Happy New Year's Eve!

Wow, budda bing budda bam, and yet another year just flew past.

Things have been crazy and the days escape me before I remember them beginning. I guess that's the standard refrain of parent with multiple kids. I have only 3, but sometimes they feel like 20! LOL!

All is quiet here. It was a busy year for us, plenty of things done and seen, plenty of new experiences, plenty of tears and plenty of laughter. But all is good. FB seems to have taken over my blogging time, and I'm hoping to make some changes on that front this year. Hoping to get more time with the kids as always and hoping to generally make progress on some of my goals as almost everyone is planning their New Years Resolutions!

We had a nice quiet holiday at home this year, our first alone as a family of 5. The littlest seemed to enjoy the festivities with a look of puzzlement. A good time was had by all!

Moody Monday

Just random work from the weekend. It's an old art form, but makes neat new things, and inspires creativity!


It's a chilly cold morning here in the ??Sunny?? South - with actual snow on the ground. But the focal point of my photo is the rainbow of colours.

Before working hurriedly away on Christmas gifts that suddenly and mysteriously came due (not like I had the whole year to get 'em movin!) .... I had started working on sweater for the littlest. A webfriend posted pics of an adorable little sweater she had made, and well I just had to try it. Well, here is the finished project!

We added cute little crayon buttons from my stash - and she insists on running around with it on. Gotta love a little ego boosting! LOL!

Anyway here is a link to the pattern just in case you're inspired! I adjusted it and worked tighter stitches than the pattern called for so I'd have a dense warm sweater for the cold weather!
http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/BabyChild/LM0266+Crochet+Baby+Hoodie.htm

Finding the Joy (Dec 3)

This week:
The holidays are fast approaching and I find myself rather unprepared. I've had a tough time focusing on the holidays this year (well for many years) though I'm not sure why its just not my thing I guess... so I've found peace this year and will celebrate my way! :)

* Finding peace with the holiday season and feeling free to celebrate it my way!

* My cute little friend above - is the start of my new holiday decor! :)

* A week of happy caroling by happy children.

* A week of productive crafting, and more ideas than I have time to make! LOL!

* Two of my girls have decided to try out one of my hobbies! :)

So what made you smile this week?

Finding the Joy Friday (Nov)

Inspired by AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

* Cute little potted Viola's that tickled the girls fancies (even the littlest!)

* A decent running start on Christmas gifts - that I'd make again for me! :)

* A successful week of getting school work done.

* Fixing plumbing problems without assistance

Home Repair

So I started up cloth diapering again this week. Not because diapers are too expensive, but because I have this stash from when M was a baby, it grew when S was a baby and now that ET is here - its been plaguing my conscience, that they are sitting here unused while I fill that landfill with more diapers than I need to! Part of the reason I never got my jive on cloth diapering with ET was because the rinsing system I used with M and S - was no longer working right. The white garden hose nozzle was so badly corroded that it was filling a bucket 2 gallon bucket of water in under an hour (that's a lot of water!) And I didn't feel like turning the toilet off after every flush!

Finally I dragged my sorry butt over to the HD where the girls picked out my new flashy orange garden nozzle. I tried to find a new male connector to fit, but apparently mine is a 3/4 inch and the ones they have an abundance of are 5/8. I was pretty sure the existing connector was well corroded in there too! But a little sunshine, and pair of vice grips and a little elbow grease and I got it out. My first couple of attempts to get it all together and not leaking failed... I ended up needing another washer (which I pilfered from the old head.)

In the end it cost me $18.99 to fix my old sprayer! a garden hose and nozzle connected to the toilet in-flow!!

HA! yup $19. My 9 yr old and 4.5 yr old convinced me I needed a Salad Bowl, and 3 different Viola plants for the garden too! The sprayer part only cost $4. The rest was on the plants!

Happy Thursday! :)

Crocheting on-Demand

I don't generally crochet on demand for people, just because it is my hobby and I don't want to change that, but for my kids - its a whole'nother story! LOL!

So a friend on one of the boards posted a link to Inner Hooker's Owl Earflap hat on Etsy. And while I was checking out the photo of the hat she made, ET came up to me and started cackling (laughing) and pointing and getting excited. For a 1 yr old - that's major excitment! LOL! I had been trying for months to get her to wear a hat on her head as winter is coming, and while the winters here in GA aren't like the winters, in the North - they can still get pretty cold - especially if you start out with thin southern blood to begin with!! LOL!

So when she got all excited about this hat I figured I'd have to try it. And guess what she actuallykeeps it on her head and when you ask about her hat... she points to it and cackles! :)

Mission accomplished! :) 1 kooky hat, for 1 kooky kid who hates hat!

Crafting and Swapping

Its funny how time seems to slip by so quickly!
I've been busy this month. I started the month with a swap on one of the boards, where I made a scarf and a crochet hook case - sent it to my swappee - she was supposed to take a pic and post the board but didn't, and wouldn't you know I totally forgot to take a pic of it. That's okay I have to make another one, so when that is done I'll post it! I got an email from my swappee saying thank you and that she loved the hook case.

I received a darling scarf in return from a different person! Its simply beautiful. Its autumn colours and so simply done! I love it needless to say - so I'm showing my ugly mug just to show off my scarf! :)

The scarf swap was quickly followed by a mad frenzy of halloween costume making. M decided what she wanted, and we had picked up the fabric, but neither of us was inspired to get moving on it until a few days ago. So a mad frenzied sewing fest occurred as I realized she had a party Friday - so we finished with a day or two to spare.

I then proceeded to put a 1/2 dozen new projects on my to do list - and one of those was the completion of a square swap blanket which - I needed to stitch together and then put a "binding(?)" on ... so that was the order of business today!

Treating I'm Bored with Respect

Wow, talk about a new perspective.

So one of the boards that I hang out at was having a discussion about deschooling - the process of giving your child a break from the 'busy-ness' of school and getting them to switch gears back into the process of learning. Some kids need this more than others I gather... but since mine never went to school I don't really know! Anyway, one of the mom's posted a link about it for further information, and me being me, I clicked... I followed, I wandered... and meandered around and found myself looking at an article called "Bored No More."

How many times have my kids said to me "I'm bored!" and I blew them off or suggested they clean their rooms. I love the perspective this article puts on it. If a baby is whiny/fussy or seeming uncomfortable we tend to their needs until the whining/fussing stops. The same can be done for kids.

I think next time I'll try out a technique or two from that article and see what happens!

DNA - it's Your Fault

As the parent of 4 beautiful children, 1 with a birth defect and 1 with a genetic anomaly does it really matter how either came about? In our quest to gather information to help future generations prevent the diseases, defects and anomalies that our children face, I understand the whole reason for testing. But when a grandparent comes to you and says "OMG we should all be tested to find out why this happened," isn't that person looking to wash their mortal soul clean of the guilt that possibly their DNA may have caused this? I mean mom and dad have enough DNA to answer the question of where this came from - don't they??

I care that my child has spina bifida, and a bunch of bizarre manifestations that leave her doctors scratching their heads wondering why. I care that my child has galactosemia - but not severe enough to warrant any special services from the medical community. As the mother of these children, I have spent years blaming myself not really knowing if the blame is appropriately placed. I have blamed myself not knowing if their birth issues were a matter of a freak accident during a certain stage of their development - that happened when I carried them. But over the years, that blame hasn't helped me but hindered my ability to deal with the fact that the issue is there. Blame isn't going to make it better, knowing who is at fault isn't going to take it away. Knowing where the faulty genetic material came from isn't going to change how I love them - because they are who they are inspite of things. My job as a mum to these kids (all of them) is to move on and make them into the people they will be for their lives - to help them live with the abilities, disabilities and capabilities they have and if possible not let them hold themselves back because of them.

I care, to know if my children - should watch out for certain gotchas and I want to help my children at least know what they are up against should they decide to have children in the future, but isn't it enough that we research the mother, father and siblings... do we really have to involve the grandparents?? Only 1/4th of their genetic material is likely to be present in their grandchildren. What will testing 4 grandparents, 3 aunts and uncles, 10 cousins, 2 parents and 3 siblings really provide for the picture and maybe we should throw in the family dog too (if we had one!) Will it make you feel better to point the finger straight at the person who has the faulty DNA and say "IT's ALL YOUR FAULT!" But wait - what if the issue is a mix of both sides. Can we then turn around say to the Doctor "OMG its all your fault you should have know that this would happen!"

Pardon my french - but screw the blame, it is what it is, and knowing what your DNA looks like isn't going to help - let's look from this point forward and help our children know what their future could be. Let them make their decisions based on knowledge of themselves going forward.

And OMG for pities sake, keep your pity to yourself, it isn't welcome over my door or near my children. We don't need pity - we need someone to hold us up and make us strong, and move us forward ...

So let the merry sunshine in and show me what you can do kids!

Politics

What? OMG, I'm posting about politics... the plague must be coming! LOL! Nah, this is just here to serve as a mental note for local friends to look into this candidate...

John Monds - article in the AJC
http://www.ajc.com/news/libertarian-john-monds-vying-640229.html

I am doing some research on his views... and since he appears new to the race - I thought I'd put him out there in case you share some of his opinions! LOL! Nothing more nothing less. I'm not telling you how to vote! :)

Another mental note for local folks
Georgia's My Voter Page.
http://www.sos.ga.gov/mvp/

Finding the Joy Sunday! (Oct)

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).
Also totally posting this like 3 days late (yes it is Sunday!)

This week:

* Hours on progress being made on my easy peasy - but pretty swap scarf

* Hours or progress made on our school work.

* Finding 2nd hand bookstores with awesome books in awesome shape, and finding the book I was looking for.

* Big box bookstores, that have what I'm looking for on the shelf that allows me to use my gift card from a couple months ago. (and nice tellers that remind me since I'm buying homeschool books I should bring in my Letter of Intent and get discount cards - and maybe the manager will be nice tomorrow and credit me the discount even though I don't have the card yet! LOL!)

* Finally turning in our Dollies for Haiti to our Girl Scout Council - and M finally finishing hers so we could turn them in!

* M loving her homemade dolly for Haiti and wanting to make some more! :)

* Soccer in the Rain, and a dry car to sit in at the edge of the field! LOL!

* Family walks in the rain, and the need for new raincoats.

* Planning Christmas Vacation having just arrived back from Fall Vacation - a real Christmas vacation - like over Christmas! LOL!

* Hours of decluttering - and finally seeing a difference! :)

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Finding Joy Friday

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

* Missing shows on TV only to find that I can catch them on streaming video on my computer with way better definition and way less commercials.

* Watching the girls spend a couple hours pretending to be the Stars on Dancing with the Stars... and feeling the earth move under my seat while they twirl, spin, prance and have fun!

* Listening to my big girls laughing and having fun using their imaginations creating different scenarios all week.

* Birthday dinners spoiled but that meant that I ate a healthier dinner at home.

* Finding a plan of attack for getting M to master her timestables.

* Seeing S make progress with her reading skills.

* Lunch with a friend.

* A birthday cake made by a friend for me to celebrate with tomorrow.

* Made it to the Tag Office before they closed today.

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Finding Joy Friday

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

*The possibility of major change in our lives. (not that I totally didn't steal this one! LOL! SSSHHHH! But the chickens haven't hatched, and I'm not counting them! LOL! kinda half praying they don't hatch too! ;0 - did I say that??)

*A midweek trip with my dear sweet family who travel well and only complain a little!!

*2.5 hours in the car to finish up a torture project that would have taken much longer if I didn't have those 2 hours to dedicate to it! :)

*A clean kitchen (ha the simple pleasures!)

*A child who likes to nap. (1 out of 4 isn't bad!)

*Schooling is underway on the home kindergarten front I'm happy with our progress

*The fact that if I want to arbitrarily decide to ditch my yarn stash, my husband would be totally supportive! LOL!

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Frivolous Crochet Fun

So I ended the weekend making crocheted Mary Jane's for ET that she won't ever where for longer than 30 seconds... Her older sister will get them plus another pair in a colour she likes! :) I figured I'd start the week with another frivolous adventure making Crocheted Flip Flops - Pattern found here

Mania's, Found Mine!

Every person has what I will call mania. Something that sucks all rational thought away and turns them into blubbering idiots! I think I found one of mine today! I was dropping one of the kids off at the local school (remember we homeschool) for a program she was doing with her GS troop. I had warned the leader that I wouldn't be doing much dropping off like this because:

1. My kids don't go there and I don't feel right being there.
2. I joined a non-after-school troop because I didn't want to go there.
3. The whole confusion and mess of pick up lines and insanity that occurs is just enough to tweak me over the edge! LOL!

I have known about this mania for a while, I just didn't know how deep rooted it was. I don't know where it came from either. The thing is this mania isn't just about the school line, its about lines in general. I can handle traffic lines, but people hangin out in a line, in a car doing nothing makes me insane. I can't explain it.

Excuse Me While I Rant....

School's gone back in... and less than a week later the kids are sent to the streets to beg for money.... Please know that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. And if you could shed some light I'd be much obliged... but I'm about to spout - because from my perspective this is how I see it.

As a homeschooling parent, if I sent my kids to your door to hawk some of our wares... like magazines, or cookies or wrapping paper or whatever, and told you that we needed them to fund our next trip to Disney - you'd look at me like I had 6 heads and slam the door in my face and probably never talk to me again! If I told you that we needed the money to fund the purchase of our textbooks or a new computer you'd likely pause a moment (because you have a heart!), and still slam the door in my face and yell that your tax dollars are paying for public school books already and why the hell can't I afford to buy my own damn books!!

As a tax payer I give my money to the government yearly and get no education benefit - not a deduction, nor a credit for the fact that my kids don't use the public school system. I pay for our books, and I pay for anything else my kids do and still pay the taxes. Hell in our county we aren't even allowed to join the school sports teams or activities.

I understand that as a homeschooling parent, I opted out of the system, be it temporarily or permanently that choice is mine. I also understand that if I decided to send my kids to a private school I'd be in the same predicatment (only way meaner cause it cost more! LOL!) I just don't understand why the public schools are sending kids out freakin door to door to solicit sales for gift paper, magazines, chocolate and other crap, with the line that they need the money to pay for the damn school books and technology.

They no longer provide pencils, paper, notebooks, tissue, crayons, antibacterial lotion, papertowels scissors or anything else on the back to school list. So where has the money gone.

Forgive me if I don't buy your wares. I have my own tightly budgeted, school supplies to fund!

Sewing for Charity

Well the girls have received their first lessons from "Hogwarts" but they haven't gotten started yet. The lessons began a little late which is good because things got a little crazy around here for a while. We always seem to get super busy at times then suddenly things calm down again!

First we got ourselves stuck at the top of a local mountain with a dead car battery which then fried the main fuse, leading to well lets just say a crazy few days. We were only 84 miles from home! LOL! The girls took it well.

Anyway they'll likely get started on Monday so they can return their first assignment by Friday. So I'll keep you posted there.

In the mean time, we found out that Craft Hope has started Project 9 for ConKerr cancer which you can find here. So we got started. Previously S (4.5) has felt a little left out when I've been working with M (9) on sewing projects, so I figured I'd get her involved this time. She's having a gay old time picking fabrics and taxing my brain to come up with matching fabric! Let me just say our tastes are very different! LOL!

We only started a couple days ago but have 7 pillowcases done. Each of us has pledged 5 pillowcases - totaling 15 - and one that they are keeping for themselves. Meaning I think we'll end up with about 18 pillowcases when all is said and done! :)

Who says a 4.5 yr old can't sew?? Well S is having a grand time helping me work on her cases. Ya her attention span is that of a typical 4 yr old but I gotta say she's managed to get more done than I expected! :) I'm impressed! FWIW, we're using the Hot Dog Roll Method to make our pillowcases.

A Scarf for Summer

So we've been heavily engrossed in the entire Harry Potter world for a few months now. As such, the girls are anxious to go to Hogwarts. M can't wait till HP world opens at Disney this year. I'd include S in that but I'm not really sure she cares! She loves the HP characters and the first book totally appealed to her. But after that she kinda lost interest and built her own version of HP in her head! Ah the joys of being 4.

Anyway- I spent a few days this month whipping up a Gryffindor scarf for M. While most go for the traditional colours of a wine yarn and yellow, M opted for a wine and gold. The scarf totally came down to her ankles. She asked for LONG! and she totally got it! LOL! I told her to take comfort inthe fact that she could wrap it round a couple times and still have it long. Plus she could GROW into it. She totally loved it!

S has asked for a Ravenclaw scarf which is still on the needles. M and S picked out a lighter blue than I would of and a darker bronze. Oh well, as long as they're happy with the colours that's all I was worried about. S' will be shorter (not sure yet by how much) bit she has asked for hers to only come to her knees.

Who knows. at the moment, I'm still contemplating making myself a Hogwarts Colours Scarf or just a scrappy scarf like Dr. Who used to wear!

Hogwarts Adventures

So for a while the girls and I have been listening on audio reading the Harry Potter series, and sadly, we've just finished the last book! (Sadly because it was a good series and we didn't want it to end! LOL!) So anyway the girls have been talking about Hogwarts and wanting to go when they're old enough so I sent away asking if we could do a Hogwarts Summer Correspondence course for under age witches and wizards (Hogwarts as you know starts at age 11.)

I told the girls I had requested it and on Friday we got to work on making our wands. As under-age wizards they aren't allowed to perform magic so if they make their own wands... its good! :) While the girls painted their wands the littlest one was colouring pictures - actually first time she has ever been ALLOWED to hold a crayon - without someone taking it off her so she spent the time figuring out what to do with it. Ripping off the paper and colouring on the high chair table was the best! LOL! As I was digging through the pictures later ET looked like she was asking questions and making notes, so she became the official admissions clerk at Hogwarts! LOL!

The girls got their letter by Owl Saturday morning - the Owl left it in the petunia pot out front. The letter just asks if they would be interested in doing a summer correspondence course through Hogwarts - but not AT Hogwarts. They both got very excited at the idea.

Just before lunch M and I created the quills they'll use for the work. The Quills are feather with and gutted ballpoint pens stuck inside! I haven't come up with the ink-well yet (but I'm still thinking on it!) M needs to reply to Professor McGonagall - which she'll do by Owl this evening or this afternoon! :) (Pink is a flamingo Feather, Red is a Phoenix Feather, and Green is a One-can - not a Toucan feather!)