One Little Change

Last week I did a lot of crocheting to put items in my zibbet shop to sell for charity.  It felt really nice, did my soul a lot of good.  But there was something else that I did that made me feel even better than that.  This:

There is a story behind this hat.  I have a friend.  I've never technically met her, but she's just as much my friend as any one else.  She lives in Canada.  There are two things about her that make her a front-runner in the "people who inspire me the most" category.  First of all, she has lost over 100 pounds.  She's reached her goal weight and looks fantastic.  I made her a corset top last year so she could show it off.  =)  Secondly, she has three children with Austism.  I cannot imagine the struggles she faces, but she faces them head on with the best attitude you can imagine.  She just rocks.

When I was showing off my Heart Association donation items, she mentioned that she wanted a mohawk hat for her son.  She found one for her daughter, but they didn't have any boyish hats.  So I decided to make one.  I asked her kind of what she was looking for, but I didn't tell her I was doing it, because I wanted to surprise her a little bit (and I wanted to make sure I didn't just make a hot mess of a hat LOL) I was just giddy when I saw the finished hat, knowing that it would make someone very special happy.  I showed it to her and she loved it.  I would have just mailed it to her as a surprise, but I'm pretty sure she would just mail me a check after the fact (she was very adamant when I made her corset top that I charge her what I would charge any other person), plus I'm just going to add it to my Heart Walk money.

And about a week ago, I did surprise someone with something I made...

 

This is a shirt for my sister-in-law.  She had mentioned needing this exact shirt, and without saying a word, I made it and shipped it off to her.  I thought I was going to lose my mind waiting on her to get it.  =)  She was so excited and it just made me feel so good.

 

So that's one of my little changes this year... trying to brighten up someone's day with something I made for them.  I have a few ideas planned and I committed to the "Pay It Forward" challenge on facebook earlier in the year and need to get those taken care of, too.  It's so much fun to make someone smile.

Sleepy Weekend

Lately, Sunday evenings is where I post all the fun we've had over the weekend.  And you'd think with it being Bill's birthday weekend that I would have extra special fun to post.  But we've been lazy.  Yesterday I was really, really lazy.  To the point that any time I had to go in my room for something, I found myself laying on the bed for a few minutes.  I tried to sneak in a nap, but for some strange reason, I don't go unnoticed around here.  If Mommy is missing more than 2 minutes, it's a full on search and rescue mission until she's found.

So we didn't do anything this weekend.  Bummer.

The girls did have fun yesterday, though.  I went out in search of a few art supplies for them.  We go through crayons like Pull ups around here.  I literally could buy a new package every week.  I'm sure if I moved the couches I could find a dozen or so, but I am kind of afraid of what else I might find.  I had someone sing the praises of Melissa & Doug crayons and was really curious.  No paper, washable, triangular (so they won't roll under the couch), harder than regular crayons, they come in a hard plastic case...  I decided to shell out a few extra dollars (about $5 for 24 crayons) and see if they'll last longer around here.  So far we still have all of them and the girls love the case. 

I also had discovered that they make safety scissors that don't cut hair, skin, or clothing.  And if you know me at all, you know that we have serious scissor issues around here.  I managed to find a set of their scissors, also, and they are awesome.  It's like they got in my head and asked me what I needed in order to give my kids a pair of scissors without feeling like I couldn't even blink or my girls would spend yet another year looking like a boy.  They definitely don't cut hair (yes, I tried) and they didn't cut my shirt I had on.  They're all bright and glittery so they look so much cooler than my metal scissors.  But they cut like a dream.  I even had bought some foam sheets to make Valentines out of  and thought that there was no way they were sturdy enough to cut through craft foam.  But they did.  Like butter.  =)  It's like magic... it knows the no-nos and abides by it.  I hope the magic rubs off on my kids. 

By the end of the day, we had tiny scraps of paper all over the floor and I did not mind one bit.  And everyone's hair is intact.

Today is going to be devoted to laundry and cleaning.  Aside from my living room, which my dear, sweet birthday boy has kept tidy all weekend, the house looks like the playroom and closets puked.   Then to top it all off, I have one kid who woke up telling me she didn't feel good and another one running a fever.  Isabelle is still asleep at 8:45, so that's not really looking too promising.  And it's going to snow.  Again.  Snow is fun and magical once a year.  The rest of the time it can bite me.  Blah.

My latest project...

For the past few years, my sister and I, along with our cousins and a few other people, have participated in our local Heart Walk.  I am not the best fundraiser in the world.  I'm just not very aggressive.  But it's been very important to me to participate, even if I know I won't raise much money.  I have a very strong family history of heart disease on my dad's side of the family.  My dad himself has had bypass surgery and can't even remember how many stents are living in his body right now.  There are a few charity walks that I try to participate in yearly, but this is the one that has seemed to have settled into being the one I focus on the most. 

This year, my sister and I attended the team kick-off and it was very inspiring.  A few people shared some of their fundraising tips, and it set some wheels in motion in my little crafty brain.  I love to crochet and knit and whatnot...  why not use that to help make money?  So I am in the process of making up several items to sell for donations.  I'm not just donating profits... the entire amount paid will be donated.  I actually sold my first item today.  To my sister.  ;)

I don't normally put my crafty stuff on this blog, but I can't resist.  (Actually I'm thinking I should just condense the two together...  )  Anyway, lookie...

A slouchy hat... with a heart.  

This is not my sister... this is my super sweet coworker and part-time hat model (for me anyway LOL)

The hat design is not mine.  It's by April Draven.  She has some super cool and whimsical  patterns and if you crochet, I suggest checking out her stuff...

I have other stuff in the works, and will probably make at least one more of these hats.  I'm really excited.  I hope to meet my goal of raising $200 this year.  I'm trying to focus on Valentine-y things, but I think most of them will be heart related.  Obviously. 

One Little Change

My husband and I work opposite schedules.  I work 5:30am to 1:30pm.  He works 6pm to 3am.  I see him long enough to pass the baton on childcare and feed him dinner.  Olivia is in Kindergarten and the other two go to Mother's Day Out (which I affectionately call Father's Day to Sleep) Monday through Thursday (except for Zoe, they didn't have a space for her on Tuesday, so that's her Daddy Day).  Originally, the opposite schedules were to avoid paying for childcare, but our kids needed more structure than Daddy can normally provide. It is still very helpful when school is out or the kids are sick.  All that is just to let you know that "family time" is very limited.  We do have Friday nights, all day Saturday, and Sunday mornings together, but for a while it just consisted of my husband laying on the couch, the girls being bored out of their skulls, and me being frustrated about the whole thing.

At the beginning of the year, we implemented a behavior reward system - the marbles I've mentioned before.  I have to admit that in the past, things like this didn't last with us.  We did sticker charts and it worked a week or so and I'd forget to dole out the stickers.  But for some reason, this is working for us.  The girls don't always earn their rewards.... this week for example... but they keep trying even when they didn't get their reward the week before.  I've consciously made each reward family-oriented so that Saturdays are our "family days."  It kind of worried me that if they didn't earn their reward that we wouldn't do anything, but so far, we still have gone out to do something, even if it wasn't their reward.

This week they were trying to earn a trip to the ice cream shop.  It didn't happen, but Bill decided we would go to the Toltec Mounds State Park (I might be totally forgetting part of the name of the place, but that's close).  It's a park dedicated to the mounds built by the Toltec Indians in the area.  It really just has some walking paths.. but we hadn't been.  It was a lot of fun.

As a little change within a change, I'm trying to use my camera more, so these family outings give me a chance to exercise my camera.  Normally I'm obsessive with my camera, but the past year was unusual.  I didn't take all that many pictures at all.  I guess I wasn't in the right frame of mind.  Last year just wasn't good mentally for me.  I'm doing much better this year, so far. 

These glasses were passed around the girls all day.  Their "movie star" glasses.  =)

It was a gorgeous day.

If you look, you can kind of see me in this picture....

After walking around the mounds, we went over to another park with a playground and let the girls play for a while.  I'm not sure what they are really called, but they had one of those old merry-go-round kind of things there.  You know, the kind you played on as a kid and probably got a concussion flying off when some bigger kid got it spinning super fast.  Or at least you puked.  I almost did while we were there, but I was laying on it funny trying to be all artistic with my pictures.  We played on a lot of dangerous playground equipment now that I think about it.  I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that our children are so ultra-protected sometimes.  A little of both I think.

Afterwards, we went out to eat dinner, where my husband ate peanut butter on his cheeseburger.  I know... gross...  he said it was good and would try it again.  I did try a bite, but he had some other nastiness on his burger I couldn't get past to really pass fair judgment on the peanut butter.  Again, a pretty successful adventure in eating in public.  Bill's head didn't spin around and I only had to make two bathroom trips with the girls.

Of course, no ice cream...  Maybe next Saturday. 

100

This is what 100 pompoms stuffed into a gallon ziploc bag looks like:

Along with a slightly demented-looking 6 year old...

I mentioned in my last post that Olivia's 100th day of school is creeping up and we have to make a hat with 100 items on it.  Olivia's first idea was googly eyes.  Which would have been really fun, but I was hoping to find something to do that wouldn't involve a trip to the store.  Not that we aren't there almost every day anyway, but I can dream...  We finally decided on pompoms.  I have lots of yarn and I even have pompom makers.  Why do I have pompom makers?  Because Hobby Lobby must pipe subliminal messages through the air encouraging me to buy something I don't really have a use for but MUST have no matter what.  I justified their purpose with this project though.  100 pompoms.  What was I thinking?

The first night I made 25 and my fingers were raw.  It seems all my bright, fun colors are Red Heart, which is made of sandpaper.  Or something like it anyway.  Rough stuff.  I wasn't sure how on earth I could make 75 more without a few bloody pompoms at the end (too gross?  sorry..).  Then I remembered the first aid tape and I taped up my fingers before beginning the second night.  I looked ridiculous, but my fingers were happy.  4 nights of wrapping and snipping and tying and we now have 100 pompoms.  And I didn't even have the urge to throw the pompom maker away after, which I was pretty sure would be the outcome after the first night.  Avoiding the yarn burn made a huge difference, that and the fact that I can knock out a pompom faster than anyone you know now.  I have it down to a science.  

Now I am in the process of creating the beanie to attach said pompoms to.  (I am fully aware of that hanging preposition, and despite my 9th grade English teacher's voice in my head, I am leaving it.)  (I'm really exhausted tonight.  In case you were wondering if I had started smoking crack or something)  I am more than a little sure that my kid's head is not 100 pompoms big, so I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with the extras.  It should be interesting....

It's barely 9pm.  I think I'm going to bed.  And for a night owl like me who can't manage to get in bed before 11pm most nights even though I have to get up at 4:30am, that says volumes about how tired I am today.

One Little Change

So, I've just been a little frustrated this past week.  I have this really bad habit of bogging myself down with projects and then I'm rushing to get them finished and pretty much neglect everything else in the process.  Earlier last week, I was working on crocheting an afghan (at my leisure) and a doll (again, at my leisure) and knitting a stocking for next Christmas (obviously no serious deadline, but I had hoped to finish it in January).  Then I remembered... my Dad's birthday is coming up and my brother-in-law just had his birthday which means we need to have a family get-together to celebrate.  Like this coming weekend.  And I haven't made them a thing.  So I had two things with a pretty quick deadline thrown into the mix.  Then Olivia came home with a note from school saying she needed a hat with 100 objects on it for their 100th day of school.  And did I just say "hey, we'll head to the store and buy a hat and something to glue on there!  No big deal."  Of course not.  I'm making 100 pompoms and tying them onto a handmade hat.  By next Wednesday.

Needless to say, instead of dancing and reading, you can find Momma on the couch with her crochet hook or pom pom maker.  Not really what I need to be doing.

Of course, I will admit that yesterday, after making may daily allotment of 25 pompoms, the girls and I sat around making pompom necklaces and bracelets.  Olivia did very well with the pompom maker.  I had to tie it, but she was able to wind it and cut it.  The other two needed a little (lot) more help.  So it's not like I totally ignored them.  We had some  crafty mommy-daughter time. 

Anyway.... I'm shaking it off.  I'm kind of amending my previous changes to focus on spending some quality time with the kids daily.  Even if I have a ton of things to accomplish... unless they can actively help, it can wait until they go to bed. 

My most recent change has been all for me.  Drinking more water.  I like water.  I like soda more.  So I made myself a deal.  I can have ONE soda if I drink 3 of my water cups full of water.  I think it's probably 24oz.  I keep forgetting to measure.  I've been very good about it.  Before I'd have at least 3 sodas a day.  They're diet, and half of them are caffeine-free, but I know they're still not good for me.  I have my one cup of coffee, three glasses of water, and then I can have my soda (which I normally hit that goal around or after dinner time) .  I almost didn't even have one yesterday.  I waivered.... eventually I'll cut the soda out...

Fun Weekend

We've had a very good weekend here.  The girls earned their reward this weekend and we went bowling.  They've been before, but I don't think they remember it.  Zoe was just a tiny baby and Izzy didn't bowl, if I remember.  They're pretty good little bowlers.  Olivia got a 93.  There are times that I can't even get a 93.  Bill accused me of using the bumpers to my advantage (we didn't know how to make them go up and down so we just left them up), and while I admit that they did come in handy, I swear I never aimed for them.  It's bowling, not pool.  =)

 The girls called them "clown shoes" (and they color coordinated their shoes to the squares for the picture... )

 My Hurculean children carried 10 lb balls by themselves.  This one was only 6 lbs, but they preferred the 10lb ball.

 The ramps are awesome

 Bill wanted to try just letting Olivia push the ball, despite my objections.

 This is not an action shot.  It's the ball dead on the lane.  I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "I told you so."

Afterwards, we went out to eat.  In a real restaurant.  We haven't tried this in quite some time.  I think the last time we tried, Bill lost his temper with the kids, I lost my temper with him, we left without eating, and I almost left him in the parking lot.  This time was much, much better.  The girls behaved beautifully and Bill never once had to wonder how he'd get home.  ;)

I did get tired of one thing... the bathroom.  I had made 6 visits to the bathroom with the kids and finally begged Bill to take Izzy the last time she asked to go.  My kids love public restrooms.  We can't go anywhere in public without a visit to the potty.  Even if they just went.  It drives me insane.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day.  I don't think Olivia got a good night of sleep, though, because I honestly don't think I had one conversation with her that didn't involve her whining or crying.  

Zoe has become a little artist lately.  At any given time, you will find her with a coloring book and a crayon (just one..) or a notebook and pen and she just sits and colors.  She's my calmest child by far, and she's usually content to sit alone and chill.  Her sisters give her some pretty strong competition in the attention department, so she let's them get the lion's share.  But today she found her way into some quiet time with me while I was folding laundry.  She just sat there on the bed with her coloring book and red marker and jabbered her little heart out.  By the time the laundry was folded she was red-spotted all over... like a true artist.  

She's also my most polite child... she almost never forgets to say "thank you, Mommy" when I get her a drink.  Today she cracked me up by saying "Yes, my dear, sweet mother."  I decided today to work on manners this week.  Being polite earns you a marble and forgetting to use your manners will cost you a marble.  Olivia is especially bad about coming in the kitchen and just yelling "MILK!" and expecting me to jump up and get her a glass of milk.  There are way too many "I want"s and not enough "please"s.  

Sweet little Dodo

Hopefully this will be a nice, normal week this week.  No snow, no missing school, just our normal routine would be wonderful.