bless her heart

 

Dear Friends,

Our lovely daughter Hadley suddenly became ill on Tuesday.  She goes to school six hours from home and what I was “hoping” would be a virus and dehydration quickly turned into something scary.  Over the phone we heard words like pulmonary embolism and cardiologist.  She had no fever or signs of infection but had fainted twice and her heart was beating 150+ beats per minute.  She hadn’t been ill nor is she the type to drink or take drugs.     Needless to say we drove the longest six hour drive in the history of the world.  She has had great care and careful observation.  They still aren’t sure what caused it, she is doing better but still has a racing heart and no energy.  I think hugging her these last couple days have been the best hugs I have ever felt. 

It’ll be a while before I post again but I’m certain to check into some of your blogs for that inspirational comfort blog reading gives me.

Take care,

Kate

PS  Thank you Matt…for taking care of Hadley until we arrived.  I will never forget your kindness!

an easy Halloween craft

Molly and I made this banner last Saturday when it was very stormy out.  It was one of those dark kind of days when you need the lights on and a candle that smells like apple cider spices burning.  See? I’m setting the ambiance for you…don’t you feel like crafting something?

We started with wooden letters I bought at Hobby Lobby—they come two in a pack and every six weeks or so go on sale for 50% off.  Have you ever stood in the wooden letter aisle and thought about all the great words you could spell out and hang on the wall?  How about like “TRUTH” or “READ” or “DORK” (get out of the aisle).

These are the letters in case you don’t know what unpainted wooden letters look like.  Look, I picked N and Y.  Do you like New York?  Me too, especially NYC at Christmas time.  But I also like the Catskill area, though I’m sad Catskill Game Farm is closed even though some of the animals looked a little sketchy.  They had old vintagey playground equipment.  My husband owns cows that are on a farm near Cooperstown NY.  He loves cow genetics and reads lots of stuff about cow data and subscribes to  many magazines that look like cow porn.   And that is all I will share about NY and my husband and his cows.

I notice all the good blogs show lots of pictures with every step in detail.  Would you have liked it if I took pictures in Hobby Lobby while I was buying the letters?  Then of me driving home and stopping to eat a taco? 

Well… we painted the letters black and then using decoupage glue we glittered them with Martha’s hematite glitter. 

I highly recommend Martha’s glitter over any other stuff.  I often use my 40% off coupon at Michael’s on Martha glitter.  I like glitter.

There is a clerk at our local Michael’s that has really big hair.  This is one of those Texan things I love, how do those ladies get their hair so big?  What do they look like when they wake up?  Do they ever lose stuff then find it in their hair later?

After we glittered the letters and let them dry we strung orange and black beads and hot glued the letters to some hemp twisted cord (that we separated into single strands) from the jewelry dept.  When we were done, as you can see, we hung it crookedly above our breakfast nook.

A little bit of yesterday in today

I love old doll clothes.  My Great Grandmother made this dress way back when (way back when girls actually played with dolls).  It looked as though it had been tea stained.  I tested a small area with diluted bleach then bravely bleached the whole dress.

 

Such a risk taker!  There’s still a few tiny stains but it’s bright and crisp enough for wearing. 

My Gram had this doll in her room and as a kid I always wanted to hold it. 

I keep her put away as some in this house look a little interested in her open and shut eyes.  Hmmm, I wonder who I am talking about?

He’s a crazy kid that may or may not have eaten something that looks like a tootsie roll from the cat box.  Okay he did, isn’t that  the grossest thing ever?  He won’t eat green beans but he will eat that?

Can you tell I’m in a blog slump?  I miss blogging!

There has been a chain of events here that kind made my zippity doo dah kind of zip away.  But it is what it is and I  just might feel a burst of posts inching their way forward. 

Keep on, friends.  I’ll see you later!

 

cotton/wool plaid

Sometimes I wish I could dress like a boy.  I think I would wear tan wide wale corduroy pants and a cotton/wool plaid shirt everyday from Oct-March.  But I can’t so I dress my boys like this instead.  I suppose I am lucky because neither of my sons really care what they wear.   This might come back to haunt me when they are 40.

I love you Will Ferrell.

This pattern is at least 12 years old and it says it’s EASY.  But it really isn’t.  That many years ago I bought it with my Gram and she had to talk me through just about every step.  My Gram was pure love…I’m kind of a dumb and happy sort of person and it takes blatant explaining and a hint of yelling frustration for me to understand what the heck you are talking about…but she was always so kind and patient.

My Gram has been gone a few years now and the pattern is looking a little oldish (check out that pointy collar!), but it still makes me happy to sew it for Henry.

He has a tiny piece of my Gram and I’s heart stitched into those seams.   

Even the ones I had to seam rip out.  Even though I have made this exact shirt at least five times in the past.  Dumb and happy I tell you!

passing along a tag

Thanks Briana for tagging me.  I’ve had no mojo to post lately so hopefully this will get the ball rolling!

How did you meet your spouse?

We met when I was a stripper.  Nah! We met  in high school, duh!

Birth weights of your children?

8.7  7.9   8.2   7.11   9.2

Favorite Subject to teach?

I don’t homeschool my children but did in the past. I still like to teach them history, art and music.

Favorite TV Show?

Mad Men, Jimmy Fallon

Last date you were on with just your spouse?

We went to a party on the base. And um, my husband’s boss referred to me as Ken’s daughter instead of wife! And um, I said something dumb in reply. And um, I always seem to get myself into the most embarrassing situations ever.

Least favorite household chore?

Scrubbing the showers.

What do you like to do in your" spare" time?
read, sew, walk,  play piano (boy I sound like a lot of fun)

Small town or big city?
small town but I like to travel

How long have you been married?

Nearly 18 years

Were your children born at home or at the hospital?

In the hospital, but I have always dreamed of a home birth. My deliveries include three forcep, one vacuum extraction and a c-section.  Yay!

How many states and which ones have you lived in?
(8) Connecticut, Virginia, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Texas (also Philippines, Turkey, and The Netherlands)

What is your favorite flower?
blue hydrangea

What is the biggest challenge your children present you with?

I suppose it’s fear. I am afraid to let them go to an overnight at a friend’s house.  I’m afraid to let them out of my sight, I’m afraid when they are sick, I’m afraid to let them watch PG 13 movies even when they are 12.75 years old.  I’m afraid to let them grow up and move away.
 
Where do you dream of visiting?
China or Japan to buy fabric and Hello Kitty stuff

If you could live in any country, which one would you choose?
Besides the good ol USA I would live in England


Favorite board or card game?
Parcheesi! I love Parcheesi, and I like to play mean.

Feel free to copy and paste this post and fill in with your own answers. 

 

The posts that starts with a headache and ends with Make IT Do It Books

Do you get headaches? It seems just as I claim to be headache free for months I get one. Is it my braces messing with my teeth? Or is it hormones? Maybe it’s the 1/2 cup of chocolate frosting I ate yesterday?  The funny part (?) about headaches is that I pretend I am not getting one, I pretend it isn’t bothering me until blast I feel like I will vomit and huddle myself on the side of my bed.

This morning in the midst of my headache denial I decided to go for a walk.  About this moment my son ran through the room at lightning speed which can only mean he did something he didn’t want me to see.  And that something turned out to be cutting a bald spot onto the top of his head.  Note to self…don’t buy your young child his first pair of big boy scissors the same day he goes to the barbershop.  

picture provided for your viewing pleasure

So anyway after he sobbed sorry and I put the scissors way up high I put him in the baby buggy with his feet nearly dragging on the ground because he is huge.

I walked like I didn’t have a headache and by the time I got home I didn’t.  Isn’t that a happy story?

Are you only reading because you are wondering what Do It books are? Because you might be disappointed.

Vintage project books might be my favorite books to find.  If only we were all forced to learn these types of crafts when we were young, things would be so much easier. 

There is still an 11 year old part of me that thinks about My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George). Or Farmer Boy (Laura Ingalls Wilder).  They could do so much with so little.

 

The knitting projects in these books are supposed to be easy.

Maybe my brain is missing the function for knitting? 

 

 

My mother gave my kids an old linoleum block printing kit many years ago.  I didn’t know what it was.  Do you?

It’s kind of complicated, I find printing things on the computer printer is much easier. (that is a joke)

Have a nice weekend, hope it rains (another joke).

 

make a wish!

My first child was a girl. She was perfect except everyone under the sun would assume she was a boy.  I became obsessed with wanting her hair to grow.  The things you think about when you are twenty and kind of dumb…

Our second girl was born almost exactly two years after the first.  This is how she looked fresh from the womb:

Umm…it’s okay if you laugh (just a little).  She had so much hair we couldn’t believe it. She had flocks of it even all over her back and shoulders.  She was like the monchichi (remember those?) I always wanted.

I loved washing her hair, by 7 months all that hair was gone.  It would be matted on her crib sheet like a cat slept there.  Did you know baby hair falls out like that?  She is a gem, my Maggie.  

She is so full of compassion and energy and makes the sun shine on the cloudiest of days.

If you haven’t guessed today is her birthday, her sweet 16.  I should be saying how 16 years has gone by so fast but truthfully it feels like she has been a teenager forever.  One day she was a scrawny kid who rollerbladed in the house and sat on her own arm and broke it (while we lived in the Netherlands mind you and my husband was away and I had no idea where the emergency room was).  Then overnight she was a young lady that would spend her allowance on make up and carry a big purse that weighs 43 pounds.

She has been taller than me for a few years and snaps her gum and says “y’all” like Flo from Alice.  She is her father’s daughter in that her ambition knows no bounds.  And also that she has huge parts of intelligence and craziness mixed together.  One moment she will be looking at vintage jewelry then the next she will be playing football in the yard.

Happy sweet sixteen, Mags!

 

I screen, you screen…

My husband took a day off (wow! shazam! no way!) and this is what we did:

1. Went to the hardware store.

2. Ate greek food.

3. Redid a whole bunch of screens.

    * we did this b/c sometimes it gets really windy here and I leave junk on the porch and twice it actually blew through the screens.  And a third time a rocking chair rocked violently through a screen.  And, um, I have trouble learning lessons about the wind and leaving junk on the porch.

4. My husband said swears at the staple gun.

5. But for some reason even this couldn’t shake my good sunshiny mood and I talked incessantly while he did the man work and I did the handing of the drill and other surgical parts.

6.  When Henry woke up he said “What are you doing?” 1278 times.  Followed by “Why?” 1278 times.

7. Days like this make me happy.

8. I hope you are happy, too.

Fall clipart, from me to you!

Hello October!  Where have you been?

If I could I would hug fall.  Instead I will give you clipart…

The clipart is from a program we had on our first computer (think early 1990’s and big like the space station).  My daughter Maggie downloaded all these images and transferred them for me because I was always whining about how much I missed them.  It’s nice when kids do nice things, isn’t it?  

I hope you enjoy them!