"I gave her braids!"

That girl does amazing things with tape and construction paper.

(Hopefully we'll have the rest of Thanksgiving tomorrow. I can't get my video to load!)

Thanksgiving 2009 (1)

Our Thanksgiving festivities started, as usual, with the baking of many pies. Matthew's Mom told him he had to wear a mask (strep throat) but it didn't slow us down much. We tried (again) to bake 4 pies at once and failed (again) to remember how much longer that takes. So the pumpkin pies took forever (again) and the pecan pies were runny (again), but still tasty.

Susan and Abby and Poppa Ted all came out to our house on Thursday morning.



We had the 8th Annual Connect Four Tournament (more on that tomorrow) and ate lots of yummy food.

Our fireplace isn't working at the moment, so Matthew set it up as a screen for the projector. We watched The Sound of Music (Abby had never seen it!) and played Wii.

And, of course, there was some dress up, and some taking care of babies.

Jovana's Quilt

Waaaay back in March when Chris helped us finish the basement, I told Shannon I'd trade her my quilting labor for his manly labor. I finally finished her project, just in time for her to give it away! Of course I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing, all done and quilted and bound.

Here is a shot of the quilt top.

And a couple of the quilting. I did this on the long arm machine at our local quilt shop. It was simple enough and pretty fun, and I'm pleased with how the quilting came out, especially because it was my first time ever.

Darlin' (Christmas is Coming)

by Over the Rhine: Snow Angels



One of my favorite Christmas albums.

Elf booties

For sweet baby Joela's birthday I made a pair of elf booties. I made up the pattern myself, which was pretty fun. I wanted to put jingle bells on the toes, but couldn't figure out any way to make that not a choking hazard, since she likes to put her toes in her mouth.

I don't know why I couldn't get a good picture-here they are alone

And on some sweet baby feet. They're precious.

Happy Birthday Joela!

Today our sweet girl cousin has her first birthday.

We're glad you're here!

(And Happy Thanksgiving!)

Napkin Rings

I wanted to make something with Anna for our Thanksgiving table (actually, I wanted to make about 5 things, but I'm trying to relax and not be so crazy), and as we were browsing around the Internet, I came across this idea for beaded napkin rings.

I knew we had some wooden beads in the basement, and some plastic lanyard cord, so we sat down and got to work.

They were pretty easy, I think it took us about an hour to make all six.

Anna's making some leaves with names on them to stick in them on the table as place cards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday House!

5 years ago today we moved into our house. That was a good day. It was exciting to put things away and know that they'd stay there forever.

These pictures are from the housewarming in January. In those first two months I made lots and lots of curtains. Last week I took them down and washed them. It may have been the first time I took them down. They were very dirty. It took FOREVER to iron them all, so it may well be another 5 years before I get up the gumption to do it again.

Here's the living room now. I knew the furniture was faded and crumpled, but boy! you can really tell when you put the two together like that.

And here you can see the two little schefflera that Mom air-layered for me from Grandma Madge's plants. I knew that they grew...but I didn't remember that they started out this small.

I feel pretty good about all that we've accomplished in the first five years. We have grass (though still weedy) and a shelter belt (started) and some shade trees planted (if they survive). We've painted our bedroom, both bathrooms, Anna's room, and the hallway. We painted the mudroom and put down flooring, and we built a whole room in the basement.

In thinking about all of this (and to pass the time as I ironed and ironed those silly curtains) I started to wonder what other things I ought to be doing in the house. Before this, I only lived in apartments, and moved out in fewer than five years, so the whole thing got a good cleaning then.

What all are you supposed to do when you stay in a place forever? Any help from the grown-ups out there?

Thanksgiving Conversation

This week, when you're with your family, snuggled on the couch with full bellies, why not take a couple of minutes to ask your parents a few important questions? This is absolutely not an exhaustive list, just a couple of things to think about.

1. Where do they keep their important papers? Do they have a will, a living will, persons designated to make medical or financial decisions?

2. Do they have a plan for distributing valuable or sentimental items?

3. Where do they want to have the funeral? Burial or Cremation? Do they have cemetery plots somewhere? Do they have any specific requests for music or readings or memorial donations?

4. Is there anything else we ought to know?

I know, it's hard, but you can blame it on me, say I brought it up in the first place. Then you'll know some stuff, and in 40 or 50 years, when you need it, you'll already have the info. Just jot it down and stuff it into the "important papers" file at the back of your filing cabinet, and you won't have to think about it again for a long time.

And you'll all feel a little better when it's done.

Jenn Higerd

My friend Jennifer is one of 10 Women who are on display at the Arts Center on Main.

Retreat

She's a ceramics artist with some very lovely work. See lots more here.

Absence

And I don't just think that because I like her.





She'll be on display through Christmas, so hop on down and buy something! (I, for example, would be very happy to unwrap a Cantaloupe bowl on Christmas morning).



All pictures (except that one above) stolen from Jennifer's website: jennhig.com

Saint Nicholas Premier

This morning Anna and I are going to see this! I'm excited.

TV help

Faithful readers, facebook friends and acquaintances, random "next-bloggers",

I need your help.

We like to have our own TV marathon as a part of the Thanksgiving festivities. Last year we watched Monk, and it was great!

This year we didn't think ahead and watched Monk when it came out.

So now we need a TV show that we all will like, and that is Anna appropriate. (If you're wondering about Monk, we just sent her out of the room for the first five minutes of every show, and that worked pretty well).

It can be an old show or a new show, 30 minutes or an hour, maybe even a movie or two...it just has to be good.

For reference, some family favorites include; Gilmore Girls, Monk, NCIS (not Anna appropriate, and too gory for MJL)...we like character driven shows, funny shows.

Any help?

Multiple Choice

I found this growing up out of the shower drain. It's wheat.

Is this...

a) evidence of extremely poor housekeeping?

b) a testament to my wonderfully green thumb?

c) a natural consequence of sharing a house with a farmer? (evidence required)

The Christmas Lamb

Grammy Joan also found me a little cloth Christmas book kit. I would never buy a kit from Wal-mart, but as a gift, especially from a thrift store, I find these projects to be super fun.

They're quick and easy and I think I like the idea of the things finally being made. Someone bought these things, and then ran out of time.

I like being able to check things off of other people's lists.

"CAREFULLY stitch baby Jesus front to baby Jesus back"

Last year Grammy Joan found me a fun nativity set sewing kit at Goodwill. I started it last December, but didn't get it done. I was excited to find it in the Christmas craft box when I brought it up last week.


It's one of those projects that I thought would take forever, but actually didn't take long at all!

It makes me happy to think about playing with it for years and years and years.

Santasaurus

Remember those craft kits I got from Goodwill?

I finished the dino ornaments! It was really fun, and got me interested in hand sewing and embroidery.

I'm still working on that counted cross stitch dino...not my favorite.

"Winter Event"

Snow forecast for today! We've got the crops all in, TV to watch, cookie dough in the freezer.

I'd like to order a snow day please.

Collage

Most afternoons/evenings when we get home, Anna goes straight to her room, shuts the door, and climbs up to her desk to work on something. She often runs in to ask to borrow my tape. She made this last week, all by herself.

I love it!

Halloween!

What?

I'm not THAT late.

You want pictures? No complaining.


We're still in the age of the clenched teeth fake smile and camera avoidance, but she still managed to look pretty cute.

This is serious.Outside she demonstrated some more ballerina poses. She's learned all of the ballet she knows from Angelina Ballerina (A British mouse who dances. Anna, not knowing about foreign accents, came and told me the other day: "Mice say 'to-mah-to', instead of 'to-may-to'" ). I wore one of the extra moustaches. Too bad I couldn't find another one for Matthew.



Abby went trick or treating with us in town. She was a librarian. Anna was mostly excited about her glow stick.

Happy Halloween! :) On Friday the 13th!

Drawing

Anna's always drawing and making things, which I love love love. And, proud Mama that I am, I think her drawings are pretty wonderful.

And stylish!