Pinterest To The Rescue

Look, I’m not big on take-home projects in the primary grades, seeing as how it really only means more work for me. And it’s not like I’m unwilling to do my part, but I can never figure out exactly what that entails. The instructions are always maddeningly open to interpretation and super vague, and just try getting details out of this boy of mine. Not easy. We’ve ended up getting it all wrong more than once.

Well, not this time. No,  this time, the assignment was to create something new from found objects. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — Happy Earth Day! Didn’t take me two minutes to remember this fine idea I’d pinned last year, and he bought in on it immediately. Of course he did, because it’s so cool!

The even-more-exciting part was that I had every single thing we needed to complete the project. I primed the cans, but he did all the rest of the painting, and well, he filled in the outline I made on the bird’s face. Hey, I only had one t-shirt scrap large enough, and it wasn’t likely to go well. Oh yeah, the bird is a scrap tied around an old sock. Repurposing all the way, buddy!

He was so proud of his project, and plans on expanding the line to include some Storm Trooper pigs and other characters. Looks like I’ll need to work some more canned food into the meal rotation; shouldn’t be too difficult.

Je ne suis pas la Bonne Maman

Oh, the time of summer fruits is fast coming upon us! Already, we’ve been enjoying some very delicious strawberries. They’ve been so cheap that I found it hard not to buy them by the cartful. I mean, they do spoil super fast around here, and that drives me nuts. But, say! If I made some jam, well, it would make perfect sense to buy a couple of extra quarts, right?

Of course!

I totally got down to business on my little micro-batch (4 pints, which was perfect because I actually only had 3 pint canning jars in the cupboard.) I went with the Strawberry-Vanilla version from this book, since I also had vanilla beans in the pantry. Why not?

A short while later, we have this:

And it may look like a jar of delicious strawberry jam…

…mais non. It’s sauce; it never did properly set up. [Sad trombone.]

But! It’s a very tasty sauce, so that’s a plus. The kids love it on waffles, and I like to stir it into yogurt for a treat (’cause I’m crazy like that!) The vanilla adds a strange candle-like bouquet to it, which is odd but not off-putting.

So: not a total failure, but I won’t be starting my line of preserves anytime soon. I still like looking at my very own canned goods in my pantry, though. Grandma would be so proud, or else thoroughly unimpressed…no, I’m going with proud!

Old School

I can’t be blamed for losing track of the day. Instead of simply celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day at its appointed time, my son’s school instead opts for Teacher Appreciation Week, complete with suggested assignments for exactly who to honor each day. It’s a touch overwhelming for the overthinkers among us. Anyway, the “specials” teachers are — aw gee, was that today? No, wait — that’s tomorrow; today was for the nurse. So art/music/P.E. are tomorrow, but the main teachers are to be honored on Friday, which to my mind meant that I didn’t even need to have my act together til mid-week.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up Tuesday morning and was informed my the morning news that it was the real Teacher Appreciation Day. And I didn’t have anything prepared for my daughter’s teachers. And we really do appreciate them, and I have to admit that it does stress me out a little bit to show up empty-handed after having been treated to years and years of complaints about parents who can’t be bothered to show their appreciation. (Yeah, y’all  — yes, all of you –know who you are. Save the commiserating for your colleagues! I’m one of “them”!)

Nobody panic, though. There’s still time to offer a token of thanks without breaking the bank or having a nervous breakdown:

You mean you don’t hoard glass jars? Well, then you may be out of luck. I, however, had two beautiful olive jars and some tulle. The youngest artist-in-residence decorated the cards with her trademark rainbow, and we were off to the store for the prettiest daisies you ever did see. And we were so pleased with our offering, and so were they. Happiness for all!

Teachers really are a deserving group, and my kids teachers — all ten of them — are terrific. Hopefully, Joey’s won’t hold it against me if they don’t all get something wonderful…or anything at all. ["Specials", I'm sorry! My act is not yet together as of this printing....]

 

 

 

No Big Deal

One of my more unfortunate tendencies is to treat every little thing like it’s major. Creatures of habit can be that way, and I’m nothing if not routine-driven. On the one hand, I’ve come to accept that I need to take a minute to really spin things around in my mind for a while before committing to an answer. I’m okay with that. But I’m not okay with constantly leading with a “no” (just ask my kids if you didn’t know this about me, but I’m pretty sure you know it, too), or completely blowing things out of proportion when it comes to timing.

For example:

Last week was the AWANA Grand Prix at church. I bought some cupcakes to add to the dessert table, and was really thrilled with myself for dropping them off early in the day so that I could check it off of my list of obligations. Really, anything I can do to reduce the noise level in my head is a good thing, and I already told you that the last few weeks have left me feeling a little out of control. (Not that I have control issues. Surely not.) Anyway, as the afternoon went on, I thought about making some cookies or something. Ooh, but would there be time? And then I spied the lovely jar that had been sitting on my counter for a whole week (after I spied it in the pantry and decided that there was no way I was wasting such a sweet gift…and then promoted it to the counter to wile away a few more days.)

Really, how long does it take to add butter and eggs to pre-mixed dry ingredients? And then to drop and bake the cookies?

Not long at all, as it turns out. They were delicious, by the way, and we were all sad that there was only one left when we got home. I’m kind of becoming a fan of small batch baking; it’s so much more manageable! Anyway, I’m trying very hard to adopt more of a new “just do it” attitude, and pop-ups like this won’t be such a shock to those who live here.

Here’s hoping.

Salvaged

Goodness! What a ridiculous couple of weeks it has been.

Long story short: The pre-Easter virus stretched halfway through the week, seemingly went away, and then returned in time to make Easter a little bit of a chaotic bust for half of the household.

The night before Easter, I realized that I hadn’t — how you say? — arranged for the Easter Bunny to stop by our place. Oh, oops.

Pinterest to the rescue! Whipped these up on the sly and added a couple of treats. The kids were happier than I thought they’d be, so that was a plus.

And lather, rinse, repeat. It just seems like the month of April has been swallowed by little upheavals and I’ve been more easily beset than usual (which is to say: completely off-track.) But we just keep moving forward, right? Yes!

My girl had a Fashion Show/Tea Party Day at her preschool this morning, and I just couldn’t bear to send her in the blasted red satin-y dress that she insists on wearing any time it appears in the closet. Sunday to church? Yes. Monday to Grandma’s? Sure. Thursday to school? By all means. I’ve given up on trying to convince her that it’s a little ridiculous, and I don’t care as much as I used to about people thinking I’m an idiot to let her out of the house that way. I’m all about choosing my battles. I’m also getting pretty good at choosing my weapons; in this case, a sundress. Apparently, sleeveless totally trumps satin.

I picked this skirt up at Old Navy about a year ago, on clearance, because it was long and pretty and my size. Turns out that it looks horrible on me, but I held onto it in case I had a change of heart. (You know how that goes.) No such luck, but I was pretty sure that I could turn it into a dress for the girl, since it came mid-calf on me.

Voila! I cut off the top of the skirt — right about the lettuce ruffle edge — and finished the inner edge, which also secured the lining to the outer shell again. Then, I added about twelve rows of shirring. The rows should’ve been spaced further apart, but I only realized that after the first two were done, and well, that was two rows too late for me. Charge on! Lastly, I made straps out of the discarded skirt top, and there you go. Getting the straps placed correctly took about as much time as the whole rest of the process, but it still only took me a couple of hours. Truth be told, it’s a little on the short side, but it’s floaty and fancy and she was thrilled and it was free. Happiness all around!

 

Guess I’ll Just Go On Anyway

When one of the kids gets sick — which was Monday afternoon’s special surprise — I find it hard to re-group. At the almost eight year point, I’ve finally stopped completely freaking out every single time, which is saying something. (Just ask my husband.) Sure, I still blow a gasket, but only in my head.

Well, sort of. I should probably say that I don’t immediately blow a gasket anywhere but inside my head. Still a significant improvement; I used to do everything but run hot laps around the living room. The second kid broke me of that to a certain extent. She got sick a lot more often, and I just couldn’t keep up with the number of breakdowns required by her frequent mystery fevers.

Here’s a couple of things I managed to accomplish today:

• prepped the Children’s Church materials for Sunday
• made my first but definitely not last pot of congee, which is probably the most awesome sick day food ever. Why didn’t I know about this when I was pregnant?!
• baked bread and made a nice pot of vegetable soup for dinner

The soup is from this book, which I highly recommend — both the soup and the book. I will tell you that I chose the moment for snapping a picture of this soup deliberately. Once you blend it, well, it’s not pretty. Not at all. In fact, the first time I made it, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t even like it, let alone the kids. Everyone LOVES this soup! It’s really tasty and feels like you’re doing something healthy for your body. Of course, I like to mess that up a little by sprinkling some feta on top before serving it, but that’s just me.

Oh, and there was laundry. Blessedly little, considering.

Really, this is just a way for me to remind myself that I didn’t do nothing today. It only felt that way, but I’m okay with that.

Dapper

Dressing a boy is not nearly as much work as dressing a girl. For one thing, the options are limited. Most of the time, I find this to be a good thing; no fuss, no muss. I can buy a stack of shirts and a stack of shorts at the beginning of the summer, and that’s all she wrote. Mix and match, my friend — it’s all good.

A couple of times a year, though, it’s a real pain. Want to find something fancy for your little girl? Pick a store, any store! You may not be wild about the selection, but you’re sure to be overwhelmed by the choice. Thinking about sprucing up the young man (without turning him into Little Lord Fauntleroy, which will hit you in the pocketbook and is doing him no favors I’m just saying)? Well, good luck to ya. You might find a few outfits, but I’m not a huge fan of “outfits”. Could I just get a tie? Maybe one that’s not blue striped?

I will say that I managed to find a couple at Children’s Place [think I was lying about the blue striped thing?], but the one I picked online doesn’t match the sweater I picked out. Also, much to my secret delight, he said he’d rather have a bow tie. Well!

Once again, a big thank you to you crafty sisters out there. I found this tutorial yesterday, and cranked this out immediately:

Pretty hip with the t-shirt, don’t you think?

Anyway, I was thrilled with how this turned out. (It’s the little things.) I can’t wait to make more, although I’m not sure how many he’ll need. Still! The only things I did differently were to use the machine instead of hand-stitching; pressing in a 1/4″ fold on each of the long sides of the neck-band rather than stitching and then turning it, because I go crazy when I have to turn narrow tubes like this; and when attaching the second piece of Velcro, I just folded the unfinished edge to the top — tucking it under the Velcro — so that it gets caught in the stitching when you attach the Velcro. [If you have any questions about any of that, just leave a comment and I'll try to explain it more clearly.]

Isn’t it nice when something comes together quickly and easily? Celebrate the moment, friends!

All Over the Place

I’ll tell you what: as much as I dislike March, I’m torn over how to feel about it being so close to the end already. What is going on?!

Is Easter really next week? So, there’s only a half-week of school coming up? Really?

It’s all a bit much to process. Do I still have time to make a Spring/Easter wreath? Is it worth it?

Do I even care about making one anymore? I think the question points toward an obvious answer….

On top of that, my friends keep having babies, and even grandbabies (talk about hard to process!), and the “get this done now” clock in my head was just buzzing louder and louder until I finished up the squares for this quilt, which steamrolled its way right to the top of the list. Oh, but the relief of having it that much closer to done. Totally worth throwing closet cleaning to the back burner…except now the clock in my head it buzzing over that! Whatever. It’s always something.

But I digress — back to Easter. Which is, I say again, next week. Now, in a rare move, I actually managed to get my kids their duds before Good Friday (which really doesn’t seem like it should be the unofficial Easter finery shopping day, you know?), and I love this little dress.

Except for that tacky little daisy:

Yeah, we can do better than that. A little fancy fabric, a little candlelight, and voila:

I salvaged the button from the original flower, and just love love love this version. (I basically used this beautiful tutorial as my guide. Thank you, Autum!) Granted, it still needs to have the pin attached — and the button, for that matter — but it’s as good as done. In fact, the glue gun is already out, thanks to yesterday’s crazy tangent project, but that’s a story for another day. As you can see, I even made a second flower for Little Fancy’s hair. I’m on a roll!

Things are happening, friends. The quilt squares from the beginning of the tale? They are already down, stitched, and basted onto the rest of their little quilt sandwich. Happening, I say!

‘Round Here

Today most definitely had Wednesday written all over it.

Yesterday, I had a mad taste for chocolate cake, so today I whipped up my favorite one. Mind you, when I say “favorite”, that doesn’t mean I make it often. I think I’ve made it twice before.

“Don’t worry if it sinks in the middle: indeed, it will do so because it’s such a dense and damp cake, ” it says. Indeed. It looks like the pan is actually swallowing the cake.

“...put in a baking sheet in case of sticky drips later,” it says. Yes. “Drips.” It was more of a pile. A pile which fell off the pan and onto the floor and into an open drawer below the oven. Awesome.

(It was delicious, though, I must say.)

All madness aside, this is quite the tasty cake — almost more of a bread pudding in its consistency — and there’s a very helpful note in the version of the recipe link which mentions bailing out some of the batter if it’s too close to the top. That is to say: if your loaf pan isn’t the right size after all [ahem!], and you don’t want it to go all volcanic on you in the oven.

While that was all going on, I was treated to a pampering manicure:

Anything goes on Momma/Bridgie Wednesdays! [Joey's thoughtful question: Do your hands feel disgusting? You know, since it's two inches thick? I declined to comment.]

At least there was granola, which I’ll share later. I only dumped a couple of servings on the floor while trying to pour it from pan to jar.

Let’s hear it for Wednesday!

Kindly Get Out of My Way

It’s Craft Night, after all, and do you know what we do on Craft Night?

We craft! And chat and laugh and don’t yell at kids. AWE-some.

Tonight, my plan is to snip the quilt, wrap the wreath (which is for Easter, so no time like the present, I suppose), and try my hand at a new-to-me bangle. (More on that last one next week…hopefully.)

Here’s wishing you a weekend of frelaxing fun!