the two together.  I ordered a blank game board from Bare Books, and I just can't wait to show him, and see all the fun sketches we're going to put together for our new game!

Levi's Photo Lessons - Family

     Of course, every once in a while the photographer gets to pass off the camera and be in his own pics, right?!

weekending

     This weekend was fun and busy and full of little moments.  Want to see? 

There was...
* Time well spent with friends and a chance to use up the last of a yummy gift card we'd been given
 * Amazing Lego scenes set up (and taken down, and set up...)
* A babe trying to use her big brother's car as a push cart
* Time with one of the basement boys!
* A fun session where the Papa chased the Mama around with the camera, trying to catch her messy, just-eaten-buffalo-wings face (he did not succeed)
* Sewing!
* Time to fiddle around with some of my thoughts towards this blog and my little etsy shop (there was sketching of new toys, and the tossing thoughts around about re-naming this here little blog (I just need something that I really love))
* An awesome service at church: check out the Jesus Files (click the I'd Like to Hear button)
* House-hunting!  Or should I say cottage hunting?
* Knitting of course!  Nothing big, just a few simple washcloths to replace some of the very well-loved (read: used) ones that I keep in the kitchen.
* And last of all, one sweet little boy who realized he was feeling pretty crummy at the last hour of the weekend.

     Yes, over-all it was a wonderful and full weekend.  Even that last little part gives this Mama a chance to hold and love and serve.  If I'm not in this spot tomorrow, you'll know what I'll be doing.

wedding prep

     So, I spent the last two weeks turning this:

    Into this...

     Which grew into this:

     I love my Whippoorwill.  It's the first completely finished thing on my project list for a wedding coming up in the spring.  My boys are going to bear rings, my husband is going to ush, my baby girl is going to be adorable (that's generally her job), and this mama is going to wear her Whippoorwill shawl.  And I'll be dancing.  My boys have already asked me...

better pb playdough

     I have made a most excellent discovery!  Now, I'm sure you could google around and see that a good many other people may have found this too, but let's not burst my bubble.  I needed a little bit of brilliance after that photo-less hat moment of mine.

     So what have I discovered?  Well, all the recipes I've read for peanut butter playdough have called for dry milk.  Some of us have been having issues with dairy around here lately, and we really needed some play dough.  There was not enough salt for our "best" kind (as Levi would say), but I really wanted to avoid that dairy in our second best kind.

     I decided, what the hey, we'll just toss in flour and see what happens.  It turned out awesome!  It was really pliable (unlike regular PBPD), it was still edible, and it kept fine in the fridge for a couple of days.  I don't know how long it would last, because by that point it was all eaten up.  So here's what I used:

Pliable Peanut Butter Play Dough (say that 5 times fast... ;-)
1.  Mix together:
~A generous squeeze of honey,
~A huge glop of peanut butter,
~A handful of flour.
2.  Keep mixing in flour, a handful at a time, until you have play-with-able dough.  Peanut Butter is oily, so sprinkle a bit of flour on the table the first time you use it.

     You can add pretzel sticks and make all kinds of things, eat it, or store in the fridge.  You can make a little or a lot, depending on how much PB and honey you start with!  Enjoy!

share and share alike

     Okay, I don't think I've ever done this, but this morning I am going to send you somewhere else!  If you have any interest in crafty tutorials or some yummy recipes, head over to  Dana Made It.   Be sure to click on her tutorials button.  She has her versions of several sewing projects I've done or already seen, but she has a really great and simple, straight-forward style in her tutorials, that I think is worth sharing!

     See you back here tomorrow for my Improved Peanut Butter Playdough recipe!

MST3K

     Being the brilliant woman I am, I planned not to share this post until I had given my brother his birthday hat.  I wrapped it, carried it down to Disney World, and gave it to him as an early present (today's his real birthday).  Brilliant me watched him open it and try it on, and was thrilled that it fit and that he actually liked it.  Brilliant me did all that and didn't think to take his picture which was sort-of the point with handing it to him, as opposed to putting it in the mail.

     So.  No picture of brother in the hat. 

     The awesome & free chart is from SewGeeky on Ravelry.com.  SewGeeky designed it for a baby sweater, and a few people had tried to put it on a hat.  I decided I wanted mine at a smaller guage, so the Mystery Science Theater guys could all sit on the same side of the hat.  That kind of thing is important to me, and I thought it would increase my chances of my brother actually wearing said hat.

 

       My notes are on Ravelry, in case you want one too...

 

      Happy birthday Kevin!  You really are brilliant, and I love you so much. 

 

lego occupation

       My table can now be classified as occupied territory.

     You see, when Eve was tiny, the Legos were on the floor. Then she started flipping over. The Legos moved up onto the white trunk. Then Eve started standing up. The Legos moved into the boys' room.

     This left my boys with a bit of a conundrum. They wanted to play with their Legos, but they didn't want to miss what was going on with Eve out in the rest of the house. So most of the time, they haul a bucket out here and take over the table with their battle zones.

     Like I said, occupied territory.

this week's moment

     Just one special moment to savor from the week...

   My preschooler, just being a preschooler...

(and no, I did not have my 3 year old washing my dishes. 

He was playing with the things from his toy kitchen, just so we're all clear on that!)

playing chicken

     Today I would like to take a moment to explain a lovely bit of parenting that I have dubbed playing Baby Chicken. 

     This is a game that no matter how many babies you may have, you will never be able to win 100% of the time.  Heck, you'll be lucky if you can pull it off half the times a baby decides to play.

     Baby Chicken is where you put the baby down for bed, and baby decides baby doesn't want to sleep.  You spend a rediculous amount of mental energy trying to guess if baby is about to fall asleep, or way past sleeping.

     For example:  You put baby down.  Baby is annoyed by your decision to put baby down.  Baby verbalizes this.  If your house is small, you know about it.  If your house is big, you have a baby monitor and you know about it. 

     You, as the wise and benevolent parent, glance at the clock.  Baby turns up the volume.  Your brain starts to race.  Has baby made a mess in their diaper?  That happened the other day, but then yesterday baby figured that out and made I-need-to-be-changed shrieks and fooled you (you lost that round, didn't you now?).  You stand there, telling yourself you will finish these dishes, and if baby is still upset, you will cave in and let baby win.  Your brain rattles through way too many things: is that chubby thigh stuck in the crib slats?  Did that favorite toy get chucked across the room?  On, and on, and on...

     One dish later, that kid curls up and goes to sleep.  Dang.  You won.  Finish the dishes and drop down in a chair, mentally wiped from Baby Chicken.  Makes you wish the little thing would just fall asleep in your arms, doesn't it?  But let's save that for the next round, shall we?

Disclaimer:  I haven't a heck of clue as to how

this would work with twins.  You can use your imagination on that one (I do.  It's rather entertaining)...

a book to keep

     Levi was thrilled when I introduced the concept of lapbooking to him.  A lapbook is just a little book where you gather up facts and pictures about a single subject.  Like knights.

     "You mean we get to keep it?  We don't have to give it back to the library?!"

     Out loud I said: "Yup!"  Inside I thought: Oh dear, this kid is concerned about having to give back all these books about knights and castles...

     Anyways...
     Here's our coat-of-arms: if you click on the picture, you can see it closer up and read what all the things mean, saving me the trouble of typing them in again (really, because that is just silly, right?)...

     This last part was too cool.  I asked him to draw a knight and he drew a squire helping the knight suit up, the horse in a stable eating hay, a guy in the dungeon with a guard watching him, the castle kitchen with all the "cookers" wearing chef's hats and busy prepping a big meal.  One was even in the garden, collecting food.

     It was a really fun project, and it's a neat way for Levi to review what he's learned about knights.  Google "lapbooks" if you're interested...

first hike of the season

     Me and the boys took Eve to our bridge in the woods for lunch.  She had never been there, and the boys were excited to share it with her.  It's a 1.2 mile roundtrip hike, but the path is paved, so she cruised in style.  The boys gobbled up their lunches, we gave the fish a few nibbles to munch on for our entertainment, and Eve was mesmerized by the water rushing along. 

     It was wonderful...

daffo-down-dilly

     I am soooo happy with this little Darwinia dress I made for Eve.  The pattern is from an Australian designer, the yarn Nana sent was from Australia, and both were AWESOME!  It is cutest by itself, but works well for layers, and it's totally soft and I am thrilled with it.  Keep-it-for-my-grandkids thrilled... 

     I've given up asking her to slow down, in case you were wondering... 

this week's moment

This is my first baby to give any attention to the piano.  I missed it this time (film-wise), but she loves to raise both hands high above her head and then pound away like she's working on some concerto.

Have a great weekend everybody!  I'll have some finished projects to share next week :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

       Shall I continue our post-vacation, mini-tour? If you aren't family, you'll just have to bear with me as I catch all of them up. I promise not to share all two hundred and forty-some pictures (can we say shutter-diarrhea?) on this poor little blog, but to return, asap, to our regular nuttery.

     First stop: my view during a large portion of the trip.  For someone who had only been in a stroller three times in her existence, prior to our trip, Eve did a pretty good job dazzling us all with her uncanny ability to tell exactly who was at the helm.  Seriously.  You could push that stroller, and I could stand shoulder to shoulder with you, and she knew the difference, and made sure everybody else knew it too.  It was weird.  I mean, how does someone so tiny know the difference of voice projection, when you're talking a difference of mere inches? 

     Perhaps she'll be a linguist.  Or a violinist.  Anyways...

     Don't you love our green shirts?  I can feel your envy from here...  I have to say they were awesome for spotting one another in the midst of everthing and everone.  I really did love mine, and the boys wear theirs as fast as I can wash them again.

     Our shirts all had something special on them, according to each person's interests.  See Levi's little Lego knight?  Micah had Mater, Pappy had a mountain bike (yes, my daddy is still flying through the woods on those things:), Paul had a handyman, Kevin had a four-wheeler, Nana had an owl, and Eve had a little doll.

     I will not tell you what I had.  You can leave your guesses in the comments (I think they're working again).  No fair guessing if you were actually there....