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Preparations are underway for a tapas dinner tonight with some good friends, who like us do not get to get dressed up and play like adults often. The table is set with the good chrystal, and the good silver. After dinner will be game night and wine tasting. All of the kiddos with sleeping bags movies and lots of popcorn will be at one couple's house (with babysitters of course!) and the adults here at ours. Should be fun!!!
Happy New Year All! Looking forward to all that 2008 will bring!
Our Christmas was a wonderful one indeed! Thank you to those of you who took time to send a card or a person email. Your holiday wishes were warmly received by our family.
I hope everyone's Christmas was just as they had hoped it to be. Ours was just as we had planned, quiet (well as quiet as one can be with three boys in the house), and simple, full of friends and wonderful food.
Actually we are still in Christmas celebration mode with more celebrating with friends this evening and New Year's festivities to plan.
I may just post photos for the next several days or so. Would that be OK with you? The words just don't seem to be flowing at the moment. Lots of reflecting going on at the moment...but, it is just that time of the year. Time for lots of reflecting and planning.
Blessings to all!
Well we are all starting to pink up around here after having "the strep". I still have a nasty cough that I just can't seem to shake, but feeling much better otherwise. And package arrived from sweet Kristy of
And aprons are all over my craft room floor. I have had these Christmas curtains with ball fringe for over a year now. I purchased them in Wisconsin at the local Goodwill and never got around to using them. Until this year. And using more vintage goodness as the pockets - crocheted potholders. Each one is a bit different, but I am loving them all. Some very dear friends will be the recipients.
And the boys have their own works in progress. They are making hand embroidered linen tote bags for their teachers. The embroidery designs are their own. I love watching the differences in their styles. They might be identical genetically, but they could not be more different when it comes to their artwork.
Zane carefully drew out a picture of a knight holding a sword and meticulously followed each and every line using only two colors. I am astounded at his attention to detail.
Ian went with a bit more of an abstract design. Using eight colors finally. So different I tell you.
This morning I am thinking of my brother in Tulsa who is on day 5 without power and heat from the ice storm. And S's family in Oklahoma City who now have power, but are dealing with the cleanup of limbs and trees. We were hanging out at the beach at the same exact time they were getting the worst ice storm they have ever seen. Thinking of you all today!
Stay warm friends and have a great weekend!
Thank you for all of your well wishes and mama-don't-get-sick vibes. But alas, I got "the strep" as we have been calling it around our house. Yes, the mama, the one who helps with homework, the one who gets milk in the middle of the night, the one who stacks cinnamon toast like Lincoln logs was stopped dead in her tracks.
Trying to remain positive, I attempted to take it as an opportunity for some serious couching on Saturday. Using the time to finish some of the hand crocheted gifts on my Christmas to do list. And when my temperature was 103.8 according to the thermometer, I was still in denial about the whole thing -thinking that I could will myself into not getting sick. Finally on Sunday morning when I didn't even have the strength to make the coffee, I waved my symbolic white flag in surrender and went back to bed thinking about all of the previously planned projects that would not get done.
Projects like this comfy-cozy patchwork blanket by Leslie that has had my head spinning. And Jen's clever wreaths. And these scrappy fabric ornaments from Blair remind me of these Easter ornaments we made last year...only hers are better and much easier for little hands. This is a great button use idea from Beki. And finally, I had planned on making these great fabric chains from The Small Object. But it all wasn't in the cards. Who knows how much I will actually get done.
The only thing we have actually gotten done between doses of the pink stuff is putting together the winter nature table. We kept the shells, the bark, the sticks and the pine cones. But added a dusting of snow...and a dusting of snow is being extremely hopeful for where we live. We stowed the hickory nuts and acorns away under a log for the squirrels and birds to eat. The owl stayed at Wyatt's request but he keeps insisting that he is cold and needs a blanket. Hmmm...maybe we'll have to crochet the poor little thing a blanket for Christmas. And of course some wee folk, souveneirs from our outing to the Swedish St. Lucia celebration. For more details about the elements on our nature table see this photo for the flickr notes.
According to my mother, who knows me best, the only time I EVER get sick is when I am just plumb worn out. So I guess I should take this as a huge frying pan up side the head hint that I needed to take a break. To have lots of time to be thankful for doctors with hours on Saturday, for dear friends who have called to check on us and offer to bring food over (we waved them off with the comment "stay away...far, far away") and for antibiotics. Yes, antibiotics.
And that my friends is the lesson in all of this for me. To remember that it is not the crafts that get done, or don't get done. It is not stressing myself and my family out in a crazy slew of holiday field trips. It is not about the obligatory photo with Santa. Or even the Christmas cards that haven't been addressed yet. It really is about more than that. So much more.
And I know that you know this already...really, I do. You do not need a speech from me about the "reason for the season" or how to put the "Christ back into Christmas". We all know deep down that the holidays would still be wonderful if the lights didn't get hung or if the Christmas cards did not include the most perfect photo. That is if we stopped long enough to truly think about it. Its about a quiet time of reflection. About comforting each other when we need it. About the healing touch of a mothers hand. About a papa who is home and able to read a book with his son at 2 a.m. And about lending a hand to a friend when you can.
Some of us just need to be flat out on our backs in bed to take the time to remember this. I guess I am that person. Thanks, I got it now and I'll be remembering it for the next several weeks and hopefully well into the new year. Stay well my friends!
I wish the lack of posting the past few days was a reflection of a flurry of holiday parties, tree trimming and Christmas crafting. But sadly, we're just all sick.
S returned from Chicago (his last trip for quite awhile) on Tuesday with a nasty, nasty cold. In my opinion it was all of that beer he HAD to drink to say goodbye to everyone before he left. A gluten free body + beer = a sick, sick guy around here.
Then on Thursday night Wyatt developed a fever, which was diagnosed as Strep by the doctor yesterday. I am not one to rush to the doctor and give meds. just to be on the safe side. But in this case I am glad we did as his fever had reached over 104 degrees. I had just brought Wyatt home, ordered his antibiotics, got him settled in bed with his plethora of zoo animals when Ian came to tell me he was hot too. And his poor little eyes were glassy and red. Not thirty minutes later Zane started coughing and complaining that his head hurt. Ugh!
I guess we will be headed back to the doctor this morning. And all I've got for the blog is a very appropriate silhouette paper cut from Stefani that arrived this past week. Thanks Stef! Off to take some more echinacea and some airborn. Because we all know that mamas don't get to get sick. At least not in this house.
More here at the Apronista.
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I hate paying bills. I mean, who really does? But, I really, really hate paying bills. I dislike this household task so much that it was the first chore I handed over to S when he was able to spend more time at home while living in Wisconsin. But now that we are back in Virginia and he is gone again, I have had to take that little bit of unpleasantness back. Ugh!
I have been putting off the bills for several days now and woke up yesterday morning in a grumpy mood just thinking them. And the fact that we were out of coffee did not help the situation at all. And then it occurred to me to ask myself what would make paying bills more fun? Even something to look forward to? So, as soon as the older boys were off to kindy, I scooped the youngest up and of we went to get coffee...good coffee. A pumpkin spiced latte to be exact. And then I remembered that I had a stash of extra rich Hershey's dark chocolate hidden away. Mmmm....chocolate before 9 a.m. Oh, yes!
Needless to say, I think I have found my motivation to pay the bills. Coffee, chocolate and I now have a date on the first and the fifteenth of every month.
Still reeling from my cleverness, and while Wyatt was still eating his blueberry cake from our morning adventure, I decided to whip up a quick zippered pouch out of a vintage lime green towel I had picked up at Sal's awhile back. I am on my fourth camera in six or seven months, so hopefully this little pouch will help with keeping the sand out and out of little one's temptation to handle it.
The cold is back in the area again after last week's seventy degree days. We had our first frost this morning - a perfect excuse to play with the macro settings. Chilly temps are just in time for the plethora of paper snowflakes that have started popping up all over our house.
And the Christmas crafting is in full swing around here as of last night. The boys were all in bed fairly early, so I got a very late start on the advent calendar I have had in my head since seeing Jenny's advent garland last year. Week one is done and hopefully the next three weeks will be done sometime this weekend.
That's it for now...off to the boys' school's craft fair, a St. Lucia holiday celebration with our new Swedish friends, and the Christmas parade at the beach tonight with yet more good friends. Jamie, sure wish you were going to be there.
Hope your weekend is a good one all!
