Name that notion

In cleaning out and organizing my craft room, I've been trying hard to let go of things. I have these two rolls...of something.

I do not know what they are.

Do you?
I can't let them go without at least trying to figure it out.

Sleeping Beauties

Last night we moved Katie to her crib. (sniff)

After I crept in to take her picture, I wanted one of Anna too.

Sweet darling sleepy girls.

Come Down O Love Divine

Fernando Ortega has a new album!

(He's my favorite)

Here's a video about it.

Come Down O Love Divine from fernando ortega on Vimeo.

and if you want to, you can pre-order it here. (Or after July 12, you can buy it at The Family Bookhouse) :)

Yay!

(official) Summer is here!

So how did I do on the Spring list?

1. Organize Craft Room (I never know what to call it-office? studio? sanctuary?)**ALMOST!!**

2. Make Katie Christening Gown.

3. Make Anna Birthday Dress.

4. Start Swimming again.

5. Finish organizing MJL's office.

6. Plant a garden. **gave these both up-on purpose**

7. One small landscaping project.

8. Keep up with photos.

9. Do something Kansas Explorer-y with the girls.

10. Enjoy the three weddings, showers, prom, wedding shopping, two graduations, three birthdays and Easter. Remember that these times are special, and hectic just means there are lots of people to love.

Not too bad.

The Summer List is funny-half summer and half the beginning of the school year. I'd better aim WAY low.

1. Finish organizing craft room!

2. Make Spencer's blanket.

3. Make Finney and Trisha's blanket.

4. Make something pretty with Abby for Lainey.

5. Make Anna Back to School Dress.

6. Anna Hall Photos

7. Anna 8X10's for year.

8. Finish Summer Class.

9. Plymell Spanish Facebook Page

10. Try to choose fun over "work"

Happy Official Summertime!

Bridesmaid practice

This weekend I found a dress and shoes for Chelsea's wedding. yay!

I asked my fantastically fashionable niece Joanna how to learn to walk in heels. She recommended practice and youtube videos. This one made me laugh.

3 years.

No video this year-too busy with sweet kiddos.

I miss her every day.

A song.

Old news

The professional pics from Lainey's wedding just came out, which reminded me that I got a few nice pictures that I never shared.

Bride fixing flower girl's hair.
Pretty Anna.
Anna, attended by bridesmaids.

Anna and Bride. Blurry but sweet.

We had such a fun time-and we're off to another cousin wedding this weekend!

Congrats Finney and Trisha!

4 months update

Last week we took Katie to the Dr. for her 4 month checkup.

13lbs 9 oz

24 1/4 inches.

and sweet.

Katie at the Courthouse

One day last week I took Anna and Katie to see Mom's flowers and benches. Everything is growing beautifully. In a few more years, there should be snowballs on those bushes!

Summer Hair

This summer I went for something a little different.

Blue hair.
I still like pink best,

but I'm having fun with the blue.

And P.S. Matthew's doing well, surgery went fine, should be home today! And on to the very difficult job of not working too hard. Or hard at all. In the middle of summer. And Harvest. Yikes.

Surgery, Take 2

MJL is having another back surgery this morning.

But look what Katie can do!

Movies?

With MJL once again mostly relegated to lying on his back; we've been watching more TV together.

I'd like to watch some of the great movies from when we were kids, but none of the ones I remember (The Swiss Family Robinson, The Parent Trap, The Chipmunk Movie) are available on Netflix instant. Alas, no Esther Williams movies either.

Lately we've been watching mostly The Cosby Show and Phineas and Ferb.

Have any recommendations for us?

M&M's

Back in March, when we were in Oregon, I saw something that I tried mightily to ignore.

15 lbs of M&M's for 4 dollars. Even with shipping-that's a deal.

So I asked Eric to mail me a box. It was very nice of him. They came in one giant sack.
Don't you want some?
M&M's freeze well, so I bagged 'em up, about 2.5 cups per bag.

They should last me a while. :)

Flora's Very Windy Day

Today we went to the Library and got signed up for the summer reading program. It's one of my favorite things about summer and I especially enjoy making Abby do it with me. Today I left her in the car with sleeping Katie and signed her up without her permission. Ha!

One of the books we brought home was Flora's Very Windy Day. I picked it up just because we also have VERY windy days, and was so pleased when we read it. It's about a girl and her little brother, and has a very positive sibling message (something I'm super aware of at the moment) and absolutely wonderful illustrations.

It's the sort of book that makes me want to search out other books by Jeanne Birdsall and look up Matt Phelan to find out what else he's illustrated so we can get them too.

Have you read anything great lately?

Summer Plan

I'm starting to get settled into the summer, trying hard to do only the things I need to do, to decide which chores I can skip and which things keep me sane. The beginning of the summer always feels a little overwhelming to me-as though it'll be quickly wasted if I don't plan ahead. Having a schedule helps me feel better. I'm going to try to do a better job of going to bed and feeding everyone. Here's the plan for Summer 2011.

6:00 am Feed Katie, Get UP! Work out, eat breakfast, say prayers, get dressed.

8:00 am Work in office-organizing or doing projects or working on class.

10:00 am Feed Katie, Do chores, outside with girls.

12:00 pm Feed family.

2:00 pm. Feed Katie, go to town.

3:00 pm. Pool! Sno cones

6:00 pm Feed Katie, T-ball or head home.

7:00 pm. Feed family, play with girls.

9:00 pm Anna bed.

10:00 pm Feed Katie, Go To BED.

Today=Summer

And this summer I will:

swim

eat sno cones

play outside with my girls

play inside with my girls

take naps

enjoy extended family

do some things that make me happy

And I will NOT:

worry about not "getting things done"

plant a garden

worry about not giving handmade gifts

focus on the busy instead of the fun

Bring it on!

Equity (the movie)

Join the Equity Team... from Chance Mullen on Vimeo.

We went to High School with Chance, and now he and his wife live in NYC and are making a movie!

Equitythemovie.com

Today, for $10 (or more) you can have access to all of the fun and super-secret video director's blogs (The "Starter Home" package-discounted from $25).

Matthew and I have been REALLY enjoying the blogs-there's so much that goes into making a movie that you'd never think about. (Or at least we never did). It's educational and fun and entertaining and you can feel good about supporting fellow Buffaloes (Wildcats, Kansans, fun people) in the Big City.

$10 Tuesday! Join up!

6th Birthday Dress

Thankfully Anna's actual birthday was "dress as your favorite book character" day at school and so I got an extra day to finish.

I had this fabric in my stash, I think I got it 6 years ago! at Hobby Lobby for $2 a yard.

This is the 5th time I've made this dress, I think maybe I've finally got it down. Just in time for her to outgrow the pattern.

I wanted to break up all that pink a little and so decided on a black dot ruffle and found ribbon to match. I added an inch to the ruffle-I'm really happy with that decision.

Happy Birthday, Sweet girl--thanks for posing!

16, 32, 64

I remembered just in time before my birthday.

16, 32, 64.

Definitely photo worthy.

6 years old

It makes my heart feel achy.

Katie

Katie at 3 months.

Cute and smiley,

furrowed brow-y,

walking that line between happy and sad.

Anna

A few pics of Anna at almost 6...

So big.

I can hardly believe it.

Anna 'n' Katie

I tried to take some pics of the two girls last week. I didn't find the auto-focus until the girls were almost out of patience, so there are several that would be good, if they were in focus. Boo.

It's hard to catch them both at the same moment. This is the only one I got.

But maybe that's not that important.

Getting closer...

Back into the school routine--as soon as I got there, it felt right and happy and I wasn't a bit worried about Katie. Silly night before worries.

Done with my class this semester. Definitely the longest assignment yet-34 pages! Sub-documents! I'm giddy with excitement to be done.

So I'm thinking I can get the office put back together and get some blog posts put up and make a dress for Anna and plant a garden and...and...and...

But maybe now I should eat some dinner. or go to bed.

Back to Work

*sniff* I'm feeling very nervous about tomorrow.

(Excited to see the kids and teachers)-but mostly sad and nervous.

Excuses, excuses.

One of the reasons I'm so far behind is that my office is still a mess. But I have a plan...

This was the very beginning.

And so far, my progress. Sheesh.
One of these days it'll all get done... right?

Katie update

Katie's 2 month stats:
11 lbs 12 oz, 23" long

and laughing!

Spring 2011?

Sheesh, it's like I have a new baby and a sick husband and just got back from a big trip or something. I'm way behind.

So my Winter List was pretty unambitious (or realistic) and I did well.

1. Enjoy Christmas.

2. Have a baby.

3. Get sub plans done.

4. Move MJL office. It's not quite organized yet, but we're close. It was hard to get anything done during those weeks when he couldn't sit down.

5. Move Craft Room. Moved, yes, but it is a giant horrible mess.

6. Move Anna. Done and lovely, though I would like to make her a bulletin board. Impossible because my crafts are all in a pile. See above.

7. Set up Tummy's Room. Done! and before Katie's arrival even.

8. Make some things. Made Anna's quilt and pillow and an angel ornament.

9. Enjoy being home with baby. Yes. Much cuddling has been done.

10. Spend good time with Anna. I hope so, but this is hard. I definitely have not figured out the two kiddo thing yet.

For Spring, I think I'd better continue to aim low (or realistically).

1. Organize Craft Room (I never know what to call it-office? studio? sanctuary?)

2. Make Katie Christening Gown.

3. Make Anna Birthday Dress.

4. Start Swimming again.

5. Finish organizing MJL's office.

6. Plant a garden.

7. One small landscaping project.

8. Keep up with photos.

9. Do something Kansas Explorer-y with the girls.

10. Enjoy the three weddings, showers, prom, wedding shopping, two graduations, three birthdays and Easter. Remember that these times are special, and hectic just means there are lots of people to love.

Don't cry, Mama...

Just take a picture.

Katie's cord fell off before she was even two weeks old.

I feel like the growing up is harder on me this time around. It seems to go so much faster, time feels more slippery and precious than I remember with Anna.

We spend a lot of time cuddling, which is a good thing.

Snow Day!

We finally got some good wet snow,

and a snow day complete with reading good books,

and taking good naps.

Ash Wednesday

Tonight was Katie's first Ash Wednesday Mass. Even the man distributing ashes couldn't help but smile when he told her to "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel".

Ash Wednesday is my favorite Mass--here's one of the great songs we sing.

My Lent this year: (Because if I say it, I won't be tempted later to pretend like these were not my goals)

No Craft Blogs.

Pray with Anna before school.

Pray on my own.

Fast from secular music. (Since a food fast is out-nursing baby = hungry mama) I think I'll miss my Spanish music the most.

Oscar Night

Sunday night we watched the Oscars. For the record, I thought James Franco was hilarious and Anne Hathaway was pretty and wore lots of dresses. What else do people want?

Matthew has a big post with lots of pictures about our weekend over at The Plowman's Folly.