Baby Fix

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Lincoln City

We spent last weekend in Lincoln City.  Here is just a little photo album of our trip.

This is Beach Trip Eve – a rare shot of me with my kids (Djeryd is not in the picture because he was not even the slightest bit interested in hearing stories about princesses).

This is a shot from the deck of our beach house.  At the base of our flight of 70 stairs is Highway 101.  This almost caused cardiac arrest for me with my three littlest ones.  I had NO idea our “parking space” was on the highway.  Freaky.  Not to mention the house was crooked and made me slightly seasick, and Erik fell down part of the stairs once.  Never again to that place.

I did not actually hit the beach.  Sean and the kids did a few times, but I was not fond of mixing a four-month-old with those clear blue skies and all that sand.  Poor me, I had to read and take naps and have time all to myself, while the kids dug for agates and built sandcastles.  ;>

I love this shot of Anna.  We were waiting for the seals to be fed.  I love the light on her hair.

Thankfully, there were “time-out” benches stashed all over the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Isn’t that an adorable bunch of people?

Sean took this gorgeous shot.  Here all this time I thought I just knew how to take good pictures.  Instead it turns out my daughter is just incredibly photogenic.

I think this is my favorite shot of the weekend (I love Anna’s little hands).  We packed up Sunday morning, hit church in Lincoln City and drove straight home (the ward was packed – like triple their normal attendance – there were people all the way from Maryland – it was really cool).  This was at the most beautiful rest stop.  And, let me tell you, we got ALL kinds of looks at this lovely place.  It was a great trip.

In My Shoes

 

 

. . . sigh . . .

Apricot Picnic Skirt

My latest creation:

This is the same skirt pattern I used here.

I tried some different hemming techniques (mostly to avoid the traditional double-roll hem).

I added some button details (which Anna actually cried over while I was sewing them on – she likes them now, though).

 

(I love the spark of blue.)  

And here’s my bragging picture.  Check out this girly-girl – spelling her name all by herself! 

Love that girl.

A Notable Quotable

Anna: (in complete shock, surprise and pride while holding the ketchup bottle ) 

Mom! I opened it without my teeth!

Things I’m Loving

:: summer vacation

:: field trip to the Rose Garden

:: my sweet Mother’s Helper who comes once a week to help me keep my sanity

:: this amazing little boy (please note: he is traveling in the correct direction, just getting there backwards – so Erik)

 

:: sunshine in Oregon – at long last

:: watching my kids play together – every single day

 

:: my most very scrumptious baby – I want to eat you up, Miss Alyx

:: courage to speak muy, muy poquito Spanish to my neighbors

 

:: being at the most glorious place every single month this year, for the first time in years – it changes me, and I am so thankful

Civil War Saturday

After a pancake breakfast and flag raising, we spent the bulk of our Independence Day celebrations in Salem at a Civil War reenactment.  It was seriously cool. 

We saw two battles,

toured the camps,

 

and I drooled over a few dresses. 

I think the kids had fun, too.

It was a really neat experience.  We will definitely be doing it again next year.         

Oregon Fires

Our Fourth of July weekend went through many revisions in the two weeks leading up to the actual day it was all suppose dto begin.  One of the many plans was to go camping, which was downsized to camping in the backyard, which was downsized to building a fire pit and roasting marshmallows outside, which was downsized to roasting marshmallows over the grill, which was downsized to making S’mores Rice Krispy Treats.  Erik went along with most of the changes, but missing out on a fire pit in the backyard was more than he could handle.

 

So he conned Daddy into digging out a hole in the back yard.  Erik made a ring of stones.  (I would like to point out this is the kids’ area of the yard – weeds, toys, general mess – not mine.)

    

And then we waited . . . for Dad to get home from work, and for the cursed rain to stop coming down (hence the rapid decline from roasting marshmallows in our own real-life fire pit to mixing up some cereal s’mores over the stove).

But the rain let up (after a serious marshmallow fight indoors) and we took our party outside.

The thing that cracked me up about it all was the weather.  It seriously felt like we were camping.  Not just because we were sitting around a real fire, but because the ground was all wet.  There was a tree overhead so it was shady and damp.  And the weeds were all overgrown in the kids’ area so it felt kind of jungle-y, too.  It was like almost every camping trip I have been on in Oregon (especially the ones near the coast). 

We roasted marshmallows and Starburst and ate way to much sugar, but it was a fantastic start to our weekend.

I threw in a picture of the baby for good measure.  ;>

The Eye of the Beholder

Sometimes my kids are angels and sometimes they are not (I could use a more descriptive word here, but I am trying to think happy thoughts).  Lately I have been thinking about my perception of people, places, things and situations.  I am the beholder and I see what I most want to see.

Last week I spent some quiet time in a dressing room all by myself.  Dressing rooms are not my favorite place to be.  I find it discouraging that out of stack of twenty items only one or two (or maybe none) look good on my person.  In the midst of trying on pants I began to tear up.  Why? Because I found pants that actually fit . . . and because I suddenly felt middle-aged . . . because I had on “mom” pants.  A little wave of despair swept over me.  And then I stopped.  And I changed what I was seeing.  Instead of seeing how thin I wasn’t I saw how amazing my body is. Not by Hollywood standards, by any means.  But this amazing body of mine just created a life, and then gave birth to it a few short months ago.  That is a miracle.  And the phenomenal change that took place inside me has every right to show itself on the outside of me, as well. As I looked in the mirror, I no longer cared about the label on my jeans or how not trendy the cut was.  Instead I thought about my daughter and the journey we have already been on together.  I focused on how I felt being a mother, instead of dreading looking like one. (Please tell me you know what I’m trying to say here.)  I began to see what I wanted to see.

This morning, as I was dressing for church and lamenting my incredibly shrinking wardrobe (I won’t be fitting into my warm weather skirts for at least another year – must do more sit-ups – perhaps if I did any sit-ups that would help).  All I could see was what I didn’t have, what wouldn’t go together.  Then I mentally smacked myself around a little and thought about Haiti, and about all the people in this world who are getting ready for church this morning and do not even have a choice about what to wear because they have so little.  I shut my whining mouth and looked at all my beautiful shoes and skirts and tops that still fit (even if they are almost all black – and it’s summer), and I began to count my blessings.

I often complain about my kitchen.  It seems microscopic to the one I had in my old house (oh, how I miss my skylights).  But the other day I got a picture from my cousin who is in El Salvador of a woman cooking in her “kitchen”.  I wanted to cry for shame.  This woman had a dirt floor corner of her teeny house with a shelf and a very old, ugly stove.  That was the whole of her kitchen.  Sean, who spent some time in El Salvador several years ago, was surprised to see the stove.  “She’s lucky,” he said, “most people just have a hot plate that they cook on.” 

I am constantly amazed at my perceptions of my children.  When I make a conscious effort to see the good, I think they are amazing, brilliant, caring, loving, independent, righteous, wonderful little people.  When my eye takes on a darker caste I see fighting and hear angry words and can’t seem to comprehend why they cannot follow simple instructions (really, how hard is it to brush your teeth?). 

There is beauty to be found in everyone if we are willing to open up our eyes and look for it.  Every situation offers some good, some growth, something silver – even if it is only that the situation will pass.  As you can see, I struggle with this.  It is easier for me to be pessimistic than to exert the energy required to “find the good”.  But happiness will never come from focusing on the bad.  That is a one-way ticket to misery.  I see what I want to see.  And I’m trying to change what I want to see.  What do you see?

Question

At what point, exactly, in my post-partum continuum, do I no longer have an excuse for senseless crying and inexplicable frustration?  Just asking.

Smiles

 

Strawberry Skirt

I finished this one before we left for Great Wolf Lodge.  It went together pretty fast.  I used french seams on all the layers.  The rick-rack on the bottom seriously stiffened up the skirt.  I was going for something a little more floaty, but the rick-rack was like adding a crinoline.  Sean and Anna liked it though, so it stayed.  I modified the Gypsy Skirt pattern from Making Children’s Clothes by: Emma Hardy.  I think next time I will add more width to the bottom tier to give it a little more fullness.  Lesson learned: always section off the skirt for gathering at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16.

And I would just like to say that I have been much more impressed with the quality and ideas found in foreign books than American books.  Most of the contemporary American sewing books I have read are all about doing things fast and easy – and it shows.  I would not be caught dead in most of those patterns.  They remind me of those funky costume patterns you could find in books about the dark ages at the library (like the make-your-own-wizard-tunic kind of thing – generally shapeless and uncomfortable).

I think the trims really took it from looking homemade to looking handmade.

I did not involve Annaliese at all in the design process on this one (it was taking a serious toll on my nerves).  Sean said to just tell her it was a secret if she asked any questions about what I was doing.  When she thought it was for her she complained about the stripes, but the secret thing did the trick and she left me to work in peace (she was still by my side, but no longer bossing me).  In the end she LOVED it.  She has worn it like crazy over the past week.  That is so incredibly gratifying – especially when she did not like my fabric choices in the beginning.

(Her shirts are starting to get a little short.  Grrr.  More ruffles, perhaps?  Hmmm.) 

Something Happened On The Way To The Lodge

At mile marker 57 on the Washington side of I-5, we hit a small snag.  This silly little part of van decided to “go out”.  Any guesses?  Perhaps I should set up the scenario a little better for you all. 

We planned a school’s out trip to Great Wolf Lodge all the way back in January.  We went last year with my brother’s family and had a great time so we decided to make it a tradition to mark the beginning of summer.  We stuffed all of our over-packed bags into our lovely white Dodge and pulled out of our driveway at 10:00 in the morning.  My brother left about a half-hour before us and we were trying to catch up so that we would arrive at the lodge at around the same time.  All was going well until lunch time.  Sean was not pulling over fast enough to fill our bellies, so the car decided to give him a hand.  The transmission dropped out – just like that – no hints, no clues – just there one moment, gone the next.  At mile 57.  At that point my brother was at mile 77.  We were almost caught up.

But what can you do?  We pulled into a truck stop, called a tow truck, got some lunch, arranged a rental car, and took some pictures for posterity’s sake.  We taught our children a valuable lesson about balance in marriage by pointing out that mommy is absolutely amazing in extraordinary, stressful situations – dad is a wreck; on the other hand mommy is a mess when it comes to day-to-day stress – dad is the picture of calm.

Because we are a family of six (why does that number seem so much smaller than five all of a sudden?), we could not all fit in the cab of the tow truck.  So we got the experience of a lifetime (I hope).  We all buckled up and rode on top of the tow truck for the half-hour it took to get us to a Dodge dealer in Longview (going backwards here, people, away from our desired destination).

The freakiest/weirdest moment on top of the tow truck (and I so wish I had a picture of it) was when I was looking out Sean’s window and a very large curvy woman lying on a mattress came riding by filling up all our windows (she was on the side of a Sealy mattress semi-truck).  Very bizarre.

 

I thought the above picture was funny because here is Sean zooming down the freeway at sixty miles an hour with a computer on his lap, cell phone in hand and nothing touching the steering wheel.  It was almost surreal.  We all pretended we were on the Apollo 13 mission – the main engine was out and we were rapidly losing oxygen (thank goodness we could roll down the windows without starting the car).

 

We wound up with a twelve passenger van for the remainder of our trip.  It was ridiculously huge and not very comfortable.  All the rental mini-vans in Longview were being used on Wednesday.  Sean did not like driving it, but the kids loved it.  Djeryd informed us that if we had a twelve passenger van he would be alright with us having more kids.  Ha! (Isn’t that the cutest little stair-step of people you ever saw?)

 

Our trip felt rushed this year because we lost nearly three hours with the whole van thing.  We only stay for one night, so three hours is a big deal.  We still managed to pack in lots of swimming and fun with the cousins and a little MagiQuest.  And since we don’t have a television, a highly anticipated part of every vacation is squeezing in access to Disney channel (call me crazy, but I think Phineas and Pherb is really funny).

Sean and my brother even squeezed in a half hour, or so, to talk computers (I know, you’re getting excited too!).

 

Right before we left the kids watched the story time show in the lobby we missed the night before.  Sean’s dad rescued us at the car rental place in Longview and got us all home at a decent hour.  Despite the drama (and perhaps a little because of it) it was a really fun trip, and I can’t wait for next year.

Corners

I have been thinking about this post for a long time.  The following are some of my favorite corners of my home right now.  They are special places that lift my spirit every time I see them – even if they are messy (which is very unusual – I mean anything messy lifting my spirit).  So here they are:

This little corner is in our dining room.  I call it our Family Home Evening corner because if there is anything family night related, it gets taped up in that corner. It is full of beautiful pictures reminding us to be better, a gratitude list that we all take turns filling out, Articles of Faith line the area near the ceiling, and the little shelf holds coloring books and flannel board stories (which we have yet to pull out – I have plans).  This corner brings me peace.

This corner makes me smile.  This is just a small space in my closet (the baby is still in our room) that holds all of Alyxandria’s clothing of the moment (she is growing crazy-fast).  I love all the pink hangers in a row, the stacks of hats and onesies and bloomers.  I love the little black patent leather shoe poking out of all the pink.  I love being blessed with another girl to wear all these cute little outfits.  How can I not smile?

 

And this corner is my passion lately.  I cannot seem to get enough time in this corner of my life lately.  I eat, breathe and dream sewing right now.  I love the colors and I love the possibilities.  I love the expression.

 

Another thing I love about this corner is that I can share it with my children – every last one of them.  Lately the kids have come home from school, found me in the studio, grabbed a project and jumped in.  Even though they make messes faster than I can clean them up, I absolutely LOVE having them with me in this space.  I am grateful everyday for this room and all of the happiness that happens in it and comes out of it.