First Communion Photos

First Communion was so wonderful! Of course, I got teary-eyed, much like I did when they were baptised. They were so happy, and as you can see, so beautiful.

Friday Funny

Ha! I'm early this time!
Tuesday night I was clicking here and there and ended up at a site where they were talking about being passive aggressive. Each one had a story telling how they had done something (passive aggressive) to someone else. insert disclaimer here (I do not advocate P.A. as a way to handle your life's affairs).
That being said, there was some funny stuff there. This one in particular took a while for me to catch on to, and I've been laughing about it ever since. One gal said, "All I have to say is, "BILLY JEAN IS NOT MY LOVER. SHE'S JUST A GIRL WHO THINKS THAT I AM THE ONE. THE KID IS NOT MY SON."
Tkae your time, you'll get it.

Finito

It's killing me to not show you the dresses until the big day, so here's a peek.
Here they both are, totally finished. If you click to enlarge the picture, you may be able to see their names and the date embroidered on the linings. The tiara is for Sarah's veil. Oh, and what could be more fitting to listen to as I sew these dresses?
The sewing room trash can has always spoken to me. At Christmas time, the trash gets bagged up and hidden while they sleep. In the fall, it's full of polar fleece scraps. In the summer, it's lycra and elastic. Sometimes, it's woefully empty for days at a time. But today, it's full. And the dresses are finished.

Friday Funny

No picture for this one (trust me, you don't want to see it). I was sitting here at the computer rubbing my throat and felt a hair. Pulled. It was attached. Pulled again and discovered it was about 1.5 inches long. YUUUUUUUCCKK. How long has that been there? Have people been staring at my neck hair all that time? How gross. I'm turning into an old hag.

Not so nutritious

I was just looking at the photo of my pantry and clicked it to see it close up. Go ahead--look. I'll wait.

Waiting....

Waiting...

Waiting...

Oh good, you're back. Did you notice that there were EIGHT boxes/bags of breakfast cereal in there? That's just not right. Be assured, there are not eight boxes in there now.

more home tour

Living room
The other side This is from the top of stairs, on the school room side. The double doors are the laundry area.

home tour, continued

This is taken from the living room
I just love this window over the sink.
The view from the other direction.
The (boring) dining room.

Birthday boy turns 7

The table with his surprise
The cake
He smiled like this all night!
A and S made this pinata--all by themselves--too cute!
He was here all night long, and several days after, too.

Seamstress Dreams

I stared sewing around the age of nine. I still rememeber the thrill of taking a sock (nothing) and creating a doll (something). I still have that first doll. She's pretty rough, but I dreamed her up and brought her to life with needle and thread.
I sewed a nursery set for my first niece when I was a senior in high school. The next year, I realized one of my first sewing dreams; I sewed one of the homecoming queen candidate's dresses. Back then, you had about a week to get everything together and create the dress. That job was taken on one condition--that my mom would put the zipper in for me. The velvet didn't scare me. The lace didn't scare me. Even the fitting didn't scare me. Zippers, however, had me by the throat for a while. Thankfully I'm past my zipper phobia, and can now put one in without hesitation. That year, I also sewed two or three swing choir dresses for hire.

In those dark years when we were longing for babies and kept losing them, I would sew tiny little onesies and shirts and hats. I continued to put them away for several years, and often would open my "baby box" and hold those miniature garments with sadness. Baby sewing was a seamstress dream.

I sewed for others, even for hire for a long time. I sewed for myself. I entered and won third place at a state level "Make It With Wool" contest. That was another of my seamstress dreams. Sewing has long been my therapy, and I used it a lot.

But remember March 15, 1999? Not only would I have a baby to sew for, I would have two baby girls to sew for! What joy that brought, and the seamstress dreams began anew. Naturally, the first job was to outfit the nursery, which I did with great joy. Curtains, quilts, dust ruffles--they were darling and oh, so fun!

I began to create the baptism dresses in my mind. That job could not be started until the girls came home since we didn't know how big (or little, as it turned out) the girls would be, but I planned and scouted out fabric and notions for months. I wanted to be ready.

When we got home with them, I remember sewing up a fury while they napped. They needed dresses for church! They needed coats! They needed pajamas! When the time came to start the baptism gowns, I was in sewing heaven.

All of the other things I had sewn or would sew for my children were nothing compared to the dresses which they would wear as we presented them to the Lord. I think every seamstress cherishes that dream, and is grateful for the chance to live it.

Tonight I have been sewing on another seamstress dream. The girls will receive their First Holy Eucharist soon, and the dress production has started. Working on them, I am reminded of those days when I worked on the baptism gowns while my little babies napped down the hall in their cribs. Tonight I sewed as they practiced multiplication on their new whiteboard in the school room. The times may have changed, but my seamstress dreams haven't. I pray that someday I will look back fondly on this sewing dream as I realize yet another one--one that involves much more white satin and lace .

Ahhhh...the dreams of a seamstress.

This just in from the library.....

I'm blogging from the library. Our modem is fried (doesn't that sound like I know what I'm talking about? I don't--just repeating what computer geek husband said) and I don't know when it will be back up. Keep watching. Surely something great will happen while I've got all this computer-free time and I'll have a super post to show for it when I get back.

4 Realers In real Life

I am a member of a bulletin board where Catholic home school moms can share ideas about (basically) the Charlotte Mason philosophy as applied to our home schools. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get together with two of these ladies and their children for a play date/mom's visit. We also celebrated two 7 year old birthdays--Cora's a few days ago, and Marty's today. As someone said as we drove home "That was really fun!" It sure was!
We had two 9 yr.. olds, one 8 yr. old, two 7 yr. olds, two 6 yr. olds, two 3 yr. olds (I think N. and K. are 3), one 18 mo. old, and one 5 week old.
The moms and the new babe. Jen Sal, me, Betsy and baby Matthias.

My favorite room in the whole house

The Pantry
I think I love this room so much because there is a place for everything, and everything is in it's place. Oh, and I hide in there sometimes, too. Don't tell the kids.

Aunt Ruth and I added those shelves on the left.
The finishing touch...it makes me happy. Here is a little crazy story about this liscense plate...
In driver's ed, Mr. Shannon (remember him, Le-Le?) taught me how to remember a plate number. You say the number, as in 812, and then attach a noun to it. Always remember the VERY FIRST THING that comes to your mind. So, mine could read 812 Lovely Red Dahlias. Or 812 Leaping Rural Dogs. You get the idea. But of course, it was ME and my mind, so the first thing that came into it was 812 Little Retarded D____(our name). I never forgot it.

1/2 bath

These are the light fixtures (actually just the shades) I've been saving since we lived in Delphos. They work perfectly here.

The sink half of the room

The other wall, behind the toilet.
The whole thing is just that big. I think I'm going to paint the walls a light pink.

Overheard this morning

I heard this through the boys' bedroom door this morning.

M--"Stop, Mama said we can be nice."

T--"She said we can but I don't want to."

And that, dear readers, is T's problem in a nutshell.

Home Tour, because Mindi's holding me to it

Mindi asked me to show pictures of the house and I gave in and said I would, even though it seems like there's a lot to finish. I am a perfectionist, and will put off doing something if I can't do it "perfectly." Oh well..I'll live, and if you all were here, I'd let you see it anyway, right? So here's the upstairs bathroom that we painted and papered last weekend. We love it-hope you, do, too.

Looking into the mirror over the sink.

Same wall from a different view.

Detail of the border. It's fun to look at.

We had extra "tree" so put this one here. I plan to hang old boards over the pictured ones and mount hooks to them for wash clothes and towels.

I've been a busy knitter lately

Below are some of the items I've been knitting lately. Waaay fun!



These little booties are for a friend's baby boy, number 9 for her! They are always so cute! This is a Fiber Trends pattern.

Love the little tails!
Thsi set is for Matt's cousin's baby boy, number 1 for her. These patterns are from Elizabeth Zimmerman-she was a genious knitter. The sweater is a Baby Surprise jacket, and the pants are Baby Longies.

This sweater is for whoever i find that it will fit. I think it's about a 12-18 mo. It is from the Wonderful Wallaby pattern from Cottage Creations. I made it to test the pattern, and I will be making more (albeit bigger)sweaters from this pattern.

Storm pictures from another view

These are pictures of the other day's storm-looking across the road. I guess that would be.....north-ish......

Summer storm

This hot weather is spawning frequent afternoon thunderstorms. I watched from the deck as this one approached while 4-5 hummingbirds whizzed around me going back and forth to the feeder. Later I'll post photos of another view.

Firday Funnies

I am starting a new blog feature: Friday Funnies. Here is the first entry.
This is from about 2 miles down the road from us. No lie.

When Matt asked someone about it, they told him the church was named after the road.

It's like "Which one came first, the church or the road?"


Which ever came first, they've been here a long time. Who knows where the "Barbecue" part came from.

Don't eat someone else's food!

Amy's threat--I just died laughing.

(in case it isn't clear-it's a knife on the stick guy's throat!)