Christmas and Dr. Seuss

A friend has a fun little poem her family uses when buying their children's Christmas presents.

She shared it with me years ago and we've used it ever since.

Something you want.

Something you need.

Something to wear.

Something to read.

Perfect right!

So I've been researching books at Amazon.com for ideas and it's reminded me how much I love reading and how much I owe to.....

Dr. Seuss
The author to beat all authors.
When I was 4 or 5 my dad bought me this book.
I loved it like no other.
I had everyone........everyone read it to me.

Not in Latin.....(sigh)....but I know I would have loved it in any language.
This was also the first book I ever read by myself.
I'm sure it was because I already had it memorized.
I heard my dad telling my kids the other day, he learned to read by reading the funnies in the newspaper. 

And that got me to thinking about good old Dr. Seuss. I figure I owe a lot to him.

Because he introduced me to a fascinating world of funny colored food and foxes in boxes I've also discovered green rolling hills in the English countryside, heroes and heroines who are brave and sometimes tragic, and how exhilarating it can be to ride a wild horse in the hills of Australia.

Ah, the adventures I've been on through reading.
It's funny too, how certain books, like certain smells or songs, can bring back vivid memories and sometimes it's fun to softly follow those memories where ever they may lead.

The Foot Book
"Left foot, left foot, right foot, right..... Feet in the morning and feet at night..."
Is just one such book.
When our oldest was born we received about 3 copies of this book free in the mail.
We being new parents and not having built up our library of children's literature...yet.. read said book to our young offspring.
She - LOVED - IT!
10 - 25 - 40 times a day we'd read this book to her.
She had it memorized before she could speak (which she started doing around 10 months, I thought that was normal.)By 11 or 12 months she could quote the whole book.
Needless to say we started hiding it, but she'd always find it and ask us to read it again.
Now she's a literature lunatic ☺

My husband gave me 
Oh the Places You'll Go
our first Christmas together (married) and this started a great tradition of him giving me a children's picture book every year. I LOVE that tradition.
I had no idea how true this book would be to our life together though.

Today I'm celebrating my love for literature.
I probably should have saved this post until Dr. Seuss' birthday but I have no idea when that is, maybe February I don't know.

My point is I'm glad my parents found something that inspired me to keep reading and discovering the treasures within printed words.

If kids can find something that captures their imagination they'll keep reading.
Even if it's not GREAT LITERATURE as long as they're reading they can't lose.
And let your kids see and hear you reading......they'll be intrigued and want to try it out. Truthfully what child doesn't think the sun, moon and stars revolves around their parents?

I wish I could say all of my reading has made me a great speller and writer, sadly no such luck. But, I'd like to think I'm better than I would have been if I didn't love to read.
Now that would be scary.
And, lucky for me, blogger (at least) has spell check.
Now,
Go,
Find a child
and
Read to him/her!
GO!
YOU CAN DO IT ON A TRAIN, YOU CAN DO IT IN THE RAIN.
YOU CAN DO IT HERE AND THERE, YOU CAN DO IT ANYWHERE!!!!

The Stomach Flu with a Side of Blizzard

Where do I start?

It started with my youngest......4:30 AM Sunday morning......every ten minutes for 6 hours!

Yikes!

It took a few hours off on Monday and then struck my second oldest around 7pm.

It did a little victory dance as it conquered me and my two other boys early Tuesday morning.

5 down 2 more to go in our household..........

.....oh and we're in the middle of a full on BLIZZARD!......

BET YOU WISH YOU WERE HERE.....

What's in your nose?

My friend sent me this card.....................I laughed and laughed.

I didn't even have to read what she had written inside to know why she sent it.

I'll tell you the story.
Stop me if you've heard this one.
Well,.... most of you (if you've ever talked to me in person) probably have heard it.... but you can't really stop me from writing.......So, feel free to click away at any time, or not.
It's up to you.
I'll be telling the story wether or not you choose to read.
You see, that's why these blogs are such a good thing for me, because I'm a teller of stories - not in the untruths sort of way but in the sharing of truths that are amazing, funny, inspiring, and interesting - at least to me. So in a blog I can put my stories out there and imagine that people are interested in what I have to say rather than worrying about if they're just trying to be polite by listening.
So here it goes.

It all started in the spring of 2002. We moved into a new (to us) rental house with a great yard. There were apple, pear and plum trees, lots of room for a garden and lots and lots of old rotten fruit all over the yard.
We had three kids at the time; Banana 5, Duder almost 4, and Doodle 20 months.

The yard was great because it was fenced and for the first time I felt like the kids could play outside and be relatively safe without me hovering over them every moment. I really enjoyed watching the kids through the window playing with the ants or digging in the dirt out back while I did the dishes inside. 

It all seemed too good to be true.....I guess it really was.

One day Doodle (20 months) sat on the floor in the kitchen playing. I sat down to play with him when suddenly he sneezed. The sneeze wasn't that surprising but what came out of his nose was -

•  a pea,
•  a piece of cracker,
•  a piece of cheese,
•  a cherry pit, 
• a small rock 
•  three bird seeds.

 I was horrified!
 How could all of that stuff  have been in my baby's nose?
 I looked up his nose and there was MORE up there!

 Mostly peas, which, we were able to get out.

A few days later we (my husband and I) started to notice that our baby stunk but not because he was dirty, he was clean, squeaky in fact. While we were discussing what could be going on our daughter mentioned that she had seen Doodle putting things in his nose again, .....outside.
First I thought, "Why did you not mention this before?" and then "What did he find outside to stick up his nose?"

Sure enough he had a nose full of junk --- not just any junk though ---- A nose full of plum pits!!!
He had stuck the plum pit in wide end first so, all we could see was the pointy end of the pit way - way -way up there. We didn't know how we were going to get that thing out of there but we knew we had to try.

I don't know if you've ever attempted to wrestle and pin a 40 pound octopus while trying to extract a foreign body from one of his orifices, but it's hard, very hard.
It involves flailing appendages and a lot of screaming.
After quite a few tries we decided that the tweezers were going to do a lot more damage than good with our little guy worked up the way he was. Our solution was to try again after he fell asleep.

So during the night while Doodle was sound asleep in his bed we crept silently to his side, tweezers and flashlight in hand.
Can you imagine waking up to your parents leaning over your face with tweezers and a flashlight? If that's not a lifetime of therapy waiting to happen I don't know what is. Needless to say we were unsuccessful again so we decided to let our pediatrician have a go at it in the morning.
Luckily he was able to retrieve it fairly painlessly.

Naively, I thought the experience had been traumatic enough that my baby wouldn't try to stick things up his nose again.
Boy was I wrong!
I underestimated the stubbornness of my boy.
Two days later we were in the doctor's office again, this time it was a couple of cherry pits up his nose.

A few days after that it was another plum pit.

Our dream yard had turned into a nightmare. All of the old rotten fruit in the grass offered a plethora of nose stuffing items.

Our frequent pediatrician visits continued for a few weeks and I built a strange kind of friendship with the nurses and office staff.
After I discovered Doodle had stuck something up his nose I would call the Dr.'s office.

Our phone conversation usually went something like this.

Me, "Hi, this is Carol ----. Doodle has stuck something up his nose again."

Dr.'s office slightly trying to cover the receiver, talking to the other office staff, "Doodle's done it again." "Laugh, laugh, snort, giggle" "Really?" "Giggle, belly laugh, snort." "Okay, you can bring him right in. See you in a couple of minutes."

Me, "Thank you.....I think."

-

Once I told someone how many times I had taken Doodle to the doctor's office to have things taken out of his nose. She laughed and said, "They [office staff] must laugh really hard when they get off the phone with you."

My response was, "They don't wait until they get off the phone."

-

Eventually our pediatrician sent me home with my own tools to extract various foreign objects from my child's nose. I was concerned that our insurance wouldn't pay for the tools and I didn't think we could afford them. Our pediatrician told me not to worry about it, he wasn't going to charge us and I could bring the tools back once Doodle had grown out of this obsession with his nose.

The doctor figured this would save us both a lot of time. He was right, it did save a lot of time but we did have the occasional pesky cherry pit that just wouldn't cooperate. On such occasions the doctor had to get inventive with some I.V. tubing for example.
I won't go into details but let me just say to all of you, avoid sticking cherry pits in your nose......at all costs.
During this particular cherry pit removal the pit slipped back instead of coming out of the front of his nose. The doctor didn't know if the pit had gone into Doodle's stomach or into his lungs -- (Doodle was screaming pretty good when the pit slipped.)
 If it had gone in his stomach no big deal but if it was in his lungs he needed immediate surgery.
So off we went to the hospital for some x-rays. Luckily it was in his stomach.

-

It just so happened that this experience was traumatic enough that it almost did the trick of curing him of his fascination with his nose.
I think he only had one or two more times after this.

-

It all finally ended with a bang........Literally. One evening while we were saying a blessing on dinner I heard Doodle sneeze and then a loud bang on the table. After the prayer I opened my eyes and there on the table sat a pit encased in neon green slime.
I had no idea how long it had been in up his nose but by the looks of things it had been quite a while. Doodle seemed very relieved to have it out and as far as I know he hasn't tried to stick anything in there since then.

-

That- was the longest year of my life.

-

The other day I saw Doodle holding a Lego piece up to his face, close to his nose.

My inner calm, patient voice said, "That's no big deal. Let's wait and watch and see what the young one does."

My hyperactive, over-reacting, over-protective mom voice said, "What, are you crazy? Knock that thing out of his hand. Get it as far away from his nose as possible."

I find that as a mother my inner calm voice doesn't win out very often. This was no exception - well, maybe it was a compromise because what I ended up saying was, "Doodle, please don't put that toy by your nose and whatever you do, don't put it in your nose."

He smiled, because he remembers. Then he said, "Okay mom."

-

And that was that.

-

Now, you know why the card made me laugh.

1)Because I'm so glad that part of our life is over.

2)Because, Yeah --- the whole experience was just crazy, funny.

3)Did I mention I'm glad it's over?

4)I pray my baby now doesn't decide she's fascinated with fruit pits and her nose.

5)We have no fruit trees in our yard.

-

Thanks Cheryn for the laugh!

This has been a novel, I know.

Congratulations on reading the whole thing


P.S. My boy is a tease!
Once he asked my mom for 2 suckers. (I think he was 5)
She said "Okay, but why do you need 2 suckers?"
"One for me, One for my nose." was his answer.
You should have seen my mom's face. It was priceless.
You should have seen my boy's face. It was priceless too.

Lemon Glazed Scones Recipe

I don't know what it is about stormy weather that makes me want to bake.

Possibly it could be that turning on the oven helps to warm up the house?

I don't know.....

And....just so you know....

The responsibility for this snow storm rests completely on the heads of my boys.....

.....they prayed for it!!!

Those pesky boys!☃

Today I'm breaking out an oldie but a goody for our family. So I thought I'd share.

I can't remember for sure where I got this recipe. Maybe FamilyFun...not sure.

Here goes! Enjoy!

Lemon Glazed Scones

Ingredients

• SCONES:
• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream, plus a little for brushing

• 1 egg yolk, beaten slightly
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• LEMON GLAZE:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 tablespoons heavy or whipping cream

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400°. Grease a large, heavy baking sheet (preferably not a dark one) and set it aside.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the lemon zest and toss the mixture with your hands.
3. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the cream, the yolk, and the vanilla extract and use a fork to blend the liquids within the well. Then use a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients, just until the dough holds together.
5. Scrape the dough onto a flour-dusted surface and then, using floured hands, knead it gently three or four times to form a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk about 3/4-inch thick, then cut it as you would a pie into 8 wedges. Transfer the pieces to the baking sheet, leaving at least 1/4 inch between them. Brush the tops lightly with cream.
6. Bake the scones in the center of the oven until golden brown, about 16 to 18 minutes. Allow them to cool on the sheet for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack.
7. While the scones continue to cool, make the glaze. Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk them until the mixture is smooth. If necessary, you can thin the glaze with water, stirring in no more than 1/2 teaspoon at a time. When the scones have cooled for another 10 minutes, drizzle each one generously with glaze. Makes 8 scones.

Cure for the Rainy Day Blues

It's a rainy day here today.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I guess I like it, but I'm not looking forward to a long, cold winter.

I try not to think about it too much because it usually ends up making me blue.

But I have a good cure for the Blues!

Spending time reading with the kids at the Elementary School.

 I try to spend a little time in my son's class each week and I love it.

 I usually end up laughing at one or all of the kids in his class, plus they like me ....... they really like me. 

So of course that makes me feel good. 

One time the kids got new reading anthology books while I was there. 

I happened to be within hearing range of my son and I heard him say to his friend.

 "This is my new book and I shall name him George Lucas. He will be my best friend. Come George, let us read."

 My son's friend laughed held up his book and said, "You shall be known as Abraham Lincoln." 

I thought I was going to fall over because I was laughing so hard.

So I guess what I'm say is find some way to give of yourself to your community! You get so much more back than you give.

Flat Fell Seam (Denim Seam) Tutorial

I decided I wanted needed to make myself a new denim skirt but I was a little nervous it was going to look home made. So I incorporated a couple of fancy Flat Fell Seams to help give it a professional look.

Have you ever looked at the seam on your jeans and wondered, "How'd they do that? Where's the raw edge?"

Well, wonder no longer.

While I was working on my skirt I took a couple of photos so I could share this fun sewing technique with you.

Believe it or not it's really not as hard as you might think and it gives great finished detail to almost any project.

Let's get started.

Like I said before a Flat Fell Seam is a great way to enclose your seam. Not only does it look sharp and professional but it gives extra strength to the seam.

However, there are a couple of things you need to remember in order to get the look you are going for.

1. If you are sewing on denim or any thick fabric a heavy duty (denim) needle is essential.
2. Don't forget to make your stitch length longer. I sewed this seam with the stitch length at 4.2 (5 is  the longest length on my machine.)

Step #1

Take your two fabric pieces and pin them Wrong sides together (Right side facing out).

Step #2

Increase your stitch length and sew your first seam. Your seam allowance can be anywhere between 1/2 and 5/8 of an inch but not smaller than 1/2 inch.

Step #3

Press the seam allowance to one side.

You can decide which way will be best for your project. If you notice on jeans the seam allowance normally is pressed to the back.

The seam allowance that is facing up will remain the top of the finished seam.

Step #4

With your finger open up the seam allowance and trim the bottom piece (the seam allowance in between your main fabric piece and the top seam allowance after you pressed the seam allowance to one side.)

 to a scant 1/4 inch.

Step #5

Feel free to pin at this point. I did. Just to make sure everything stayed in place.

Pinning takes some time but it IS YOUR FRIEND!

Step #6

Move your needle position to the far right, make sure your stitch length is the same as when you sewed your first seam.

Sew close to the folded edge of your seam.

Take your time as you sew so your stitching is nice and even.

That's it!

Not too bad is it!

Take a look at what your seam should look like on the inside and on the outside.

Nice and finished and no raw edges anywhere to be seen!

Check out my finished skirt!

I wish I was confident enough in my body image to show you how I look in the skirt......but I'm not, so you get the skirt on a plastic hanger. (Note to self: purchase some presentable skirt hangers so I don't have to take pictures of my skirts on the free plastic hangers from Khol's anymore.)

BTW I realize I should have pressed the skirt before I took a picture for the whole world to see but I didn't so what can I say?

You get my skirt wrinkles, plastic hanger and all.

Just keepin' it real!

☺

Good luck! I'd love to hear from you if you decide to try this out!

Another Gift Idea!!! Inspirational Metal Tag Necklaces...

So I was going to wait until I gave these necklaces to share them here but I just couldn't wait any longer!

They're just too cute!

I'm sure you've seen these fun personalized tag necklaces around.

They're everywhere right now.

I thought they'd make a perfect Christmas gift for the young women I work with at church but I wasn't loving the price of the pre-made versions. 

You can't beat the quality and convenience of purchasing them pre-made but the $ times 13 (okay 15 because the other leader and I need one too)  just wasn't going to jive with the budget.

So what's a girl to do?

Well........if you're feeling crafty, make some yourself or call a friend and work on it together....like I did!

My friend was the other YW's leader. We hammered it out on my little front porch. (Another neighbor stopped by and said it looked like we were playing jacks ☺ Funny! That's just what we like to do in our spare time all right!)

So I know you're just itching to make some of these super easy, super quick necklaces yourself!

And now you won't even have to search out your own suppliers (unless you want to).

Scroll down for my sources (Thank you Etsy and the Internet!).

What you'll need:

• Aluminum Tags: By Extra Stuff  (Here)
• Pearls: By Goshen (Here)
• Ball Chain: By Twpmango (Here)
• Metal Stamps: By Harbor Freight (Here)
• Black Sharpie
• Baby Wipes
• hammer
• Jump Rings

There are lots of tutorials available about metal stamping that could help with details but a brief overview goes a little like this.

* Use a hammer with the metal stamps to imprint your message on your aluminum tag.

* With a very fine tip Sharpie color inside of the letters on your tag.

* Wipe  the excess black off from around the letters on the tag with a baby wipe.

* Open up a jump ring slightly, slide the aluminum tag and a pearl on the jump ring and then squeeze the ring closed.

* Open Ball Chain, slide through jump ring. Close the ball chain and.....

You're DONE!!! Enjoy!

halloween 2010 style

Halloween isn't my husband's favorite holiday, but he does enjoy carving pumpkins.

We've got a good system. I clean out the guts, he carves them.

This year he was particularly busy.

As far as I'm concerned the end result was well worth the work.

Of course I can say that because I didn't have to spend hours carving.

The special request horse pumpkin was for our Dora the Explorer/Horse loving 3 year old little munchkin.

Frankenstein's Monster was requested and mostly completed by our 10 year old builder/inventor.

Cap'n Crunch and The Wild thing were family consensus "just awesome".

We visited the grandparents to show of the kids in their costumes, Ate my mom's traditional chili and donuts and apple cider, and trick-or-treated with my brother's family in the rain. We were beginning to wonder if we'd been transported back to the pacific northwest because it was so wet and reminded us so much of our Halloweens we spent there........I guess this has been an odd year because we've wondered that a lot this year. Utah is not usually this wet.

The older kids helped to hand out candy and then went to 2 separate parties.

The younger kids finished off the day with Disney's Ichabod and Mr. Toad while they examined/counted/sorted their bounty.

We all survived and ended the day exhausted but happy.

Holiday a success!