Gamie's Poetry

My mother's mother, whom we affectionately called Gamie, lived with us until her passing when I was still very young (seven). I want to keep her memory alive, so I've been reading two books about her that my sister compiled several years ago. One is a picture album of her life, and the other contains her poetry.

Yesterday I typed out one of her poems, backed it with pretty scrapbook paper, and hung it on our wall. I want to remember Gamie, and I also want the girls to grow up knowing about her. And I'd love our home to display who we really are, and what is important to us.

I'd like to share with you the poem I displayed.

Shadow and Flame

The dancing shadows
play upon the hearth,
And cast their magic
in the dark,
And dreams and hopes
that dormant lie,
Burst into flame
before my eyes,
Then darkness and despair
that struggle over light,
Shall be vanquished in the
flame, this quiet night.

by Violet H., Gamie


photo by PayBlake at stock.xchng

Homemade Board Books

On one of my favorite blogs, Having Fun at Home, Katey shares how she made a gorgeous homemade board book for her daughter. I'm so impressed! You've got to check it out--go here.

Also, Katey included a link to a website where you can buy blank board books. I didn't even know these were sold! I'm so glad to find out--imagine all the great possibilities.

This is one thing I love about the blogosphere: learning from the creativity of other godly women. Thanks, Katey, for this idea!

What Anna's Taught Me

Two weeks ago I worked myself into a creative fury, having found fabric I adore at the store and trying millions of ways to use it in our living room. What started as a quick five-minute "let's-try-this" became an all-out passion. I spent so much time on it that I scrapped my plans for the entire afternoon. The whole time I worked, I kept thinking of my friend Anna, and the effect she's had on me (specifically how creative she and her husband have been lately--more on that later). Since I'd posted before what I learned from my good friend Heidi, I thought I'd do a similar post thanking Anna for teaching me so much.

And she has taught me a lot:

1. Power tools are not just for boys--er, men. Because of Anna, I've made friends with my power drill, her nail gun, her circular saw, and I've even used a jigsaw (it was a little scary!) as she helped me with various projects in our house. Before Kardelen was born, she spent days helping us prepare the nursery. We put up beadboard, painted it, made a blanket rack and painted that, mounted a bookcase on the wall and painted that, and switched out the electrical outlets from brown to white ones. Yes, I now know how to replace an electrical outlet! Here we are doing just that, a few weeks before Kardelen was born:


(Please excuse the pregnant whale look. Again, I was just a few weeks away from having a baby.)

2. You can learn anything from a book. Anna and her husband bought a house that had been gutted and completely remodeled it inside and out. Anna had some know-how from working with her handy Dad, but much of what they learned they read from library books.

When my floor lamp stopped working a few years back, I asked Anna if she'd look at it for me. Instead, she lent me a book on wiring. Guess what? I replaced the socket and fixed it myself! Somehow--maybe it's because I was the baby of the family--I forget that I don't always have to ask someone to do something for me. I can actually learn to do it myself.

3. Let your creativity blossom! Anna had me over for tea a few weeks ago. Since I hadn't been to her house for quite a while, she gave me a little tour first. Here's what I saw:
~two large paintings on canvas that her husband painted
~framed artwork they'd each made
~a framed poem by Richard's sister
~Anna's new Clavinova (electric piano)

Do you see the pattern here? Creativity. It's all over them! They're painting, creating music, blossoming in so many areas. It's opened my eyes to the place I give creativity in my life. So I'm starting to play piano more. And I'm making collages with magazine pictures for Valentine's Day; and when the girls are painting, I'm painting too!

Which brings me back to my fabric project. I ended up covering an already-framed picture with it, using mailing tape (!) to adhere it to the back, so it has the look of a canvas. (I'm into canvases lately.)


I'd been wanting to pay attention to the wall above our futon, our main living room wall. It's been bare for too long. Yet the fabric-canvas alone wasn't enough. Enter Project Two.

I had two frames I'd bought for a dollar each at a thrift store, and planned to paint them black. Wouldn't it be cool, I thought, to get some kind of black-and-white artsy print to put in each of them, and hang them on either side of the fabric-canvas?

Then Anna-thoughts began invading my mind. Do it yourself, they said. So here's what I came up with.

Two pictures. One of me and Bia, one of Kardelen and Daddy. Jacob played with them in Photoshop until they looked sufficiently artsy for me. He turned this:

into this:


You're probably getting sick of me saying it, but I'm going to say it again anyways: Super-Hubby!

Then I set to work on the frames. Covered the table with newspaper, let the girls paint on one end, and I covered the frames with a glossy black on the other. But when they dried and I was ready to hang them, there was no hardware for it. They were just frames--that's it. Again, Anna-type thoughts started running through my mind.

The Drill. Get the drill. With a few well-placed holes and some craft wire, each frame got two hangers and they were up on the wall in no time. Plus, I got to use the drill, which always makes me feel good.


Kardelen looks up at the wall and says, Look! It's all of our family! And that's what I wanted it to be--a family picture in two frames. Here's the completed project with Bia, the ballerina girl:


I loved my decorating project. And I love Anna even more. She's upheld me through my toughest times, and I can honestly say I don't know where I'd be without her.

Anna, you're amazing, and I thank God for you.

Homemade Orange Cream and Key Lime Yogurt

Jacob loves the Yoplait orange cream yogurt cups, and I buy them as a treat for him, but they're pricey. So we decided to try to make our own. It is incredibly easy!

Fill a small dish with vanilla yogurt (or add sweetener and vanilla to plain yogurt)--about 3/4 cup yogurt, I think. Then add one spoonful of orange juice concentrate. That's it!

Next we're going to try to make key lime yogurt. I bought limeade concentrate for this--we'll see if it works!

One more note: when you're adding pureed fruit or juice concentrate to your yogurt, stir gently with a spoon instead of blending. Blending breaks the yogurt's "gel," so you'll end up with a very thin drink-like consistency.

Have you made any yummy yogurt concoctions lately?

Update: we made key lime yogurt simply by adding a spoonful of limeade concentrate instead of orange juice concentrate. Very good!

How to Make Bead Socks

Courtesy of Lindsey, here's a tutorial on making lovely bead socks for sweet little girls. Thanks, Lindsey, for preparing this for us!

Materials needed:
Very thin crochet needle--I'm using a US9
Very thin yarn or thread
Socks (bobbie socks,with a fold-over cuff)
Pony Beads (or any other kind of bead you so desire)


First step is figure out what colors of beads you want and then string about 40 of them onto the thread's end (don't cut it, keep it attached to the roll of thread). I ended up only needing about 28 per sock, but it's always better to have more than enough than to run out!


Poke your needle into the sock and pull the end of the thread through. Chain 8.


Slide one of the beads along the thread onto your chain of 8, without pulling it out...


...Now that your bead is on the chain, put your crochet needle back into the loop


Chain one into the sock again about 2-3 little ridges away and then repeat process, chaining 8, adding a bead, chaining into the sock 2-3 ridges away, chaining 8, adding a bead, etc. etc. all the way around the sock.


When you come to the end, cut the thread and tie both loose ends together and knot a few times tightly. You're done!


What a beautiful, frugal, and fun gift any little girl will love! I find that it takes me one hour to do one pair of socks. It's easy to do them while watching a movie or listening to a podcast, but not recommended for doing when the kiddoes are awake!

You can use a variety of socks, beads, threads, and colors to make your socks unique! You can also vary the length of your chains for a different look (for example, if you want the beads to droop down even more chain 12 instead of 8.) You can also go farther apart between beads or closer together if you so desire.



Notes from Heather: For Sofia's Christmas gift last year, I used letter beads on her socks to spell her first and middle names. (You need to thread them on the string upside down and in reverse order in order to come out right.) It's a fun personal touch!


Love fancy socks? You might want to make ribbon socks, too!

Coming Tomorrow. . .

Stay tuned tomorrow for a Bead Sock Tutorial, written by the talented and crafty Lindsey! Check out her post today about giving her little girl a special birthday on a very tight budget.

And happy birthday, sweet Ali!

Treasures of the Snow

A few weeks ago at the library I came across the book Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John and had to bring it home. My sister and niece have been recommending it for years, so I thought I'd be a little different and read something other than a picture book for once. :)

I found it every bit as good as they'd promised. What's more, my lovely niece even reviewed it so I could share it with you. So, in her words, here's Treasures of the Snow:

When Lucien, out of spite, accidentally makes Annette's younger brother Danny fall into a ravine, it seems all hope of being loved is gone. Until one day when Lucien meets a kind old man who lives up on a mountain. The man teaches him about God's love and kindness.

Throughout the book Annette and Lucien learn important lessons about forgiveness and find that God's love will always carry them through in tough situations.

I enjoyed this book because it not only is exciting and suspenseful, but it also teaches about God's love. When you read the book it's like you're in Annette or Lucien's shoes. You cry when they cry and you feel the way they feel. This book is definitely on my list of favorites.

Though you'll find the book in the children's chapter book section of your library, I'd recommend it for adults, too. In fact, as soon as I was finished (and disappointed to have to leave my new friends Lucien and Annette), I requested more books by Patricia St. John.

Happy reading!

Valentine Pillowcases

Just one more Valentine's thought--I wanted to share pics of the girls' toddler pillowcases. All the fabrics and pom-pom trim were from my stash.


I put the pom-pom trim on only one side of the pillowcase so the girls could have a smooth side to fall asleep on. The white trim pieces are actually men's handkerchiefs, and they're very thin and antique-looking.


Whenever I look at these, I think of my sister-in-law Kari and shabby chic style. This used to be my style all over the house, but now I save pink frilly things for the girls' room.

Jacob probably appreciates it.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was sweet and simple this year. Earlier in the week, we invited my friend Kate and her daughter for a Valentine Tea Party. It was so fun to get out the china tea cups and flowery tablecloth and make a special event of it!


Kate also brought her youngest son. Since we're all baby-crazy around here, we immediately flocked around him, and it was a while before we remembered we were supposed to have a tea party!


I wanted to keep the treats simple, so I made rice krispie bars using cheerios instead, since we had everything on hand for that. We also made sugar cookies from some cookie dough frozen from Christmas.


We decorated the house with paper hearts, a collage of magazine pictures, photos of when Jacob and I were dating, and scriptures about love in pretty frames.


Then, last night, Jacob made me a marbled chocolate cheesecake! I can hardly wait to try it today!

Hope you had a fun Valentine's Day. It's really not about the commercialism and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate (at least I'd like to think that). I hope you used it as an opportunity to simply express your love.

Continuing Ed, continued

Isn't that a fun title?!

Just wanted to keep you posted--I received my continuing ed course in Saturday's mail and it looks a lot less intimidating than I'd thought! Basically, I'll be reading a textbook, skimming a second book, and answering study guide questions, with some application activities at the end like writing a lesson plan.

The course is on differentiating instruction for various abilities, ages, and interests, which I think will be very useful when I start homeschooling the girls.

I'm glad to realize I won't be as busy as I thought, so while I may not blog every day, I'll still be here.

I enjoy your friendship and thoughtful comments so much! Thanks for sticking with me.

God bless!

Valentine's Day for Your Husband

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Lately for devotions I've been reading through 1 John, because I want to better understand God's love. This morning I came across this verse:

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Now, I'm not suggesting you boycott Valentine's Day. Hearing spoken and written affirmations of love is so important. But I would like to share with you two resources you can use to love your husband through your actions as well.

The first is The Generous Wife daily e-mails. I'm not a fan of e-mail lists, and this is the only one I've signed up for, because it's excellent. Every day you receive a short e-mail idea on how to love your husband and build your marriage. The ideas are incredibly practical, come from a Christian perspective, and often get me thinking about their message throughout the day. They're a way to remind yourself to spend time building your marriage each day. If you'd like to subscribe, go here.

The other resource is an excellent Christian intimacy site called The Marriage Bed, which is hosted by Paul and Lori, a husband and wife team. (And Lori is the author of The Generous Wife e-mails, too!) We've spent a lot of time on their forums, where you can find answers to questions, inspiration, and ideas to make life a little more creative and exciting. If you're a wife wanting to bless your husband sexually, or an engaged couple wanting to prepare for what's ahead, I highly recommend these forums. But please--if you're not married or engaged, wait till you are, since the site's focus is on married intimacy.

May your love for your husband grow stronger this year, and may the Lord bless your marriage richly!

Memory Verses for Kids

Last year, I looked at my sweet two-year-old and realized if she could memorize short poems, she could start to memorize God's Word. I searched the internet for toddler memory verses, but found only the traditional whole-verse flashcards. I really wanted something to help me figure out which concepts were the most important to start out with, and how to present them to my daughter in a way that would be fun and easy to memorize (like the children's books she could recite from memory).

I ended up coming up with my own. I sat down and listed most important concepts I wanted to teach her at the time, then found verses and put them in my own words. To make the verses more fun, I set them to music. Five flash cards bound on an o-ring was my result; we sing them through like a little book.

These are the verses I chose and paraphrased:

God loves me. John 3:16
God made me. Psalm 139:13
I do good things because I love Jesus. John 14:15
Share what you have. It makes God happy. Hebrews 13:15 (optional jazzy ending "oh, yeah!")
Be kind to one another. Ephesians 4:32

To be honest, we haven't read these as much lately (which is why I put them in the Devotions Basket). But shortly after I first made them there was one shining moment when Kardelen sat down and sang them all to herself. It was one of those special moments of parenting when God blesses you with your heart's desire. I want Kardelen and Sofia to love Jesus with all their hearts, and memorizing Bible verses is a way to encourage this. As Kardelen sat and sang through the verses, I considered it her way of saying she loved Jesus.

Are you getting this, Lord? I asked.

He seemed to smile back.



Note: I'd like to try to put up audio files of our melodies for these verses so you can hear the songs. I'll be working on that, but I'll post this in the meantime. :)

Valentines Kids Can Make

I love homemade valentines, and try to send them to all the girls' grandparents and a few friends each year. You may not think toddlers/babies can make valentines, but they can! Here are several ideas which have worked for us.

Handprint valentines: works for even the youngest baby! Stamp their chubby little hand on a heart and you've got a personalized valentine the grandparents will display year-round.

Fingerpainting hearts: we did this last year. Kardelen simply painted on two sheets of paper, then I traced and cut out hearts from them. They turned out so cute!


Stampin' hearts: this year we broke out the stamps, washable ink pad, stickers, and markers and let the girls have a heyday with hearts I had pre-cut. Kardelen also "wrote" the names of the recipients on the valentines, which is a great step in the writing process. (Listen to me--I sound like a homeschool mom already, don't I?)



Make extra to hang from the ceiling and replace your winter snowflakes! (Aren't you getting tired of winter already?!)

Do you have any fun ideas to share for making valentines?

Continuing Ed

The next two months will be an adventure!

Before the girls were born, I was a preschool teacher. I went through all the fun college classes to get my degree, and also my teaching license with the state. Remember that little thing called continuing ed? Well, I didn't do it for the first three years of my license.

Then, with two years left, I started volunteering, going to conferences and a few evening seminars. But I started late. So here I am now, with my license due to expire at the end of June, and I've got roughly 35 of the 125 hours I need to renew my license. Yikes.

After Jacob and I tossed around various scenarios, I decided to enroll in a distance education grad course for 3 credits. It's through Learner's Edge, a professional development company, and I get college credit through North Dakota State University. I ordered the course last night and chose priority mail.

Once it comes in the mail, I've got till April 15 to finish. As I've never taken a distance ed course before, I don't know what it will entail; but I know it will give me the equivalent of 72 continuing ed hours, which when added to my 35, puts me very close to the number of hours I need. I'll volunteer at a conference over spring break, and that should do it.

I'm a bit nervous, I'll admit. How much work will this 3-credit course be? How will I do this in addition to all the other things I do? I'll be cutting back on blogging, I'm sure. And I'm already thinking of making weeks of meal plans ahead of time, or having a cook-for-a-month day as I've done in the past.

We'll see how it goes. I'll let you know!

Just What I Needed

It's been one of those days. I called my "crazy day prayer partner" in the ten-o-clock hour. I'm eating chocolate ice cream during the girls' naptime.

It started well enough. I got up before everyone else, read the Word, had some blogging time. Things didn't get difficult until about twenty minutes later, when the first child woke up with a definite grumpy attitude.

As Sofia was incredibly fussy this morning, and Kardelen had her moments too, I thought, "I'm SO glad it's ECFE day! Sofia can play at our friends' house with their little boy, and that will keep her happy. Kardelen and I love ECFE, and it will be a great way to spend the morning. Boy, imagine what it would be like if we had to stay home. . ."

Enter the Minnesota weather. A ringing of the telephone was soon to break into my happy thoughts of the day. It was my sweet husband, Jacob, telling me that our road was like an ice rink, and it was raining outside. I vascillated between continuing with our plans, and cancelling for safety reasons.

Two minutes later. My friend who was to look after Sofia calls to warn me about the roads as well. I made my decision. "We'll stay home," I said.

But how? Two cranky kids and I'm not feeling well. Will Dora the Explorer be my hero today?

Okay, enough of my story. All this is to really to say, I found a great article while eating aforementioned chocolate ice cream during the girls' naptime. The author starts by saying that there are times she does not always enjoy her kids. Oh, 98% of the time she does, but there's that other two percent...

Sheila Wray Gregoire goes on to encourage moms of young ones that discipline is like a pyramid. But before I say too more, I'll let you go to the To Love, Honor, and Vacuum blog and read the article yourself. I really recommend it.

It was definitely what I needed today.

Our Devotions Basket

Our Devotions Basket is something new to us this year. At the end of December, I'd looked at my goals for last year and realized I wasn't having devotions with the girls as much as I'd like to. So I started this toward that goal.

Each morning at breakfast, we take turns picking something from the basket and read together. Breakfast seems like a great time--we're a captive audience, and it feels so good to start the day focusing on Jesus. After we read, we pray together--thank Him for the day, pray that we'll make Him happy, pray for any requests we have.

I rotate the books in the basket every few days; there are usually 5-6 books at a time in it. There are so many things it could include!

Bibles: we have board-book versions like My Shining Bible and Baby Blessings Bible; the fun rhyming Growing Reader Phonics Bible, one of the girls' pocket-sized Bibles they were given by our church when they were born (we read Psalm 23 or a short section of Scripture from this).

Blank Journal: to draw pictures or write letters to Jesus.

ABC's: Our homemade Bible ABC book, Bible ABC bookmark from Samaritan's Purse.

Picture of President Obama: to remind us to pray for him (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Other books: Playtime Devotions, First Blessings for Your Child, Baby's First Prayers, Lift-and-Look Jesus Loves Me, other children's books about Jesus.

Missionary letters or prayer cards: to remind us to pray for them.

Memory Verse Cards: These are simple versions of verses I've chosen and set to music. I'll do a separate post on this soon.

I'm very pleased at how well our Devotions Basket is working!

How do you plan devotional time with your family? I'd love to hear!

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Happy birthday Jacob! I can't imagine life without you.


I love you.

Breakfast Cookies

I'm working on a post about our Devotions Basket--but I haven't quite finished yet. In the meantime, I'd like to share a recipe we enjoyed this week.

Breakfast cookies make a fun breakfast or snack. And because they're so healthy, I don't feel guilty about letting the kids have two or three! My recipe is written on a scrap of paper in my recipe book, so I'm not sure where I got it. But it is a keeper.

Breakfast Cookies
1 cup rice krispies (I used cheerios)
1/3 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking)
2 Tablespoons bran cereal
2 Tablespoons powdered milk
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 Tablespoons honey

Mix dry and wet ingredients separately (I treated the powdered milk as a wet ingredient).
Then stir mixtures together. Drop by measuring tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes or till lightly browned. (Note: they still look shiny when you take them out of the oven.)

God Has a Plan for Little Girls

I was enjoying a post on R. Dvorak's blog tonight when I came across an author tip: she mentioned Emily Hunter "has wonderful books on virtues and how to instruct children in Christian ethics and behaviors." So I googled Emily Hunter. Know what I found?

You're going to laugh at me. She's the author of the Christian Charm Course! Yes, I reviewed it a few weeks back (you can read it here), and it's sitting on our bookshelf; but I had that temporary moment of forgetfulness and didn't even recognize her. How funny.

The nice thing about this is that when I searched for Emily Hunter, Google took me to the website of Harvest House Publishers. There I found another book to help little girls learn to love Jesus. (There's a boys' version, too, but I looked at just the girls' version tonight.) It's called God Has a Plan for Little Girls by Kathryn Andrews Fincher, and is a read-aloud book sharing the stories of women of faith and their inspiring character traits (including Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, and others). The artwork is done in pastels, giving the paintings a soft and luminous touch. I really want to read this book.

But before I order it, I'd like to read through it, so I tried to order it through my library tonight. The search came up with nothing. Tried searching the whole-state-of-Minnesota website. Nada.

Has anybody read this book? It looks lovely--but I'd still love to have an opinion of it before we buy it.

Anybody?

Goals Refresher

photo by rtullio

It's the beginning of the month. I always see this as a good time to take a look at my hopes for this year and check on my progress. Not in a legalistic way, just in a "how have I grown?" way.

~Caught up on budgeting: I had good incentive for this. Jacob and I wanted to go on our annual getaway, and I had to see if we could afford it! To catch up, I had to enter several months' transactions in our budget spreadsheet. It had been a bad, gnawing feeling to be spending without knowing where we were at budget-wise; and it feels so good now to know where we stand financially.

To keep us from getting behind again, I'm trying to sit down every Wednesday morning to enter transactions and pay bills. I find when I schedule things (especially those things that I need extra motivation to tackle) I keep up with them much better. (I should tell you I used to adore budgeting. One morning a few years ago I forgot to eat breakfast because it was Saturday, budgeting day, and I was excitedly punching numbers in my spreadsheet. But the last few years as our family has grown I've found it harder to make the time to keep up with it.)

~Meal planning: I started using Organized Home's weekly menu planner again. I'm adding notes to my Use-it-Up Cookbook and planning meals with the idea of using up leftovers. I've thought about doing a 2-week meal plan and shopping trip, but haven't achieved this yet.

I wanted to make a Master Meal List with dishes and snacks that we make on a regular basis, but in the past I just never made time to do this. Now every Sunday when I plan that week's meals, I sit down with the menu we just finished and add those meals to the Master List. This list really helps me meal plan; it keeps me from thinking, What should I make? I have no idea. . .

~Exercising. Not on specific days, but generally 2-3 mornings a week. Along with this, I'm not expecting myself to exercise before the girls wake up; they now have tiny weights and like to pretend to do the exercises with me. I do the workout in The Abs Diet 2-3 mornings and jump rope (inside) on a few other mornings.

Many mornings when I wake up, I walk briskly around the house for 2-5 minutes. Jacob laughs at me (in a nice way), but it really helps me get my blood flowing and feel awake and energetic! Especially on those days I wake up feeling a bit groggy.

~Devotions with the girls. This was a goal from 2008 that I needed to revisit. I made a Devotions Basket with Bibles, kids' books about Jesus, memory verses, and such that we take turns choosing from each morning at breakfast. (Watch for a future post on this!) Breakfast seems to be a great time--the kids are a captive audience, and it feels good to start the day with a focus on Jesus. After we read, we pray together about the day. We'll ask if anyone has something they'd like to pray about; and we always pray we'll make Jesus happy that day.

~Personal devotions. I've been doing the Proverb-a-Day routine, where you read a proverb that corresponds to that day's date (Proverbs 1 on February 1, etc.). It's easier for me to keep a Bible reading routine using this, as one chapter seems manageable for me right now as a busy mom. (Not my ideal; I'd love to read more. Yet this is where I'm at right now.) Proverbs isn't the only part of Scripture that I read; again, this is just a routine to get me regularly filled with some good Bible reading.

A note: I haven't done all these perfectly--there are days I miss my Bible reading, and there have been days I've slept in because I thought I needed the sleep--but I feel I'm making progress. I'm trying not to expect perfection (nor should any of us), just progress. And if we're making steps toward the goals God has given us, that's enough.

How about you? Has anybody else been thinking about what their yearly goals and the progress they're making?

Tagged Again!

My good friend Laura tagged me. I'm supposed to share ten honest things I haven't blogged before, and five addictions. It was surprisingly difficult! I had to enlist Jacob to help me.

Ten honest things I haven't blogged before:
10. I've never lived in a city (only in the outskirts, or in the country).
9. When I was five, I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up.
8. I like racecar videogames. Jacob gave me one a few years back. I still remember the one time I (by pure luck) beat Jacob in a race. (My car accidentally jumped over his car on a hill!)
7. I've been to a Bob Dylan concert. I love his late-70s, early 80s Christian stuff.
6. At times I get scared when I hear the sound of water rushing. Probably because of this. Or maybe this.
5. I am also scared of yippy dogs.
4. I enjoy going target shooting with Jacob.
3. I have an uncanny ability to kill houseplants.
2. I once went out at 1 AM with my nephews and niece to play a prank.
1. I cloth diapered both my babies (Sofia's still in them).

Five of my addictions:
5. Pesto. Any day I have pesto is a good day.
4. Wooden spoons.
3. Homemade flautas (chicken tortilla roll-ups that I had in Mexico; Jacob recreated the recipe to make for me).
2. Cultured butter (preferably made in the mountains of Turkey, where I fell in love with it).
1. Children's books (haven't you noticed?).

Now I'm tagging Lesley and Me.

New Sisters Pictures

I loved Lesley's post on sisters, so I thought it would be fun to share a few cute sisters pictures we've taken of the girls lately. The first is at Kardelen's gymnastics class, which she just started last week.


Here's Bia giving Kardelen a "tackle hug."

Before church yesterday:


I'm so thankful for my sister and the close relationship we have, and am very glad that my girls have the same thing. (Of course, this would apply to brothers, as well!)

Ribbon Socks Show-and-Tell

Several ladies have commented on the ribbon socks tutorial I posted last fall, and I thought it would be fun to have a ribbon sock show-and-tell to enjoy the creativity of several friends who have made them.

Lindsey is a good friend and fellow crafter. We've been exchanging sewing/craft projects back and forth for years! I have happy memories of making ribbon socks together one day when we were blessed to have her family at our home, as they were visiting from out-of-state. These are some of her latest ribbon socks. Aren't they adorable?




The following socks are Nanci's creations. These lovely little socks are modeled on a doll, as she sews gorgeous outfits for dolls.


I love the combination of pink and brown in her socks.

Next, I love Heidi's creativity--for the following pair she used a double-thickness of fabric instead the ribbon. (Yes, the Heidi of Sweet Baboo Designs!)


Also Heidi's work:


I love the satiny shine of this ballerina ribbon!


The sweetest thing about these socks is that Heidi made them as a gift for our girls, not for any special reason but just because. And the girls are thrilled with them! Kardelen has actually worn matching socks for the first time in a long time! (She loves to wear odd socks, and has even gotten her sister asking for odd socks in the morning.)

If anyone else would like to send me pictures of their socks, I'll gladly post them! I'd love to learn about any fun variations you make to them, as well. If you'd like to make them for the first time, you can find the tutorial here.

Thank you, Lindsey, Nanci, and Heidi, for sharing your lovely creations with us!