Sew Much Fun

I've been dabbling in sewing off and on for a few years now. I don't consider myself very good nor am I quick; but I am learning, determined and have two very big fans who keep cheering me on. 

My fans are also my biggest helpers. 

 I frequently have faces peeking over my shoulder investigating my work, asking questions and offering advice. In fact, I have faces so frequently while sewing, I began carrying my phone with me to snap photos of my little helpers.  :)

As soon as the girls went to bed I was able to finish up this week's project. A patchwork Frozen skirt. I was so excited I was tempted to wake Elliana up to try it on so I could sew the elastic shut. But, I know better than to wake a sleeping babe, even if she's 5. 

So, I'll debut it to you, my few and loyal blog followers first, as I can't contain my excitement any longer.

 And because I know my next project of a matching skirt for Maya is already on my mind... 

Eggs Over Easy?

It usually happens on one of those days when I'm feeling confident. So far today, I was on a good streak. I had successfully changed grumpy moods, disciplined creatively and broken up fights, made the beds, swept the floor, cut and organized coupons, created fun learning environments, completed multiple loads of laundry, worked on a sewing project, built a fort tent for lunch, read to the kiddos, sent emails and gave undivided attention to these cute little kids, all before 1:00 in the afternoon. I was on a high knowing dinner for tonight was planned and dinner for tomorrow (our busy night) was on the stovetop. 

Sure, as a stay at home mom I am responsible for these things and more each day, it just is rare that I actually get them all done, so efficiently...In one day! Then, POP!!! POP!!! 

Reality hit and I remembered the near dozen eggs I had put on the stove top to boil.  OVER AN HOUR AGO! I had immersed myself in the land of playing with the kids and had completely forgotten about my stovetop project... And the highest temperature I had set it to. 

Grade school physics kicked in and it turns out... Eggs explode when cooked too long. And once the water has evaporated and the eggs reach such a high temperature they explode... with velocity and force. 

 

It was one of those moments where I could either laugh or cry. Laughing just seemed more appropriate as I clearly had made a dumb, preventable mistake. Hard boiled eggs were everywhere and smoke hung in the air. Eggs were on the ceiling, floor, and across cabinets and counter tops. 

Elliana in her infinite wisdom said, "it's okay mommy, I sometimes make mistakes too." 

And such is life. Full of steps ahead and steps back. Full of successes and failures. I'm grateful that through my failures, my five year old has learned that it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to fail. We are all in this together. :)

Another sick day; another snow day

Nausea, snow, ice, fever, official snow day #10, round three of the winter illness has struck our house. Not a great way to start the day. 

Somewhere in the midst of cuddles, board games, excessive television and medicine, my five year old blurted out, "thanks for such a wonderful day mommy." It was a genuine heartfelt, unprompted thank you. Appreciation for nothing more than time together.

My heart lifted and I was reminded that though some days are just plain hard, all of them are rewarding. Praising The Lord for the forced downtime for the reminder.

A few minutes later, "I love you more than anything, Maya." Elliana declared as we laid out the picnic blanket for lunch and another movie. 

Lord, thank you also for an amazing husband and father for these kiddos and me. Yesterday I was down and out with the sickness and he rallied the troops, gave baths, cooked dinner, cleaned up vomitted, and never once complained. He got very little sleep, and then filled his morning taking care of us, shoveling the driveway and then hurried off to work. 

Oh, how we are blessed!!

Elliana 5 Years!!

I am a bit delayed in posting Elliana's birthday blog, as our house was recently ravaged by illness, pnuemonia and an abundance of snow days, keeping us more than a little busy and away from the computer. 

Elliana's last photo as a 4-year old!!!

It was a wintery wonderland on Elliana's birthday. The beautiful, crisp white snow that we don't get very often (well, usually, this winter is a bit unusual).

It was too cold to play with temperatures in the sub zeros, but we ventured out to the toy store, lunch, bowling and finished the day with dress up and playing!

Cuties dressed up at Rapunzel and Mother Gothel - favorite part of my day! 

We rounded out the birthday weekend with a friend party at Jump Zone, an indoor inflatable playground. Eliana never stopped smiling and LOVED hanging with her friends as they bounced around all day. 

group shot of the friends!

Sick Week

So far, 2014 hasn't been awesome. Sure, we celebrated Elliana's 5th birthday, which will be a separate post, found T.J.'s donated shoes (long story...) and witnessed T.J. turn another year older. But, in all honesty, those are about the only highlights thus far and we are 15 days in!

In the midst of illness it feels like a virus will never leave your body and allow you to return to normal. Such is also true when a virus enters your house and visits each member of the house , truly an unwanted house guest. Last week, a nasty bug struck our family and seems to want to stick around.

We've spent the last 8 days in quarantine as this yucky bug attacked each of us separately. Fever, cough, body aches, lack of voice and energy... Yep it shows no mercy to even our youngest family members. 

With fevers still in half of our little family I know we still have several days of recovering ahead of us. Until then I'm determined to make the most of our time and enjoy all of these cuddles! Praise the Lord for Nana who gave me a day off yesterday to get some of my mojo back and realize that this too is a phase and that there is life outside of the house that someday we will enjoy together as a family. 

This month, we have enjoyed nearly EVERY new toy, craft and project we received for Christmas and birthdays, consumed several series of children's television, snuggled a LOT and created lots of crafts to survive the wintry bucket of sick that we are currently climbing out of. 

Praise you Lord for healing T.J. and I, for giving me a light at the end of the tunnel and for allowing us the flexibility and freedom to take care of our little girls.