Coming Back Around

While I have not passed out as of late, I feel like I've been quite out of it. Two and a half weeks ago I got a call on Saturday morning from my mom. My dad had passed out while walking the dog at night and fallen and hit his head. I experienced a similar incident with him this summer, when he passed out at the city pool with the girls and I and hit his head on the steps to the water slide. At first we thought we were in for an experience like that - he would be sent to the nearest major city that specialized in trauma cases, be monitored for a couple of days and then come home. Except this time it was different. He had a severe brain bleed and there was a lot of swelling on his brain. He could talk, but just in short, curt words. His heart rate was also out of control (part of the problem that caused him to pass out). It was scary.

A week later he was discharged and sent not to the rehabilitation facility they'd said they'd send him to, but home, with just my mom to care for him. That was a Friday. At his first meeting with his PT and OT on Monday, both agreed that he should not have been sent home. After some phone calls on Tuesday, they were able to get him into a rehab facility on Wednesday. He was there for five hours before being sent via ambulance back to the hospital. He has stopped using his right hand, his right foot was dragging and his right arm was swollen and cold to the touch. Another CAT Scan showed more swelling and what turned out to be a second brain bleed. He was not in good shape. Thankfully, a week after arriving back at the hospital, he has been released to rehabilitation. As of this morning, his swelling on the brain is decreasing and he's regaining use of his right arm and hand. His speech and cognitive skills have a long way to go, but I am hopeful that with lots of therapy, the dad I know will be returned to me.

So, all my artsy craftsy ideas have sort of been consumed by fear, worry, concern, dread - you name it. I've laid in bed and watched more mindless TV in the past two and a half weeks than I've seen in years. I'm feeling optimistic now though and might actually get something accomplished soon. I cannot say that the quilt on dad's lap was made by me though. A good friend of my mom's belongs to a quilting group that makes these "prayer quilts". The centers of the blocks have a tie that remains untied until a visitor says a prayer and ties it. A neat idea, I thought.

And if you looked at the picture of my parents (taken on my mom's birthday - happy birthday mom!) and thought "That man looks familiar...". Then maybe you're remembering the creepy, old neighbor from Home Alone. As my dad ages, he is being "recognized" out in public more and more, but no that is not my dad hanging with Macaulay Culkin.

On a brighter note, we welcomed an eight year old into our family this past Saturday. Well, she was previously our seven year old, but she's graduated now. She also shares a birthday with my dad, which makes it extra special (we think). We were blessed with an incredibly beautiful weekend - temperatures in the high 60's, blue skies and good times. We spent time at the park as a family, walked next door for pizza and scored ice cream - our first outside ice cream of 2011!

Now to plan the slumber party for five 7 and 8 year olds this Firday. Why am I tired already?

Jumping the Gun

Last week, or maybe it was two weeks ago, I explained "jumping the gun" to Rachel when she came out of her room, dressed for school in one of her Christmas shirts. I told her that we really ought to wait for Thanksgiving to be over before we dust of the Rudolph attire.

When we woke up this morning, the temperature was 30. That's pretty chilly for these Southern bones, so in the spirit of going to pick out our Christmas tree, I donned my Christmas tree shirt. I was soon being told that I'd jumped the gun. In all fairness, Thanksgiving has passed and we were going to get our Christmas tree.....I still think it was a good choice - I think she was just jealous of it ; )

Local, pick your own tree farms are a bit of a dilemma for this Northern girl in the South. Cypress and Ceder trees do not even register in my book as a qualifying Christmas tree, but they are what are most easily grown in these parts. We found a farm last year that grew a smattering of Virginia Pines, which at least have needles, so we returned this year. Upon arriving, it dawned on me that if a tree farm gets cleared out one year, they're not going to have a huge selection the following year. Yes, it took staring that fact in the face for it to hit home. I had almost resolved myself to a poser Cypress Christmas tree wanna' be when we found a pine that looked like it would work. Further inspection on Sarah's part revealed a bird's nest tucked in the tree as well - isn't that supposed to bring luck?

So chop chop chop (actually, saw, saw, saw) and we had a rather large tree to drag home. As a matter of fact, last years was sort of large as well.

This one is a bit of a Charlie Brown tree on steroids, with some rather large empty spaces, but it will do. My decorating plan involves lots of lights in bare spots and large ornaments strategically placed.

And what did we find when we got it home and into the tree stand? Santa's elves have returned! How they got into the tree, we do not know, but there they were and Sarah's pretty sure they have a look of mischief about them. The girls are actually so excited for the elves to get into some mischief that they were eager to go to bed! Oh, and Sarah called their arrival a "Christmas miracle". Too bad we're short on drama and flair around here.

But about that luck.....I'm guessing it wasn't luck that sent the fully lit and decorated tree crashing down on Rachel tonight. Perhaps it was karma for all the very similar scenes we've seen on America's Funniest Home Videos and laughed at. We found it much less entertaining when it was in our living room. And a tree stand full of water was spilled all over the floor. And Jim's one and only sentimental ornament lay shattered on the floor. Hopefully it's secure now and those naughty elves won't try tipping it over in the night!

Fancy Pants

I could have easily called this "weekend cleaning" as well, but I'm feeling pretty fancy about how much I tidied up this weekend. It was long over due....long, long, long. Normally I don't let people into this area of our house, but because I tidied up, I thought I'd share.

We live in a house built in 1935 with lots of quirks. We chose our house because, of all the older homes that we looked at, we thought this one would require the least amount of work. We were wrong. Take this area, for instance. It was a crudely finished attic area - no central heat or air, divided into three areas with the laundry in the hottest, darkest, dirtiest corner. Because it became clear that we really needed to rewire the entire house (like I said, we were wrong), the easiest way to do such a thing proved to be going through the floor of the upstairs. That line of thinking led the Mr. to completely gutting the upstairs. And by completely, I mean completely - no floors, no walls, nothing. I'll have to dig some of those pre-digital photos out some day.

The upstairs area is an odd shape - long and rectangular with a stairway and chimney up the middle. Not ideal, but it's worked for us. I have one side, the girls have the other for playing and the Mr. has the area past the chimney for his man cave. Theoretically we could all be up here doing our own thing, happy as clams, but in reality it doesn't seem to work that way.

Anyhow, my sewing area is the first thing you see at the top of the stairs. I scored that Hoosier Cabinet (needs a good bit of repair) for $35! It holds lots of sewing stuff. All my fabric scraps are sorted by color in the empty (and washed) kitty litter buckets under the table.

The computer is in the middle of my area. I have a kitchen cabinet in the attic that I'd eventually like hung on the wall over the monitor....for stashing more stuff, of course. At the end, before you get to the man cave, is where I have all my card making and crafty stuff. The windows are original to the house, crooked, and very drafty. Charm, it seems, comes with a price.

My final crafty nook. The large white cabinet on the left became a necessity when a wee Sarah started using my stamp pads to color the carpet. It use to have a child lock on it (and probably still should). My table top is the top to an old Ikea drafting table. I still have the legs, but the top is currently set atop a series of our old kitchen cabinets which form an L. In the cabinets...more stuff, of course! Sometimes I feel bogged down my all my crafty clutter, but then I think about people who don't create and just watch TV at night and I don't feel so bad. I'd much rather be up here getting my craft on...although sometimes I do wonder where I might squeeze a little TV in.

Thanks for taking a peek - feel free to drop by in the next two days and see for yourself. After that it will probably be a mess again and I won't let you upstairs ; )

In The Garden

My garden is coming along nicely. The zucchini and yellow squash plants are huge an covered in blooms and I've counted no less than five baby zucchini on the plant already. The cucumbers were slow starters, but in the past week they have really grown in size as well. And my new location for the tomatoes seems to have been just what they needed.

Last night while I was watering the tomatoes, I spied some red in there. I checked on them this afternoon and they were perfect for picking.

They never made it in the house. My hand model ate them as soon as I was done taking the pictures. I had to let her eat them, how do you tell a kid that she can't have veggies? And I am so thankful that I have at least one veggie eating girl. I'm still working on the other one.

I've got something else to share as well, but since I go through dry spells at times, I thought I ought to wait a day or so. I'll give you a hint though, it's the beginning of my new quilt and I love it!

She's a Graduate

Please indulge me today....my baby finished preschool. She's all grown up and ready to start kindergarten in August. Her school had a program at the children's museum here. We all had a blast and were thankful that Jim could take the morning off to join us.

The kids put on a great program of which I have a lot of poor photos of. I was too far from the stage for the flash to really work and there were too many heads in the way. Perhaps it was just best that I sat back and enjoyed the moment anyhow. But certainly I wasn't going to miss her getting her "pa-doma", as she called it last night.

After the program we got to spend a few hours in the museum. I posed for Rachel in the art area, we got to see the new traveling exhibit "Gross-ology" the impolite science of the human body (it was gross), we played on the roof, avoided the gift shop and had a good time.

Sarah's two years in preschool were such an important time for her. The first year was rough - really rough, but we are all so proud of how much she's grown and matured and learned during this time. I am thankful for her teachers as well, and the love and patience they have shown her. Still, it hardly seems possible that she will be ready to start kindergarten in a couple of months. They really don't stay babies for long at all. Sniff sniff....bring on the water works!

What Are You Up To?

This is what I'll be up to for the next few weeks. I picked out the fabrics for my next baby girl quilt. The jumping off point was the dress on the right. I bought it for Sarah last summer, hoping that she could wear it this summer. No dice. I knew it was a risk and one I was willing to take because I was already waffling between giving it to her to wear and just cutting it up right off the bat. And because I love to find my girl's clothes at the thrift stores, the dress only set me back a buck or two. I pulled the other fabrics from my stash and hopefully will not have to go buy any more. Pattern will be similar to the elephant quilt I just finished, although I plant to have a good bit of bright white in it to really make the other bright colors pop. I'm excited to get to work on this, just as soon as the little people go to bed tonight.

And when I'm not sewing, or running around town doing this or that, or at the girl's schools, or taking little people to emergency dentist appointments, I'm out in the yard, bent over picking mulberries. Yes, it's that time of year again. I am so eager for them to come, but after about five days of obsessively picking them, I begin to wish that they would hurry up and all fall off the tree at once. It is tedious work, makes my fingers look like I'm a grease monkey and has, in the past, been an obsession. I'm proud to say that this year I'm not obsessing about it. I will actually let the kids play in the grass, even if I haven't just picked berries. Maybe that has something to do with the two gallons I still have frozen from last year. But now it's time for fresh berries in pies and muffins and jam and oh my, there goes my waistline. Oh wait, it's already gone. Very well then, dig in!

Yummy!

These are so so good, I have to share the recipe with you! But first, their history. I just finished Beth Moore's Esther Bible study. I loved the depth at which we studied the book of Esther and the history of the Jewish people at that time. These cookies are typically made during Purim and are called Hamantashen or Haman's Ears - Haman being the "bad guy" in the story of Esther. They are also said to represent Haman's the cornered hat. Google them, you can learn lots more, I bet! So, bad guy = good cookie! Here's the recipe:

Hamantashen

2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 tsp. baking powder
4 cups whole wheat flour or 2 cups whole wheat & 2 cups white flour

Filling: Traditional fillings are poppy seed and prune. I used homemade strawberry and blackberry jam. Fruit butters or pie fillings would also work.

1. Cut butter into sugar. Blend thoroughly. Add eggs and vanilla, blending thoroughly. Add baking powder and then flour, 1/2 cup at a time, blending thoroughly between each addition.

2. Put the batter in the refrigerator overnight or at least a few hours.

3. Roll it out to about 1/4" thickness and then cut circles with a cookie cutter or glass. Make sure they're at least 3" in diameter so you have room to fill them and fold the edges over.

4. Put a tablespoon of filling in the middle of each circle. Fold up the sides to make a triangle, overlapping the sides as much as possible so only a little filling shows through.

5. Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

I opted for the half whole wheat, half white flour variation for my first attempt. I love the nuttiness of the whole wheat - the cookies are still plenty sweet and they don't taste overly whole wheat. The dough is similar to a sugar cookie dough, but in rolling it out, I found it to be a bit more crumbly. It also didn't need much (if any) flour on the rolling surface. Perhaps I started with too much on my surface and that's why it crumbled. Regardless, these are buttery and sweet and oh so yummy. I really do suggest you give them a try! And check out the cute plate and mug I picked up at the thrift store the other day as well!

Playing in the Dirt

The little one and I went to get some plants for our "garden" the other day. Our poor excuse for a yard is an even poorer location for a garden. While we have fabulous trees that shade the house and keep it very nice and cool in the summer, those same trees allow for precious little sunlight in the yard, which is really just the side of a hill. Last years selected location for the tomatoes was a poor choice, so I've opted for the only place that gets a good expanse of sunlight - smack dabby in the front yard. I will now (hopefully) be able to give directions to my house by mentioning that it's the one with all the tomatoes and snap peas in the front yard. I have high hopes for little plants, as I do love fresh tomatoes in the summer!

I'm also trying out some squash and cucumbers in the tomatoes old location, as cucumbers did well there last year. Only time will tell at this point, but this little zucchini plant looked pitiful when I put it in the ground and just a few days later it's doubled it size and looks like it's happy for now.

Not planted this year, but equally anticipated are the mulberries. Did I mention last year that we had lived in this house for 7 (I think) years before we realized we had a mulberry tree? And it's not like it was tucked away in some hidden corner.....it drops juicy, dark purple berries all over what little flat(..ish) yard we have and also all over the driveway. This one tree will yield gallons of berries and I will spend a week and a half obsessed with gathering them.

And another new neighbor in our yard. Honestly, this summer marks nine years in our home. Surely we would have noticed these vines before, which have leaves resembling grape leaves and seem to be forming clusters of.... could they be muscadines? Or scuppernongs. The same thing, I believe, but isn't scuppernong fun to say? Only time will tell for these newbies. And if they do fruit, what to do with them?

I spent an hour tonight working on a birthday present. I got as far as cutting the fabric and sewing four rows of basting stitches to a very long piece of fabric (I hate sewing basting stitches) and then I finally concluded that my "black" fabric is really not black at all, but dark brown. That is not a good feeling, especially since I went to two fabric stores looking for this particular kind of black fabric and still ended up buying brown. Bugger. That's what I say.

For Dinner Tonight

Along with lots of other people right now, we are trying to eat better at our house. Or at least some of us are, and we're the ones that do the grocery shopping and cooking. We had a homemade pizza tonight with a yummy strawberry salad. I had a similar salad at a local restaurant a couple weeks ago and was eager to try and replicate it. This has spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and a little bit of shredded unsweetened coconut. In its precious incarnations it also had toasted almonds in it, but I'm out of almonds right now so this one has sunflower seeds instead. What really makes this salad though is the dressing. I started with this recipe, but have made several changes this is the gist of what I ended up with...

Strawberry Vinaigrette

1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Pint Strawberries plus more as desired
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinaigrette
2 Tablespoons Strawberry Jam
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Dried Tarragon
1-2 Teaspoons Sugar

Whirl it all together in a food processor or blender and give it a taste. I only added part of the oil and vinegar the original recipe called for and was glad I'd stopped when I did. I wanted a really fruity tasting dressing and not something oily or with too strong of a vinegar taste. More sugar, jam and berries will send you in that direction.

We've been eating this salad a lot. That probably has something to do with how much dressing I made, but both girls are eating it, which makes me happy because if you look closely at the pizza, you will find one section lacking in veggies - that would be Sarah's side. She's been my little vegetarian that doesn't eat vegetables, but we're working on that. In just the past two weeks she's started eating grape tomatoes. I'm not sure if she thinks they're really grapes or what, but I'm trying not to make too big a deal out of it, even if I'm singing "Yippie!" on the inside.

What We Do For Kicks Around Here

OK, so I have a confession to make. Yesterday's post....I did it last night so that I would have something creative between the hair cut posts, seeing as this is not a hair cutting blog. But really, I am excited about that quilt and made almost 20 blocks last night! But today is about my girl and her second hair cut (in seven years). Back in August 2008 she had 12" cut off and donated to Locks of Love. Just a year and a half later those 12" were back and she was back for another opportunity to donate.

This time she went a bit shorter (Rachel's decision) and I think she ended up with almost 13"!

And now I have this gorgeous girl to look at who looks about three years older than when she walked in. And somehow the hair cut even made her eyes look bluer!

She loves it, I love it and she's excited to show off her new look at school tomorrow. Plus I have this sweet photo to make me smile. It's been a good day.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had more snow on Friday - about an inch and a half. Even flurries are a big deal here, so anything that sticks on the ground is pretty life altering. And the abundance of snow here this winter has definitely been life altering for us. We have spent so much time outside playing in the cold, which we would normally not be so game for and I have spent what seems like a life altering amount of time washing and drying wet clothes! Lots of good fun.

This is the Valentine I made for the girls (I made two - I'm no fool). I sewed several strips of 1" wide and pink fabric together to get a new fabric to cut the hearts out of, then sewed it to the pink polka-dot fabric. I embroidered "love" on that and then glued it to a piece of paper that says "I love you" and glued that down to a larger piece of pink card stock. What was probably the most fun was the tiny little heart stamp I created by carving it out of a pencil eraser. It worked! Always a good feeling. They were well received, but there was also a request for something more. I think my kids have become too accustomed to always getting "things". They don't even really care about the "thing" - just that they got it. My head is going topsy turvy trying to think of how to stop this now, at almost 5 and 7 and not let it get any further out of hand. Any suggestions? We're already thinking that the Easter Bunny is going to appear very scroogish this year. But for now, Happy Valentine's Day.

Sick. Again.

Just when I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with what still had to be done, the commitments we'd made, the birthday parties and Christmas parties and all that stuff that's supposed to be fun, but in mega doses becomes nothing more than a duty fulfilled, nature sent us a not so subtle reminder to slow down. Rachel had a head ache Wednesday and was cold all day, which is odd for her. By ten that night, her temperature was almost 103. By noon on Thursday, it was 103.5. Thankfully the doctor had an opening at 3:00 and we were there! As her pediatrician put it, she got an A on the only test you don't want to get an A on....Flu, Type A. She was sooooo sick last night. I don't ever recall having the flu and had no idea that it was so horrible. At one point, I swear, her eyes rolled up in her head right before she threw up. Again. On a tummy that had already lost the only thing she'd eaten back at the pediatrician's office. Poor girl. Thankfully, she is feeling better today. The whole family is taking Tamiflu (man it's expensive!!!) and she's got several other concoctions to take as well. We were lucky to catch it early and hopefully everyone will be well for Christmas.

So the elves thought they ought to do something fun last night to lift spirits this morning. Those little buggers strung toilet paper (again with the TP!!) from the dining room light out into the dining room and sprayed silly string on the table! Tsk. Tsk. They could be found hanging in the light this morning with their tools in hand and their antics were well received.

And in the effort to be a bit crafty, I have to mention Picnik. I am usually the last to hear about something, so you may already know all about it, but if you like taking photos and don't know about it, clear some time from your day and have fun. Lots of photo editing tools, great filters and fun to be had. I tweaked the above photo of Rachel with it. It's free for the basics and reasonable for a year's subscription which gets you extra features (of which I cannot tell you about, as the budget will not allow it right now).

There is crafting that desperately needs to get done, but what with school cancelled, welcoming the flu into our house and all that sort of stuff, projects are waiting on my table. I'm hoping to make some progress now that nature has forced us to slow down a bit.

And a kitchen tour is in the near future. I took photos yesterday after I gave it a good picking up and before the Mr. went to town making some incredible lasagna in it.

An Interruption

It must be the holidays because our world is full of magic right now. The kind of magic that brings an early morning snow to Southern Tennessee just weeks before Christmas. My wake up call came at 6:30 this morning - not a favorite time to rise on a Saturday morning, but they were magic words squealed by excited little girls "It's snowing!!".

I got up. I grabbed the camera. I'm glad I did. I also went back to bed for an hour or so before rising again, taking more photos and then heading out to play. All before breakfast....but not coffee. The coffee tasted extra good outside in the cold!

Our winter wonderland is melting right now, but there's still magic inside. Friday morning the elves were found snuggled up in a basket in a toilet paper nest reading "The Night Before Christmas". These elves seem to have a thing for the T.P.

Then last night, before I went to bed I caught them already having their breakfast on the table. And more magic this morning, when they cereal they'd started out with last night was all gone!

Perhaps Santa has a helper when it comes to this magic stuff.

P.S. The cats are not supposed to be on the table, but I am guilty of taking the picture first and then getting the squirt bottle out.

The Extent of My Craftiness this Weekend

What's that you say? All you see is a door in poor repair? Yes, that would be my crafty endeavor for the weekend. It doesn't look like much, and quite frankly, it isn't. We set about priming the kitchen walls Saturday morning and intended to make it a family affair. The girls were very excited and anxious to get started, but I fear there were so many "rules" that came with the territory that it became less interesting, especially for Sarah. Rules like "Only paint the walls", "Take your shoes off if you leave the kitchen" and other fun ruining things like that. Mean parents, I know. While Jim painted the ceiling, I decided to tackle our back door, which was white and in various stages of peeling paint. Granted, now it looks much rougher, but the paint is coming off easily with just a paint scraper. If we want natural wood, we'll have to use something to actually strip the beige base coat though, but that remains to be determined. Like all the other details we haven't settled on yet.

Funny story though. Sunday night Jim had all the wiring hooked up, cans in the ceiling, etc., so he "debuted" it for the girls. Rachel was incredibly impressed and told him "That man is going to be so proud of you.". (I think "that man" must be the cabinet maker). Then she looked across the room and said, "But that door, not so much.". Apparently Momma's work wasn't very impressive. Granted, Momma would have gotten more done if she wasn't getting snacks, going outside to play, fixing lunch, wrangling little girls, etc. That comment keeps ringing in my ears and making me laugh though.

The Writing on the Wall

Yes, I meant it quite literally. While I was at the baby shower on Saturday, Jim tried to keep moving on the kitchen and keep the girls occupied. So, Sarah practiced writing her alphabet. In preschool they learned that a capital E is like a comb, so her E has lots of lines. More is always better when you're a kid.

Rachel drew a self portrait. It accurately depicts what she was wearing at the time - pink top, jeans with pink trim at the bottom, and pink boots. She is a stickler for accuracy at the moment. And I love that she is getting "fancy" with her writing lately. She actually has a few "fonts" that she uses!


And I totally love this little guy, also by Rachel. Clearly you already know that he is a panda bear in a bamboo forest, but just in case you didn't...... She drew this off the top of her head. I'm not even sure where the inspiration came from as they're studying the Arctic Tundra at school right now. The randomness of it makes me love it all the more.

And walls! We have walls!! And a ceiling! And the floor is still there as well. Whoo hoo! I had not envisioned the 50's mint green when I thought about the walls being done. I kind of imagined a big white room that would suddenly look done. But it's green (a moisture barrier on the drywall) and it's not done. I mean the hanging of the drywall is done, but the kitchen isn't. One day though. One day.