Lemonade

Sometimes, a day starts out on a really crappy note.

You know, like finding out that the trailer that contains a huge amount of your Scouts' camping equipment has been broken into.

I got that message first thing this morning, so Daniel and I took off into town to deal with that. I crawled around inside the trailer and was relieved to find that nothing obvious was missing, but the latch itself was destroyed. I made the police report (not that I expect anything to come of it) and then one of the Scout dads and I ran all over town trying to find a new latch.

We couldn't find one, so we secured it as well as we could in order to form a plan, which will ultimately involve towing the trailer over here to put it in my garage so that I can go through it, clean it out, and inventory everything that is in there - a job that I've been meaning to do for months. And one of the Scout grandpas thinks that he can weld the latch to repair it for free - a huge bonus for our little pack of boys.

Of course, in order to get it over here to inventory the contents, there has to be room in my garage - which would not normally be a problem.

However......

A month or so ago (maybe more) a friend of mine found out that a friend of hers was cleaning out a "hoarder house" - it was a house that was apparently stuffed full of fabric and craft goodies (the owner had passed away), and the person who was cleaning it out didn't want to throw all of the fabric in a dumpster. So I went over and spent a few hours going through floor-to-ceiling piles of fabric, batting, sewing supplies, partially completed quilt tops, spools of thread, and so much crap that it was unreal. I piled as much as I could into the van and brought it home.

However, it all stunk. It had that nasty musty stale animal old lady smell to it, so I piled it all in the garage until I could figure out what to do with it.

I had hoped that just leaving it in the garage would kill the smell, but it didn't. I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to get rid of the smell and I'd just have to toss the stuff after all.

With the latest development of the Scout trailer being moved in sometime in the next few days, I knew that I had to do something with the pile today, so I started going through it. I unrolled all of the batting and hung it out on the clothesline to air out, and I took the first pile of fabric and quilt squares and quilt tops and tossed them into the washer with lots of detergent, and hoped for the best.

When the first load was done and I opened the washer, I was greeted with no smell at all. Not willing to risk the odor coming back in the dryer, I hung it all out of the line to dry. Some of the tops started to pull apart, and some of the fabric basically disintegrated, but I think there is quite a bit that is salvageable with a lot of patience and a little bit of luck.

Some of it is remarkably hideous. Some of it is gorgeous. Some is hand stitched, some is done by machine. Most of it is polyester (ick) but some of it is cotton. There is absolutely no way to tell how old any of it is.

Now that I'm getting a chance to actually look at some of the stuff, I think I'm going to do what I can to finish as much of it as possible into quilts - some are going to be small lap-sized ones, some a little bigger, and some might actually be twin or full-sized by the time that they're done. And when they're done, they're going to be donated somewhere. I've seen a couple of programs over the years where foster care agencies look for quilts and blankets for kids that are in state custody, so that's where I'm going to start.

Busted up trailer. Dirty hoarder fabric. Cluttered garage.

Lemons.

Motivation to clean, organize, and inventory the trailer along with getting it fixed (hopefully) for free. Fabric that is coming clean with not much effort. Cleaner garage. Being able to take stuff that I have to turn into donations for someone who needs it.

Lemonade.

Perspective. 

The Start of Something ...... Small to Medium (for now)

So.....

If you've been hanging around here for very long, you know that I sew. Kind of a lot. Or at least, I try to when I'm not running around like the proverbial headless chicken all hopped up on caffeine. I've always wanted to get a business going around it, but so far that hasn't really happened yet. A craft show here and there, or a special order once in a while, and that's been about it.

Then, a series of things happened.

Actually, it started a couple of years ago when a dear friend of mine took in 3 little boys who were in need of a new home. Keep that in the back of your mind for right now, ok?

I bought this house. And it has this incredible basement that I can almost totally devote to my crafty stuff. Getting it cleaned up and usable has been more than a little bit of a chore, but it's so close to being perfect that I can spend time down there actually sewing instead of hyperventilating over the mess.

Then my friend got another child, the little sister of the boys she already had in her home. One of the boys started showing some signs of autism and other sensory issues, and she has been doing everything in her power and within the foster care system to meet his needs. She called me one day and asked me "hey, what do you know about weighted blankets?"

Huh. I've never been asked that before. So I started researching. I was astonished at the prices and knew that I could make them for less money than what some of these companies were asking. I started crunching numbers and doing thousands of searches online for supplies and ideas and prices and ideas.

The Dude and I talked about it. We talked to friends who have experience with these things. We brainstormed. We drew pictures and talked and discussed and made phone calls and did more research and discussed and bickered (but just a little).

And then we went to Oklahoma to see my friend and these precious children, and to help them move into a new home. The Dude, my friend and I all sat down and talked and crunched numbers and brainstormed some more.

On the way back to Kansas, he and I talked about it some more. We both decided that this is something that is worth pursuing, even if it's just a short-term project. I ordered the pellets needed to weight a blanket, and dug through my fabric stash to see what I could make for her little boy as a prototype.

It took me more than a few weeks to make that first one, as life was too crazy for a while. But then I got it done and had it ready to ship to her. I had done everything except for take pictures of it, and she called me and asked me to come back down to help her - she had just moved again (long story on that one) and was diagnosed with diabetes, and she was struggling. I packed the boys into the Traverse, pulled out of the driveway, went to the gas station, went back to the house to get the blanket, and hit the road.

Once we got there, we basically forgot about the blanket other than pulling it out of the bag to show it to her, and then it got put aside. I don't remember exactly what happened at one point, but her little boy started to have a meltdown. He was extremely upset and was kicking and screaming and crying and flailing all over the place. She got him in her arms and sat down on the couch and motioned for me to hand her the blanket. I tossed it to her and she draped it across him, and as the weight settled on him, he immediately became quiet and relaxed.

She and I looked at each other in shock. We had never witnessed what one of these blankets could do.

I knew right then and there that this was something that I need to do.

I've referred to the basement in this house as the "Mom Cave" ever since we moved in, and as ideas for this have been rolling around, so has a name for our venture. "Mom Cave Designs" was born. I snagged a facebook page for it, but didn't post anything until tonight as I kept working on ideas.

Our (and when I say "our" I mean me and The Dude because he's in on this too) general idea for the blankets is this - while we will have some standard blankets on hand (after we get them made), we will make them to order, because we know that kids (and adults) who need them sometimes have very particular requests/needs. We plan to sell them at very reasonable prices, because we're not out to get rich off of these. We actually want to turn some of the profit around to make more blankets that can be donated - either to kids in the foster care or mental health system, or to families who can't afford to buy them.

We want to make a difference.

Of course, it's going to take a while to get this going full-speed. There are some things that we need to do first to make it easier - small things like getting a piece of wood cut to make a tabletop for the pool table to give us a big work area, buying a bigger ironing board to make working with larger pieces of fabric easier, buying the pellets in bulk to get the biggest cost savings, buying some bulk fabric and thread, etc.... and other things like looking into what needs to be done to turn this into a legitimate business should it grow and succeed as we hope it does. For now, we're going to take it all one step at a time, but I already threatened him that if this takes off, he's going to be learning how to use a sewing machine pretty darned quick!

Mom Cave Designs will be more than just the blankets though. It will be everything that I make, but with a focus on the blankets. As of right now, I have pictures posted of two smaller lap blankets that I made as samples, and also some Trick or Treat bags that I made that I have for sale. I plan to post more items over the next few days, as I go through my inventory and see what I have. Anything that is sold in the near future will help to fund the initial startup costs to get some more blankets made.

As this progresses, I'll be posting updates on the Mom Cave Designs facebook page, so if you'd like to keep up on the day to day progress you can follow me there - but of course I'll always be on my regular Non-Stop Mom page too.

So.....it'll either be really cool, or it'll be a train wreck. Only time will tell. :)

Ice Bucket Challenge

The Dude challenged me to do the ice bucket challenge. He put a different spin on his response to it, and I'm doing the same thing - albeit a different spin than the one that he used.

You don't need to see a video of me dumping a bucket of water over my head in order to raise awareness for anything. I don't need to one-up the guy before me and go for the gimmick and have a front end loader dump hundreds of gallons of water on me in order to prove that I care more than someone else.

I don't need to do it.

Instead, watch this video.

And then watch this one.

This is my niece's son, Corban. He's just a few months younger than Daniel and although they don't get to see each other very often, they are buddies. They love to play together, and I hope and pray that they get to hang out and be buddies for a very long time - but Corban has cystic fibrosis.

"What's that?" you ask..... well, you can check out THIS LINK to get more information on that. They explain it way better than I ever could. After you get done reading that information, explore the rest of the CFF's website and learn more about this horrible disease.

Corban wears the vest daily - it thumps him hard enough to knock the excess mucus in his lungs loose so that he can cough it up and get it out of his body in an attempt to prevent infections in his lungs. He takes breathing treatments. He takes oral medications.

He does this every day. He has done this every day of his life, since he was diagnosed just after birth. This is his normal. This is his life.

Corban is doing well at the moment, but that can change quickly, and it often has. There have been many sicknesses, hospitalizations, tests, medications, treatments, 3 hour long road trips to get to the specialists to not get any answers - it's a constant battle not only for Corban, but for his entire family.

We participate in the Great Strides walk every year in order to raise awareness and much-need research monies (I didn't get to do it this year because I had other commitments that day). It's usually right around the beginning of May, and we are always looking for support - whether it's more walkers to join our team, or donations, or just spreading the word. If you want to help us with that, just get a hold of me.

There are so many causes out there that need attention. Whether it's research for a cure for an illness, donations to help the homeless, funding for mental health care, support for victims of domestic violence, or whatever - we all have the power to put ourselves out there and do something. Make a donation. Volunteer. Spread the word.

Dump the water, don't dump the water. Do whatever it takes to make a difference.

It's an amazing life

This is my life tonight.

Roughly half a case of bananas, 4 loaf pans, and my oven.

By the time that I'm done, I should have about 14 loaves of banana bread made. And I won't eat a single one.

Instead, it's all going to the local homeless shelter. They put out an announcement today that they were inundated with a huge donation of bananas, and they couldn't possibly use them all before they went bad. They've tried to freeze them before in the hopes that they'd get used eventually, and that just didn't work - so they asked for help with them.

I like to bake, especially when I'm stressed. Problem solved.

What's funny though is that my stress is probably some of the best stress that a person can have.

How is that possible?

Easy.

My life is amazing right now.

I might bitch and moan about the amount of work that I have to do on the house - and trust me, there is so much work to be done - but it's my house, and I'm able to do most of the work myself.

I've been complaining about the kids a lot - and not without reason. Summer vacation is crazy insane at times, and the amount of togetherness is starting to grate on everyone's nerves. The fighting and bickering and laziness is at an all-time high, but at the same time - they are having fun most of the time. They have been working together to help clean the house and do their own laundry and help me do yardwork.... and there is absolutely no reason to complain about that.

I'm getting ready to take The Dude and the kids and do our cross-country jaunt to see friends and family. I was able to rent a 12-passenger van so that we can travel without sitting on top of each other or with the kids' knees up their noses or elbows in each other's sides, which will hopefully keep the road trip relatively bicker-free.....and considering that the last time we made the trip we came back without a transmission in my van, renting a vehicle seemed like a wise choice. We are going to hit some new stops along the way and do some really fun stuff, and we haven't even told the kids where all we're going yet because that's part of the fun.

Speaking of The Dude - he continues to put up with me and the kids and my neurotic tendencies, no matter what I throw at him. And if I throw too much, he calls me on it and throws it right back at me. He helps with the kids and the house as much as he can with his own responsibilities, and he continues to amaze me every day. Heck, we even have the chance to go on a real date - kid-free! - on Friday.

I see so many of my friends struggling right now. Seriously struggling. And it breaks my heart. I see marital problems, financial problems, issues with domestic violence, deaths of loved ones, kids using drugs - and I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have the life that I have right now.

But I also realize that it can be gone in a heartbeat. I refuse to take this life for granted. No matter how much I complain about petty crap, I know that it's petty and people have problems that are so much worse than mine.

So I will stay up all night to make different varieties of banana bread to take back to the homeless shelter tomorrow, because I know that someone there is having a much worse day than what I could ever imagine.

I'm not writing about this to get the attagirl's and the good job's that typically come when someone does something like this. I'm writing because I truly believe that we ALL have the power to make someone's day a little bit brighter. Maybe it's not by baking a bunch of banana bread. But we can all do something.

Donate your old clothes to charity. Buy something from that kid's fundraiser, even if it's overpriced garbage. Go to a local nursing home and visit with someone whose family has forgotten about them. Volunteer at your kid's next school function, even if you have to put up with those parents. Smile at someone you pass on the street.

Do something. I know you can.

So we got a few things done today....

Every now and then, we have one of those days when we just don't stop moving and we get tons of stuff done. I'm sitting here trying to think about everything that we did...

I started out by getting up and making the kids pancakes for breakfast. They all ate and got ready to go and then we took off and picked The Dude up at his house, then I took the older kids to Ex1's house and The Dude (and Alex and Daniel) and I went and met with the realtor to look at a couple more houses. They both had potential, but were a bit smaller than what we really need. However, like the other ones, we haven't ruled them out yet.

Then we came back to town and went back to his house and parked the van and then walked back a couple of blocks to a local store that was having a sidewalk sale.

I threatened to buy a big goofy hat to wear while fishing...

But instead we opted for lunch from the hot dog truck that was there. Two naked dogs for the boys, a bacon-wrapped dog for me, and a fully loaded Mexi-dog for The Dude.

In typical Dude fashion, he had to pose with Sr. Weiner.

After that, we went back to his house again, and we loaded up a bunch of stuff that needed to be donated elsewhere. We took a bunch of books to a local used bookstore, and a bunch of clothes and other stuff to the local thrift store. Then we stopped at one of the city offices to get our landfill coupons for the next project.

Back at his house again, we started on the yard. It had gotten pretty overgrown along the fence and was making it difficult to mow, so I cut all of the branches down and we loaded them into his truck and took off for the landfill to get rid of them.

After we got done at the landfill, we went back to his house and I got the yard mowed - so much easier without having to battle branches the entire time! Then I gathered up the boys and we ran into my work to get my schedule for next week and to grab something to eat before we took off toward our house. Once we got home, we inhaled our food and then I mowed my yard and Nice Neighbor's yard. After I got done with that, we ran to the grocery store to get laundry detergent and then BACK to my work to get the milkshakes that we had forgotten to get with our food earlier. Then it was back home again and baths for all 3 of us.

After doing all of that yard work in 99-degree heat, a shower was mandatory for me.

And now that we got all of that done today, I can lay around all day tomorrow and do absolutely nothing - and not feel guilty about it at all.

And that is my plan.

Control

My life is crazy. Suddenly it's much crazier than it usually is. And with crazy comes stress.

I have a love/hate relationship with stress. Obviously, it's bad for me (ok, bad for everyone) but at the same time, I work best under pressure. Give me an impossible task with a deadline, and I'll get it done with time to spare - but give me all of the time in the world and I won't get it done. I am the Procrastination Queen at times (hello? 70 days to get ready for a half-marathon?) and it usually bites me in the butt.

I'm also a bit of a control freak. Not about everything, but about a lot of things. I admit it. Sometimes I can let it slide and relax a bit and go with the proverbial flow. But at other times, I go a little nutty with it.

This is one of those times. With all of the stress and chaos and disorder that is going on in my life right now, I feel as though I am totally out of control. And I hate that. But some of the things that are going on right now are completely and totally out of my control. I can't force other people to make up their minds  or to decide what they're going to do and when, and so I'm left just kind of hanging out here, waiting.

So here I go with the overcompensating. I can't control a bunch of stuff that's happening right now, so by God I'm going to control everything else - not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

I've spent the weekend stripping every bed in the house and washing everything right down to the mattress pads - because I can certainly make sure that all of our beds are clean. I've been going through stuff and throwing away stuff and organizing stuff and putting more stuff together to donate because I can do it and get it done and no one can stop me.

I've been going nuts with my datebook, getting everything put down in it for the week so that I can keep track of where I need to be and when (see it there on my desk?) and I've been trying to just get organized in general. I have all sorts of tips saved in my email thanks to my wonderful aunt and I need to go through them again and get to work. But I know for a fact, that if I don't do it tonight - my first job in the morning after I get the kids to school is to organize my desk. The clutter is about to kill me.

And in between now and then every facet of my life will be neatly scheduled in my datebook, because that's the only way that I can keep track of anything, up to and including my own head.

We need to turn it around...

I went into the beginning of this new year full of hope and excitement. I really do think that there are going to be some wonderful things happening for me and my family this year. I was anxious to get this year started for so many positive reasons.

But then the new year started - and it didn't start well at all.

I found out on the second day of the year that one of my friends was going through a personal hell, and as a mother, it hit home for me.

On the third day, we got more devastating news that again, hit me so incredibly hard.

The Dude has been having problems with his truck. My "service engine" light was on. He has to get two teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon.

It just hasn't been a stellar start to the year. But at the same time I know that it could always be worse.

We spent part of the afternoon today working on his truck. Although we didn't get it fixed, we have now narrowed down the problem and are about 98% sure that we know what's wrong with it. He can drive it for now, for short distances, but it needs to be fixed. Of course that doesn't come for free, but we can get it taken care of in the next couple of weeks.

My "service engine" light? I had a sneaking suspicion desperate hope that it was something stupid - and it was. Turns out the gas cap wasn't on tight enough to make it happy. Stupid thing. But the light's off now, so it's good.

Tonight, however.....tonight was hard. As I mentioned the other day, a little boy who was the son of one of Sarah's mentors was killed in a horrible accident last week. As a mother, I can't even begin to imagine the impact of losing a child. I just can't wrap my head around it. After the kids got home from school and basketball practice tonight, Sarah announced that she wanted to go to the boy's viewing. I wasn't sure that it was a good idea, but she and I talked about it and she really wanted to go. I told her she would have to check with her father, since she was supposed to go to church with him tonight. He agreed that she could go, but only if I went with her. So plans quickly changed, Ex1 came and got Emily and Jared, I took Alex and Daniel over to The Dude's house, and Sarah and I went to the viewing.

It was so hard. So incredibly hard. Seeing the little boy's parents and sisters there, and the other mourners...looking at the pictures and the videos from his short little life....my heart shattered so many times tonight. Seeing the pain in his mother's eyes as she hugged me and thanked me for coming....I have tears running down my face as I'm typing this.

All I've been able to think for the past few days is "something's got to give" - there has been too much bad stuff to start off a new year. Way too much. It needs to change, and somehow we need to turn it around. So I started thinking - always dangerous for me to do.

Tomorrow, January 10, 2013 is my 2 year blogiversary. It's been 2 years since I started this crazy thing.  And Sunday, January 13, is both my 42nd birthday and the 2nd anniversary of the day that my 2nd divorce became final.

I need to celebrate. I want to celebrate. I want to be happy. While I can't forget about the bad stuff, I can't focus on it - and I don't want anyone else to focus on the bad stuff either.

So what do we do?

I know what I'm going to do. I've always been a huge fan of the "Pay it Forward" movement (as is my good friend over at Mom-troversial) and I'm going to start making a really conscious effort to pay it forward as much as I can and in as many ways as I can. I have a pile of stuff sitting by my front door already that needs to be donated - and it's going to go out this week. We have toys that the kids have outgrown or they don't like or whatever. Guess what? They're going out the door too.

I've made up my mind that I am going to do as much as I can for two of my favorite local organizations too - our homeless shelter and our women's safe house. I have my own personal reasons for choosing those two in particular, but they're going to be getting some of my time, my money, and any of my "stuff" that they can use.

So - for my blogiversary and for my birthday, this is the best gift that anyone could give to me (*cough* along with a pair of warm fuzzy slippers so that I don't have to keep wearing The Dude's that are 18 sizes too big for me *cough*). Go out and do something for someone. Donate something somewhere. Be nice to someone. Donate something that you don't need anymore instead of selling it. Volunteer your time. If you have the cash, make a donation to a local organization that needs it. There are so many ways that we can make someone else's life just a little bit easier, but we overlook those things so often in our hurry to deal with our own lives. Pay it forward, people. Please.

So go and do it, and tell me what you did. Leave it in a comment here, post it on my facebook wall, send me an email, whatever. Tell the world that you did it, and maybe you'll inspire someone else to do the same thing.

Random stuff and a personal request

A little bit of crafty stuff....

I'm participating in this quilting swap thingee. I can't think of what it's actually called right off of the top of my head, but basically there are 5 people in a group. We each make a row. Then we send our row to the next person, who adds a row. Then it gets sent to the next person, etc etc etc. So when we get our first row back, it now has 4 more rows attached to it, all made by different people all over the country.

Anyway....this is the row that I got from one of the ladies in the group. She is going with a "rustic fall" theme.

I laid it out on my bed and stared at it for a while, trying to figure out what to do with it next. I had a couple of ideas but decided against them and decided to just make some more traditional squares.

Of course, I wasn't paying attention on the first square, and it came out way too small, so I had to start over. But as of right now, I have 2 squares done, and I'm hoping to get the other 3 done this week so that I can get them attached and mail her row on to the next person - and then wait for the next row to come to me.

It's a fun project, and something that I've never done before - so I'm really anxious to see what my quilt looks like by the time that I get it back - although that won't be for several months yet.

In other news, I've been on a quest for a new datebook for the past couple of weeks. I had bought my typical little cheapie from the dollar store, but they changed the format of the pages in it and it just wasn't going to work anymore. I looked online to try to find something, but I didn't really like (or couldn't afford) anything that I saw there. I had to take The Dude to the dentist today and when we got done there we had to go to WalHell to get his prescriptions filled and so I looked at the datebooks that they had there.

It's a little bigger than I wanted and it was a little more expensive than I wanted (I'm a cheapskate. I admit it.) but it has lots of room and I think that it'll work just fine. I already started transferring information into it while Emily was at basketball practice tonight - when I wasn't dealing with argumentative kids who wanted to do absolutely nothing but irritate the snot out of me for the entire time that we were there.

Now....for the request.....

Please forgive me for the vagueness of this, but I just can't go into specifics because of the situation.

I have a friend, a dear friend from high school. Our lives went in different directions after graduation, but we stayed in touch for years and then lost each other, and then found each other again through the miracle that is facebook, and got to see each other live and in person last summer for the first time since graduation (I think), and I got to meet her kids, and it was wonderful.

Anyway, she is now going through something that I believe is probably the worst nightmare that a parent can endure, short of the death of a child. I had heard about the situation before, but didn't realize that there was a connection between it and her until today, when we exchanged some brief messages. My heart is breaking for her and her family right now, and I can't even begin to imagine how she is feeling. She is devastated and heartbroken and there is nothing that I can do to help her except to be there for her and love and support her from afar, and it just doesn't feel like enough.

So I am asking you to please, say a prayer for her and her family. Or if that's not your thing, send a happy thought or a good vibe or something to her. Go out and do something to help someone else. Make a donation to a charity. Something. Anything. She's in the midst of hell right now, and something good has got to come out of it. Somehow. Some way. And I don't know how else to do it.

There's too much bad crap happening in the world. Go do something good.

A little less nakedness.

Our poor Christmas tree has been naked far too long. I bought it almost 2 weeks ago, but we just haven't been able to get our acts together long enough to get it in the house, upright, and decorated.

Actually, that's not true. I got it in the house and fought with it and got it upright last week. And then it crashed.

No, it got pushed. Of course it was an "accident" but regardless I didn't have time to mess with it again and so I just leaned it up against the wall and left it there until I had time again.

Yesterday I started working on getting it back up straight. Things just didn't work out as well as I had hoped (at least partially because of 5 little attitudes) and I ended up sending a rather panicked message to The Dude to come over and help me. So we finally got it back up......but we won't talk about how much fishing line is being used to hold it in position.

"Upright" is all that counts, right? Right.

Anyway, we started decorating it tonight. We got an exceptionally late start on it and rushed through it, but I wanted all of the kids to be able to help. Of course there's always the one who refuses.....*smiles through gritted teeth*....but still.....

I like a lot of lights - and I start by wrapping the
first strand around the trunk.

Not as many lights as I wanted, but it'll do.

Hanging the first ornaments.

Very focused on the job.

I swear....I hate this worse than tangled lights.

Finished for now.....but not complete yet.

I still have to rearrange a lot of the ornaments, add a bunch more, and add the tinsel before it's done. But this is how far we got with it tonight before I sent the thundering herd to bed.

Yes, we have a lot of ornaments. Someone *cough* got this brilliant idea when the kids were babies - and the idea was to get each kid a couple of ornaments every year for Christmas. We use a Sharpie and write their names and the year on each ornament, and then they're wrapped and put in their stockings. It's a fairly inexpensive stocking stuffer, and they get to accumulate ornaments that they can take with them when they move out of the house. Well, some years - the ornaments went on sale before Christmas, and so they were really inexpensive, and *cough* someone *cough* might have gone a little crazy and bought maybe 4-5 ornaments for each kid, without doing the math and realizing that purchasing that many would add up to 20-25 new ornaments each year. *cough*

Yeah....so.....we have a lot of ornaments. And that's why we usually get a 9' tall tree - but we went smaller this year.

Along with the tree, I figured that I'd get the rest of the decorations up too - and that can be a pain when someone is vertically challenged.

Do as I say, not as I do. But take pictures of me while I'm doing it.

This is where the stockings get hung too - once I find them.

That's as far as we've gotten. But it's progress at this point. My tooth is still killing me (especially after I got desperate and ate solid food tonight and got a piece of chicken stuck in it) and I'm down to something like 35 hours before it gets pulled. Yes, the one with the phobia of dentists is counting down the hours until this thing is ripped out of my head - that's how bad it is.

It's been a crazy busy weekend. We had basketball yesterday of course, and Jared's Christmas program was Friday night, and it was super intense and emotional. One of his classmates is dealing with a brain tumor and they had him on Skype during the program, and they sang to him and waved to him and it was beautiful and touching and gut-wrenching and the tears were flowing. But, he got to come home on Saturday and was able to attend a chili feed that was held as a fundraiser for him and his family - so Jared got to see him and talk to him for a few minutes, which was wonderful. Seriously, for all of the whining that I've been doing about my tooth, seeing this little boy putting on his game face and fighting for his life just makes everything else seem so trivial. I got to visit with his mother for a little while, and she was amazing - I can't even being to imagine how I would feel if I were in her position.

Don't take it for granted. That's all I can say.

I'm back! So...you want to see the quilt?

I've been kind of MIA for the past couple of days - my computer monitor decided to die on me, and while I could still play around on my facebook page, it's just way too hard to blog from my phone. So I just took a break. But now, thanks to The Dude and his spare monitor, I'm back up and running!


I did finish the quilt, and I delivered it yesterday. But, before I show you that, I have a couple of other fun pictures first.

 This is my crazy rosebush in front of my house. Apparently, the rose did not get the memo that it's already mid-October and we've already had below-freezing temperatures a couple of times. I don't know why I'm surprised - I have pictures of it blooming last year (or was it the year before?) in November or December.  Silly thing.

For a more seasonal look, my mums are also blooming. They actually don't look that fabulous though - I had planted them last year in pots on my front steps, and never did anything with them. I figured that I'd just have to replace them every year, because I didn't realize that mums were the kind that came back (I can never remember if those are annuals or perennials). Anyway, they started growing again this spring, and they're really tall and scraggly because I didn't pinch them back or whatever it is that I was supposed to do with them. Oh well - live and learn, right?

Later this afternoon, we heard a bunch of sirens - which to be honest, is not that common in this town. I looked outside and realized that there was something happening, but I couldn't tell what it was at first. And then I heard the roar!

Yep, it's Toy Run time again!

Hundreds of bikers were cruising past, so of course the kids and I ran out to watch. They definitely had a beautiful day weather-wise to do it.

Kids walking back to the house after watching
the Toy Run.

So, the quilt.

It's done. I'm not 100% happy with it, because of the issues that I had with my machines. But, I was able to borrow another machine from a friend and got the quilting done on it. But I think all in all, in came out ok.

Here are a few shots of it in progress:

Still on the frame, but done with the quilting.

Quilting done, off of the frame, ready to be trimmed.

Trimming the batting/backing to size

Attaching the binding.

And, voila! Done.

I miss my clothesline. That always made it so much easier to get pictures of finished quilts! But many thanks to The Dude, Emily, and Jared for helping me to get this shot!

Also, I did shoot some video of the actual quilting process so that those who were wondering could get a better idea of how the whole quilting frame gizmo worked - BUT, because of my slow internet connection, it is taking well over an hour to upload a 5ish minute video. Once that's uploaded though, I will post that as well. And if you want to see it, and don't see me post it, feel free to nag me about it.

Quilt progress

As promised, here are some more pictures of the t-shirt quilt as it progresses...

The completed top

The Dude helping to set up the tables to quilt it.

Getting it on the frame.

THIS is why I need at least an 8-foot long table.

And after I preach at the kids about leaving books laying
around on the floor, I use them to level the tables. *sigh*

Ready to quilt.

The quilting in progress.

So, before any of you ask, the gizmo that I use to do the actual quilting - the frame thingamajig - I don't remember exactly what it's called, but it was made by HandiQuilter. I do not think that they make these any more. I bought mine off of Ebay years ago so other than that, I have no idea where to tell anyone to get one. It's a pain in the butt to get it set up and get the quilt onto it, but it works (for the most part).

I worked on the quilting for a few hours this afternoon. I had to fight with the sewing machine and threaten to throw it through a window, but it's working *knock on wood* at the moment. Hopefully I can get all of the quilting done in the next day or two, and then I can get the binding done and it'll be ready to go by Saturday.

No pressure. ;)

The gloves have been donated!

I really don't think that Alex could be any happier than he was after school today.

We didn't get a chance to drop the gloves off before school for a couple of reasons - one might have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't showered yet...so I dumped him at the door and went back home.

I had gotten the oil changed in the van this afternoon, so The Dude was hanging out with me and we went to pick Alex up from school together. When we got there we went down to Alex's room to get him and to return a book that his teacher needed, and I handed him the bag of gloves.

He took them up to the office, and he was thrilled when the school secretary told him that he could put them on the tree himself.

Of course, after he did that, we had to search the Lost & Found for his own missing glove (only one, mind you) and then wander down to the cafeteria to find his lost sweatshirt. That kid would forget his head if he wasn't attached - not sure if that's genetic, but forgetting things seems to be a familiar trait for some reason....

Still, forgetful or not, I'm so proud of him. I don't know that he completely understands what making a donation like this means, but I know from personal experience that it will be appreciated by the person on the receiving end. Over the past several years especially, my kids and I would not have had anything for Christmas several times had it not been for the generosity of strangers.

Seriously, there was one Christmas where I did not have the money to get my kids anything. ANYTHING. I could barely keep the utilities connected, and only had food through the food stamp program. I was working, but I just couldn't keep up with everything.

Did my choices lead me to that point? Yep. So don't even bother lecturing me on that one.

The point is that my kids had one of the best Christmases ever thanks to the generosity of strangers. They got more that year than probably any other year of their lives. It was incredible. The donor was anonymous, so I had no way to thank him or her or them, other than an (also) anonymous letter to the editor in the newspaper.

Things are still tight for us, money-wise. But nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I can keep the utilities on and the van payment current and the roof over our head - and we are no longer on food stamps. We have a little bit left over most months - sometimes less than I would like - but we are so much better off than we were even a year ago.

I know that buying a few inexpensive pairs of gloves does not even begin to pay forward what we have received in the past - but knowing that my kids want to do things like this makes me one proud mom. They don't know the full details of how bleak our finances were, but they know that we had help. Someday, I'll explain it to them when they are old enough to understand. Right now, I'm just happy that they want to help someone else that might need it.

Hat and glove saga, continued...

Alex has been bugging me almost non-stop since the other day when he tried to donate his own hat and gloves to charity to go to the store to buy some that he could donate. With Daniel not feeling well yesterday, we didn't get to go then.

But, thanks to yet another schedule change today, I had a little bit of time after I picked him up from school and we went shopping. I had told Ex1 the story and he told me that he had seen gloves on sale at the local grocery store for $1.00 per pair.

We got there, and sure enough, there was a big bin of them....I told him he could pick out 5 pairs. We looked for hats, but couldn't find any. Boo.

But, we successfully got the 5 pairs and they are in a bag with his backpack so that he can take them to school in the morning. Hopefully we'll be able to get up and around fast enough that I can actually go in with him and get some pictures of him putting them on the tree - I know that he's excited to do it. Although if we don't have time we'll just wait until next week and maybe we'll find some hats to add to it as well.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In other news.....I dumped the pictures off of my phone tonight, and found some that I hadn't posted so I figured I'd amuse someone with them.

This was Daniel's Potato Head creation that he made in the church nursery the other day. He was very proud of it and had to keep it together until after the service when I could come and see it. I have to give him points for creativity, especially for the tongue mohawk!

The sky was gorgeous this morning.

But I still hate mornings with a passion.

Hate this. Even more than I hate mornings. But on the plus side, since I did do it tonight, I don't have to worry about it tomorrow *and* I was able to get my much-needed Diet Pepsi at the same time. I really need to watch my stockpile more closely. I also need to not wait until the gas gauge is below "E" to fill it, and then it won't hurt so much.

So, tomorrow, I get to get up at 5:30am, do the school run and all of that fun stuff. Supposedly, as of right now, there is no practice or anything scheduled so we should have a normal afternoon (as normal as they ever are around here) and evening. We only have one basketball game this weekend so that will cut down on some of the chaos, and no other real plans. I need to do some Christmas shopping (ugh) and finish decorating at some point too.

The fun never ends!