Next Time My Kids Are “Careless” I Will Remember…

…accidents happen!

Can you believe it?!?

I did that!!!

How many times over the years have I told my kids to “back up from the cake”?!?

And then I’M the one to hook a 6-inch gash into this one. Front and center!!!

One minute, I’m clearing things off the table so I can put a tablecloth down and take a few pictures of the finished cake.

Next minute, I’m staring speechlessly at a huge glob of frosting and cake on my index finger.

Eventually, I recovered from my shock.

I stared at the gash.

I stared at my finger.

It could have been a LOT worse!

I licked off the glob.

I started to laugh.

And I was oh so happy that I still had plenty of frosting left.

So I pulled off the squashed flowers and stars, heaped some white frosting into the big hole where cake had once existed, rewrote “one groovy”, and piped the needed flowers and stars into place again.

Good as new.

Maybe next time, I won’t worry about what the table looks like.

And when one of my sweet children…

• spills her {insert liquid here} AGAIN….
• or misplaces her {insert object here}  AGAIN…
• or forgets to {insert action here} AGAIN…
• 0r is seemingly “careless” in one of a million different ways AGAIN…

…I will extend grace, remembering that accidents happen.

To my Dad, on Father’s Day…

Here’s a video I made just for you, Daddy.

(Ant Running In Circles – The Original was filmed by my father about 30 years ago and starred an ant on a Styrofoam swim tube adrift in a vast swimming pool.)

Momma may have taught me to sew, but it was you who taught me to use power tools. Thank you for including me in so many building projects over the years. Remember all those weekends spent renovating IBC? Not sure what other grade school girls were doing at the time, but I sure loved hanging sheet rock with my dad.

And I would love to write more, but my children’s father wants to get to work on some house stuff and is waiting for me to join him. (Apparently, it’s true that a girl often marries someone just like her dad.) I better go.

Ich hab dich so lieb, Papa!!

On Mother’s Day

Some of you enjoyed breakfast in bed this morning. Some of you are surrounded by fresh flowers (either store-bought, or the hand-picked-by-a-4-year-old variety, as pictured below). Some of you are smiling and hugging and laughing with the ones you love. May you breathe deeply the joy that is all around you today.

But I’m sure some of you are having trouble hearing “Happy” and “Mother’s Day” in the same sentence. Some of you are wondering why life has turned out the way it has, desired children still unborn, or little ones—or your own mom—gone too soon. May you feel peace and comfort in remembering today. And if you know the Good Shepherd, may you rest in the hope that He brings!

To my momma, since I can’t call you today, just wanted to say again thank you. So much of who I am and what I do came straight from you. I love you and miss you!

Detour & Unscheduled Stops…

Hmm, had hoped to have the first of my cardboard posts up by now. But that was before my internet connection quit for a while. And now I have internet access again but can’t send any emails…

But far worse…

…that was before we realized that Heidi’s passport, the one she needs in three days so she can go on her trip with my parents, expired last year!

Long story short, there’s a passport agency office in the city near my parents’ home. And supposedly, they can get you a passport in a day… if you have an appointment… which we were able to get for Monday morning.

So our two-day weekend trip one state over to deliver Heidi to my parents at the halfway point (and see my adorable niece and nephew) has doubled in length with another two-day stay in another state and now includes one day spent with my man, my oldest girl and federal bureaucrats, who I hope will be lovely people.

One bright spot: I discovered that my entryway at mid-morning is a great spot to take “well lit” “white background” passport photos. However, getting a photo where she’s “looking straight ahead” with “eyes open” and “lips closed”… and has a halfway decent expression on her face, well, that took a while.

Today…

Hmm, I was all set to start spouting off about today. Between the nosebleeds (two) and the milk spills (two) and all the other “unpleasantries” (too many to count), this day has not been my favorite.

But then it occurred to me that I’m being a self-absorbed moron who, comparatively speaking, had a great day! So much of life is about attitude. Perspective. So I’m turning this day around…

Things That Made Me Happy
(based on various random pictures I took today)

Finally finishing up Sophie’s thank you cards with her. Trying to take dictation from a four year old (about anything, much less about something that happened a month ago) is ridiculously frustrating... or ridiculously funny, depending on your perspective. 

Five little softies--that were ordered over a month ago! I stuffed them last week, tagged them last night, and will bring them to their new owners tomorrow.

My youngest’s hairdo. Why did it take me all day before I thought to hide her gunk-filled shaggy mess in a cute little ponytail? (A reminder to “be part of the solution” instead of just living with the problem...)

My middle-est’s shenanigans. “Take a picture of me, Mommy! Take a picture of me!” Her refusing to eat almost any food placed in front of her: not funny. But her shoving half of Daddy’s Simpson chess set into her mouth for no apparent reason: very funny.

A quick portrait of my oldest that’s neither washed out from using the flash nor blurry from not using the flash; and shows her beautiful (un-photoshopped) blue eyes, and all her baby teeth, four of which are really really wiggly.

To finish, how can I not mention:

my darling husband who lovingly shoulders the burden of these kinds of days with me. Sadly, I did not aim the camera at him today.

But then remembered another photo (don’t even ask why I took this today) cropped to show what he brought home last night after his business dinner: No, that is not a rotisserie chicken in there; it is a piece of chocolate cake that is so ridiculously large the swanky restaurant he ate at sent in home in a container built for a chicken.

I ate some of the cake last night and hardly made a dent. I shall go eat more cake now. And surely, there will still be some left, in case tomorrow is as horrible wonderful as today!

A Non-Productive Side of Me…

One of the comments after the last post mentioned how productive I’ve been. Let’s just keep it real for a moment. My house looks like this way too often:

And like this:

Sure, it often only takes a quick clean-up, maybe even just 15 minutes, to get it looking like this:

And then it’s that much more depressing when, less than 24 hours later, it looks like this again:

But that’s just ONE room. 15 minutes x ONE room = 15 minutes total. No big deal to do that daily.

However, 15 min x SIX (or more) rooms = 1 1/2 hours (or more) total! Suddenly, it’s not so “quick.”

Having a weekly cooking/cleaning exchange with Suzanne helps a lot!

So does having messes that clean themselves up.

Case in point, a while back I saw this mess:

...which grew legs and turned into this!

Yeah, that would be my teeny-tiny middle kid stuffed in there!

: )

 

P.S. In other news that makes me laugh: Last night, while The Man and I were watching TV, we saw a commercial for the new Glade plug-ins that expel fragrance only when someone is in the room, using some sort of motion sensors. His response: Wouldn’t tooty detectors be better?

Happy Birthday, Momma!

It's my mom's birthday today. I've mentioned her here and there throughout these posts, but the truth is, she's essentially in every one of them. So much of what I write about here is all stuff I got from her, learned from her, absorbed from her.

If I had to describe her in two words, I'd pick: supremely capable. Or maybe amazingly adaptable. This woman can do anything! She is a:

Tailor.	(Including her wedding dress)
Quilter.	(Taught me you didn't need to know any "rules" - just start sewing.)
Crocheter.	(Creates baby sweaters. Without a pattern.)
Upholsterer.	(Can turn a couch from "Blah" to "Rah!")
Dollhouse maker.	(With fabulous furniture of course.)
Cake decorator.	(Any shape, she can make.)
Chef.	(At her best when there's a dozen or more people to feed.)
Barber.	(For half my life, I thought all moms cut their husbands' and sons' hair.)
Up-do beautician.	(Did up my hair on my wedding day!)
Make-do technician.	(A female MacGuvyer, she can make something out of "nothing.")
Prankster.	(Ask her balance a glass of water on a pin... Or a broom handle...)
Public speaker.	(In German, no less!)
Poem reciter.	(She knows one for every occasion.)
Silly song singer.	(She knows one of these for any occasion, too.)
	(And I could keep going, at least one for each of her years...)

She's a midwest farmer's daughter who ended up living overseas for 15 years and just "bloomed where she was planted."

She's the most helpful houseguest ever, especially when visiting someone who's just had a baby. (Seriously! She should rent herself out for that!)

She's faced her share of struggles, including some she's still in the midst of now, but even then, she is wise and strong.

She is a key role model of mine for what a godly person looks like.

Happy Birthday, Momma. I love you so!

In Honor of the Day...

Something I found in my files the other day (because I never throw anything away), dated 2-93...

Updated 2/15/2009!: Hmm, it was ten eleven! years ago today that I started dating the guy who is now my husband. Almost started the day before, but... Too bad, 'cause I'm much more of a "We started dating on Friday the 13th" kinda gal than a "We started dating on Valentine's Day" one. But all's well that ends well...

And four years ago today, I got one of the coolest V-day gifts ever: a Sophie. A girl who only wants to wear dresses, who is a pro at cutting things out and then taping them into crazy sculptures, who brings such joy into my life, and who I hope never gets lost in the shuffle from being neither the oldest girl nor the youngest. Happy birthday, my sweet middle-est!

Sophie - A Year In Review

(Ha ha, caught a typo; I'd written "who brings such job into my life..." Yeah, she does that too, with her dwindling list of what she will eat at dinner and her recent return into answering nearly request with a vehement "No." But despite the hard days, it's a job I wouldn't give up for the world! Besides, just when I was starting to despair at the horribleness of this seemingly endless "No" phase, she introduced a new response. Not all the time, but just enough to keep me sane: a cheery "Yes, ma'am!" that is too too cute!)

Happy New Year!

Last post of 2008. Here are some random photos and thoughts from the past 10 days...

We had a wonderful time with my family at my parents' place over Christmas; my older two loved decorating the tree with their Uncle Al.

Played outside in the snow a lot! In addition to the large snowman, there was also a snowbunny. (Heidi loves bunnies!!!)
And using the mound created by the snowplow along with the slight slope of the front yard, some of our crew built a fun little sled run right in front of the house.

Even Lucy enjoyed it! And I loved having huge amounts of floorspace on which to lay out the quilt designs. Here's the "structured" side, missing its border still.
We ended up going with Diamonds2; Al was fine with any of the designs but did mention the zigzags were maybe a little too "Charlie Brown-ish." The light is a little off in this picture -- in reality, the light greens and beiges are not that similar.

And here's the "eclectic" side. Got the idea to just sew squares on top of squares from this lovely "ragged squares" quilt.

I was amazed at just how hard it was to get a pleasing "random" layout. One of my brothers quipped that it's kind of like when we set up our Settlers board "randomly": "no, there's already a mineral there," "we need a better number on brick here," etc.

And I've heard of panting yourself into a corner, but quilting yourself into a corner?... : ) (Thanks to sis-in-law Jen -- and her gorgeous DSLR -- I'm actually in some photos for a change.)

Of course, sewing the pieces together would have worked a lot better if I had brought not only my sewing machine but also the power cord for it!!! Argh. Oh well, will start sewing it in 2009.

Our week at the "cabin" was fantastic... and then I came home to an over-the-top gift from a wonderful friend who made me give her a house key before we left town. What can be better than walking into your house after a vacation and seeing this:
Or this:
Especially considering the state it was in after the craziness of our departure day. She tidied up, she vacuumed, she dusted, she organized, she even cleaned the bathrooms! Aaaaah - deep contented sigh!

Before I even came hom, I knew I'd be in for a treat: my brother had driven to our town to pick up his girlfriend at the airport there and stopped at my house to hang out before her arrival. On the phone with me, he was asking how to turn on the TV. (It's complicated. Truly.) I told him first he needed to find the right remotes.

Al: "You mean the ones in the remote basket?"

Me: "Oh, I didn't know I had a remote basket."

Meet my new remote basket. Suzanne, you are an amazing genius angel.

So, resolutions for 2009:

1) Build on the beautiful gift Suz gave me by maintaining some order in my home.
2) Finish Al's quilt. Preferably well before his July birthday.

P.S. When the previous owner of the hibiscus told me that tree would probably have blooms this winter even, I didn't believe her. Clearly, she knows her stuff. Two blooms are almost done, this one just opened up today, and loads more coming soon. Sweet!



Happy New Year!