Brain Blank

I seriously think of things to type all day long and then once the kids are finally asleep and I'm finally sitting down with ice cream homemade chocolate greek yogurt I seriously cannot put two thoughts together.  This may have something to do with losing concentration skills due to E's frequent night wakings, or it could be because Jazzercise is a brain bender this week.  It might just be that so many things are happening right now that I can't keep it all straight.

The latest greatest excitement is that we are going to try to buy another house.  "Whoa, wait," you say.  "Don't you already own your house?"  Yes, we do.  But the truth of the matter is that our current home is quite small (smaller than a typical one bedroom apartment) and we have reached a critical point in which the Small Rodgers Children need to have their own room.  Also I would really appreciate it if the massive toy collection could move out of the living room.  And the bathroom sink could be located somewhere besides our bedroom.

Don't get me wrong, I love this little bungalow.  I love my yellow and white living room.  I love the huge backyard.  I love its cozy cuteness. However, my love for it can't increase space.  And we need more space.  It's always been a thought to build an addition... to convert the garage and add on to the back of the house.  Once again, reality trumps fantasy as any improvements we would make would not change crucial issues like a) the bathroom, or b) the teeny dining room, without borrowing a considerable sum of money.

So anyways, we have a home that we are seriously considering.  It's exciting and frightening all at the same time.  All along the way I've been praying that God will make it clear if we are to proceed or not, and so far proceeding seems to the action we are to take.  Sometimes I wish that decision could be made after knowing all of the possible issues or future concerns or whatever, but since we can't really know everything (obviously) we're going to have to make our plans as wisely as possible.  And I have to trust that God will lead us in the direction he wants us to go...and that he really isn't out to get me.  Why is that so hard to grasp sometimes?

In any case, this is probably why my brain is fried.  I also am reading about five books at once and I really want to review some of them, so stay tuned....

Monday night

I desperately need to find my camera.  Here's what happened: I couldn't find it for several days, and then Steve found it in...lo and behold...the camera case on the hanging rack where it is supposed to live.  I happily started to upload some long overdue pictures to Facebook and I honestly do not remember what happened to the camera after that.  I've looked all around the computer, all over the furniture, and in every toy/laundry/junk basket.  This is getting rather boring.

I don't think that blog posts need pictures to be interesting, of course.  But it does help to illustrate the interesting things that have been happening.  It would be nice, for example, if you could see a picture of the wacky pretend snow that I made with the kids this morning.  We have been reading The Snowy Day for BFIAR and Harriet loves it.  Even though we have a few inches of (melting) snow outside, I decided that messy pretend snow was a lesser evil than going outside into the really cold snow, so we dumped cornstarch and shaving cream together for a sensory experience to remember.  The pretend snow was fun to play with, even though the texture was definitely more like sand...and now the entire basement smells like Gillette.

Since Harriet is absolutely madly in love with the snow, I was a nice mommy and let her go outside again this afternoon.  The 40 degree temps helped.







I would also like to have my camera to accurately depict the delicious supper we had tonight: Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa and chipotle sour cream.  YUM.  Just for the record, I had never even thought of fish tacos being something to consider until Steve got me hooked after we got married.  (Seriously, the only fish taco I had ever seen was when I went with a bunch of peeps from CBI to TGI Fridays in Rapid City.  It definitely didn't make me want to eat it.)  Tonight's fish tacos were amazing.  I combined this recipe from Flower Patch Farm Girl with the crunchy fish recipe from Food Matters, and tada!  Wonderfully delicious fish tacos that only a picture could adequate capture.  Just try to imagine bold purple cabbage, bright yellow mango, fresh green cucumber, cornmeal crusted pan-fried cod, creamy chipotle sour cream....

Last Friday I got my nose pierced:

[insert webcam shot of Amelia with post-Jazzercise hair]

I love it.  Like really and truly. Getting my nose pierced has been on my "I'd like to do that someday" list for about forever, but it kept getting shoved aside for one reason or another.  (I came thiiiiisss close to doing it in November when we went to California, but I'm so glad that puking Harriet prevented me from doing so.  It doesn't seem like the stomach bug and a new piercing would work together very well.)  So, anyway, last Friday I went to my piercing appointment with this little heavily-pierced, cleanliness-conscious dude who did an excellent job at his Not Scary piercing studio.  I read a lot about nose piercings prior to the grand event, and many people said that it didn't hurt very much.  I don't know what kind of pain they were expecting, but it definitely hurt more than I thought it would.  Thankfully, the intense feeling of having all of your nose hairs pulled out at once lasted for only a minute or so, and I haven't experienced much discomfort since.  In fact, I forget that the little stud is even there and when I glance in a mirror I think, "What is that on my nose?"

I really love it.  It's so sparkly and feminine and adorable.

The kids are in bed, thanks to their new and improved Be Asleep By Eight Thirty Routine.  Maybe I'll keep digging around for my camera....

Out with the old, in with the new

The following was written on New Years Day, but through some fluke involving the Kindle, Steve, and Too Many Windows Open, the post was deleted.  Thankfully, Mom's Google Reader saved it so thanks to a little copy/paste action, it as been recovered.  For better or for worse.


Happy New Year!

Now is the time whilst I wait for supper to finish cooking and hack out something of the adventures and misadventures of 2012. 

Last year's goal? Pop out a baby.  Success! We have been enjoying sweet Edmund Paul for almost a whole year now.  This is craziness, my friends.  I keep wondering why he's fitting into 12-month sized clothes...could it be because he is nearly a whole year old? 

Because my 2012 goal was somewhat limited and achieved at the beginning of the year, I had many months to happen across other random goals and have some interesting experiences.  So here we have Amelia's Top Twelve of 2012 (in no particular order):

1. Having Edmund.
2. Harriet moving into her Big Girl Bed.
3. Finishing a whole year of online classes through Calvary Bible College (just fifteen credits to go, peeps.  So so so close.)
4. Going to the Gospel Coalition's first National Women's Conference in Orlando.
5. Taking the kids and their Granmom to Disneyworld after the aforementioned conference.
6. Training for and completing a 5K.
7. Steve switching to a day shift.
8. Building our enormously wonderful privacy fence.
9. Making a successful tiramisu
10. Having our wonderful square foot garden.
11. Watching Harriet grow and learn
12. Celebrating three years of marriage with Mr. Wonderful.

Now, in looking ahead to 2013, my goals are simple:

• Read more
• Write more
• Take more pictures

I'm not sure what counts as "more" yet, but I think that increasing the amounts in these three categories will be extremely beneficial to little ol' me.  

And the veggies and couscous are done and Harriet is pitching a fit because Shaun the Sheep is over.  

Welcome, 2013!

Celebrate Fall Photo Challenge: ORANGE

In praise of Fall (aka a rambly updatey post)

(Steve and Edmund are napping, Harriet is out with the relatives, and I'm going to do something that I don't have to do.)

Fall makes me so happy, really and truly.  Summer is great because it's warm and relaxed, and spring is great because I hate winter, but fall?  It's this roasty-toasty blend of routine and sweaters and lattes and football and windy days and warm-right-through-you sunshine.  It's crunchy leaves scattered all over the ground, swirling and twirling like some kind of organic glitter.  It's snuggling up with kids in their pajamas and making cinnamon swirl pancakes in the morning because we don't care if we heat the house up right away.  It's COLOR and pumpkins and carrot cake cupcakes.  And it results in a smiling me, just because.  

Plus, fall means that I can wear my favorite outfits in the whole wide world.  

Who can resist the cozy comfort of cardigans, skinny jeans, and sneakers (or flats)?  I can't.  This is the time of year when my personal fashion taste flourishes...and I learn that successful self-portraits involve a tree branch and a large rock sort of wedged together.

Okay, enough about me and my seasonal euphoria.  I realized that it's been a while since I talked about the kids in any sort of practical Real Life way, so here we go.

Oh Harriet.  Where do I begin with Harriet?  She is something else.  I think we would call this era in Harriet's life the Terrible Twos, but it feels more like the Terrible Thirteens which has me quite scared for her hormonal pubescent state.  OR, maybe she's getting it all out of her system now and that loverly transition into teenage-hood will be a walk in the park.  Frankly, I'm just glad that she is our oldest child and that she came along when I was rather young and energetic and open to reading lots of things about how to deal with such strong personalities such as the one she possesses.  

She cracks us up with her vocabulary.  

Harriet: I fell off the couch and bumped my head.

Me: Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that!

Harriet: It's okay.  I forgive you.

She is such a wonderfully sweet sister to Edmund and genuinely wants to get along with him.  She is very consistent in "trading" toys with him when she wants whatever thing he has.  She manages everybody and everything and eats lots of cheese and hummus.  And milk.  And homemade popcicles.  And cauliflower pizza.  She basically wants to spend every moment of every day either watching Veggie Tales (she knows more song lyrics than I do) or playing with the Small Aunts (who she can name in age order).  Harriet can count to ten, match shapes and colors, find all of the circles in the house, and cut playdoh with a butterknife into teeny worms and chase me around with them.  

Harriet is not confined to the popular notion of being a Princess, Cowgirl, Artist, or Mommy.  Nope, she wants to excel at EVERYTHING.  I think that if you aren't able to spend a lot of time with Harriet, but you want to know what she is really like, you should read the Olivia books by Ian Falconer.  Because that is Harriet in literary pig form.

 Goodness, we love her and we pray that she will use her passionate, persistent self to glorify God.

Then there is Edmund.  Edmund is getting teeth in a big bad way and is so horribly pathetic that I can hardly bear it.  When Harriet was getting teeth, she was just angry at the world.  I was angry at her for being so out of this world unbearable, so there was a lot of general angst until the teeth popped through.  With Edmund?  He looks at me with these sad watery eyes and just moans.  It's so sad.  We spend a lot of time physically touching each other because that seems to help the tooth problem.

He isn't crawling yet, but he is dreadfully close.  He seems to have adopted this stealth crawl thing where he quietly slides around the floor on his belly very quickly.  He also used his stealth crawl to slide quickly off of the bed, which made his mother very upset.  

Edmund loves textured food.  While pureed stuff is okay, he would much rather chomp down on muffins, beans, or avocados.  Like Harriet, he is a tremendous fan of cauliflower pizza.  He has developed a bit of stranger anxiety, but continues to be a contented and easily pleased little guy.  His smiles kill.  I can't wait to see what they look like with some adorable teefies.  I can't believe that he is going to be eight months old next week.  Seriously?

(Okay, that was a wondrously refreshing forty-five minutes of silence and productivity.  Now the pile of dishes really doesn't look so treacherous.)

Celebrate Fall Photo Challenge: RED

(Check out this super fun and low-stress photo challenge that celebrates my favourite season!  Plus, I know the people who make the prizes and I can testify that the kettle corn will knock your socks off.)

Jake and the Neverland Pirates costume

A lady called me back in September and asked if I could make a Jake and the Neverland Pirates costume for her grandson, who is turning three years old, and is rather batty about this television show.  I had no idea what Jake and the Pirates was or what the Jake character looked like, but I agreed to make the costume.  Hey, I like to research and create an accurate, complete "look," so even though I knew I would have to squeeze sewing into a busy schedule, I also knew that it would be fun.

Source

So that's what the character looks like.  And here is Harriet modeling the finished costume:

 The birthday boy is a little taller than Harriet, so the costume is slightly big on her.  But I think she makes a pretty adorable pirate.  (Even if she refused to make a pirate-y face, the silly girl.)

As you can see, I just took a purchased white shirt, and cut the sleeves and neckline to make them look all raggedy.  Then I added a cross-stitched tie out of black yarn.  I made the blue elastic waist pants from this super-duper snazzy tutorial*.

The belt is tube made from grey knit fabric and made adjustable with a D-ring closure.

Bandanna?  Easy peasy.   I cut a strip of red knit about 7"x30" and serged the edges.

The vest was also really simple and loads of fun to make, thanks to this loverly tutorial.  I made a slight modification to the pattern in that I extended the front straight out from the neckline to create the collar. I made the vest out of blue felt and finished the edges with gold metallic bias binding.  (Putting on the binding was not as easy as I anticipated, since the thickness of the felt caused the binding to pull unevenly.  Just a warning.)  The huge gold buttons definitely make it look all pirate-y.

I was shocked at how quickly the costume came together and how cute the finished project turned out to be.  I hope my client's grandson is happy!

*I seriously can't say enough happy things about this pants tutorial.  They work every time, people.  Every time!  Not only do they come together in about thirty minutes, but they are so versatile.  Love!