various and sundry

Yesterday was a very proud day for me. I actually made something on my sewing machine. I know that's probably not very impressive to many of you, but for me it was a major feat. I have been believing for years that sewing machines are highly advanced pieces of machinery that require someone with an IQ of at least 230 to master them (and mine is only 225. *ahem*). I concluded this must be so, since every time I tried to use mine (which is a cantakerous and inexpensive breed to begin with), my project ended with my bobbin thread being gathered in a malignant mass somewhere inside the bobbin case, and (this is embarrassing) I could never figure out how to get the bobbin back together correctly and carry on (unless my husband was there to do it for me, the project was usually abandoned at this point). However, I have been in nesting mode lately, which means that I've been taking on WAY more projects than anyone in their right mind would ever attempt. So, when I saw an adorable flannel print at JoAnns on black friday, on sale for 1.49/yd. and then saw a remnant of surpassing cuteness and coincidental perfect co-ordination lying nearby, I couldn't pass it up. I simply had to buy them and take a stab at it. And so I made my first official, finished sewing project. A receiving blanket. I know, I'm almost 30 and I'm proud of myself for successfully sewing four straight seams. If I were born 100 years ago I would be hanging my head in shame.

But isn't it cute?

I'm also very proud of that vintage highchair its sitting on. We snagged that at an estate sale for $5. Eliza has had many fewer spills since she is sitting on a highchair again. Mealtimes had become painful occasions around here because of her tendency to squirm and slide and sit in every way possible to maximize her chances of spilling food somewhere between the edge of the table and her mouth. And 5 dollars! And its cute!

Another estate sale find. Old piano bench. Also $5. Pretty nasty old upholstery.

We painted it white, shabbied it up a bit, and re-upholstered and padded the seat. We have a chair purchased at the same estate sale that we are going to paint and upholster to match it.

We have other things going on too, but they aren't finished yet, so I won't mention them. Lets just say buying cheap furniture (or other decorative items) to refinish is becoming a very bad habit around here.

Did I mention I've been in nesting mode?

In other news,

We had this delicious baked pumpkin french toast for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, from one of my favorite blogs, MADE. Its a great place to visit if you ever want to be made to feel entirely inadequate in your domestic abilities. I also made the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies she featured, twice. And I don't bake; well, hardly ever. Something about pumpkin inspires me.

We put up our Christmas tree

Ingrid is still adorable

And the pink hibiscus in the backyard is beautiful.

Finally, we are planning to leave for Michigan on Thursday morning. We are anxious to get this babymoon started, and especially to be safely through the driving part of it. This will be the third time we have traveled to have a baby, but the other two times only involved a 3 hour drive. We plan on stopping for the night twice (the second time with Jessie's brother's family in Kentucky), and getting out and walking around at least every two hours. I am still feeling uncommonly well for 38+ weeks pregnant, although I definitely reach the point of exhaustion pretty quickly lately.

I really enjoyed sitting down and making the blanket for our baby. I felt a closeness and an anticipation that I've never felt quite as strongly before. The baby was being quite active while I worked, and it just gave me the warm fuzzies to be actually making something especially for it. I daydreamed the whole time about welcoming our little one and wrapping it up in the cozy fabric I was working with. I can't wait to meet this sweet child!

ye olde facebook statuses

Eliza finally got it through her head that you don't answer "Yes Sir!" to a woman. She now answers me with "Yes Man."

Whenever Ingrid wakes up from her nap before her sisters do, you can tell she feels a great weight of responsibility. She never fails to rise to the occasion and ensure that there is enough noise and mischief produced to compensate for her sisters' absence.

Wise ponderings of Theia: "We shouldn't get mad and lose our temperatures. We should have good temperatures, not bad temperatures."

Ingrid appears in our bedroom doorway promptly at 6:45 [on Saturday morning], climbs into bed with us, and immediately asks "I'm so cute, right Momma?" Well, yes. Not as cute as you would be at 8, but quite cute nonetheless.

Eliza was having some *ahem* "gas issues" at the dinner table tonight. She was scowling deeply, so Jessie asked her what was wrong. She replied, with great irritation, "My chair keeps burping on me."

Its cute, but kind of sad when Ingrid covers her eyes with her hands every time we walk by the life-size, animated Grim Reaper in Sams Club.

I am such a BAD MOM. I apparently put the skirt on Ingrid's lamb THE WRONG WAY. There is nothing that could ever make it right again, judging from Ingrid's reaction. Things will never be the same.

Eliza: (whining)"Mo-o-o-om! I have jelly on my hand!" Me: "Well, just lick it off!" Theia: "But we aren't supposed to lick other people. You only want us to lick ourselves." Hmm, that wasn't exactly the message I wanted her to take away from my suggestion...

Eliza: "I growed up, so my name is Theia now."

‎"Thanks Daddy, you're a cutie pie!" Eliza is very generous with her compliments, however misapplied they may be at times.

On the way to church Theia theologizes from the back seat "We have to help people who aren't nice to us, not just the kind ones." Eliza, with great conviction, chimes in "No Theia! We don't help people who are mean to us!"

I love sneezing and then hearing three girls cry out "Bless you, Mama!" in enthusiastic unison.

Well, I put lunch on the table, and no one cried. It is a good day.

Theia was very excited after class at church tonight to tell us about how Jesus fed so many people with just 5 loaves of bread and "two loaves of fish". :) I love her excitement.

We finished our lesson on insects today by modeling an ant using play-doh, toothpicks, and twist-ties. I left the table for a few minutes and came back to find that our ant had mutated into a many-spined monster that was truly terrifying.

It is so motivating to be cleaning the house with a 3-year old tagging behind, proclaiming "This house STINKS!", in a tone of deep disgust.

I hope Eliza has better dreams tonight; we've been hearing about "the bad man with fire all over him" ALL day.

Theia to Eliza: "I know! Lets pretend we're milking a rabbit!"

I wish this baby didn't feel it necessary to perform "Riverdance" in its entirety every morning from about 2 to 4 am.

Eliza has taken on the role of Daddy's personal trainer. She hovers over him while he's doing crunches saying "Okay,one more time, Daddy!" and, "Daddy, you're awesome!"

We were awakened at 4 am by a barely awake Eliza, running down the hall and screaming for her daddy. She went right back to sleep after being tucked in, and this morning, when asked about it, she explained that a dinosaur was tickling her chin, and she didn't like that.

Theia really needs to fine-tune her entrapment skills. She thinks she's so subtle, but she's not :).

today I am

washing teeny baby clothes and receiving blankets

having mild contractions

planning our last date before the babymoon for this friday

Coming up with yet more projects that will likely never be started, let alone finished

dreading giving all three girls a bath later (correction: shower - since our new home is wonderful, but has no bathtub)

feeling generally overwhelmed

feeling generally irritable

feeling generally grateful

I Miss...

There are two things I really miss about our old home/location.

The first one is cows, and the country setting in general. I always felt a sense of serenity and well-being when I drove past all those pastures (other than the one time I drove past them alone, and in the dark, with disastrous outcome).

The other thing I am really missing is my daily walk. I had an established route that I walked almost daily, sometimes in the cool of the morning, sometimes in the hot sun, sometimes alone, sometimes pushing one, or two, or even three girls in a stroller. It was such a pleasant walk, up our street and into the next subdivision, where there were winding roads bordered by a cow pasture and lined with huge, mossy trees. I have only been out for a walk three times since we moved, and the monotony of city block after city block just doesn't motivate me to get out and be active.

That being said though, I love our new home. This house is just a pleasure to be in, for so many reasons. Once its a little more put together I'll share some pictures so you can see why. I am really enjoying arranging things and decorating here; this is probably due in large part to my nesting urges being suppressed for awhile since doing anything to our old home right before our move seemed pointless. I have several projects evolving at the moment. I can't wait till they are finished so I can post before and after pictures!

36 weeks

Think I'll make it to 40?

I do have a very good track record.

Just for kicks, HERE is me at 35 weeks with Ingrid.

Now I probably just opened myself up to comments predicting my baby's gender based on how I am carrying the same/differently with this pregnancy :).

Feel free to chip in, if you feel so inclined, but I always find that game highly amusing and entirely irrational. I especially enjoy that complete strangers tell me I am having a boy just about every time I go out in public. Mind you, this has happened with every pregnancy, and you've probably noticed, I don't have any boys.

My favorite comment of that nature so far in this pregnancy came from a browser at my garage sale two weeks ago. "Oh, you're definitely having a boy this time..." she assured me confidently, "...because, you've got hips." Who could argue with that kind of unassailable logic? And what pregnant woman doesn't love observations regarding the size of her hips?

Alleluia

Obviously there has been a lot going on in our lives this past week or two, too much to take the time to sit down and blog about. I will get to that eventually, but my mind has been much more occupied these last few days with the tragic turn that the life of an old schoolmate, and fellow blogger has taken.

I want to ask you to pray for Veronica King and her children, 4 year old Faith, 3 year old Caleb, and Carter, who will be born in February. They lost their husband and daddy on Tuesday in a completely unexpected way.

I went to college with Veronica and Jeremy, and we sang together in chorus. Although we weren't "close", I still feel a special bond with everyone that I was in chorus with. Spending so much time together, on an almost daily basis, while lifting our voices in worship, and training toward a mutual goal has a way of bonding you with those people even without exchanging many words.

I am not an adequate one to eulogize Jeremy in any way, so I won't try. But from my own observation and interaction with him I can say I always had great respect for his humility and quiet leadership. He had an awesome voice and continued to use it to God's glory all the days of his life. He was a very manly guy who wasn't at all embarrassed to show that he adored his girlfriend (later his wife). I read Veronica's blog periodically and so have kept up with the growth of their family.

This is a link to an article about Jeremy, and to his obituary. Please lift them up. And if you feel led to donate to his memorial fund listed in his obituary, I'm sure his family would be so blessed to be relieved of any financial burden while they grieve. I know we are not assured of anything in this fallen world - that's why I am so grateful for the hope that I have in the day that there will be no more tears.

Below is a video of one of the compositions we sang in chorus (the choir in this recording is not ours) that has always spoken to me of the goodness of God in times of grief. I know that Jeremy can now lift his voice with a choir beyond any that he ever sang with on earth.

`

Halloween 2010 - The Farmer's Daughters

This year the girls dressed up as farmer's daughters for Halloween.

I don't think we'll be winning any contests, like we did last year, but I shore do think they made the cutest little bunch of freckle-faced rednecks I ever did see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being a farm girl is such hard work

There are crops

to be gathered

fields to be mowed

fences to be climbed

the farmhouse to tend

trees to be pruned

and, of course,

our down-home,

sweet and wholesome,

corn-cakes and apple pie,

aw shucks good looks

to be maintained.