So I'm a week behind...

Okay so I realize it's Saturday and I'm about to make a post about what we did last weekend but I have a good excuse. Last Sunday I developed a horrible head cold. Since then I've been taking the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever so you can rest medicine and even though I took the day kind it still wiped me out. That's the thing about this particular medicine is that even if you don't physically get any rest after taking it, your mind still goes on vacation. At least that's what always happens to me. But I'm happy to report that a week and several doses of Vitamin C later I'm doing much better. Yea.


Last weekend we all went to the Junque Arte Festival in Nowata. It was actually much more than I had expected. They had some great arts and crafts including a quilt area that had some beautiful quilts and quilt blocks. I am always amazed at the abilitly of these women and men who can make quilts. Myself, I don't have the patience to make it all work out like that. Trust me, I've tried and its not fun. I really liked this one, unfortunately my picture doesn't do it justice.
In addition to the arts and crafts there were a lot of old tractors and tons of beautiful old cars. I could have wandered around for hours staring at the cars and just wishing.

Okay I love this one. It's a 1940 Hudson in case you were wondering. Anyone that happens to have one just sitting around, feel free to send it my way. Seriously. The Hubby already knows that once we win the lottery (I should probably be buying tickets to make that happen) I'm going to become a collector.

Chains of Love

Those of you that are close to me know that in January of this year we lost my grandmother unexpectedly to stomach cancer. Within weeks of coming down with what she thought was a nasty stomach bug and days of finding out the ugly truth, she was gone. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the last weeks of her life with her. All the time I spent in the hospital while she was there, I passed the time by crocheting.

You see, my grandmother was the one that taught me how to crochet so crocheting by her side was nothing new for us. She taught me when I was around 12 years old, maybe younger. In those days I would spend the summers with my grandparents and my grandmother loved to go camping. We would go camping for a week or more at one time and as I’m sure you can imagine, a young kid will get pretty bored during that length of time with no phone, video games, or tv. Afterall, you can only play cards so many times. Undoubtedly I drove my grandmother crazy so in an effort to teach me something to do that would keep me busy, and quiet, she taught me to crochet. She would have me make chains until I was sure I could wrap the entire car in my chain it was so long. Then she taught me the basic stitches. I would practice those until she thought I was good enough to make something besides a very lopsided square. Finally the day came when I was good enough to make a potholder. She taught me a very basic potholder pattern and off I went. I swear I must have made a hundred potholders. In fact some of those early potholders are still hanging around, much to my dismay. They weren’t pretty by any means but boy was I proud of them. I eventually progressed to making a few very basic scarves but potholders were my mainstay. They were quick and easy and I could give them to everyone I knew!

As time went on I quit crocheting all together. Then just a few years ago I picked it back up. It was just before I found out I was pregnant with my daughter actually. I learned to read patterns, and really began to understand what I was doing. Even though I was married and “grown” I would still take my creations to my grandmother and go to her with my questions. It always amazed me how much more she knew about it than I did. Until one day I was able to show her something that she didn’t know. I came to her with the lighted hooks that I had only just recently discovered and she couldn’t believe that something like that was even out there. So of course I had to get her one for her birthday. It was so much fun to be able to show her something new about the craft the she taught me so much about. I felt just like that little girl who had finally made her first potholder.

I would often come to visit and see that lighted hook sticking out of a ball of yarn next to her chair and it always made me happy. I loved that crochet was something that we could always share no matter what else was going on in our own little worlds. It was our connection.
After that last day at the hospital I put my hooks away. Something inside wouldn’t let me pick up a hook, it just didn’t feel right. It was not easy the first time I picked my hook back up but I did it because I know she wouldn’t have wanted me to give up like that. She would have told me I was being silly. So I started to crochet again, not on the projects I had already started before but on one simple design. A dishcloth. Not just one dishcloth; I’ve made so many that I’ve lost count. I made dishcloths until I ran out of cotton then I would go out, buy more and start again. I think in some way it was my tribute to our days of making potholders. Something simple, useful and yet beautiful in its own way. Who knew a dishcloth could serve as a coping mechanism but it has certainly served that purpose for me. My days of making dishcloths are done for the time being at least, so here is my dishcloth tribute…

With all my love...

Yea for the moms!

Happy Late Mother's Day. I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day. I've finally recovered enough from mine to make this post. That and I found a card reader so I can finally get the pictures off of this camera. So now both cameras are operational. Woo Hoo!

We had a really fun day actually. Hubby's entire family came to the house for lunch and it was yummy! My FIL cooked fish for us and everyone brought a side dish and we pigged out. I've never seen so much fish, but it didn't take long for us to all demolish it. All the little cousins were there so the Sweet Pea had an amazingly fun time. She reached her limit though because in the middle of all the chaos she came to me, held out her arms and said "night night". It was too funny. She took a little nap and then was back in the middle of all the fun again. I've never heard her laugh so much.

I didn't get the craft project finished that I was planning to do for all the mom's but I'm not telling what it was because I'm planning on using it in the future. But I will share the picture I framed for my mom, MIL, and Hubby's grandma. I framed a variation of this picture in a double frame with the Sweet Pea's handprint on the other side. It turned out to be super adorable and I am so sad that I didn't make one for myself.

Since I was hosting the festivities I volunteered to make the desserts. That way none of the other mom's had to worry about cooking or anything. Besides I really love to bake and I wanted to try out some new recipes. I made some yummy thumbprint cookies, cupcakes for the kiddos to eat and then I tried a new recipe for lemon cheesecake bites. I was told they were really good but they were all gone before I even got to try one. I still have extra ingredients so I'll have to make a batch this week so I can try one! I also made a chocolate sheath cake but it was half gone before we even served lunch. That's partly to blame on me and dh though. Since I made the desserts the day before we couldn't resist the temptation of a chocolate cake sitting on the table. lol

And just a little notice that the next post will in fact be craft related. I have some crochet to put up so stay tuned this week...

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Okay so we don't really "celebrate" Cinco De Mayo around here but any excuse to whip up some Mexican food is good for me. Tonight it was 2 versions of stacked enchiladas. Stacked because I am quite frankly too lazy to roll up each individual enchilada and they taste just as good this way. We also had Spanish rice and homemade guacamole. Yummy!

Here you go sis...

I found it, I found it! I finally found my camera cord. Well I found the cord to one of my cameras the other is still missing. Unfortunately the one that's missing is the camera that has most of the pictures on it. But it honor of finally having a working camera to computer relationship I'm making this post. So here ya go sis, ask and ye shall receive.

She loves to play around in the floor with her daddy. They are really quite the pair!

This is my absolutely favorite picture. She looks just like she's ready to leave for her first day of school or something. I can't believe she's so big. She really will be off for school before we know it.

Okay can you tell she hated her Easter dress. From the moment we tried to put it on her she was furious and her mood didn't improve as the day went on. As soon as we got home from church and the dress came off she was the happiest little girl.

Hug the Earth today!

Happy Earth Day everyone! In honor of Earth Day the Sweet Pea and I spent the day trying to be friendly to our Earth. We turned off all our lights and electronics today and spent the day outside as much as possible. We went on walks, hung our clothes out on the line and even planted our garden. In reality its the second go round for the garden since the first try got flooded. Yeah, great timing planting the day before a major thunderstorm. But we leveled things out and are trying our luck again. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, greenbeans, broccoli, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe. Yummy! I can't wait until we can taste all these wonderful yummy fruits and veggies this summer.

This is our first year to have a garden here of course but supposedly the previous owners had a great garden going so I'm remaining optimistic. I still haven't found my camera cord so another picture free post but hopefully I'll be able to post one tomorrow. The garden isn't much to look at right now but hopefully it will take off and start growing like crazy.

I hope everyone else had a wonderfully earth friendly day. I know we're starting to make more earth friendly changes around here every single day.

ECHO...Echo...echo...

As I write this I am more than certain I am writing only for myself. It is not likely that anyone has been sitting here for the past several months just waiting with the hope I would appear once again.

Many things have kept me away. Packing, moving (again), chasing the Sweet Pea and trying to organize our lives in a new house are among the things that have prevented me from writing. What has stood in the way the most, however, is the current state of the world. There are many things going on right now that cause me to worry. Near the top of my worry list is the current economy, as I’m sure is the case for many of you out there. This is the worry that has kept me from wanting to write. Honestly its kept me from writing, reading or quite frankly even thinking about much of anything.

Like many others the economy is starting to hit home. We are faced with bills that are piling up, the uncertain future of our business and a general uneasiness for the future of our family and friends. Being self employed my husband’s income is anything but stable and as of late it has been very sporadic.

Until this point I have been lucky enough to stay home and raise our beautiful little girl. Now we’ve been discussing the need for me to return to work. I know this is a situation many women find themselves in , and that there are many working mothers out there. My hat is off t these women and my heart goes out to them. I went back to work for a short time when our daughter was very small and it absolutely tore my heart to pieces. I was hardly able to spend any time with her and with my husband on the road a lot she spent most of her time with someone other than her parents. Just thinking about doing that again saddens me. You see, ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a mommy. Don’t get me wrong, I also wanted to be a police officer, lawyer and at one point a super hero. Above all I knew someday I would be a mommy.

When first faced with the prospect of having to return to work I was flooded with emotions. Although part of me misses the adult business world, that part is very small. The largest part of me is sad to have to leave my little girl and disappointed about having to leave the house full time and not having time to do the things I love. I won’t have time left to sew, crochet, read, remodel the house or work on landscaping the yard. You know, all the things I do so much of now. These thoughts and the realization of how hard it is to find a job right now that would pay enough to cover day care expenses and still bring in an income have had me really down lately. I spent most of the day Monday feeling down and hopeless when it hit me. I’m home full time now and hardly do any of those things. My sewing machine isn’t even in my house right now. The only thing I’ve crocheted are some dishcloths. My books aren’t even unpacked…You get the idea.

I finally realized that I’ve been so worried about things that were out of my control I let my worries get the best of me. I spent so much time worrying about the future that I forgot to enjoy what we have right now.

I’m not trying to sell myself short. I take care of the house and spend the greatest majority of my day chasing, tickling and teaching our daughter. I’ve even managed to plant some of my little garden. But I haven’t been fully enjoying all the wonderful things I have in my life already. I hadn’t realized how down I’ve been recently. But I have made the decision to start enjoying life as it is and not worrying about the unknown. I may have to go to work to help support my family right now but either way I will make the most of every moment and get back to the things that are important to me.

I’m sitting here right now on the deck of my parents house (where I am supposed to be helping them pack for their move) watching the sun set over the lake as my beautiful daughter runs through the yard kicking at dandelions. It is at this moment I realize how truly blessed we really are. This moment is what makes life wonderful and truly worth living. That being said, I am off to enjoy the moment…