Teacher gift

Since I have been doing some quilting lately, I decided to do a small wall hanging for Bug's teacher this year as an end of the year gift. She was gracious to give me some class time and I took some fabric into the class and had them write their names on them with pastel oil crayons. It's a version of a yellow brick road pattern, and I think it's a little busy. I love the colors though, so that's something. He was very excited to be able to present it to her. She was a great teacher for him during his transition this year and we really do appreciate all that she has done for this class, and especially our kiddo. We have used the same fabrics to make a small Sudoku quilt for his other teacher, but it's still a work in progress. Hopefully by the end of summer it will be finished. Will post that when we get it finished.

Ok, I guess I'll Stay

Aren't there days when you feel like running away? I know being a Mom is the best thing in the world, and it's all I ever wanted to be when I grew up. Some days are just hard though.

Today I woke up at 5 am with a certain little girl cuddled up against me in a puddle of pee pee. She's been doing so good at night, and hasn't had an accident at night in over a week. For someone just potty trained two months ago, that's pretty good. In any case, my bed was wet, I was wet and she was wet. None of us were happy. She was mad when she didn't want to get her shoes on to walk brother to school, and even more mad when I left to walk the 400 feet to the cross walk to make sure he got across the busy street okay. I had the house in view the entire time and wasn't more than 30 seconds away.

The remainder of my morning did not go well either. The sewing machine is giving me fits again. Of course I am on a deadline and the project is almost done. I can see the end... I just can't get there. My blood sugars were crazy, the cat food spilled and something in the fridge is really really not good. Add in a bad do-it-yourself hair color and I kind of did feel like I wanted to run away. Just for a while. To buy a cute hat.

So I went out to get the IKEA stuff from the trunk of the car I had left there overnight. Close on my heels is a little girl. this was the conversation that followed:

M: Mom, where are you going?

Me: I am running away from home.

M: You can't leave me here alone. Who will take care of me? (she's getting a little worried here)
Me: What do you need anyone to take care of? You can get your own cheese stick and yogurt and there is water in the fridge. You can go potty by yourself during the day and start your own DVD.
M: But I need more than that. (she's really upset now because I am still walking away)
Me: What else do you need?
M: Who will cuddle me? Who will make sure I can go to sleep at night? Who will read me books and help me find my lost stuff?
Me: I guess that's a Mom's job.
M: I need MY mommy. Come back inside now.
Me: (closing the trunk with my hands full) OK.

Then she happily went outside to play mud pies with her kitchen and the new toys from IKEA. I guess I won't run away today, but I am not ruling it out entirely.

Family campout

We took our kids on a camping adventure this weekend. They had a blast. Bug was deemed old enough and responsible enough (with supervision) to light the camp fire and keep it going. He was thrilled. Meg was just thrilled to play in the dirt. That's her favorite thing. She's going to grow up to be one heck of a gardener.  Some highlights were sleeping without the rain fly on to watch the stars. What an amazing place for an observatory. We even saw some shooting stars. A little fox visited us in camp both nights. Brave little thing. He was probably used to scavenging for leftover food from careless campers. We did not feed him, or get pictures of him. He was quick. Meg has been pretending to be quick like a fox. The boys too hikes and found giant pine cones while the girls hung around and played in the dirt and watched the ants.

The only bad thing about the entire weekend was the BUGS. Big, giant, relentless bugs. We ended up with two kinds of bug spray, on with deet and one "natural" and neither one worked. They didn't work in combination with each other either. Almost a week later Meg still looks like it's possible she might have chicken pox. It was brutal. I am not sure how to be more prepared for that in the future, but I will do some research before we go on another adventure. Enjoy our camping pictures.

These were some tuckered out kids by the time we left.

For Becky

I may have mentioned my cousin Becky has had a youthful diagnosis with breast cancer. She's a great mom with 4 cute kids and an adorable husband. I love her happy outlook on life and her ability to see the good in things. I know that she will make it through all of this a stronger person, no matter how much it sucks. And it really does suck. So, Becky, in my effort to help make things a little better for you this coming week with surgeries and hospital stays... I have put a little something in the mail for you. Should be there tomorrow. For all my blog friends (all 5 of you), here's pictures.

What's one of the worst parts of a hospital stay? Other than the vampires waking you up and the nurses telling you to sleep, the meds not coming on time, being away from your family and general discontent? The dressing gown of course. They are horrible and everyone knows it. How are you supposed to heal when you are in some outfit someone could have died in, or worse, peed in? The are flappy, ugly and uncomfortable. Here's the best I could do to change that up for Becky's stay.

Notice the details of these lovely gowns... Snaps on the shoulders that are not metal. So that you can wear them in the MRI and not have to change clothing again. The other one has Velcro. Same reason.

A higher and more generous neckline, so you don't feel like you are being choked to death. With cute trim.

A little extra length, because heaven knows those things aren't nearly long enough. With that I also added a little extra coverage in the back so that it actually goes all the way around.

Pretty grosgrain ribbon ties, and extra ties in the back, just to keep things covered you might want covered.

It's still a fully functional gown, that can fold all the way down in the front and has the pocket with the big slit for a heart monitor and what have you.

The best part is, they were made with love and healing thoughts just for you. (Don't mind the model. He says he was under duress, but he really was happy to do it.) Oh, I got the pattern from Lazygirldesigns.com who says it can be used with a donation to cancer research. Our donation has been made.

Mini Road Trip

We had a fun little mini road trip the other day. We were looking for possible camping places for the summer and wanted to get to know the area better. We stopped and took in the view. We had a pic-nic.

It's amazing how every one sees something different when we go out together.

We went to an observatory and looked around.

We found some old logging equipment the kids thought was fascinating.

We saw some of the area that wildfire swept through a few years back and talked about how the earth replenishes herself. What a wonderful world we live in. 

Some of us wanted to take naps.

We stopped a lot to look at side roads and just enjoyed our time together.