Farmer Gifts

I am posting this December 21, 2011, and scheduling it for next year so I can remember.

Farmer Gift List

By the way, Betsy--Buy a DQ cake NOW!

Merry Christmas!

Belle

Anna and Belle  April 2010

 "That's a cool trick!"

Belle lived here from 4/20/10 to 11/08/12.  She came to us after being hit on the highway.  I wish she had learned her lesson.  And I wish I had been able to get a picture of her carrying around that kitten by the scruff of his neck just like a Mama cat would.  That was cute.    We'll miss you Belle.

Back to work

Just a quick post tonight--

I went back to school today, and while I definitely feel overwhelmed and like I have no idea what to do first in this new job, I was so very happy to get up and go to work and see and hug kiddos and see and hug teacher friends and talk about books and make Kindergartners laugh.  I am so fortunate to have this opportunity.

Now I just have to learn how to be a librarian.  And how to turn off the warning bells in my head anytime I hear myself speaking in English!

I think it's amazing how much better everything goes when I go to work.  The past three weeks I don't know that I've been able to do anything-and today I went to school, came home, fed everyone, made 20 breakfast burritos for future mornings, made dinner, did some weeding with Katie, helped Anna with homework, tidied, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned up dinner, and chatted with Linda and Matthew!  I'm going to bed now, and the only thing that didn't happen was sewing a little on my latest project.  I even read the newspaper!

It must have been all of your prayers.  Thanks.  :)

Happy Anniversary Miwwers!

One year ago we had a really fun day.  Happy Anniversary Susu and Steven!  

X

Katrina sent me this poem from The Writer's Almanac and I really loved it.

X

by Wendell Berry

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Faith

I'm reading through the Catechism this year for the Year of Faith and today's section was just too lovely not to share.

Perseverance in faith

162     Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith." To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.

Faith — the beginning of eternal life

163     Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is". So faith is already the beginning of eternal life:

When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.

164     Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight"; we perceive God as "in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part". Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.

165     It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope... believed against hope"; to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

In other news-I go back to work on Monday, so who knows when I'll get back to blogging...

Magnaminity

I want to be this:

     "I've always been attracted to magnanimous people, people with big minds and big hearts.  Magnanimity is about authentic living, truth and justice.  The magnanimous person is a passionate person who is never caught up with what is petty or small-minded.  
     We know the magnanimous person the moment we meet them.  Their love is whole-hearted, an expression of their broad minds and generous hearts.  They never get caught up in detail, fin finding fault, in nit-picking, in gossip, in backbiting, for they are generous of heart, and they single out the important things that need to be tended to and give their undivided attention and energy to them.  A magnanimous person challenges us to be true to ourselves and to live lives of integrity, truth and justice."  

11 October-  Gardening the Soul:  Sister Stanislaus Kennedy

Jimmy's Quilt

Jimmy got the most wonderful gift.  A quilt made by two of my Mom's sisters and her God-daughter.  It's perfect and farm-y and boyish and beautiful.  

Look at this fantastic fabric!  

It's all hand quilted by my Aunt Vernie, with a special surprise Powercat quilted into one of the blocks.  

Go Cats!  :)

It has Sawtooth Star blocks, which my Mom loved, and Log Cabin blocks, one of my favorites, and adorable appliqued lambs, which is perfect because I just learned to do this kind of applique this summer!  I asked my Aunt Nadine a question about it, and she told me later it was funny because she was working on Jimmy's appliques right when I asked.  

I'm terrible about labeling my quilts-but I'm so glad they did.   And I can't help but admire those perfect mitered corners on that tiny binding.  Someday... 

Jimmy loves it too.   

Dyed Noodles

***Today is 10-11-12!  Celebrate!***

Remember making things out of dyed noodles when you were little?

I thought Katie needed some to play with while in her funpod.  

I used vinegar and food coloring.  Don't they look lovely all lined up?  I turned them over every hour or so for, I don't know, 12 hours-ish.

This is a good bag- some vinegar (I didn't measure, just sloshed some in) and some food coloring.  You mix it all up FIRST, and then put in the noodles.  

This is the first bag I did.  I put the noodles in first, and then mixing the vinegar and food coloring together got all bubbly, and it just never was as good.  

Then I put them all on a towel to dry overnight-it took another 12 hours for them to dry.  

Katie does enjoy spooning them into other containers, stirring them up, and taking them off of a shoelace.   

A different kind of noodle would be better, then she could string them herself, but the penne shape is too difficult.  

I think someday it will be fun to sort them into a muffin tin by color.  

We play with these at least once a week!  

October "wreath"

3 pumpkins from the dollar spot at Target, a couple of bread ties from the drawer, and a ribbon to hang it.

 I love a quick and cheap project!  

Dilemma

This darling wild thing...

When Katie pinches or pulls hair we put her in time out (she was even in time out at church!)  But in the car-what do you do?  Anna's right there within reach, and when Katie wants her attention...  I'm at a loss.  

Any help?

6 weeks

Jimmy had his 6 week check up last week.  He weighs 12 lbs.  80th percentile.  

22 inches tall, 40th percentile.

And he has a tiny head!  in the 26th percentile.  We think that's pretty funny.  

Name bunting

Sometime right after Jimmy came home from the hospital I decided the children all needed name bunting.  I'm not sure why.  But it seemed important.  One of the items on my first to do lists was "Think about bunting."  I knew I wanted them to be quilted and have pinked edges.  All of this seemed very important.    I didn't want to look for a tutorial and follow it, I just wanted to do it.  

It was also important that I use new fonts.  None of this makes a lot of sense now-it feels like retelling a funny dream.  I went online and found free fonts and downloaded them, just for this project.  Then I looked through all of my fabric and VERY seriously considered the merits of different combinations.  I did let Anna pick hers.   

  

I had to size the letters and print them, and then trace them onto the fusible web...and then print them and trace them again because I forgot that I would have to reverse the letters...

Then I ironed the web to the fabric...then I had to repeat that step on a few letters because I forgot to fuse to the wrong side of the fabric.  I also cut my own triangle pattern and cut some pieces and then decided the proportions were wrong and went ahead and found a bunting pattern  online just for the shape.  But I was all serious about doing my own thing so I didn't even let myself read her instructions.  Very strange.    

I cut all my bunting triangles and cut out my letters and fused them on.  I cut bunches of triangles out of batting so that I could quilt them.  Doing the stitching around the letters worked fine, but then I wanted to do a straight stitch along the edges and that got bunchy and looked bad and I tried three times before I decided to do something else.  So THEN I cut triangles of fusible fleece and pressed them to the fronts.  (Now I need to figure out what to do with that stack of batting cut into triangles) 

Then I did the quilting around the letters.  Anna and Katie got blanket stitch, but Jimmy's didn't look right with the blanket stitch (more ripping of stitches!) and I finally decided on a straight stitch.  In hindsight-stitching around the letters isn't going to do a thing to hold them on, but I don't think this is going to go through the wash too often, so it should be fine.  I'm really enjoying the applique technique-though now I'm coveting this embroidery foot with clear sole so I can see where I'm going on tight curves.  

I have no idea why the quilting was so important to me-but it is cute on the back.  I don't know if you can tell at all from the front.  Then I used my scalloped and pinked rotary blades to cut the edges, and used bias tape from my enormous stash to put it all together.  

Each child is getting theirs for Christmas.  I think it's a good thing Jimmy's tiny-this doesn't strike me as a very exciting present for a little boy.  But it was fun to take this idea and carry it out, in silly sleep deprived fashion.  My September project. 

Fall 2012

I've decided October is going to be a great month, with lots of productivity AND cuddling AND schoolwork.  I have one more month of maternity leave.  Time to get serious about seizing the day and all that.

So let's see how Summer went:


1.  Finish last class for Master's degree!!!!!
2.  Get out all the baby stuff. Abby came out and helped.  What would I possibly do without her?
3.  Figure out how to fit baby and Katie into one room. 
4.  Fix the rose bush area by the back door. Done 8/9/12-hauling of dirt and everything!
5.  Enjoy Summer activities-swimming and VBS and Arts and Crafts Camp and sno cones and fun.
6.  Start Chelsea's quilt (See how reasonable I am-my only goal is to START) Done and at the quilter!
7.  Begin Library classes!
8.  Do some paper crafting. Had a lovely day of this with Anna on 8/3/12-my due date.
9.  Make back to school skirt with Anna. Also on that great day of crafting 8/3.
10.  Have a baby!
11.  Make Threesie CDs and birth announcements.
12.  Keep up with pictures and emails.


I feel really happy about that.  This summer was perhaps the best summer ever, and I think that was because I got up early every morning and had breakfast and started in on the day.  I enjoyed life, got things done, didn't feel overwhelmed...  I know I work best that way-but it's hard to remember when there's no real "reason" to get up and get going.

Fall 2012 goals:
1.  Snuggle Jimmy, play with Katie, talk to Anna.  There is nothing so important as that.
2.  Feed my family.  Maybe planning ahead will help?
3.  Make some Christmas gifts.  Just some.  No fancy expectations.
4.  Make Halloween bags with Anna.
5.  Plant Mums in my pot, decide what to do about roses, and deal with old tomato/pepper plants.
6.  Sterilize garden area for next spring.
7.  Go back to work and start learning to be a librarian.
8.  Finish 1st Library class.
9.  Do one thing every week to practice Spanish.
10.  Finish editing Abby's senior pictures.

I'm trying to focus on the things that I really want and need to do while acknowledging  that three sweet babies means less time for my projects.  :)  There will be plenty of time for projects.  Right now I need to enjoy what I have.

Yarn Wreath

  

I made this wreath this summer for Susu and it's been waiting not so patiently for her Birthday ever since.

  

These are some of the felt flowers from her wedding.

And the bow is just a bow I found a Goodwill that we both loved.  Finally a happy use for it.  She and I both inherited a love of Calico from our Mama, I think.

Happy Birthday, Sister!

Snacks

These days I'm hungry all the time.  Maybe because this guy is growing like a weed.  

If we lived in town I'd eat a lot of pizza.  

As it is, this is my favorite snack.  Sweet and salty and yummy.

I need some variety though.  What's YOUR favorite snack?

Weed Destroyer

 My Dad got me this amazing tool.  Fiskars Uproot Weeder

You can pull out sand burrs without getting them in your fingers!  

You can pull out giant creeping poky vines right at the root!

You can pull out weeds as the sun goes down and feel sad (SAD!) that it's too dark to see more weeds.  

I LOVE it.  I feel hopeful about the battle for the first time ever.  

Lindsay!

My friend Lindsay is biking across the USA and she stopped at my house!  Here's her blog-it's awfully fun to follow along. 

 She came and spoke to the kids at my school-here's a super cropped picture-I had to crop out all of the other kids.  It was a great presentation-she highlighted the importance of wearing a helmet and I was so happy to already do something "Librarian-y" like schedule a speaker!  Thanks, Lins!

And because visiting my house is all about work-she came along with me on errands, helped me take Katie and Jimmy to the Dr., and we fixed my couch!

 Well, OK.  Eric came by to borrow some foil for the farm and he got roped in too.   If you've visited us in the past two years, I know you are thankful.

We took her to see the World's Largest Hairball, and to get the world's best sno cone (grape!), and generally had a blast.  

Anna showed her how she could ride with no training wheels.

It was a wonderfully fun visit.  I hope she can come back again someday.

Then I had to drop her off and watch her pedal away.  So hard!  Good Luck and be safe Lindsay!

3 weeks old

He sleeps most of the time.

 He's calm and sweet and snuggly.

 Every once in a while he'll find that thumb.

 His big sister Katie messes with him constantly and he doesn't seem to mind.

 He loves to be swaddled.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting,
      And cometh from afar.
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
    From God, who is our home:Heaven lies about us in our infancy.

William Wordsworth  Ode:  Intimations of Immortality

Mean-ness

Really?  Do new nursing Mamas really need to see her belly?  Because we don't look like that.

Tumbleweed 21

 This year The Tumbleweed Festival added another night of music!  On Friday night 9 local bands played.  I loved this!

Margaret and Mary came to meet baby Jimmy.  In the rain.  

 

 Because it never rains here, we just kept sitting in the rain, thinking it would quit any minute.  Here's Katie running around getting wet and listening to Russ and Debbie Tidwell-our debate coach and his wife and in charge of the festival this year.  It was fun to listen to them play.

Everyone's favorite cousin came along.  For most of the entire weekend he had at least one child on his back.  He is a treasure.

 Then Matthew and Joe and Zac played.  They'd never played together.  Not even a practice, since we had that baby and all.  Sounded great.  They played an Avett Brothers song, and Anna gasped- "I love this song!"

Katie thought that everyone at the festival was family-and she was close to right.  We had close to 40 people there who we count as family.  Here's Kiki feeding her a bierock.  I think everyone you can see in the background belongs to us in some way.

Even Anna got some Jimmy time in.

Uncle Steven got some snuggles.

And Uncle Mark proved he can bond with nephews even before they're old enough to be bribed with treats.

It was a perfect weekend.  You should come next year!  Could we shoot for 50 people in my section?