the inpatient

When it was time for bed yesterday, we did the usual is-everyone-in-the-right-bed and did-anything-happen-that-we-were-totally-unaware-of checks.  The latter applies to large scale messes that our girl has managed to make with a modicum of noise in the past.

Looks like S got tired waiting for his appointment with the doctor.

And looks like P totally ignored her patient.  Do you ever wonder if real doctors are sleeping somewhere, while you are in a waiting room, ready for them?

ouch

Our little girl isn't having the best week, and her face is bearing most of the proof.  She's had the worst cold, and rubbed her upper lip raw from the frequent nose blows.  She fell today and scratched up her cheek and chin.  And it might be hard to tell, but look at her poor, swollen nose.  She and Baby A bonked heads and she must have caught the bridge of her nose on his head.  Her black eyes are getting lots better.

Smoothie time here, so no, her mouth isn't bleeding.  Thank goodness.

underestimations

This past summer I canned peaches.  It was my first try at peaches, and at canning.  The process wasn't so difficult, and we came out of it with 12 quarts.  Nothing exploded, nothing failed to seal.  I felt like I jam packed them in there, but I'll have to do a better job of that next time as there is a lot of liquid space along the bottom (the peaches float, of course).  We opened the last jar a few days ago.  Gobble.

We also made jam.  A batch of strawberry, one of raspberry, and then my mom & I made strawberry and peach-black raspberry while we were in Tennessee.  I tried the little/no sugar added recipes this year and they were super yummy.  Much, much better than the regular.  They all turned out really good.  The last jar of raspberry has been opened, and we have 2 more of strawberry.  Gobble, gobble.

And then we made applesauce.  Lots of applesauce.  No sugar, just apples.  26 quarts.  Baby A finished the last one off this past week.  Gobble, gobble, gobble.

What is the point of this, you wonder?  The point is that all that stuff didn't even last 6 months!  And I doubled the amount of applesauce & jam this year!!  How could I have been so wrong?  And...how much am I supposed to make next time?!

new things

Most of you probably know that my mom is a super talented seamstress.  And while I've made a few things, they've mostly contained straight lines.  And no pattern.  But I told Dustin that this was going to be the year that I learn to sew some form of clothing.

So I found the easiest pattern I could.  Patterns are supposed to make everything easier, did you know that?  It took me almost 3 hours to make a dress - 1 to cut everything out, 2ish to sew everything together.  For a first attempt, I'm totally happy.  But these are the things I forgot/learned:

• It turns out that all those years I spent watching my mom, I was just watching her hands.  I wasn't actually paying any attention to what she was doing
• I forgot to keep the fabric folded, therefore doubling my cutting time
• I was totally intimidated by piecing/interfacing a neck together, and since I didn't pay attention and doubled all my torso pieces (only needed one of each), I decided to skip the neck and just line the torso - this is actually better, in my opinion
• I saw all those triangles on the pattern, but couldn't remember if they meant to cut in or out...so I skipped them...turns out they're for lining pieces up together.  And you cut them out.  Always.
• I didn't cut nearly enough ticks in the neckline/arm holes, so while it worked out, the dress doesn't look really good unless I iron it.  Pfft.
• I had no idea how to baste the skirt to gather it, and after reading my 60yr old sewing machine manual, I totally fixed my tension problem!  It was super simple, I should be embarrassed that I didn't figure it out myself
• I'm still not so great with the straight lines.

So here it is.  I told my mom that it was very Sound of Music.  There was a pause and she ventured a guess...You're making it out of curtains?  Nope.  Out of a sheet, though!  I didn't think a first attempt warranted an actual fabric purchase.  And these colors are perfectly P.  Recycling/upcycling at its finest.

It's too big.  Better than too small.  Maybe I'll take up the sides.  But it twirls very nicely.

As for other new things, we got a new table!  Ever since Baby A took over a booster, one of us (Dustin or myself) has been using a folding chair for meals.  But I found this table, along with 6 chairs and a leaf.  Whew.  We all fit now.

it's official

This boy loooooooooooves snow.

And this boy is starting to love preschool.  Especially his Star Wars lunchbox.

i can sleep with anything

Yes, that would be a yoga mat she's sleeping under.

mirror, mirror

In December my friend Andrea took pics of the peeps.  She just reopened her photography business.  

She took this series of Baby A and I look at them all the time.  Love him.

won't be long

All that fun wears him out.